Daily Archives: March 25, 2021

Campaigners for the abolition of nuclear weapons had every reason to clink glasses with the coming into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in January. Nuclear weapon states and their allies still persisted in calling the document unhelpful and unrealistic; the self-appointed realists have preferred the go-slow approach of disarmament, a form of moderated insanity.

In March, it became clear that the United Kingdom, one of the opponents of the TPNW, had decided not only to look the other way but walk in the opposite direction. The threshold of British nuclear warheads is to be increased to 260, though the authorities maintain an intentional ambiguity about the exact number. This reverses a decision arrived at a decade ago, which promised to cut the maximum threshold for nuclear warheads from 225 to 180 by the middle of this decade. In the words of the Defence Command Paper of the Ministry of Defence, titled Defence in a competitive age, Some nuclear-armed states are increasing and diversifying their arsenals, while increases in global competition, challenges to the multilateral order, and proliferation of potentially disruptive technologies all pose a threat to strategic stability.

Such a direction is very much at odds with public support for Britain joining the TPNW. A poll conducted in January for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament found that 59% of the public expressed support for signing the treaty, including 50% of conservative voters and 68% of Labour voters. The policy also breaches undertakings made under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to pursue efforts to disarm. Beatrice Fihn, Executive Director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, decried the decision as toxic masculinity on display, irresponsible, dangerous, and violates international law. UNA-UKs Head of Campaigns Ben Donaldson remarked that the UK government could best invest in measures to combat climate change and pandemics, not trigger a dangerous new arms race.

The push towards more nukes would seem to be a compensation for reducing numbers in other areas of defence. While the nuclear arsenal is slated to increase, the number of soldiers in service will decline: from the current target of 82,040 to 72,500 in 2025. (Even here, a bit of make-believe is taking hold, given that the Army currently has 76,350 soldiers in service.) Effectively, Britain wants to roar with less, all part of what Defence Secretary Ben Wallace calls increased deployability and technological advantage.

The justifications for doing so, outlined in the Defence Command Paper, are the immemorial ones: new threats, new security environments, and a topsy-turvy world. The notion of war and peace as binary states, writes Wallace in the papers foreword, has given way to a continuum of conflict, requiring us to prepare our forces for more persistent global engagement and constant campaigning, moving seamlessly from operating to war fighting.

The review identifies four overarching trends of concern for the UK: the growing importance of the Indo-Pacific, Chinas assertiveness and the influence of middle powers; systemic inter-state competition, including between governments with democratic and authoritarian values; the challenge of technology, beneficial but also becoming an arena of intensifying geopolitical competition; and various transnational challenges requiring collective action, such as climate change, biosecurity risks, terrorism, and serious and organised crime.

This sounds very much like an ominous promise to commit Britain to a state of affairs which is reminiscent of that most absurd of US policies: the waging of permanent war for permanent peace. But Wallace wishes to be farsighted, urging the dinosaurs to move over and forget the shield of sentimentality to protect previously battle-winning but now outdated capabilities.

The theatre for this commitment will not just be the conventional ones centred on the NATO alliance. Officially, Britain is again looking east of Suez, with an eye to drawing in old allies. Our partnerships with Canada, Australia, and New Zealand will be at the heart of our tilt towards the Indo-Pacific, as we work to support them to tackle the security challenges in the region. Central to the tilt will be the maritime partnership with India. The object of the exercise is clear enough. The rising power of China is by far the most significant geopolitical factor in the world today. Britain had to be prepared to push back to protect our values and global interests, while maintaining our ability to cooperate in tackling global challenges such as climate change and the mutual benefits of our economic relationship.

The way this Global Britain vision is going to be achieved is a novel one. Fewer personnel will have fewer tanks (reduced from 226 to 148 upgraded versions). The RAF will oversee the retirement of its older Typhoons (equipment that has increasingly limited utility in the digital and future operating environment) and Hercules transport aircraft. The Navy will also farewell its share: two of the oldest T23 frigates. We will bring Type 31 and Type 32 frigates into service, these new vessels are not just replacements for existing platforms, they will be more flexible than their predecessors.

The defence paper abounds in the terms of an accountant gone wild, intoxicated by notions of bottom lines and efficiencies. Fleets are to be rationalised or retired; capabilities must be increased; the stress must be on the digital. But on the subject of nuclear weapons, Global Britains eyes remain very much focused on the past, shackled to the notion that a greater number of nukes somehow guarantees security. A certifiably barbaric relic of thinking.

If you're interested in writing for International Policy Digest - please send us an email via submissions@intpolicydigest.org

Read the original:

Increasing Nukes and Trimming the Military: Global Britain's Skewed Vision - International Policy Digest

TACOMA, Washington The practice of bonded labor has existed across the world for centuries. To many, the term slavery in the current context may seem shocking. However, Anti-Slavery International estimates that about 40 million people around the world are trapped in modern slavery today. It is particularly pervasive in India. Bonded labor in India remains widespread despite government efforts to outlaw it. However, the Indian government is employing various strategies to bring an end to this form of forced labor in the nation.

Bonded labor in India is tied strongly to the nations history and various forms of structural inequality that are embedded in Indian society. The caste system in India has a complex beginning that is related to both British colonial rule and Hinduism. The modern manifestations of the caste system continue to discriminate and subordinate people of lower castes. These people are often called Untouchables or Dalits.

