Day: October 5, 2021

Closing Thought–05Oct21

WE all know or have heard/read reports about the violence committed on civilians by the police of this country.

But did you know that those horrific reports you have seen are under reported?

That’s right….55% of the police killings do not appear in the stats…..

Police killings in the US represent an “urgent public health crisis,” the size of which is not accurately reflected in the official statistics that guide health policy, according to a new study in the Lancet medical journal. Researchers say they compared data from National Vital Statistics System to open-source databases and found that an estimated 30,800 Americans died from police violence between 1980 and 2019, but more than 17,000 of the deaths, around 55%, were either unreported or misclassified. More:

  • Racial disparities. The study found that Black Americans were 3.5 times more likely to die from police violence than white Americans, and around 60% of their deaths were misclassified in the NVSS database, the Guardian reports. “Inaccurately reporting or misclassifying these deaths further obscures the larger issue of systemic racism that is embedded in many US institutions, including law enforcement,” says co-lead author Fablina Shahara
  • Reasons for the undercount. The researchers say that while clerical errors likely account for some of the discrepancy, coroners and medical examiners who work closely with police departments are likely to feel “substantial conflicts of interest” that make them reluctant to record police violence as a cause of death, reports USA Today. The researchers note that vital statistics systems in the US and other countries are usually considered reliable, but conflicts of interests arise when reporting police violence, “since the same state responsible for violence is also responsible for reporting it.”
  • Oklahoma was the worst in two ways. The study found that Oklahoma had the highest rate of underreporting fatal police violence, followed by Wyoming, Alabama, Louisiana and Nebraska. Oklahoma also had the highest death rate from police violence. Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Minnesota had the lowest rates of police killings.
  • Men 20 times more likely to die from police violence. The researchers say men were around 20 more times likely than women to be killed by police, with an estimated 30,600 deaths in men and 1,420 deaths in women during the period studied, though they noted that data from death certificates only lists two genders, concealing the extent of police violence against transgender women.
  • Calls for a uniform nationwide system. There are currently no national standards on identifying deaths caused by law enforcement violence. Former Washington, DC chief medical examiner, an expert on investigating deaths in custody, tells the New York Times that death certificates should have a box that can be checked to indicate law enforcement involvement. “If it’s a function of training, a function of bias, a function of institutional and structural racism—all the things we can assume—we can identify that once we have a uniform system,” he says.

Why is this under reported?

Is it because the stats are withheld?

Any thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

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Next SCOTUS Session

If it’s October then it is time for SCOTUS to set their session docket…..it will be an interesting session since the American people think the court is doing a lousy job…

A new Quinnipiac University poll indicates that just 37% of Americans approve of the way the Supreme Court is handling its job, the lowest rating registered by the polling firm since they began tracking in 2004.

49% of Americans disapproved, while 13% had no opinion. Predictably, views on the nation’s highest court vary based on party affiliation; 47% of Republicans said they approved of how the court was handling its job, while 40% said they disapproved. 

(business insider)

The court has been a hot bed of political action….it has become a cabal of political hacks….to that accusation Roberts fired back with the court only concerns are judicial not political….

This from a court that was picked by the slime of the Federalist Society…..the court has been remaking society for decades….the court that gave corporations personhood….but it is not political…..

That said here is the new docket (partial docket)…

The Supreme Court has begun a momentous new term, back in the courtroom after a nearly 19-month absence because of the coronavirus pandemic. Eight of the nine justices took the bench at 10am Monday for the first arguments of the new term. Justice Brett Kavanaugh is participating remotely from his home after testing positive for COVID-19 late last week. Mississippi and Tennessee’s dispute over an underground aquifer is among today’s cases, reports the AP, with the court on Monday affirming a lower court ruling that said District of Columbia residents aren’t entitled to voting representation in the House of Representatives. The AP separately looks at the notable cases that will top this term:

  • Abortion. Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization is a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the Supreme Court’s major decisions over the last half-century that guarantee a woman’s right to an abortion nationwide. Lower courts blocked Mississippi’s ban on most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, but a more conservative Supreme Court has agreed to review those rulings. Arguments are Dec. 1.
  • Guns. New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn. v. Bruen is a case that could expand gun rights in the US and involves the right to carry a firearm in public. The case involves New York’s restrictive gun-permit law. New York state is among six states that limit who has the right to carry a weapon in public. Arguments are Nov. 3.
  • State secrets. United States v. Zubaydah and FBI v. Fazaga are two cases that involve what the government claims are “state secrets.” The first case the court will hear involves a Guantanamo Bay detainee who a lower court said was tortured in CIA custody. He’s seeking information from two former CIA contractors. Arguments are Oct. 6. The other state secrets case involves a group of Muslim residents of California who allege the FBI targeted them for surveillance because of their religion. Arguments are Nov. 8.
  • Boston Marathon bombing. United States v. Tsarnaev is the Biden administration’s effort to have the death sentence reinstated for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Arguments are Oct. 13.
  • Campaign finance. Federal Election Commission v. Ted Cruz for Senate is a challenge by Sen. Ted Cruz to rules about limits on repaying a candidate for federal office who loans his or her campaign money. Cruz made a loan to his campaign above the limit of $250,000 expressly to challenge the law. He won in a lower court. Arguments haven’t been scheduled.

Bold Justice: SCOTUS is back in session!

https://www.npr.org/2021/10/04/1041713663/the-supreme-courts-conservatives-cook-up-a-stew-of-abortion-guns-religion-and-mo

But look at the docket….abortions, gun rights, business, religious rights…..sounds political to me.

Whatcha think?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”