Disgusting but not surprising.
Category: American Injustice System,
Study Finds a Medical Algorithm Favors White Patients Over Sicker Black Patients
The use of algorithms as a technological diagnostic tool was meant to help lower the nation’s healthcare costs by helping medical providers keep people well.
However, as the Post notes, if a system is already historically biased, it’s easy for a new technological tool to inherit those biases.
“I am struck by how many people still think that racism always has to be intentional and fueled by malice,” Ruha Benjamin, an associate professor of African American studies at Princeton University, told the Post. “They don’t want to admit the racist effects of technology unless they can pinpoint the bigoted boogeyman behind the screen.”
Study Finds a Medical Algorithm Favors White Patients Over Sicker Black Patients
Attention well-meaning Presidential candidates… [hack, cough, ahem, cough, Cory Booker] Technology is not necessarily going to improve things or make it more efficient. The human component is necessary to implement fairness and justice.
Phoenix Police Fire Officer Who Pulled Gun on Family Over a Stolen Doll
A Phoenix police officer who drew his gun on a black family and yelled profanities at them over a Family Dollar doll will be let go from the department, Police Chief Jeri Williams announced on Tuesday.
…Meyers approached their parked car without warning, began banging on their car window with a gun, and threatened to shoot the couple.
A resident at the apartment complex recorded a video of the interaction, which includes footage of Meyers telling Ames, “you’re going to get fucking shot” when he didn’t immediately open his car door. He then said, “I’m going to put a cap in your ass.” At one point, officers tried to strip one of Harper’s daughters from her and demanded Harper put her baby on the hot pavement; she refused.
…The decision comes four months after cell phone video of the family’s violent arrest went viral and sparked a $10 million lawsuit against the city. The slew of charges includes battery, unlawful imprisonment, and violation of the family’s civil rights.
…A disciplinary review board initially recommended Officer Christopher Meyer be suspended for six weeks. But Williams said the suggested punishment was “not sufficient to reverse the adverse effects of his actions on our department and our community.”
“Our officers are dispatched 1,800 times each day when our community needs us and 99% of the time we get it right,” Williams added, according to Arizona Central. “But when we don’t, it does come at a cost. Nearly 4,000 other members of the Phoenix Police Department must bear the burden of that failed contact with our community members.”
…Swick was exposed by the Plainview Project, a site dedicated to calling out police officers’ racist and discriminatory social media postings. Swick had posted bigoted comments targeting black people and Muslims, including a meme suggesting speeding drivers drive their cars into Ferguson protestors.
“No chief ever wants to discuss discipline like this in a public format,” Williams said. “I expect my officers to be respectful, to be professional, to be courteous, and that is not what happened in (these) cases.”
Phoenix Police Fire Officer Who Pulled Gun on Family Over a Stolen Doll
Police department discipline is a bad joke. Slaps on the wrists have no power to change bad behavior.
Bad PR has no power to move the needle. Money talks. The only thing police departments respond to is huge bills from lawsuits.
With all respect to the Chief and the good decisions he made here ALL POLICE DISCIPLINE INCIDENTS NEED TO BE COMPLETELY PUBLIC. The public pays their salaries, the police work for the public, and the public will have to foot the bill when the department is sued into oblivion for bad behavior by its officers. Any secrecy by police departments is not a HR issue, it is a public safety issue and it cannot continue. Only sunlight will bleach the disgusting decay that operating under cover of darkness allows to fester.
Head of Amnesty International says migrant children detained ‘much longer’ than 20 days; head of ORR tells her it’s OK
The agency’s national director, Jonathan Hayes, flew down from Washington, D.C., to accompany them on the tour and he told her that he believes it is OK to hold children for longer than 20 days because it is not considered detention but “care and custody.”
…“His position is that they are not a detention facility; they are a care and custody shelter, which under international law is the same thing. And we believe that Flores does in fact apply to all the ORR shelters,” Huang said.
“It’s an interesting response. In previous meetings, ORR has acknowledged that they haven’t been able to meet the Flores requirements. It was a bit of a surprise to hear today that they don’t feel they’re obligated to. So that’s a big concern for us,” Huang said.
…Rumors have been circulating that as early as Monday, Mexican government officials will force the [refugees waiting for their opportunity to apply for asylum] from the tent encampment [where they have been forced to stay] and send them to a stadium about six miles south of the border, where volunteers have told Border Report they will not be able to take meals, water, hygiene items or offer legal advice.
