motherjones--2020-06-11--The Coronavirus Is Still Killing Thousands of Americans Every Week, But Trump Isn’t Very Interested

In the past week , the coronavirus has killed more than 5,000 Americans .
Yet during this stretch , Donald Trump has said nothing about these lost souls .
And since the gruesome 100,000 mark was hit at the end of last month , Trump has tweeted about the pandemic only a few times .
Once to note this milestone , once to blame China for this “ bad ‘ gift , ' ” once to vaguely claim there was “ good news ” coming on a vaccine , and once to hail the National Guard .
Over the same @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his tough-guy approach to the wide-ranging Black Lives Matter protests , and he has used Twitter repeatedly to assail political enemies ( the NFL commissioner , retired General James Mattis , Joe Biden , the media ) , to fuel his phony “ Obamagate ” scandal , and to spread the bogus conspiracy theory that an elderly man assaulted by a Buffalo cop during a protest was an Antifa provocateur trying to disrupt police communications with a “ scanner.
” In fact , Trump has tweeted more about Antifa , the left-wing street @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this unorganized band as an existential threat to the United States .
How many Americans have been killed by Antifa ?
None .
Coronavirus is still claiming nearly one thousand lives a day .
If Trump ’ s tweets are an indication of what ’ s on his mind , he barely thinks about the pandemic and the horrific toll that it continues to take .
When last week he visited a plant in Maine that manufactures swabs for coronavirus tests—a plant that happens to be in a congressional district he won in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ without mentioning the victims of COVID-19 .
Instead , he touted the recent encouraging economic news and declared , “ Open the state.
” He referenced the coronavirus crisis— ” this horrible plague ” —in his usual fashion : he defended his administration ’ s record on testing , and he blamed China for the pandemic .
But he said nothing about the need to stay vigilant regarding masks , social distancing , and other countermeasures .
( Trump even toured the plant without wearing a mask , and the swabs he watched @ @ @ @ @ @ @ later thrown out . )
He said nothing about coronavirus remaining a serious threat to the United States .
Trump has essentially shoved the pandemic aside .
Been there , done that .
Time to move on .
Even though the crisis continues and worsens in parts of the country .
Puerto Rico and fourteen states—Alaska , Arizona , Arkansas , California , Florida , Kentucky , New Mexico , North Carolina , Mississippi , Oregon , South Carolina , Tennessee , Texas and Utah—just experienced their highest weekly average of coronavirus cases @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump doesn ’ t want to be bothered by steady meetings on the pandemic .
Dr. Anthony Fauci , the director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a leader of the White House coronavirus task force , said that his meetings with Trump “ have been dramatically decreased.
” He told the AP that he had not spoken to Trump in two weeks .
He also noted that task force meetings , which used to happen daily , “ have not occurred as often lately.
” The news service @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has a smaller portfolio as the federal priority shifts to helping states safely reopen and the race for a vaccine has been put under the separate auspices of ‘ Operation Warp Speed . '
” In an interview taped for the Biotechnology Innovation Organization ’ s annual conference this week , Fauci said of the pandemic , “ When is it going to end ?
We ’ re still at the beginning of it.
” In another sign that the Trump White House is moving the pandemic from the top of its to-do @ @ @ @ @ @ @ leaving his position .
Admiral Brett Giroir announced he will soon be “ demobilized ” from overseeing coronavirus testing at FEMA and head back to his old job at the Department of Health and Human Services .
The administration said there were no plans to replace him .
With protests against police violence and social inequities spreading across the land , Trump has pivoted .
In his address to the nation on June 1—prior to his Bible-holding stunt at St. John ’ s Church—Trump said nothing about the pandemic .
Nothing about the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ And when he marched across Lafayette Park—after security forces had violently cleared away peaceful protesters—and awkwardly posed in front of the historic church , he and his large posse ( with the exception of Ivanka Trump ) wore no masks and did not engage in social distancing .
He refuses to set an example for how citizens can keep COVID-19 at bay .
The White House even compelled reporters at a Trump press briefing to sit closer to one another than the customary six feet .
Trump has not called on the country @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the killer virus .
He has even not championed his administration ’ s own guidelines for reopening .
There still is no national testing strategy .
And governors and other local officials have largely been left to their own devices in determining what to do .
Trump has talked little about preparing for coming coronavirus spikes that are widely expected by public health officials .
As he did at the start of the crisis , he has downplayed this chilling prospect .
Another profound crisis is now capturing the nation ’ s attention @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more reason why the president of the United States should keep the country also focused on the public health threat that is still claiming thousands of Americans each week and that may roar back in the months ahead .
Public health experts have raised concern that the protests could lead to a spread of the virus .
Yet it ’ s obvious why Trump can not help Americans in this way .
Caring about the public ’ s health doesn ’ t coincide with his political agenda—and his own pathologies .
He is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ enemies and by the pursuit of revenge .
A virus doesn ’ t easily fit into his psychologically warped world view .
He did endeavor to cast coronavirus as the “ invisible enemy ” that he would smite .
But that soundbite fell flat , and Trump didn ’ t have the attention span to develop a truly effective set of policies to neutralize this unseen foe .
It is much better for his political narrative if the number one enemy can be be looters , anarchists , Antifa , thugs , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can crack ( or order to be cracked ) .
These are tangible bad guys ( even if imaginary ) he can depict as the most pressing threat to voters .
Best of all , he can act like a law-and-order strongman and vow to crush them .
And it certainly is easier to declare victory against a made-up foe than a true threat like a killer virus that keeps replicating .
Trump has tried to change the channel .
Coronavirus ?
Nothing to see .
But the protesters !
Mr. and Mrs. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ danger you and your families face .
As for those Americans who remain at risk due to the pandemic—a disproportionate number of whom are within communities of color—Trump has nothing to say to them .
His own political needs come first .
When Gov .
Roy Cooper of North Carolina raised questions about holding a full-blown GOP convention in Charlotte in August , Trump huffed that if he could not have a large-scale event in a packed arena , then he would hold it elsewhere .
“ I don ’ t want to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s 50 percent empty , ” Trump told Cooper , a Democrat , during a phone conversation .
“ We can ’ t do social distancing , ” Trump said on the call .
Now the Republican National Committee is considering moving the prime-time parts of the convention to Jacksonville , Florida .
The message Trump is sending : his show is more important than the health and safety of even his own supporters .
Trump is only engaged by those political battles he can concoct and shape .
And he can ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Consequently , he ’ s just not that interested in the deaths of thousands of Americans .
So Trump is putting aside those lives to pursue a course that he believes will save what he most cares about : his own political life .

In the past week, the coronavirus has killed more than 5,000 Americans. Yet during this stretch, Donald Trump has said nothing about these lost souls. And since the gruesome 100,000 mark was hit at the end of last month, Trump has tweeted about the pandemic only a few times. Once to note this milestone, once to blame China for this “bad ‘gift,'” once to vaguely claim there was “good news” coming on a vaccine, and once to hail the National Guard. Over the same period, he has tweeted relentlessly about his tough-guy approach to the wide-ranging Black Lives Matter protests, and he has used Twitter repeatedly to assail political enemies (the NFL commissioner, retired General James Mattis, Joe Biden, the media), to fuel his phony “Obamagate” scandal, and to spread the bogus conspiracy theory that an elderly man assaulted by a Buffalo cop during a protest was an Antifa provocateur trying to disrupt police communications with a “scanner.” In fact, Trump has tweeted more about Antifa, the left-wing street activists, than the pandemic, depicting this unorganized band as an existential threat to the United States. How many Americans have been killed by Antifa? None. Coronavirus is still claiming nearly one thousand lives a day.
If Trump’s tweets are an indication of what’s on his mind, he barely thinks about the pandemic and the horrific toll that it continues to take. When last week he visited a plant in Maine that manufactures swabs for coronavirus tests—a plant that happens to be in a congressional district he won in the 2016 election—Trump spoke for 30 minutes without mentioning the victims of COVID-19. Instead, he touted the recent encouraging economic news and declared, “Open the state.” He referenced the coronavirus crisis—”this horrible plague”—in his usual fashion: he defended his administration’s record on testing, and he blamed China for the pandemic. But he said nothing about the need to stay vigilant regarding masks, social distancing, and other countermeasures. (Trump even toured the plant without wearing a mask, and the swabs he watched being made in a sterile environment were later thrown out.) He said nothing about coronavirus remaining a serious threat to the United States.
Trump has essentially shoved the pandemic aside. Been there, done that. Time to move on. Even though the crisis continues and worsens in parts of the country. Puerto Rico and fourteen states—Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Kentucky, New Mexico, North Carolina, Mississippi, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Utah—just experienced their highest weekly average of coronavirus cases. And the total number of COVID-19 cases in the United States this week topped 2 million.
Recently, the public learned that Trump doesn’t want to be bothered by steady meetings on the pandemic. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a leader of the White House coronavirus task force, said that his meetings with Trump “have been dramatically decreased.” He told the AP that he had not spoken to Trump in two weeks. He also noted that task force meetings, which used to happen daily, “have not occurred as often lately.” The news service reported that the task force “now has a smaller portfolio as the federal priority shifts to helping states safely reopen and the race for a vaccine has been put under the separate auspices of ‘Operation Warp Speed.'” In an interview taped for the Biotechnology Innovation Organization’s annual conference this week, Fauci said of the pandemic, “When is it going to end? We’re still at the beginning of it.”
In another sign that the Trump White House is moving the pandemic from the top of its to-do list, the coronavirus testing czar is leaving his position. Admiral Brett Giroir announced he will soon be “demobilized” from overseeing coronavirus testing at FEMA and head back to his old job at the Department of Health and Human Services. The administration said there were no plans to replace him.
With protests against police violence and social inequities spreading across the land, Trump has pivoted. In his address to the nation on June 1—prior to his Bible-holding stunt at St. John’s Church—Trump said nothing about the pandemic. Nothing about the Americans who are dying each day. And when he marched across Lafayette Park—after security forces had violently cleared away peaceful protesters—and awkwardly posed in front of the historic church, he and his large posse (with the exception of Ivanka Trump) wore no masks and did not engage in social distancing. He refuses to set an example for how citizens can keep COVID-19 at bay. The White House even compelled reporters at a Trump press briefing to sit closer to one another than the customary six feet.
Trump has not called on the country to be steadfast in its response to the killer virus. He has even not championed his administration’s own guidelines for reopening. There still is no national testing strategy. And governors and other local officials have largely been left to their own devices in determining what to do. Trump has talked little about preparing for coming coronavirus spikes that are widely expected by public health officials. As he did at the start of the crisis, he has downplayed this chilling prospect.
Another profound crisis is now capturing the nation’s attention. But that’s all the more reason why the president of the United States should keep the country also focused on the public health threat that is still claiming thousands of Americans each week and that may roar back in the months ahead. Public health experts have raised concern that the protests could lead to a spread of the virus.
Yet it’s obvious why Trump cannot help Americans in this way. Caring about the public’s health doesn’t coincide with his political agenda—and his own pathologies. He is a man driven by the need for enemies and by the pursuit of revenge. A virus doesn’t easily fit into his psychologically warped world view. He did endeavor to cast coronavirus as the “invisible enemy” that he would smite. But that soundbite fell flat, and Trump didn’t have the attention span to develop a truly effective set of policies to neutralize this unseen foe. It is much better for his political narrative if the number one enemy can be be looters, anarchists, Antifa, thugs, and the like. These are heads he can crack (or order to be cracked). These are tangible bad guys (even if imaginary) he can depict as the most pressing threat to voters. Best of all, he can act like a law-and-order strongman and vow to crush them. And it certainly is easier to declare victory against a made-up foe than a true threat like a killer virus that keeps replicating. Trump has tried to change the channel. Coronavirus? Nothing to see. But the protesters! Mr. and Mrs. America, that’s the real danger you and your families face.
As for those Americans who remain at risk due to the pandemic—a disproportionate number of whom are within communities of color—Trump has nothing to say to them. His own political needs come first. When Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina raised questions about holding a full-blown GOP convention in Charlotte in August, Trump huffed that if he could not have a large-scale event in a packed arena, then he would hold it elsewhere. “I don’t want to be sitting in a place that’s 50 percent empty,” Trump told Cooper, a Democrat, during a phone conversation. “We can’t do social distancing,” Trump said on the call. Now the Republican National Committee is considering moving the prime-time parts of the convention to Jacksonville, Florida. Moreover, the Trump campaign announced this week that it will start staging big rallies with Trump next week. The message Trump is sending: his show is more important than the health and safety of even his own supporters.
Trump is only engaged by those political battles he can concoct and shape. And he can’t do that with this pandemic. Consequently, he’s just not that interested in the deaths of thousands of Americans. So Trump is putting aside those lives to pursue a course that he believes will save what he most cares about: his own political life.


