To Judge or not to Judge

Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing for Amy Coney Barrett

I am watching the confirmation hearings for selecting Judge Amy Coney Barrett as the next member to the United States Supreme Court. What a waste of time even holding the hearings.

Democrats are trying to get the Judge to answer how she views different case outcomes or potential outcomes. The Judge keeps refusing to give any hints on how she may rule on any case. Okay, likely a good course. Especially if you don’t want to taint yourself by showing your true feelings on any aspect of law. Consider though that the idea any person can completely set aside their personal opinions and beliefs and rule on an aspect of the law impartially is suspect. I just can’t buy that they can.

Republicans spend their time throwing roses to the Judge, telling her how wonderful she is. They then spend time in pontificating on the political stand being taken by the Democrats on the Judiciary Committee. Of course they ask no questions about her views on the law, knowing she won’t provide an answer.

I’ve seen this more than once in my life. It hasn’t changed really. I also don’t care about the arguments made (by Democrats) of how this nomination is being rammed through this close to election day. The whole thing is theater. The Democrats would do the same thing if they had the chance. Neither side has any moral high ground to stand on. If Democrats controlled the Senate and refused to move forward, Republicans would be screaming foul. Six of one, half-dozen of another.

I am of the opinion that this whole process for selecting members of the Court should even exist? There is no fairness in these type of proceedings. The members of the Committee are not worried one damn bit about what the people may, or may not, want. How could they when the people haven’t been asked? In other words, the process is flawed and appointments to any federal court system are only the will of the Senate.

Justices can be impeached. Only one has, Justice Samuel Chase in 1804. The Senate did not convict Justice Chase, so he remained on the Supreme Court. With a lifetime appointment, federal judges and the SCOTUS Justices have a long reaching effects on the laws in the United States. The people can do nothing about any judge or Justice with regard to their acceptability to be on the courts and their tenure (short of amending the US Constitution). This is an area that should be changed.

Here’s an option that should be considered. Let the Senate have their power to bring a judge or justice to a federal court. But, that lifetime appointment should not be continued for the Appellate or Supreme Courts. Why not have their tenure voted upon by the people every decade after being placed on the bench? So, how can we vote on them all every ten years?

There are 9 Supreme Court Justices and 179 Appellate Courts judges. So 188 members of the judiciary that would have to be voted upon by the people every ten years. Not all would be voted on at the same time, as it would happen ten years from the appointment of each individual judge. The voting would occur in a national election cycle (2 or 4 years), with the judges placed into the closest election cycle for their initial retention vote. Let their record on the bench be the information used by the people to decide. If voted out, no judge could ever hold a seat on the federal courts ever again. This keeps the Senate’s partisanship from subverting the will of the voters.

Now, you can say this won’t work, but you’d be wrong. Many States have retention votes for State Supreme Court judges, so it can work just as well at the federal level. It would require voters to familiarize themselves with a judges record, or it could be that there would be groups that would speak to their records to inform the voting population. Either is fine, just as long as the judges are not allowed to campaign for keeping their job. I’ll grant that it is not a perfect system, but it sure seems better than a judge facing a Senate hearing and vote once in their career.

But, one would ask how that guarantees a judge’s impartiality in their rulings? I would answer that by asking how is impartiality guaranteed currently? No, don’t try to argue that if they’re not they can be impeached. I refer you to paragraph six above. We can not count on Congress, any more than we can with Presidential impeachments. Plus, why should we? If the People are the final authority on how we are ruled, then the People have the right to directly decide. Then, and only then, can we hold judges accountable for what rulings they make, instead of this question and non-answer back-and-forth in judiciary hearings in the Senate.

Take today for example. Judge Coney Barrett is assured a seat on the Supreme Court. On November 10th a case on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act will come before the Court. Now Justice Coney Barrett will be on the Court and will be ruling with the other Justices on the case, unless of course she recuses herself (not very likely). If she votes to overturn and the law and it is overturned, then the votes of the people will reflect whether she is right or not. The people will know how overturning the law has affected them for ten years and may well decide her removal is the correct response. Otherwise, there is no penalty for what she, along with the other Justices, may end up doing to the people in the United States. There should be no hiding from the people by any of them.

