October 2020 – Page 6 – GETAWAYTHEBERKSHIRES

Failing to Meet Global Police Standards, US Forsakes 'the Right to Life'

October 10, 2020 | News | No Comments

Each of the 50 United States has failed to comply with international standards on police use of lethal force, a reality that threatens lives, poses grave human rights concerns, perpetuates institutional racism, and requires immediate reform, a new report by Amnesty International published Thursday has found.

Moreover, the limited available statistics on police killings of civilians, as well as recent high-profile shootings of unarmed black men and women around the country, exposes “a widespread pattern of racially discriminatory treatment by law enforcement officers and an alarming use of lethal force nationwide.”

“Police have a fundamental obligation to protect human life. Deadly force must be reserved as a method of absolute last resort,” said Steven W. Hawkins, executive director of Amnesty International USA. “The fact that absolutely no state laws conform to this standard is deeply disturbing and raises serious human rights concerns.”

In Deadly Force: Police Use of Lethal Force in the United States (pdf), researchers reviewed U.S. Supreme Court decisions, guidelines on deadly force as issued by the U.S. Justice Department, and available statistical data on fatal encounters, which led to one stark conclusion:

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What is needed now, according to Amnesty, is an immediate overhaul of policing practices and standards at both the state and federal levels to ensure that use of lethal force is restricted in compliance with international law. In addition, the organization recommends that statistics on police shootings be collected and published by the Justice Department; that accountability and oversight for the use of lethal force be enforced; and that the Police Reporting Information, Data, and Evidence (PRIDE) Act and the End Racial Profiling Act be passed into law.

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Basic principles on the use of force and firearms by law enforcement, as dictated by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ratified by the U.S. in 1992, state that “lethal use of firearms may only be made when strictly unavoidable in order to protect life,” the report notes.

“Reform is needed and it is needed and it is needed immediately. Lives are at stake.”
Stephen W. Hawkins, Amnesty International USA

Every U.S. state, as well as Washington, D.C., fail in this regard, Amnesty found. Thirteen states do not even comply with “the lower standards set by U.S. constitutional law” on the use of police deadly force, while nine states and Washington, D.C. currently have zero laws on the issue.

Those states include Maryland, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Michigan, Ohio, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

But enforcing guidelines on use of deadly force should not simply allow law enforcement to fall back on methods considered “less lethal” than firearms, such as Tasers or physical force, Amnesty states: “International standards also emphasize the need for law enforcement to use other means before resorting to the use of force, and to be trained in alternatives to the use of force, including the peaceful settlement of conflicts, understanding of crowd behavior, and skills of persuasion, negotiation and mediation.”

Domestic laws worldwide must comply with international standards, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions Christof Heyns said in a 2014 report, cited by Amnesty. “It is too late to attend to this when tensions rise.”

Thursday’s report comes just weeks after President Barack Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing released its findings on law enforcement in the U.S. and recommendations on reforming it.

That task force concluded:

Amnesty’s report also lists a number of recent high-profile cases to illustrate how police killings span age, gender, and method—but disproportionately target black and brown communities.

There was Michael Brown, 18, of Ferguson, Missouri. There was Kajieme Powell, 25, of St. Louis, Missouri—just 10 days later. There was Rekia Boyd, 22, of Chicago, Illinois. Eric Garner, 43, of Long Island, New York. Ezell Ford, 25, of Los Angeles, California. Tamir Rice, 12, of Cleveland, Ohio. Walter Scott, 50, of North Charleston, South Carolina. And Freddie Gray, 25, of Baltimore, Maryland.

“These are all cases that have received national media attention; however, there are many more including Hispanic and Indigenous individuals from communities across the country who have died at the hands of the police,” the report states.

“Reform is needed and it is needed immediately,” Hawkins added. “Lives are at stake.”

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Eifel GP: Thursday’s build-up in pictures

October 10, 2020 | News | No Comments

There was a lot of enthusiasm among F1 folk when it was announced that the sport would return to the Nürburgring, but the grey, cold and soggy weather has put a damper on the community’s ardor.

