by Bob Barr | Jun 17, 2020 | Uncategorized |
Townhall.comThe law enforcement reform bill introduced last week in the House by the Democrat majority – the “Justice in Policing Act of 2020” – contains a number of proposals worthy of serious debate and bipartisan support. However, where the legislation proposes detailed, in-the-weeds standards for the use of deadly force by police officers, it suggests a “one-size-fits-all” solution that would be utterly unworkable and, if implemented, lead to far more serious problems than it could hope to solve.As to the positive aspects of the bill, for example the proposals for improved and increased training for federal law enforcement officers directly, and for state and local law enforcement indirectly through grants, should garner support from both sides of the congressional aisle and the president as well. A poorly trained officer is in many ways a problem waiting to happen.The Justice in Policing Act also would reduce the “militarization” footprint of local police departments, by cutting back on the surplus military equipment the federal government has been providing to those departments for the past three decades; everything from fully automatic weapons to armored vehicles. This proposal would help to de-emphasize the military perspective of law enforcement in favor of the civilian, which is and must always be predicated on the Constitution and laws flowing therefrom.Moving to rein in the use of “no knock warrants” by federal and local police – which very often lead to unnecessarily deadly confrontations – is another positive measure addressed in the legislation.When the bill gets into the weeds of actual law enforcement, things become more problematic by virtue of its imprecise and overly expansive wording. For example, in seeking...
by Bob Barr | Jun 15, 2020 | Uncategorized |
Daily CallerMarches, demonstrations and even riots have been sweeping cities across the country. Protesters have literally taken over a sector of downtown Seattle. Calls to “defund the police” are being heard even in the halls of the Congress. Some health experts are predicting a resurgence of COVID-19. Amidst all this chaos the U.S. Postal Service is begging Congress to give it another bailout. Congress should respond to this request with a resounding “NO.”The United States Postal Service (USPS) has suffered from well-documented structural problems for years; long before the coronavirus pandemic hit early this year. However, in recognition of the difficulties the Postal Service faced along with almost every other business sector hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, it received $10 billion as part of the CARES Act. For any well-run business, that should have sufficed to get it over the pandemic hump. Not for the folks at the USPS.Now, just a few months after that huge cash infusion, the Postal Service is coming back begging for another bailout; this time for a whopping $25 billion. In the absence of meaningful structural reforms to the failed business model under which the USPS long has operated, Congress should not even consider granting this request.For one thing, in light of recent jobs numbers and other signs that the economy already is bouncing back, there may be no need to pass the most recent proposed COVID-19 “stimulus” package, the HEROES Act. Even aside from this broader perspective, however, it is clear that giving the USPS as it currently is structured more taxpayer money, would be throwing good money after bad. The Service...
by Bob Barr | Jun 10, 2020 | Uncategorized |
Daily CallerPolicing in the United States is overdue for reform. Admitting to this is not a matter of race, political party, or ideology. It is an observable truth, confirmed time and again by the lack of accountability in holding bad cops responsible for actions that should not be tolerated in a free country governed by the constitutional rule of law. There are steps that the federal and state governments can and should undertake to address deficiencies in policing. Defunding the police, however, is not an idea worthy of consideration. The fact that “defund the police” is actually being seriously considered illustrates the idiocracy that has infected public debate in 21st century America.Defunding the police because of a few bad police officers is akin to closing down hospitals as a result of an occasional malpractice incident by doctors; or closing public schools because there are some bad teachers. Such a move would solve nothing and in fact make matters incalculably worse for everyone (except perhaps for the very rich, who could afford private security services for their homes, property, and vehicles). Still, however, especially within the “Black Lives Matter” movement, the proposal lives.Thankfully, amidst the cacophony, there are a few rational voices.On Twitter, Washington Post columnist and noted police critic Radley Balko suggests we not get too hung up on the phrase “defund the police” as a literal objective, but rather take it as a call-to-arms for a host of sensible reforms. Balko’s approach should be garnering wide, nonpartisan appeal, but many Black Lives Matter activists still insist that the only solution is literally to get rid of police departments. “Please don’t misrepresent our demands,” Jonathan Ben-Menachem, who...
