David Peterson eyes the impact of Pullman Porter Museum before 25th anniversary – Rolling Out

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David A. Peterson Jr. (Photo provided by The National A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum)

David A. Peterson Jr. is the president and executive director of the National A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum located in Chicago. The Florida A&M University graduate began his career with the museum during college when he toured nationally for the NAPRPP museum and Amtrak as the coordinator for the museums traveling exhibit.

Prior to his role as president, Peterson established a youth and young adult program called MUSEUM 44 in honor of the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama. Today, he controls the day to day operations of the Museum. In his role, he also focuses on partnership building, program development, and resource development.

We spoke with Peterson ahead of the museums 25th anniversary and the addition of the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. Wing.

What is the mission of your organization?

The National A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum is a 501(c)(3) cultural institution. Our mission is to promote, honor and celebrate the legacy of A. Philip Randolph, Pullman Porters, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and contributions made by African Americans to Americas labor movement. As we educate the public about their historic legacy and the contributions theyve made through the study, preservation, and interpretation of their stories that are inextricably intertwined.

How do you approach business challenges?

Fearlessly head-on with optimism, faith, discipline, and purpose. Understanding that the mission is bigger than yourself gives you the motivation needed to stand firm during hard times when you personally want to give up.

How do you evaluate the talent you are hiring? What are the skills that you are looking for in this market place?

Personal interviews based on referrals are the most effective way. At that point, we can gauge someones genuine interest in our subject matter.

What are the top three benefits of being a member of your organization?

You help keep a story and legacy alive.

You become a part of an international movement to preserve and interpret Black history, heritage, and culture.

You join a movement going uphill that will affect generations to come.

Click continue to read more.

I am a blogger, journalist and media enthusiast. I am passionate about covering entertainment, fashion and beauty. Keep up with me at Cassinthecity.com

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David Peterson eyes the impact of Pullman Porter Museum before 25th anniversary - Rolling Out

Controversial Scholar Jordan Peterson Treated for Addiction in Russia – The Moscow Times

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Controversial Canadian author and academic Jordan Peterson has been treated for addiction to anti-anxiety medication in Russia, his daughter has said.

Peterson rose to fame in conservative circles in 2016 for opposing what calls radical political correctness authoritarianism, and his polarizing stances have drawn widespread controversy. He is estimated to have authored 50 books, including in the self-help genre, and sold more than 30 million copies.

Petersons family sought treatment for his physical dependency to benzodiazepine in Russia last month after failed attempts in North America, his daughter Mikhaila Peterson said Friday.

We had to seek an emergency benzodiazepine detox, which we could only find in Russia, she said in a YouTube video viewed 2 million times.

Doctors in Russia placed Peterson in an eight-day induced coma after diagnosing him with a fever and pneumonia on arrival. Peterson said her father was on the mend but has a long way to recover fully.

He almost died from what the medical system did to him in the West, Mikhaila said in a video and script provided to Canadas National Post publication.

The decision to bring him to Russia was made in extreme desperation when we couldnt find any better option, she said.

She did not disclose where in Russia Petersons treatment took place, but the CBC News broadcaster reported the location as Moscow.

"My family has put a stop to any more information," Mikhaila told CBC News. "When dad's ready, he'll start talking about details."

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Controversial Scholar Jordan Peterson Treated for Addiction in Russia - The Moscow Times

Meet the Petersons: the controversial family plagued by ill health – Telegraph.co.uk

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Jordan Peterson is unwell.

But for fans and followers of the clinical psychologist and crusader against political correctness, the good news is he is getting better.

This week, his daughter Mikhaila posted a bulletin on her website, announcing that after years of suffering absolute hell from his physical addiction to the anti-anxiety benzodiazepine, Clonazepam, Peterson had been admitted to a clinic in Russia for an emergency detox treatment, which had involved him being placed in an induced coma for eight days.

Peterson, she said, was now on the mend and smiling again for the first time in months. She did not say where in Russia he was, and added that there would be no further bulletins on his condition until Peterson was able to speak for himself.

The revelation is the latest twist in the extraordinary rise of Peterson from obscure Canadian academic to what the *New York Times* described as the most influential public intellectual in the Western world.

Peterson first rose to international prominence in 2018 with the publication of his book 12 Rules For Life, and an appearance on Channel 4 News in which he eviscerated his interviewer Cathy Newman in a discussion about gender and the rise of identity politics and has now accrued more than 19m views on YouTube.

He quickly became the most visible, outspoken, and certainly the most divisive figure in the culture wars between Left and Right, challenging the orthodoxies of political correctness and the culture of victimhood he maintains is sweeping across university campuses in America, Canada and Britain. In March 2019, an offer of a Visiting Fellowship by Cambridge University was rescinded following a backlash from students and some members of faculty.

As his book soared to the top of the best-seller lists around the world, Peterson gave up his clinical practice and embarked on a frenetic round of lecture tours, media appearances and speaking engagements. But last year these engagements tailed off in November he was obliged to cancel a talk he was due to give at Londons Hammersmith Apollo as speculation about his health mounted.

Petersons health, and in particular his struggle with the chronic depression he has suffered since the age of 13, has long been a theme in his talks. When I met him at his home in Toronto in 2018 he described the feeling as like freezing to death on an endless stark plain knowing that the reason that you got there is because you did everything wrong. As part of his attempt to control it, he had adopted a diet consisting solely of meat and greens he was barbequing steak for breakfast when I arrived. Its hell on your social life, I can tell you, he told me with a laugh.

He adopted the diet following the example of Mikhaila, 28, who has become a prominent figure on social media herself, not only in her capacity as her fathers assistant and right hand (Peterson also has a son Julian, 27) but because of her own story about her struggles with debilitating illness.

She has her own website, which lists the long catalogue of ailments that have blighted her life. At the age of seven she was diagnosed with severe juvenile rheumatoid arthritis; at eight she was injecting herself with immunosuppressants twice a week; by the age of 12 she was diagnosed with severe depression and bi-polar type 2; at 14 she was diagnosed with idiopathic hypsomnia; at 17 she had her hip and ankle joints replaced; by the time she was 22 she was sleeping 18 hours a day, chronically depressed and experiencing rashes and blistering.

After years of experimenting with eliminating certain foods, she now promotes the wonders of what she calls the Lion Diet, which consists solely of ruminant meat (beef and lamb), salt and water, and which she claims had put her multiple disorders into remission, leaving her completely asymptomatic, medication free and thriving.

It took me years to believe this myself, as it went against all accepted medical teachings, she says on her website a fact confirmed by numerous health professionals, among them Jack Gilbert, the faculty director at the University of Chicagos Microbiome Center, who in an interview with The Atlanticmagazine described the Lion Diet as a terribly, terribly bad idea, adding, if she does not die of colon cancer or some other severe cardiometabolic disease, the life I cant imagine.

Peterson, however, told the American radio host, Joe Rogan that Mikhaila was glowing. So much so that he embarked on the diet himself to apparently extraordinary effect. His lifelong depression, anxiety, gastric reflux (and associated snoring), inability to wake up in the mornings, psoriasis, gingivitis, floaters in his right eye, numbness on the sides of his legs, problems with mood regulation all of it, he told Rogan, had gone.

But in April last year, the familys history of ill-health took another tragic turn when Petersons wife, Tammy was diagnosed with what was believed to be terminal cancer. The couple had been childhood sweethearts, growing up on the same street in the small prairie town of Fairview in Northern Alberta, and have been married for 31 years.

Devastated by the diagnosis, Peterson was prescribed antidepressants and Clonazepam. But in September, in a family bulletin on her Youtube channel, Mikhaila announced that following surgery for the removal of a kidney, and with Tammy making a miraculous recovery, Peterson had tried unsuccessfully to wean himself off Clonazepam, and been admitted to a rehabilitation centre in New York. The family, she went on, felt it important to make the announcement before some tabloid finds out and publishes Jordan Peterson Self Help Guru Is On Meth or something.

The treatment was evidently unsuccessful. In her posting this week, Mikhaila told how several failed attempts in American hospitals, including tapering and microtapering treatments, had left Peterson suicidal, with a condition called akathisia, where the patient constantly feels on the border of panic and is unable to sit still. The family had been forced in extreme desperation to seek treatment in Russia, where doctors have the guts to medically detox someone from benzodiazepines.

It seems somehow fitting that Peterson should have sought treatment in Russia a country that, one way and another, has exercised a powerful sway over his life and his philosophy. Dostoevskys Crime and Punishmentand The Demonsfigure in a list of books he published as influential in his intellectual development.

The rise of the Soviet Union was equally formative. When I met him, we talked, with Peterson in the full lotus position on an armchair, in a sitting room hung with monumental Soviet propaganda paintings a young man clasping the works of Lenin like a prayer book, and Soviet soldiers in the midst of a battle. Upstairs in his office, a painting of young revolutionaries about to be shot by a White Russian hung on a wall alongside a portrait of Yuri Gagarin. A battered cap, worn by a prisoner in a Soviet gulag was framed above his desk, beside a beaten copper crucifix from a Russian Orthodox church.

Peterson began collecting Soviet-era art in the Nineties, buying paintings on eBay, mostly from junk dealers in Ukraine. He told me they served to remind him of the iniquities of totalitarianism, and the evil of art being subordinated to propaganda. He particularly relished the irony of having bought them for a song on eBay, The most capitalist platform thats ever been invented!

Its kind of weird having Lenin around the house, Mikhaila told me. When Dad first started buying them, Mom would say, Not another one!. He now has more than 300.

It was Petersons fierce opposition to what he described as post-modernist Neo-Marxists and the creeping orthodoxies of political correctness that first made him a figure of public controversy in 2017, when he protested against a ruling by the Ontario Human Rights Commission that refusing to refer to a trans person by their chosen name and a personal pronoun that matches their gender identity in a workplace or a school, would probably be considered discrimination.

Peterson argued that his objections were on the grounds on free speech, and nothing to do with discrimination, and that at no time in British Common Law history has the legal code mandated what we must say, as opposed to simply what we must not say. He added that he would use the gender-neutral pronoun of a particular person, if they asked him.

