Reimagining police in Indiana: Are there any clear answers? – Indianapolis Recorder

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Community members, police officers and local officials will all tell you changes are needed when it comes to policing in Indianapolis. But depending on whom you ask, youll get a myriad responses about what will actually work.

We need to defund the police. We need to abolish the police. We need reformed policies. The list goes on.

Alongside the ongoing national conversation surrounding police and systemic racism, residents of Indianapolis are grappling with an increase of violence in their city.

So far this year, 145 people in Indianapolis have been murdered. According to data collected from WRTV-6, at least 111 77% of the victims have been Black.

Beyond violent crime committed by other members of the community, a study conducted by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) found that Black men in America have a 1 in 1,000 chance of being killed at the hands of a police officer.

Defund them, refund us!

In Indianapolis, the deaths of Dreasjon Reed and McHale Rose have led to calls from community members for defunding the police, if not abolishing the institution altogether.

Members of the Indiana Racial Justice Alliance have been chanting Defund them, refund us! throughout the ongoing protests, calling for money currently directed to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department (IMPD) to be reallocated to community organizations.

Mat Davis, a founding member of the alliance, said working to combat mental health issues, substance abuse and food insecurity would greatly reduce crime in the city, particularly among Black and low-income Hoosiers.

Some members of Indy10 Black Lives Matter have taken a more radical stance, calling for the complete abolition of police.

In response, Indiana State Police (ISP) Superintendent Doug Carter said it isnt as simple as reallocating funds into the community.

In a decade and a half, maybe that could be a reality, Carter said. Unfortunately, often with mental health issues comes violence, either to an individual or another person. This is usually the result of a violent encounter or a domestic situation.

However, Carter said police officers are often tasked with being superhuman, and departments simply dont have the resources to handle the follow-up care that may be needed following a traumatic event.

While many in the community argue the answer to this issue would be to reallocate funds to community organizations equipped to help people through crises, Mayor Joe Hogsetts response has been to call for increased funding for IMPD for the 2021 fiscal year.

In his state of the city address earlier this month, Hogsett laid out his proposed budget, which includes $261 million for IMPD next year, a $7 million increase from 2020. Gov. Eric Holcomb also expressed a need for more funding for state police in order to better train and make sure officers have the resources they need to do their job effectively and safely, he said.

Hogsett also recently announced federal agents are in Indianapolis as part of the federal program Operation Legend to help combat violent crime and drug trafficking. The program comes with $250,000 for IMPD.

Despite worries from community members that Indianapolis will soon resemble Portland where local officials said they were illegally taking on the role of riot police" Carter believes Indianapolis will be different.

I would never be concerned about the backlash for doing the right thing, Carter said, referencing disdain from community members regarding Operation Legend. Indianapolis has become a very violent city. These agents will live on the fringe and bring specific expertise that we think every agency has, but they simply dont. Theyre here to support, not to take over.

Were not without sin

With tension between police and the Black community at a peak, IMPD Chief Randal Taylor thinks the solution both to the tension and the citys crime rate may be in beat policing.

In a previous interview with the Recorder, Taylor said giving officers a smaller area to patrol could lead to better relationships and fewer homicides.

I mean, we can make arrests, Taylor said. But theres always someone to take their place. When you start looking at beats and those things, your goal is to start building the relationships prior to people making those poor decisions or going off and pulling triggers.

Carter agrees.

Right now is not a popular time to be me, Carter said of himself and other officers. We own some of this, and were not without sin. I really think that if we have those relationships prior to a crisis, we can get through almost anything.

Rethink what public safety means for everybody

Maybe, some activists and groups believe, the answer to crime and police brutality isnt to increase the number of police or defund departments, but simply to reimagine policing in Indiana.

We have asked the city of Indianapolis and other large cities in Indiana to reimagine how they do policing in their communities, said Jane Henegar, director of the ACLU of Indiana. We want them to rethink what public safety means for everybody in the community.

Specifically, Henegar said Black and brown individuals are most likely to be targeted by police. For this reason, the Indiana Black Legislative Caucus (IBLC) recently announced its Justice Reform Policy Agenda. The proposed changes offer possible solutions to not only reducing crime, but also fostering stronger relationships between the police and the communities they are sworn to protect and serve.

Included in the agenda are calls to ban no-knock warrants and chokeholds the latter of which IMPD banned in its recent revision of the use-of-force policy as well as the creation of a civilian review board and the decriminalization of marijuana.

According to a 2020 study conducted by the national ACLU, Black Americans are 3.6 times more likely than white people to be arrested for marijuana possession, despite a comparable usage rate between the two demographics. In an Aug. 13 press conference, Rep. Robin Shackleford, chair of the IBLC, said policies which have led to young adults primarily African Americans serving long sentences for marijuana possession is a way in which we have failed our youth.

Further, the IBLC called for a review of officer training and for training to be updated annually, something Holcomb addressed during an Aug. 18 announcement about initiatives meant to improve equity in Indiana. Experts will evaluate training received from the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy from which many Indiana police officers graduate to modernize the training and make changes where necessary.

Policing in America had its inception in slave patrols and enforcing Jim Crow laws, Henegar said. Thats a major reason why we simply cant tinker around, change a policy here, policy there. We have to totally reimagine policing and start with something new that focuses on serious crimes.

Henegar said roughly 5% of arrests nationwide are for serious offenses, such as murder or sexual assault. The other 95% of arrests made are for lesser charges, such as marijuana possession or traffic infractions. According to Henegar, many of these arrests are the result of a system that targets people of color intentionally and we can find other ways to address those issues than have a militarized police force.

While police brutality is often thought of as simply a racial issue, its also a socioeconomic issue.

According to a 2018 study from the American Public Health Association, police-related deaths are significantly more likely to occur in lower-income neighborhoods.

That could be, in part, because poverty drives crime. In return, a criminal record often makes it harder for one to escape poverty, according to Henegar.

The fact that we tend to underfund certain public resources has resulted in criminalizing or burdening poverty, Henegar said. Many of the people who get caught in the cogs of a low-level offense then get further pulled down with fees and fines, extorted from them because theres a drive for the system to pay itself, and it pays for itself on the backs of poor people, which is tragic.

Contact staff writer Breanna Cooper at 317-762-7848. Follow her on Twitter @BreannaNCooper.

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Reimagining police in Indiana: Are there any clear answers? - Indianapolis Recorder

Q&A: Monisha Harrell on the policy aims of the Washington for Black Lives coalition – Washington State Wire

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On Monday, several Black-led organizations announced the launch of Washington for Black Lives (W4BL), a new coalition that will aim to combat police violence in communities throughout Washington State.

Formed by Black member organizations of the Washington Census Alliance, the coalition has three stated goals: increased investment in Black and Brown communities; defunding of police and prisons; and demilitarization of local and state police. Thirty-eight Black-led organizations across the state have joined the coalition.

Monisha Harrell is the Chair of Equal Rights Washington one of the W4BLs founding organizations. She is also a member of Gov. Inslees task force to provide recommendations for legislation on independent investigations involving police use of force. I spoke with Harrell following the launch of W4BL about the coalitions policy demands and organizing strategy.

Michael Goldberg: Under the Defund police and prisons portion on the W4BL website, it says We demand that Washington State redirect funding away from police and prisons, and toward community-centered public safety. It seems that defund the police still carries two different definitions. Theres a definition that points to redirecting funds away from bloated police budgets to social services, and theres a definition that is closer to police abolition. Given that W4BL is using the former, Im curious if thats a strategic choice or if you think that stance is the better policy?

Monisha Harrell: The conversation right now is around defund and this our position on that particular policy. You know, a dollar on education will save you ten dollars in the criminal justice system. So its really about more strategically directing our resources to reflect the values that we actually want to see as a community. Quite honestly, we do believe in defunding, were not saying abolishment, but defunding our prison and criminal justice systems and putting those investments upstream to be able to support the Black communitys growth and prosperity.

MG: The coalition is launching in the context of rising crime rates and gun violence in cities. What challenges do you think this context presents to how W4BL approaches making demands?

MH: It depends whether your question is about how we position right now versus how we may position in the future. Right now, we are really focused on the issues that are most urgent at this moment. As we work through solutions, our positions may shift and change to the things that are most important in that moment. An example would be, as Board Chair for Equal Rights Washington, we did a lot of work towards marriage equality. We initially did a lot of work towards nondiscrimination protections. As those goals have been accomplished, our work and the movement have evolved, and its the same with Washington for Black Lives. Our work will evolve, but right now the thing that is most pressing for us is to ensure that Black and Brown communities have the resources they need in order to have a more level playing field for success and growth.

MG: In June, Rep. Jesse Johnson mentioned that he plans on introducing a police reform bill when the Legislature reconvenes, but one bill may not be likely to contain every provision the coalition would like to see enacted. As a matter of prioritization, what policy goals should legislators zero in on as they engage with stakeholders and attempt to meet community demands?

MH: We know that with COVID and the budget crisis coming from that, the Legislature is going to try to balance the budget in many different ways. One of the things that Washington for Black Lives will work to ensure is that the budgets are not being balanced on the backs of Black and Brown people. We want to make sure we dont have these dramatic budget cuts that leave things like policing and prisons in full tact while cutting budgets for education, jobs, and opportunity for minority-owned businesses. If cuts are going to be made, we as a community need to be speaking about where those cuts should be made. If you cut from education today, you are going to pay for it in 10-15 years. Ensuring that we are keeping our communities as whole as possible around services will ensure we have less of a problem going forward.

MG: Id like to ask about the specific areas in which youd like to see legislators go upstream. Should envisioning new programming be focus right now, or should the work center around shoring up existing programs amid a difficult financial climate?

MH: I think amid a difficult financial climate what we are looking for is to protect advances that have been made. Theres not going to be a whole lot of new we can achieve this year. We are vision focused, but we are pragmatic. Thats what youll see with the groups that have brought themselves to the table around this coalition. We know this is going to a really tough year for anything that would require new revenue. But there are things that the state can do that actually support Black and Brown communities. Ill give you an example.

Despite the fact that we still are burdened by Initiative 200, we werent able to repeal that, there can still be efforts made by our government to ensure that state and federal contracting dollars are provided to minority-owned businesses. Thats really simple. Its making sure that your outreach plan for these projects includes enough notice for underrepresented businesses to be able to have a shot at a fair bid. That doesnt require a lot of money, thats just mindfulness. Every time there is a recession, the government looks at how to stimulate the economy. As a legislator, you need to ensure that when youre looking to stimulate the economy, youre looking to stimulate the economy for all people. Washington for Black Lives will be sure to advocate for a stimulation of the economy that includes Black and Brown communities.

MG: From an organizing standpoint, and I realize theres a lot of literature on this, but from your perspective, what circumstances do you think will be most conducive to seeing the coalitions demands met? More to the point, will pressure from the outside, continued protests, etc, be the essential factor that moves the needle going forward, or is a more conducive climate for policy change one in which the issues at hand are not at the center of the national discourse?

MH: Washington State is a strong ecosystem and that ecosystem relies on those who can contribute in the ways they can contribute. For those who are able to get out and protest and have their voices heard, they create a climate where legislators are willing to sit down and respond. We need everybody doing what they do in order to ensure change is made. Some people are good at sitting down and drafting and critiquing policy. Some people are good at being visible and making their voices heard in the streets that way. None of it gets done without the other. It just doesnt function if you dont have every single part of that ecosystem working. If the protests were to end, we would go back to business as usual. We know that, the legislators know that; that is widely known. Nothing will change unless the change is being forced and brought to the forefront. This is the moment where the ecosystems are all working together and we have to move these policies forward.

This conversation has been edited for clarity and length.

Public service journalism is important today as ever. If you get something from our coverage, please consider making a donation to support our work. Thanks for reading our stuff.

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Q&A: Monisha Harrell on the policy aims of the Washington for Black Lives coalition - Washington State Wire

What You Need To Do – lareviewofbooks

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AUGUST 26, 2020

IN ORDER FORthis period of Black awareness to succeed, you need to seriously readjust the ways you think about Black women.

It is a mistake to believe that any anti-Black, anti-racist, activism can exist without the protection of Black femininity as its first concern. When I say Black women, I mean the lattice of cis, trans, femme, masc, woman-identifying, nonbinary, gender-queer queer and heterosexual individuals whose bodies signal to the world as both Black and feminine in ways that put them at risk. I say Black women in concert with a discussion that is inclusive and non-gender specific because it is Western cultures weaponization of the Black female body that puts all of us in danger.

The myth of the strong Black woman extends all the way back to slavery and was one of the fundamental pillars of Western capitalist expansion. Slaveholders perpetuated an idea of Black women as exceptionally strong, physically and psychologically. This was then used as an excuse to abuse them and as a way of grooming them to be more efficient workers, machines on the plantation. Black women were also subjected to sexual violence, forced procreation, and separation from their children and family all means to keep them from forming protective bonds that may have allowed them to function in the world as wives, sisters, mothers as women and as people. The goal was both physical and social isolation: A woman whom no one could vouch for, a woman whom no one could protect, and a woman whose life had no social value. This was the kind of woman enslavers could brag about. Documents written on slave husbandry officially acknowledged these women as masters money-maker, a successful slave. A woman like that can run your whole plantation. A woman like that.

Even in this time of anti-racist conversations and wide-scale virtue signaling, people still dont see these common prejudices against Black women as an active form of support for white supremacy. It is a regular and accepted form of casual racism for people across all intersections of race, class, gender, sexuality, and education to openly lodge attacks on Black women based on this long-held, insidious slave narrative. Black women are hard workers. Black women are independent. Black women tell-it-like-it-is. Black women think they know everything. Black women are stubborn. Black women are physically assertive. Black women are promiscuous. Black women can fight like men. Black women are angry. Black women will cut you if you touch their hair. Black women are difficult. Black women arent attractive. Black women arent dateable. Black women arent approachable. Black women are scary. I have had every one of these statements offered up to me for affirmation. I have also watched people commiserate over these statements as a way to build group support against me. Until we attack these racist ideas of who Black women are for what they are, hateful tools of an enslaving patriarchy, the anti-racist movement wont succeed because white supremacy thrives on the baseline assertion in all these statements: that Black women arent women.

It is no accident that Black women have led the charge for every major reform in this country and that America uses this language to weaponize everyone against Black women. We have been completely essential to the acquisition of the rights and protections now enjoyed by everyone, but our safety will not be ensured in this new era of civil rights without addressing how we are treated because it sure wasnt addressed by the last. The Montgomery bus boycott was a movement started not by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., as famously touted, but by Black women who worked for the white establishment as maids, seamstresses, and in other forms of domestic labor. It was these women who not only walked miles to protest the segregated bus line (early in the morning and late at night, at the risk of their own safety) but who also organized the staged sit-ins that gave us the famed story of Rosa Parks. These women put their bodies directly on the line: they were spat upon, assaulted, and arrested for sitting in whites-only seats. Although the New York monument commemorating the fight for LBGTQ+ liberation consists of all-white and all-cis statues, it was Black trans people who led the actual charge against oppression, Black women specifically. Black trans activists Marsha P. Johnson and Miss Major fought on the front lines during the 1969 Stonewall Riots. Miss Major is still at the vanguard of the Black liberation movement, continuing to work as an abolitionist. This is work that she began in the 1970s, when she was arrested several times for her protests against prison and police force. Though she has been active for over 40 years, there is still no acknowledgment of the extent her activism foregrounds and influences our current conversation about police and prison abolition. Theres been no acknowledgment that one of the most accomplished leaders of this movement is to this day a Black transgender woman.

