DL Open Thread: Sunday, July 23, 2023
The ‘Kansas Two-Step’: Classic cop tactic no doubt employed all the time here in Delaware:
What happened next is an example of a policing practice known as the Kansas “two step,” a tactic that a judge ruled unconstitutional this week because routine traffic stops were being used to detain motorists whom troopers suspected of transporting drugs.
The Kansas trooper returned to his vehicle, called for backup and struck up a new conversation with Bosire in an attempt to prolong the traffic stop, according to court documents. When McMillan eventually asked whether he could search Bosire’s vehicle, Bosire declined. The trooper then called in a K-9 unit.
Highway patrol didn’t find any evidence of drugs, and Bosire was released after being detained for nearly an hour.
But Bosire, who said in court documents that McMillan racially profiled him that night, now lives in fear of law enforcement. He said the encounter destroyed his trust in the police.
Bosire is one of five motorists — detained by state troopers between 2017 and 2019 — to argue that the Kansas Highway Patrol violated their Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable search and seizure.
On Friday, a federal judge agreed.
U.S. District Judge Kathryn H. Vratil ruled Friday that the practice of detaining motorists with out-of-state license plates on I-70, particularly those from Colorado and Missouri, to search for drugs is unconstitutional and a violation of a 10th Circuit ruling that prohibits state troopers from detaining motorists based on their out-of-state residency, travel origin or destination.
In her 79-page opinion, Vratil wrote that the police unit waged a “war on motorists” in the “name of drug interdiction.”
Anyone still wonder why Delaware cops opposed legalization of pot?
Can Israeli Protestors Stop Netanyahu’s Move Toward Dictatorship? Regardless, it’s time for us to stop bankrolling Bibi, End Times or no End Times:
Tens of thousands of protesters marched into Jerusalem on Saturday evening and hundreds of thousands of Israelis took to the streets in Tel Aviv and other cities in a last-ditch show of force aimed at blocking Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s contentious judicial overhaul.
Also Saturday, more than 100 of Israel’s former security chiefs signed a letter pleading with the Israeli premier to halt the legislation, and thousands of additional military reservists said they would no longer report for duty, in a protest against the plan.
The proposed overhaul has drawn harsh criticism from business and medical leaders, and a fast-rising number of military reservists in key units have said they will stop reporting for duty if the plan passes, raising concern that the country’s security interests could be threatened. An additional 10,000 reservists announced they were suspending duty on Saturday night, according to “Brothers in Arms,” a protest group representing retired soldiers.
“The legislative process violates the social contract that has existed for 75 years between the Israeli government and thousands of reserve officers and soldiers from the land, air, sea and intelligence branches who have volunteered for many years for the reserves to defend the democratic state of Israel, and now announce with a broken heart that they are suspending their volunteer service,” the letter said.
I agree with Nicholas Kristof, who’s not usually among my favorite pundits:
The $3.8 billion in annual assistance to Israel is more than 10 times as much as the U.S. sends to the far more populous nation of Niger, one of the poorest countries in the world and one under attack by jihadis. In countries like Niger, that sum could save hundreds of thousands of lives a year, or here in the United States, it could help pay for desperately needed early childhood programs.
Aid to Israel is now almost exclusively military assistance that can be used only to buy American weaponry. In reality, it’s not so much aid to Israel as it is a backdoor subsidy to American military contractors, which is one reason some Israelis are cool to it.
“Israel should give up on the American aid,” Yossi Beilin, a former Israeli minister of justice, told me. He has argued that the money can be used more effectively elsewhere.
Don’t know if anyone’s watching the British Open, but you can’t escape the commercials for Trump’s Scottish white elephant golf course. It used to be part of the Open rotation (Turnberry), but was dumped when Trump bought it.
Speaking of annoying commercials ( not my best transition ever, but still…), this one annoys me no end:
Why do I hate it so? I’ll leave it to the armchair psychoanalysts on here to, um, deconstruct me.
What do you want to talk about?
The US left would solve the IP conflict the same way Trump would solve the war in Ukraine.
So far you have only criticized “the left’s” response to what’s going on in Israel. The protest march involves an autocratic takeover of the courts — has jackshit to do with the IP conflict. Howzabout you address that instead of shitting on everyone else?
The protests are righteous. I was addressing the comment “it’s time for us to stop bankrolling Bibi.”
If there is some way to “stop bankrolling Bibi” while maintaining US support of Israel, I’d like to hear it.
I’m all for overtly cutting or threatening to cut some portion of aid until Israel immediately pulls back its worst behaviors, and enters meaningful discussions for long-term co-existence. Which won’t happen with Netanyahu, so yeah, regime change.
But for the US left, ending US support IS the policy goal in and of itself. Because they want an end to Israel, but are rarely willing to complete the thought out loud.
Since I’m apparently Puck’s stereotype of the ‘US left’, I would suggest that Puck read the link to the Kristof article. Israel is a wealthy nation, they don’t need our money. They don’t deserve it while wantonly persecuting the Palestinian people, they don’t deserve it while Bibi squelches democracy.
Yes, I’m Jewish. The notion that supporting the Jewish people goes hand-in-hand with supporting a repressive government in Israel flies in the face of quite a lot that I learned in Hebrew school. In fact, it runs counter to the beliefs that were instilled in me.
Can’t make this stuff up. Elon Musk is gonna change the Twitter handle from the bird to, wait for it:
“X”.
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-66284304
Were I John and Exene, I’d be readying a lawsuit.