Accusations of being transphobic and promulgating hate speech have followed him ever since. Indeed, it is hard to think of a more polarising figure in the culture wars as the cruel, gleeful postings by some on social media at the news of his illness have once again demonstrated.

In her bulletin this week, Mikhaila said that her fathers sense of humour is back... But he still has a long way to go to recover fully. It appears that were going to get through this by the skin of our teeth.

As a clinician you learn that its a rare person who isnt tragic right under the surface, Peterson told me when we met. But that doesnt mean you get to be a victim. You pick up your goddamn suffering and put one foot in front of the other. Its the way up, and also its the antidote to the way down.

ends

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Meet the Petersons: the controversial family plagued by ill health - Telegraph.co.uk

How Matt Peterson, an addict since childhood, got sober and learned to help others – WCPO Cincinnati

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Matt Peterson became an opioid addict at 11, when he was hit by a van and prescribed Vicodin for the pain. He was too young, then, to realize what was happening to him or to predict that the struggle to get clean would dominate the next decade of his life.

I enjoyed the way they made me feel, even that young, he said Monday. I just didnt know anything about what they were, really.

Hed taken D.A.R.E. classes, but that didnt matter. By the time he was a young adult, he said, hed lost all ability to resist his addiction or even to feel ashamed of it. He expected to be dead before his 26th birthday.

I no longer cared at all about my image, being labeled as a junkie or being dirty or anything like that, he said. It was over.

Except it wasnt. The 2004 passage of Caseys Law, a bill allowing family and friends to request involuntary court-ordered treatment for a person with an addiction, saved his life by letting the people who loved him take over.

In Petersons case, the intervention came from his parents. They successfully petitioned a judge to put him in rehab, which didnt break his addiction but began to reverse his course. Their help shepherded him toward the decision hed make in jail three years later: He wanted to be sober. He wanted to be alive.

Hed never contemplated his future before, he said. Hed never assumed hed have one.

I really started to focus on whereIwas going to take my life, he said.

He decided he owed it to the world to help others. Peterson became an addiction counselor at BrightView Health in Fairfield, and he spent three years writing the story of his battle in a book called BACK ON TRACKmarks: From Hopeless to Dopeless.

Hes grateful for the opportunity to live a new kind of life, he said. Hes especially glad he can pass on what he knows to people still living in the dark place he inhabited for years.

Just being able to watch some of these guys come in here completely broken and then a couple years later telling me that theyre he stopped himself, holding back tears. Its amazing.

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How Matt Peterson, an addict since childhood, got sober and learned to help others - WCPO Cincinnati

Talented transfer fits in nicely with Barons – The San Diego Union-Tribune

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Unlike most transfers, Sylena Peterson never felt like the new kid in school.

The 5-foot-7 junior guard seems to have fit right in at Bonita Vista High after coming over from Mount Miguel following two league titles and a San Diego Section Open Division championship as well as being last seasons Player of the Year.

Her arrival has turned the Barons, who finished off a third consecutive Metro Mesa League title Wednesday with a 70-30 win over visiting Eastlake in the regular-season finale, into an instant title contender.

Her game, though, has changed.

No longer does she need to have the ball in her hands all the time while initiating everything on offense.

She still scores. Her 13.9 scoring average and 6.1 rebound average are second on the Barons (20-8, 10-0).

Peterson, who scored 1,110 points in her two seasons at Mount Miguel, leads the Barons in assists (4.8) and steals (4.8).

My game is not different, just better, said Peterson, who had four points and four rebounds and even blocked a shot against Eastlake (15-13, 3-7) while Julia Cosalan led the way with 19 points. Im more like an ABC point guard now, you know I can shoot from 3-point range, hit medium range shots and go into the paint and score.

I wasnt nervous for one minute coming here. Sad to leave the Mount but excited to play here.

After a 6-4 start, the Barons are 14-4 since the two-time first-team all-section performer ended her 30-day sit-out period for transferring.

We would have been a Top 10 team anyway because we have good players in a good system, Bonita Vista coach Tristan Lamb said. Im not sure we would have been ranked No. 4 in the county.

I still think we would have won this league.

But having Peterson gives the Barons an added scoring threat and a better ball-handler who has maneuvered through her first two playoffs without missing a beat.

I definitely have a huge mentality on the court, a Mamba mentality, Peterson said. Im trying to push myself and improve game-by-game, especially now that the playoffs are here.

I knew we would have a good season. I knew what I was coming into because this group is like my sisters.

The Barons have now beaten Eastlake four straight times, including an 84-35 setback on Jan. 24.

Monahan is a freelance writer.

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Talented transfer fits in nicely with Barons - The San Diego Union-Tribune

A High and Humble Calling – Bethel University News

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Following a postdoctoral research position at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Peterson began teaching full-time, first at Western Illinois University, and later at Bethel, where he would dedicate nearly 40 years of his career. His focus on providing the highest quality physics education on a national scale led to his being named Bethels first University Professor in 2006.

Hes led a lot of the national discussion on how to make education better, Lindquist says, and by pushing research, he elevated how Bethel was perceived nationally in the physics community.

Indeed Bethel now boasts one of the countrys larger undergraduate physics and engineering programs, with Petersons contributions to the departments spectacular growth being particularly noteworthy. But while Peterson is grateful for his opportunities to promote physics at Bethel, he maintains that working with students is the best part of teaching. We need to mentor and help students develop what they enjoy, he says. We need to keep students finding their calling. As a physics teacher, Peterson clearly found his own calling, which he describes as both high and humble.

The AAPT presented Peterson with the Medal, a certificate, and a monetary award at their 2020 Winter Meeting in Orlando, Florida this January. At the conference, Peterson shared an address on the importance of physics education and its impact on both the student and the aspiring teacher.

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A High and Humble Calling - Bethel University News

EXCLUSIVE: Update on the health of Dr. Jordan B. Peterson – The Post Millennial

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Dr. Jordan B. Petersons personal troubles are celebrated by his detractors. After his daughter, Mikhaila Peterson, opened up about the difficulties her father faced during this past year, a torrent of ill-wishes were released to social media.

A data scientist, engineer and social justice activist had this to say: do I think he deserves sympathy despite him not extending it to others? Also no.

Do I think Jordan Peterson deserves a pass on his bigotry because he's suffering? No.

But do I think he deserves dignity despite his situation being a product of views that he profits from? No.

But do I think he deserves sympathy despite him not extending it to others? Also no. Pronoun Enforcer (@EmilyGorcenski) February 8, 2020

Petersons legacy is evident in just how many people have been helped by his work. His message is simple, to take charge of yourself and your life, to avoid being controlled by aimless desire, and if you dont know where to start, begin by cleaning your room.

A professor of law and medicine at the University of Ottawa also prefers to show no sympathy. Heres hoping he doesnt teach ethics.

#KARMAJordan Peterson, oracle to gullible young men, preacher of macho toughness, and hectoring bully to snowflakes, is addicted to strong drugs and his brain riddled with neurological damage.

He deserves as much sympathy as he showed others. https://t.co/a0lHWZlqrX Amir Attaran (@profamirattaran) February 8, 2020

Petersons message is one that so many who hear it can relate to, and hes travelled the world speaking to sold-out audiences. His views are rooted in western ideas, stem from our most ancient myths and legends, and embrace the Christian hero story of self-sacrifice as the ultimate strength.

A writer for the Toronto Guardian had this to say.

But wait a second, I thought an all meat diet and toxic masculinity was the key to a happy life

This man is a complete fraud. While I wish no ill will on anyone, Jordan Peterson will always be an idiot's genius. #cdnmedia https://t.co/RW13WxCYpj Neil Before Zod (@WaytowichNeil) February 8, 2020

Some guy with the Twitter username im nice who fancies himself a comedian had this to say:

jordan petersons method for living the perfect life works great unless anything bad ever happens to you at which point you develop the worst benzo habit of all time and end up being kidnapped by your daughter and experimented on in a russian prison im nice (@Lowenaffchen) February 8, 2020

Peterson has been vilified by detractors in media and the public at large about as much as he has been praised. The reasons behind this are that people dont like to hear that relativism is not the best way to live life. People who are mired in our contemporary driving philosophy of meaninglessness, that no one way to live is better than any other, that no one choice is a better or worse choice than another, dont want to listen to someone who says that the hard work of life is worth doing.

I'd like to come out as a big fan of @jordanbpeterson. Not only has he helped and inspired countless young men, but he inspired me to start writing after an 11-year hiatus. He re-tweeted and shared my articles on social media and even sent me an email of support. I owe him a lot. https://t.co/7PlR8E6C62 Kathrine Jebsen Moore (@JebsenMoore) February 9, 2020

Yet a podcaster, community organizer, and author from Quebec City wishes eternal damnation on Jordan Peterson.

I hope for years of hell in perpetua for Jordan Peterson. Nora Loreto (@NoLore) February 8, 2020

Peterson says that the idea that we should accept ourselves as we are is misguided, because at our core, were all probably monsters. He brings up the genocides and massacres of the 20th century as proof, invoking the memoirs of concentration camp guards to show that any of us are capable of the most horrific of human actions. None of us are safe from our own worst, or best, impulses. He holds us all accountable to ourselves, to each other, and to the people we love. He speaks about marriage as a relationship that must be nurtured and tended, not abandoned. Peterson recommends that you dont let your kids turn into unlikeable children.

Not everyone wished him harm, and some pushed back.

Through podcasts, books, speaking engagements, interviews, and YouTube videos, he talks about how essential it is that we each take on our own heros journey. He brings up the legend of King Arthurs knights, recommending that we must seek our journey in the dark placemeaning we must face our fears, not so that we can overcome them, but so that we can know that we are afraid and act bravely in the face of those fears. One very real place where this approach can be made is in the face of addiction. There is perhaps nothing more difficult than kicking an addiction that has you in its teeth.

