Charlie Sykes had a nice piece on the Abbott pardon this morning. I hadn't seen all of the details summarized like this before. If this is all accurate, it's fucking astonishing that he's considering going down this path. You'd think that the open carry cos-players that like to hang out at protests with AR-15s would understand how this could all play out ("he could have shot me in less than a second and he seemed so angry, I just had to gun him down first!"), but then again, I guess we all understand that this only works in one direction. Infuriating.
Greg Abbott's Jury Nullification - by Charlie Sykes (thebulwark.com)
And, indeed, that seems to be exactly what Abbott is signaling.
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Radley Balko breaks down what we know about the case:
The court record is filled with details about Perry’s possible motivation. “There is ample evidence,” writes Balko, “that Perry intended to harm the protesters.”
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But in the right-wing media ecosystem, it is Foster who is being demonized, while his murderer is lionized. Writes Balko: “You only valorize Garrett Foster’s killer if you’ve convinced yourself that Foster deserved to die….
Balko’s analysis here is scorching:
Exit take: This is how a cold civil war becomes a hot one.