Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

I was confident that someone would point it out and thought why not me.

Washington Post’s Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Joe Biden can go out like FDR, not by dying in office, but by crushing the fascists.

T R E 4 5 O N

Found liable for massive fraud, is required to post a massive bond, gets a break, then files a *fraudulent* bond!

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

Republicans don’t trust women.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Ah, the different things are different argument.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.

Biden: Oh no. We’ve upset Big Pharma again.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

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Instastupid

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As mentioned below, deplorable:

Twitter agreed to unblock the account of a University of Tennessee law professor Thursday morning after the faculty member and contributing columnist for USA TODAY and the News Sentinel agreed to delete a post that urged motorists to run over demonstrators blocking traffic in Charlotte, N.C.

In response to a tweet from a TV news station in Charlotte that showed protesters on Interstate 277, the @Instapundit account wrote, “Run them down.”

Glenn Reynolds, the creator of the Instapundit blog, tweets from the handle @Instapundit.

He posted to Twitter shortly after 10 a.m. that his account had been unblocked.

UT College of Law Dean Melanie D. Wilson said in a statement Thursday morning that she and university administrators are investigating the matter.

Wilson called the tweet an “irresponsible use of his platform.”

“The university is committed to academic freedom, freedom of speech, and diverse viewpoints, all of which are important for an institution of higher education and the free exchange of ideas,” she wrote. “My colleagues and I in the university’s leadership support peaceful disobedience and all forms of free speech, but we do not support violence or language that encourages violence.”

She called the concerns about the tweet from students and staff, along with those from citizens across the country, “serious and legitimate.”

Reynolds defended his tweet earlier Thursday.

“Yes, that was my post,” he wrote in an email to the News Sentinel. “ It was brief, since it was Twitter, but blocking highways is dangerous and I don’t think people should stop for a mob, especially when it’s been violent.”

I don’t think he should be banned from twitter, because he wasn’t specifically harassing individuals. I also don’t think he should be fired for this, because I think getting people fired for saying stupid things is wrong. I can’t control when companies drop people for saying and doing stupid things because they want to protect their brand, but I don’t support campaigns to get people canned. I’m pretty sure Glenn hasn’t been as charitable to people on the other side of the aisle in similar circumstances, but I’m too lazy to google it because it would require reading more Glenn Reynolds.

Having said that, his defenses are complete bullshit. He wasn’t making a nuanced argument about self defense (and the latest arguments about Reginald Denny are nonsense, too). He was just being his usual dickish self. He’s spent the last two decades as an internet tough guy, spouting off wingnut bullshit and masquerading as a libertarian. This is just a case of a well known asshole tweeting something shitty.

Having said all that, he’ll be fine. He’s says he’s quitting twitter after making a few more “points” and behind the scenes is probably scrambling to negotiate with UT that his quitting twitter will end the issue, he’ll still be on the wingnut welfare gravy train at PJ Media and other outlets, and he’ll probably manage to parlay this into more martyr money somehow.

In essence, it is the story of modern America in a nutshell- “Asshole says something awful, profits.” See Trump, Donald.

Reader Interactions

138Comments

  4. 4.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Reynolds has always been a vile asshole, he’s just doing what he does…being a charter member of the basket of deplorables.

  6. 6.

    Mary G

    Like all bullies when called on their shit, he’s walking it back as fast as he can. Now his angle is that he was advising drivers not to stop for rioters for the drivers’ safety. Just wasn’t enough room on Twitter to be clearer. What an execrable human-like thing he is.

    If I had a subscription to USA Today I’d cancel it.

  7. 7.

    Punchy

    UT, you should be so proud. I’m sure 72% of that state is nodding in complete approval.

    How many hours before CNN hires him to do BLM commentary?

  9. 9.

    Tractarian

    Yeah, if Twitter is going to start banning people for urging violence, everyone’s feeds are going to become real barren real fast.

    And if UT was going to fire this guy for being a prick, they would have done that years ago.

  12. 12.

    Betty Cracker

    Yep. Using Twitter’s character limit as an excuse was just laughably transparent bullshit:

    I’ve always been a supporter of free speech and peaceful protest. I fully support people protesting police actions, and I’ve been writing in support of greater accountability for police for years.

    But riots aren’t peaceful protest. And blocking interstates and trapping people in their cars is not peaceful protest — it’s threatening and dangerous, especially against the background of people rioting, cops being injured, civilian-on-civilian shootings, and so on. I wouldn’t actually aim for people blocking the road, but I wouldn’t stop because I’d fear for my safety, as I think any reasonable person would.

    “Run them down” perhaps didn’t capture this fully, but it’s Twitter, where character limits stand in the way of nuance.

    Seriously? If he were seriously worried about drivers, how about, “Don’t stop,” or “Keep going” or “Drive on” or any number of even shorter responses that would convey the message that drivers shouldn’t stop without directly urging the maiming or killing of “them.”

  13. 13.

    BR

    In more important news, time for everyone to sign up to volunteer — takes just 30 seconds of your time. Every morning I start with a reality check with the poll averages and this race is far too tight for comfort. One bad news cycle could flip it, and so we need to build up a margin in the ground game!

  14. 14.

    low-tech cyclist

    Here Reynolds is, with his column in a national newspaper – a rather privileged position in our national dialogue – and when he looks at people who are making the most of their much more limited speech options, he wants them run over.

    USA Today should give his column to someone else, and he can go back to having whatever audience still bothers to read his blog.

  15. 15.

    Calouste

    Cole, it is not a stupid thing to say, it is a violent and racist thing to say.

