Thursday, April 2, 2015


News Clips For The Day


http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2015/04/02/397042004/muslim-population-will-surpass-christians-this-century-pew-says

World's Muslim Population Will Surpass Christians This Century, Pew Says
Bill Chappell
APRIL 02, 2015

Photograph – Indonesian Muslims perform Eid Al-Adha prayer at Al-Akbar Mosque in Oct. 2014 in Surabaya, Indonesia.
Robertus Pudyanto/Getty Images

Islam is growing more rapidly than any other religion in the world, according to a new report by the Pew Research Center that says the religion will nearly equal Christianity by 2050 before eclipsing it around 2070, if current trends continue.

"The main reason Muslims are growing not only in number but in share worldwide is because of where they live," Alan Cooperman, Pew's director of religion research, tells NPR's Tom Gjelten. "Muslim populations are concentrated in some of the fastest-growing parts of the world."

The finding is part of the center's report on the future of the world's religions. You can see the full report at the Pew site, which has also published an interactive tool to help readers drill down by geography and religion.

"As of 2010, Christianity was by far the world's largest religion, with an estimated 2.2 billion adherents, nearly a third (31 percent) of all 6.9 billion people on Earth," the Pew report says. "Islam was second, with 1.6 billion adherents, or 23 percent of the global population."

Those numbers are predicted to shift in the coming decades, as the world's population rises to 9.3 billion by the middle of this century. In that time, Pew projects, Islam will grow by 73 percent while Christianity will grow by 35 percent — resulting in 2.8 billion Muslims and 2.9 billion Christians worldwide.

The report says that by 2050:

In the U.S., Christianity will decline to claim two-thirds of the population, instead of the more than three-quarters who claimed the religion in 2010.
Islam will supplant Judaism as the second-most popular religion in the U.S.
India will displace Indonesia as the home of the world's largest Muslim population, even as the country retains its Hindu majority.
In addition, Pew says, "Four out of every 10 Christians in the world will live in sub-Saharan Africa."

In addition to presenting raw numbers and projections, the Pew report looks at the demographic trends that are fueling the changes.

One factor is the wide range of fertility rates, with only Christians and Muslims currently higher than the world average fertility rate of 2.5.

Buddhists are seen having the lowest fertility rate — part of the reason why Buddhism is projected to be the world's only major religion that's projected not to grow over the next four decades.

While the growth of Islam is tied to fast-growing populations, Pew says, another group will be shrinking: those who are atheist, agnostic or unaffiliated with a religion. That group will decline globally, the center's reports says, despite "increasing in countries such as the United States and France."




There are important charts in this article that I can't copy into the Blogger file because it won't reproduce graphics. Go to the website to look at those. Some Christians are fighting little miniwars against Islamic immigrants in cities in Europe and perhaps in the US, though I can't remember very many instances of that in the news here. There was a Sikh who was shot in cold blood at a gas station some 15 or 20 years ago, probably because he was wearing a turban.

I am afraid that if Christians don't start going in for religious tolerance now we may be the victims in years to come. We need to make friends with them, not try to suppress and abuse them. Let's go back to the “melting pot” in America. That produces a vibrant culture which welcomes new knowledge and allows people to rise in status in the society. That's good – it gives us an environment which is not at abusive and rigidly structured. Democrats love that kind of society. Unfortunately too many Republicans don't.

I would draw the line at allowing Sharia law to be recognized in the courts, though some of that has already occurred, at least in Britain. Segregated neighborhoods mean that people who are grouped together ethnically in one area in the US can possibly become the majority there and more strongly affect elections and laws in the US. They can “vote in” Sharia law. Several cases of “honor killings” and the horrible practice of mutilating a woman's genitalia in this country in a way that stops her from enjoying sex have been in the news in the US already. The theory with “female circumcision” is that a woman won't “stray” from her husband if that is done. It's a practice in the Middle East and in some African nations. One news article told of a poor teenaged girl in Africa who bled to death from that, and pain in that nerve filled part of the body must be horrific. The is often done without any anesthetic, also.

In France some of the problems there are occurring is because the dominant white Christians have segregated Muslims into poverty stricken areas, failed to allow the women to wear Islamic garb, and the immigrants aren't having an easy time getting work either. That's exactly what I think may happen in this country; after all that's what we do with blacks, and the black community is becoming a tinderbox of rage. That's dangerous for whites and blacks – a recipe for serious unrest.

We haven't had Muslim riots here yet like France, but it may come. Sometimes societies should change not only because they will become more humane and moral if they do, but because they may not survive if they don't. The South after the Civil War is such a case. We Southerners have failed to prosper as well as Northern industrialized areas do. We fought for the privilege of owning and too often abusing blacks as a part of the “state's rights” platform, but we lost that war in a truly devastating way and we have not really recovered from it. The industrialized and urban North was more viable in the end. It was a better and more flexible economic system in the North, also. Until the last hundred or so years, the people in the South have been bound to the land, leaving them land rich but otherwise poor. The problem is that not everybody owns land, and if there aren't any factories around to give people jobs they can become totally destitute. That happened under the hated Calvin Coolidge, and only the equally hated FDR reforms saved the poor people. It was, of course, mainly the rich who hated him. The poor farmers and jobless in the cities loved Roosevelt. He not only came up with a stroke of genius in the graduated income tax and other reforms, but created jobs which had dried up under Republican economic policies. He promoted art. One of his “make work” laws was a plan under which artistic people of all kinds could get work with the government. There was also a plan to renew the crumbling infrastructure – building roads and the like. America's entering WWII also helped tremendously because industry suddenly had business with the war effort.