motherjones--2020-06-11--I Spent 3 Months Locked Down in DC. Then I Went to a Mall in Utah.

It ’ s hard to take the pandemic lightly when you live in Washington , DC .
In this town of news junkies and rule followers , there are unpaid enforcers of Mayor Muriel Bowser ’ s coronavirus countermeasures lurking on every sidewalk—six feet away , of course .
“ Where ’ s your mask ?
” screamed a neighbor when I was walking the five feet from home to my car one day .
It took a trip to Utah for me to feel these same compulsions .
On Saturday , my daughter and I waited in a line @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Place mall just outside of Salt Lake City .
There were only two people in line in front of us , and a sign at the door restricted shopping to four people at a time and requested that customers wear marks .
We dutifully filed in six feet behind the other waiting customers , but people quickly started to congregate behind us like we were in line for a Kiss concert at the Salt Palace .
We scooted forward and they just kept moving closer .
The couple pressing up behind us made @ @ @ @ @ @ @ masks would obviously interfere with .
The scene at Sunglass Hut was just one of many indications that we ’ d moved from what felt like the mainstream to an alien spot along the continuum of America ’ s coronavirus consciousness .
After three months of being locked down in DC because of the novel coronavirus pandemic , I had come to Utah with my daughter to escape a summer of ennui .
We were trading online summer camp and Zoom visits for big sky country and socially-distanced walks with my parents .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ the scariest part of our trip to a state that , at the time we bought our tickets , had very few cases of COVID-19 .
But by the time we left DC , where the infection rate was falling , Utah was in the midst of a sustained spike in infections after largely allowing the economy to reopen without restrictions in early May .
The day we headed to the mall , the state reported 546 new cases , a Utah record .
Our shopping trip made it clear why .
We @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an unexpected problem created by the lockdowns in DC .
When our home town shut down all non-essential businesses back in mid-March , it was 40 degrees out .
By the time we left for Utah in June , Washington ’ s summer weather had appeared , and it was 90 degrees .
Plus , my daughter had grown three inches since last summer .
She desperately needed some shorts , but our attempts to order clothes online had failed .
So when we got to Utah , where stores have been open @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we could don our KN95 masks , zip into H & M , and grab some essentials in much the same way we bought milk at Whole Foods .
The packed parking lot should have been our first clue that this was a terrible idea .
We hadn ’ t eaten in a restaurant or shopped in a store that wasn ’ t a supermarket since March .
We had become accustomed to waiting outside on designated spots painted on the sidewalk six feet apart , with security guards at the door limiting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mask .
Physical barriers ensured that one-way shopping cart traffic was strictly enforced .
Which is all to say , we were utterly unprepared for the free-for-all at a mall two thousand miles away .
“ We fully anticipated that as we started to loosen restrictions you would see cases increase , ” state health department communications director Tom Hudachko told me in an interview , acknowledging that the mall scene is not what the department was hoping for .
“ Certainly , we feel like maybe people have let their guards down @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” Walking through the doors of Dillard ’ s on Saturday was like going back in time .
People were browsing racks of shirts , huddling over jewelry cases , and pushing past us to check out the latest shoe sales like it was Christmas 2019 .
Few customers wore masks , and no one was social distancing .
For about two minutes , my daughter and I , both wearing masks , half-heartedly looked at summer sandals , and then , panicked by the crowds , fled back out to the parking @ @ @ @ @ @ @ composure and decided to try again .
When we attempted to access H & M from an outdoor entrance , we ran smack into a long line of people clumped together waiting to eat Factory Nachos at an indoor table at the Cheesecake Factory .
Yes , an indoor table , which people in hard hit cities like New York and DC are unlikely to see for months .
The H & M door was closed , so we had to go through the main mall entrance , where we were met with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sanitizer dispenser and a chirpy sign telling us to “ feel safe , shop happy.
” The scene inside was a haphazard implementation of Republican Governor Gary Herbert ’ s reopening recommendations from May that people wear masks and businesses enforce social distancing .
But these were only recommendations , not requirements .
Some stores were still closed , like the jewelry store and the Build-a-Bear ( sorry kids ) .
Others were wide open , with people coming and going freely and milling around inside .
At Victoria ’ s Secret , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ up shoulder to shoulder at the entrance waiting to peruse panties and try on bustiers .
The store was limiting occupancy inside , an attempt at enforcing social distancing that was all but defeated by the crowd assembled in the mall corridor .
We found a similar scene at H & M , which had closed off all the entrances but one , inside the mall , forcing customers into another bottleneck .
We gave up on the shorts and ventured instead to the Sunglass Hut , where we thought maybe we could @ @ @ @ @ @ @ needed sunglasses .
Corporate policy demanded that customers wear masks , but the burden for enforcing that preventive measure lay with the single employee inside , who was unlikely to engage in such a confrontational task clearly above his pay grade .
Once inside the store , the first pair of shades we picked up cost a prohibitive $ 400 .
With no stomach for bargain hunting , we fled once again to the great outdoors .
But first , we made a quick loop through the food court to see if we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from Hot Dog on a Stick , an outpost of the fast-food joint I ’ d worked for in high school .
A California chain , it was closed .
But lots of other eateries were open and doing booming business .
The food court tables had been set a few feet farther apart than usual , but customers had pushed some together , and large , carefree families were happily noshing on Chik-fil-A .
We dashed outside and relished the fresh air—and a squirt of hand sanitizer .
“ I don ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ doing that for about three years , ” my daughter said .
The mall was our first taste of the parallel universe that is taking place throughout the country .
We ’ d gone from an East Coast city where people were constantly shouting at us for coming too close on the sidewalk to one in the West , where people seemed to have declared the pandemic over .
But it isn ’ t over , and perhaps not surprisingly , Utah is now a hotspot for new infections .
By June 10 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tests was rising faster than almost any other state and the number of virus-related hospitalizations had jumped 17 percent just since Memorial Day .
A third of the new cases were traced back to a meatpacking plant in Cache County , but the rest have been widely distributed .
Even Jon Huntsman , the former Republican governor who ’ s running for his old job this year , tested positive for the virus this week .
The cavalier attitude of Utah residents about social distancing was on display early on during the pandemic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as other countries started to close their borders and the US contemplated more travel restrictions , the LDS church chartered five Boeing 777s to bring 1,600 Mormon missionaries back from the Philippines .
Nine hundred of them arrived at the Salt Lake airport .
In a state where more than 60 percent of residents are LDS , the arrival of returned missionaries is a huge deal .
Before 9/11 , large Mormon families would descend upon the airport en masse , crowding right up to the airline gates with balloons and signs , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 9/11 , security requirements put an end to the gate festivities , so the welcome wagon just moved to the baggage claim downstairs .
With the novel coronavirus prompting the return of all those overseas missionaries , church officials anticipated the airport reunion problem .
They issued strict guidelines to families warning them not to congregate at baggage claim .
Only two people could pick up a missionary , and they had to stay in the car .
The church instructed missionaries to quarantine for 14 days before coming into contact with the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ world .
Instead , hundreds of Mormons gathered in the airport parking garage , and the missionaries pulled off their masks to greet family and girlfriends with hugs and kisses .
Horrified health department and other state officials issued a stern rebuke to the families .
“ Those types of gatherings can not be happening .
That will cause the spread of COVID-19 , ” state epidemiologist Angela Dunn told the Salt Lake Tribune .
“ We ’ re in this for the long haul .
These social distancing measures will have to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ course , as we saw at the mall more than two months later , despite 110,000 deaths in the US from the virus , social distancing never really took hold here .
Utah is a young state , with 30 percent of its population under the age of 18 , a factor that may have spared it from worse outcomes from the virus , which disproportionately affects the elderly .
As of Wednesday , the state had seen 128 deaths , mostly among people over 70 .
Nicholas Rupp , the communications manager @ @ @ @ @ @ @ told me that the airport reunion didn ’ t result in the feared outbreak .
“ We did ask in contact tracing interviews if people attended an airport welcome home .
We did not find any exposures with that circumstance , ” he explained .
“ That ’ s not to say it was OK to do.
” As one of only nine states that did not impose a statewide shelter-in-place order , and like many red states , Utah never really embraced the idea of staying home to flatten the curve .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Herbert , who has been in office since 2009 , issued a toothless state-wide stay-at-home directive that expired May 1 and did little more than require restaurants to end dine-in service .
Schools were closed , but Herbert left most decisions about stricter lockdowns to local governments .
The response varied widely .
Salt Lake County , with a population of more than 1 million , accounts for about half of the state ’ s nearly 13,000 cases , and , as a result , it closed all non-essential businesses in March .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Brigham Young University , never issued one and instead let businesses decide for themselves how and whether to remain open .
BYU shut down , but lots of people from Salt Lake drove across the county line to Provo for haircuts .
On May 1 , the governor announced that most of the state would ease up on even its meagre restrictions .
He allowed businesses to reopen along with dine-in service in restaurants , permitted gatherings of up to 50 people as well as the resumption of team sports with some @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cities with high virus case numbers to maintain more restrictions , including Salt Lake City , but forced surrounding Salt Lake County to open up .
In mid-May , Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson pleaded with Herbert to exempt the county from the state ’ s move to the “ yellow ” low-risk phase of Covid-19 restrictions , noting that the county ’ s active positive case rate was more than four times the state ’ s rate and that the county ’ s diverse and underserved communities were among the hardest @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the state ’ s coronavirus cases have been among Latinos , even though they only make up 14 percent of the population . )
But he refused , ordering broader reopenings .
That ’ s why Fashion Place was booming over the weekend .
It ’ s technically in Murray , just a 12-minute drive from Salt Lake City proper .
Without authorization from the state , Wilson and county health department officials can ’ t do much about the mall other than urge shoppers and businesses to adhere to social distancing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ As Utah approaches the 100-day milestone of coronavirus in our state , it is tempting to reflect on how much we ’ ve accomplished , ” Wilson said in an email to Mother Jones .
“ But as we see how loosened State restrictions have resulted in more casual social interaction and serious case spikes in some areas , I continue to stress the importance of social distancing , face coverings and using data as our guide .
COVID-19 will be with us for a long time and unless we take a long-game @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
”

