RePath Round Up--Saving Smollett
Plus AI clowns, excessive force, and a grounded squirrel
“The public justifiably expects the State, above all others, to keep its bond.”
Chicanery in Chicago: Jussie Smollett was convicted in 2021 for orchestrating a hate crime against himself on the streets of Chicago in 2019 in which he hired two Nigerian-American brothers to stage an attack on him with racial/homophobic slurs, bleach, and a noose. The Illinois Supreme Court reversed his conviction yesterday. The reversal comes not from any finding of innocence, but from the fact that the Cook County prosecutor initially entered into a non-prosecution agreement with Smollett if he agreed to forfeit $10,000 in bail and complete community service. After the public learned about the outrageously favorable agreement, Smollett was later charged and convicted. In its 31 page opinion, the Illinois Supreme Court basically said the government must live up to its end of the original bargain.
The principle that the government must keep its word is an important one. It has been upheld for Smollett as it was for Bill Cosby under similar facts. However, there are approximately 45,000 individuals incarcerated in the State of Illinois that are not famous. Maybe, just maybe, some of them have a story to tell about the government keeping its word in their cases. Maybe they should have had a TV show.
Clown show in Minnesota: Minnesota passed a law attempting to ban the use of certain AI content in relation to elections. The law has been correctly challenged on free speech grounds since it clearly outlaws protected speech including parody and satire. In response to the lawsuit, the Attorney General of Minnesota, and we kid you not, filed an expert declaration on the dangers of AI “misinformation” that included fake citations hallucinated by AI. While the AG’s office wants to take away your banger memes, it feels quite at home using AI to lie to the courts.
SCOTUS and Excessive Force: The Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments to consider the legal standard for police use of force during arrests and other seizures. Historically, officers have been prohibited from using excessive force under the “totality of circumstances” test that includes the officer’s knowledge of relevant factors to an event. However, some courts have attempted to narrow the inquiry to the precise moment of the use of force (“moment of threat”), which could ignore police misconduct leading up to a fateful use of force.
The case of Barnes v. Felix involves an officer who pulled over a rental car for toll violations associated with the car rather than the driver. The officer ordered the driver out of the vehicle and then drew his gun. The car then began to roll forward with the driver’s side door open. The officer jumped onto the rolling car and shot the driver in the head. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the case against the officer by considering only whether the officer could have feared for his life during “moment of threat,” which in this case was the two seconds after the officer jumped onto the car. The US Department of Justice has filed an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to reject the 5th Circuit’s “moment of threat” analysis in favor of the long accepted test for “totality of circumstances.” Oral arguments are set for January 22, 2025.
Operation Bear Claw: A security camera captured a brown bear breaking into a 2010 Rolls Royce using the door handle and wrecking the inside with its claws. Or a man in a bear suit tore up the inside of a Rolls Royce with a meat claw as part of an insurance scam. Four individuals are currently charged with staging fake bear attack videos on the Rolls Royce and two additional Mercedes-Benz’s. The fraud resulted in $142,000 in insurance payments. Investigators hired a biologist to review the video who agreed it was clearly a man in a bear suit and when police executed a search warrant, they discovered the costume and meat claw. Guys, the first rule of Bear Club is to hide the bear costume.
Probable Cause and Beyond: After the Denton County District Attorney’s office noticed a large number of prostitution arrests relating to local massage parlors, the office initiated a broader investigation. The investigation involved local police stings at the various businesses. As a result, 11 of the officers involved in the investigation have now been disciplined for inappropriate physical conduct with the alleged sex workers or other violations of department protocols. Whoops.
Stranger Things
Bullitt: A Michigan man fled from the cops on a riding lawnmower, pulled a gun, and, after being tased by police, shot himself in the hand.
New York, New York: Confirming everything you thought about LaGuardia Airport, raccoons, and the now-bankrupt Spirit Airlines, a raccoon fell out of the terminal ceiling, hung on a wire, and fell to the ground in front of stunned travelers. The raccoon was charged a $79 carry-on bag fee and released to the wild.
The ick: An Ohio corrections officer has been sentenced to six months in prison for helping an inmate throw “bodily fluids” on jail supervisors.
America!: Grocery stores in the south now have vending machines that sell bullets. And shotgun shells.
Caesar: 43 Rhesus macaque monkeys escaped from an Alpha Genesis lab in South Carolina that provides “nonhuman primate products and bio-research services.” Officials say there is no need for alarm.
