Link Roundup July 2020

Hack Brief: Anonymous Stole and Leaked a Megatrove of Police Documents

When Mader arrived at her home, emergency medical technicians were working unsuccessfully to revive the woman, and they had moved her to a staircase landing inside. Mader and two other officers who joined him regarded the incident as tragic, but in the end a medical call, and they soon left. A supervisor later determined that Mader had failed to deduce that the woman might have been the victim of foul play. Parts of her body, the senior officer said, were contorted in a way that might have suggested she had been assaulted.

The department never determined if foul play was involved, and no one was ever arrested for the woman’s death. Still, a supervisor wrote a memo suggesting that Mader be disciplined for his handling of the call. Alexander, the police chief, later said under oath that Mader should have stopped the EMTs from trying to save the woman so as to preserve a potential crime scene.

Twitter bans group that leaked trove of police data online

The leaked data is only intermittently available through DDoSecrets’ site, but so far it’s apparently yielded details like a police department’s interest in protesters using Stingray-detecting app SnoopSnitch. Some of these details have now been removed as Twitter deletes tweets sharing DDoSecrets data.

Gender Critical Support Board Promotes Therapists Who Reject Transgender Identities

Earlier this year, a number of groups published a report specifically condemning trans-affirming for care for youth and instructing parents on how to advocate against trans-affirming practices and policies in their children’s schools. The organizations behind the report include the prominent right-wing Heritage Foundation, the far-right, evangelical-funded Family Policy Alliance, two organizations of gender-critical parents, and the Women’s Liberation Front, the most prominent anti-transgender feminist group in the United States. ACPeds was thanked prominently for “contributing their expertise to the medical content."

Here’s what Colorado’s police reform bill does

Qualified immunity: The bill removes the qualified immunity defense, allowing people to bring civil rights claims in Colorado court. People who allege civil rights violations will be able to sue officers in their individual capacities. Officers determined not to have acted in good faith or with a reasonable belief that what they did was legal can be held personally liable for 5% of a judgment or settlement or $25,000, whichever is less.

The Doctor Who Championed Hand-Washing And Briefly Saved Lives

You'd think everyone would be thrilled. Semmelweis had solved the problem! But they weren't thrilled. For one thing, doctors were upset because Semmelweis' hypothesis made it look like they were the ones giving childbed fever to the women.

These are the schools reporting coronavirus cases within their athletic programs

From Auburn University to the University of Central Florida, dozens of athletes have tested positive after returning to campus in recent weeks, prompting questions about the possibility of some college sports returning when the fall semester begins. The NCAA began to allow voluntary athletics activities in all Division I sports in June, and the organization has said that all the formats, timelines and previously determined sites for fall championships remain unchanged.

Trump administration begins formal withdrawal from World Health Organization

Trump has repeatedly insisted that the rise of cases in the US is purely the result of increased testing, but a WHO official knocked down that claim on Monday.

Why police often single out trans people for violence

According to a 2013 report by the Anti-Violence Project, trans people are 3.7 times more likely to experience police violence and 7 times more likely to experience physical violence when interacting with police than cisgender victims and survivors.

Weeding out horticulture’s race problem

These kind of comments aren’t always that subtle or in private settings. A few years ago I was excited to be speaking in a line-up with one of my childhood heroes – a pioneering Australian landscaper who has since died – at an annual gathering of garden designers on the theme of tropical horticulture. I had pictures of this guy’s gardens on the wall as a teen, instead of posters of pop stars. After my talk about Singaporean urban planning, his talk about Bali was peppered with a surprising amount of scathing anecdotes of Singapore, done while loudly and animatedly impersonating a generic “Ching Chong” accent and looking right at me.

Video shows FDNY firefighters light off illegal fireworks in Brooklyn

The man said one of the firefighters confronted him about filming the display — causing him to question whether they actually knew what they were doing was “absurd,” he said.

The Black American Amputation Epidemic

Two maps explain why Fakorede has stayed in the Mississippi Delta. One shows America’s amputations from vascular disease. The second shows the enslaved population before the Civil War; he saw it at a plantation museum and was stunned by how closely they tracked. On his phone, he pulls up the images, showing doctors, or history buffs, or anyone who will listen. “Look familiar?” he asks, toggling between the maps. He watches the realization set in that amputations are a form of racial oppression, dating back to slavery.

Massachusetts detective fired after post supporting Black Lives Matter

According to a report from MassLive.com, Florissa Fuentes, who had recently joined the Springfield Police Department's Special Victims Unit, was fired on June 19 after a May post she made while not on duty. “After I posted it, I started getting calls and texts from co-workers,” Florissa Fuentes told MassLive.com.

Muni expects to lose the majority of its bus lines permanently as financial devastation mounts

San Francisco, which once packed 68 crowded bus lines into its lean streets, stands to lose most of them as the pandemic sinks its transit budget and steers riders into cars. Up to 40 of the bus lines that San Francisco cut at the beginning of the pandemic are not coming back unless the city finds a new revenue source, transportation chief Jeffrey Tumlin said this week.

SDPD: Investigation Into Controversial Plainclothes Arrest Will Remain Secret

In the video, one of the officers threatened to shoot the protesters’ friends and family members if they followed the unmarked van they were using.

Protesters block highway as Trump makes his way to Mount Rushmore

Gov. Kristi Noem (R) said social distancing measures will not be enforced at the gathering, which is expected to draw about 7,500 people, raising concerns about community spread of the coronavirus as cases spike across the country.

Trucker arrested after driving toward protesters on Minneapolis interstate released from jail

Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) on Tuesday released video leading up to the incident. They were in the process of closing the interstate and the on-ramp used by the trucker hadn't been closed off yet, according to MnDOT.

Man drives into Black Lives Matter crowd, killing 24yo woman and seriously injuring another protester

A 27-year-old man is alleged to have driven a white Jaguar through a closure blocking a freeway and into the crowd at 1:40am on Saturday (local time), hitting the two women.

'He feels tremendous guilt': $1.2 million bail set for driver who hit two Seattle protesters

The state patrol had closed a section of I-5 for 19 days in a row because of the protesters, troopers said. It had been closed to traffic for more than an hour before the crash.

Black Americans experience deadly stress as a pandemic and violent racism collide, experts say

Research has long shown a disparity between the health of Blacks and whites. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that there is an overrepresentation of Blacks hospitalized and dying of COVID-19. Overall in the U.S., Black people are more likely to die at early ages from all causes of illnesses.

For Black Americans, Using Social Media Means Risking PTSD

All corners of society should be identifying ways to equitably bolster the mental health of black people right now. Company leaders should offer paid time off for their black employees, and if possible, offer free or subsidized counseling for them and their families. Schools, whether they serve young children or adults, should create spaces for black students to gain mental health support and treatment.

