theintercept--2020-06-06--Police Attacks on Protesters Are Rooted in a Violent Ideology of Reactionary Grievance

as the protesters filled Grand Army Plaza .
In normal times , it ’ s easy to forget that the gateway to Brooklyn ’ s largest park was once a battleground in the fight for American independence , or that its iconic “ Soldiers and Sailors Arch ” is a monument to those lost in the war to end slavery .
But with a global pandemic having taken more than 100,000 American lives in a matter of months , more than 40 million others out of work , and protests against police violence sweeping the U.S. , recent days have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ demonstrators took their places on Sunday , the plaza ’ s place in history felt unusually present .
Kenyatta Reid , a Brooklyn native , was among those gathered at the foot of the arch .
Reid and her husband had come to the protest with their three young children , ages 11 , 8 , and 2 .
It was the family ’ s second day in the streets , joining the nationwide wave of demonstrations following the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin .
The previous night @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and her family had watched as New York City police officers in riot gear beat and pepper-sprayed protesters .
“ That got really scary for the kids , ” Reid told me .
Still , her children woke up the next morning asking to go out again — they had even made their own signs .
“ Am I next ?
” her son ’ s read .
As an African American mother raising three kids in the United States in 2020 , Reid said the conditions that sparked the protests are the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ process of “ letting them know that they ’ re worthy , and the problem is other people , not them.
” When asked if they would keep coming out , Reid did not hesitate .
“ This is their lives , ” she said .
“ You have to.
” Hundreds of miles away , in Cincinnati , reaction to the protests was taking a different shape .
While demonstrators were gathering in Brooklyn , a group of Hamilton County sheriff ’ s deputies dressed in tactical gear and body armor , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a pro-police flag outside of their office .
Ubiquitous in some parts of the country , the flag replaces the red of a traditional American flag with black .
The banner incorporates a blue band to symbolize the “ thin blue line ” that some police officers believe they represent : society ’ s well-armed firewall , protecting an otherwise defenseless public from the forces of evil .
Sheriff Jim Neil later said that the flag replacement was only temporary , after an image of his deputies ’ informal ceremony went viral .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ been lost to vandals , the sheriff tweeted , and the current one was meant to honor an officer whose helmet was struck with a bullet the previous night .
“ The flag has been removed and we will replace it with the American Flag in the morning , ” Neil wrote .
Though minor in comparison to the acts of physical violence and outpourings of grief seen across the country , the episode in Cincinnati was significant .
The “ thin blue line ” flag is the known symbol of a social @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is inextricably linked to the country ’ s current unrest .
The flag is the centerpiece in a world of merchandise and policing philosophy , all built around the idea that the police are an embattled tribe of warriors , maligned and reviled by a nation that fails to appreciate their unique importance .
The blue line is a reminder that much of the policing community sees itself as separate from the rest of society — and as the nation has witnessed in recent days , in video after shocking video , this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to deprive citizens of life and liberty , does not take kindly to those who challenge its authority .
“ What we ’ re talking about here is a worldview that says that police are the only force capable of holding society together , ” Alex Vitale , a professor of sociology at Brooklyn College and author of “ The End of Policing , ” told me .
The view turns on the notion that “ without the constant threat of violent coercive intervention , society will unravel into a war of all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Seen through this lens , “ authoritarian solutions are not just necessary , they ’ re almost preferable.
” In the wake of Floyd ’ s killing , with protests in every state in the union and U.S. security forces at every level called to respond , the country is now witnessing what years of militarized conditioning , training , and culture have wrought : a nationwide protest movement running up against a nationwide police riot .
In New York City , where at least 2,500 people have been arrested in the past @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 8 p.m. curfew , which the New York Police Department has used as a pretext to arrest individuals whom it would otherwise have no justification to take into custody .
In an emerging pattern that civil rights attorneys have documented in multiple boroughs throughout the city , a number of those individuals have been taken to local station houses where NYPD intelligence officers and FBI agents have interrogated them about their political beliefs , including their views on fascism .
Word of the interrogations came just days after Attorney General William Barr released @ @ @ @ @ @ @ known as antifa as a domestic terrorist organization and announced that the federal government ’ s 56 Joint Terrorism Task Forces had been activated in a nationwide manhunt for “ criminal organizers and instigators.
” In Washington , D.C. , heavily armed tactical units took up positions in the nation ’ s capital , wearing no official insignia .
Self-styled groups of mostly white men carrying military-grade weapons were also in the streets , and local police were spotted posing for photos with bat-wielding vigilantes .
Far-right , white power groups seized on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a long-desired race war : In Las Vegas , three right-wing extremists with military experience , adherents to the so-called boogaloo movement , were arrested on terrorism charges for allegedly plotting attacks in Nevada .
Michael German , a fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice and former FBI agent specializing in domestic terrorism investigations , said the government ’ s actions in the past week reflect entrenched , longstanding problems in American policing .
From a legal and logistical standpoint , Barr ’ s statement regarding antifa was “ toothless , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a way of signaling to Trump supporters , both in law enforcement and out , that this is the enemy.
” Time and again , American law enforcement ’ s response to dissent has followed a pattern , German explained , with police cracking down on movements for racial , social , and environmental justice , while giving violent white nationalists who beat people in the street a free pass .
“ We already see that there is this dynamic where the police officers view people who protest police violence as enemies they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he said .
“ Particularly in protests , it ’ s not just that the police want to arrest somebody who ’ s a problem , ” German said .
“ They want to mete out punishment.
” Although the idea of the “ thin blue line ” has been around for decades , its branding and merchandising evolution began as effort to raise money for the families of slain police officers .
The flag itself was created six years ago , when the U.S. was gripped with police brutality protests that gave @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
As those demands for justice picked up momentum , a countermovement , Blue Lives Matter , rose up under the newly created banner .
In an article for Harper ’ s magazine , author Jeff Sharlet details how a white 19-year-old college student named Andrew Jacob came up with the idea for the flag .
“ The black above represents citizens , ” Jacob , founder of the company Thin Blue Line USA , explained .
“ The black below represents criminals.
” The flag ’ s creation coincided with the December @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos , in Brooklyn .
The officers ’ deaths sparked a rebellion among New York City cops against Mayor Bill de Blasio .
It was a turning point for the recently elected mayor , who had capitalized on demands for police accountability in his run for office .
While de Blasio has become a symbol of abject failure in the eyes of nearly all NYPD accountability advocates , the department ’ s powerful union has continued to publicly batter and berate the mayor on a daily basis in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ doxxed his daughter following her arrest while protesting in Manhattan .
The flag ’ s emergence in 2014 was but one element in a larger ecosystem of police propaganda .
Like the weapons , vehicles , and training that flow from the military to police departments across the country , the Blue Lives Matter movement embraces imagery and ideology drawn from U.S. wars abroad .
The same month that the officers in Brooklyn were gunned down , Clint Eastwood ’ s film “ American Sniper ” hit theaters .
The film , which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all time , told the story of Chris Kyle , a Navy SEAL who , in addition to becoming a hero to many , once boasted about conducting dozens of extrajudicial killings on the streets of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina .
Though Kyle was already well known following the publication of his bestselling autobiography , the Hollywood blockbuster rocketed the sniper to conservative superstardom .
On the battlefields of Iraq , the calling card of Kyle ’ s platoon was an image of a skull worn by the comic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ In the Marvel series , Frank Castle , aka the Punisher , is a Marine veteran of the Vietnam War who murders people in a self-declared war on crime .
In his book , Kyle , who was shot and killed by a fellow veteran in 2013 , described his unit ’ s love for the character and his symbolic skull .
“ We spray-painted it on our Hummers and body armor , and our helmets and all our guns , ” he wrote .
“ We spray-painted it on every building or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to know , We ’ re here and we want to fuck with you .
It was our version of psyops .
You see us ?
We ’ re the people kicking your ass .
Fear us .
Because we will kill you , motherfucker .
You are bad .
We are badder .
We are bad-ass.
” Police officers across the country have developed a similar infatuation for the Punisher ’ s skull , plastering the vigilante killer ’ s symbol on T-shirts , squad cars , and other gear .
In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ the Punishers ” as their namesake and tattooed the character ’ s logo on their skin .
The artists and writers behind the Punisher comics have pushed back on law enforcement ’ s embrace , describing it as a total misreading of the character .
Co-creator Gerry Conway has likened law enforcement ’ s use of the logo to placing a Confederate flag on a government building .
“ He is a criminal , ” Conway has said .
“ If an officer of the law , representing the justice system , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his police car , or shares challenge coins honoring a criminal , he or she is making a very ill-advised statement about their understanding of the law.
” The violent and militaristic view of policing reflected in the Punisher ’ s popularity is also present in the training officers receive .
In “ American Sniper , ” the film ’ s star , Bradley Cooper , delivers a speech to his sons at the kitchen table , explaining that there are three types of people in the world : sheep , wolves , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ prey on the sheep , and it ’ s up to the sheepdogs — a smaller yet critical population — to protect them .
The lesson is drawn directly from the teachings of Lt. Dave Grossman , a former West Point psychology professor and self-proclaimed expert on killing who teaches courses for police departments and federal law enforcement agencies across the country .