As a cis Black woman, I myself am only recently becoming more aware of how closely anti-trans conversations are necessarily tied to conversations of anti-Blackness. The same, deliberate, slave narrative that is continually sustained by casually racist dialogue about strong, angry, unfeminine, intimidating Black women also makes it culturally acceptable for anti-racist and anti-LBGTQ+ discrimination advocates and allies to discredit the violence, invisibility, and perpetual danger all trans people find themselves in. And whatever violence, invisibility, and perpetual danger trans people encounter as a result of this white supremacist, patriarchal, dialogue, Black trans people suffer all the more because of additional systemic denigration of Black femininity across the spectrum.

It is impossible to be a self-proclaimed anti-trans liberal (Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminists [TERFs], for example) and not also be anti-Black. Throughout Womens Suffrage in the mid-19th century and on into Womens Liberation in the mid- to late 20th centuries, white feminists kept cisgender BIPOC women on the outside of the mainstream feminist movement, claiming specifically that Black women werent really women or that Black womens struggle for equality required a different fight. Not only is this language uncomfortably close to the arguments white people used to abuse Black womens bodies during slavery, this language to far too similar to arguments made by TERFs today to defend their exclusion of trans women in their feminist activism. In light of this, it was Black women who trailblazed the work for a more inclusive feminism Sojourner Truth, Fannie Lou Hamer, Shirley Chisholm, Angela Davis, Alice Walker, Audre Lorde, June Jordan, Alice Walker, and so on. Their work broadened the feminist struggle to include not only conversations about voting and reproductive rights but also social reform, prison abolition, and a redefinition of womanhood (which might abolish the category all together). Their intersectional feminism gave women rights to whole personhood making the law recognize cisgender women as more-than, whether or not we produce offspring or have bodies that materialize the feminine form idealized by white patriarchy. Looking back at the history, if we allow TERFs to claim that these rights are privileges reserved only for the women they think are acceptable, who will be left?

Being anti-trans is anti-Black. According to the Human Rights Campaign, amid the rash of fatal violence happening to transgender and gender non-conforming people across the United States, the majority of the fatalities are Black transgender women. According to the Human Rights Campaign, Black trans women are particularly at risk because the intersections of racism, sexism, homophobia, biphobia, transphobia and unchecked access to guns conspire to deprive them of employment, housing, healthcare and other necessities. Aside from this, Americas warfare against Black femininity, and the continued assertion both tacit and explicit that Black women arent women, leaves Black trans women particularly vulnerable as intersectional targets. The degree of risk for trans women often increases when they are less able to pass as cisgender. Even the term passing signals the connections between trans lives and Black lives. The term migrated from Black culture how generations of Black people with Eurocentric features (Black people whose mixed ancestry often stemmed from the rape of Black women) allowed them to pass for white, adopting the safety and privilege of white people. Black trans women who find themselves most affected by the Human Rights Campaigns intersections of under-privilege are often those who look the most Black dark skinned, Afrocentric. These were features that slaveholders considered indicative of Black womens closeness to livestock. America hasnt changed. So, when people especially cisgender TERF women argue that women born with a biologically male body endanger cis women, whose racially coded, biologically assigned, male bodies are they most afraid of? We are in the midst of a cultural reckoning in both America and abroad, led by the Black Lives Matter movement precisely because of the ways Black male bodies have been painted as dangerous and have been murdered at the hands of law enforcement. Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminism paints trans women as dangerous because TERFS claim these women have due to being misgendered as men because their bodies are considered biologically male experienced the privileges that society affords cigender men. This is not only a gross misrepresentation of the extreme violence trans women bravely confront in a world that is transphobic, homophobic, and anti-feminine, but even as this rhetoric violently ignores the reality that trans women have never had access to the privileges of cis bodies and obsessively reduces trans women to the biology of their bodies it also reinforces the racist belief that Black biologically male bodies are the most dangerous of all and must be policed.

The casualness of anti-Black and anti-feminine racism reminds me of the caption under my favorite Lorna Simpson photograph, The Water Bearer: They asked her to tell what happened, only to discount her memory. Simpsons piece is a black-and-white photograph of a dark-skinned, feminine-presenting person in a white shift holding in her hands a silver pitcher and a plastic jug, each pouring water. Although we assume the person in the photograph is biologically female, we can only see her from the back. Although we can tell she has dark skin, we dont know if her race is Black. We do not need to see her, in order for her memory or her experience to be discounted. This is the point it is not what is observable about Black women that informs why you discredit us; this is not why you will not see us, or listen to us, or keep us safe. The violence against us is a direct response to your inherent prejudices.

I spent a lot of time as a young girl, and up through my 20s, searching for interviews with the Black transgender, gender non-conforming, and female activists involved in the centuries-long fight for American civil rights. I couldnt easily find them in the accounts and history books, but I knew they we have always been there, fighting. Of the many similarities I noticed in their stories was how often they were told to wait for their own unassailable rights to be granted. For decades, we have been told to wait. We have been told to wait so that liberation can privilege the visibility of cis male, non-Black, and heteronormative faces. We have been told our work at the front lines of this fight is essential, but our struggle is insignificant. We have been asked to keep conversations of our safety on the sidelines, to wait until other movements have won. Despite our undeniable role as the forebearers of equality throughout history and in modernity Black women are the founders of Black Lives Matter, MeToo, and the Gay Liberation Front the violence against us is a pervasive, long-standing, epidemic.

Oluwatoyin Salau was murdered after leaving a Black Lives Matter protest, at which she passionately advocated for the protection of the Black LBGTQ+ community. Breonna Taylor, an essential Emergency Medical Technician, was murdered by the police while she was sleeping. Dominique Remmie Fells and Riah Milton were murdered, in two separate states, during the same week that Trump revoked discrimination protections for trans people. Nina Pop was stabbed to death just a month earlier, on May 3. As of June 25, 2020, the bodies of six additional Black trans women (Bree Black, Tatiana Hall, Brayla Stone, Merci Mack, Shaki Peters, and Draya McCarty) have been found dead, across the country, within one week of each other. Six Black people were hanged across America in a period of less than a month during worldwide Black Lives and Black Trans Lives Matter protests, and yet most reports about these lynchings misgender Titi Gulley, listing all the victims as men. And just two days after the murder of George Floyd, Tony McDade (also initially misgendered) was shot dead by the police. There are so many stories like this. There are more stories like this than I can make space in my own grief to mention. It is time for you to amend your beliefs, your system that advantages you over others, your rallying cry. What we need from you is not the simple acknowledgement that we are here, that we, too, have seen what happened. We need you to do what we have done to support you. We need you to use your activism to protect us.

Shayla Lawsonis the author of three books of poetryA Speed Education in Human Being, the chapbookPantone,andI Think Im Ready to see Frank Oceanand the essay collectionThis Is Major: Notes on Diana Ross,Dark Girls, and Being Dope.

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What You Need To Do - lareviewofbooks

Matt Hancock crashes from one unforced error to the next without counting the cost – The Guardian

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Borne on the tidal wave of his self-confidence, Matt Hancock crashes from one unforced error to the next, never troubling himself to pause to count the financial and human cost. His latest masterstroke is to abolish the countrys public health agency in the middle of a pandemic.

The National Institute for Health Protection announced by the health and social care secretary this week brings together the health protection parts of Public Health England (PHE) with NHS test and trace and the Joint Biosecurity Centre. It will focus on external health threats, especially pandemics.

Everyone who works in the UK public sector knows that endlessly demolishing and rebuilding its structures undermines morale, wastes time and money, haemorrhages expertise and experience, and rarely solves problems.

Establishing this new organisation piles risk upon risk as we head into a dangerous winter. It bolts together a privatised, poorly performing test and trace system, a biosecurity centre that barely exists, and PHE staff cut adrift with no clear idea of their future, all under a temporary leadership. But none of this troubles Hancock.

The treatment of PHEs 5,500 staff has been shocking. Having endured weeks of off-the-record sniping about the organisations alleged shortcomings, they found out it was going to be abolished via a briefing to the Sunday Telegraph.

Local public health directors reacted with an outpouring of support for colleagues in regional health protection teams who have been working relentlessly to keep us safe from Covid-19, even if theyve been largely ignored by the media and government.

The announcement of the new body was so rushed that Hancock has not even worked out what will happen to the rest of PHEs functions, including vital work such as tackling obesity and smoking, which have contributed to the UKs appalling coronavirus death toll. This leaves hundreds of staff facing months of uncertainty with no job security, while responsibility for important services will drift. Look out for a tug of war between local government and the NHS as the long-term solution is debated.

Abolishing PHE is a setback for the work of local government public health directors in identifying and containing local outbreaks. After months of being sidelined, in recent weeks the government has finally got the message that the work on tackling this virus needs to be locally led. But the abolition creates renewed uncertainty about whether the localised approach will be reinforced or whether a new wave of centralisation will follow. In his speech Hancock made the right noises about a local approach, but words are cheap with this government.

Of course PHE has made mistakes during the pandemic some of them serious, particularly around the early days of testing and tracing. Public health specialists were frustrated that their voices were not being heard while key decisions were being taken. But the failure to prioritise preparations for pandemic in the months before the Covid-19 outbreak in Wuhan was a government decision. In March 2019 health minister Steve Brine wrote to PHE setting out 14 goals for the coming year. Pandemic preparation was not among them. Brexit was the top priority. Meanwhile public health services in England have been systematically undermined since 2014 by a spending cut of about 850m.

The peremptory abolition of PHE is a deliberate attempt to undermine the future public inquiry into the Covid disaster by allowing the government to say it has already moved on. This blatant move to distract attention from its own failings shows ministers have little interest in understanding and addressing the systemic failures of their own administration and the wider government and public sector machine which have underpinned so many of the mistakes. The chance to absorb some fundamental lessons about the way we run our country will be squandered.

Instead, find someone to blame, announce a simplistic answer to a complex problem, never stop to learn, and move on.

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Matt Hancock crashes from one unforced error to the next without counting the cost - The Guardian

Labour demands clarity on PHE abolition and outsourcing during Covid crisis – LabourList

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Labours Jonathan Ashworth has written to Health Secretary Matt Hancock seeking urgent clarity on who will be responsible for key public health services once Public Health England is scrapped.

The demand comes after the UK government decided to abolish PHE in favour of setting up a new organisation, the National Institute for Health Protection (NIHP), which will be led by Dido Harding.

A Conservative life peer, Harding has been in charge of the NHS Test and Trace programme beset with difficulties since May. She was a chief executive of the TalkTalk Group for seven years.

New body NIHP will see the health protection role of PHE combined with Test and Trace and the Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC), and will focus on tackling coronavirus. It should be functional from spring 2021.

In todays letter to Hancock, Labours Shadow Health Secretary has drawn attention to the issue of obesity especially for children and asked that the focus on it isnt lost during this structural reorganisation.

Ashworth has demanded clarity on who will be responsible for delivering the obesity strategy, as well as screening, immunisation, mental health, sexual health, smoking cessation and addiction services.

Commenting on the latest Labour health intervention, and particularly his focus on obesity, Ashworth said: We are in the midst of the greatest public health crisis for a century.

Not only is a major structural reorganisation mid pandemic risky and irresponsible, its left open big questions as who will lead on important lifesaving health improvement agendas including obesity, anti-smoking, addiction and sexual health services.

Weeks ago Boris Johnson was telling us his obesity strategy was vital to building resilience ahead of a second wave. Now he cant even explain who is responsible for delivering it.

Years of public health cuts and wider austerity has left us with pernicious health inequalities contributing to us having a tragically high excess death rate. If ministers were serious about health protection, they wouldnt be downgrading important public health priorities as this reorganisation suggests.

The letter also demands answers on the role of management consulting firm McKinsey, given 560,000 to advise on the restructure, and on reports that it will be allowed to keep personal test and trace data for seven years.

Ashworth added: Were calling on the government to invest in public health services and locally led public testing and tracing, rather than squandering vital time on a top down reorganisation with more cash going to private contractors and outsourcing companies.

Below is the full text of Jonathan Ashworths letter to Matt Hancock.

Dear Matt,

We are in the midst of the greatest public health crisis for a century.

The governments sole aim must be protecting peoples health. That means doing everything possible to drive down infections and save peoples lives. Public health services are crucial to that strategy.

Creating the conditions where people live healthier, happier longer lives is integral to protecting the nations health and goes hand in hand in delivering health security. Building good public health builds resilience to Covid-19.

We have tragically seen that Covid-19 thrives on health inequalities. The poorest are twice as likely to die from the virus. Years of swingeing public health cuts and wider austerity measures have left us with widening health inequalities, stalling life expectancy and has contributed to the highest excess death rate in Europe.

Given the widespread worries about a resurgence in the virus, surely embarking on a restructure now is risky, indeed some would say irresponsible. I of course am aware of the pressures you are under from your backbenchers. A number of Conservative MPs have sought to blame PHE for the governments mistakes and poor record over test and trace, even though the ministerial direction given to PHE last year made no mention whatsoever of preparing for a pandemic.

I am therefore writing to you with a series of questions over your plans to abolish Public Health England and merge its health protections functions with NHS Test and Trace alongside the Joint BioSecurity Centre.

Firstly on obesity. You will no doubt remember at the beginning of the summer the Prime Minister said that tackling obesity was key to protecting the nation from a second wave of Coronavirus. Losing weight is, frankly, one of the ways that you can reduce your own risks from Covid.. if were fitter and healthier, and if we lose weight, well be better able not just to individually withstand coronavirus, but well do a great deal to protect the NHS. And thats why well be bringing forward an obesity strategy.

It is sadly no surprise that during this pandemic we have seen a rise in hospital admissions for children because of obesity. This highlights the desperate need for action after years of inaction from the Conservative governments in power. It is all well and good announcing obesity strategy after obesity strategy, but planning alone will do nothing for the next generation of children whose outcomes will suffer. The abolition of Public Health England will only serve to make this more difficult. Given the known risks around weight and Coronavirus, it is vital that the focus on tackling obesity isnt lost during this structural reorganisation. With this in mind, who will now be responsible for driving through the governments new priorities on obesity?

Similarly there is now a huge question mark hanging over the other non-health protection elements of PHEs responsibilities such as screening, immunisation, mental health, sexual health, smoking cessation and addiction services. We need certainty on how these vital services will continue and under whose remit.

I was pleased that you followed our advice in committing to a flu vaccination programme for over 50s. I reiterate our commitment to work with ministers in standing firm against poisonous anti vaccination propaganda. PHE has played a role in supporting NHS England in the uptake of immunisations and vaccinations. Given how crucial access to a Covid-19 vaccine will become in the coming months can you outline who will take responsibility for the roll out and uptake of a vaccine when one comes available?

As you know I have a strong personal interest in addiction and am alarmed that on the same day you announced the abolition of Public Health England there were reports that the remaining detox beds in the NHS could close. Before Public Health England existed there was the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse, do you envisage re-creating something similar or will these responsibilities be transferred elsewhere?

Could you also outline exactly what you mean when you invited the private sector to join [us] in the mission? The lesson of this pandemic is that surely money would be better spent on local public health, not more outsourcing firms?

With that in mind could you explain why McKinsey was given 560,000 to advise on this restructure (ironically it was McKinsey who advised on the 2012 restructure that created Public Health England and you supported as a backbench MP)? Will you publish the McKinsey recommendations? Can you confirm reports McKinsey will receive personal test and trace health data and will be authorised to process such data for seven years? Why have you agreed for personal data to be kept by a private management consultancy firm and for what reason do they need it?

