"Kenosha Effect"=Riots Impact Voting, AL Cop Murders Guy So He Doesn't Commit Suicide, Restaurants/Bars DID NOT Spread COVID, End of Daylight Savings Time Forever? (The Five for 05/18/21)
Hey, welcome to The Five.
The only news outlet in existence to cover…riots…daylight savings time…and olive oil?!
Let’s dive in.
[one]
As I’ve stated previously, diving into Presidential politics is rare for The Five, only because so many other outlets are (over) doing it.
However, this is a fascinating story from the stats website Political Kiwi that makes a strong case for the protests in the summer of 2020 turning traditional Democrat voters away from Biden and towards Trump, particularly in Kenosha.
After violence (driven largely by out-of-towners) Trump was quick to visit the city in Southeast Wisconsin, while Biden was largely silent on the unrest.
If the protesting in Kenosha was a stand-alone event, we could be forgiven for dismissing its importance. After all, it’s just a few thousand votes. But given the widespread protesting and rioting that America saw for weeks during 2020, it is incredibly important that we understand what happened in Kenosha so that we can try to extrapolate it nationwide. People will argue for years about whether BLM nearly cost Biden the election, but Kenosha offers us a rare opportunity to try and answer that question without relying on potentially flawed polling data. Trying to draw a conclusion about a possible counterfactual where George Floyd isn’t killed and all of these events don’t come to pass is a fool’s errand, but given the electoral outcome of the unrest in Kenosha (plus the available polling data) I think it is reasonable to conclude that Biden might’ve done a point or two better in vote margin nationwide had it not been for the Black Lives Matter protests.
Lest you think I’m turning this into a straight party line issue, I’ll add the context that I volunteered for (Democrat) Mayor John Antaramian and maintained a working relationship after Mayor John took office (he helped me get a $10,000 grant for a local nonprofit).
However, when Mayor John requested the National Guard, (Democrat) Governor Tony Evers initially denied the request, which helped contribute to $50 million in damages to private property.
While I’m certainly a right-leaning voter, I know good leadership when I see it, which is why Mayor John’s campaign was one of the only times in my adult life I’ve volunteered in politics.
But the average person who lived through the Kenosha riots doesn’t remember a Democrat (John) tried to save the city, just the Democrat (Evers) who denied the troops that could have saved their homes and businesses and kept a 71-year-old-man from being beaten within an inch of his life.
Which is the rare event that will turn a true blue voter deep red.
Is this an isolated incident, or a trend that will impact national politics going forward?
That answer likely hinges on how many riots we experience going forward, and whether the violence is shut down or allowed to run rampant.
[two]
A police officer in Alabama who shot and killed a suicidal man who was holding a gun to his own head will continue to draw his pay from the city of Huntsville.
An Alabama police officer convicted of murder for shooting a suicidal man who was holding a gun to his own head has been taken off duty but will continue to be paid, the city of Huntsville said.
Officer William Darby, who was initially placed on desk duty following the killing of Jeffrey Parker in 2018, can't continue working as an officer because of the conviction and went on leave Monday, city spokeswoman Lucy DeButy told news outlets.
"This is the normal process until formal proceedings under the City of Huntsville’s personnel policies and procedures are complete,” she said in a statement. Darby was freed on $100,000 bond soon after the verdict on Friday.
While Mayor Tommy Battle, a Republican, and Police Chief Mark McMurray have disagreed publicly with the jurors' decision, Alabama Democratic Party executive director Wade Perry criticized the city's move to keep paying Darby.
“He’s a convicted murderer. He shouldn’t get another day’s pay. Fire him. And the police chief,” Perry said in a statement.
Darby shot Parker, 49, moments after joining two other officers who had responded to a 911 call from the man, who said he was armed and planned to kill himself.
Officer Darby was acquitted by a city review board, then indicted by a county grand jury. The city will pay up to $125,000 to defend Darby.
Observations:
A). If you’re a fan of public sector unions, well, here you go. There are always unintended consequences for any policy, and a city dropping six figures is one of those. So, either you have public sector unions, or you don’t. And if you do, situations like this will happen.
B). No amount of training could have changed Officer Darby. Not shooting a person who’s about to commit suicide is something the average fourth grader could figure out not to do. If you want the Officer Darby types not to get hired, then the applicant pool needs to be wider for policing…and that’s only going to happen with higher salaries.
This is another example of how defunding the police exacerbates issues of bad policing. Bad cops are the issue, and you’re not going to get quality replacements for those who pick up a badge as a power trip by offering lower pay to do more difficult work.
[three]
South Carolina just brought back a rather old school execution method.
USA Today reports:
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster has signed into law a bill that forces death row inmates for now to choose between the electric chair or a newly formed firing squad in hopes the state can restart executions after an involuntary 10-year pause.