Professor Narendra Subramanian is a professor of politics and comparative government at McGill University, specializing in South Asian politics. He gave The Borgen Project some insightful information about the relationship between caste and bonded labor. Professor Subramanian noted that there is a difference between caste-related bondage and debt bondage, but that the two often coincide.

Caste-based bondage is often based on ancestral ties, Subramanian said. He explained that ancestral bondage involves, kind of like slavery, people that may continue to be bonded to the same landlords and plantation owners based on their own ancestors having been bonded to that family.

Yet, people of lower castes who are not involved in caste-based bondage are still some of the most vulnerable to debt bondage because of their economic positionality. Subramanian explained that the groups that experienced ancestral bondage lower castes and some tribal groups have the greatest propensity to fall into the most usurious forms of debt because they have difficulty accessing loans.

Thus, people are often recruited into deceptive labor contracts in which they are advanced a small loan from labor brokers or employers and asked to migrate for work. Then, instead of being paid on a monthly or weekly basis, their labor is quantified as repayment for this loan. Often, bonded laborers work for little to no pay and have no say in the terms of their debt. These conditions make it easier for their employers to exploit them, making it impossible to pay off their debt.

The Indian government outlawed debt bondage and other forms of bonded labor in 1976. Under Indira Gandhis authority, the Indian government integrated the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act (BLSA) into the Indian Constitution.

The BLSAs terms called for the immediate freedom of every worker trapped under conditions of bondage in India. Despite this, a systematic survey conducted by the Gandhi Peace Foundation and the National Labour Institute in December 1978 found that there were still 2.62 million bonded laborers in India at that time.

Subramanian explained that the continuation of bonded labor in India is largely due to a lack of enforcement. He also elaborated that the laws were more effective in areas where the affected groups are more mobilized [through]civil society organizations, NGOs, and political parties that engage these groups. In effect, the regions where the BLSA is more strongly enforced have been those where debt bondage is less widespread.

However, this is not to say that government initiatives have not affected debt bondage at all. Between 1996 and 2004, a government-appointed commission identified, and subsequently, released 285,379 bonded laborers across India. Today, the state continues to make legal and practical efforts to eradicate bonded labor in India with the support of civil society organizations and NGOs.

In October 2020, the World Bank warned that global extreme poverty would rise for the first time since 1998. This invariably affects Indias lowest caste the most. According to Brookings, Indias per capita growth rate for 2020 has been revised downward to about 11%, one of the deepest recessions in the world. Subramanian expounds that people will lose their jobs and suffer from food insecurity. These conditions will make people more vulnerable to bonded labor.

It is also crucial to recognize regional differences when it comes to debt bondage, poverty and caste. India is a geographically expansive nation with differing political, social and economic dynamics in each region. Subramanian believes that the economic effects of COVID-19 will be felt most in regions where they havent consolidated strength that much.

In the long-term, addressing structural inequality is the key to eradicating bonded labor. The avenues through which this can be achieved are multifaceted and complex; however, the most important aspect is to empower individuals at the bottom of the socioeconomic hierarchy of India.

In 2010, the government of the Bihar region implemented Mahadalit Vikas Yojana (Plan for the Development of Mahadalits). This plan focuses mostly on education and land redistribution. It provides small plots of land for development as well as skill-building and self-help resources for the lower casts.

Subramanian emphasized that the central role of land redistribution and reform is aimed to uplift Indias poor. He claimed that unequal agrarian relations remain a fundamental reason for the propensity of falling into debt bondage in India.

To push for extensive land reform, Subramanian noted that lower castes must organize politically and pressure regional authorities for change. He explained that the places where significant reform has been undertaken are places where there is strong mobilization by the concerned groups [] combined with political parties responding to this.

In 2015, the Indian government launched another, more widespread initiative called the Skills India Initiative. This educational program aimed to impart various skills to 400 million individuals by 2022. However, structural barriers have prevented many from qualifying for this initiative. To qualify for Skills India, the government requires enrollees to have graduated from school, which many poor Indians are unable to do.

Bonded labor in India is a difficult issue to address and will certainly take years to eradicate. COVID-19 has been a setback to this effort. However, through further reforms and effective civil society initiatives, the government continues to wage a strong fight against bonded labor in India.

Leina Gabra Photo: Flickr

See the article here:

Will Bonded Labor in India Ever Come To An End? - BORGEN - Borgen Project

The Department of Justice has said there will be no change to the Governments policy of not allowing garda to go on strike.

In a report published on Wednesday, the European Committee on Social Rights said Ireland remained in breach of provisions of the European Social Charter.

It said domestic legislation still prescribes to a complete abolition of the right to strike as far as the police is concerned.

In response, the department said industrial action by police was banned in many states reprsented at the Council of Europe.

Many of these states, notwithstanding that they have multiple police services, and separate security and immigration services, prohibit the taking of industrial action by police, it said.

It said the question of the right to strike was considered by the Murphy working group, which was established by the then Government in 2017 to address the industrial relation structures available to An Garda Sochna.

The group had recommended that constraints on striking should be maintained, it noted.

