Without much notice or debate, Maryland officials ordered the removal of the statue of Chief Justice Roger B. Taney due to his authorship of the Dredd Scott decision. At midnight, workers quietly dismantled the statue in response to the violence in Charlottesville. Taney’s statue stood for 145 years on the Maryland State House and his removal follows calls for the removal of statues not simply of confederate figures but founders like George Washington and others associated with either slavery or segregation. I have cautioned against the wholesale removal of historical images and monuments and names at universities. The flaws and failures of historical figures are often as more important than their triumphs. The Taney removal reflects a widening array of figures who are now subject to call for removal — beyond confederate statuary. It is not clear what Maryland will do with the US Coast Guard Cutter Taney which currently is part of the Baltimore Maritime Museum. It is last surviving active ship from the Pearl Harbor attack of December 7, 1941. I have spent nights on the Taney with the Cub Scouts. While this is not on state lands, it is not clear if there will also be a demand that the ship be removed given its namesake or how far this movement to remove historical references will do.
Category: Politics
In a move that frankly reads like it came out of The Onion, ESPN pulled its sportscaster Robert Lee in coverage of University of Virginia football game — because his name is the same as the Confederate general. The company believed that having a sportscaster named Lee for a Virginia game could be painful for some after the protests in Charlottesville. It does not matter that the sportscaster is Asian or that such an association is facially absurd.
Protesters are mounting a widening movement against statues to historical figures across the country. What began with protests of confederate statues after the Charlottesville protests has expanded to include Supreme Court justices, presidents, founders, and now explorer Christopher Columbus. In Detroit, protesters gathered around the Columbus statue to demand removal as a symbol of “white supremacy.” In Baltimore, the Columbus statue was vandalized.
Continue reading “Columbus Statues Protested In Detroit And Damaged In Baltimore”
The push to remove confederate statues has been spreading across the country after the protests in Charlottesville, Virginia. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and other leading Democrats have been making the removal of such statues a priority issue. Pelosi has called for statues to be removed in the Capitol even though those statues were there when she was Speaker of the House of Representatives. A Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll, however, has found that 54 percent of adults said Confederate monuments “should remain in all public spaces.” Only 27 percent said they “should be removed from all public spaces” while 19 percent had no opinion.
Continue reading “Poll: Majority Of Americans Oppose Removal Of Confederate Statues”
Below is my column in the Hill Newspaper on the call for the removal of the statue of George Washington in my hometown of Chicago. This is not the first such call to remove statues of confederate figures or those who supported segregation. The most recent such removal was the removal of the statue of Chief Justice Roger B. Taney due to his authorship of the Dredd Scott decision. There have been demands that monuments and the names of slave-owning founders be removed.
Here is the column: Continue reading “GEORGE WASHINGTON AND THE CALL FOR THE REMOVAL OF STATUES OF SLAVE-OWNING FOUNDERS”
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
There are some cases where probable cause is questioned and there are a few others that leave me shaking my head in disbelief of how ridiculous some officers can be.
The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals recently handed down a stinging rebuke of the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office and its deputies some of whom, Plaintiffs claim, lied about a field test of a suspected Marijuana product, finding evidence of marijuana grow derived from purchasing tools at a gardening retailer somehow established probable cause sufficient to send in a SWAT team to execute a search warrant and detain a couple for several hours.
The leafy green vegetable matter in question was not marijuana but tea leaves.
It is a classic example of department officials promising to make a publicity garnering drug sweep and when arrests are not made, someone must be sent to jail at all costs. And as can often be the case with such maligned efforts the end result was a civil rights lawsuit in federal court.
Below is my column in USA Today on a troubling warrant issued by the Justice Department to force the disclosure of visitors to an anti-Trump site. The DisruptJ20 case raises very serious questions regarding political speech and associational rights.
Here is the column:
The California State Senate is considering a bill that would make it a crime to “willfully and repeatedly” refuse “to use a transgender resident’s preferred name or pronouns” in a public health, retirement or housing institution. State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) has introduced SB 219 with a variety of transgender protections but the pronoun controversy is likely to get the most attention. Violators face a year in jail and a potential $1000 fine. The criminalization of pronoun misuse however could raise serious free speech and other constitutional concerns.
There are now four protesters arrested for the destruction of a roughly century-old statue of a Confederate soldier in North Carolina. The bold act of property destruction was carried out in front of news cameras in broad daylight. As a history nut, it is painful to see old works of art destroyed in this fashion. The arrested include Takiyah Thompson, 22, Dante Strobino, 35, Ngoc Loan Tran, 24, and Peter Gilbert, 39.
Continue reading “Four Arrested In Destruction Of Confederate Statue In North Carolina”
Below is my column in The Hill on the calls for hate crime and terrorism charges against James Fields and possibly others. The response is understandable, but the expansion of these laws raise serious free speech concerns that should be considered before prosecutors move beyond the current murder charge.
A web host called “DreamHost” has gone to court to challenge a demand from the Trump Administration for information on more than 1 million visitors to an anti-Trump website. The demand would covered 1.3 million IP addresses and raises highly troubling free speech and associational concerns. At a minimum, the demand appears wildly too broad and could easily chill political speech for those who oppose this Administration.
I previously was highly critical of President Donald Trump for his reposting a video from his appearance at a professional wrestling bout that was altered to look like he was beating down CNN. With the rising anger and attacks directed at the media, the posting was irresponsible and inflammatory. While I have criticized some in the media for open bias in its attacks on Trump, I have been alarmed by his attacks on the press. Undeterred, Trump again reposted an item this morning that featured a cartoon of CNN being hit by a train. Some people have said that this is outrageous after the car attack in Charlottesville. I think the objection should be directed at the pattern of images of press being beaten or run down by this President. The free press has helped guarantee civil liberties and good government in this country for over two hundred years. Unlike much of the world, we have an independent media that is a constant check on the abuses and corruptions of government. Trump’s open antagonism for the press is alarming and at times reckless.
Continue reading “Train Wreck: Trump Reposts Another Image Attacking CNN”
45 is now at 34. President Donald Trump has hit a new low in popularity according to the Gallup poll. Gallup’s latest poll is 34 percent with a disapproval rate at a staggering 61 percent. Yet, there is no indication of any change in the President’s continued use of Twitter or his unscripted comments like the damaging comments on Venezuela that led Maduro critics to denounce the United States. The concern among GOP members and operatives is that Trump is being given tailored news in a daily positive portfolio. Yet, he is also an avid news watcher so he clearly can see the continued decline in support not just among the public but GOP members.
Below is my column in the Hill newspaper on the most recent suggested crime committed by President Donald Trump or his family. This allegation focuses on a greeting sent through President Trump’s attorney, John Dowd, to Special Counsel Robert Mueller. It appears that Trump is obstructing if he voices criticism or appreciation of Mueller. Dowd was in the news again yesterday in taking it upon himself to object to pre-dawn raid on the home of Paul Manafort.
Here is the column:
Buried in a new article out of Bloomberg is an understated but potentially significant statement: “In fact, Manafort had alerted authorities to a controversial meeting on June 9, 2016, involving Trump’s son Donald Jr., other campaign representatives and a Russian lawyer promising damaging information on Hillary Clinton, according to people familiar with the matter.” That would be a huge development in this controversy if true, particularly if the notice occurred before the Russian meeting occurred.
Continue reading “Bloomberg: Manafort Alerted Authorities About Russian Meeting”