Summary of initial polling: Overwhelming agreement that officers should be fired Strong agreement with murder charges Majority agreement that policing is biased against blacks Majority support for protesters Concern about violence and looting, support for curfews and use of National Guard, and even military Trump net 17 point disapproval of handling of situation My takeaways […]
There are two insurance-related police reform ideas being discussed. One approach focuses on municipal liability insurance. Many municipalities do not purchase liability insurance to cover lawsuits against officers, instead choosing to self-insure. This is potentially a problem because insurers actually play an important role in loss control. They provide information and services related to procedures, […]
From Cato: 79% of Americans support having outside law enforcement agencies investigate police misconduct, rather than leave it to the department to handle. It may surprise some readers to learn that most jurisdictions in the U.S. allow police departments to investigate and discipline their own officers. Instead, most Americans think having some outside oversight could […]
I highly recommend David Hopkins blog. Yesterday, he posted a piece on the end of confident conservatism. It begins like this: After Richard Nixon’s 1968 election, many conservatives came to believe that their movement naturally represented the political views of most Americans. This conservative faith in the wisdom of the average citizen was cemented by […]
The barriers facing black people in America today are numerous and daunting: poor schools, dangerous neighborhoods, lack of income, wealth, and connections, persistent formal and informal discrimination in so many settings. The list goes on, and it certainly includes many problems with our criminal justice system, from over-criminalization to degrading conditions of imprisonment to oppressive […]
The HEROES act passed by House Democrats did not include a formula that would keep expanded unemployment insurance benefits in place until the economy has recovered. The always thoughtful Ezra Klein is very critical of this omission. His argument can be boiled down to two points: If Biden wins the presidency, Republicans will predictably try […]
In response to the comment on my last post . . . rolling 7 day average death rates with the peak for each country set to 100. We peaked later than most countries other than Germany, which seems to be making better progress than us. We may be doing as well (or as badly) […]
We seem to be doing comparatively poorly at getting the COVID-19 epidemic under control: Is this a useful metric for measuring progress? To what extent does this reflect policy choices?
We desperately need to increase our capacity to test for COVID-19, to trace contacts, and to produce masks and other forms of personal protective equipment. This will allow us to keep the virus under control and to cautiously re-start economic activity as we await development of a vaccine. Unfortunately, President Trump has made it clear […]
Voters typically hold the President and his party responsible for the state of the country at the time of elections. This means that Trump and the Republicans have a strong incentive to support an aggressive federal response to the Covid-19 epidemic and the economic collapse. Under normal rules of political engagement, this should allow the […]