On Performing Gratitude

The perspectives I offered were especially important during an election stoked by fear against immigrants—many women of color confided in me that they felt safer talking to me specifically because I am a brown woman and daughter of immigrants. As Donald Trump became more prominent, I believed I could use this platform, and my reporting, to counter some of the false and dangerous narratives spread by mostly white commentators on TV. But when I began to ask for equal benefits that reflected my labor—when I asked for comp time equivalent to what my white colleagues already received; when I attempted to negotiate a raise; when I sought to promote the work I was doing on TV and Twitter in the ways that political journalists did, I was reprimanded. I was called into a meeting with the site’s then-editor. The calendar invitation called the meeting “2016 publicity/coverage.” Instead, it was an ambush.

Condé Nast has suspended a Bon Appétit video editor amid an internal investigation

On June 12, several days after Bon Appétit's top editor and its head of video resigned over racist social-media posts, Hunziker tweeted: "Why would we hire someone who's not racist when we could simply [checks industry handbook] uhh hire a racist and provide them with anti-racism training..."

Black community braces for next threat: Mass evictions

But Senate Republicans are pumping the brakes on pouring more stimulus into the economy before the last relief package is exhausted, with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell floating August as a timeline for the next round. Key Republicans also oppose continuing to provide expanded unemployment benefits, arguing that the enhanced payments are discouraging recipients from returning to lower-paying jobs.

Companies like Starbucks love anti-bias training. But it doesn’t work — and may backfire.

Diversity programs — which can include everything from hiring tests and performance reviews to ensure fair hiring and pay decisions as well as trainings — are designed to “preempt lawsuits,” they added, instead of truly stopping prejudice. Another meta-analysis of more than 400 studies testing approaches to change implicit bias similarly found no evidence that getting people to acknowledge their implicit biases alters behavior.

Starbucks bans employees from wearing anything in support of Black Lives Matter

An internal memo sent to Starbucks employees last week specifically warned staffers against wearing accessories or clothes bearing messages in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. The memo, obtained by BuzzFeed News, reminds staffers that such messages are prohibited under the company's policy against accessories that "advocated a political, religious or personal issue." Numerous employees told the news outlet, however, that the company regularly allows or even encourages employees to wear pins in support of LGBTQ equality, especially during Pride Month every June.

Trump Campaign T-shirts Condemned for Displaying 'Nazi-Inspired' Symbol

Available on Trump's re-election campaign website, the product description says that it is "proudly made in the USA" and appeals to would-be buyers to show their support for re-electing the incumbent president, with the message: "Let everyone know who you are voting for in 2020. "We finally have a president that puts America first. America is strong again, safe again, great again," it adds.

Judge rules migrant children in government family detention centers must be released due to coronavirus

The children must be released with their parents or to "available suitable sponsors or other available COVID-free non-congregate settings" with the consent of their parents or guardians, Judge Gee said.

Democratic lawmakers request information on reports of family separation in detention

Advocates and immigration lawyers shared anecdotes of detained families distraught over their encounters with ICE last week, describing meetings between parents and ICE officers regarding whether their children would remain in custody with the parent or be turned over to a sponsor in the US.

'Extreme inequality was the preexisting condition': How COVID-19 widened America's wealth gap

As the COVID-19 pandemic overtook the U.S., it brought with it an unprecedented financial crisis and unemployment rates at their highest levels since the Great Depression, especially among Black, Hispanic and Asian workers (16.8%, 17.6% and 15% in May compared to 12.4% for whites). At least 45 million people have filed for unemployment since the pandemic began. Yet between March 18 and June 17, as the pandemic raged, the combined wealth of the 614 U.S. billionaires increased by $584 billion, according to an analysis released late last week by the Institute for Policy Studies, a progressive think tank based in Washington, D.C. The researchers calculated the billionaires' wealth gains based on real-time data from Forbes.

Federal judge: San Quentin COVID-19 outbreak result of ‘significant failure’

San Quentin had no coronavirus cases among its prisoners until an ill-fated transfer from Chino late last month. By Sunday morning, that figure exploded to 193. On Monday evening, it reached 337 prisoners — about one in every 10 housed in the facility — as well as more than 30 prison staffers.

COVID-19 Can Last for Several Months

When I spoke with LeClerc on day 66, she was still experiencing waves of symptoms. “Before this, I was a fit, healthy 32-year-old,” she said. “Now I’ve been reduced to not being able to stand up in the shower without feeling fatigued. I’ve tried going to the supermarket and I’m in bed for days afterwards. It’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced before.” Despite her best efforts, LeClerc has not been able to get a test, but “every doctor I’ve spoken to says there’s no shadow of a doubt that this has been COVID,” she said.

Welcome to “Cancer Alley,” Where Toxic Air Is About to Get Worse

Not surprisingly, perhaps, the chemical industry has opposed subsequent incorporation drives. Shortly after St. Gabriel became a town, its neighbor, Geismar, just downriver in Ascension Parish, tried to do the same. The industry, neutral on St. Gabriel’s incorporation effort, fought hard against Geismar’s. Meanwhile, at the state Capitol, lobbyists persuaded lawmakers to bar new municipalities from taking in industrial areas. Geismar’s effort ended when Shell, Borden Chemicals and nine other large petrochemical companies obtained a court injunction preventing residents from taking further steps to incorporate. Few other communities have taken the initiative since.

A Wealthy Family Planted Hedges On Park District Land To Make A Personal Front Yard, Inspector General Alleges

The senior Tadin built his trucking empire with the help of tens of millions of dollars in city contracts doled out to his businesses, including Marina Cartage and MAT Construction. The $40-million-a-year cash spigot to construction companies under Daley ended after the Sun-Times exposed the scandal. The Tadin family and their companies spread that wealth to politicians across Chicago by way of campaign contributions. Tadin Jr. and his wife have donated to local politicians, including Ald. Tom Tunney of the 44th Ward, where the home sits, and Mayor Lori Lightfoot.

A Day At The Park: Neighbors Camp Out On Public Land Homeowners Blocked Off As Their Own Private Yard In Lakeview

Tunney said he was not willing to allow for new driveways or curb cuts to be installed on Lake Shore Drive West cutting across parkland because vehicle access comes off of Wellington and Barry. The older high rises to the north and south do have curb cuts, he said.

The Hedges Are Gone, But Protesters Now Want Wealthy Lakeview Homeowner To Close His Southwest Side Asphalt Plant

When the plant set up shop at 2055 W. Pershing Road in 2018, neighbors and even local officials had no idea it was coming and no notice the company would be seeking a pollution permit from the state. A state law implemented in 2019 changed that. Despite company promises to reduce pollution and noise, neighbors told Block Club about trucks riding past their front doors carrying open containers of asphalt and dust blowing into their neighborhoods.

