Jun 6, 2017 03:16 AM
Racial 'disparity' in police respect
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-40135240
EXCERPT: Officers speak less respectfully to members of the public who are black than to those who are white, researchers studying police body camera footage say. The US team developed a way to measure the level of respect, based on the language used by officers during routine traffic stops. The study is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.It aims to use bodycam footage to help improve police-community relations.
While bodycam footage has been used as evidence in criminal cases - including some where complaints have been made against police - the aim of this study was to turn this continuously gathered footage into data and use that to track and improve everyday policing.
"These routine interactions are important," said lead scientists Prof Jennifer Eberhardt, "they're the way most people encounter the police. And people care as much about how they're treated as whether or not they got a [speeding] ticket. It can affect how people view the police, how they think about the police - whether or not they want to co-operate with them...."
14 arrested as the many extremes of Portland collide in protest
http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/04/us/portlan...index.html
EXCERPT: At least 14 people were arrested on Sunday amid competing protests in Portland, Oregon, over a tangled web of emotions to arise from a deadly commuter train stabbing in May.
[...] What began as a tense exchange of name-calling and profane insults took a turn when counterdemonstrators began throwing glass bottles, bricks and balloons of "foul-smelling liquid" at officers, Portland police said. Officers used pepper spray to push back the counterdemonstrators and closed the park where they had gathered, threatening to arrest anyone who remained.
[...] Tensions continued to build in Portland as the incident turned the city into the latest battleground over free speech and race relations in the Trump era. "We hope and pray that both sides try to keep in mind that in the big picture it might be easy to forget with all the emotions running high that we all have the same basic needs," Portland resident Margie Fletcher told CNN before Sunday's rallies.
[...] Wheeler also called on protest organizer Joey Gibson to postpone the event. Gibson told CNN the event was planned before the stabbings and that Patriot Prayer had nothing to with Christian, the defendant. It was, he said, about taking a stand for President Trump and free speech in a liberal part of the country. He said his group is not racist or "alt-right" and it should not be held responsible for the actions of counterdemonstrators, many of whom identified as anti-fascists.
[...] In addition to the arrests, a large pickup truck flying two large American flags cruised past hundreds of anti-fascist protesters and honked its horn. Several people in the group ran up to the truck and ripped out the flags, bringing them into the crowd as others applauded. Others threw multiple large water bottles, sticks and other projectiles at the truck, which then sped away....
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-40135240
EXCERPT: Officers speak less respectfully to members of the public who are black than to those who are white, researchers studying police body camera footage say. The US team developed a way to measure the level of respect, based on the language used by officers during routine traffic stops. The study is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.It aims to use bodycam footage to help improve police-community relations.
While bodycam footage has been used as evidence in criminal cases - including some where complaints have been made against police - the aim of this study was to turn this continuously gathered footage into data and use that to track and improve everyday policing.
"These routine interactions are important," said lead scientists Prof Jennifer Eberhardt, "they're the way most people encounter the police. And people care as much about how they're treated as whether or not they got a [speeding] ticket. It can affect how people view the police, how they think about the police - whether or not they want to co-operate with them...."
14 arrested as the many extremes of Portland collide in protest
http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/04/us/portlan...index.html
EXCERPT: At least 14 people were arrested on Sunday amid competing protests in Portland, Oregon, over a tangled web of emotions to arise from a deadly commuter train stabbing in May.
[...] What began as a tense exchange of name-calling and profane insults took a turn when counterdemonstrators began throwing glass bottles, bricks and balloons of "foul-smelling liquid" at officers, Portland police said. Officers used pepper spray to push back the counterdemonstrators and closed the park where they had gathered, threatening to arrest anyone who remained.
[...] Tensions continued to build in Portland as the incident turned the city into the latest battleground over free speech and race relations in the Trump era. "We hope and pray that both sides try to keep in mind that in the big picture it might be easy to forget with all the emotions running high that we all have the same basic needs," Portland resident Margie Fletcher told CNN before Sunday's rallies.
[...] Wheeler also called on protest organizer Joey Gibson to postpone the event. Gibson told CNN the event was planned before the stabbings and that Patriot Prayer had nothing to with Christian, the defendant. It was, he said, about taking a stand for President Trump and free speech in a liberal part of the country. He said his group is not racist or "alt-right" and it should not be held responsible for the actions of counterdemonstrators, many of whom identified as anti-fascists.
[...] In addition to the arrests, a large pickup truck flying two large American flags cruised past hundreds of anti-fascist protesters and honked its horn. Several people in the group ran up to the truck and ripped out the flags, bringing them into the crowd as others applauded. Others threw multiple large water bottles, sticks and other projectiles at the truck, which then sped away....
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