Amy Klobuchar Is a Cop, Too
Plus: Robert Kraft, Dyma Loving, Michelle Aldana, and others in the news for mistreatment by the U.S. criminal justice system
No statute of limitations on shaming candidates who enabled bad cops. "For many decades," writes Ed Kilgore, "Democrats concerned with their party's reputation for weakness were eager to recruit politicians who had proved their willingness to use the power of the state to smite the (ostensibly) wicked." Now that's coming back to haunt them.
"Kamala Harris has already gotten significant flak from progressives and civil libertarians for her record as both district attorney of San Francisco and attorney general of California," Kilgore notes. (Read some of that from Reason here.) He continues:
Even in that famously liberal city and state, Harris felt it necessary to depict herself as 'tough on crime,' and embraced policies that are no longer fashionable (or in some cases even acceptable) among Democrats focused on the tragic phenomenon of mass incarceration and the abject failure of the war on drugs.
Now it's Amy Klobuchar's turn for scrutiny of her record during two terms as Hennepin County (Minneapolis) Attorney from 1999 until her election to the Senate in 2006."
"Kamala Harris is a cop" has become a popular multi-purpose shorthand way to invoke her many missteps as an Alameda County prosecutor, San Francisco district attorney, and California attorney general. Klobuchar devoted less time to "public service" (she spent the start of her career in private law practice), but still accumulated eight years of time to do damage as a county prosecutor.
The Washington Post delves into the dirty details of that here, focusing on Kobluchar declining "to prosecute police accused of using excessive force against black suspects."
"Unlike Kamala Harris," writes Kilgore, "Klobuchar cannot fall back on her own racial identity as a signal that whatever she said and did for political reasons back in the day, she now 'gets it.'"
One pushback you'll hear to this is that as women in law enforcement in the 1990s, Klobuchar and Harris probably faced extra scrutiny because of their sex and extra pressure to present themselves as tough on crime. Others point out that everyone in mainstream politics supported carceral solutions until oh so recently. Both are true but also irrelevant, at least in terms of picking a presidential candidate. The Democrats' 2020 presidential field is wide open right now and packed with contestants, including some who didn't spend years or even decades on the side of abusive police, atrocious prisons, the drug war, the persecution of sex workers, bad crime-lab science, the militarization of local law enforcement, etc.
FREE MINDS
"These two segments ran 20 minutes apart tonight on the same show."


FREE MARKETS
I was on Greg Gutfeld's Fox Nation show earlier this week talking about the massage-parlor prostitution stings in Florida, Robert Kraft, the alleged sex-trafficking "epidemic," and why we should decriminalize prostitution. Here's a short clip from the (paywalled) segment.
I also chatted with Thaddeus Russell about sex work and a lot more with on his Unregistered podcast last week. That's out now, and you can listen to it on his website or download it from iTunes.
QUICK HITS
- Dyma Loving called the police to report that her neighbor had pulled a shotgun on her and threatened her. When they arrived, Loving was treated like the suspect and arrested. Now that she's out of jail and the charges have been dismissed, Loving and her lawyers are filing a civil rights lawsuit against the Miami-Dade cops.
- The downfall of Southern Poverty Law Center co-founder Morris Dees.
- Robert Kraft and 14 men are suing to stop Florida law enforcement from releasing video of them obtained as part of massage-parlor prostitution stings.
- The shackling of incarcerated women giving birth needs to stop:
Michelle Aldana was incarcerated at the Utah State Prison when she went into labor. She was chained throughout the 40 hour birthing process, suffered a broken pelvis, and her baby emerged from the womb unconscious. https://t.co/0AxKuowM0i
— Ethan Brown (@ethanbrown72) March 21, 2019
- In 1990, just 16 percent of Americans supported legalization of marijuana; now 61 percent do.
- Who's afraid of Kamala Harris and Beto O'Rourke? Steve Bannon, for one.
- "The House Republican caucus now doesn't have a single lawmaker considered a supporter of abortion rights," notes The Wall Street Journal.
- Maryland's legislature just approved a statewide minimum wage of $15 per hour.
- Attention New Yorkers: show up new week to learn about supporting sex worker, massage establishment, and immigrant rights:
Friday 3/29, 6PM, at Flushing Public Library! We're hosting a "Community Sidewalk Teach-In," countering carceral narratives/punitive "solutions" being offered by city officials! Support self-organizing of Asian+Migrant Massage Workers in Flushing! #CopsOutOfParlors #MigrantPower pic.twitter.com/M82AEbmQGK
— Red Canary ??? (@RedCanarySong) March 21, 2019
- Columbus vice officer Andrew Mitchell, charged with abducting and assaulting women under the guise of arrest, has made his first appearance in federal court.