Bad Chicago Cops Spread Their Misconduct Like a Disease

In theory, patterns of bad behavior like Van Dyke’s should be detected and corrected by supervisors. Complaints by civilians and other officers should trigger official investigations, and officers beset by numerous allegations should be sent to counseling or suspended. But the departmental investigation process is dysfunctional, and the vast majority of civilian complaints do not yield any discipline for the accused officer. When complaints are filed by other cops, discipline is much more likely, but according to data obtained by the Invisible Institute, officers at the center of the network are less likely than others to have complaints filed against them by other cops. The “blue wall of silence,” the tendency among cops to protect their own, appears to safeguard these officers more than others.

Philadelphia Mayor Kenney Announces ‘Public Process’ To Determine Future Of Christopher Columbus Statue In South Philly

Cellphone video from Sunday night shows a large group of people who were guarding the statue at Marconi Plaza walking forward, essentially to push out a small group of activists who want the statue removed. One woman holding her phone shouts “don’t touch me” and tries remaining in place. But she and a few other activists eventually ended up in the street at Broad Street and Oregon Avenue. “While we were getting pushed into traffic, there was a line of 40 cops that did nothing. They did nothing,” West Philadelphia resident Deborah Rose said.

Seattle’s newly police-free neighborhood, explained

“The SPD seem like what they wanted to do is abandon the East Precinct and then wait on the borders, just like a few blocks away, for somebody to try to set a fire to repeat what was going on in Minneapolis,” Carla, a protester who is being identified by a pseudonym to protect her privacy, told Vox. “Then they can rush in and say, ‘Now our use of military force against unarmed civilians is justified.’”

Phone tapes: Concerned Minneapolis 911 dispatcher asked police supervisor to respond to George Floyd scene

The latest data release also included transcripts of two 911 calls made by bystanders to report the officers involved, including one by an off-duty city firefighter who happened upon the scene. “Hello, I am on the block of 38th and Chicago and I literally watched police officers not take a pulse and not do anything to save a man, and I am a first responder myself, and I literally have it on video camera,” the unidentified firefighter says, according to the transcript. “I just happened to be on a walk so, this dude, this, they [expletive] killed him so ...” The transcript shows that the firefighter asked to speak with the officers’ supervisors to explain the situation, but then the line disconnected. The dispatcher tried to call back several times, but the calls went to voice mail each time.

Buffalo officials ask state to probe firing of Black officer who stopped white colleague's chokehold

The incident occurred in 2006, and Horne was fired two years later because the Buffalo Police Department claimed Horne had put her fellow officers at risk, including the white officer, Gregory Kwiatkowski, whom she stopped after he put the suspect in a chokehold.

Martha McSally’s bailout proposal for the travel industry, explained

The proposal is for a nonrefundable tax credit — $4,000 for adults, $500 for children — in 2020, 2021, and 2022 for expenses related to domestic travel that takes a person more than 50 miles from their house. It’s a strange form of stimulus. If viewed as financial assistance to households, it specifically targets money in a way that nearly half of US families won’t be eligible to receive, including almost all of the people who could objectively use the most help.

YouTube bans Stefan Molyneux, David Duke, Richard Spencer, and more for hate speech

YouTube has faced pressure from critics for years to remove Molyneux’s channel.

Gender Variance Around the World Over Time

While it might be tempting to apply a label like “transgender” to all of these people, it’s important to respect their sovereignty in defining their own identities. European colonialism was a major force in hurting and erasing gender-variant people. Using Western terminology to understand other cultures’ gender variance might only result in perpetuating that harm and erasure. Even Americans Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera described themselves in terminology like "transvestite," which is rarely used today.

Massachusetts teachers union wants to abolish MCAS and take police out of schools upon reopening

MTA president Merrie Najimy blasted the state’s guidance issued last week that informed school districts they would be responsible for purchasing their own PPE saying, “it will be communities of color — which have been historically subjected to structural racism through disinvestment in their public schools and other crucial services — that will be … disproportionately impacted.”

The Role Publishing Plays in the Commodification of Black Pain

So, back to the previous line of questioning; why didn’t you hear about The Nightmare-Verse, or many other stories by Black authors? Because our books don’t center on Black pain. In the industry, stories about police brutality, the struggle, poverty, etc. have been dubbed “issue” books, and it’s a not-so-secret secret that if your book doesn’t fall into this category, it won’t get any real push or marketing. These are the “right” Black books I referenced earlier. Nearly all other Black books are treated as less important. They’re denied the time and resources needed to make them successful. They’re ignored by the industry, by librarians, by awards committees, by schools, and yes, even by certain readers. Unless, of course, there’s a protest going on. Then everyone wants those ally cookies, nom nom.

A new paper finds stimulus checks, small business aid, and “reopening” can’t rescue the economy

The data they collated shows that the economic crash has been driven disproportionately by the actions of high-income Americans, whose consumer spending has crashed more than that of poorer Americans, devastating low-income workers and small businesses in rich areas.

“Fire Through Dry Grass”: Andrew Cuomo Saw COVID-19’s Threat to Nursing Homes. Then He Risked Adding to It.

But the week before, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his health commissioner, Howard Zucker, had all but made such discharges mandatory. If a hospital determined a patient who needed nursing home care was medically stable, the home had to accept them, even if they had been treated for COVID-19. Moreover, the nursing home could not test any such prospective residents — those treated for COVID-19 or those hospitalized for other reasons — to see if they were newly infected or perhaps still contagious despite their treatment. It was all laid out in a formal order, effective March 25. New York was the only state in the nation that barred testing of those being placed or returning to nursing homes.

What Happens When a Small Charity Raises Millions of Dollars Overnight

While more than 480 people were arrested during the first weekend of protests in Minneapolis late last month (and hundreds more have been arrested in Minneapolis since), the majority of those people were not held on bail.

COVID-19 Broke the Economy. What If We Don’t Fix It?

A group of 1,100 experts from more than 60 countries recently signed a letter proposing guidelines to how the economy should be revived, with a focus on climate, health, and well-being instead of growth. The economic hardships we are currently facing could be viewed as an opening to experiment with more progressive policies to ensure people can have access to what they need like universal income or healthcare in a post-growth economy.

"The Black Lives Matter Foundation" Raised Millions. It's Not Affiliated With The Black Lives Matter Movement.

The Black Lives Matter Foundation, a Santa Clarita, California–based charitable organization that has one paid employee and lists a UPS store as its address, has a very different goal, according to its founder: “bringing the community and police closer together.”

Police Accidentally Record Themselves Conspiring to Fabricate Criminal Charges Against Protester

In the end they decide on two criminal infractions: “reckless use of a highway by a pedestrian,” and “creating a public disturbance.” They have a chilling discussion on how to support the public disturbance charge, and the top-level supervisor explains to the other two, “what we say is that multiple motorists stopped to complain about a guy waving a gun around, but none of them wanted to stop and make a statement.” In other words, what sounds like a fairy tale.

Settlement Reached in Case of Cops Who Took Camera From Protester

In footage that later became viral, with the camera rolling, the police appeared to: call a Hartford police officer to see if he had any “grudges” against Picard; open an investigation of him in the police database; and discuss a separate protest that they thought he had organized at the state capitol. After Barone announced “we gotta cover our ass,” either Torneo or Jacobi stated “let’s give him something,” and the three settled on two criminal infraction tickets that they issued to Picard. Those criminal charges were later dismissed.

Tear Gas Is Way More Dangerous Than Police Let On — Especially During the Coronavirus Pandemic

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, severe tear gas poisoning, particularly if the gas was released in an enclosed space — can blind or kill people through chemical burns and respiratory failure. Prisoners with respiratory conditions have died after inhaling tear gas in poorly ventilated areas. On Wednesday, an inmate at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn died after guards sprayed him with pepper spray, another kind of tear gas that causes similar health effects as CS.

19 dead in a decade: the small American city where violent police thrive

No Vallejo officer has been charged for an on-duty shooting, though taxpayers have footed the bill for more than $7m in payouts from civil lawsuits in recent years. Officers are put on administrative leave after killings, but generally go back to work while incidents are being investigated. Inquiries into police killings often drag on for years. Some officers have killed again before prosecutors have made a decision about charges in the previous shooting. The investigation into the death of Willie McCoy continues, 480 days after the shooting. One Vallejo officer killed three people within 21 weeks in 2012 and was promoted to detective. An officer with three shootings was recently promoted to lieutenant.

Emails Reveal Chaos as Meatpacking Companies Fought Health Agencies Over COVID-19 Outbreaks in Their Plants

In some communities, the fear of tangling with the main economic engine was palpable, especially given the intertwined relationships of a small town. When workers at a Tyson chicken plant in Camilla, Georgia, started complaining about safety issues, the county health director had a problem. “My husband and I are chicken growers for Tyson,” she wrote the state. “I want to recuse myself from any investigation into these allegations based on the fact that they can and will pull my contract if I am involved.”

'Dead' links and 'missing' systemic changes: Inside Google's response to the George Floyd protests

For several weeks, the internal Google page that links to resources on diversity and inclusion training programs, and educational materials for employees has been redirected to the external website, Google.com/diversity, which is the primary home for the report Google issues annually detailing its efforts to diversify its workforce. The internal resource page is no longer accessible, according to images reviewed by NBC News and five current employees.

Facebook Pitched New Tool Allowing Employers to Suppress Words Like “Unionize” in Workplace Chat Product

On Facebook Workplace, employees see a stream of content similar to a news feed, with automatically generated trending topics based on what people are posting about. One of the new tools debuted by Facebook allows administrators to remove and block certain trending topics among employees. The presentation discussed the “benefits” of “content control.” And it offered one example of a topic employers might find it useful to blacklist: the word “unionize.”

Alarming rise in virus cases as states roll back lockdowns

That is also happening globally. Places that suffered early on such as China, Italy and Spain have calmed down but Brazil, India and other countries that were spared initially are seeing large increases. The world is seeing more than 100,000 newly-confirmed cases every day, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Fox News publishes digitally altered and misleading images of Seattle demonstrations

"We have replaced our photo illustration with the clearly delineated images of a gunman and a shattered storefront, both of which were taken this week in Seattle's autonomous zone," a Fox News spokesperson told the newspaper. The Seattle Times, however, reported that the statement was inaccurate. The newspaper pointed out that "the gunman photo was taken June 10, while storefront images it was melded with were datelined May 30 by Getty Images."

Fox News Removes Altered Photos of Seattle Protest Zone

The standards of journalism require photo illustrations to be clearly marked, and caution against using photos from different times and locations unless they are clearly marked because it can be misleading to the reader or viewer.

How a racist genius created Silicon Valley by being a terrible boss

Shockley left to take an engineering professorship at Stanford, where he became obsessed with racial genetics despite having no training in the field. He began espousing his radical beliefs in public forums. In 1980, he told a Playboy interviewer that he had come "inescapably to the opinion that the major cause for the American Negroes' intellectual and social deficits is . . . racially genetic in origin and thus not remediable to a major degree by practical improvements in environment." Two years later he ran on a eugenics platform for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate seat. He finished eighth.

Berkeley Mental Health worker describes fight for her life outside Whole Foods

The woman said she nearly blacked out twice but eventually managed to escape and get out of her Prius. She then pleaded with a nearby bystander to call 911. Instead, the man turned to Bruylant, who was sitting in the Prius’s driver’s seat. “Now’s your chance, man. I’m giving you a chance to get away,” the man told Bruylant, who then ran off as police were arriving.

Inside The Dangerous Online Fever Swamps Of American Police

Greenberg, who founded Law Enforcement Today in 2007, is listed as a police captain with the Indian Creek Village Public Safety Department on its official website. It’s not exactly a rough-and-tumble job on the front lines of American policing. Indian Creek Village, Florida, is a tiny island enclave for the superrich that bills itself as “the world’s most exclusive municipality.” At the time of a Miami Herald report in 2014, it had only 86 residents, whose combined net worth exceeded $37 billion. Jay-Z and Beyoncé previously owned a home on the island. (Incidentally, Law Enforcement Today ran an article earlier this month opposing Apple Music’s support of Black Lives Matter and criticizing “cop-hater Beyoncé,” who was included in Apple’s playlist.)

Canada indigenous chief Allan Adam battered during arrest

Before the public release of the footage on Thursday night, the local RCMP division said they had reviewed it and found the officer's actions "reasonable".

Report: 1 in 6 Chicago COVID-19 Cases Can Be Tied to Cook County Jail

According to the study, jail cycling far exceeded each of those other variables as a predictor of COVID-19 community spread, so much so that it accounted for 55% of the variance in case rates across zip codes in Chicago and 37% statewide.

“I Don’t Want to Shoot You, Brother”

When Mader arrived at her home, emergency medical technicians were working unsuccessfully to revive the woman, and they had moved her to a staircase landing inside. Mader and two other officers who joined him regarded the incident as tragic, but in the end a medical call, and they soon left. A supervisor later determined that Mader had failed to deduce that the woman might have been the victim of foul play. Parts of her body, the senior officer said, were contorted in a way that might have suggested she had been assaulted. The department never determined if foul play was involved, and no one was ever arrested for the woman’s death. Still, a supervisor wrote a memo suggesting that Mader be disciplined for his handling of the call. Alexander, the police chief, later said under oath that Mader should have stopped the EMTs from trying to save the woman so as to preserve a potential crime scene.

