Daily Archives: September 14, 2021

After 3am meetings, some more major changes are in store for the police personnel in the city such as abolition of at least 15 police posts and change in jurisdiction of police stations.

At present, the city has 31 police posts. Once at least half of them are abolished, the staff posted at the police posts will be shifted to police stations.

A committee will analyse population, number of cases, number of police officials deputed and other factors before making the changes. Former Ludhiana commissioner of police Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh had also abolished some police stations and police posts in 2017.

Jurisdiction changes are being mulled as the buildings of some stations are in an incongruent division. In the present setup, the building of the Division 5 station falls under the jurisdiction of Division number 8 station.The newly built PAU police station lies in the jurisdiction of the Haibowal police station and the Basti Jodhewal police station stands in the jurisdiction of the Salem Tabri station. Similarly, the building of the Focal Point police station is under the jurisdiction of the Moti Nagar police, and the Jamalpur police station and Moti Nagar are under the jurisdiction of the Division 7 police, while the Sadar police station falls under jurisdiction of Division 8.In these circumstances, people are forced to travel extra miles to get police help.

PAU officers may move to new station

Officials in the know, requesting anonymity, said the committee has recommended that the PAU police station be shifted to some new location. The said station is at present situated at the Dairy Complex on Humbran Road. Incidentally, the building was built for the Haibowal police station, but officers established the PAU station instead.

The Atam Park, Humbran, Kailash Nagar police posts can be abolished. Joint commissioner of police J Elanchezhian said the project is in the pipeline. A committee is conducting a survey of all police posts and police stations. We will take a decisions according to the recommendations of the committee, he said.

New building for Jamalpur station

The Jamalpur police station will now function out of a new building near Jamalpur Chowk. Earlier, the police station was being run from the Jamalpur police colony, while the Basti Jodhewal police will get a new building very soon as the department has started work on it. Earlier, the police had shifted the crime against women and children cell to a new building in Rishi Nagar.

Follow this link:

Ludhiana: Police posts to be abolished, change of jurisdiction in the offing - Hindustan Times

Washington (AP) Senate Democrats announce modest election bill on Tuesday in hopes of launching a deadlocked push to counter new Republican legislation that could make ballot throwing more difficult bottom.

However, the new compromise bill is likely destined to fail in the 50-50 Senate and faces the same Republican lockstep opposition that ended previous attempts to pass even larger bills. I am. Republicans have accused the previous steps of being unnecessary and gaining party power.

The Republican-controlled legislature has enacted restrictions over the past year in the name of election security. This can make voting difficult and make election operations more susceptible to partisanship. Texas, which already has some of the strictest voting rules in the country, has recently further restricted its ability to cast ballots, empowering party poll watchers and imposing new criminal penalties on those who violate the rules. Adopted a new law to create. Inadvertently.

A series of new voting laws, inspired by the false allegations of former President Donald Trumps election theft, have pressured Democrats in Congress to pass legislation that could counter Republican propulsion. Trumps allegations of fraudulent elections were widely rejected in court by state officials and his own Attorney General who proved the outcome.

We have seen unprecedented attacks on our democracy in states across the country. These attacks require immediate federal response, said the main sponsor of the new bill. Senator Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. Said.

The amendment bill was negotiated for weeks by a group of Democratic senators and contains many of the same provisions as the previous bill known as Peoples Law.

According to the summary obtained by the Associated Press, it establishes national rules for conducting elections, limits partisanship in the drawing of parliamentary districts, and many anonymous donors spend large amounts of money to influence elections. Will force disclosure.

But it also includes many changes sought by West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, the most conservative Democrat of the Chamber of Commerce. This includes provisions that limit but do not prohibit state voter ID requirements, and the abolition of the Federal Election Commissions proposed overhaul aimed at alleviating partisan impasse in election monitoring agencies. increase.

The new bill also throws away words that would have created a public funding system for federal elections. Instead, it will establish a more limited financing system for house candidates that the state can choose to participate in.

Other provisions aim to alleviate concerns from local election authorities who were worried that the original bill might be too difficult to implement. And some new additions aim to isolate nonpartisan electoral authorities who may be under greater party pressure under some new state laws.

Despite the changes, Republicans are expected to uniformly oppose the bill, which they say is equivalent to taking over the federal elections. As a result, Democrats are well below the 60 votes required to advance the bill, unless they change the Senate filibuster rules excluded by Manchin and other moderates.

Manchin said the voting bill should not be passed unless Congress is bipartisan. He has bought a revised bill from Republican senators for the past few weeks and sought their support. However, there are no signs of sign-on.

Manchin told reporters Tuesday that the new bill was more rational, more practical and more rational.

Now we have to sit down and work with our Republican colleagues, he said.

But it all brings Democrats back to where they started. Lack of progress can frustrate party activists, and many consider voting rights to be a civil rights issue of the era.

All year long, Senate Democrats have promised to pass a bill to protect the most sacred right of our democracy, the right to vote, said Senate leader Chuck Schumer. Said from the Senate floor on Tuesday. The Republican Partys refusal to work with us is no excuse for not achieving anything.

Schumer said he could call for a vote soon next week, when the bill is almost certainly not progressing. Activists and some Democratic senators say abolishing filibuster is the only way forward.

Filibuster is the only thing that is in the way of us. Its time for Senators to prioritize the free voting of Americans over Jim Crows filibuster, said the Standup America Group. Said Sean Eldridge, president of the.

