death

10Feb

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

After A Minneapolis Death A Relic Of The ‘War On Drugs’ No-Knock Warrants, Face Renewed Criticism

Protests in Minneapolis over the death of a 22-year-old man during a police raid have reignited debate over the role of so-called “no-knock warrants.” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey imposed a moratorium on the practice, in which police obtain permission to enter a premises unannounced, and often accompanied by heavily armed SWAT teams. As a former police officer, I took part in no-knock raids. Often they offered little return – my team ended up empty-handed, with no real criminal evidence. I now teach criminal justice and police ethics and have observed that the use of no-knock warrants has increasingly become a concern for those demanding criminal justice reform. Obtaining a ‘no-knock’ can be a low bar No-knock warrants are an exception to the “knock and announce” rule, a common law polic...

Since The Death Of Dr. King Black Americans Mostly Left Behind By Progress

2Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

SOCIAL JUSTICE

Since The Death Of Dr. King Black Americans Mostly Left Behind By Progress

On Apr. 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, while assisting striking sanitation workers. Back then, over a half century ago, the wholesale racial integration required by the 1964 Civil Rights Act was just beginning to chip away at discrimination in education, jobs and public facilities. Black voters had only obtained legal protections two years earlier, and the 1968 Fair Housing Act was about to become law. African-Americans were only beginning to move into neighborhoods, colleges and careers once reserved for whites only. I’m too young to remember those days. But hearing my parents talk about the late 1960s, it sounds in some ways like another world. Numerous African-Americans now hold positions of power, from mayor to governor to corporate chief...

During An Epidemic In 1714 The Death Of Cicely, Young, Black And Enslaved Has Lessons That Resonate In Today’s Pandemic

2Dec

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19

During An Epidemic In 1714 The Death Of Cicely, Young, Black And Enslaved Has Lessons That Resonate In Today’s Pandemic

What I believe to be the oldest surviving gravestone for a Black person in the Americas memorializes an enslaved teenager named Cicely. Over 1.4 million people have died from COVID-19 so far this year. How history memorializes them will reflect those we most value. CC BY-ND Cicely’s body is interred across from Harvard’s Johnston Gate in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She died in 1714 during a measles epidemic brought to the college by a student after the summer recess of 1713. Another tombstone in the same burial ground remembers Jane, an enslaved woman who died in 1741 during an outbreak of diphtheria, or “throat distemper.” A grave marker for an enslaved woman named Jane uses the archaic ‘1740/1’ Julian calendar notation to denote her death in early 1741. Nicole Maskiell, CC BY-ND When dise...

George Floyd’s death reflects the racist roots of American policing

3Jun

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

POLITICS

George Floyd’s death reflects the racist roots of American policing

Outrage over racial profiling and the killing of African Americans by police officers and vigilantes has recently resurfaced following the death of George Floyd on May 25. Video footage a bystander took of Floyd’s death while a now-former police officer pressed his knee into the man’s neck quickly went viral. But tensions between the police and black communities are nothing new. There were many precedents to the Ferguson, Missouri, protests that ushered in the Black Lives Matter movement in 2014. Those precedents include the Los Angeles riots that broke out after the 1992 acquittal of police officers for beating Rodney King. That upheaval happened nearly three decades after the 1965 Watts riots, which began with Marquette Frye, an African American, being pulled over for suspected drunk ...

Doctors are making life-and-death choices over coronavirus patients – it could have long-term consequences for them

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS

Doctors are making life-and-death choices over coronavirus patients – it could have long-term consequences for them

As the coronavirus spreads and demand for medical gear far outstrips the supplies, doctors in the U.S. may have to choose who among their patients lives and who dies. Doctors in Italy have already been forced to make such moral choices. In a recent article in The New York Times, six doctors at five of the major city hospitals said they were worried they would soon have to make painful decisions regarding who should come off lifesaving ventilators. In addition to the moral anguish of this decision, they also outlined their concern about potential lawsuits or criminal charges if they went against the wishes of a patient or family. The nature of these decisions shares many parallels with those that we studied in soldiers. These decisions not only involve life-and-death consequences, but th...

