position:police chief

University of Arizona will charge 2 students over protest of Border Patrol event on campus

Two students at the University of Arizona will be charged with misdemeanors after a video showing them protesting a Customs and Border Protection event on campus went viral, UA President Robert Robbins announced Friday.

The potential charges stem from a Border Patrol presentation to a student club, the Criminal Justice Association, on campus on March 19.

Video of the incident showed two Border Patrol agents in a classroom giving a presentation, with people outside the door recording them and calling them “Murder Patrol,” "murderers" and “an extension of the KKK.”

After the agents leave the classroom, a group followed them until they left campus, chanting “Murder Patrol,” video footage on social media shows.

Conservative media and commentators shared the video on social media and blogs as an example of free speech issues on college campuses.

In the letter sent to students posted online, Robbins said the protest represented a “dramatic departure from our expectations of respectful behavior and support for free speech on this campus.”

UA police determined Friday that they “will be charging” two students involved in the incident with “interference with the peaceful conduct of an educational institution,” which is a misdemeanor. A Class 1 misdemeanor could result in up to six months of jail time.

Charges have not been filed yet, UA Police Chief Brian Seastone said in an email. The names of the two students have not been released.

Robbins wrote that UA police will continue to investigate the matter for potential “additional criminal violations.” The Dean of Students’ office also is reviewing the incident to determine if the student code of conduct was violated.

Separately, Robbins said the university would conduct a “probe into actions involving UA employees.” It’s unclear what role employees played in the situation.

Robbins also has directed staff members to examine university policies “to ensure we are working effectively to help prevent similar incidents in the future” while still maintaining First Amendment rights.
’Protest is protected … but disruption is not’

“At the core of these inquiries is the University of Arizona’s commitment to free speech,” he wrote. “The student club and the CBP officers invited by the students should have been able to hold their meeting without disruption. Student protest is protected by our support for free speech, but disruption is not.”

In the days after the March 19 incident, Robbins wrote a statement affirming the university’s commitment to free speech.

Top officers from the Associated Students of the University of Arizona, the school’s student government organization, wrote a letter dated March 21 that said unannounced visits to campus by Border Patrol were “unacceptable.”

The letter pointed to an arrest by Border Patrol a few miles from campus the same day as the UA presentation, saying the concerns of undocumented and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals students were valid.

Students should be notified in advance of Border Patrol visits to campus, the letter said. And there should be an understanding that the “mere presence” of Border Patrol on campus can negatively affect DACA and undocumented communities, it stated.

On Monday, DACA recipients who attend UA also released a letter saying they face “discomfort and fear” when they see Customs and Border Protection.

“As DACA recipients at the university, the presence of CBP on campus has a traumatic impact on our overall well being and impedes us from fully engaging with our academics. In a space where all students are given the right to pursue an education, their presence was and will always be an infringement on that right,” the letter states.

Since the video was released, students have been “bombarded with threats to their physical and emotional well being,” the letter claimed.

Robbins’ announcement of criminal charges for two students proves “the swiftness with which institutions criminalize people of color,” the letter said.

The DACA recipients wrote that they are in “full support” of students who spoke out against Border Patrol on campus.

▻https://eu.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-education/2019/04/01/protest-university-arizona-over-border-patrol-event-result-charges-for-2-students/3335688002
#liberté_d'expression #résistance #criminalisation #USA #Etats-Unis #frontières #protestations #délit_de_solidarité

3 Officers Acquitted of Covering Up for Colleague in Laquan McDonald Killing - The New York Times
▻https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/17/us/laquan-mcdonald-officers-acquitted.html

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/12/19/us/00silencecode/00silencecode-facebookJumbo.jpg

CHICAGO — Three Chicago police officers were acquitted on Thursday of charges that they had conspired and lied to protect a white police officer who fired 16 deadly shots into a black teenager, a contentious verdict in a case over what many viewed as a “code of silence” in the Police Department.

The judgment, rendered in a tense, cramped courtroom overflowing with spectators, was delivered by a judge and not a jury. Speaking from the bench for close to an hour, Associate Judge Domenica Stephenson rejected the prosecutors’ arguments that the officers had shooed away witnesses and then created a narrative to justify the 2014 shooting, which prompted citywide protests, the firing of the police chief and a wide-ranging federal investigation into the police force.

