Friday, June 5, 2020
Ilhan Omar Criminal Justice Reform Bills Offer 'Systemic Solutions to Systemic Problems'
"If we are to change this pattern of violent racism, we need to fundamentally restructure our criminal justice system."
by
Eoin Higgins, staff writer
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/06/04/ilhan-omar-criminal-justice-reform-bills-offer-systemic-solutions-systemic-problems
Rep. Ilhan Omar on Wednesday announced her intention to introduce a legislative package aimed at overhauling the nation's criminal justice system as the nationwide uprising sparked by the murder of George Floyd by four Minneapolis police officers continues.
"If we are to change this pattern of violent racism, we need to fundamentally restructure our criminal justice system—and our treatment of those advocating for their rights," Omar tweeted.
The legislation would provide overarching support for the victims of longstanding and ongoing police violence and are intended to offer solutions for the deep-seated institutional racism that dominates U.S. policing. The suite also includes a sharp rebuke of President Donald Trump's threats to use the Insurrection Act against protesters.
The package consists of four bills:
The National Police Misuse of Force Investigation Board Act; co-led by Reps. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Calif.), forming a federal commission to investigate police killings around the nation.
The Bill to Criminalize Police Violence Against Protesters, which allows for the charging of police officers who attack protesters to be charged with a federal crime.
The Amending the Insurrection Act; co-led by Reps. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) and Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), preventing the president from deploying the U.S. military against protesters.
The Federal Relief Fund, providing funding for communities rebuilding after social and economic disasters.
"We need systemic solutions to systemic problems and those closest to the pain must be closest to the solutions," said Omar.
Fossil Fuel Industry Could Face $25 Trillion Collapse Due to Clean Tech, Climate Policies, and Covid-19 Pandemic
"It's time for a #GreenRecovery: resilient, fair, sustainable economies that meet the climate crisis," declared Greenpeace's executive director.
by
Jessica Corbett, staff writer
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/06/04/fossil-fuel-industry-could-face-25-trillion-collapse-due-clean-tech-climate-policies
In a new analysis that bolsters climate activists' arguments for transforming the global energy system, the London-based financial think tank Carbon Tracker warned Thursday that declining demand and rising investment risk due to cheaper renewable technologies, aggressive government policies, and the coronavirus pandemic could cause a $25 trillion collapse in future fossil fuel profits.
An annual International Energy Agency report projected in April that "renewables demand is expected to increase because of low operating costs and preferential access to many power systems," but the pandemic is expected to cause significant declines in demand for coal, gas, and oil as well as nuclear power this year.The report, Decline and Fall: The Size & Vulnerability of the Fossil Fuel System, says that the ongoing Covid-19 crisis is accelerating the "terminal decline" the fossil fuel industry was already facing because of competition with renewable energy and climate policies.
Based on a 2018 World Bank estimate that put future coal, gas, and oil profits at $39 trillion, Decline and Fall says that if fossil fuel demand drops 2% annually in line with the 2015 Paris agreement, that figure could fall to $14 trillion, "sending shock waves through the global economy."
Decline and Fall serves as a signal to both investors and policymakers about the financial risks of propping up the fossil fuel system—which scientists warn is taking the world down a path to climate catastrophe—and the urgent need to pursue a rapid but thoughtful transition to clean energy, explained Carbon Tracker energy strategist and report author Kingsmill Bond.
"This is a huge opportunity for countries that import fossil fuels, which can save trillions of dollars by switching to a clean energy economy in line with the Paris agreement," he added. "Now is the time to plan an orderly wind-down of fossil fuel assets and manage the impact on the global economy rather than try to sustain the unsustainable.""We are witnessing the decline and fall of the fossil fuel system," Bond said in a statement Thursday. "Technological innovation and policy support is driving peak fossil fuel demand in sector after sector and country after country, and the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated this. We may now have seen peak fossil fuel demand as a whole."
As Covid-19 has killed over 386,000 people, infected more than 6.5 million, and triggered economically devastating lockdowns across the globe, international bodies and governments have been urged to pursue a #PeoplesBailout, Just Recovery, Healthy Recovery, Green Recovery, Green Stimulus, and Global Green New Deal.