…As for the child detained for nearly eight years, Huang said she was disturbed by the revelation: “It’s affected me a lot to think about that child. Even if it’s just months, I wonder about how many are caught in something that feels like detention to them for sure.”
For fucks sake white people…. This kind of blind “benevelence” is what gave us decades of Indian schools. Get over yourselves and stop being Satanic to people with darker skin than yours.
The history of separating slave and Indian children from their parents in America
Each of these U.S. policies, Fernandez said, begins with the assumption “that the idea of family is simply less important to people of color and that the people involved are less than human. To justify ripping families apart, the government must first engage in dehumanizing the targeted group, whether it is Native Americans, African Americans or immigrants from Central America fleeing murder, rape, extortion and kidnapping.”
Trump, he noted, dehumanized immigrant children by saying, “ ‘They look so innocent. They’re not innocent.’ ”
“There is no question these children are innocent,” Fernandez said, “but Trump associates them with the idea that these are not like your children and thus less than human.”
sigh…
Colorado Police Officer Who Raped Handcuffed Woman He Was Taking Home From Hospital Gets a Mere 90 Days in Jail
Should be 90 years. Hope her family sues the department into oblivion.
…and yes, it is fair for the tax payers to get stuck paying for that. As long as the public supports and sanctions the actions of police departments where lawless takes place they are culpable in the crimes of those officers. The violence is done in their name. If they do not insist on better behavior from municipal employees they deserve to get stuck with the bill.
Disturbing Video Shows San Bernardino Police Officer Fatally Shooting Unarmed Man: LAist
Disturbing Video Shows San Bernardino Police Officer Fatally Shooting Unarmed Man: LAist
Never ever call 911 on a loved one unless you want them dead. Never, ever, ever.
911 = 1-800-MURDERU
Trump’s ‘zero tolerance’: Families used to be split up in East Germany, too. It caused lifelong trauma.
In a now-unified Germany, forced adoptions have become synonymous with the state terrorism and injustice that was rampant in the formerly socialist East, known as the GDR. Reached by phone Wednesday and told about the U.S. controversy, Behr, 50, drew a direct comparison between her experience and the fate of children now being separated from their parents in the United States.
“Of course when I hear of this, I immediately think of my own upbringing. Witnessing the arrest of my mom and being separated from her at that age caused a lifelong trauma for me,” said Behr, who lives in Berlin and is involved in research projects about childhood trauma caused by family separation during the GDR.
Sigh….
Castro blindsides Buttigieg over Chicago donation
Julián Castro rebuked Pete Buttigieg in a fundraising email to supporters Friday, criticizing the Indiana mayor over his decision to accept funds from a former Chicago city attorney involved in the botched handling of the police shooting of teen Laquan McDonald.
Castro blindsides Buttigieg over Chicago donation – POLITICO
hmmmm
Jaime Ceballos Killing by Police Costs Thornton $1.25 Million
The City of Thornton has agreed to pay $1.25 million to settle a wrongful-death lawsuit filed on behalf of Jaime Ceballos, who was in the midst of a mental health crisis when a police officer shot and killed him only about a minute after arriving on the scene. Ceballos was holding a baseball bat at the time of the 2013 incident, which took place in the driveway of his home, but he was too far from law enforcers or other witnesses to be an actual threat to anyone.
…”He was in his own driveway, talking to himself, and his wife and his friends were trying to help him,” Holland Edwards continues. “He had a baseball bat in his hand, but that was all. But when the police got there, they refused to take any information from his friends or engage in any de-escalation. They marched down the street, one holding a taser, the other one holding a gun.”
…The lawsuit confirms that Quianna Ceballos told the 911 operator that her husband had a knife, and a kitchen blade was indeed found on his body after the shooting. However, he never pulled it out or brandished it in the presence of police.
…Husk and the other officers advanced on Ceballos with weapons on display, repeatedly yelling, “Drop the bat or we’ll shoot.”
To that, Ceballos said, “Fuck you, shoot me then!” — and Husk did, squeezing off six rounds in rapid succession. The autopsy report revealed that Ceballos died from two bullets in the chest that perforated his lungs and vertebrae.
By Holland Edwards’s estimate, the elapsed time between the cops’ arrival and the shooting was “less than a minute.”