Finally public health officials, NHS staff and care staff have worked tirelessly throughout the pandemic and deserve clarity about their future. Reorganisations often sap morale, are distracting and cause huge uncertainty especially when news of such a reorganisation is briefed in advance to a Sunday newspaper. An article in the BMJ recently pointed out that every time public health goes through a major reorganisation it loses at least 20-30% of its skilled and experienced staff. What guarantees can you offer current staff who will be impacted by this reorganisation and what discussions have you initiated with staff trade union bodies?

I look forward to your response.

Yours sincerely,

Jonathan Ashworth MP

Excerpt from:

Labour demands clarity on PHE abolition and outsourcing during Covid crisis - LabourList

The police need to be defunded a conversation with April Goggans of Black Lives Matter DC – WTOP

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April Goggans, of Black Lives Matter's D.C. chapter, talks with WTOP's Nick Iannelli.

April Goggans, of Black Lives Matter, talks with WTOP's Nick Iannelli (17 min. long)

EDITORS NOTE: Last week, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser spoke as part of the Democratic National Convention about President Donald Trumps use of federal troops and tear gas against peaceful protesters in the District this summer. She stood looking out over Black Lives Matter Plaza in D.C. and introduced the family of George Floyd, whose death at the hands of the Minneapolis police in May began a summer of protests nationwide.

Her remarks were sharply criticized at the time by April Goggans, an organizer with the D.C. chapter of Black Lives Matter. Goggans considered Bowsers words hypocritical, arguing that real change requires defunding the police a slogan that was applied to the street near the plaza and that Bowser has moved in the opposite direction.

Those words were part of a longer conversation with WTOPs Nick Iannelli. Below is the full transcript of their conversation, with minimal editing.

Rick Massimo

Nick Iannelli: Were in the middle of the Democratic National Convention. And this is a significant day because Mayor Muriel Bowser just spoke in front of the convention and in front of the nation, and your group is very critical of her and some of the things she had to say. So what is your main issue today following her speech?

April Goggans: I think its very clear that number one, she has either really believed in what shes saying about D.C. and setting a pace for Black lives mattering, or she really is crafting a narrative around D.C., leaning on the fact that this is the seat of government for the United States, and needing to make a visible connection between Black Lives Matter and herself.

But the truth is that especially when it comes to policing and protesting, Muriel Bowser has proven over and over again that she supports, she knows about, and sanctions the violent way that police crack down on protesters.

Has your group had a chance to sit down with either the mayor, or the police leadership, or the mayors administration or anything like that, to voice your concerns and hear what they have to say about it?

Theyve voiced how they feel all the time on TV, in press conferences and the media as do we. We dont trust [that] what they would say [would be] anything different than what they would do. And I think that its important to understand that because they are public people, that what they say and do should be in the public.

So to us, they know exactly what we want [and] why theres press releases, theres events. You know, weve said for years exactly the way that we feel and what we demand. So theres actually nothing more to talk about. They have just drawn a line in the sand that theyre not interested in making the real shifts in both thinking and acting in ways that are no longer harmful to Black people.

So you have not requested a meeting with the police leadership or the mayor or anything like that?

Absolutely not.

Do you think that that might be helpful, if you were to get in a room with them? Or you said that that wouldnt go anywhere, then, if you were to speak with them face-to-face?

Absolutely not, especially since both of them are highly surveilling me I, not only as an individual, wouldnt feel safe. But also again, I think that they are politicians [and] that does include Peter Newsham and I believe that anything that they say is not just about me, or just about Black Lives Matter. That they owe change, and they owe an end to the lip service to all Black people in D.C.

So how do you feel about the overall Black Lives movement in the D.C. area over the last few months? Do you think your goals are being met, and do you think youre voicing your concerns are being heard?

Absolutely. I think, again, people are clear about what it is were talking about. I think, also, people are starting to maybe understand that we as an organization in D.C. [are] much different than the Black Lives Matter movement overall, and that were only one part of that.

And I feel like people should probably know that we dont expect the government, the state, the mayor, the police department, to end all of the ills of society, right? Like, this is actually highlighting the fact that we live in a failed state that they actually cant do for us what is needed for us all to have real safety and to be able to thrive.

The Black Lives Matter DC movement added that Defund the Police part to the Black Lives Matter Plaza thats written on the street over there. What does that mean to you, defund the police? And do you think that that sort of message which could be taken as a radical message do you think that that hurts your overall cause?

The police need to be defunded. I think, number one, people are just scared to ask, If we dont have the police, then what? instead of looking at the overall. First, most people dont read the budget to know whats in the budget. Also, as Black Lives Matter DC, we are abolitionists we do believe in the eventual abolition of police and prisons.

We believe that they dont do the things, and cant do the things, that people actually want them to do that when were talking about safety, both the data and the numbers just dont support them being the answer to safety in our society. They never have; they werent created that way, and they just literally cant, regardless of how you feel about policing.

This is actually highlighting the fact that we live in a failed state that they actually cant do for us what is needed for us all to have real safety and to be able to thrive.

April Goggans

Also, I mean, during this all of these protests, Mayor Bowser was gutting the budget of violence interruption, violence prevention, and adding money to the police budget. So this is another reason why we wouldnt sit down with them: the fact that despite what they say in the news, if Black Lives Matter, they wouldnt keep funding the agency and the practices that actively harm Black people.

And so whether or not the council actually does that which they did not do; they did not defund the police, I think people need to understand that, and actually they got a raise [its] more about the conversation about where we invest. In our communities, in ourselves, in ways that actually allow people to thrive and arent controlled by the whims or whatever protest is going on, that really are long lasting, generational changes to the basic standard and quality of life.

So when you say defund the police, youre actually saying abolish the police. Is that right?

Yeah, we are. Yeah.

If there was no police, law enforcement activity, in big cities like D.C. or, you know, Baltimore and Chicago, places that are seeing rising gun violence right now if there was no police presence anywhere around there, how do you think that violent crime would be deterred? I mean, its how our society has always functioned the police respond. And there are sometimes bad actors within police departments. But overall, the police are meant to prevent some of these violent incidents. So, if there was no police presence, how do you think that our cities would deal with things like that?

You said two very important words that make all the difference. They respond. Police dont deter crime; they cannot police peoples minds. Theres not a way for them to actually stop crime before it happens.

We know that the numbers in all cities [and] states show that even increased policing especially when it comes to homicides, and actually these were Mayor Bowsers words on a TV interview that they dont actually stop homicides. And if you look at the recent homicides weve had here in D.C., and count the number of times that the police were actually on the scene and couldnt and didnt stop them, or the number of people who have been killed in front of police departments, or on the same block, I think what we are afraid of is saying What do we do? But were not looking at Is it working right now? Is it doing the thing that you think it can do? And fundamentally, can it ever be changed to do that?

Because most of the things that people said that they want the police do, you do not have to be a police officer to do. And so, if its about safety, if its about watching over things, those are things that you dont need a gun to do. And how do we know this? Because in other countries, they dont. And so for us, yeah they are responding to things. They cannot prevent, and do not prevent, crime.

Police dont deter crime; they cannot police peoples minds. Theres not a way for them to actually stop crime before it happens.

April Goggans

I mean, Peter Newsham testified under oath two years in a row [the council] asked him, What does increased policing do? His answer was always, It makes people feel safe. Council members pushed back and asked, What is the difference between feeling safe and being safe? Does it make people safer?

He said, No; it makes people feel safe. So if people are committed to actually wanting real safety, that comes from more than just policing, then people have to be real about that.

People always ask, What about the rapists and murderers? And you have to ask yourself, What about them now? Ninety-eight percent of the people who are rapists are not in jail. And theyre not going to go to jail. So is it really stopping anything? And people who commit harm are everywhere we dont know. And the police, the prisons theres no incentive for people to take accountability, real accountability, because at every moment, you are told not to talk to the police, that even when youre arrested, you remain silent when you go because what we know is, it doesnt work.

And so no matter what the crime was, or not, the punishment will not fit most likely will not fit the crime. [And] being innocent is not a guarantee of getting out or being set free. So people have to ask, Is it really doing what we want it to do? Is it working now? And if the answer is no, then not having them is going to do what?

Weve been told that we cant control ourselves. And the truth is, before we decided we were going to let militias become police, people took care of themselves. We know whats right and wrong, because communities can make norms and decisions about how they will be in relationship with each other. They can set rules; they can set ways of being with each other and develop their own systems of accountability that actually are about doing the hard work, of understanding why people do the things that they do, what can prevent them from doing it again, and to repair the harm that theyve caused while also being in charge of making sure other people dont do the same thing they did.

I want to ask you about some of the actions of people involved in Black Lives Matter DC protests recently in recent months and even in recent days. I know the D.C. police made a number of arrests last week, I believe it was, and the D.C. police put out a statement saying that they made arrests because there were some fires started and some property damaged. When someone involved in one of your protests damages property or breaks into a business or starts a fire like that, does that interfere with your overall message and your goals?

So, I think we should also be clear that our chapter hasnt had protests. What youre seeing are new groups and individuals who are calling for protests. We had a caravan; were getting ready to do a vigil. But as far as protests, these are people who are doing their own. I also think its a distraction to worry about property. I feel like the media, even the police, talk more about property than they do about people.

Are you against the property damage?

Really, actually, I just dont care. Because I have a limited amount of energy to spend on the things that Im principled about. And so, that doesnt include spending time wondering and caring about how other people, especially other oppressed people, how they decide to protest against the oppressors. Yeah, I think that is a distraction just like comparing a Black Lives Matter to not caring about community violence. All of these things are just made to be sensational.

Protest is protest, and I feel like its not about how, its about why were protesting. And so the fact that they put out statements about that, instead of how upset they were about the things that their officers are doing, again after Pershing Park; after J20 and the inauguration; that theyre still kettling people; Swann Street says to me that its a distraction for them too.

Its the same thing they do when they kill someone the first thing that comes to mind is them talking about how they stole a piece of gum when they were 5 years old, not the fact that they were that they were killed by police. So I think its a double standard, that we talk about violence only as it relates to people who are paid not to be violent.

People always ask, What about the rapists and murderers? And you have to ask yourself, What about them now?

April Goggans

And to be honest its why we dont use the binary of peaceful versus violent protests because its the police that bring the guns and the riot gear. They are ready to attack; theyre prepared to quell dissent. Thats not how we come to protest. So, yeah, I think focusing on all of that is a distraction, and its a long-held tactic to get us off of talking about whats actually happening.

[That] all of this was happening the same time that videos of people that MPD has killed were coming out, that Mayor Bowser is introducing George Floyds family, is disgusting. And thats where we should be talking. And she did it on purpose overlooking Black Lives Matter Plaza. All of these things are made to actually distract, [to] make other people who dont earn the right of talking about Black Lives Matter look like theyre leading it. And by that I mean Muriel Bowser.

You said earlier that the main goal of your movement is to get public support, get your message across and get your voice heard and make change in society. But when you say you dont care about other people having their property damaged, I think that might shut down the minds of anyone who might be open to listening to your message or be open to hearing you, you know? Dont you think that might close their minds when they hear that you dont care if someone gets hurt or property is damaged?

Were not in the streets just because we want followers to feel comfortable with our message. Were actually in the street because we want the state to stop killing Black people. So the goal of the movement isnt just to have more people march; we literally are marching for the lives of Black people. So if folks are uncomfortable with that, theyve been uncomfortable with talking about how theyre complicit in racism and white supremacy, too.

So, I mean, everybody is a critic when it comes to however we do anything. But the goal of the movement is to stop Black lives from being murdered. Its not for building a team of new marchers. Its not for building a new set of people who can take selfies on Black Lives Matter Plaza. It is about demanding that dignity and the very life of Black people here and around the world.

You just mentioned critics of your movement. We often hear critics say that you speak out against police violence against people of color, but we dont often hear your group talk about gun violence in Black communities in D.C., Baltimore and Chicago. And theres a criticism that maybe you should be talking more about that as well. What is your response when you hear that criticism?

My response is that thats a lazy assumption. If you look us up, right now, we work with families every single week of people that are killed in D.C., but we dont do it for the cameras. I think its also a lazy assumption to assume that Black Lives Matter is supposed to be the group for everything, and that people get to tell us how we spend our volunteer time at the same time that our group has lost people in community violence. We are the ones who helped push the NEAR Act from getting written to adopted to funded to now implemented.

So the thing is that people [are] not actually out there themselves, to see us at the vigils, to see us at the murder sites, or to [see us] get the therapy that we need after being at six murder sites in in a two-week period. So I think its lazy; I think that people just always want something to complain about. Because what they forget is, were Black; we live in these communities. Ive had five homicides within a two-block radius over the last year. So theres no way that we cant be worried about it, that we cant speak out about it. We all have children. And again, most of us have been touched by or are victims of violence, because were Black and we live in DC.

So, you know, I would encourage people to actually look instead of assuming. Because chances are were doing more work around Black lives, period, than they are because we dont have time to criticize things that we could Google online.

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The police need to be defunded a conversation with April Goggans of Black Lives Matter DC - WTOP

‘In the stillness of my queerness’: How Stewart Legere stripped down his emotions for Wrong Machine – CBC.ca

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CBC Arts PresentsQueer Pride Inside: A Buddies in Bad Times Cabaretwas a virtual cabaret featuring over a dozen LGBTQ Canadian artists that CBC Arts produced in partnership with Buddies in Bad Times this past June in celebration of Pride Month. Over the course of the summer, we'll be highlighting some of the individual performances that were included in the cabaret.

"The song started as a piano ballad," Stewart Legere says of "Wrong Machine," his contribution to our specialCBC Arts PresentsQueer Pride Inside:A Buddies in Bad Times Cabaret."Lots of words, and verses, and a bridge, and a chorus...the whole shebang."

But then things stopped quite making sense that way for Legere.

"We were in the middle of the first COVID lockdownwhen I was dreaming up the song," he says."And more and more people were waking up, watching, reactingand participating in the global protests against anti-Black racism, police brutality, continued calls for the abolition of prison and carceral systems, and the need for continued Indigenous Resurgence."

"I kept singing and singing but was becoming tired of my own voice. So I started cutting things out. I kept cutting and cutting words and phrases and verses, until I was left with the only phrase I could really get behind in that moment: 'Wrong machine. Been working on the wrong machine. It needs to break.'"

And so those are the only words that he kept. And then he remembered an ambient track he had been working on previously and decided to merge the ideas.

"I created this very simple, very long intro twominutes of music that I found calming, but something that was clearly building to something. I folded in the lyric. The result is this song. I feel like it offers people a space and time to get settled, to contemplate and imagine the implications of the title to them however they choose to interpret it and then...I just pop in with with those lyrics before taking off again and letting the song wash you away to the finish."

Legerealso made the (stunning) accompanying video, with the help of his partner James MacLean in their apartment in Halifax.

"For me, it's a reflection on sitting in the stillness of my queerness," he says."So much of expressing queerness necessarily takes place in community, but lockdown forced a lot of people to sit alone, or close to it, and for me that meant confronting the silence of my queerness. And so this video, for me, kind of expresses that. The stillness, and flight, of queerness. What it feels like to be quiet, who you are in that quiet, but then who you are when youbreak out and soar, in whatever way soaring manifests itself for you. So I played a lot with black and white, and then bold colour, stillness and rapid movement."

A self-described "avid collaborator," Legereis a multidisciplinary artist who works with a mix of media and technologies and is"fascinated by sexuality, persona, intimacy, vulnerability, and the celebration of performance." He's currentlyan artist in residence atThe Theatre Centrein Toronto,where he's"creating a collaborative, cross-country, multidisciplinary show with queer artists from a bunch of different disciplines about queer loneliness, queer spirituality, and the galaxies of our chosen families." You canlearn more about Legere's work here.