See “Answers.Yahoo.Com” under the search term “Who was Rosie the Riveter?” That tells the background for the famous fictional Rosie The Riveter, who had to go to work in the factories because most of the men went into the army and left their factory jobs while aircraft and ships had to be built for the war effort. The real Rosie was modeled after a number of working women, but in particular Rose Will Monroe, who was born in Pulaski County, Kentucky in 1920 and moved to Michigan during World War II. She worked as a riveter at the Willow Run Aircraft Factory in Ypsilanti, Michigan, building B-29 and B-24 bombers for the U.S. Army Air Forces. Kay Kyser the famous band leader even created a song in her name.

To this day, unfortunately, the South is still a backwater in too many places. All of that rebellion in the Civil War was to protect the South from changing culturally. They wanted to keep their slaves, and losing that hope, strongly hated the laws that under FDR, greatly improved their lives – the black right to vote and the “welfare state,” which I prefer to call our “social safety net.” The undeniable Southern valor in the war, however, was not worth the pain and destruction brought on by our failure to win. The North was simply stronger than we were. I grew up hearing the term “damn yankees” and seeing the Confederate Battle Flag flaunted frequently by some “rednecks,” as we city folk called them. We gambled in the attempted Secession and lost almost every bit of wealth that Southern whites had saved during the slave days. Let's face it, you can save lots of money if your workers don't have to be paid for their labor.

The song called “Marching Through Georgia” is about the destruction of homes, the railroads, and in general everything of value that the Southerners possessed by the dreaded General Sherman. He was known for his ferocity in battle. What we should have done once we lost, however, would have been to adjust our attitudes to meet reality and then rebuild. That's what mature people learn to do, hopefully, before they die. Instead the KKK arose and the very abusive Jim Crow laws were enacted. That's what the 1960's Civil Rights movement was about – the reversal of Jim Crow. As a result of the inevitable federal smack down of the racist state governments over the issues of desegregating Southern life, the modern era of racial hatred festered under the cover of grudging compliance. The struggle isn't over, and I think that it probably never will be. We now have the Tea Party to carry on that “proud” tradition, and right now state governments are trying to recreate the Old South and even – shockingly – set up a Dominionist government. That, to me, would signal the loss of our democratic form of government. Freedom of and freedom from religious practice is at the core of free thought and free speech. How depressing this all is. It does delineate the direction in which progressives need to march, however.





http://www.news4jax.com/news/attorney-general-3-kkk-members-arrested-in-murder-plot/32150592

Bondi: 3 KKK members arrested in murder plot
2 men arrested are corrections employees; 1 is former corrections employee
Author: News4Jax.com Staff, webteam@wjxt.com
April 2, 2015

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Three members of the Ku Klux Klan were arrested Thursday by the FBI on charges of conspiracy to commit murder, according to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi's Office.

Thomas Jordan Driver, 25, David Elliot Moran, 47, and Charles Thomas Newcomb, 42, all face one state count of conspiracy to commit murder for allegedly plotting to kill a former inmate after his release from prison, Bondi's Office said.

According to Bondi's Office, the men are all members of the Traditional American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.

Driver and Morgan are employees at the Florida Department of Corrections, and Newcomb is a former DOC employee. The defendants plotted the murder as retaliation for a fight between the inmate, who is African American, and Driver, according to Bondi's Office.

The Attorney General’s Office of Statewide Prosecution will prosecute this case in Columbia County, Fla.

Homeland Security Investigations, the Florida Department of Corrections Office of Inspector General, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Florida Highway Patrol, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office assisted with the investigation.

News4Jax is working to learn more about the arrests and the alleged murder plot. We will update this article as information becomes available.




Our local news is usually pretty bland, except for the ordinary crimes of shootings, robberies, etc. But this is a case of the KKK plotting to kill a black person in the county to the south of Jacksonville – close to home! Again it is a case of law enforcement individuals being deeply involved in racist matters. Jacksonville is basically a good place to live, at least for white people. Blacks have problems everywhere, including Florida, where we have the so-called Stand Your Ground law which has been used in some cases recently to much consternation among progressives and especially minorities. It sometimes looks like it's overused or used in improper cases. The presence of a culture of racial hatred in so many parts of the country now gives rise to many abuses of those laws. The issue reappears in news articles on a recurring basis.

As long as the “conservative” mindset and the popularity of the gun culture exists I don't expect our area to become a peaceful place. When the Southern whites were essentially crushed in the Civil War and Reconstruction days the hatred of blacks became worse. KKK activity this close to home is not a surprise to me, but it does make me sad. I saw a news article yesterday on KKK fliers even being delivered to white neighborhoods in Washington DC. I am very lucky that I am white. Maybe there will be another article on this later today or tomorrow. I'll keep my eyes open.





http://www.cbsnews.com/news/germanwings-flight-9525-weighing-medical-privacy-rights-vs-safety-concerns/

Weighing medical privacy rights vs. safety concerns
By JEFF PEGUES CBS NEWS
April 1, 2015

The Germanwings Flight 9525 tragedy is raising questions about whether psychiatrists should tell the authorities about patients with troubled minds who have the lives of the public in their hands.

What you say to your doctor is usually confidential. But 45 states have laws requiring or permitting mental health professionals to disclose if they believe a patient is dangerous.

"There's legal and there's ethics, so legally right now I'm under no obligation as a physician to tell anyone," says Dr. Robert Klitzman, a professor of psychiatry at Columbia University.

