We usually don’t like to do these around here, but I thought I would tell a personal story as a way of getting around to my thoughts on the Minnesota police shooting. So, please bare with me as I try to be as brief as possible.

One night in January I went to pick up my daughter from the skating rink. It was the weekend right before the freeze, so I was dressed in sweat pants and a hoodie. The officer on duty asked me whether I saw anyone looking inside of cars and attempting to open them. I told him I didn’t and proceeded to go inside to pick her up.

I walked to back of the rink looking for her and did not see her. When I turned around there was the officer. He asked me why I was looking in the back of cars. I told him I was there to pick up my daughter and had not looked in the back of cars. He then grabbed me by the arm and forced me outside. On the way out I saw her and identified her. He collected my license and made me wait outside.

As we were walking out he pulled me to back of my car and gave me a field sobriety test. It was cold and windy and he had me do the rapid eye test and walk heel/toe for several feet. Needless to say I didn’t pass his little test. I offered to take a breathalyzer as I don’t drink. He couldn’t accommodate that. So, my wife had to come up and drive my daughter home. He finally returned my license and let me go.

So, what’s the point of this story? As I told the officer’s supervisor the next week, as a teacher I have gone through extensive training on student restraint. I have never had to restrain a student in 24 years of teaching. Why? I interact with them in such a way where it hasn’t become necessary to do it. The officer never had to restrain me. I posed no threat and never refused to follow any commands or evaded any questions. The situation obviously didn’t call for that and everyone would have been better off without him being heavy handed.

We can talk about qualified immunity, choke holds, and military style weapons in the hands of police. Those are all worthwhile topics, but the question here is a more basic one. Why was it necessary to taser him in the first place? That was her goal was it not? Why? Many of these instances happen because of racism and there is no denying that. They also happen because officers often have a superiority complex that causes them to escalate situations that don’t need to be escalated. Those two explanations are also not mutually exclusive.

Police reform is obviously going to be harder than passing a few laws. Yes, we should ban choke holds. Yes, we should ban no knock warrants. Yes, we should scale back qualified immunity. Yes, police shouldn’t be outfitted as if they are taking out an Afghan terror cell. More important than all of those things we have to rethink what the goal of policing is and who should be fulfilling that goal.

The blue lives matter crowd will pounce on this victim because he had a bench warrant for a misdemeanor gun charge. It’s as if the value of life is somehow altered by the presence of a criminal record. Did he have a gun in sight in the vehicle? Was he threatening the officer in any way? Is there a way this officer could have approached the situation that would have guaranteed her safety and the safety of the victim? In most cases the answer is yes.

I was a lot happier as a teacher when I discovered that I could exercise more control over my classes when I made the educational experience more collaborative. My students trust that I won’t hurt them. So, they don’t threaten to hurt me. It’s amazing how much a little cooperation helps. As long as police hope to keep a stronghold over us they will continue to get the same results as they have been getting.

Coming into yesterday I was lamenting the fact that I didn’t have much to write about. That’s always the kiss of death. There is an old Chinese proverb that says, “may you live in interesting times.” Well, there’s no denying that we live in interesting times. Two news stories intersected yesterday from different parts of the country.

 

Minnesota seems to be in the crosshairs again with another police shooting. This time, an officer says they were reaching for their taser and pulled out of their gun instead. I suppose it could happen to any of us if we were packing that much heat.

 

On the same day we had another school shooting make the national news. This leaves people like me to connect the dots. How are these events related? What if anything can be done to stop them? At the end of it all, most of us have that same powerless feeling you have when you see an accident happening in slow motion.

 

I suppose we can be thankful that there was only one victim in each case. However, I can’t help but think there is one unifying source to the problem. Guns. There are very few things that make me more angry. As a commentator, I get tired of commenting about it. We say the same things over and over again and nothing seems to change.

 

I think what’s more frustrating is the overarching attempts to be politically correct and accommodating of the gun owning population. I say I don’t want to take your guns. I say all I want is common sense gun control legislation. I say all I want are background checks and an automatic assault weapons ban. I say all of those things because I know the response I will inevitably get if I say something more. That ends today.

 

That’s not the truth though. I for one am sick and tired of hiding it. I’m tired of kowtowing to Rambo wannabes that seem to think they need to open carry their AR-15 to the florist so they safely buy flowers for their wife. I’m sick and tired of the dumb son of a bitch that thinks they need to carry their assault rifle into Wal-Mart because we need a good guy with a gun. I’m also tired of short-sighted legislatures that seem to think the answer is more open carry and fewer restrictions. I’m just sick and tired of being sick and tired.

