All Discussions Tagged 'Justice' - GNH Community2024-03-28T11:10:32Zhttps://gnhcommunity.ning.com/forum/topic/listForTag?tag=Justice&feed=yes&xn_auth=noJUSTICE AND VICTIMS OF COLOR – Prof KBD - A DISCUSSION FORUMtag:gnhcommunity.ning.com,2014-04-07:3365802:Topic:628052014-04-07T18:46:04.757ZN'Zinga Shanihttps://gnhcommunity.ning.com/profile/NZingaShani
<p> <span class="font-size-3"><b><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; color: black;">Professor Khalilah Brown-Dean (et al) – NY Times – A Truly Engaging Legal & Civic Engagement Forum. We invite you to participate.</span></b></span></p>
<h1><span class="font-size-3">New Haven’s own Professor Khalilah Brown-Dean (<i>Quinnipiac University</i>), has written an informative and provocative piece in the New York Times; it leads the ensuing debate – with articles by others -- about the…</span></h1>
<p> <span class="font-size-3"><b><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; color: black;">Professor Khalilah Brown-Dean (et al) – NY Times – A Truly Engaging Legal & Civic Engagement Forum. We invite you to participate.</span></b></span></p>
<h1><span class="font-size-3">New Haven’s own Professor Khalilah Brown-Dean (<i>Quinnipiac University</i>), has written an informative and provocative piece in the New York Times; it leads the ensuing debate – with articles by others -- about the manner in which “justice” is determined and dispensed in the USA. We invite you to read the articles in their entirety and make your comments here on GNH, or join this Civic Engagement <i>‘Room for Debate’</i> on Facebook; see the links below. We have also linked brief statements from each argument in this discussion forum.</span></h1>
<h1><span class="font-size-3">We invite readers to pay close attention to the argument being made by John McAdams. While this argument is skewed, it can be applied to New Haven. The exception might be that the reasons so many murders go unsolved in black communities, and in this case in New Haven are: <span style="color: #0000ff;">a) </span>due to a lack of cooperation with the police, and frankly <span style="color: #0000ff;">b)</span> not a great amount of investigative efforts on the part of the NHPD. <span style="color: #0000ff;">c)</span> It is most likely that the 107 young black men killed in New Haven between 2009 and April 3, 2014 were killed by other young black men. <span style="color: #0000ff;">d)</span> The thinking might be - if black people don't want to save each other, why should the police care about saving them?</span></h1>
<h1><span class="font-size-3">One of the most recent high profile murders in NH was the murder of 23 year-old Michael Dubey, a white male, who was killed in his home on Bassett Street. His accused assailant was a young black male; he was brought to trial and set free. No one else has been brought to trial. But at least someone had been arrested.</span></h1>
<h1><span class="font-size-3"><span style="color: #0000ff;"><u>Issues to be addressed</u>:</span> <span style="color: #0000ff;">a)</span> In most of the 107 murders of young black men (in NH), very few suspects have been arrested. Why do you think that is so? <span style="color: #0000ff;">b)</span> What do you think are the reasons why more people in black communities don't cooperate with the police? <span style="color: #0000ff;">c)</span> Last week in the NHI there is a report of a security guard screaming at students at Riverside Academy not to speak with the press, and a report that staff at the school told students 'not to snitch.' This is even in light of the fact that Riverside students have been murdered. <span style="color: #0000ff;">d)</span> What accounts for this, and how can this 'no snitch culture' be changed?</span></h1>
<p><strong><span style="color: #0000ff;" class="font-size-3">"The student was interrupted by a school security guard inside Riverside who opened the door and screamed at him not to talk to the press. Other students nearby taunted him and warned that school staff had said not to “snitch.”</span></strong> <strong><span class="font-size-3"><a href="http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/16-year-old_murdered/">http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/16-year-old_murdered/</a> </span></strong></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><b><u>Professor Khalilah Brown-Dean</u></b>: “The Supreme Court has routinely upheld a state’s right to sentence its citizens to death. The arbitrary way in which we decide which crimes are most heinous and which lives most valuable leaves us with a system of capital punishment that is cruel, unusual and irreparably broken.”</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">“If we accept the commonly held view that the death penalty represents the ultimate realization of justice for victims, then we also have to accept the fact that justice is rarely served for victims of color. The empirically backed reality is that killing black and brown people <a href="http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/documents/FactSheet.pdf">rarely brings a death sentence</a>. At least one study has shown that minority defendants with white victims were far <a href="https://www.law.stanford.edu/news/the-random-horror-of-the-death-penalty">more likely to be sentenced to death</a> than others.”