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Cries of defund the police and abolish the police made their way to New York States legislators, who responded with legislation aimed at reforming the police. One of the most popular bills proposed, known as the Eric Garner Anti-Chokehold Act, would make it a Class-C felony for a police officer to use a chokehold or similar restraint. The bill passed in the New York State Assembly 140-3, and passed unanimously in the New York State Senate.

One of those three no votes came from District 9 Assemblyman Mike LiPetri of Massapequa.

I understand the gravity of the situations that have unfolded, but we must remember that the heroes that protect our communities day in and day out also put their lives on the line every day, LiPetri said when explaining his vote to his fellow lawmakers in a speech. Officers must have all the tools available throughout the state to deter that criminal from hurting law-abiding Americans. The last thing I want to do is to disarm our police officers and put them at a disadvantage against a criminal.

On Twitter, LiPetri added that instead of legislating tactical decisions, we should focus on improving training, supervision and increasing our community policing efforts to solve the problems we face as Americans.

In speaking about the vote to a reporter from Anton Media Group, LiPetri continually referenced his need to do what he felt was the right thing instead of being P.C.

The bills namesake, Eric Garner, was choked to death by an NYPD officer who placed him in a chokehold while arresting him on suspicion of selling loose cigarettes, even though the NYPD banned the use of chokeholds by its officers in 1993.

Garner was 34 when he died. Medical examiners ruled the death a homicide.

LiPetri is currently seeking the Republican nomination to succeed Peter King as the congressman for New Yorks Second Congressional District. He is running against fellow Republican assemblyman Andrew Garbarino, who to this point has secured the lions share of endorsements from Long Islands Republicans, including Kings.

LiPetri has campaigned in part on a promise to support law enforcement. Prior to entering politics, LiPetri served as a defense attorney for New York City, in which capacity he said he defended the NYPD in civil suits.

As an attorney, Mike has worked with law enforcement and emergency services providers, LiPetris biography page on the assemblys website reads. Understanding their commitment to our neighborhoods and their unwavering service, Mike will continue to advocate on their behalf and take steps to provide additional resources to help curtail the proliferation of heroin and other opioids in communities across the state.

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Nassau Republican One Of Only Three To Vote No On Chokehold Ban - Glen Cove Record Pilot

In an October Letter to the Editor, the E-Board of the Cornell Republicans lied to readers of The Sun. They boldly asserted that they are an organization that relishes the opportunity to engage in good-faith debate, yet when the national conversation turned to police brutality and the daily endangerment of black lives by law enforcement, they stayed notably silent. Their social media makes absolutely no mention of the murder of George Floyd nor any protests. Neither does their website. They have issued no public statement on the vitally important discourse on police brutality reverberating throughout our country. Apparently, this is one debate which they have no interest in engaging in.

It pains me greatly to say this, especially as I personally know and hold considerable respect for several members of the Cornell Republicans. However, their refusal to make any public statement whatsoever on the current events when practically every other Cornell organization has done so already (including Cornell Dems and Cornell Political Union) reveals that they do not relish the opportunity to engage in good-faith debate but rather, actively avoid it. Perhaps, as a repeatedly shared recent Facebook post by Moriah Adeghe 21 calling out the silence of the Cornell Republicans suggested, they are currently struggling to reconcile how you can be pro-life when its unborn fetuses, but not pro-life when its black people. Perhaps they are grappling with how to craft a socially conservative argument which vindicates Trump for using the bible as a political prop shortly after using tear gas on his own citizens. Perhaps they are so utterly aware of the indefensibility of any political position besides support and empathy for individuals fighting against the daily endangerment of black Americans lives by racist policing that they have no interest in even attempting to defend whatever position they hold as an organization. Sadly, we have no idea because they have been silent. They leave us only to speculate.

Their silence has told us something though their commitment to good-faith debate and free discourse is a sham. They lied to readers of The Sun. They eroded their own integrity through this hypocrisy. Members of Cornell Republicans are among the quickest on campus to decry the decline of free expression in America, the lack of what they perceive to be substantive debate, yet within the same breath they refuse to express themselves. Its particularly unfortunate because we do have a very real problem with discourse in America, a problem which the Cornell Republicans embody through utilizing a commitment to good-faith debate as empty rhetoric while skirting their organizational responsibility to discuss pressing political matters in an honest, respectful and substantive manner.