Unbundle the Police

But legal overkill goes beyond drug laws. From 2006 to 2016, bans on sitting, lying down, and camping on city property increased by 52 percent; prohibitions on “loitering” and “loafing” rose by 88 percent; and laws against living in vehicles rose 143 percent. We have too many laws for civilians, and too few laws for police.

‘Black lives matter at work’: Philly sanitation workers rally for safer conditions on the job

Their rally came on the 11th straight day of protests in Philadelphia sparked by the police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and others, and follows marches held by different groups of workers, including public defenders, health-care staff, and teachers. It builds on the anger among city workers — both union and nonunion — who are calling for Mayor Jim Kenney to more heavily tax the rich instead of cutting department budgets and laying off hundreds of workers. And it shines a light on the intersection of worker rights and the Black Lives Matter movement.

'She just started blooming': the trans kids helped by a pioneering project

That day in their living room, Seph had only spoken when his mom asked him a question. But when his mom stepped away briefly and I told him that I was like him, that people had thought I was a boy but I was really a girl on the inside, his eyes grew wide. “You’re like the opposite of me!” he exclaimed, his body visibly relaxing.

National Guard fired shot that killed Louisville restaurant owner

While the downtown protests were miles from McAtee’s eatery, law enforcement fired pepper balls toward the parking lot and restaurant to disperse the crowd. Video released by Louisville Police appears to show McAtee firing a gun from the door of his restaurant as officers fired projectiles and approached the restaurant, police said.

As one of Oxford's few black professors, let me tell you why I care about Rhodes

When it was my turn to address the crowd, I introduced myself as one of about seven black professors (official statistics are not available) at the University of Oxford, to simultaneous cheer and shock.

Native American women still have the highest rates of rape and assault

A new Department of Justice study shows that of over 2,000 women surveyed, 84 percent of Native American and Alaskan Native women have experienced violence, 56 percent have experienced sexual violence, and, of that second group, over 90 percent have experienced violence at the hands of a non-tribal member.

Border Patrol Responsible for Portland Arrest

A former senior DHS intelligence officer explained that, while other federal agencies are required to wear identifiers when conducting arrests—NCIS agents have to wear both marked jackets and hats during arrests, for example—that is not the case with DHS. “The fact is, they don’t have to do anything in marked vehicles,” he said. “Such operations happen all the time and at the discretion of supervisors.”

White House tells hospitals to bypass CDC on COVID-19 data reporting

But the move comes amid concerns that the White House has been sidelining the CDC and after Trump administration officials attacked Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert and a member of the White House coronavirus task force.

America Has an Incest Problem

Intentionally or not, children are protecting adults, many for their entire lives. Millions of Americans, of both sexes, choke down food at family dinners, year after year, while seated at the same table as the people who violated them. Mothers and other family members are often complicit, grown-ups playing pretend because they're more invested in the preservation of the family (and, often, the family's finances) than the psychological, emotional, and physical well-being of the abused.

How Germany treats paedophiles before they offend

“At the start of each session, the participants talk about their experiences of the past week and what is on their minds,” said Kuhle. The treatment includes helping participants to understand the child’s perspective, learning to cope in potentially difficult situations such as birthday parties, and developing ways to overcome bad habits such as viewing pornographic images or having sexual fantasies, which can increase the likelihood of a paedophile offending.

A Teenager Didn’t Do Her Online Schoolwork. So a Judge Sent Her to Juvenile Detention.

Giroux filed the violation of probation before confirming whether Grace was meeting her academic requirements. She emailed Grace’s teacher three days later, asking, “Is there a certain percentage of a class she is supposed to be completing a day/week?” Grace’s teacher, Katherine Tarpeh, responded in an email to Giroux that the teenager was “not out of alignment with most of my other students. Let me be clear that this is no one’s fault because we did not see this unprecedented global pandemic coming,” she wrote. Grace, she wrote, “has a strong desire to do well.” She “is trying to get to the other side of a steep learning curve mountain and we have a plan for her to get there.” Giroux declined to comment. Tarpeh told a reporter she was not allowed to discuss Grace’s case.

Trans People Already Struggle to Get Healthcare. COVID Only Made Things Worse

Pearce and others in the field recommend an outright scrapping of the present system, which they believe is beyond saving. Instead, it should be replaced with primary-care led models that may include local GPs taking a more active role as well as specialist trans health centres – operating a little bit like specialist sexual health clinics – that are run by and for trans people and which look at trans health holistically beyond medical transition to mental health, sexual health and fertility. It’s a model seen in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Why the cruel myth of the 'blitz spirit' is no model for how to fight coronavirus

The trauma this produced was largely unrecorded, and certainly untreated. The one exception was the city of Hull, where the government sent a team of psychiatrists and psychologists to study why the populations apparently panicked after heavy raiding. The subsequent report, The Mental Stability of Hull, was based on interviews with hundreds of survivors. These case studies showed that people developed serious psychosomatic conditions, including involuntary soiling and wetting, persistent crying, uncontrollable shaking, headaches and chronic dizziness; men were found to indulge in heavy drinking and smoking after a raid, and prone to developing peptic ulcers. One woman was bombed out of three different houses, and watched the death of her sister and her five children. Her symptoms indicated an exceptional level of nervous collapse. Nevertheless, the conclusion from Hull was that its mental stability was nothing to worry about.

Twitter bans 7,000 QAnon accounts, limits 150,000 others as part of broad crackdown

Some QAnon supporters have also become more organized and aggressive in attacking celebrities. QAnon followers frequently comb through social media posts and Instagram pictures of Trump's famous political opponents, intentionally misinterpreting benign photos as proof that the celebrities are eating children. The followers then target the celebrities with harassment campaigns, coordinated by influencers in the QAnon community on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

Federal Law Enforcement Use Unmarked Vehicles To Grab Protesters Off Portland Streets

Pettibone said he was put into a cell. Soon after, two officers came in to read him his Miranda rights. They didn’t tell him why he was being arrested. He said they asked him if he wanted to waive his rights and answer some questions, but Pettibone declined and said he wanted a lawyer. The interview was terminated, and about 90 minutes later he was released. He said he did not receive any paperwork, citation or record of his arrest.

Minimum wage workers cannot afford rent in any U.S. state

In fact, the average minimum wage worker in the U.S. would need to work almost 97 hours per week to afford a fair market rate two-bedroom and 79 hours per week to afford a one-bedroom, NLIHC calculates. That’s well over two full-time jobs just to be able to afford a two-bedroom rental.