It said the group found that this created a particular obligation to ensure that the dispute resolution and negotiation processes to be put in place are robust and effective, and that the members of An Garda Sochna are not disadvantaged as a result.

The department said the European Committee of Social Rights report acknowledged much of the work done by Ireland, including amendments to the Industrial Relations Acts which provide members of An Garda Sochna and the Garda Associations with full and equal access to the Workplace Relations Commission and the Labour Court.

Originally posted here:

Deparment of Justice signals no change on ban on strikes by garda - The Irish Times

THEEUROPEAN COMMITTEE of Social Rights (ECSR) has criticised the government for not allowing An Garda Sochna or the Defence Forces to take part in industrial action for pay and work conditions.

The Council of Europe committee released a report todaycalled Findings 2020, listing breaches of the European Social Charter by its signatories, of which Ireland is one.

In its findings in relation to Ireland, the Committee concluded that preventing Garda representative groups from joining national organisations was a violation of Article 5 of the Charter, and was having the factual effect of depriving them to negotiate on pay, pensions and service conditions represented by national organisations.

The Committee also found that there was a violation of Article 6.2 of the Charter onthe ground that Garda representative associations were not provided with a meansto effectively represent their members in all matters concerning their material andmoral interests; and a violation of Article 6.4 on the ground that Irelands legislation amounted to a complete abolition of the right to strike as far as the police is concerned.

It found the same violations of Article 5 and 6.2 in relation to the Defence Forces representative organisations.

In the 18th National Report on the implementation of the European Social Charter, submitted by the Irish Government, it stated that the Garda representative bodies continue to have full and equal access to national public service pay negotiations.

It also stated that new internal Garda dispute resolution mechanisms have beenimplemented.

Sinn Fin spokesperson on workers Rights Louise OReilly said that this isnt the first time this finding had been made.

In this latest report, the Social Rights Committee has made many of the same findings against the Irish government as it has in previous years.

Indeed, despite promises from successive governments to addressed these issues, we are back to square one with the committee finding that the refusal to allow An Garda Sochna and the Defence Forces the right to fully participate in negotiations regarding their pay and service, and the denial of a right to strike, is in breach of the European Social Charter.

The committee has called on the government to implement the measures needed to remedy the situation, and it has made specific reference for this to be done in relation to the measures taken to address the abolition of the right to strike.

This report should be a wake-up call, in particular to Fianna Fil and the Green Party.

These parties need to ask themselves if they will continue to implement Fine Gael policies which deny An Garda Sochna and the Defence Forces the right to be represented and collectively negotiate pay deals, or if they will stand up for the workers rights of Garda and the Defence Force members.

#Open journalism No news is bad news Support The Journal

Your contributions will help us continue to deliver the stories that are important to you

The Committees other findings: housing

The Committee also found the Government were violating Article 16 of the Charter on grounds of providing insufficient accommodation for Travellers, and evictions were carried out without safeguards.

It also found another violation of Article 16 in relation to the poor quality of housing made available to local-authority tenants, citing persistent conditions like sewage invasions, contaminated water, dampness and mould went to the core of what adequate housing means.

Despite a large number of people remained in substandard housing conditions, no complete statistics on the condition of local authority housing have been collected since 2002 by the Irish authorities. No national timetable existed for the refurbishment of local authority housing stock.

For these reasons, the Committee found that the Government had failed to take sufficient and timely measures to ensure the right to housing of an adequate standard for not an insignificant number of families living in local authority housing, and therefore Ireland had violated Article 16.

See original here:

Refusal to allow Garda and Defence Forces to negotiate pay or strike is breach of European Social Charter - thejournal.ie

Police departments around the United States operate with limited oversight and that is a problem.

Its a problem that has led to adverse outcomes for citizens, from killings to assaults to improper detention, but, far too often, little accountability on the part of police. For instance, of the 249,782 allegations of misconduct Chicago police officers faced from 1988 to 2021, only 17,130 about 7 percent resulted in disciplinary action, according to the Citizens Police Data Project. For about 30 percent of those officers, that discipline came in the form of a reprimand.

Whats also a problem is that the kind of data thats available for Chicago is not available for all of the United States roughly 18,000 police organizations. Bowling Green State University criminal justice professor Philip Matthew Stinson has tried to fill a portion of this gap by collecting data for on-duty police shootings and has noted a similar pattern of a lack of police accountability.

He found that between 2005 and 2020, 126 police officers were arrested for either murder or manslaughter following a shooting, and that of those 126, only seven were convicted of murder. These arrests represent just a fraction of the police killings during those 15 years for example, in the first two months of 2021, police killed at least 171 people, according to Mapping Police Violence.

Currently, the federal government does have the ability to investigate police departments that have demonstrated a pattern of misconduct, but a willingness to pursue these sorts of inquiries can wax and wane depending on who is leading the Department of Justice. And even a motivated Justice Department can struggle with these investigations the DOJ has historically been resource-limited when it comes to such work, with respect to both personnel and funding.

The most recent move to expand the federal governments oversight abilities was the House of Representatives passing the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, but it is unclear whether that legislation will become law. The bill faces a difficult road in the Senate, needing the backing of at least 10 Republican senators something it seems highly unlikely to receive.

