More of a rant really

I'm still shaking my head by the hypocrisy and...other stuff...shown by some members of the US and WV senate. The majority in the former couldn't be bothered to come up with a workable COVID relief bill for the last two months or so but is racing to stack the Supreme Court deck before the election. 

Of course, WV senator Shelley Moore Capito is all on board, despite saying this four years ago when President Obama nominated Merrick Garland to the court:

“Before a Supreme Court justice is confirmed to a lifetime position on the bench, West Virginians and the American people should have the ability to weigh in at the ballot box this November. My position does not change with the naming of a nominee today.”

This time around, she had this to say:

 “I support the choice to move forward with the confirmation process and will consider President Trump’s nominee on her merits as West Virginians would expect me to do. In these trying and polarized times, it is important to exercise our constitutional authority and move forward with the process.”

Then there's this: 17 Republican members of the WV Senate signed on to a letter sent to the presidents of WVU and Marshall University that among other things expressed outrage over WVU football players putting BLM stickers on their helmets. Oh yeah, and the senators referred to Black Lives Matter as a "domestic terrorist group," basically saying the assertion that Black lives indeed matter amounts to hate speech.

Apparently this tantrum kept the senators too busy to express outrage at the death of over 200,000 Americans to COVID due in part to a botched response from the Trump administration.

Can't wait to see what happens next...

 

Statement on federal officers in Portland, elsewhere

Unidentified federal law enforcement agents in Portland, Oregon, have detained protesters,
whisking them away in unmarked cars. This shocking practice is evocative of repressive methods
used by authoritarian governments.

Over the objections of local elected officials, the Trump administration recently deployed a variety
of federal agents to Portland, including U.S. Marshals and Customs and Border Protection officers,
purportedly to protect federal buildings during demonstrations. However, detentions have
reportedly occurred elsewhere. It is not immediately clear which federal agency is responsible.

Since the arrival of federal agents, local officials have complained that they are using excessive
force against protesters. On July 6, a U.S. Marshal shot a protester in the head with an “impact
munition” fracturing his skull and leaving him critically injured. U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) has condemned the federal deployment, saying, “These shadowy forces have been escalating, not preventing, violence.”

Federal officials have rejected the calls for de-escalation. On July 16, Acting Secretary of Homeland
Security Chad Wolf criticized local officials for failing to curb “lawless anarchists.” “This failed
response has only emboldened the violent mob,” he said.

Since the murder of George Floyd by police, Americans across the nation have taken to the streets to
exercise their First Amendment rights. Many times these peaceful protests against police violence
have been met with more violence, including by the Portland Police Department.The continued
deployment of federal forces in Portland, against the wishes of local elected officials, is the latest
example of the Trump administration’s policy of demonizing the protesters and peddling conspiracy
theories about outside agitators.

Reports that PPD may be formally or informally coordinating or sharing information with federal
agencies raise additional concerns.

Everyone has the right to protest freely and to speak out for a better world. Individuals do not
forfeit this right, even when others engage in vandalism or similar unlawful acts. Officers are only
legally authorized to arrest a person based on individualized probable cause that the individual has
committed a crime.

The use of unidentified militarized federal forces against the wishes of local officials, the exercise of
excessive force against peaceful demonstrators and the seemingly arbitrary detention of some of
them without a clear reason for arrest are designed to intimidate protesters into surrendering their
First Amendment rights.

We condemn these practices. We call for all unwanted federal forces to be removed from Portland
and urge Congress to investigate the pattern and practice of abuses against protesters.

(The American Friends Service Committee was one of several organizations to sign on to this statement. Click link for more.)

Department of Corrections

In yesterday's post, I meant to link this article about the tragic killing of James Means, an African-American teenager who was called "another piece of trash" by the white man who killed him. Here's the corrected link. Sorry about that.

Meanwhile, here's more bad news about Trump's apparent secretary of education.

Finally, as wretched as things seem, here's a little less heavy news story about a Swedish holiday custom that involves a giant straw goat. Whatever else can be said about them, straw goats are probably easier to deal with than the real thing.

West Virginia leads in a good way. Really.

I mentioned in a blog post last week that there was a major breakthrough in police/community relations in, of all places, Charleston WV. Here is a blog post by my co-worker Lida Shepherd about how all this came together.

