STEPPING STONES 01/31/16 By STONE DISTRIBUTION "...where ever, how ever you want it, we deliver"
Volume 2, Issue 5, January 31, 2016
In this issue...
Public Service Announcements
Quote Of The Week: Ruth Standish Baldwin
Book Of The Month: "Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present” By Harriet A. Washington
IT’S YOUR Health: Drinking Water
Historical Fact Of The Week: African Americans: Part XV
Editorial Commentary: Coming!
Public Service Announcements
- The rechartering for The Head Cornerstone Corporation in the State Of Delaware as well as all updated business licenses and associated issues are forth coming pending litigation. Thank you.
- Visit WWW.Ready.gov at your earliest convenience so that you may be informed of basic protective measures before, during, and after disasters/emergencies, learn disaster prepared activities, training, plans, and what shelters are in or near your community, develop an emergency plan for yourself and your family in the event of an actual disaster/emergency, build an disaster/emergency supply kit including a basic emergency medical/trauma bag in case of an event, and GET INVOLVED!
- Get your CPR (Cardio-Pulomonary Resuscitation) and Basic First Aid/First Responder/Basic Life Support including child birth and Emergency Pediatric Care training today. Check with the American Heart Association at WWW.Heart.org for locations. It may just save a life.
- It’s a lot of fun and excitement, it’s healthy, it’s a great family activity, and it’s very practical. Find a course in self defense for you and your loved ones and learn to protect yourselves. You just never know.
- We have the constitutional right to BEAR ARMS and many states have the CCW (Conceal Carry Weapon) License for when you and your loved ones are outside of your home environment. Search the web for free information concerning the Conceal Carry Laws as well as other valuable information. Get the CCW License today (where applicable) for you and your family members of age and LEARN HOW TO SHOOT. You’ll feel better that you did.
- WATER; it’s very essential for normal body functions and not only carries nutrients to your cells, but flushes out the toxins in are bodies that lead to diseases such as cancers, diabetes, and heart diseases. According to the Mayo Clinic and the Institute of Health, water consumption varies for each person depending on many factors associated with life styles, such as current health, activities, and where you live. Be informed about what your daily intake should be and “drink up”. It will make YOUR world a better place.
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Let us work not as colored people nor as white people for the narrow benefit of any group alone, but together, as American citizens, for the common good of our common city, our common country.”
Ruth Standish Baldwin
1863 - 1934
Ruth Standish Baldwin came from a family of early New England colonists with a history of social activism. Her father was the editor of the Springfield (Massachusetts) Republican. A graduate of Smith College, she was the wife of William Henry Baldwin, Jr., president of the Long Island Railroad.
The Baldwins were deeply concerned about the poor and disadvantaged. The health and welfare of Negro migrants were their particular interest. Mr. Baldwin was an active participant in civic commissions and social agencies and had many ties to the Negro community. He was called “the Galahad of the Marketplace” by Dr. Felix Adler (the founder of the Ethical Culture movement) because of his dedication and incorruptibility. Baldwin was also a trustee of the Tuskegee Institute and counted Booker T. Washington among his friends. He belonged to a group of New York civic leaders and reformers known as the Committee of Fifteen. In 1896, this group formed the Committee for Improving the Industrial Conditions of Negroes in New York (CIICNNY).
Mrs. Baldwin shared his dedication and social awareness. She was active in the National League for the Protection of Colored Women (NLPCW) – an organization formed to help protect Negro women new to Northern cities. When William Baldwin died in 1905, Ruth Standish Baldwin committed herself to continuing their work.
Together, Ruth Standish Baldwin and George Haynes founded the Committee on Urban Conditions Among Negroes (CUCAN). Within a year, three organizations – the Committee for Improving Industrial Conditions of Negroes in New York, (founded in 1906), the National League for the Protection of Colored Women (founded in 1905), and the Committee on Urban Conditions Among Negroes – merged to form the National League on Urban Conditions Among Negroes (NLUCAN) on September 29, 1910 in New York City. George Edmund Haynes became the Executive Secretary in 1910 and served in this capacity until 1918. Ruth Standish Baldwin served as President, Board of Trustees from 1913 to 1915. In 1920, the name was later shortened to the National Urban League.
BOOK Of THE MONTH
“Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present”
By Harriet A. Washington
ISBN-13: 9780767915472
IT’S YOUR HEALTH
Drinking water
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Drinking water, also known as potable water or improved drinking water, is water safe enough for drinking and food preparation. Globally, in 2012, 89% of people had access to water suitable for drinking. Nearly 4 billion had access to tap water while another 2.3 billion had access to wells or public taps. 1.8 billion people still use an unsafe drinking water source which may be contaminated by feces. This can result in infectious diarrhea such as cholera and typhoid among others.
Water is essential for life. The amount of drinking water required is variable. It depends on physical activity, age, health issues, and environmental conditions. It is estimated that the average American drinks about one liter of water a day with 95% drinking less than three liters per day. For those working in a hot climate, up to 16 liters a day may be required. Water makes up about 60% of weight in men and 55% of weight in women. Infants are about 70% to 80% water while the elderly are around 45%.
Typically in developed countries, tap water meets drinking water quality standards, even though only a small proportion is actually consumed or used in food preparation. Other typical uses include washing, toilets, and irrigation. Greywater may also be used for toilets or irrigation. Its use for irrigation however may be associated with risks. Water may also be unacceptable due to levels of toxins or suspended solids. Reduction of waterborne diseases and development of safe water resources is a major public health goal in developing countries. Bottled water is sold for public consumption in most parts of the world. The word potable came into English from the Late Latin potabilis, meaning drinkable.
Contents
4.2 Well contamination with arsenic and fluoride
Requirements: Fluid balance
The amount of drinking water required is variable. It depends on physical activity, age, health, and environmental conditions. It is estimated that the average American drinks about one liter of water a day with 95% drinking less than three liters per day. For those working in a hot climate, up to 16 liters per day may be required.
Some health authorities have suggested that at least eight glasses of eight fl oz each (240 mL) are required by an adult per day (64 fl oz, or 1.89 litres). The British Dietetic Association recommends 1.8 litres. However, various reviews of the evidence performed in 2002 and 2008 could not find any solid scientific evidence recommending eight glasses of water per day. In the United States, the reference daily intake (RDI) for total water intake is 3.7 litres per day (L/day) for human males older than 18, and 2.7 L/day for human females older than 18 which includes drinking water, water in beverages, and water contained in food. An individual's thirst provides a better guide for how much water they require rather than a specific, fixed quantity.
The drinking water contribution to mineral nutrients intake is also unclear. Inorganic minerals generally enter surface water and ground water via storm water runoff or through the Earth's crust. Treatment processes also lead to the presence of some minerals. Examples include calcium, zinc, manganese, phosphate, fluoride and sodium compounds. Water generated from the biochemical metabolism of nutrients provides a significant proportion of the daily water requirements for some arthropods and desert animals, but provides only a small fraction of a human's necessary intake. There are a variety of trace elements present in virtually all potable water, some of which play a role in metabolism. For example, sodium, potassium and chloride are common chemicals found in small quantities in most waters, and these elements play a role in body metabolism. Other elements such as fluoride, while beneficial in low concentrations, can cause dental problems and other issues when present at high levels.
Fluid balance is key. Profuse sweating can increase the need for electrolyte (salt) replacement. Water intoxication (which results in hyponatremia), the process of consuming too much water too quickly, can be fatal.
Access: Water resources
Global
Water covers some 70% of the Earth's surface. Approximately 97.2% of it is saline, just 2.8% fresh. Potable water is available in almost all populated areas of the Earth, although it may be expensive and the supply may not always be sustainable. Sources where water may be obtained include:
Ground sources such as groundwater, springs, hyporheic zones and aquifers
Precipitation which includes rain, hail, snow, fog, etc.
Surface water such as rivers, streams, glaciers
Biological sources such as plants.
Springs are often used as sources for bottled waters. Tap water, delivered by domestic water systems in developed nations, refers to water piped to homes and delivered to a tap or spigot. For these water sources to be consumed safely they must receive adequate treatment and meet drinking water regulations.
The most efficient way to transport and deliver potable water is through pipes. Plumbing can require significant capital investment. Some systems suffer high operating costs. The cost to replace the deteriorating water and sanitation infrastructure of industrialized countries may be as high as $200 billion a year. Leakage of untreated and treated water from pipes reduces access to water. Leakage rates of 50% are not uncommon in urban systems.
Because of the high initial investments, many less wealthy nations cannot afford to develop or sustain appropriate infrastructure, and as a consequence people in these areas may spend a correspondingly higher fraction of their income on water. 2003 statistics from El Salvador, for example, indicate that the poorest 20% of households spend more than 10% of their total income on water. In the United Kingdom authorities define spending of more than 3% of one's income on water as a hardship.
The World Health Organization/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Program (JMP) for Water Supply and Sanitation is the official United Nations mechanism tasked with monitoring progress towards the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) relating to drinking-water and sanitation (MDG 7, Target 7c), which is to: "Halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking-water and basic sanitation". The JMP is required to use the following MDG indicator for monitoring the water component of this: Proportion of population using an improved drinking-water source.
According to this indicator on improved water sources, the MDG was met in 2010, five years ahead of schedule. Over 2 billion more people used improved drinking water sources in 2010 than did in 1990. However, the job is far from finished. 780 million people are still without improved sources of drinking water, and many more still lack safe drinking water: complete information about drinking water safety is not yet available for global monitoring of safe drinking water. Estimates suggest that at least 25% of improved sources contain fecal contamination and an estimated 1.8 billion people globally use a source of drinking water which suffers from fecal contamination. The quality of these sources vary over time and are typically of worse quality in the wet season. Continued efforts are needed to reduce urban-rural disparities and inequities associated with poverty; to dramatically increase coverage in countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Oceania; to promote global monitoring of drinking water quality; and to look beyond the MDG target towards universal coverage.
Expanding WASH (Water, Sanitation, Hygiene) coverage and monitoring in non-household settings such as schools, health care facilities, and workplaces, is an important post-2015 development objective.
United States
In the U.S, the typical single family home consumes 69.3 gallons (262 litres) of water per day. Uses include (in decreasing order) toilets, washing machines, showers, baths, faucets, and leaks. In some parts of the country water supplies are dangerously low due to drought and depletion of the aquifers, particularly in the West and the South East region of the U.S.
Climate change aspects
The World Wildlife Fund predicts that in the Himalayas, retreating glaciers could reduce summer water flows by up to two-thirds. In the Ganges area, this would cause a water shortage for 500 million people. The head of China's national development agency in 2007 said 1/4th the length of China's seven main rivers were so poisoned the water harmed the skin. United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon has said this may lead to violent conflicts.
Improving availability
One of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set by the UN includes environmental sustainability. In 2004, only 42% of people in rural areas had access to clean water.
Solar water disinfection is a low-cost method of purifying water that can often be implemented with locally available materials. Unlike methods that rely on firewood, it has low impact on the environment.
One organisation working to improve the availability of safe drinking water in some the world's poorest countries is WaterAid International. Operating in 26 countries, WaterAid is working to make lasting improvements to peoples' quality of life by providing long-term sustainable access to clean water in countries such as Nepal, Tanzania, Ghana and India. It also works to educate people about sanitation and hygiene.
Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) is a partnership that brings together national governments, donors, UN agencies, NGOs and other development partners. They work to improve sustainable access to sanitation and water supply to meet and go beyond the MDG target. In 2014, 77 countries had already met the MDG sanitation target, 29 were on track and, 79 were not on-track.
Health aspects
Contaminated water is estimated to result in more than half a million deaths per year. Contaminated water together with lack of sanitation was estimated to cause about one percent of disability adjusted life years worldwide in 2010.
Diarrheal diseases
Over 90% of deaths from diarrheal diseases in the developing world today occur in children under 5 years old (2002 data - p11 figure 3 in source). Malnutrition, especially protein-energy malnutrition, can decrease the children's resistance to infections, including water-related diarrheal diseases. From 2000-2003, 769,000 children under five years old in sub-Saharan Africa died each year from diarrheal diseases. As a result of only thirty-six percent of the population in the sub-Saharan region having access to proper means of sanitation, more than 2000 children's lives are lost every day. In South Asia, 683,000 children under five years old died each year from diarrheal disease from 2000-2003. During the same time period, in developed countries, 700 children under five years old died from diarrheal disease. Improved water supply reduces diarrhea morbidity by twenty-five percent and improvements in drinking water through proper storage in the home and chlorination reduces diarrhea episodes by thirty-nine percent.
Well contamination with arsenic and fluoride
Some efforts at increasing the availability of safe drinking water have been disastrous. When the 1980s were declared the "International Decade of Water" by the United Nations, the assumption was made that groundwater is inherently safer than water from rivers, ponds, and canals. While instances of cholera, typhoid and diarrhea were reduced, other problems emerged due to polluted groundwater.
Sixty million people are estimated to have been poisoned by well water contaminated by excessive fluoride, which dissolved from granite rocks. The effects are particularly evident in the bone deformations of children. Similar or larger problems are anticipated in other countries including China, Uzbekistan, and Ethiopia. Although helpful for dental health in low dosage, fluoride in large amounts interferes with bone formation.
Half of the Bangladesh's 12 million tube wells contain unacceptable levels of arsenic due to the wells not being dug deep enough (past 100 metres). The Bangladeshi government had spent less than US$7 million of the 34 million allocated for solving the problem by the World Bank in 1998. Natural arsenic poisoning is a global threat, 140 million people affected in 70 countries on all continents. These examples illustrate the need to examine each location on a case by case basis and not assume what works in one area will work in another.
(Continued)
AFRICAN AMERICANS
“A People Of The Many Descendants Of Afrika”
Part XV
Civil Rights VIII
African American Civil Rights Movement (1955–1968)
Race riots, 1957–1970
By the end of World War II, more than half of the country's African American population lived in Northern and Western industrial cities rather than Southern rural areas. Migrating to those cities for better job opportunities, education and to escape legal segregation, African Americans often found segregation that existed in fact rather than in law. While after the 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan was not prevalent, by the 1960s other problems prevailed in northern cities. Beginning in the 1950s, deindustrialization and restructuring of major industries: railroads and meatpacking, steel industry and car industry, markedly reduced working-class jobs, which had earlier provided middle-class incomes. As the last population to enter the industrial job market, African Americans were disadvantaged by its collapse. At the same time, investment in highways and private development of suburbs in the postwar years had drawn many ethnic Caucasian Americans out of the cities to newer housing in expanding suburbs. Urban African Americans who did not follow the middle class out of the cities became concentrated in the older housing of inner-city neighborhoods, among the poorest in most major cities.
Because jobs in new service areas and parts of the economy were being created in suburbs, unemployment was much higher in many African American than in Caucasian American neighborhoods, and crime was frequent. African Americans rarely owned the stores or businesses where they lived. Many were limited to menial or blue-collar jobs, although union organizing in the 1930s and 1940s had opened up good working environments for some. African Americans often made only enough money to live in dilapidated tenements that were privately owned, or poorly maintained public housing. They also attended schools that were often the worst academically in the city and that had fewer Caucasian American students than in the decades before WWII.
The racial makeup of most major city police departments, largely ethnic Caucasian American (especially Irish), was a major factor in adding to racial tensions. Even an African American neighborhood such as Harlem had a ratio of one African American officer for every six Caucasian American officers. The majority-African American city of Newark, New Jersey had only 145 African Americans among its 1,322 police officers. Police forces in Northern cities were largely composed of Caucasian American ethnics, descendants of 19th-century immigrants: mainly Irish, Italian, and Eastern European officers. They had established their own power bases in the police departments and in territories in cities. Some would routinely harass African Americans with or without provocation.
Police brutality in the United States
Police brutality is the abuse of authority by the unwarranted infliction of excessive force by personnel involved in various aspects of law enforcement while in performance of their official duties. The term is also applied to abuses by corrections personnel in municipal, state and federal penal facilities including military prisons.
While the term police brutality is usually applied in the context of causing physical harm, it may also involve psychological harm through the use of intimidation tactics beyond the scope of officially sanctioned police procedure. In the past those who engaged in police brutality may have acted with the implicit approval of the local legal system, e.g. during the Civil Rights era. In the modern era individuals who engage in cases of police brutality may do so with the tacit approval of their superiors or they may be rogue officers; in either case they may perpetrate their actions under color of law, and more often than not engage in a subsequent cover-up of their illegal activity.
The word "brutality" has several meanings; the sense used here (savage cruelty) was first used in 1633. The first known use of the term "police brutality" was in the New York Times in 1893, describing a police officer's beating of a civilian.
Efforts to combat police brutality focus on various aspects of the police subculture, and the aberrant psychology which may manifest itself when individuals are placed in a position of absolute authority over others.
Numerous doctrines, such as federalism, separation of powers, causation, deference, discretion, and burden of proof have been cited as partial explanations for the judiciaries' fragmented pursuit of police misconduct. However, there is also evidence that courts cannot or choose not to see systemic patterns in police brutality. Other factors that have been cited as encouraging police brutality include institutionalized systems of police training, management, and culture; a criminal-justice system that discourages prosecutors from pursuing police misconduct vigorously; a political system that responds more readily to police than to the residents of inner-city and minority communities; and a racist political culture that fears crime and values tough policing more than it values due process for all its citizens. It is believed that without substantial social change, the control of police deviance is improbable at best.
In the United States, the passage of the Volstead Act (popularly known as the National Prohibition Act) in 1919 had a long-term negative impact on policing practices. By the mid-1920s, crime was growing dramatically in response to the demand for illegal alcohol. Many law enforcement agencies stepped up the use of unlawful practices. By the time of the Hoover administration (1929–1932), the issue had risen to national concern and a National Committee on Law Observation and Enforcement (popularly known as the Wickersham Commission) was formed to look into the situation. The resulting "Report on Lawlessness in Law Enforcement" (1931) concluded that
"[t]he third degree—that is, the use of physical brutality, or other forms of cruelty, to obtain involuntary confessions or admissions—is widespread".
In the years following the report, landmark legal judgements such as Brown v. Mississippi helped cement a legal obligation to respect the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Police brutality can be associated with racial profiling. Differences in race, religion, politics, or socioeconomic status sometimes exist between police and the citizenry. Some police officers may view the population (or a particular subset thereof) as generally deserving punishment. Portions of the population may perceive the police to be oppressors. In addition, there is a perception that victims of police brutality often belong to relatively powerless groups, such as minorities, the young, and the poor. A 1968 study in three large cities indicated that police brutality was “far from rare,” and that the most likely victim was a "lower-class" man of either race.
The African American Civil Rights Movement has been the target of numerous incidents of police brutality in its struggle for justice and racial equality, notably during the Birmingham campaign of 1963–64 and during the Selma to Montgomery marches of 1965. Media coverage of the brutality sparked national outrage, and public sympathy for the movement grew rapidly as a result. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. criticized police brutality in speeches. During this time, the Black Panther Party (BPP) formed in response to police brutality from disproportionately Caucasian American police departments that were overtly oppressing African American communities. The conflict between the BPP and various police departments often resulted in violence with the deaths of 34 members of the BPP and 15 police officers.
In the United States, race and accusations of police brutality continue to be closely linked, and the phenomenon has sparked a string of race riots over the years. Especially notable among these incidents was the uprising caused by the arrest and beating of Rodney King on March 3, 1991 by officers of the Los Angeles Police Department. The atmosphere was particularly volatile because the brutality had been videotaped by a bystander and widely broadcast afterwards. When the four law enforcement officers charged with assault and other violations were acquitted, the 1992 Los Angeles Riots broke out.
During the Vietnam War, anti-war demonstrations were sometimes quelled through the use of billy-clubs and tear gas. The most notorious of these assaults took place during the August 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The actions of the police were later described as a "police riot" in the Walker Report to the U.S. National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence.
As was the case with Prohibition during the 1920s and 1930s, the "War on Drugs" initiated by President Richard M. Nixon in 1969 has been marked by increased police misconduct. Critics contend that a "holy war" mentality has helped to nurture a "new militarized style of policing" where "confrontation has replaced investigation."
Numerous human rights observers have raised concerns about increased police brutality in the U.S. in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. An extensive report prepared for the United Nations Human Rights Committee tabled in 2006 states that in the United States, the "War on Terror" has "created a generalized climate of impunity for law enforcement officers, and contributed to the erosion of what few accountability mechanisms exist for civilian control over law enforcement agencies. As a result, police brutality and abuse persist unabated and undeterred across the country."
While the prevalence of police brutality in the United States is not comprehensively documented, statistics on police brutality are much less available. The few statistics that exist include a 2006 Department of Justice report, which showed that out of 26,556 citizen complaints made in 2002 about excessive use of police force among large U.S. agencies (representing 5% of agencies and 59% of officers), about 2000 were found to have merit.
Other studies have shown that most police brutality goes unreported. In 1982, the federal government funded a "Police Services Study," in which over 12,000 randomly selected citizens were interviewed in three metropolitan areas. The study found that 13.6 percent of those surveyed claimed to have had cause to complain about police service (including verbal abuse, discourtesy and physical abuse) in the previous year. Yet only 30 percent of those who acknowledged such brutality filed formal complaints. A 1998 Human Rights Watch report stated that in all 14 precincts it examined, the process of filing a complaint was "unnecessarily difficult and often intimidating."
Statistics on the use of physical force by law enforcement are available. For example, an extensive U.S. Department of Justice report on police use of force released in 2001 indicated that in 1999, "approximately 422,000 people 16 years old and older were estimated to have had contact with police in which force or the threat of force was used." Research shows that measures of the presence of African and Latino American people and majority/minority income inequality are related positively to average annual civil rights criminal complaints.
Recent Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch reports confirm that prison guard brutality is common in the U.S. A 2006 Human Rights Watch report revealed that five state prison systems permit the use of aggressive, unmuzzled dogs on prisoners as part of cell removal procedures.
In the United States, investigation of cases of police brutality has often been left to internal police commissions and/or district attorneys (DAs). Internal police commissions have often been criticized for a lack of accountability and for bias favoring officers, as they frequently declare upon review that the officer(s) acted within the department's rules, or according to their training. For instance, an April, 2007 study of the Chicago Police Department found that out of more than 10,000 police abuse complaints filed between 2002 and 2003, only 19 (0.19%) resulted in meaningful disciplinary action. The study charges that the police department's oversight body allows officers with "criminal tendencies to operate with impunity," and argues that the Chicago Police Department should not be allowed to police itself. Only 19% of large municipal police forces have a civilian complaint review board (CCRB). Law enforcement jurisdictions that have a CCRB have an excessive force complaint rate against their officers of 11.9% verses 6.6% complaint rate for those without a CCRB. Of those forces without a CCRB only 8% of the complaints were sustained and the compliment (92%) were dismissed. Thus, for the year 2002, the rate at which police brutality complaints were sustained was 0.53% for the larger police municipalities nationwide.
The ability of district attorneys to investigate police brutality has also been called into question, as DAs depend on help from police departments to bring cases to trial. It was only in the 1990s that serious efforts began to transcend the difficulties of dealing with systemic patterns of police misconduct.
Beyond police departments and DAs, mechanisms of government oversight have gradually evolved. The Rodney King case triggered the creation of the Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department, informally known as the Christopher Commission, in 1991. The commission, mandated to investigate the practices of the LAPD, uncovered disturbing patterns of misconduct and abuse, but the reforms it recommended were put on hold. Meanwhile, media reports revealed a frustration in dealing with systemic abuse in other jurisdictions as well, such as New York and Pittsburgh. Selwyn Raab of the New York Times wrote about how the "Blue Code of Silence among police officers helped to conceal even the most outrageous examples of misconduct."
Within this climate, the police misconduct provision of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 was created, which authorized the Attorney Manager to "file lawsuits seeking court orders to reform police departments engaging in a pattern or practice of violating citizens' federal rights." As of January 31, 2003, the Department of Justice has used this provision to negotiate reforms in eleven jurisdictions across the U.S. (Pittsburgh Bureau of Police, Steubenville Police Department, New Jersey State Police, Los Angeles Police Department, District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department, Highland Park, Illinois Police Department, Cincinnati Police Department, Columbus Police Department, Buffalo Police Department, Mount Prospect, Illinois Police Department, and the Montgomery County, Maryland Police Department).
It has been noted that local media rarely report scandals involving out-of-town police unless events make it onto a network videotape. There is often a dramatic increase in unfavorable attitudes toward the police in the wake of highly publicized events such as the Rampart scandal and the killings of Amadou Diallo and Patrick Dorismond in New York City. Experiments have shown that when viewers are shown footage of police arrests, they may be more likely to perceive the police conduct as brutal if the arresting officers are Caucasian American.
Public opinion polls following the beating of Rodney King in Los Angeles and the killing of Malice Green in Detroit indicate that the incidents appear to have had their greatest effect and reinforcement on specific perceptions of the way local police treat African Americans, and markedly less effect on broader perceptions of the extent of discrimination against them.
Laws intended to protect against police abuse of authority include the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution - protects against unreasonable searches and seizures; the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which includes the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses; the Civil Rights Act of 1871; and the Federal Tort Claims Act. The Civil Rights Act has evolved into a key U.S. law in brutality cases. However, 42 U.S.C. § 1983 has been assessed as ultimately ineffective in deterring police brutality. Judges often give police convicted of brutality light sentences on the grounds that they have already been punished by damage to their careers. Much of this difficulty in combating police brutality has been attributed to the overwhelming power of the stories mainstream American culture tells about the encounters leading to police violence.
Surveys of police officers found that police brutality, along with sleeping on duty, was viewed as one of the most common and least likely to be reported forms of police deviance other than corruption.
Torture and the United States
Torture in the United States includes documented and alleged cases of torture both inside the United States and outside its borders by U.S. government personnel. This includes the U.S. government, fifty U.S. state and territorial governments, 3,033 county, and thousands of municipal governments, all of which have their own independent judicial systems. All are subject to the U.S. Constitution and their own state constitutions.
While the term "torture" is defined in numerous places, including dictionaries and encyclopedias of various nations or cultures, this article only addresses the legal definition of the term, under the codified and case law of the United States of America. After the US dismissed United Nations concerns about torture in 2006, one U.K. judge observed 'America's idea of what is torture ... does not appear to coincide with that of most civilized nations'. A two-year bipartisan study concluded that it was "indisputable" that US forces had employed torture as well as "cruel, inhuman or degrading" treatment in many interrogations; that "the nation's most senior officials" bear ultimate responsibility for allowing and contributing to the spread of these techniques, and that there is substantial evidence that information obtained by these methods was neither useful nor reliable.
Torture is illegal and punishable within U.S territorial bounds. Prosecution of abuse occurring on foreign soil, outside of usual U.S. territorial jurisdiction, is difficult.
It is debated as to whether or not torture as a punishment falls under the cruel and unusual punishment clause of the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
"Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted "
The US Supreme Court has held since at least the 1890s that punishments that involved torture are forbidden under the Eighth Amendment.
An act of torture committed outside the United States by a U.S. national or a non-national now within the U.S. is punishable under 18 U.S.C. § 2340. The definition of torture used is as follows:
- "torture" means an act committed by a person acting under the color of law specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering (other than pain or suffering incidental to lawful sanctions) upon another person within his custody or physical control;
- "severe mental pain or suffering" means the prolonged mental harm caused by or resulting from - (A) the intentional infliction or threatened infliction of severe physical pain or suffering; (B) the administration or application, or threatened administration or application, of mind-altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or the personality; (C) the threat of imminent death; or (D) the threat that another person will imminently be subjected to death, severe physical pain or suffering, or the administration or application of mind-altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or personality;”
(Continued)
Part XV in the next “STEPPING STONES”
“...the truth shall set you free”
(Email [email protected] to get “plugged in”!)
COMMENTARY
Coming!
BY
THE HEAD CORNERSTONE CORP.
(A Delaware Corporation)
Now recruiting for ALL POSITIONS.
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And Personable People
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Are very organized and detail oriented
And have excellent communication skills (oral and literal)
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very mature,
and very exciting environment and a very rewarding experience.
Compensation will include;
Industry competitive salaries
Four (4) weeks paid vacation
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As well as many others
All interested persons, please, forward cover letters and resumes, to include salary requirements and 8 x 10 glossy, to [email protected].
Thank you.
Akil A. Bomani
President, CEO
The Head Cornerstone Corp.
(A Delaware Corporation)
Coming soon!!
URBAN COMMUNITY ECONOMIC RECOVERY, REDEVELOPMENT, & MANAGEMENT TRAINING PROGRAM
Complete with lectures, workshops, Power Point Presentations, resource acquisition and allocation management, progressive community activism training, progressive youth developmental programs, progressive business plan development programs, crime suppression program development, administration management, and lots of other “goodies for you…
…find your community leader and let them know to “get on board this train”.
Brought to you By
“Get Your Mind Right” Productions
A Company of
Orji
“Marketing from the roots…”
Please, email [email protected] for all inquiries
"Strictly business for serious business minds…"
It Is On!!!
Email George at [email protected] and get
“PLUGGED IN”
To the “Quote of the Week”,
Relevant and insightful commentaries of today’s “real world” issues,
Upcoming performances and releases by Stone Records’ artist(s), the latest news and events…
Join the fan list at Reverbnation.com/georgethesmoothandsexycrooner
Where you may also
PICKUP THE COMING HOT NEW SINGLE,
“I Want To Know”
As well as “To Love And Be Loved”, “Let’s Take Our Time”, “A Friend In You”, “Believe in You” as well as several others on the release of the long anticipated debut album,
“Volume I George”
By the soulfully sultry and smooth balladeer,
George
2016!!
“The Memphis Step”
the debut single from the album,
“Summertime”
Also, “Summertime”, “Early Morning”, “Love In Thunder”, “Monday Hustle”, and others
by Stone Records acid/contemporary jazz group,
Ade
plus several contemporary soul gospel, hip hop, and urban projects beginning in 2016!! Stone Records is “…music for the soul” and we have come to get it on, baby!!
Join the email lists:
Facebook.com/George the balladeer
Reverbnation.com/Georgethesmoothandsexycrooner
“For we have come to get it on, baby…”