    Now if Reynolds had issued a proper apology, we could talk about it being a stupid thing to say, but as he hasn’t, we can safely assume that he still stands behind the sentiment, and that he is a racist that wants to see people killed. Those kind of people should, among other things, not be have a cushy job that is funded by tax payers, some of which he would like to see killed.

  17. 17.

    Amir Khalid

    @Tractarian:
    Which makes me wonder what action the University of Tennessee is contemplating against Reynolds, if it’s investigating this incident. A letter of reprimand that he can just ignore? Some other punishment less than a firing? It seems clear to me that he’s brought the University into disrepute.

  18. 18.

    Adam L Silverman

    Reynolds went after Erik Loomis:
    https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/159913/
    DECEMBER 18, 2012

    ELIMINATIONIST RHETORIC: Rhode Island prof demands NRA chief’s “head on a stick” — Then declares himself a Twitter martyr because people quoted what he said. Then he softened his stance to say that imprisonment for life would be enough. All for the crime of political disagreement.

    The anti-NRA syllogism seems to work this way: (1) Something bad happened; (2) I hate you; so (3) It’s your fault. This sort of reasoning has played out in all sorts of places over the past century, with poor results. One would expect a history professor to know better.
    Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 8:35 am

    And Steve Salaita:
    https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/194560/

    SEPTEMBER 6, 2014
    SHOCKINGLY, IT TURNS OUT TO STINK: Someone actually read Steven Salaita’s scholarship.

    University of Illinois’s behavior in this matter seems rather sketchy. But as with Ward Churchill, the scandal is two-fold, and begins with the scandal of his being offered a job in the Native American Studies Department in the first place. Instead of expressing concerns about civility, which I think is at best a poor justification for not rubber-stamping a tenured lateral offer, perhaps the Illinois administration should have, as a commenter on a previous thread suggests, “called the faculty hiring committee to the mat to justify the appointment, demanding that they explain in detail precisely why Salaita was not barely qualified but the best qualified candidate for the position, address concerns about possible classroom bias in the light of his extracurricular rants, and potentially require an extended probationary period before granting him tenure.

    Yeah, but if you started requiring quality scholarship in grievance-studies departments, that would threaten the whole feedlot.

    Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 6:02 pm

  19. 19.

    Suffragete City elftx

    All I can think of is the high school teacher in NC on suspension for stepping on the allmighty flag while teaching his class about Tx vs. Johnson.

    Yet Reynolds can’t figure out he’s allowed 140 characters on twitter.

  20. 20.

    Mnemosyne

    To repeat myself from yesterday:

    As I understand it, what happened in North Carolina is that a couple of idiot undercover cops ran up to an innocent guy while screaming at him and waving their guns. The innocent guy, probably assuming they were carjackers, reached for his own gun and was shot dead.

    Meanwhile, the wanted criminal that the undercover cops were trying to arrest is still walking the streets and the police have a riot on their hands because they can’t admit that they fucked up, killed an innocent guy, and let a wanted criminal get away.

    Is that about right?

  22. 22.

    Haydnseek

    “Run Them Down!” Mr. Reynolds, several of your loved ones are protesting on that highway. Do you stand by your statement?”

  23. 23.

    Blueskies

    @low-tech cyclist:

    Here Reynolds is, with his column in a national newspaper – a rather privileged position in our national dialogue – and when he looks at people who are making the most of their much more limited speech options, he wants them run over.

    Just because it needed to be said again.

  25. 25.

    gvg

    No. I think that was actually urging murder and a law professor should not be urging a kindof mob justice. I also think the dangerous to drivers argument is bull. Law schools have to consider reputation. Its a brand thing. He may have to go.
    Have you noticed that the real lawyers here are more careful with language than the rest of us?

  26. 26.

    Ghost of Joe Liebling's Dog

    “Kill them all; let God sort them out” perhaps did not capture my commitment to spirituality and a prayerful and purpose-driven life fully — but it’s Twitter. I wouldn’t actually kill all of them!

  27. 27.

    Cacti

    Disagree strongly on not having any professional consequences.

    When you’re a professor at an accredited law school, and a member of a State Bar, subject to rules of professional conduct…encouraging people to run over protesters is inexcusable.

    At the very least, he should be suspended from his teaching post.

  28. 28.

    Botsplainer

    OT – Kevin Johnson, Mayor of Sacramento, is my new hero. Some occupy asshole threw a pie in his face. He apparently grabbed Johnson and then said something (content not yet revealed), and Johnson beat the ever living shit out of him right there.

  29. 29.

    Patricia Kayden

    I have zero problem with a person promoting violence against protesters being permanently banned from Twitter or being fired from his job as a professor. Free speech doesn’t mean freedom from consequences and is focused on government interference with the exercise of rights under the First Amendment. Twitter is a private platform and can ban anyone it chooses. I wrote an email asking Univ of Tennessee what punishment it was going to inflict on its professor for advocating violence. He shouldn’t walk away from this unscathed.

  30. 30.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Miss Bianca: Well, to quote Christopher Walken’s character from the Milagro Beanfield War, in regard to Loomis: “he is a well known agitator”.//

  31. 31.

    Barbara

    @Botsplainer: Hero seems like too much to confer on a guy like Johnson who has pretty convincingly shown himself to be a destructive jerk over the course of multiple years (and whose spouse is an out and out grifter). Maybe “not entirely without redeeming features” would be better?

  34. 34.

    mayyouliveininterestingtimes

    So if voting for Trump is a ‘protest’ vote, are Trump supporters technically protesters? They should probably avoid walking in highways if that is the case.

