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Nearly four years after the death of George Floyd, criminal justice reforms are being rolled back across the country. Critics warn the new laws could harm black communities

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Nearly Four Years After George Floyd

Politicians in Louisiana, San Francisco, Oregon and Washington hope a wave of new proposals and laws to toughen the fight on crime will prevent crime by reversing criminal justice reforms implemented years ago.

Political leaders of each major political parties consider that crime is increasing and the technique to solve this problem is to toughen the fight against crime. But experts say “tough on crime” laws are more practical at increasing the number of people serving time in prison without evidence of their effectiveness in deterring crime. This is, of course, a change of course from the dynamics that followed the police killing of George Floyd and led to criminal justice reforms.

In the wake of Floyd’s death, states have passed a whole bunch of reform bills, including chokehold bans and other use-of-force guidelines, and a number of other cities have promised to speculate in community programs and crisis response teams to help with behavioral health calls.

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Nearly four years after the death of George Floyd, criminal justice reforms are being rolled back across the country.  Critics warn the new laws could harm black communities
Protesters march with George Floyd signs during the 57th annual March on Washington, Friday, August 28, 2020, in Washington, Maryland. This yr’s march, also called the Get Off Our Necks march, focused on the recent Black Lives Matter movement while honoring the work of previous civil rights leaders. (Photo by Erin Lefevre/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Currently, politicians in some states have launched efforts to provide more power to police, toughen criminal penalties, make drug treatment a condition of receiving welfare advantages, and repeal other laws that allow courts to go after younger people.

For example, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry recently blamed a law signed by the former governor in 2017 for “rampant crime,” based on his March 1 opinion piece published in the Shreveport Times. Lawmakers there passed laws during a special session on crime, including a measure that now allows courts to prosecute 17-year-olds as young adults, based on the Plaquemine Post South.

The Republican governor has approved efforts to expand the diversity of capital punishment methods and limit eligibility for parole and early release. Critics similar to the ACLU of Louisiana testified against the two bills, arguing they “were expensive and unlikely to reduce crime at this time,” USA Today he wrote. House Democratic Caucus Chairman Matthew Willard of New Orleans also made similar arguments, saying they will not stop crime before it happens.

Shari Stone-Mediatore, co-founder of the advocacy group Parole Illinois and a professor at Ohio Wesleyan University, told USA Today that these stringent laws aim to combat crime by stigmatizing criminals quite than addressing underlying problems.

This approach results in mass incarceration, destroys families and communities, and disproportionately affects people of color, she said. “This is not a productive way to deal with social problems” similar to drug addiction and unemployment, Stone-Mediatore said.

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Meanwhile, lawmakers in San Francisco voted on two proposals giving police additional powers to pursue suspects in vehicles, expanding the use of drones and surveillance cameras and requiring addiction treatment for welfare recipients.

Such solutions were pushed for by Democratic mayor London Breed, who will run for re-election in November. As reported by the Associated Press, her opponents say she has failed to regulate drug crimes, theft and vandalism.

Likewise, based on news reports, D.C. Council members have approved a set of public safety measures that include restoring “drug-free zones” to combat drug-related loitering.

In Oregon, similar issues emerged in the state Legislature as lawmakers gained support for a bill to repeal portions of Measure 110, a 2020 voter-approved measure aimed toward decriminalizing drug possession.

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Opponents say restoring criminal penalties wouldn’t only overwhelm the criminal justice system but would unfairly impact blacks and Latinos in Oregon, the Statesman Journal reported.

Many of the recent tough-on-crime laws essentially roll back some of the most controversial reforms “rather than completely rejecting a balanced approach,” Adam Gelb, president and CEO of the nonpartisan think tank Council on Criminal Justice, told USA Today.

“It’s a stunning turnaround, especially so soon after a wave of national protests against the system for being too harsh,” he said. “I think there is a very small chance that we will fully return to the idea that we can arrest and punish while keeping people safe.”

Overall, reports show that the United States stays the leader in the total number of people incarcerated worldwide, with greater than 2 million prisoners nationwide. This figure represents roughly 25 percent of the world’s total prison population.

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A Republican in Tennessee is pushing a controversial bill that addresses local government regulations. While the bill could seem easy, it’s consistent with a recent Memphis City Council ordinance prohibiting law enforcement from initiating arrests just for minor offenses, News Channel 5 in Nashville reported. According to FOX 13, the Tennessee Senate passed a bill on Thursday that might repeal a city ordinance blocking pretextual traffic stops.

