by
Bonnie
Cash-Pool/Getty
Images)
A
classic
archetype
of
right-wing
media
is
the
ostensible
“Democrat”
expert
who
appears
like
clockwork
to
tell
conservative
audiences
that
even
this
ole
liberal
has
to
admit
that
the
Republicans
got
this
right!
They
bring
unearned
credibility
based
on
their
—
presumed
—
statements
against
interest.
They
show
up
on
Fox
News
like
a
character
in
a
sophistry
wrestling
match,
to
embody
free-floating
prejudices
about
hated
liberals
before
performing
a
face
turn
to
the
drooling
delight
of
the
viewers.
After
a
while,
you’d
think
people
would
put
it
together
that
this
character
who
hasn’t
agreed
with
the
Democrats
on
a
single
substantive
issue
in
decades
is
no
more
committed
to
the
Democrats
than
the
Iron
Sheik
was
committed
to
Middle
East
terror
groups,
but
we’re
not
talking
about
America’s
best
and
brightest
here.
George
Washington
Law
professor
Jonathan
Turley
relishes
his
role
in
this
disingenuous
pageant,
eager
to
trade
his
credibility
as
an
academic
to
advance
sillier
and
sillier
arguments
in
exchange
for
cable
news
hits.
It’s
a
messy
business,
but
business
is
booming
because
the
Trump
administration
needs
someone
to
concoct
legal
apologies
on
an
almost
daily
basis.
Do
you
realize
it’s
not
even
been
seven
days
since
America
used
150
warplanes
to
kill
40-80
people
while
kidnapping
the
president
of
a
sovereign
nation
for
possession
of
a
machine
gun…
in
his
own
country?
Turley
defended
the
legality
of
that
one
—
even
though
he’d
taken
the
opposite
position
when
it
was
Obama
—
and
then
the
next
day
had
to
vomit
up
a
new
article
after
Donald
Trump
spent
his
press
conference
admitting
the
rationale
that
Turley
defended
was
a
lie.
But
that
was,
again,
less
than
a
week
ago,
and
this
is
now!
The
Department
of
Homeland
Security
has
flooded
every
corner
of
Minneapolis
(except
the
erstwhile
Hampton
Inn)
with
ICE
agents.
Given
that
the
administration
has
suited
up
a
regular
Keystone
Kops
unit
that
struggled
to
pass
basic
entrance
requirements,
the
inevitable
happened
yesterday
when
ICE
shot
and
killed
a
legal
observer
for
turning
her
car
around.
That’s
basically
the
Bat
Signal
for
Turley.
Accepting
the
mission
to
launder
state
violence
through
performative
civility
scolding,
Turley
produced
a
banger
for
Fox
explaining
that
—
as
a
legal
matter
—
this
killing
is
best
understood
not
as
a
horrifying
exercise
of
unaccountable
force,
but
as
a
teachable
moment
about
Democrats
being
too
angry
about
it.
If
that
framing
sounds
grotesque,
then
congratulations!
You
still
have
a
functioning
moral
compass.
Turley
opens
by
invoking
Democratic
Representative
Dan
Goldman,
a
former
federal
prosecutor,
for
concluding,
“It
was
an
outright
murder.”
For
voicing
this
assessment
of
the
case,
Turley
brands
Goldman
as
the
American
Madame
Defarge,
an
analogy
that
I
can
only
assume
he
threw
in
because
classical
literary
references
reinforce
Turley’s
waning
liberal
bona
fides.
Like
Million
Dollar
Man
flashing
a
wad
of
bills
to
the
crowd
to
remind
them
that
he
was
appropriately
rich
and
arrogant.
Have
I
stumbled
into
the
reverse
by
ham-fistedly
citing
all
these
1980s
wrestlers?
Perhaps.
Goldman
has
made
a
career
of
dismissing
due
process
for
his
political
opponents
while
engaging
in
willful
blindness
of
the
conduct
of
his
allies.
He
has denied the
existence
of
Antifa
as
an
organization
as
well
as
claiming
that
he
has
seen
no
evidence
of
an
increase
in
attacks
on
ICE
officers.
Right…
but
Antifa
is
not
an
organization.
A
lot
of
organizations
are
antifascist,
but
there’s
no
massive,
coordinated
entity
out
there
called
Antifa.
Inventing
organized
conspiracies
where
they
don’t
exist
is
a
conservative
shibboleth.
Sort
of
like
how
Cartel
de
los
Soles
isn’t
real
either,
which
the
Department
of
Justice
begrudgingly
had
to
admit
after
claiming
it
was
the
massive
drug
trafficking
cartel
that
Nicolas
Maduro
ran.
Just
delulu
all
the
way
down.
Rejecting
Goldman’s
assessment,
Turley
asserts
that
“The
video
does
not
support
such
a
claim”
because
law
enforcement
is
allowed
to
use
lethal
force
in
self-defense.
In
this
case,
the
officer
had
a
fraction
of
a
second
to
decide
whether
to
fire
his
weapon
after
Good
sped
toward
him.