The ruling came more than three months after Officer Jason Van Dyke was convicted in October of the second-degree murder of Laquan McDonald, and on the afternoon before he was scheduled to be sentenced for a killing that was captured on an infamous police dashboard camera video.

The three police officers — David March, Joseph Walsh and Thomas Gaffney — contradicted what the video showed. In it, Mr. Van Dyke fires repeatedly at Laquan, who is wielding a knife, as he moves slightly away from the officers and even as he lies crumpled on the ground. Prosecutors cited that footage repeatedly as they built a case against the officers, who are white, on charges of conspiracy, official misconduct and obstruction of justice.

Et cette merveilleuse pénétration des « faits alternatifs » dans le domaine de la preuve juridique :

Judge Stephenson said that even though the officers’ accounts of the shooting differed from the video, that did not amount to proof that they were lying. “Two people with two different vantage points can witness the same event,” she said, and still describe it differently.

La mafia (FOP ?) attend le jugement d’une complice dans l’appareil (ou de quelqu’un tenu) :

It was “undisputed and undeniable,” Judge Stephenson said, that Laquan had ignored officers’ commands to drop his knife. While she spoke, the three officers sat silently, sometimes staring down at the carpet or nervously jiggling a leg. After she read the verdict, several people broke into applause.

On croit rêver !!! Police partout, justice nulle part. Des applaudissements dans un tribunal !. La mafia...

“There was clearly evidence from the video that Laquan McDonald was not attacking or seeking to attack any of the law enforcement officers,” Mr. Finney said. “How could they all three make up a story indicating that Laquan was threatening their lives?”

Si cela ne vous rappelle pas les excuses de ce policier de Toulon qui vient d’être décoré de la légion d’honneur, et l’attitude du procureur en France, c’est que vous passez à côté d’un phénomène majeur : l’autonomisation de la police dans le monde entier, avec l’Amérique et son soft power (livres, films,...) comme modèle.

There were no protests after the verdicts were read, and William Calloway, a prominent Chicago activist who is running for City Council, urged Chicagoans to refrain. “To the black community, I know this hurts,” he said on Twitter. “We know this was a cover-up. I’m not saying take to the streets anymore. It’s time for us to take to the polls.”

“That blue code of silence is just not with the Chicago Police Department: It expands to the judicial system,” Mr. Calloway said at a news conference.

On Friday morning, the courts are scheduled for the final chapter in the Laquan case — a killing that came amid national protests and a spate of police shootings of black people. A Facebook group implored a “call to action”: “In room 500 at 9 a.m., show up to stand in solidarity with organizers and the family of Laquan McDonald as we demand, again, #Justice4Laquan.”

#faits_alternatifs #Police #Justice

The Rosa Luxemburg & Karl Liebknecht papers | IISH
▻https://socialhistory.org/en/news/rosa-luxemburg-karl-liebknecht-papers
▻https://socialhistory.org/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/liebknecht_luxemburg.jpg?itok=KttX4-U_
At the IISH, the papers of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht are made available:
▻http://hdl.handle.net/10622/ARCH00842
▻http://hdl.handle.net/10622/ARCH00822

Today marks the passing of 100 years since the murders of Rosa Luxemburg (1871-1919) and Karl Liebknecht (1871-1919). Luxemburg and Liebknecht were killed in the middle of the Spartacist uprising, a series of strikes and demonstrations that began on 4 January 1919, when the Independent Socialist Emil Eichhorn was dismissed as Police Chief of Berlin. Luxemburg and Liebknecht were the main leaders of the uprising and therefore prime targets for the paramilitary Freikorps units. The provisional government, led by social-democrat Friedrich Ebert, had ordered these units to put down the uprising.

Prior to their deaths, both Luxemburg and Liebknecht had been important figures in the German socialist movement. Liebknecht was the son of Wilhelm Liebknecht, the co-founder of the German social-democratic party (SPD) and had been working as a defence attorney for party members, while also being an active member of several international socialist organizations and a member of parliament for the SPD.

Although Luxemburg did not have a family history of party membership like Liebknecht, she was active in socialist organizations from the age of fifteen: first in Russian-controlled Poland, where she was born, later in Switzerland and finally in Germany, where she moved to in 1898. Luxemburg became an active member of the SPD and a strong critic of the party’s parliamentary course, proposing a revolutionary way to power instead. She contributed many important works to Marxist theory, such as The Accumulation of Capital on economics and Dialectic of Spontaneity and Organization on political philosophy.