Suggest a fix

Source link Democrats amend election bill but face Senate headwinds | WGN Radio 720

View post:

Democrats amend election bill but face Senate headwinds | WGN Radio 720 - Illinoisnewstoday.com

Today, September 13, 2021, World BEYOND War announces as the recipient of the Lifetime Organizational War Abolisher of 2021 award: Peace Boat.

An online presentation and acceptance event, with remarks from representatives of Peace Boat will take place on October 6, 2021, at 5 a.m. Pacific Time, 8 a.m. Eastern Time, 2 p.m. Central European Time, and 9 p.m. Japan Standard Time. The event is open to the public and will include presentations of three awards, a musical performance, and three breakout rooms in which participants can meet and talk with the award recipients. Participation is free. Register here for Zoom link.

World BEYOND War is a global nonviolent movement, founded in 2014, to end war and establish a just and sustainable peace. In 2021 World BEYOND War is announcing its first-ever annual War Abolisher awards.

The Lifetime Organizational War Abolisher of 2021 is being announced today, September 13.

The David Hartsough Lifetime Individual War Abolisher of 2021 (named for a co-founder of World BEYOND War) will be announced on September 20.

The War Abolisher of 2021 will be announced on September 27.

The recipients of all three awards will take part in the presentations event on October 6. Accepting the award on behalf of Peace Boat on October 6 will be Peace Boat Founder and Director Yoshioka Tatsuya. Several other people from the organization will attend, some of whom you can meet during the breakout room session.

The purpose of the awards is to honor and encourage support for those working to abolish the institution of war itself. With the Nobel Peace Prize and other nominally peace-focused institutions so frequently honoring other good causes or, in fact, wagers of war, World BEYOND War intends its award to go to educators or activists intentionally and effectively advancing the cause of war abolition, accomplishing reductions in war-making, war preparations, or war culture. Between June 1 and July 31, World BEYOND War received hundreds of impressive nominations. The World BEYOND War Board, with assistance from its Advisory Board, made the selections.

The awardees are honored for their body of work directly supporting one or more of the three segments of World BEYOND Wars strategy for reducing and eliminating war as outlined in the book A Global Security System, An Alternative to War. They are: Demilitarizing Security, Managing Conflict Without Violence, and Building a Culture of Peace.

Peace Boat is a Japan-based international NGO working to promote peace, human rights, and sustainability. Guided by the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Peace Boats global voyages offer a unique program of activities centered on experiential learning and intercultural communication.

Peace Boats first voyage was organized in 1983 by a group of Japanese university students as a creative response to government censorship regarding Japans past military aggression in the Asia-Pacific. They chartered a ship to visit neighboring countries with the aim of learning first-hand about the war from those who had experienced it and initiating people-to-people exchange.

Peace Boat made its first around-the-world voyage in 1990. It has organized more than 100 voyages, visiting more than 270 ports in 70 countries. Over the years, it has done tremendous work to build a global culture of peace and to advance nonviolent conflict resolution and demilitarization in various parts of the world. Peace Boat also builds connections between peace and related causes of human rights and environmental sustainability including through the development of an eco-friendly cruise ship.

Peace Boat is a mobile classroom at sea. Participants see the world while learning, both onboard and at various destinations, about peacebuilding, through lectures, workshops, and hands-on activities. Peace Boat collaborates with academic institutions and civil society organizations, including Tbingen University in Germany, Tehran Peace Museum in Iran, and as part of the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC). In one program, students from Tbingen University study how both Germany and Japan deal with understanding past war crimes.

Peace Boat is one of the 11 organizations forming the International Steering Group of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017, the prize that in recent decades, according to Nobel Peace Prize Watch, most faithfully lived up to the intentions of Alfred Nobels will through which the prize was established. Peace Boat has educated and advocated for a nuclear-free world for many years. Through the Peace Boat Hibakusha project, the organization works closely with atomic bomb survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, sharing their testimonies of the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons with people around the world during global voyages and recently through online testimony sessions.

Peace Boat also coordinates the Global Article 9 Campaign to Abolish War which builds global support for Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution for maintaining and abiding by it, and as a model for peace constitutions around the world. Article 9, using words nearly identical to the Kellogg-Briand Pact, states that the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes, and also stipulates that land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained.

Peace Boat engages in disaster relief following disasters including earthquakes and tsunamis, as well as education and activities for disaster risk reduction. It is also active in landmine removal programs.

Peace Boat holds Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.

Peace Boat has around 100 staff members who represent diverse ages, education histories, backgrounds, and nationalities. Nearly all staff members joined the Peace Boat team after participating in a voyage as a volunteer, participant, or guest educator.

Peace Boats Founder and Director Yoshioka Tatsuya was a student in 1983 when he and fellow students started Peace Boat. Since that time, he has authored books and articles, addressed the United Nations, been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, led the Article 9 Campaign to Abolish War, and been a founding member of the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict.

Peace Boats voyages have been grounded by the COVID Pandemic, but Peace Boat has found other creative ways to advance its cause, and has plans for voyages as soon as they can be responsibly launched.

If war is ever to be abolished, it will be in great measure due to the work of organizations like Peace Boat educating and mobilizing thinkers and activists, developing alternatives to violence, and turning the world away from the idea that war can ever be justified or accepted. World BEYOND War is honored to present our very first award to Peace Boat.

Originally posted here:

Peace Boat to Receive Award as Lifetime Organizational War Abolisher of 2021 - PRESSENZA International News Agency

Atwo-week art exhibitionwhich aimsto get people talking about race and technology is now open at De Montfort University Leicester (DMU)s Vijay Patel (VJP) atrium.