The move was prompted by the tragic death of Tire Nichols while being stopped by Memphis police following a routine traffic stop.

Nichols’ family, who was present in the capital on Monday, strongly opposed this bill. “I’m not going to pretend to be an expert on politics,” said RowVaughn Wells, Nichols’ mother. “We cannot fathom how a local ordinance, supported by the community, can be questioned and undermined in this way.”

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This article was originally published on : atlantablackstar.com
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Politics and Current

HegeSeth directs 20% cut to the highest military managerial positions

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The Secretary of Defense Pete HegeSeth on Monday ordered the military lively service to lose 20% of 4 -star general officers, when the Trump administration moves forward with deep cuts, which he thinks will promote performance, but critics that worry may cause more politicized strength.

HegeSeth also told the National Guard to lose 20% of his highest positions and recommend the military to reduce an extra 10% of his general and flagship officers of their forces, which can include one star or official with an equivalent rank of navy.

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The cuts are at the top of over half a dozen of the best general officers that President Donald Trump or HegeSeth released from January, including the chairman of the joint heads of the staff, Gen. CQ Brown Jr. They also released only two women serving as 4 -star officers, in addition to a disproportionate variety of other older officers.

In earlier rounds of shooting, HegeSth said that the eliminations were “a reflection of the president who wants the right people around him to perform the approach to national security that we want to take.”

As the head of the Pentagon, HegeSeth advertised his efforts to upload any programming or leadership, which support diversity in ranks, tried to end members of transgender services and commenced sweeping changes to implement a uniform fitness standard for the fight position.

In the note announcing the cuts on Monday, HegSeth said that they might remove “unnecessary forces to optimize and improve leadership.” He said that the goal was to free the army from “unnecessary bureaucratic layers.”

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Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass. Marine, who served in Iraq and is now in the Armed Service Committee, said he perceived HegeSetha as trying to politicize the army.

“He creates a formal framework to slow down all generals who disagree with him – and president,” said Multon AP in Capitol.

He said that actually every organization can search for performance, but HegeSeth has been clearly clearly expressing its program. “He wrote a book about it. He wants to politicize the army,” said Multon. “So it’s hard to see these cuts in any other context.”

Multon warned against the fall of the soldiers. “It is necessary for our soldiers to understand that they receive constitutional orders, not political orders,” he said, “otherwise you have no democracy, otherwise you have an army that works well for one or another political party.”

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Adding to the confusion in the Pentagon, HegeSeth in recent weeks I actually have released or moved many close advisersstrongly narrowing his inner circle. He also handled questions from each Democrats and Republicans about coping with sensitive information and the use of applications for sending signal messages.

There are about 800 general officers in the army, but only 44 of them are 4 -star general or flag officials. The army has the largest variety of general officers, from 219, including eight 4 -star generals.

Trump stands at Pete HegeSeth among the controversy, but called Lloyd Austin to resign - critics claims that this is a double standard

The variety of positions of the general officer in the army is set by law. Congress members didn’t receive a notification upfront, which they might normally receive in cuts, but in the afternoon they received a “very short warning”, according to a congress worker, which spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide details that weren’t made public.

The cuts were first reported by CNN.

The Pentagon is under pressure to reduce expenses and staff as a part of wider cuts of the federal government pushed by the Department of the Government of Trump and Ally Elon Musk.

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HegeSeth last week ordered a sweeping transformation Army to “build a slim, more deadly force”, including connecting or closing the headquarters, shedding outdated vehicles and aircraft, cutting up to 1,000 employees of the headquarters in the Pentagon and transfer of staff to units in the field.

Also last week, the army confirmed that it could be Military Parade for Trump’s birthday In June, as a part of the celebration of the 250th birthday of the service. Officials say it would cost tens of tens of millions of dollars.

—-

Associated Press Writers Lisa Mascaro and Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this report.

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Trump's Defense Cabinet Pete HegeSeth has a history of hostility towards racial justice

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This article was originally published on : thegrio.com
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Metro Atlanta City of Decatur to start the compensation task group

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The city of Decatur in Metro Atlanta unanimously approved the creation of a compensation task group.

According to Decatur City Commission adopted a resolution On May 5, the 11-person task group will publish a report in three years, including recommendations regarding policy for black city residents.

The message appears a yr after the city leaders signed a contract with Beacon Hill Black Alliance for Human Rights to “discover the heritage of racial damage” in Decatur. The alliance managed research work in the field of compensation, organizing community meetings and listening sessions about how racial injustice has financially and systematically hurt these residents.