Were the Justice in Policing Act to become law, it would require federal law enforcement to enact changes like mandating that officers wear body cameras, and would incentivize state and local departments over which the federal government has little control to do the same. Its unclear whether these changes would have the intended effect of reducing violence as activists have pointed out, racial bias training and body cameras did not stop George Floyds killing in Minneapolis. With respect to oversight, the bill would expand the Justice Departments investigative powers, increasing the departments ability to pursue misconduct cases.

An unorthodox proposal from two legal scholars argues for going further than the Justice in Policing Act, however, attempting to circumvent the federal governments current lack of influence over state and local departments through more rigorous oversight. Under this plan, any department that pulls one of its automatic triggers would have to submit to federal supervision, working with federal officials to make the sorts of changes many police leaders have long resisted.

The plan by Jason Mazzone, director of the program of constitutional theory, history, and law at the University of Illinois, and Loyola University associate professor of law Stephen Rushin is modeled on the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which put areas that failed to meet certain voting rights standards under federal supervision.

You really cannot fix this big problem unless you do it top-down perhaps in partnership with local reform efforts but you really need a federal response, Mazzone told me.

Under Mazzone and Rushins proposal, any jurisdiction that did not meet federal criteria for fair policing would be subject to federal oversight, and the changes that would come with it. For instance, a department that demonstrated a pattern of violence might be required to enact deescalation procedures or to adopt more stringent use-of-force standards as well as severe punishments for officers who have violated them.

While this style of oversight would go further than that proposed by the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, it is not as sweeping as some other plans, like the Movement for Black Lives BREATHE Act, which calls for defunding a number of federal agencies and for their budgets to be reinvested in community programs and initiatives that target the root causes of police misconduct, from education to housing.

Our proposal would almost certainly involve, in some cases, more money being invested in policing, more money invested in oversight, or money invested in accountability mechanisms, Rushin said, adding, Our proposal is a little bit more focused upon viewing policing as something that needs to exist, will exist, and needs to be well regulated to ensure the protection of civil rights for anyone who comes into contact with law enforcement.

This stance makes Mazzone and Rushins proposal something of a middle ground between some of the reforms in the Justice in Policing Act and more revolutionary divestment proposals. Were it to be taken up, it would push police toward greater accountability without a complete overhaul of the institution. It would not be a panacea, but as Rev. Raymond Greene, executive director of Freedom BLOC, told me, it would be a step in the right direction.

In a period in which there is unique attention on racist policing of people of color particularly Black Americans the time could be right for a federal oversight framework that has been successful before.

This may be the moment in the same way that just before the Voting Rights Act of 1965, there was this shift in the national mood, and the national sense that some reform was needed, Mazzone said.

Mazzone and Rushin argue that federal police reform efforts are trapped in a place similar to federal efforts to guarantee voting rights prior to 1965; that current law, which gives the DOJ the power to investigate police departments engaging in a pattern of misconduct, is limited in its effectiveness.

The DOJ only has the resources to launch a few investigations at a time because they can lead to expensive and drawn-out lawsuits if wrongdoing is uncovered, as Voxs Ian Millhiser has explained. These lawsuits can be so costly and convoluted, in fact, that offending departments would often enter into consent decrees with the federal government essentially agreeing to make changes under the supervision of a judge in order to avoid having to deal with the suit.

And even getting to the lawsuit or consent decree phase has historically been challenging for the federal government, Rushin noted.

During the Obama administration [and] during the Clinton administration, the federal government and the Civil Rights Division were only able to use the existing law to bring about consent decrees in a very small number of cities annually, Rushin said. Were talking about, like, three cities per year [that] they could investigate, and maybe one or two per year they could initiate a consent decree against.

And this process is also flawed in that it depends on an executive branch interested in police oversight; the Trump administration was vehemently against consent decrees and refused to use them. Trumps first Attorney General Jeff Sessions called consent decrees an insult, and as his final act as head of the Justice Department, severely restricted the departments ability to employ them. Even the expanded powers that the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act gives the attorney general would not solve this problem having more subpoena power does not matter if the attorney general is unwilling to use it.

Ahead of the Voting Rights Act, Mazzone and Rushin note, the federal government was in a similar situation. While the executive branch was willing to pursue legal challenges to voting rights abuses, its resources were strained by what was essentially a game of whack-a-mole, as federal court victories were sometimes ignored by local officials.

Voting and policing are similar, in that when problems arise, the problems can be distributed unevenly, Mazzone said. The way that you can deal with them can become really problematic because you can go after one problem, but then theres always another one that will pop up somewhere else. And its very hard to generate any sort of comprehensive reform.

The Voting Rights Act solved this problem by mandating federal oversight for any state or local area that used what were essentially racist practices (like poll or literacy tests) or had low Black voter turnout because of these practices (like any locality in which fewer than half of all voting-age citizens were registered to vote).

As the Economic Policy Institute has explained, these restrictions were strikingly effective. In 1964, for instance, only 22.5 percent of Black Americans living in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, and South Carolina were registered to vote; the situation was particularly dire in Mississippi, where nearly 95 percent of white Americans were registered to vote, but only 5.1 percent of Black residents were.