Developed by Identity 2.0, a creative studio exploring digital identity,This Machine is Black is a visual, interactive space that has been designed like a garden and split into four themes: Deep Fake, Surveillance and Privacy,Afrofuturismand Abolition.

Each space contains unique art pieces, created by Identity 2.0 or a talented artist from a Black, Asian or underrepresented ethnic group, that integratetechnologysrole in upholding and dismantling racism.

Identity 2.0 was founded byaward-winning London creativesArdaAwaisandSavenaSurana.

We're so excited to have This Machine is Black come to DMU, saidArda.The whole exhibitionis pushing an important conversation about the relationship between race and tech, and making it more accessible to everyone, especially creatives.

That's why the students at DMU are exactlythe type of audience we want to bring our work to. We hope that we can inspire them to question their own relationship to the digital tools they useeverydayand how we can usethese tools creatively.

Savenaadded: Neitherof usare from traditional art backgrounds, so to have our exhibitionin a space where art students,who arethefuture of creativity, can experienceit, is just amazing.

We hope that our work can inspire others to go and create their own art, exhibition, zines, shows about whatever issues they are passionate about.

Among the artistscommissionedfor This Machine Is Black is illustrator and graphic designer JadaBruney. Her work, The Return of the Motherland explores the concept of a retro futuristic second Windrush Generation, featuring elements of animation and typography.

There is also Midlands-based Tobi Uzumaki, whose art is inspired by anime, manga and Japanese culture, while 3D artist and creative designer Danielle Williams from Nottingham celebrates Black beauty, pride and raised fists.

Partly funded by Leicester City Council and supported by DMU, the exhibitionis one of the winners of the Smart Leicester City Challenge, a competition run by Leicester City Council and designed to kick-start innovative projects.

Assistant City Mayor for jobs and skills, Cllr Danny Myers, said: Im really pleased that Smart Leicester could support Identity 2.0 through our Smart Leicester City Challenge.

I also look forward to supporting many more opportunities like this through the ongoing work of our Smart Leicester initiative, so that Leicester becomes known as a smart city, focused on using technology for the good of everyone who lives, works or visits here.

This Machine is Blackwill be open at DMUs VJP atrium on campus from Monday 13 to Sunday 26 September.

Posted on Monday 13th September 2021

Visit link:

Interactive exhibition to provoke conversations around race and technology opens at DMU - De Montfort University

I called recently for religious voices on climate change to ring out more strongly. Im not alone. As Christiana Figueres wrote in the Guardian, It is time for faith groups and religious institutions to find their voice and set their moral compass on one of the great humanitarian issues of our time.

I promised to return to those religious voices who have spoken out about climate change.

Forest Clingerman teaches religion at Ohio Northern University and wrote we are laying siege to what Psalm 19 calls Gods glorious handiwork. Zayn Kassam, a chaired Pomona College professor of religious studies, warned that mishandling the environment brings the Earth a little closer to the fires of Hell, citing the Quran as well as the Bibles Book of Micah. Love Sechrest, teaching the New Testament at the Fuller Theological Seminary, invoking Jesus call for service to the common good, warned that rolling back sustainable climate policies threaten the health of the planet.

Warnings have come from the Irish Council of Churches, leaders of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, Young Evangelicals for Climate Action, the United Church of Christ, the Leadership Team of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, the Church World Service, the Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism, the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, the AME Zion Church, The Episcopal Church, and United Methodist Women.

Across the globe calls have come from Christian, Jewish, Islamic, Bahai, Buddhist, Confucian, Hindu, Jain, Shinto, Sikh and Tao leaders and interfaith groups, underlining our obligation to protect the environment which gives us life.

One listener kindly sent me a link to Pope Francis Encyclical, on Care for our Common Home, which reads in part, the earth now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her. Pope Francis pointed to the sickness evident in the soil, in the water, in the air and in all forms of life. [T]he earth herself, burdened and laid waste groans in travail. He quoted Pope Paul VI, that by its exploitation of nature, humanity runs the risk of destroying the work and blessings of God.

And on September 1st, Pope Francis, Eastern Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and Anglican Archbishop Justin Welby joined to address together the urgency of environmental sustainability and, citing Deuteronomy, called on every person of good will to choose life, so that you and your children may live [by] play[ing] a part in changing our collective response to the unprecedented threat of climate change and environmental degradation.

Reports about polar bears and ice flows or rising waters and storms arent enough, nor endless scientific reports with measurements that boggle ordinary minds. Religious and other moral voices must ring in our ears to invigorate the crusade about the great moral crisis of our time. As men and women of faith helped drive the abolition movement, so their message must help drive the movement to protect the environment we depend on, lest we come a little closer to the fires of Hell.

Steve Gottliebs latest book is Unfit for Democracy: The Roberts Court and The Breakdown of American Politics. He is the Jay and Ruth Caplan Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Albany Law School, served on the New York Civil Liberties Union board, on the New York Advisory Committee to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, and as a US Peace Corps Volunteer in Iran.

The views expressed by commentators are solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this station or its management.

See original here:

Religious Voices on the Environment - WAMC

The Rev. Steven W. Manskar, a retired United Methodist pastor, responds:

The Methodist Episcopal Church was established in this country in December 1784. Methodist congregations were in all thirteen colonies. The organizing conference stated that any Methodist who owned any enslaved persons must grant them their freedom by 1788. If they failed to do so, they could no longer retain membership in the Methodist Church.

