Month: December 2014

A headline in today’s Examiner runs:
“Census:
Whites become ‘minority’ in 2044, Hispanic population twice
blacks’.” From the Examiner:

New population projections released by the U.S. Census Bureau
show that whites will become a “minority” by 2044, replaced by a
“majority” of minority groups, mostly blacks and Hispanics….

According to the analysis, the white will make up 49.7 percent
of the country in 2044, minorities the rest. What’s more, by 2060,
whites will account for just 44 percent of the country.

First, so what? Second, what does it even mean?

A couple of years ago, I went through the exercise of
calculating the percentage of the current American population
descended from folks who were not regarded as being “white” when
they immigrated back in the 19th and early 20th centuries. What
sort of folks? Why the Italians, the Jews, the Irish, the Slavs,
and the Greeks, along with native-born African-Americans. In my
article, “The
Silly Panic Over a Minority White Nation,” I pointed out:

Shortly after the turn of the last century, many nativists
feared that mass immigration was overwhelming the white “races”
that had historically contributed the most to populating the
nation. One of the most notable expressions of this racial anxiety
was the classic 1922 anti-immigration screed by Saturday
Evening Post correspondent Kenneth Roberts,
Why Europe Leaves Home: A True Account of the Reasons which Cause
Central Europeans to Overrun America. “The American nation
was founded and developed by the Nordic race,” asserted Roberts.
“If a few more million members of the Alpine, Mediterranean and
Semitic races are poured among us, the result must inevitably be a
hybrid race of people as worthless and futile as the
good-for-nothing mongrels of Central America and Southeastern
Europe.”

Instead of becoming worthless and good-for-nothing, the
descendants of those immigrant hordes became, well, Americans. As
evidence, I reported that by…

… adding up all of the “non-white” groups, one finds that they
and their descendants now total 184 million out of 313 million
citizens, constituting nearly 60 percent of the country’s current
population. But how can that be? After all, the Census Bureau
notes, “In the 2010 Census, just over one-third of the U.S.
population reported their race and ethnicity as something other
than non-Hispanic white alone (i.e. “minority”).” The answer to
this conundrum is that Italians, Poles, Jews, and the Irish are now
considered “white.”

It is this fact that renders silly and nearly meaningless the
pronouncement that “whites” will be a minority in this country by
2050. By 2050, just as the earlier waves of Irish, Italian, Jewish,
and Polish immigrants were assimilated, so too will
today’s Hispanic immigrants and their descendants be. For all
intents and purposes, Hispanics will become as “white” as Irish,
Italians, Jews, and Poles.

So please just stop with the identity politics fearmongering
already!

We should welcome pretty nearly anyone who has the gumption to
get here. They are already showing the character of what it takes
to be an American.

Yesterday I blogged about Amy Barnes, a Georgia woman awarded $100,000 in a settlement
with cops who arrested her for shouting “fuck the police” at them.
Today, another tale of cops who can’t take that particular
criticism—even when it merely happens to be coming from the radio
of a nearby car. But the ending in this case (so far) isn’t nearly
so happy.

Cesar Baldelomar, 26, was driving to his parents’ home in
Hialeah, Florida, on Thanksgiving morning when he pulled up at a
stoplight near where Hialeah Police Officer Harold Garzon was
standing. Garzon was filling out paperwork from a traffic accident,
according to Miami alt-weekly the Miami New
Times. Baldelomar had his radio turned up loudly, and while at
the stoplight the N.W.A. classic “Fuck Tha Police” came on the
air. 

“Really?” Garzon said to Baldelomar through his open car window.
“You’re really playing that song? Pull over.”

Garzon is a buzzcutted cop with sleeve tattoos and sunglasses.
He’s also a 17-year veteran with 16 internal affairs cases against
him, according to records. (It’s unclear how many were sustained;
Hialeah PD didn’t respond to New Times’ requests for comment.)