Cops went after Stormy Daniels for 'moral' crimes. But now the vice unit has been disbanded. One former vice unit officer appeared in federal court to address charges he forced two women he had arrested to have sex with him in exchange for their release. https://t.co/rIvypCssTS
— Mistress Matisse (@mistressmatisse) March 22, 2019
- For better or worse, Lauren Duca, author of teenybopper #Resistance fanfic turned useful tool for Democratic fundraising, gets the Jezebel treatment.
- Lol:
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Paywall???? Boooooo. (Market fail.)
not so anti-net neutrality now, are you?
I wasn't never not anti-anti-net non-neutrality.
Hello.
Hi, Rufus. Happy Friday, you crazy canuck.
Finally.
Someone cares.
/picks snow off ground. Gently licks it.
...Democrats concerned with their party's reputation for weakness were eager to recruit politicians who had proved their willingness to use the power of the state to smite the (ostensibly) wicked.
Only Nixon could go to China and then push hard to incarcerate it for the pettiest of offenses.
If it weren't for the Republicans, the Democrats would be big warm, fuzzy bunnies.
In 1990, just 16 percent of Americans supported legalization of marijuana; now 61 percent do.
cheech & chong were playing the long game
We would like to congratulate drugs for winning the war on drugs.
The Longest Toke.
Dave's not here, man.
Woah, like, 6-1 is totally, like, the reverse of 1-6.
Robert Kraft and 14 men are suing to stop Florida law enforcement from releasing video of them obtained as part of massage-parlor prostitution stings.
They don't want cops to release the release.
Robert Kraft and 14 men are suing to stop Florida law enforcement from releasing video of them obtained as part of massage-parlor prostitution stings.
that should help keep their names out of the news
Now we know there are some juicy things in that video. Perhaps Kraft even had the finger-bending happy ending.
I don't find the two Fox News segments contradictory at all, if those anti-conservative professors are actively silencing conservatives.
Also, love the last picture with just the lol
What about the cucumber water?
Both are scaremongering to the mouth breathers. There is a speech problem on campus, but headlines have the phrases "repeal free speech" and "radical anti-conservative" as a deliberate spin to provoke their viewer base into the desired emotional state..
But you are right, they do not directly contradict each other.
Now it's Amy Klobuchar's turn for scrutiny of her record during two terms as Hennepin County (Minneapolis) Attorney from 1999 until her election to the Senate in 2006.
that anyone would delve suggests she has more of a chance than i would have thought
Probably spurred on by a disgruntled former intern.
She was a Republican favorite even back in her prosecutor days.
She was unusually public-facing for a county attorney back then. Her ambition was obvious. On TV or in the news at least weekly.
Do You know the name of the county attorney where you live? Everybody knew Amy.
Cops went after Stormy Daniels for 'moral' crimes. But now the vice unit has been disbanded. One former vice unit officer appeared in federal court to address charges he forced two women he had arrested to have sex with him in exchange for their release. https://t.co/rIvypCssTS
? Mistress Matisse (@mistressmatisse) March 22, 2019
The decisions our brave first responders on the front lines have to make in a split second.
"Unlike Kamala Harris," writes Kilgore, "Klobuchar cannot fall back on her own racial identity as a signal that whatever she said and did for political reasons back in the day, she now 'gets it.'"
Clearly, the "Unlike" should be "Like".
In 1990, just 16 percent of Americans supported legalization of marijuana; now 61 percent do.
I learned it from polling you, okay?
Mondale, Klobuchar, Bachmann... Minnesota isn't sending their best to run for President.
Or maybe those are Minnesota's best.
Jesse Ventura?
[quivering intensifies]
Ilhan Omar will fix that.
Where's Jesse Ventura?
On the other side of the wall.
Ya, you betcha.
Hey! Hubert Humphrey almost won...
But nothing was more uncomfortable than the racial dynamic that quickly became apparent: a fair number of what was then about a hundred employees were African-American, but almost all of them were administrative and support staff?"the help," one of my black colleagues said pointedly. The "professional staff"?the lawyers, researchers, educators, public-relations officers, and fund-raisers?were almost exclusively white. Just two staffers, including me, were openly gay.
FTS. How many SPLC employees are *transmen*?
More bad economic news.