  35. 35.

    Cacti

    Glenn Harlan Reynolds is the Beauchamp Brogan Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Tennessee College of Law.

    What it comes down to, is whether UT College of Law is okay with its “distinguished professors” encouraging vehicular homicide outside of the classroom.

  36. 36.

    Starfish

    Did Instapundit get in trouble with the university in the past for stupid things on his blog? My Google-fu is failing me.

  37. 37.

    Miss Bianca

    @Botsplainer: Well, I dunno…these days I’m a wee mite sensitive about lionizing people who beat the shit out protesters. Or encourage others to run them over. In fact, most days I feel that way.

  38. 38.

    Southend

    It’s only about a 4-hour drive from Knoxville to Charlotte. Why doesn’t tough-guy Reynolds head on over there and do it himself?

  39. 39.

    Mike in NC

    Our deplorable Governor McCrory declared a State of Emergency in Charlotte, so maybe he’s counting on white resentment to get himself reelected.

  40. 40.

    MJS

    Dear University of Tennessee football team – please be on the lookout for a racist law professor. Should you happen to encounter him on campus, and he is in any way blocking your path, feel free to “run him down”, en masse, preferably while wearing cleats. He is, after all, a racist, and therefore dangerous.

  41. 41.

    Miss Bianca

    Here’s what I’m wondering, gentlefolk: Do you think these protests of flat-out police murder – and the reaction to them – are going to help or hurt Human Shitstain Pat McCrory’s gubernatorial re-election chances? Can NC muster enough of a minority and non-racist-motivated white vote to elect Cooper? Because I would find it unbearable if after all this McCrory wasn’t kicked to the curb. It would feel like such a validation of wanton white supremacy if he managed to ride this “state of emergency” to victory.

    Please, someone, tell me I’m just being paranoid.

    ETA: I see that Mike in NC managed to approach this territory at the same time I did. Hive mind…

  42. 42.

    Aleta

    @Major Major Major Major: About the text mining you use? Does it work by assigning certain words to each emotion, and then those words are always counted as representing that emotion? Also, if you ever have time, I’d like to understand how the control works (I saw “Control” in your graphs last night). I think you posted a link to the method once, but I didn’t mark it or read it.

  43. 43.

    JGabriel

    KnoxNews @ Top:

    In response to a tweet from a TV news station in Charlotte that showed protesters on Interstate 277, the @Instapundit account wrote, “Run them down.”

    Glenn Reynolds, the creator of the Instapundit blog, tweets from the handle @Instapundit.

    John Cole @ Top:

    I don’t think he [Glenn Reynolds] should be banned from twitter, because he wasn’t specifically harassing individuals. I also don’t think he should be fired for this, because I think getting people fired for saying stupid things is wrong.

    This would seem to be an extreme case, John. I’m fine with corporations firing people for broadcasting stupid things – it’s a marketing issue and they have a right to protect their brands from association with stupid or offensive views. But I think universities and colleges should protect the rights of their students, staff, and teachers to say stupid things – because one of the roles of schools in this country is, or should be, the exploration of knowledge, which frequently requires the exploration of both seemingly stupid and actually stupid ideas.

    That said, I draw the line at calls for violence. There are just too many instances of stochastic terrorism from the right – like calls for Second Amendment remedies, like calls to solve our problems with the bullet box instead of the ballot box, and like Gabby Giffords getting shot – to have any patience or tolerance for it any longer.

    So if Glenn Reynolds wants to call for his readers to use their vehicles to run down protesters, then I say it’s perfectly appropriate for U. Tenn. to fire his murder-advocating, conservative, right-wing ass.

  44. 44.

    celticdragonchick

    @different-church-lady:

    I had to delete my twitter account entirely when I started teaching after some hostile parents saw my tweets mocking the Bundy idiots occupying the game reserve in Oregon.

    I quickly fired off a letter to the district administration acknowledging I had inadvertently violated the online media policy (much of my stuff predated my employment) and that I was taking steps to deal with it.

    The district investigated me for about 2 weeks and sent back a letter that basically said “yeah, you violated policy. We noticed most of the stuff in question was pretty old and we saw that you are getting rid of the problems. Please be more careful in the future. Kthxbai.”

  45. 45.

    TriassicSands

    Shocking headline:

    Stupid Person Says Something Stupid on Twitter.

    Hard to believe that could ever happen. If only Reynolds had had a few more characters available, I’m sure he could have made a compelling case for running down protesters. Sadly, 140 characters just aren’t enough for intellectual giants like Reynolds to say what needs to be said.

  46. 46.

    Lizzy L

    @Botsplainer: Yeah, no. It was a whipped cream pie, FFS. No one should have been hurt. Kevin Johnson used to play in the NBA. He is a big man. He reportedly grabbed the pie-thrower after the pie landed and punched him multiple times, enough so that the guy ended up at the local hospital for treatment. Sorry, I’m not impressed. Now, if he had wiped himself off, burst out laughing, and invited the pie-thrower to sit down and have a beer, THAT would impress me.

  48. 48.

    celticdragonchick

    @Miss Bianca:

    I cannot tell you how much I freaking loathe McCrory.

    Than again, I am a trans woman in Greensboro NC and he all but accused people like me of being sexual predators.

    I have had TWO (2) local GOP school board candidates threaten my employment with our school district if they get elected. One of them vowed to sue in federal court to have me fired as a threat to children.

    Neither of them has talked to me or tried to find out in any way what I actually do or teach.

