I was pleased to see that president Obama has pushed for the widespread use of body cameras to be worn by police officers while they are on duty, by providing matching funds that could supply up to 50,000 units.
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The recent deaths of two young black males Michael Brown and Tamir Rice at the hands of white police officers has brought the issue of racism in the police front and center in the national debate. Some of the discussions following my previous posts about the race factor in police shootings centered around whether race played a role in the likelihood of people getting shot, or whether the publicity given to these deaths was presenting a wrong image of the situation, and that anecdotal information was driving a false narrative. In other words, do we really know if, all other things being equal, it is more likely that a black person would be shot by police than white people.
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The comedian was interviewed by Frank Rich prior to the release of his new film Top Five. The interview has been widely commented on because Rock says many things that are likely to make people uncomfortable and that is unusual for celebrities who typically do not talk politics for fear of offending anyone. Here’s a sample:
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The current spate of shootings of black people by white police has raised the issue of whether race is the determining factor. A case can be made that what we have as the ultimate cause of such shootings is a police culture nurtured to have an authoritarian mindset in the service of an increasingly authoritarian state that views poor people as potential threats to law and order, especially at a time of rising inequality.
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It happens quite frequently. You are in a social situation and someone makes a comment in passing that displays a level of, if not outright bigotry, at least some insensitivity to issues of race or gender or sexuality. The remark is usually thrown out casually as if the speaker thinks that this view is the norm or correct. What should one do in such a situation?
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The killing by police of a 12-year old boy Tamir Rice who had been reported on a 911 call as waving around a toy gun has caused a major controversy in Cleveland, coming so soon after the events in Ferguson. You can see the video of the events leading up to the shooting here.
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Reports are emerging of new computer malware that is attacking systems across the world. Morgan Marquis-Boire, Claudio Guarnieri, and Ryan Gallagher report in The Intercept that security analysts say that it has all the hallmarks of being the product of the US and UK governments.
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Theodore Parker (1810-1860) was an abolitionist who once said:
“I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways; I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience. And from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice.”
This was abbreviated by Martin Luther King, Jr. in his famous “Where Do We Go From Here?” speech of August 1967 where he said that “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”
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The grand jury has decided against bringing in a criminal indictment against police officer Darren Wilson in the shooting of Michael Brown on August 9.
The question of who should get to decide whether a case should go to trial for a criminal offense is an important one. We do not want to clog up the courts with cases that should never have been brought but at the same time we need to ensure that people do not escape prosecution because officials in the legal system and law enforcement were protecting them. Grand juries (called such because they consist of a much larger group of people than regular juries) are one of the means that prosecutors use to decide if there is enough evidence to bring a case.
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Last Friday, Ricky Jackson and Wiley Bridgeman were released from prison after serving 39 years for a crime they did not commit, convicted purely on the testimony of a then 12-year old boy Eddie Vernon who now admits that he did not see them commit the crime. There was no physical evidence connecting the men to the crime. The boy says that after he initially told police that he had witnessed the crime, they later coached him on what to say at trial. A third person Ronnie Bridgman, Wiley’s brother, was released in 2003 after serving 27 years.
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