In 1914, at the advent of the First World War, the matter of supporting the war heavily divided the German socialists. The majority of the SPD supported the war, while those against it formed the Independent Social Democratic Party (USPD). Luxemburg and Liebknecht, as strong advocates for international solidarity among workers, founded the Spartakus League, together with some other German socialists, to protest the war and spread antimilitarist pamphlets.

With Germany’s defeat in the war becoming inevitable after the summer of 1918, unrest spread throughout the country. Starting with a sailors’ mutiny in the northern port city of Kiel in the last days of October, the revolution had soon reached all major German cities, where worker- and soldier councils began to take control of local government. The social democrats, led by Ebert, managed to gain control of the national government and tried to consolidate power. Soldiers were returning home, food was in short supply and the political unrest led to riots and brawls in the streets. Germany was in turmoil.

Policing a City in Crisis.
▻https://www.themarshallproject.org/2018/03/05/policing-a-city-in-crisis
▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYGyUsmmDbg

How does a police department respond to a city in crisis? In 2014, Flint, Michigan switched its water source from Lake Huron to the Flint River in a bid to save money, but toxic levels of lead leached into the city’s tap water. A year later, the city elected a new mayor who in turn hired a new police chief. Tim Johnson arrived at the job facing a funding and personnel shortage in a city that is the ninth most violent in America. Under these conditions, Jessica Dimmock, Zackary Canepari and Drea Cooper began filming the city’s police department for “Flint Town,” a new eight-episode series on Netflix. The show provides a rare insight into a how lack of resources puts a further strain on the already tense relationship between the police department and the community it serves.Over 20 months, Canepari, Cooper and Dimmock documented the struggles of the department and its officers against the backdrop of the 2016 presidential election and a series of police-involved shootings that rocked the country.

Nouveau projet multimedia The Marshall project.
A fascinating dive into the history of “Cops” and how it shapes/reflects perspectives on policing.
Bad Boys- How “Cops” became the most polarizing reality TV show in America.
▻https://www.themarshallproject.org/2018/01/22/bad-boys

https://longreadsblog.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/cops-still-2.jpg?w=1200

To Stephen Chao, the former Fox executive who helped launch the show, its unvarnished simplicity remains one of the most radical things he’s ever seen on television. To Steve Dye, the police chief of the Grand Prairie Police Department in Texas, where the show was recently filmed, “Cops” is a powerful marketing and recruitment tool amid historically challenging times for law enforcement.

“Cops,” of course, is no longer the Fox behemoth it was in the ’90s, when it topped more than 8 million viewers an episode and was often the most watched reality show. Robinson proudly attributes this to Color of Change: In May 2013, a few months after the group launched a campaign to oust “Cops" from Fox, the show moved to Spike. There, it flourished, becoming one of the channel’s most watched shows with an average of 1.1 million viewers per episode last year. This season featured its 1,000th episode, while a Hollywood adaptation, possibly directed by Ruben Fleischer, of “Zombieland” and “Gangster Squad,” is expected to be released this year.

And yet, “Cops” almost never happened. This is the story of how it did—and the polarizing, influential thing it became.

Dubai security chief calls for bombing of Al Jazeera | UAE News | Al Jazeera
▻http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/11/dubai-security-chief-calls-bombing-al-jazeera-171125143439231.html

http://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/Images/2017/8/7/86daa8ef78864892a540a88ccd3d9f46_18.jpg

“The alliance must bomb the machine of terrorism ... the channel of ISIL, al-Qaeda and the al-Nusra front, Al Jazeera the terrorists,” the former police chief and now head of security in the Emirate told his 2.42 million followers on the social media site.