Check out our pictures from Thursday’s build-up to the Eifel GP, the eleventh round of the 2020 Formula 1 World Championship.

Progressive group frustrated with DNC over transition team

October 9, 2020 | News | No Comments

A top progressive interest group says it’s frustrated with the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) transition advisory committee, saying the roster needs more liberals.

DNC Chairman Tom Perez on Wednesday announced who would sit on the 30-member committee, which included a broad sampling of Democrats from a variety of constituencies within the party.

But the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) wants more representation from the party’s liberal wing.

“Many progressives are noticing that the initial names on the DNC Transition Advisory Committee include zero leaders of progressive grassroots groups that engage in electoral work and very few movement progressives,” PCCC press secretary Kait Sweeney said in a statement.

She added that her organization plans to send the DNC additional names she hopes the party adds to the list, arguing that leaders of grassroots movements would help the party capture energy of those who are making up the “resistance” to President Trump.

A source familiar with the commission’s selection told The Hill that Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), a progressive favorite who unsuccessfully ran for DNC chairman before becoming deputy chairman, had input on the selection process. Other new officers within the DNC gave input as well.

The party organization is also planning to meet with the PCCC and other groups, the source added, as it continues to transition after Perez’s successful campaign last month to lead the party.

The advisory committee’s roster includes three members who are specifically favored by progressives: labor activist Ai-jen Poo, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and union activist Brian Weeks.

There are also a handful of other activists with progressive chops, including Black Lives Matter figure Deray McKesson, former American Federation of Teachers aide LaToia Jones, and former DNC chairman candidates Pete Buttigieg, Sally Boynton Brown and Jehmu Greene.

In addition, there are a handful of DNC members — all of whom either voted for Perez for chairman or abstained — as well as other establishment party officials and strategists, including high-profile Hillary ClintonHillary Diane Rodham ClintonWhite House accuses Biden of pushing ‘conspiracy theories’ with Trump election claim Biden courts younger voters — who have been a weakness Trayvon Martin’s mother Sybrina Fulton qualifies to run for county commissioner in Florida MORE campaign ally and former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm.

Xochitl Hinojosa, a spokeswoman with the DNC, described the advisory committee as “just a start to the broader transition efforts.”

“Over the weeks to come, Tom Perez and DNC leadership will continue meeting with key stakeholders in our big tent party, including progressive leaders, labor, and experts in various fields to discuss priorities for the DNC, grassroots organizing, reaching key voters who were left behind this last election, and raising the resources needed to succeed,” she added.

Ellison had praise for several members of the committee.

“I’m glad to see so many outstanding Democrats represented on the Transition Advisory Committee, including my friend and colleague Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, worker advocate Ai-Jen Poo, and labor leaders like Brian Weeks from the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees,” Ellison said in a statement to The Hill.

“In the weeks and months ahead, Tom and I will continue to work not just with this committee but with a broad coalition of Democrats, state parties, organizers and activists looking to increase the DNC’s engagement with rank-and-file members and progressive advocates across the country.

Months after a difficult Election Day, Democrats are seeking to regroup under Perez as they look to combat Trump and capture the enthusiasm surrounding the opposition to him.

By the end of April, the party’s “unity commission” will begin working to offer various recommendations to grow the party and deal with controversial issues like the role of superdelegates in the nominating process.

Democrats agreed to establish the commission during the 2016 party convention to help bridge the gap between progressives and establishment Democrats in the wake of the conentious presidential primary race between Sen. Bernie SandersBernie SandersThe Hill’s 12:30 Report: Milley apologizes for church photo-op Harris grapples with defund the police movement amid veep talk Biden courts younger voters — who have been a weakness MORE (I-Vt.) and Clinton.

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Eight Men, Including Two of 'Bali 9,' Reportedly Executed in Indonesia

October 9, 2020 | News | No Comments

According to Indonesian media, eight men, including two of the Bali 9, have been executed. One of the prisoners set to be executed, Mary Jane Veloso, has reportedly received a reprieve. The Guardian is providing live updates.