"Ethically, however, I would argue that if I'm a physician, and I know someone may have a plane full of people and crash it, I feel that there may be times when I have an obligation to notify someone," Klitzman says.

A case from 40 years ago shows the danger of a doctor keeping quiet.

In 1969, California college student Prosenjit Poddar killed a woman he'd met in a dance class. Before the murder, Poddar told his therapist about his desire to kill Tatiana Tarasoff. The therapist didn't warn the victim.

"And a court found that he [the therapist] was liable, that in that case, he should have violated patient confidentiality," Klitzman says. "So there's an ethical standard on the one hand, and a legal standard on the other."

But even reporting is not foolproof.

After James Holmes shot and killed 12 people at an Aurora, Colorado, movie theater in 2012, the investigation revealed his psychiatrist had warned police that Holmes was dangerous and homicidal. It's not clear if anything was done.

Some privacy advocates agree that there are cases where warning law enforcement is necessary -- but they worry about a chilling effect on patients.

"You might deter people from seeking mental health services in order to avoid disclosing things they want to keep private," says Chad Marlow of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Here in the U.S., the Federal Aviation Administration mandates that airline pilots self-report mental health issues. The agency says it's too early to discuss whether the protocols will be strengthened.




I do strongly believe that a strict adherence to the privacy issues should be outweighed by the need for the police and other authorities – in this case the airline industry – to be made aware of diagnoses that point to the endangerment of citizens. Just as priests should have to be arrested for abusing poor little boys and girls, or giving forgiveness to ordinary citizens who do those things, so should people who divulge to their psychiatrist that they think about going out and shooting people. We need to be practical. These protections of criminals under the guise of “religious freedom” are ridiculous in modern society. Just because God will forgive our sins doesn't mean dangerous criminals should be allowed to go free. When rape and molestation are made capital crimes, or at any rate penalized by life in prison without parole, we will be a safer and more rational society.





http://www.cbsnews.com/news/nyc-detective-patrick-cherry-punished-after-video-rant-at-uber-driver/

NYC detective punished after rant at Uber driver caught on video
CBS/AP
April 2, 2015


Photograph – The incident was caught by a passenger in the car.  CBS NEWS

NEW YORK -- A detective heard on video berating an Uber driver and asking, "How long have you been in this country?" was stripped of his gun and badge Wednesday and will be transferred from the police anti-terrorism division, officials said.

Police Commissioner William Bratton called Detective Patrick Cherry's comments inappropriate as the city's Civilian Complaint Review Board, a police watchdog agency, investigated the incident. Seen widely on a passenger's video posted online, the episode comes as the New York Police Department's rank-and-file officers are being trained in how to engage courteously with the public to de-escalate situations.

"In any kind of encounter, discourtesy like that and language like that is unacceptable," Bratton said. "That officer's behavior reflected poorly on everyone who wears our uniform.”

City Detectives' Endowment Association President Michael J. Palladino said Cherry is "a person of good character and an excellent detective," and he noted that personal matters can affect police behavior sometimes.

"He really should not be judged by one isolated incident," Palladino said in a statement.

"Wrong place, wrong time, wrong event, to be on videotape, you know, looking like you're abusing a civilian," retired NYPD Sgt. Joseph Giacalone told CBS News.

The detective pulled over the driver with the ride-hailing service Uber on Monday in Manhattan. It's not clear exactly what spurred the traffic stop, but Cherry is seen on the video accusing the driver of committing various traffic violations while the detective tried to park his car.

The detective swears, shouts at the driver and brusquely questions his accented English as the driver gives compliant responses, calling the detective "sir" and apologizing at one point for interrupting to say, "OK."

"I don't care what you have to say. Do you understand that?" the detective says at one point, adding that people should be able to park "without your interference and then your opinion about what's going on - especially when the person you do it to are the police!"

After saying he doesn't know "where you're coming from, where you think you're appropriate in doing that," Cherry asks the man how long he's been in the U.S. The driver tells him it's been two years.

Cherry goes on to say the driver would be handcuffed and taken to a precinct for summonses if the detective weren't busy with other things: "You're not important enough," he says.

San Francisco-based Uber, which has grown rapidly in New York in recent years, called the detective's behavior "wrong and unacceptable." Police and the company haven't released the driver's name.

The passenger who shot the video referred questions about the encounter to authorities.

CBS News was unable to reach Cherry Wednesday morning for comment.




“Police Commissioner William Bratton called Detective Patrick Cherry's comments inappropriate as the city's Civilian Complaint Review Board, a police watchdog agency, investigated the incident. Seen widely on a passenger's video posted online, the episode comes as the New York Police Department's rank-and-file officers are being trained in how to engage courteously with the public to de-escalate situations. "In any kind of encounter, discourtesy like that and language like that is unacceptable," Bratton said. "That officer's behavior reflected poorly on everyone who wears our uniform.”