Under the Voting Rights Act, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, South Carolina, Louisiana, and Virginia became covered jurisdictions in their entirety, as did 40 counties in North Carolina. All of these jurisdictions were subject to the acts preclearance system, which meant any changes governments wanted to make to their voting rules had to be cleared ahead of time by the Department of Justice or a federal judge. The act was ultimately successful in increasing turnout of voters of color a 2018 study found that it did so by as much as 30 percent.

A policing law based on this model would rely on triggers as well. If a department surpasses a given number of civilian killings, for example, then it will fall under federal oversight. Other triggers Mazzone and Rushin suggest using: the number of police use-of-force incidents; how often civil rights suits are brought against a given department; the frequency of payouts by a given local government; abnormalities in arrest, search, or stop data; and the content and number of disciplinary records and complaints against a departments officers.

That oversight could take a variety of forms. Just as the Voting Rights Act, for instance, contained a ban on poll tests being used in any covered jurisdiction, a policing law following its model could include policies like a chokehold ban, limits to drug enforcement activities, or a requirement for police academies to spend more time on deescalation training.

Ideally, this plan would solve the issue of state and local governments failing to institute real and lasting reforms. But some reformers told me they were concerned about the federal governments ability to do any better.

I still think theres a deep-seated vein of white supremacy and anti-Black bias within the Justice Department and the FBI, and that I would worry about still having some type of control, oversight over police departments, DeAngelo Bester, executive director of the Workers Center for Racial Justice, said.

Bester also questioned if the federal government would have the resources to conduct oversight as needed.

Im assuming there would be hundreds, if not thousands, of police districts that this type of oversight would cover, Bester said. I just dont know if it can be done, feasibly, to really have preclearance for that many police districts.

Overall, Bester said, Were in favor of it in theory, but I guess just in practical terms, I have concerns about how it will be applied and implemented.

Greene echoed these concerns, saying that for Freedom BLOC, transformational justice is our number one.

I think its a step to start having conversations about state-sanctioned violence being held accountable, Greene said, but added, I think we have to begin the conversation of transformational justice and get to a place of abolition, and raising up a new generation thats able to handle and deal with conflict in a different kind of way than we see now.

One key issue with Mazzone and Rushins plan is that it would require the federal government to have a granular level of policing data and at the moment, data reporting is incredibly uneven. The federal government has a better understanding of what goes on in certain departments than others and in some cases, has little to no idea whats happening.

For instance, not all police misconduct settlements are public; police disciplinary records are confidential in 23 states; and the quality of available data has been called into question by some researchers, who argue unconscious bias and sometimes, outright lies taint police reports, creating inaccurate records of encounters with civilians.

Lying is a normal part of policing in many places across the country, Stinson, the Bowling Green professor, who is also a former police officer, told me. Police officers lie in their reports. They write narratives up to justify the actions that they wanted to take or did take.

New efforts are being made to collect the data police generate, good or bad, but have not yet been passed into law. The 2021 George Floyd Justice in Policing Act would collect use-of-force data for a publicly accessible federal database, and the Cost of Police Misconduct Act which Virginia Democrats Sen. Tim Kaine and Rep. Don Beyer hope to add as an amendment to the Justice in Policing Act as it makes its way through the Senate would also create a publicly accessible federal database, tracking police misconduct allegations and settlements at both the state and federal levels.

Whether state and local governments will turn the data in as requested isnt certain, however.

Even with good data, oversight like Mazzone and Rushin propose would face a host of challenges.

For one thing, Republicans in Congress have been critical of the police reform proposals contained in the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, and the professors plan arguably takes those reforms a step further. And even if the professors proposal were to become law, it would likely encounter legal challenges, which Bester also noted.

Any legal case against oversight-based reform would likely turn on the fact that the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in 2013 in Shelby County v. Holder, citing the formula used to decide which areas required oversight as problematic.

But Rushin noted that Court invalidated the Voting Rights Act because of the fact that the formula itself was no longer constitutionally valid. It didnt say that the formula system that we talked about couldnt be used, or the preclearance system, etc., couldnt exist. It just said that the formula that was being used was relying upon data thats no longer good data.

All that needs to be done to get around oversight running into Shelby County-style issues, Mazzone said, is for Congress to be careful in terms of the particular mechanisms that its going to impose upon the states. The easiest way to do that, Rushin said, is to collect good data.

Historically, the federal government has struggled with this and police departments have not always been prompt or cooperative in providing data. The federal government does not really have much leverage to force departments to submit their data, but Beyer said that shouldnt stop lawmakers from trying to access it.

Skepticism is probably appropriate just look at how difficult its been to collect the data on hate crimes, Beyer told me. But we have to start. I think any data we collect is going to be enlightening, and teach us more about how best to collect the data. And the fact that its going to be difficult is not a reason not to do it.

Rushin said the same is true of increasing federal oversight of police in general: I recognize its hard, but I also think its plausible and doable, and Congress has done more difficult things in the past.

Whether Congress can successfully pass police reform remains to be seen: The Justice in Policing Act will test the Democratic majoritys ability to win Republican votes. If they fail to do so, Democratic senators will likely face increased pressure from reformers to abolish the filibuster, allowing bills to be passed by majority votes. And should that legislation succeed, there will be pressure from activists to take steps toward more sweeping reforms like those proposed in the BREATHE Act, or Mazzone and Rushins plan.