The only other choice is completely overturning the US political and legal system and instituting something completely new. That would be my preference, but the great majority of the people in the US are still sheep willing to be led around by the politicians in Congress and the President. Apparently they haven’t been screwed over enough yet to get angry and toss the whole damn thing into the dump.

Until next time

Dead on Arrival: The US Constitution

A Document to enslave, suppress, and oppress the American underclasses.

I was 18 years-old when I joined the military. I took an oath to the US Constitution, as stated below:

I, (NAME), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.

I lived up to my oath I made through my military service and for long after I left the service. I believed in the importance of the US Constitution to American society. I was prepared to defend the US Constitution when arguments about the Constitution arose. I believed that our society could not survive without it. I chose to overlook any parts of the Constitution that were defective, such as in Article 1, Section 2, wherein Black people (meaning slaves primarily) were to be counted as 3/5th’s of a person for determining representation in the House of Representatives and for taxation. I believed this rule became null and void with the adoption of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution. I never questioned any part of the nation’s founding document. It should never been in the Constitution in the first place, but it was added to protect slavery and get the Constitution ratified.

I should have questioned it though. Now, when I look at the Constitution, I see a document written for the elite class only. It was written to keep the elite as the rulers of America. It was to keep all of the underclasses loyal to the demands of the elite. This is the living legacy of the Constitution right up to today. We are taught of the rights each of us have been “granted” and the prohibitions that the government can not use against the people. But, it’s all a lie because there is no equal treatment of all people.

I figure many are shouting, “No, that’s not true.” It’s your right to disagree, but it’s mine to maintain my current belief about the Constitution. The Constitution implement sdifferent ways of determining who represents us in Congress. Originally, for example, Senators were elected by the state legislature until the adoption of the 17th Amendment on April 8, 1913. Yes, it can be argued that the state legislatures were the representatives of the citizenry of the state, but were they?

The Electoral College is an obsolete in the need to determine the President of the United States. In our current technological country, there is no reason that the popular vote should not select a president. As with anything, there are opponents and supporters of the Electoral College. It would take amending the Constitution to end the Electoral College system. Or, completely scrap the Constitution and write a new one more designed with the current state of American society as the focus. My personal belief is to scrap it, along with the current political and economic systems that we have. I’m a socialist, what would you expect me to say, we should fix it?

With the current protesting ongoing in America, the Constitution’s Bill of Rights are being violated on a regular basis. Look at the 1st Amendment. Freedom of the press is ignored as members of the press reporting on protests are attacked, assaulted, and arrested by the police. Freedom to peacefully assemble has resulted in protestors being gassed, shot with pepper balls, rubber bullets, and violently assaulted by police, and hauled away to jail after being arrested – with bogus violations of law being charged. Yes, there is violence at protests, but they are by groups of people who hide among the lawful protestors before setting off looting, arson, attacks on police, and riots. Many of those arrested are held in confinement without charge and later released, a clear violation of the 6th Amendment. Oh, and about the arson, looting, and rioting, when has any demands for major societal changes been accomplished peacefully?

Tell me again how the Constitution protects the rights of the people? Lets go further. President Donald Trump has ordered that cities that he declares are in a state of anarchy should be stripped of federal funding. The memo sent to the, not ever honest, US Attorney General from Trump states, as reported by the Daily Beast:

“For the past few months, several state and local governments have contributed to the violence and destruction in their jurisdictions by failing to enforce the law, disempowering and significantly defunding their police departments, and refusing to accept offers of federal law enforcement assistance. To ensure that Federal funds are neither unduly wasted nor spent in a manner that directly violates our Government’s promise to protect life, liberty, and property, it is imperative that the Federal Government review the use of Federal funds by jurisdictions that permit anarchy, violence, and destruction in America’s cities.”

Show me where in the Constitution Trump has the authority to do this? Don’t give me any garbage about “preserving and protecting” the Constitution. The protests are not an attack on the Constitution, in fact rights are being exercised that are protected by the Constitution. Trump is just exercising his supposed “absolute power” he thinks is his right. There is NO authority for absolute power in the Constitution and there is NO prohibitions in the Constitution to prohibit such delusions.