Here we go again with police behaving badly, but in this case the command hierarchy is seeing the issue as I see it – police officers should in all cases be courteous in their approach. That should be a basic part of their job. I also think they should be screened for psychological problems before they are hired and then again on a periodic bases, because mental disorders can surface after the police have been on the job. Indeed it is the kind of stressful job that can produce mental issues and general “burnout.” Many citizens will react to police in a much more cooperative and peaceful way if they are approached that way. Using the “F word” as he did should not be allowed, and if the suspect is mentally deranged, every effort to apprehend him without beating him to a pulp or shooting him should be taken. To me that means that every officer on patrol should be with a partner who can help hold a deranged or simply very hostile person down until he is handcuffed. They all have their tasers and they should also learn in their training to use martial arts if necessary to control him. A recent article was on killings by policemen with international comparisons. The kill rate of suspects in Britain is a small percentage of those incidents in this country – shockingly smaller. Germany also had a much lower rate than we do, though higher than the “bobbies” in England. It is possible in most cases to apprehend a person – even a dangerous person – without shooting them or breaking half their bones in many or even most cases. Nuff said!





http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2015/04/02/397042004/muslim-population-will-surpass-christians-this-century-pew-says

World's Muslim Population Will Surpass Christians This Century, Pew Says
Bill Chappell
APRIL 02, 2015

Photograph – Indonesian Muslims perform Eid Al-Adha prayer at Al-Akbar Mosque in Oct. 2014 in Surabaya, Indonesia.
Robertus Pudyanto/Getty Images

Islam is growing more rapidly than any other religion in the world, according to a new report by the Pew Research Center that says the religion will nearly equal Christianity by 2050 before eclipsing it around 2070, if current trends continue.

"The main reason Muslims are growing not only in number but in share worldwide is because of where they live," Alan Cooperman, Pew's director of religion research, tells NPR's Tom Gjelten. "Muslim populations are concentrated in some of the fastest-growing parts of the world."

The finding is part of the center's report on the future of the world's religions. You can see the full report at the Pew site, which has also published an interactive tool to help readers drill down by geography and religion.

"As of 2010, Christianity was by far the world's largest religion, with an estimated 2.2 billion adherents, nearly a third (31 percent) of all 6.9 billion people on Earth," the Pew report says. "Islam was second, with 1.6 billion adherents, or 23 percent of the global population."

Those numbers are predicted to shift in the coming decades, as the world's population rises to 9.3 billion by the middle of this century. In that time, Pew projects, Islam will grow by 73 percent while Christianity will grow by 35 percent — resulting in 2.8 billion Muslims and 2.9 billion Christians worldwide.

The report says that by 2050:

In the U.S., Christianity will decline to claim two-thirds of the population, instead of the more than three-quarters who claimed the religion in 2010.
Islam will supplant Judaism as the second-most popular religion in the U.S.
India will displace Indonesia as the home of the world's largest Muslim population, even as the country retains its Hindu majority.
In addition, Pew says, "Four out of every 10 Christians in the world will live in sub-Saharan Africa."

In addition to presenting raw numbers and projections, the Pew report looks at the demographic trends that are fueling the changes.

One factor is the wide range of fertility rates, with only Christians and Muslims currently higher than the world average fertility rate of 2.5.

Buddhists are seen having the lowest fertility rate — part of the reason why Buddhism is projected to be the world's only major religion that's projected not to grow over the next four decades.

While the growth of Islam is tied to fast-growing populations, Pew says, another group will be shrinking: those who are atheist, agnostic or unaffiliated with a religion. That group will decline globally, the center's reports says, despite "increasing in countries such as the United States and France."




There are important charts in this article that I can't copy into the Blogger program because it won't reproduce graphics – or I don't know how to do it properly, perhaps. Therefore I suggest you go to the website given above to look at those. Some Christians are fighting little miniwars against Islamic immigrants in cities in Europe and perhaps in the US, though I can't remember very many instances of that in the news here. There was a Sikh who was shot in cold blood at a gas station some 15 or 20 years ago, probably because he was wearing a turban.

I am afraid that if Christians don't start going in for religious tolerance now we may be the victims in years to come. We need to make friends with them, not try to suppress and abuse them. Let's go back to the “melting pot” in America. That produces a vibrant culture which welcomes new knowledge and allows people to rise in status in the society. That's good – it gives us an environment which is not at abusive and rigidly structured. Democrats love that kind of society. Unfortunately too many Republicans don't.

I would draw the line at allowing Sharia law to be recognized in the courts, though some of that has already occurred, at least in Britain. Segregated neighborhoods mean that people who are grouped together ethnically in one area in the US can possibly become the majority there and more strongly affect elections and laws in the US. They can “vote in” Sharia law. Several cases of “honor killings” and the horrible practice of mutilating a woman's genitalia in this country in a way that stops her from enjoying sex have been in the news in the US already. The theory with “female circumcision” is that a woman won't “stray” from her husband if that is done. It's a practice in the Middle East and in some African nations. One news article told of a poor teenaged girl in Africa who bled to death from that, and pain in that nerve filled part of the body must be horrific. The is often done without any anesthetic, also.

In France some of the problems there are occurring is because the dominant white Christians have segregated Muslims into poverty stricken areas, failed to allow the women to wear Islamic garb, and the immigrants aren't having an easy time getting work either. That's exactly what I think may happen in this country; after all that's what we do with blacks, and the black community is becoming a tinderbox of rage. That's dangerous for whites and blacks – a recipe for serious unrest.

We haven't had Muslim riots here yet like France, but it may come. Sometimes societies should change not only because they will become more humane and moral if they do, but because they may not survive if they don't. The South after the Civil War is such a case. We Southerners have failed to prosper as well as Northern industrialized areas do. We fought for the privilege of owning and too often abusing blacks as a part of the “state's rights” platform, but we lost that war in a truly devastating way and we have not really recovered from it. The industrialized and urban North was more viable in the end. It was a better and more flexible economic system in the North, also.