“#monde_arabe”

Göran Lindberg and Sweden’s dark side | feature | World news | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/aug/01/goran-lindberg-sweden-crime-palme

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Observer/Pix/pictures/2010/7/30/1280516711792/Goran-Lindberg-police-Swe-006.jpg?w=1200&h=630&q=55&auto=format&usm=12&fit=crop&crop=faces%2Centropy&bm=normal&ba=bottom%2Cleft&blend64=aHR0cHM6Ly91cGxvYWRzLmd1aW0uY28udWsvMjAxNi8wNS8yNS9vdmVybGF5LWxvZ28tMTIwMC05MF9vcHQucG5n&s=1bc1ce3d0cd368acc6f25530db24e31c

If there was ever a real-life policeman who came close in progressive Swedish affections to Kurt Wallander, the bestselling creation of Henning Mankell, it would probably be Göran Lindberg, chief of police of Uppsala, the city north of Stockholm that is home to Sweden’s most prestigious university. Although he lacked Wallander’s humility and reticence, Lindberg was concerned, like Wallander, with the marginalised and neglected in Swedish society. He was the sponsor of a sanctuary for abused juveniles, for example, and was at the forefront of the campaign to institute a more sympathetic response to rape victims.

In particular Lindberg was a staunch enemy of sexism in the police force. He argued with colleagues, made speeches and built up a reputation as a tireless proponent of women’s rights. So vocal was Lindberg that he ruffled the epaulettes of fellow policemen. “His colleagues,” says PJ Anders Linder, political editor-in-chief of the newspaper Svenska Dagbladet, “were obviously not quite as obsessed with the issue as he was. He seemed to be like a civil servant who had decided that this was how he was going to make his mark.”

And he did. From early in his career, Lindberg was seen by the authorities as a policing role model and was duly made the national spokesperson on sex equality in the police force. Pretty soon he established a reputation as Sweden’s leading progressive policeman. So renowned was Lindberg for his political correctness and sensitivity towards women’s issues that he was nicknamed “Captain Skirt”. In spite of the jokes, he was rapidly promoted, becoming the dean of the police training college and eventually the police chief of Uppsala.

In January this year, following a six-month investigation, Lindberg was arrested. At the time of his apprehension he was allegedly on his way to meet a 14-year-old girl in a hotel encounter that was also due to feature a number of other men. It was said that in his car was a bag containing leather whips, handcuffs and a blindfold.

Italy to seek to track down and deport migrants with no right to stay

Italy will seek to deport more migrants who have no right to be in the country and will open new detention centers to hold them before their expulsion, according to a written directive and a ministry source.

Police chief Franco Gabrielli sent a two-page directive to stations across the country on Friday ordering them to increase efforts to identify and deport migrants a week after Berlin Christmas market attacker Anis Amri was shot dead near Milan.

The directive, seen by Reuters, says police should take “extraordinary action” before the “growing migratory pressure in an international context marked by instability and threats” to “control and remove irregular foreigners.”

▻http://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-migrants-italy-idUSKBN14K0GY
#expulsion #renvoi #Italie #migrations #réfugiés #asile

Police Violence Against Native Americans Goes Far Beyond Standing Rock | FiveThirtyEight
▻http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/police-violence-against-native-americans-goes-far-beyond-standing-rock/?ex_cid=story-twitter
▻http://espnfivethirtyeight.files.wordpress.com/2016/12/img_8181_01.jpg?w=1200

On Nov. 28, a legal collective representing Native Americans opposing the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline filed a lawsuit against two North Dakota counties and their sheriffs, and the city of Mandan, North Dakota, and its police chief. Eight days before, the suit alleges, law enforcement officers from those places had used excessive force against a group of peaceful protesters, injuring more than 200.

The allegations in the case are striking — the lawsuit describes officers using water cannons on protesters despite freezing temperatures, shooting people in the head with non-lethal plastic rounds, and shooting a woman in the genitals with a flash-bang grenade. But this single event is part of a bigger history — one in which Native Americans interact frequently with outside law enforcement and where those interactions are often deadly.

#violences_policières #peuples_autochtones #Dakota #pipeline #pétrole

The curious tale of the French prime minister, PNR and peculiar patterns – by Estelle Massé & Joe McNameen
▻https://www.euractiv.com/section/justice-home-affairs/opinion/checked-for-tuesthe-curious-tale-of-the-french-prime-minister-pnr-and-pecu

https://www.euractiv.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/10/plane-800x515.jpg

This blind faith in the value of passenger profiling — despite the lack of evidence for its efficacy in preventing crime or terrorism — argues for deeper reflection. So, we followed the advice of Timothy Kirkhope, the MEP in charge of the EU PNR file, who once explained that PNR was not about profiling, it was just about “patterns in data.”

We began “looking for patterns” to explain what has been happening and we found one. It turns out that [Manuel] Valls is a cheerleader both for the PNR directive and for a company called #Safran, which sells PNR surveillance technology.

Safran has a major base in Evry, the small town south of Paris where Valls was mayor from 2001-2012. The company employs more than 3,300 people and, earlier this year, Valls visited the site and discussed Safran’s role in ensuring long-term employment in the region. The French government said in a statement following the visit, “We have one aim: that the French industry stays ahead.”

The company now appears to be in fine fettle. It won major contracts to put in place expensive #PNR_systems in France and #Estonia. Now that the PNR directive will make such systems mandatory across the EU, it is also seeking contracts in several other EU countries.

That’s not the end of the story. The pattern of links between Valls and Safran run even deeper. According to the French news outlet Marianne, in 2012, when a Safran contract was not renewed, Valls, who was then interior minister, allegedly intervened to help the company. He appears to have done so despite the fact that the proposed change to the contract could have saved €30 million of public funds.

Bertrand Marechaux, the police chief who questioned the contract, kept fighting to modify it and initiating legal proceedings against Mopho, a subsidiary of Safran. He was ultimately removed from his position. Valls’ office didn’t respond to Marianne’s request for comment at the time.

We think this compelling pattern should spur the public to start asking questions. Was Prime Minister Valls truly eager for the symbolic adoption of the EU PNR or did he want his old constituency to benefit? Hard to know. More of the pattern for Valls’ behaviour could surface following MEP Sophie in ‘t Veld’s question to the Commission regarding the #lobbying communications of companies that have won bids for building PNR systems in EU member states.

#aviation #surveillance #armement #industrie #france

Blast in Philippine market leaves 12 dead, at least 24 wounded - LA Times
▻http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-philippines-explosion-market-20160902-snap-story.html

A powerful explosion killed 12 people and wounded at least 24 others at a night market late Friday in President Rodrigo Duterte’s hometown in the southern #Philippines amid a security alert due to a major offensive against Abu Sayyaf militants in the region, officials said.

Regional military commander Lt. Gen. Rey Leonardo Guerrero said it was not immediately clear what caused the explosion at a massage section of the market, which was cordoned off by police bomb experts and investigators.

Police Chief Superintendent Manuel Gaerlan said witnesses gave contrasting accounts of what happened, with some saying that a cooking gas tank exploded, while others suggested it may have been some kind of an explosive. Police set up checkpoints in key roads leading to the city, a regional gateway about 600 miles south of Manila.

C’est à Davao sur l’île de Mindanao.

Former Police Chief: Put Down the Big Stick
▻http://www.filmsforaction.org/articles/former-police-chief-put-down-the-big-stick

I keep thinking since the horrific police assassinations in Dallas that we’ve been here before. It’s not that so many police officers have been summarily executed. It’s that a palpable tension...

The Evolving State of American Policing - Pacific Standard
▻http://www.psmag.com/politics-and-law/the-evolving-state-of-american-policing

http://a2.files.psmag.com/image/upload/c_fit,cs_srgb,dpr_1.0,h_1200,q_80,w_1200/MTM1MDA1NjE2MTI4MTY5MjM0.jpg

“Never at any time in the world’s history has it been possible for so many people to know, so promptly, of the dereliction of one police officer in such lack of context as to cause distrust and lack of respect for all,” Police Chief Frank Ramon tells his colleagues. It’s the annual conference of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, and hundreds of law enforcement executives from around the country are gathered together to talk about recent and troubling publicity around police forces pretty much across the country—California, New York, South Carolina, Maryland. Reflecting on the crisis in policing, he continues, “the law enforcement image is dependent on the professional, competent performance of the men and women who protect and serve their community.”

But Ramon, the chief of police of the Seattle Police Department, isn’t talking about viral videos shot by bystanders with cell phones, or about footage from dashboard cameras. All of that is still many years away. Ramon is speaking in the year 1965.

Yet Ramon’s comments could just as easily have been made in 2015—and, in fact, they sort of were. Over the course of the 2015 IACP, many speakers echoed the sentiments expressed at the conference opening by Chicago Police Department Superintendent Garry McCarthy (who resigned a month later when the Laquan McDonald cover-up was brought to light). “We’re in a tough time for policing right now,” McCarthy said. “And I believe we’re at a crossroads. I don’t think this climate has ever existed in the history of American policing.... Never have we been going through the scrutiny of every single action that we deal with like we do today, in the digital age.”
If police have been made responsible for measures both punitive and provisional in many low-income communities, this is not entirely by accident.