You are shockingly petty and pathetic. Gloating over a man's struggle to overcome physical dependency to medication that was prescribed to him to cope with his wife's terminal cancer diagnosis is absolutely disgraceful. https://t.co/3HICCozHRi

On addiction and physical dependence, Peterson can speak from experience. That he has this understanding makes his message that much stronger. How trite it is to hear from a teetotaller who has never touched a drop that we should give up the hard stuff. Where it has more power is coming from someone who has been there before us, whether theyve beaten the addiction or not.

Those who criticise Peterson the most, have always been those who need his advice the most

It's easy to throw stones.

It's easy to nitpick.

It's easy to kick a man when he is down.

Cowards.

It's hard to have a positive impact on millions of people.

Be good buckos ZUBY: (@ZubyMusic) February 8, 2020

The calls for Petersons head on a spike came from the contemporary left, which is a movement that mirrors the heavy-handed vitriol that we used to see with the late 20th century right. This moralistic grandstanding on a foundation based entirely on narcissistic pleasure principles is eating itself. An ideology that purports to care for others only cares for those who adhere to the ideology. There is a growing intolerance for disagreement.

When I read some of the responses to Jordan Petersons illness, Im reminded why the Left has become so commonly associated with a lack of compassion, tolerance and basic human empathy.

We on the Left need to get our own house in order. These people are seriously fucking it up. pic.twitter.com/VRprW729G5

Petersons struggle to overcome benzodiazepines is so incredibly humanizing and real. It shows us that, in many ways, he is right. We are all capable of losing control, even those among us who are so great at guiding us how not to. Petersons all too human struggle can give the rest of us strength to know that we are not alone in ours. The identitarian, intolerant left could do well to face its demons, just as Peterson is facing his.

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EXCLUSIVE: Update on the health of Dr. Jordan B. Peterson - The Post Millennial

ALEC is helping America and its legislators – Great Bend Tribune

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The beginning of the year brought with it a new decade, one we all hope will be filled with opportunity and success for us all. Contrary to what some of the folks currently out on the hustings say, government cannot guarantee those outcomes, but it can do a lot to make sure the table is set properly so that we, the American people, can achieve them.

Defining decisions will be made in the coming months - not just in Washington, but in state capitals from coast to coast. In many places, state legislators are already hard at work developing and enacting policies that will guide the future of our country. They will put things in motion that will hopefully lift the living standards and opportunities available to our children and our childrens children. Thats what they do. Its why many of them sought an elective office in the first place.

This imperative was clearly visible at our most recent national meeting and the various learning engagements weve conducted throughout the country over the last year. Reflecting on whats been accomplished in just the last year - criminal justice reform, changes to tax policy that benefits families and workers and has helped spark an amazing period of job creation, and education reforms that continue to emphasize quality, excellence, and the interests of parents and children over the priorities of a bureaucratic model created in the 19th century - demonstrate that what American Legislative Exchange Council, (ALEC) members are doing in the states is working.

Tracing back where these policy successes began, one need look no further than the ALEC model policy on each of these issues as they were used as an impetus towards positive change and reform. The US/Mexico/Canada Free Trade agreement that replaced NAFTA, the pension overhaul and recent data privacy legislation only scratch the surface of things that began as state efforts led by the free-market movement.

Another critical success, the FIRST STEP Act, which began in the states, continues to gather momentum in the fight to ensure criminal justice reform continues and that those who commit minor and victimless crimes receive appropriate, fair punishment rather than some draconian sentence out of a French novel. The next phase of this battle is sure to be exciting because of the lives that may be improved as a result.

At the ALEC Annual Meeting and States & Nation Policy Summit, thousands of state legislators, local government leaders, and stakeholders gathered to share valuable information and insight as to how to solve todays policy challenges. ALEC held 30 Academies and issue briefings last year, which provide state legislators continuing education and a leg up in the world of policy making. ALEC taught legislators about wind farms, natural gas facilities, nuclear power plants, and much more.

Were proud of our record as we are proud of our new program for experiential learning, now offered at every ALEC event to promote continuing legislator education. At the Annual Meeting, dozens of ALEC legislators toured the Community First Tiny Home Village in Austin, Texas, and learned how to fight homelessness in their states. And every legislator walked away learning how homelessness can be addressed without a bloated and ineffective government program.

Our shared commitment to individual liberty and free enterprise will always take this country forward to prosperity. Those who offer a vision of the future based on collectivism and even greater government control of our lives, our communities and our families are made uneasy by our success. They slapped a target on our back that we wear with pride as a testament to our continuing success.

Its been difficult, but we will continue to forge ahead. Economic liberty, equal justice under law, job creation, education reform and the other issues on which we focus demand it. Brighter days are ahead for America because of the committed state legislators who stand up for these policies and the values inherent in them against who would just as soon shut down the debate because they know they cant win the argument.

Our role as a convener of idea summits and as a source of energy in the policymaking arena provides both hope and a reason to make 2020 an even more innovative, solutions-based and successful year.

Nelson is the chief executive office of the American Legislative Exchange Council, an organization bringing state legislators and stakeholders together to develop public policy beneficial to the free market and individual liberty.

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ALEC is helping America and its legislators - Great Bend Tribune

Keir Starmers past is coming under scrutiny. What can we learn from it? – The Guardian

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I remember in July 2008 when the news broke of the decision to appoint Keir Starmer as director of public prosecutions (DPP). I was at a meeting of socialist lawyers, people who had spent their lives campaigning for the rights of homeless people and asylum seekers. We couldnt understand why hed taken the role.

On standing for the Labour leadership, Keir Starmer published a video, setting out his record as a barrister who had represented poll tax protesters and striking miners. I dont think anyone, a voiceover says, really expected someone who dedicated his career to defending workers, trade unions and trade unions to become director of public prosecutions. They were right about that.

As a barrister, Starmer was a principled opponent of state power. He was one of us. But the DPPs role is all about exercising power: prosecuting defendants so that they are fined or jailed. Starmers time as DPP has played a role in the Labour leadership contest, particularly in blogs and on social media and will be studied even more closely if he wins. What should we make of it?

As DPP, Starmer was the head of the Crown Prosecution Service. This is the body that decides whether or not to prosecute someone accused of a crime. Where the decision is taken to prosecute, it is the CPS that employs a lawyer to argue in court for a conviction. The CPS is a huge organisation, undertaking more than half a million prosecutions a year, and employing almost 6,000 people.

When Starmer called for the prosecution of demonstrators with scarves around their faces, he was playing up to press fantasies about their motives

There were a number of decisions that Starmer got right. He was appointed by Labour but spent half his time in office under the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition. There, he defended the Human Rights Act against Conservative proposals to repeal it. Rightwing MPs briefed against him. Starmer deserves recognition for taking that stand.

There is a second group of decisions taken by the CPS for which Starmer has been criticised, but it is difficult to say whether the criticisms are justified. The most difficult decision was, according to Starmer, in relation to the killing of Ian Tomlinson, the newspaper vendor who was struck by police officer Simon Harwood during protests in 2009.

Although between 30 and 50 people die each year in police custody or following contact with the police, these deaths almost never lead to prosecution. In that context, the left demanded Harwoods prosecution.

Starmer told the press that the CPS wouldnt prosecute. He cited the report of Dr Freddy Patel, the pathologist appointed by the state, who found the death had been caused by natural causes. Although other pathologists disagreed with Patel, the CPS insisted that the fact of his opinion was an insuperable barrier to prosecution. In October 2010, Dr Patel was suspended from practice as a result of allegations concerning the way he undertook autopsies. The CPS again announced that Harwood would not be prosecuted. Only in May 2011, after an inquest jury had found that Tomlinson had been unlawfully killed, did the CPS agree to charge Harwood with manslaughter.

The difficulty in criticising Starmer for his handling of this case or others like it is that we dont know what advice he was given. If senior prosecutors were advising him against proceeding, he cant be faulted for caution. After all, what would be the point of prosecution, if it was highly likely that the officer was going to be acquitted? Which, in 2012, Harwood was.

Where Starmers record may be more vulnerable to criticism is in his handling of the press. One of the DPPs tasks is to issue guidance to prosecutors. The guidance reminds prosecutors of the powers already available to them. Usually, the guidance is not controversial. For example, in November last year, the CPS offered guidance on prosecuting offences under the Theft Act. As far as I can tell, no paper reported on that guidance; its publication was seen as the routine act of a government department.

Starmer has been accused of [drawing] up rules that gave police officers more power. It has also been suggested that as DPP he extended the jail term for benefits crimes. But the CPS does not draw up sentencing guidelines. The DPPs guidance only binds prosecutors: it determines what they ask, not what the court gives them. As for protests, senior police officers, not the DPP, decide how they are policed.

His critics are able to exaggerate his role because of interviews given by Starmer himself in which he presented modest changes to the advice given to prosecutors as matters of real significance and used a tabloid-friendly language to defend them. This was how he justified the guidance on protests: Theres a potential for a number of protests over the coming years that may be quite large If someone has brought along a weapon or means of concealing their identity thats likely to be evidence that they were anticipating trouble or disorder.

In fact, over the past two decades, it has become more common for demonstrators to cover their faces. They do so because of the increasing use of snatch squads, police filming of political protests and scandals such as detention without arrest. When Starmer called for the vigorous pursuit of protesters who have concealed their identity, he was playing up to press fantasies about their motives.

This, meanwhile, is how Starmer explained his guidance to prosecutors in benefits cases: It is a myth that getting one over on the system is a victimless crime: the truth is we all pay the price; and It is vital that we take a tough stance on this type of fraud and I am determined to see a clampdown on those who flout the system.

The largest group of benefits prosecutions concern the minor infractions of people who fail to declare a piece of information. For example, when part-time workers on housing benefit fail to tell the authorities that their hours at work have increased. Starmers words (getting one over on the system) were wide enough so that it seemed he was referring to such groups of claimants. And, in doing so, he evoked tabloid myths about undeserving individuals deliberately and systematically milking the system. To speak of claimants in this way was to denigrate them.

Looking back on Starmers management of the media while DPP, the sense is of an individual with a radical past making peace with power. He was at ease there in a way that Jeremy Corbyn, among others, could never have been.

