How could those cops in Memphis have been so vicious AND so stupid?

The seeming intractability of police violence

To read this issue in your browser, click on the headline above.

1-31-23

Eric Zorn is a former opinion columnist for the Chicago Tribune. Find a longer bio and contact information here. This issue exceeds in size the maximum length for a standard email. To read the entire issue in your browser, click on the headline link above. Become a paid subscriber to receive each Picayune Plus in your email each Tuesday.

What were those Memphis cops thinking?

I understood what Los Angeles police officers were thinking in March 1991 when they whaled on Rodney King: That goofball tried to escape from us. Now we’ve caught him and will beat the tar out of him for daring to disobey the law. No one will see us, and if anyone complains it’ll be our word against theirs, and we are cops!

That was before nearly everyone carried video cameras around in their pockets. Before many officers were required to wear body cameras and operate dashboard cameras. Before doorbell cameras and other stationary private and public surveillance cameras recorded activities on city streets. Before countless violent police officers were disciplined, fired or imprisoned for excessive uses of force.

It was their bad luck that George Holliday, a citizen living in a nearby apartment, owned one of those bulky camcorders and decided to film King’s beating from his balcony.

But it was not bad luck that police in Memphis were video recorded from several angles Jan. 7 while administering a fatal beating to Tyre Nichols. It was inevitable.

Nevertheless. After years of police reform efforts in the wake of the Rodney King incident and after repeated explosions of anger over police violence and the national protests over the murder of George Floyd in 2020, these officers showed little hesitation or compunction when gratuitously and fatally brutalizing Nichols for the sin of running away after a traffic stop.

How do you “reform” those with such awful judgment, violent tendencies and non-existent impulse control? How do you weed out those who are heedlessly depraved?

That’s probably a better question than “What were they thinking?” because they clearly weren’t thinking at all.

Hope you had a happy Jussieversary!

It was four years ago last Sunday that TV actor Jussie Smollett faked a hate crime against himself, and the goofball is still in the news.

Thursday, the Sun-Times reported that, for fifth time, Jussie Smollett’s lawyers have asked for more time to file a brief appealing his conviction for staging a fake hate crime:

Last week, Smollett’s attorneys asked the (1st District Court of Appeals) to allow an 80-page brief, which they argued was necessary because their appeal involves not only the case that Smollett was convicted on, but also a previous case that was brought against the actor after the 2019 hoax first came to light.

Smollett was first indicted in 2019, but in a stunning reversal, State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s office dropped all charges against Smollett in consideration of community service and his agreement to turn over the $10,000 he had posted for bond to the city of Chicago. The deal did not require him to admit any wrongdoing.

Months later, Special Prosecutor Dan Webb was appointed by a Cook County judge to review the state’s attorney’s office’s decision, which led to Smollett being indicted again on new charges the following year.

Following an eight-day trial in December 2021, a jury convicted Smollett of five counts of felony disorderly conduct. Judge James Linn sentenced the actor to five months in jail. The sentencing hearing last March ended with the actor yelling that he was not suicidal before being led from the courtroom by sheriff’s deputies.

Smollett only served six days in the Cook County Jail before he was released on his own recognizance pending appeal. He will be required to go back and serve the rest of his time if his conviction is not overturned.

I’ll let the courts rule on the legal merits of this appeal, but career-wise, Smollett is once again ignoring the First Rule of Holes — "if you find yourself in a hole, stop digging”— as he strives to undo the incredibly stupid mistake he made four years ago.

Had he just fessed up, apologized and paid a fine, most of us wouldn’t even remember his name. But now he’s still in the headlines and for all the wrong reasons, putting off the day when he can begin rehabilitating his image and resuscitating his career.

Notes and comments from readers —lightly edited —- along with my responses

Michael G. — Why do any number of media outlets keep referring to Jesus "Chuy" Garcia or putting Chuy in quotes. If that’s a good idea, why not Michael "Mike" Madigan, Edward "Ed" Burke, or Jay Robert "J.B." Pritzker?

