Short Circuit 430 | Stateless in Seattle

About this episode

The episode discusses recent legal rulings regarding police duty to protect citizens and the repatriation of Native American remains.

In the wild days of June 2020 you may remember how a group of protestors took over a few city blocks in Seattle, and how the police simply abandoned the area for a few weeks. That meant some businesses in that area suffered property damage and a massive loss of revenue. Now, years later, the businesses’ claims for damages were just ruled on at the Ninth Circuit. How did they do? Not well. As IJ’s Robert Fellner explains, there is no duty for the police to protect you from the crimes of others. We explore whether that really describes what happened in the CHOP zone. And before that, Daniel Nelson of IJ details a Fourth Circuit ruling about a Native American tribe’s attempt to recover the remains of two boys who died over a century ago. The boys were forcibly taken from their families and put in a “reeducation” school in Pennsylvania that then led to their deaths. Today, their remains are on U.S. Army property. What responsibility does the federal government have to the tribe to return the remains under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act? The majority says in this case the tribe wins but the larger issue remains quite complicated.   Winnebago Tribe of…

People in this episode

Host: Institute for Justice

Guests: Daniel Nelson, Robert Fellner

Topics covered

• police duty
• property damage
• Native American rights
• legal rulings
• government responsibility
• protests
• repatriation

Keywords

• Seattle
• CHOP zone
• police
• Native American
• repatriation
• legal ruling
• property damage
• Fourth Circuit
• Ninth Circuit
• government responsibility

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: U.S. Army, Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska

Books & works: Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, DeShaney v. Winnebago Cnty., Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska v. US Army 3PAK, LLC

Places: Seattle

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