When special counsel Robert Hur explained last February why he thought Joe Biden could not be successfully prosecuted for mishandling classified documents, special counsel Robert Hur suggested that jurors would be inclined to view the president as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, older man with poor memory” and “reduced faculties.” That characterization more than underpinned the ire of Democrats, who portrayed it as a politically motivated effort to undermine Biden’s reelection.
Five months later, additional evidence of Biden’s “diminished capabilities” forced him to withdraw from the presidential race, showing that it was Democrats’ refusal to admit the obvious, not Hur’s willingness to do it that stood in the way of their attempt to keep the White House. The misguided criticism of Hur was one of the year’s boldest attempts to shift blame. Here are some more highlights.
Criminal joke. In January, a federal jury awarded Waylon Bailey $205,000 in compensation for the ordeal he endured in March 2020, when a dozen sheriffs wearing body armor came to his home in Forest Hill, Louisiana, with guns drawn, ordering him to his knees. and arrested him for “terrorizing” the public, a crime punishable by up to 15 years in prison. Police alleged that Bailey incited this response by posting a zombie-themed joke about COVID-19 on Facebook.
Jerk Agitation. In February, the Okaloosa County, Florida Sheriff’s Office revealed that Deputy Jesse Hernandez had resigned after emptying his weapon into his own patrol car, miraculously missing a handcuffed suspect in the backseat. Although Hernandez claimed the suspect shot him, surveillance footage showed the deputy mistook the sound of a falling acorn for gunfire.
Collision coverage. Last February, Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina ran a red light and rammed his department-issued pickup into the side of a sports car, seriously injuring the driver. Medina, who said he was fleeing a fight between two homeless men that had escalated into gunfire, blamed “gun violence” for his reckless driving.
Prohibition hazards. In April, two months after transgender activist Cecilia Gentili died of a drug overdose, federal prosecutors accused her dealers of causing her death by selling her heroin mixed with fentanyl. Yet that kind of risk is a predictable result of the same laws that federal officials enforced, creating a black market in which the composition of drugs is highly variable and unpredictable.
Marijuana mistake. In May, the Justice Department, acting on advice from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), said marijuana does not belong in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, a category ostensibly reserved for particularly dangerous drugs with no medical use. HHS blamed the Drug Enforcement Administration’s misinterpretation of the law for this widely derided classification, which HHS itself supported for decades before belatedly admitting it had no scientific basis.
Deadly lies. During his murder trial in September, former Houston narcotics officer Gerald Goines, who lied to justify a 2019 drug raid that killed Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas, tried to blame his victims, noting that Tuttle shot at police after they broke into his house and killed his dog. Jurors rejected that argument in favor of prosecutors’ account, which said Tuttle did not realize the intruders were police officers and responded as “any normal person” would to a violent home invasion.
Cat stories. When Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance faced criticism in September for spreading baseless rumors about pet-eating Haitian immigrants, he said he relied on “firsthand accounts from my constituents.” In particular, he cited a report from a woman whose lost cat turned up alive and well in her own basement.
Retroactive rules. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) defended its rejection of flavored nicotine vaping products, blaming the manufacturer’s inability to meet requirements that were only announced when it was too late to comply. The new standard, the company’s attorney told the Supreme Court in December, “directly contradicts guidance provided by the FDA before the filing deadline.”
© Copyright 2024 by Creators Syndicate Inc.
The post Shooting the Messenger and Blaming the Victim appeared first on Reason.com.
