Many in the political and media establishment have cast the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol as one of the darkest episodes in American history, comparing an episode in which one person was slain (a protester shot by police) to 9/11, Pearl Harbor, the Civil War, and the British sacking of the capital city in 1814. Seizing on the gravity of a mob trying to interfere with the process of recording Electoral College votes after a presidential election, Democrats impeached Donald Trump over the Jan. 6 breach and put him on trial in the Senate.

A Minnesota judge dismissed a third-degree murder charge against former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in the death of George Floyd, but left in place a more serious charge of second-degree murder.

Hennepin County Judge Peter A. Cahill on Thursday denied a defense motion to drop all charges against Chauvin and three other former officers involved in Floyd’s death, according to multiple reports. The judge agreed to dismiss Chauvin’s third-degree murder charge, leaving the former cop still facing charges of second-degree murder and manslaughter.

Tens of millions of Americans are aghast at what is taking place in our country. Neighborhoods burned by angry mobs, an entire section of Seattle “occupied” by anarchists, the city council of Minneapolis voting to eliminate its police department, public monuments and statues trashed, popular TV shows canceled because they show law enforcement in a favorable light, over 700 cops injured during “mostly peaceful protests.”

The good news is that the George Floyd rioting is starting to die down in some parts of the country. Washington DC saw the National Guard move out after demonstrations became more peaceful. It’s not nearly as bad as last week. That’s for sure. The riots were sparked by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25. It was an officer-involved fatality. Floyd was arrested on suspicion of using fake currency, a nonviolent crime. Floyd was unarmed. He was reportedly intoxicated when he was approached by police, but that’s immaterial. He was able to be apprehended and placed in handcuffs.

The Minneapolis mayor is asking for federal help cleaning up and rebuilding his city after rioters caused at least $55 million worth of damage through looting, burning, and defacing public and private property.

That cost estimate is likely to increase in the coming days as government officials continue to tally the damage done in the wake of George Floyd’s death, Mayor Jacob Frey said according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and the state’s congressional delegation are also pushing the Trump administration and Congress for funding.

You can tell Tom Klingenstein is a good leader by his focus on mission. He proposes “preserving the American way of life” as the new why of the Republican Party. Klingenstein’s essay sets a powerful frame for understanding America’s escalating ideological divide.

To succeed, we must combine his attention to mission with two other ingredients: urgency and vision.

Hundreds of looters and rioters arrested by the New York Police Department over the past several days have been immediately released due to the state's new bail-reform law that some say is turning the criminal justice process into a mockery and threatening public safety.

New York City police chief Terrance Monahan said "just about all" of the looters arrested will be released without bail.

In Chicago last weekend 82 people were shot, 22 of them fatally. Between May 2019 and late May 2020, homicide claimed the lives of over 300 black men in the city. That’s not a police brutality problem, that’s a problem of insufficient police power being deployed to stop violent criminals. If the death of one man, George Floyd, while under arrest in Minneapolis is cause for nationwide protests, why don’t the deaths of hundreds of George Floyds every year prick the conscience of protesters that much more?

It bears no resemblance to reality — not in police forces, and not in America.
About twice as many white people as black people are killed by police. In fact, in about 75 percent of police shootings, the decedent is not black. Of course, that is not what you would grasp from consuming media.