[Huffpoo] CHICAGO (AP) -- Police anxiety in the era of ever-present cellphone cameras and viral videos partly explains why violent crime has risen in several large U.S. cities this year, FBI Director James Comey said Friday.
Comey told several hundred students during a forum at the University of Chicago Law School that it's critical to do more to address a widening gulf between law enforcement and citizens in many communities, particularly African-Americans.
He said while there likely are multiple factors behind the spike in violence in cities, including Chicago, officers and others nationwide have told him they see "the era of viral videos" as a link.
"I don't know whether this explains it entirely, but I do have a strong sense that some part of the explanation is a chill wind blowing through American law enforcement over the last year, and that wind is surely changing behavior," Comey said.
He added that some of the behavioral change in police officers has been for the good "as we continue to have important discussions about police conduct and de-escalation and the use of deadly force."
Comey likened the strain between law enforcement and local communities to two lines diverging, saying repeatedly that authorities must continue to work at improving their relationships with citizens. But he added: "I actually feel the lines continuing to arc away from each other, incident by incident, video by video."
#3
How about reforming 'punishment' into something kinder and gentler making crime a valid avocation and life style? They didn't warehouse large populations of sociopaths a hundred years ago. This is all about making you feel good about yourself and your moral superiority and not public safety and good order.
#4
It probably will not happen in the few years I have remaining, but unless a radical shift in politics reverses the current demographic and cultural trending, the white man is finished in this land. He'll be forced to move elsewhere to survive.
May sound a bit alarming, but current models are found nearly everywhere. The most recent examples are the changing landscapes in Europe.
#5
Reintroduce hard labor or the option of military service for those that have some hope of redemption. Either way don't allow prison to be a gang-related resume point.
#6
"I don't know whether this explains it entirely, but I do have a strong sense that some part of the explanation is a chill wind blowing through American law enforcement over the last year, and that wind is surely changing behavior," Comey said.
Another way to say it is nobody likes putting their life in danger only to have every decision taken out of context and viewed under a microscope with the worst intentions projected upon everything. Much easier to let it burn.
[Hurriyet] The rise to prominence of the Kurds in Syria is among the less expected consequences of the civil war raging since 2011. Thought to amount to over 2 million of the population mostly in the north of the country, the Kurds have also become one of the key U.S. allies in the stuttering campaign against the jihadists of ISIS.
“Out of Nowhere: The Kurds of Syria in Peace and War” by Michael M. Gunter, a professor of political science at Tennessee Technological University, charts the Syrian Kurds’ rise to international profile from a “sleepy unimportant backwater in the Kurdish struggle.” It is a short book but it provides a good background to the rapidly changing situation on the ground, taking in the modern history of the Syrian Kurds, their development of “national conscience,” and ties between the Democratic Union Party (PYD) in northern Syria and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Turkey.
Gunter spoke to HDN about his book (reviewed here) and developments in Syria since it was published.
A quick backgrounder on the Kurds of Syria in modern times.
#1
There's a difference between 'rising out of nowhere' and 'having enough sense to keep your head down'. The Syrian Kurds are in the latter. (I.E., Let's try not to PO Assad, until the correct moment arises.)
Posted by: ed in texas ||
10/25/2015 12:31 Comments ||
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#2
If I was the CIA point man for Syria and 0bean said find friendly rebels in the region, I would pick the Syrian Kurds. Syria is going to be divided anyway and Erdogan is a turkeyjerk.
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
10/25/2015 14:27 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