Plain and simple, the US Constitution is outdated and insufficient as a governing document for the United States. It’s time that it is burned and a new model, suitable for the America that now exists, be put in it’s place. But, I figured people will cling to the Constitution unto death.

Until next time

Open Letter to the US Military

Sworn to Protect and Defend

Greetings Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard members.

Whether you are on active duty, in the Reserves, or in the National Guard, each and every one of you from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to the enlisted E-1’s have given your sworn oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States from all enemies, foreign and domestic.

Well, the time is rapidly approaching when you may have to exercise your oath from a domestic enemy, Donald Trump. In this election year, in an interview with Chris Wallace of Fox News, President Donald Trump has publicly refused to state whether or not he would accept the results of the election should he lose . Besides this interview, President Trump has repeatedly tried to convince America that mail-in voting is ripe with fraud (patently untrue). In 2016, when he lost the popular vote, but won the Electoral College, he claimed that there were “millions and millions” of people who fraudulently voted at poling booths. Further, by his own insistence, he added a wealthy donor to his administration as Postmaster General. Right afterwards, a series of directives have the USPS in turmoil and have caused slowdowns in mail delivery. President Trump then uses this slowdown to argue that the USPS will be unable to deliver mail-in votes in time to be counted. While a bill was passed in the US House of Representatives to provide billions for the postal service, President Trump and Senate Republicans are blocking funding. He is building his reasons to refuse to step down as President,

President Trump is well known for doing things his own way, even if his actions are criminal. He has had people in the White House defy the Hatch Act, he has ordered the stripping of rights granted by law to the LGBTQ+ community, he is trying to remove protections for Americans with pre-existing medical conditions by having the Affordable Care Act (ACA) overturned, he has used public funds to pay his own resorts on Presidential trips here and abroad, and he has had his campaign refuse to pay the costs to cities around the country for extra security provisions when he’s appeared there, just to name a few.

He is unafraid of being held accountable for anything he has done, or will do while in office. But, why? It is clear that Donald Trump plans to try to hold on to power if he loses the election. He wants to move from being an elected president to becoming an authoritarian dictator of the United States. He will have help from his base of white supremacists/nationalists. These supporters are frothing at the mouth to have a civil war to accomplish President Trump’s goals.

Make no mistake, there are white supremacists/nationalists in the US Armed Forces that the Services are trying to deal with. These members must be revealed for who they really are and removed from every branch for the good of the service and for the protection of the nation. It is incumbent upon every service member to report these racists to their command authority. Otherwise, how can the American public maintain trust and faith in our armed forces?

Finally, each service branch must be prepared to stand again President Trump if he loses the election and refuses to leave office. His continued presence would be in violation of the US Constitution each of you swore to protect and defend. It is your duty. Any officer or enlisted member who refuses to act to remove Donald Trump in this situation would be a traitor to their oath and American people. The only way he can continue after losing the election is to have the US military backing him. The military is needed in order for a dictator to rule. Do not succumb to being accomplices to such treason against the United States of America.

Let no tyranny overthrow that which you have served honorably!

Sincerely,

An American

Not Constitutional

Trumps wants a Third & Fourth Term

Can we accept that Donald Trump cares nothing for the US Constitution? If you can’t, consider a statement from Trump himself. At a Wisconsin rally Trump made his plans clear. According to a Rolling Stone article:

“We are going to win four more years,” Trump said. “And then after that, we’ll go for another four years because they spied on my campaign. We should get a redo of four years.”

This proves Trump has no respect for the US Constitution. He would try to violate the 22nd Amendment, which places a two term limit on the Presidency. The question becomes, who will stand against him to prevent the violation of the 22nd Amendment?

Will the Secret Service forcibly remove Trump if he loses the election and refuses to leave? Would the US Armed Forces remove him? Would the FBI, DEA, CIA, and DHS? The answer is “that depends.” It depends on whether or not Trump has gained their organizational fealty. Trump would need the senior leaders of any organization supporting him. He also needs the support of the US Armed Forces. No dictator can retain power without the military forces behind him or her.

Are you scared yet? Here’s more to consider.