  50. 50.

    varminito

    In a just world, the police would estimate the size of the crowds blocking the highways, and charge him with that number of counts of solicitation of murder. Separate trials. No plea bargains, only straight guilty pleas to the crimes charged or go to trial. Then let’s see if he still thinks he’s funny.

  51. 51.

    JGabriel

    Calouste:

    Cole, it is not a stupid thing to say, it is a violent and racist thing to say.

    Yes, this.

    varminito:

    In a just world, the police would estimate the size of the crowds blocking the highways, and charge [Reynolds] with that number of counts of solicitation of murder.

    Seconded.

  52. 52.

    singfoom

    I don’t think he should be banned from twitter, because he wasn’t specifically harassing individuals. I also don’t think he should be fired for this, because I think getting people fired for saying stupid things is wrong. I can’t control when companies drop people for saying and doing stupid things because they want to protect their brand, but I don’t support campaigns to get people canned.

    I agree with this in principle but I think it has to be more nuanced. In Reynold’s case I don’t think he should be fired, but I think he should have a talking to. It’s one thing to “prevent academic freedom” but the legs that argument can stand on when the content of the tweet is “Run them down.” become pretty damn weak then.

    That’s him calling for violence and possible murder of people exercising their first amendment rights. Now, one can make the argument that closing down interstates as an act of protest is dangerous. I think that’s a fair argument. At the same time, protest is not polite. You don’t protest in places that doesn’t bother anyone. There’s a difference between the inherent risks a protestor on the interstate takes vs arguing that a motorist should try to hit them as a response to their protest. I’m sure it’s a misdemeanor to block an interstate (BJ lawyers, let me know if I’m wrong) but it’s definitely a more serious crime to intentionally run someone over.

    I can understand that other people feel differently. I don’t think this man should be fired from his job at the University, but I’m totally down with USA Today deciding they don’t want to associate themselves with someone who advocates straight up murder as a response to a political argument. YMMV, Cheers

  55. 55.

    Miss Bianca

    @Botsplainer: there are other ways besides violence to deal with a non-violent, if obnoxious, protester. I guess I don’t support literal hippie-punching. YMMV.

  56. 56.

    celticdragonchick

    @Botsplainer:

    I was involved with Occupy Greensboro and I can say that Occupy had a knack for being their own worst enemies much of the time.

    It made it so much easier for everybody else to ignore them when the cops got around to showing up to beat them with rifle butts and nightsticks, like they did at Occupy Chapel Hill.

  57. 57.

    redshirt

    @Roger Moore: I like Twitter, but I don’t use it much. Like all social media, it’s as good as the filters you want to apply. Or as bad as you want it to be. For example, YouTube is pretty cool; YouTube comments are a black hole of deplorables.

  59. 59.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Aleta: The link to the code is now right below the title along with a link to a spreadsheet of the normalized scores (the ones displayed).

    For each word in each comment, it checks a dataset to see if/how it’s scored on those ten values, keeping a running tally for each user until it runs out of comments. Then it divides by number of comments.

    The ‘control’ is just to make y-axis scaled to 10 for each user, since the graphing library auto-scales otherwise. I couldn’t think of a better thing to call it…

  60. 60.

    waspuppet

    I also don’t think he should be fired for this, because I think getting people fired for saying stupid things is wrong.

    OK, but if UT doesn’t fire him I’d at least like some kind of explanation about what they think of the fact that they employ a LAW PROFESSOR who is in favor of summary execution by vigilantes. If they had a creationist biology professor, or a history professor who thinks the moon landing was staged, it would be A Thing; no reason for this to be any less of one.

  61. 61.

    Miss Bianca

    @waspuppet:

    OK, but if UT doesn’t fire him I’d at least like some kind of explanation about what they think of the fact that they employ a LAW PROFESSOR who is in favor of summary execution by vigilantes.

    Yeah, this.

  62. 62.

    RareSanity

    The university is committed to academic freedom, freedom of speech, and diverse viewpoints, all of which are important for an institution of higher education and the free exchange of ideas

    Huh, that’s interesting…

    I would have thought that one of their commitments would be that one of their law professors not make public statements encouraging people to break the law, but I guess that’s just me.

    EDIT: I see that waspuppet and myself are on the same page.

  63. 63.

    singfoom

    @Botsplainer: Just because you disagree with the Occupy protesters views and tactics doesn’t mean he deserved to get beat to a pulp. One can simultaneously think that pieing someone is not a constructive protesting tactic and also think that Kevin Johnson assaulted that man.

    The protestor is probably guilty of assault and it sounds like Johnson is guilty of assault and battery. If you go into political life you should be able to handle these kinds of situations without resorting to violence. That was a chance for him to show character. Someone throws a pie in your face, you laugh it off, you’ve shown restraint and a sense of humor.

    You beat them to a bloody pulp, you’ve shown that you’re unable to control your emotions in a difficult moment. I’d prefer the former to the latter in my public officials. YMMV

  64. 64.

    Elizabelle

    @Miss Bianca: NY Times, polls taken in NC before the Charlotte unrest. I’ll put it up next.

    All good news for Democrats, including the Senate candidate.

    I think and hope that the Democrats can hold their lead; it may narrow. I think there has been enough of an influx of non-natives to make the state purple, at least.

    I think that GOP pushed-through legislation restricting public viewing of police body cam footage (goes into effect next week), which McCrory was humping last night, could blow back badly on the GOP. McCrory was talking about police officers’ “constitutional rights”, but don’t citizens have a right not to be shot and killed by police? And even if it turns out Keith Scott did have a gun, couldn’t a more highly trained police officer have used non-lethal force? They’re killing first, and have passed legislation to prevent the public from witnessing.