It’s hard to take the pandemic lightly when you live in Washington, DC. In this town of news junkies and rule followers, there are unpaid enforcers of Mayor Muriel Bowser’s coronavirus countermeasures lurking on every sidewalk—6 feet away, of course. “Where’s your mask?” screamed a neighbor when I was walking the 5 feet from home to my car one day.
It took a trip to Utah for me to feel these same compulsions. On Saturday, my daughter and I waited in a line at the Sunglass Hut at the Fashion Place mall just outside of Salt Lake City. There were only two people in front of us, and a sign at the door restricted shopping to four people at a time and requested that customers wear marks. We dutifully filed in 6 feet behind the other waiting customers, but people quickly started to congregate behind us like we were in line for a Kiss concert at the Salt Palace. We scooted forward and they just kept moving closer. The couple pressing up behind us made out to pass the time, something masks would obviously interfere with.
The scene at Sunglass Hut was just one of many indications that we’d moved from what felt like the mainstream to an alien spot along the continuum of America’s coronavirus consciousness. After three months of being locked down in DC because of the pandemic, I had come to Utah, where I was born and raised, with my daughter to escape a summer of ennui. We were trading online summer camp and Zoom visits for big sky country and socially distanced walks with my parents. We thought the flight out would be the scariest part of our trip to a state that, at the time we bought our tickets, had very few cases of COVID-19. But by the time we left DC, where the infection rate was falling, Utah was in the midst of a sustained spike in infections after largely allowing the economy to reopen without restrictions in early May. The day we headed to the mall, the state reported 546 new cases, a Utah record. Our shopping trip made it clear why.
We went to Fashion Place trying to remedy an unexpected problem created by the lockdowns in DC. When our home town shut down all nonessential businesses back in mid-March, it was 40 degrees out. By the time we left for Utah in June, Washington’s summer weather had appeared, and it was 90 degrees. Plus, my daughter had grown 3 inches since last summer. She desperately needed some shorts, but our attempts to order clothes online had failed. So when we got to Utah, where stores have been open since May 5, we naïvely thought we could don our KN95 masks, zip into H&M, and grab some essentials in much the same way we bought milk at Whole Foods.
The packed parking lot should have been our first clue that this was a terrible idea. We hadn’t eaten in a restaurant or shopped in a store that wasn’t a supermarket since March. We had become accustomed to waiting outside on designated spots painted on the sidewalk six feet apart, with security guards at the door limiting admission and insuring everyone was wearing a mask. Physical barriers ensured that one-way shopping cart traffic was strictly enforced.
Which is all to say, we were utterly unprepared for the free-for-all at a mall 2,000 miles away.
“We fully anticipated that as we started to loosen restrictions you would see cases increase. Certainly, we feel like maybe people have let their guards down a little too much at this point.”
“We fully anticipated that as we started to loosen restrictions you would see cases increase,” state health department communications director Tom Hudachko told me in an interview, acknowledging that the mall scene is not what the department was hoping for. “Certainly, we feel like maybe people have let their guards down a little too much at this point.”
Walking through the doors of Dillard’s on Saturday was like going back in time. People were browsing racks of shirts, huddling over jewelry cases, and pushing past us to check out the latest shoe sales like it was Christmas 2019. Few customers wore masks, and no one was social distancing. For about two minutes, my daughter and I, both wearing masks, half-heartedly looked at summer sandals, and then, panicked by the crowds, fled back out to the parking lot.
Outside, we gathered our composure and decided to try again. When we attempted to access H&M from an outdoor entrance, we ran smack into a long line of people clumped together waiting to eat Factory Nachos at an indoor table at the Cheesecake Factory. Yes, an indoor table, which people in hard hit cities like New York and DC are unlikely to see for months. The H&M door was closed, so we had to go through the main mall entrance, where we were met with nothing more than a sad looking hand sanitizer dispenser and a chirpy sign telling us to “feel safe, shop happy.”
The scene inside was a haphazard implementation of Republican Gov. Gary Herbert’s reopening recommendations from May that people wear masks and businesses enforce social distancing. But these were only recommendations, not requirements.
Some stores were still closed, like the jewelry store and the Build-a-Bear (sorry kids). Others were wide open, with people coming and going freely and milling around inside. At Victoria’s Secret, there must have been 40 people lined up shoulder to shoulder at the entrance waiting to peruse panties and try on bustiers. The store was limiting occupancy inside, an attempt at enforcing social distancing that was all but defeated by the crowd assembled in the mall corridor. We found a similar scene at H&M, which had closed off all the entrances but one, inside the mall, forcing customers into another bottleneck.
We gave up on the shorts and ventured instead to the Sunglass Hut, where we thought maybe we could find my daughter a pair of badly needed sunglasses. Corporate policy demanded that customers wear masks, but the burden for enforcing that preventive measure lay with the single employee inside, who was unlikely to engage in such a confrontational task clearly above his pay grade. Once inside the store, the first pair of shades we picked up cost a prohibitive $400. With no stomach for bargain hunting, we fled once again to the great outdoors.
But first, we made a quick loop through the food court to see if we might be able to score a lemonade from Hot Dog on a Stick, an outpost of the fast-food joint I’d worked for in high school. A California chain, it was closed. But lots of other eateries were open and doing booming business. The food court tables had been set a few feet farther apart than usual, but customers had pushed some together, and large, carefree families were happily noshing on Chik-fil-A. We dashed outside and relished the fresh air—and a squirt of hand sanitizer. “I don’t think I’ll feel comfortable doing that for about three years,” my daughter said.
The mall was our first taste of the parallel universe that is taking place throughout the country. We’d gone from an East Coast city where people were constantly shouting at us for coming too close on the sidewalk to one in the West, where people seemed to have declared the pandemic over. But it isn’t over, and perhaps not surprisingly, Utah is now a hotspot for new infections. By June 10, Utah’s rate of positive tests was rising faster than almost any other state and the number of virus-related hospitalizations had jumped 17 percent just since Memorial Day. A third of the new cases were traced back to a meatpacking plant in Cache County, but the rest have been widely distributed. Even Jon Huntsman, the former Republican governor who’s running for his old job this year, tested positive for the virus this week.
The cavalier attitude of Utah residents about social distancing was on display early on during the pandemic. At the end of March, as other countries started to close their borders and the US contemplated more travel restrictions, the LDS church chartered five Boeing 777s to bring 1,600 Mormon missionaries back from the Philippines. Nine hundred of them arrived at the Salt Lake airport. In a state where more than 60 percent of residents are LDS, the arrival of returned missionaries is a huge deal. Before 9/11, large Mormon families would descend upon the airport en masse, crowding right up to the airline gates with balloons and signs, welcoming home their loved ones. After 9/11, security requirements put an end to the gate festivities, so the welcome wagon just moved to the baggage claim downstairs.
With the novel coronavirus prompting the return of all those overseas missionaries, church officials anticipated the airport reunion problem. They issued strict guidelines to families warning them not to congregate at baggage claim. Only two people could pick up a missionary, and they had to stay in the car. The church instructed missionaries to quarantine for 14 days before coming into contact with the wider family and the rest of the world. Instead, hundreds of Mormons gathered in the airport parking garage, and the missionaries pulled off their masks to greet family and girlfriends with hugs and kisses.
Hundreds of missionaries from the Philippines are coming back to Salt Lake City today. Social distancing is out the window as people welcome back their family members with posters, balloons, and hugs. @KUTV2News pic.twitter.com/CeyRDtRv9x — Kelly Vaughen (@KellyVaughen) March 22, 2020
Horrified health department and other state officials issued a stern rebuke to the families. “Those types of gatherings cannot be happening. That will cause the spread of COVID-19,” state epidemiologist Angela Dunn told the Salt Lake Tribune. “We’re in this for the long haul. These social distancing measures will have to be a way of life.” Of course, as we saw at the mall more than two months later, despite 110,000 deaths in the US from the virus, social distancing never really took hold here.
“We’re in this for the long haul. These social distancing measures will have to be a way of life.”
Utah is a young state, with 30 percent of its population under the age of 18, a factor that may have spared it from worse outcomes from the virus, which disproportionately affects the elderly. As of Wednesday, the state had seen 128 deaths, mostly among people over 70. Nicholas Rupp, the communications manager from the Salt Lake County health department told me that the airport reunion didn’t result in the feared outbreak. “We did ask in contact tracing interviews if people attended an airport welcome home. We did not find any exposures with that circumstance,” he explained. “That’s not to say it was OK to do.”
As one of only nine states that did not impose a statewide shelter-in-place order, and like many red states, Utah never really embraced the idea of staying home to flatten the curve. Instead, in late March, Governor Herbert, who has been in office since 2009, issued a toothless state-wide stay-at-home directive that expired May 1 and did little more than require restaurants to end dine-in service. Schools were closed, but Herbert left most decisions about stricter lockdowns to local governments. The response varied widely.
Salt Lake County, with a population of more than 1 million, accounts for about half of the state’s nearly 13,000 cases, and, as a result, it closed all non-essential businesses in March. But Utah County, home to Provo and Brigham Young University, never issued one and instead let businesses decide for themselves how and whether to remain open. BYU shut down, but lots of people from Salt Lake drove across the county line to Provo for haircuts.
On May 1, the governor announced that most of the state would ease up on even its meager restrictions. He allowed businesses to reopen along with dine-in service in restaurants, permitted gatherings of up to 50 people as well as the resumption of team sports with some safety measures. He let a few cities with high virus case numbers to maintain more restrictions, including Salt Lake City, but forced surrounding Salt Lake County to open up.
In mid-May, Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson pleaded with Herbert to exempt the county from the state’s move to the “yellow” low-risk phase of Covid-19 restrictions, noting that the county’s active positive case rate was more than four times the state’s rate and that the county’s diverse and underserved communities were among the hardest hit. (More than 40 percent of the state’s coronavirus cases have been among Latinos, even though they only make up 14 percent of the population.) But he refused, ordering broader reopenings. That’s why Fashion Place was booming over the weekend. It’s technically in Murray, just a 12-minute drive from Salt Lake City proper. Without authorization from the state, Wilson and county health department officials can’t do much about the mall other than urge shoppers and businesses to adhere to social distancing guidelines and to wear masks.
“As Utah approaches the 100-day milestone of coronavirus in our state, it is tempting to reflect on how much we’ve accomplished,” Wilson said in an email to Mother Jones. “But as we see how loosened State restrictions have resulted in more casual social interaction and serious case spikes in some areas, I continue to stress the importance of social distancing, face coverings and using data as our guide. COVID-19 will be with us for a long time and unless we take a long-game approach, we will lose this fight.”