However, to appease the southern congregations, that rule was quietly dropped. In the interest of church growth, denominational leaders chose to tolerate slavery and white supremacy. The Methodist Church grew rapidly while leaders debated whether it was acceptable for Christians to own and exploit the labor of other human beings.

The argument was resolved at the 1844 General Conference when the church split. The Northern church would follow the directions of its founder, John Wesley. It prohibited slave-holding and advocated for abolition of slavery.

The Southern church (known as The Methodist Episcopal Church South) accepted slavery. It was established in the states that would in a few years secede from the union and become the Confederate States of America. Many historians believe the split of The Methodist Episcopal Church north and south helped set the stage for the Civil War.

Finally, in 1939, the Methodist Episcopal Church, Methodist Episcopal Church-South, and Methodist Protestant Church merged to become The Methodist Church. The new denomination created five regional jurisdictions in the USA. They also maintained Jim Crow segregation by creating a separate Central Jurisdiction for all Black Methodist congregations.

The Central Jurisdiction was abolished when the Methodist Church merged with the Evangelical United Brethren in 1968 to create The United Methodist Church. But the church continues to live with the heritage of racism and white supremacy. One of its manifestations today is discrimination against LGBTQ+ persons.

Rev. Ray Lanning, a retired minister of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America, responds:

American Presbyterianisms worst sin to date was the 19th century attempt to defend chattel slavery, or at least to accommodate it; and when that evil institution was abolished, to promote segregation of the races and a system of Jim Crow laws and customs that disadvantaged and oppressed African American citizens for many decades.

In both cases, Presbyterian theologians wrested the Scriptures in their attempt to defend the indefensible. The American Civil War, bloody and destructive as it was, did not change their minds but only hardened them in their racist attitudes. The list includes many of the best and brightest leaders in the Presbyterian Church. Church members were left to live comfortably with their own racist attitudes and practices until well into the 1960s.

Not all Presbyterians were so inclined, however. Smaller denominations such as the Reformed Presbyterians (RPCNA) and the United Presbyterians (UPCNA) were early in the field in the fight to abolish slavery;, and after emancipation, they came to the aid of the freedmen of the South. Both denominations were rooted in the Covenanter tradition of Scotland, and the fight for a free church in a free state. They regarded the US Constitution as immoral because it accommodated slavery, thus defecting from the truths asserted in the Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with unalienable rights to life and liberty.

The Reverend Colleen Squires, minister atAll Souls Community Church of West Michigan, a Unitarian Universalist Congregation, responds:

While Unitarians and Universalists faiths go back centuries the merger of these two religious traditions happened in 1961. In that time, I believe our greatest failure or sin occurred in 1968/69. We were strongly active in the civil rights movement and the number of Black and People of Color joining our denomination was steadily increasing. Black leadership asked for financial support to create new programs and we as an Assembly voted to approve the funds. The following year with a budget shortfall our Association withdrew the funds from our Black leadership to balance the budget. The entire handling of this betrayal and crisis was a failure to live out our values and reeked of white supremacy culture. To this day we continue to try to heal this painful wound. We are beginning to truly own our failures of thepast and make positivesystemic change going forward. We still have so much work to do around racial equity.

Father Kevin Niehoff, O.P., a Dominican priest who serves as Judicial Vicar, Diocese of Grand Rapids, responds:

Please remember that any Church is a human creation. Human beings are finite. Institutions created by humans are imperfect by nature.

Spiritual difficulties arise in each era of religious history, both in the Church and in society. One may only look at the persecution of members of the faithful of Christ, or the fall of the Holy Roman Empire, or the spiritual split between the Orthodox and Latin Churches, or the Reformation, or the human slavery of Black men and women, or the abortion of babies, or even the sexual abuse crisis in modern-day. Humans have allowed many awful things to happen.

My opinion: is that there is a commonality in the history above. The basis for the worst things that happen is the human act of a compromised relationship with God. The result is the creation of a split between fellow human beings. These divisions often include the dehumanizing and the spiritual denigration of other human beings. All human beings are created in the image and likeness of God. When we choose to be silent about human rights, the atmosphere is ripe for the worst to occur.

Linda Knieriemen, Senior Pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Holland, responds:

In ancient history, the Crusades. Today, although there is a notable shift, denying LGBTQI the fullness of their humanity and participation in Christian community.

The Rapidian, a program of the 501(c)3 nonprofit Community Media Center, relies on the communitys support to help cover the cost of training reporters and publishing content.

We need your help.

If each of our readers and content creators who values this community platform help support its creation and maintenance, The Rapidian can continue to educate and facilitate a conversation around issues for years to come.

Please support The Rapidian and make a contribution today.

Read more:

Ethics and Religion Talk: Religion can do Horrible Things - The Rapidian

Meanwhile TUV leader Jim Allister kept up the pressure on the DUP not to merely seek alterations to the protocol, but to seek its total abolition, saying the EU must surrender its sovereignty over the Province.

Last week, DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson threatened to withdraw his ministers and bring down the powersharing institutions if his demands over the protocol were not met.

He stressed that the timeframe he had in mind was weeks, rather than months.

And yesterday at the first ministerial question time at Stormont following the summer break, Mr Givan was questioned by Sinn Fein about the New Decade, New Approach (NDNA) deal.

This deal was struck in 2020 between Sinn Fein and the DUP, and was basically responsible for reviving Stormont.

Mr Givan said: Within NDNA there is a commitment by the UK Government that when it comes to the internal market, Northern Ireland will be an integral part.