    That comment about “civilian on civilian” might get some asking about the role of the police. They are not military.

    Also a lot of buyer’s remorse at the Art Pope-funded ridiculousness out of the state legislature. The bathroom bill got all the oxygen, but the legislature turned back locality’s minimum wage increases, and (if memory serves) environmental protection.

    Roy Cooper, Dem gubernatorial candidate, has been attorney general for 16 years. Four statewide elections. That’s pretty law and order, and clearly he’s got crossover appeal. He’s a cool head.

    North Carolina is definitely in play.

  66. 66.

    Aleta

    @Aleta: @Major Major Major Major: I saw a piece of research about Trump that counted the words in his speeches (that the researchers at least) associated with arousing our fear of death. I don’t remember how much further they took it. I’ve thought a lot about the effects of Trump and previous politicians who trigger that part of the nervous system in order to gain control. As well as triggering violence, the ‘fight flight freeze’ response has many cognitive effects (that work against logic in favor of hypervigilance, interpreting neutral events as negative, believing events are beyond one’s control and then blaming another person (or people or government) for them). Maybe effects also include a tendency in some to flee to safety by following the perceived strongest guy into Trump castle.

  68. 68.

    different-church-lady

    @Roger Moore:

    Twitter isn’t a bad thing because it’s infested with assholes any more than Earth is a bad thing because it’s infested with them.

    If I had more time I might take you up on that debate.

  69. 69.

    singfoom

    @Major Major Major Major: From Deadspin:

    Deadspin link

    Sacramento police released the mugshot of Sean Thompson, the 32-year-old activist arrested last night after hitting disgraced soon-to-be former mayor Kevin Johnson with a pie.
    Given that this was taken after Thompson was stitched and cleaned up, it appears that early eyewitness reports that the pie-thrower was reduced to “a bloody pulp” by Johnson were dead on.

    Listen, you can argue self defense. That’s fine. Like I said above, the protestor assaulted Johnson. I had not read direct reports and was using the description ‘bloody pulp that others had used. All I’m saying is that whether or not you agree or disagree with the protestors actions, his views and his use of pie throwing as a tactic don’t make him deserving of a beatdown.

    I’d rather politicians act with reserve. I wasn’t there, so maybe there’s something else to this, but unless the protestor did something more than pie him and say something rude, there’s an argument to be made for restraint on Johnson’s part.

    That said, I’ve never been pied in public. If I do, I’ll find out how I would respond. My first instinct would be to beat the guy down, but I think we should try to aspire to the better part of our angels.

    An additional deadspin link: The ‘bloody pulp’ report

    After this, the protester reportedly said something to Johnson, which prompted him to allegedly tackle the protester and punch him in the face “repeatedly,” more than half a dozen times, landing many of them

    One witness described it as a “bloody pulp.” Ambulances and fire department arrived on the scene..

    ETA, another link added.

  70. 70.

    celticdragonchick

    @Elizabelle:

    That comment about “civilian on civilian” might get some asking about the role of the police. They are not military.

    I had a lengthy argument with a cop who posts here on occasion on that question.

    I said that if you are not in one of the uniformed military services…you are, by definition, a civilian. When I was in the army, we mentioned “civilian law enforcement” as opposed to military LE.

    He seemed to be of the opinion that it is simply the way cops talk and see themselves and that is that.

    So that makes them an occupying army?

  71. 71.

    different-church-lady

    “Glenn Reynolds fucks goats.”

    Perhaps didn’t capture my more tempered views fully, but it’s Twitter, where character limits stand in the way of nuance.

  72. 72.

    Major Major Major Major

    @singfoom: Ah, hadn’t seen that, just what I heard on the radio. They said it wasn’t immediately obvious that he had a pie, and that he grabbed Johnson. I don’t know how fair it is to expect politicians to act any different than you or I in a self-defense situation.

    @redshirt: It’s all comments. What do you mean by types of comments?

    @Aleta: Yeah, I remember that. When I saw that I thought “hmm, wonder how that compares to the vicious jackals I pal around with.” :P

  76. 76.

    hovercraft

    @Botsplainer:
    He ma have done this one thing right, but he and his wife are the biggest proponents of the charter, steal money from public schools movement. There is a reason Michelle Rhee was run out of DC. Not a hero.

  77. 77.

    WereBear

    @Haydnseek: “Run Them Down!” Mr. Reynolds, several of your loved ones are protesting on that highway. Do you stand by your statement?”

    You assume he has loved ones. I know he has written articles on the potential joys of robot lovemaking. So… maybe he does not.

  80. 80.

    nonynony

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Reynolds went after Erik Loomis:

    And Steve Salaita:

    Color me shocked. Of course, it’s okay if you’re Glenn Reynolds but if you’re some other professor you should have your tenure revoked.

  82. 82.

    hovercraft

    @hovercraft:
    Fro some reason I don’t have permission to edit my comment, strange.
    @Botsplainer
    Sorry for piling on I see everyone beat me to Kevin Johnsons less than stellar record.

  84. 84.

    Elizabelle

    @Miss Bianca:

    NY Times, Upshot feature: Clinton and Trump Tied in North Carolina Poll, With Sharp Educational Divides

    summary: Hillary leads Trump by 2 points among likely voters (45-43) in a 2-way; they’re tied with third party candidates included; other Dems are doing even better than Hillary. Hmmmm. Trump is competitive due to a huge lead among whites without a college degree (66 to 17).

    Well-educated white voters are rejecting Republican candidates in North Carolina, and it might just be enough to jeopardize the chances of Donald J. Trump to win the presidency and his party to keep the Senate.

