Author: Bill Otis

Is Racism a Driving Force in Fatal Police-Citizen Encounters?

by · Apr 28, 2021 10:05 pm

In the aftermath of the police shooting of knife-wielding black teenager Ma’Khia Bryant (in the course of her attack on an unarmed black teenager), and of the Derek Chauvin verdict, President Biden made these racially fraught remarks to Congress tonight:

We have all seen the knee of injustice on the neck of Black America. Now is our opportunity to make real progress. Most men and women in uniform wear their badge and serve their communities honorably. I know them. I know they want to help meet this moment as well.  My fellow Americans, we have to come together. To rebuild trust between law enforcement and the people they serve. To root out systemic racism in our criminal justice system.

So what’s the truth here?  Was “systemic” (or other) racism the cause of the killing of either George Floyd or Ma’Khia Bryant?  And is there a wall of distrust between law enforcement and the people they serve?

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The Ruination of Minneapolis

by · Apr 22, 2021 11:10 pm

What will reining in the police, refusal to pursue property crime and trespass charges, going easy on “mostly peaceful” hooliganism, and other aspects of criminal justice “reform” bring?  That’s a hugely important question, given the increasing number of (one party and hard Left) jurisdictions that are adopting it.  Los Angeles is one.  Portland, Seattle and Baltimore are others.  Minneapolis is certainly in the mix.

One young woman tells her story, “I’ve lived in Minneapolis my entire life. I’m leaving Friday. I no longer recognize my hometown.”  For an on-the-ground view of what “reform” means for ordinary people, I found the account revealing and very, very sad.

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The Chauvin Verdict and Its Unwanted Lessons (for Both Sides)

by · Apr 22, 2021 3:40 pm

I wanted to wait a day or two to sift through the Chauvin verdict.  It was a case that saw a good deal of side-switching:  Many on the right who normally root for a conviction were ready to find reasons there shouldn’t be one here, while people on the left  —  ones who reflexively root for the defendant simply to give “the system” its comeuppance  —  were eager for this particular defendant to get hit with both barrels.

My own view is that choosing sides in that way confounds what the rule of law does and ought to do.  But it was also a window into a good deal of thinking that goes on below the surface.

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White House Fanning Racial Hate, Part ll

by · Apr 22, 2021 10:32 am

Sometimes ridicule does a better job of destruction than a frontal attack can hope to do.  I found that out today as Charles Cooke from the National Review mercilessly lampoons the White House’s idiotic response to a white police officer’s preventing the stabbing death of a black teenage girl by shooting her assailant (which was the only practical alternative he had).

Cooke’s piece is titled, “In Defense of Teenage Knife Fighting,” with the subtitle, “Since when do we need the cops to intervene in the recreational stabbings of our youth?”

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White House Fans Racial Hate with a Pack of Lies

by · Apr 21, 2021 4:09 pm

When the Columbus, Ohio police yesterday fatally shot a black teenager, the White House promptly labelled the action racist.  Only one thing:  The teenager they shot was in the immediate act of knifing another teenager, also black, as plainly shown on the bodycam.  It takes only minimal imagination to envision what the White House would have said if the police had not prevented the imminent, probably fatal stabbing:  “President Biden deplores that white police in Columbus, Ohio idly looked on as an innocent black teenager was violently killed.  Racist policing must end.”

When trashing the police and fomenting racial hate is your thing, the truth might need to get shoved aside, but you can always think of something. Continue reading . . .

A Tale of Two Cities (and Five More)

by · Apr 15, 2021 2:10 pm

“Murders soared as police ‘pulled back’ amid 2020 protests in major cities, report finds”  is the title of today’s story on Fox News.

Declining police involvement and arrests in the wake of protests that began in the summer of 2020 have been linked to a record number of murders in the country’s major cities, according to a recent analysis….The Unites States saw more than 20,000 murders last year – approximately 4,000 more than in 2019 and the highest number of murders nationwide since 1995 – as law enforcement “pulled back,” according to the report.

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Why, Sometimes, You Need To Question the Source

by · Apr 14, 2021 12:48 pm

While looking at the entry on my Georgetown Law Faculty page (which lists inter alia news articles in which professors are quoted) I found this one from the Washington Post, titled “Five myths about criminal justice” and subtitled, “Being ‘tough’ on crime doesn’t always make sense.”  I’m happy to say that I make the bad list with both Kent and former US District Judge, now law professor, Paul Cassell.  I’m listed as a sponsor of Myth # 5, to wit, “Criminal Justice Reform Means More Crime.”  The error of my ways is described as follows:

We’ve seen leaders hesitate to engage in criminal justice reform strategies because they seem too new, nuanced or radical. Law enforcement officials and prosecutors across the country have been outspoken critics of policies to reduce or eliminate cash bail. Georgetown University law professor Bill Otis, nominated to the U.S. Sentencing Commission by President Trump, called efforts toward sentencing reform “more-crime-faster proposals.”

My observation is then appropriately debunked.

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Perceptions of Police Shootings of Black Men

by · Apr 13, 2021 3:21 pm

A police shooting of a black man  —  clearly unjustified in this instance  —  and the reaction to it, are once again in the news.  The nature and extent of the reaction got me curious about what people actually believe about the frequency of such episodes.

As it happens, this has been studied.  The Skeptic Research Center found that, among people who view themselves as “very liberal,” more than half think the number of unarmed black people killed by the police in one year (2019) was roughly 1000 if not more.  Almost eight percent of that cohort thought the number was in excess of 10,000.

How close is that to the truth?

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