Minneapolis: Ground zero for police accountability

In Minneapolis, Minn., the defense rested today in the murder trial of Derek Chauvin, the former city police officer charged with killing George Floyd last May. Meanwhile, in the nearby suburb of Brooklyn Center, former Ofc. Kim Potter has been charged with second-degree manslaughter for killing Daunte Wright on Sunday, when she mistakenly shot him with her gun instead of her Taser during a traffic stop. Intent isn't a necessary component of second-degree manslaughter in the state, and the charge can be applied when a person is suspected of causing a death by "culpable negligence." —Associated Press

• — Maryland. An officer-involved shooting in College Park has raised questions, as a 16-year-old White honors student was gunned down by a Maryland State Police trooper on Tuesday. The boy was armed with an airsoft gun that witnesses say he aimed at the trooper. Maryland State Police troopers don't wear body cameras, and the encounter wasn't captured on any dashcam video. The incident is under investigation. —CBS News
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• — New York. A Buffalo police officer fired for intervening when a colleague employed a chokehold on a handcuffed suspect in 2006 will be given back pay and a pension, a New York judge has ruled. Cariol Horne was terminated from the Buffalo Police Department in 2008, after serving 19 of the 20 years required to receive a pension. "The message was sent that you don't cross that blue line, and so some officers—many officers—don't," Horne said. —CNN
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• — U.S. Capitol. Following an investigation, the Justice Department will not charge the publicly unidentified Capitol Police officer who fatally shot Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt on Jan. 6. Babbitt was part of the insurrectionist mob attempting to breach the House chamber as officers were evacuating members of Congress. She was trying to force her way through the broken window of a door to the Speaker's Lobby when she was struck by a single bullet. —Associated Press

Marques: Putin is tempting fate

"Could this be the moment Vladimir Putin opens himself up to unforced errors of the authority-threatening kind? After more than two decades under his watch, Russia has entered a darker, more repressive phase. A bounce in his popularity after the 2014 annexation of Crimea has waned and efforts to shore up his legitimacy include a growing intolerance for any kind of dissent. Recent decisions hint at paranoia, and he appears increasingly isolated, shielded from discordant voices." —Clara Ferreira Marques in Bloomberg

Clara Ferreira Marques is a Bloomberg columnist covering commodities and environmental, social, and governance issues.

MORE: Biden Administration slaps new sanctions on Russia for cyberattacks, election interference —CNBC

Dems take next step on SCOTUS expansion

Congressional Democrats are introducing legislation today to expand the U.S. Supreme Court from nine justices to 13. The bill, which intensifies an ongoing battle over the ideological makeup of the high court, faces a slim chance of passing, given Democrats' narrow majorities. Plus, Republicans aren't the only ones balking at it; several top Democrats aren't embracing it either. Senate Judiciary Committee member Sheldon Whitehouse said he doesn't want to "put the cart ahead of the horse" on adding seats, and that it will be "important for us to make our case to the American people as to why this is necessary." President Biden also has said he is "not a fan" of packing the court. —NBC News

Cohen: For Afghanistan, it won't end

"The war will grind on, with the edge going to the brutal fundamentalist warriors of the Taliban, who will torture and slaughter even as they repeal the advances made in women's education and secularism in any form. But they will not have it all their own way. Russia, China, Iran, Pakistan, India, and the Central Asian republics have their own stakes in this war, and not all of them want to see an outright Taliban victory. So they will fund clients and proxies, as will, in all likelihood, the United States. And the people of Afghanistan will continue to suffer." —Eliot Cohen in The Atlantic

Eliot Cohen is dean of The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, a former State Department counselor, and the author of "The Big Stick: The Limits of Soft Power and the Necessity of Military Force."

MORE: Biden's delay on refugees baffles and frustrates allies —The Washington Post

Schmidt: Instead of disenfranchising voters, listen to them

"The Republican Party I knew, and in which I was an active member, was a party of ideas. Ideas that I thought would benefit the most people. The Grand Old Party of today is profoundly broken. It is not clear to me that the party has a desire to fix itself. Republican voters seem quite happy with this morally bankrupt party. If the party of Lincoln does want to redeem itself, then it should follow the advice of our 16th president and govern. Of the people, by the people, and for the people." —Lynn Schmidt in St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Lynn Schmidt is a member of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Editorial Board and the Missouri state leader for Stand Up Republic.