    Hillary Clinton and Mr. Trump are tied, 41 percent to 41 percent, among likely voters in a three-way race in North Carolina, according to a New York Times Upshot/Siena College poll released on Thursday. Mrs. Clinton leads by two percentage points in a head-to-head contest, 45 percent to 43 percent.

    The presidential contest might be the least of the Republican Party’s worries in this rapidly changing state. The embattled Republican governor, Pat McCrory, trails by eight points against Attorney General Roy Cooper, 50 percent to 42 percent.

    And even Senator Richard Burr, who was not thought to be in great jeopardy just a few months ago, trails his Democratic challenger, Deborah Ross, by four points, 46-42. That contest is among the handful that seem likely to decide control of the Senate.

    It is her largest lead in a public survey so far, and in general, the poll offers stronger results for Democrats than several surveys in the state this month.

    … Like our survey of Florida earlier this week, this poll was based on voter records that allow unusually detailed analysis of the electorate. The survey was completed before the police shooting of a black Charlotte resident on Tuesday and the unrest that has followed.

    Strikingly, none of the Republican candidates led among white voters with a college degree, even though that group supported Mitt Romney in 2012 by nearly 30 percentage points, according to Upshot estimates.

    The state’s white voters are divided as well. Mr. Trump’s advantage with whites stems from a huge margin of 66 percent to 17 percent among white voters without a college degree. Mrs. Clinton’s challenge runs deep: She has a narrow lead of only 46-39 among white voters without a degree who are registered as Democrats.[!]

    ….. The educational split in North Carolina could be the largest in the country. The state is in many ways still culturally Southern, but it has been transformed by rapidly growing metropolitan areas like Raleigh and Charlotte. These areas are full of migrants from outside the state, especially from the Northeast. Mrs. Clinton fares better among these voters, even after accounting for their greater education, than among those born in the state.

    I did not read closely enough to figure out the proportions of college-educated vs. non-college, but they — and African Americans — turn out to vote, so GOTV is crucial (and working).

    Last, all the news on NC’s blatant attempts to keep minorities from voting has got to be a motivating factor.

  85. 85.

    hovercraft

    @Mike in NC:
    He wants to rile up those white suburban voters who were the key to electing their moderate, non ideological mayor as governor four years ago, he want’s them to be scared of those lawless people in the city. Without them he can’t win.

  87. 87.

    Aleta

    @Aleta: correction: I guess hypervigilance isn’t a cognition thing so much as nerve sensitivity and or behavioral.
    @Major Major Major Major:

    wonder how that compares to the vicious jackals I pal around with.” :P

    Seems to relate to my more insane relatives and a few acquaintances, not to mention the cursed part of my own self :)

  91. 91.

    laura

    @Botsplainer: your hero worship is seriously misplaced IMHO. Did KJ deserve a pie in the face? Probably not.
    Is he a serial sex-pest? Yes.
    He’s still under federal ivestigation for misuse of funds regarding St Hope Academy his first charter school here in Sacramento.
    He’s married to notorious charter school grifter Michelle Rhee.
    He so fucked over the association of black mayors and then recreated a new replacement organization after ousting his predecessors.
    He has been almost entirely absent from his mayoral duties for at least the last year.
    He is as skeezy as they come.
    I fart in his general direction.
    You could find a better hero almost anywhere.
    Fuck.that.guy.

  92. 92.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Mnemosyne: I didn’t even know that the cops involved in the NC shooting were undercover and out of uniform. That just makes the story a little worse.

  93. 93.

    amk

    because he wasn’t specifically harassing individuals.

    yeah, he was just calling for killing of a buncha individuals who he just hates. nice logic there, cole.

  94. 94.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Elizabelle:

    The embattled Republican governor, Pat McCrory, trails by eight points against Attorney General Roy Cooper, 50 percent to 42 percent.

    Good. I hope the anti-LGBT “bathroom” bill he passed goes with him.

  96. 96.

    Frank Wilhoit

    John,

    You write: “I don’t think he should be banned from twitter, because he wasn’t specifically harassing individuals.”

    There are those who ascribe magical powers to Professor Reynolds and I am quite sure that you are not among them. Magical powers might enable him to detect that the persons on the roadway included an individual named Frid Pwerf. He might then (for all we know of him, his track record, his predilections) have incited the subvehiculation of Frid Pwerf by name, thereby triggering your standard (it is a familiar one, not yours alone) for restraint of speech.

    But this is not the right standard, because if anyone had acted upon Professor Reynolds’s advice, someone or someones would have gotten pancaked, irrespective of whether they were already under the vast and nearly insuperable disadvantage of being named Frid Pwerf. And this would have been worth preventing, irrespective etc. And in so saying, I am not speaking for myself, but for a very large and consistent body of legal philosophy and practice.

    A society that permits incitement demonstrates a depraved indifference to the lives and well-being of its citizens.

  99. 99.

    Trollhattan

    @Frank Wilhoit:
    In Glenn Reynold’s world view perhaps Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel was justified in mowing down a hundred beachgoers in Nice, who were clearly preventing his deliveries. Commerce before convenience!

  102. 102.

    Elizabelle

    @Patricia Kayden: Your wish is North Carolina’s command.

    I think a lot of them are good and embarrassed, and WaPost did a story a few months ago about how tourism and spending in NC are down. Those who opposed the bathrooms bill are as affected as those who did.

    I noticed that my fave restaurant in Asheville (Homegrown, yum) had a unisex bathroom. And this was before that stupid legislation passed.