Manufacturing Slump Deals Another Blow to Europe's Economic Outlook
Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman predicted Drumpf's election would cause a global recession with no end in sight. It's scary how accurate that forecast was.
#DrumpfRecession
#UnbanPalinsButtplug
Even more bad news.
The bond market is flashing its biggest recession sign since before the financial crisis
Dow slides more than 100 points at the open as fears of global growth persist, Nike falls
At one point I gave Drumpf the benefit of the doubt and assumed he ruined our economy through incompetence. Now I'm convinced he did it deliberately on Putin's orders.
The downfall of Southern Poverty Law Center co-founder Morris Dees.
I'm not gonna wade through that New Yorker thumb-sucker. Do they say what Dees did that got him the boot?
I waded through some. Sexual harassment appears to be hinted at. But the author left in 2004, and it seems everyone knew about the sexual and racial abuse all along, and put up with the white-lawyers black-staff arrangement because it was the fucking Ess Pee Ell Cee, donchaknow, doing God's work.
Also some fun backstory on Dees' background -- he started a mail-order firm selling lawn mower and tractor seats and anything else he could, while a law student, sold that for millions, defended a Klansman for beating up some blacks in the late 1950s, worked in George Wallace's governor campaign, and began the LC (which became the SPLC later) using George McGovern's mailing list to drum up money, and the SPLC now has a bigger endowment ($450M at last reckoning) than the ACLU, and everyone who worked their for the last 20 years at least has known its purpose is really just to raise money out of guilt-ridden northern white liberals.
No idea how much is true, but that much is fun snark about people who deserve it.
Much appreciated.
Downfall? Will there be a parody on YouTube?
It's a good read. It talks about the hypocrisy of the SPLC quite a bit.
Got Jerking Out to that Chocolate Shake! like it was Trending?
Now it's Amy Klobuchar's turn for scrutiny of her record during two terms as Hennepin County (Minneapolis) Attorney from 1999 until her election to the Senate in 2006."
OH, SO JOURNALISTS ARE ALLOWED TO COMB THROUGH HER PAST BUT SHE'S NOT ALLOWED TO COMB THROUGH HER FOOD?
When will that crooked, corrupted wench announce she'll run?
I thought Hillary has already bowed out.
Clearly, you'll need to be more specific.
Pelosi wants to be Speaker of the House after Republican win the majority back?
Is the Free Minds portion supposed to be clever?
You think you pointed out something smart but in reality you just owned yourself
I personally don't get it.
All I know is those two did the jiggily-hoe dance together.
I think her point is that the first segment was complaining about free speech, while the second segment was criticizing a private university for it's choices on professors. The two don't really go together, the first segment was on public universities and their failure to meet first amendment requirements, while the second was a criticism of the far left, garbage people that are going to be teaching. The new hire was fired from the New Yorker for printing blatant lies, not sure shes a good hire.
Played yourself ENB
The first segment was complaining about conservatives being run off of campuses by leftists, the second was a segment wherein conservatives are attempting to run a leftist off of a campus. It's the "both sides are the same" thing, as long as you don't notice that the first is widespread and successful and the second is neither. It's like the Christchurch mosque attack - proof that the Muslims extremists and the anti-Muslim extremists are exactly the same. It makes sense only if you don't look at how lop-sided the score is.
"the second was a segment wherein conservatives are attempting to run a leftist off of a campus"
Criticizing a terrible person isn't attempting anything, it's called commentary. Call me when the protests start, you know, those things conservatives do all the time /s
This is a libertarian site. If we can't own ourselves then what is this all about?
She has every right to self own-ership, but in this case she was attempting to own the cons. Plenty of opportunity for both I suppose
Buttsex, 'Mesicans, weed, and forcing bakers to make wedding cakes?
IF you want Liz to get it you're going to have to learn cunt-speak:
Something like (in a condescending tone) "Two things can be true..."
The House Republican caucus now doesn't have a single lawmaker considered a supporter of abortion rights...
They did at one time?
They're sneaky with that "now."
Can't we just cut off public funding of eugenics clinics? If women would rather kill a baby than raise it, I'm inclined to let them. I just don't see why we have to pay either way.
Cutting off funding is just as bad as banning abortion. Just as bad as locking up women and forcing them to give birth. To the modern progressive there is no difference the lack of taxpayer funding and the absolute prohibition of the activity not being funded.
I'm opposed to abortion, but cutting of taxpayer funding seems to be the best compromise we have at the moment.
