When Hot Pursuit Goes Cold
February 26, 2021
It’s time to play… Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader (if that 5th grader read a TON of news). Test your knowledge of recent world news with this short quiz. Submissions must be made by 12pm EST Monday, 3/1. The winner, announced Wednesday, will win bragging rights for the week as well as a free Daily Pnut t-shirt.
“The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not sufficient warrant.” — John Stuart Mill
When Hot Pursuit Goes Cold
(Kent Nishimura via Getty Images)
On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court began hearing arguments in a crucial case about whether police are allowed to enter a home without a warrant when pursuing a suspect for a minor crime.
This year, more and more Americans are asking questions about the tactics police use in minor crimes that escalate into potentially-deadly confrontations, especially with Black and brown suspects. This case, however, focuses on an older white man, Arthur Lange.
While driving through a rural area late one night in Sonoma, California, Lange was reportedly playing loud music and honking his horn several times, causing one highway patrol officer to believe he had violated a noise ordinance. The officer followed Lange to his home and turned on his flashing lights once they reached the driveway.
Lange, who claims he never saw the police car, continued driving into his attached garage. The officer left his car and stuck his foot under the closing garage door sensor, allowing him to enter the garage without a warrant. Once inside, he smelled liquor on Lange’s breath and arrested him for both the noise violation and driving under the influence.
The Supreme Court has clearly stated that, under the “hot pursuit” doctrine, warrantless search when pursuing a fleeing suspected felon is allowed. The question in this case: are police free to do the same when pursuing someone for a minor offense like playing loud music?
Based on the oral arguments so far, liberal and conservative justices alike seem conflicted. Chief Justice Roberts rejected the argument of Lange’s lawyer, that the police could simply have knocked on the door, on the grounds that such a warning creates a dangerous situation for police.
Justices Sotomayor and Breyer have rejected the idea of a felony vs. misdemeanor distinction, with warrantless search being allowed only for the former, since different states draw different lines between the two. Violently assaulting multiple people, for example, is a felony in California, but not in Massachusetts.
The lawyer for the California Supreme Court argued that, regardless of offense, police should be able to pursue any suspect attempting to avoid arrest, but Justice Alito isn’t buying that Lange tried to avoid arrest at all. “If we take your view, then it seems your home isn’t a castle for the most trivial things,” said Justice Breyer.
Whatever the Court ultimately decides will set a critical standard for what rights police officers must give suspects of minor crimes. Over the past decade, videos of police officers using force against suspects in escalated confrontations have pervaded the internet. Depending on the outcome, this case might mean fewer, or more, of those incidents in years to come. (NPR)
Amnesty for Navalny, But Not For His Views
(Alexander Nemenov via Getty Images)
- Alexei Navalny, a political rival of the Kremlin, has been stripped of his “prisoner of conscience” status by Amnesty International, which claimed that previous comments by the currently-imprisoned political figure were “akin to hate speech.” Navalny has previously advocated for nationalist, anti-immigrant policies and is regularly accused by his critics on social media of being a white supremacist.
- Amnesty International did note that they were still fighting for his freedom — Nalvany is imprisoned in Moscow in an act that Amnesty referred to as “politically motivated persecution by Russian authorities.”
- Navalny was arrested on January 17, the same day Amnesty announced it would consider him a “prisoner of conscience”, as he arrived back in Moscow from Berlin. Thousands in Russia have since called for Navalny’s release, but the protest movement has eased after huge numbers of people were arrested during rallies. (Al Jazeera)
Unfriending Myanmar’s Military
- Facebook has announced that they have banned Myanmar’s military from all its social media platforms, a few weeks after the country’s government was overthrown in a military coup.
- Facebook’s decision comes after years of criticism over how Myanmar’s military has used the site to further their political agenda and spread misinformation. For years, members of the military were behind a systematic campaign on Facebook that demeaned the Rohingya as foreigners illegally living in Myanmar, even though many had been there for generations.
- Since the coup early this month, the military has repeatedly shut off the internet and cut access to major social media sites while continuing to use the platform to spread misinformation and make statements about the state of the country. In response, Facebook wrote: “Events since the February 1 coup, including deadly violence, have precipitated a need for this ban,” adding that the risks of letting the Myanmar military remain on Facebook and Instagram were “too great” and that the military would be barred indefinitely. (NYT, $)
Additional World News
- Armenian PM slams ‘coup attempt’ as political tensions rise (AP)
- China’s Xi declares ‘complete victory’ against rural poverty (Al Jazeera)
- Facebook says it will pay $1B over 3 years to news industry (NBC)
- India, Pakistan agree to stop cross-border firing in Kashmir (Al Jazeera)
- India sets stricter rules for social media giants (Verge)
- German man charged with giving Bundestag floor plans to Russian agents (Guardian). Rumor has it he placed the stolen plans in a droid for safekeeping.
- Hunting the men who kill women: Mexico’s femicide detective (Guardian)
- Israel asked US not to lift Trump-era ICC sanctions (Al Jazeera
- Long Read: Russia, Turkey are sending fighters and weapons into Libya, dashing hopes for freedom and democracy prompted by Arab (WaPo, $)
Covid-19
- Medical oxygen scarce in Africa, Latin America amid virus (AP)
- Ad campaign launches to build public trust in COVID-19 shots (AP)
- Covid: masks and tests not compulsory at English schools, says minister (Guardian)
- You love the Daily Pnut, so try Daily Harvest! They help stock your home with clean, delicious food built on organic fruits and vegetables. Their food is delivered right to your door and ingredients are always frozen at peak ripeness, which locks in nutrients and taste.