Until the last hundred or so years, the people in the South have been bound to the land, leaving them land rich but otherwise poor. The problem is that not everybody owns land, and if there aren't any factories around to give people jobs they can become totally destitute. That happened under the hated Calvin Coolidge, and only the equally hated FDR's reforms saved the poor people of this country in the Great Depression. It was, of course, mainly the rich who hated FDR. The poor farmers and jobless in the cities loved Roosevelt. He not only came up with a stroke of genius in the graduated income tax and other reforms, but created jobs which had dried up under Republican economic policies. He promoted art, for one thing. One of his “make work” laws was a plan under which artistic people of all kinds could get work with the government. There was also a plan to renew the crumbling infrastructure – building roads and the like. America's entering WWII also helped tremendously because industry suddenly had new business with the war effort.

See “Answers.Yahoo.Com” under the search term “Who was Rosie the Riveter?” That tells the background for the famous fictional Rosie The Riveter, who had to go to work in the factories because most of the men went into the army and left their factory jobs while aircraft and ships had to be built for the war effort. The real Rosie was modeled after a number of working women, but in particular Rose Will Monroe, who was born in Pulaski County, Kentucky in 1920 and moved to Michigan during World War II. She worked as a riveter at the Willow Run Aircraft Factory in Ypsilanti, Michigan, building B-29 and B-24 bombers for the U.S. Army Air Forces. Kay Kyser the famous band leader even created a song in her name.

To this day, unfortunately, the South is still an economic and cultural backwater in too many places. All of that rebellion in the Civil War was to protect the South from changing culturally. They strongly wanted to keep their slaves, and losing that hope, vigorously hated the laws that under FDR, greatly improved their lives – the black right to vote and the “welfare state,” which I prefer to call our “social safety net.” The undeniable Southern valor in the war under General Lee, however, was not worth the pain and destruction brought on by our failure to win. The North was simply stronger than we were. I grew up hearing the term “damn yankees” and seeing the Confederate Battle Flag flaunted frequently by some “rednecks,” as we city folk called them. We gambled in the attempted Secession and lost almost every bit of wealth that Southern whites had saved during the slave days. Let's face it, you can save lots of money if your workers don't have to be paid for their labor. Right!

The song called “Marching Through Georgia” is about the destruction of homes, the railroads, and in general everything of value that the Southerners possessed by the dreaded General Sherman. He was known for his ferocity in battle. What we should have done once we lost the war, however, would have been to adjust our attitudes to meet reality and then rebuild. That's what mature people learn to do, hopefully, before they die. Instead the KKK arose and the very abusive Jim Crow laws were enacted. That's what the 1960's Civil Rights movement was about – the reversal of Jim Crow. As a result of the inevitable federal smack down of the racist state governments over the issues of desegregating most aspects of Southern life, the modern era of racial hatred festered under the cover of grudging compliance. The struggle isn't over, and I think that it probably never will be. We now have the Tea Party to carry on that “proud” tradition, and right now state governments are trying to recreate the Old South and even – shockingly – set up a Dominionist government. That, to me, would signal the loss of our democratic form of government. Freedom of and freedom from religious practice is at the core of free thought and free speech. How depressing this all is. It does delineate the direction in which progressives need to march, however.





http://www.cbsnews.com/news/can-east-haven-ct-be-a-model-for-reforming-the-ferguson-police-force/

Can a Connecticut city be a model for reforming the Ferguson police force?
By PAULA REID CBS NEWS
April 2, 2015

Video – Fixing Ferguson

The Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division has wrapped-up three days of meetings in Ferguson, Missouri, as it works on coming up with a plan to tackle the discriminatory policing practices detailed in its searing 100-page report last month.

Justice officials and community leaders now have the option to come to an agreement on reforms, but if an agreement cannot be reached, the Department of Justice can sue to enforce changes to the police force.

The Justice Department says the meetings have been positive so far. "Community members were overwhelmingly committed to assist in the effort to achieve meaningful police and court reform as quickly as possible," Justice Department spokeswoman Dena Iverson said in a statement Wednesday.

Ferguson's Police Department is smaller than most of the other police forces that have come under scrutiny by the Justice Department - such as New Orleans, Seattle, Detroit, and Cleveland.

What can the Justice Department do to improve local police departments?

But the Department does have one potential role model for reforming Ferguson. It's looking at the successful turnaround of a similar size police force in East Haven, Connecticut as a template for reforms in Ferguson.

Six years ago, Father James Manship of the St. Rose of Lima Church in East Haven, Connecticut began to hear complaints from the members of his mostly Latino church about aggressive encounters with police officers.

Manship decided to record these encounters, and he began videotaping interactions with the East Haven Police Department. In 2009, he was arrested after recording two police officers inside a convenience store.

"I started to record their activity, and that is when I was arrested. A false report was made to justify the arrest. That [charge] eventually was dismissed," Manship said in an interview.

But that video eventually helped trigger a federal investigation into the East Haven, Connecticut police force. And in 2011, the Department of Justice made a finding that East Haven officers had, in fact, engaged in discriminatory policing against Latinos.

Just three years later, federal compliance reports describe the turnaround within the department as "remarkable."

Father Manship has seen the difference for himself. "On the ground, on a practical everyday level, things have changed. People can travel freely to and from their homes. They are not being continually harassed," he said.

Now the Department of Justice hopes that Ferguson can learn from the East Haven Police Department's experience.

Acting assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, Vanita Gupta, recently sat down with CBS News to discuss the Department's approach to reform in Ferguson.