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The Indonesian government is on the verge of executing nine death row drug convicts, including eight foreigners and two members of the so-called ‘Bali 9,’ after rejecting their 11th-hour clemency pleas ahead of what is being called the country’s largest mass execution in decades.

Friends and relatives of prisoners convicted of trying to smuggle heroin and cocaine out of Bali in 2005 held farewell meetings with the inmates on Tuesday on the prison island of Nusa Kambangan, situated off the coast of Java.

The Bali 9 pair are Australians Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, who officials say were the ringleaders of the operation. Also scheduled to be executed tonight are Martin Anderson, Raheem Agbaje Salami, and Silvester Obiekwe Nwolise of Nigeria; Rodrigo Gularte of Brazil; and Mary Jane Veloso of the Philippines.

They are to be tied to posts and killed by a firing squad within hours, shortly after midnight Jakarta time.

Another death row prisoner, Serge Atlaoui of France, was given a last-minute, two-week reprieve pending another review of his case. Legal and humanitarian appeals for the others have been exhausted, according to Human Rights Watch.

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“I won’t see my son again and they are going to take him tonight and shoot him and he is healthy and he is beautiful and he has a lot of compassion for other people,” Raji Sukumaran said, according to Australia’s ABC news agency. “I am asking the government not to kill him, please president, please don’t kill him today.”

International human rights organizations have slammed the death penalty as too harsh a penalty for drug crimes and are calling on Indonesian President Joko Widodo, who took office last year in a hotly contested election, to commute the sentences and end capital punishment altogether.

“President Widodo has an important opportunity to signal Indonesia’s rejection of the death penalty by sparing the lives of the 10 people facing looming execution,” said Human Rights Watch deputy Asia director Phelim Kine last week. “Widodo can demonstrate true leadership by ending capital punishment as unacceptable state brutality.”

The case has also drawn protests around the world, which have called attention to mitigating circumstances in many of the prisoners’ cases—including Gularte’s mental illnesses and charges that Veloso, a mother of two, was pushed into drug smuggling by a human trafficker.

A dispatch from Gularte’s home country of Brazil reads:

The Guardian is providing live updates on the events.

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Sanders to Make Presidential Aspirations Official in Vermont Next Week

October 9, 2020 | News | No Comments

Sen. Bernie Sanders, who said at the end of April that he would challenge Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination, will officially launch his run for president on Tuesday in Burlington, Vermont, campaign officials announced this week.

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Burlington is where Sanders began his political career, serving as mayor from 1981 to 1989, before going on to represent Vermont in the U.S. House and Senate.

“My hometown of Burlington and the people of Vermont have a special place in my heart,” Sanders said. “There is nowhere else in the world where I would hold an event this important.”

He continued:

There will be free Ben & Jerry’s ice cream at the kick-off. According to the Huffington Post, Jerry Greenfield, one half of the duo that created the Vermont-based ice cream company, hopes to personally scoop ice cream for Sanders at the event.

“I love Bernie’s take on the issues about inequality in this country, about the incredible discrepancy between wealth and poor, and that we’re just not taking care of people,” Greenfield reportedly said.

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Defying Courts and Critics, Obama Moves to Resurrect NSA's Phone Dragnet

October 9, 2020 | News | No Comments

A day after President Barack Obama signed the USA Freedom Act into law, the administration began efforts to re-start the government’s domestic bulk phone records collection program, new accounts confirm.

The National Security Agency (NSA) was forced to end its collection of domestic phone data on Sunday night after key provisions of the Patriot Act expired, leaving the mass surveillance program without federal authorization.

Under the USA Freedom Act, the agency will have a six-month grace period to hand over data retention control to private phone companies and then shut down its operation for good.

But the government now says it needs to restart the program in order to end it. According to an administration official’s statement on Wednesday, the White House will ask the secret court authorized under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to renew the program for the duration of the six-month transition phase.

Officials have not explained why.

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“We are taking the appropriate steps to obtain a court order reauthorizing the program. If such an order is granted, we’ll make an appropriate announcement at that time as we have with respect to past renewal applications,” the Justice Department’s national security spokesperson, Marc Raimondi, told the Guardian on Wednesday.

Officials also did not say whether the FISA court will also hear arguments from the newly created amicus curiae, a panel of outside experts providing input to the court on any matter. Under the USA Freedom Act, if the court chooses not to hear from the panel in significant cases regarding civil liberties, it is required to issue a written finding explaining why.

“When the provisions of the Patriot Act sunsetted…people all over celebrated that they could make a phone call to their friends and families without the government knowing about it for the first time in 14 years. This move to turn on bulk collection is another time when the executive branch and Congress does not serve the will of the people but instead their high dollar donors [like defense companies],” Tiffiniy Cheng, co-founder of civil liberties group Fight for the Future, told Common Dreams.

“The public will hold President Obama and Congress accountable for turning on bulk collection and reinstituting mass surveillance through the USA Freedom Act despite these bulk surveillance capabilities being 1. ineffective for counter-terrorism, 2. illegal 3. unpopular,” Cheng added.

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“While the USA Freedom Act allows for a period of six months to transition the collection of data outside of the NSA, the administration should actively work to move the program as quickly as possible,” Amie Stepanovich, an attorney with digital rights group Access, told the Guardian. “If the NSA takes the entire six months to stop indiscriminately collecting our data it is in violation of the spirit of the transition and needlessly continues to harm the privacy of users en masse. We need to move to the targeted collection codified by the USA Freedom Act without any delay.”

Jennifer Granick, director of civil liberties at Stanford University Law School’s Center on Internet and Society, added, “Whether the NSA can restart this bulk collection is a novel question, and this decision should not be made in secret. The Fisa court should appoint an amicus—that’s what this provision of USA Freedom is for. And the decision and its reasoning should be made public.”

In May, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a case brought by the ACLU that the NSA’s domestic phone surveillance program was illegal, in a decision hailed by ACLU staff attorney Alex Abdo as a “resounding victory for the rule of law.”

If the government succeeds in restarting the program, the ACLU may ask the court to file an injunction to block it, the Guardian reports.

“Bulk collection is already illegal under the 2nd Circuit Court of appeals, with their decision in the Clapper case. And now the passing of the USA Freedom Act has made that decision the law of the land,” Lee Tien, senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told Common Dreams. “We don’t see why the government would revive a program that has no demonstrable value. Now that they’re trying to revive bulk surveillance, it’s clear that this application raises novel and significant issues for the FISA Court that demands participation by the special advocate, because both a public court decision and an Act of Congress so clearly rejected the government’s self-aggrandizing legal interpretation.”

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Reprieve in Texas, But Assault on Reproductive Rights Continues Nationwide

October 9, 2020 | News | No Comments

Advocates for reproductive rights welcomed the ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday which put a block on a Texas law that would have shuttered nearly every abortion clinic in the state.

In a 5-4 decision (pdf), the ruling came in the form of a stay that will delay enforcement of the law—originally passed in the Texas legislature as H.B. 2 and signed into law in 2013—until a full challenge is taken up by the court. The stay, in effect, suspends a ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit earlier this month which upheld specific provisions of the law that would have likely resulted in the closure of all but nine abortion clinics in the state.

Defenders of women’s health say the decision is a good thing for women in Texas, but that far more is needed to restore the right to choose in Texas and beyond.

“This Supreme Court decision is a temporary victory for Texans’ health and safety, but it only postpones a public health disaster,” said NARAL Pro-Choice Texas executive director Heather Busby. “If allowed to go into full effect, H.B. 2 will devastate access to reproductive health care by leaving the state with fewer than 10 abortion clinics. Health care should not depend on your zip code or your bank balance. We can celebrate this decision today, but the reality is that Texans’ health and safety are still in jeopardy.”

With a host of anti-abortion laws in states around the country, conservative lawmakers have been executing a far-reaching assault on reproductive rights by passing myriad regulations which are making it harder for abortion clinics to remain open as well as imposing increasingly draconian laws on abortion providers and restrictions on women who want or need to terminate a pregnancy.

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Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said she welcomed Monday’s ruling by the court, but added that it is now time to put a stop to what she termed “clinic shutdown laws” once and for all. Such laws, she said, have swept the South in recent years, threatening to further devastate abortion access in a region already facing limited availability of reproductive health care services. Currently, the last abortion clinic in the state of Mississippi is awaiting a decision on whether the U.S. Supreme Court will review its state’s clinic shutdown law and in neighboring Louisiana a trial has just concluded in the challenge to a similar set of restrictions.

“Our Constitution rightly protects women from laws that would create barriers to safe and legal abortion care, but Texas politicians have tried to sneak around the Constitution with sham regulations designed to close clinics’ doors,” Northrup said. “The Supreme Court has affirmed time and again that a woman has a constitutionally protected right to decide whether to continue or end a pregnancy, and we are confident the justices will make clear once again that the constitutional protections for safe and legal abortion are real.”

Speaking on the ruling, Planned Parenthood Action Fund president Cecile Richards said that the assault on reproductive rights is not isolated to Texas and that all people concerned about the rollback of individual rights and constitutional protections should be very concerned about what the Republican-controlled states have been doing.

“This dangerous law never should have passed in the first place,” said Richards, “which is why we need to elect leaders who will champion women’s health and rights. Texas has become a cautionary tale and an example of what could happen in all 50 states if Rick Perry, Scott Walker, Jeb Bush and other Republican contenders have their way.”

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'For the Love of the Planet,' Thousands Lobby UK Lawmakers for Climate Action

October 9, 2020 | News | No Comments

Taking the opportunity to tell lawmakers exactly what they think of legislative inaction in the face of the growing climate crisis, an estimated 9,000 Brits on Wednesday descended on London’s Westminster Abbey to lobby Members of Parliament (MPs) to add climate change to their agenda.

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Beekeepers, surfers, nuns, children, and faith leaders were among the stakeholders present who were urged by protest organizers to “speak up to their MPs about what they love that’s affected by climate change.”

Roughly 9,000 constituents reportedly queued up in the “lobby line” before meeting face-to-face with individual MPs.

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“Politicians hear a lot from people who have an interest in keeping fossil fuels burning and our temperature warming. Let’s make sure that, as they start out in a new parliament, they hear instead from the vast majority of us who want a cleaner, safer and more sustainable world,” wrote the Climate Coalition, which organized the protest and includes over 100 members that range from big international environmental organizations to grassroots and social justice groups.

Those who were unable to attend were encouraged to write their local MP.

Guardian reporter Emma Howard spoke to a number of those participating in the day of action. She writes:

Ahead of the demonstration, the Coalition encouraged participants to create “bunting,” on which they would inscribe a message about what they hope to protect from climate change. The final “bunting petition” reportedly stretched along the banks of the River Thames.

Campaigners say that the huge turnout demonstrates how widespread concern over the changing climate has grown—and that elected officials should take that growth as a mandate for climate action.

“Our politicians should be left in no doubt that the public see climate change as a global problem that affects us all and that we expect them to act in this important year to secure a safer future,” said Nick Bryer, Oxfam’s head of UK campaigns.

Images of the lobby day were shared online under the hashtag #fortheloveof.

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'Humanity Washes Ashore' Goes Viral as Photos Capture Horror of War, Plight of Refugees

October 9, 2020 | News | No Comments

A series of heartbreaking photos showing a young boy—believed to be a refugee from Syria—washed up on the beach in Turkey after a failed attempt to cross the sea to Greece is being shared and discussed across the world on Wednesday after many media outlets decided to publish the images as a way to confront Europeans—and humanity at large—with a “stark reminder” that “more and more refugees are dying in their desperation to flee persecution and reach safety.”