by Bob Barr | Jun 8, 2020 | Uncategorized |
Daily CallerThe FBI has long been considered America’s premier federal law enforcement agency. The Bureau has a storied history dating to the 1930s and was the subject of a laudatory television series from 1965 to 1974. The FBI helped bring down the Gambino crime family. In the 1970s, the Bureau aided in defeating the violent Weather Underground, which was led by revolutionaries Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn.The FBI now has morphed into a pale reflection of its former self — almost a parody. Last week, in a scene I never dreamt I would see, a group of FBI personnel (“officials,” according to one account) were photographed kneeling before some of the protesters who had wreaked havoc on the streets of our nation’s capital city. The kneelers all wore protective vests with “FBI” emblazoned thereon and were equipped with holstered sidearms.It is unclear whether these individuals knelt out of fear, were ordered by their superiors at the Bureau to assume such a submissive pose, or whether each was doing so because they personally supported the protesters and rioters. What is clear is that the display confirms that the Federal Bureau of Investigation in this 21st century has lost sight of its mission and purpose, and apparently no longer even acts on its own intelligence information.This last point is especially relevant.As Attorney General William Barr stated on May 31st, mixed in with the protesters, demonstrators, looters and violent thugs who smashed windows, burned churches and engaged in all manner of other violent acts in cities across the country were elements of antifa and other extremist organizations. The FBI is a component of...
by Bob Barr | Jun 4, 2020 | Uncategorized |
American Action NewsOn May 31st, in response to the violent riots rocking American cities from coast to coast and border to border, President Donald Trump and Attorney General William Barr issued statements that, among other things, condemned Antifa. Trump declared his intent to label Antifa a “terrorist organization.” The response from the mainstream media and leftist politicians was predictable — criticize Trump, not Antifa or the other groups and individuals involved in the violence.The facts, as opposed to sentiment, support Trump and Barr. Antifa fits squarely within both legal and common-sense definitions of what is considered to constitute a “terrorist organization.” Moreover, if, as many Trump critics note, the federal government is permitted to designate organizations as “terrorist” only if they are “international,” a strong case can be made that Antifa satisfies that criteria as well.While Antifa did not come into wide public consciousness in the U.S. until sometime around 2007 when “Rose City Antifa” was formed in Portland, Oregon, it has a far longer history in Europe, where it began as a movement to oppose the rise of fascism in Italy and Germany in the 1930s.Exactly when the modern Antifa movement made its way across the Atlantic to our shores is not clear, but by the 1980s it was here. Its members openly have participated in and organized numerous demonstrations and violent confrontations in recent years, especially since the infamous 2017 violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.Notwithstanding Antifa’s recent history of activity in the United States, its roots are in Europe where it remains active, most notably perhaps in Germany. In fact, when President Trump publicly said he would move...
by Bob Barr | Jun 1, 2020 | Uncategorized |
Daily Caller In the interests of accurate reporting, we need to drop the pretense that the violent protests rocking major American cities have anything to do with seeking justice for the Memorial Day death of George Floyd. Any positive concern for justice that might have motivated protestors in the immediate aftermath of his death evaporated as events quickly morphed into mass violence against businesses, government structures, police officers and even historic churches.If participants truly were concerned that without protests the person responsible for Floyd’s death would somehow escape justice, they would have backed down as soon as the indictment of former police officer Derek Chauvin was announced (within days of Floyd’s death). True, Chauvin has not yet been convicted and sentenced. But the process by which his guilt is to be established according to standards of due process under both Minnesota’s and America’s constitutions, will proceed as expeditiously as possible. No legitimate system of justice can operate with greater dispatch.So, in trying to answer questions about what the mobs in Minneapolis and other cities are seeking, we can rule out the premise that they are looking for justice against Officer Chauvin; unless, of course, they are seeking vigilante justice or the “sentence-first” brand of justice depicted in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland.If members of the rampaging mobs were themselves victims of individual or group injustice of the sort that befell Floyd or many black men before him, there might be some sense of legitimacy attached to their actions (at least up to the point their actions turned violent). It becomes impossible to view these protestors with any degree of empathy, however, considering...