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Their research described the role of decatur in slavery and segregation, in addition to red and real estate against the black community. Decatur also showed many monuments of the confederation, especially one earlier in the court of Dekalb.

The city not only recognized its oppressive tactics towards its black inhabitants, but additionally apologized for the actions that suppressed their progress.

“The city of Decatur formally recognizes its earlier role in the systemic oppression of people of African origin through enslavement, trafficking in human beings, conviction, discriminatory zones and development, underestimation in African -American communities, school segregation, racist police operation, destruction of African American estate, business and institutions and erosion and erosion and erosion and erosion, population, population population, population, population, population, population and culture – we read in resolution.

The city goals to designate 11 members, with the help of Beacon Hill Black Alliance, in the next 60 days. They will bring a various specialist knowledge group, and members consist of historians, legal experts and youth supporters. Over the next three years, the Task group will develop records regarding the loss of black land and real estate, being attentive to economic resettlement, while interviewing the descendants of those to which these oppressive tactics affected.

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City officials added: “The city is expanding the full and public apology to the black residents of Decatur – Past and Present – and their descendants for its role in consolidating discrimination, pressure, subordination and the resulting damage, drawing on the principles rooted in the white supremacy system.”

The Compensation Task Group may even propose the commemorative projects sponsored by the city, economic tools and other investment strategies and community initiatives to treatment its racist past. This move will happen from other communities, even in the Atlanta Metro, which introduced initiatives regarding the repair of black residents. In the neighboring Fulton, his task group will resume the meeting this yr.

While the plan appears amongst the domestic shuffle of anti-dei attributable to the Trump administration, local leaders remain involved in the same efforts of the judiciary that began before taking office by Trump.

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(Tagstranslate) compensation Task group

This article was originally published on : www.blackenterprise.com
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Politics and Current

Social media reacts to a series of funny faces of George W. Bush during the inauguration of Trump, when Barack Obama jokes that “he could barely behave

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5 Ways Barack Obama and George W. Bush Are Pretty Much The Same

Former President Barack Obama jokingly told the reporter that former President George W. Bush “barely” behaved during the inauguration of President Donald Trump on Monday.

When there have been presidents and other noteworthy VIP guests waited for the USA ceremony to sit in the US Capitol, a member of the staff asked 78-year-old Bush if he “behaved” and 63-year-old Obama at the back to answer on behalf of Bush with “No”.

5 ways of Barack Obama and George W. Bush are almost the same

A brief, viral clip shows briefly looking around the Capitol and smiling at the members of the audience during the inauguration, which the viewers considered funny.

When Obama left the American Capitol Rotunda after the ceremony, the same post reporter quickly asked Obama if Bush behaved and Obama replied: “barely” during a smile.

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The viewers had a day in the field with many Bush faces. One person joked: “Bro was beyond his mind”

The secular behavior of former presidents was, unlike incorrect boos imposed on Obama by Trump’s supporters watching the ceremony from the rally at the Capital One Arena in the center of Washington. Bill and Hillary Clinton and former Vice President Trump Mike Pence was also not spared heavy Boos.

The first lady Michelle Obama was noticeably missing amongst the chosen group of former residents of the White House, who confirmed that she wouldn’t participate on the days before the inauguration.

About her absence, unidentified source he said People: “There is no exaggeration of her feelings about (Trump). She is not one of the plasters on a pleasant face and she pretended that the Michelle protocol does nothing, because she is expected, protocol or its tradition.”

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The source said that Michelle “no longer feels the need to be public” and added that the verbal attacks of Trump on Obama and his offensive rhetoric addressed to colourful people could even be a factor wherein she decided to skip.

In addition to Michelle, every living former president and the first lady was present, including former President Joe Biden and his wife Dr. Jill Biden, George W. Bush and Laura Bush, in addition to Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Trump’s swearing in the US Capitol for the first time in 40 years, the presidential inauguration took place, ignoring the customary configuration outside the Capitol, wherein 1000’s normally observe from the national shopping mall.

Officials stated that the polar vortex, which brought dangerously low temperatures to the part of the eastern coast, was the most important reason why the ceremony was moved inside.

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The last time the inauguration was moved in the room, when former President Ronald Reagan was sworn in for his second term in 1985.

(Tagstranslate) Barack Obama

This article was originally published on : atlantablackstar.com
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