Greenpeace International executive director Jennifer Morgan highlighted Carbon Tracker's report on Twitter Thursday and reiterated calls from climate campaigners, healthcare workers, and progressive policymakers to #BuildBackBetter from the pandemic with relief plans that support the global economy and phase out fossil fuels.
Other climate action advocates around the world shared similar reactions to the report on social media:
The new report and responses from advocates come after campaigners have spent months ramping up pressure on investors to ditch the planet-wrecking fossil fuel industry. In January, advocacy groups launched Stop the Money Pipeline, a campaign urging banks, insurers, and asset managers cut ties with dirty energy companies.
Shortly before fossil fuel giant ExxonMobil's annual shareholders meeting at the end of May, international climate, human rights, faith, and Indigenous groups unveiled the Finance Climate Challenge, which calls on the global finance sector—including asset managers, pension funds, and endowments—to "end its support for fossil fuels and climate chaos."
Amid Covid-19 and Nationwide Protests, America's Billionaires Got $79 Billion Richer Over the Last Week
"Surging billionaire wealth juxtaposed with the suffering and plight of millions undermines the social solidarity required for us to recover together in the years ahead."
by
Jake Johnson, staff writer
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/06/04/amid-covid-19-and-nationwide-protests-americas-billionaires-got-79-billion-richer
An analysis released Thursday by the Institute for Policy Studies finds that the combined wealth of U.S. billionaires surged by $565 billion between March 18 and June 4—the same period in which 42.6 million Americans filed jobless claims.
Over just the past week, according to IPS, the collective net worth of America's billionaires rose $79 billion as mass layoffs caused by the coronavirus crisis continued across the country. The U.S. Department of Labor announced Thursday that 1.9 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, meaning that nearly 25% of the U.S. workforce is now either receiving unemployment insurance or waiting for approval.
Chuck Collins, director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at IPS, said in a statement that "in a turbulent week in the life of the nation, these statistics remind us that we are more economically and racially divided than at any time in decades."
"Our moral, economic, and physical health as a society depends on building a post-pandemic economy that works for everyone, not just the billionaire class," said Collins. "Surging billionaire wealth juxtaposed with the suffering and plight of millions undermines the social solidarity required for us to recover together in the years ahead."
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the world, has seen his wealth grow more than any other billionaire in the U.S. since mid-March even as his employees continue to protest low wages and hazardous workplace conditions. On Monday, Amazon ended a $2-an-hour hazard pay increase for warehouse employees.
IPS listed the 14 U.S. billionaires who have seen the largest gains in wealth since March 18:
Jeff Bezos—up $36.2 billion
Mark Zuckerberg—up $30.1 billion
Elon Musk—up $14.1 billion
Sergey Brin—up $13.9 billion
Larry Page—up $13.7 billion
Steve Ballmer—up $13.3 billion
MacKenzie Bezos—up $12.6 billion
Michael Bloomberg—up $12.1 billion
Bill Gates—up $11.8 billion
Phil Knight—up $11.6 billion
Larry Ellison—up $8.5 billion
Warren Buffett—up $7.7 billion
Michael Dell—up $7.6 billion
Sheldon Adelson—up $6.1 billion
In a blog post on Thursday, Collins addressed criticism that the IPS analysis is "only capturing the recovery in billionaire wealth that plummeted in the proceeding weeks in late February and early March."
"It is true, the market has done better since then," wrote Collins. "But a large segment of the U.S. billionaire class is beating the market. And we stand by our analysis that it is newsworthy and meaningful that billionaire wealth is accelerating while others are experiencing job losses, declining savings, debilitating illness, and death."
