"The investigation I am announcing today will assess whether the Minneapolis Police Department engages in a pattern or practice of using excessive force including during protests."

Said Attorney General Merrick Garland, quoted in "Attorney General Merrick Garland announces an investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department" (NYT).

So-called pattern-or-practice investigations are often the precursors to consent decrees, court-approved deals between the Justice Department and local governments that create and enforce a road map for training and operational changes.... The Obama administration had repeatedly used the tool to address police misconduct. The restoration of consent decrees was one of the Biden administration’s first significant moves to hold police forces accountable in cases where they are found to have violated federal laws. 

FROM THE EMAIL: Mattman26 writes:

Good for the Biden Administration for committing to ferreting out the racism in the Democratic Party!

"After the officer fired, she is heard on the video saying, 'Holy shit. I just shot him.'"

From "Minnesota Officer Who Shot Daunte Wright Meant to Fire Taser, Chief Says/Officials from Brooklyn Center said that the fatal shooting was an 'accidental discharge,' and released body-camera video of the encounter" (NYT). 

“It is my belief that the officer had the intention to deploy their Taser, but instead shot Mr. Wright with a single bullet,” Chief Tim Gannon of the Brooklyn Center Police Department said of the shooting on Sunday of Daunte Wright, 20, during a traffic stop. “This appears to me, from what I viewed, and the officer’s reaction and distress immediately after, that this was an accidental discharge that resulted in a tragic death of Mr. Wright.”... 

Chief Gannon said that Mr. Wright had been initially pulled over because of an expired registration on the vehicle he was driving. The video showed a brief struggle between Mr. Wright and police officers before one of the officers fired her gun.

The topic of race does not come up until the 5th paragraph of this article, where we are told: "Mr. Wright was Black. City officials did not identify the race of the police officer." The gender of the officer is revealed in the first paragraph, but only by way of the pronoun "her." The quoted statement from the police chief avoids pronouns.

It's hard to fathom the incompetence that would be necessary to mix up your taser and your gun. How is it possible that these 2 items are shaped and positioned in a manner that would allow them to be confused? 

FROM THE EMAIL: I received a lot of email on this post, most of it from readers who saw the mixup as something that just can happen, because the 2 devices are shaped similarly and the police officer is under pressure. Some said that the taser is usually positioned on the opposite side of the body from the gun, so that you'd know you have to reach across to the other side to get the gun. One reader said the news has now reported that the police officer in this incident did have the taser properly positioned on the other side of her body. But here's the one email I wanted to post in full, from Mattman26:

The tragic incompetence of the taser-gun mixup ain’t the half of it. Watch the guy trying to cuff Daunte. What’s with all the fumbling around? Cuffs are designed to be slapped on; they practically close themselves around the wrist. What on earth was that cop doing? Had he never done this before? And more crucial: Why on earth would you be trying to cuff a wanted man in the open doorway of a running car? The incompetence is staggering.

Did Donald Trump utter what Ronald Reagan called the "9 most terrifying words in the English language": "I'm from the government, and I'm here to help"?

You might think so from this NYT headline: "‘I’m Here to Help,’ Trump Tells Tech Executives at Meeting."

But if you watch the video — provided at the link — and read the text, you'll see what he said was "I’m here to help you folks do well." And:

“There’s nobody like you in the world,” he enthused. “In the world! There’s nobody like the people in this room.” Anything that the government “can do to help this go along,” he made clear, “we’re going to be there for you.”

Yesterday, there was a much more conspicuous example of the NYT using a deceptively incomplete quote in a headline: "Trump Strategist Stephen Bannon Says Media Should ‘Keep Its Mouth Shut.'" The full quote — which does appear in the article, in the second paragraph — is "The media should be embarrassed and humiliated and keep its mouth shut and just listen for a while."

We discussed that article here, and the commenters observed the problem. Harkin said: