Joe Biden, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr. announced they will be setting aside $80 million to test backlogged, neglected rape kits across the country and hopefully get some justice for millions of women:
In July, USA Today discovered hundreds of thousands of rape kits that sat untested in police departments across the country. In just 1,000 police agencies – a fraction of the country’s 18,000 police departments – more than 70,000 kits were neglected. In New York, 17,000 evidence kits were untested. Once those kits were tested, 49 indictments stemmed from the results in Manhattan alone. New York City remains free of any rape kit backlog.
Maybe one day soon those who report rapes won’t feel that they’re doing it with no chance of resolution.
Team Blackness also discussed Matt Damon explaining diversity to a black woman, how Taylor Swift is NOT the new Michael Jackson, and the NRA trolling families who have survived gun violence, cause they’re classy.
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Gimlet
More WSJ
By Heather Mac Donald
The Black Lives Matter movement proclaims that the police are a lethal threat to blacks and that the criminal-justice system is pervaded by racial bias. The media amplify that message on an almost daily basis. Officers now worry about becoming the latest racist cop of the week, losing their job or being indicted if a good-faith encounter with a suspect goes awry or is merely distorted by an incomplete cellphone video.
With police so discouraged, violent crime has surged in at least 35 American cities this year. The alarming murder increase prompted an emergency meeting of the Major Cities Chiefs Association last month. Homicides were up 76% in Milwaukee, 60% in St. Louis, and 56% in Baltimore through mid-August, compared with the same period in 2014; murder was up 47% in Minneapolis and 36% in Houston through mid-July.
But something more fundamental than even public safety may be at stake. There are signs that the legal order itself is breaking down in urban areas. “There’s a total lack of respect out there for the police,” says a female sergeant in New York. “The perps feel more empowered to carry guns because they know that we are running scared.”
The lawful use of police power is being met by hostility and violence, often ignored by the press.
Patricia Kayden
Poor Matt Damon. I’m sure he feels as a liberal, he knows about diversity and doesn’t realize the faux pas he committed.
piratedan
whocouldanode that the systemic abuse abetted by the system could have such repercussions….
Seems to me that the actions of police in places like Ferguson have blowback to other places and making people mistrust their local police forces (and in some cases, with very just cause).
Are cameras the answer? Can they be part of the solution? I’m not saying that there aren’t bad cops out there but are you less likely to behave like a piece of shit if you know that each interaction is filmed? Is it sad that we’ve come to the point where we’ve finally had to police the centurions? Will this lead to a come to jesus moment where the police recognize that less is more? By that I mean fewer military vehicles, less adherence to the NRA line that more guns is always the answer?
I think that we’re reliving the 70’s where the police had to reach out into the communities and rebuild trust and that doesn’t come easy and involves work by everyone to want to rebuild that trust. That means taking the words to heart “protect and serve” and it being the community and not just the rich.
ruemara
@Gimlet: you don’t seem to ever include a link. And what’s your point?
Belafon
If we have to have a new Michael Jackson, I agree with a lot of people that it’s Bruno Marz.
Gimlet
@ruemara:
I’m sure you can find the article.
The point is misrepresentation and distortion so that when you encounter it in real life you have at least considered it before. Not everyone thinks the way most of us do.
Omnes Omnibus
But make no mistake: This is about race.
ruemara
@Gimlet: I’m sure if it’s important enough to share, you can provide a link. And regarding your point, you think anyone remotely supportive of BLM is unaware of that?
NonyNony
@piratedan:
I think you need to go back and read some police history.
Police (in America at least) have always been pretty terrible and there is always a push and pull on them. There’s a reason that Miranda became a law and a reason that courts started throwing out evidence that the police obtained from suspects under dubious circumstances.
If body cameras had existed in 1966 when Miranda was decided you can damn well bet that there would have been a push to require them then. Police haven’t gotten worse since then – they just haven’t gotten better either.
Gimlet
@ruemara:
Feel free to scroll on by it, since it’s irrelevant to you.
rikyrah
New Poll:
Today in Politics: In New Poll, Ben Carson Pulls Up Alongside an Idling Donald Trump
1. Donald Trump: 27% (up three points since August)
2. Ben Carson: 23% (up 17 points)
3. Jeb Bush: 6% (down seven points)
3. Mike Huckabee 6% (down two points)
3. Marco Rubio 6% (no change)
6. Ted Cruz: 5% (down one point)
7. Carly Fiorina: 4% (up four points)
8. John Kasich: 3% (up two points)
8. Rand Paul: 3% (down one point)
10. Scott Walker: 2% (down eight points)
http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2015/09/15/today-in-politics-in-new-poll-carson-pulls-up-alongside-an-idling-trump/
Linda Featheringill
I am not now and never have been black, so I can’t comment on that discussion.
