French officials have feared and even predicted an attack of the very kind that struck Nice. https://t.co/RP4xPa2Hhq
— The New Yorker (@NewYorker) July 15, 2016
It's Friday, which apparently means we lead with a massacre, these days. This time it's Nice, France, where a lone 31-year-old man in a truck ran down scores of Bastille Day celebrants, killing at least 84 before he could be stopped. Dozens more are in critical condition, and France is on high alert. President Francois Hollande extended a national state of emergency instituted after the recent Paris attacks.
One notable offensive knee-jerk reaction came, surprisingly, not from Donald Trump, but from someone eying the second slot on the Republican ticket. Newt Gingrich says we need to deport anyone who believes in sharia law. In a piece that probably takes that suggestion far too seriously, the Atlanticexplains exactly why it's problematic.
But hey, maybe it helps Gingrich? The Nice massacre prompted Trump to push back his announcement of a vice presidential candidate. It was widely believed, yesterday, to be Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, who in the past has excoriated (Trump-style) negative campaigning, panned Trump's proposal to ban Muslims from entering the country, and happily signed a law helping people discriminate against gays.
OH NM! Trump just announced it's Pence as I was writing this. So much for holding off.
I am pleased to announce that I have chosen Governor Mike Pence as my Vice Presidential running mate. News conference tomorrow at 11:00 A.M.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 15, 2016
Lots of talk about the Springwater Corridor today. Well, the homeless camps along its edges, actually. The O takes a deep dive into the situation out on the trail, and what's being done to try to sort it out (lots of ideas, lots of neighbor anger, not much concrete).
And now Mayor Charlie Hales is pledging not to tolerate camping on the Springwater beginning August 1. The idea seems to be that, rather than large, environment-harming clusters, the hundreds of people sent elsewhere might live in smaller groups? "We're going to try to accommodate homeless people in the short term here and there," Hales tells the O. And: "We know that if we close the Springwater to camping ... we send hundreds of people back into the rest of the city."
If you haven't, this is a good time to check out our piece on how the county's going to stop filing low-level drug charges against some people, hoping to both help the homeless and reduce racial disparity in drug charges.
Read all the terrible shit a West Linn police officer wrote on his personal Facebook page. Everyone else has. The cop, Tom Newberry, used to work in Portland. He likes West Linn better, he writes, because businesses give him free drinks and pastries. That's the least-bad thing he wrote. Anyway, the posts are under investigation.
Also, the Portland Police Association is being very, very sensitive because PBOT Director Leah Treat sent her employees quotes from a blog post called “Advice for white folks in the wake of a police murder of a black person.”
And, hey, while we're on the subject: Check out this great NPR piece about how often Philando Castile could count on getting pulled over. It's a lot.
Ugh, okay:Pokémon Go casualties. An Oregon man ran his brother's car into a tree while doing whatever you do in that game. And two guys in San Diego straight up fell off a cliff.
Your weekend:
