damnedifIknow
damnedifIknow's JournalA Poetic Warning About Police Brutality in Ferguson and Elsewhere—From a Black Father to His Son
Albuquerque's poet laureate writes about dehumanization and killing of black people in the US."
The effect of lynching isn’t to execute a black man, poet and journalist Hakim Bellamy tells me. The effect of lynching is to make a hundred other people watch, to send a message of oppression and intimidation: “Be careful, this could be you.”
The same is true, Bellamy believes, of police shootings and other brutality against black Americans."
*Bellamy is a radio journalist, poet laureate of Albuquerque and national slam poetry champion. He said when he heard about Michael Brown’s death at the hands of a policeman in Ferguson, Missouri he knew he wanted to write something to capture the frustration, anger and hopelessness that had been building after the senseless killings of Trayvon Martin, Oscar Grant and so many others."
*“If you look at a lot of my work and you’re like, man, we should all just end it tomorrow because it's not getting any better—If that's what you read, you’re reading it wrong,” he said, laughing. “Actually, the fact that people want to engage this work, that gives me hope. It shows the amazing capacity for the human heart to change and grow and feel. People are not running away from it, they’re running towards it—especially white, Anglo people here in New Mexico are like, 'I want to do this work, I want to hear stuff that challenges me because it reminds me that we have work to do.’ To me, that’s encouraging. That is the bigger part [of my work]. It’s not meant to make everybody go home and feel terrible, but it’s made to make people go, huh, that's right, that’s still happening and we have a lot of work to do."
http://www.alternet.org/culture/poetic-warning-about-police-brutality-ferguson-and-elsewhere-black-father-his-son?page=0%2C0
UN mission to send helicopters, vehicles to West Africa in Ebola fight
FREETOWN (Reuters) - The United Nations Ebola response mission will bring five helicopters, vehicles and motorcycles to transport patients and reach communities in West Africa in stepped up efforts to combat the epidemic, the head of the mission said on Friday.The governments of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia are struggling to contain the worst outbreak on record of the deadly haemorrhagic fever.The outbreak has crippled already poor healthcare systems in countries where Ebola patients are dying on the street and ambulances, medical staff, hospital beds and basic health kits are in short supply."
Nobody should be under the illusion that it will be easy (to stop)," Banbury told journalists in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, after meeting with the country's authorities. "Thousands have died and more will die tomorrow."
* Save the Children, said on Thursday that five people in Sierra Leone were contracting Ebola every hour and warned that could double by November if urgent actions were not taken. "
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/03/us-health-ebola-leone-idUSKCN0HS25A20141003?feedType=RSS
Prescription for avoiding Ebola airport screening: ibuprofen
(Reuters) - People who contract Ebola in West Africa can get through airport screenings and onto a plane with a lie and a lot of ibuprofen, according to healthcare experts who believe more must be done to identify infected travelers."
"And people can take ibuprofen to reduce their fever enough to pass screening, and why wouldn't they? If it will get them on a plane so they can come to the United States and get effective treatment after they're exposed to Ebola, wouldn't you do that to save your life?"
*CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden cautioned on Thursday that a more restrictive approach to travel could make the Ebola outbreak harder to contain.
"The approach of isolating a country is going to make it harder to get help into that country," he said. "
http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/10/03/us-health-ebola-screening-idINKCN0HS09J20141003
Ted Nugent Slams 'Ferguson Thugs' And The 'Plague Of Black Violence'
Musician Ted Nugent took to the Internet on Wednesday to decry what he called "Ferguson thugs" and "a plague of black violence," demanding that blacks stop supporting liberals because of what he saw as biased media coverage of the recent Ferguson police shooting.
In a diatribe on World Net Daily, Nugent complained that "our national propaganda ministry reported ad nauseum the detailed description and race of Michael Brown and that of the police officer who killed him."
"Based on crime stats in Ferguson and elsewhere, it would be a safe bet to assume the two thugs the police are looking for are black males between the age of 15 and 25," Nugent added."
Nugent then turned to liberalism as the culprit behind the struggles that have "decimated and destroyed so many black families and their communities."
"It is deaf, dumb and blind liberalism that has shoveled over $20 trillion into Fedzilla’s welfare crack programs over the past 50 years," Nugent said.
The musician closed the column with: "The road to peace and prosperity in America is to reject the big liberal lie
and all those who endorse it. Liberalism is a lie. Liberalism is a scam. Liberalism is a killer."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/02/ted-nugent-thugs_n_5923204.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592
This guy is a sick joke.
Voter registration in Ferguson surges after Brown killing
More than 3,000 people have registered to vote in Ferguson, Mo., since the death of Michael Brown — a surge in interest that may mean the city of 21,000 people is ready for a change.
Since a white police officer shot the unarmed black 18-year-old on Aug. 9, voter registration booths and cards have popped up alongside protests in the city and surrounding neighborhoods. The result: 4,839 people in St. Louis County have registered to vote since the shooting; 3,287 of them live in Ferguson.
The city's population is two-thirds African American; five of its six city council members are white, as is its mayor. The St. Louis County Election Board does not record the races of eligible voters, but many believe the increase is a sign that Brown's death has spurred renewed interest in politics and might mean more blacks will vote in the upcoming election.
"It's a great move when people come out and register in mass like that," said Anthony Bell, St. Louis 3rd Ward committeeman. "They are sending a signal that we want a change. It doesn't give justice to the Michael Brown family, but it will in the future give justice to how the administration is run in a local municipality like Ferguson."
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/10/02/ferguson-vote-registration/16572305/
Where Activists See Gray, Albuquerque Police See Black And White
Sam Costales, a former Albuquerque cop for more than 20 years, says of course there is a gray area.
