"President Hurricane, Tear Down This Wall!"
At last, the Party Bus lobby weighs in
"It's just Not Right!"NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Party bus owners are not happy about the city's order forcing them to close. Parris McKinney owns Extreme Party Bus Nashville. He feels like businesses on Broadway are being targeted.
"It hurts," McKinney said. He started his business right before the pandemic hit. "It's just not right."
Party buses that allow consumption of alcohol are not allowed to operate until August 1.
McKinney said that if the order extends longer than August 1, he's heard from other transpotainment business owners that there will be push-back.
As the owner of a nightclub, I can assure you -- wholeheartedly and unreservedly -- that every person who steps out of a party bus is an entitled asshole whom you don't want as a customer.
Virus is God's Will; Invisible Sky Fairy unavailable for comment.
They defied health rules for a storybook San Francisco wedding. The virus didn't spare them.Guests of the illegal 100-person wedding were instructed to enter the North Beach church through a hidden door from and underground parking garage. [...]
San Francisco's city attorney had warned Catholic leaders to stop holding illegal indoor events only days earlier. Yet the leadership of SS Peter and Paul's helped organize the wedding ceremony, the city said. The celebration included a rehearsal dinner and reception with invitations extended to large groups from multiple households, at a time when such gatherings remain heavily restricted in much of the Bay Area.
In the days following, the newlywed couple and at least eight attendees tested positive for the coronavirus, two guests told The Chronicle. [...]
The potentially exposed guests flew back to Nashville, Arizona and San Diego, hot spots of the pandemic, potentially spreading the virus and providing a textbook example of health officials' biggest fears about such large gatherings. The event showed the challenges authorities face in enforcing health orders. [...]
"This is the perfect example of why public health officials have been trying to convince people of the problems with getting together in crowds," he said. "And I would be shocked if we didn't see this consequence. This should be the poster child in why people should take responsibility."
Update:
San Francisco won’t cite Catholic archdiocese after church wedding:
The wedding appeared to violate the health order and Herrera’s cease-and-desist letter, which threatened a temporary restraining order if the Catholic churches continued to hold large, indoor gatherings, but city officials appear reticent about bringing punitive actions against the church."Indoor gatherings are not allowed, for good reason," Herrera said. "The reported COVID-19 outbreak that resulted from the archdiocese’s failures has hopefully shocked its leadership into taking responsibility for the life and death consequences of what is happening in its churches."
Suuuuurrrrrrre they will...
ProPublica releases NY police disciplinary records
A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order blocking the city from releasing disciplinary records. ProPublica has not been a party to the case and is not subject to the order.Until last month, New York state prohibited the release of police officers' disciplinary records. Civilians' complaints of abuse by officers were a secret. So were investigators' conclusions. The public couldn't even know if an officer was punished.
The New York City police officer whose use of a prohibited chokehold led to the death of Eric Garner in 2014 had a record of misconduct. [...] The city investigator who revealed the existence of the officer's record was forced to resign in 2017; the officer himself wasn't fired until 2019. [...]
The CCRB receives thousands of complaints every year, but it is only able to substantiate a tiny fraction of them. In 2018, the agency examined about 3,000 allegations of misuse of force. It substantiated 73.
Investigators are often not able to reach conclusions on cases, in significant part because they must rely on the NYPD to hand over evidence, such as footage from body-worn cameras. Often, the department doesn't do so, despite a legal duty to cooperate with CCRB investigations.
In other cases included in our database, investigators concluded that what a civilian alleged did happen, but the conduct was allowed by the NYPD's rules. The Police Department's guidelines often give officers substantial discretion, particularly around use of force. In the curious jargon of police oversight, those cases are classified as "exonerated."
"I exonerated tons of cases that involved awful conduct that fell within the guidelines," said former CCRB investigator Dan Bodah, who now researches police oversight at the Vera Institute of Justice. "It's kind of haunting. The law and policy gives cops a lot of discretion."
George Carlin
Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.