  103. 103.

    Mnemosyne

    @gwangung:

    There was a different shooting of a hearing-impaired man a few months ago (I think it’s in the WaPo story above), so I’m not sure if the two shootings are being conflated.

  104. 104.

    Miss Bianca

    @Elizabelle: Ha! Thanks for the link!

    Damn, no wonder the South fought so hard against both mandatory public education and “carpetbaggers”…education, and educated people From Elsehwere, seriously threaten the brand of Albion’s Seed.

  105. 105.

    Chris

    @Betty Cracker:

    Not to divert away from the main topic, but this –

    I’ve been writing in support of greater accountability for police for years.

    Kind of stood out to me.

    I assume I’m correct in calling complete bullshit? Or has he, in fact, written anything that could be construed as “calling for greater accountability for police?”

  106. 106.

    sunny raines

    I also don’t think he should be fired for this, because I think getting people fired for saying stupid things is wrong.

    huh??? encouraging people to mame and murder people by running them down is NOT just saying “something stupid”, it’s criminally malicious and immoral. Firing him should be the very least of it.

  107. 107.

    celticdragonchick

    @Mnemosyne:

    Damn. That completely changes the calculus of why the victim may have reacted.

    Of course, Rod Dreher is very upset that the ni*clang!*s are protesting in the streets instead of going to church…

  108. 108.

    Roger Moore

    @Major Major Major Major:
    It’s interesting, but it might benefit from additional normalization. It seems as if most people have fairly similar relative levels of the different sentiments, though their overall use of emotional language varies. So you could either normalize to the relative frequencies of the different emotions (to see who is the angriest/saddest/etc.), to the individual poster’s overall level of emotional sentiment (to remove effects from people who use more or fewer emotion laden words), or to both (to normalize for both).

    When I did both and looked at posters who were closest to the overall sentiment of the blog, I found that shomi, of all people, was closest to typical in the kinds of emotions, followed by Miss Bianca, Shell, Mnemosyne, piratedan, Uncle Cosmo, Emma, me, CaseyL, and Corner Stone. The least typical poster was Onkel Fritze (who scored highest on anticipation and joy and lowest on sadness and surprise), followed by Randinho (same high and low scores), Bailey, LanceThruster, Jonathan Holland Becnel, Temporarily Max McGee, Tony J, Richard Mayhew, Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant), and Another Holocene Human.

    By that measure, the angriest poster is negative 1, the highest anticipation poster is Randinho, the most disgusted is NR, most fearful is LanceThruster, most joyful is Onkel Fritze, most negative is Raven, most positive is Jeff Spender, saddest is TheMightyTrowel, most surprised is also TheMightyTrowel, and most trusting is Bailey.

  109. 109.

    celticdragonchick

    Got to get ready for my 8th grade kids in a few minutes.

    I think teaching Jr High right now is my purgatory for whatever I did to teachers when I was 12 or 13…

  110. 110.

    Trollhattan

    @Chris:
    Pretty safe to assume any singling out by Ole Perfessor of police overreach is limited to investigating right-wing terror groups and the seizure of precious firearms.

  112. 112.

    Mnemosyne

    @celticdragonchick:

    But but but the plainclothes cop was wearing a vest, so *obviously* a citizen in a high-stress situation should have known the guy was telling the truth and was not an armed suspect running away from the cops.

    I honestly think that if the cops had just said we fucked up, we apologize, we will do a full investigation, they probably could have avoided the riots. But, no, they had to close ranks, blame the victim, and insist they did nothing wrong.

  120. 120.

    Applejinx

    I wouldn’t actually aim for people blocking the road

    Then you are doing ‘run them down’ wrong. Thanks for playing :P

  121. 121.

    glory b

    @Elizabelle: But wait! NPR said that Hillary is shaky with black voters in NC!!

    Of course, as I said before, everyone they interviewed said they were voting, and they were voting for her.

    They said they were voting to continue Obama’s legacy, to keep the hated Trump from the presidency and as a reaction to the voter restriction attempts.

    The, npr said the problem was that they were voting, but they weren’t voting FOR HER.

  122. 122.

    Applejinx

    @Haydnseek:

    “Run Them Down!” Mr. Reynolds, several of your loved ones are protesting on that highway. Do you stand by your statement?”

    Not the point! It’s not up to whether he likes the human beings standing in the road. It’s categorically not an acceptable choice to run someone down because they’re not your friend or not your color.

    Just like it’s not an acceptable choice to shoot somebody dead just because you don’t like how they’re acting…

    Well fuck :P

    (and THIS is why Reynolds should suffer real-world consequences. It is categorically unacceptable for a man in his position to go there, and he SO went there. I’m disgusted that Twitter let him come back, and he should lose his job)

    SOLDIERS AT WAR don’t get to do that FFS.

  123. 123.

    jonas

    Now look, I’m sure if Paul Krugman or E.J. Dionne or some other prominent liberal journalist/blogger had suggested offhandedly that the FBI should have dropped a barrel bomb, say, on the militia protesters at the Bundy ranch or something, the wingnuttosphere would have taken it all in good humor. Let’s extend the same courtesy to Prof. Reynolds that they would have.

  124. 124.

    chopper

    “Run them down” perhaps didn’t capture this fully, but it’s Twitter, where character limits stand in the way of nuance.

    i guess he’s on that new version of twitter where you only get thirteen characters?

  125. 125.

    Betty Cracker

    @Chris: I assumed it was bullshit too — don’t read Reynolds often enough to know for sure. I believe the phrase is linked at his blog, but I didn’t click.