They should engage in this debate or apologize for lying to the readers of The Sun.

If you really are an organization that relishes the opportunity to engage in good-faith debate, then have an opinion and defend it. Make a comment. Say something. Maybe even say something which acknowledges the horrific systemic racism in our country and the role your party is currently playing in perpetuating it through a president who stokes division out of political expediency. I disagree with Cornell Republicans vehemently on nearly everything, but I truly would like to respect them, to value their opinions even in disagreement. I cannot respect an organization that is silent on the fight to stop the murder of innocent black Americans. I cannot value the opinion of an organization that does not even have one.

Alternatively, Cornell Republicans could simply apologize and retract their earlier commitment to good-faith debate. They could preserve a few last shreds of integrity by admitting their lie and apologizing for misleading the readers of The Sun. The choice is theirs.

Andrew Lorenzen is a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences. He can be reached at alorenzen@cornellsun.com. When Were Sixty Four runs every other Tuesday this summer.

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LORENZEN | The Cornell Republicans Lied to Us - Cornell University The Cornell Daily Sun

Rep. Justin Amash (LMich.) wants to end qualified immunity.

The insidious legal doctrine allows police officers to violate your civil rights with absolute impunity if those rights have not been spelled out with near-identical precision in preexisting case law. Theoretically, it protects public officials from bogus civil suits, but practically it often allows egregious misconduct.

George Floyd's death at the hands of former Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin forced new life into the debate, shining light on a doctrine that many people say has contributed toan environment of police abuse. Amash announced late Sunday that he would introduce the End Qualified Immunity Act, with Rep. Ayanna Pressley (DMass.) signing on as a cosponsor Thursday.

"It is the sense of the Congress that we must correct the erroneous interpretation of section 1983 which provides for qualified immunity," the bill reads, "and reiterate the standard found on the face of the statute, which does not limit liability on the basis of the defendant's good faith beliefs or on the basis that the right was not 'clearly established' at the time of the violation."

That "clearly established" bit is what's most important, as the standard has become increasingly impossible to meet. Two cops in Fresno, California, were afforded qualified immunity after allegedly stealing $225,000 while executing a search warrant because it had not been "clearly established" in case law that stealing is wrong. An officer with the Los Angeles Police Department was given qualified immunity after shooting, without warning, an unarmed 15-year-old boy who was on his way to school, because the boy's friend was holding a plastic airsoft gun replica. A sheriff's deputy in Coffee County, Georgia, received qualified immunity after shooting a 10-year-old boy while aiming at a nonthreatening dog. The list, unfortunately, goes on.

The courts' decisions in those cases mean that each appellant had no legal recourse to seek compensation for lost assets or medical bills.

As of Friday, 16 additional legislators had signed on to Amash's proposal. Not a single one of them is a Republican.

The dissonance is mind-boggling: The GOP claims to be the party of small government and freedom, and they now have the opportunity to squash a dangerous doctrine that has put deadly power in the hands of the state at the expense of the little guy.

Republicans rightly criticize public sector monopoliesthat inevitably hurt the people the government is supposed to serve. Take teachers unions, for instance, which the GOP has historically railed against for propping up teachers at the expense of students. They're not wrong: Unions wield enormous political power that can be weaponized to skirt responsibility and accountability.

But why, then, are they so slow to apply that very same logic to the institutions emboldening the police?

"In case after case, police unions have defended deadly misdeeds committed by law enforcement," writesReason's Peter Suderman. Consider the case of Eric Garner, who died in 2014 after New York City Police Department (NYPD) officer Daniel Pantaleo placed him in a chokehold for selling loose cigarettes. "I can't breathe" were his last words, captured on video.

Pantaleo was fired after a police administrative judge ruled that he had violated official NYPD protocol. Although the officer broke those rules with fatal consequences, the union chose not to cast Pantaleo as an outliera cop who never should have been onebut instead chose to continue defending him.

As Suderman notes, "Patrick Lynch, the president of the Police Benevolent Association, Pantaleo's union, criticized the city for giving in to 'anti-police extremists' and warned that such decisions threatened the ability of city police to do their jobs," as if all officers need to reserve the right to use excessive, forbidden amounts of force.

That police unions have taken that road shouldn't be surprising. But it also reminds us why it's time for them to go, since they enable behavior that threatens the very people they are supposedly protecting and serving.

