Ari Armstrong – Ari Armstrong

Six Steps Toward Ending Police Abuses

“Please, I can’t breathe!” George Floyd begged as a Minneapolis police officer crushed a knee into his neck as he lay prone and handcuffed. The officer who killed Floyd deserves to be tried for murder, and the officers who participated or stood by and watched deserve to be tried as accomplices.

It doesn’t matter here what Floyd is alleged to have done. The person who called 911 said that Floyd was trying to pay a store with fake bills and that he was intoxicated. I have no idea whether the allegations are true. The officers involved claimed that Floyd resisted arrest. Video shows that Floyd struggled as police yanked him from a vehicle, after which Floyd cooperated. Regardless, the officer’s extreme use of force obviously was entirely unnecessary to subdue Floyd. No reasonable person doubts that crushing a person’s throat for minutes on end can kill the victim. It is a police officer’s job to bring the accused to the courts for justice, not to play street executioner.

What, practically, can we as regular people do toward stopping such senseless violence by a minority of the people we pay to protect us? Here I review six main ways.

COVID-19 Updates 2

I started this document on May 23, 2020, to keep track of select updates about COVID-19. Items are listed in reverse order relative to when I examine them (latest updates on top). This follows my first “COVID-19 Updates” file (April 28 to May 22) and the “COVID-19 Resources” page started March 24.

Major data sources: Our World in Data, Johns Hopkins, Worldometer, CO Dep’t of Public Health, USA Data (which has U.S. state-level data), CDC COVID-19 data, EndCoronavirus.org (which has great country and U.S. state case comparisons), Rt.live (which has estimates of reproduction rate, the accuracy of which I know not), Gu Infections Tracker (also includes R estimates), IMF Policy Tracker (country summaries), COVID-19 Projections Colorado page, AEI U.S. state and county tracker. See also Johns Hopkins’s Research Compendium. A handy stat: The U.S. population (estimated May 7) is 330,721,000.

COVID-19 Updates

I updated this document from April 28 to May 22, 2020, to keep track of select material about COVID-19. Items are listed in reverse order relative to when I examine them (latest updates on top). See also my newer “COVID-19 Updates 2” page and my older “COVID-19 Resources” page started March 24. Unless otherwise specified, many of my figures come from Our World in Data and the CO Dep’t of Public Health.

Robin Hanson on Variolation as a Response to COVID-19

Economist and iconoclast Robin Hanson suggests that variolation—controlled, intentional infection of the virus that causes COVID-19—could be an important “Plan B” if the test-trace-isolate strategy fails and especially if eventual herd immunity seems likely. Note that this involves a controlled test first, doctor supervision, and careful screening. This is the Self in Society Podcast #15 (see more). Also listen to this podcast via iTunes.

Hanson wrote an April 6 article on the topic (see his web page for additional entries on the topic). I also want to draw readers’ attention to a first and second article by Daniel Tillett. His idea is to find a naturally less-harmful strain of the coronavirus for use in inoculation, which could radically reduce risks. See also my article, “Why not consider controlled, intentional infection?” For more discussion of this topic (and more) see my “COVID-19 Resources” page.

Kevin Currie-Knight on Crisis Schooling Versus Homeschooling

Kevin Currie-Knight, professor of education at East Carolina University and president of the board of New Pathfinder Community School, warns against equating the home “crisis schooling” curing the COVID-19 epidemic with homeschooling as families practice it in normal times. He offers some qualified suggestions for families in which students who usually attend a traditional school now must learn at home. To families thinking about homeschooling, this wide-ranging conversation will remain relevant long after the coronavirus crisis has passed. This is the Self in Society Podcast episode #14.

Listen to the episode via iTunes or YouTube (audio only).

Bryan Alvarez on the COVID-19 Crisis

Dr. Bryan Alvarez, now in private practice after serving as the Public Health Director of the United States Northern Command from 2016–2019, discusses the problems and promise of testing our way out of the coronavirus crisis. He also talks about the process of bringing antiviral drugs and vaccines online, as well as the broader problem of emergency preparedness. This was recorded March 27 as the Self in Society Podcast #13.

Listen to the eplisode via iTunes. See also my “COVID-19 Resources” page and the Self in Society Podcast page.

COVID-19 Resources

Here I gather and summarize, and sometimes comment on, various news articles, opinion pieces, and other documents pertaining to COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus 2 or SARS-CoV-2 virus, and its socioeconomic impacts. Although I am not an expert in infectious diseases, I am seeking to understand the disease and its implications as well as I can. I created this document as a way for me to track useful articles on the subject, and perhaps the document will be useful to others seeking to get a handle on the crisis. Obviously this is not anything like a comprehensive collection of relevant links. This document was created on March 24, 2020, and subsequently edited. On April 28, I stopped adding new material to this document (which had grown unwieldy) and started a “COVID-19 Updates” page for subsequent material.

Steven Horwitz on Hayek and the Family: Self in Society #12

Economist Steven Horwitz, author of Hayek’s Modern Family: Classical Liberalism and the Evolution of Social Institutions, offers a classical liberal theory of the family grounded in the works of Friedrich Hayek. Unlike conservatives, who tend to glorify a tradition-bound model of the family, and Progressives, who sometimes denigrate the family, Horwitz offers a vision of the family as a dynamic and evolving social institution that plays a crucial role in people’s lives.

Listen to the episode via iTunes or YouTube (audio only).

Pamela Clare on Romance Fiction: Self in Society #11

Pamela Clare is a gun-toting Rush fan—and Boulder Progressive Democrat—who writes romantic fiction. She almost died in a mountain fall and had to be helicoptered out. She got death threats while working as an investigative journalist and had to tell one gun-waving disgruntled reader to get the f*** out of her office. She put her degree in classics to use in her historical romance novels before going on to write about rangers, firefighters, rock climbers, journalists, and other spirited characters.

Pamela and I sat down to discuss her writing, the genre, problems within Romance Writers of America, the business side of fiction, her experiences as a journalist, the allure of Colorado’s wilderness, her views on firearms, and the music that inspires her.

Listen to this episode via iTunes or YouTube (audio only).

See Pamela Clare’s web site for a list of her novels.

Melvin Konner on Religious Belief: Self in Society #10

Anthropologist Melvin Konner, author of Believers: Faith in Human Nature, explains the persistence of religious belief in the face of atheistic criticisms. Konner discusses his religious background and his path to a study of biological anthropology, including his work with the !Kung people in Botswana. Konner also challenges the New Atheists’ insistence that humanity can and should do away with religion.

Listen to this episode via iTunes or YouTube.