David Simon: ‘There are now two Americas. My country is a horror show’

Posted on April 30, 2015 by Gene Howington

submitted by Gene Howington

David Simon is best known as the creator and writer of the brilliant television show The Wire. His most recent column appearing at The Guardian is a fine example of why perhaps he should also be known as a deep thinker. I say this not just because I find his position in line with my own and my own observations, but because I think his analysis shows an unhurried and considered approach.  While his core thesis is perhaps best summed up by the following excerpt, I do encourage you to read the article in full at The Guardian.

“That may be the ultimate tragedy of capitalism in our time, that it has achieved its dominance without regard to a social compact, without being connected to any other metric for human progress.

We understand profit. In my country we measure things by profit. We listen to the Wall Street analysts. They tell us what we’re supposed to do every quarter. The quarterly report is God. Turn to face God. Turn to face Mecca, you know. Did you make your number? Did you not make your number? Do you want your bonus? Do you not want your bonus?

And that notion that capital is the metric, that profit is the metric by which we’re going to measure the health of our society is one of the fundamental mistakes of the last 30 years. I would date it in my country to about 1980 exactly, and it has triumphed.”

What do you think?

Posted in American History, Capitalism, Economics, Equal Rights, History, Legal Theory, Libertarians, Political Science, Socialism, Sociology, United States | Tagged , , , | 10 Comments

Walter Johnson Explains why Ferguson, Missouri—a City That Hosts a Fortune 500 Company—Relies on Municipal Fees and Fines to Extract Revenue from Its Poorest Residents

Posted on April 29, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro

Ferguson_MissouriSealBy Elaine Magliaro

Walter Johnson has an interesting article about Ferguson, Missouri, over at The Atlantic. In it, he explains why—despite the fact that the city hosts a multinational Fortune 500 company—it “relied on municipal fees and fines to extract revenue from its poorest residents.”

Johnson begins his piece by taking readers down West Florissant Avenue in Ferguson.

Johnson:

Head south of the burned-out Quik Trip and the famous McDonalds, south of the intersection with Chambers, south almost to the city limit, to the corner of Ferguson Avenue and West Florissant. There, last August, Emerson Electric announced third-quarter sales of $6.3 billion. Just over half a mile to the northeast, four days later, Officer Darren Wilson killed Michael Brown. The 12 shots fired by Officer Wilson were probably audible in the company lunchroom.

Outwardly, at least, the City of Ferguson would appear to occupy an enviable position. It is home to a Fortune 500 firm. It has successfully revitalized a commercial corridor through its downtown. It hosts an office park filled with corporate tenants. Its coffers should be overflowing with tax dollars.

Instead, the cash-starved municipality relies on its cops and its courts to extract millions in fines and fees from its poorest residents, issuing thousands of citations each year. Those tickets plug a financial hole created by the ways in which the city, the county, and the state have chosen to apportion the costs of public services. A century or more of public-policy choices protect the wallets of largely white business and property owners and pass the bills along to disproportionately black renters and local residents. It’s easy to see the drama of a fatal police shooting, but harder to understand the complexities of municipal finances that created many thousands of hostile encounters, one of which turned fatal.

Johnson said that the “familiar convention of the true-crime story turns out to be utterly inadequate for describing the social, economic, and legal subjection of black people in Ferguson, or anywhere in America.” He added, “Understanding this requires looking beyond the 90-second drama to the 90 years of entrenched white supremacy and black disadvantage that preceded it.”

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Posted in American History, Civil Liberties, Democracy, Economics, Equal Rights, Law Enforcement, Local Government, Missouri, Political Science, Racism, Society, Sociology, United States | Tagged , , , , | 24 Comments

Picture of the Day for April 29, 2015: Teach the Controversy

Posted on April 29, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro

Posted by Elaine Magliaro

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Senator Bernie Sanders to Announce Presidential Run This Week

Posted on April 28, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro
Senator Bernie Sanders I-Vermont

Senator Bernie Sanders
I-Vermont

By Elaine Magliaro

Vermont Public Radio (VPR) reported on Tuesday that it had learned from several sources that Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), 73, is planning to announce his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination on Thursday. VPR said that “Sanders will release a short statement on that day and then hold a major campaign kickoff in Vermont in several weeks.” His entry into the Democratic race will ensure that “Hillary Clinton will face a challenge to win the support of the liberal wing of the party.”

Sam Levine (Huffington Post) noted that the senator from Vermont “has criticized Clinton for being too soft on Wall Street and has doubted whether Clinton can address income inequality.” He has been one of the most outspoken critics of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a trade deal that has been called “NAFTA on steroids.” Sanders has also been a strong critic of the Citizens United Supreme Court ruling, “which struck down corporate campaign contribution limits. Sanders has tried to pass a constitutional amendment to overturn the decision.”

