George Haag describes removing a portrait of Andy Warhol by photographer Robert Mapplethorpe from the wall at the Memorial Art Gallery. George Haag had butterflies in his stomach, more like a performer in the wings than a defendant in a criminal case, as he waited to be called into Courtroom 401 at the Hall of Justice in downtown Rochester recently. “I’m excited,” he said. “I feel like I’m on a blind date.” He had yet to meet his public defender in the flesh and had dressed up for the occasion, wearing a brown sport coat over a red knitted vest and a novelty necktie emblazoned with cartoon breasts that he bought at the adult store Show World in Henrietta.
a-
Is America a free country? America First Patriot Nick Fuentes was added to the No-Fly list without committing any crime.
This is an enormous escalation of the Totalitarianism that has been developing under the Biden Administration. WHY IS THE GOP SILENT?
From Washington Watcher II: This is just the latest injustice committed by the Biden regime against the American people. There’s a new standard set: if your speech offends the powers that be, they can ban you from flying. No charges or trial required. This new power can be used against a whole plethora of conservatives and right-wingers.
By Grayson Haver Currin
April 28, 2021
Before Yasmin Williams became a teenager, she found her perfect sport: “Guitar Hero,” the dizzying video game where aging rock staples enjoyed an unlikely second life through players wielding plastic controllers fashioned after vintage Gibsons.
… More than competition, “Guitar Hero” represented a revelation for Williams. Though she was often the only Black student in her public-school classes, she didn’t know the Beatles, let alone heavy metal, existed before the game. She cut her teeth on her father’s vintage go-go tapes and her brothers’ hip-hop CDs. Williams loved the clarinet, but she wondered if she could make more exciting music if she had an ax like her onscreen idols.
ABSTRACT
This paper provides the first empirical examination of the impact of federal and state “Pattern-or-Practice” investigations on crime and policing. For investigations that were not preceded by “viral” incidents of deadly force, investigations, on average, led to a statistically significant reduction in homicides and total crime. In stark contrast, all investigations that were preceded by “viral” incidents of deadly force have led to a large and statistically significant increase in homicides and total crime. We estimate that these investigations caused almost 900 excess homicides and almost 34,000 excess felonies.
The leading hypothesis for why these investigations increase homicides and total crime is an abrupt change in the quantity of policing activity.