motherjones--2020-06-11--Community Groups Have Consistently Failed to Improve Policing. These Advocates Are Pushing a New Way

Community Groups Have Consistently Failed to Improve Policing. These Advocates Are Pushing a New Way.

This piece was originally published by the Center for Public Integrity , a nonprofit , nonpartisan investigative news organization in Washington , D.C .
In Tulsa , Oklahoma , where Black residents are three times as likely as whites to have police officers use force against them , Tiffany Crutcher is on a mission to get civilian oversight .
More than 140 such review bodies are operating nationwide , but the influence they have varies considerably—many don ’ t have much .
An oversight proposal supported by Tulsa ’ s mayor last year struck advocates and some city council members @ @ @ @ @ @ @ outside his stalled SUV in 2016 when a Tulsa police officer shot and killed him—wants a review agency with enough authority to prompt change .
The weekend after George Floyd died gasping for air under an officer ’ s knee in Minneapolis , hundreds joined Crutcher in a march toward Tulsa Mayor G.T .
Bynum ’ s house .
The following Monday , she and other advocates met with Bynum and his police chief and extracted a promise : The city , which says its collective bargaining agreement with the police union stands @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will attempt to negotiate for that authority in arbitration .
As people protesting police brutality nationwide push for broad reforms , strong civilian oversight is one of the demands .
But it ’ s hard to get .
The story for more than 70 years has been a struggle between community advocates working to enact it and police trying to block or defang it , with elected officials choosing sides .
State laws often serve as stumbling blocks .
And year after year , officers keep killing unarmed people like Crutcher ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Black men .
The mere presence of an oversight body is no cure-all : Minneapolis has three .
Richard Rosenthal , who ran oversight entities in two U.S. cities and one Canadian province , said keys to success include wide-ranging access to police information , paid staff to dig in , a mandate to look at systemic issues as well as individual complaints and political support for recommendations .
“ Avoid doing it on the cheap , ” he said .
If elected officials create an office that meets the bare minimum to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ end , it ’ s not going to have the impact.
” Communities keep trying : Roughly a dozen oversight entities were started in the last year or two , according to the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement .
The group has been inundated with calls in recent days from people who want to create or strengthen local oversight .
“ I can ’ t emphasize enough that we want community oversight with real power , ” said Crutcher , who put her work at her Alabama physical therapy clinic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reform .
“ The fact is , this keeps happening over and over again without consequence .
Nobody is held accountable.
” The first civilian police review board dates back to the 1940s .
But many early examples of community involvement in policing , including in the 1960s , “ were really PR efforts , ” said Samuel Walker , emeritus professor of criminal justice at the University of Nebraska at Omaha .
“ Police chiefs would create these community advisory committees , ” he said .
“ They were always people he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ efforts to make citizen review meaningful , the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights concluded that the system as a whole remained weak .
Most review boards could do no more than make recommendations , the commission said , and few had subpoena power to extract records and ensure witness testimony .
Efforts to strengthen these bodies were often met by stiff resistance from police .
A good deal of what that report described 20 years ago remains true today .
Half the panelists on the Minneapolis Office of Police Conduct Review , for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ replaced an all-civilian office in 2012 with the hope that it would improve relations between the community and its police .
The new body has upheld less than 19 percent of the roughly 2,000 complaints they considered from 2013 through 2019 , according to statistics provided by the city .
Nearly all involved relatively minor infractions that were handled with “ coaching , ” Andrew Hawkins , chief of staff for the Minneapolis Department of Human Rights , said in an email .
Just 39 complaints over those seven years led to formal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t ones filed by the public , said Dave Bicking , a board member of the Twin Cities watchdog group Communities United Against Police Brutality .
“ Officers treat this whole process as a joke , literally , to the point where we heard many , many stories from people who have been involved in something and say to the officer , ‘ I ’ m going to file a complaint against you , ’ and the officer laughs at them , ” Bicking said .
On Sunday , after days of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s 13 members vowed to scrap Minneapolis ’ police department entirely and build a replacement with community input .
But examples of successful oversight are multiplying , said Rosenthal , now a member of the monitoring team overseeing court-ordered changes to Cleveland ’ s police agency .
Federal lawsuits brought by the Obama administration against police agencies with a pattern of abuses , an effort the Trump administration has largely stopped , helped prompt some improvement .
In other cases , communities are trying new ideas on their own .
While just @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Minneapolis ’ said the police “ frequently ” or “ very frequently ” put their recommendations into practice , 72 percent of civilian monitor and auditor offices said the same , according to a 2016 report Rosenthal co-wrote .
Those bodies represent another type of oversight model , one more likely to have paid staff with training to evaluate police practices and data .
Monitor and auditor agencies now account for roughly a quarter of U.S. civilian police oversight , the report found .
Whatever the model , there ’ s an increasing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ training—the “ before ” rather than just the aftermath .
“ It ’ s a lot better to change the conditions that lead to needing to have accountability , ” said Brian Corr , immediate past president of the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement .
Police unions and associations contacted for this story either did not respond , declined to comment or said they were too busy to talk .
Denver ’ s Office of the Independent Monitor receives high marks from Walker and other experts for its effectiveness .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ pressure from Denver ’ s monitor , the city ’ s Police Department revised its use-of-force rules .
By mid-2019 , use of force incidents during arrests had dropped 21 percent .
“ Overall , the Denver model—the Office of Independent Monitor—is working , ” said Xochitl Gaytan , co-chair of the Colorado Latino Forum , whose first name is pronounced Sochi .
“ And it can do better , but it takes a community effort.
” That sustained work by the community is a key part of the office ’ s power @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to lead the city ’ s independent monitor office .
City and police leaders know they ’ ll face political consequences if they ignore its recommendations .
Gaytan and other local advocates want to bring about broader changes than a monitor is designed for—like investing more in services that strengthen neighborhoods , such as housing and healthcare , and less to police them , often referred to as “ defunding the police.
” But they see the monitor as part of the reform story .
There ’ s decades of trauma they don @ @ @ @ @ @ @ generations .
“ I was a teenager the first time a gun was pulled on me by a police officer , ” said Ean Tafoya , co-chair of the Colorado Latino Forum .
“ My father and my grandfather were both shot by police officers and lived.
” In Nashville , the city ’ s civilian oversight office owes its life to community activism : It was born via ballot measure in 2018 .
Voters resoundingly approved it despite more than $ 500,000 in spending to defeat the proposal by the local Fraternal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ agency would drive a wedge between police and the public , the Tennessean reported .
Newark created a Civilian Complaint Review Board two years earlier—decades after the first calls for one—and its level of authority is an ongoing fight .
The body lost its subpoena and investigatory powers in 2018 after Newark ’ s Fraternal Order of Police sued .
The board regained them on appeal and now awaits a decision from the state Supreme Court .
But there ’ s a separate , though temporary , independent monitor in place as part @ @ @ @ @ @ @ over unconstitutional stops , searches , arrests , excessive force and theft by city officers .
Residents most affected by that police abuse were mainly Black , part of a long history of police brutality in Newark that includes the beating of John W. Smith into paralysis after he drove his cab around a double-parked police car in 1967 .
Five days of intense protests followed .
The work by the consent decree ’ s independent monitoring team includes community engagement through forums , an annual survey , quarterly reports , and both @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as police training .
Andrea McChristian , law and policy director at the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice , a Newark nonprofit that is part of the monitoring team , said the creation of community service officers in the last few years—police officers whose role is to act as a point of contact for Newark residents in each of the city ’ s wards—was a critical part of the culture flip needed to improve relationships between the department and its community .
Advocates think the peaceful nature of Newark ’ s protests @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not only to the efforts of local residents but also to recent changes in policing .
Among them : de-escalation training—required by the consent decree—and deciding not to send police equipped with military gear to the protests .
Newark police have largely complied with the requirements of the consent decree , McChristian said .
It will take time to analyze how successful these strategies have been , she added .
“ No matter what strategy we take , whether it ’ s alternatives to policing or traditional police reform , we need to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a focus of everything , ” McChristian said .
“ It ’ s time to really shift towards : What do communities need to feel safe ?
” In Tulsa , the push for an independent monitor met with union opposition from the start .
Union officials said the City Council provided enough oversight , and they heaped criticism on the Denver monitor office that Tulsa ’ s mayor and police-reform advocates looked to as a guide .
“ The Denver model dramatically increased violent crime and did not show an increase of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” Jerad Lindsey , chairman of the Tulsa Fraternal Order of Police , told the Tulsa World .
He did not provide data to back up those claims .
Federal Bureau of Investigation statistics show Denver ’ s violent crime rate falling roughly 8 percent between 2005 , when the monitor ’ s office launched , and 2018 , the latest numbers .
Reached for comment , the union ’ s president , Mark Secrist , said by email that it would not be appropriate to speak on the matter because the group @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about the proposal .
Amy Brown , deputy mayor of Tulsa , said the City Council would first need to pass legislation creating an oversight office .
But what that office can do must not affect police working conditions because state law requires those changes be subjected to collective bargaining .
The city will work to get broader authority when union contract negotiations reopen , potentially as soon as October .
Tulsa recently created mental-health and community-engagement units in the police department to prioritize some of the work the mayor hoped an oversight @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ There ’ s been a lot of good work happening in the last few months , ” she said .
Crutcher , who has a clinical doctorate in physical therapy , wants proactive improvements that will decrease risks to residents when they come into contact with police .
But she also thinks a strong oversight body would ensure that officers face consequences when appropriate .
The officer who killed her brother was charged , but ultimately acquitted .
The case was brought over the objections of the union , which filed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who filed the charges .
Had oversight employees been involved , Crutcher is convinced the investigation would have been more rigorous .
That ’ s proved true in New Orleans , said Susan Hutson , that city ’ s independent police monitor since 2010 .
Her office is on the scene whenever police action results in death or hospitalization .
After police shot and killed unarmed 20-year-old Wendell Allen in a 2012 raid , she said , it was a monitor employee who figured out that an officer had a recording of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was false .
A police officer pleaded guilty to a charge of manslaughter .
“ We ’ ll make sure evidence is being preserved , that officers are not allowed to speak to one another [ before investigations ] , ” said Hutson , president of the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement .
“ We ’ ve made numerous recommendations.
” Between that , a court-ordered reform plan and the department ’ s own efforts , Hutson said she ’ s seen big improvements in local policing .
Crutcher , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about the future of police reform in Tulsa , a city still grappling with the 1921 massacre of as many as 300 Black residents by white people who were never prosecuted .
But she had to upend her life to get this far .
“ I didn ’ t choose this .
I was thrust into this , ” Crutcher said .
“ And I ’ m exhausted , because I ’ m tired of having to wake up every single morning to fight for my life because I ’ m Black .
@