</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/RoomforDebate">https://www.facebook.com/RoomforDebate</a></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2014/04/06/what-it-means-if-the-death-penalty-is-dying/justice-and-victims-of-color">http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2014/04/06/what-it-means-if-the-death-penalty-is-dying/justice-and-victims-of-color</a></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><b>Rare and Decreasing - <a href="http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/staff-and-board-directors">Richard Dieter</a> is the executive director of the</b> <a href="http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/">Death Penalty Information Center</a>.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">“When the U.S. Supreme Court considers whether a punishment is cruel and unusual, they examine it in terms of current standards of decency. The Court looks to the number of states using the punishment, and whether its use is frequent or declining. In 2005, for example, the <a href="http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=543&invol=551">court struck down the death penalty for juvenile offenders</a> because most states did not allow it, and its use was rare and decreasing even where it was allowed.”</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2014/04/06/what-it-means-if-the-death-penalty-is-dying/use-of-the-death-penalty-is-rare-and-decreasing">http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2014/04/06/what-it-means-if-the-death-penalty-is-dying/use-of-the-death-penalty-is-rare-and-decreasing</a></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><b>Robert Blecker</b> (Professor at NY Law School) <b>Punishment Needs to Be Punishment- “</b>If the U.S. Supreme Court wants to promote human dignity, if it really reflects the will of the people and not their leaders, the justices will constitutionally continue the punishment of death, allowing us to denounce our worst predators and at least declare our commitment to -- although we rarely deliver -- real justice.” <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2014/04/06/what-it-means-if-the-death-penalty-is-dying/the-death-penalty-needs-to-be-an-option-for-punishment">http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2014/04/06/what-it-means-if-the-death-penalty-is-dying/the-death-penalty-needs-to-be-an-option-for-punishment</a></span></p>
<h3><span class="font-size-3">Paul Butler (is a professor at Georgetown University Law Center). </span> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2014/04/06/what-it-means-if-the-death-penalty-is-dying/capital-punishment-is-the-most-unusual-its-ever-been">The Most ‘Unusual’ It’s Ever Been</a> -</h3>
<p><span class="font-size-3">“When capital punishment was more common, it was easy to claim that people are executed because they are criminals. But now that fewer criminals receive the death penalty, that's no longer the case, and there are compelling reasons to argue that African-Americans are disproportionately subject to the death penalty not because of their crime, but because of their race.”</span></p>
<h1><strong><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="font-size-3">John McAdams (Associate professor of Political Science at Marquette University) Claims of Racial Disparity Are Misleading – “As for racial disparity in the death penalty, the reality is radically different from people’s stereotypes. Black offenders are less likely to get a death sentence than white offenders. The reason for this, <a href="http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/clqv90&div=18&id=&page=">as demonstrated by Theodore Eisenberg in the Cornell Law Review</a>, is that murders committed by blacks (and of course, the vast majority of these victims are also black) are concentrated in the central cities of large metropolitan areas.”</span></span></strong></h1> State Appeals Court Ruled In Favor Of Sugar Sodas: Should We Be Allowed to Poison Our Bodies?tag:gnhcommunity.ning.com,2013-08-10:3365802:Topic:563332013-08-10T05:04:15.336ZN'Zinga Shanihttps://gnhcommunity.ning.com/profile/NZingaShani
<p><strong><span style="color: #0000ff;">GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH! IS THAT WHAT THE COURT RULING IS SAYING?</span></strong></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">The New York State Appeals Court Ruled In Favor Of Sugar Sodas. It said Mayor Bloomberg cannot prevent NY residents from poisoning their bodies with these oversize sodas, even when the state of New York has to pay the excessively high medical bills for many of its indigent residents who have diabetes and other obesity-related…</span></p>
<p><strong><span style="color: #0000ff;">GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH! IS THAT WHAT THE COURT RULING IS SAYING?</span></strong></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">The New York State Appeals Court Ruled In Favor Of Sugar Sodas. It said Mayor Bloomberg cannot prevent NY residents from poisoning their bodies with these oversize sodas, even when the state of New York has to pay the excessively high medical bills for many of its indigent residents who have diabetes and other obesity-related illnesses.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #0000ff;" class="font-size-3"><strong>Should We Be Allowed to Poison Our Bodies?</strong> <strong>Especially when someone else has to pick up the bill?</strong> <strong>Should the state try to protect those who do not know how to protect themselves?</strong></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><strong>“Excessive soda consumption can cause obesity. Obesity can cause diabetes. Diabetes can cause blindness. Blindness is an apt description of the ruling’s reasoning, or lack thereof.”</strong></span></p>
<p><b> </b><span class="font-size-3"><strong><a href="http://recp.rm02.net/ctt?m=5613767&r=MTY4Nzk3MTA3NDYS1&b=0&j=MzI3NjU3ODEzS0&k=Link7&kt=1&kd=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nydailynews.com%2Fopinion%2Fdrinking-kool-aid-article-1.1413242" target="_blank">Drinking the Kool-Aid: A State Appeals Court is Dead Wrong on Sugar Soda (Editorial)</a></strong> <b><br/></b></span><i>Daily News</i>, Editorial Board, 08/01/2013 <br/><span class="font-size-3">As New York’s obesity problem catches up with smoking as the city’s leading cause of preventable death, a state appellate court has whistled past the graveyard — striking down Mayor Bloomberg’s pioneering effort to limit the size of sugary drink servings. Excessive soda consumption can cause obesity. Obesity can cause diabetes. Diabetes can cause blindness. Blindness is an apt description of the ruling’s reasoning, or lack thereof.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><b> </b></span><span class="font-size-3"><b>Under the Bloomberg policy, sodas larger than 16 ounces would be limited in some settings. Good idea.</b></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">As New York’s obesity problem catches up with smoking as the city’s leading cause of preventable death, a state appellate court has whistled past the graveyard — <b>striking down</b> <b><a title="Michael Bloomberg" href="http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Michael+Bloomberg">Mayor Bloomberg</a></b><b>’s pioneering effort to limit the size of sugary drink servings.</b></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Excessive soda consumption can cause obesity. Obesity can cause diabetes. Diabetes can cause blindness. Blindness is an apt description of the ruling’s reasoning, or lack thereof.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">The Board of Health’s 2012 restrictions on empty-calorie sodas in excess of 16 ounces made good legal and public health sense: When there’s a direct connection between excessive consumption of a product and death, make access to that product a little more difficult.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">The evidence here is clear. There’s a difference between sugary soda and other food and drink. Namely, large quantities of the stuff can be consumed without sating the appetite. That drives thousands to become overweight — and, as a result, suffer from a host of health problems.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Obesity is responsible for 5,000 deaths in the city every year. Those deaths — this is crucial — occur in wildly disproportionate numbers in poorer neighborhoods. People in East New York are four times more likely to die from diabetes as those on the upper East Side. And it’s kids, low-income kids especially, who, bombarded with soda ads, start binging in their teenage years.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">What did the court say about this mountain of evidence? Approximately, it yawned.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">The plan, wrote Justice Diane Renwick, “looks beyond health concerns, in that it manipulates choice to try to change consumer norms.” And the fact that the city made exceptions for milk-, fruit- and coffee-based drinks and for some drink sellers was supposed proof of unconstitutionality.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #0000ff;"><strong><span class="font-size-3">In other words, if you can’t do everything, you can’t do anything.</span></strong></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Hogwash. Bloomberg was right to try to curb food-stamp purchases of sugary soda (thwarted by the USDA). He was right to push for a higher soda tax (thwarted by the state Legislature after heavy lobbying by the soda industry).</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Bloomberg will correctly ask the state’s highest court to overrule this terrible decision. And the next mayor must keep fighting the rising tide.</span></p>