Black Americans mostly left behind by progress since Dr. King’s death

20Jan

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

Journalism

Black Americans mostly left behind by progress since Dr. King’s death

On Apr. 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, while assisting striking sanitation workers. Back then, over a half century ago, the wholesale racial integration required by the 1964 Civil Rights Act was just beginning to chip away at discrimination in education, jobs and public facilities. Black voters had only obtained legal protections two years earlier, and the 1968 Fair Housing Act was about to become law. African-Americans were only beginning to move into neighborhoods, colleges and careers once reserved for whites only. How much has really improved for black people in the U.S. since 1968? Ted Eytan, CC BY-SA I’m too young to remember those days. But hearing my parents talk about the late 1960s, it sounds in some ways like another world. Numerous...

Why support for the death penalty is much higher among white Americans

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

IN OTHER NEWS

Why support for the death penalty is much higher among white Americans

Sentencing a person to die is the ultimate punishment. There is no coming back from the permanence of the death penalty. People who oppose the death penalty cannot serve on juries in those cases. Crazy City Lady/Shutterstock.com In the U.S., the death penalty is currently authorized by the federal government, the military and 29 states. The primary rationale for using the death penalty is deterrence. As public policy, I believe that capital punishment has largely not proved to be an effective deterrent. Nevertheless, for decades the death penalty has been popular. However, support for the death penalty has been declining over the past 25 years and is near historic lows. Critics point to issues such as inhumane killing procedures, a plunge in crime rates and the death penalty’s high cost...

Sick Inside: Death and Neglect in US Jails

2Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

Journalism, VIDEO REELS

Sick Inside: Death and Neglect in US Jails

The $12bn industry of correctional healthcare and the surge in jail deaths in the US. Jail deaths have surged in almost two dozen US states over the last decade. There have been steady increases in mortality rates involving complications from existing medical conditions. Jailers often have few resources to treat medical or psychological conditions. So, counties are increasingly hiring for-profit healthcare contractors to fill the medical needs of their inmates. Contractors like Corizon and NaphCare say they offer premium healthcare but critics allege that these companies cut corners to turn a profit, and point to their records. "When you combine the profit motive with a literally captive market of unpopular people, it's a recipe for bad outcomes and, often, lethal outcomes," Da...

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

IN OTHER NEWS

Two charged in death of missing girl found in rubbish

Announcement marks the sorrowful conclusion to a search for the missing girl, a disappearance that gripped Alabama. An undated file photo shows suspect Patrick Devone Stallworth [Birmingham Police Department via AP] Police say they will charge two people with kidnapping and capital murder in the death of a three-year-old Alabama girl whose body was found amid rubbish 10 days after being kidnapped outside a birthday party. According to Smith, police were obtaining murder warrants against two people previously identified as persons of interest in the case: 39-year-old Patrick Devone Stallworth and his 29-year-old girlfriend Derick Irisha Brown. Birmingham Police Chief Patrick Smith said at a news conference the body of a child, believed to be Kamille Mc...

15Aug

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

Journalism

The City That Dances With Death

In New Orleans, colorful street festivals celebrating death grew out of necessity, incorporating West African rhythms and syncretized dance. On a sweltering June evening, a crowd forms on the corner of Orleans Avenue and North Miro Street in the Tremé neighborhood of New Orleans. When the trumpets, tubas, and trombones lift up and wail, people start marching. Men in white T-shirts drenched in sweat; women in hospital scrubs and housekeeping uniforms having just come from work; an 8-year-old with a bright orange shirt and a bleached blond flattop, armed with a tuba twice his height, move in tight steps to the rhythm of the brass band. Handkerchiefs swing proudly in the air, doubling as sweat rags. The group makes it around the block and stops in front of a tan ...