'What Authoritarianism Looks Like': Trump Condemned as Busloads of US Soldiers Arrive in Nation's Capital
"The numbers of U.S. military security forces in D.C. right now is just ridiculous. This is pure intimidation. Trump is very afraid. The longer we stay in the streets, the more frightened he gets."
by
Jake Johnson, staff writer
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/06/04/what-authoritarianism-looks-trump-condemned-busloads-us-soldiers-arrive-nations
As President Donald Trump faces growing criticism from veterans and some ex-military leaders—including his former Defense Secretary Gen. Jim Mattis—for deploying U.S. troops against peaceful protesters, busloads of soldiers arrived in the nation's capital on Wednesday in what critics warned is part of the White House's effort to intimidate and squash nationwide demonstrations against the police killing of George Floyd.
More than 10 tour buses filled with troops pulled up in Washington, D.C. Wednesday afternoon after Pentagon chief Mark Esper—who just hours earlier balked at Trump's threat to use active-duty forces to confront protesters—reversed his order sending soldiers home from the capital region following a meeting at the White House.
"It is unclear if Esper met with President Donald Trump," the Associated Press reported.
The buses arrived as demonstrations in the nation's capital and across the country continued to grow even in the face of brutality from police and members of the National Guard.
"The numbers of U.S. military security forces in D.C. right now is just ridiculous. This is pure intimidation," Tim Shorrock, correspondent for The Nation, tweeted in response to a video of troops lining up in the capital. "Trump is very afraid. The longer we stay in the streets, the more frightened he gets."
"This is what authoritarianism looks like," added journalist Ben Norton. "After decades of waging war across the planet, the U.S. empire is waging war directly on its own people."
The busloads of U.S. troops reached D.C. after Mattis—who has been largely silent about Trump's abuses of power since resigning from his Pentagon post in December of 2018—released a statement condemning the president's use of soldiers to "violate the constitutional rights of their fellow citizens" in order to "provide a bizarre photo-op for the elected commander-in-chief, with military leadership standing alongside."
"We must reject any thinking of our cities as a 'battlespace' that our uniformed military is called upon to 'dominate,'" Mattis wrote, quoting the words of Esper and Trump, respectively. "We must reject and hold accountable those in office who would make a mockery of our Constitution."
As Common Dreams reported Tuesday, more than 300 veterans have signed onto an open letter urging troops to "do the right thing" and refuse orders to deploy against protesters.
"Today you have to decide whether you are loyal to the values you swore to uphold or to the commanders who would order you to turn on your neighbors for demanding justice," the letter reads. "You cannot be loyal to both."
'This Isn't Going Away': Defying Curfews and Police Brutality in Relentless Push for Justice, Uprising Over Killing of George Floyd Keeps Growing
"Essential workers are exempt from the curfew, and what we are doing here is essential."
by
Jake Johnson, staff writer
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/06/04/isnt-going-away-defying-curfews-and-police-brutality-relentless-push-justice
Refusing to be cowed by militaristic intimidation tactics, mass arrests, draconian curfews, and violence endorsed and directly ordered by the Trump administration, tens of thousands of people demanding justice for the police killing of George Floyd—and so many others—took to the streets across the U.S. once more Wednesday in a powerful signal that the nationwide uprising is only growing in the face of repression.
A video of thousands of demonstrators lying on their backs in the nation's capital near Freedom Plaza—just two days after law enforcement viciously attacked peaceful protesters gathered at the White House—led Washington Post reporter Marissa Lang to remark that "the crowd keeps getting bigger," even as President Donald Trump ramps up the street presence of the military, the FBI, ICE, and Border Patrol.
"There are more people at this die-in right now than there were in front of the White House yesterday," Kang tweeted. "And more yesterday than the day before."
What was true in D.C. was true in major cities and small towns across the nation on the ninth consecutive day of mass demonstrations, which kicked off last week near the sight of Floyd's killing in Minneapolis and spread quickly across the nation and around the world.
"A bunch of these protests are bigger on a Wednesday than they were on Saturday," observed socialist Virginia Delegate Lee Carter. "They'll be bigger still this weekend. This isn't going away."
In Oakland, California, thousands of demonstrators chanting "Our streets!" defied the mayor's 8 pm curfew and rallied at City Hall Wednesday night demanding an end to police brutality and racial injustice. Thousands also gathered in Los Angeles; San Francisco; Portland, Oregon; Brooklyn, New York; Seattle, Washington; Detroit, Michigan; and New Orleans, Louisiana.