…Husk and Eric Ward, another officer on hand when Ceballos died, were awarded “medals of valor” for how they dealt with the matter. Likewise, Matsch pointed out, Nelson testified that “he would have the officers handle the situation the same way if faced with it again.”
…Thornton taxpayers must pony up the aforementioned seven-figure sum — and that doesn’t count legal fees accrued over a four-year period that likely bring the total outlay close to $2 million.
Jaime Ceballos Killing by Police Costs Thornton $1.25 Million | Westword
By employing, defending, and protecting these officers (not to mention AWARDING THEM A MEDAL FOR COLD-BLOODED MURDER) the municipality was cuplable in this murder. If tax-payers don’t like having to pay for the costs of these officers action, then they must insist the law enforcement officers they hire and employ do better.
Until communities insist the police police its own, they will rightly be left holding the bill.
Consequences are necessary.
Fort Worth Community Questions Whether to Call Police for Help After Officer Killed Woman in Her Own Home
“If you’re scared of us,” Hale said, “maybe you shouldn’t be working in this neighborhood.”
mhhhmmmm
Atatiana Jefferson had a right to a gun and cops needed to respect that right before skulking around
As supporters of the Second Amendment and the individual right to self defense (within reason), we support Jefferson’s right and decision to have a gun (for which she reportedly had a license) and any decision to arm herself as she checked the backyard.
….In this case, it was Dean who had an obligation to be deferential to Atatiana Jefferson’s rights.
Atatiana Jefferson had a right to a gun and cops needed to respect that right before skulking around
mmmmhmmmmm
Officer Who Shot Atatiana Jefferson Wasn’t Asked to Do Wellness Check Despite Neighbor’s Request
Officer Who Shot Atatiana Jefferson Wasn’t Asked to Do Wellness Check Despite Neighbor’s Request
Well, duh!
Not state the obvious or anything but wellness check do not exist. Again, there is no such thing as a wellness check.
If you want to check on someone’s wellness, ask them if they are well. They certainly will not be anything resembling well if you call the police on them. Calling the police invites wanton violence, not wellness.
If you call the police on anyone, for any reason, you culpable in what happens next. Unless you want blood on your hands do not bring the police into anything. Ever.
Kansas 13-year-old girl who pointed finger gun at classmates charged with a felony
Kansas 13-year-old girl who pointed finger gun at classmates charged with a felony
Seems a little over the top. Why didn’t she have to visit the principle and (both girls!) meet with a school counselor instead?
What can a black person do to keep from getting killed by police in this country?
It is progress, I suppose, that police did not seek to suppress the video of the shooting and its aftermath — and also that the officer has resigned and faces murder charges. Images from inside the house show a firearm, which to me suggests a possible scenario: What if Jefferson heard noises outside, suspected a possible intruder and reached for a weapon to defend herself?
According to the National Rifle Association and pro-gun zealots such as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), that’s exactly what a law-abiding citizen should do, right? The main reason for making firearms so widely available is to allow us the means to defend ourselves and our families. If the officer had been a prowler, according to the good-guy-with-a-gun philosophy, Jefferson had every right to shoot him.
… Second Amendment rights don’t apply to African Americans. You will recall that Castile was legally carrying a firearm when he was pulled over for a traffic violation, and that fact was enough to get him killed.
…Jefferson’s character is not relevant to whether she had the right to stay up late in her own home playing Xbox games with her nephew. It is not relevant to whether the 8-year-old had to witness his aunt being brutally killed.
We will not have law and order in this society until police officers being held accountable for murder and malfeasance is the norm, and not the exception to the rule.
Reality Winner sentenced to more than 5 years for leaking info about Russia hacking attempts
Winner, 26, who was a contractor with the National Security Agency, pleaded guilty in June to copying a classified report that detailed the Russian government’s efforts to penetrate a Florida-based voting software supplier.
U.S. intelligence agencies later confirmed Russia had meddled in the election. Authorities have never confirmed what exactly the report said, or identified the news organization that received it.
But a leaked document that was published by the online news outlet The Intercept in June 2017 bore the same May 5 date as the NSA report that Winner had leaked. The Justice Department announced it had arrested Winner on the same day as the Intercept report came out.