See CBC Arts PresentsQueer Pride Inside:A Buddies in Bad Times Cabaretin its entirety on CBC Gem.

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'In the stillness of my queerness': How Stewart Legere stripped down his emotions for Wrong Machine - CBC.ca

Georgetown, divest from prisons: The moral arc won’t bend itself – The Georgetown Voice

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The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said in his final Sunday sermon. As a student in the Justice and Peace Studies program, Ive often found inspiration in Dr. Kings quote. In essence, as we move forward in pursuit of justice, our world will change for the better.

However, I worry that we too often misinterpret his quote to excuse our inactionthinking the bend is inevitable, some people have stopped actively working to ensure it. My fellow students and I, as part of the newly founded Georgetown University Prison Divestment Campaign (GUPDC), refuse to stop working. For too long, I have stood on the sidelines, studying criminal justice issues without taking action. When my classmate Chloe Quigley reached out to me with the idea to begin a divestment campaign in late June, I realized my time on the sidelines was up. Since then, we have created GUPDC, a small but growing organization petitioning Georgetown to divest from the prison-industrial complex. Our work responds to the ongoing ravages of racism in this country and draws motivation from both the work we have done in and out of class at Georgetown and by the urgency of the current moment.

Our current circumstances testify to the danger of inaction155 years after Emancipation and 56 years after Dr. Kings quote, Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) still suffer from the dehumanizing effects of systemic racism. Despite sustained activism by marginalized groups, especially Black Lives Matter, the greater American public has refused to address the ills of systemic racism, instead, choosingactively and negligentlyto finance and support racist institutions such as the prison-industrial complex.

The term prison-industrial complex refers to the vast ecosystem of private and public firms, companies, and other entities that support and enable Americas mass incarceration system through actions such as the financing, supplying, and building of prisons. Through wide-ranging corporate partnershipslike those with Aramark, which provides food service, and 3M, which supplies correctional industriesthe prison-industrial complex exploits and dehumanizes incarcerated people, who are disproportionately people of color. Though BIPOC make up only about 30 percent of the US population, they account for nearly 60 percent of the incarcerated population.

By monopolizing prison necessities such as food service, companies like Aramark dehumanize prisoners, as they are able to retain contracts despite repeatedly serving food riddled with mold and maggots. Furthermore, by denying basic workers rights and protections and underpayingor not payingincarcerated workers, the prison-industrial complex continues the legacy of unpaid, forced work that has tainted Americas history slavery, convict-leasing, and chain gangs. Currently, prisoners in at least four states are not paid for their labor in correctional industries, including those in Arkansas which manufacture anything from car paint to office chairs.

In this way, America remains shackled to its history of unfreedom.

For all students, Georgetowns complicity in the prison-industrial complex is also our complicity. We have a direct interest in Georgetowns actions and reputation, making us stakeholders in our university. Given our dual role as students and stakeholders, GUPDC members began our campaign demanding that Georgetown divests its endowment from companies tied to the prison-industrial complex. Because Georgetowns investment portfolio is confidential, the degree to which Georgetowns finances are tied to the prison-industrial complex is unknownwe can only guess, based on the sheer size of the system, Georgetown is likely invested in it. For this reason, we ask for greater transparency along with divestment. Without publicizing its divestment targets, Georgetowns actions would fail to bring scrutiny upon those companies that engage in immoral practices. Therefore, our act of divestment, if silent, would be unlikely to spark a necessarily greater movement. Likewise, though divestment is our immediate goal, we emphasize that it is only a stepping-stone toward positive systemic change leading toward abolition.

GUPDC emphasizes that divestment cannot be the end of Georgetowns action against the prison-industrial complex; rather, the university must step into its role as a leader in educational and social activism. Powerful educational institutions like Georgetown determine whether our nation will ever achieve true freedom. By educating its students about injustice and how to enact systemic change, Georgetown has equipped legions of socially-minded leaders. By refusing to invest in irresponsible companies, Georgetown can further this impact, beginning to undermine the profitability of exploitation. Thus, our demands are multifaceted, addressing both divestment and advocacy.

We call on Georgetown to:

Using these steps, we intend to first catch businesses attention, then demand meaningful change. As Dr. Martin Luther King and so many others have demonstrated through boycotts and strikes, businesses listen when their profits fall. By divesting, Georgetown will signal that its support is contingent upon responsible practices; through advocacy, Georgetown will demonstrate what those responsible practices look like. Though our institutions divestment is a small step, we believe it can inspire broader action. Universities have been known to follow one anothers leadsuniversities inspired one another to divest from apartheid South Africa in the 1980s and are currently aligning to divest from fossil fuels. On a national scale, university divestment could seriously impact the complexs business. And, if the prison-industrial complex stops turning a profit, then social returns will start to arise, commencing the complexs demise.

GUPDCs petition may seem small relative to the looming prison-industrial complex, but that should not be discouraging. After all, the arc of the moral universe is long, but were bending it toward justice.

Originally posted here:

Georgetown, divest from prisons: The moral arc won't bend itself - The Georgetown Voice

An Instagram Account Is Waging War on Sexual Assault at Case Western Reserve University – Cleveland Scene

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This was not one of their official parties, so all bets were off. It started innocent enough. I was a freshman hanging out with cool fraternity brothers. I started getting drunk and then all of a sudden felt it. I had been roofied. Four of the brothers took me away from the party, and I didnt realize what was happening.

Once we got back to a private room, thats when it happened. Something snapped in them. One of them smacked me on the face and told me if I did what they asked I wouldnt get hurt. They ripped my pants off and started doing lines of coke on my butt, and then they all took me at once. They forced me to take all of them at once

So begins a July 21st post on Instagram, written and submitted for publication by an anonymous undergraduate student at Case Western Reserve University. The post is one of hundreds literally hundreds that have appeared since July 4th on the @CWRU.survivors account, jolting a summer-breaking student body upright like non-stop cracks of thunder.

The posts describe a vast spectrum of sexual misconduct on the campus of Case, Ohios top-ranked university: from unwanted advances, offensive language, drunken handsiness and general creepy behavior at parties; to nonconsensual activity during consensual sex; to egregious misogyny within fraternities; to gang rape. In many cases, these posts also describe a profound lack of institutional support for survivors of assault, and university systems of reporting and discipline so ineffectual that they have exacerbated trauma.

Like at other college campuses where drunk hookup culture is pervasive and boundaries are often crossed, survivors are aware of, and often powerless against, the inequities inherent in bureaucratic university structures. Case has a womens center, a Title IX office, an office of equity, an office of student affairs and a Greek life office on campus, but current and former students told Scene that these offices fulfill specific roles, and none of them is to support survivors. The system is designed not only to protect predominantly male assaulters, they say, but to shield the university itself from reputational damage.

As the @CWRU.survivors account demonstrates, many students have foregone reporting their assaults entirely to avoid the humiliation and presumed disappointment that lurk along the official avenues available to them. My Title IX experience was somehow more traumatic than the actual incident, one post read.

Thats a big reason why the account has exploded the way it has, students told Scene. Many of the published submissions are from seniors and recent grads who admit that their posts are the first time theyve opened up about their experiences. Other submissions, and indeed, comments on published posts, have come from older alums, who are in a position to corroborate the persistence of bad behavior.

The individual posts can be horrifying to read. But more horrifying is the aggregate picture, in which rape culture is omnipresent on campus. The two anonymous administrators of the account told Scene that they were flooded with submissions once they took the account live at 1 p.m. on July 4.

Weve been in contact with similar accounts at other universities, one of the admins told Scene. And they all basically said, Holy shit, you have a ton of submissions. They couldnt believe it. They had numbers in the 30s or 40s. We got more than 600 in three weeks. Our bubble is obviously limited, but weve seen nothing on a scale like this.

The total submissions now number close to 750. And as students prepare to return to campus, or log on remotely for a largely virtual fall semester, the @CWRU.survivors shockwaves have crested and evolved. The slew of graphic reports naming specific fraternities have led many to call for the abolition of Greek Life entirely on campus, (provoking unexpected reckonings for many assault survivors who belong to, and value, sororities). Others worry that students have grown too accustomed to the daily posts, and that well-meaning or revenge-seeking fabulists may begin submitting increasingly inflammatory, decreasingly accurate, stories to garner attention. Others want to center the discussion on the shortcomings of the Title IX process and the new standards imposed by U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, which stack the deck against survivors in yet another way by raising the evidentiary standard in cases of campus assault.

But the dramas and prurient details available for daily consumption on Instagram mean that students and many administrators, some speculate have been glued to their devices all summer. A side effect of the pandemic is that students have become more engaged in university affairs than theyve ever been before.

Thats a mixed blessing, said Marin Exler, outgoing President of CWRUs undergraduate student government.

I mean they literally have nothing else to do, she said. It obviously can create a massive headache for [student government], especially when the responses from the administration are so vague, but the raised awareness is good. I think people are grappling with issues, especially around Greek Life, in ways that are new and sincere. And I think the stories are an important wake-up call. But Im sensing a fight on the horizon. I had to deal with Covid during my tenure, but I feel worse for the new president. Hes dealing with even more of a mess.

***

Three similarly tagged posts have appeared since then, two of which reported alleged gang rapes in the Zeta Psi fraternity house, which were later discovered to be on the same night. Brothers there had reportedly joked about going to Paris, their term for three-way sex derived from the Eiffel Tower position, and shared stories of their conquests at a subsequent chapter meeting. The other post reported an alleged gang rape at the hands of the Frisbee team.

The account administrators, who redact all names from the submissions they receive via Google Forms but otherwise post them to the @CWRU.survivors page without edits, say that their goals from the start have been to raise awareness, provide education and demand accountability for sexual assaulters.

Both admins are anonymous to their peers and remained anonymous in multiple conversations with Scene, conducted via Zoom. They identified as students at CWRU, but beyond that, they said that anonymity was important for their own safety and for the safety of survivors submitting stories.

The parallel I would draw is a suicide hotline, said one of the admins. If youre calling, and you know whos on the other end, its a different atmosphere. We dont want our identities to prevent people from coming forward. Its also important that were not bound by pressure from the organizations that we may belong to.

This has led to moments of discomfort on their end. They noted that while its their policy to redact names from submissions, the people who submit their stories often do not, and so the admins see the names of those who are alleged to have committed a wide range of misconduct. Theyve seen their friends mentioned.

We have to recognize that this is a campus-wide culture, and its embedded in so many organizations at Case, one admin said. Our social groups arent immune to it either.

The admins said they were inspired to launch the account by another recently created account, @black.at.cwru, which in late June began anonymously chronicling experiences of racism on campus. (Similar accounts at John Carroll University, the Cleveland Institute of Art, Laurel School and Hathaway Brown were also launched at around the same time, all in the wake of George Floyds slaying by police in Minneapolis and racial justice demonstrations nationwide.)

The Survivors admins reached out to the @black.at.cwru creators to see if theyd be interested in running an additional account but quickly recognized that the time and energy required to maintain the page and its influx of submissions would be substantial. They decided to take it on themselves.

They said they felt the account was necessary to publicize elements of a culture that were widely known, but seldom discussed openly on campus. During orientation week, you hear through the grapevine, Dont talk to ZBT. Dont talk to Zeta Psi. Theyre the quote-unquote rapey frats, one admin said. And you hear these warnings from upperclassmen all the time about being cautious, asking where youre going, who youre going with.

They allowed that these warnings were no doubt similar to experiences on other college campuses but said at Case, a popular notion held that Greek Life was somehow different, (i.e. better), than elsewhere, unafflicted by frat house stereotypes. Multiple students mentioned this dynamic independently in conversations with Scene and suggested that it might have something to do with the general elitism of higher-caliber colleges. The student body is supposed to be more inclined toward academic rigor at Case. More diverse. More enlightened. So naturally, the frats should be too. Students said this strain of exceptionalism has allowed systemic misbehavior to be swept under the rug.

Case prides itself on the image of being different, one of the admins said. Its so focused on its reputation that it leads to things not being dealt with.

On July 29, after nearly a full month of daily posts, the admins published an open letter on the account addressed to Lou Stark, the universitys VP of Student Affairs, and Dr. Angela Clark-Taylor, director of the universitys womens center. The letter highlighted what it called the failed Title IX process and implore[d] the university to make a series of reforms. (Title IX is the landmark 1972 federal law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex in educational programs. It includes, in its broad mandate, protecting students from sexual harassment and sexual violence.)

Most of the letters demands were for specific improvements to the reporting and investigation process after incidents of assault. The letter called for an easily accessible statement on the CWRU website that explicitly states that all parties involved in a Title IX investigation will be recorded during their communications with the investigator, for example, and a prohibition on graduate students from being Title IX investigators in cases where another graduate student is involved. The letter noted that these were only small steps in the right direction.

A massive cultural change about how the CWRU community views consent, accountability, and respect for others is integral in combatting the prevalence of sexual violence at Case Western Reserve University, the letter read. This issue requires both external and internal change.

Scene made multiple attempts to interview both Lou Stark and Robert Solomon, the VP for Inclusion, Diversity and Equal Opportunity. Both declined, but provided a joint statement through the universitys office of media relations.

While we have significantly expanded and strengthened our education and prevention programs in recent years, we also recognize that ending sexual harassment and violence requires that we continually assess and refine our efforts, the statement read.

As a response to multiple new Instagram accounts, including @CWRU.survivors, the VPs said they planned to announce a university task force focused on advancing a broad culture of respect on campus. They said it would include subcommittees to examine issues of race, gender, LGBTQ+, mental health, disabilities and sexual misconduct. They also noted a number of new and expanded initiatives that the womens center was planning to implement, including education on consent and bystander intervention.

Finally, the university established a policy review committee (including faculty, staff and students) to examine the U.S. Department of Educations recent changes to Title IX regulations and determine how to update the universitys policies and procedures in a manner that addresses its requirements and also addresses sexual misconduct complaints in ways that help reduce campus incidences.

The Survivors account admins were not overjoyed with the response. But for now, they told Scene, their focus will continue to be supporting survivors by amplifying their voices and finding ways for them to be better supported at Case.

One of the unique ways theyre building support networks is by matching survivors who share abusers. If a survivor feels comfortable, they can share the name of their abuser with the admins via DM. And if two or more survivors share the same name, the admins message the survivors to notify them theres been a match and offer to put them in contact with one another.

Whether they want to officially report their incident or not, it can be really comforting to know that there are people who went through what you had to go through, one of the admins said. Strength in numbers.

As for the university response, one admin stressed that if the university is serious about improving its systems, it must hold assaulters accountable for their actions.

Were not trying to take a stance on Greek Life at Case, they said. Thats not our place. But in terms of accountability, Zeta Psi and ZBT need to lose their houses. I think we should disband them indefinitely. The posts show that these are systemic problems with those two houses in particular. I hate to say it, but its gotten to the point in those frats where youre either a rapist or youre covering up a rapist.

One student, who has asked to go by "LL," was raped after a night of heavy drinking at a spring bash last year. Like many of the women who shared stories of their assaults on the @CWRU.survivors page, she was a freshman at the time of the incident. Unlike almost all the others, she published her name.

She told Scene shed been texting with another student, and that they both decided to share their stories with their names attached. Theyd had frustrating experiences with the university in the aftermath of their assaults and felt these were important to highlight.