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This piece was originally published by the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative news organization in Washington, D.C.
In Tulsa, Oklahoma, where Black residents are three times as likely as whites to have police officers use force against them, Tiffany Crutcher is on a mission to get civilian oversight.
More than 140 such review bodies are operating nationwide, but the influence they have varies considerably—many don’t have much. An oversight proposal supported by Tulsa’s mayor last year struck advocates and some city council members as too weak. Crutcher—whose brother was outside his stalled SUV in 2016 when a Tulsa police officer shot and killed him—wants a review agency with enough authority to prompt change.
The weekend after George Floyd died gasping for air under an officer’s knee in Minneapolis, hundreds joined Crutcher in a march toward Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum’s house. The following Monday, she and other advocates met with Bynum and his police chief and extracted a promise: The city, which says its collective bargaining agreement with the police union stands in the way of stronger oversight, will attempt to negotiate for that authority in arbitration.
As people protesting police brutality nationwide push for broad reforms, strong civilian oversight is one of the demands. But it’s hard to get. The story for more than 70 years has been a struggle between community advocates working to enact it and police trying to block or defang it, with elected officials choosing sides. State laws often serve as stumbling blocks. And year after year, officers keep killing unarmed people like Crutcher’s twin brother Terence, many of them Black men.
The mere presence of an oversight body is no cure-all: Minneapolis has three. Richard Rosenthal, who ran oversight entities in two U.S. cities and one Canadian province, said keys to success include wide-ranging access to police information, paid staff to dig in, a mandate to look at systemic issues as well as individual complaints and political support for recommendations.
“Avoid doing it on the cheap,” he said. If elected officials create an office that meets the bare minimum to look like oversight, “in the end, it’s not going to have the impact.”
Communities keep trying: Roughly a dozen oversight entities were started in the last year or two, according to the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement. The group has been inundated with calls in recent days from people who want to create or strengthen local oversight.
“I can’t emphasize enough that we want community oversight with real power,” said Crutcher, who put her work at her Alabama physical therapy clinic on hold to focus on Tulsa police reform. “The fact is, this keeps happening over and over again without consequence. Nobody is held accountable.”
A question of power
The first civilian police review board dates back to the 1940s. But many early examples of community involvement in policing, including in the 1960s, “were really PR efforts,” said Samuel Walker, emeritus professor of criminal justice at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.
“Police chiefs would create these community advisory committees,” he said. “They were always people he picked.”
“Police chiefs would create these community advisory committees. They were always people he picked.”
In 2000, despite renewed efforts to make citizen review meaningful, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights concluded that the system as a whole remained weak. Most review boards could do no more than make recommendations, the commission said, and few had subpoena power to extract records and ensure witness testimony. Efforts to strengthen these bodies were often met by stiff resistance from police.
A good deal of what that report described 20 years ago remains true today. Half the panelists on the Minneapolis Office of Police Conduct Review, for instance, are police officers—a structure that replaced an all-civilian office in 2012 with the hope that it would improve relations between the community and its police.
The new body has upheld less than 19 percent of the roughly 2,000 complaints they considered from 2013 through 2019, according to statistics provided by the city. Nearly all involved relatively minor infractions that were handled with “coaching,” Andrew Hawkins, chief of staff for the Minneapolis Department of Human Rights, said in an email.
Just 39 complaints over those seven years led to formal discipline. And most of those weren’t ones filed by the public, said Dave Bicking, a board member of the Twin Cities watchdog group Communities United Against Police Brutality.
“Officers treat this whole process as a joke, literally, to the point where we heard many, many stories from people who have been involved in something and say to the officer, ‘I’m going to file a complaint against you,’ and the officer laughs at them,” Bicking said.
On Sunday, after days of protests, nine of the City Council’s 13 members vowed to scrap Minneapolis’ police department entirely and build a replacement with community input.
But examples of successful oversight are multiplying, said Rosenthal, now a member of the monitoring team overseeing court-ordered changes to Cleveland’s police agency. Federal lawsuits brought by the Obama administration against police agencies with a pattern of abuses, an effort the Trump administration has largely stopped, helped prompt some improvement. In other cases, communities are trying new ideas on their own.
While just 34 percent of review agencies such as Minneapolis’ said the police “frequently” or “very frequently” put their recommendations into practice, 72 percent of civilian monitor and auditor offices said the same, according to a 2016 report Rosenthal co-wrote. Those bodies represent another type of oversight model, one more likely to have paid staff with training to evaluate police practices and data. Monitor and auditor agencies now account for roughly a quarter of U.S. civilian police oversight, the report found.
Whatever the model, there’s an increasing focus on civilian oversight of policies and training—the “before” rather than just the aftermath. “It’s a lot better to change the conditions that lead to needing to have accountability,” said Brian Corr, immediate past president of the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement.
Police unions and associations contacted for this story either did not respond, declined to comment or said they were too busy to talk.
‘It takes a community effort’
Denver’s Office of the Independent Monitor receives high marks from Walker and other experts for its effectiveness. In 2018, for instance, following pressure from Denver’s monitor, the city’s Police Department revised its use-of-force rules. By mid-2019, use of force incidents during arrests had dropped 21 percent.
“Overall, the Denver model—the Office of Independent Monitor—is working,” said Xochitl Gaytan, co-chair of the Colorado Latino Forum, whose first name is pronounced Sochi. “And it can do better, but it takes a community effort.”
“Overall, the Denver model—the Office of Independent Monitor—is working…it can do better, but it takes a community effort.”
That sustained work by the community is a key part of the office’s power, said Rosenthal, the first person to lead the city’s independent monitor office. City and police leaders know they’ll face political consequences if they ignore its recommendations.
Gaytan and other local advocates want to bring about broader changes than a monitor is designed for—like investing more in services that strengthen neighborhoods, such as housing and healthcare, and less to police them, often referred to as “defunding the police.” But they see the monitor as part of the reform story. There’s decades of trauma they don’t want repeated in yet more generations.
“I was a teenager the first time a gun was pulled on me by a police officer,” said Ean Tafoya, co-chair of the Colorado Latino Forum. “My father and my grandfather were both shot by police officers and lived.”
In Nashville, the city’s civilian oversight office owes its life to community activism: It was born via ballot measure in 2018. Voters resoundingly approved it despite more than $500,000 in spending to defeat the proposal by the local Fraternal Order of Police, which said the agency would drive a wedge between police and the public, the Tennessean reported.
Newark created a Civilian Complaint Review Board two years earlier—decades after the first calls for one—and its level of authority is an ongoing fight. The body lost its subpoena and investigatory powers in 2018 after Newark’s Fraternal Order of Police sued. The board regained them on appeal and now awaits a decision from the state Supreme Court. But there’s a separate, though temporary, independent monitor in place as part of a federal consent decree with Newark over unconstitutional stops, searches, arrests, excessive force and theft by city officers.
