Compiled by Sarah Willrich. Articles Seamus Hughes and Peter Beck remembered the Annunciation Catholic Church shooting that occurred one year ago.
Compiled by Sarah Willrich.
Articles
Seamus Hughes and Peter Beck remembered the Annunciation Catholic Church shooting that occurred one year ago. They argued that the attack reflects a broader “true crime community” subculture in which teens are pushed toward violence by online networks that reward it with notoriety and warned that there is often not enough support to guide them away from that path.
And law enforcement agencies from the federal level all the way down to local school resource officers can’t assume these young people are simply troubled outliers and that their acts of violence are the unfortunate, unavoidable cost of troubled minds. These are impressionable, vulnerable, and often isolated teens and adolescents who have been radicalized by peers, who have fooled each other and themselves into feeling a sense of belonging in a violent, cruel community. Many entered their adolescence trapped inside and online as a global pandemic raged outside their windows. Opportunities for typical social interactions were limited, to say the least. For far too many, the worst versions of ourselves that we as a society produced—collectively in our stoic indifference—offered some of the few opportunities to feel connected.
The Boat Strikes Aren’t Part of a War. They’re Murder.
Sarah Elaine Harrison argued that debating whether the U.S.’s strikes against boats in the Caribbean are war crimes is a distraction from the simpler, graver truth: they are extrajudicial killings—that is, murder under U.S. law—and evidence of the Trump administration’s slide toward authoritarianism. Harrison encouraged Congress to push back by highlighting how the illegal killings are bad drug policy.
Think of it this way: At any time, U.S. security forces—whether police or the military—cannot shoot people in the streets merely because they are illegally trafficking drugs or affiliated with groups that traffic drugs and pose no imminent threat to life or serious bodily injury. The authorities have to arrest, charge, and try them. The only difference in these boat strikes is that the people being targeted are some miles off the coast. Because the military is summarily executing people who pose no imminent threat, that constitutes the unlawful taking of life, more commonly known as murder.
Podcasts
Scaling Laws: Is Meta’s Oversight Board a Model for AI Governance?: Kenji Yoshino, a member of Meta’s Oversight Board, joined Kevin Frazier and Kate Klonick to discuss Yoshino’s recent piece on whether a similar model could be applied to artificial intelligence (AI) oversight. They considered whether such boards could provide meaningful oversight at the scale AI requires, what powers the boards would need, concerns about the legitimacy of a privately created board, and more.
Rational Security: The “All Takin’ and No Givin’” Edition: Scott Anderson sat down with Benjamin Wittes, Julia Curlee, and Alex Zerden to talk through the week’s big national security news stories, including a Russian drone guided by AI attacking a target in Ukraine, the U.S.’s new sanctions against Iran and its trading partners, the collapse of U.S.-Canada trade talks, and more.
Videos and Webinars
Lawfare Live** : The Trials of the Trump Administration, August 28: **On Friday, August 28, at 4 p.m. ET, Wittes will sit down with
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