Israel’s new police chief: Architect of segregated West Bank roads | +972 Magazine

▻http://972mag.com/israels-new-police-chief-architect-of-segregated-west-bank-roads/111017/?can_id=c04bd6c1866a7591ea05420e1dd77aec&source=email-what-were-reading-no-e

http://static1.972mag.com/wp-content/uploads//2015/08/hirsch.jpg

1. During the Second Intifada, following a number of sniping and fire bomb attacks by Palestinians on Israeli cars, incoming police chief Gal Hirsch banned Palestinians from traveling on Route 443, turning it into a road for Israelis only. This despite the fact that the road was built on private and public Palestinian land, and with the understanding that Israel would see the road as a way to serve local Palestinian residents. This also created a situation in which Palestinians aiming to shoot Israeli cars could do so easily, since the road was made exclusively for Israelis.

#israël #palestine #démolition #occupation #colonisation

Police Warn Armenian Protesters To Disperse
▻http://www.rferl.org/content/article/27098665.html

Antigovernment demonstrators in the Armenian capital continue to protest on Yerevan’s central Baghramian Avenue despite calls by police to leave the avenue.

Police chief Vladimir Gasparian told activists in the evening on June 28 to move to the nearby Liberty Square.

Gasparian gave protesters 30 minutes to leave Baghramian Avenue, warning police would move to “restore public order” otherwise. Officers took away protesters’ microphones. 

A police statement also warned parents not to allow their underage children to remain among the protesters.

It also demanded media workers to leave the area and not to hinder police actions.

… tiens, c’est sur RFE/RL…

BBC News - Ukraine crisis : Rockets ’kill 15’ in Mariupol
▻http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30964970

At least 15 people have been killed and 46 injured in a series of rocket attacks by pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine’s government-held port of Mariupol, police there say.

The Grad rockets hit a market in a residential area in the east of the city, the police chief said.

http://cdn.rt.com/files/news/37/26/30/00/54654576867.si.jpg

A spokesman for the rebels denied that they had any involvement in the attack, calling it “blatant misinformation”.

More than 5,000 people have died in fighting in the east since April.

Some 5.2 million people live in conflict-affected areas and 1.4 million are considered “highly vulnerable and in need of assistance”

More than a million people have fled their homes with 633,523 living as displaced persons within Ukraine and 593,622 living outside Ukraine, mostly in Russia

More than 5,000 people have been killed in the fighting and more than 10,300 injured

Source: UN report of 9 January for refugee figures; news reports for casualty estimates

#ukraine #mariupol

#Gaza’s #al-Batsh massacre survivor: ’I saw bodies torn to pieces’
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/gaza%E2%80%99s-al-batsh-massacre-survivor-i-saw-bodies-torn-piece

http://english.al-akhbar.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/4cols/leading_images/323629-01-08.jpg

Palestinian children stand next to graves ahead of the funeral of 18 members of al-Batsh family who were killed the previous night in Israeli strikes that hit their house as they were targeting Hamas police chief Tayseer al-Batsh on July 13, 2014 in Gaza City. (Photo: AFP-Thomas Coex) Palestinian children stand next to graves ahead of the funeral of 18 members of al-Batsh family who were killed the previous night in Israeli strikes that hit their house as they were targeting Hamas police chief Tayseer al-Batsh on July 13, 2014 in Gaza City. (Photo: AFP-Thomas Coex)

Om Mohammed was expecting her two sons Mohammed, 17, and Qusay, 12, to come back from Tarawih prayers (additional prayers performed during Ramadan) so that (...)

#Culture_&_Society #Articles #Israel #Khan_Younis #Tayseer_al_Batsh #World_Cup

South Carolina mayor fires town’s first openly gay police chief, says being gay is a “questionable” “lifestyle” - Salon.com
▻http://www.salon.com/2014/04/18/south_carolina_mayor_fires_towns_first_openly_gay_police_chief_says_being_gay

South Carolina mayor fires town’s first openly gay police chief, says being gay is a “questionable” “lifestyle”
Residents of a small South Carolina town are raising questions about the sudden firing of an openly gay official
Katie Mcdonough Follow

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Topics: lgbtq rights, Gay Rights, anti-lgbtq discrimination, South Carolina, enda, employer discrimination, Life News, News
South Carolina mayor fires town’s first openly gay police chief, says being gay is a “questionable” "lifestyle"

Residents of Latta, S.C., are raising questions about the sudden firing of the town’s first female and openly gay police chief.