Residents most affected by that police abuse were mainly Black, part of a long history of police brutality in Newark that includes the beating of John W. Smith into paralysis after he drove his cab around a double-parked police car in 1967. Five days of intense protests followed.
The work by the consent decree’s independent monitoring team includes community engagement through forums, an annual survey, quarterly reports, and both giving and soliciting feedback on procedures such as police training.
Andrea McChristian, law and policy director at the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, a Newark nonprofit that is part of the monitoring team, said the creation of community service officers in the last few years—police officers whose role is to act as a point of contact for Newark residents in each of the city’s wards—was a critical part of the culture flip needed to improve relationships between the department and its community.
Advocates think the peaceful nature of Newark’s protests over Floyd’s death is due not only to the efforts of local residents but also to recent changes in policing. Among them: de-escalation training—required by the consent decree—and deciding not to send police equipped with military gear to the protests.
Newark police have largely complied to the consent decree’s requirement to develop new policies and train officers accordingly, McChristian said. It will take time to analyze how successful these strategies have been, she added.
“No matter what strategy we take, whether it’s alternatives to policing or traditional police reform, we need to make sure that the community voice is a focus of everything,” McChristian said. “It’s time to really shift towards: What do communities need to feel safe?”
In Oklahoma, a brewing battle
In Tulsa, the push for an independent monitor met with union opposition from the start. Union officials said the City Council provided enough oversight, and they heaped criticism on the Denver monitor office that Tulsa’s mayor and police-reform advocates looked to as a guide.
“The Denver model dramatically increased violent crime and did not show an increase of trust within the community once implemented,” Jerad Lindsey, chairman of the Tulsa Fraternal Order of Police, told the Tulsa World. He did not provide data to back up those claims. Federal Bureau of Investigation statistics show Denver’s violent crime rate falling roughly 8 percent between 2005, when the monitor’s office launched, and 2018, the latest numbers.
Reached for comment, the union’s president, Mark Secrist, said by email that it would not be appropriate to speak on the matter because the group is now in discussions with the city about the proposal.
Amy Brown, deputy mayor of Tulsa, said the City Council would first need to pass legislation creating an oversight office. But what that office can do must not affect police working conditions because state law requires those changes be subjected to collective bargaining. The city will work to get broader authority when union contract negotiations reopen, potentially as soon as October.
Tulsa recently created mental-health and community-engagement units in the police department to prioritize some of the work the mayor hoped an oversight body would take on, Brown added.
“There’s been a lot of good work happening in the last few months,” she said.
“There’s been a lot of good work happening in the last few months.”
Crutcher, who has a clinical doctorate in physical therapy, wants proactive improvements that will decrease risks to residents when they come into contact with police. But she also thinks a strong oversight body would ensure that officers face consequences when appropriate. The officer who killed her brother was charged, but ultimately acquitted. The case was brought over the objections of the union, which filed an ethics complaint against the district attorney who filed the charges. Had oversight employees been involved, Crutcher is convinced the investigation would have been more rigorous.
That’s proved true in New Orleans, said Susan Hutson, that city’s independent police monitor since 2010. Her office is on the scene whenever police action results in death or hospitalization. After police shot and killed unarmed 20-year-old Wendell Allen in a 2012 raid, she said, it was a monitor employee who figured out that an officer had a recording of the incident—audio evidence that showed the official story was false. A police officer pleaded guilty to a charge of manslaughter.
“We’ll make sure evidence is being preserved, that officers are not allowed to speak to one another [before investigations],” said Hutson, president of the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement. “We’ve made numerous recommendations.”
Between that, a court-ordered reform plan and the department’s own efforts, Hutson said she’s seen big improvements in local policing.
Crutcher, for her part, is cautiously optimistic about the future of police reform in Tulsa, a city still grappling with the 1921 massacre of as many as 300 Black residents by white people who were never prosecuted. But she had to upend her life to get this far.
The work extracts a heavy toll.
“I didn’t choose this. I was thrust into this,” Crutcher said. “And I’m exhausted, because I’m tired of having to wake up every single morning to fight for my life because I’m Black.”


motherjones--2020-06-11--Elizabeth Warren and Some Republicans Agree This Man Was a Loser

On Wednesday , President Donald Trump went on a toot about Confederate generals .
The spark for his anger was the renewed push to rename the 10 United States military bases named after Confederate officers—that is , people who took up arms against the United States to preserve slavery .
According to the president , those bases are part of a tradition of “ Winning , Victory , and Freedom.
” According to his spokesperson , Kayleigh McEnany , renaming the bases would be “ a complete disrespect to the men and women , who the last bit of American @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and lost their lives were these forts.
” You never want to do “ a complete disrespect.
” Trump sees all problems as nails that can be fixed with his handy racism hammer , but on this issue , at least , that impulse has left him on an island apart from others in his own party .
Although he expressed his optimism that Republicans “ won ’ t fall for this , ” the idea quickly picked up steam .
On Thursday , House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy ( R-Calif. ) signaled @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the bases , and a number of Senate Republicans endorsed an amendment authored by Sen. Elizabeth Warren ( D-Mass . )
mandating that the bases be renamed within three years .
Sen. Kevin Cramer ( R-N.D ) told Talking Points Memo he didn ’ t see the point of naming a base after a “ traitor.
” Sen. Roy Blunt ( R-Mo . )
noted that Braxton Bragg , for whom Fort Bragg is named , “ was probably the worst commanding general in the Confederate army.
” The Republican-controlled Senate Armed Services @ @ @ @ @ @ @ voice vote .
Fort Tubman here we come .

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On Wednesday, President Donald Trump went on a toot about Confederate generals. The spark for his anger was the renewed push to rename the 10 United States military bases named after Confederate officers—that is, people who took up arms against the United States to preserve slavery. According to the president, those bases are part of a tradition of “Winning, Victory, and Freedom.” According to his spokesperson, Kayleigh McEnany, renaming the bases would be “a complete disrespect to the men and women, who the last bit of American land they saw before they went overseas and lost their lives were these forts.” You never want to do “a complete disrespect.”
Seriously failed presidential candidate, Senator Elizabeth “Pocahontas” Warren, just introduced an Amendment on the renaming of many of our legendary Military Bases from which we trained to WIN two World Wars. Hopefully our great Republican Senators won’t fall for this! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 11, 2020
Trump sees all problems as nails that can be fixed with his handy racism hammer, but on this issue, at least, that impulse has left him on an island apart from others in his own party. Although he expressed his optimism that Republicans “won’t fall for this,” the idea quickly picked up steam. On Thursday, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) signaled he’d be open to renaming the bases, and a number of Senate Republicans endorsed an amendment authored by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) mandating that the bases be renamed within three years. Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D) told Talking Points Memo he didn’t see the point of naming a base after a “traitor.” Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) noted that Braxton Bragg, for whom Fort Bragg is named, “was probably the worst commanding general in the Confederate army.” The Republican-controlled Senate Armed Services Committee approved Warren’s amendment by voice vote.
Fort Tubman here we come.


motherjones--2020-06-11--Trump Just Showed Us His Core Campaign Message: Chaos In the Streets