I didnt even report it after it happened, LL told Scene over Zoom. But after the summer, at the beginning of sophomore year, I heard that the guy whod assaulted me had assaulted someone else, and something just clicked. I felt he had definitely done this to other people, and I wanted to report.

LL was referred to the campus Title IX office by her campus navigator a counselor who helps students with scheduling and other academic questions and made an official report.

You go in, you basically report what happened, and they start an initial inquiry, she described the process. One thing Case does right is that they take appropriate interim measures, which could mean help with classes or some time off. Then theres the investigation, where witnesses are questioned, and then theres a formal or informal hearing.

For LL, the university-based process took nine months from start to finish, roughly the entire academic year. She told Scene she wasnt legally allowed to discuss the details of her hearing other than that it was conducted via Zoom or its results, but repeatedly stressed in general terms how the system works against survivors.

These cases hardly ever go to a hearing, first of all, she said. It was a miracle that mine did. I truly believe the only reason it did was because I got a lawyer.

One of the demands in the @CWRU.survivors July 29th letter to the administration was for up-to-date sexual misconduct reports on the CWRU website. An annual report of complaints and their resolutions is required, under Title IX, to be compiled and made accessible every year. But for years and for the duration of Scenes reporting the only such report available was from 2015-2016. CWRU Media Relations, when asked where the most recent reports were, told Scene that they would be posted online shortly. For the last month, there were no reports available on the site. Even the 2015-2016 report has inexplicably been taken down. (Shortly before publication, CWRU posted the 2018-2019 report.)

We dont know how many people are being sanctioned for assault, because they dont publish the statistics, LL said, but the only time Im aware of anyone being sanctioned is when the accused actually admits to an assault. Otherwise its he-said she-said.

Until the DeVos Title IX updates enacted this month, those who filed sexual misconduct complaints had to meet a preponderance of evidence standard to win a hearing. That standard connotes a likelihood of guilt higher than fifty-fifty. But the new changes have increased the burden of proof to a more rigorous clear and convincing evidence standard. Advocates for sexual assault survivors have argued that survivors are already reluctant to come forward and seldom get justice, even with lower evidentiary standards. The changes will diminish reporting even further, they say.

LL pointed out that any burden of proof is difficult to bear when alcohol is involved, which at least as reflected in the stories on the @CWRU.survivors account it often is.

If youre blackout drunk, you cant remember anything, she said. So your testimony is automatically unreliable you know, maybe you actually did consent, they can say. Or on the other hand, youre victim-blamed for putting yourself in that situation.

The incident described in the July 21st ZBT post not only included alcohol, it also occurred at an unofficial frat party. At Case, frats host both open parties, in which the first floor is open, and invite-only parties, in which guests are documented via Microsoft Excel. Both are sanctioned by the university, and alcohol can be served to those of age. Additionally, a frat-elected Risk Manager abstains from drinking for the duration of the party and is meant to observe the proceedings.

The unofficial role of the risk manager is to prevent rapists from being rapists, one of the @CWRU.survivors admins told Scene. But the whole idea of a member of a frat policing his brothers given the issues of accountability in fraternity culture already doesnt really make sense.

The unofficial parties are not sanctioned by the university, meaning that reporting an assault would constitute simultaneously reporting ones attendance at a forbidden event. Thats yet another factor which discourages reporting. The account admins said they expected a similar dynamic to be in play this fall, assuming people are on campus.

We wont be allowed to have parties because of Covid, so all the parties will be underground, one of the admins said. Which means people will be even less inclined to report because they know they werent supposed to be partying in the first place.

In a statement, the University said that they were working with Greek Life chapter leaders to ensure that all students comply with the universitys extensive guidelines regarding COVID-19 transmission risk. The university will enforce its code of conduct regardless of whether students are living on or near campusand has communicated that message to all students.

***

Its sitting in their library, and it literally never gets washed, said Sarah Moran, a rising junior, in a Zoom call with Scene. That's beside the point, but its so gross. The door to the room doesn't even fully lock. Its right at the bottom of the staircase, so you can hear everything going on in there, and this sometimes happens with multiple girls in the same night. And then these stories are shared at chapter. They laugh about it.

A Change.org petition to Burn the 1911 Table was created later in July. Not getting rid of the table would continue to allow the objectification of women and suggest that the brave survivors [on the @CWRU.survivors account] spoke up for nothing, the petition read. Allowing the table to remain promotes more acts of sexual assault and rape.

The CWRU Fiji chapter did not respond when Scene sought comment via social media, but they took to Instagram to convey the seriousness with which they were taking allegations of sexual misconduct. We will be continuously re-evaluating our programming, policies and what it means to be a man, let alone a Fiji, the statement read. The account was flooded with comments chastising them for a lack of concrete action steps.

Burn the table, wrote the @CWRU.survivors account in response.

One commenter, who identified as an alum of the chapter, said the statement was full of fluff, something I would write in two minutes before class. But he then posted an addendum. Ive talked to the guys, he wrote. They have an action plan but they arent allowed to post it on social media until Phi Gam HQ approves it. The process is a bitch.

Other chapters official accounts have issued contrite statements with promises to improve and investigate. We are appalled by the despicable actions of our brothers past and present, wrote the ZBT account. We recognize the need for us to examine our brothers and hold them to higher standards. Scenes campus sources said they would remain skeptical of these apologies until they see actual accountability.

But what that accountability should look like remains a topic of debate. As increasing numbers of fraternities have been accused of misconduct, calls to Abolish Greek Life have swept across campus. And many students in sororities, including survivors of sexual assault, have mixed feelings.

It definitely has me thinking, said LL, who sits on the executive committee of her sorority, Alpha Phi, and whose boyfriend began the process of deactivating from ZBT after the July 21st post. There are bad people in every frat and in every sorority. But there are also decent people trying to make improvements from within. I dont know. I definitely see how limited we are in what we can do, by our advisors and our internationals. We answer to higher people.

Marin Exler, the outgoing president of student government, said she believed fraternity brothers should be kicked out of CWRU chapters, or even expelled, for their behavior, but said she wasnt sure about removing frats from campus, especially those without complaints on the assault side.

Many of these complaints have to do with brothers talking about women in a problematic way, she said. That requires a culture shift, but I think thats fixable. I guess Id say that hope isnt completely lost.

Exler speaks from experience. She is a member of Phi Mu, a sorority which was targeted and harassed this spring by the Delta Sigma Pi fraternity. Someone created and circulated a Bingo Card in which brothers were meant to cross off squares when theyd seen certain Phi Mu sisters exhibiting unflattering traits Ugly, Blimp, Cripplingly Low Self-Esteem, etc. Exler was the only Phi Mu listed by name. She was the boards Free Space.

She told Scene she believed she was targeted specifically because shed stood up for a friend when the fraternity had spread false rumors about her. It was a petty disagreement blown out of proportion, she said, and noted again that it likely circulated quickly in group chats and DMs because everyone was at home, on their phones all day long.

Exler said that accounts like @black.at.cwru and @lgbtqatcwru, which in many cases documented microaggressions, were leading to internal review that could inspire changes in language and thinking. And she hoped some of the posts on the Survivors account like frats discussing conquests at chapter meetings could be learning moments too.

But the stuff with ZBT and Zeta Psi? She said, I mean thats crazy.

Scene asked the Office of Greek Life, through the office of media relations, about its investigative and disciplinary procedures with respect to the allegations against Zeta Psi and ZBT. The University responded that the national chapter of Zeta Psi decided this summer to suspend its CWRU chapter for a minimum of four years. In a statement, the national chapter wrote that the actions described in the @CWRU.survivors posts "are antithetical to the values of Zeta Psi and our policies. Zeta Psi will continue to support the ongoing investigations in the hope that those harmed can find some level of justice."

ZBT, for the time being, remains an active fraternity on campus. Its national chapter told Scene in a brief emailed statement that it had been made aware of the allegations in the July 21st post. Health and safety is our utmost concern at Zeta Beta Tau, the statement read. We have placed the chapter on an investigative status. We will continue working with the university moving forward.

Its unclear what that status means for returning students, but regardless of the investigation and disciplinary action imposed by the national chapter, theres no question that the @CWRU.survivors account has raised awareness. Moving from awareness to accountability will be a challenge, said Marin Exler, if these accounts remain anonymous.

Whats needed are official reports, said Exler, whose experience liaising with the administration taught her, among other things, that higher ed moves at a snails pace. I really doubt that, from a legal standpoint, the university could follow up on the @CWRU.surivors stories to conduct investigations.

She said that while the Title IX process was flawed, filing an incident report with the Greek Life Office has yielded tangible results in the past. Other than Zeta Psi, the only frat currently suspended or disbanded on the Case campus is Sigma Phi Epsilon (SigEp), which was suspended in 2016 after an investigation spurred by an incident report. A grim joke among assault survivors is that alcohol and hazing infractions are much more likely to get a frat punished than rape. SigEp was scheduled to return to campus in 2020, but the university told Scene that the chapter would not be coming back this year after all.

Halle Rose is a member of the class of 2020 and of the Phi Mu sorority. Shell be returning to Cases campus in the fall to begin graduate studies in social work. She said that while shes in support of the Survivors account and its mission, in recent weeks shes become increasingly concerned.

I think drawing attention to these issues is great, she told Scene via Zoom, but its just getting into murky territory when you have anonymous people controlling the narrative, given the seriousness of the allegations.

Rose said she recognized that the account was not meant to be journalistic, and the admins didnt necessarily have a responsibility to show both sides of every story. But they nevertheless functioned as gatekeepers, and she worried that consumers of the account might not be approaching the posts critically.

The posts dont name names, but people are sometimes described in such a way that you know who they are, she said. Isolated incidents can be taken out of context. And its just, if somethings not true, how are you supposed to respond? If you question a post, its gaslighting.

Despite these concerns, Rose acknowledged the overwhelming positive effects the account has generated, especially at the start Its radical, its empowering and said she hasnt seen the dangers shes worried about yet. She just cautioned that social media tends to reward the most sensational content and worried that, without vigilance, the conversation could veer from achieving constructive ends and toward fanning flames.

LL, for one, said that the @CWRU.survivors account has already achieved something significant by raising enough awareness to capture the attention of the administration and force them into action, even if its still largely symbolic.

Incoming students are starting to message me about this, she told Scene. And if there is an effect on enrollment, Case will change. Because Case cares about one thing more than anything else: money. Its just like in Title IX. They side with the person who gives them more money, or who might cost them more money if they dont.

She was asked what she tells incoming freshman about Case, in light of the recent controversies.

I tell them that Case is different in some ways, and that I chose the school because of the student body, which really is diverse and full of smart people, she said. But its also like every other school out there. Its probably not going to protect you.

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An Instagram Account Is Waging War on Sexual Assault at Case Western Reserve University - Cleveland Scene

Social Workers Are Rejecting Calls For Them to Replace Police – The Appeal

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Jon, a social worker in New York City, began to fully understand the relationship between social services and law enforcement during the years they spent working with formerly homeless people at a single-room occupancy building in the South Bronx. In one case, officers arrived in response to a mental health call involving an older woman with severe schizophrenia. As officers escorted her off the premises, Jon said, a staff member of the building who had gone out to smoke a cigarette saw police punching the woman in the head repeatedly.

That was when I first started to really see, complete blinders off, how the police fit into this, Jon said. (The Appeal is withholding Jons full name because of Jons concerns about professional repercussions.)

Since the police killings this year of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and other Black people, more people have begun to confront the harms of policing, and many are imagining for the first time how police might be abolished altogether. One palatable alternative has emerged: Social workers should collaborate withor replacepolice officers.

But many social workers across the country, including Jon, a member of Social Service Workers Uprising Now-NYC, disagree. Networks of radical social workers in New York, Michigan, Illinois, Massachusetts, and elsewhere are organizing in opposition to increased cooperation between their field and police. Social work, they say, already involves law enforcement and can embrace punitive practices that disproportionately harm communities of color. Some in the field wonder what society might look like if, like police, social work in its current form is also dismantled.

You have to understand all of the systems that fail people, Jon said. The conversations about how to divest [from the current system] are very complicated because there are those of us who understand what needs to be done and there are those of us who clamp down tighter.

Calls for social workers to work more with police have come from the public, the president, and from within the profession, including in an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal by National Association of Social Workers (NASW) chief executive officer Angelo McClain.

But some in the profession are demanding that NASW embrace abolitionist goals instead. In July, Social Service Workers United-Chicago created a petition that was signed by more than 1,700 social workers, students, and clients, and endorsed by groups across the country and internationally. The petition called on NASW to adopt eight demands, including aligning with the 8 to Abolition movement and changing the social work code of ethics to allow for free dissent and criticism of the field.

Greg Wright, NASWs public relations manager, declined to comment but directed The Appeal to a video message from McClain. Wright also noted the NASWs support of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act and the organizations critiques of President Trumps executive order in which he called to expand social workers collaboration with law enforcement.

In an open letter accompanying the petition, SSWU-Chicago wrote that it is time for a reckoning on how [social work] has created, upheld, and strengthened oppressive systems. The letter mentions past backlash to dissent within the field, highlighting the case of a Binghamton University student who faced disciplinary action after he put up posters that were critical of the social work department. The SSWU-Chicago criticized social workers collaboration with policean institution it described as racist and violentand with prisons, jails, court-ordered drug treatment programs, and other systems that they say are in conflict with social work itself.

If all we do is replace police with social workers without eliminating these carceral aspects of social work, we will simply subject vulnerable people to cops by a different name, the letter reads.

Elena Gormley, a social work student at the University of Illinois-Chicago and one of the authors of the letter, echoed this concern to The Appeal. She said she understands the impulse to want more social workers in situations where police are present: They are seen as caring and compassionate, and have training in de-escalation or responding to domestic disputes. But we have to radically rethink social work, she said.

Some social workers say leaders in the field have failed to adequately reflect on the role they play in institutional racism and police violence. Kim Young, a social worker and organizer in Richmond, Virginia, challenged the NASW on its stances around police collaboration through an earlier petition and is outspoken on social media about how she believes the field must change. Young was briefly blocked by the professional group on Instagram in July, when the NASW said users were trolling its page. She was later unblocked after community outcry.

Its disheartening to see that leadership is leaning in the direction of wanting to be pleasing, and accommodating systems that do not have the best interests of those that we fight for on a daily basis, Young said.

Social workers already work closely with law enforcement. They regularly treat clients who are being held in prisons and jails, at inpatient psychiatric facilities, and in detention centers. They are also often required by law to collect and report clients personal health information, which, in some cases, winds up harming their clients. Reporting in Vox has detailed how migrant children may be encouraged to open up to doctors or social workers, only for those medical and psychological records to be used as evidence in immigration court.

Some social workers believe working in these settings and under these constraints contradicts their code of ethics mandate to respect clients right to self-determination. There are tons of rules about not harming clients but the field actively ignores them a lot, Gormley said.

Though social work can assist and provide resources to people in need of support, it can also be a punitive system that, like policing, negatively affects people of color and poor people. Jessica Kant, a member of the Boston Liberation Health Group, which endorsed SSWU-Chicagos open letter to the NASW, uses the example of a child wearing the same clothes every day, and how some social workers may read that as neglect rather than a lack of resourcesand report the situation as such.

It is a far cry between a family not being fit to take care of someone and not having money, Kant said. Those have nothing to do with each other. When a family doesnt have money, thats a societal failing. The idea that we have a punitive response is preposterous.

Social workers also point to the child welfare system, a significant employer of social workers, as deeply problematic. For years, Native children were taken from their families and enrolled in boarding schools, where they were forced to give up their languages, clothing, and cultures in an assimilation effort. The system also plays an outsize role in Black communities: Black children are overrepresented in foster care and Black parents parental rights are terminated at higher rates than their white counterparts.