Latta Mayor Earl Bullard fired Police Chief Crystal Moore after giving her seven reprimands in a single day, which a member of the city council says is more reprimands than Crystal received during her 20 years with the police department. ”I looked at the reasons, some of them are questionable,” Brian Mason, a Latta council member, told WBTW.

According to WBTW, the reprimands include running “unauthorized” background checks, “questioning authority of supervisor,” “questioning authority of mayor,” “failure to maintain order” and “contacting the news media.”

Some on the council believe Bullard fired Moore after she began an investigation into one of his appointees, but others believe he was motivated by anti-LGBTQ sentiment, a claim they say is supported by a recorded conversation in which Bullard says he “doesn’t agree with some lifestyles.”

Councilman Jared Taylor recorded the conversation:
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“I would much rather have.. and I will say this to anybody’s face… somebody who drank and drank too much taking care of my child than I had somebody whose lifestyle is questionable around children.

Because that ain’t the damn way it’s supposed to be. You know.. you got people out there — I’m telling you buddy — I don’t agree with some of the lifestyles that I see portrayed and I don’t say anything because that is the way they want to live, but I am not going to let my child be around. ”

I’m not going to let 2 women stand up there and hold hands and let my child be aware of it. And I’m not going to see them do it with 2 men neither.”

I’m not going to do it. Because that ain’t the way the world works. ”

Now, all these people showering down and saying ‘Oh it’s a different lifestyle they can have it.’ Ok, fine and dandy, but I don’t have to look at it and I don’t want my child around it.”

Many Latta residents have rallied around Moore. ”This woman has been a veteran of the department and a pillar of this community for years,” Latta resident Kevin told WBTW.

South Carolina is one of 29 states where it is legal to fire someone for being gay.

Katie McDonough is an assistant editor for Salon, focusing on lifestyle. Follow her on Twitter @kmcdonovgh or email her at kmcdonough@salon.com.

Five of six largest police forces do not want water cannon
▻http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/feb/04/police-forces-opposed-to-water-cannon

Five of the six largest forces in England and Wales said they were against deploying water cannon on their streets, with one police chief dismissing them as being “as much use as a chocolate teapot” for quelling disorder.

The Metropolitan police and the London mayor, Boris Johnson, are pressing the case for water cannon to be deployed in the capital as soon as summer, amid warnings that austerity could fuel disorder.

But the views of the other forces leave the Met in isolation, weeks before it is expected to ask the home secretary for formal approval. The police and crime commissioners (PCCs) for the forces in Greater Manchester, West Midlands, West Yorkshire, Merseyside and Thames Valley have all rejected the idea and suggested they would be unwilling to share the cost.

#contrôle

Greece: Investigate police chief’s alleged call targeting migrants

The Greek authorities must launch an immediate investigation into instructions allegedly given by the Greek Chief of Police that irregular migrants must be detained for as long as possible to make their “lives unbearable”.

The comments, allegedly made during a meeting with other police officials, were reported today in the Greek journal HOT DOC.

The Chief of police is reported to have said:

“If they told me I could go to a country …, and would be detained for three months and then would be free to steal and rob, to do whatever you want… that is great.

We aimed for increased periods of detention ….we increased it to eighteen months…for what purpose? We must make their life unbearable…”

“If accurate, the deeply shocking statements attributed today to the Greek Chief of Police would expose a wilful disregard for the rights and welfare of refugees and migrants seeking shelter and opportunity in the European Union,” said John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International’s Director for Europe and Central Asia.

“The Greek authorities must establish whether these remarks were made and take appropriate action to ensure that Greek law enforcement officials uphold the law and protect the rights migrants.”

“In a context where the Greek police has come under increasing scrutiny for alleged ties to the far right party Golden Dawn, these reported remarks from Greece’s most senior law enforcement official cannot be swept under carpet. Confidence in the integrity of the Greek police requires a thorough and independent investigation into the authenticity of these remarks.”