UGA professors outraged by 'next of kin' teaching requests

Hannah Morris, a graduate student at UGA, tweeted this Friday which has gained a lot of traction on Twitter: "Faculty at UGA are being asked to identify their next-of-academic-kin, meaning someone who can take over their class if they get exposed/sick (or worse). It’s almost like admin know conditions will be unsafe and people will get sick."

China cuts Uighur births with IUDs, abortion, sterilization

The state regularly subjects minority women to pregnancy checks, and forces intrauterine devices, sterilization and even abortion on hundreds of thousands, the interviews and data show. Even while the use of IUDs and sterilization has fallen nationwide, it is rising sharply in Xinjiang.

"Disturbing" memo reveals Trump's USPS chief has slowed delivery amid calls to expand voting by mail

In an early coronavirus relief bill, lawmakers authorized an additional $10 billion for the USPS to fund emergency operations during the pandemic, but the loan has stalled amid a dispute with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin over terms which would allow his department to take over some agency operations. On July 1, Mnuchin announced a $700 million bailout of a trucking company and Pentagon contractor worth only $70 million, whose former CEO, Bill Zollars, was confirmed to the USPS board of governors the month prior. Salon reported that the Department of Justice has accused the company in federal court of crimes committed under Zollars' tenure, including allegations of defrauding the Pentagon to the tune of millions of dollars.

The US Military Is Using Online Gaming to Recruit Teens

Twitch viewers in the Army’s channel are repeatedly presented with an automated chat prompt that says they could win a Xbox Elite Series 2 controller—an enhanced controller with customizable options and extra paddles for advanced play that costs upward of $200—and a link where they can enter the “giveaway.” It, too, directs them to a recruiting form with no additional mention of a contest, odds, total number of winners, or when a drawing will occur. The Army declined to comment.

How Do You Register to Vote If You’re Homeless?

That potential indignity makes me shudder, though: “You sleep at a bus stop? Really? Do you swear you do, or are you just making that up to get in here and vote?”

Voting Can Be Hard. If You’re Homeless, It’s Nearly Impossible.

Registration, obviously, is only the first step. Today, 35 states require some sort of identification to vote, and Virginia is one of seven states known for having strict voter ID laws. In a 2018 Northern Illinois University study that ranked each state by how easy it is to vote, Virginia came in second to last, only beating Mississippi. In 2013, the state introduced a voter identification law. In order to cast a ballot, Virginians have to provide a valid photo ID, which includes a driver’s license or a passport. Without one, residents only can cast a provisional ballot until they provide proof of identification within three days, or the ballot is not valid. For a homeless person, maintaining the necessary documents to either acquire a valid ID or use as one is not always easy, especially when they often lose important documents in city-enforced sweeps of their camps.

Masks offer much more protection against coronavirus than many think

If you’re unlucky enough to encounter an infectious person, wearing any kind of face covering will reduce the amount of virus that your body will take in. As it turns out, that’s pretty important. Breathing in a small amount of virus may lead to no disease or far more mild infection. But inhaling a huge volume of virus particles can result in serious disease or death.

Supreme Court Undercuts Access To Birth Control Under Obamacare

Under the ACA, churches and synagogues were automatically exempted from the birth control insurance mandate. Not automatically exempt, however, were nonprofits like religiously affiliated universities, charities and hospitals, which employ millions of people who want their health insurance plans to cover birth control for themselves and their family members. For these nonprofits, the Obama administration enacted an opt-out provision for employers with religious objections. They were required to notify the government or their insurance company, or their plan administrator so that the insurance company could provide free birth control options to individual employees but separate from the employer's plan. That did not satisfy some religious objectors, however. They contended that signing an opt-out form or notifying their plan administrator was the same as authorizing the use of their plan for birth control.

Looming evictions may soon make 28 million homeless in U.S., expert says

EB: We have never seen this extent of eviction in such a truncated amount of time in our history. We can expect this to increase dramatically in the coming weeks and months, especially as the limited support and intervention measures that are in place start to expire. About 10 million people, over a period of years, were displaced from their homes following the foreclosure crisis in 2008. We're looking at 20 million to 28 million people in this moment, between now and September, facing eviction.

32% of U.S. households missed their July housing payments

That’s the fourth month in a row that a “historically high” number of households were unable to pay their housing bill on time and in full, up from 30% in June and 31% in May. Renters, low-income and younger households were most likely to miss their payments, Apartment List found.

Trump administration moves to formally withdraw US from WHO

The president first froze funding for the WHO in April while his administration conducted a review of its relationship with the entity. Weeks later, he wrote to the WHO demanding reforms but did not specify what those reforms would be.

Ford employees ask the company to stop making police cars

Employees inside Ford have asked the company’s leadership to stop making and selling police vehicles, according to Jalopnik. In response, Ford CEO Jim Hackett has told employees in a letter that he doesn’t think it’s “controversial that the Ford Police Interceptor helps officers do their job” and that Ford will continue the business.

Chicago Police Department arrest API shutdown is its own kind of ‘cover up’

The Chicago Reporter used the API last month to analyze police tactics during local mass protests following the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd. CPD had released figures stating that the majority of arrests made on the weekend of May 29 were for criminal conduct related to looting, not protesting. But by using CPD’s own data from the arrest API, we found the opposite to be true: the majority of civil unrest-related arrests made that weekend had been for offenses related to protesting. CPD revised their numbers and acknowledged that a number of arrests had been miscategorized. The mayor’s office also addressed the discrepancy in a statement to The Chicago Reporter, saying it was “working with the Chicago Police Department to ensure they re-run all data during this period of time to ensure a more accurate representation of arrests throughout the city.” Within a day of our publishing this analysis, CPD removed access to the API for all users.

Owners say police presence following CHOP sweep is hurting business

Parry is the owner of the Dumpling Tzar. He says he only had one order all day. Parry says the hardest part for him is the uncertainty behind the law enforcement presence. “I don’t know how long it’s going to be like this, if there will be fences tomorrow, or tear gas. I can’t imagine it’s not going to bring protesters back,” said Parry.

'We need to live with it': White House readies new message for the nation on coronavirus

"We have to get back to business. We have to get back to living our lives. Can't do this any longer," Trump said in an interview with Axios last month before his campaign rally in Tulsa, where almost no one socially distanced and few wore masks. "And I do believe it's safe. I do believe it's very safe." A number of Trump’s own campaign staffers and Secret Service agents contracted COVID-19 in Tulsa. Eager to move forward and reopen the economy amid a recession and a looming presidential election, the White House is now pushing acceptance.

