WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING

The Democrats’ hope for a blue wave rests on female voters coming out to register their displeasure with the president’s party. Women will be acting as a political force. But women don’t automatically ally with other women, as Sen. Susan Collins’ vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court demonstrated. Sisterhood doesn’t override partisanship or deeply held moral views. Victims of sexual harassment didn’t all believe Christine Blasey Ford. Women don’t act as one. The question is why so many people are still surprised that they don’t, even after the election of 2016. Political scientists have found that some of the very attacks that were supposed to alienate all women in 2016, such as Mr. Trump’s jab that Hillary Clinton was playing the “woman card,” instead made a segment of women more enthusiastic about him, and more hostile to her.

Susan Chira, The New York Times

“Chicago P.D.” ... is troubling at many levels, including that Chicago city agencies assist in the production of a show that depicts the poor of the city as little more than a mob while CPD officers are angels walking the Earth. Obviously the poor of Chicago commit many crimes, while most CPD officers are genuine public servants. But the second-degree murder conviction of a Chicago policeman who shot to death an African-American teenager who was threatening no one, and had a knife but no firearm, puts the phoniness of “Chicago P.D.” into perspective . ...

Further troubling about “Chicago P.D.” is that the show lauds torture of suspects. Brutalized suspects always turn out to be guilty as sin, and the beatings always cause them to reveal information that saves an innocent life. … Constitutional protections are laughed at on “Chicago P.D.” In this season’s premiere, the protagonist busts into the apartment of a dope dealer, threatens his girlfriend and starts burning the dealer’s $100 bills to get the dealer to admit where the stash house is. The detective has probable cause, so why couldn’t the entry to the dealer’s apartment have been done legally? Because real heroes don’t waste time filling out forms for some namby-pamby warrant!

Gregg Easterbrook, The Weekly Standard