…Winner has been held with no bail since she was arrested last June and charged under the Espionage Act. A former Air Force linguist who speaks Arabic and languages used in Afghanistan, including Farsi and Pashto, Winner had a top-secret security clearance while working for national security contractor Pluribus International at Fort Gordon in Georgia when she was charged.
Reality Winner sentenced to more than 5 years for leaking info about Russia hacking attempts
hmmmm
Chester Township Family Arrested For Loitering While Standing On Their Own Property
Words matter CBS. If you are going to couch the victim’s statements in wording that suggests their versions isn’t factual you need to do the same for the police version.
Atatiana Jefferson was a victim of law-and-order rhetoric
The Fort Worth Police Department released a photo of a gun they claimed to have found in Jefferson’s house, a clear attempt to head off criticism. As of yet, there’s no indication that Jefferson was holding the gun when she was shot. And, of course, even if she had been, there’s nothing illegal about having a gun in your home in Texas. If Jefferson had been holding it, it was likely because she saw men with flashlights prowling around outside her home.
…When homeowner Jerry Waller saw activity outside his house, he grabbed a gun and went out to see what was going on — and then ran into a Fort Worth police officer. …The police narrative makes little sense. Waller was on his own property, and did nothing wrong. It’s hard to fathom why he would knowingly try to kill a police officer. The police narrative also doesn’t quite fit the wound patterns on Waller’s hands, which appear to be inconsistent with someone holding a gun.
…You can say the same for the Southaven, Miss., police who responded to the wrong house, then shot and killed Ismael Lopez in his own home. Or for the Florida officers who shot and killed Andrew Scott, also after responding to the wrong house. Same for the officers who killed David Hooks, Jason Wescott and Andrew Finch. And those who killed Terence Crutcher, Philando Castille and Stephon Clark.
…The problem is that not one of them was actually in any danger. Nor were the countless officers who shot someone (usually a black male) after claiming to have seen a suspect reaching for his waistband — only to discover the suspect was unarmed.
…The law permits the police officers to use lethal force if they have a reasonable fear for their safety or for the safety of others.
…But “reasonable” isn’t the same thing as “legitimate” or “accurate.” …Police officers are seeing threats where there clearly are none.
…Law enforcement advocates …describe police work with words …[that] fuel the mistaken belief that relatively rare incidents such as roadside ambushes are common. They equate criticism and oversight of police with violence. And they cite small increases in the number of police fatalities year to year with percentages without providing the proper context — that violence against law enforcement has dropped to the point where even small increases look large when expressed as percentages.
…It creates a false reality where almost any use of force seems reasonable. This is a problem for everyone, but it’s compounded for black people, given the ample evidence that people of all races tend to disproportionately fear and see criminality in blacks — especially black men.
Atatiana Jefferson was a victim of law-and-order rhetoric – The Washington Post
Except it’s more than rhetoric, it’s a legal standard used to justified wanton violence and cold-blooded murder.
Officer who shot naked man found not guilty of murder; jury splits along racial lines
A former Georgia police officer who fatally shot an unarmed, naked man was found not guilty of murder Monday but was convicted of aggravated assault and other charges that could send him to prison for more than 30 years.
…Olsen, now 57, was a DeKalb County police officer in March 2015 when he responded to a call of a naked man behaving erratically outside an Atlanta-area apartment complex. Shortly after arriving, he fatally shot 26-year-old Anthony Hill, a U.S. Air Force veteran who had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. …Olsen is white and Hill was black.
…The jury acquitted Olsen on two counts of felony murder, charges that would have carried a mandatory sentence of life in prison. A felony murder charge doesn’t imply intent to kill but rather that a death occurred as a person was committing another felony, in this case aggravated assault or violation of his oath.
…One of the jurors, who asked that his name not be used because he didn’t want to be linked to the high-profile case, said the fact that Olsen was a police officer made the deliberations difficult.
…By the time they reached a verdict, jurors were pretty evenly split — largely along racial lines — between those who wanted to convict Olsen of murder and those who didn’t, with most white jurors wanting to acquit, he said.
Ultimately, the juror said, he was afraid they wouldn’t be able to reach a unanimous verdict, the case would end up in a mistrial and a subsequent jury wouldn’t convict on any of the counts. So he and some of the others agreed to acquit on the murder charges as long as they reached a guilty verdict on the aggravated assault charge.
Officer who shot naked man found not guilty of murder – ABC News
hmmm
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