She pointed out the differences between polices in bigger cities, compared to those in Ferguson or East Haven, saying, "With a smaller police department, the culture change, the tone setting, the accountability measures, those things can get put into place sometimes at a speedier rate, but it isn't easy anywhere."

Gupta says East Haven police reduced their use of excessive force and discriminatory ticketing with increased training, and by getting to know the people they serve.

"There was much greater engagement with the community so that outside of the enforcement context officers and leadership were meeting and understanding their community," Gupta said. "We gave the police department more the ability to self-correct when problems are identified. All of these things really put into place a new culture of policing in the town of East Haven."

As the Department now begins to apply these lessons to Ferguson, they say they want the input of the community. "The Justice Department can't come in and dictate everything: we need to hear from the city and community about what kind of police force they want in town," Gupta said.

The Justice Department says it intends to hold meetings in the coming weeks with Ferguson city officials, so that it can begin the process of negotiating a consent decree to reform the police department.




“The Justice Department says the meetings have been positive so far. "Community members were overwhelmingly committed to assist in the effort to achieve meaningful police and court reform as quickly as possible," Justice Department spokeswoman Dena Iverson said in a statement Wednesday. …. "I started to record their activity, and that is when I was arrested. A false report was made to justify the arrest. That [charge] eventually was dismissed," Manship said in an interview. But that video eventually helped trigger a federal investigation into the East Haven, Connecticut police force. And in 2011, the Department of Justice made a finding that East Haven officers had, in fact, engaged in discriminatory policing against Latinos. Just three years later, federal compliance reports describe the turnaround within the department as "remarkable." Father Manship has seen the difference for himself. "On the ground, on a practical everyday level, things have changed. People can travel freely to and from their homes. They are not being continually harassed," he said. …. Acting assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, Vanita Gupta, recently sat down with CBS News to discuss the Department's approach to reform in Ferguson. She pointed out the differences between polices in bigger cities, compared to those in Ferguson or East Haven, saying, "With a smaller police department, the culture change, the tone setting, the accountability measures, those things can get put into place sometimes at a speedier rate, but it isn't easy anywhere." …. "We gave the police department more the ability to self-correct when problems are identified. All of these things really put into place a new culture of policing in the town of East Haven." …. The Justice Department says it intends to hold meetings in the coming weeks with Ferguson city officials, so that it can begin the process of negotiating a consent decree to reform the police department.”

"There was much greater engagement with the community so that outside of the enforcement context officers and leadership were meeting and understanding their community," Gupta said. Gupta says East Haven police reduced their use of excessive force and discriminatory ticketing with increased training, and by getting to know the people they serve.” This particular comment is very encouraging to me. It means that even people who have in the past been abusive can change the way they view the poorer communities, coming to value the citizens as human beings rather than “objectifying” them as being – inferior, deeply criminal and dishonest, dangerous to the police officers, etc. Several of these articles on killings around the country included officers' statements that they “feared for their lives.” So they need to go on patrol in pairs so they can have a backup on hand if the encounter turns violent. In the words of Paul McCartney, “All You Need Is Love.” That's the big universal love of inclusion rather than exclusive “love” of their peers, or sexual love., or just the mere mouthing of the word to please their superior officers. It can't be about getting promotions, but about valuing all life in a way that includes different races, ethnicities and religions. It's a statement like “open up your heart and let the sunshine in!” I believe there is hope going on here. The people of Ferguson, the article said, are involved and enthusiastic about working on the problem in this way, and I believe they can do it.





http://www.cbsnews.com/news/noose-found-duke-university-sparks-protests-anger-over-apparent-racist-act/

Duke rocked by latest apparent act of racism
CBS NEWS
April 2, 2015

Duke University is condemning the latest apparent act of racism on campus. Students protested throughout the day as authorities investigated who left a noose hung from a tree on campus.

Duke's president, provost and student leaders said the noose does not reflect the university's values, but some activists seized on the incident as a sign that the school was not a safe place for African-Americans, reports CBS News correspondent Jericka Duncan.

By the time many Duke University students woke up Wednesday morning, their social media feeds were buzzing with photos of the noose.

"The biggest thing was kind of just shock and a little bit of disgust," Duke student John Park said. "The idea that there are people on this campus that we go to school with, that we go to class with every day, that are capable of doing things like that."

Made of a slender yellow rope, it was found hanging near a building housing the center for multicultural affairs and other organizations.

"We are not afraid. We stand together," people said during a march.

About 300 students marched to condemn the violent symbol of racism. Many more joined Duke officials at an afternoon forum.

"Without dialogue and without having the knowledge, the ignorance that happens here on campus will prevail, National Pan-Hellenic Council president Jason Ross said.

The noose was discovered around 2 a.m. Wednesday and The Duke People of Color Caucus published the photos.

The group was formed in response to another incident two weeks ago when a black female student claimed she was taunted with the same racist chant made infamous by fraternity brothers at the University of Oklahoma.

On its blog, the anonymous Duke student group called their university "a hostile environment for any and all black people."

On Wednesday, students, faculty and staff denounced racism and tried to bring unity back to their fractured campus.

"Things like this can't happen, and we need to all be responsible for making this a space that's safe for all the members of the community," Duke adjunct professor Stefania Heim said.

There are about 6,500 full-time undergraduates enrolled at Duke, and about 10 percent of them are African-American. The noose incident comes as Duke's renowned basketball team is preparing for its NCAA final four game Saturday.