<p><strong><span class="font-size-3"><a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/drinking-kool-aid-article-1.1413242">http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/drinking-kool-aid-article-1.1413242</a></span></strong></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><b>Sugary Drinks and Obesity Fact Sheet – Harvard School of Public Health’s Nutrition Source</b></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><b>The Problem: Sugary Drinks Are a Major Contributor to the Obesity Epidemic</b></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><b>Read much more about Harvard School of Public Health's nutrition Report at the link below</b></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><b><a href="http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/sugary-drinks-fact-sheet/">http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/sugary-drinks-fact-sheet/</a></b></span></p>
<p><span style="color: #0000ff;" class="font-size-3"><b>This fact sheet assembles key scientific evidence on the link between sugary drink consumption and obesity.</b></span></p> Should Police Have Handcuffed A Six-Year-Old Ga. Kindergartner for Tantrum & Placed Her In A Holding Cell?tag:gnhcommunity.ning.com,2012-04-18:3365802:Topic:388722012-04-18T04:25:20.024ZN'Zinga Shanihttps://gnhcommunity.ning.com/profile/NZingaShani
<p><a href="http://www.ap.org/"></a><b><i>Associated Press – (April 16, 2012)</i></b></p>
<p><b> </b> <b><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/police-handcuff-ga-kindergartner-tantrum-112459850.html">Police handcuff Ga. kindergartner for tantrum - Yahoo! News</a></b></p>
<p><b>news.yahoo.com/police-handcuff-ga-kindergartner-tantrum-112459...</b><b>12 hours ago</b> – <b>Associated Press</b> – 12 <b>hrs ago </b> <b>Monday, April 16, 2012</b></p>
<p> </p>
<p><b>On Sunday, March 11, 2012, on…</b></p>
<p><a href="http://www.ap.org/"></a><b><i>Associated Press – (April 16, 2012)</i></b></p>
<p><b> </b> <b><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/police-handcuff-ga-kindergartner-tantrum-112459850.html">Police handcuff Ga. kindergartner for tantrum - Yahoo! News</a></b></p>
<p><b>news.yahoo.com/police-handcuff-ga-kindergartner-tantrum-112459...</b><b>12 hours ago</b> – <b>Associated Press</b> – 12 <b>hrs ago </b> <b>Monday, April 16, 2012</b></p>
<p> </p>
<p><b>On Sunday, March 11, 2012, on Comcast Chan. 26,</b> OneWorld Progressive Institute presented a community education program titled: <b><u>Profiling the CT Juvenile Justice System</u></b>. Our guests were: Abby Anderson, Executive Director, Juvenile Justice Alliance, John Gill, Director, Juvenile Justice Services, and Kyisha Velazquez, JRB Program Manager NH Family Alliance & Hamden Juvenile Review Board. In that program Abby Anderson and the other guests talked about the fact that CT does not have a lowest age when children cannot be arrested, so as seen in this Associated Press story linked above <b>a six-year old child in kindergarten was arrested and handcuffed for throwing a tandrum in school!</b></p>
<p><b> </b><b>Are we saying that children at any age should be allowed to damage property and injure others? Of course not; that would be irresponsible. But as Abby Anderson pointed out in our Juvenile Justice program, when White children act-out negatively in school or elsewhere, they are most often evaluated for mental health issues; they are clinicalized. When Black children act out negatively, they are criminalized and the police are called, and the children are arrested, handcuffed and often locked up by police until parents can come and take responsibility for them. WHY IS THIS SO?</b> We are aware that some of the perceptions about Black children being violent are so engrained that we react without thought.</p>
<p>OneWorld plans to reair the Profiling CT Juvenile Justice System program in June. Unfortunately, in the Hamden, New Haven and West Haven area (Comcast Chan. 26) OneWorld programs are restricted to one airing per week and that is on Sundays at 7pm. OneWorld has no control over this restriction; however, the guests on this program were very on target in helping us to understand what is happening in the CT Juvenile Justice System. It is clearly also happening in other places. </p>
<p>Below are links to various media reports on this story of a six-year old being placed in handcuffs. We also invite you to go to the other links listed to learn about America's Zero Tolerance School Policy. What exactly is going on in our schools? Are the police now the line of first response when small children throw tantrums? Or is there something else going on here? Click the various links from the many sources listed. Read the complete story. Then ask yourself these and other questions. What exactly are we doing as a society? What are the real objectives we are trying to achieve?</p>
<p><b><u>Questions to Ponder Seriously:</u></b> Some of the questions we need to ask ourselves are: </p>
<p>1) What do we expect of and from our Police Depts.? Are we putting them in untenable situations?</p>
<p>2) Should the police be called on a six-year-old kindergarten student who has no weapons, but who seems to be very emotionally upset, or even out-of-control? </p>
