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This week marks the second year since George Floyd was murdered by a police officer kneeling on his neck as the public gathered, filmed and begged the officer to stop.
This week, the Justice Department is issuing a directive for federal agents to act when they witness things like this in public, The Washington Post reported Monday evening.
Attorney General Merrick Garland changed existing rules about any law enforcement under the DOJ to intervene if they witness use of excessive force or mistreating people in custody. The directive was posted on their website Monday.
“It is the policy of the Department of Justice to value and preserve human life,” Garland wrote in a four-page memo. “Officers may use only the force that is objectively reasonable to effectively gain control of an incident, while protecting the safety of the officer and others.”
It's the first time the DOJ has changed the use-of-force policy in 18 years. Officers must “recognize and act upon the affirmative duty to intervene to prevent or stop, as appropriate, any officer from engaging in excessive force or any other use of force that violates the Constitution, other federal laws or department policies on the reasonable use of force.”
It will apply to U.S. Marshals, the FBI, DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration), the Federal Bureau of Prisons and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The DOJ can't make requirements to local law enforcement, that would take an act of Congress to stop police violence.
Read the full report at The Washington Post.
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Maddow chides Republicans for avoiding Jared Kushner's self-dealing allegations while attacking Hunter Biden
May 23, 2022
The final segment of MSNBC host Rachel Maddow on Monday evening was about the recent report in the New York Times that Jared Kushner and former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin spent an unusual amount of time in the Persian Gulf over the course of just four years in Trump's office.
Maddow showed photos of the past three secretaries of the U.S. Treasury Department and noted that among the three, which held the positions over Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Collectively, those men went to the Persian Gulf states a total of eight times over ten years. Mnuchin, by contrast, over four years went to the Gulf states at least 18 times, and that doesn't count informal meetings with Gulf state leaders while they were in the U.S.
Both Mnuchin and Kushner, who went to the Middle East fewer than a dozen times, both started investment firms with significant contributions from those same countries. Meanwhile, Kushner made at least three trips to Saudi Arabia during the first year of the Trump administration. One of Kushner’s trips was actually kept secret. Kushner scored $2 billion from the Saudis, even after investors told them it wasn't a good idea.
These trips, among other things, are raising ethics questions about the two gentlemen's self-dealing while working for the White House and on the tax-payer dime. It's unknown the degree to which Kushner and Mnuchin were using their positions in the U.S. government to ensure they have a plan for a post-White House money-making scheme.
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These questions surface amid allegations from Republicans that Hunter Biden used his father's name, which he shares, to get a paid position on boards. Hunter Biden, however, has never worked in government, the White House, the Vice President's office, or for his father's U.S. Senate office. Trump welcomed his family into the White House as advisers despite nepotism laws.
Ali Velshi, who was filling in for Lawrence O'Donnell on Monday, told Maddow that cases about Kushner and Mnuchin are difficult to prove.
"The stench thing, you know, there used to be a day when that kind of stuff just led to shame?" Velshi asked. "It certainly kept you out of political life later. But that's not there anymore either. Whether you can prove or not prove quid pro quo, that — absence of the revolving door that you described is compelling."
"Well, the shame issue here, I think is compelling, Ali, because obviously, the Republicans, particularly Trump partisans, are aware that it is shameful to use government service or family connection to government service, to make a private gain for yourself, and have private business gain," said Maddow. "Because they use this as a way to try to attack President Biden's family, for example, all the time. They know that this is something that is shameful and terrible, and that nobody should ever want to do, and they try to pin all sorts of stuff with that kind of a category on all sorts of Democrats. They know it's wrong. But when they do it, they're assuming that if we bring it up, that their shame isn't operable."
"It's a strange phenomenon," Velshi noted.
See the exchange below or at this link.
Hunter Biden never served in government -- but Jared Kushner certainly did youtu.be
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'You're the liar!' Crowd gets involved as Trump candidate clashes with Republican congresswoman
May 23, 2022
The only debate between Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) and Katie Arrington, who has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump. Arrington previously lost the race when running against Rep. Joe Cunningham (D-SC), took place on Monday night, noted the Washington Examiner.
Arrington attacked Mace saying that she turned her back on Donald Trump after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol when his supporters tried to stop the 2020 election certification. Mace then voted to impeach Trump for his involvement in the attempt to overthrow the government.
"She read the room wrong. She thought this district was a moderate district, and we are not," said Arrington.
Mace alleged that while working at the Pentagon, Arrington disclosed classified information.
"Everything she said is a lie," Arrington said.
"You're the liar," a member of the crowd shouted.
"I've got the receipts," Mace said simply.
READ: Stacey Abrams responds to racist Perdue comments by taking the high road -- and focusing on issues
Arrington spoke about critical race theory and taking books away from schools. She talked about the "transgender agenda" and went on to call for the Department of Education to be abolished.
Mace, by contrast, noted that she was the only one who could defeat a Democrat in 2020, when Arrington couldn't make it the first time she ran.
"Her platform ... is almost a Democrat's platform," Arrington complained. "You can say you're a fiscal conservative, but then you act like a liberal or a RINO. And that is not what we need in this district."
The primary elections are June 14.
See the full debate below or at this link.
ABC News 4 hosts debate between Republican candidates for the 1st Congressional District www.youtube.com
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