The Northern Ireland Protocol, however, has caused damage economically, damage to our wider society.

It has created political tension and therefore that has to be addressed.

The Belfast Agreement is very clear on where the delicate balance was struck between unionists, nationalists and others and whenever one aspect of that is damaged it causes harm across all others.

The east/west relationship has been harmed by the Northern Ireland Protocol and that has an impact when it comes to north/south.

I want to see these issues resolved, I want to see these institutions working because I believe that we are best placed to represent the people who elect us in terms of how we run a country, that we can do that better than other jurisdictions.

He added: But we have to address the fundamental problems which have now occurred as a result of the Northern Ireland Protocol.

And I hope that the UK Government and the European Union seize the window of opportunity that exists; but that window of opportunity is closing. Sinn Fein MLA Pat Sheehan said that the DUP was totally responsible for the Northern Ireland Protocol, because the party backed Brexit.

Mr Givan responded: When it comes to the issue of where did it all go wrong in respect of Brexit, it has been the outworking and implementation of that by the UK Government.

We were very clear that Northern Ireland should be treated just as the rest of the United Kingdom.

There was no approval of anybody in Northern Ireland for the changes which flowed from the Northern Ireland Protocol.

It is vital when you are going to make these sorts of changes that it is done in a way which has consensus.

The protocol doesnt.

SDLP MLA Colin McGrath echoed Mr Sheehan, telling the chamber that the threat to bring down Stormont was reckless in the middle of a pandemic.

Mr Givan said: Our party is very clear. We want this Executive to continue work, we want this Assembly to continue to operate and to take the type of decisions that we are taking.

However, he also went on to say that the fundamentals on which the Executive is formed have to be right and that is why there is a window of opportunity for both the UK Government and the European Union to make sure that the changes which need to be made, are made.

Jim Allister also rose to speak during the debate, telling fellow MLAs: I want to make it abundantly clear in the House that tinkering with the Union-dismantling protocol, extending grace periods doing all those cosmetic things will not change the fundamental objection to that obnoxious protocol.

Whatever changes are made (I note that the vigorous implementers have toned down their foolhardy demands and are talking about tinkering etc) the fundamental test of all of that is whether Northern Ireland is still left in a foreign single market for goods subject to a foreign customs code and a foreign VAT regime, overseen by foreign laws and adjudicated on by a foreign court.

If that is so, any such change is useless in removing the obscenity that is the protocol and does nothing to render it acceptable.

What needs to be done is for the EU to surrender its sovereignty over Northern Ireland back to the United Kingdom.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our advertisers - and consequently the revenue we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you taking out a digital subscription.

Subscribe to newsletter.co.uk and enjoy unlimited access to the best Northern Ireland and UK news and information online and on our app. With a digital subscription, you can read more than 5 articles, see fewer ads, enjoy faster load times, and get access to exclusive newsletters and content. Visit https://www.newsletter.co.uk/subscriptions now to sign up.

Our journalism costs money and we rely on advertising, print and digital revenues to help to support them. By supporting us, we are able to support you in providing trusted, fact-checked content for this website.

Go here to see the original:

DUP warns that clock ticking to Stormont shutdown over NI Protocol - Belfast News Letter

content warning: gun violence, police brutality

On August 29, Projet Montreal announced that the Service de Police de la Ville de Montral (SPVM) would be receiving an even larger share of the city budget an additional $5.5 million in funding towards oppressive, racist police initiatives that negatively impact our communities. In a press conference held Sunday, Montreal Mayor Valrie Plante announced the funds were distributed to fight against criminal groups, but the continued investment in police resources instead of social services demonstrates a fundamental lack of care for the individuals most affected by rising crime and its roots in systemic discrimination.

The announcement came in response to an increase in gun violence and shootings in Montreal and Quebec. City leaders claim that this summer saw a particularly high rate of gun violence, with five people shot and killed in the Montreal region during the month of August alone. Criminology experts have attributed this uptick in Montreal to conflict between different criminal groups over territory, drugs, debts, or disagreements a reductive approach to gun violence that neglects to address the systemic roots of harm. Systemic inequities have only worsened for marginalized groups over the course of the pandemic, accompanied by pre-existing socioeconomic strain which increases tensions.

This sudden uptick has attracted media attention, and put pressure on city officials to take action on the cusp of municipal elections. However, the action taken the addition of 42 staff members to the SPVM is a lazy and harmful approach to remedy violent crime. The SPVM was founded in a context of brutality and often fatal violence against racialized, unhoused, and neurodivergent peoples. Drug addiction, mental health crises, and self defence are then used as a justification to avoid taking responsibility. As is the case in many American and Canadian jurisdictions, the hegemonic systems of law enforcement more often than not exonerate SPVM officers for their use of often fatal force, thereby allowing the institution to uphold its violent existence. Allocating more funds to the SPVM supports this oppressive system and puts communities targeted by law enforcementat a greater risk of police violence and of being implicated in the prison-industrial complex.

Bolstering police presence is an ineffective remedy to violence. Joint research conducted by the Community Resource Hub (CRH) and Interrupting Criminalization (IC) contends that increased police presence has no effect on deterring violent crime. Police are not preventers of violence they are perpetrators of it. They encourage the vicious cycle of force and brutality to continue. Data from the CRH and IC shows that violent crime is more prevalent in neighbourhoods where residents face severe financial stress, while current rising crime rates can be attributed to pandemic stress, increased gun sales, and closure of community institutions. Therefore, the safest communities are those with the most resources to address these issues, not the most police.