Grossman ’ s first book , “ On Killing , ” was at one point required reading for FBI cadets .
In his classes , Grossman sometimes tells attendees that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ first killing led to the best sex of their lives , and says that with the proper training , taking a human life is “ just not that big of a deal.
” In 2014 , Jeronimo Yanez , a Minnesota police officer , attended one of Grossman ’ s “ Bulletproof Warrior ” classes , administered by Grossman ’ s business partner .
Two years later , Yanez pulled over Philando Castile , a black 32-year-old father , in a traffic stop .
Castile informed the officer that he was in possession @ @ @ @ @ @ @ increasingly agitated and shot him five times .
Castile died in the driver ’ s seat , with his girlfriend and 4-year-old daughter in the vehicle .
Yanez was acquitted of all charges in the trial that followed .
In the aftermath of the killing , which prompted waves of protests , Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey banned the warrior policing courses .
Lt. Bob Kroll , president of the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis , bristled at the decision , calling Grossman ’ s trainings “ excellent.
” “ That ’ s the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he has decided that the solution to all social problems is criminalization , and that how you make America great again is through authoritarianism , ” Vitale said .
It wasn ’ t long before Trump-Punisher gear began popping up online , with the president ’ s familiar hair plopped on the menacing Punisher skull .
Trump ’ s support from the hard-right , politicized edge of American law enforcement was again on display in October , when the president was welcomed to a Minneapolis rally by Kroll , the police union chief @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the mayor ’ s office that president was not welcome .
Kroll wore a red shirt emblazoned with the words “ Cops for Trump ” ( available for $ 20 on the union ’ s website ) .
Addressing the “ patriots ” in the crowd , Kroll said the shirts were a message against hypocrisy .
“ The Obama administration and the handcuffing and oppression of police was despicable , ” Kroll said .
“ The first thing President Trump did when he took office was turn that around , got rid @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to start letting the cops do their job — put the handcuffs on the criminals instead of us.
” There is no daylight between Punisher-style policing and Trump ’ s vision of how American law enforcement should operate , Vitale argued .
“ They are one and the same , ” he said .
“ This is a kind of proto-fascism .
Maybe in the next week we ’ ll find out if it ’ s a full-throated fascism.
” The contradictions in American society , drawn out by the devastation of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have brought the country to a tipping point .
“ Historically , when this happens , there is a rupture and it ’ s not pretty , ” Vitale said .
“ Usually it involves a war .
That ’ s how this fundamental contradiction gets resolved.
” The days of police reform , the buzzword of the Obama era are through , Vitale argued .
“ That ’ s all done , ” he said .
“ This is a war over the future of the country , and right now it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cops in the streets .
And I think that the question is what does victory for our side start to look like ?
” “ This is not just about policing anymore , ” he said .
“ This is about the grievances of a whole generation , about the direction of the country , the failure of both political parties , the economic crisis , the environmental crisis.
” In the streets of Brooklyn , the familiar chants of “ no justice , no peace ” have been joined by an increasingly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Starving the policing beast is precisely the solution Vitale has spent the past three years advocating for .
“ This did not come out of nowhere — we ’ ve been working , ” Vitale said .
“ It ’ s not a revolutionary agenda , I know that , but you ’ ve got to build a movement that has victories and that in the process is dialing back the repressive capacity of the state.
” For now , the protests continue , despite attempts to stop them with curfews and escalating @ @ @ @ @ @ @ exercising its constitutional rights to free speech and assembly .
Quin Johnson was among the thousands of demonstrators who returned to the streets of Brooklyn on Monday .
She carried a small cardboard sign listing more than a dozen names : black men and boys beaten or killed by police or racist mobs , stretching back to 1931 .
“ It ’ s very emotional , ” she said , as the crowd marched west .
“ Today was the first day that I cried.
” Johnson described the traumatic cycle that pervades @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , of people killed by police and the absence of consequence .
“ I ’ m just angry , ” she said .
“ You remember every time , and it builds up and builds up.
” The scale of the protests was no surprise , she added , “ every community has been affected by this , ” nor was the fact that they continue .
“ They persist because you go back home and you watch the news , and you see what the police are doing to the people , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the exact reason why people are protesting.
” The present moment is a boiling point , Johnson said — where things go next is uncertain .
“ It has the potential to be different , ” she said .
“ I hope it ’ s different.
” But if that change does not come , “ I will be very happy to watch it all fucking burn .
”

The sun was high as the protesters filled Grand Army Plaza. In normal times, it’s easy to forget that the gateway to Brooklyn’s largest park was once a battleground in the fight for American independence, or that its iconic “Soldiers and Sailors Arch” is a monument to those lost in the war to end slavery. But with a global pandemic having taken more than 100,000 American lives in a matter of months, more than 40 million others out of work, and protests against police violence sweeping the U.S., recent days have been far from normal, and as demonstrators took their places on Sunday, the plaza’s place in history felt unusually present.
Kenyatta Reid, a Brooklyn native, was among those gathered at the foot of the arch. Reid and her husband had come to the protest with their three young children, ages 11, 8, and 2. It was the family’s second day in the streets, joining the nationwide wave of demonstrations following the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin. The previous night, near the Brooklyn Bridge, Reid and her family had watched as New York City police officers in riot gear beat and pepper-sprayed protesters. “That got really scary for the kids,” Reid told me. Still, her children woke up the next morning asking to go out again — they had even made their own signs. “Am I next?” her son’s read.
As an African American mother raising three kids in the United States in 2020, Reid said the conditions that sparked the protests are the subject of daily parental education, a process of “letting them know that they’re worthy, and the problem is other people, not them.” When asked if they would keep coming out, Reid did not hesitate. “This is their lives,” she said. “You have to.”
Hundreds of miles away, in Cincinnati, reaction to the protests was taking a different shape. While demonstrators were gathering in Brooklyn, a group of Hamilton County sheriff’s deputies dressed in tactical gear and body armor, many of them carrying rifles, hoisted a pro-police flag outside of their office. Ubiquitous in some parts of the country, the flag replaces the red of a traditional American flag with black. The banner incorporates a blue band to symbolize the “thin blue line” that some police officers believe they represent: society’s well-armed firewall, protecting an otherwise defenseless public from the forces of evil.
Sheriff Jim Neil later said that the flag replacement was only temporary, after an image of his deputies’ informal ceremony went viral. The office’s American flag had been lost to vandals, the sheriff tweeted, and the current one was meant to honor an officer whose helmet was struck with a bullet the previous night. “The flag has been removed and we will replace it with the American Flag in the morning,” Neil wrote.
Though minor in comparison to the acts of physical violence and outpourings of grief seen across the country, the episode in Cincinnati was significant. The “thin blue line” flag is the known symbol of a social, cultural, and political movement that is inextricably linked to the country’s current unrest. The flag is the centerpiece in a world of merchandise and policing philosophy, all built around the idea that the police are an embattled tribe of warriors, maligned and reviled by a nation that fails to appreciate their unique importance. The blue line is a reminder that much of the policing community sees itself as separate from the rest of society — and as the nation has witnessed in recent days, in video after shocking video, this well-armed population, imbued with the power to deprive citizens of life and liberty, does not take kindly to those who challenge its authority.
The country is now witnessing what years of militarized conditioning, training, and culture have wrought: a nationwide protest movement running up against a nationwide police riot.
“What we’re talking about here is a worldview that says that police are the only force capable of holding society together,” Alex Vitale, a professor of sociology at Brooklyn College and author of “The End of Policing,” told me. The view turns on the notion that “without the constant threat of violent coercive intervention, society will unravel into a war of all against all,” he explained. Seen through this lens, “authoritarian solutions are not just necessary, they’re almost preferable.”
In the wake of Floyd’s killing, with protests in every state in the union and U.S. security forces at every level called to respond, the country is now witnessing what years of militarized conditioning, training, and culture have wrought: a nationwide protest movement running up against a nationwide police riot.
In New York City, where at least 2,500 people have been arrested in the past week, local officials have imposed an 8 p.m. curfew, which the New York Police Department has used as a pretext to arrest individuals whom it would otherwise have no justification to take into custody. In an emerging pattern that civil rights attorneys have documented in multiple boroughs throughout the city, a number of those individuals have been taken to local station houses where NYPD intelligence officers and FBI agents have interrogated them about their political beliefs, including their views on fascism. Word of the interrogations came just days after Attorney General William Barr released a statement describing the leaderless anti-fascist movement known as antifa as a domestic terrorist organization and announced that the federal government’s 56 Joint Terrorism Task Forces had been activated in a nationwide manhunt for “criminal organizers and instigators.”
In Washington, D.C., heavily armed tactical units took up positions in the nation’s capital, wearing no official insignia. Self-styled groups of mostly white men carrying military-grade weapons were also in the streets, and local police were spotted posing for photos with bat-wielding vigilantes. Far-right, white power groups seized on the unrest to accelerate the country toward a long-desired race war: In Las Vegas, three right-wing extremists with military experience, adherents to the so-called boogaloo movement, were arrested on terrorism charges for allegedly plotting attacks in Nevada.