South Carolina had been one of the most prolific states of its size in putting inmates to death. But a lack of lethal injection drugs brought executions to a halt.
McMaster signed the bill Friday with no ceremony or fanfare, according to the state Legislature's website. It's the first bill the governor decided to deal with after nearly 50 hit his desk Thursday.
How soon executions can begin is up in the air. The electric chair is ready to use. Prison officials have been doing preliminary research into how firing squads carry out executions in other states, but are not sure how long it will take to have one in place in South Carolina. The other three states that allow a firing squad are Mississippi, Oklahoma and Utah, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
[four]
If you’re looking for who to blame for COVID’s rapid spread, look more to manufacturing than bars, gyms and restaurants, three categories of businesses that were blamed early on in the pandemic.
Bars, gyms and restaurants. Those were just a few settings health experts warned could become hotbeds for COVID-19 spread as states began reopening in the spring and summer of 2020 following the first and second waves of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States.
Yet, public data analyzed by ABC News appears to tell a different story. The data from states across the country suggests specific outbreak settings (including bars, gyms, restaurants, nail salons, barbershops and stores -- for the full list, see graphic below in story) only accounted for a small percentage, if any, of new outbreaks after the pandemic's initial wave in 2020.
While experts believe that mitigation measures such as reduced capacity, gradual reopening and mask wearing contributed to keeping outbreak numbers low, they say more could have been done to push those numbers down further and make testing and tracing more robust.
…Manufacturing and food processing centers appeared to have been among locations with some of the biggest outbreak numbers since states reopened, the data showed.
…Samuel Scarpino, an assistant professor at the Network Science Institute at Northeastern University, has been tracking the public health data throughout the pandemic. He told ABC News that the outbreaks in the factories align with reports that workers were not provided with proper personal protective equipment or allowed to socially distance and denied other protections.
In related news, 110,000 bars and restaurants were driven out of business by government shutdowns, which the data now suggests was completely pointless.
That’s a lot of wrecked lives and shattered dreams of small business owners who lost everything due to bad info on how COVID was spread.
[five]
Alabama Governor Kay Ivey has signed a bill into law to put the state on Daylight Savings Times year round, although the change requires the approval from the U.S. Congress. The bill passed 112-1.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) signed a bill on Thursday that would put Alabama on daylight saving time (DST) year-round — as long as Congress amends a federal law to authorize states to make the change.
The bill received nearly complete support among state legislators. It passed through the Alabama Senate in a unanimous 29-0 vote before passing in the Alabama House last week 93-1.
“You go from March to November, one sort of time and switching to another time, it’s hard for folks to get used to the change,” state Rep. Ritchie Whorton (R), one of the bill’s sponsors, said last week. “A lot of people not used to getting up to the morning, running late and having an accident.”
The practice of changing clocks to take advantage of sunlight began nearly a century ago as an energy-saving measure in Germany during World War I. The United States began adopting the practice shortly after, but there was no national standard until Congress passed the Uniform Time Act of 1966.
The law required states to decide whether to adopt DST, which would be implemented and ended across the country each year on specific days. Full-time adoption of DST was not allowed. Only Arizona and Hawaii decided to use standard time year-round.
Supporters of moving permanently to DST say studies show the benefits of adding more light at the end of the day, including fewer traffic and pedestrian fatalities. More sunshine could also cut back on energy demands and could potentially deter criminals working under the cover of darkness, some experts say.
I have a two-fold strategy for Governor Ivey to impliment this law without the approval of U.S. Congress:
A). Send the following letter. “Dear Congress. Changed the time. Don’t like it? Go to hell. Good talk.”
B). End Spring Forward/Fall Back. Don’t worry about whether or not anyone outside of Alabama likes it.
A bipartisan committee led by Florida Senator Marco Rubio is working to end Spring Forward/Fall back for the entire country…mainly due to the fact that it’s stupid, and also we won WWI, and we’re not gonna win WWI any harder by following this absurd bi-annual clock change.
[epilogue]
Thomas Jefferson is best known as the primary writer who shaped the Declaration of Independence. But when he wasn’t inventing modern democracy, Jefferson spent a great deal of his time and energy as the young nation’s most prominent foodie and wine lover.
Jefferson introduced the U.S. to french fries, champagne, macaroni, waffles, ice cream, olive oil, and Parmesan cheese, and imported thousands of bottles of wine for his the private consumption by himself, his family and guests.
As President, Jefferson threw elaborate dinner parties for politicians of opposing viewpoints, barring any talk of policy until “everyone had cleaned their plates.” (This is a practice the U.S. might do well to re-adopt, in the era of perpetually deadlocked Congress).
At the end of his life, Jefferson counted introducing the U.S. to olive oil as one of his greatest accomplishments.
Until the next one,
-sth