Research has continually proven that the creation and funding of organizations focused on initiatives like crime prevention, neighbourhood development, substance abuse prevention, job training and work development, and recreational and social activities for young people mitigate increasing rates of violent crime. Allocating national, provincial, and municipal funds to organizations such as these would be a much more effective investment in community safety. Furthermore, police abolition could open pathways to reimagined systems of community safety that do not rely on institutions rooted in white supremacy. Communities need enforcers of safety that dont play into the cycle of carceral harm and retributive justice.

SPVMs city budget has been steadily rising, totaling $30 million in increased funding this year alone. Montreal is not alone, as many jurisdictions in Canada and the US are also expanding their police budgets. In Montreal, Mayor Plante fed into the fear-mongering narrative, stating that the recent rise in armed violence must be dealt with quickly and effectively and that police officers are at the front, everyday, to counter armed violence in Montreal. This rhetoric is harmful and generates fear within the public, wrongly presenting police as saviors to a larger public, when in reality they only serve to protect the white and wealthy. If Plante wanted to meaningfully curb armed violence in the city, instead of giving into public fears and funding harmful and hegemonic systems of oppression, she would focus on preventing violence starting at its root cause by defunding the SPVM and funding communities.

It was announced Wednesday that $5 million would be allocated towards violence prevention and urban security, yet this investment pales in comparison to the police budget (approximately $700 million in total). Its as crucial as ever to continue working toward a non-carceral model of community safety which can never be achieved through the violent institution of police. With the upcoming municipal election on November 7, it is of the utmost importance that we continue to pressure candidates to support movements to defund and abolish police. Get involved with abolition movements, like Defund the SPVM and Solidarity Across Borders, as well as the Toronto Prisoners Rights Project. Support mutual aid initiatives and community-based organizations, like Meals for Milton-Parc, the Yellow Door, and Chez Doris.

See the original post here:

Fund Communities, Not Police | The McGill Daily - The McGill Daily

BUFFALO, NY (WBFO) Chuck Culhane is traveling to Attica Prison Thursday to participate in a vigil honoring those who lost their lives 50 years ago within the prisons walls.

He does not believe the vigil will garner any headlines.

Thats emblematic of the attitude towards prisoners, he said. Towards people inside, that they dont exist. They werent killed. And so a few of us are going to go out there and just read the names of individuals at the prison. The names of all the people, including the guards.

What is the lasting legacy of Attica a landmark event that encapsulates a generation of social progression, yet an event that also left at least 43 incarcerated persons and prison guards dead? On the 50thanniversary of the uprising, the conversation around its legacy is varied.

Culhane serves as a Prison Task Force Coordinator at the Western New York Peace Center:

I was back in prison, he says. I was sent to a maximum security place and it was, I recall, low grade terror. I did quite a few years inside. I never experienced anything like that. I mean, people were just terrorizing and really ways every day, and it was very dispiriting to see that kind of behavior with the guards.

Culhane said lessons regarding the rights of incarcerated people have yet to be learned.

And unfortunately, the vast majority of the changes have been for the worse, not for the better, he said.

The prison population has shrunk to just under 32,000 in New York State in the last 50 years, but the conditions the men living within the walls of Attica advocated for improvements to food and medical care, religious freedom and wages were abandoned in Atticas aftermath, said Soffiyah Elijah, executive director of Alliance of Families for Justice.

Sadly though, most, if not all of those improvements have now disappeared, she said. So the concerns and the demands that the men raised 50 years ago are still major concerns today.

Elijah was formerly the executive director of the Correctional Association of New York. Her insight on the plight of incarcerated people leaves her believing more can be done to rehabilitate and reintegrate them into society.

I would say when it comes to incarcerated people, we can clearly see that were not living in a more enlightened society, she said.

Elijah points to how hard it has been to get incarcerated people supplies to fight against contracting COVID-19 as an example of how little attention is paid to their welfare.

From not giving them PPE, from not giving them tests, not providing for vaccines, she said, advocates had to work day and night to push for those things, advocates and family members of incarcerated people.

And racism within a prison system where a majority of the incarcerated are non-white is a problem.

The racism amongst staff, the virtual lack of any Black and brown staff members and most of the Upstate prisons, Elijah said. That was a problem back in 1971 and remains a problem to this day.

One lasting legacy of Attica that both Culhane and Elijah agree on is growing prison reform and prison abolition movements in the state.

The advocacy groups on the outside have been somewhat successful, Elijah said, and reaching out to elected officials to bring these concerns to their attention so that more members of the New York State Legislature are aware and have been using their role as legislators to visit the prisons, to inquire, to question and to challenge whats happening inside the prisons.

A recent example of the success of these movements is the signing of the HALT bill by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo in April. The bill bans long-term solitary confinement in prisons and jails across the state.

Culhane said the push towards rehabilitation programs and restorative justice practices within the prison system are ways to keep people out of prison for good.

Well in New York, he said. I would say, yeah, just in numbers, getting people out, you know, not sending them to prison for offenses that are not, you know, particularly nonviolent and where theres alternatives like restorative justice programs that do something for victims of crime and do something for society instead of this punishment ethic thats insane.

Elijah still believes the prison system as a whole is rotten and must be abolished.

I dont believe at this point you can do this form any more than slavery could be formed, she said. I think it has to be completely destroyed. I think it is incumbent upon all of us in society to figure out a much more people-centered approach to addressing aberrant behavior by human beings.