"We all need to stand up for each other, we can't be silenced," Oakland resident Ava Kravitz told NBC. "It's our right to be here to speak so we have to do that, we have to be here."
Amissa Miller, another Oakland resident who attended the demonstration Wednesday, told the New York Times that "the curfew is meant to silence our voices and keep us off the streets."
"Essential workers are exempt from the curfew," said Miller, "and what we are doing here is essential."
In New York City, demonstrators sitting peacefully in the street with their hands up were assaulted and arrested by police for violating curfew:
Here's video of peaceful New Yorkers being attacked by the NYPD tonight. Police charged at them on bikes from behind, and without warning. They were slammed onto the ground and then apprehended for flouting curfew. But of course, not everyone was arrested. I was unharmed. pic.twitter.com/SEtKq0UZiK
— Fred (@WaywardWinifred) June 4, 2020
Late Wednesday afternoon, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced that the charge against Derek Chauvin—the now-former Minneapolis police officer who drove his knee into Floyd's neck while ignoring the man's repeated pleas for his life—has been upgraded to second-degree murder. Ellison also announced that the other three officers who were on the scene during Floyd's arrest have been charged with aiding and abetting murder.
"To the Floyd family, to our beloved community, and everyone that is watching, I say: George Floyd mattered," Ellison said during a press conference unveiling the new charges. "He was loved. His life was important. His life had value. We will seek justice for him and for you and we will find it."
In a tweet Wednesday night, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) echoed the common sentiment that the charges are a direct result of the nationwide protests and urged people to keep up the pressure.
"To those rising up, speaking out, organizing together: this would not have happened without you," said Jayapal. "Keep marching, keep protesting, keep demanding accountability, and keep fighting for justice. Don't stop building the pressure necessary to secure change."
Portland superintendent says he’s ‘discontinuing’ presence of armed police officers in schools
https://www.oregonlive.com/education/2020/06/portland-superintendent-says-hes-discontinuing-school-resource-officer-program.html
By Eder Campuzano | The Oregonian/OregonLive
Portland Public Schools will no longer have city police officers patrol the halls of its nine high schools, nor will the other two school districts inside Portland city limits.
Portland Superintendent Guadalupe Guerrero on Thursday announced that the state’s largest school district is “discontinuing the regular presence of school resource officers.” He said the district, which didn’t pay for the police officers, intends to increase spending on social workers, counselors and culturally specific supports for students.
Guerrero’s decision is an about-face from spring 2019, when he and his counterparts in two adjoining districts — David Douglas and Parkrose — told city officials they wanted the officers to remain stationed in their schools, they just didn’t want to pay for them.
The announcement came one day after Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty reiterated a call she made three weeks ago to defund the program, a $1.6 million chunk of the police bureau budget.
Hardesty, the only black member of the Portland City Council, also said she’d like to defund the city’s Violence Reduction Team and transit police. The school resource officer program provides for 11 armed police officers to patrol the halls of the city’s high schools, nine of them in Portland Public Schools.
One of those officers patrols David Douglas High. That district’s school board chair, Andrea Valderrama, announced she plans to introduce a resolution to not only nix the school resource officer program but also bar Portland police from providing security during school sporting events and other occasions.
“I urge the City of Portland to consider reinvesting these resources allocated to SROs for retention efforts for staff of color in the David Douglas School District and other districts,” she said during a press conference at City Hall.
Andrea Valderrama@Chata_503
The resolution will also direct the Superintendent to cease any further negotiations with the Portland Police Bureau and any law enforcement agency for the services of School Resource Officers, event enforcement, training, and any other services. 5/8
7
2:26 PM - Jun 4, 2020
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Portland Police Association President Daryl Turner, the union for rank and file officers, said Thursday that patrol officers will still respond to calls on district campuses. The Police Bureau’s 13 school resource officers will return to the patrol division.
