Thursday, May 22, 2014
News Clips For The Day
Military Coup in Thailand: Army Announces It Is Taking Control – NBC
BY ALASTAIR JAMIESON
First published May 22nd 2014
A full military coup was underway in Thailand on Thursday as the country’s army chief declared he was taking control from rival political groups and imposing a nationwide overnight curfew.
General Prayuth Chan-ocha made the announcement in a televised broadcast carried on all TV channels at 5 p.m. local time (6 a.m. ET).
It came after an unsuccessful meeting of rival factions aimed at finding a solution to six months of anti-government protests.
Soldiers fired into the air to disperse thousands of pro-government, "red shirt" activists gathered at a protest site in Bangkok's western outskirts. At least one of the protest leaders was detained, said a spokesman for the activists, Thanawut Wichaidit.
Prayuth said the takeover would not affect international relations.
The army had declared martial law on Tuesday to restore order, but insisted the move was not a coup.
A senior army official said troops and vehicles would be used to escort rival protesters away from their rally sites in separate locations in Bangkok.
"We will send troops and vehicles to help protesters leave all rally sites," General Teerachai Nakwanit, First Regional Army Commander, told Reuters.
A nationwide overnight curfew was imposed, from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. local time (11 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET).
Thailand has seen at least 18 actual or attempted coups since 1932, when the country became a constitutional monarchy.
Talks to find a solution to the political impasse ended on Wednesday without success.
The U.S. Embassy in Thailand did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Thailand
Wikipedia
Thailand is a Military junta with a constitutional monarchy currently headed by King Bhumibol Adulyadej, Rama IX, the ninth king of theHouse of Chakri, who has reigned since 1946 as the world's longest-serving current head of state and the country's longest-reigningmonarch.[12] The King of Thailand's titles include Head of State, Head of the Armed Forces, Adherent of Buddhism, and Upholder of religions.[13]
Thailand experienced rapid economic growth between 1985 and 1996, becoming a newly industrialized country and a major exporter. Manufacturing, agriculture, and tourism are leading sectors of the economy.[15][16] Among the ten ASEAN countries, Thailand ranked second in the best quality of life in ASEAN.[17] Its large population and growing economic influence have made it a middle power in the region and around the world.[18]
There is evidence of human habitation in Thailand that has been dated at 40,000 years before the present. Similar to other regions in Southeast Asia, Thailand was heavily influenced by the culture and religions of India, starting with the Kingdom of Funan around the 1st century CE to the Khmer Empire.[22]
Despite European pressure, Thailand is the only Southeast Asian nation that has never been colonized.[27] This has been ascribed to the long succession of able rulers in the past four centuries who exploited the rivalry and tension betweenFrench Indochina and the British Empire. As a result, the country remained a buffer state between parts of Southeast Asia that were colonized by the two colonizing powers, Great Britain and France. Western influence nevertheless led to many reforms in the 19th century and major concessions, most notably being the loss of a large territory on the east side of theMekong to the French and the step-by-step absorption by Britain of the Malay Peninsula.
In 1939, the name of the kingdom, 'Siam', was changed to 'Thailand'.
During World War II, the Empire of Japan demanded the right to move troops across Thailand to the Malayan frontier. Japan invaded the country and engaged the Thai Army for six to eight hours before Plaek Pibulsonggram ordered an armistice. Shortly thereafter Japan was granted free passage, and on 21 December 1941, Thailand and Japan signed a military alliance with a secret protocol wherein Tokyo agreed to help Thailand regain territories lost to the British and French.
After the war, Thailand emerged as an ally of the United States. As with many of the developing nations during the Cold War, Thailand then went through decades of political instability characterised by coups d'état as one military regime replaced another, but eventually progressed towards a stable prosperity and democracy in the 1980s.[cita
2013–2014 political crisis[edit]
Protests recommenced in late 2013, as a broad alliance of protestors, led by former opposition deputy leader Suthep Thaugsuban, demanded an end to the so-called Thaksin regime, and the Bangkok Post says Suthep wants dictatorship by himself.