Chaos in the streets .
Looters running free .
Rioters threatening you and your family .
Anarchists destroying…everything .
And there ’ s only one way to stop the end of civilization : re-elect Donald J. Trump as president .
That ’ s what Trump ’ s core campaign message is becoming .
While once Trump intended to run in 2020 on the strength of the US economy , he has now shifted to a new narrative : Americans are in immediate danger due to the Black Lives Matter protests that have spread across the nation .
Focusing on the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the demonstrations ( which have mostly been peaceful ) , Trump is selling a dark and apocalyptic vision .
The end is nigh , unless Trump can deliver the “ LAW & ORDER , ” he repeatedly vows in his tweets .
This isn ’ t any secret .
On Thursday , his campaign sent out an email to supporters that began with this description of the present moment : “ It ’ s past time for Democrat Mayors and Governors to get tough .
Violent thugs are running rampant – these people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the missive noted , was in cahoots with the forces of disruption : “ the Fake News has been inciting hatred and chaos.
” But Trump , his campaign said , was standing strong in the face of this threat : “ President Trump is working around the clock to restore in these communities where liberal leadership has FAILED .
It ’ s time for this madness to END.
” Look out your window .
How much madness and chaos do you see ?
Nevertheless , Trump and his campaign want voters to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ overrun by mobs associated with the ongoing protests against police violence and social inequities .
In the past week , Trump has repeatedly tweeted about Antifa , the unorganized band of anti-government left-wing activists , as if it is the number one threat to the nation .
( Coronavirus who ? )
Trump has often ignored the orderly protesters and , instead , zeroed in on the isolated incidents of violence , amplifying these actions .
“ If you watch Fake News @ CNN or MSDNC , ” he tweeted on June 3 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ killers , terrorists , arsonists , anarchists , thugs , hoodlums , looters , ANTIFA & others , would be the nicest , kindest most wonderful people in the Whole Wide World .
No , they are what they are – very bad for our Country !
” And on June 11 , he posted a tweet that seemed to justify the security forces attack on peaceful demonstrators at Lafayette Square across from the White House , which cleared the way for Trump to conduct his Bible-holding photo-op stunt : “ Our great @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the area around the White House could hardly believe how easy it was .
‘ A walk in the park ’ , one said .
The protesters , agitators , anarchists ( ANTIFA ) , and others , were handled VERY easily by the Guard , D.C. Police , & S.S. GREAT JOB !
” ( Trump even claimed in a tweet that a 75-year-old longtime peace activist who was pushed to the ground by a Buffalo police officer and seriously injured during a protest was an Antifa provocateur . )
So this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ But it ’ s really an old playbook .
When Trump accepted the Republican presidential nomination at the party ’ s convention in 2016 , he decried criminal violence and declared that if he were to be elected president he would “ restore law and order to our country… I am the law and order candidate.
” ( “ I alone can fix it , ” he also said , referring to a nation supposedly racked with “ death , destruction and weakness.
” ) During his inaugural address , Trump described the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ gangs—and stated , “ This American carnage stops right here and stops right now.
” In the run-up to the 2018 mid-term elections , Trump asserted the nation was in peril due to the caravan of migrants who had approached the US-Mexican border seeking entry and asylum .
He tried to manufacture a crisis— ” very bad people ” are coming to the United States—for political gain .
It didn ’ t work ; the Democrats won control of the House .
Of course , Trump—who weeks ago tweeted , “ when the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ —isn ’ t the first conniving politician to cynically embrace law-and-order as a campaign mantra .
And his current moves are being compared to those of Richard Nixon in 1968 .
As historian Rick Perlstein recently pointed out , Nixon ’ s “ most famous campaign commercial was a montage of riot scenes over a jittery , shrieking electronic soundtrack , the camera lingering on the naked white torso of a mannequin .
Then came Nixon ’ s voice : ‘ So I pledge to you , we will have order in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ though , was running as a challenger against Hubert Humphrey , who as the incumbent vice president could be targeted as one of the guys in charge as chaos , protest , and social disorder engulfed the United States .
Trump clearly wants to duck responsibility for the civil unrest that has occurred on his watch while positioning himself as the thin orange line between stability and societal collapse .
It ’ s American Carnage , Part II .
In this script , protesters are malicious marauders who are heading to your town @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and your loved ones from the angry ( black ? )
hordes .
It ’ s a campaign of fear and loathing .
It trades racist dog whistles for bullhorns .
As millions of Americans are rising up to demand adherence to the nation ’ s professed values of justice and equality , Trump is fostering an atmosphere of darkness , despair , and doom .
Be scared , my fellow Americans , be very scared , he says .
Because then he has a better chance of winning your vote .
This @ @ @ @ @ @ @ unleashing in a highly coordinated fashion .
“ The radical Democrats went off the deep end this week , voicing their full-fledged support for defunding our law enforcement while bending the knee to rioters and looters , ” Kimberly Guilfoyle , national chair of the Trump Victory Finance Committee , huffed on Wednesday .
Bending the knee to rioters ?
The intent of that clever phrase is obvious ; it equates the demonstrations against police violence to acquiescence to looting .
They are all thugs : Colin Kaepernick , Nancy Pelosi , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ It is vital that we re-elect President Trump to keep Joe Biden and the socialist mob from destroying everything that makes America great , ” Mercedes Schlapp , a top strategist for the Trump campaign , proclaimed this week , “ Trump is standing up for law and order , while the radical Democrats have refused to condemn violence in our cities and are working to defund the law enforcement officers who have prevented chaos in our streets.
” The buzz words are glaring .
Let ’ s push those buttons : Chaos @ @ @ @ @ @ @ That ’ s the plan .
Trump can no longer politically exploit the economy .
He can not tout ( convincingly ) his inept response to the coronavirus pandemic that has claimed the lives of over 110,000 Americans .
He can only cook up a fictitious threat , incite terror , stir panic—and posture as the strong man who can beat back an imaginary calamity .
He is a scared president trying to whip up phantom threats he can then boast of defeating .
This is how he is appealing for support .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the campaign rallies he is starting next week , with a kick-off in Tulsa , Oklahoma ( where 99 years ago , there was indeed a race riot…with white people destroying a black neighborhood and massacring scores of its residents ) .
Trump likes chaos .
He doesn ’ t play by the rules .
He is not encumbered by truth or by norms of decency .
His pitch now is that he can save America from anarchy and disarray .
This latest con of his is hardly surprising .
Perhaps the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is willing to go as president to create the discord that he believes he needs to hold on to power .

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Chaos in the streets. Looters running free. Rioters threatening you and your family. Anarchists destroying…everything. And there’s only one way to stop the end of civilization: reelect Donald J. Trump as president.
That’s what Trump’s core campaign message is becoming. While once Trump intended to run in 2020 on the strength of the US economy, he has now shifted to a new narrative: Americans are in immediate danger due to the Black Lives Matter protests that have spread across the nation. Focusing on the limited violence and looting that has accompanied the demonstrations (which have mostly been peaceful), Trump is selling a dark and apocalyptic vision. The end is nigh, unless Trump can deliver the “LAW & ORDER,” he repeatedly vows in his tweets.
This isn’t any secret. On Thursday, his campaign sent out an email to supporters that began with this description of the present moment: “It’s past time for Democrat Mayors and Governors to get tough. Violent thugs are running rampant – these people are ANARCHISTS.” And the media, the missive noted, was in cahoots with the forces of disruption: “the Fake News has been inciting hatred and chaos.” But Trump, his campaign said, was standing strong in the face of this threat: “President Trump is working around the clock to restore LAW AND ORDER in these communities where liberal leadership has FAILED. It’s time for this madness to END.”
Look out your window. How much madness and chaos do you see? Nevertheless, Trump and his campaign want voters to believe their homes are about to be overrun by mobs associated with the ongoing protests against police violence and social inequities.
In the past week, Trump has repeatedly tweeted about antifa, the unorganized band of anti-government left-wing activists, as if it is the number one threat to the nation. (Coronavirus who?) Trump has often ignored the orderly protesters and, instead, zeroed in on the isolated incidents of violence, amplifying these actions. “If you watch Fake News @CNN or MSDNC,” he tweeted on June 3, “you would think that the killers, terrorists, arsonists, anarchists, thugs, hoodlums, looters, ANTIFA & others, would be the nicest, kindest most wonderful people in the Whole Wide World. No, they are what they are – very bad for our Country!” And on June 11, he posted a tweet that seemed to justify the security forces attack on peaceful demonstrators at Lafayette Square across from the White House, which cleared the way for Trump to conduct his Bible-holding photo-op stunt: “Our great National Guard Troops who took care of the area around the White House could hardly believe how easy it was. ‘A walk in the park’, one said. The protesters, agitators, anarchists (ANTIFA), and others, were handled VERY easily by the Guard, D.C. Police, & S.S. GREAT JOB!” (Trump even claimed in a tweet that a 75-year-old longtime peace activist who was pushed to the ground by a Buffalo police officer and seriously injured during a protest was an antifa provocateur.)
So this is Trump’s new playbook. But it’s really an old playbook. When Trump accepted the Republican presidential nomination at the party’s convention in 2016, he decried criminal violence and declared that if he were to be elected president he would “restore law and order to our country… I am the law and order candidate.” (“I alone can fix it,” he also said, referring to a nation supposedly racked with “death, destruction and weakness.”) During his inaugural address, Trump described the country in horrific terms—overrun by crime and gangs—and stated, “This American carnage stops right here and stops right now.” In the run-up to the 2018 mid-term elections, Trump asserted the nation was in peril due to the caravan of migrants who had approached the US-Mexican border seeking entry and asylum. He tried to manufacture a crisis—”very bad people” are coming to the United States—for political gain. It didn’t work; the Democrats won control of the House.
Of course, Trump—who weeks ago tweeted, “when the looting starts, the shooting starts”—isn’t the first conniving politician to cynically embrace law-and-order as a campaign mantra. And his current moves are being compared to those of Richard Nixon in 1968. As historian Rick Perlstein recently pointed out, Nixon’s “most famous campaign commercial was a montage of riot scenes over a jittery, shrieking electronic soundtrack, the camera lingering on the naked white torso of a mannequin. Then came Nixon’s voice: ‘So I pledge to you, we will have order in the United States.'” Nixon, though, was running as a challenger against Hubert Humphrey, who as the incumbent vice president could be targeted as one of the guys in charge as chaos, protest, and social disorder engulfed the United States.
Trump clearly wants to duck responsibility for the civil unrest that has occurred on his watch while positioning himself as the thin orange line between stability and societal collapse. It’s American Carnage, Part II. In this script, protesters are malicious marauders who are heading to your town. And Trump alone can protect you and your loved ones from the angry (black?) hordes. It’s a campaign of fear and loathing. It trades racist dog whistles for bullhorns. As millions of Americans are rising up to demand adherence to the nation’s professed values of justice and equality, Trump is fostering an atmosphere of darkness, despair, and doom. Be scared, my fellow Americans, be very scared, he says. Because then he has a better chance of winning your vote.
This is the message his campaign has begun unleashing in a highly coordinated fashion. “The radical Democrats went off the deep end this week, voicing their full-fledged support for defunding our law enforcement while bending the knee to rioters and looters,” Kimberly Guilfoyle, national chair of the Trump Victory Finance Committee, huffed on Wednesday. Bending the knee to rioters? The intent of that clever phrase is obvious; it equates the demonstrations against police violence to acquiescence to looting. They are all thugs: Colin Kaepernick, Nancy Pelosi, the protesters, and the criminals. “It is vital that we re-elect President Trump to keep Joe Biden and the socialist mob from destroying everything that makes America great,” Mercedes Schlapp, a top strategist for the Trump campaign, proclaimed this week. “Trump is standing up for law and order, while the radical Democrats have refused to condemn violence in our cities and are working to defund the law enforcement officers who have prevented chaos in our streets.”
The buzz words are glaring. Let’s push those buttons: Chaos, mob, law and order. That’s the plan. Trump can no longer politically exploit the economy. He cannot tout (convincingly) his inept response to the coronavirus pandemic that has claimed the lives of over 110,000 Americans. He can only cook up a fictitious threat, incite terror, stir panic—and posture as the strong man who can beat back an imaginary calamity. He is a scared president trying to whip up phantom threats he can then boast of defeating. This is how he is appealing for support. This will likely be a key theme in the campaign rallies he is starting next week, with a kick-off in Tulsa, Oklahoma (where 99 years ago, there was indeed a race riot…with white people destroying a black neighborhood and massacring scores of its residents).
Trump likes chaos. He doesn’t play by the rules. He is not encumbered by truth or by norms of decency. His pitch now is that he can save America from anarchy and disarray. This latest con of his is hardly surprising. Perhaps the more troubling matter is how far Trump is willing to go as president to create the discord that he believes he needs to hold on to power.