Social work as a field is also predominantly white, and researchers have pointed to an empathy gap between providers and their clients who are people of color. Research by Terence Fitzgerald, a clinical associate professor at the University of Southern California, found that white social workers are often not as empathetic toward people of color as they think they are.

Also missing from the conversation, radical social workers say, is discussion of how the collective organizing power of practitioners is interconnected with serving their clientsthat abolition work goes hand-in-hand with labor organizing. Supporting union representation, fair wages, and manageable caseloads is a way to stand with the clients social workers seek to serve, they say. Many social workers are themselves clients of social services and struggle financially or with mental health issues, or are victims of violence.

I know what it is to experience all of this violence from the police because I experienced it alongside [my clients], Jon said. The police are all up in my communities, too, they added.

Kant said the national discussion around race in America has forced social workers to examine their own role in policing, and what place they can have in their community, removed from such systems. This momentand the conversation around abolition now happening at-large in the professionhas pushed social workers to think about how they can support existing community efforts, Kant said.

If there is any place for us in systems of safety and addressing harm, it is in partnership with the people who are directly going through it, Kant said.

Social workers say they are critiquing the system and challenging leadership out of a desire to build a better version of the field, and to make up for lost time and harm done.

Right now is the time to do it, Kant said, Because we are way too late anyway.

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Social Workers Are Rejecting Calls For Them to Replace Police - The Appeal

Josh Frydenberg and the monumental task that will define him – Sydney Morning Herald

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Not long after he'd been elected to Parliament, Josh Frydenberg called a Melbourne journalist and served up a hot tip. The Myer family was considering offering its century-old Toorak mansion Cranlana as an official Melbourne residence for the prime minister, he said. Perhaps give the family a call and they might talk about it.

The journalist agreed it was a good story and placed a call but the tip didn't quite stack up. The family would not confirm the yarn and the journalist was left with the impression Frydenberg was pushing the story because he wanted to live there one day when he, inevitably in his mind, fulfilled his burning ambition for the top job. (A Myer family representative yesterday said they had "discussed offering Cranlana to the Federal Government as a potential Victorian residence for the Prime Minister").

It's been 10 years this month since Frydenberg entered Federal Parliament and since day one he's been in a hurry. Shamelessly ambitious, he has rarely wasted a minute on his planned path to the prime ministership.

But it is the position he now holds, as Treasurer, which will likely define him.

As Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg's fortunes have changed - he'll soon be the author of Australia's largest deficit since World War II.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

And his fortunes have changed fast. At Christmas he was on the verge of handing down the nation's first budget surplus in more than a decade. Now he'll be the author of Australia's largest deficit since World War II.

Frydenberg is a people pleaser who likes, perhaps even needs, to be liked. And it's that quality which has planted doubts in the minds of some around him that the 49-year-old is up for the challenge. Try to please everyone you end up pleasing no one.

As one colleague remarked recently: "It's like he is always auditioning to be the man and he hasn't quite realised he is the man. And he will, ultimately, be judged on what he does next."

But even his detractors will grant him one thing: he has an unrivalled work ethic. Nothing proved this more than in January 2019, while when most of his cabinet colleagues were updating their LinkedIn profiles in anticipation of an election-year pounding, Frydenberg was taking the fight to Labor on tax day after day. All while he was consumed in a high-profile battle against Greens candidate, barrister Julian Burnside, in his blue-ribbon seat of Kooyong.

His parents' beach house in Lorne, on Victoria's Surf Coast, became his office and the holiday town's Stribling Reserve the site of daily press conferences and crosses into 24-hour TV news channels.

He has since told colleagues that, deep down, he didn't think the Coalition could win last May but he was damned if he wasn't going to empty his tank in his efforts to turn that around. His relentless positivity and tireless work rubbed off on some of his colleagues, who credit Frydenberg with re-focusing a party still at war following six years of bitter infighting.

As Minister for Environment and Energy, Josh Frydenberg came as close as anyone to landing a broadly supported, coherent energy policy.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

This week marks two years since the Victorian rose from the flaming wreck of the National Energy Guarantee, the contentious policy of which he was given carriage by Malcolm Turnbull, to become deputy Liberal leader and Treasurer.

It was reward for his approach in tackling a decade-long divide within the party over climate. He had come as close as anyone to landing a broadly supported, coherent energy policy. He won over every mainstream industry and interest group but in the end could not nail his backbench.

If Frydenberg does sleep - and there's sometimes reason to doubt he does - it cannot be more than five hours a night. Business leaders, public servants, fellow politicians, newspaper editors and journalists' phones regularly ping with the sound of a WhatsApp message from the Treasurer before dawn.

It's only between midnight and 5am a journalist is safe from a call or message from the Treasurer.

At every other waking hour he needs to be in control. And this extends to carefully crafted presentation in the media, where he leaves no stone unturned in networking and self-promotion.

Sometimes the call is because he thinks he's been unfairly treated in a story, or he wants to alert you to an opinion piece he's penned in a rival publication (this is of particular annoyance to many editors), or sometimes it can be genuine offers of help to those in need he's read about such as an inquiry into a recent Age report about the Yarra Valley Winter Shelter charity in eastern Melbourne.

It might be a friendly dig at your football team, or on occasion he'll even share fan mail, such as a recent missive from Judy from Granville, who wrote to say he wasn't to blame for the deteriorating budget, it was COVID-19, and he'd now replaced Keating as her favourite treasurer.

Following a high-profile spat with former South Australian premier Jay Weatherill over renewable energy three years ago, Frydenberg spent three hours on a Saturday afternoon texting selected gallery journalists the result of an online reader poll in the Adelaide Advertiser that showed he'd come out better of the pair.

Journalists commissioned to do profile pieces, like this one, often get unsolicited calls from colleagues ahead of publication too. They just by chance want to say something positive about Frydenberg. Deidre Chambers, what a coincidence.

Late-night, whispered phone calls to journalists with news tips are also common. Ask him why he's whispering? Usually it's because the kids, son Blake and daughter Gemma, or his wife Amie are asleep.

A triumphant Prime Minister took to the stage at last year's annual charity gathering of press, politicians and corporates in Canberra and made his treasurer the butt of the joke.

"Great to see you all here in one room tonight," Scott Morrison said. "Because I know that Josh isn't on the phone to any of you."

If Frydenberg is unhappy with how he or the government's position has been portrayed he'll let journalists know. There is nothing unique about that - Paul Keating, as treasurer and prime minister, would not think twice about confronting journalists personally if he believed they had wronged him. And usually with more venom than Frydenberg.

If Frydenberg is unhappy with how he or the government's position has been portrayed, he'll let journalists know.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Frydenberg, an affable and charming character both professionally and privately, is usually much more good natured. He keeps his temper in check. But his unsolicited feedback doesn't stop at just the journalists.

His unmatched corporate network includes plenty of media executives (he was best man at the wedding of Ryan Stokes, the son of Seven West Media owner Kerry). A text message to a reporter complaining about a story will usually be sent to their editor too and, possibly one or two members of the board. When he's particularly aggrieved, a call to the proprietor may sometimes follow.

The opposition used this well-known character trait to its advantage in June when shadow treasurer Jim Chalmers labelled him an "A-grade networker and a reserve-grade treasurer".

Labor backbench MP Ed Husic, elected at the same time as Frydenberg, had earlier that day complained in caucus that the media, including this masthead, had gone soft on the Treasurer and the government in the hope it would place tough regulations on digital platforms such as Google and Facebook. The irrelevance of being in opposition for a third-term has some in Labor resorting to outrageousness in the hope they get noticed. But Chalmers' line hit a raw spot. And some of Frydenberg's colleagues could not contain their chuckles.

His behaviour and eccentricities have driven his own staff wild. As a newly minted cabinet minister he would spend hours handwriting or dictating correspondence, endless newspaper op-eds, complete with suggested punctuation.

It's the non-stop networking and communication which has helped catapult him into his position at such a rapid rate. But now some within government wonder whether he has the capacity to concentrate his energy on the monumental task ahead.

Some, including those who sit around the cabinet table, pondered just how focused he was at times during the pandemic.

"We were announcing stimulus packages in the morning which were irrelevant by the afternoon, but you'd pick up the paper and read about how Josh did this or that and how the policy was formed," one colleague said on the condition of anonymity. "I thought to myself 'how on earth does he have the time to promote himself when we are dealing with the biggest challenge we've faced in a century?'"

Last month he hosted a weekend Zoom workout beamed around the nation's gyms for "Celeb Saturday". The same eyebrows were raised.

Frydenberg has spent much of August locked in self-quarantine in a Canberra apartment along with his senior adviser, Adam Clark. Five weeks from his second budget, he has conducted daily meetings via a secure video link. No other budget preparation has been quite like this.

The pandemic has again sparked calls for big vision, blue sky economic reform and investment in nation-changing infrastructure projects. The type of transformative changes associated with the Hawke-Keating governments or John Howard's first term. But Frydenberg has, so far, been cautious not to bite off more than he can chew.

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So it has been left to NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet to grab hold of the debate by seizing on a review he commissioned, led by former Telstra chief executive David Thodey, which urged the abolition of stamp duty and reform to the broader tax system.

In an alliance with the Victorian Treasurer, Perrottet has suggested lifting the rate or broadening the base of the GST, aligning payroll tax rates across states and tearing up complicated federal-state arrangements.

Former Treasury secretary and tax reform architect Ken Henry has been consistent with his views that Australia needs economic reform "like we've never seen before". Henry has warned the deteriorating tax system will work against any economic recovery after the coronavirus, and wants a new tax on business cash flow to replace the GST, payroll tax and insurance duties imposed by the states.

Likewise ANU economist Warwick McKibbin, who sat on the Board of the Reserve Bank of Australia for a decade, says the government should review all government spending and move towards a consumption-based tax system.

"We need a review of what we're spending, see where there is duplication with the states. It has to be comprehensive," he said.

The federal Treasurer hasn't bitten publicly but has told colleagues while GST reform might be a sensible long-term proposal, his priorities remain getting the Australian public through the pandemic and out the other side.

"Like the PM, Josh tells people ... GST reform right now won't create one job," one Liberal MP says. "While he is right to be focused on these things, there are many of us who want the government to be brave and take on some of these tough things right now. We won't get a better opportunity."

Bernie Fraser, who as governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia steered Australia out of its last recession from 1989 to 1996, wants the Morrison government to take advantage of record low interest rates to invest in large-scale investment in economic and social infrastructure and consider tax incentives which target the right productive investment.

Josh Frydenberg addresses the National Press Club Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

The biggest insight Frydenberg has provided to the government's economic intentions in recent months came at his National Press Club address last month.

"I notice in the Financial Review today, not everyone is a Keynesian and thinking about income support. It is important to go to the supply side. Thatcher, Reagan, that's an inspiration," he said. "What we will continue to do is create incentives. When we put in place tax cuts or business incentives or try to cut red tape or go to the supply side of the equation that's going to be critical."

Ensuring the substance of his argument was almost completely lost, he doubled down on the theme on the ABC's Insiders a few days later when he argued Reagan and Thatcher "dealt very successfully with the challenges that they faced, particularly stagflation, high unemployment, high inflation".

"The reality is that Thatcher and Reagan cut red tape, they cut taxes and they delivered stronger economies."

Frydenberg may have a point. But the wisdom of invoking the duo at a time when the government has offered an olive branch to the union movement left many of his colleagues bewildered and frustrated.

Scott Morrison wasn't in the mood for playing along with the adulation of the '80s conservative idols either, and offered a curt response when asked whether he agreed with his treasurer.

"We're leading an Australian response to this," the Prime Minister said. "A uniquely Australian response and that Australian response requires us to address the supply-side issues in our economy.

"It's jobs that drive the Australian plan. Nothing else."

It was portrayed as a "slap down" by the press gallery, which annoyed Frydenberg, who insisted Morrison didn't have a problem with his comments and he didn't regret them.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Prime Minister Scott Morrison enjoy a close working relationship.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

The pair enjoy a close working relationship. There is rarely, publicly at least, a cigarette paper between the two on policy. No signs of the type of competitive tensions that dominated the relationship between John Howard and Peter Costello. Or indeed Morrison and Turnbull.

The comments left many questioning Frydenberg's judgment at a time where the unions were needed to achieve critical industrial relations reform.

"The average Australian right now doesn't want to hear the Treasurer singing love songs to British and US leaders of 30 years ago," one Liberal said. "They want to know what he's doing to keep them in jobs."

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Labor thinks they've been given a campaign gift on the comments alone. But Frydenberg won fans among a few right-wing commentators who had previously gone cold on the government for its $260 billion spend-a-thon over recent months.

It's another example of trying to be all things to all people. He was an early supporter of same-sex marriage within the party. Yet, as assistant treasurer, he remained loyal to Tony Abbott to the final hours of his prime ministership. He was at the notorious wake in the ministerial wing that evening, although he insists he'd left by the time former treasurer Joe Hockey broke a marble table by dancing on it and Jamie Briggs injured his knee as he tried to tackle Abbott. He stuck it out with Turnbull until the end, too, although some still loyal to the previous PM questioned just how hard he fought in those bruising days two years ago this week.

Frydenberg was in the right place at the right time two years ago. But the question remains whether he's up to the task of rebuilding the economy in the year ahead. While they can't question how hard he's prepared to work, the bottom line is even his colleagues aren't quite sure what he stands for.

This article has been updated to incorporate a statement from the Myer family about their discussions with the federal government on possibly donating a Melbourne home for the use of the Prime Minister.

Rob Harris is the National Affairs Editor for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, based at Parliament House in Canberra

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Josh Frydenberg and the monumental task that will define him - Sydney Morning Herald

Prosecutors Have No Place in Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commissions – Truthout

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As abolitionist organizers on the ground in Boston, Philadelphia and San Francisco, we are appalled and angered by the announcement by three district attorneys (DAs) in partnership with Shaun Kings Grassroots Law Project to pilot Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commissions (TJRC) in our cities. These commissions, according to the announcement, will hold hearings on state violence committed in these cities in the hopes of moving toward community healing. Yet placing district attorneys those leading offices that helped to imprison large swaths of people in those cities at the head of these TJRCs ensures that they will fail to produce the change which harmed parties seek.

The racism and violence of law enforcement demands a community-led quest for reparations, not a prosecutor-led quest for reconciliation. The model of truth and reconciliation is fundamentally opposed to prosecution at its root it is an entirely different notion of justice. And we take issue with these DAs modeling their TJRC after South Africas, where some (but not all) people addressed harms done to them under apartheid in front of a tribunal. While the process aimed to heal apartheids violence to enable South Africa to move forward, police violence, among other inequities, persists today and is still distributed on the basis of race. In short, the South African TJRC did not transform the root causes of harm (and, in many cases, it did not provide the optimal compensation for victims, leading some to form a Peoples Tribunal). It is not a model that we should even be trying to replicate, and certainly not with law enforcement in control.

As we and our partners have articulated countless times elsewhere, DAs are top cops: Police hand DAs the baton after an arrest so that the DA can continue enacting state violence on the person who was arrested, from charging to sentencing. The police are the DAs star witnesses in their grand juries and trials; they are the anchor of their credibility in court. DAs shield police from scrutiny and they insulate police from consequences. Further, prosecuting offices sanction racist policing by prosecuting criminal cases that disproportionately target Black and Brown people, by appealing cases to make law that expands the power and scope of policing, and by litigating in ways that restrict or undermine the rights of people who are criminalized. The fundamental role of the prosecuting office is to collaborate with police to take cases from arrest to sentencing, to send people to and keep people in jail and prison, to break up families, to cut off sources of stability, and to erect permanent barriers to health, housing, education and employment.