Michael German, a fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice and former FBI agent specializing in domestic terrorism investigations, said the government’s actions in the past week reflect entrenched, longstanding problems in American policing. From a legal and logistical standpoint, Barr’s statement regarding antifa was “toothless,” German said: “It’s a way of signaling to Trump supporters, both in law enforcement and out, that this is the enemy.”
Time and again, American law enforcement’s response to dissent has followed a pattern, German explained, with police cracking down on movements for racial, social, and environmental justice, while giving violent white nationalists who beat people in the street a free pass. “We already see that there is this dynamic where the police officers view people who protest police violence as enemies they can use further violence against,” he said. “Particularly in protests, it’s not just that the police want to arrest somebody who’s a problem,” German said. “They want to mete out punishment.”
Blue Lines Take Aim at Black Lives
Although the idea of the “thin blue line” has been around for decades, its branding and merchandising evolution began as effort to raise money for the families of slain police officers. The flag itself was created six years ago, when the U.S. was gripped with police brutality protests that gave rise to the Black Lives Matter movement. As those demands for justice picked up momentum, a countermovement, Blue Lives Matter, rose up under the newly created banner. In an article for Harper’s magazine, author Jeff Sharlet details how a white 19-year-old college student named Andrew Jacob came up with the idea for the flag. “The black above represents citizens,” Jacob, founder of the company Thin Blue Line USA, explained. “The black below represents criminals.”
The flag’s creation coincided with the December 2014 killing of two NYPD officers, Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos, in Brooklyn. The officers’ deaths sparked a rebellion among New York City cops against Mayor Bill de Blasio. It was a turning point for the recently elected mayor, who had capitalized on demands for police accountability in his run for office. While de Blasio has become a symbol of abject failure in the eyes of nearly all NYPD accountability advocates, the department’s powerful union has continued to publicly batter and berate the mayor on a daily basis in the years since the killings, and recently doxxed his daughter following her arrest while protesting in Manhattan.
A flag with the thin blue line, which is used to honor the fallen and the courage of police officers, lies on the boardwalk near the feet of police keeping demonstrators and counter demonstrators apart during an ‘America First’ demonstration on August 20, 2017 in Laguna Beach, California. Photo: David McNew/Getty Images
The flag’s emergence in 2014 was but one element in a larger ecosystem of police propaganda. Like the weapons, vehicles, and training that flow from the military to police departments across the country, the Blue Lives Matter movement embraces imagery and ideology drawn from U.S. wars abroad.
The same month that the officers in Brooklyn were gunned down, Clint Eastwood’s film “American Sniper” hit theaters. The film, which swiftly became the highest-grossing war movie of all time, told the story of Chris Kyle, a Navy SEAL who, in addition to becoming a hero to many, once boasted about conducting dozens of extrajudicial killings on the streets of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Though Kyle was already well known following the publication of his bestselling autobiography, the Hollywood blockbuster rocketed the sniper to conservative superstardom.
On the battlefields of Iraq, the calling card of Kyle’s platoon was an image of a skull worn by the comic book character known as the Punisher. In the Marvel series, Frank Castle, aka the Punisher, is a Marine veteran of the Vietnam War who murders people in a self-declared war on crime. In his book, Kyle, who was shot and killed by a fellow veteran in 2013, described his unit’s love for the character and his symbolic skull. “We spray-painted it on our Hummers and body armor, and our helmets and all our guns,” he wrote. “We spray-painted it on every building or wall we could. We wanted people to know, We’re here and we want to fuck with you. It was our version of psyops. You see us? We’re the people kicking your ass. Fear us. Because we will kill you, motherfucker. You are bad. We are badder. We are bad-ass.”
The Blue Lives Matter movement embraces imagery and ideology drawn from U.S. wars abroad.
Police officers across the country have developed a similar infatuation for the Punisher’s skull, plastering the vigilante killer’s symbol on T-shirts, squad cars, and other gear. In Milwaukee, a gang of officers adopted “the Punishers” as their namesake and tattooed the character’s logo on their skin. The artists and writers behind the Punisher comics have pushed back on law enforcement’s embrace, describing it as a total misreading of the character. Co-creator Gerry Conway has likened law enforcement’s use of the logo to placing a Confederate flag on a government building. “He is a criminal,” Conway has said. “If an officer of the law, representing the justice system, puts a criminal’s symbol on his police car, or shares challenge coins honoring a criminal, he or she is making a very ill-advised statement about their understanding of the law.”
The violent and militaristic view of policing reflected in the Punisher’s popularity is also present in the training officers receive. In “American Sniper,” the film’s star, Bradley Cooper, delivers a speech to his sons at the kitchen table, explaining that there are three types of people in the world: sheep, wolves, and sheepdogs. The wolves seek to prey on the sheep, and it’s up to the sheepdogs — a smaller yet critical population — to protect them. The lesson is drawn directly from the teachings of Lt. Dave Grossman, a former West Point psychology professor and self-proclaimed expert on killing who teaches courses for police departments and federal law enforcement agencies across the country. Grossman’s first book, “On Killing,” was at one point required reading for FBI cadets.
In his classes, Grossman sometimes tells attendees that police officers have told him that their first killing led to the best sex of their lives, and says that with the proper training, taking a human life is “just not that big of a deal.” In 2014, Jeronimo Yanez, a Minnesota police officer, attended one of Grossman’s “Bulletproof Warrior” classes, administered by Grossman’s business partner. Two years later, Yanez pulled over Philando Castile, a black 32-year-old father, in a traffic stop. Castile informed the officer that he was in possession of a licensed firearm. Yanez grew increasingly agitated and shot him five times. Castile died in the driver’s seat, with his girlfriend and 4-year-old daughter in the vehicle. Yanez was acquitted of all charges in the trial that followed.
In the aftermath of the killing, which prompted waves of protests, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey banned the warrior policing courses. Lt. Bob Kroll, president of the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis, bristled at the decision, calling Grossman’s trainings “excellent.”
In an interview earlier this year, just months before the killing of Floyd in his own city, Kroll said he had personally been involved in three shootings and that “not one of them has bothered me.” A 2015 profile by the Minneapolis Star Tribune noted Kroll’s membership in a police biker gang that included white supremacists (the former SWAT officer has denied the characterization), his role as a defendant in a racial discrimination lawsuit brought by five black officers, his targeting in nearly 20 internal affairs complaints (“all but three of which were closed without discipline”), and his suspension following an excessive force complaint.
In the past year alone, multiple investigations by many news organizations have uncovered police and other law enforcement officials sharing wildly racist and violent content in private social media groups. Amid the racism that swirls in these spaces are profound notes of aggrievement expressing the feeling that, in fact, it is the police who are under attack. Those sentiments can be traced, in part, to a theory promulgated in the final years of the Obama administration known as the Ferguson effect, which argued that in the wake of protests against police brutality, law enforcement was pulling back in its war on crime, thus damaging public safety.
The highest-profile proponent of the debunked theory was Barack Obama’s FBI director, James Comey. Addressing a group of law students in 2015, Comey described a “chill wind that has blown through law enforcement,” claiming that developments in the documentation of police violence were causing officers to change the way they worked, leading to a spike in murders. The claim was widely criticized, in part because it lacked evidence and in part because it was the extension of a long and racist history of “crime-fighting on a hunch.”
Ironically, considering the space Comey would come to occupy in the minds of many liberal Americans just a few years later, the former FBI director’s war-on-cops rhetoric complemented the worldview of the man who, at the time, was beginning a successful march to the White House.
The Trumpist Terror
A month after coming to office, Donald Trump signed three largely symbolic executive orders related to domestic law enforcement. While the policy impact the White House could make on the affairs of local police departments was minimal, the culture war messaging was not. Whether it was cops on the beat or immigration agents on the border, the president’s message was the same: Politically correct liberals have held you back for too long, but no more.
“From the get-go, Trump signaled his allegiance to the most reactionary parts of that movement,” Vitale, the Brooklyn College professor, explained. At the 2016 Republican National Convention, Trump received the full-throated endorsement of David Clarke, the former sheriff of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin. “Blue lives matter in America!” Clark shouted from the podium. Clarke has called Black Lives Matter a terrorist organization and compared the group to the Ku Klux Klan. His tenure as sheriff was riddled with controversy, particularly surrounding the deaths of people in his jail and the shackling of pregnant women. Once in the White House, Trump swiftly applied his powers as president to pardon Arizona Sheriff Joe Arapaio for his conviction for criminal contempt of court. Arapaio, who the Department of Justice concluded ran the largest racial-profiling scheme in U.S. history, used to refer to his notorious outdoor jails as a “concentration camp.”
President Donald Trump shakes hands with Minneapolis Police Union head Lt. Bob Kroll on stage during a campaign rally at the Target Center on Oct. 10, 2019 in Minneapolis. Photo: Stephen Maturen/Getty Images
“That’s the kind of people that Trump embraces because he has decided that the solution to all social problems is criminalization, and that how you make America great again is through authoritarianism,” Vitale said. It wasn’t long before Trump-Punisher gear began popping up online, with the president’s familiar hair plopped on the menacing Punisher skull. Trump’s support from the hard-right, politicized edge of American law enforcement was again on display in October, when the president was welcomed to a Minneapolis rally by Kroll, the police union chief, in defiance of a statement from the mayor’s office that president was not welcome. Kroll wore a red shirt emblazoned with the words “Cops for Trump” (available for $20 on the union’s website). Addressing the “patriots” in the crowd, Kroll said the shirts were a message against hypocrisy.
