Questions About Kentucky Justice

The justice system in Louisville surely failed Breonna Taylor. Nonetheless, because we still lack important information about before the shooting started, during the incident and after, what crimes the three cops who fired rounds may have committed isn't clear to me. 

Questions:

To start with, I need to understand more about why those cops were there with a battering ram and why they wore no body cameras. Do the laws in Kentucky really allow for all that?

At the minimum it appears the bar for obtaining a no-knock warrant was woefully low. Why would such extreme tactics for a raid be allowed with such flimsy evidence to justify their use?

Why should we believe the cops (pictured above) when it seems they probably lied on the initial reports? When there's a shooting, especially when people are injured, shouldn't it be some sort of crime in itself to willfully tell falsehoods on official reports? 

Why would the city pay out $12 million if there really was no wrong-doing? Were any members of the grand jury aware of that payment? 

And, yes, once again, we have to ask what role did race have on any and all of above? 

-- Photos from ABC News.

McGovern Night at the Biograph

 
This is a handbill I did for a McGovern fundraiser on Sept. 13, 1972, at the Biograph Theatre, a Fan District repertory cinema I managed, 1972-83. I was 24 at that time. By the way, with my McGovern caricature I was deliberately imitating R. Crumb's keep-on-truckin' guy style, trying to appeal to hippies. Shamelessly, I also appropriated Smokey the Bear to help out, too.

Of course I received plenty of advice that it would be a mistake to stage this event, because a movie theater should not take part in politics. Well, for one thing, my bosses in Georgetown totally backed my decision. They were accustomed to linking the Biograph up there with lefty causes. 

Plus, this was only eight months into our operation in the Fan District and most of those who were offering me (helpful?) advice to steer clear of politics still didn't understand how much the new Biograph would be different from Richmond's other cinemas. Time would tell.

Now, 48 years later, looking at this handbill and thinking of how hopeful I was in 1972, I have to chuckle ... and sigh. 

Black Athletes Who Won't 'Shut Up'

LeBron James

Infamously, a couple of years ago Laura Ingraham told LeBron James to “shut up and dribble.” At the time talking head Ingraham was chiming in to join the chorus of indignant voices criticizing well known athletes for speaking out about politics, especially politics to do with race. Recently we’ve heard similar criticisms meant to muzzle other professional athletes, especially if they are black. 

As most people know, the leader of the chorus of those calling fouls on the restrained protest gestures of LeBron James, Colin Kaepernick, et al, was President Donald Trump. In 2020, the NBA, NFL, etc., have changed their tunes ... but not Trump.

Closer to home, via the Internet, some local VCU basketball fans have hurled their own versions of “shut up and dribble” at Rams players, coaches and even at sports writers who have one way or another publicly supported the Black Lives Matter protests in Richmond and elsewhere. Those who are bashing the BLM supporters would have us believe that when America was supposedly "great" -- perhaps in the middle of the 20th century -- there was a wall separating politics and sports; especially politics to do with race.

Well, let's fire up the Wayback Machine and look briefly at just a few examples that expose that claim about a wall of separation to be utter bullshit.

In 1966 the NCAA men’s basketball championship was won by an underdog Texas Western team with an all-black starting lineup. The betting favorites, Kentucky, featured an all-white lineup with an unabashed racist coach, Adolph Rupp. Without framing it with the race-related context, you can’t tell that story of what was then the biggest upset ever in a NCAA final game. To say it changed college basketball for good is an understatement.

Nor can you tell the story of just two of America’s greatest sports heroes without mentioning the importance of the confluence of race and politics that washed over their entire careers. They are: heavyweight boxing champ, Muhammad Ali, and Hall of Fame baseball player, Jackie Robinson. Of course in their glory days, plenty of sports fans rooted against them and wished their amazing accomplishments had not been celebrated on front pages of sports sections. 

Nonetheless, both of them persisted in spite of long odds and plenty of death threats. Moreover, in spite of what the likes of Laura Ingraham might say, today's outspoken black athletes are bravely following in a great tradition.

There were many more athletes who could be listed here, but I hope my point has already been made. Bottom line: Saying “shut up and dribble” is tantamount to saying “go back to the plantation and obey your master.” 

-- Image from The Guardian

Left to Speculate

"All governments lie, but disaster lies in wait for countries whose officials smoke the same hashish they give out."

-- I.F. Stone

In the immediate aftermath of the first revelations from Bob Woodward’s new book, “Rage,“ questions are popping  up like mushrooms. Let’s start with two that loom over all others, so far: 

In the crucial early months of this year, why did Trump choose to “play down” what experts told him back in January and February about the threat of COVID-19? Why did he then call its threat a "hoax" cooked up by Democrats?

Given Trump’s initial reactions to questions raised by Woodward‘s bombshell book, we still don’t know why Trump hid the alarming news of such vital discoveries behind a wall of disinformation. In a nutshell, today Trump’s position is that he didn’t say what we've heard him say on tape, but if he did, it was because he wanted to avoid widespread panic. 

Of course, since we know Trump regularly sows the seeds of panic, to do with immigrant invasions, Black Lives Matter protestors, voter fraud, etc., that silly alibi is just a bad joke. Thus, at this point, we, the people, are left to speculate about Trump‘s motives to play down COVID-19‘s threat.  

Which is nothing new. After all, leaving us all to speculate about his motives has been at the heart of his power-grabbing strategy since the get-go. By, “us all,” I mean his supporters, his detractors and especially the media. It’s a strategy that spawns endless speculation about why Trump says and does you-name-it. Significantly, it boosts us all into finding pretty much whatever the hell we're looking for. Moreover, it keeps everybody chattering about him endlessly.

OK, maybe Trump was simply believing, as he frequently does, that he could shape the truth simply by applying the force of his all-powerful personality. In other words, it's sort of like what the great independent journalist, I.F. Stone, was talking about in the quote from him the precedes this piece. 

Then, speaking of speculation, we have the brewing controversy over what were Woodward’s responsibilities, once he uncovered what Trump knew about COVID-19 months ago. Surely Woodward, the legendary journalist, knew that he was sitting on information that would make big news. He also must have known some folks would say that in the national interest he should have made the tapes public sooner. 

Maybe last month? Maybe in June or July? Maybe when? 

Since Woodward’s interviews with Trump took place over several months, the question of when he should have blown the whistle is bound to get amplified in the coming days. Then again, if he had done it in February or March, before Trump had spent crucial weeks lying to the public, before the infections and death numbers got to be as alarming as they became in May, I’m not so sure how much impact it would have had. 

Plus, Woodward obviously wanted to continue the interview process, hoping to get more info. After all, he was gathering it for a book, not for a news story.   

Looking back on Woodward’s decision, and weighing the events of the last six months, it's easy to see he has been riding on the horns of a dilemma for a good while. His thorough explanation to answer some difficult questions about his own decisions ought to come soon. In fairness, this much we already know: The duties of journalists -- to reveal what they discover, pronto, or to never reveal it -- have been argued about for a long time, especially during times of war or crisis. 

Nonetheless, some people are already saying Woodward is just as guilty as Trump, which to me seems to be a rush to overreact. Going forward, we'll see how long Woodward's guilt for not being a whistle-blower is a big part of the story. And, we're bound to be left to speculate aplenty about the next stop-the-presses revelation, then the next and so on, between now and election day.

 Me? 

I'm still wondering how many Republicans in the U.S. Senate would go on record to scold Trump, roundly, should he shoot one of his enemies on 5th Avenue and then brag about what a damn good marksman he is.

-- Art and words by F.T. Rea