Back in 2001, Costales was chasing an armed robbery suspect who grabbed a piece of pipe from the back of his truck and came at him. Costales took out his gun.
"I could've shot him," he says. "I had every right to shoot him. But I didn't want to shoot him."
Instead, he put his gun back in the holster, maced the guy and arrested him. "
*Costales says he tried to treat suspects with respect. But other cops yelled at people, beat people up, used their weapons against people and then covered it up, he says.
A lot of this bad behavior is the work of a good-old-boys network, where it's all about who you're related to, says Cassandra Morrison, another former Albuquerque cop of 20 years.
It's about "who you know, who you hang out with, who you smoke cigars with, who you go have a beer with," she says.
If you're in the club, she says, you don't get punished when you act like a cowboy, break the rules and use excessive force. It's a system that won't change until some of those cowboys get punished, she says.
Morrison says she's been told several Albuquerque police officers could be indicted in federal court for previous shootings.
"So I think once those indictments come down, it's gonna be like, 'Uh-oh,' " she says.
In other words, those who are part of the club aren't so invincible. "
http://kcur.org/post/albuquerque-police-department-faces-federal-and-public-scrutiny
Maps Show How Working-Class Neighborhoods Are Disappearing From American Cities
As America has transitioned from a manufacturing economy to a knowledge- and service-based economy, entire neighborhoods and cities have been restructured, according to a recent study by the Martin Prosperity Institute.
American cities today experience distinct class divisions. The "creative class" (tech, law, arts, healthcare, professional jobs) occupies the most economically functional and desirable locations, many of which used to be working-class neighborhoods. The "service class" (lower wage, lower skill jobs like food preparation and retail) live in areas surrounding the creative class. The "blue-collar working class" (factory, manufacturing jobs) has been decimated, and what remains has been relegated to the least desirable places in cities.
http://www.businessinsider.com/working-class-neighborhoods-are-disappearing-from-american-cities-2014-9
The Nation's Police Have a Sex-Discrimination Problem
While conducting its investigations, we implore the Department of Justice to also examine how the gross underrepresentation of women in the Ferguson Police Department -- and in police departments nationwide -- aggravates excessive use of force problems and deteriorating police-community relations.
As I've written previously, research nationally and internationally for more than four decades has found that women police officers not only do the job of policing equally as well as men, but are not as authoritarian in their approach, use force less often, possess better communication skills and are better at defusing potentially violent confrontations than their male counterparts."
The Commission also found deep-rooted sex discrimination and sexist attitudes within the Los Angeles Police Department, concluding that this discrimination aggravated the excessive force problems within the LAPD by creating a disdain for women's less violent approach to policing. Further, that the discrimination was preventing women from achieving equal numbers and reaching the highest ranks within the department.
So, to really get at the problem of police excessive force, the Department of Justice must also, as it examines the impact of racial bias, look at how increasing the numbers of women in policing holds the key to substantially decreasing police violence while also improving police relations with the community."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/katherine-spillar/the-nations-police-have-a_b_5909826.html
Battlefield Hardline Dev Responds to Criticisms About Police Militarization
Battlefield Hardline developer Visceral Games has responded to criticisms about the game's depiction of a militarized police force in the wake of real-world issues on the topic making headlines in the United States recently. Creative director Ian Milham told Polygon that Hardline is not meant to be social commentary, but rather a cop drama "romp."
"The issue has come to the forefront in a way we didn't anticipate," Milham said about police militarization in the US and Hardline's representation of it. "But from the beginning, it was something that we had to think about. I think we've tried to choose the scenarios and content we're showing to be responsible, and to be honest about what we're trying and not trying to accomplish with the game."
Milham added that there are no depictions of riots or ways you can harm innocent bystanders in Hardline. Overall, he said he understands the criticisms the game has faced, but explained that things like the debate about whether or not police should have tanks is outside of his purview.
"In our game, you need the tank because you're trying to recover the thing the bad guys have and it makes sense," he said.
Hardline launches in February 2015 for Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and PC. A beta for the game will be held on all platforms sometime before the end of the year. "
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/battlefield-hardline-dev-responds-to-criticisms-ab/1100-6422660/
How Do We Make The Issue Of Police Brutality A Campaign Stump Issue?
"What I mean is no more data collection. No more rallies. No more being pacified with Department of Justice investigations, which rarely reach a conclusion (What has the DOJ concluded in the George Zimmerman case? We still don’t know.). No more fighting alone and separate in our own enclaves for justice. Since police misconduct, abuse and brutality are considered serious issues in the community, our national political agendas should represent that interest."
"We should be looking towards candidates, who in addition to their pledges of being tough on crime, are sincere about education reform, and party-lined approved stances on immigrations, gay rights, campaign reform and other special int"erests, treat police misconduct abuse and brutality as major party platforms. We need candidates who speak fluidly, with ideas and solutions to fix the culture of deadly and excessive force, which has been normalized in our nation’s police departments. We should be asking candidates of both and all political parties, particularly those candidates pandering in our spaces and organizations for support, to speak about how they plan to fix procedures, which give police “wider discretion” in the killing of average, particularly unarmed, citizens."
* Independent citizen review boards, mandatory body and dash cam equipment, mandatory physiological testing including testing for any racial and gender bias; the repeal of Stand Your Ground, stop-n-frisk, broken window policies and the passage of tougher penalties for excessive force (even if these laws force challenges up to the Supreme Court), are all just a start on how we can make our local departments responsive to our needs. But it is only going to come if we begin to take the issue of brutality and the protection of our rights more seriously than we have."
http://madamenoire.com/473270/make-issue-police-brutality-campaign-stump-issue/2/
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