In part thanks to 2020s civil rights protests, Mazzone said Americans have become more vocal with their concerns about policing, and that pressure to make significant changes is steady.

I dont know if its exactly the same kind of national attention as we saw just before the enactment of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, Mazzone said. But its pretty close in terms of a kind of shift in public attention and public mood, and much more interest across political lines across the broad public, in terms of actually doing something.

Excerpt from:

How the federal government could improve police oversight - Vox.com

An 1830s homeinWalled Lake, thecity's oldest houseand once a stop on the Underground Railroad, got a partial makeover Wednesday as crews installed new windows in it to hopefully open a portion to the public for tours this summer.

The house, called the Banks-Dolbeer-Bradley-Foster farmhouse, has sat closed and inaccessible to the public for more than 25 years in Walled Lake's Riley Park on Common Street after it was moved in the mid-1990sfrom its original location roughly a mile away on Pontiac Trail. City leaders tried to restore the historic home ontheir own but were never able to make enough repairsto open it safely for tours.

Alex Stonepainter, 47, crew chief for Especially Windows & Remodeling, prepares to install a window on the second level of the Banks-Dolbeer-Bradley-Foster Farmhouse in Riley Park, a 19th century house that is believed to have been on the Underground Railroad in Walled Lake.(Photo: Clarence Tabb Jr., The Detroit News)

Now, local businessman Jerry Millen, the owner of Greenhouse, a cannabis store in downtown Walled Lake who can see the historic house from his parking lot, is hoping to change that. He spearheaded aneffort to install $35,000 in new windows, donating $10,000 himself. Antcliff Windows and Doors supplied the windows and Especially Windows and Remodeling installed them.

It's about helping "preserve a piece of history because if we dont, its going to be gone," said Millen, who also hadthe house painted.

Jerry Millen, 53, owner of Greenhouse of Walled Lake, donated money to help with the cost for the new windows at the Banks-Dolbeer-Bradley-Foster Farmhouse .(Photo: Clarence Tabb Jr., The Detroit News)

The goal, Millen said, is tocontinue to restore at least a portion of the house, likely the front parlor,and open it for tours during Walled Lake's annual Beach Party this summer, either in July or August. A date hasn't been decided yet because of COVID-19 restrictions.

Mayor Linda Ackley is thrilledthat so many businesses are donating their time and energyto save an important part of Walled Lake's history.

"Im a history buff and I can remember as a kid, going to this home and just being in awe that it was such a beautiful shape," said Ackley. "And to hear the storiesthat it was a part of the Underground Railroadfor those tryingto flee slavery and to go on to a life of freedom... this is such a very important part of American history."

John Owsinek, 79, of the Walled Lake City Council, points to the 1850 original ceiling medallion in the house's parlor.(Photo: Clarence Tabb Jr., The Detroit News)

Originally built as a log cabin in the 1830s -- horsehair plaster was used inside on the walls -- local officials say it was on the Underground Railroad as former slaves tried to make their way along Pontiac Trail north to Port Huron and ultimately Canada. In the 1850s an Italianate portion was added to the house.

One famous occupant was Dr. Sarah Gertrude Banks, one of the first women to graduate from the University of Michigan Medical School. She eventually became the personal physician of Clara Bryant Ford, Henry Ford's wife, and was active in the suffrage movement.

The house "was a center for three different movements at the turn of the century -- suffrage, abolition and temperance," said City Councilman John Owsinek, who worked with Ackley at one point on their own to try to fix the house enough to open it.

The farmhouse changed hands several times in the 1900s and in 1967 was slated to be bulldozed to make way for condominiums before it was rescued by city officials and local history lovers, who had it moved to Riley Park.

Mike Kuehnle, 40, left, windows installer for Especially Windows & Remodeling, and his crew chief, Alex Stonepainter,47, prepare to install a window on the Banks-Dolbeer-Bradley-Foster Farmhouse in Walled Lake's Riley Park.(Photo: Clarence Tabb Jr., The Detroit News)

But it hadno electricity,water or sewer. Officials worked to install utilities and do other upkeep, but it was never enough to open the house for tours.

Everyone always had high hopes for its restoration, said Ackley. Envisioned as a possible museum. A place for Downtown Development Authority offices and Chamber of Commerce.

Different groups became interested and became involved but as money ran out, so did enthusiasm, she said. It had been moved and reassembled, but the front porch was never restored and its backside needed considerable work.

Ackley said a few years ago she had a conversation over coffee with Millen, who asked what he could do to make a lasting impression and make Walled Lake a destination.

We talked of the Foster Farmhouse and he said he would think about it," said Ackley.

Now, Millenis determined to keep Wednesday's momentum moving forward. Now that 22 newwindows are installed -- he acknowledges that theyaren't historically accurate but it would've very expensive to restore the original,or get more period-appropriate, windows-- he plans to keep working on the parlor, refinishing the floors and painting it or installing wallpaper. He's also looking for period-appropriate furniture, using old photos toguide him.

Millen said his restoration efforts arealso a chance to show off the good the cannabis industry can do.Baked Cannabis of Burton and Treehouse CBD have also contributed to the restoration efforts.