“The Obama administration and the handcuffing and oppression of police was despicable,” Kroll said. “The first thing President Trump did when he took office was turn that around, got rid of the Holder-Loretta Lynch regime and decided to start letting the cops do their job — put the handcuffs on the criminals instead of us.”
There is no daylight between Punisher-style policing and Trump’s vision of how American law enforcement should operate, Vitale argued. “They are one and the same,” he said. “This is a kind of proto-fascism. Maybe in the next week we’ll find out if it’s a full-throated fascism.” The contradictions in American society, drawn out by the devastation of the coronavirus pandemic followed by the protests, have brought the country to a tipping point. “Historically, when this happens, there is a rupture and it’s not pretty,” Vitale said. “Usually it involves a war. That’s how this fundamental contradiction gets resolved.” The days of police reform, the buzzword of the Obama era are through, Vitale argued. “That’s all done,” he said. “This is a war over the future of the country, and right now it is literally taking place with people fighting cops in the streets. And I think that the question is what does victory for our side start to look like?”
Whether it was cops on the beat or immigration agents on the border, the president’s message was the same: Politically correct liberals have held you back for too long, but no more.
“This is not just about policing anymore,” he said. “This is about the grievances of a whole generation, about the direction of the country, the failure of both political parties, the economic crisis, the environmental crisis.” In the streets of Brooklyn, the familiar chants of “no justice, no peace” have been joined by an increasingly popular demand: defund the police. Starving the policing beast is precisely the solution Vitale has spent the past three years advocating for. “This did not come out of nowhere — we’ve been working,” Vitale said. “It’s not a revolutionary agenda, I know that, but you’ve got to build a movement that has victories and that in the process is dialing back the repressive capacity of the state.”
For now, the protests continue, despite attempts to stop them with curfews and escalating attacks by the police on a citizenry exercising its constitutional rights to free speech and assembly. Quin Johnson was among the thousands of demonstrators who returned to the streets of Brooklyn on Monday. She carried a small cardboard sign listing more than a dozen names: black men and boys beaten or killed by police or racist mobs, stretching back to 1931. “It’s very emotional,” she said, as the crowd marched west. “Today was the first day that I cried.”
Demonstrators burned Thin Blue Line flags outside Sacramento Police Department on March 2, 2019. To the right, a woman wears a t-shirt featuring the logo of the Marvel Comics character, The Punisher. Photo: Mason Trinca/Getty Images
Johnson described the traumatic cycle that pervades American life, particularly African American life, of people killed by police and the absence of consequence. “I’m just angry,” she said. “You remember every time, and it builds up and builds up.” The scale of the protests was no surprise, she added, “every community has been affected by this,” nor was the fact that they continue. “They persist because you go back home and you watch the news, and you see what the police are doing to the people,” she explained. “It is the exact reason why people are protesting.”
The present moment is a boiling point, Johnson said — where things go next is uncertain. “It has the potential to be different,” she said. “I hope it’s different.” But if that change does not come, “I will be very happy to watch it all fucking burn.”


theintercept--2020-06-07--Trump Campaign Aide Shared Praise for Racist With Chainsaw Who Assaulted Protesters

on Saturday when a senior adviser to the Trump campaign responded to distressing viral video of a Latino man in Texas assaulting Black Lives Matter protesters — while swinging a chainsaw and screaming a racist slur — by twice retweeting praise for him .
The adviser , Mercedes Schlapp , was the White House director of strategic communications until last year , when she joined the Trump campaign to work on “ Latino outreach.
” At the time , Trump ’ s campaign manager described her fluency in Spanish , as the Miami-born daughter of a Cuban dissident , as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reported , Schlapp retweeted the comment “ That ’ s how to do it , ” along with the video of the man screaming a racist slur at protesters in McAllen , Texas on Friday and threatening them with a chainsaw .
The tweet Schlapp promoted was posted by a far-right group called Latino Townhall .
Later in the day , after Politico reported her retweets , calling them an example of how “ President Donald Trump and his allies for years have amplified racist messages on Twitter while simultaneously reaching out to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ strategic communications expert deleted the second one and issued an apology .
However , Schlapp only apologized for having promoted “ the use of that word , ” which she claimed , improbably given her second retweet , not to have heard the man use , just 17 seconds into the 30 second clip she shared twice .
A second video recording of the incident , posted on Facebook , shows that the man first used the N-word to refer to George Floyd , the black security guard whose murder by a white @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The second video shows that the man — who was later arrested and charged with assault — ripped a sign out of the hands of one young woman and tossed it in the back of his pick-up truck , before removing the chainsaw and using it to chase away the group of mainly female protesters and a man who defended them .
He then also shouted a conspiracy theory spread by the White House this week — the baseless claim that violence at protests was part of a plot by antifascist activists @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s City Hall the group assaulted by the man joined later showed that it was a peaceful assembly of a mainly young , multiracial and multiethnic crowd .
The woman whose handmade sign was torn up by the man told a local news crew that it read , “ Latinos for Black Lives.
” In another video , recorded by a local business group on the same street where the assault on the protesters took place , one young protester explained what they were fighting for .
“ We ’ re trying @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as a whole , ” a young man explained .
“ George Floyd was just one of many , and he was just one who was caught on camera , ” he continued .
“ Police are just allowed to just kick people ’ s faces , hurt protesters even when we ’ re being peaceful , and that ’ s the problem.
” Schlapp ’ s praise for the racist man ’ s assault on the protesters in Texas came on the same day that the Trump campaign released an online ad @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Matter protests as a backdrop for remarks by the president , set to mournful music , in which he claimed , “ we support the right of peaceful protesters and we hear their pleas.
” “ But what we are now seeing on the streets of our cities , ” Trump says in the ad over images of burning flags , blurred-out graffiti near the White House , black-clad protesters and young black men hurling bricks , “ has nothing to do with justice or with peace .
The memory of George Floyd @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and anarchists.
” “ The violence and vandalism is being led by antifa , ” Trump claimed , repeating a baseless conspiracy theory that the White House was caught manufacturing evidence to support just three days ago , but which appears to have swallowed whole by the racist man in Texas .
Shortly after Schlapp issued her apology on Saturday , she hosted a “ Catholics for Trump ” livestream which began with the suggestion that former Vice President Joe Biden , the Democratic nominee who is also a Catholic , is a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on Friday for assaulting protesters was one of three cases this week in which racist men were caught on camera attacking peaceful protesters expressing solidarity with the victims of racist violence .
On Thursday , a 51-year-old man in Whitefish , Montana was charged with disorderly conduct for screaming invective at peaceful protesters — including : “ Black lives matter ?
Fuck you !
” — and yanking signs from their hands , even while he was being pulled away by a police officer .
On Friday , the Maryland-National Capital Park Police @ @ @ @ @ @ @ three counts of second-degree assault for attacking three teenagers as they were posting anti-racist flyers related to the killing of George Floyd on a bike path in Bethesda — an attack that was also recorded on video by one of the three victims .

The mask slipped on Saturday when a senior adviser to the Trump campaign responded to distressing viral video of a Latino man in Texas assaulting Black Lives Matter protesters — while swinging a chainsaw and screaming a racist slur — by twice retweeting praise for him.
The adviser, Mercedes Schlapp, was the White House director of strategic communications until last year, when she joined the Trump campaign to work on “Latino outreach.” At the time, Trump’s campaign manager described her fluency in Spanish, as the Miami-born daughter of a Cuban dissident, as an important asset.
As Politico first reported, Schlapp retweeted the comment “That’s how to do it,” along with the video of the man screaming a racist slur at protesters in McAllen, Texas on Friday and threatening them with a chainsaw. The tweet Schlapp promoted was posted by a far-right group called Latino Townhall.
After she was contacted by the news organization for comment, Schlapp deleted that retweet but then shared another tweet that praised the man but muted the part of his racist tirade where he used the N-word to describe protesters.
Later in the day, after Politico reported her retweets, calling them an example of how “President Donald Trump and his allies for years have amplified racist messages on Twitter while simultaneously reaching out to black and Hispanic voters,” the strategic communications expert deleted the second one and issued an apology.
However, Schlapp only apologized for having promoted “the use of that word,” which she claimed, improbably given her second retweet, not to have heard the man use, just 17 seconds into the 30 second clip she shared twice.
A second video recording of the incident, posted on Facebook, shows that the man first used the N-word to refer to George Floyd, the black security guard whose murder by a white police officer in Minneapolis sparked nationwide protests.
The second video shows that the man — who was later arrested and charged with assault — ripped a sign out of the hands of one young woman and tossed it in the back of his pick-up truck, before picking up the chainsaw and using it to chase away the group of mainly female protesters and a man who spoke up in their defense. He then also shouted a conspiracy theory spread by the White House this week — the baseless claim that violence at protests was part of a plot by antifascist activists.
