NewsNation Chief Washington Anchor and On Balance host Leland Vittert was a foreign correspondent for four years in Jerusalem. He gives you an early look at tonight’s 7 p.m. ET show. Subscribe to War Notes here.  

America’s Policing Problem Personified

Scottie Scheffler’s mugshot shows us everything wrong with policing in America and should make your blood boil — not because Louisville police arrested the world’s No. 1 golfer on very dubious grounds, but because it happens all the time to Black Americans, and nobody cares about the injustice. 

The facts first: Lots of things are probably true about the Louisville Police Department arresting the world’s No. 1 golfer on the way to the PGA Championship. 

1. Scottie Scheffler likely kept driving (for about 10 feet) when someone in a yellow high-visibility jacket told him to stop — there was no criminal intent — nor did he know it was a “lawful order.” 
2. The organizers told players they could drive around traffic.
3. Detective Gillis was wet and cold at 5 a.m. in the rain and at one point jumped onto Scheffler’s car as if he was a bank robbery suspect. 
4. The police officer (detective) in question got angry at someone not listening to him and reacted.  
5. A sergeant or lieutenant could have easily intervened and had both men shake hands and move on. 
6. The detective overwrote the police report, adding the weird line, “Detective Gill’s uniform pants, valued at approximately $80 were damaged beyond repair” to justify a felony charge, not to mention the obligatory trip to the hospital to prove the arrest needed to happen. 
7. Scheffler is universally known as one of the kindest and most gentlemanly pro athletes in modern times — the video shows him completely cooperative and respectful. 

I could keep going, but what was a simple misunderstanding ended up with an otherwise nice guy charged with a felony and his community (every golfer in America) livid at overzealous cops. 

• Golf fans are normally the ones you’d think most likely to support cops. Yet they gave Scheffler roaring applause around the course. They were pissed. 
• Point of personal privilege: I was angry hearing the news and thought to myself that it was just another cop on a power trip. 

Be fair : 

• American reality: This scenario plays out every day, every hour, every minute to Black Americans — and they don’t have the owner of the Valhalla Golf Club to pick them up in his Range Rover two hours after the arrest. 
• Louisville reality: The Louisville Metro Police Department has serious issues with cops on power trips behaving badly and not disciplining their own.
  • Click here to read the devastating Department of Justice investigation on them from last year. 

Look forward: Maybe, just maybe, we can now have an honest conversation about policing in America. 

• Yes, there are a lot of overzealous cops. Yes, they often overwrite police reports.
• Yes, there are a lot of incidents that don’t need to end in felony charges. 
• Cops have virtually unchecked and unlimited power — they should be held to a higher standard. They should also be paid more. 
• Not prosecuting (or underprosecuting) real criminals or letting repeat offenders out on pinky promises doesn’t solve or make up for the problems above.  

Watch tonight: We’ll talk about why fixing any of the problems above is so difficult. 

Reality of the New Obsession with the Black Vote

You might have heard about the “Black vote” lately. Here are some headlines and banners from just today: 

• The Wall Street Journal: “Biden’s Weekend Stops in Atlanta and Detroit Aim to Amp Up Black Voters”
• CNN: “Biden makes fresh appeals to Black voters, hoping they can return him to the White House”
• MSNBC: “Black men could be pivotal to the 2024 presidential election” 

A poll CNN showed this morning indicated that among Black voters 18-49, Trump gets 25% of the vote … more than double his 2020 numbers.

Team Biden response:

• Biden gave a speech today at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.
  • During his speech, he said, “My name’s Joe Biden and I’m a lifetime member of the NAACP.”
• He met with historically Black fraternities and sororities.
• And he will give Sunday’s commencement speech at historically Black Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia.

Reality check: If you can’t pay your rent, do you care about commencements, meetings and memberships?

• Vox is out with polling showing young voters care about the same thing everybody else does: the economy

Inflation is colorblind:  JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon lays out the problem with the American economy. 

Less about race than class: Democrats found great success over at least 30 years dividing America based on race. That is no longer a correct or a winning strategy — America is divided based on class, and working-class voters are increasingly Trump supporters. 

• Go deeper into the data here to see the “working class-sized hole” in support for Biden. 

Morehouse example: The White House sent someone to Morehouse ahead of President Biden’s speech to help preempt any protests.  

Thought bubble: When was the last time the White House advance had to send someone to negotiate with protesters at a university where the president would give the commencement address? 

Reality check: Continued pandering to racial groups does not trump (pun intended) the very real pain those groups feel because of economic policy. 

Let’s Blame the Wives

Two of America’s most powerful men — from opposite parties — defended the indefensible by, wait for it, blaming their wives. 

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito blamed his wife for flying the American flag upside down outside their house after the Jan. 6 riots. 

Senator Bob Menendez blamed his wife for stashing gold bars shortly before he told the world she had an aggressive form of breast cancer.

Thought bubble: What happened to men taking responsibility?

Tune into “On Balance with Leland Vittert” weeknights at 7/6C on NewsNation. Find your channel here. 

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily of NewsNation.