“Duke's president, provost and student leaders said the noose does not reflect the university's values, but some activists seized on the incident as a sign that the school was not a safe place for African-Americans, reports CBS News correspondent Jericka Duncan. …. "The biggest thing was kind of just shock and a little bit of disgust," Duke student John Park said. "The idea that there are people on this campus that we go to school with, that we go to class with every day, that are capable of doing things like that." …. "We are not afraid. We stand together," people said during a march. About 300 students marched to condemn the violent symbol of racism. Many more joined Duke officials at an afternoon forum. "Without dialogue and without having the knowledge, the ignorance that happens here on campus will prevail, National Pan-Hellenic Council president Jason Ross said. The noose was discovered around 2 a.m. Wednesday and The Duke People of Color Caucus published the photos. …. "Things like this can't happen, and we need to all be responsible for making this a space that's safe for all the members of the community," Duke adjunct professor Stefania Heim said. There are about 6,500 full-time undergraduates enrolled at Duke, and about 10 percent of them are African-American.”

Duke is a prestigious university, so I wouldn't think the students there are inferior intellectually. They are, however, either on financial assistance programs or wealthy, and lots of wealthy people are “conservative.” That means they walk around with a closed mind and without much appreciation of human beings who are not on their social/financial level. Very often black and Hispanic students are poor, have less expensive clothing, can't afford to pledge a fraternity, may need help doing the college coursework there and are relatively powerless in the society so that they can be abused by rich kids with impunity. That's the real problem with the police abuse of blacks in so many communities. They get away with it, so they keep on doing it.

Hopefully that kind of thinking is improving with time. I think it has improved during my lifetime. When it comes to people who are sociopaths and don't give a flip about the human race except for themselves, however, they are incurable because they have no desire to change. A good firm hand by the University can improve what things they will try to do, however, and perhaps they will learn from the kind of public humiliation that happened to the Oklahoma student recently. The one boy who apologized before the camera appeared to be sincere about regretting the idiotic and horrible chant they were singing.

Just because they haven't learned basic decency yet doesn't in all cases mean they never will. Most people do improve with age and experience. Also, in most cases, things like the chants and leaving a noose on campus are mischief that heartless and aggressive students start, and the weaker “follower” type of personality will then “go along to get along.” The good news is that strength and the ability to think a situation through to make a better decision tend to be learned gradually from life's lessons. Hopefully these events around the country will start to appear less frequently. I think conservative people, too, have deep within them a heart, even if they haven't discovered it yet.






http://deadstate.org/chris-rock-takes-a-selfie-each-time-a-cop-pulls-him-over-for-driving-while-black/

Chris Rock takes a selfie each time a cop pulls him over for ‘driving while black’
posted by DeadState
April 1, 2015

During the 5th season of the Chris Rock Show, the actor and comedian gave some notable yet hilarious advice on how to avoid getting the hell beat out of you by the police. It looks like Rock is putting that advice to good use, considering the fact that he’s been pulled over by the police three times in a period of just 7 weeks.

“You keep notes. You look for the recurring,” Rock told Vulture in December, talking about how he creates his standup routines.

“What’s not going away? Boy, this police-brutality thing—it seems to be lingering. What’s going to happen here? You don’t even have the joke, you just say, ‘Okay, what’s the new angle that makes me not sound like a preacher?’ Forget being a comedian, just act like a reporter. What’s the question that hasn’t been asked? How come white kids don’t get shot? Have you ever watched television and seen some white kid get shot by accident?”

During each incident with the police, Rock posted a selfie to Twitter via WhoSay. Below is the latest photo, plus two more from February:



WhoSay
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

WhoSay is an American magazine and social media service for celebrities. Founded in Los Angeles in 2010, and owned by the talent agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA), it is notable for allowing its users to retain ownership rights over the content that they post to their accounts,[1][3] and for enabling users to post content to other social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Tumblrsimultaneously.[3] WhoSay describes itself as a "social celebrity magazine" whose editorial team keeps its users informed about the latest celebrity and entertainment news.[4]

Clients such as Dylan McDermott[5] and Chris Rockhave lauded the service for its ability to add content to multiple social network sites easily. Rock in particular has commented on its ease of use for those who are not part of a tech-savvy demographic, commenting, "It's perfect for someone that's not 25."[3]

WhoSay's competitors include the Audience, which is operated by the William Morris Endeavor.[5]

History[edit]

WhoSay was founded in March 2010.[2] It is owned by the Los Angeles-based talent agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA), Amazon.com (who both hold minority stakes in the company) and other investors such as Comcast. The company, which is operated from CAA's office building in theSilicon Beach area of Los Angeles,[1][5] as well as from offices in New York City and London,[2] was founded to protect celebrities' intellectual property[1] and enable the celebrities themselves to profit themselves from their own content.[5] Its chief executive is co-founder Steve Ellis, who, after leaving Getty Images, was contacted by CAA, who were looking to resolve the issue of celebrities losing the rights to their own photos and videos when uploading them to social network sites.