Santa Clara County meeting that exposed 40 principals to coronavirus raises red flags

The Santa Clara County public health order does not give a recommendation on the number of people attending a meeting but does state, “Only those employees performing job duties that they cannot feasibly perform from home may come to a business’s facility to work.”

California Police Are Using Copyright to Hide Surveillance Documents

This is not the first time California has blocked access to records made public by transparency laws. When SB 241—a landmark transparency law that made decades of police internal affairs public—went into effect last year, law enforcement organizations responded by ignoring court orders to hand over documents, charging high fees to access them, and in some cases burning or shredding them. Police unions have been especially vocal in the fight against transparency.

A hacker used Twitter’s own ‘admin’ tool to spread cryptocurrency scam

The person told TechCrunch that Kirk had started out by selling access to vanity Twitter accounts, such as usernames that are short, simple and recognizable. It’s big business, if not still illegal. A stolen username or social media handle can go for anywhere between a few hundred dollars or thousands.

The Coronavirus Truthers Don't Believe in Public Health

“We don’t need a vaccine,” proclaimed Dr. Judy Mikovits, a controversial former chronic fatigue researcher who now frequently makes anti-vaccine claims, in an April 15 YouTube video with more than 80,000 views. “All you have to do is have a healthy immune system.” (Mikovits has also been involved in the “Fire Fauci” campaign, claiming he sabotaged her research into a purported mouse virus that she says is the true cause of cancer.)

Toronto expecting $1.35B deficit, mayor pleading for provincial, federal help

Potentially on the chopping block, he said, are: transit, homelessness services and child care. City council did vote against a targeted reduction of the policing budget a few weeks ago.

Alumni of George W. Bush administration launch pro-Biden super PAC

Hundreds of former members of the George W. Bush administration have formed a super PAC to support former Vice President Joe Biden, saying they are alarmed by President Trump’s conduct in office.

U.S. says foreign students may have to leave if their school goes online-only

Because they generally receive little or no financial aid, foreign students tend to pour large amounts of money into U.S. higher education institutions, which subsidizes Americans.

A Number Of Police Have Been Arrested For Human Trafficking — Could They Be A Part Of The Missing Girls In DC?

In 2014, Linwood Barnhill Jr, resigned from the Metropolitian Police Department in D.C. and plead guilty to two counts of pandering a minor and one count of possession of child pornogrpahy. He was arrested after a 16 year-old missing girl was found in his apartment. Court documents said that in a two week span, he prepared her for sex with a man, that included taking nude photos of her. The policeman met the young girl at a mall and asked her if would she be interested in modeling. In 2013, the same officer set up a sexual encounter for a 15 year-old girl after seeing her at a bus stop and asking her if she would be interested in modeling. The officer took nude photos of her as well as clothed. He set up a sexual encounter for her in his home, then the young girl engaged in sexual acts with a man in his 40’s or 50’s in the officer’s bedroom. After the officer collected money from the man and gave the girl a portion. There was a third 17 year-old-victim to whom Barnhill did the same. The officer received a light sentence because the judge felt he didn’t abuse his power as police while committing the crimes.

A Digital Archive Documents Two Decades of Torture by Chicago Police

The massive collection comes from efforts by the People’s Law Office, a civil-rights organization, to gather interrogations, criminal-trial files, civil-litigation documents, works of journalism, and records of activism spurred by the CPD torture cases documented between 1972 and 1991. Briefly stated, over 100 black men were tortured by officers in order to force confessions, drive them to incriminate co-defendants, or to intimidate possible witnesses to police brutality.

Trump Justice Department Forms Task Force To Investigate Antifa, Boogaloo

Barr has been gearing up to bring the force of the federal government down on protesters as President Donald Trump seeks enhanced penalties against people who destroy monuments — mostly honoring treasonous members of the pro-slavery Confederacy — during anti-racism demonstrations across the United States.

Oakland police officer alleges scapegoating, cover-up in police sex scandal

Meanwhile, the scandal involving Jasmine continued to expand. Jasmine, the daughter of an Oakland police dispatcher, alleged that she had sex with 29 law-enforcement officers throughout the Bay Area, some while she was underage. She said she had been working as a prostitute, and that officers tipped her off about sting operations or ran names of people she knew through their databases.

The Fed says it is going to start buying individual corporate bonds

As part of a continuing effort to support market functioning and ease credit conditions, the Fed added functions to its Secondary Market Corporate Credit Facility. The program has the ability to buy up to $750 billion worth of corporate credit.

Operation Smoke and Mirrors

It’s hard to evoke how utterly abandoned these communities were at this point in their history. One measure is that in 1995 the federal government had seized control of the CHA from the city. The Department of Housing and Urban Development official installed as director of the CHA, Joseph Shuldiner, had previously run the New York and Los Angeles housing authorities. In a recent interview, he observed that in addition to the degree of concentration and abandonment, Chicago’s public housing differed from New York’s in two critical respects. The tenant population was much poorer. And while the NYPD had continued to do vertical patrols, the CPD had long ago ceded any real control of public housing high-rises. Despite the shadow play of enforcement, the developments were de facto vice zones where the sale of drugs was tolerated. Policing largely took the form of containment. The policy was to keep it in this box. Only when crime spilled out of the box did intervention become necessary.

Operation Brass Tax

When Watts’s name came up in the course of the conversation, she recalled, the DEA agent was outraged to learn he was still on the force and had been promoted to sergeant. “Watts is still around, as corrupt as he is? We were looking into him 10 years ago. I can’t believe your fucking department. I can’t believe they didn’t do anything about it.”

House of Cards

I asked Spalding why, in her view, Rivera had not initiated the CR investigations they requested. He had, she said, “made too many deals,” thereby neutralizing his ability to act. Attributing her understanding of this dynamic largely to conversations with Rivera himself — conversations he denies ever occurred — she described him as ensnared in a web of mutual blackmail in which “bosses” have leverage over one another by virtue of their shared knowledge of the “deals” they have made. She gave an example: I’ll make this CR against your guy go away if you’ll promote my guy within your unit. The code of silence and “clout” are thus entwined. Rivera, she recalled, once remarked to her that the bosses “trade CRs for favors like baseball cards.”

Watch Your Back

Superintendent Garry McCarthy reinforced the point by issuing a statement in which he asserted with characteristic bluntness, “I will never tolerate a code of silence in a department for which I am responsible.” Two weeks before McCarthy uttered those words, Shannon Spalding and Danny Echeverria filed a whistleblower suit, claiming they had suffered retaliation for reporting and investigating criminal activity within the department. The defendants named in the lawsuit included CPD brass serving directly under McCarthy, among them, Nick Roti, chief of the organized crime bureau; James O’Grady, commander of the narcotics division; and Juan Rivera, chief of the internal affairs division.

