Cops Kill Because We Gave Them The Legal Framework to Do It
Rather than burning and looting, protesters should turn their ire on lawmakers and judges who facilitate police immunity.
George Floyd moments before his death in Minneapolis on Memorial Day (Twitter)
by Jim Bovard
Guest post by BAIDIK BHATTACHARYA We live in strange times. A judge in the country’s Supreme Court believes anyone challenging the government’s decision to impose Aadhar-based surveillance regime is following an “NGO line.” Another judge wonders in the court whether “one nation one identity” is not the necessary path forward.
Inmates from Sacramento County await processing after arriving at the Deuel Vocational Institution in Tracy, Calif. (AP Photo)
KANSAS (Analysis)– For a nation lauding itself as the “land of the free,” the United States certainly maintains a remarkable number of laws criminalizing activities most would consider part of their daily lives. From kids penalized for setting up a lemonade stand to the prohibition of cannabis, seemingly everything Americans do has attached to it a law, license, permit, or regulation, as well as a consequent penalty.
All an inside trader does is act on private information that more accurately reflects the future value of a financial asset than the current price does. He buys or sells that asset at a price that someone else voluntarily accepts. He does nothing that damages the ultimate value of the asset. Nor does he hurt the broader financial marketplace. If anything, his trading slightly pushes the asset price toward a more appropriate value. What's wrong with that?
The Justice Department is prosecuting a woman who laughed during a Senate hearing to confirm Jeff Sessions as attorney general. I can sympathize with her somewhat absurd plight because I was once tossed out of the press box in the Supreme Court for laughing at the wrong time.
