Law and Order
DePetro caught up with Mack on the streets of Providence while covering the recent spate of shootings there, and it’s a must-watch five minutes. DePetro was respectful, but really pressed Mack on her beliefs about what’s going on in Providence and the effects of her own public statements. In a nutshell, to Tiara Mack, violence…
Ethan Yang, in a post for the American Institute for Economic Research, asks, “Why Have the Courts Been Deferential to Lockdowns?” Yang addresses legal principles and tests, such as “rational basis” and “the narrowly tailored standard” and writes: Hollow phrases such as “the common good,” “the public interest,” and “reasonable” give enormous discretion to judges…
The Foundation for Government Accountability has published a short report titled, “Top 10 Examples of Outrageous Unemployment Fraud in 2020 — And How to Fix It.” Most of the blurbs concern specific fraud rings or techniques, but Rhode Island’s entry is more general: Ocean State Drowns in Fraud As recently as October 2020, Rhode Island…
Nonviolence Institute Executive Director Cedric Huntley’s incredible honesty is refreshing, in an article by Amanda Milkovits for the Boston Globe: “In Rhode Island, it’s not the police killing our children. It’s Black and brown children killing each other,” said Cedric Huntley. “And the community is traumatized.” Just in the last week of what’s becoming a violent…
Eugene Volokh has posted a quick updated review of state laws concerning when residents have a right to use deadly force to defend themselves. And wouldn’t you know it, Rhode Island is one of only twelve states that fall in the “duty to retreat” category. The rest of the states are some variation of “stand…
We agree on the rules and the process, in light of inalienable rights, and justice is the result. If the system manifestly is not producing justice, then we adjust the rules and the process. But the process cannot simply be a show we put on to give the impression of rules. That is the context…
With reference to the (regrettable) comments that Mike Riley made to the police on that Fateful Night, WPRI’s Ted Nesi tweeted a couple of days ago, Riley’s comments are still no match for Senator Ciccone’s immortal words, “You think you got pension problems now?” http://www.wpri.com/dpp/news/polit… No match, indeed. (For those who might have missed it,…
A bill (H5068) requiring cities and towns to post an armed guard at every school in Rhode Island was posted Tuesday for a House Municipal Government hearing today. Here’s the complete text: The school committees of various cities, towns, and school districts, shall appoint a guard to each school building within their jurisdiction. The guard…
Last weekend, a small number of people turned out at Los Angeles Police Department headquarters, in some combination of protest and memorial for former LAPD officer Chris Dorner, who killed four people in Southern California, before killing himself during a standoff with law enforcement. Meanwhile, in the virtual world, a Facebook tribute describing Dorner as…
Usually, I look through news sites (a couple of times per day) for the latest developments in politics and, especially, for news on Rhode Island politics and gov’t. For the last couple of days, however, it’s been stories about the horrendous Connecticut shooting that I’ve been compelled to click on. Some information is now coming…