Images of the protest outside McAllen’s City Hall the group assaulted by the man joined later showed that it was a peaceful assembly of a mainly young, multiracial and multiethnic crowd. The woman whose handmade sign was torn up by the man told a local news crew that it read, “Latinos for Black Lives.”
In another video, recorded by a local business group on the same street where the assault on the protesters took place, one young protester explained what they were fighting for. “We’re trying to make a change to the system as a whole,” a young man explained.
“George Floyd was just one of many, and he was just one who was caught on camera,” he continued. “Police are just allowed to just kick people’s faces, hurt protesters even when we’re being peaceful, and that’s the problem.”
Schlapp’s praise for the racist man’s assault on the protesters in Texas came on the same day that the Trump campaign released an online ad which used images of the Black Lives Matter protests as a backdrop for remarks by the president, set to mournful music, in which he claimed, “we support the right of peaceful protesters and we hear their pleas.”
“But what we are now seeing on the streets of our cities,” Trump says in the ad over images of burning flags, blurred-out graffiti near the White House, black-clad protesters and young black men hurling bricks, “has nothing to do with justice or with peace. The memory of George Floyd is being dishonored by rioters, looters and anarchists.”
“The violence and vandalism is being led by antifa,” Trump claimed, repeating a baseless conspiracy theory that the White House was caught manufacturing evidence to support just three days ago, but which appears to have swallowed whole by the racist man in Texas.
Shortly after Schlapp issued her apology on Saturday, she hosted a “Catholics for Trump” livestream which began with the suggestion that former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee who is also a Catholic, is a pedophile.
The man arrested in Texas on Friday for assaulting protesters was one of three cases this week in which racist men were caught on camera attacking peaceful protesters expressing solidarity with the victims of racist violence.
On Thursday, a 51-year-old man in Whitefish, Montana was charged with disorderly conduct for screaming invective at peaceful protesters — including: “Black lives matter? Fuck you!” — and yanking signs from their hands, even while he was being pulled away by a police officer.
On Friday, the Maryland-National Capital Park Police arrested and charged a 60-year-old man with three counts of second-degree assault for attacking three teenagers as they were posting anti-racist flyers related to the killing of George Floyd on a bike path in Bethesda — an attack that was also recorded on video by one of the three victims.


theintercept--2020-06-07--Hickenlooper, Champion of “Broken Windows” Policing, Says “Every Life Matters” in Response to Protes

Hickenlooper, Champion of “Broken Windows” Policing, Says “Every Life Matters” in Response to Protests

Senate Debate in Colorado last week , former governor John Hickenlooper was asked what the term “ Black lives matter ” meant to him .
“ Black lives matter means every life matters , ” the former Democratic presidential candidate said .
“ And that the color of a person ’ s skin has nothing to do with the richness of their lives and how important their place in their family , in their neighborhood , in their community , ” he continued .
“ And that they — that every life is sacred .
And every life deserves the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and our system of justice .
People should not be fearful of the people that have been entrusted with their protection.
” Hickenlooper made the comment against the backdrop of a nationwide movement to stop police killings of black people , specifically .
It ’ s the kind of remark that has previously been compared to responding to the attacks of 9/11 by saying that , of course , “ all buildings matter.
” Hickenlooper ’ s former presidential primary opponent , former South Bend , Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg , was vehemently @ @ @ @ @ @ @ during his 2015 “ State of the City ” address , saying “ all lives matter , ” which he later said he stopped using in “ in that context.
” Asked about the comment , Hickenlooper told The Intercept he tripped over his words .
“ When answering a question about Black Lives Matter last weekend , I tripped over my words .
So let me be very clear : Black Lives Matter .
It ’ s important that we say that because , for far too long , our criminal justice @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
So I ’ ll say it again : Black Lives Matter .
And working to combat systemic racism matters .
I ’ m proud to stand with and work alongside everyone who believes that as deeply as I do.
” Former Colorado House Speaker Andrew Romanoff is challenging Hickenlooper for the nomination .
Hickenlooper , a popular former governor with a legacy of defending fracking interests , entered the race in August after dropping out of the Democratic presidential primary , and was backed by the Senate Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee within @ @ @ @ @ @ @ race , a number of competitive challengers quickly dropped out .
Several women candidates sent a letter to the DSSC asking them to reconsider their endorsement .
Colorado ’ s Democratic Senate primary takes place June 30 .
As Mayor , Hickenlooper promoted the widely rebuked “ broken windows ” theory of policing , which argues that cracking down on small petty crimes and nuisances like trash-strewn lawns is an effective way to stop crime overall .
As mayor , Hickenlooper hired one of the original architects of the broken windows theory , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to advise the Denver Police Department .
Michael Borne , a spokesperson for the Sunrise Movement ’ s Denver chapter , said in a statement that “ what Hickenlooper did as mayor is unforgivable , ” adding that the policies he promoted have “ led to many Black community members unwarranted arrests and even deaths.
” Hickenlooper has a significant fundraising advantage , bringing in a haul of $ 4.1 million last quarter .
Romanoff , who has won endorsements from progressive and environmental groups , brought in under $ 500,000 in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Democratic primary will face off against Republican Senator Cory Gardner in November , and the race is one of the key chances Democrats have to flip a number of Senate seats if they want to regain control of the chamber .
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee pressured consultants not to work with Romanoff , The Intercept reported in August .
The news was one of the first signs that the House campaign arm ’ s policy to blacklist candidates , which The Intercept reported last year , was being mimicked by their Senate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ history of strange-doings to make a point that he supports policies that have started to fall out of favor .
The idea that crime can be meaningfully decreased by over-policing neighborhoods with a high prevalence of small or petty crime is linked to the very police behaviors people are currently protesting .
Over-policing neighborhoods has historically criminalized poor people , and disproportionately , black and brown people .
Activists across the country are calling for a complete refutation of policies that give more power to the police , instead , pushing to defund @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hired as a consultant George Kelling , a criminologist who helped bring the broken-windows theory to national prominence in 1982 when he co-wrote an article on the subject in The Atlantic Monthly , ” the Denver Post reported in 2006 .
“ His theory holds that police should crack down on minor offenses , such as loud parties , public drinking and trashy yards , to reverse the downward spiral.
” Activists and elected officials are also calling to drastically cut funding for law enforcement , whereas Hickenlooper , and many other sitting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ budgets by tens of millions of dollars each year , and continue to do so .
In the 2006 city report pushing the broken windows theory , Hickenlooper also praised a for-profit policing model , and bragged that he ’ d given the DPD an additional $ 30 million a year for the last three years .
“ The former Mayor of Denver and current candidate for US Senate John Hickenlooper promoted violent and discredited policing practices that lead to increased violence against Black people , ” said Stevie O ’ Hanlon , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which has endorsed Romanoff .
“ Hickenlooper touted the effectiveness of the racist “ broken windows ” policing policy , which led to the criminalization , killing , and over-policing of communities of color.
” As mayor of Denver , Hickenlooper said , police reform was a central priority , including early efforts to reduce lethal force .
As a senator , he said , he would work with communities to address distrust of law enforcement .
“ As senator , I am committed to working with communities of color to address the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to fiercely advocate for proper police training , and to increase accountability and oversight .
People have a right to be safe , unafraid , and secure in their communities .
And people have a right to not be victimized in their day-to-day lives or when they peacefully protest injustice .
As a country , we have tolerated systemic racism and a broken criminal justice system for far too long .
Now more than ever , we must listen to one another and ask ourselves what we can do to be a part @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The Intercept in a statement .
“ I pledge to do my part.
” As Denver mayor , he said , he made significant strides when it came to police reform , though acknowledged , “ What we did wasn ’ t perfect.
” Denver ’ s rates of crime , violent crime , and murder started falling in the early 2000s , before Hickenlooper became mayor in 2003 , and spiked again soon after , beginning to fall again around 2005 .
Other major cities followed similar trends , with a number @ @ @ @ @ @ @ troughs , but generally , cities saw a downturn in crime rates throughout the early 2000s and 2010s .
Violent crime spiked nationally in 2006 for the first time since the early 1990s , according to an FBI report that year .
Cities like Louisville , Los Angeles and Chicago , saw crime rates slowly increasing again around 2015 .
He ’ s also facing an escalating ethics case .
On Friday , Hickenlooper appeared via video before a state ethics panel after refusing to comply with a subpoena the previous day .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ investigating allegations that Hickenlooper violated state law by accepting free private jet rides when he served as governor .
He denies any wrongdoing and has characterized the complaint , which was filed by former Republican state House Speaker Frank McNulty ’ s group Public Trust Institute in 2018 , as politically motivated .
Hickenlooper was elected mayor of Denver in 2003 and Colorado governor in 2010 , and started his career as a petroleum geologist for an oil and gas producer .
He was laid off , opened Denver ’ s first craft @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
During his 2010 gubernatorial campaign , he appeared in an ad in which he showered in his clothes , saying negative campaign ads made him “ feel like I need to take a shower.
” While he was governor , Hickenlooper fought against initiatives to curb fracking , on the side of oil and gas companies that spent more tens of million dollars to fight them .