In a society still separated by the haves and have-nots, Elijah said these issues can be solved if we all worked together.

If we can put human beings on the moon and other planets, she said. Then we can figure out how to level the playing field so that everybodys dreams and aspirations has a fair chance of being realized.

The legacy of the Attica uprising has given us many teachable moments to reflect and improve on.

Follow this link:

50 Years Later: The Legacy Of The Attica uprising - WSKG.org

When rogue cops abuse, mistreat and police Black men, women and children and patrol Black communities with a shoot first ask questions later approach the question that often arises is where are the good cops? However, on the rare occasion officers do step in, intervene, deescalate, and do the right thing, they are often punished and suffer retribution.

Police Sgt. Javier Esqueda is a prime example. In January 2020, 37 year old Eric Lurry died in police custody. There was no public outcry. His death was, in essence, a cover up. That is until Joliet, Ill., Sgt. Javier Esqueda leaked police bodycam footage of what transpired to a local television reporter months later.

The result? Sgt. Esqueda was suspended within days and arrested on felony charges. According to Joliet Police Chief Dawn Malec, violations include conduct unbecoming an officer, improper release of evidence and making a public statement about the department without prior permission from the police chief. Meanwhile, the officers involved in Eric Lurrys death faced no criminal charges for what happened, and three are still working on the force.

The video depicts two officers arresting Mr. Lurry and placing him in the back of a squad car. He is chewing on something and breathing heavily, and an officer concludes he has drugs in his mouth.

When an officer believes someone in custody requires medical attention, it is department policy to take that person to the hospital. Yet as Mr. Lurry slowly started to become unconscious, and as he displayed at least three of the four signs of an opiate overdose, according to the departments protocolno response, the presence of drugs and shallow breathingthe paramedics werent called. Instead, officers held Mr. Lurrys nose and called for a flashlight or baton to be stuck in his mouth. Paramedics were only called after an officer noticed Mr. Lurry, who is Black, had stopped breathing.

The incident has prompted Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul to launch a civil investigation into the Joliet Police Department.

After receiving the request from Joliets mayor and city officials, my office began a preliminary review of Joliet Police Department records and other information. It is clear that a formal investigation is needed to look at whether the department has engaged in patterns or practices of unlawful or unconstitutional policing, he said. In the coming weeks, the Attorney Generals office will conduct a thorough, impartial and independent review of whether reforms are needed under the law.

The investigations questions, findings and conclusions will be focused on whether systemic problems exist within the Joliet Police Department and will not reconsider criminal charging decisions within the jurisdiction of local prosecutors, according to a Sept. 8 press release.

Javier Esqueda is one of countless officers who have been retaliated against for either exposing other officers wrongdoings or questionable behaviors on the force or for intervening in an incident.

Double standards

Cardia X, a police officer in Harvey, Ill., a Chicago suburb, who arrested a security guard for hitting a suspect, told The Final Call via email that there is no fundamental difference in the relationship between Black and White in the police department than anywhere else in society.

He quoted words from the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, who wrote in a December 6, 1968, edition of the past Nation of Islam newspaper Muhammad Speaks, In the past and maybe the present, the White officer chooses from among us the Uncle Tom-like men to serve as law enforcement officers over us. This type of Black officer makes more trouble in the community than the trouble that is made by the community, because he wants to be loved and honored by the W hite officer at the expense of his Black Brother. Surely he does not want to place on the force a Black Man who loves his Black people and wants to see them at peace with each other.

So when a Black or Brown officer violates this unwritten policy and stands up for their own in the way of stopping and reporting misconduct, it reveals to the White-often administrative staff at the department that they made a miscalculation in picking the perfect Uncle Tom-like Black Officer, Cardia X said. And of course, once this miscalculation is revealed, White officers go to work to correct it by getting rid of the Black officer who is not willing to tow the line. The bottom line is, as a Black officer, your acceptance into the Brotherhood of Blue is predicated on how you mistreat and/or let Whites mistreat your own people, he added.

Brenda James story is a testament to how Black officers are treated differently even in issues not dealing with stopping fellow officers from abusing citizens.

I dont feel like Im being treated as if I was an officer. I just feel like Im only being looked at as a Black woman whose life isnt valued, she told The Final Call.

She served as a liaison between the Boston Police Department and the community. In 2010, the department failed to clear Ms. James of an injury and later charged her with Absence Without Leave in November 2011 instead of injured leave. She was medically cleared and returned to full duty in January 2012, but later that year, on June 8, 2012, the departments captain met with her at the station at about 1 a.m. without a union representative. She was assaulted with her loaded firearm when it was unexpectedly wrangled out of her holster without provocation or any reasonable justification, and she was issued a suspension. She has been fighting to get justice for over a decade.

I dont want this to happen to anyone else, she said. To read the incident report, excerpts from transcripts and the list of facts regarding her case, visit her Facebook page Black Woman with a Badge.

Is reform even possible?

When Cariol Horne heard about Mr. Esquedas case, she expressed to The Final Call, Thats crazy, because he had no other choice but to leak it, because they would have covered it up like they did. She is the author of Cariols Law.

In 2006, Ms. Horne, a former police officer with the Buffalo, New York, police department, stopped White officer Gregory Kwiatkowskis chokehold on a Black suspect. She was fired in 2008, one year before she was set to receive her pension. After more than a decade, she won a lawsuit in April and is now eligible to receive back pay and benefits for the period of July 26, 2008 to Aug. 4, 2010.