It's almost like the reasonable solutions are purposely avoided because the point is to create tension and not solve anything
Voter ID laws, immigration reform, de-funding eugenics, cut off religious tax breaks.... The list goes on and on
"For many decades," writes Ed Kilgore, "Democrats concerned with their party's reputation for weakness were eager to recruit politicians who had proved their willingness to use the power of the state to smite the (ostensibly) wicked."
I think Kilgore is missing the bigger picture, here.
In single-party cities, where Democrat contenders have little in the way of competition from Republicans, the endorsement of law enforcement unions becomes immensely important. If you're running for city council, district attorney, or mayor, you probably can't get elected without an endorsement from the law enforcement unions.
Last I checked, 49 of 50 Chicago Aldermen were Democrats. 50 out of 50 were endorsed by the law enforcement unions, which means the law enforcement unions were even better represented on the city council than the Democratic party--and Chicago is by no means unusual. Watching BLM turn for support to the Democratic politicians who gave the police contracts that shield them from scrutiny was so sad.
Political machines work because only one party's nomination process matters. If the nomination process is dominated by law enforcement unions, then I don't think it's that Democrat voters are afraid of being seen as soft on crime. It's probably more about voters in places like San Francisco and Minneapolis only being willing to consider members of one party.
Ugh, I cannot stand #TrumpRussia denialist phony progressives like Michael Tracey.
If the Mueller report is a "dud" as Democrats now increasingly predict -- meaning it exonerates Trump -- are Democrats and their media friends going to admit any fault whatsoever in how they approached this issue for the past 2.5 years? ...No? Bueller?
He's already entering his "told ya so!" phase. Ummmmmmm, newsflash ? Mueller isn't done yet! I remain confident his final report will contain more than enough to convince Pelosi to #Impeach.
Mueller isn't done yet!
*** sputtering ***
But he was spotted driving to work!
I have a crazy aunt you should meet, OBL. Every time I see her, she tells me how she can't WAIT until Mueller issues his report and Trump goes to jail!
Crazy hot?
Not even to a blind man.
Fuck communism
+10
This story about Harris is instructive:
In April 2004, San Francisco Police Department Officer Isaac Espinoza was shot and killed in the line of duty. Three days later, Harris announced she would not seek the death penalty, infuriating the San Francisco Police Officers Association. During Officer Espinoza's funeral at St. Mary's Cathedral, U.S. Senator and former San Francisco mayor Dianne Feinstein rose to the pulpit and called on Harris, who was sitting in the front pew, to secure the death penalty, prompting a standing ovation from the 2,000 uniformed police officers in attendance. Harris still refused. Officer Espinoza's killer was convicted of the murder and sentenced to life in prison.[9] Shortly thereafter, Harris demoted veteran career prosecutor Paul Cummins, the chief assistant to her predecessor from the 80-person felony prosecution unit to Harris' former position in the DA's office.[31]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K....._Francisco
Every liberal from Dianne Feinstein (former mayor of San Francisco) to Kamala Harris knows that you can't cross the "San Francisco Police Officer's Association". Read the rest of her entry as District Attorney, and you'll see that whatever principles she held before she became DA, she did everything she could to win the police over after that.
It is highly unlikely she could have done much to go against law enforcement in San Francisco and maintain her position as AG or advance to becoming Attorney General of California. if the Democrat political machine in Northern California decides to endorse someone else for AG, you don't stand a chance.
See, she had no choice.
Yup. The police and prison guard unions are very powerful in California.
Commifornia has the most prisons of any US state, which creates a large prison guard union.
I think the point is that if you're not going to choose between candidates from two parties, in a place like San Francisco, then the law enforcement union will pick your candidate for you. In a single party system, like San Francisco and Minneapolis, the choice of who wins the office is made at the nomination level. The voters will rubber stamp pretty much any Democrat, and that's the problem. That's what makes a political machine.
And that's the way it is in San Francisco, Minneapolis, Chicago, New York City, Philadelphia, Boston, . . . show me a polity with a single party dominating things, and I'll show you a place where the law enforcement union--in practice--has more power over who wins office than the voters. If the law enforcement union in those cities says no in the primaries, then voters probably never even get to vote for or against you on the ballot.
Not an excuse though. It does not excuse what she's done. In fact, it makes it worse. She didn't do these things even for something as stupid as 'I believe this is the best way to make things better' but 'because if I don't it will stymie my political aspirations'.
Tonya Harding 2.0
cut out the Gillooly this time, no?