Protests recommenced in late 2013, as a broad alliance of protestors, led by former opposition deputy leader Suthep Thaugsuban, demanded an end to the so-called Thaksin regime, and the Bangkok Post says Suthep wants dictatorship by himself.
In response to the Electoral Commission (EC)'s registration process for party-list candidates—for the scheduled election in February 2014—anti-government protesters marched to the Thai-Japanese sports stadium, the venue of the registration process, on 22 December 2013. Suthep and the PDRC led the protest, estimating that 3.5 million people participated in the march; however, security forces claimed that approximately 270,000 protesters joined the rally. Yingluck and the Pheu Thai Party reiterated their election plan and anticipate presenting a list of 125 party-list candidates to the EC.[56]
On 7 May 2014, the Constitutional Court ruled that Yingluck would have to step down as the Prime Minister as she was deemed to have abused her power in transferring a high-level government official.[57]
On 20 May 2014 the Thai army declared martial law, however denied that this was a coup attempt and began to deploy troops in the capital.[58][59] On 22 May, the Army announced that it was a coup and that it was taking control of the country.[60]
General Prayuth Chan-ocha today announced a coup and a curfew was imposed. Troops and trucks were sent to “escort rival protesters away from their rally sites in separate locations in Bangkok.” One of the pro-government “Red Shirts” was arrested. “Talks to find a solution to the political impasse ended on Wednesday without success. The U.S. Embassy in Thailand did not immediately respond to a request for comment.” Prayuth said that international relations would not be affected.
Bodies, Burning Military Vehicles at Ukraine Military Checkpoint: AP – NBC
- The Associated Press
First published May 22nd 2014
BLAHODATNE, Ukraine - Journalists from The Associated Press have seen 11 dead bodies at a Ukrainian military checkpoint. Witnesses said that pro-Russian insurgents attacked the checkpoint in the village of Blahodatne in the eastern Donetsk region on Thursday.
Three charred Ukrainian armored personnel carriers and several other burned military vehicles stood at the site of the combat.
Witnesses said about 30 Ukrainian troops were wounded when the insurgents attacked the checkpoint.
Pro-Russian insurgents in the east, who have seized government buildings and engaged in clashes with government troops that have left scores dead since April, on Thursday continued battling the Ukrainian forces around Slovyansk, the eastern city that has been the epicenter of fighting.
In the village of Semenovka on the outskirts of Slovyansk, artillery shelling that appeared to come from government positions badly damaged several houses Thursday.
Zinaida Patskan, 80, had the roof of her house torn by an explosion, which also shattered one of the walls. "Why they are hitting us?" she said, bursting into tears. "We are peaceful people!"
Patskan, who wasn't hurt, said she was hiding under a kitchen table with her cat, Timofey, when the shelling came.
About a hundred Semenovka residents later vented their anger against the central government, demanding that the Ukrainian forces cease their offensive and withdraw from the region. Speakers at the rally also called for boycotting the presidential vote.
Blahodatne in Eastern Donetsk was the site of a battle in which 11 were killed and 30 Ukrainians were wounded. It is not clear from the article who the dead were. About a hundred Semenovka residents “vented their anger against the central government and called for a boycott of the upcoming Presidential vote.” Private houses in the village of Semenovka on the outskirts of Slovyansk were shelled, apparently by Kiev's forces, possibly in error. “Zinaida Patskan, 80, had the roof of her house torn by an explosion, which also shattered one of the walls. 'Why they are hitting us?' she said, bursting into tears. 'We are peaceful people!'” She recounts the event, saying that she was hiding with her cat under the kitchen table. This really is sad. Many of those people in Eastern Ukraine are not behind the Russians, but would prefer a united Ukraine. The population is mixed, but the Russians are the loudest and the ones who are militarily organized to do battle. Even if the Russians are in the majority there, the Ukrainians should have a free vote without persecution.
Explosions Hit Urumqi Market in China's Xinjiang Region, Killing 31 – NBC
— Eric Baculinao and Ed Flanagan in Beijing, with The Associated Press and Reuters
First published May 21st 2014
Cars plowed through an open market in the capital of China's western region of Xinjiang, setting off explosions that killed at least 31 people and injured more than 90 others, according to officials.