His supporters will say that Labour needs a leader capable of winning press support. To which his critics will counter that the rightwing press is already ungenerously studying Starmers career. It is a mistake to think that his close proximity to high-profile cases will be anything other than a recurring weak point in relation to the tabloids.

Starmers enthusiasm while DPP for using mundane news events to feed the press with rightwing talking points is a possible concern for Labour members. If such a leader was faced with news of an injustice in the future the consequence of a change to immigration rules, say, or of a strike in public services Starmers approach to the press as DPP might raise worries that he would not give a principled defence of the victims but would tell the press whatever it wanted to hear.

David Renton is a political activist and barrister. His latest book is The New Authoritarians

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Keir Starmers past is coming under scrutiny. What can we learn from it? - The Guardian

Pervert teacher had ‘appalling’ child abuse videos – Kent Online

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A disgraced retired teacher found with dozens of videos showing the worst kind of child abuse has been banned from the internet.

"Lonely old man" Aidan Broderick, 82, from Thanet, was discovered with 42 movies showing children as young as two being attacked.

KentOnline has decided not to detail the content, however, Judge Catherine Brown described the moving images as "appalling".

"These are not victimless crimes, all of these children were abused when these movies were created," she added.

"These were appalling images of young children."

The judge sentenced Broderick to 18-months custody, suspended for two years.

She also made him subject to the Sex Offenders Register for 10 years and a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO).

It means Broderick will be 92 when he is next able to use a device to legally access the web.

Canterbury Crown Court heard police were alerted to Brodericks home in Burlington Place, Cliftonville, following reports of sinister activity on chatroom website ChatStep.

A total of 42 Category A movies and one Category A image surfaced following an interrogation of his computer.

Broderick also possessed 15 Category B and 1 Category C film alongside a Category B image.

Category A is the worst kind.

Specialist police software revealed 58 of the files had previously been deleted.

Prosecutor Ahmed Hossain said: On August 20 2018 police became aware of activity in a chatroom called ChatStep.

They went to his house, made a number of attempts to speak to him at that address but he was not there.

It seems he had broken his neck after a fall on a bus and had become hospitalised for some time.

The barrister added when officers traced the suspect he admitted using ChatStep, and so his computer was seized and analysed.

Mitigating, James Burke argued his client had enrolled on child abuse prevention course Stop It Now and was of previous good character.

It has improved his insight and he has much more of an understanding of the impact the making of indecent images has on children," he said.

"He is a lonely old man who was justifying something to himself - something which cannot be justified."

It wasn't mentioned in court which school Broderick worked in before retirement, however, judge Brown highlighted there had never been reports of improper behaviour during his career.

Asked if he understood the conditions of his sentence Broderick, who carried a case to court, replied: "Yes I do."

Broderick pleaded guilty at a previous pre-trial hearing to three counts of making indecent photos, and two counts of possessing indecent images.

An NSPCC spokesperson said: Many of the videos in Brodericks collection are crime scenes, where children have been subjected to unthinkable exploitation.

This is an industry where children are abused to order, and each time an indecent image is downloaded by an individual like Broderick the demand is only being fuelled.

Law enforcement cannot solve this problem alone. Big tech must also be made to use their expertise and resources to quickly remove this terrible content from their platforms and identify who put it there in the first place.

To read more of our in depth coverage of all of the major trials coming out of crown and magistrates' courts across the county, click here

For information on how we can report on court proceedings, click here

Read more:All the latest news from Thanet

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Pervert teacher had 'appalling' child abuse videos - Kent Online

PARK | Have You Taken the Time to Consider the Libertarian Presidential Candidates? – Cornell University The Cornell Daily Sun

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Are you sick of pondering paper ripping, partisan impeachment proceedings and whether or not Pete Buttigieg actually won Iowa? Are you tired of establishment candidates running the politics of our two party system or longing for dissolution of the entire government? Perhaps youre looking for a pro-immigration candidate who does not koozie up to wine cave owners or a pro-tax cut candidate who does not profess his love for authoritarian leaders. If any of the above describes you, it might be time to take a dip in the Libertarian pool of presidential candidates.

Despite garnering a record 4.5 million votes in the last presidential election, our nations third-largest and fastest-growing political party has been criminally underreported this cycle. Well, no longer. I am here to grant the party of minimum government and maximum freedom its day in The Sun.

While the rest of the nation was busy getting, first ironically, then sincerely addicted to TikTok, the Libertarian Party quietly assembled the most eccentric collection of candidates to vie for our nations highest seat of power in preparation for their national convention in May. They are notably different from the major party candidates; they dont share Bidens baggage, Bernies background or Trumps beautiful bald spot. But I assure you, what the Libertarian candidates may lack in supporters, funding and elected experience, they make up for in fun hats, criminal records and unbridled love for marijuana.

I invite you to explore this lineup of freedom fighters. Sure, they may never win, but neither will 29 of the contestants each season on The Bachelor, and that hasnt stopped us from following them religiously through their doomed attempts to find love on network television. Much like The Bachelor, these candidates share a brazen, unwavering hope to increase their following, win the hearts of America and spend the rest of their lives promoting SugarBearHair Vitamins on Instagram.

Behold my top picks for the nomination:

Adam Kokesh is running for Not-President of the United States and leading the pack in financial contributions at over $200,000. His goal is simple: to peacefully and orderly dissolve the federal government. This anti-war Iraq veteran and activist announced his candidacy back in 2013 from prison during a Fox interview after being arrested for an Open Carry incident. We love us some civil disobedience. Much like the great Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King and Lil Wayne, Adam Kokesh began writing his pice de rsistance, FREEDOM!, in jail. This treatise is a meditation on how governments trample upon liberty and serves as the crux of his platform to burn it all down.

Dan Taxation Is Theft Behrman was so devoted to his cause that he legally changed his name to spread his core belief. I dare you to find a more dedicated candidate. I dont see Donald Build a Wall Trump or Bernie The Top 1% Owns 42% of the Nations Wealth Sanders showing the same level of commitment. His bright yellow Taxation is Theft top hat is arguably more iconic than Trumps MAGA hat.

If you were praying for female redemption after the last election, but could not possibly get over Klobuchars salad-eating habits or Warrens Native American claims, fear not; Jo Jorgensen may be the candidate for you. This Clemson University psychology professor was the former Libertarian Party Vice-Presidential nominee and believes that generations of Republican and Democrat politicians have failed the American people. She supports immigration, environmental reform and decriminalizing non-violent victimless crimes. And given that she is a well-spoken, well-educated and well-qualified woman, she is, naturally, well-suited to be passed over for one of her male counterparts.

Arvin Vohra announced his bid for president the same day he was ousted as the vice-chair of the Libertarian Party for being too radical. How, you may ask, could you be too radical for a government party that does not believe in government? Well this anarcho-capitalist has joked about school shootings, called veterans hired killers, and expressed that welfare recipients should not be allowed to vote. Outside of the party, he teaches SAT prep to students, which is concerning considering he does not believe in a government age of consent.

Former Republican senator, Independent governor, and Democratic presidential nominee Lincoln Chafee is certainly the most politically experienced candidate in the pool. He may change parties like Martha Pollack changes snow day status, but he boasts a thirty-year public service career with zero scandals and promises to protect our freedoms and always tell the truth.

Vermin Supreme is a perennial candidate and my personal favorite. Back when Biden voted for the Iraq War, Supreme advocated for free ponies for all Americans. And this key tenant of his platform has remained constant throughout his five bids for president. This self-described Tyrant You Can Trust promises mandatory tooth brushing, funcentration camps on the border and zombie apocalypse awareness. Supreme championed the New Hampshire Libertarian primary in his famous boot hat. But his magic may best be distilled by one of his lines in the South Carolina debates: I smoke dope. I smoke grass. If you dont like it, you can kiss my ass.

For many of these candidates, their campaigns play out like performance art, but each of these players seem acutely aware of their own absurdity. Because to do the nearly-impossible task of creating change as a third party candidate in a two party system requires unwavering resolve and radical unselfconsciousness. Whether it be through a boot hat, name change or promise to tear down the system, what is self evident is that the Libertarian candidates will stop at no length to be heard.

Sarah Park is a senior in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations. She can be reached at sarahpark@cornellsun.com.Spark Notesruns every other Monday this semester.

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PARK | Have You Taken the Time to Consider the Libertarian Presidential Candidates? - Cornell University The Cornell Daily Sun

Looking the other way is not an option – Thegardenisland.com

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Drinking from a fire hose, blind-folded with both arms tied behind your back. This is a description that comes to mind when folks ask me to describe what its like working in the legislative arena as an advocate.

The need for citizen advocacy is great. The urgency of the moment for our community, and for the planet is palpable.

The task is daunting at best and I applaud the many across all islands who take the time to enter this arena daily during the annual legislative session (mid January to the first week in May), and through-out the year at the local and national level.

I have been blessed really. Representing Kauai in the Hawaii State Senate for 8 years (4 as Majority Leader), was an invaluable and incredibly fulfilling experience. Serving on the Kauai County Council for 8 years, likewise provided me with an opportunity to make a difference, and a comprehensive education as to the workings (or not) of local government. The time I spent working with Governor Abercrombie as Director of Environmental Quality Control (OEQC) gave me additional experience from an administrative perspective. For all three opportunities, I am deeply grateful and the experience gained was both valuable and incredibly fulfilling.

Having spent nearly 20 years working on the inside, I now spend my hours on the outside, working with grassroots advocacy groups and individuals. Today, while also doing occasional consulting work, my life is mostly spent sharing my experience as a volunteer advocate, helping to train and support other policy advocates.

In the legislative world, most will have a subject matter focus and the people and organizations with whom I work primarily focus on issues pertaining to environmental, economic and social justice.

A healthy democracy requires an informed and engaged citizenry. Unfortunately, our democracy on both the local, state and national level is not healthy.

For evidence of our democracy in decay, one need only look at the enormous gap between the ultra rich and the vast majority of people who slave away at multiple jobs earning just barely enough to get by.