He once drank fracking fluid to prove it wasn ’ t that bad for you .

During a Democratic Senate Debate in Colorado last week, former governor John Hickenlooper was asked what the term “Black lives matter” meant to him.
“Black lives matter means every life matters,” the former Democratic presidential candidate said.
“And that the color of a person’s skin has nothing to do with the richness of their lives and how important their place in their family, in their neighborhood, in their community,” he continued. “And that they — that every life is sacred. And every life deserves the protections of our system of public safety and our system of justice. People should not be fearful of the people that have been entrusted with their protection.”
Hickenlooper made the comment against the backdrop of a nationwide movement to stop police killings of black people, specifically. It’s the kind of remark that has previously been compared to responding to the attacks of 9/11 by saying that, of course, “all buildings matter.” Hickenlooper’s former presidential primary opponent, former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, was vehemently criticized during his campaign for past comments during his 2015 “State of the City” address, saying “all lives matter,” which he later said he stopped using in “in that context.”
Asked about the comment, Hickenlooper told The Intercept he tripped over his words. “When answering a question about Black Lives Matter last weekend, I tripped over my words. So let me be very clear: Black Lives Matter. It’s important that we say that because, for far too long, our criminal justice system hasn’t reflected that belief. So I’ll say it again: Black Lives Matter. And working to combat systemic racism matters. I’m proud to stand with and work alongside everyone who believes that as deeply as I do.”
Former Colorado House Speaker Andrew Romanoff is challenging Hickenlooper for the nomination. Hickenlooper, a popular former governor with a legacy of defending fracking interests, entered the race in August after dropping out of the Democratic presidential primary, and was backed by the Senate Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee within two days. After Hickenlooper entered the race, a number of competitive challengers quickly dropped out. Several women candidates sent a letter to the DSSC asking them to reconsider their endorsement. Colorado’s Democratic Senate primary takes place June 30.
As Mayor, Hickenlooper promoted the widely rebuked “broken windows” theory of policing, which argues that cracking down on small petty crimes and nuisances like trash-strewn lawns is an effective way to stop crime overall. As mayor, Hickenlooper hired one of the original architects of the broken windows theory, criminologist George Kelling, as a consultant to advise the Denver Police Department.
Michael Borne, a spokesperson for the Sunrise Movement’s Denver chapter, said in a statement that “what Hickenlooper did as mayor is unforgivable,” adding that the policies he promoted have “led to many Black community members unwarranted arrests and even deaths.”
Hickenlooper has a significant fundraising advantage, bringing in a haul of $4.1 million last quarter. Romanoff, who has won endorsements from progressive and environmental groups, brought in under $500,000 in the first quarter. The winner of the Democratic primary will face off against Republican Senator Cory Gardner in November, and the race is one of the key chances Democrats have to flip a number of Senate seats if they want to regain control of the chamber.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee pressured consultants not to work with Romanoff, The Intercept reported in August. The news was one of the first signs that the House campaign arm’s policy to blacklist candidates, which The Intercept reported last year, was being mimicked by their Senate counterparts.
The former governor has a history of strange-doings to make a point that he supports policies that have started to fall out of favor.
The idea that crime can be meaningfully decreased by over-policing neighborhoods with a high prevalence of small or petty crime is linked to the very police behaviors people are currently protesting. Over-policing neighborhoods has historically criminalized poor people, and disproportionately, black and brown people. Activists across the country are calling for a complete refutation of policies that give more power to the police, instead, pushing to defund and demilitarize law enforcement.
“Hickenlooper hired as a consultant George Kelling, a criminologist who helped bring the broken-windows theory to national prominence in 1982 when he co-wrote an article on the subject in The Atlantic Monthly,” the Denver Post reported in 2006. “His theory holds that police should crack down on minor offenses, such as loud parties, public drinking and trashy yards, to reverse the downward spiral.”
Activists and elected officials are also calling to drastically cut funding for law enforcement, whereas Hickenlooper, and many other sitting Democratic mayors, have historically increased policing budgets by tens of millions of dollars each year, and continue to do so. In the 2006 city report pushing the broken windows theory, Hickenlooper also praised a for-profit policing model, and bragged that he’d given the DPD an additional $30 million a year for the last three years.
“The former Mayor of Denver and current candidate for US Senate John Hickenlooper promoted violent and discredited policing practices that lead to increased violence against Black people,” said Stevie O’Hanlon, communications director for the Sunrise Movement, which has endorsed Romanoff. “Hickenlooper touted the effectiveness of the racist “broken windows” policing policy, which led to the criminalization, killing, and over-policing of communities of color.”
As mayor of Denver, Hickenlooper said, police reform was a central priority, including early efforts to reduce lethal force. As a senator, he said, he would work with communities to address distrust of law enforcement. “As senator, I am committed to working with communities of color to address the fear and mistrust of law enforcement, to fiercely advocate for proper police training, and to increase accountability and oversight. People have a right to be safe, unafraid, and secure in their communities. And people have a right to not be victimized in their day-to-day lives or when they peacefully protest injustice. As a country, we have tolerated systemic racism and a broken criminal justice system for far too long. Now more than ever, we must listen to one another and ask ourselves what we can do to be a part of the solution,” he told The Intercept in a statement. “I pledge to do my part.”
As Denver mayor, he said, he made significant strides when it came to police reform, though acknowledged, “What we did wasn’t perfect.”
Ten years before Ferguson, we initiated efforts to reduce lethal force in policing, requiring all officers to go through crisis de-escalation training. For the first time in the history of the Denver Police Department, we hired a minority recruiter and established the Office of Independent Monitor to investigate allegations of police misconduct. We created the Civilian Oversight Commission to give communities direct input on how their own neighborhoods are policed, and we made it easier to discipline officers who use excessive force. What we did wasn’t perfect and there is so much more work to be done, locally and nationally, but we listened to communities of color. We tried to gain a greater understanding of the challenges they face, and we worked together towards a common goal. All of this needs to be done on a much larger scale today as the use of deadly force against Black and Brown Americans by police continues to be an epidemic in our country. There are tangible steps Congress can and must take to stop the violence, including requiring body cameras for all police officers, swiftly disciplining officers who use excessive force, increasing transparency in policing data, and funding programs to heal the trauma of communities living in fear.
Denver’s rates of crime, violent crime, and murder started falling in the early 2000s, before Hickenlooper became mayor in 2003, and spiked again soon after, beginning to fall again around 2005. Other major cities followed similar trends, with a number of outliers with more frequent peaks and troughs, but generally, cities saw a downturn in crime rates throughout the early 2000s and 2010s. Violent crime spiked nationally in 2006 for the first time since the early 1990s, according to an FBI report that year. Cities like Louisville, Los Angeles and Chicago, saw crime rates slowly increasing again around 2015.
He’s also facing an escalating ethics case. On Friday, Hickenlooper appeared via video before a state ethics panel after refusing to comply with a subpoena the previous day. The Colorado Independent Ethics Commission has been investigating allegations that Hickenlooper violated state law by accepting free private jet rides when he served as governor. He denies any wrongdoing and has characterized the complaint, which was filed by former Republican state House Speaker Frank McNulty’s group Public Trust Institute in 2018, as politically motivated.
Hickenlooper was elected mayor of Denver in 2003 and Colorado governor in 2010, and started his career as a petroleum geologist for an oil and gas producer. He was laid off, opened Denver’s first craft brewery, and started making his fortune.
During his 2010 gubernatorial campaign, he appeared in an ad in which he showered in his clothes, saying negative campaign ads made him “feel like I need to take a shower.” While he was governor, Hickenlooper fought against initiatives to curb fracking, on the side of oil and gas companies that spent more tens of million dollars to fight them. He once drank fracking fluid to prove it wasn’t that bad for you.


theintercept--2020-06-07--A Powerful Petrochemical Lobbying Group Advanced Anti-Protest Legislation in the Midst of the Pandem

A Powerful Petrochemical Lobbying Group Advanced Anti-Protest Legislation in the Midst of the Pandemic

Now , a person who trespasses on a West Virginia property containing “ critical infrastructure ” with the intention of defacing or inhibiting operations could face a felony charge carrying up to three years in prison and a $ 3,000 fine .
The law creates another new felony and fines of up to $ 20,000 for any person or organization that conspires with someone to deface or vandalize such properties .
“ Critical infrastructure ” is defined as an array of oil and gas facilities including petroleum refineries , compressor stations , liquid natural gas terminals , and pipelines .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Valley and Atlantic Coast pipelines would transport gas extracted via fracking in West Virginia to markets in Virginia and North Carolina , passing through the crumbly limestone landscapes known as karst that underly much of the mountainous region .
Such projects are key to keeping fracking companies operating at a time when gas prices are at historic lows and allowing a booming petrochemical industry to continue its expansion .
Local landowners and residents concerned with environmental issues have attempted to stop construction by locking themselves to equipment and camping out in trees in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more conventional actions such as lawsuits , the protest efforts have cost the projects ’ backers billions of dollars in delays .
One day after West Virginia Gov .