Trump Is Now Openly Defying the Supreme Court

The Trump administration announced on Tuesday that it will continue to defy a federal court order compelling the full restoration of DACA, the Obama-era program that allows 700,000 immigrants to live and work in the United States legally. By doing so, the administration has chosen to flout a decision by the Supreme Court, effectively rejecting the judiciary’s authority to say what the law is.

The NYPD Isn’t Giving Critical Bodycam Footage to Officials Investigating Alleged Abuse

In May, New York City’s Civilian Complaint Review Board requested body-worn camera footage for 212 cases involving possible misconduct but received only 33 responses, according to a recent internal memo.

“Defendant Shall Not Attend Protests”: In Portland, Getting Out of Jail Requires Relinquishing Constitutional Rights

Federal authorities are using a new tactic in their battle against protesters in Portland, Oregon: arrest them on offenses as minor as “failing to obey” an order to get off a sidewalk on federal property — and then tell them they can’t protest anymore as a condition for release from jail.

Two in Three Americans Support Racial Justice Protests

While Black Americans are among the most likely to support and feel connected to the protests, they are also the most likely to say the protests will make no difference (21%). This may reflect the fact that many Black adults experience mistreatment so regularly -- even after past protests against racism that have occurred throughout U.S. history.

Hygiene Theater Is a Huge Waste of Time

Finally, and most important, hygiene theater builds a false sense of security, which can ironically lead to more infections. Many bars, indoor restaurants, and gyms, where patrons are huffing and puffing one another’s stale air, shouldn’t be open at all. They should be shut down and bailed out by the government until the pandemic is under control. No amount of soap and bleach changes this calculation. Instead, many of these establishments are boasting about their cleaning practices while inviting strangers into unventilated indoor spaces to share one another’s microbial exhalations.

We’re Publishing Thousands of Police Discipline Records That New York Kept Secret for Decades

The database lists active-duty officers who’ve had at least one allegation against them substantiated by the CCRB: That’s about 4,000 officers out of the NYPD’s 36,000-member force.

Judge Won’t Free Michigan Teenager Sent to Juvenile Detention After Not Doing Online Schoolwork

After the hearing, Grace and her mother, Charisse, embraced for more than a minute, the first time they have had physical contact since May 14 because of COVID-19 restrictions. They sobbed audibly through their masks before leaving the courtroom separately.

Attorneys: Boston Police Videos From 'Operation Clean Sweep' Appear To Show Unconstitutional Stops

Stops like these, whether they happen to groups or individuals, are unconstitutional, civil liberties advocates, defense attorneys and constitutional law professors said. Police can request a person identify themselves, but officers cannot hold the person if he or she declines — unless police have what’s known as “reasonable suspicion.” From what the videos showed and police reports detailed, officers don't seem to have that for many of the individuals they stopped.

Why Repair Techs Are Hacking Ventilators With DIY Dongles From Poland

In the case of the PB840, a ventilator popularized about 20 years ago and in use ever since, a functional monitor swapped from a machine with a broken breathing unit to one with a broken monitor but a functioning breathing unit won’t work if the software isn’t synced. And so William uses the homemade dongle and Medtronic software shared with him by the Polish hacker to sync everything and repair the ventilator. Medtronic makes a similar dongle, but doesn’t sell it to the general public or independent repair professionals. It’s only available to people authorized by the company to do repairs.

SUV Plows Through Crowd of Black Lives Matter Protesters in Manhattan, No One Seriously Injured

Protesters said the car tried to push by them as they blocked the streets. The driver and the passenger told the NYPD they feared for their lives and that they had accelerated after being surrounded. The driver was released with no charges.

Andres Guardado was shot five times in the back, family autopsy finds. Deputy’s lawyer defends shooting

Sheriff’s officials said the FBI is monitoring their investigation into the shooting. But the Office of Inspector General, which provides oversight of the department, said in a letter to Villanueva on Wednesday that they had not received a response to requests for video and documents related to the shooting.

My Family Saw a Police Car Hit a Kid on Halloween. Then I Learned How NYPD Impunity Works.

I spoke to four witnesses, including my wife. All of them said they saw the same thing. When I called Baker back, he told me that my wife and the three others were mistaken. The car hadn’t hit the kid. The kid had hit the car. As his statement put it: “One unknown male fled the scene and ran across the hood of a stationary police car.”

Parties — Not Protests — Are Causing Spikes In Coronavirus

For the clusters that have popped up, Lautenbach says the state has been using contact tracing to learn more about how they're contributing to the spread of the virus. For instance, it found that 14 cases were associated with a party of 100 to 150 people in early June. Subsequently, 15 more cases were associated with the original 14.

Special Report: Thousands of U.S. judges who broke laws, oaths remained on the bench

In the first comprehensive accounting of judicial misconduct nationally, Reuters reviewed 1,509 cases from the last dozen years – 2008 through 2019 – in which judges resigned, retired or were publicly disciplined following accusations of misconduct. In addition, reporters identified another 3,613 cases from 2008 through 2018 in which states disciplined wayward judges but kept hidden from the public key details of their offenses – including the identities of the judges themselves. All told, 9 of every 10 judges were allowed to return to the bench after they were sanctioned for misconduct, Reuters determined.

Wave Of Young Judges Pushed By McConnell Will Be 'Ruling For Decades To Come'

Obama made the nominations, but McConnell kept them from being confirmed to wait for a Republican — in Trump — whose campaign the Senate majority leader then carried out with zeal, Kang said.

John Lewis’ Legacy Is the Right to Vote. And It’s Under Attack.

In December 2019, Lewis presided over the House as it passed legislation to restore and modernize the Voting Rights Act, requiring states with a long history of voting discrimination to once again get federal approval for any changes to voting procedures. In a primary season marred by voting problems, like six-hour lines in Lewis’ home state of Georgia, it’s been sitting on Mitch McConnell’s desk for 225 days.

The Lie Behind Plastic Pollution Is That We’re Responsible

These companies have been shifting responsibility for their waste onto consumers since the 1970s by publicly blaming litterbugs and emphasizing personal responsibility to recycle while quietly squashing legislation that could actually help reduce waste, like bottle bills that would require companies to collect, reuse, or otherwise process the containers they sold. Public outcry over waste in public spaces is also not new. The mounting accumulation of packaging and disposable goods prompted more than 1,000 legislative attempts to ban, tax, or incentivize the return of disposable items in the 1970s. The beverage and packaging industry successfully spent millions of dollars fighting these regulatory efforts, saddling us with the problem of dealing with the waste their products inevitably become. If this sounds familiar, it’s because these companies have simply taken a line out of Big Tobacco and Big Oil’s playbook: addict, deny, obfuscate.