The Xinjiang regional government called the early morning attack "a serious violent terrorist incident of a particularly vile nature," according to The Associated Press.
In a posting on its Chinese-language microblog account, the U.S. Embassy said it offered condolences to victims of the "violent attack," but stopped short of labeling it terrorism. Britain's Foreign Secretary, William Hague, said he was "saddened to hear about the terrorist attack."
The blasts occurred at a market near the Cultural Palace in the city of Urumqi, which is roughly 1,900 miles west of Beijing. Witnesses said they heard a series of powerful blasts.
The state-run Xinhua News Agency reported that after driving through crowds and setting off blasts, two SUVs then crashed head on and exploded.
Initial witness accounts of the incident posted on Weibo, a Chinese social media website, said explosives were flung at the market crowd from two SUVs.
Witnesses said they heard a series of powerful blasts. At least one witness who said he was near the scene saw a truck in flames, sending vendors fleeing.
"I heard four or five explosions. I was very scared. I saw three or four people lying on the ground," Fang Shaoying, the owner of a small supermarket located near the scene of the attack, told The Associated Press by phone.
Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged to punish those responsible, Xinhua said on its Twitter feed.
The incident was under investigation, Xinhua reported.
China has blamed a series of knife and bomb attacks in recent months on separatist militants from Xinjiang, the traditional home of the ethnic Muslim Uighurs.
The death toll was the highest for a violent incident in Xinjiang since dayslong riots in Urumqi in 2009 between Uighurs and China's majority Han left almost 200 people dead. Thursday's attack also was the bloodiest single act of violence in Xinjiang in recent history.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/KG18Ad01.html
Washington funds its Uyghur 'friends'
By Donald Kirk
Jul 18, 2009
WASHINGTON - The United States has stumbled almost unwittingly into the middle of ethnic conflict in western China from which there's no chance of coming out a winner.
Official American sympathy lies with the Uyghurs, seen as the victims of the long tentacles of Chinese power, exploited, impoverished and persecuted by Han Chinese. While the Uyghur cause is no doubt deserving, one thing is certain: the US is not going to go to war for them and is not going to finance militants among them to stage a revolt in the name of Uyghur freedom.
All the US can do on a formal level is to issue statements calling for restraint, deploring acts of violence, and talking about the democratic rights of oppressed minorities. Those words carry no threat, no suggestion that the US government can or will do anything to aid the Uyghur people.
No way can the US contemplate any form of intervention that would immediately be seen in Beijing as gross interference in China's internal affairs and have a ruinous effect on US-Chinese relations. Chinese authorities are already upset by the sympathy expressed in the United States for the rights of Tibetans. At least Americans have heard of Tibet. You would have great difficulty finding anyone on the streets of any American city who had a clue about the Uyghurs.
If the United States is not openly on the side of the Uyghurs, there are plenty of signs of substantive support. One that's getting some publicity in Washington is the role of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), which calls itself a private non-governmental organization but dispenses grants with money appropriated by the US Congress.
As the Uyghur rioting simmered on, the NED was revealed to be dispensing more than US$200,000 a year to support the World Uyghur Congress, blamed for triggering the unrest. A Uyghur woman, Rebiya Kadeer, now living in suburban Washington after having made it to the US with powerful assistance from the US State Department several years ago, seems to be the organizer - and the recipient of much of the largess.
Carl Gershman, president of the NED, notes that this grant, and others to recipients around the world, including several in South Korea, are far too small to be responsible for a popular uprising. He also makes much of the "transparency" of the NED, arguing that all that it does is announced and out in the open.
The last thing he wants is for NED to give the impression that it's a front for the Central Intelligence Agency or any other US government agency. Those who receive grants from the NED make no secret about them either. At least two groups in Seoul, one that aids North Korean refugees, another that broadcasts two hours a day of news and views into North Korea, have told me that NED is the source of some of their funding.