But Baldelomar is no Hialeah bro. He’s a double Harvard graduate
now studying law at Florida International University. So when
Garzon told him it was illegal to play loud music within 25 feet of
another person, Baldelomar called bullshit. “In 2012 the state
supreme court struck down any law banning loud music,” he says. “I
knew that because it was a case I had actually studied in law
school.”

Garzon grew angry, though, when Baldelomar told him that fact.
He called over two other cops and then demanded proof of insurance.
Baldelomar pulled up his info on his phone, but Garzon waved it
off, saying, “It’s got to be paper.” (It doesn’t. Florida changed
the law a year ago.)

This didn’t stop Garzon from writing Baldelomar three tickets:
one for the insurance (non)violation, one for not wearing a seat
belt, and one for having an out-of-state license plate while
a resident of Florida. Baldelomar maintains that he was wearing his
seat belt, and he doesn’t have a Florida license plate because he
is still legally a resident of Massachusetts. 

Baldelomar told the New Times he plans to fight the
violations in court; hopefully a judge will throw them out as
quickly as the judge did in Barnes’ case. Baldelomar also said he plans
to file a complaint against Garzon. 

“I’m educated. I know my rights. And I speak English, so I can
fight this,” he points out. “But what about when this happens to
someone who’s not so lucky? Policing has to change in this
country.”

In other words…

Huugjilt, an ethnic Mongolian living in China,
was 18 years old when authorities accused him of raping and killing
a woman in a public restroom. He was eventually convicted and
sentenced to death and executed a couple of months later. That was
in 1996.

Now, a court in Inner Mongolia, the Chinese region in which
Huugjilt was executed, has ruled that he was wrongly convicted, a
judge even offering “sincere apologies” to the family. Rather than
raping and killing the woman, Huugjilt had apparently heard her
screams and approached to try to help. Authorities found out their
mistake when another man confessed to the killing in 2005 in the
course of confessing other crimes.

The Chinese government says it is taking the possibility of more
wrongful convictions seriously. The Independent
reports:

Human rights activists hailed the decision [to overturn
Huugjilt’ conviction] as Communist Party-run courts in China have a
high conviction rate, which leads to allegations that apparent
confessions are forced from the accused by methods of torture.

Detectives have admitted that they felt pressed to secure a
conviction in a crack down on crime and Huugjilt was declared
guilty in April 1996 before he was executed two months later. A
retrial was scheduled last month with the confession from Zhihong
presented to the judge.

China’s high court has since taken charge of reviewing all death
sentences and has pledged to carry out executions for only the most
heinous crimes. The country also has more convictions than the
world combined, however the data is kept top secret.

Another man, still on death row, was acquitted in August. He
says he was tortured into confessing he had killed two children
with poison before being spending six years in prison.

As an Arizona resident, it does my heart good to
see my state top Guns & Ammo‘s
assessment of the very bestest states for gun owners in 2014.
Across several categories Arizona scores well by simply leaving
people alone and respecting their right to own, use, buy, and sell
firearms for fun, hunting, and self-defense.

The ratings are based on state laws’ respect for the right to
carry, treatment of modern sporting rifles (that’s scary assault
weapons to you know who), National Firearms Act of 1934-regulated
weapons such as machine guns and suppressors, and castle doctrine.
There are also miscellaneous considerations, such as state firearm
law preemption, registration requirements, and the like.

When it comes to Arizona,
Guns & Ammo says:

1. Arizona

Right-to-Carry: 10
MSRs: 10
Class 3/NFA: 9
Castle Doctrine: 10
Miscellaneous: 10
TOTAL: 49

It was a tight race for the top spot, but it came down to the
intangibles. The Grand Canyon State takes the top spot again this
year, and for good reason. It has the most well-established
competitive shooting scene in the nation and a culture that
embraces shooters and the shooting sports. Arizona is the home of
Gunsite, the nation’s oldest and best known private shooting
school; the 1,650-acre Ben Avery shooting facilty; as well as
numerous firearm manufacturers including Ruger. Concealed and open
carry are legal without a permit, and the state also issues permits
to residents who travel outside the state. CCW permits from all
other states are recognized. Arizona does not restrict legally
possessed NFA items, magazines or MSRs.