If more evidence is needed, take a walk in the mountains or along the coast. There you will see our dead and dying streams, and our shorelines littered with plastics.

Anyone still not convinced of the decline should look into our criminal justice (or rather injustice) system half the people in jail today are poor people awaiting trial because they cannot afford bail. Many of our incarcerated are there as a result of victimless crimes such as drug addiction, mental illness, homelessness (yes, in much of Hawaii being homeless is a crime). Rich people and corporations dont go to jail, they simply pay their fines and hire expensive lawyers.

The answer of course and the solution to this madness, is that citizens must take responsibility and ownership of our policy, our politics and ultimately our government. Abandoning the control and decision-making to those who are elected, without our active involvement as citizens, is an abdication of our personal responsibility as human beings.

We are responsible for the condition of the world and we cannot simply blame the politicians.

Yes, we are busy. But too bad, too sad you will get no sympathy from me. I also am busy and have children and grandchildren and bills to pay and a yard to mow, and plenty of stuff to do other than send in testimony, follow the process or meet with my elected representative

The world is literally burning. Every year there are less fish in the ocean. Instances of various illness attributed to environmental causes (cancer, autism etc) are growing at alarming levels, and our friends and neighbors are increasingly living under blue tarps, sleeping on pallets and under bridges. There but for the grace of God go each of us.

People slave away at starvation wages as a result of a conscious public policy decision to keep our minimum wage below that which is needed for a human to survive. Our own government has determined that $17 per hour is a substance wage for a single person working 40 hours a week. Our State legislature has decided that $10.10 per hour is sufficient. While legislators themselves will be getting their raises they continue to refuse to increase that of those at the very bottom of the economic ladder. Let them eat cake is the message sent.

The affordable housing public policy solutions (bills) being presented now at the legislature are essentially a collection of giveaways to developers and landowners.

The solutions being offered are developer incentives that reduce environmental protections, make development permits automatic and increase the urbanization of agricultural lands. In return for these government concessions (read public giveaways), the developers must promise that at least 50% of the homes they build will be sold for approximately $800,000 or less, targeting people who earn 140% of the median income in Hawaii. This is what our policy makers consider affordable.

Deliberate public policy decisions are responsible also for stream diversions and the subsequent killing of our mountain streams, caused by large agribusiness and others. Rather than pass and enforce public policy that says sufficient water must remain in the stream to keep it alive and allow downstream users to also use the water public policy makers too often yield to big money and big landowners who simply want to bank as much water as they can for as long as they can.

The present challenges facing our local, state and national community are the result of conscious public policy decisions made by policy makers over time. As citizens, we have the power and the responsibility to effect those policy changes to the benefit of people and the planet. We can collectively change things for the better, if we collectively take our responsibility seriously and invest the time and energy needed.

Voting is important but it is not enough. Full participation in our government requires becoming educated on the issues and the process, offering testimony via email or in person, and speaking out in public forums. It also requires people to put their names forward to serve on boards and commissions, to run for election to public office, and to help others campaign and win election.

I encourage all to think about the options, and to take action.

Every time we turn our heads the other way when we see the law flouted, when we tolerate what we know to be wrong, when we close our eyes and ears to the corrupt because we are too busy or too frightened, when we fail to speak up and speak out, we strike a blow against freedom, decency and justice. Robert F. Kennedy

Gary Hooser formerly served in the Hawaii State Senate, where he was Majority Leader. He also served for eight years on the Kauai County Council and was the former director of the state Office of Environmental Quality Control. He serves presently in a volunteer capacity as board president of the Hawaii Alliance for Progressive Action (HAPA) and is executive director of the Pono Hawaii Initiative.

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Looking the other way is not an option - Thegardenisland.com

Democrats Attack AG Barr: Is This About Roger Stone or 2016? – Liberty Nation

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The recent attacks by Democrats on Attorney General William Barr have been portrayed as a reaction to the Justice Departments (DOJ) decision to intervene in the prosecution of Trump associate Roger Stone. That is not the whole story, though. Remarks by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) may have exposed her partys real agenda: to interfere with and even halt the ongoing DOJ investigation into the genesis of the Trump-Russia collusion hoax.

Roger Stone

The four attorneys handling the prosecution of Stone signed off on a sentencing memo, which recommended the 67-year-old receive a prison term of between seven and nine years. To put that in perspective, child molesters, rapists, and repeat-offender drunk drivers responsible for fatal road accidents have served less jail time. Stone, who has no previous criminal record, was convicted of lying to Congress, witness tampering, and obstructing the House investigation into the Russia affair.

These are all victimless crimes that, one could argue, shouldnt be considered crimes because Stone himself was unwittingly swept up in a bogus, politically motivated investigation based almost entirely on uncorroborated claims, media reports, and hearsay.

Media coverage of the DOJs intervention in the case has painted the entire affair as far more dramatic than it is. The Department considered the recommendation of seven to nine years to be excessive, and so it stepped in and recommended a lesser sentence.

If media reports are to be taken at face value, though, the DOJ only intervened because President Trump tweeted criticism of the proposed sentence for Stone. Additionally, the Justice Department doing the presidents bidding has overruled both the prosecutors and the judge handling the case. Of course, neither is true.

The Departments objection to the proposed sentence was filed before the presidents tweet, according to officials. Furthermore, the revised recommendation is just that: It does not command the judge to impose a lighter sentence. As Liberty Nation Legal Affairs Editor Scott D. Cosenza, Esq. explains:

[Stone] will be sentenced by Judge Amy Berman Jackson not by the Justice Department or anyone else. You could be forgiven for thinking somehow that the DOJ was the sentencing body given how the story has been reported. The DOJ often recommends sentences to judges, but it has no legal basis for doing anything other than recommending. Judges impose sentences.

Elizabeth Warren

Speaking to CNNs Anderson Cooper, Sen. Warren called for Barrs resignation and suggested that if he would not step down, House Democrats could impeach him. The senator went a step further, though, by suggesting that the House might push to defund Department of Justice investigations: And the United States Congress right now should put a writer on an upcoming bill to say, Hey, no funding of any investigations that Barr meddles into, Warren told Cooper.

Strange indeed to claim the United States attorney general is meddling by doing the very thing he was appointed to do, but has Warren let the cat out of the bag? Democrats appear very nervous about what John Durham, the federal prosecutor appointed by Barr to investigate the origins of the Russian conspiracy theory, may uncover. Their aim, therefore, may be to discredit the A.G. and, by extension, the Durham investigation. Shutting it down altogether would likely be their ideal scenario.

Additionally, the presidents political enemies have shown themselves to be determined to pursue multiple investigations into every aspect of his conduct and even his business dealings prior to taking office. They are attempting to prevent the DOJ from taking any steps to reign in their excesses, and taking out Barr, they seem to feel, is essential to that end.

What Warren is suggesting the defunding of DOJ investigations would be the clearest example of something the Democrats themselves have been crowing about for quite some time: obstruction of justice. There is no word on how long Durham will take to conclude his investigation. Warren along with her Democrat colleagues appears to be acting to prevent its conclusion. Should Republicans retake the House in November, they could, perhaps, think about doing some impeaching of their own.

~

Read more from Graham J. Noble.

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Democrats Attack AG Barr: Is This About Roger Stone or 2016? - Liberty Nation

Black College Swimmer Has Life Threatned, Gun Pointed At Forehead By Police – The Shadow League

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Jaylan Butler said officers threatened to blow his head off before it became clear that they mistook him for a suspect.

Watching all of these white Presidential candidates discuss Black issues, with no Black people able to offer some real perspective these privileged and delusional candidates is frustrating. The nightmarish and traumatic events that white law enforcement inflicts on young Black men further reinforces the dire need for people of color to be involved in the national conversation.

Jaylan Butler, a Black student at Eastern Illinois University returning from an out-of-state tournament with his teammates and coaches said several police officers handcuffed him, pointed a gun at his head and threatened to blow his head off. They were allegedly searching for a wanted suspect.

Sounds familiar right? Black men have long been killed, incarcerated beaten and abused based on mistaken identity.

Butler, 20, is a sophomore swimmer at the school and filed a lawsuit in January in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois for unlawful search and seizure, false arrest and excessive force.

Via nbcnews.com:

Butler said he was traveling on a bus with his team last February when it pulled over shortly after 8 p.m., near a rest stop in East Moline, Illinois, so the players could stretch their legs.

Butler got off the bus and took a selfie in front of a sign on the road and was shredded back to the bus when several officers pulled up.

The officers approached with guns drawn according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, which is representing Butler in his lawsuit.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker called on Friday for a thorough and transparent investigation into Butlers arrest.

Im deeply troubled by what Ive read about how Jaylan Butler, an African-American athlete at EIU, was mistreated by law enforcement in East Moline, he said in a Facebook post. Its unacceptable for any young person to feel unsafe and disrespected anywhere in this state but every day, too many young people of color live through it.

Its an admirable response, but weve heard it all before as we wept over funeral caskets or protested for wrongly convicted young men of color to be liberated from the chains of systemic government oppression.

According to the lawsuit, the officers shouted at Butler to put his hands up and get down. He complied. The suit then states that several officers forced the scared young student to the snowy ground as he was handcuffed, with one putting his knee on the students back and another pressing on his neck.

One of the officers squatted down in front of him put a gun to his forehead and said, Im going to blow your fucken head off, the suit says.

At first, Butler told NBC News that he thought everything was a big misunderstanding and tried to stay chill throughout the traumatizing ordeal.

After his life was threatened, he says his thought process shifted.

I felt numb. I didnt really know what to expect, he explained.

Even after members of the swim team got off the bus and explained to police officers that Butler was not their perp, they obnoxiously and racistly still put him in the back of the police car.

They wouldnt let a little misunderstanding stop the initiation of the Black criminal Butler saw the gun, had his life threatened, felt the cuffs. All that was left to complete the indoctrination process was to put him into the back of a cop car.

Eventually, Butler got his ID from the bus, showed the officers and they let him go.

According to the lawsuit, Butler was never told why he was detained and arrested. It also alleges that officers never documented the stop that night.