It's very easy to accuse the NED, and the government whose money it is dispensing, of having a destabilizing influence, of exercising undue pressure, of intervening in the politics of sovereign nations. If the causes that the NED espouses seem worthy, imagine how terrible they might become if the NED falls into the wrong hands, if unscrupulous people take it over and try to manipulate it for their own purposes.
For now, the question is how is China likely to view the NED support for a Uyghur organization that actively opposes Chinese policies and Chinese control. Doug Bandow of the Cato Institute in Washington sees officials in Beijing as responding by lack of cooperation with the US on restraining North Korea.
China has blamed“...separatist militants from Xinjiang, the traditional home of the ethnic Muslim Uighurs” for recent knife and bomb attacks. This violent attack that wounded 90 and killed 31 or more has been is not stated to be caused by the Uighurs, but President Xi Jinping pledged to “punish those responsible.” The US and Britain have offered their condolences, but the US government “stops short” of calling the attack terrorism. US and Chinese relations are tense and complex. China, while in many ways is an advanced country, is like Russia and other heavily controlled societies lacking in personal freedoms for its citizens.
Carefully stopping short of starting a war which we likely wouldn't win, and in the interest of a continued peaceful trade relationship, our State Department must move cautiously while helping such friends as South Korea and lately The Philippines. Due to China's territorial claims in the South China Sea we have been doing military maneuvers there to demonstrate our solidarity with those ally nations. It is a tense but controlled relationship, and isn't likely to threaten US interests any time soon.
Dem Super PAC Aims to Spend $100M to Target Climate 'Deniers' – NBC
BY MARK MURRAY
First published May 21st 2014
A super PAC funded by Democratic environmentalist billionaire Tom Steyer has announced it will spend as much as $100 million this election season attacking Republicans in seven key states who it says are climate-science “deniers," elevating the issue of climate change in these contests.
Steyer, a prominent opponent of the Keystone XL Pipeline, is one of a handful of uber-rich Americans who are increasingly flexing their muscles in U.S. Politics.
Steyer’s group, NextGen Climate, says it will target Govs. Rick Scott of Florida, Paul LePage of Maine and Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania, as well as GOP Senate candidates Cory Gardner in Colorado, Joni Ernst and Mark Jacobs in Iowa, Terri Lynn Land in Michigan and Scott Brown in New Hampshire.
Our goal is very clear -- to impact the politics as it relates to climate change
These states -- all of which President Barack Obama won in both 2008 and 2012 -- also play an important role in 2016, given that Iowa and New Hampshire are early presidential nominating contests, and that Colorado and Florida are top general-election battlegrounds.
"Our goal is very clear -- to impact the politics as it relates to climate change," Chris Lehane, Steyer’s political adviser, told a group of reporters in unveiling NextGen Climate’s campaign strategy.
The effort is intended to turn out Democratic-leaning voters (such as minorities and young adults) and to paint these Republican candidates as anti-science. That, Lehane said, is “a tough brand to win elections around."
Lehane added that NextGen Climate also will highlight the campaign contributions these Republicans have received from oil interests.
This campaign by Steyer comes after Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., a potential presidential candidate, said he doubted scientists’ claims that humans are responsible for climate change. “I do not believe that human activity is causing these dramatic changes to our climate the way these scientists are portraying it,” he said.
NextGen Climate argues that the Republicans it has targeted have said something similar. “I have not been convinced," Gov. Scott said of global warming when he was campaigning in 2010.
"I think the climate is changing, but I don't believe humans are causing that change to the extent that's been in the news," Rep. Gardner, R-Colo., said in 2010.
Former Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., who is running for the Senate in New Hampshire this year, has said he believes in climate change and that it’s caused by a combination of man-made and natural factors. But he has been a proponent of building the Keystone XL Pipeline.
“A super PAC funded by Democratic environmentalist billionaire Tom Steyer has announced it will spend as much as $100 million this election season attacking Republicans in seven key states who it says are climate-science “deniers," elevating the issue of climate change in these contests.” Steyer is an opponent of the Keystone XL pipeline and is one of “a handful” of wealthy progressives who are applying pressure on some Republican candidates in recent times. NextGen Climate is the name of the organization which will oppose the naysayers in FL and five other states. The organization will aim to “turn out Democratic-leaning voters (such as minorities and young adults) and to paint these Republican candidates as anti-science. That, Lehane said, is 'a tough brand to win elections around.' Lehane added that NextGen Climate also will highlight the campaign contributions these Republicans have received from oil interests.”