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Prosecutors yes, even these self-proclaimed progressive prosecutors cannot lead a process to reckon with the racism and violence of law enforcement. Prosecuting the police will not end the violence of policing. Abolishing the police, the prosecuting office and all other tentacles of the prison-industrial complex are the only things that will.

While the elected DAs in Boston (Rachael Rollins), Philadelphia (Larry Krasner) and San Francisco (Chesa Boudin) speak publicly about their commitments to fight racism, their office policies and records of prosecutions and appeals belie an unfortunate truth: As prosecutors, their job in the criminal punishment system is to disproportionately punish Black and Brown people, contributing to generational trauma in those communities. Just like all other DAs, Krasner, Boudin and Rollins disproportionately prosecute Black and Brown people; they coerce pleas; they work with police to rob people of their property; they fight the disclosure of racist policing data; they disproportionately seek unattainable bail and pretrial detention against Black and Brown people; they expand the surveillance state; they use racist gang databases in their cities to enhance prosecutions and partner with federal prosecutors in gang sweeps that target young Black and Brown men; they prosecute noncitizens and place them at risk for removal and separation from their families; they seek to expand their budgets and suck up even more state and nonprofit resources to continue enacting state harm, at the expense of funding what people need to thrive. Even their adopted reforms reinforce damaging narratives about safety and may enhance the power of the system while doubling down on its racism.

Finally, we must note that the timing of the call for Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commissions led by prosecutors comes at the very time that increasing numbers of people are calling for the abolition of the prison-industrial complex (which includes prosecutors). People are taking to the streets demanding the defunding of the police, not a DA-led TJRC. Holding a TJRC will, ultimately, legitimize the prosecuting office and, by extension, the prison-industrial complex, as the only means for holding people accountable and producing safety. If these so-called progressive prosecutors were truly on the side of the people, they would: first, cease the harms they bring to people every day (by bringing charges, among other things); and second, work toward the dismantling of the police and shrinking their own offices, not improving their own PR.

We are part of a legacy of abolitionist organizers who, for decades, have been working to end all forms of criminalization, incarceration and surveillance, as well as build alternative community-based models for addressing, repairing and transforming harm. We have been fighting for investments in the resources that keep our people and communities safe: housing, health care, jobs with living wages, access to healthy food and water. We dont need any regular old DAs, and we dont need any progressive DAs. We dont need any more resources routed through prosecuting or policing offices, or through other carceral, punitive, or coercive state or nonprofit agencies. We need resources directly distributed to our communities so that our communities can create safety outside the same state that targets us.

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Prosecutors Have No Place in Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commissions - Truthout

Roger Ver Tells Disgruntled Bitcoin Cash Faction to Buy …

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Supporters of the Bitcoin Cash Infrastructure Funding Plan should support Dash instead, said Roger Ver.

Bitcoin Cashleader Roger Ver has suggested that disgruntled developers should sell their BCH holdings and buy Dash in light of an upcoming change to the blockchain.

There is already a peer to peer electronic cash cash coin with IFP. Its called DASH. I suggest IFP supporters sell their BCH for DASH, and start working on that chain,said Roger Ver.

His comments concern Bitcoin Cashs Infrastructure Funding Plan (IFP), a hotly-debated addition that may arrive in November.

IFP, in its current form, will direct 8% of block rewards to developers. This fund will, in turn, deprive BCH miners of income. Its not clear if Vers endorsement of Dash is serious or sarcastic. However, his point is clear:Dashuses a funding model that is similar to the one advocated by IFP proponents in the Bitcoin Cash community. That is, Dash allocates some of its mining rewards toward developers through a set of programmed rules.

One commenter noted that Dashs approach is more rigorous than IFP because Dash developers must be approved by masternode operators before they receive funds. Ver replied that this sounds a lot better than the IFP proposal.

The Bitcoin Cash community has been divided over IFP since February. The proposal has beenbrought upanddroppedmultiple times, but it has ultimately reentered the spotlight as the blockchains November upgrade approaches.

This week, Bitcoin ABC added IFP to the latest release of their Bitcoin Cash node software. More controversially, ABC listed the same feature onbitcoincash.orgsomething that ABC arguably has no right to do given that there are competing nodes that oppose IFP.

Support for IFP has come mainly from the Chinese mining community, where the idea is much less controversial. Their support means that the feature has already been built into future upgrades, but it will ultimately be up to miners to activate IFP this November.

There is plenty of debate about whether the disagreement will cause the project to split into two coins in November. If there is a fork, the event would be seen as a repeat of 2018, when disagreements over block sizes caused Bitcoin SV to fork away from Bitcoin Cash.

Even if Bitcoin Cash does split, it is not clear how that event will be perceived: it could devastate Bitcoin Cashs reputation, or it could prove that Bitcoin Cash is strong enough to withstand multiple splits.

Recent discussionssuggest that developers intend to reach a compromise. In that case, dissatisfied miners and developers may simply leave the Bitcoin Cash community and support another coin.

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Roger Ver Tells Disgruntled Bitcoin Cash Faction to Buy ...

Roger Ver | Twitter

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More government isnt the solution to problems caused by government.

StrongBlock changes the DeFi game: stakers and holders earn $STRONG like $COMP, while rewarding blockchain performa twitter.com/i/web/status/1

The world is suffering from the media and governments fear mongering. Not #COVID19

In the entire history of mankind anything centrally planned has always been outperformed by the open markets, in t twitter.com/i/web/status/1

It's in the best interest of centralized exchanges to keep Bitcoin a poorly developed protocol with expensive fees. twitter.com/i/web/status/1

If #COVID was actually so deadly, people would social distance without the need for a government enforced #lockdown.

Something that works as a store of value AND a medium of exchange will be more popular than something that only wor twitter.com/i/web/status/1

Most people are clueless that finance, financial instruments, financial markets, etc, are all INVENTIONS.

Bitcoin Cash welcomes everyone who wants to build censorship-resistant peer-to-peer electronic cash that scales to twitter.com/i/web/status/1

Knowing your own limitations is a strength, not a weakness.

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Roger Ver | Twitter

Roger Ver Tells Disgruntled Bitcoin Cash Faction to Buy Dash – Crypto Briefing

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Key Takeaways

Bitcoin Cash leader Roger Ver has suggested that disgruntled developers should sell their BCH holdings and buy Dash in light of an upcoming change to the blockchain.

There is already a peer to peer electronic cash cash coin with IFP. Its called DASH. I suggest IFP supporters sell their BCH for DASH, and start working on that chain, said Roger Ver.

His comments concern Bitcoin Cashs Infrastructure Funding Plan (IFP), a hotly-debated addition that may arrive in November.

IFP, in its current form, will direct 8% of block rewards to developers. This fund will, in turn, deprive BCH miners of income. Its not clear if Vers endorsement of Dash is serious or sarcastic. However, his point is clear: Dash uses a funding model that is similar to the one advocated by IFP proponents in the Bitcoin Cash community. That is, Dash allocates some of its mining rewards toward developers through a set of programmed rules.

One commenter noted that Dashs approach is more rigorous than IFP because Dash developers must be approved by masternode operators before they receive funds. Ver replied that this sounds a lot better than the IFP proposal.

The Bitcoin Cash community has been divided over IFP since February. The proposal has been brought up and dropped multiple times, but it has ultimately reentered the spotlight as the blockchains November upgrade approaches.

This week, Bitcoin ABC added IFP to the latest release of their Bitcoin Cash node software. More controversially, ABC listed the same feature on bitcoincash.orgsomething that ABC arguably has no right to do given that there are competing nodes that oppose IFP.

Support for IFP has come mainly from the Chinese mining community, where the idea is much less controversial. Their support means that the feature has already been built into future upgrades, but it will ultimately be up to miners to activate IFP this November.

There is plenty of debate about whether the disagreement will cause the project to split into two coins in November. If there is a fork, the event would be seen as a repeat of 2018, when disagreements over block sizes caused Bitcoin SV to fork away from Bitcoin Cash.

Even if Bitcoin Cash does split, it is not clear how that event will be perceived: it could devastate Bitcoin Cashs reputation, or it could prove that Bitcoin Cash is strong enough to withstand multiple splits.

Recent discussions suggest that developers intend to reach a compromise. In that case, dissatisfied miners and developers may simply leave the Bitcoin Cash community and support another coin.

The information on or accessed through this website is obtained from independent sources we believe to be accurate and reliable, but Decentral Media, Inc. makes no representation or warranty as to the timeliness, completeness, or accuracy of any information on or accessed through this website. Decentral Media, Inc. is not an investment advisor. We do not give personalized investment advice or other financial advice. The information on this website is subject to change without notice. Some or all of the information on this website may become outdated, or it may be or become incomplete or inaccurate. We may, but are not obligated to, update any outdated, incomplete, or inaccurate information.

You should never make an investment decision on an ICO, IEO, or other investment based on the information on this website, and you should never interpret or otherwise rely on any of the information on this website as investment advice. We strongly recommend that you consult a licensed investment advisor or other qualified financial professional if you are seeking investment advice on an ICO, IEO, or other investment. We do not accept compensation in any form for analyzing or reporting on any ICO, IEO, cryptocurrency, currency, tokenized sales, securities, or commodities.

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The core development team behind Bitcoin Cash is once again butting heads over the features that will be included in the upcoming November protocol upgrade. Investors are selling their holdings...

The fifth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, Bitcoin Cash (BCH), recently dropped to levels not seen in its 3-year history. Still, a particular technical pattern suggests it is time to buy....

After roughly 2 months of price consolidation following its rapid recovery from Black Thursday (March 12th), Bitcoin broke out of its range following an extended period of muted volatility. Currently...

The two biggest Bitcoin hard forks, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Bitcoin SV (BSV), are set to experience a significant reduction in their overall rate of token issuance. As speculation mounts...

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Roger Ver Tells Disgruntled Bitcoin Cash Faction to Buy Dash - Crypto Briefing

Bitcoin.com and Cred Join Hands Over Crypto Lending – Live Bitcoin News

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The Bitcoin.com wallet is joining hands with a lending platform known as Cred. Now, holders of both bitcoin and bitcoin cash can lend out their stashes and gain interest, some of which can be garnered through a wide variety of cryptocurrencies including stable coins.

The crypto space is seeing a wide variety of new lending programs that allow people to lend out what they own to other individuals. From there, they can gain interest on the money granted the funds are not paid back right away. Its a quick and easy way to make some digital cash; lend out the goods, see the stash grow over time.

A spokesperson from Cred explained in an interview:

Creds partnership with Bitcoin.com proves that bitcoin innovation doesnt have to occur at the protocol level. By building lending capabilities directly into the Bitcoin.com wallet, weve provided a way for BTC and BCH holders to earn an attractive ROI (return on investment), while operating within a familiar and secure environment.

Bitcoin.com has become a relatively controversial platform over the years given the change in the stance of its founder and chief executive Roger Ver. Ver, often referred to as the Bitcoin Jesus, was one of the first investors of bitcoin, and has worked hard to spread the ideas of BTC and blockchain throughout the space to make them more mainstream.

However, over the years, Ver has changed from being a bitcoin connoisseur to a big fan of bitcoin cash, which he has often claimed is closer to the vision that Satoshi Nakamoto the alleged creator of bitcoin had when he first brought cryptocurrency to the table. He has often clashed with Craig Wright as a result, who claims that the closest thing to Nakamotos vision is his own coin bitcoin SV (BSV), which emerged in late 2018 through a hard fork of bitcoin cash.

BSV is also widely blamed for the heavy bitcoin crash that occurred during Thanksgiving of that year. Bitcoin had spent much of the summer trading in the mid-$6,000 range, but after a temporary drop to $5,000, the asset completely fell to roughly $3,500, thereby losing nearly 70 percent of its value since the beginning of the year.

Individuals who utilize the Bitcoin.com wallet and Cred to lend out their crypto may do so with an Android or iOS app. Bitcoin.com head of product Corbin Fraser explained in a statement:

At Bitcoin.com, we strive to offer our customers with the top-tier blockchain services. Through Cred, our customers will continue benefiting from earning interest on their crypto through a secure and licensed financial services platform.

Cred has presently integrated itself into several blockchain and crypto platforms including Edge and Huobi wallet.

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Bitcoin.com and Cred Join Hands Over Crypto Lending - Live Bitcoin News

The Bitcoiners Who Live ‘Permanently Not There’ – CoinDesk – CoinDesk

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Katie Ananina is building her citadel, and selling others on the dream.

For the past year, the Russian emigre has jumped among the U.S. cities of Miami, Houston, San Francisco and Denver, plus Puerto Rico, random islands in the Caribbean and Guadalajara, Mexico, trying to find the right location to establish a base camp. Its part of her lifestyle as well as her job.

Ananina is the founder of Plan B Passport, a business that works primarily with Bitcoiners to obtain legal residency status in their choice of six tax-haven nations. Its an offshoot of Migronis Citizenship, a resettlement business, which itself has five offices globally.

You go to the butcher that has the best meat, and farmer for the best fruits and vegetables, so do you shop for the lifestyle that you want? Ananina said, dialing in from Guadalajara in April where she was awaiting an anarcho-capitalist meetup. If it suits you better to own a passport from a tax haven, why wouldnt you do that, right?

While tax avoidance has been around since the first tax was levied, the crypto-rich empowered by a technology that pays no heed to borders and driven by an ideology critical of all centralized authorities are bringing it to the next level.

Like its larger parent company, Plan B offers information on how to legally optimize ones tax strategies by moving lives, possessions or assets to the best jurisdictions, according to its website. Ananina also hosts free 20-minute consultations and the occasional web seminar. Recently, shes been looking for ways to break into the private island real estate market, thinking the nouveau riche of the coming bull run will be able to afford such luxuries.

This open approach to tax avoidance is perfectly legal. And given that multinationals often shuffle money around to avoid paying billions in taxes, you could argue its normal these days.

A lot of people are doing it. Like, more than you would think, Ananina said.

Ronen Palan, an Israeli-born economist and Professor of International Political Economy in the Department of International Politics at the City University London who studies tax havens and offshore finance, agreed its becoming more popular among the ultra-wealthy, but said its difficult to determine exactly how many individuals are eschewing their tax burdens by moving abroad.People dont usually identify themselves as tax evaders, he said.

The actual number of people that physically relocate is a small portion of those that avoid paying taxes, Palan said over Zoom. But its common enough for there to be an established term: We call these individuals PNTs, permanently not there.

Wealthy individuals, you find they have three houses, three domiciles, to ensure they are never in one country sufficiently long to become a tax resident, he said. Theres also a growing number of people willing to drop even the pretense of a residence.

Flag theory

At the individual and family level, many of todays expatriates and tax arbitrageurs follow the obscure advice of the libertarian financial adviser Harry D. Schultz. He coined the term Three Flag Theory to describe a strategic approach to life and citizenship where people plant flags in different countries based on their favorable tax, regulatory and economic frameworks.

Proponents get as many passports as necessary or obtain legal permanent residence status in tax haven nations, offering them the chance to shuffle capital and business documentation around. They become citizens of the world, or perpetual travelers, to maximize their profits and minimize their obligations to the state.

You can have one foot in New York and one in the Cayman Islands and have responsibilities to no one but yourself, Palan said. While the roots to this lifestyle may be found in libertarianism Bill Maurer, director of UC Irvines Institute for Money, called it late capitalist nomadism Palan said its less complicated: Many people enjoy the benefits of states. But they dont like paying taxes.