The East Moline police chief, Jeff Ramsey, told NBC that none of the officers named in the suit East Moline officer Travis Staes, Hampton officer Ethan Bush, and Rock Island sheriffs deputies Jack Asquini and Jason Pena were disciplined.

Of course, the story doesnt end there for Butler, who is currently undergoing therapy for the trauma and hes seeking unspecified damages.

Evan Sholudko, head swim coach for Eastern Illinois University, said the team is supportive. But Butler should have a huge support system, bringing light to this situation, helping him get through this devastating dagger to his pride, mind, and belief in the law enforcement community.

These blatant deadly and racist attacks on innocent Black men by police officers is still a problem, four years after Colin Kaepernick sacrificed his NFL career to bring global attention to these atrocities.,

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Black College Swimmer Has Life Threatned, Gun Pointed At Forehead By Police - The Shadow League

New Film Showcases How the Rainbow Coalition’s Struggle for Justice Lives On – Truthout

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One of Black Panther leader Fred Hamptons most famous quotes is: You can kill a revolutionary, but you cant kill the revolution. Unfortunately, as the new documentary The First Rainbow Coalition demonstrates, the movement can be set back decades when a revolutionary of Hamptons magnitude is killed. That struggle will continue for as long as people are subjected to racial discrimination, eco-apartheid, oppressive policing, displacement, a lack of affordable housing, jobs, health care, and other basic needs resulting from inequitable laws and government policies.

This great film shows how the shared experience of oppression and resistance led to the Black Panther Party, the Young Lords and the Young Patriots Organization forming an unlikely coalition. Young Lords leader Jos Cha-Cha Jimnez provides insightful commentary throughout the film, alongside other still-living members of the Rainbow Coalition who were interviewed by director Ray Santisteban. While the coalition first connected around policing issues, the Chicago Police Department (CPD) was not their only shared adversary; they took on the entire political establishment because they recognized their struggles as systemic. As Hampton said in a clip from The Murder of Fred Hampton that was included in the documentary, Were not a racist organization because we understand that racism is an excuse used for capitalism. Its a byproduct of capitalism.

Socialism was a driving force behind the original Rainbow Coalition. As former Black Panther Ericka Huggins states in the film,

Never miss the news and analysis you care about.

Class consciousness cuts across all kinds of strata. For poor Black people to be working with poor white people was unheard of [but] the motto of the Black Panther Party was all power to all the people. Not all power to some of the people.

Accordingly, socialist analysis heavily influenced the Black Panthers survival programs, which they introduced to the coalition. These revolutionary forms of mutual aid included the breakfast for children program, medical clinics, legal aid, transportation services, political education classes and more. The programs were all free, and the coalition made sure to let the people know that in a just world, they would be provided by city, state and federal governments. The coalition set out not only to meet the needs of the people, but to educate them about how the system of capitalism depends on poverty and produces precarity, and ultimately to empower them to work toward the liberation of all people.

However, the groups increasingly political messaging led to intensified repression from the CPD, States Attorney Edward Hanrahan and even the FBI. As Jimnez states,

The police were harder on us when we were political than when we were in a gang. If we were in a gang, we would get picked up on Friday, released Monday. When we were political, they were talking about life in jail.

City officials and the CPD constantly portrayed the group as violent criminals to justify their illegal and unconstitutional arrests and brutality. As former Young Patriot Bobby McGinnis says in the film,

Police [were] everywhere, aggravating everybody. And just any reason to get us in that police station. And they had a bench with the handcuff on the side so they can cuff you and beat the shit out of you with a phonebook or whatever they wanted to hit you with, as long as they didnt leave any marks.

Though the Rainbow Coalition did not advocate violence, they did promote self-defense, which is a constitutional right of all Americans. This was a necessary survival tactic given the level of harassment that the groups faced, even in their community service efforts. One powerful shot from the film shows the aftermath of a police raid on the location of the free breakfast program, which CPD officers completely destroyed, needlessly trashing food meant for impoverished children.

Even though the promotion of self-defense was completely justified and deeply political, it made the Black Panthers and Young Lords an easy target for racist white Chicagoans. As former Chicago Tribune reporter Carolyn Toll Oppenheim states,

It appeared to me they wanted the white community to think that they could be violent if they had to on behalf of their people, so dont mess with our people. They were meant to scare the police, but it was turned against them. It played right into the hands of [Chicago mayor Richard] Daley to say, You see how violent these people are?

This racist and political repression eventually culminated in the assassination of Fred Hampton on December 4, 1969.

Despite the fact that a Chicago police officer murdered a 21-year-old community activist in his sleep after he was drugged by an FBI informant no government official was ever held responsible. The 4 am raid on the Panthers apartment in which the states attorneys police fired over 100 bullets to the Panthers one (fired by Mark Clark as he fell to the floor after being shot and killed) was followed up with criminal charges against the injured Panthers who managed to survive. Those charges were later dropped, and the Clark and Hampton families were able to secure a substantial civil settlement after a 13-year-long legal battle in which the city, police and FBI attempted to cover up their responsibility for the deaths.

Despite this blatant murder and cover-up, today the Chicago police and political establishment still portray Hampton as a thug who deserved to be killed. As Journalist Edward P. Morgan writes,

Stripped of their experimental context in violent inner-city America in the mid-to-late 1960s, and detached from their political analysis of economic and racial exploitation, the Panthers are easy targets for the ongoing effort by the powerful to restore the hegemony threatened in the 1960s era. Within the mass media culture, state repression pays off twice. It adds to the likely visibility of militancy and violence, widely viewed as alienating by mass audiences, while it runs these radical fringe elements into the ground.

That is why documentaries like The First Rainbow Coalition are so essential. In this moment of environmental, political and economic crisis, we must continue their struggle.

A few days after the films release on PBS, the University of Illinois at Chicagos Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy released a report about how racial inequality has contributed to Chicagos Black population loss. Professor Barbara Ransbys essential contribution to the report demonstrates that while poor Chicagoans still face the same troubles with police, housing, health, schools and jobs, the community-building spirit of Hampton lives on in the people who have fought this inequality and injustice. Ransby writes, In Chicago, the cost of housing has skyrocketed, schools and services feel out of reach or only for the few, and surveillance and police violence make some neighborhoods feel under siege even as street level violence, fueled by economic factors, continues to destabilize where poor and working-class Black people live. Yet, people have not only fled the growing inequality and injustice in the city, but have confronted and resisted it.

Similarly, in The First Rainbow Coalition, former Black Panther Lynn French describes how the coalitions struggles still resonate today,

We want[ed] true education, decent housing. We want[ed] people to have fair trials with a jury of their peers. We want[ed] an end to police brutality. Pretty much the same things that ring true now, unfortunately.

In 2020, grassroots community organizers and activists resisting oppression in Chicago and across the country are continuing the legacy of the Rainbow Coalition, described by historian Johanna Fernandez in the film as, [giving] voice to the voiceless, and demonstrat[ing] that ordinary people can change society through collective action. Progressive organizations and lawmakers today fighting for policies like decarceration, decriminalization, ending cash bail, rent control, single-payer health care, universal daycare and school meals, and government investment in social housing, public schools, public utilities, jobs programs, reparations, decarbonization, and other climate emergency efforts are continuing the struggle of Hampton and the Rainbow Coalition. People promoting anti-capitalism and international anti-imperialist solidarity are continuing the anti-colonial efforts of the Young Lords and the Black Panthers.

The crises that face humanity share the same fundamental causes, rooted in a global system of racial capitalism that puts profit over people and the future of the Earth. It will take a mass movement to build the political will necessary to implement these policies, but the Rainbow Coalition provides one of the best examples of how to build that movement. More people are always needed to do the work, so as Hampton said, Why dont you live for the people? Why dont you struggle for the people? Why dont you die for the people?

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Repression can’t stop people from demanding Khaleda’s rele… – United News of Bangladesh

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Claiming that police obstructed BNPs procession and arrested their activists and leaders, partys Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Saturday said the government cannot stop people from demanding Khaleda Zias release through its repressive acts.

He came up with the remarks while addressing a rally in front of BNPs Nayapaltan central office demanding its Chairperson Khaleda Zias release from jail.

The government thinks it can obstruct the movement seeking Khaleda Zias release by oppression but they [govt] have forgotten that one cannot ones stay in power through such oppression. The just demand of people can never be put down by oppression, he said.

Terming the current government illegal, he said they have forcefully captured power and ruling without peoples mandate. The government resorted to repression and torture to establish one-party rule. Today, people have no confidence in this government, he claimed.

The BNP leader also claimed that 25 lakh activists and leaders of the party have been put behind bars.

Fakhrul said they appealed to the government for Khaleda Zias proper treatment and release since she is extremely sick.

Khaleda has been in jail since she was convicted in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case on February 8, 2018. She was found guilty in another corruption case later the same year, though her party claims both cases are politically motivated.

The BNP chief has been receiving treatment at BSMMU since April 1 last year.

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Repression can't stop people from demanding Khaleda's rele... - United News of Bangladesh

Sudan’s government, rebel groups agree for al-Bashir to appear before the ICC – Ventures Africa

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The Sudanese government and rebel groups in Darfur agreed on Tuesday that all those wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) should appear before the tribunal. In June 2019, the ICC retained the five suspects Ahmed Haroun, Ali Kushayb, Omar al-Bashir, Abdallah Banda and Abdel Rahim Mohammed Hussein on their list for crimes against humanity.

Although Faisal Saleh, the countrys Information Minister who announced the decision, did not explicitly name al-Bashir, he stated that the decision applied to all five Sudanese suspects wanted by the ICC over Darfur war crimes.

Also commenting on the decision was the chief negotiator of the Darfur people in Juba, Nimri Mohamed Abd, who said that Darfur groups and Sudans government had agreed to fully cooperate with the International Criminal Court, and that the timing of the handover would be decided in final negotiations.