She is still waiting to receive compensation, but she said in the meantime, she wants to get Cariols Law passed nationwide and internationally. Cariols Law, which was passed in the city of Buffalo, makes it mandatory for officers to intervene when another officer is using excessive force. It also offers protections for officers who intervene.

Many places have duty to intervene laws, but Ms. Horne said those laws still dont protect the people who blow the whistle.

On the streets people will say, Hey, if you see something, say something, as the cops will tell people. But then in the cop culture, nobodys saying anything. Everybodys being quiet, she said. You cant tell the public to do one thing and youre totally going against what youre supposed to be doing. That is the very purpose of the law, to add protections for officers who do stand up against the brutality of violence, the lies.

Ms. Horne has been working with Strategies for Justice, which she said is building a network of officers who arent just going along to get along.

In Prince George County, Md., Black and Latino officers are receiving $2.3 million as part of a settlement for a workplace discrimination lawsuit against the police department. Members of the Hispanic National Law Enforcement Association and the United Black Police Officers Association said they faced systemic racism in promotions and discipline and also accused the police department of retaliating against those who tried to expose wrongdoing.

Several laws to protect whistleblowers across the country are being proposed or have already passed. Maryland passed a police reform act earlier this year that provides protections for a police officer who reports wrongdoing by another officer. In May, 171 advocacy and law enforcement organizations signed a letter asking congressional leaders to include anti-retaliation rights for reporting law enforcement misconduct in any justice reform legislation regarding policing.

In many cases, accountability requires testimony from those willing to bear witness, which are often fellow officers and law enforcement personnel, the letter says. However, the blue wall of silence, compounded by the lack of anti-retaliation protection for law enforcement, forces law enforcement officers to risk their careers, safety, or even their lives when they choose to blow the whistle. That is why we are asking Congress to include whistleblower rights in police reform bills.

Very little change from the 60s to present day

Howard Saffold and Ron Hampton were fighting corruption in police departments as early as the 60s and 70s. Mr. Saffold is a founder of the Afro-American Patrolmens League in Chicago, where he helped challenge the double standards of how police performed in the Black community. He also co-founded the National Black Police Association and the Positive Anti-Crime Thrust.

We actually had to sue the city of Chicago. And we didnt have a consent decree. We actually took them all the way to the United States Supreme Court, challenging their hiring practices, their promotion practices, the assignment practices and their disciplinary practices, Mr. Saffold told The Final Call.

He said there was constant retaliation. They retaliated like any racist institution would. And so that gave us an opportunity to learn how to fight back, he said.

Mr. Hampton was on the police force in Washington, D.C., from 1970 to 1994. He is a former executive director of the National Black Police Association. He described that there were times when he had to report police officers for striking handcuffed citizens and a time when he spoke out and testified on behalf of someone who was on death row in Houston, Texas. But there were consequences, he said. He received personal threats and threats on his family.

I wanted to be true to myself. I was Black. I wasnt a police officer. I was a Black person who had a job in policing, and I was very much aware of the unequalness of justice and everything else in our society, he told The Final Call.

He said there have been some changes and success stories regarding policing today versus back then, but nothing permanent.

Its almost like you got to start over again. In the police reform movement, they talk about abolition. But thats almost like what you have to do if you really want to clean the system out. You got to abolish the present system that it operates within and then start all over again, he said. I also happen to believe that thats not impossible. I dont believe thats impossible.

I think we can give it up and just start all over again. We can even rename it, give it a name thats going to really mean what it is that were going to be doing every day, he continued. Like justice and healing system. No, we dont have to call it the criminal punishment system. We can call it the justice and healing system, and it can do those kinds of things.

Mr. Saffold also said he has seen some change, but that its worse. Its worse because of the lack of consistent accountability mechanisms being put in place to discourage misconduct, and it encourages people who normally would not have even tried it had they seen an example of what happens to you when you do it the wrong way, he said.

He explained that its inaccurate to describe police as a few bad apples and instead, described it as cancer thats metastasized over the years. When referring to policing, he uses an acronym: CERNcorruption, excessive force, racism and nepotism.

We need to pay attention to the long-term effect of not correcting this and institutionalized retaliation in terms of in Chicago right now, having something they call a consent decree, that as you track their performance and trying to correct these things that the city was accused of, the federal government weighed in from a civil rights violation perspective, he said.

And then their unwillingness to do whats right when they get caught. So the enforcement of laws is more important. I mean, what difference does it make if you have a litany of dont yall do this and dont yall do that and then nobody enforces or causes any kind of redress on the part of the victims that are complaining in that category.

Mr. Saffold said when good officers face backlash, like that of Javier Esqueda, the community should rise up in support and that it shouldnt solely fall on Black police organizations. Cardia X said the community has an obligation to stand up for officers who risk their reputation, salary, freedom and sometimes their lives.

We have to be solution-oriented, and I have to say that certain things like policy reform and training will only bring marginal benefits because it circumvents the real issue instead of adequately addressing it, Cardia X said.

He also said Black police organizations need to be stronger and that the relationship between the Black police officer and the Black community must be repaired.

He quoted the Honorable Elijah Muhammads words from the Dec. 6, 1968 article: Throughout the country, let us take over where we are dominant in the towns and cities and have Black officers in control of enforcing the law upon us.

Editors Note: In Volume 40, Edition 4 of The Final Call, Brenda James is quoted saying, I noticed that the White officers were White supremacists. Her words were I noticed that White officers, really well White superiors

Continue reading here:

Blue Wall of Backlash - Cops punished for trying to do the right thing - FinalCall.com News