MORE: Max Boot: Why is the GOP waging a culture war? Follow the money —The Washington Post

Focus on voting rights

An interesting development is taking place in the contentious voting rights debate. In response to Republican state legislatures' attempts to roll back voting access, citing Donald Trump's false claim that he lost the November election because of fraud, big business is stepping up in opposition. It creates a unique political shift, as Democrats, who for years have complained about corporate influence in public policy, are now finding common cause with a sector long allied with Republicans.

• — In the largest group yet to protest Republican efforts to change election laws, hundreds of companies and executives signed a statement, published yesterday, opposing "any discriminatory legislation." Among the signers are Amazon, Google, Starbucks, Bank of America, Warren Buffett, and Michael Bloomberg, plus law firms and nonprofits.
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• — "Voting is the lifeblood of our democracy, and we call upon all Americans to join us in taking a nonpartisan stand for this most basic and fundamental right of all Americans," the letter reads. "We all should feel a responsibility to defend the right to vote and oppose any discriminatory legislation or measures that restrict or prevent any eligible voter from having an equal and fair opportunity to cast a ballot."
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• — Many of the signers have been loyal donors to Republican political campaigns, making the letter's impact potentially more weighty, but it remains to be seen whether corporate activism will extend to political donations. Most companies have not explicitly indicated whether they will withhold donations from lawmakers who are pushing the new voting laws. —Associated Press

Heimlich: From democracy to dictatorship—could it happen here?

"The power of Trumpism is reflected in the U.S. Senate race in Ohio where the two leading Republican candidates are competing over who is more pro-Trump. The danger that this movement poses to our rights should alarm every one of us. Unless patriotic Americans take action to defeat it, we may end up like other nations whose elected leaders stole their freedoms." —Phil Heimlich in The Cincinnati Enquirer

Phil Heimlich is a former assistant prosecutor in Cincinnati, where he served as a Republican on the city council. In 2020, he helped lead Operation Grant, the Ohio affiliate of Republican Voters Against Trump.

MORE: In America, Republican-led states are rolling back electoral and civil liberties —The Economist

Ed Note: The following commentary, submitted by Jim V., New York, was incorrectly attributed in THE TOPLINE yesterday. We are rerunning it today with our apologies to Jim for the error.

Recent events across the country are showing White people that being Black in America carries daily burdens we never think of. But I learned this over 50 years ago.

Growing up in Queens County, New York—far from Donald Trump's Jamaica Estates, in Archie Bunker's much less affluent but more multi-ethnic Astoria—the consistently best-dressed of my mostly White bunch of high school friends was one of the few Black guys in our group.

We would often take the subway into Manhattan on summer days or spring or autumn Saturdays to visit a museum, go to a "first-run" movie, or just walk around Rockefeller Center to look at the tall buildings and the pretty girls, and he always dressed as if he were going on a first date or a job interview.

No T-shirt or tank top. Or shorts or jeans. And always sensible, dress shoes…never white high-top Converse sneakers and drooping blue-ribbed tube socks.

One warm summer day, I ran into him on the subway coming back from Manhattan. He was wearing a crisp, button-down, pinstriped shirt, dark trousers, and sturdy shoes. He was obviously not dressed for comfort.

I asked him why he always dressed so well when he went into Manhattan. I presumed it was in case he met a girl. When I was 17, I assumed everything my friends did was related to helping them meet girls.

His answer has stayed with me for more than five decades:

"The police are less likely to hassle a Black guy if he's well-dressed."

Instantly I understood. And although I thought we were really so similar—we had the same interests, after all: baseball, rock and roll, the TV show "The Fugitive"—we really did look at the world very differently…because the world looked at us differently.

And then he added, "When your mother wants you to dress well when you go out, it's because she doesn't want people to think her son's a slob. When my mother wants me to dress well, she's also thinking about my own safety."

I am now in my early 70s. God willing, so is he. And if he is now a grandfather, I can picture him boring his grandchildren with obscure baseball trivia, citing specific songs to demonstrate why the music of the sixties is superior to the garbage you hear now…and reminding them to always, always, dress well when you go out in America. —Jim V., New York

The views expressed in "What's Your Take?" are submitted by readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff or the Stand Up Republic Foundation.