And here's how it starts:

Editor’s note: As cities across the U.S. continue to grapple with issues of racist police violence, Charleston, West Virginia made headlines last week when its police chief and local community groups announced a plan to improve race relations in the city. 

Lida Shepherd with the AFSC West Virginia Economic Justice Project was part of the 14-month collaborative planning process that led to this remarkable agreement.

Our first meeting with Chief Brent Webster of the Charleston Police Department in October of last year was slightly tense. We were sitting around the table to discuss the fact that the arrest rate of Blacks in our small city of just over 50,000 people was more than double that of whites.

At the table were a team of student and faith leaders, and representatives from NAACP-Charleston, Black Ministerial Alliance, AFSC, ACLU, Kanawha County Public Defender’s Office, East End Family Resource Center, and the West Virginia Coalition Against Domestic Violence. 

Before getting into the problem at hand, we each shared our personal thoughts on why it was important to address racism—a dialogue that emphasized this meeting was not about singling out the Charleston Police Department as a racist institution but rather addressing the broader problem of systemic racism that plays out not only in our city but across our nation.

(It's a good story, and one that I hope will get better. Click the link above to read the rest.)

More not all bad

It these days when news stories of the tragic killing of African Americans in encounters with police and ensuing unrest are all too common, there is major good news on the police/community front right here in West Virginia.

No, really.

At a press conference today, the Charleston Police Department along with community allies (including AFSC and our partners such as Our Children Our Future, the WV Coalition Against Domestic Violence and others) announced the rollout of a very ambitious program aimed at easing racial tensions and promoting police community relations.

Among the proposed action steps are these:

*Implementing De-Escalation training to prevent violence whenever possible.

*Publishing monthly arrest statistics across race, age, gender and cause of arrest to promote transparency.

*Introducing body camera technology in November, which will protect both police and citizens.

*Launching a Youth Advisory Council this month  to be made up of about 10 young people, ages 18-25 of different races, who will meet with officers  to discuss recommendations to improve community-police relationships.

*Holding anti-racism training for all officers.

*Conducting roll call presentations so that officers can meet and hear from Charleston leaders.

*Presenting a new annual Community Service Award to recognize officers for meeting community policing standards.

*Advocating state policy changes to address re-entry and recidivism to give ex-offenders a chance to be a productive citizen.

This is pretty huge. Congratulations to all involved and here's hoping for a successful implementation. This could be  a model for the nation.

Tough times

The latest Front Porch podcast, which was recorded before the latest shootings in Baton Rouge, looks at race, Black Lives Matter, police-community relations and more.

Meanwhile, this Washington Post item by Jared Bernstein talks about what racial injustice in the US looks like.

And now, from way out on right field, this is another example of what uncivil discourse looks like these days: a Republican member of the WV House of Delegates calls for Hillary Clinton to be "tried for treason, murder, and crimes against the US Constitution... then hung on the Mall in Washington, DC.”

That's yet another reason for my campaign to update the state motto from "Mountaineers are always free" to "You can't make this **** up."

Sad days

Last night's news from Dallas was pretty horrific.A lot has been said and written about it. I don't even want to look at social media today. But I think this New York Times editorial was pretty thoughtful. The plague of violence is having a field day lately. I'm reminded of what Camus said about the  other kind of plague in his novel of the same name:

"All I maintain is that on this earth there are pestilences and there are victims, and it’s up to us, so far as possible, not to join forces with the pestilences."

Views from Baltimore

Lots of people today are thinking about Baltimore given the recent news reports. I developed a fondness for that city during the years that the regional office of my employer, the American Friends Service Committee, was located there. Not to mention The Wire...

Anyhow, today I want to give a shout out to my colleagues in Baltimore who are doing their best to make real peace and struggle for justice there. They are living pretty close to the bone these days. I wish them and that city all the best.

Thinking of friends

My thoughts go out tonight to the city of Baltimore and my friends and co-workers there who are and have been putting their bodies on the line trying to keep the peace while at the same time asserting in an unmistakable way that black lives matter.

ON THAT NOTE, here is a link to one story about a colleague and one interesting statement to come out of the tumult.