Jim Justice ’ s shelter-in-place orders went into effect , the governor quietly signed into law the Critical Infrastructure Protection Act .
In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic , the law created new felony penalties for protest actions targeting oil and gas facilities , as the state continues to confront opposition to two massive natural gas pipelines designed to cut through delicate forests @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Virginia ’ s critical infrastructure law mimics a model policy promoted by the American Legislative Exchange Council , known as ALEC , a shadowy group that encourages state lawmakers to pass industry-friendly legislation .
Records provided to The Intercept by the Energy and Policy Institute reveal the natural gas industry ’ s hand in advancing the bill .
A network of local lobbyists for Dominion Energy , which owns the Atlantic Coast pipeline ; the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association ; and the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers , an industry @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that are the final destinations for the natural gas pipelines , spent months working behind the scenes to ensure the bill ’ s passage .
West Virginia isn ’ t the only state to advance such anti-protest measures in the midst of the pandemic .
Andy Beshear , Kentucky ’ s Democratic governor , who has been widely praised for his response to Covid-19 , signed a similar critical infrastructure law on March 16 , and South Dakota ’ s governor signed another on March 30 .
Alabama ’ s bill passed the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ currently being considered by the House ; Mississippi ’ s passed the House on March 4 and awaits action from the Senate .
Particularly striking is a new amendment to Louisiana ’ s existing critical infrastructure law , now awaiting the governor ’ s signature , which would prescribe up to 15 years ’ imprisonment for entering a critical infrastructure property without authorization during a state of emergency .
Connor Gibson , a researcher for Greenpeace who has studied the industry influence behind critical infrastructure bills nationwide , said politicians have taken advantage @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of controversial projects .
“ The Covid-19 pandemic gave cover for particularly sleazy politicians to pass anti-protest bills while their constituents are squeezed by unemployment and the responsibility to protect public health , ” he said .
“ These bills are meant to prevent protests just long enough for oil companies to finish dangerous and unpopular petrochemical projects.
” Justice , the West Virginia governor , is a coal billionaire who has also thrown his weight behind the Appalachian Storage and Trading Hub , which could transform the Ohio River Valley into a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ governor and legislature remain unconvinced by scientists ’ assertions that only a rapid shift away from fossil fuels will save the state from climatic shifts likely to cause increasingly frequent droughts that could spell the end of its towering red spruce trees and angler-beloved brook trout .
The new law will protect fossil fuel industry dominance with the threat of felony charges for those who dissent .
“ It ’ s a flexing of muscles , ” said Becky Crabtree , whose sheep pasture , set on a ridge below the Appalachian Trail @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Valley pipeline .
“ It ’ s just another way that our lawmakers are in the pockets of the fossil fuel companies.
” After the West Virginia Critical Infrastructure Protection Act was introduced at the end of January , the bill ’ s sponsor , Delegate John Kelly , received dozens of emails from constituents urging him to halt its passage .
In a rare and revealing reply to one of the emails , Kelly provided a previously unreported detail about the bill ’ s origins .
“ What is the purpose of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ against this legislation ?
” a constituent asked Kelly in an email sent February 3 .
“ Simple explanation , this bill reinforces property rights .
when a person goes on private property and does intentional damage , ” Kelly replied .
“ The bill was requested by the natural gas industry , because protesters entered a drilling site , and destroyed equipment.
” Kelly did not respond to questions from The Intercept about who exactly requested the bill or what damage he was referring to , but disclosure records from last summer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Kelly and Republican House Majority Leader Amy Summers spent an afternoon with Maribeth Anderson , government affairs director for Antero Resources , one of the largest natural gas producers in the state .
They discussed gas issues over lunch and rode around in a rented van , visiting a drilling rig and a brine processing facility .
Two weeks later , Dominion lobbyist Bob Orndorff emailed Robert Akers , a lawyer for the West Virginia House Energy Committee .
“ Delegate Amy Summers reached out to me and asked if we ever @ @ @ @ @ @ @ towards pipelines , ” Orndorff wrote , copying Anderson , as well as lobbyists for EQM , the largest shareholder behind the Mountain Valley pipeline , and Southwestern Energy , a natural gas exploration and production company .
“ Maybe the Energy committee should consider such a law.
” Summers , a former member of ALEC , told The Intercept that she ’ d grown concerned after reading an article about civil disobedience on pipeline properties .
“ I asked the industry ’ s lobbyist if we had laws to prevent unsafe activity @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Ann Nallo denied that Dominion had led the efforts to advance the bill .
“ It appears to have been led by an industry consulting group , ” she said , without elaborating .
Orndorff did not respond to a request for comment .
Nallo appears to have been referring to Orion Strategies , a public relations firm based in West Virginia , Ohio , and Pennsylvania that has long been an ally of the natural gas industry .
In 2018 , the firm was behind a series of pro-fracking reports put out @ @ @ @ @ @ @ self-identified grassroots organization that was started by a lobbying company with ties to the tar sands industry .
An Orion Strategies lobbyist was one of only three out of 26 people who testified in favor of the critical infrastructure bill at a public hearing on February 10 .
The others included the head of the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association and a representative of the local chamber of commerce .
After the bill passed , the firm quickly took credit .
“ Orion Strategies is proud to have taken point on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ legislation that will protect critical infrastructure , ” Orion lobbyist Chris Hall wrote in a celebratory email on April 1 .
Hall told The Intercept that Orion worked to advance the anti-protest bill on behalf of the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers .
An AFPM spokesperson confirmed that the trade association was behind the original request .
“ Critics of this bill disregard the dangers inherent in this interference and seem to suggest that trespassing and destruction of property are required for protest , ” she stated , but declined to provide examples @ @ @ @ @ @ @ critical infrastructure equipment .
The AFPM ’ s efforts to pass critical infrastructure legislation go further back than the West Virginia bill .
In fact , the association helped author the ALEC model legislation that has served as a template for anti-protest measures across the country .
The first critical infrastructure law aimed at pipeline protesters passed in the immediate aftermath of the Indigenous-led uprising against the Dakota Access pipeline near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota .
The fossil fuel industry , in partnership with law enforcement , convinced legislators @ @ @ @ @ @ @ risk of their own local Standing Rock — with accompanying security costs .
Oklahoma passed an anti-protest law in May 2017 , and by the end of the year , ALEC had developed the law into model legislation .
An AFPM lobbyist was part of the ALEC task force that created the model .
“ AFPM advocated for the model legislation because of its importance for refineries and for the pipeline infrastructure that delivers products to and from our facilities , ” the association ’ s spokesperson told The Intercept .
Since then @ @ @ @ @ @ @ representatives to evangelize in favor of anti-protest legislation .
Direct lobbying by AFPM helped advance versions of the model bill in at least four states , according to an analysis of news reports and disclosure records by Gibson , the Greenpeace researcher .
Twelve states including Oklahoma have now passed laws aimed at increasing penalties for pipeline protesters interfering with “ critical infrastructure .
”

One day after West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice’s shelter-in-place orders went into effect, the governor quietly signed into law the Critical Infrastructure Protection Act. In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, the law created new felony penalties for protest actions targeting oil and gas facilities, as the state continues to confront opposition to two massive natural gas pipelines designed to cut through delicate forests, streams, and farmland.
If construction is completed, the Mountain Valley and Atlantic Coast pipelines would transport gas extracted via fracking in West Virginia to markets in Virginia and North Carolina, passing through the crumbly limestone landscapes known as karst that underly much of the mountainous region. Such projects are key to keeping fracking companies operating at a time when gas prices are at historic lows and allowing a booming petrochemical industry to continue its expansion. Local landowners and residents concerned with environmental issues have attempted to stop construction by locking themselves to equipment and camping out in trees in the pipelines’ paths. Along with more conventional actions such as lawsuits, the protest efforts have cost the projects’ backers billions of dollars in delays.
Now, a person who trespasses on a West Virginia property containing “critical infrastructure” with the intention of defacing or inhibiting operations could face up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine. The law creates a new felony and fines of up to $20,000 for any person who conspires to deface or vandalize such properties if the resulting damage is more than $2,500. “Critical infrastructure” is defined as an array of oil and gas facilities including petroleum refineries, compressor stations, liquid natural gas terminals, and pipelines.
West Virginia’s critical infrastructure law mimics a model policy promoted by the American Legislative Exchange Council, known as ALEC, a shadowy group that encourages state lawmakers to pass industry-friendly legislation. Records provided to The Intercept by the Energy and Policy Institute reveal the natural gas industry’s hand in advancing the bill. A network of local lobbyists for Dominion Energy, which owns the Atlantic Coast pipeline; the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association; and the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, an industry group representing the refineries and processing plants that are the final destinations for the natural gas pipelines, spent months working behind the scenes to ensure the bill’s passage.
West Virginia isn’t the only state to advance such anti-protest measures in the midst of the pandemic. Andy Beshear, Kentucky’s Democratic governor, who has been widely praised for his response to Covid-19, signed a similar critical infrastructure law on March 16, and South Dakota’s governor signed another on March 30. Alabama’s bill passed the state Senate on March 12 and is currently being considered by the House; Mississippi’s passed the House on March 4 and awaits action from the Senate. Particularly striking is a new amendment to Louisiana’s existing critical infrastructure law, now awaiting the governor’s signature, which would prescribe up to 15 years’ imprisonment for entering a critical infrastructure property without authorization during a state of emergency.