  126. 126.

    Applejinx

    What’s more, it’s categorically unacceptable to beat someone’s face into a bloody pulp whatever they do with their whipped cream pie.

    There’s a REASON you don’t get to murder a person because they gave you a sad, or made you look stupid. It’s called being ‘civilized’. (what boggles my mind is: isn’t botsplainer a lawyer? Yikes. I know I’ve had run-ins with the guy at times.)

    There’s also a reason you don’t get to hit a person in the face with a whipped-cream pie, even if it’s not going to permanently injure them. You might call that ‘unjust’ and work out a thing called ‘justice’ where certain things are not allowed. You might even end up with people supposed to understand this concept and call them ‘lawyers’ and ‘law professors’.

    I am well freaked out to see these fundamental things falling apart and people acting like that’s normal. It ain’t. Justice dates back to the Magna Carta (and indeed in ages past) but it seems like it doesn’t automatically stick around when conditions get more dicey.

  127. 127.

    aretino

    Let’s see here.

    Terrorist propagandist incites terrorist followers to commit terrorism.

    Drone him!

  128. 128.

    RaflW

    I’d be fine with him being fired if the school decides he’s violated an existing code of conduct. Free speech is not consequence-free speech. He’s not stupid, he could go find work somewhere that appreciates endless dickish behavior. A university does not have to be that place.

  129. 129.

    RaflW

    @Suffragete City elftx: Yep. Here’s a sample of what can fit in 140 characters, since Reynolds is so concerned about safety in highway protests:

    Run them down. By that I mean, keep driving and get out of the area where the protest is happening. It isn’t safe, you should leave #besafe.

    IOW, he’s making bullshit up after the fact rather than apologizing.

    Its amazing how many complex ideas and nuances one can fit into the tiny but not too restrictive world of a tweet. Also, too, there’s the 1/

    …if you find that you need to express yourself a bit more fully than you might have hoped in one single, solitary 140 character tweet. 2/2

  130. 130.

    bluefish

    It’s a national circle jerk of homicidal psychosis. I don’t know how I feel about it, will have to think about it given what you’ve written. As well written and muscular as always. I’ve always loved your prose style and the straddling of the points is excellent. That said, he sounds like another of these kamikaze pilots on the burnout and maybe UT can keep a little eye on him. Be careful crossing the street. It’s depressing as all get out to see this coming out of an American campus. and, did I get it right?, a law prof. at that. Rehab announcement coming in 10, 9, 8, 7 … Apologies on the horizon. We see how the famous misspeaking, right, results in the poisonous atmosphere rife in the kingdom. It should not be okay, but the level of current insanity has this looking like just another day at the office. Sad. Murder is better than suicide seems to be the big message on the right this season. So, on the other hand, eviscerate him. This fellow seems to think it’s the way to go. He’ll be sent to his room with no supper after a spanking.

  131. 131.

    RaflW

    @glory b: Then npr said the problem was that they were voting, but they weren’t voting FOR HER.

    The set-up for why Ryan and the House can do fuck all for 2 or 4 years of HRC’s first term. Bullshit on its face, but there we are in these days of media terribleness.

  132. 132.

    Aleta

    John, I think the commenter @Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant): lives in Charlotte. If he’s willing, and has things he wants to say, could he be offered some space up FP way?

  133. 133.

    Barbara

    @Mnemosyne: Yeah, that little detail seems not to have been emphasized enough. If two unknown guys came up to you waving guns and shouting at you while you were sitting in your car, what would you do? I would probably try to drive away because unlike this guy, I don’t own or carry a gun. But he had a gun and he brought it to his hands. When and how they informed him that they were police officers is unknown. But if you were the police, why wouldn’t you have one of the two officers involved go up to him and tap on the window and show your badge, with the other maybe ready to take action if required?

  134. 134.

    scav

    It would seem to be simply unthinkable to expect a highly trained lawyer working in an academic setting to express himself concisely, with clear intent, with a thought to consequences, in a contemporary media. Poor poor dear.
    That’s Ok: apparently we can’t expect the police to operate professionally with a thought to anyone but their own personal danger (maybe a few personally chosen public members get served and protected) or honestly with publically visable corroborating evidence (just shut up and trust their version of events) and candidates for president are no longer exoected to be sane non-con-men.

  135. 135.

    Mnemosyne

    @Barbara:

    Frankly, it sounds like it was a really chaotic situation and the guy may have thought he might need to defend himself, so he got his gun. That seems way, way more likely than thinking that he decided to just randomly pull out a gun when cops started running towards him.

    Of course, now the police chief is saying that the video is NOT clear about whether or not Mr. Scott had a gun, so …

  136. 136.

    Citizen Alan

    I wonder how Reynolds would react if every single black student who goes to UT Law made a point of wearing a BLM t-shirt to ever class he taught. Or do black UT law students avoid his class like the plague because they know he’s a racist swine.

  138. 138.

    J R in WV

    @celticdragonchick:

    Such honesty is rare in the commentary world, congrats. I know I was a pain to many teachers. I did almost no homework, yet scored well on tests, so it was hard for them to punish me with F grades. I was also pretty well behaved except for that homework thing.

    No surprise that when I went to college the first time I had a hard time making more than a C at a challenging college.

    I went again at 30, tried to hang out with excellent students with good study habits, had a study group in most of my major classes, and made mostly As and Bs. Dean’s list a lot.

    And with your other issues with your potential school board, best of luck. Sounds like Rs in general may have problems in NC, depending on your area, so here’s hoping those ignorant of you personally yet hostile for no sound reason fail utterly.

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