Guns are just part of the environment here, with a holstered
pistol a common sight on people’s hips. I attended a dinner party
recently which included, at one point, attendees comparing their
carry pistols, laid out on the table. Like many residents I rarely
go anyplace without a gun secreted somewhere on my person.

Then again, I could say the same of my activity when I lived in
Manhattan. I rarely went anywhere without a gun in my pocket, and I
felt a hell of a lot safer for it, especially walking back from
work at night to my apartment on 4th Street and Avenue B, which
wasn’t quite as upscale at the time as it is now. But, I was in
fact breaking the law—New York comes in at a well-deserved 50 in
the gun rights rankings (only the District of Columbia ranks
lower). Says Guns & Ammo:

50. New York

Right-to-Carry: 2
MSRs: 1
Class 3/NFA: 0
Castle Doctrine: 3
Miscellaneous: 0
TOTAL: 6

April 15, 2014, saw the deadline for registration of firearms
deemed “assault weapons” under the 2013 “SAFE Act.” One of the most
restrictive gun control schemes in the nation became slightly less
restrictive when a judge tossed out the ban on magazines holding
more than seven rounds as “arbitrary.” Ownership of MSRs is tightly
regulated in N.Y., and magazine capacities are limited to 10
rounds. The purchase of a handgun requires a license, the issue of
which is solely at the discretion of the issuing authority — these
licenses also restrict where the purchaser can possess a handgun.
Licenses to carry a concealed firearm are issued on a “may-issue”
basis and are difficult to obtain, especially in New York City.
Loaded rifles or shotguns cannot be transported in vehicles. NFA
items are strictly forbidden.

Add in the picturesque views and the medical marijuana, and
Arizona is an easy state to like. If you like being left alone.

The fine folks over at Decibel
Magazine—America’s premiere publication covering all things
heavy metal, thrash metal, black metal, death metal, hardcore,
grindcore, and more—kindly solicited my thoughts on the noisy
intersection where music and law frequently meet. In other words,
they requested and I delivered a short list of my
personal favorite heavy metal and hardcore punk songs devoted
to the topic of justice. Here’s the introduction by
Decibel‘s great writer Shawn Macomber and a sneak peak at
one of my picks:

Today the Metalnomicon welcomes Reason senior editor Damon
Root, one of the most thought-provoking, singular voices writing on
the intricacies of American law today. He’s also a metal/hardcore
devotee and the original articulator of the Suicidal
Tendencies litmus test for federal candidates, which, as we all
know, has had a profound effect on our nation in several alternate
dimensions.

So, anyway, yeah, Root’s new book
Overruled: The Long War for Control of the U.S. Supreme Court
is a straight up tour de force of eye-opening,
epiphany-inducing history parsing. It’s great and everyone
interested in the inner workings of the Supreme Court and its
profound effect on our lives should read it. But we suspected some
metal/hardcore science got excised by the squares at Palgrave
Macmillan and, thus, hit Root up for a list of five classic
hardcore and metal songs about justice.

The man did not disappoint…

3. “Legalize Drugs” by Fear

Writing in 1972, future Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton
Friedman argued that “street crime would drop dramatically” if the
U.S. government legalized drugs. Not only did drug prohibition
create a lucrative black market run by violent gangsters, Friedman
observed, it led to the incarceration of millions of nonviolent
offenders whose only crime involved getting high.

Wait, did I say Milton Friedman? I meant to say Lee Ving, the
beef bologna-loving frontman for the infamous punk band Fear.

“We’ve got the largest prison population in the world,” sings
Ving, and there’s only one way to correct that injustice: “When you
take away the profit, then you destroy the black market… Legalize
drugs!”

Read the whole thing here.