Once again, we are obliged to ask, “Who’s defunding who?”

The settlement follows a familiar pattern: Delaware police kill someone, their supervisory authorities dispute any wrongdoing, the victims' family file a lawsuit seeking accountability and the litigation ends with a settlement paid by a municipal insurance provider and a gag order about the case for municipal authorities and family members party to the settlement.

It’s likely costs will be passed along to municipal taxpayers through higher insurance premiums, though that is unclear as of now.

What a six-figure lawsuit settlement after 2022 killing by Milford Police doesn’t tell us

Full marks to Xerxes Wilson for speaking plainly and placing this story in the broader context of state-sponsored violence.

It didn't have to be like this

What purpose does this police action serve? Does this type of police violence keep us safe? Do these incidents aid in establishing trust and respect between the armed agents of the state and those they serve? It doesn’t have to be like this indeed.

Another Day, Another Case of Extreme Police Violence - Rob Vanella

PLEASE read REV on yet ANOTHER incidence of state-sponsored police violence in New Castle County.

If you are local, please come to the next meeting of the New Castle County Police Accountability Board on Tuesday, July 16 at 6:00 pm. There are even virtual options if you’re not local!

Good thing Delaware just legalized raw milk!

As of February, at least 165 people were sickened with salmonella infections tied to raw milk products from Raw Farm, of Fresno, California. It is the largest reported salmonella outbreak linked to raw milk in the U.S. in the past decade, according to health officials.

Dozens were sickened with salmonella after drinking raw milk from a California farm | AP News

Delaware earns a C- on Common Cause’s Community Redistricting Report Card

Perhaps the perfect encapsulation of Delaware Way politics: Delaware Democrats, who held the Governorship and both houses of the General Assembly, ran an “inadequately transparent” process in which “incumbent protection appeared to trump protecting communities of interest or consideration of public testimony” and still managed to gift Republicans a district (the new RD 4, which moved from Wilmington to Sussex County).

Three candidates have announced their 2024 candidacy for Delaware’s lone U.S. House seat. How did they use branding to differentiate themselves in an already crowded field?

In the next installment of “The Politics of Design,” I critiqued all three for the Delaware Call.

I’m in the Delaware Call today!

The Politics of Design will be a lighthearted series of critiques focusing on the branding of state and local politicians.

First up: the logo for Delaware gubernatorial hopeful Matt Meyer.

Here’s Representative Eric Morrison on his controversial vote on HS 1 for HB 121 (the Seaford LLC voting bill):

Governing is not easy, and things are not always as they appear on the surface. As happens time and again, we as Democrats had to do the responsible and right thing for Delawareans. We do not have the luxury, for example, of throwing temper tantrums like petulant children and walking out in the middle of session like every member of the Republican House Caucus did Wednesday evening, while Democrats stayed on the floor and performed the jobs we were elected to do. In this entire situation, we as Democrats took the high ground and did the right things for Delaware, and I am proud of it.

(More background here.)

My position remains that many of the surprising “yes” votes have previously earned our trust and should not be vilified on principle. Especially given that it was clear all parties knew the bill had not immediately future in the Senate.

As much as I would love to live in a world where all my favs could always vote on principle and tell the GOP to eat shit, we’re not there yet. We don’t have the numbers. If we can flip 2 more house seats, we theoretically have a supermajority that presents us from this kind of nonsense every late June.

Which is why I’m working with at least one candidate to flip a clearly dem-friendly district. And I’m willing to work with you, if you are running against a Republican in a flippable house district, I will do your logo & branding design pro bono.

Let’s stop complaining about governing process and Delaware Way bullshit. Let’s work together to make these goons officially irrelevant.

John Carney has not moved on

When Delaware Governor John Carney announced that he would allow House Bill 1 and House Bill 2 to become law without his signature, he declared that it was “time to move on” from the debate around recreational marijuana. However, by appointing former Delaware State Trooper Robert Coupe to oversee the rollout of the recreational marijuana industry, Carney has proven that he has done anything but “move on.”

House Bill 2, enacted this past April, establishes and regulates the recreational marijuana industry in Delaware. Portions of the bill were specifically crafted to redress the racist war on drugs that has ravaged countless communities in Delaware. The bill gives those who reside in areas disproportionately impacted by the war on drugs preferential access to the legal marijuana market. The bill also earmarks tax revenue for the Justice Reinvestment Fund, “where it will be used for projects to improve quality of life for communities most impacted by the prohibition of marijuana and ‘war on drugs’ era policies.”

So what does that have to do with Robert Coupe?

Coupe spent nearly 28 years in the Delaware State Police, and has filled a number of administrative roles in the criminal justice system since retiring from the force. Governor Carney believed this professional experience makes Coupe an ideal candidate: “There are few people across our state who are more well-respected, and more committed to serving the people of Delaware, than Rob Coupe,” the governor said in a press release. “He’s exactly the right person to take on this new challenge.”

Unfortunately, the same experience that excites Governor Carney should have disqualified Coupe from consideration for the role of the Marijuana Commissioner. This is not an indictment of Coupe as an individual, but an acknowledgement that Coupe comes from the same criminal justice system whose harms he is tasked with remediating.

If the bill’s intent is to undo some of the harms caused by decades of racist war on drugs-era overpolicing, why is Governor Carney appointing someone with such a criminal justice-heavy background to oversee the bill’s implementation?

The answer: Governor Carney has not, in fact, “moved on.” Carney’s own draconian views on cannabis are well documented. Despite these views, he opted not to veto the bills, realizing that both chambers of the Legislature had the votes to override his veto and politically embarrass him. But, by choosing a commissioner with a decades-long background in law enforcement, Carney gets to save face while giving a slap in the face to everyone who advocated for the bill’s passage, who has been unfairly impacted by the war on drugs, who believes in restorative justice, and who just wants to get high. Carney could have opted for a commissioner who knows the industry, or someone who has been impacted by the War on Drugs to ensure the commission would work to remediate its harms.

Instead, he chose to appoint a cop. That’s not “moving on.”