A statement by one of the members of Sudans sovereign council, Mohamed al-Hassan al-Taishi, states that the government and the rebel groups reached an agreement during a meeting in South Sudans capital Juba that included the appearance of those who face arrest warrants before the International Criminal Court. He added that two sides agreed to create a Darfur special court to investigate and hear cases including those investigated by the ICC.

The alliance between the transitional government and the rebel groups indicates their interest in Sudans common good. This move could also signal warnings to other African leaders that no crime against humanity would be overlooked by international communities.

The Darfur conflict was a guerrilla war that took place in the Darfur region of Sudan from 2003 to 2010 to challenge the governments racism against black Sudanese. During the conflict government forces and a militia group known as the Janjaweed militia attacked black Sudanese in the region. This made the Sudan Liberation Army and the Justice and Equality Movement carry an attack on the Sudanese government in response to the perceived oppression of black Sudanese by the majority Arab government. These actions have been described as genocide by a number of governments and human rights groups. However, Omar al-Bashir, Sudans president at the time, denied that his government had links to Janjaweed.

Last year, Sudans transitional government and a rebel group signed a preliminary peace deal, paving the way for eventual reconciliation. General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the deputy chief of Sudans Sovereign Council and Malik Agar, head of one of the two factions of Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) signed the truce. SPLM-N has been fighting the government in the Blue Nile and South Kordofan regions.

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Sudan's government, rebel groups agree for al-Bashir to appear before the ICC - Ventures Africa

A harrowing reality of son preference – newagebd.net

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A WOMAN killing her newborn girl shows the harrowing reality of gender inequality. In the face of unbearable torture and abuse from her husband and in-laws for giving birth to a girl three consecutive times, a woman in Rangpur on Saturday killed her 53-day-old daughter by drowning her in a water drum and landed in police custody. The incident made visible the preference for male child and unjust blame that women carry for carrying a girl child in patriarchal families. There are reported instances in which men have killed their wife or the girl for the same reason. In July 2017, a man in Narayanganj burnt his nine-month-old daughter alive as he wanted a son and was enraged at the birth of a girl. In 2019, a Dhaka University population science department study showed, while 60 per cent of married women wanted healthy child irrespective of gender, 28 per cent married women preferred a male child. A son preference may not be as prevalent as it is in other neighbouring countries, but it is still a reality that warrants government attention.

Rights activists and feminist scholars have seen son preference as a clear affirmation of the fact that gender determines womens economic worth or political significance in society. Men are seen as the provider of a household and protector of family inheritance. This patriarchal assumption that women are economically burdensome provides men with ideological ammunition to devalue girl child and blame women for carrying a girl child. Such scholarly pursuits are not empirically unfounded as women are still not granted equal share of inheritance. Marriage registration, rights to resources and property, guardianship and adoption are defined under separate family laws followed by separate religious communities. For example, Muslim women are entitled to inheritance although not as equally as their male counterparts are while Hindu women do not have any right to inheritance. As a signatory to the UNs Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women, Bangladesh is bound to put the provisions into practice. But successive governments have maintained reservations about two CEDAW articles. The unequal laws create grounds for son preference and different forms of domestic violence. Without addressing the structural inequality that women face in society, it will not, therefore, be possible to end son preference.

It will be mistaken to consider the death of the child outside the larger structure of oppression against women. For any real chance at justice for the child in question, the government must attend to the legal and policy level inequality that views women as economically burdensome. In doing so, it must amend the inheritance law granting women equal access, abolish unequal wage for women in the informal sector and withdraw its reservations about the CEDAW articles to establish gender equality.

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Why the Peace Movement Must Be Intersectional – IDN InDepthNews | Analysis That Matters

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Viewpoint by Tim Gee*

LONDON (IDN) In 2011, after a racial slur was used on a women's rights march, writer Flavia Dzodan wrote a blog called, 'My feminism will be intersectional or it will be bullshit'. The framing was picked up by others, adapting the title to environmentalism and to activism more broadly but it was far less talked about in the peace movement.

Peace campaigners have long pointed out the connections between struggles for peace and for equality in its various forms. Yet the very reason that so much has needed to be written on these themes is that the transition to becoming a fully equal, anti-sexist, anti-racist peace movement has very often been resisted.

So, I want to argue that the stated aim of non-violent action should be the liberation from all kinds of oppression, which in the process will help end war, and for that matter climate change too. The word 'pacifism' was adopted by peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress in Glasgow in 1901, to describe the practice of actively creating the conditions for peace, as an alternative to 'anti-war-ism'. Very quickly though and in particular through the course of the First World War it became a word principally used to describe what a person was against.

The term 'intersectional' was coined by academic and civil rights advocate Kimberl Crenshaw in 1989 as a means for understanding how different forms of injustice and oppression compound one another. The 'intersection' is the crossroads where traffic representing racism, sexism, classism, ageism, disablism, homophobia or transphobia converges, leading to the risk of harm being done to any person at the intersection.

For proponents of peace, the frame applies to the outbreak of armed conflict, where the effects of such injustices come together. I make no claim to know whether the capacity for violence is part of human nature or not. I do say with confidence, though, that structural violence is the product of systems made by humans, which can be remade by humans into something better.

The pathway to ideas that link masculinity to violence starts early. If you grew up male, the chances are that someone at some stage gave you a toy soldier or a gun to play. This often forms part of a sub-conscious strategy of preparing boys to fight.

To some extent the strategy works: most of the world's soldiers are non-trans, straight, men. It's also likely that it has side effects: the vast majority of terrorist attacks are by men. Most knife crime is by men. Most domestic abuse is perpetrated by men. Most of the politicians who send people to wars are men.

Racism is another violent mindset, often closely intertwined with xenophobia and religious intolerance. Again, it is not inherent or natural to anyone, but instead is learnt and, to some extent, taught. Among those doing the teaching are governments, seeking to persuade their populations that it's okay to kill people born elsewhere.

This has domestic effects too, including street violence and abuse against people perceived to share the nationality, ethnicity or religion of the places with which the government is at war. Thus, Islamophobia has grown in North America and Europe, fuelled by the so-called 'War on Terror' and far-right political forces.

We also need to talk about class, because the people who profit from resources won in war are usually the rich. Meanwhile, it is mainly workers recruited to fight and die in wars for those resources. If they survive, a great number later become homeless or experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Ultimately, war harms everybody; soldiers, casualties, families, civilians, even those not yet born. If we look to those most affected by war, it is often women of colour, especially if they are already experiencing poverty. If people are disabled, LGBTQI+, old or very young, the ability to access support networks that would help them move out of warzones, become even more limited.

In the face of such entrenched injustice, it can be hard to imagine what peace would look like. But if we picture a more equal world, free of racism, toxic masculinity and other discriminatory worldviews, then perhaps we could hold an image maybe a feeling of a peaceful world within reach.

Non-violent revolutionaries often say the means shape the ends. The hierarchy inherent in winning change through war tends to be reflected in post-transitional societies. Social approval for violence as a tool of political change very often then gives legitimacy to those who do not like the actions of the post-liberation governments to pursue their agendas through violence. This then leads to greater state repression in response.

Indeed, a 2011 study by Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan compared over 300 anti-regime, anti-occupation or independence campaigns over 100 years, concluding unarmed people power campaigns are more than twice as likely to win in whole or in part compared with those using armed resistance.

But there's a problem. While non-violent campaigns have helped transitions from dictatorships to democracy as well as speeding the end of extreme injustices in constitutional democracies, the method has rarely been followed by the election of governments willing to renounce violence abroad.

Likewise, its often said that unarmed struggles like Indian independence and U.S. civil rights movements did not have an appreciation of gender equality, and as a result the progress achieved was not accompanied by improvements in womens rights.

If ostensibly non-violent movements fail to 'join the dots' between different forms of structural violence during their campaigns, then the chances are that the governments and policies that follow their revolutions will fail to do so too.

Most people would agree that peace is a laudable goal, and many would agree justice must be part of it. But many people and institutions who desire peace and justice do not call themselves pacifists. This partly results from terminology and believing peace is a condition.

But peace is a process, of working for justice through non-violent means. By definition, this involves working with people who are working against inequality, whether or not they see themselves as peace campaigners.

The pacifist holds that killing is wrong, as are the systems of systemic injustice. What then if a group to whom extreme injustice has been done, decides to take up arms in the cause of liberation or to defend themselves against an immediate threat? To criticise those caught up in such a situation is rarely a route to understanding. To do so without first recognising the violence of the structures they are fighting could rightly be called hypocritical.

From a position of working against the same injustice faced by the oppressed group though, we may well say that we dont think that violence is right or effective and that it always runs the risk of entrenching the same dynamics from which the group is seeking to liberate itself. This is an old discussion and, in practice, pacifists over the years have worked in the same spaces as those who have chosen other routes.

In the Spanish Civil War (among many other conflicts), pacifists assisted those displaced by the conflict by setting up refugee camps and support. In the Second World War, many pacifists worked with the Friends Ambulance Unit, despatched amongst other missions to travel with the Free French. In the USA in the 1960s, when parts of the civil rights movement carried guns, Quakers in Baltimore and Philadelphia found ways to work with Black Panthers to run services for the community. In South Africa's anti-apartheid struggle, non-violent activists continued the non-violent campaign, even after the African National Congress (ANC) and South African Communist Party began training for armed struggle.

Today, pacifists create safe spaces for conversation between different sides in conflicts and act as mediators during wars. Their pacifism means each side knows no violence will be done by those they were speaking with. Pacifists have called for halting weapons sales to regimes that would use them in human rights abuses. Is this just a cop-out?

Aside from the duty to follow conscience, there are few hard and fast rules that apply to all situations. There are, however, some. War crimes, torture and capital punishment need to always and universally, publicly and confidently be named as unacceptable anywhere.

Pacifists are often asked if we believe in defence. The answer is yes but not necessarily in the way the questioner thinks. In any major war in the world, you'll find that combinations of toxic masculinity, racism, classism and other forms of inequality helped pave the way for conflict. Tackling such injustices is the best route to global security.

Instead, money is poured into weapons like Trident. These weapons don't protect us from major threats like climate crisis. Warnings have gone unheeded, so violence is now being perpetrated through extreme weather. Nevertheless, governments spend 12 times as much on war as they do on climate change.