Such political candidates are blocking laws that would reduce the CO2 emissions and “our carbon footprint,” with the goal of protecting manufacturers, mining, coal fired power plants, etc., from regulations which would force them to spend their money to limit the CO2 and other greenhouse gases from escaping into the atmosphere. From Wikipedia, the greenhouse gases are described as follows: “Greenhouse gases are those that can absorb and emit infrared radiation,[1] but not radiation in or near the visible spectrum. In order, the most abundant greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere are:
Water vapor (H2O), Carbon dioxide (CO2), Methane (CH4), Nitrous oxide (N2O), Ozone (O3) and CFCs.
I'm glad to see that these financially able individuals are supporting the progressive cause rather than the Republicans. We during this time period are going to have to rein in the emissions fast, as several scientists have said that there is a “tipping point,” which we may have already reached, beyond which our efforts to stop global warming will be doomed to failure. The rapid melting of Arctic and Antarctic ice is a sign that the time may have come.
McDonald's to Face Ire Over Wages at Shareholder Meeting – NBC
-- The Associated Press
First published May 22nd 2014
McDonald's is set to face criticism on issues including worker pay and marketing to children at its shareholders meeting Thursday morning.
Critics plan to confront CEO Don Thompson during the question-and-answer portion of the annual event. Already on Wednesday, McDonald's closed one of its buildings in Oak Brook, Illinois, where hundreds of protesters had planned to demonstrate over the low wages paid to its workers.
Protesters targeted another site on the company's headquarters in suburban Chicago, and more than 138 were arrested for refusing to leave the property.
The protesters were out again before the meeting was set to begin Thursday, chanting "I want, I want, I want my $15."
Shawn Dalton, 59, traveled from Pittsburgh, saying she wanted to support fast-food and minimum-wage workers. Dalton said her daughter is a recent high school graduate who can't afford to go to college right away, so she'll likely wind up earning Pennsylvania's $7.25-an-hour minimum wage.
Inside the meeting, individuals affiliated with Corporate Accountability intended to once again bring up the company's marketing to children. Last year, the group made headlines after it arranged to have a 9-year-old girl ask Thompson to stop "tricking" kids into eating McDonald's food.
McDonald's representatives didn't immediately respond when asked if they planned to change the way it conducts its question-and-answer period this year. In past years, people have been able to stand and directly address executives.
Shareholder meetings offer a rare opportunity for average investors to face top executives at publicly traded companies. Public pension funds and activist groups often show up in hopes of changing corporate practices.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/05/15/fast-food-workers-strike/9114245/
Fast food workers rally for higher wages
Bruce Horovitz, Yamiche Alcindor, Chris Woodyard, Calum MacLeod, Kim Hjelmgaard, USA TODAY5:26 p.m. EDT May 15, 2014
NEW YORK — Hundreds of fast food workers walked off their jobs in many U.S. cities and in more than 30 countries on Thursday, joining labor and union activists in protests calling for wages of $15 an hour and the right to seek union representation without retaliation.
At least 17 food chains were targeted, including McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's and KFC. No violence was reported.
In New York City, dozens of workers stood outside a McDonald's near Penn Station. They partially blocked some entrances and temporarily stalled, but did not halt, sales.
The global protest was organized by Fast Food Forward, a group financed by the Service Employees International Union, which has more than 2 million members.
"At the end of the day, there is more than enough money to pay these workers $15 an hour," says Kendall Fells, 34, the leader of Fast Food Forward, who marched with the protesters in New York.
In Europe, Lorenz Keller, who works for the Swiss trade union Unia, said that union members were protesting at several McDonald's stores in Zurich and planned actions in Geneva.
