Get Off My Lawn: News Miner 30
Club Q, the police killing of Christian Glass, the yard police and low-water yards, red flag laws, and more.
Jeet Heer on Club Q
Jeet Heer writes for the Nation:
The rhetoric on the right called to mind the lynching culture of the late 19th and early 20th century. The victims were blamed for their own deaths and injuries, with repeated suggestions that the very existence of gay and trans people in public spaces is the provocation that caused the crimes.
To make his case he merely quotes some prominent conservatives, starting with Jenna Ellis:
People killed in the nightclub that night, there is no evidence that they were Christians. Assuming they have not accepted the truth, affirmed Christ as the lord of their life they are now reaping the consequences of eternal damnation.
Matt Walsh said:
According to the left, the drag queen-child combination has become dangerous. They say it’s a ‘lightning rod’ for violent backlash. But even by their version of events, if it’s causing this much chaos and violence, why do you insist on continuing to do it? If according to you, it’s like putting people’s lives at risk, if the effort to have men cross-dress in front of children is putting people’s lives at risk, why are you still doing it? Is it that important to you?
Jaimee Michell told Tucker Carlson:
The tragedy that happened in Colorado Springs the other night was expected and predictable. We all within Gays Against Groomers saw this coming from a mile away. And sadly, I don’t think it’s gonna stop until we end this evil agenda that is attacking children.
Heer concludes, “The right is trying to create a new lynching culture, with LGBTQ people as the target.” He aims too broadly with “the right,” but clearly his remarks accurately describe some religious conservatives.
My question is, why have so many Republicans embraced such obviously morally depraved individuals?
The Police Killing of Christian Glass
Elise Schmelzer reports for the Denver Post:
Deputy Andrew Buen faces charges of second-degree murder, official misconduct and reckless endangerment for shooting [Christian] Glass. Sgt. Kyle Gould faces charges of criminally negligent homicide and reckless endangerment for deciding to pull Glass from his vehicle.
This is per a grand jury indictment.
The charges mesh with my initial impression of the case. Here’s what I wrote in September:
If you have the stomach for it, you can watch the body camera video of the killing. Here’s how I see it. Glass clearly was “off” somehow. He seemed to be paranoid that the police were out to get him—which is devastatingly ironic. In a craven act of sociopathic cruelty, officers violently and needlessly assaulted the man. They smashed out his car window, shot him with beanbags, and tazed him.
Terrified and brutalized, Glass, still sitting in the front seat of his car, held a knife and writhed around in a pointless attempt at self-defense. Rather than just back away to a safe distance, officers instead pressed forward. One deputy, as he stood directly over the man on the hood of his car, shot five rounds at the man, killing him. I don’t see how any reasonable person could watch that video and conclude anything other than that multiple officers violently assaulted the man and that a deputy murdered him.
Yard Police
Complete Colorado published my new column on low-water yards. Here is a section:
Although I’m not overly fond of dandelions in the yard (Ray Bradbury’s story about dandelion wine notwithstanding), I’d hardly call them noxious or offensive. As my son points out, you can eat them (and he does). Dandelions too draw in various pollinators. I think they’re pretty. Anyway, is that really something city governments need to fight people over? As Radley Balko points out in the context of Nashville, such petty city codes can become a tool of racism and oppression.
At the same time, other cities such as Aurora are restricting Kentucky Bluegrass. That’s not the way to go either. If people want to pay to water and maintain such grass, what business is that of city officials? If the problem is a water shortage, the simple answer is to use pricing to encourage economic use. Market pricing beats command-and-control approaches.
I understand the need to control truly noxious weeds. Beyond some essential, commonsense guardrails, though, the basic attitude that Coloradans should maintain toward bureaucrats and elected officials is this: Get off my lawn.
Red Flag
The Colorado Sun sets up the story:
The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office has never used Colorado’s 2019 red flag law to ask a judge to temporarily order the seizure of firearms from a person deemed a significant risk to themselves or others.
That includes last year, when it arrested the accused Club Q shooter on felony menacing and kidnapping charges in a case that was later dropped.
However, the story continues (much later), “It’s unclear whether an ERPO could have been used in Aldrich’s case.” Also, an initial order lasts for a year.
