Category: Local Interest,

In 2018 A Utah student was wearing a Tongan ta’ovala cloth under his graduation gown. A school administrator told him he had to take it off — or he couldn’t walk across the stage.

On By peanutgallerynhIn Local Interest,, Media and Culture,, Race,, Schools,Leave a comment

A Utah student was wearing a Tongan ta’ovala cloth under his graduation gown. A school administrator told him he had to take it off — or he couldn’t walk across the stage. – The Salt Lake Tribune

oy…

A White Campground Employee In Mississippi Pulled A Gun On A Black Couple Trying To Have A Picnic

On By peanutgallerynhIn Local Interest,, Race,Leave a comment

A White Campground Employee In Mississippi Pulled A Gun On A Black Couple Trying To Have A Picnic

Jeezus….

Although it is super depressing to read these stories it is heartening to see so many of the self-important, racist assholes who try and use laws and regulations to put people of color down shamed and outed for all to see.

Kansas Supreme Court: Abortion now a constitutional right in state

On By peanutgallerynhIn Chick Stuff,, Local Interest,Leave a comment

The court said the Kansas Constitution gives women the right to make their own decisions regarding their bodies. That means abortions would be legal in Kansas even if Roe v. Wade is reversed at the federal level.

“Our Supreme Court had not made a ruling in that regard until today,” said Robert Eye, a lawyer who represents two abortion doctors in the Supreme Court case.

Kansas Supreme Court: Abortion now a constitutional right in state

hmmm

San Francisco becomes the first US city to BAN government use of facial recognition

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Local Interest,, Privacy,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

San Francisco supervisors approved a ban on police using facial recognition technology, making it the first city in the U.S. with such a restriction.

…Departments will need to get board approval to continue using or acquiring technology.

…The legislation bans municipal use but not personal, business or federal government use of face ID technology.

San Francisco becomes the first US city to BAN government use of facial recognition | Daily Mail Online

hmmm

Police shooting near Yale exposes complex racial divide

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Local Interest,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Race,, Schools,Leave a comment

The images from the police bodycam video of two officers firing at an unarmed black couple in their car have reverberated throughout New Haven.

…In January, New Haven officials approved the creation of a Civilian Review Board to monitor and independently investigate alleged police misconduct — an effort more than 20 years in the making.

…The redlining of neighborhoods — in which federal agencies in the 1930s allowed for discriminatory lending practices that disenfranchised black home buyers — created the segregation and racially divisive attitudes prevalent in New Haven and its majority white suburbs.

…New Haven, where about one in four residents live in poverty, and the portion of Hamden that borders the city represent a microcosm of the housing policies and income inequality that persist today throughout the United States.

…”Yale and these other Ivy League schools are in a land grab race, competing for endowment funds and land. They want to buy up properties to build expensive apartments, luxury living with the gyms and coffee houses and yoga studios. They’re arguing that they’re scaling up neighborhoods and gentrifying, but the reality is it’s only for those who can afford it.”

…The shooting near Yale’s campus has also brought up questions about how the university’s police force operates and why an officer fired a weapon in an off-campus encounter.

…The Black Students for Disarmament at Yale said it favors the school’s officers being unarmed and restricted in where they can patrol off campus. 

…A white student called campus police on a black Yale graduate student who had been napping in a common room.

…Upon releasing Eaton’s bodycam footage …State Police Commissioner James Rovella could not detail why the officers opened fire after commanding the driver to open the car door. Witherspoon could be seen on Eaton’s bodycam getting out of his car at that moment.

Eaton only turned on the bodycam after the shooting, and Pollock failed to turn his on at all.

Witherspoon, who was [not armed, was] not charged [with any crimes.]

Police shooting near Yale exposes complex racial divide

sigh….

Civil asset forfeiture has quietly expanded across Pa., led by Berks County

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Local Interest,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

When forfeiture is used as a cash cow, everything can look like drug money. Everything can look like a prize.

And as other counties have scaled up the practice — as Daisilee Cruz’s case and others uncovered through our investigation show — seemingly innocent people are getting caught in the crossfire.

…“As long as forfeiture money is being used to self-fund law enforcement agencies, there is always going to be an abuse of forfeiture practices,” said Darpana Sheth with the Washington-based Institute of Justice, which has been litigating civil asset forfeiture cases for years.

“Law enforcement has a direct financial incentive to not only seize property but pursue forfeiture even when there is a very tangential relationship to criminal activity,” she said.

…Investigators didn’t find any drugs in their sweep, but they did find something else — $3,000 that Smith says she had just cashed from a tax refund. It was days away from her son’s senior prom, and she had hoped to use the money to pay for his suit and rent a limousine.

But, to investigators, the stack of cash was probable drug money.

“They were like, ‘Well, I need to prove it’s not illegal gains,’ and I said, ‘Well, you’re not proving that it is illegal gains. You’re not proving that,’” Smith recalled saying to police, at the time. “I was really, really angry that they took my money.”

…A review of several months of court filings from 2018 shows that small amounts of cash are routinely taken from people never charged with crimes.

…Adams conceded that cases like these do occur, but referred to the money as “abandoned property,” because the individuals didn’t show up to court hearings to contest the takings.

…Police confiscated a piggy bank containing about $98 of birthday money belonging to a suspect drug dealer’s youngest daughter. Neither the target nor the daughter were ever charged with criminal wrongdoing. Still, the process of getting the piggy bank back was arduous.

“It took us over a year to get that $98 back,” he said.

Civil asset forfeiture has quietly expanded across Pa., led by Berks County

sigh…