Later in the day, Mayor Ted Wheeler said he also had decided to pull officers out of the city’s schools. The city also will transfer the $1 million the Police Bureau used to support the school resource program to an undetermined "community-driven'' program.
Mayor Ted Wheeler
✔@tedwheeler
Thank you, @PPSConnect. We agree.
Leaders must listen and respond to community. We must disrupt the patterns of racism and injustice.
I am pulling police officers from schools. https://twitter.com/Super_GGuerrero/status/1268599331981938689 …
Guadalupe Guerrero@Super_GGuerrero
The time is now. With new proposed investments in direct student supports (social workers, counselors, culturally-specific partnerships & more), I am discontinuing the regular presence of School Resource Officers @PPSConnect. We need to re-examine our relationship with the PPB.
265
1:15 PM - Jun 4, 2020
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The developments in Portland come on the heels of nationwide protests in the wake of the death of George Floyd, the Minneapolis man who died when officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for nine minutes.
Chauvin has been arrested and charged with second-degree murder. The three officers who witnessed the event were arrested and charged with aiding and abetting murder.
Floyd’s death led Minneapolis Public Schools cut its ties with city police earlier this week.
In Portland, students, particularly those of color, have long criticized the contract between the school district and the Portland Police Bureau. In December of 2018, demonstrators flooded a school board meeting demanding the district cut ties with the school resource officer program.
The school board at the time was considering a contract to pay the city police bureau $1.2 million to keep the program running at the behest of police agency leaders. The board approved the contract after some members said they felt pressed to do so — citing an ultimatum, as some said they understood it, that they must fund the program by Dec. 31 lest they lose school resource officers.
The board reversed its decision weeks later amid backlash from students and parents who said they weren’t properly consulted in the lead up to the decision.
Then in May, Wheeler agreed to set aside $1.6 million in city money to fund the program in the three participating districts after meeting with Guerrero and the David Douglas and Parkrose superintendents and school board chairs.
Hardesty spoke against the allocation during budget discussions at the time, echoing student and community criticisms that conversations over the program’s fate were largely held out of the public eye.
She was the only city councilor to vote against the city budget.
Her criticisms echo those Portland school board members included in Guerrero’s 2019 performance evaluation.
As The Oregonian/OregonLive reported last year, board members expressed a desire for a post-mortem on what they saw as a public relations fiasco: discussions between Portland Public Schools and the city police bureau over the school resource officer program lacked consultation with students and teachers.
But proponents of the program say school resource officers often get a bad rap because of cops who make national headlines for the wrong reasons.
Earlier this year, Portland Police Deputy Chief Chris Davis told city leaders such officers are typically dismissed or charged with misconduct. He said school-based police help keep teens out of the criminal justice system by addressing minor issues in school buildings rather than letting students develop a rap sheet.
“We have no interest in a school-to-prison pipeline,” Davis said, stressing that the youth services division is the bureau’s most diverse in terms of age, race, gender, language fluency and sexual orientation.
Some education leaders have defended the role of police in schools, saying they help young people build trusting relationships with an officer who chooses to work with youth and sees them day in and day out. With serious threats to school safety in schools around the country, having an officer on campus is a plus, they argued.
But the most recent incident of a school shooter in the Portland area was diffused by an unarmed coach who brandished not a gun but a hug to save the life of one or more students after a distraught Parkrose High student brought a loaded shotgun inside the school.
Guadalupe Guerrero@Super_GGuerrero
The time is now. With new proposed investments in direct student supports (social workers, counselors, culturally-specific partnerships & more), I am discontinuing the regular presence of School Resource Officers @PPSConnect. We need to re-examine our relationship with the PPB.
2,110
12:43 PM - Jun 4, 2020
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The police union president said he’s not surprised by the mayor’s move to move all the school resource officers back to patrol. It’s been the subject of debate in recent years, and the Police Bureau budget “was taking a hit for it,’’ as the Portland school district had stopped paying for the officers.
“We figured it was probably going to be the first on the chopping block,’’ Turner said.
“Kind of like the mounted patrol,’’ which had been the subject of debate for many years before it was discontinued, he added.
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