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Posted in Campaign Finance, Government, Politics, United States, Wall Street | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 21 Comments

Picture of the Day for April 28, 2015: Trickle Down Economics

Posted on April 28, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro

Posted by Elaine Magliaro

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Stateside Oklahoma: Tulsa Undersheriff Tim Albin Resigns Following Release of Report on Reserve Deputy Robert Bates

Posted on April 27, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro
Robert Bates Reserve Deputy

Robert Bates
Reserve Deputy

By Elaine Magliaro

Omar Villafranca of CBS News reported last week that a 2009 investigation conducted by the Tulsa Sheriff’s Office had concluded that deputies in the department had voiced concerns about Robert Bates’s behavior in the field years ago. Bates, 73, was the Tulsa reserve deputy who accidentally shot Eric Harris with a gun instead of a Taser on April 2nd. He pleaded not guilty to second-degree manslaughter charges in Harris’s death. Villafranca said that there had been allegations that Bates was not properly trained ever since that fatal incident.

Eric Harris

Eric Harris

According to a 2009 internal report that was released on Friday by the attorneys for Harris, “Two high-ranking members of the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Department created a culture of intimidation that allowed the wealthy reserve deputy involved in a controversial police shooting…to advance through the ranks without proper training.”

Villafranca:

CBS News learned that in 2009, the Tulsa Sheriff’s Office launched an internal investigation to find out if Bates received special treatment during training and while working as a reserve deputy. They also investigated whether supervisors pressured training officers on Bates’ behalf.

The investigation concluded Bates’ training was questionable and that he was given preferential treatment.

The investigation found that deputies voiced concerns about Bates’ behavior in the field, almost from the very beginning. Bates reportedly used his personal car while on duty and made unauthorized vehicle stops. When confronted Bates said that he could do what he wanted, and that anyone who had a problem with him should go see the sheriff.

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Posted in Law Enforcement, Local Government, Police, United States | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Picture of the Day, 27 April 2015: Baltimore, Maryland

Posted on April 27, 2015 by Chuck Stanley

by Chuck Stanley

Baltimore, Maryland. April 26, 2015. A picture is worth a thousand words.

https://twitter.com/RevrendDoctor/status/592318171870289921

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Posted in Democracy, Police | Tagged , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Bicycling While Black Can Land You in Trouble with Police in Tampa, Florida

Posted on April 26, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro

Seal_of_Tampa,_Florida.svgBy Elaine Magliaro

Alexandra Zayas and Kameel Stanley reported recently that a Tampa Bay Times investigation had found that the Tampa police were “targeting poor, black neighborhoods with obscure subsections of a Florida statute that outlaws things most people have tried on a bike, like riding with no light or carrying a friend on the handlebars.”

They said, “If the tickets are any indication, Tampa residents must be the lousiest bicyclists in Florida.” Evidently, some of the bicyclists in Tampa don’t use lights at night…or ride too close to the curb… or can’t “manage to keep their hands on the handlebars.”

Zayas and Stanley said that “Tampa police have written 2,504 bike tickets — more than Jacksonville, Miami, St. Petersburg and Orlando combined” in the past three years. Police have claimed that “they are gung ho about bike safety and focused on stopping a plague of bike thefts.”

According to Zayas and Stanley, something that the Tampa police have neglected to mention about the bicyclists that they have ticketed: “Eight out of 10 are black.”

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Posted in Equal Rights, Jurisprudence, Justice, Law Enforcement, Local Government, Racism, Society, United States | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Florida Deputy Ignored 911 Call from Dying Woman So He Could Have Lunch

Posted on April 25, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro

minnis_victim-800x430By Elaine Magliaro

Yvan Fernandez, a Lee County deputy who has been accused of going to lunch instead of responding to a 911 call for help, is now out of a job. Last month, WZVN broke the story that the sheriff had launched an internal affairs investigation into the incident. WZVN reported this week that it had gotten a hold of the report, which “lays out what happened on the day Gwen Minnis died.”

According to WZVN, investigators said that Minnis, 47, called 911.  Raw Story said the report “states that Fernandez was having lunch with three other deputies at Raider’s Pizza and Wings when he first took the call, responding to a second call from dispatch 8 minutes later, telling the dispatcher ‘copy.’” By the time help arrived, more than 50 minutes later, Minnis was found lying in the grass.

WZVN said it spoke with Lee County Sheriff Mike Scott about the internal affairs investigation and with Minnis’ family and friends. Scott said that Deputy Fernandez’s actions were beyond negligent.

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Posted in Law Enforcement, United States | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Scott Walker, the Wisconsin Club for Growth, Dark Money, and an Orchestrated Supreme Court Coup

Posted on April 24, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro
Governor Scott Walker (R-Wisconsin)

Governor Scott Walker
(R-Wisconsin)

By Elaine Magliaro

Mary Bottari of PR Watch wrote a report today about two court cases that have not garnered much media attention–even though the stakes “could not be higher.” She said the converging cases “will decide the future of Wisconsin campaign finance law, the independence of the Wisconsin judiciary and will impact the future of presidential candidate Scott Walker.” One of the cases is being heard in open court and the other is “being considered in silence behind closed doors.”

According to Bottari, the Wisconsin Supreme Court is slated to take up the “John Doe” criminal investigation of alleged coordination between Friends of Scott Walker and “independent” groups during the tumultuous 2011-2012 recall elections.

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Posted in Campaign Finance, Corruption, Courts, Democracy, Government, Jurisprudence, Justice, Media, Political Science, Politics, United States | Tagged , , , , , | 80 Comments