Gilead
Gun nuttery
Fig. 1. “Rally Against Gun Control ‘Come and Take it’ flag at the Minnesota State Capitol,” photograph by Fibonacci Blue [pseud.], April 28, 2018, via Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
That [the Rand team found just three policies that have strong evidence supporting outcomes] makes gun control laws seem flimsy, but it shouldn’t, [Andrew] Morral said. Instead, the lack of evidence ought to be understood as a product of political decisions that have taken the already challenging job of social science and made it even harder. The Dickey Amendment, first attached to the 1996 omnibus spending bill, for example, famously prevented the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from funding gun violence studies for decades. A new interpretation of that amendment in 2018 changed that, but Dickey wasn’t the only thing making it hard to study gun violence.[1]
Maggie Koerth, “Most Gun Laws Aren’t Backed Up By Evidence. Here’s Why,” FiveThirtyEight, February 6, 2023, https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/absence-of-evidence-gun-laws/
Right-wing militias
Police White supremacist gangs
Fig. 1. Photograph by Lorie Shaull, April 1, 2021, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.
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I was wondering if there’d been movement on Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald’s offer of county white supremacist gangsters to bolster a presence in downtown Pittsburgh[2] when I noticed the county gangsters active downtown and hardly any Pittsburgh white supremacist gangsters today. It turns out there has[3] and if I had to guess, I bet the Pittsburgh gangsters have been redeployed to other neighborhoods.
A consolation is that the Pittsburgh gangster union is pissed.[4]
Mark Belko, “Allegheny County police are now patrolling Downtown Pittsburgh as concerns over safety escalate,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 6, 2023, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/crime-courts/2023/02/06/allegheny-county-police-downtown-pittsburgh-patrols-safety-violence/stories/202302060067
Abortion
Fig. 1. Sign at demonstration in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, May 3, 2022. Janni Rye, via Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.
[U.S. District Court Judge Colleen] Kollar-Kotelly noted that there is some legal scholarship suggesting that the 13th Amendment — which was ratified at the end of the Civil War and sought to ban slavery and “involuntary servitude” — provides just such a right [to abortion]. She is asking the parties in the criminal case, which involves charges of blocking access to abortion clinics, to present arguments by mid-March.[5]
Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein, “Federal judge says constitutional right to abortion may still exist, despite Dobbs,” Politico, February 6, 2023, https://www.politico.com/news/2023/02/06/federal-judge-constitutional-right-abortion-dobbs-00081391
Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh
Unauthorized violence
Fig. 1. “Ed Gainey poses with CeaseFirePA during the 2020 Women’s March in Downtown Pittsburgh.” Photograph by Megan Gloeckler, undated, via Pittsburgh City Paper,[6] fair use.
Mark Belko, “Allegheny County police are now patrolling Downtown Pittsburgh as concerns over safety escalate,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 6, 2023, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/crime-courts/2023/02/06/allegheny-county-police-downtown-pittsburgh-patrols-safety-violence/stories/202302060067
Paula Reed Ward, Justin Vellucci, and Julia Maruca, “McKeesport police officer killed, another officer and suspect wounded,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, February 6, 2023, https://triblive.com/local/large-police-presence-responds-to-incident-in-mckeesport/
- [1]Maggie Koerth, “Most Gun Laws Aren’t Backed Up By Evidence. Here’s Why,” FiveThirtyEight, February 6, 2023, https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/absence-of-evidence-gun-laws/↩
- [2]Mark Belko, “Fitzgerald offers county police support to help address Downtown Pittsburgh safety concerns,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, January 31, 2023, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/crime-courts/2023/01/30/crime-in-pittsburgh-downtown-allegheny-county-fitzgerald-mayor-gainey-safety-shootings/stories/202301300084↩
- [3]Mark Belko, “Allegheny County police are now patrolling Downtown Pittsburgh as concerns over safety escalate,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 6, 2023, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/crime-courts/2023/02/06/allegheny-county-police-downtown-pittsburgh-patrols-safety-violence/stories/202302060067↩
- [4]Mark Belko, “Allegheny County police are now patrolling Downtown Pittsburgh as concerns over safety escalate,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 6, 2023, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/crime-courts/2023/02/06/allegheny-county-police-downtown-pittsburgh-patrols-safety-violence/stories/202302060067↩
- [5]Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein, “Federal judge says constitutional right to abortion may still exist, despite Dobbs,” Politico, February 6, 2023, https://www.politico.com/news/2023/02/06/federal-judge-constitutional-right-abortion-dobbs-00081391↩
- [6]Charlie Wolfson, “Neighborhood groups try to curb shootings as Pittsburgh’s mayoral campaign puts political focus on gun violence,” Pittsburgh City Paper, October 20, 2021, https://www.pghcitypaper.com/pittsburgh/neighborhood-groups-try-to-curb-shootings-as-pittsburghs-mayoral-campaign-puts-political-focus-on-gun-violence/Content?oid=20401296↩