All posts by nedhamson

Activist, writer, researcher, addicted to sharing information and facts.

“Most Of Our Powers Were Taken Away”: NYPD Blames Reforms For Increase In Violent Crime

Total BS! NYPD Chief of Crime Control Strategies Mike LiPetri speaks during press briefing at One Police Plaza on Monday.

Other metrics the police cited as affecting crime were even less quantifiable, like the protests that “crushed the morale of our cops.” [ more › ]

Italy could ‘section’ people who refuse treatment for Covid-19 | World news | The Guardian

At a national level, the infection and death rate have slowed significantly since Italy began easing lockdown restrictions in early May, with 208 new cases and eight fatalities recorded on Monday. But 19 clusters have emerged across the country since the middle of June, according to a report in Corriere della Sera over the weekend. The biggest outbreak so far has occurred in Bologna, in Emilia-Romagna, where by early July 117 workers at a courier firm were infected with the virus. In late June, the army was sent to Mondragone, a town near Naples, to seal an apartment complex where an outbreak had occurred among Bulgarian farm workers. Seven hundred residents were quarantined, with 73 testing positive for Covid-19 by 4 July. The next significant outbreak has been in Mantua, a city in Lombardy where 52 infections were detected among workers at two meat factories.

Source: Italy could ‘section’ people who refuse treatment for Covid-19 | World news | The Guardian

The code of silence ends here

Square Cop In A Round World

As outrage burns over the murder of George Floyd, my commitment to police reforms & accountability has never been stronger. I’m outraged because the actions of those officers do not represent our honorable profession. I’m outraged by the depravity shown by Derek Chauvin under the color of authority, and we all instantly knew every cop was going to wear that crime for a long time. Rightly so. 

Not because all or even most women and men who serve as police would ever condone such despicable behavior. That’s a given. What brands us is the internal malfeasance that keeps us from removing such people long before they commit their violent act or crime that stains everyone in a uniform. 

The video of George Floyd’s murder laid bare the complicity of our entire profession. We have insisted for decades that only bad apples commit the worst abuses. Any mention of…

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Opinion | How America Lost the War on Covid-19 – The New York Times

Over the past three weeks things have quickly gotten very grim. Hospitals in Arizona and Texas are in crisis. And, yes, it was premature reopening that did it, both directly and by sending a signal to individuals that the risk was past.

But what strikes me, when looking at America’s extraordinary pandemic failure, is how top-down it all was.

Those anti-lockdown demonstrations weren’t spontaneous, grass-roots affairs. Many were organized and coordinated by conservative political activists, some with close ties to the Trump campaign, and financed in part by right-wing billionaires.

And the rush to reopen in Sunbelt states was less a response to popular demand than a case of Republican governors following Trump’s lead.

This Oregon town of 170,000 replaced some cops with medics and mental health workers. It’s worked for over 30 years – CNN Eugene, OR

Around 30 years ago, a town in Oregon retrofitted an old van, staffed it with young medics and mental health counselors and sent them out to respond to the kinds of 911 calls that wouldn’t necessarily require police intervention.

Source: This Oregon town of 170,000 replaced some cops with medics and mental health workers. It’s worked for over 30 years – CNN

The implications of silent transmission for the control of COVID-19 outbreaks | PNAS

Our results indicate that symptom-based isolation must be supplemented by rapid contact tracing and testing that identifies asymptomatic and presymptomatic cases, in order to safely lift current restrictions and minimize the risk of resurgence.

Source: The implications of silent transmission for the control of COVID-19 outbreaks | PNAS

President Trump lashes out at NASCAR’s only full-time black driver Bubba Wallace accusing him of creating a hoax and suggesting he should apologize

Shows how out of line Trump is….

BCNN1 WP

Bubba Wallace stands next to his car during a prayer before a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis, Sunday, July 5, 2020. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

NASCAR’s layered relationship with President Donald Trump took a sharp turn Monday when Trump blasted the racing organization for banning the Confederate flag and wrongly accused the sport’s only full-time Black driver of perpetrating “a hoax” when a crew member found a noose in the team garage stall.

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