However, I have been raped and am thrilled at the prospect of getting some justice for at least some women.
In my case, I knew my attacker but nobody believed my story [pillar of the community you know]. He has died of old age by now, so that’s the end of that story.
But for many, many women perhaps some justice is possible.
JCJ
@rikyrah:
Oh how I wish my fellow cheeseheads had figured out how worthless he is.
Calouste
@rikyrah: Quite the outlier that poll. The 5 other most recent polls on RealClearPolitics have Trump leading Carson by 12-16 points.
Benw
@Belafon: nope it’s Kanye.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@Calouste: The establishment paper, in addition to their Holy Mission to destroy Hillary Clinton, have also taken it upon themselves to destroy Trump. They want JEB? or some other similar good, establishment Republican who will keep their taxes down, and fuck all the rest of us.
rikyrah
Because it’s true. It’s always been true, but now we have the video to prove what we’ve been saying all along.
Awe, poor baby…not being able to beat, kill and maim without judgment against you.
Gin & Tonic
@Gimlet: It can’t have escaped your notice that nearly everyone who posts lengthy quotes here, also provides a URL. It’s considered common courtesy. That’s why the posting window has a “link” button.
Roger Moore
@Belafon:
We don’t have to have a new Michael Jackson. He was unique and had his own unique place in music. Other musicians may be great, even greater than he was, but they aren’t replacements for him.
Roger Moore
Then they should be champing at the bit for their own body cams that will be able to show the true story of what happened. Funny, then, that police unions aren’t at the forefront of the movement to get body cameras for all police.
MomSense
Missed this last night so I am looking forward to listening tonight.
I hope Elon is doing ok but I bet he is pleased that the team can carry on so well without him. I also noticed that Imani doesn’t fuck with his levels when he isn’t there. Ha!
Calouste
@rikyrah: Well, police….
You know what a good antidote is against an incomplete cellphone video? A complete video made by a police bodycam. Well, except for those bits where the body or dashboard cam always seems to confirm the events in the cellphone video.
And lets not talk about good-faith encounters when the police shoots people within seconds of meeting them or fires more bullets in one encounter than the police in Germany does in a whole year.
Paul in KY
@Roger Moore: Funny how they’re not chomping at the bit to show how wrong the BLM folks are.
ruemara
@Gimlet: you don’t like being seen.
Full metal Wingnut
@Gimlet:
Ugh I saw that. Maddening article.
1) The data just doesn’t support the assertion that there’s been some dramatic surge in crime. But facts have never gotten in the way of a police state apologia, have they?
2) Even if I granted the argument, the way it’s presented is so ridiculously slanted. Police are “scared” and criminals are “empowered”? Maybe the answer is that the police have to readjust-society won’t quietly tolerate cracking heads anymore and departments and officers have to learn how to police clean.
Also, I suspect a little ratfucking is going on. Police intentionally turning a blind eye to crime.
Hell, police departments fudge stats so much (watch The Wire or read David Simon) that a dramatic uptick in crime could be an identical status quo but deciding not to fudge stats as much to make crime look worse on paper. It would be trivially easy to do. So they can say “Oh noes! Crime is up! See we need to keep shooting unarmed black people!”
3) an uncomfortable conversation we may need to have at some point. If there really is an increase in crime (which I’m skeptical of), is tolerating a greater amount of crime in exchange for respecting rights more a price society is willing to pay? I am, but many are not.
Roger Moore
@Full metal Wingnut:
That’s harder to do with homicide statistics, since the vast majority of homicides are reported. That’s actually a solid reason for focusing on homicide as a proxy for violent crime as a whole, beyond the obvious desire to highlight the most dramatic crimes.
Bobby Thomson
@rikyrah: I don’t know how anyone can look at that and estimate the combined chances of Trump and Carson at 5%. Silver has committed to looking at everything through a 2012 prism despite several critical differences; e.g., more well-funded candidates, no single “establishment” candidate consistently in the 20s, and an iconoclastic candidate who can create free media whenever he wants and who appears to be immune to injury from gaffes. The sample size of presidential primary campaigns is so small that it’s risky to generalize across them.
Also, too.
ETA: busted link. https://xkcd.com/1122/
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Roger Moore:
I do wonder if we’ve reached a bit of a breaking point where it’s just too difficult for people trained in the breaking heads/force compliance method of policing to continue to keep order. They may quite literally not know what to do other than continue on the same path. I can’t help but notice that the largest surges seem to be in cities that have some of the worst police brutality cases. If I thought I might end up like Freddie Gray, I might prefer being shot for having a gun than being beaten to death.
Once the various cop organizations made it clear that their motto was “kill or be killed,” they made their own jobs exponentially harder, but there doesn’t seem to be any leadership that recognizes that and wants to change the current stalemate.
A guy
Will they finally test the broaddrick/Clinton evidence