motherjones--2020-06-11--Trump Brags That His Company Never Asked for Federal COVID Relief. It Did.

President Trump ’ s personal business empire has taken a beating during the COVID-19 pandemic .
With the majority of his income coming from the travel and resort industries , it ’ s no surprise he ’ s been so hard hit .
At one point in early April , the Trump Organization had closed nearly every property it operates—his luxury DC hotel was an exception—and laid off more than 1,500 employees .
Slowly , the president ’ s properties have begun reopening , and on Wednesday night , as the country reeled from the COVID crisis and protests over @ @ @ @ @ @ @ promote the reopening of his Doral golf course near Miami—and to boast that his company hadn ’ t asked the government for any relief : That is blatantly not true .
As far we know , the Trump Organization didn ’ t receive any Paycheck Protection Program money , but he most certainly did ask for a break from the federal government he runs .
In the nesting-doll world of Trump ’ s many conflicts of interests , one of his most flagrant is the arrangement he has with the General Services Administration @ @ @ @ @ @ @ federal government ’ s landlord , involving his luxury hotel in downtown DC .
The hotel , which he opened in 2016 , operates out of a historic old post office building owned by the federal government that he signed a lease to take over in 2013 .
The lease he signed expressly forbade anyone participating in the lease from holding public office , but after Trump took office , attorneys for the agency ( which now reported to Trump ) determined the the prohibition applied only at the time of the lease @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it created a situation where Trump , the president , is now in charge of the federal agency that Trump , the hotel owner , rents a building from .
And it ’ s not a small deal , either .
Trump agreed to pay at least $ 3 million a year , plus a percentage of any profits from the hotel he operates , for 60 years .
Last fall , three years to the day the hotel opened—which also happens to be the first day he could legally make the move—Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ father would be interested in selling the lease .
But that hasn ’ t happened yet , and the hotel—which has become something of a clubhouse for DC lobbyists , conservative activists , and foreign delegations hoping to make an impression on the president—saw its occupancy plummet from just below 60 percent ( which industry experts say is probably not enough for the hotel to break even ) to the single digits during the height of the pandemic .
So , like many business owners , Trump turned to his landlord—the federal government—to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the trying economic times .
So , yes , the Trump family did ask for help from the federal government .
It ’ s not clear if they got it , but they certainly tried .
Trump ’ s tweet Wednesday include a retweet of his son Eric , who back in April confirmed to the New York Times that his family had indeed requested a break on the rent : The Trump Organization is current on its rent , according to Eric Trump , the president ’ s son , but he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ conversation about possible delays in future monthly payments .
The younger Mr. Trump said the company was asking the G.S.A .
for any relief that it might be granting other federal tenants .
The president still owns the company , but his eldest sons run the day-to-day operations .
“ Just treat us the same , ” Eric Trump in a statement on Tuesday .
“ Whatever that may be is fine.
” The lie isn ’ t the only problematic part of the president ’ s tweet .
It also is yet @ @ @ @ @ @ @ podium as the most prominent and powerful American to shill for his own business .
Trump has regularly visited his properties over the course of his presidency—he is scheduled to visit his New Jersey golf course this weekend—and on occasion , he has used his gigantic social media presence to promote them .
Through his company , Trump also approached at least one of his lenders—Deutsche Bank—for a break on debt payments , and Palm Beach County , which owns the land under his golf course there , for a break on his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ clear if he has received either .

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President Trump’s personal business empire has taken a beating during the COVID-19 pandemic. With the majority of his income coming from the travel and resort industries, it’s no surprise he’s been so hard hit. At one point in early April, the Trump Organization had closed nearly every property it operates—his luxury DC hotel was an exception—and laid off more than 1,500 employees.
Slowly, the president’s properties have begun reopening, and on Wednesday night, as the country reeled from the COVID crisis and protests over systemic racism, Trump took time to promote the reopening of his Doral golf course near Miami—and to boast that his company hadn’t asked the government for any relief:
…And the Trump family didn’t ask the Federal government for money to carry this and many other very expensive to carry properties! https://t.co/IakI8RiWfj — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 11, 2020
That is blatantly not true.
As far we know, the Trump Organization didn’t receive any Paycheck Protection Program money, but he most certainly did ask for a break from the federal government he runs.
In the nesting-doll world of Trump’s many conflicts of interests, one of his most flagrant is the arrangement he has with the General Services Administration, the agency that acts as the federal government’s landlord, involving his luxury hotel in downtown DC. The hotel, which he opened in 2016, operates out of a historic old post office building owned by the federal government that he signed a lease to take over in 2013. The lease he signed expressly forbade anyone participating in the lease from holding public office, but after Trump took office, attorneys for the agency (which now reported to Trump) determined the the prohibition applied only at the time of the lease’s signing.
Either way, it created a situation where Trump, the president, is now in charge of the federal agency that Trump, the hotel owner, rents a building from. And it’s not a small deal, either. Trump agreed to pay at least $3 million a year, plus a percentage of any profits from the hotel he operates, for 60 years. Last fall, three years to the day the hotel opened—which also happens to be the first day he could legally make the move—Trump’s adult children announced that their father would be interested in selling the lease.
But that hasn’t happened yet, and the hotel—which has become something of a clubhouse for DC lobbyists, conservative activists, and foreign delegations hoping to make an impression on the president—saw its occupancy plummet from just below 60 percent (which industry experts say is probably not enough for the hotel to break even) to the single digits during the height of the pandemic. So, like many business owners, Trump turned to his landlord—the federal government—to ask for a break on rent during the trying economic times.
So, yes, the Trump family did ask for help from the federal government. It’s not clear if they got it, but they certainly tried. Trump’s tweet Wednesday include a retweet of his son Eric, who back in April confirmed to the New York Times that his family had indeed requested a break on the rent:
The Trump Organization is current on its rent, according to Eric Trump, the president’s son, but he confirmed that the company had opened a conversation about possible delays in future monthly payments. The younger Mr. Trump said the company was asking the G.S.A. for any relief that it might be granting other federal tenants. The president still owns the company, but his eldest sons run the day-to-day operations. “Just treat us the same,” Eric Trump in a statement on Tuesday. “Whatever that may be is fine.”
The lie isn’t the only problematic part of the president’s tweet. It also is yet another instance of the president using his podium as the most prominent and powerful American to shill for his own business. Trump has regularly visited his properties over the course of his presidency—he is scheduled to visit his New Jersey golf course this weekend—and on occasion, he has used his gigantic social media presence to promote them.
Through his company, Trump also approached at least one of his lenders—Deutsche Bank—for a break on debt payments, and Palm Beach County, which owns the land under his golf course there, for a break on his rent. It’s not yet clear if he has received either.