 

I’m sick and tired of muting my own feelings because they aren’t politically popular. I hate guns. I have always hated guns and there is nothing that will change that. This isn’t assault rifles or automatic weapons. It’s not handguns. It’s not rifles and shotguns. It’s all guns. If every gun disappeared from the world I would be much happier.

 

I’ve never suggested banning guns or confiscating guns because I know it’s a non-starter. I also know plenty of people with guns that are responsible adults that wouldn’t be caught dead looking like that stupid Missouri couple. I also know that a part of this is driven on pure emotion. Sure, it worked in Australia, but I know these issues are much more complex than that.

 

I also know that situations like the Minnesota shooting are a lot more involved and a lot more needs to be said and done. I will say those things in due time. Others will too. For now, I just needed to come out and say it so I don’t have to hide it anymore. I hate guns.

This speaks for itself.

Last week during a speech at Harvard Law School Justice Stephen Breyer warned that “packing the court” by expanding it could erode confidence of the American people in the judgements of the courts.  When I read this my first reaction was that my confidence in the judgements couldn’t be any more eroded, especially after the Heller decision which overturned more than a century of precedent regarding gun safety laws, Citizens United which stupidly claimed that money doesn’t corrupt, Shelby which struck down key protections of the Voting Rights Act, and lately Knight which dismissed the case against Trump for banning critics on his Twitter account even though he used that account for public policy making.

Yesterday EJ Dionne called out Breyer for his position, correctly criticizing him for blaming the wrong side for politicization of the court.  Dionne pointed out the above cases and McConnell successfully stealing a seat when he refused to give Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to fill Scalia’s seat in 2016 and rushing Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination just a few days before the 2020 election that Trump lost.

Breyer is fantasizing about what the court should be rather than what it’s become, a tool for cementing in extreme rightwing ideology.  Biden is correct to open a commission about the court, and I believe it’s long past time to increase the size of the court to balance its judgments.  A better solution would be to establish term limits for SCOTUS seats, but that is more difficult due to the Constitutional arguments for not have limits.

All that said, it’s long past time to fix the Supreme Court, because what we have now is clowns in charge of the circus, and that damn sure doesn’t give any confidence in its judgements.

Last night at a major GOP donor conference, Trump was in fine form (for him), unleashing attacks on everyone who have not continued to give him full-throated support.  He attacked, by name, everyone who supported the Constitution by certifying the election for Biden.  He attacked all of his nemeses including Nancy Pelosi, “Barack Hussein Obama”, Anthony Fauci, and Brian Kemp of Georgia, the governor who refused to buckle to Trump’s demands that he throw his career out the window by illegally throwing the election to him.  But he saved his juiciest insults for Mitch McConnell calling him a “dumb son of a bitch” and a “stone cold loser.”  He also repeated all the same lies he’s told countless times, even attacking Mark Zuckerberg directly claiming that he spent $500 million on a “lockbox” that delivered every vote for “Saintly Joe Biden.”  He did praise a few, like Jim Jordan and the January 6 protestors, while lamely trying to distance himself from those who sacked the Capitol (even though he incited them to do so).

As he rails against all of his enemies, the GOP continues to struggle for its own identity and direction.  Even this weekend when donors gathered at the nearby Four Seasons, Trump was holding a competing “investor” conference at Mar a Lago for his big donors.  And to get face to face with him, the donors attending the Four Seasons conference had to trek to Trump’s property and pay his club for the privilege.  This weekend was symbolic of the turmoil that is tearing the GOP apart.  Even as his former staffers, including Mark Meadows and career grave robber, Stephen Miller form their own PACs and political operations.  While they all want the enthusiasm for Trump among the faithful, they don’t want Trump himself.  He’s insulted and pissed off all of the establishment Republicans, and has frozen dozens of 2022 and 2024 campaigns, especially for the GOP nomination for president next time around.

As Trump continues his multi-hundred million dollar grift, he’s unforgiving of what he perceives as disloyalty, and future candidates are lined up at the gates of Mar a Lago seeking the blessing of His Orangeness.  Not doing so will draw his wrath and most certainly a primary opponent.  He is desperately clinging to his control of the GOP, even as many maneuver to wrest that control from his iron grip.  In his wake he leaves nothing but toxic waste and destruction.