from the beatings-will-continue-until-police-morale-improves dept

One of America’s foremost thinkers hasn’t done enough thinking. Instead, he’s delivered a handful of thoughtful-sounding stuff that simply doesn’t hold up the minute readers start actually thinking about what he’s saying.

Malcolm Gladwell has a new book about gun violence in the United States. I haven’t read it, so I can’t comment on the entirety of his latest work. I have, however, read a particularly atrocious excerpt — one that was published by The Atlantic because even Slate has moved on from Slatepitches .

In this excerpt, Gladwell argues that the reason US law enforcement officers are so violent is because there just aren’t enough of them . You may think I’m paraphrasing. I assure you: I am not. Here’s the headline and subhead from his Atlantic piece :

America Has a Police Shortage

Many Americans have decided that their country’s problem is that it has too many police officers.…