If Trump, or anyone else for that matter, can become a dictator there will be more the people will lose. The 1st Amendment will be scrapped. The media will be controlled by the government and will not be allowed to speak against the leadership. You, dear citizen, will have no right to speak freely. You either toe the line or find yourself incarcerated in some camp or prison for an indeterminate period of time. Your family might join you too. Religion will be restricted by the dictator to prevent any chance of believers becoming revolutionaries. There will be no protests allowed. There will be no redress of grievances because there will be no grievances. The Constitution will not exist. Oh, there will be “rights” for the people, but exercising them will lead to removal from society.

Are you scared yet? I shall continue then.

The police (local, state, and federal) departments will no longer “protect & serve” (which they already don’t do). They will become the nation’s security forces., with the mission of suppressing society and maintaining control of the populace for the leadership. Those rebelling will get a visit from the security forces, usually at midnight, and the offender(s) will quietly disappear. Remember, there is no Constitution. Even if there is, there will be no lawsuit to have you freed.

The courts, in this dictatorship, will be operating under the rules set by the leadership. Most “cases” brought to the court will end up siding with the what the government desires. Remember that the court system supports government goals, not societal goals.

What about the economy? For now capitalism holds sway and likely would continue to under a Trump dictatorship. He’s shown them a fair amount of favoritism in his presidency. He’s into cronyism and has handed out billions of dollars to help them out. But, will it last? Probably to some degree it would, though you can expect some government price controls. Of course, regardless of what occurs in the economy, Trump will take his cut. Greed is a motivator to Trump.

If you think that things are bad now, think how much worse it will be. There is a chance it can get worse.

So, what kind of nation do you want to live in?

The nation I want to live in treats everyone equally, without laws to make people equal. I want a country where no one is without a sustainable income. I want a nation where homelessness does not exist, especially when million upon millions of homes stand empty. I want a nation where higher education is provided to everyone, free of charge. There should be no student debt. I want a nation where no one goes hungry. I want a nation where workers gain some of the profits they make available because of their hard work. I want a nation that doesn’t criminalize immigrants entering into the country and participating in our society. I want a nation where politicians like Trump can be removed from office upon demand of the people.

I want a nation where citizens can lay their heads down at night in safety and security.

Until next time

The Secret Police

Who will they come for next?

The darkness of the night was only occasionally pushed back by a streetlight. There were still people walking along the sidewalks. Down the road approached a car. It stopped between streetlights, in the shadows of the surrounding buildings. Three men stepped from the vehicle and walked over to a man nearby. The three men stopped the man and within a minute the man was pushed into the vehicle. Nothing was said to the man as he was hustled to the vehicle. The three men climbed inside and the vehicle drove off into the night.

Sounds like the activities of the Nazi Gestapo before and during World War II. Alas, this is not from World War II, but from a night in 2020 in the city of Portland, OR. Wait, what? This is America and people have rights ya know? Well, tell that to the three federal law enforcement officers in military style camouflage fatigues with no identifying patches, no name labels and only the word “Police” on the vests being wore. Nor are the vehicles marked either.

Anyone older than my old tennis shoes know that this is unlawful behavior by these federal agents, in fact unconstitutional! The subjects are not told anything. They are taken to, some have said, a federal building. Some are charged with a crime, some are not. For those not charged there is no record of an arrest. Uncharged individuals are later released without any explanation at all. This gives Department of Homeland Security “plausible deniability” or, in other words, it never happened.

DHS Emblem

Chad Wolf, acting DHS Director visited Portland and labelled all the protestors as anarchists. This is a tactic to dehumanize the protestors and insinuate that the protests are unlawful. Pray tell, what are the crimes of these “anarchists”? Spray painting graffiti on federal buildings, some vandalism and trespassing. Obviously dangerous felons.

Who’s responsible for the Gestapo-like tactics? It can only be Donald Trump, our fascist president. He’s stepped over the line, again, in his actions as president. When he got static from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff about using military personnel against US citizens, he chose a different group to go after US civilians.

I have to wonder what’s next? Will there be other cities where Trump’s Gestapo dogs whisk people off the streets? When it comes to Donald Trump anything is probable. As for his goons, they have violated their oath to protect and defend the Constitution and the rights contained therein. They fit right in as a part of the over militarized police forces in the country. They are uncaring of their tactics and only act, just point and off these federal hounds go.