The goal of the pacifist is to take away the occasion of all wars. But would this approach have stopped Hitler? With an intersectional approach, the answer is yes.

We now know Nazism grew in Germany thanks to racism, nationalism and fear among the elite of wealth being redistributed so they sided with the far-right. Rather than take these as lessons of history though, elites have used the memory of the Second World War to justify continued imperialist violence.

Spurious comparisons to Hitler were used to inform the decisions to assassinate the Congo's first democratic Prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba, to imprison Ghana's independence leader, Kwame Nkrumah, and to put hundreds of thousands of people in detention camps in Kenya, in which tens of thousands died, in response to anticolonial unrest.

Similar rhetoric was used to justify the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, Iraq in 2003, Libya in 2011 and Syria in 2015. Each of these led to countless people being killed and led to further conflict.

Supporters of war will often search for the 'exception to the rule' against violence, before working from there to defend the use of armed force more broadly.

But the focus of this argument is different. It's about identifying the causes of war and violence and finding ways to transform them. Sometimes that means clogging up the roads leading to weapons bases by sitting in the road. But it also means trying to disrupt the traffic of toxic masculinity, racism, classism, disablism, homophobia, transphobia, ageism and other inequalities.

If we fail to adopt an intersectional approach, and our movement ends up entrenching inequality, we would be well deserving of a great deal of the criticism we get. If we truly do tackle inequality as well as war though, then we will be forging the pathways that lead to peace. [IDN-InDepthNews 16 February 2020]

* Tim Gee is the author of Why I am a Pacifist (John Hunt, 2019). This viewpoint, which is based on his talk at the Edinburgh Radical Book Fair on the book, originally appeared in Scottish Left Review.

Image credit: A march of 2,000 anti-conscription protesters in London,1939. IWM

IDN is flagship agency of theInternational Press Syndicate.

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Utopia Falls review: The Hunger Games meets Glee in Hulus throwback dystopia – Polygon

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Over the last decade, most science-fiction fans have experienced at least some level of teen-dystopian-series fatigue. After Suzanne Collins Hunger Games trilogy took over the world, movies and shows about young people on the far side of an apocalyptic event started cropping up everywhere. There were some good tales (The CWs The 100) and some not-so-great ones (like the Divergent trilogy), but even the best ones piled up until they made fans skeptical of new additions to the subgenre.

So Hulus new dystopian-future YA series Utopia Falls was already facing an uphill battle with science-fiction fans, even before it introduced the second half of the shows premise: rigidly socially controlled teens in a oppressive regime rediscover ancient hip-hop, then use music and dance to rebel against authority. It sounds downright corny, but by blatantly merging other hit teen shows and movies, the creators have set up an all-or-nothing gamble. Utopia Falls seems designed to either draw fans in quickly, or turn them off by the middle of the first episode.

On its surface, the storyline does seem outlandish. But really, what better genres to use to question the status quo than hip-hop and science fiction? When hip-hop first emerged, it almost immediately attracted frustrated artists who wanted to provide social commentary about the ills facing a marginalized group of people. And science fiction is often literally a forward-thinking genre, a way to imagine new ways of life, and the perils humanity could face if it continues on a path of destruction.

Created by Canadian filmmaker R.T. Thorne and Dark Matter and Stargate producer Joseph Mallozzi, Utopia Falls is set in a futuristic city called New Babyl, about 400 years in the future. The city is divided, Panem or Divergeiverse-style, into four sectors: Industry, Progress, Nature, and Reform. The people of these factions are, respectively, the citys builders, thinkers, growers, and (perceived) troublemakers. Most of the citizens in Reform are there to redeem themselves for past wrongs through restorative justice except for the children of transgressors, who are sent to Reform along with their families, and must remain there until a committee decides their fates after their 18th birthdays, or their parents are redeemed, whatever comes first. But the rest of the Sectors are dedicated to keeping the city running.

New Babyls populace is governed by Chancellor Diara (Alexandra Castillo) and the other members of the Tribunal, and protected and controlled by a militant police force led by the villainous Authority Phydra (Kate Drummond). The city is meant to represent an idyllic future. The idea is that humans of old allowed their differences to drive them into ruin, and the citys founder, Gaia, created New Babyl as a fresh start for humanity. Its both a literal and figurative bubble protected from the outside world by a force field, and completely cut off from human history. Vague stories of the strife ancient humans suffered are used to justify the way the current government keeps the populace in line and uses propaganda to make them fear to step outside of their prescribed way of life.

New Babyls children are expected to fulfill their sectors respective duties, but theyre also expected to train in the arts, with the goal of being picked for The Exemplar, an entertainment competition where two dozen 16-year-old candidates compete for the chance to become New Babyls cultural ambassador. Given that New Babyl is cut off from the rest of the world (and may be the only inhabited city in existence), that title doesnt make much sense. But since the populace has nothing to do but meet their quotas and vote for a winner of the Exemplar, the competition largely seems like entertainment to keep the masses happy.

The children are all vocalists, dancers, and musicians. No other art forms are encouraged, and the ways theyre allowed to perform are strictly regulated. The vocalists sing classic pop songs that are approved by the Tribunal. Dancers perform a sort of combination of contemporary dance and ballet, not as avant-garde as modern dance, but full of leaps, pirouettes, and sweeping arm motions. Theyre all accompanied by musicians, who mostly seem to be regulated to playing the piano.

This years Exemplar candidates include Aliyah (Robyn Alomar), a Progress-sector dancer whose father is in the Tribunal; her friend and potential love interest, Tempo (Robbie Graham-Kuntz); Sage (Devyn Nekoda), a quiet dancer from the Nature sector; Tempos friend Apollo (Phillip Lewitski), a musician from Industry; Brooklyn (Humberly Gonzlez), an Industry vocalist/dancer who comes in bucking the system by daring to personalize her issued uniform; and vocalist Bohdi (Akiel Julien) and singer/dancer Mags (Mickeey Nyugen), two friends from the maligned Reform sector, who are shocked that they were both allowed to compete.

The candidates first group dance performance expresses the citys imposed artistic limitations very clearly. When they initially arrive at the Exemplar training facility, theyre stilted and dull. The singers, accompanied by the musicians, belt out a beautiful but bloodless cover of Alessia Caras Wild Things. On a technical level, the dancing is solid, too. The jets are high, the pirouettes are clean, the movements sweeping and fluid. But its dull and forgettable, and the head of the Exemplar, Mentor Watts (Huse Madhavji), rips the performance apart.

Then, during a secret off-campus excursion, a behind-the-scenes figure pushes Aliyah and Bohdi toward a strange discovery: hidden in the forest near the Exemplar training facility is a hidden cave full of art and books from the past. Soon, they discover that it also houses an artificially intelligent library system called The Archive (voiced, in an amusing bit of stunt casting, by Snoop Dogg) that houses information about ancient humans, particularly focusing on long-lost art and music.

Aliyah and Bohdi are almost immediately hooked on hip-hop. As a stigmatized Reform resident, Bohdi particularly identifies with the messages of frustration and rebellion in 80s and 90s East Coast hip-hop, and he begins weaving verses from Mos Def (Mathematics), Nas (Hate Me Now) and his favorite artist, The Notorious B.I.G. (The Skys the Limit) into his performances. As the performers Archive knowledge colors their Exemplar routines, alarm bells are raised for the Tribunal and Authority. The citys leadership claims to celebrate diversity (this appears to be a world where racism and homophobia no longer exist), but they view any personal expression as disharmony and vanity that will be detrimental to the common good.

Its endearing and amusing to watch the young performers figuring out how to bop and body-roll. At first, theyre enthusiastic, but stiff and awkward. They arent sure how to express themselves comfortably, outside of the sweeping, dramatic motions theyve been taught. The movements are as foreign to them as the music. But as they grow more confident with the material (and study ancient dance routines from The Archive), they begin to incorporate more elements of hip-hop dance into their routines, including formations, waterfalls, and breakdancing.

The dancing in Utopia Falls is entertaining and well-executed (particularly Tempos high-energy, acrobatic solos and Sages fluid flamenco performance), but the performance interludes arent the most compelling thing about the show. They take a back seat to the plot. For most of the 10-episode season, the characters dont even seem entirely invested in who wins the Exemplar competition. They arent fighting to get the big solo, or fretting that their entire dance careers will be ruined if they fail to catch a company directors eye during the big showcase. Instead, theyre risking everything to connect with a past that was stolen from them.

At first glance, Utopia Falls appears to be a run-of-the-mill teen show, featuring actors attractive enough to be on The CW, and blending familiar elements from The Hunger Games, Divergent, Glee, and the 2000 cult-classic ballet movie Center Stage. But the mysteries that begin to unfold through the first season give the story meat and originality. Once the teens deviate from The Tribunals norms, they face immediate consequences. Their supposedly peaceful city reveals its hypocrisy and oppression, and the government proves comfortable with forceful tactics.

Utopia Falls teenagers can be painfully naive, and the story periodically waves away pertinent details where they might get in the way of the story. Its unclear, for instance, why children would be stuck in the Reform sector, even after their malefactor parents die. And if technique isnt enough to win the Exemplar competition, how are performers expected to inject spirit into their routines, when any form of self-expression is discouraged and even criminalized?

Utopia Falls is essentially trying to tell several stories at once. It asks how people can learn from their histories while erasing all cultural differences, and flattening centuries of human life into a cautionary tale in the name of peace and prosperity. There are teen love triangles, the mysterious string-pulling behind-the-scenes figure, a government conspiracy, and a city-wide, televised dance competition, all happening at the same time.

None of this would function if the Utopia Falls team didnt clearly understand just how far they are asking their audience to suspend their disbelief. But as corny as it is, the show takes itself just seriously enough to be fun. Its manufactured and familiar, but for fans of hip-hop and science fiction for people who still find themselves drawn to this familiar throwback genre, even after a decade of overuse its worth a second look.

All episodes of Utopia Falls season 1 are available on Hulu now.

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