Good
appears
to
have
been
attempting
to
flee
the
officers
and
flight
alone
is
not
a
justification
for
the
use
of
lethal
force.
However,
when
you
speed
toward
an
officer,
he
may
treat
the
vehicle
as
a
weapon
and
discharge
his
weapon
in
self-defense.
When
Donald
Trump
posted
his
preferred
video
clip
of
the
incident
—
the
one
from
far
down
the
street,
through
trees
—
he
slowed
it
down
to
super
slo-mo.
That’s
a
deliberate
editing
choice.
In
this
case,
the
effect
of
slowing
it
down
is
to
obscure
how
much
“speed”
was
actually
involved
and
to
infuse
more
drama
to
the
victim’s
DMV-approved
K-turn
than
real-time
clips
provide.
Turley
acknowledges
that
“flight
alone
is
not
a
justification
for
the
use
of
lethal
force”
—
a
concession
to
legal
accuracy
—
and
one
that
should
raise
some
questions
about
the
officer
intentionally
moving
to
block
the
vehicle
as
she
tried
to
leave.
He
also
doesn’t
address
the
implications
raised
by
the
video
appearing
to
show
the
officer
firing
after
the
vehicle
passed
him
and
therefore
after
he
was
no
longer
in
any
conceivable
danger.
He
also
conveniently
omits
that,
after
pumping
bullets
into
Renee
Nicole
Good,
ICE
agents
allegedly
refused
to
render
aid
while
she
bled
out
in
her
car.
Self-defense
doctrine
generally
does
not
extend
to
“and
then
watch
her
die.”
These
are
all
legal
factors
worth
at
least
acknowledging.
Even
if
he
didn’t
want
to
get
into
the
more
problematic
facts,
he
could
still
give
the
“good”
legal
news
to
his
audience
and
explain
how
qualified
immunity,
and
sovereign
immunity,
and
Bivens
will
combine
like
Vigilantism
Voltron
to
allow
the
officer
to
escape
consequences
no
matter
what.
But
conceding
even
a
hint
that
the
shooting
might
not
be
justified
could
upset
his
fans.
More
importantly,
getting
bogged
down
in
actual
“legal
analysis”
would
complicate
the
preferred
narrative
that
Dan
Goldman
is
a
Dickensian
caricature.
Goldman
is ramping
up
his
rhetoric to
appeal
to
the
radical
left
from
promising
impeachments
to
calling
for
the
prosecution
of
this
officer.
This
officer
is
no
longer
a
human
being,
he
is
a
prop
to
be
used
for
political
gain.
If
he
has
to
go
to
jail
to
secure
a
third
term
for
Goldman,
he
is
viewed
as
a
small
price
to
pay.
Not
to
be
crass,
but
the
person
who
is
no
longer
a
human
being
is
the
woman
who
got
killed
by
the
administration’s
racial
profiling
unit.
Does
Turley
have
any
sympathy
there?
Not
really.
Because
she’s
a
prop
to
be
used
for
his
publicity
gain.
That
was
evident
in
the
profane,
unhinged
diatribe
of
Minneapolis
Mayor
Jacob
Frey
who
immediately
not
only
declared
the
officer
a
murderer
but
called
claims
of
self-defense
“bllsh*t”
and
told
ICE
“get
the
f–k
out”
of
the
city.When
many
of
us
denounced
his
conduct,
he
mocked
his
critics
by
apologizing
if
his
profanity
“offended
their
Disney
princess
ears.”
Credit
Turley
for
seamlessly
setting
up
the
Amazon
affiliate
link
to
his
“Age
of
Rage”
book.
Everyday
I’m
hustlin’
as
the
Bard
sang.
And
Turley’s
got
to
sell
some
books
to
all
those
Fox
viewers
who
would
really
rather
not
discuss
where
they
were
on
January
6,
assuring
them
that
it’s
Democrats
with
a
“rage”
problem
because
sometimes
they’ll
use
the
impolite
F-word.
And
by
that,
we
mean
“fascism.”
For
now,
however,
no
one
will
out
rage
Goldman
or
others.
They
remain
on
a
political
hair-trigger
to
find
triumph
in
the
tragedies
of
our
times.
He
closed
an
article
about
an
ICE
agent
going
straight
for
his
gun
to
kill
someone
with
the
word
“hair-trigger.”
This
is
what
peak
performance
looks
like
for
a
ragebaiter.
“It
was
an
Outright
Murder.”
Democratic
Politicians
Pander
to
the
Mob
on
ICE
Shooting
[JonathanTurley.com]
Earlier:
ICE
Kills
A
Woman
In
Minneapolis
And
Will
Probably
Get
Away
With
It
Homeland
Security
&
Hilton
Introduce
Us
To
Third
Amendment
Jawboning!
Joe
Patrice is
a
senior
editor
at
Above
the
Law
and
co-host
of
Thinking
Like
A
Lawyer.
Feel
free
to email
any
tips,
questions,
or
comments.
Follow
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if
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Joe
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