29 Comments

Radley, I think the policy document is pretty easy to explain. MPD dropped the wrap after a previous lawsuit. So they just went in and deleted B. You can use the way back machine Internet Archive to see different versions of the document over time.

The filmmakers think this doc exonerates Chauvin because it was optional to do hobble and recovery position, look at the doc, they keep pointing to the doc.

Chauvin was at the department for years and was specifically trained to do the recovery position. People who work at MPD all thought he was nuts for not using it. He didn’t care about a typo in a doc and his lawyers didn’t even make this argument during the trial. This is being retconned for the purpose of this dishonest documentary.

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Hi Radley––Thank you for correcting your "heart attack" error.

I have no doubt that asking for corrections can be "tactic", as you suggest. But I did not ask you for corrections as a way of sidestepping your substantive arguments. I will address all of those arguments––which are far less substantive than they appear––in a single, unified post after you release your promised "Part 3". I'm also happy to have a public conversation with you on any of these matters.

Best,

CH

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"Floyd’s death spurred reforms and procedural changes that will save lives, including on issues like death investigations and problems like positional asphyxia. One aim of The Fall of Minneapolis and the police groups pushing it is to roll back those reforms, or to snuff them out before they can happen. That means more people will die. We should be angry about that."

This is a categorical statement about the social good of the Floyd reaction which is impossible to justify so simply. The detachment from reality it caused regarding the perception of police violence is well documented, and the destructiveness of the reaction is well documented. To believe the backlash against policing and the social unrest were all for the good is only an article of faith, hardly backed up by solid reason. It is easy to believe, in fact, that the promotion of the idea that black people have a target painted on them, and will inevitably be subject to a lifetime of extraordinary harassment from the police and society in general, is psychologically abusive towards them, to the extent that messaging is exaggerated.

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Thanks. The weird wording bothered me, because my overly literal brain went to “well, if you’re not using the hobble, I guess the policy reverts to the duration of the threat or possibility thereof as the only limitation.” Terrible policy, but we’ve seen terrible policies before and it’s harder but definitely possible to hold Chauvin to account on breaking the policy.

Hughes reminds me of other talented enfant terribles that are so used to being ahead of the curve, they don’t develop the humility to check their own biases, and they don’t handle the damage to their ego well. I hope he’ll learn.

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If you’re an intelligent and intellectually honest academic, and you write the piece that Hughes did, and you get destroyed by a highly respected and legitimate expert in the field, your only solution is waving the white flag, complete and total surrender, and contrite apologies for the errors and a pledge to never do it again.

But if you are not, then you will engage in a weak, futile and sad semantic defense, and you will set your course for a career in disreputable academia and punditry.

I guess he has made his choice.

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Lack of specialized knowledge is a real problem in this era of "I'll do my own research."

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"In his 4:18am email to me, which included a diagram and a link to several medical publications, Hughes wrote:"

Sorry, all I hear is:

twenty seven eight-by-ten

Colour glossy pictures with the circles and arrows and the paragraph on

The back of each one

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Thank you for your work. I am a recently retired physician who chaired a program for years. Your attention to detail on the medical issues, you clearly consulted real experts, is amazing. I have now subscribed to my first substack, yours. Now if I can just figure out how to get a password.

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Loury and Coleman think being polite is a good way to mask their anti black rhetoric. They get a lot of compliments by on their manner of speaking. These are the moderates who MLK save liked peace over justice.

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Here's a video of the Elgin police applying the Wrap (it's a training/ propaganda video).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PKlUY4fOMI

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