If the goal is to put fear in the hearts of protestors, it won’t stop the protests. In all likelihood it will stiffen the protestors resolve all across America to continue the struggles against systemic racism and government oppression. Donald Trump fails, as he does in so many things, to grasp the depth of commitment of all the people protesting and supporting the protests.

But, what should the people do about these tactics? If you see it occurring, record it. Yell for the detained individual to shout out their name. Write down or record license plates of the unmarked vehicles being used by the federal agents. Notify the press of the incident and also get it out on the internet. Notify Democratic members of Congress and ask for them to demand answers from the Department of Homeland Security. Most of all, as scary as it is, don’t let it stop demands for change. It sure won’t get the public to trust the police.

Time will tell whether or not other cities have DHS agents playing Gestapo. I guess it depends on how much Donald Trump likes what he ordered done to the civilians of the cities. President, using the term loosely, Trump has a lot to answer for, either now or at some future date.

Until next time

White America Mental Illness?

Or, What the Hell is Wrong People?

I am mystified over the seeming illness of White people in our country since the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. With much of America up in arms protesting police brutality and the systemic racism, there seems to be a number of white people who have lost their minds and done so in public.

We had Amy Cooper, a White woman, calling 911 on a Black man, Christian Cooper, who was out in Central Park bird watching, because Mr Cooper asked her to leash her dog (which is required in NYC). Somehow Amy Cooper felt threatened and called police. The police that respond to this heinous crime did nothing, explaining it was nothing more than a verbal dispute.

Now, we pop over to Auburn Hills, MI, to a Walmart parking lot. A Black women slapped the back of a vehicle that was backing up out of a parking space. This was done, allegedly, to keep the driver from continuing to back up, which would have hit her daughter. Of course this is where things really go downhill. The driver, a White woman, jumps out of her vehicle and confronts the Black woman and her family, brandishing a handgun that she was pointed at the Black Woman. What the hell? How does this white woman feel the use of a handgun is necessary? Apparently the White woman is yelling and screaming obscenities. Of course the police show up, at which time the White woman is taken in to custody (and later released).

Next we are in Montclair, NJ, where a White woman flips out. Susan Schulz, the White woman, who confronts her next door neighbor, a Black couple, by coming onto the neighbor’s property demanding to know if there was a permit, or if a permit was required, for the stone patio the couple were putting in. Her neighbors happened to be lawyers and were, apparently, not providing acceptable responses to this nut. So, nutty woman calls police and falsely claims that they had pushed her. While waiting for the cops, Susan tries to get White neighbors to back up what she said to police. Cops arrive, Susan gives them her story. Unfortunately for Susan, her White neighbors didn’t back up her story, instead supporting the Black couple’s explanation.

It seems White American, primarily women from what I’ve read, are somehow intimidated by Black Americans. They lose whatever common sense they have and publicly make asses of themselves. Is there something in the water? Is the air they are breathing tainted with a stupidity ingredient that makes them fall off sensibility mountain? I dunno folks, but it seems like to me that Whites are plain old idiots.

It’s not just against Black Americans people are “going off” on. There are many examples of White men and women going crazy over being required to wear a mask by business owners. These “patrons” make asses out of themselves with their yelling and screaming about their “rights”, which they are completely ignorant of when the US Constitution’s Amendments can be used. Maybe the government is seeding some whites only chemical in the air to cause white people to flip out.

Whatever it is making them climb up on the public hill of stupidity, it makes us regular White Americans just sigh and shake our heads at the lunacy. I don’t know, is there any way to resign as a White American? If so, where do I sign?

Until next time

Ending the Two Party Lock on the US Government

Both at the State and Federal Level

Are you tired of the two party political system in the United States? Would you like to see a system wherein third party candidates can succeed in being a representative for the people? Is there any way this can be accomplished, to break the two party stranglehold on American politics? Are you wondering how? Okay, let me explain an idea (certainly not the only idea either).