[2] Ellis explained WhoSay's mission thus: "We work with people who are constantly being utilized by third parties for the wrong reasons. [The company was formed] to give celebrities and other influential people a set of tools to allow them to manage and control their presence in the digital world."[1] In this way, WhoSay is likened by Ellis to "a People magazine by the people themselves who are in it."[5]

The company started slowly, until CAA client Tom Hanks signed onto WhoSay three months after the service's launch. The company continued to maintain a low profile for the first three years of operation, during which it accumulated a client list of 1,500 actors, musicians and artists. Clients are accepted by the service on an invitation-only basis, although they are not restricted to Creative Artists clients. Among them are Kelly Clarkson, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, Paula Patton,[5] Kevin Spacey,Jim Carrey, John Cusack, Bill Maher, Johnny Knoxville, Chelsea Handler, Eva Longoria, Spike Lee,Enrique Iglesias and Katie Couric.[1] 

Clients are not charged for the service, and are given a share of any revenue that is generated by advertisements. They are also given the ability share in the database of e-mail addresses that come with registration, in order to communicate directly with fans.[5] Actor Dylan McDermott was introduced to WhoSay by his agent, as a way of easily posting content to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and even China's Tencent social network with relative ease. McDermott comments, "When you put something out there, you can hit everything at one time. It makes it easy for me."[5] Comedian Chris Rock has commented that WhoSay is ideal for people like him have developed difficulty in keeping track of different websites as they get older, saying, "It's perfect for someone that's not 25."[3]

In April 2013 WhoSay introduced a mobile application for consumers.[5]
WhoSay does not allow consumers to create accounts, nor does it include search features, making it difficult to access a celebrity's account unless a user is directed there from one of their other social pages. According to Ellis, consumers have enough social media choices, saying, "Frankly they don't really need the services that we provide, and there are a lot of very specific features built into our service that really only benefit someone who is of a high profile."[2]




I have never before heard of WhoSay, and it's for celebs only, but the key point in this article to me is that Rock has persistenly posted video of these event with police officers on the Net. That's a good thing. It gets more action than a quiet and perhaps overly respectful letter the a police chief. It's probably as effective as having your lawyer write the complaint letter and threatening to sue. Police officers, to a man, are almost certainly not afraid of a black person they pull over and start to harass. The more people film the encounters, the more the police will pay attention to what they are doing and how they appear to others, and begin to act more carefully. People who are abusive don't respect their victims, which is why they do what they do. In one article yesterday or the day before, a truck driver was pulled over and harassed until he quietly said, “By the way this is being recorded.”





http://www.forwardprogressives.com/42-statements-made-by-ted-cruz-were-fact-checked-the-only-one-that-was-true-was-about-toilets/

42 Statements Made By Ted Cruz Were Fact-Checked – The Only One That Was True Was About Toilets
By Allen Clifton 
February 27, 2015

In case you haven’t heard, the annual CPAC conference is currently taking place. That means the Internet is sure to be inundated with some of the most ridiculous nonsense you’ve ever heard spewing from the mouths of those who are speaking at this event. Nothing brings out true idiocy quite like a bunch of Republicans getting together at a right-wing conference to give speeches aimed at pandering to some of the most ultra-conservative Americans in this country. When some of the featured speakers at an event are Sarah Palin, Ted Cruz, Ben Carson and Donald Trump – you can rest assured that stupidity will be flowing in abundance.

Well, one of my favorite fact-checking sites, Politifact, decided to promote the files they’ve put together for every speaker featured at this CPAC event, including the aforementioned Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). As most people are well aware, Cruz is possibly the most absurd member of our Congress. It has been clear since the very beginning that Cruz has had no intention of actually governing while serving as a U.S. Senator. He has essentially used his time as a senator to set up his glaringly obvious intention to run for president in 2016.

Nearly everything that comes out of his mouth is nothing more than some sort of drivel he believes that ultra right-wing conservative voters want to hear, because he’s well aware that those are the most consistent voters during primary season. Though let me be perfectly clear here, I don’t believe Cruz stands any chance at ever becoming president. He’s not even going to come close to winning the GOP nomination. But when Politifact decided to highlight the profiles of these various speakers, it reminded me of just how dishonest Cruz really is.

He has been a U.S. Senator for just over two years and in that time Politifact has only deemed one of his 42 statements they’ve investigated to be “True.” One.  And what was this one statement concerning? It was about toilet seats and the government regulations pertaining to businesses having to provide access to restrooms for workers and height requirements for public restrooms to accommodate people with disabilities. So, yes, Cruz was correct when he said that the government does regulate toilet seats. So, his lone “True” statement was actually just him complaining about sensible regulations pertaining to disability access to public restrooms, and businesses being required to provide access to toilets for their workers. As they say, the stupid – it burns.

Aside from his one “True” statement pertaining to toilets, 65 percent of his statements they’ve investigated have been deemed “Mostly False,” “False,” or “Pants on Fire.” That means the vast majority of the statements that come out of his mouth are either misleading or flat-out lies. There’s no two ways about it, Cruz has an absolutely horrendous record when it comes to being honest. Though I’m sure that this information comes as a surprise to absolutely no one who’s followed the Texas senator since he was elected back in 2012. Cruz, more so than the average politician (which is saying something), has built an entire political career based on tea party talking points and blatant lies.




Too many government officials are liars. What gets me about Cruz is that he has a truly destructive streak – in his short time in office he has shut down the government trying to force an unpopular bill through by tying it to the budget, and amid what I can only call “strutting around in front of the camera” has announced his intention to run for president. He is not merely a “lightweight,” he is a dodo bird. I don't care if he did go to Harvard Law School, he doesn't have much wisdom. He is also, and I will say this only once, one of the more homely men I have ever seen, partly because of his smug facial expression. One article on the Net today said that he believes his “religious freedom” views will appeal to voters. It will appeal to the bigots and the ignorant, but it won't appeal to as many members of the public as a Jeb Bush, who has a more gentle personality like his father, will. I won't vote for either of them, of course.