<p>3) Are the police trained social workers and psychologists? What are they expected to do except arrest the child? What is the real purpose in calling the cops?</p>
<p>4) When the cops are called in these situations what does it say about the professional skills and abilities of the adults who are supposed to be in charge of the classroom or school where these events occur?</p>
<p>5) What is the purpose of the 1994 Zero Tolerance Policies in Schools in 2012? Please visit this link to learn more and to read the Pros and Cons of the debate: <b><a href="http://www.debate.org/debates/The-zero-tolerance-policy-in-US-schools-is-an-unacceptable-force-in-schools-today./">Debate: The "zero tolerance" policy in US schools is an ...</a> </b> <b><a href="http://www.debate.org/.../The-zero-tolerance-policy-in-US-schools-is-an-">www.debate.org/.../The-zero-tolerance-policy-in-US-schools-is-an-</a></b></p>
<p><b>6) Read a 2009 comprehensive report that shows the results of schools</b> shifting <b>from a prevention and correction model to a reactive and punitive model</b> <b>here: </b> <a href="http://www.nasponline.org/publications/cq/mocq375zerotolerance.aspx">NASP CQ 37-5 - <b>Zero Tolerance Policies</b> and the <b>Public Schools</b> <b>...</b></a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.nasponline.org/publications/cq/mocq375zerotolerance.aspx">www.nasponline.org/<b>public</b>ations/cq/mocq375<b>zerotolerance</b>.aspx</a>. Finally, read the current report at this link:</p>
<p>7.) <b><a href="http://liftingtheveil.blog.com/2011/02/01/new-studies-confirm-lack-of-evidence-for-zero-tolerance-programs/">New studies confirm lack of evidence for “zero tolerance” programs ...</a></b></p>
<p><b>liftingtheveil.blog.com/.../new-studies-confirm-lack-of-evidence-for-...</b></p>
<p><a href="http://www.ap.org/"></a><i> Link to updated article By JEFF MARTIN and JERI CLAUSING | Associated Press – 53 mins ago</i> <b><a href="http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/world/53933778-68/police-albuquerque-arrested-girl.html.csp">Police handcuff Georgia kindergartner for tantrum | The Salt L</a><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/photos/u-s--slideshow/monday-april-16-2012-image-made-video-provided-photo-135621372.html"> </a><a href="http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/world/53933778-68/police-albuquerque-arrested-girl.html.csp">ake ...</a></b></p>
<p><b><a href="http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/...68/police-albuquerque-arrested-girl.html.csp">www.sltrib.com/sltrib/...68/police-albuquerque-arrested-girl.html.csp</a> </b><b> </b></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;" class="first"><span class="yshortcuts1">MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga</span><span class="yshortcuts1"><span style="font-family: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;">.</span></span> <span style="font-family: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;">(AP) — Police in Georgia handcuffed a kindergartner after the girl threw a tantrum and the police chief defended the action.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;">The girl's family demanded Tuesday that this central Georgia city change policy so that other children aren't treated the same way. They say the child was shaken up by being put in a cell at the police station.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif';" class="font-size-3">Salecia Johnson, 6, was accused of tearing items off the walls and throwing furniture in an outburst Friday at Creekside Elementary School, Macon television station WMAZ-TV (<a href="http://on.wmaz.com/HPb7nr">http://on.wmaz.com/HPb7nr</a>) reported. Police said the girl knocked over a shelf that injured the principal.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif';" class="font-size-3">The school called police. The police report says when an officer tried to calm the child in the principal's office, she resisted and was handcuffed. The girl was charged with simple assault and damage to property.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">. <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/04/17/police-handcuff-georgia-kindergartner-for-tantrum460320/"><b>Police handcuff Georgia kindergartner for tantrum</b></a></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Fox News - ATLANTA – A <b>kindergartner</b> who threw a <b>tantrum</b> at her small-town <b>Georgia</b> school was taken away in <b>handcuffs</b>, her arms behind her back.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=Police+handcuff+Ga.+kindergartner+for+tantrum&hl=en&biw=1271&bih=498&prmd=imvnsu&source=univ&tbm=nws&tbo=u&sa=X&ei=6i-OT76JJsOs0AGc5vXxBg&sqi=2&ved=0CFkQqAIoADAA">News for <b>Police handcuff Ga. kindergartner for tantrum</b></a></p>
<p><b> </b> <b><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/police-in-ga-handcuff-kindergartener-6-for-tantrum-schools-wrestle-with-when-to-call-cops/2012/04/17/gIQAFd0APT_story.html">Police in Ga. handcuff kindergartner, 6, for tantrum; schools wrestle with when to call cops</a> -</b> <b>Washington Post</b><b></b> <b>-</b></p>
<p> </p>