First, let me say that any change to break the two party hold on government will likely require some alterations to the US Constitution. The Constitution will be an integral part of this new political system. There will still be a House of Representatives and Senate as well. Making it possible for third party representation in Congress will provide a benefit that we do not have at the moment. It will provide a greater representation of the people. There are those who don’t want to vote for either major party candidate. While they could vote for third party candidates, they do so knowing that their candidate won’t likely win.

So, how do we end this problem? We change the form of our elected officials at the state and federal level from what it is now to a Constitutional Parliamentary form.

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The 21st Century Civil Rights Movement, Part 1

Millennials & Gen Z Lead the Way

Mr George Floyd

As we all know, or should know, George Floyd was murdered by four Minneapolis police officers on May 25, 2020, and that it was captured on cellphone video. Mr Floyd was arrested by police for allegedly using a counterfeit twenty dollar bill to buy a pack of cigarettes. For this heinous offense, Mr Floyd paid with a death penalty being imposed on him. He was “tried”, “convicted”, and “executed” by members of the Minneapolis “Thin Blue Line.”

Mr Floyd was prone on the ground, handcuffed, and had ex-police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on his neck. This lasted for well over eight minutes. Mr Floyd repeatedly said, “I can’t breathe,” but was ignored by the four officers. Ex-officers Tou Thao, J Alexander Kueng, and Thomas Lane stood by observing while Chauvin murdered Mr Floyd. Not one of them rendered any assistance to Mr Floyd to save his life.

From left to right Derek Chauvin, Tou Thao, J Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane

Mr Floyd is just one more name in a long and sad list of African Americans killed by police in America, with many of the police being found not guilty by a jury or never charged with a crime. Finally, after nine days, all four Minneapolis ex-officers have been charged by the Minnesota Attorney General. Chauvin, originally charged with 3rd degree murder, is now charged with 2nd degree murder. The other three ex-officers have been charged with aiding and abetting 2nd degree murder. Each faces the maximum penalty of 40 years in prison. At least, unlike Mr Floyd, they will get to breathe.

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What Constitution?

Today starts a new type of blog posts I will make from time to time. I call these “Blog Shorts” and they will generally be no more than 500 words.

What the hell is wrong with the police forces in America? I have watched the news videos showing acts of violence committed by police officers around the country. The indiscriminate use of tear gas, rubber bullets and other “weapons” to assault our citizens protesting across the nation is wrong!

I have watched Atlanta police officers tazer and rip two people from a car, for no recognizable reason. The fact is that the six officers now have warrants out for their arrest on a variety of charges. I hope they all are feeling nervous about their futures. They earned it.

I have watched an NYPD patrol car drive through a group of protestors, watching as some of the protestors rolled off the hood of the vehicle. There isn’t a valid reason for this kind of act. The officer, or officers, in that vehicle need to be charged.

I listened to President Trump speak to the American public on how he is a “law and order” president. He warned the nation that he will, if necessary, be “dispatching thousands and thousands of heavily armed soldiers, military personnel, and law enforcement officers to stop the rioting, looting, vandalism, assaults, and the wanton destruction of property.” He stated that the streets would be dominated in the cities.

I then watched protestors in Washington, outside the White House, as a line of federal riot police suddenly charged into the protestors nearby. Tear gas was tossed among them, shields were used to assault peaceful protestors, along with rubber bullets. This occurred about 25 minutes prior to the start of a 7pm curfew. Then I watched President Trump walk across the street to stand before the Episcopal Church sign and hold up a Bible (held backwards and upside-down). The attack on the protestors exercising their rights was simply so President Trump could get his photo opportunity. I guess his rights trumps (pun intended) the protestors.

These are just some of the scenes I watched. President Trump refuses to attempt to try and calm the nation. If he thinks his Rose Garden speech is going to stop the protests, he should think again. If anything it will increase the protests, maybe adding President Trump’s own lawlessness as a reason to be on the streets protesting.

The President is a coward and is scared. Be scared. Be very, very scared. November approaches. It is with the greatest hope that you will be defeated and sent packing by Joe Biden.

As for law enforcement agencies with officers tarnishing the reputations of departments across the country. Every cop using excessive force of any kind should be arrested, prosecuted, and jailed to the maximum extent of the law. Then, and only then, departments can begin to try and reestablish positive relations in the communities they police.

Until next time