Others have taken Schultzs theory and run with it. Frank M. Ahearn, author New York Times best-seller How to Disappear, translated it to six flag theory. Today, its common to see at least one flag representing an electronic haven in cyberspace, referring to a country with lenient regulations for maintaining private or corporate servers.

Considering that the theory was first circulated over 30 years ago, you would think that by now most governments would have caught up with it and closed all the loopholes that enable it, said Marc Gras, managing director of Far Horizon Capital, a company that works with businesses to relocate. They have not.

While western nations continue to fail to close the gaps, poorer countries, primarily in the global south, but also wealthy nations like Monaco are attracting high-net-worth individuals with simplified immigration policies and lenient definitions of residency. The ideal haven nation will enable visa-free travel with a number of countries, and have limitations on taxing income earned outside their borders. Many have low, or non-existent, tax policies on wealth and capital gains.

Countries are literally competing for your wealth, Ananina said. Its why shes excited to do the work her career enables.

Ive been looking at my past and feel like my whole life has been preparing me for bitcoin, anarchy and flag theory, she said. If I cant be absolutely stateless, I will hold some papers that will help me lead the life that I want to live. I will get as many papers as I can and its going to give me more freedom, she said.

Ananina is not alone in her pro-bitcoin, anti-state and very online convictions. One of the Bitcoin networks earliest advocates, Roger Ver, is also a follower of Flag Theory and an example of living to maximize ones personal autonomy understood by having zero debts to the state.

Go where youre treated best, Ver said during a recent phone call. Ver has been a Kittician, a citizen of St. Kitts & Nevis, since 2014 after leaving the United States for good in 2006.

From the moment they tossed me in prison, I knew I was never going to live in the U.S. again, he said. (Ver was convicted in 2002 for selling explosives over eBay.) The day I was allowed to leave, I left. It took a further eight years to renounce my citizenship.

He said many of his cryptocurrency friends are citizens of the small Caribbean island nation, population 52,441. Though hes clear citizen doesnt necessarily mean his neighbors have ever stepped foot on the island. About two years ago, there were about 100 of us that met up, he said.We spent the afternoon pounding on our laptops in tropical paradise.

Ver said he gets queried on how to move abroad at least once a week. His advice? Deal with reputable agents that know the people and the process, he said. Speaking from the experience of being scammed twice for substantial sums of money, he said, unscrupulous people will try to trick you. You want feet on the ground.

A veritable cottage industry of businesses like Ananinas Plan B has sprung up to prevent situations like Vers.

These businesses work with governments citizenship by investment units, so people can pay a fee, fill out a few forms and claim their benefits. While the process varies by nation, in most cases, citizenship can be bought for six figures. Its not cheap, Ver said.

While Plan B Passport is likely the first to cater exclusively to the crypto-rich, many companies view it as a profitable new sector within the immigration industry.

Migronis has helped resettle approximately 500 people since August 2012, Martyn Kovalko, head of marketing for the firm, said over email. Of those clients, about 10% came from the crypto community before Plan B was spun out, he estimated.

Far Horizon also boasts early crypto investors, exchanges and initial coin offering (ICO) operators among their clientele, Gras said. While he declined to name names, he did confirm many have accumulated substantial amounts of cryptocurrencies.

Crypto links

Its not difficult to imagine a perpetual traveller holding non-state-backed currencies, or someone into crypto thinking favorably of Flag Theory.

One could say that the Flag Theory concept and bitcoin (or cryptocurrencies) were both originally based out of libertarian principles such as freedom, autonomy and a disinclination to accept authority and centralized power, Gras said.

The concepts amplify one another. Distributive tools like the internet have led to an interest in the philosophy, Gras said, adding the number of flag theorists stand at a record high.And crypto has only made it easier to escape the boundaries of the state. Moving hundreds of thousands of dollars through the banking system is bound to raise an eye, according to Ronen Palan.

There are various rules, particularly anti-money laundering rules, that have been introduced which require compliance. Essentially, banks have to know who owns the account and the source of the money, Palan said. They ask questions.

But with bitcoins radical ownership, people can move their wealth instantly without checking in with compliance officers, Ananina said. You dont have to worry about selling your assets in the U.S. or figuring out how to move them through the banking system to an offshore account, she said. You just pick up calculator, move to another country and you have your wealth with you.

Citadels

While jet-setting may appeal to some, theres a certain type of Bitcoiner who prefers to stay close to home, building out local systems independent of, and adversarial to, the state.

Justine, who goes by MsHodl on Twitter, is doing that in the Sierra Nevadas, the mountain range straddling the border between California and Nevada. Shes refurbishing an old farmstead owned by her family, with help from her stepfather and mother, and the occasional electrician and plumber.

I was dreaming of a citadel before I heard the word, Justine said. Citadel is used in the Bitcoin community to refer to an idyllic version of tomorrow where individuals come together voluntarily to work and live off the land. The idea is to build systems that can exist with minimal contact with governments and corporations. When discussing the practicality of building a citadel on an unimproved private island, Katie Ananina said, Were anarchists, we do not care about running water.

Citadels are both the antithesis and corollary of the concept of the digital nomad that the larger tech sector has embraced. Bitcoiners build citadels to shield their vast troves of wealth from governmental overreach and the hordes of no-coiners but they are also purposefully situated somewhere specific, somewhere worth defending.

While Justine agrees with people who flee the state to avoid their taxes, she said financial autonomy is just one aspect of self-sovereignty. To become truly independent, sometimes it means settling down and building. Ultimate freedom comes with a lot of responsibility, and taking ownership, she said.

The owner of a small business in the United States, Justine says she dutifully pays her taxes. I work as hard as humanly possible to pay as little as possible, and find every loophole, she said.We live in an abusive relationship with the government and taxes are one part of it. But you cant avoid it when you have something to lose.

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The Bitcoiners Who Live 'Permanently Not There' - CoinDesk - CoinDesk

‘The Trump show’ continues as RNC heads to second night packed with Donald’s family US politics live – The Guardian

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Trump trade adviser, hydroxychloroquine hawk and Deep State conspiracy theory propagator Peter Navarro had a tetchy exchange earlier with Andrea Mitchell of NBC, about the administrations move to approve convalescent plasma therapy for the coronavirus, despite its efficacy being very much in doubt.

On air, the veteran host of Andrea Mitchell Reports said to Navarro: FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn has now apologised. He, along with the president, [Health secretary Alex] Azar, on Sunday night, said that, out of 100 people with Covid-19, 35 were saved by convalescent plasma in a study.

He now says that the criticism of those false claims, exaggerated claims, was entirely justified, and that he should have said there is a relative risk reduction, not an absolute reduction. And, in fact, the study was only a subset of a subset, not a randomized study.

You are a PhD economist. Youre an expert. You know statistics inside and out. Emergency approval of using plasma this way reduces the possibility of having a proper randomized study, and it falsely inflates hopes.

Navarro in fact a China trade hawk who has published books in which he extensively quoted an expert by the name Ron Vara, an anagram of Navarro said he did not accept that premise, which was like a crazy talking point, and added: On the issue of not being able to do randomized trials, I mean, what is the calculus here?

Are we going to wait to use something that can save thousands of lives, just so we can have a study that tells us what we already know, which is that plasma works?

Mitchell replied: Yes, that is scientific practice, sir.

And it carried on from there.

Talking of crazy talking points, Axios reported at the weekend that during attempts by the Trump White House to get Hahn and the FDA to hurry up on vaccines and therapeutics, Navarro aggressively confronted FDA officials, saying: You are all deep state and you need to get on Trump Time.

Heres a paragraph Ive written before: The deep state conspiracy theory holds that a permanent government of bureaucrats exists to thwart the presidents agenda. Former Trump campaign manager and White House adviser Steve Bannon, an enthusiastic propagator of the theory, has also said it is for nut cases and none of this is true.

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'The Trump show' continues as RNC heads to second night packed with Donald's family US politics live - The Guardian

Ex-NFL star Herschel Walker on what Donald Trump taught him during their 37-year friendship – CNBC

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On Monday during his2020 Republican National Conventionspeech, Heisman Trophy-winning former running back Herschel Walker told the world he has learned a lot from President Donald Trump.

Walker first met Trump in 1983 when he was drafted by the New Jersey Generals. The team was part of the short-lived United States Football League, which Trump owned at the time.

Walker says he immediately formed a friendship with the famous real-estate developer, one that has lasted over the last 37 years.

"I'm talking about a deep personal friendship," Walker said on Monday.

The two shared good times (for instance, when his and Trump's families went Disney World together, "there [Trump] was in a business suit on It's a Small World ride," Walker said. "That was something to see"). But Walker, who after retiring from the NFL more than 20 years ago now ownspoultryandfoodcompany Renaissance Man Foods as well as other businesses, says Trump has taught him important lessons over the years.

First, Walker said when Trump owned the Generals, he would watch his boss in meetings. One thing that stood out was how Trump would drop everything if one of his kids needed something.

"He can be in the middle of a big meeting, but if one of the kids was on the phone, he dropped everything to take the call. He taught me that family should be your top priority," Walker said.

Another thing that Walker noticed was how Trump treated people.

Though Trump has been widely criticized for bullyingeveryone from his critics to small business owners he worked with as a businessman, Walker said his experience was the opposite.

Not only was Trump eager to learn "every detail" about the Generals, including every player and coach, said Walker, but he also watched Trump "treat janitors, security guards and waiters the same way you would treat a VIP. He made them feel special because he knew they were."

"Herschel, make an effort to get to know people. Remember their names," Walker said Trump told him.

Walker acknowledged during his speech that some people dislike how Trump "knocks down obstacles that get in the way of his goals," as Walker put it. But, said Walker, "the opposing team they don't like when I ran over them either, but that's how you get the job done."

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Ex-NFL star Herschel Walker on what Donald Trump taught him during their 37-year friendship - CNBC

What if President Donald Trump loses and wont leave the White House? Amherst College professors book explor – MassLive.com

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What if President Donald J. Trump loses the election but just says no? What if he just wont leave?

Preposterous in more normal times, the potential for this scenario is described by Amherst College professor Lawrence Douglas in a new book, Will He Go? Trump and the Looming Election Meltdown in 2020. Its an ominous, even chilling examination of what could result from the loopholes in the U.S. presidential election process, coupled with unprecedented modern circumstances and a president unlike any before him.

President Trump sees no daylight between his political fortunes and the good of the country, says Douglas, a professor of law, jurisprudence and social thought. Douglas premises are based not just on the presidents behavior, but on ambiguities in the Constitutions election process, which has changed very little since the first election in 1788.

He separates himself from the common fear by anti-Trump observers, which is that the president will react to an Electoral College defeat by simply barricading himself in the White House, declaring martial law or using his powers as commander-in-chief (which remain in place until Inauguration Day on Jan. 20) to essentially keep power by a coup.

Instead, he envisions Trump possibly blaming defeat on fraudulent or tampered voting, regardless of whether any such proof exists, and refusing to recognize the results.

Im not embracing what Joseph Biden said, which is that Trump could be frog-marched out of the White House (by the military), Douglas says. Rather, the professor points to an archaic method of using electoral votes (which produce 51 distinctively separate elections at once), a possibly very close vote, and the likelihood of massive mail-in by citizens fearing COVID-19 exposure at the polls.

Amherst College professor Lawrence Douglas says unprecedented circumstances and a president unwilling to accept unfavorable outcomes could create a 2020 election crisis.

American elections have not always gone smoothly. The popular vote winner (who received the most individual peoples votes) has lost five times, most recently in 2000 and 2016.

Twice in our early history, the election was settled in the House of Representatives, which becomes the arbiter if no candidate receives more than 50 percent of the electoral vote. In 1876, a special panel had to cut a deal to break a deadlock over disputed votes in three states an arrangement that ended post-Civil War reconstruction and robbed African-Americans in the South of many protections.

The 2000 election between George W. Bush and Albert Gore was decided by a deeply-divided U.S. Supreme Court, a decision Douglas still believes was driven more by politics than law. Alleged vote-counting shenanigans in Texas and Illinois still cast a shadow, in some Republican minds at least, over John F. Kennedys 1960 win over Richard M. Nixon.

None of these elections had the added variables of multiple faithless electors (who ignore their states popular vote by casting their own, personal Electoral College vote), a likely explosion of mail-in voting (which accounted for one quarter of the 2016 ballots and figures to soar in the COVID-19 age), and Trumps willingness to attach fraud to results that dont go his way.

To Douglas, this goulash of laws and emotions could produce an all-time test of the most fundamental tenet of a democracy the ability to stage an election whose results are indisputable. His book was published this spring by Twelve, an imprint of the Hatchette Book Groups Grand Central Publishing.

Mail-in ballots come more commonly from people in densely populated districts. Those areas often vote Democratic. Its called the blue shift. Some of those votes arent tallied until days or weeks after the election, Douglas says.

This could create a scenario by which Trump would be leading on Election Night, only to see the numbers swing to Democratic nominee Biden in subsequent days or weeks.

If that were to happen, its easy to see Trump screaming foul and just as easy to see his supporters in agreement.

Americans expect to know who won by 11 oclock on Election Night, Douglas said. That did not happen in 2000. He sees more reason to think it wont happen on Nov. 3.

Douglas is certainly no fan of Trump, but he does acknowledge that mail-in voting can be susceptible to confusion, especially if done in great numbers. Given Trumps propensity for blaming others, that could give the president an opening justified in his mind, and with or without proof to refuse to acknowledge the result of a defeat, Douglas reasons.

Mail-in ballots have historically been undercounted. They have to be signed, and the signatures are checked, the author says. Questionable signatures often cause ballots to be thrown out.

Douglas said faithless electors must be considered. Of the 538 electors (appointed within their individual states to formally cast electoral votes and certify the outcome), a total of 10 tried to vote contrary to the wishes of their states constituency in 2016.

Seven succeeded. That was the highest number in the countrys history, discounting the 1872 election, when candidate Horace Greeley died before the Electoral Vote was counted.

Of the 50 states, 18 do not constrain their electors to follow the (popular) vote. Some others fine or punish those who dont follow the peoples vote, but the vote still counts, Douglas says.

The U.S. Supreme Court is currently hearing a case to determine whether state governments have the power to nullify faithless electors votes. At issue is that when the Founding Fathers created the electoral system, Alexander Hamilton and many other leaders saw no problem in having individual electors rectify supposed mistakes by the uninformed voters, a practice that would cause fury today if it altered an election, but which some Constitutional experts insist is legal.

If enough faithless electors chose candidates other than Trump or Biden, leaving neither with the required majority of 270 for victory, the House of Representatives would elect the president (one vote per state delegation). That last happened in 1824. The Senate would pick the vice-president. Douglas says that in one deadlock-riddled scenario, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi could wind up in the Oval Office.

Ridiculous? Not to Douglas, who points to an almost even split of Democratic and Republican House delegations, and the unknown factor of the Nov. 3 House election results.

Three crucial swing states (Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan) have Democratic governors but GOP-controlled state houses. That could lead to in-state disputes over which election results would be certified or even which electors would be seated.

It adds up to a potentially frightening mess, a tangle of election loopholes, a nation almost evenly split into two polarized factions, and a president who, Douglas feels, has shown ample willingness to manipulate the Constitution to his own liking.

The best way to avoid this (controversy) would be if one candidate won decisively. That would certainly weaken any argument from the other, he says.

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What if President Donald Trump loses and wont leave the White House? Amherst College professors book explor - MassLive.com