"There are good people in cannabis," said Millen. "Cannabis is not the devil. So its a good way to highlight the cannabis industry."

mfeighan@detroitnews.com

Read or Share this story: https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/oakland-county/2021/03/24/walled-lake-banks-house-underground-railroad/6970626002/

Continued here:

'Piece of history' in Walled Lake that was once on Underground Railroad gets partial makeover - The Detroit News

By Nick Reynolds, WyoFile

The Wyoming Legislature has considered repealing the death penalty many times. But its only come close once.

In 2019 Rep. Jared Olsen (R-Cheyenne) the first Republican champion after years of Democratic sponsorship picked up the mantle of death penalty repeal, taking on the subject from an angle of government mistrust and fiscal conservatism, rather than the traditional moral argument against the state-sanctioned killing of a human being.

Though the state has not ordered an execution since that of convicted killer Mark Hopkinson in 1992, simply keeping the death penalty on the books costs Wyoming more than $1 million each year, Olsen explained. Actually trying a capital-punishment case costs taxpayers millions more, he argued.

A long-held stereotype is that conservatives in this country favor capital punishment, while liberals oppose it, Olsen wrote in a 2019 op-ed in the New York Times. But that doesnt accord with reality: In recent years, more conservatives have come to realize that capital punishment conflicts irreconcilably with their principles of valuing life, fiscal responsibility and limited government.

But after passing the House of Representatives that winter, Olsens bill House Bill 145 Death penalty repeal-2 failed to pass an introduction vote in the Senate. Nearly two-thirds of the chamber voted against it.

Two years later, the repeal effort has again taken root, this time in the same body that killed it so resoundingly two years ago. Sen. Brian Boners (R-Douglas) Senate File 150 Death penalty repeal advanced out of committee last week to the Senate floor. The House of Representatives, meanwhile, preemptively passed a budget amendment to defund the states death penalty program should the Senate choose to repeal it.

Those arent the only differences this time around. The bill also comes on the heels of a multi-year public awareness campaign by an unlikely coalition of faith leaders, conservative groups and liberal advocacy organizations to bring a permanent end to the death penalty in Wyoming.

Its a formula that some close observers of the legislature hope might finally prove successful in a state that has long rebuffed the measure.

The first test of the groups influence could come as soon as this week, as the Senate begins whittling down a stack of bills on general file. Advocates, who said they sought to work through the Senate first as a strategic choice, are optimistic about the odds.

I think that as long as we focus on the facts, I think we have a really good chance of getting through the Senate this year, Kylie Taylor, the Wyoming coordinator for pro-repeal group Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, said.

-- Advertisement Story Continues Below --

Prior to a 1972 United States Supreme Court decision banning states from performing executions due to the arbitrary and capricious nature of those laws, Wyomings territorial and state government successfully executed 25 men. All had been convicted of murder.

The death penalty was reinstated a half-decade later, and in the years since, the state has executed just one man Hopkinson. Death penalty prosecutions also remain rare, with just one such case, Dale Wayne Eaton, having taken place in the last decade.

Proponents say the death penalty serves as an effective deterrent to violent crime, and can be used as a bargaining chip for prosecutors in gaining information from those theyve charged with violent crimes. Many supporters also believe the penalty should be an option for families seeking justice.

Those in favor of abolishing the death penalty, meanwhile, argue the rarity of its employment by the criminal justice system justifies ending the practice. Death penalty cases are expensive and arduous, they say, and are emotionally draining on the families of victims and perpetrators, creating a cycle of trauma that rips open scars already slow to heal.

Christal Martin, a Wyoming resident who lost both her mother and husband in separate murders, favors abolishing the penalty.

Losing her mother at 8 years old, she said she had difficulty processing what had happened to her and her family. She spent the next several decades learning about restorative justice in the judicial system, she told lawmakers during a hearing on the death penalty repeal bill earlier this month, and eventually met with the perpetrator on what she called a mission of forgiveness.

When her own children lost their father 22 years after her mothers murder, Martin found herself confronting the issue again, she said. The offender who killed her husband had a family of his own a 5-year-old daughter and a wife. Martin, who has previously written about the insufficient resources she received from the states victim services division to cope with that loss, did not want to inflict another set of wounds, she said.

At that point in time, I knew the loss of two family members through a violent crime, she said in her testimony. And in no way would I ever invite for somebody to go and be put to death, by my hand or by the judicial system, and cause a chain reaction of trauma.

Supporters of repeal also offer statistical evidence that challenges the death penaltys effectiveness. Groups like the American Civil Liberties Union have argued there is no credible evidence that the death penalty deters crime more effectively than long terms of imprisonment, according to a policy brief. Some research has argued murder rates are actually lower in states that have banned the death penalty, though a sweeping review of existing research by the National Academy of Sciences in 2012 found insufficient evidence to support whether the death penalty was an effective deterrent to violent crime or not.

-- Advertisement Story Continues Below --

Critics have argued the efficacy of the death penalty also depends heavily on the infallibility of the justice system itself. According to the non-partisan Death Penalty Information Center, since 1973 a total of 185 people who were sentenced to death have been exonerated of the charges against them, while at least 20 were executed despite standing questions about their guilt.