- With over 80 chef-crafted recipes, Daily Harvest has something for every craving, dietary preference, and time of day. Their collections include smoothies, soups, flatbreads, and more, with new recipes being introduced every few months! Recipes take one step to prep and are ready to enjoy in minutes. Just blend, soak or heat according to the instructions. Voilà!
- With Daily Harvest, there’s no need to overthink any of your meals for the week. Get $25 off your first box with code PNUT.
With Vaccines, Nursing Homes Can Party Like It’s 1955
- Throughout the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, nursing homes have been among the hardest-hit communities in the US. 31,000 long-term care facilities were impacted by the disease, accounting for over one-third of all national virus deaths.
- However, since vaccines began distribution late last December, nursing homes have turned their situation around: new cases among elderly facilities dropped 80% between last December and early February, even as the general population saw a spike in infections during the new year.
- So far, roughly 4.5 million nursing home residents and employees have received at least one dose of the vaccine, with about 2.1 million of those receiving full vaccinations. This has led to nursing homes seeing the lowest number of infections since federal tracking began last May. While the vaccine has yet to reach much of the general population, life in nursing homes, at least, has begun a return to some sense of normalcy. (NYT, $)
Extreme Makeover, Border Edition: Not Cages, “Temporary Holding Facilities”
- Generally, migrant children arriving in the US through the southern border are sent to permanent holding facilities run by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which are separate from the “cages” used by US Customs and Border Protection. Due to an increase in the number of children coming into the country, the Biden administration has begun reopening temporary facilities, sparking fears for the welfare of children inside.
- The administration has moved to reopen a for-profit emergency influx center in Florida which was criticized for reports of sexual abuse, overcrowding, and negligent hiring practices in 2019. Biden’s camp has said that they have no choice but to reopen such facilities due to COVID-19-related capacity restrictions combined with the increase in border crossings. The children in these facilities are held until they are either matched with foster parents or united with family members in the US.
- There have been plenty of reports of abuse in both temporary and permanent HHS shelters: these reports include sexual abuse, neglect, dangerous living conditions, and even the administering of psychotropic drugs. To make matters worse, some of these facilities are located in inaccessible areas, making external oversight of their conditions difficult to conduct. (Vox)
Additional USA News
- Biden Reopens Green Card, Work Visa System, Dumping Trump COVID Ban (NPR)
- Watchdog Faults FAA For ‘Significant Misunderstanding’ Of Flight System (NPR)
- 730,000 Americans filed for jobless claims last week (CNN). The bad news: 730,000 is good news.
- US military budget: What can global bases do vs. COVID, cyber attacks? (USA Today)
- Texas Was 4 Minutes and 37 Seconds Away From a Blackout That Could Have Lasted Months (NBC DFW)
- GOP rallies solidly against Democrats’ virus relief package (AP). Good luck making “free money” unpopular.
- For Some Teens, It’s Been a Year of Anxiety and Trips to the E.R. (NYT, $)
Canadians Looking For Farmers To Do Butter
- While American social media is up in arms about everything from the names of sports teams to the moral character of politicians, Canadians have their own frustration: their butter is too hard.
- Over the past few weeks, Canadians have created a row, complaining that their butter no longer spreads at room temperature like it once did. Food researchers started noticing the phenomenon last year, but still have yet to confirm the cause behind “buttergate.”
- But Sylvan Charlebois, the senior director of Dalhousie University’s Agri-Food Analytics Lab, has a theory: palmitic acid, a palm oil byproduct commonly added to cow feed, must be the culprit. At the start of the pandemic, the combined force of production slowdown measures and a home cooking boom created a 12% spike in consumer butter demand, putting a strain on dairy farmers. To increase supply, farmers have been using more palm oil-based feed in cows’ diets. Or so the theory goes.
- Regardless of the cause, buttergate highlighted a lack of transparency in the dairy industry. Consumers know that their butter is at least 80% milk fat, but exactly what’s in the rest, how healthy it is, and how much it affects their valued spreadability… they just can’t be sure. (NPR)
Additional Reads
- Scientists created this seaweed to save the planet (Verge)
- ‘Unique’ petrified tree up to 20m years old found intact in Lesbos (Guardian)
- Nuclear-Powered Rockets Could Be The Best Option For Bringing Humans To Mars (NPR)
- J. Ranji Smile made Indian food an American trend. Was he a con man or a genius? (Vox)
- Ghost particle travels 750 million light-years, ends up buried under the Antarctic ice (LiveScience)
- Mars rover beams back panoramic view of landing site (CBS)
- Listen to Post Malone cover Hootie & the Blowfish for Pokémon’s 25th anniversary (Verge). No one, absolutely no one, saw that coming.
- GameStop stock just jumped 100 percent, and WallStreetBets is ecstatic (Verge)
- Can Clubhouse Move Fast Without Breaking Things? (NYT, $)