Chuy is a very common Mexican nickname for men named Jesus. And it no more (or certainly no longer) belongs in quotes any more than the examples you give. It’s a weird custom that carries with it the vague suggestion that there's something odd or frivolous about the name. Curiously, most publications have not gotten in the habit of taking the periods out of “JB,” as the governor prefers. (The B evidently stands for “Bob,” a nickname for Robert, so maybe it should be Jay Robert “J.R. ‘B.’” Pritzker.)

Anne K. — I agree 100 percent with your analysis on the mayor's race. I think it is finally Paul Vallas' time. I doubt Lori will make it to a runoff. I do not think she has much support in the Black community at this time. Most people I know are still undecided but all say "anyone but Lori," and these are all people who supported her the last time. 

John F. — As a Chicago resident who voted for Lightfoot last election I assure you I won't vote for her again. Kam Buckner's two DUI arrests are a nonstarter for me, and Brandon Johnson's tax plan will drive more people and businesses out of the city, costing more revenue than it will generate. Willie Wilson is a decent and generous person, but he is not ready to lead. The rest of the field does not seem to have traction. The choices I see are either Garcia or Vallas. 

Jerry F. — I’m surprised at your shift. Paul Vallas, your candidate, failed running the schools in Chicago, Philadelphia and New Orleans. He turned Lane Tech and Chicago Vocational into college preps and took away vocational classes that would have offered a golden opportunity for average students to enter high-paying jobs in manufacturing. Brandon Johnson is supported by the teachers union and promises to raise the union and teacher standards.

Ted M. — Your switch to Vallas is wise. Though he lacks charisma or charm, he is a walking calculator who inhales spreadsheets and exhales more efficient choices for allocating Chicago's tax dollars according to need, which seem never to equal the many needs. In that respect, he's a veritable Dr. Spock. Sentiment and special interests are ignored. He identifies the biggest bang for the buck, for productive, efficient choices, and commits for it. What good is charisma without enlightened investment of scarce resources? 

But note how few votes he got last time he ran. He now has the cop vote sewn up, and maybe that of the firemen. But someone else has already grabbed the teachers' union vote. 

His trouble is his strategists seem to think they can win without the minority vote. None of his ads so far pay subtle homage to other than white Chicago, which, sentiment aside, is only one third of the total, though it may be leading the pack in total votes cast. That strategy seems lopsided, hence unwise, unless he figures the many minority candidates will split the vote so badly that his targeted preference can carry the day. Non-political in a political city that votes tribally? That seems his only way his signaling so far can pay off. Otherwise, he seems to be swimming upstream, oblivious, as if it were still 1980. 

Maybe inclusivity of appeal is yet to blossom? So far, he has not gone public with any show of it, and the closer we get to election time, the more an outreach shall seem a desperate move. Inviting minority support would not alienate the white vote, so his apparent strategy seems flawed, except for the one possibility mentioned above. 

Unfortunately, most voters vote emotionally, rather than calculatedly according to objectively ranked needs for government spending. Most past city budgets are rife with spending that placates constituencies, right or wrong. Too often wasteful. We need two terms of Vallas' spending choices to really appreciate the value of his objectivity, for better or for worse. To my knowledge, he owes no constituency so far, except maybe the police union. But with petty crime rampant, that could produce a good outcome unless there is minority community backlash over being ignored as groups. We are a balkanized electorate, an inherited reality hazardous to ignore.

To be clear, I have not shifted or switched to Vallas in terms of political support. My observation was only that he appears to have traction not just in the polls but in conversations I’ve had in the past few weeks with disillusioned former Lightfoot supporters. My prediction that Vallas’ relentless focus on crime will win him a spot in the top two and put in a runoff with Democratic U.S. Rep. Chuy Garcia is not an endorsement but an educated guess.

In fact I have serious qualms about Vallas’ interest in privatizing public education, which is well summarized in Who is Paul Vallas and why is he coming to Madison? Behind that affable nerd is an ideologue. I’m surprised that his opponents haven’t accordingly raised this more strongly as an issue.

Lightfoot’s indignation about Vallas’ failure to quickly trumpet objections to the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision undoing Roe v. Wade is petty sniping given that Vallas is avowedly pro abortion rights and the mayor of Chicago has almost nothing to do with setting abortion policies. Mayors are, however, deeply involved in public education policy.