Its no longer debatable that innocent people can and do get sentenced to death, and some have been executed, the Death Penalty Information Centers executive director, Robert Dunham, told lawmakers. The data raised serious questions as to whether we can trust our governments to carry out the death penalty fairly, honestly and reliably.

One of those innocent individuals was Ray Krone, a Pennsylvania man and a military veteran who was wrongfully sentenced to death for murder based off the shape of a bite mark on the victim before his name was cleared by DNA testing. In his own testimony to lawmakers earlier this month, Krone argued the potential for the government to get it wrong was enough to do away with the death penalty. For those who are guilty, the death penalty is the easy way out, he said.

If youre about the death penalty and you want people to suffer, you make them wake up each and every day in our justice system, in our prisons, he said. So if you want them to suffer, you make them see that every day what they made that family have to go through.

Others feel Wyoming should keep the measure on its books. Jennifer Burns, a Cheyenne resident who testified against the bill earlier this month, said that she considered the death penalty not only a tool for prosecutors, but a choice for the victims of violent crime, particularly for the most heinous and gruesome examples of homicide.

If my family is brutally murdered, I want that choice, she said.

As a legislative candidate in the 2020 Republican Primaries in Cheyenne, Burns said she had asked every potential voter on the campaign trail about their support for the death penalty, and heard almost no opposition.

That is really the wish of Wyoming residents, she said.

The only other person to testify against the bill echoed those desires, even with the potential for mistakes to be made.

If someone hurts my family, I want to hurt theirs, said Jim Merryfield, a Cheyenne resident who testified against repealing the death penalty.

-- Advertisement Story Continues Below --

Id like to keep the option open, to be able to put them to death if I feel that its necessary, he added. Decisions have to be made, right or wrong. Are some mistakes going to be made? Probably But to take it off the table is to say they dont have to fear it anymore.

The majority of Americans support capital punishment, according to nationwide Gallup polling data. But that support has been shrinking: in 1996 the approval rating reached its all time high of 80%, today the figure is 55%.

They say support for the death penalty runs a mile wide and an inch deep, and its so true, Taylor said. Support for the death penalty is high until you take a look at the facts. And once someone is willing to look at the facts and accept them for what they are, its really hard to continue supporting the death penalty.

Where support has remained consistent over the years, according to Gallup, is among white conservatives, who still approve of the death penalty at overwhelming margins to liberals and in particular, people of color a group thats disproportionately represented among death-row inmates.

Researchers have presented numerous arguments for why that demographics belief in the death penalty has been so steadfast. However, it is within peoples religious beliefs where support for the death penalty remains the strongest. According to research compiled by the DPIC, those who identify as religious maintain some of the highest percentages of death penalty supporters.

In Wyoming, however, the religious community has been an integral part of the campaign to repeal it. During testimony earlier this month, representatives of numerous religious organizations testified in-favor of the bill, with some sharing personal experiences in dealing with the death penalty.

Should offenders face consequences for their actions? Absolutely, Ashley Engel, the associate director of pastoral ministry at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Cheyenne, said in her testimony earlier this month. Is death a fair penalty? Absolutely not. Death is not justice.

And knowing the tie between religion and support of the death penalty, organizers opposing it here have made religion a centerpiece of their campaign. Between public rallies in Cheyenne and numerous events on platforms like Facebook Live, groups like Taylors and ACLU of Wyoming have focused significant attention on organizing with religious organizations, while the Catholic Diocese of Cheyenne has evolved from a quiet supporter of repeal to a vocal player in the coalitions broader efforts in recent years.

We have to think about where our inconsistencies lie, Deacon Mike Leman said. It hit me at one point, like there is no good time to commit a murder. But if you plan it ahead of time, thats worse. If you involve others in the planning, thats even worse. But were paying the state to do the exact same thing. Theres a lot of inconsistencies there.

For two years, Taylor and individuals like ACLU Wyomings Sabrina King have worked to build a coalition that reaches people where they are at their most receptive through their computer screens, through their churches and their pastors and through conversations that force them to reckon with their emotions at their rawest. The number of people willing to engage in those conversations, Taylor said, has grown steadily since the death of the 2019 repeal bill, allowing her coalition to grow from just a handful of individuals then to dozens of groups statewide today.

-- Advertisement Story Continues Below --

Repeal is so important to so many of us that individuals who usually arent aligned politically are willing to come together to make this happen, she said.

Whether that will be a winning combination remains to be seen. Facing crippling budgetary shortfalls last year, Gov. Mark Gordon said he was considering a moratorium on the states death penalty, calling it a luxury the state can no longer afford. And while executions continue across the nation, the quantity has been in decline: a fact proponents of repeal see as a sign the United States position on the death penalty may be turning a corner.

I think that the abolition side is eventually going to prevail, David Gushee, an ethicist at Mercer University who has studied religions ties to the death penalty, said. It may be that some states will keep the death penalty on the books, but they are increasingly using it less. The number of actual executions is dropping dramatically. There must be reasons for that.

WyoFile is an independent nonprofit news organization focused on Wyoming people, places and policy.

Read the rest here:

Coalition aims to make 2021 the year Wyo repeals death penalty - County 17