2018
April
24
Tuesday

Monitor Daily Podcast

April 24, 2018
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A Toronto police officer did not shoot the man suspected of killing 10 people Monday by driving a van down a crowded city sidewalk.

Why is this newsworthy? The perception of US and Canadian police behavior is that when confronted with a gun – or what looks like a gun – they respond with lethal force.

A bystander video captures the arrest of Canadian Alek Minassian, who is pointing an object at the police officer.

“Kill me!” the man says.

“No, get down!” replies Constable Ken Lam.

“I have a gun in my pocket,” Mr. Minassian says.

“I don’t care. Get down,” the cop says repeatedly, closing the distance until he complies.

If Constable Lam had shot the suspect, few would have criticized him. In fact, Michael Lyman, a law professor at Columbia College in Missouri, told the BBC that the officer may have had a “duty” to use lethal force.

But most – including the Toronto police chief – consider Lam’s restraint and poise as exemplary, and it should be the norm. “You know that police are specifically not supposed to act as judge, jury and executioner, right? We need to normalize non-violent police intervention,” tweeted Canadian Nora Loreto.

Indeed, when reason and wisdom prevail over fear and base instinct, justice is truly served.

Now to our five selected stories, including a closer look at relationship-building between nations, a test of US Constitutional legal boundaries, and how one man taught a nation to appreciate its natural wonders.


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
French President Emmanuel Macron and President Trump shared a laugh during their meeting in the Oval Office following the official White House arrival ceremony in Washington on April 24.

Briefing

A farm-bill flap over the terms, and reach, of food assistance

SOURCE:

American Farm Bureau Federation, US Department of Agriculture, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Congressional Budget Office

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Jacob Turcotte/Staff
Ali Hashisho/Reuters
Russian military vehicles travel through eastern Ghouta near Damascus, Syria, April 23.

Difference-maker


The Monitor's View


A Christian Science Perspective

About this feature

A message of love

Michel Euler/AP
Visitors walk within a projection of Austrian painter Friedensreich Hundertwasser's art at the Atelier des Lumières gallery in Paris April 24. The digital gallery exhibits art as an immersive experience in which visitors can go 'inside' paintings in a warehouse setting.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Jacob Turcotte. )

A look ahead

Thanks for joining us. Come back tomorrow: We’re working on a story about the US Supreme Court’s view of the third Trump travel ban, and how it could tweak the balance of power between the executive and judicial branches.

More issues

2018
April
24
Tuesday
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