Ted’s observation that Vallas is not trying to reach across racial lines is gainsaid by the video at the top of his campaign website, which heavily features citizens and law enforcement personnel of color.

Maria C. — Your item on the price of stamps made me smile at the end when you wrote that it took 13 years for the Post Office to act on the idea of “Forever" stamps. I had a similar experience.

I was a volunteer for the Chicago Marathon from 1996 to 2019, supervising students in the Massage Therapy Tent. Every year after the start of the race, the streets and curbs behind the starting line would be heaped with the runners' discarded clothing: hats, gloves, sweatshirts, jackets, and pants. Most of these items were in good condition or brand-new, and they remained on the street until sanitation workers collected them as trash. My students and I would gather as many of these items as possible before they ended up in the garbage, and we used those items in the Massage Tent to warm up the runners who exhibited signs of hypothermia. (Those ridiculous Mylar 'blankets' provided by Marathon organizers are no match for the winds coming off the lake in Grant Park, where the finish line is.)

After each Marathon, the organizers would send us post-race surveys asking about our experiences. Every single time, I would mention the mountains of cast-off clothing, and I urged Marathon organizers to gather the discarded items and offer them to shelters. Finally, in 2012, the Marathon announced that it would collect these items and donate them.

It took 17 years for them to act on my suggestion, but the important thing is, now others will benefit.

482 votes

Dave B. — Regarding the Ticketmaster issue, dynamic pricing — in which artists charge often astronomical market prices for tickets, — makes the problem worse by pricing out most fans. Witness the debacle in which tickets to Bruce Springsteen shows were listing for in excess of $5,000. The only solution is a ban on online sales and a return to in person sales with a four-ticket limit.

We’re never going to put the genie of online ticketing back in the bottle. The convenience for nearly all concerned is too great. Ultimately, market-pricing tickets is the best way to properly compensate artists and take the profit out of scalping. I thought John Williams at WGN-AM framed it well when he referred to primo concert tickets as luxury items. People of average means can’t generally afford luxury items and don’t expect to, say, drive Maseratis, own paintings by Jean-Michel Basquiat or fly business-class to Europe. So why should they expect to occupy seats at concerts that are worth $5,000?

Fan backlash might well diminish the market price of concert seats, and artists will have to adjust, perhaps by playing multiple dates in every city. In fact it is a bit baffling that these major touring acts don’t take up residency for a week or two at a time in particular cities. If Taylor Swift were playing two weeks’ of shows in Chicago, demand for tickets would diminish enough that the dynamic price might actually be reasonable.

Barbara H. — Regarding your contention that it’s time to stop using the word “actress” and having separate awards categories for male and female actors, I say we keep them otherwise the guys would get it all.

Bruce L . — This is why the Right rails against the “woke” left!!!… and yes, they have a point on this one/ Are we still allowed to say “waitress”? Or are they all “waiters” (or “food serving specialists”)?

You can call them whatever you want. Most of us prefer “servers” or “wait-staff”

Gail B. — I like your suggestion of dividing the categories by comedy and drama rather than gender.

Gail C. — Bridge tournaments have events for men's pairs, women's pairs, and mixed pairs. Having more possibilities for awards means a good experience for more people, not that one alignment of two players is better than the other two alignments.

If bridge tournaments want to hand out more awards, they should divide teams up by age or height or birth month or some other arbitrary dividing line that has nothing to do with inherent bridge-playing ability. Dividing by sex is as borderline offensive as dividing by race would be.

397 votes

Ya gotta see these tweets!

I often run across tweets that rely on visual humor and so can’t be included in the Tweet of the Week contest (the template I use for that poll does not allow me to include images). Here are a few good ones I’ve come across recently:

Vote for your favorite. I’ll share the winner in Thursday’s main edition.

There’s still time to vote in the conventional Tweet of the Week poll where “meager provisions” is doing terribly. Also look for the special Dad tweets poll where the race at the top is very tight!

Thank you for supporting the Picayune Sentinel. To help this publication grow, please consider spreading the word to friends, family, associates, neighbors and agreeable strangers.

.