Over the course of the past year, Amnesty International and other non-governmental organizations have documented numerous cases of ill-treatment and illegal push-backs of refugees and migrants at the Greek-Turkey border. Amnesty International has also documented appalling conditions of detention in centres for irregular migrants and asylum-seekers.

According to HOT DOC, a number of police officers present at the meeting described the comments as unlawful and racist.

Under EU legislation irregular migrants can be detained for periods up to 18 months, but only for so long as there is a realistic prospect of their deportation and if, after an individual assessment, a less restrictive measure would not be appropriate.

Amnesty International is not in a position to confirm the authenticity of the statements attributed to the Chief of Police.

The spokesperson of the Greek police has not yet replied to a request for a response.

▻http://amnesty.org/en/news/greece-alleged-racist-remarks-police-chief-must-be-investigated-2013-12-19

#Grèce #police #chef_de_la_police

Relatives hurl grenade inside #Iran prison in attempt to stop execution
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/relatives-hurl-grenade-inside-iran-prison-attempt-stop-execution

Family members threw a hand grenade inside an Iranian prison, leaving 28 people injured, in an abortive attempt to prevent an execution, state media reported on Monday. “During the carrying out of a death sentence, family members of a convict launched a grenade attack in Ilam central prison which led to the injuries,” the official IRNA news agency quoted the western province’s police chief, Colonel Ali Dolati, as saying. Dolati said that prison staff were among the injured. read (...)

#state_executions #Top_News

Police Bully Teen into Dropping Rape Charge, Rapist Sexually Assaults Another Woman | Alternet
▻http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/police-bully-teen-dropping-rape-charge-rapist-sexually-assaults-another-wo

When D.M., the initials of a young Washington woman, said she was raped in 2008, the police didn’t believe her. Now, she’s suing the city of Lynwood, Washington, its police chief and a youth shelter because the man who raped her is in prison after sexually assaulting another woman in Colorado and admitting to the rape of the Washington woma

PEPPER SPRAYING COP
►http://peppersprayingcop.tumblr.com

http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lv00uyoW6Q1r6m1z5o1_500.jpg http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lv04ehqiMa1r6m1z5o1_500.jpg http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lv041rRxhj1r6m1z5o1_500.jpg http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_luzuoba7hf1r6m1z5o1_500.jpg

We the People
►https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#!
L’administration Obama sollicite l’avis des citoyens …
Les premières réponses de l’administration sont disponibles :
►https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#!/responses
“While the President strongly supports every American’s right to religious freedom and the separation of church and state, that does not mean there’s no role for religion in the public square.”
"As a former police chief, I recognize we are not going to arrest our way out of the problem. We also recognize that legalizing marijuana would not provide the answer to any of the health, social, youth education, criminal justice, and community quality of life challenges associated with drug use."

Daily Kos: BREAKING: Cuomo Tries to Shut Down Occupy Albany (But Cops Push Back)
►http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/10/24/1029509/-BREAKING:-Cuomo-Tries-to-Shut-Down-Occupy-Albany-(But-Cops-Push-Back)?det

In a tense battle of wills, state troopers and Albany police held off making arrests of dozens of protesters near the Capitol over the weekend even as Albany’s mayor, under pressure from Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration, had urged his police chief to enforce a city curfew.
....
“We were ready to make arrests if needed, but these people complied with our orders,” a State Police official said. However, he added that State Police supported the defiant posture of Albany police leaders to hold off making arrests for the low-level offense of trespassing, in part because of concern it could incite a riot or draw thousands of protesters in a backlash that could endanger police and the public.

“We don’t have those resources, and these people were not causing trouble,” the official said. “The bottom line is the police know policing, not the governor and not the mayor.”

A city police source said his department also was reluctant to damage what he considers to be good community relations that have taken years to rebuild. In addition, the crowd included elderly people and many others who brought their children with them.

“There was a lot of discussion about how it would look if we started pulling people away from their kids and arresting them ... and then what do we do with the children?” one officer said.
...
Joshua Vlasto, a spokesman for Cuomo, did not respond directly to questions about contact between Cuomo’s secretary, Larry Schwartz, and Jennings. “The state is working collaboratively with the city to enforce the curfew,” Vlasto said in a statement Friday evening.