Connor Gibson, a researcher for Greenpeace who has studied the industry influence behind critical infrastructure bills nationwide, said politicians have taken advantage of the pandemic to ease the construction of controversial projects. “The Covid-19 pandemic gave cover for particularly sleazy politicians to pass anti-protest bills while their constituents are squeezed by unemployment and the responsibility to protect public health,” he said. “These bills are meant to prevent protests just long enough for oil companies to finish dangerous and unpopular petrochemical projects.”
Justice, the West Virginia governor, is a coal billionaire who has also thrown his weight behind the Appalachian Storage and Trading Hub, which could transform the Ohio River Valley into a center of the petrochemical industry. The governor and legislature remain unconvinced by scientists’ assertions that only a rapid shift away from fossil fuels will save the state from climatic shifts likely to cause increasingly frequent droughts that could spell the end of its towering red spruce trees and angler-beloved brook trout. The new law will protect fossil fuel industry dominance with the threat of felony charges for those who dissent.
“It’s a flexing of muscles,” said Becky Crabtree, whose sheep pasture, set on a ridge below the Appalachian Trail, is now bisected by the Mountain Valley pipeline. “It’s just another way that our lawmakers are in the pockets of the fossil fuel companies.”
Requested by Industry
After the West Virginia Critical Infrastructure Protection Act was introduced at the end of January, the bill’s sponsor, Delegate John Kelly, received dozens of emails from constituents urging him to halt its passage.
In a rare and revealing reply to one of the emails, Kelly provided a previously unreported detail about the bill’s origins. “What is the purpose of HB4615 and are you in support or against this legislation?” a constituent asked Kelly in an email sent February 3.
“Simple explanation, this bill reinforces property rights. when a person goes on private property and does intentional damage,” Kelly replied. “The bill was requested by the natural gas industry, because protesters entered a drilling site, and destroyed equipment.”
Kelly did not respond to questions from The Intercept about who exactly requested the bill or what damage he was referring to, but disclosure records from last summer provide some clues.
On June 12, Kelly and Republican House Majority Leader Amy Summers spent an afternoon with Maribeth Anderson, government affairs director for Antero Resources, one of the largest natural gas producers in the state. They discussed gas issues over lunch and rode around in a rented van, visiting a drilling rig and a brine processing facility.
Two weeks later, Dominion lobbyist Bob Orndorff emailed Robert Akers, a lawyer for the West Virginia House Energy Committee. “Delegate Amy Summers reached out to me and asked if we ever considered a bill to address civil disobedience towards pipelines,” Orndorff wrote, copying Anderson, as well as lobbyists for EQM, the largest shareholder behind the Mountain Valley pipeline, and Southwestern Energy, a natural gas exploration and production company. “Maybe the Energy committee should consider such a law.”
Summers, a former member of ALEC, told The Intercept that she’d grown concerned after reading an article about civil disobedience on pipeline properties. “I asked the industry’s lobbyist if we had laws to prevent unsafe activity,” she said.
Dominion spokesperson Ann Nallo denied that Dominion had led the efforts to advance the bill. “It appears to have been led by an industry consulting group,” she said, without elaborating. Orndorff did not respond to a request for comment.
Nallo appears to have been referring to Orion Strategies, a public relations firm based in West Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania that has long been an ally of the natural gas industry. In 2018, the firm was behind a series of pro-fracking reports put out by the Consumer Energy Alliance, a self-identified grassroots organization that was started by a lobbying company with ties to the tar sands industry.
An Orion Strategies lobbyist was one of only three out of 26 people who testified in favor of the critical infrastructure bill at a public hearing on February 10. The others included the head of the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association and a representative of the local chamber of commerce.
After the bill passed, the firm quickly took credit. “Orion Strategies is proud to have taken point on organizing the wide base of support for legislation that will protect critical infrastructure,” Orion lobbyist Chris Hall wrote in a celebratory email on April 1.
Hall told The Intercept that Orion worked to advance the anti-protest bill on behalf of the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers. An AFPM spokesperson confirmed that the trade association was behind the original request. “Critics of this bill disregard the dangers inherent in this interference and seem to suggest that trespassing and destruction of property are required for protest,” she stated, but declined to provide examples of incidents in which protesters had destroyed critical infrastructure equipment.
The AFPM’s efforts to pass critical infrastructure legislation go further back than the West Virginia bill. In fact, the association helped author the ALEC model legislation that has served as a template for anti-protest measures across the country.
A Force Behind the Scenes
The first critical infrastructure law aimed at pipeline protesters passed in the immediate aftermath of the Indigenous-led uprising against the Dakota Access pipeline near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota. The fossil fuel industry, in partnership with law enforcement, convinced legislators in numerous states that they were at risk of their own local Standing Rock — with accompanying security costs. Oklahoma passed an anti-protest law in May 2017, and by the end of the year, ALEC had developed the law into model legislation.
An AFPM lobbyist was part of the ALEC task force that created the model. “AFPM advocated for the model legislation because of its importance for refineries and for the pipeline infrastructure that delivers products to and from our facilities,” the association’s spokesperson told The Intercept.
Since then, AFPM has continued to deploy its representatives to evangelize in favor of anti-protest legislation. Direct lobbying by AFPM helped advance versions of the model bill in at least four states, according to an analysis of news reports and disclosure records by Gibson, the Greenpeace researcher. Twelve states including Oklahoma have now passed laws aimed at increasing penalties for pipeline protesters interfering with “critical infrastructure.”
Photo: Heather Rousseau/The Roanoke Times/AP
Companies processing natural gas and oil into fuel or chemicals for products like plastic have played a particularly significant role in pushing critical infrastructure legislation, according to the new data collected by Greenpeace. Marathon Petroleum, Exxon Mobil, and Koch Industries, all of which own both pipelines and refineries, ranked as the most influential corporations backing critical infrastructure laws nationally, according to the organization’s analysis. “It’s not just necessarily the big embattled pipeline companies that are pushing these anti-protest laws,” Gibson said.
A Marathon spokesperson told The Intercept that the company supports critical infrastructure policies “with safety in mind,” adding that “there have been many legislatures that agree that this type of legislation is necessary to counter threats of vandalism that can disrupt emergency services and people’s lives.” Exxon Mobil and Koch Industries did not respond to The Intercept’s requests for comment.
“It’s the companies that own both refineries and pipelines that are most aggressive in retaliating against protesters of fossil fuel infrastructure,” said Gibson. “The ultimate goal is to prevent people from protesting with fines and penalties. They also want to make sure they enact revenge on people who protest anyway, using legislators to provide that service for them.”
Above All Rules and Regulations
Crabtree, who is in her 60s, is part of the wide-ranging resistance to pipeline projects in Appalachia and among those who have sought to impede operations of a pipeline property. She’s concerned that the Mountain Valley pipeline will disrupt sensitive water systems that feed her family’s drinking water wells. Construction has already altered the landscape on her property, she says. A week after the company blasted open terrain near her home, a sinkhole opened 60 feet from Crabtree’s door, disrupting a stream that used to pass over the land. Mountain Valley denied responsibility and the hole has since filled with water, becoming a pond more than 9 feet deep.
In 2018, Crabtree and her family suspended her 1971 Ford Pinto in the air above a pipeline construction site on her farmland. They sealed the doors shut with Crabtree inside and succeeded in stopping work for half a day before she was arrested. Prosecutors later dropped an obstruction charge.
Photo: Courtesy of Roger Crabtree
Amendments to the West Virginia protest law say that it should not apply to “the right to free speech or assembly, including, but not limited to, protesting and picketing.” The amendments were a win for the bill’s opponents, however it will be up to prosecutors to decide whether the language protects people like Crabtree.
Mountain Valley has since completed work on Crabtree’s property, and construction elsewhere is currently suspended while federal regulators review the project’s compliance with the Endangered Species Act. Yet pipeline workers have been allowed to continue working on erosion and sediment control throughout the pandemic. Justice’s stay-at-home order and the state’s “safer at home” order have counted work on the pipeline as “essential infrastructure.” Backers still say the project will be completed this year, which could mean an influx of out-of-state workers in communities with low Covid-19 rates. Residents of the county where Crabtree lives have implored the governor to halt pipeline work while the pandemic continues.
Mountain Valley did not respond to a request for comment, but in a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the company’s lawyer stated that it “has implemented enhanced health and safety measures, including instructing employees and contractors on social distancing and sanitation” as well as reducing crew sizes to fewer than 10 people.
Nevertheless, Crabtree says, workers she spotted on an adjoining property did not seem to be following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Covid-19 guidelines. “In the middle of the pandemic, we had workers standing far less than 6 feet from each other, with no masks. They don’t stay away from each other, and they don’t stay away from cars,” she said. “They are above all rules and regulations.”
Correction: June 12, 2020
A previous version of this article incorrectly described some of the penalties included in West Virginia’s critical infrastructure law. The article has been updated to accurately reflect the new penalties.