DL Open Thread: Thursday, March 14, 2024

Police Preying On Children.  This story has the statistics and, more importantly, the ordeal suffered by a victim and her family.  Must-reading:

A Washington Post investigation has found that over the past two decades, hundreds of police officers have preyed on children, while agencies across the country have failed to take steps to prevent these crimes.

At least 1,800 state and local police officers were charged with crimes involving child sexual abuse from 2005 through 2022, The Post found.

Abusive officers were rarely related to the children they were accused of raping, fondling and exploiting. They most frequently targeted girls who were 13 to 15 years old — and regularly met their victims through their jobs.

The Post identified these officers through an exclusive analysis of the nation’s most comprehensive database of police arrests at Bowling Green State University, as well as a review of thousands of court documents, police decertification records and news reports.

In case after case, officers intentionally earned the trust of parents and guardians, created opportunities to get kids alone and threatened repercussions for broken silence. Unlike teachers and priests, they did it all while wielding the power of their badges and guns.

But while many school systems and churches have created practices and policies to root out predators, law enforcement agencies have largely treated child sexual abuse as an isolated problem that goes away when an officer is fired or prosecuted — rather than an always-present risk that requires systemic change.

There is no national tracking system for officers accused of child sexual abuse. At a time when police departments across the country face staffing shortages and are desperate to hire, there are no universal requirements to screen for potential perpetrators. When abuse is suspected, officers are sometimes allowed to remain on the job while investigations of their behavior are left in the hands of their colleagues.

Uh, can’t we at least demand more rigorous background checks on would-be police officers in the next stab at LEOBOR reform?  I mean, the cops shouldn’t object–unless they consider the right to sexually abuse children a perk of their jobs.

Federal Courts Try To Stop Judge-Shopping.  Probably won’t work, but at least someone realizes there’s a problem:

The Judicial Conference, the policymaking body for federal courts, announced Tuesday that it would take action against the judge-shopping that has let right-wing litigants funnel cases to friendly, often Donald Trump-appointed judges.

“The policy addresses all civil actions that seek to bar or mandate state or federal actions, ‘whether by declaratory judgment and/or any form of injunctive relief,’” the conference said in a press release. “In such cases, judges would be assigned through a district-wide random selection process.”

It will apply to “cases involving state or federal laws, rules, regulations, policies, or executive branch orders.”

For the past few years, those who want to challenge Biden administration policies have often sought out divisions with one or two ideologically-aligned judges, all but guaranteeing their desired outcome. Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Amarillo, most infamous for his ruling against the abortion drug mifepristone, has become the poster boy for this practice.

Kacsmaryk and his (wait for it) ilk have worsened the problem with their willingness to hand down nationwide relief, rather than narrowing it to the plaintiffs before them. This dynamic vests one district judge with enormous power to dictate federal authority, shutting down policies irksome to right-wing plaintiffs as the cases work their way through the courts.

Of course, there’s a problem:

The Judicial Conference usually puts out recommendations for lower courts to follow; some experts were unsure whether it has the authority to enforce something more binding.

“The real question is whether the statutes authorize the Judicial Conference itself to promulgate this rule, as distinguished from recommending to the judicial councils of the circuits that they promulgate a rule,” Arthur Hellman, a professor emeritus and expert in federal courts at the University of Pittsburgh’s school of law, told TPM.

Other experts think the Conference can promulgate its own policy, but worry about how aggressively it’ll be enforced. Shanor and Alice Clapman, senior counsel in the Brennan Center’s Voting Rights Program, have put forward their own proposal for a more ironclad and enforceable new federal rule to the Judicial Conference’s Rules Committee, which is still pending.

I’m not holding my breath.

VP Candidate–And Starting QB For The NYJets?  RFK Jr. is said to be mulling Aaron Rodgers as his choice for Veep.  That should wrap up the anti-vaxxer vote:

Since Rodgers shares a love of conspiracy theories and hatred of vaccines with Kennedy, it might seem a match, but it remains to be seen whether he could actually run for office while tossing passes for the New York Jets, according to The Athletic.

If Rodgers decides he’d rather be VP than QB, the Jets might have grounds to get back some of the money they owe him.

The Athletic didn’t mention it, but it’s possible a Rodgers run for higher office could force the networks showing NFL games and the Pat McAfee Show, where Rodgers does a weekly guest spot during the football season (of course he does), to offer equal time to Vice President Kamala Harris or whoever Donald Trump picks as his running mate.