Glenn Spencer, a U.S. Chamber of Commerce vice president, said in a statement that, "These union-produced, made-for-media protests have repeatedly failed to gain support from more than a handful of actual workers. At some point, unions need this activity to translate into new members to justify the millions of dollars they are pouring into these campaigns."
For workers and protest organizers, the global media attention alone is of huge value. "The Occupy Movement is not dead," says Witold Henisz, management professor at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. "I'm forecasting a period of tension and political activism over what's fair and what's right.
This strike is worldwide and focuses on a number of fast food businesses. According to Kendall Fells, 34, the leader of Fast Food Forward, “'At the end of the day, there is more than enough money to pay these workers $15 an hour.'” According to the USA Today article, “Hundreds of fast food workers walked off their jobs in many U.S. cities and in more than 30 countries on Thursday, joining labor and union activists in protests calling for wages of $15 an hour and the right to seek union representation without retaliation.” There is no news at this time of organizers and marchers being fired at fast food establishments.
At the shareholders meeting today, “Critics plan to confront CEO Don Thompson during the question-and-answer portion of the annual event. Already on Wednesday, McDonald's closed one of its buildings in Oak Brook, Illinois, where hundreds of protesters had planned to demonstrate.... At a site in suburban Chicago “more than 138 were arrested for refusing to leave the property.” There has been no announcement of boycotts of the fast food restaurants, which unfortunately are the only places many poor people can afford to eat except their own kitchen, but I will personally refrain from going to my local Wendy's until the strike is over. I will miss their double cheeseburger and frosty, but I do have enough food at home to eat, and it will probably be better for me.
Albuquerque Police Face Federal Scrutiny, Local Outrage – NPR
by KELLY MCEVERS
May 22, 2014
Kenneth Ellis III was shot and killed by police in a 7-Eleven parking lot in Albuquerque, N.M.
He is among the dozens of people local police have shot over the last four years, 25 of whom have died. The U.S. Department of Justice issued a scathing report in April saying Albuquerque police have a pattern of excessive force that violates the Constitution.
Investigations and policy changes are in the works, while families of those who have been shot argue more needs to be done.
Building Cases
Ellis, an infantryman in Iraq whose family says he had post-traumatic stress disorder, was pulled over one morning in January 2010. Police said Ellis' plates didn't match his car.
When a police car pinned his car in from behind, the 25-year-old flipped. He got out of his car, put a pistol to his head, called his mom and asked her to come help. Annelle Wharton, his mother, got stopped a few blocks away.
"I got here in less than 10 minutes," she says. "And the cop said, 'Here let me get you away from the media,' and put me in the back of a squad car."
Police at the scene later testified that Ellis took one step toward an officer, still with the gun to his own head. Another officer shot Ellis, once, in the neck.
"They drove me up here and drove me right by him," Wharton says, "and I could see his body under the sheets."
The shooter went through the standard procedures: an internal police review and a grand jury. The killing was deemed justified.
And so it was with dozens more killings over the next four years. Kenneth Ellis II and other victims' relatives started going to meetings, gathering signatures on petitions, staging demonstrations, and suing the city.
Shannon Kennedy, who represents some of the families, says police treat suspects as if they don't have rights.
"In America, no one is above the law, and no one is below the law," she says. "And what happened in the city of Albuquerque is [police] officers were put above the law, and people with mental illness and people with criminal histories were put below the law, and that is what has got to be addressed here."
Documented Shooting
In March of this year, police responded to a 911 call saying a homeless man, later identified as James Boyd, was disturbing people in the foothills outside the city. Police recorded it on video.
After an hours-long standoff, Boyd agreed to come down the rocky hill. He grabbed his backpack, then police released a sound grenade, and a dog. Boyd grabbed two pocket knives and swiped at the dog. A police officer yelled for him to get on the ground, and Boyd started to turn away.
Two officers fired four live rounds. Boyd died. Police released the video to show it was a justified use of force.
People in the community were furious. Hundreds marched to police headquarters.
Then in April, the Justice Department released its findings, saying Albuquerque police regularly encounter people who do not pose a threat but then escalate tensions until those people do pose a threat.