“This tragic image of a little boy who’s lost his life fleeing Syria is shocking and is a reminder of the dangers children and families are taking in search of a better life. This child’s plight should concentrate minds and force the EU to come together and agree to a plan to tackle the refugee crisis.” —Justin Forsyth, Save the Children

Under the social media hashtag #KiyiyaVuranInsanlik (which translates from the Turkish as “humanity washes ashore”), the photos have spurred a global outcry surrounding the plight of those families and individuals who have become victims to the “callous indifference” of western nations and what international aid groups have decried as a broken system for the world’s ballooning refugee population.

As the Guardian reports:

The two images described can be see here and here. (: these images are graphic and may be distressing to view.)

Though only one young life out of the nearly three thousand people estimated to have died so far this year while attempting to reach Europe by crossing the Mediterranean Sea, the pictures of the young boy appear to have captured the collective sorrow of those sickened by a world in which children—with or without their families—are forced to face such dangers in order to escape the threats of war and impoverishment that have made their homelands unlivable.

( Despite agreeing with the sentiment that such images should be seen as a way for the general public to be confronted with the horrors wrought by endless war, a global assault on human rights, and the scourge of poverty and statelessness that results, Common Dreams has decided not to publish the images on our pages given their ubiquity elsewhere and in deference to the unidentified child’s family and anyone who may be needlessly traumatized by viewing such images.)

Responding to the impact the photo was having, Justin Forsyth, CEO of Save the Children, told the Guardian the “tragic image of a little boy who’s lost his life fleeing Syria is shocking and is a reminder of the dangers children and families are taking in search of a better life. This child’s plight should concentrate minds and force the EU to come together and agree to a plan to tackle the refugee crisis.”

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Explaining why it published the un-edited photos prominently on its homepage, the UK-based Independent said it made the decision “because, among the often glib words about the ‘ongoing migrant crisis,’ it is all too easy to forget the reality of the desperate situation facing many refugees.”

While dramatic images of desperate refugees “emerge almost every day,” the newspaper continued, “the attitude of Europe’s policymakers and much of the public have continued to harden.”

In an open letter to “anyone who ever talked down the refugee crisis,” the Independent‘s sister publication, i100, went further on the necessity of the general public seeing the photos. Addressed to a cross-section of individuals and groups of people who have framed the plight of refugees seeking asylum in Europe as a “migrant crisis”—specifically [British Prime Minister] David Cameron, Theresa May, Nigel Farage, the Daily Express, protesters in Germany, Katie Hopkins, Philip Hammond, anyone who has ever written a disparaging comment on a Mail Online article, police in Hungary, the governments of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland and Slovakia, the people of Britain, Czech police, tourists in Kos, Tony Abbott, cartoonists, Ukip MEPs and people on Twitter—the letter chastises those who have disparaged and dehumanized those desperate enough to make the journey while “spreading anti-migrant and anti-refugee sentiment” across Europe and beyond. It states:

“Enough is enough,” the letter concluded. “Attitudes have to change. See the human and not the imagined danger that anything is under threat apart from these people’s lives. A refugee crisis unlike any other since the Second World War is unfurling on our doorstep and now is the time to help people who need it the most.”

Despite the distressing and repetitive imagery, the social media conversation surrounding the images continues on Twitter and other platforms.

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Ryan sending checks to Republicans' campaign committees: report

October 8, 2020 | News | No Comments

Speaker Paul RyanPaul Davis RyanBush, Romney won’t support Trump reelection: NYT Twitter joins Democrats to boost mail-in voting — here’s why Lobbying world MORE (R-Wis.) is dispersing funds straight to House Republicans’ campaign committees on Tuesday as the GOP gears up for the 2018 midterm elections, according to a new report.

Ryan is sending $1.2 million from his own political accounts to Republican lawmakers facing primary challengers and who have general election competition, Politico Playbook reported. Checks will go out to roughly half of the House Republican Conference, the news outlet added.

Ryan’s political director reportedly emailed the lawmakers’ staffs telling them they could pick up the checks at the Republican National Committee headquarters.

Ryan in March also sent a record $7 million to the National Republican Congressional Committee as lawmakers prepare for the 2018 cycle.

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Republicans are also working to ensure that several seats vacated by Trump Cabinet members remain in GOP hands.

Scott Wong contributed to this report.

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