When Kim Potter goes on trial, one thing we'll see is that her first failure was as a training officer. Wright should've been brought to the back of the vehicle and the driver's door closed pre-cuffing. The trainee muffed the cuffing—and as Potter interceded all hell broke loose.
If Wright is brought to the rear of the vehicle; if his door is closed to block his access to the vehicle; if the trainee is able to open his cuffs in a professional way; either Wright has no means to get back in the vehicle or Potter has more time to think before interceding.
As an attorney I think people need to understand that Potter may not be convicted. Our criminal justice system does not have an ideal statute for the sort of situation that appears to have led to Wright's death. But either way Potter will be sued into oblivion for Wrongful Death.
I've often agreed with Ben Crump—but there's not a lawyer in this country who doesn't know that when Crump says that Potter should be tried for first-degree murder he's engaged in a PR campaign that has nothing to do with how the criminal justice system works or even should work.
I am making these statements based upon my training and experience and education as a criminal attorney. I'm not making these statements as a partisan of what I *want* to see happen. I just don't see enough attorneys preparing the public for what probably *will* happen to Potter.
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Trump posted this without knowing Nick Reiner was under arrest. He posted it assuming one of his fans murdered Rob Reiner. So if you want to know how Trump will react if fans start murdering his enemies, now you know. He'll celebrate and blame the victims.
Those claiming Trump knew he was commenting on a family dispute are not reading the confirmed, universally reported on post above. Trump makes very clear *his* understanding at the time he composed his post—which may have been last night—was that Rob was killed over his politics.
The post above is far more dangerous, disgusting, and diabolical than anyone is yet realizing. This isn't just Donald Trump pissing on the grave of a critic, it's him signaling that those who do violence in his name are justified because they were—definitionally—provoked into it.
(🧵) THREAD: I'm an Elon Musk biographer. Musk and/or his agents have programmed his AI to make false statements about me that the AI makes no effort to substantiate or correct. So here's a thread of the substantiated claims about Musk that Grok says it can make.
(🧵) So many people have Trump wrong. What he wants is not Putin's Russia or Hitler's Germany. I've studied him for a decade and can tell you that if his plans come true, America will resemble the Hermit Kingdom—North Korea—with Trump as Kim Jong-un and the rest of us in poverty.
2/ Nazism holds some above others. Trump holds himself above everyone—that's the distinction he cares about.
Russia suffers an oligarch class to exist. Trump may do so for now—but his plan is for them to be his servants.
He wants the rest of us in pain and anonymous as pond scum.
To make Trump legible to the masses, we analogize him to a kleptocrat or a fascist. And he does contain those components. But what he wants—lusts for—is to be worshipped and never denied, to shape reality to suit his whims, to not be bothered with others’ welfare and our despair.
I just woke up from a long nap, can someone tell me if Trump has already apologized to the nation for falsely blaming the Kirk assassination on the left when—as with both his assassination attempts and 85% of political violence this century per the data—it was a far-right nutjob?
He is a Groyper. The Groypers are a far-right, neo-Nazi cult made up of young far-right males who thought Kirk was insufficiently far-right. thedailybeast.com/charlie-kirk-s…
Bomb threats against the Maryland General Assembly. Bomb threats against the Michigan lieutenant governor and his family. Bomb threats against 5 HBCUs. Two arrests for violent assaults in Idaho.
In 24 hours.
All Democratic/left-leaning victims.
All suspected MAGA perpetrators.
And that wasn't a full list—not even close.
Bomb threat against the Rhode Island Senate President. Bomb threat against the Rhode Island Majority Leader. Bomb threat against the New Mexico Senate Majority Leader. Once again all Democratic victims, all suspected MAGA perpetrators.
There's no reason to have a conversation about political violence based in rhetoric rather than data.
I don't need to note that every bomb threat on Election Day in 2024 was a MAGA bomb threat.
I don't need to mention January 6, Paul Pelosi, or the two dead Minnesota Democrats.
There was significantly less political violence in America before the 2016 presidential campaign. We all know why.
That doesn’t change that what happened today—in both Utah and Colorado—were tragedies.
It just underscores that revisionist history won’t solve America's problems.
Donald Trump transformed politics into an ultraviolent Thunderdome.
He did it for his own advancement, and he didn’t care what the consequences would be.
It’s *also* true that since Trump poisoned our politics there’s been violence from both Left and Right, though mostly Right.
Both Trump assassination plots I condemned immediately and unreservedly. Both would-be assassins were Republicans. The assassin who killed Minnesota’s Speaker was also Republican. So was the man who plotted to kill Pelosi. But there have been leftist assassins too. I condemn all.