After those findings came two more shooting deaths, and more protests. One victim was a 19-year-old woman who police say waved a gun during a foot chase.
Facing Reality
The officers in these cases rarely get a chance to tell their stories because they could be used against them in court. The city already has paid tens of millions of dollars to shooting victims' families.
Shaun Willoughby, vice president of the local police union, says Albuquerque is a violent place. Civilians simply need to be educated about what police can and can't do.
"I'm shocked every time somebody from our community asks me, 'Well why didn't you just shoot the gun out of his hand?' Because we're not ninjas, and that's not realistic," Willoughby says. "So I think there's a huge breakdown of communication, what the expectations are, and what the reality behind the outcome is."
Albuquerque police will now get crisis intervention training, and they'll no longer be able use their own personal weapons on duty or shoot at moving cars. Police say more change will come once the city and the Justice Department agree on a plan.
The feds are also investigating the Boyd shooting in the foothills, and legal sources here say the feds might reopen other cases, too, like the Ellis case.
That would be good news for Annelle Wharton and her husband, Kenneth Ellis II, standing in that 7-Eleven parking lot. Their grandsonwas awarded nearly $8 million in a civil lawsuit.
But still, they say, police need to be punished. "I think they need to go; I think they need to change out," Wharton says.
"Needs to be some indictments, and there need to be some officers put in jail and held accountable to the laws they've sworn to uphold," Ellis says.
We used to tell our kids the police were here to keep us safe, Wharton says. But now, none of us feels safe.
Some pertinent comments posted to this article include the following:
"ben balz • 5 hours ago
One problem in this country is the personality types drawn to law enforcement. Oftentimes this profession attracts weak belongers, power trippers, petit authoritarians and people who have something to prove. They make up for personal inadequacies by becoming toadies for the power crackdown structure.
Abbi Baily ben balz • 43 minutes ago
In some countries, police recruits are required to have at least a B.A. degree. Expectations for their performance are higher, and so is their pay.
Mark Fraser Robert Repetti • 4 hours ago
The police are not the military. The problem lately is that the police ARE being hired and trained and equipped as military units. That includes the idea of shows of overwhelming force to minimize their losses. Unfortunately that operational framework is unconstitutional and also contrary to the Posse Comitatus Act of using military forces on citizens.
colt call Mark Fraser • 2 hours ago
Mark Fraser......Whatever it takes to subdue crime, the majority of citizens agree with the police. Get accustomed to the new reality.
Mark Fraser colt call • 12 minutes ago
The majority of citizens would assume that armed men storming into their
houses at 3am is a crime in progress. The majority of citizens would
therefore die by exercising their constitutional rights of self defense.
If exercising your rights means that law enforcement is entitled to kill you, it's no longer law enforcement.”
Of Kenneth Ellis III, who was shot while holding his gun to his own head rather than threatening anyone else, the article says, “He is among the dozens of people local police have shot over the last four years, 25 of whom have died. The U.S. Department of Justice issued a scathing report in April saying Albuquerque police have a pattern of excessive force that violates the Constitution... Shannon Kennedy, who represents some of the families, says police treat suspects as if they don't have rights.”
The Department of Justice stated that the Albuquerque police have taken situations that were not initially crisis situations and escalated them to that point, and then shot an alleged perpetrator rather than using less than lethal force. The police will now be given “crisis intervention training” and “they'll no longer be able use their own personal weapons on duty or shoot at moving cars. Police say more change will come once the city and the Justice Department agree on a plan.”
This is one police department which has a particularly problematic history, but reports of “police brutality” come from all across the country and have for decades. I clipped some of the comments to this article because I thought they said important things. For whatever psychological reasons, many – but I hope not most -- police officers are very aggressive people. Perhaps they have to be, to face off against the most dangerous criminals, but they also have to be able to restrain themselves from egregious violence and have the presence of mind to see the situation as less than a crisis when it is so. The “helpful” police officer of the fifties is the type that we still need most in our cities. They also need to be free of racial bias in their treatment of alleged perpetrators. There is no good reason for most people shot or arrested by police to be black or Hispanic.
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