George Brauchler sees “an absence of any evidence that an extreme risk (red flag) protection order (ERPO) was appropriate, obtainable or would have prevented the mass murder at Club Q in Colorado Spring.” Also, Brauchler notes, a red-flag order does not prevent the person flagged from obtaining guns through illegal means.
Reason’s Jacob Sullum also is skeptical that a red-flag order would have done any good in this case.
Still, common sense suggests that authorities probably could have pursued and extended a red-flag order based on the 2019 incident, if they had been inclined to do so.
Andrew Kenney offers additional background.
Jared Polis suggested that the legislature might seek to expand the red-flag law:
What-what I think we're going to look at in Colorado is potentially expanding that [red-flag law], for instance, so DAs can also seek extreme risk protection orders. We also need to make sure that we publicize the law and make sure that the tools are in people's hands when they need it to remove dangerous weapons that could be used for self harm or harming others from somebody who's in a mental health crisis.
He also suggested he may be open to some other gun laws too: “Do we need better laws on-on ghost guns? Do we need to make sure that we have a better process around semi-automatic weapons?”
Quick Takes—Club Q
Hero: Thomas James, one of the people who helped stop the murderer, issued a statement.
Unarmed Resistance: As we’ve seen again at Club Q, unarmed people sometimes can stop an armed attacker. See my 2015 essay and my 2018 Colorado Sun column.
Parents: The suspect’s father “pleaded guilty in 1999 to a misdemeanor domestic battery charge and received a suspended sentence,” CNN reports. When told of his son’s murder spree, he said, “Well, shit, there’s no excuse for doing that, but I’m just glad he’s not gay.” The suspect’s mother hurled racial slurs at other passengers at an airport. She apparently has substantial mental health problems.
Nicolais: Mario Nicolais reviews the troubled early life of the perpetrator of the Club Q murders.
Carroll: Terrance Carroll offers his thoughts on Club Q murders.
Speaking Out: Elizabeth Hernandez interviewed several transgender people.
Quick Takes—Colorado
School Standards: A more left-leaning state school board put more left-leaning goals in the social studies standards. Pam Benigno is worried about this. I’m not worried, partly because I think the standards have very little impact on what’s actually taught in classrooms.
Electric Cars: Sales are starting to take off in Colorado as more models become available. “Battery-powered vehicles’ market share surged to 9.6% of new sales in the state during the first nine months of the year, according to the Colorado Automobile Dealers Association’s third-quarter report,” John Murray reports.
Spoilers: Jon Caldara writes of the possibility that Libertarian candidates “spoiled” races for some Republicans. Sherrie Peif also wrote about that. So did I.
More Ellis: Jenna Ellis also promoted a ridiculous conspiracy fantasy that some food companies are using human fetuses as “flavor enhancers.”
Oltmann: Joe Oltmann, the conspiracy monger from Colorado, showed up in Arizona to rail against Dominion voting machines, Covid “gaslighting,” and “gender fluidity.”
Marshall: Bob Marshall won a house seat as a Democrat in Douglas County, writes Craig Silverman. In related matters, see my article, “The Case for Liberty Activists Joining the Democrats.”
Bottoms: Scott Bottoms, a pastor at Briargate church and now a representative-elect, recently called transgender people “pedophiles” and suggested he would “take them out.” See more on Bottoms from Heidi Beedle.
Sculptures: Recently my family visited the impressive sculpture garden in Loveland near I-25 featuring dozens of works from Zimbabwe artists. The one shown here is “Village Beauty” by Gregory Mutasa.
Quick Takes—General
Musk: Michael Huemer argues, “Elon Musk Is Better Than You.” The idea is that Musk has done a lot of good in the world. This is compatible with critics saying he’s made a lot of questionable decisions of late.
Marx: Fabio Rojas reviews the thesis of Phil Magness and Michael Makovi that Marx’s outsized academic influence is due largely to the Bolshevik Revolution. Stephen Hicks makes the interesting point that Marx’s ideologically driven success undermines Marx’s materialist determinism.
Libertarian: The Libertarian Party Tweeted, “The American regime is a far greater threat to your liberty than China is.” Matt Zwolinski replied, “Wonder what they would have said about Germany in 1941?” He also Tweeted, “Libertarianism has always been a universalist creed, holding that all people everywhere are entitled to equal liberty.”