So, too, is the story with qualified immunitya doctrine that has allowed a collection of rogue cops to throw civil rights to the wind without any fear of comeuppance. Shielding the police from accountability at all costs does not advance freedom. When it comes to qualified immunity, where are the Republicans?

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Rep. Justin Amash Wants To End Qualified Immunity. Where Are the Republicans? - Reason

Image caption A 38-acre area in Derry is being searched by the PSNI

A bomb, a handgun and ammunition linked to dissident republicans have been found in a search in Londonderry, police have said.

They were recovered in an operation that lasted two days and covered 38 acres at Ballymagroarty.

PSNI Superintendent Gordon McCalmont said "rigorous forensic examination" would be carried out on the weapons.

"The despicable criminals using this area for terrorist purposes are reckless," he said.

They "continually put our community at risk," he added.

Supt McCalmont said the dissidents were a "dangerous minority" and he appealed to the community to support police by giving information.

Supt McCalmont said the objects being stored in the area "could pose a real and substantial danger to our community".

"This operation has been designed to find these items and take them away from those who would wish to use them to kill, injure and bring destruction to our streets," he said.

Justice Minister Naomi Long said those who were responsible for the weapons were "intent on bringing Northern Ireland back to the dark days of violence".

"Leaving such items anywhere, but in particular near a housing estate, poses a real danger to everyone who lives in the area," she said.

"The police have undoubtedly saved lives today and their actions keep people safe. They do this without fear or favour, despite being under threat themselves.

"Their actions are in stark contrast to the callous and malicious behaviour of those who would seek to use potentially lethal weapons to control their own communities through fear and violence."

The PSNI thanked those living in the local area for their patience.

Foyle MP Colum Eastwood hit out at those responsible.

"How many times do the people of Derry have to reject those intent on causing murder and mayhem on our streets before they get the message?" he said.

"The use of violence in the pursuit of political goals is not only immoral, it is a failed strategy.

"Those who continue to engage in violence have nothing to offer the people of this city or this island."

Sinn Fin MLA Martina Anderson welcomed news of the weapons find.

"There is no place for this type of activity in our community," she said.

"Armed gangs offer nothing to our society and need to end their futile actions against the community immediately."

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Londonderry: Bomb and gun linked to dissident republicans - BBC News

Republican state Rep. Gary Clary of Clemson has accepted a position with a GOP group that opposes President Donald Trump.

Clary, a former judge who is not running for reelection, will serve as legislative outreach chairman for National Republicans. On its Twitter page, the group describes itself as "Reagan-Bush Republicans, working for Trump's defeat."

In an interview Tuesday, Clary said he will try to help Republican candidates who are worried about associating themselves with Trump.

South Carolina Republican Party Chairman Drew McKissick emailed a statement Tuesday afternoon about Clary's move.

This is less surprising than the sun coming up in the morning," McKissick said. "Its the kind of antics you see from someone on the way out the door when they don't have to stand before primary voters anymore.

Clary said he supported former Ohio Gov. John Kasich in the 2016 GOP primaries that ended withTrump's nomination. Clary said he did not back Trump because of how hetreated women, the press, minorities, the disabled.

Rep. Gary Clary R-Pickens, during a press conference introducing a civil asset forfeiture reform bill at the Statehouse on Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2019.(Photo: JOSH MORGAN/Staff)

Clary said he hoped that Trump would "truly be a leader" after winning the general election, but he said that has not happened.

I have just been disappointed in his antics and his actions," Clary said. "It is hard for me to look at the party that we all built in this state and see that it has just been hijacked by someone who cares more about personal power than for anything else.

National Republicans was founded by former North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Bob Orr and political strategist Andy Nilsson, who is a North Carolina native. Clary said Orr and Nilsson approached him a few weeks ago about accepting a volunteer post with the group.

In an interview Monday with Charlotte radio station WFAE, Orr said that he and a growing number of Republicanshave concluded that Trump "should not be reelected."

"He is a danger to the county," Orr said.

"People are coming out of the woodwork because they understand in so many ways the abject failure that Trump's administration has been," said Orr, adding that the White House "ignored the pandemic warnings and the country is paying the price both health-wise and economically."

Clary said he sees the National Republican group as "a way for other voices to be heard."

Follow Kirk Brown on Twitter @KirkBrown_AIM

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South Carolina representative joins Republican group that wants to defeat President Trump - Greenville News