I find the juxtaposition of the coffee-shop signs amusing, though technically there's no contradiction.
"We don't care who you you are - we'll take your money.
"We don't care who you are - you can't use our facilities for free."
Uh oh, they are finally cracking down on SIV.
Lovecon89, on the other hand, is safe for another 40 years.
Oh, I get it, a joke bill filed by - let me guess - "abortion rights" supporters. Drawing comparisons which make sense if you're a crazy person.
Ah, yes, it's a "double standard" to protect fetuses with a detectable heartbeat while at the same time leaving old-guy ejaculations unregulated.
Perfectly sane and logical.
(Did I say "old"? I meant "middle aged.")
Oh yeah, wait until these Democrats in the Georgia legislature start getting cum in the mail with notices of testicular discharge.
I am sure you already mailed yours in.
I am not in the sexual predator DNA database and never will be.
I do love sending plastic straws and styrofoam to certain politicians though.
(1) Democrats don't run Georgia, so this stupid Democrat bill will never pass.
(2) Boy are Lefties upset about Georgia fighting pro-abortion people, since there is a new pen and phone in town.
Update on Yellow Tony's whereabouts.
Your posts comprise more than 10% of the total and not a single one was interesting or funny you aspie clown.
The downfall of Southern Poverty Law Center co-founder Morris Dees.
[...]Were we complicit, by taking our paychecks and staying silent, in ripping off donors on behalf of an organization that never lived up to the values it espoused? Did we enable racial discrimination and sexual harassment by failing to speak out? "Of course we did," a former colleague told me, as we parsed the news over the phone. "It's shameful, but when you're there you kind of end up accepting things. I never even considered speaking out when things happened to me! It doesn't feel good to recognize that. I was so into the work, and so motivated by it, I kind of shrugged off what was going on."[....]
Haha. These Lefties are finally admitting publicly that they are racist, sexist, and con artists. They hate to admit that some of their life was a lie.
MAGA!
You posted a link that was in the morning links. This is the ultimate faux pas. The generally accepted punishment is to voluntary cease posting comments for 24 hours and reflect on what you have done.
It will be fine. I had that long quote from that boring Lefty New Yorker manifesto and some Reason repliers are lazy.
I have an all-inclusive comment.
In 1990, just 16 percent of Americans supported legalization of marijuana; now 61 percent do.
In 1990, marijuana was illegal at the federal level; now it still is.
Yeah, but... but...
The left gets 'lefter':
"Andrew Yang, Upstart Democratic Presidential Candidate, Comes Out Against Circumcision"
[...]
" ...There are dozens of position statements on his campaign website, ranging from the obscure to the existential.
Of those, Yang is best known for his endorsement of $1,000 monthly payments to every American...."
http://www.thedailybeast.com/a.....rcumcision
We'll just send some folks out to the orchard to harvest those Jacksons which have ripened.
Of course he's against circumcision, there's no end to that prick.
Is this stupidity or cupidity?
"Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump Use Private Accounts for Official Business, Their Lawyer Says"
http://www.nytimes.com/2019/03.....tsapp.html
Are the Ds so stupid as to confuse using a private account with running a private comm system? Are they hoping the voters are?
I heard their marriage is a sham. Jared Kushner is a closeted homosapien, and Ivanka has been seen consorting with thespians for years! That they use private accounts for money doesn't surprise me at all, but Mueller should definitely be looking into this.
Donald is a known extrovert.
And I'm told that he and Kushner used to practice nepotism.
"These two segments ran 20 minutes apart tonight on the same show."
Only idiots think the two events described are inconsistent. Are Reason writers idiots now, or are we only pandering to idiots?
>>>"Unlike Kamala Harris," writes Kilgore, "Klobuchar cannot fall back on her own racial identity as a signal that whatever she said and did for political reasons back in the day, she now 'gets it.'"
why does Harris get to?
Start working at home with Google! It's by-far the best job I've had. Last Wednesday I got a brand new BMW since getting a check for $6474 this - 4 weeks past. I began this 8-months ago and immediately was bringing home at least $77 per hour. I work through this link, go to tech tab for work detail.
>>>>>>>>>> http://www.GeoSalary.com
Start working at home with Google! It's by-far the best job I've had. Last Wednesday I got a brand new BMW since getting a check for $6474 this - 4 weeks past. I began this 8-months ago and immediately was bringing home at least $77 per hour. I work through this link, go to tech tab for work detail.
>>>>>>>>>> http://www.GeoSalary.com