Police killings account for one of every 20 homicides in America -- can we discuss this yet?

From The Guardian:

Law enforcement officers killed at least 1,192 people in 2022, the highest number recorded in a decade, according to Mapping Police Violence, a prominent non-profit database of police killings. More than 1,100 people were killed by the police in both 2020 and 2021. The vast majority of these deaths were police shootings.

There were more than 25,000 total homicides in the US in 2020 and 26,000 in 2021, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). National data for 2022 is not yet available.

Police shooting deaths represented 5% of all gun homicides in 2020 and 2021, and total police killings represented nearly 5% of all homicides, according to the best available public data.

It's actually hilarious (in a truly noire sort of fashion) that GOP inquiries into the weaponization of government will not include the people, you know, using their weapons to kill people.

Far-right overreaction to books in schools predicted a decade ago ...

 ,,, by gifted cartoonist Jillian Tamaki in her SuperMutant Magic Academy ...

This would be funny, except that this is the kind of crap the right wing book-banners actually believe.

What Duval County Public Schools did not tell you about Tuesday's enhanced security precautions

This is what Duval County FL Public Schools is saying in the news media (this particular segment is from News4Jax.com) about enhanced security on the 5th anniversary of a major school shooting:

Five years after the deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Duval County Public Schools on Tuesday will exercise enhanced security measures out of an abundance of caution, the district said in a message to families of students.

“Whenever such an anniversary occurs, threats and rumors of threats tend to increase,” the district said in a statement. “While we have not received any specific threats, we will always take steps to ensure the safety and security of our students and staff. Therefore, as a precaution, we will be conducting full screenings of students and their belongings as they enter our high school campuses. At middle schools, we will expand our use of random searches.”

Sounds all concerned and responsible about concern for the safety of the "our students and staff," huh?

Except that the "full screenings of students and their belongings as they enter our high school campuses" is going to be primarily conducted by teachers dragooned into "volunteering" to the do the searches:

Teachers say privately that they have also been "encouraged" to come out to weekend events (sports and clubs) to help with similar forms of security.

Because this is, of course, all "volunteer," the teachers are not being compensated for coming into school at 6:40 am or on the weekends to ... search student belongings for deadly weapons.

What could possibly go wrong?

Apparently, while deciding students don't get to read about Roberto Clemente facing racism (because racism doesn't exist, naturally), DCPS has now decided that they don't need extra security to look for deadly weapons because teachers!?

Thus we know exactly how deep is Florida's commitment both to teaching American History and to the safety of teachers ...

I received this as a screenshot, but I am willing to bet that the "form" you must download to sign probably also releases the district from any liability if, say, somebody with a knife or a gun in their bag decides to use it ...

THIS is how you fight book-banning "concerned parents" ...

 

h/t to Barista.net

A shout-out to the Glen Ridge Public Library Board of Trustees for voting UNANIMOUSLY to keep six YA LGBTQIA+ books available in public libraries.

When it came down to it, the eight residents of five households who had demanded the books be banned did not even have the courage to show up at the meeting.

How do you beat book-banning a-holes (assuming your Governor is not already a book-banning a-hole?)?

This is how:

Glen Ridge Public Library Board of Trustees had received 240 letters from community members and groups about the book ban attempt. More than 40 community members, leaders, librarians, educators, students, parents, elected officials, medical professionals and LGBTQIA+ advocates spoke out before the Board, with an additional 39 community members signed up to speak before the Board closed comments and began deliberations. ...

Glen Ridge resident Phil Johnson organized Glen Ridge United Against Book Bans, a dedicated group of parents, residents, clergy, and educators who fought the ban and brought awareness to the issue with a community response that included a petition signed by more than 2,900 Glen Ridge residents, as well as 300 yard signs displayed around the Borough and a rally that took place before the vote. Many of those who came out against the challenge Wednesday wore one of 300+ t-shirts designed by a local Glen Ridge artist, featuring the town’s signature lamps with a flame in Progress Pride colors, and created as part of Glen Ridge United’s efforts.

Glen Ridge United also announced it has created a fundraiser for the Friends of Glen Ridge Library.

Take note:

1. Show up in LARGE numbers so that the book banners cannot claim they speak for the people

2. If people cannot show up, gather names on petitions

3. Put up yard signs so that people can see the community is against censorship

4. Hold a public rally

5. Somebody step up and take charge

This was a public library, not a school library, so note two important points:

1. The book banners have expanded their targets, and after libraries will come brick-and-mortar and online bookstores, probably with a beginning argument for age requirements to buy certain books. 

2. What worked here WILL also work in a school district, but the book banners are ALREADY well-organized, so this is going to be a lot of work.

In removing Black citizens' right to vote on judges in Jackson, Mississippi GOP continues a steady march toward 1896

In John Carpenter's 1981 film, Escape from New York, he posited a city turned into a maximum security prison in 1997. Utilities were cut off, the bridges were mined, and the US Police Force kept anyone from ever getting out.

He was only off by 26 years and a few states.

Mississippi House Republicans have just sent the shooting script (HB 1020) for their latest magnum opus, There's No Escape from Jackson MS, to the GOP-controlled State Senate.

The bill provides for the creation of the "Capital Complex Improvement District," with new, unelected judges selected by only white officials (the MS Constitution otherwise requires judges to be elected), and expands the Capitol Police force in numbers and authority over the only predominantly white-occupied neighborhoods of America's blackest city.

The GOP answer to 10 -year-old girls forced to give birth is ... child marriage ...

 

Wyoming Republicans are losing their minds over a bill that would RAISE the marriage age to ... sixteen?!

Think I'm kidding?

The Wyoming Republican Party, however, is urging its constituents to oppose it not because the bill is too weak, but because it believed the bill stood to rob their constituents of constitutional rights...

Part of this reticence, it appears, comes from the religious group Wyoming Family Watch, which seems to have issued marching orders to those it helped elect:

Among other points, the letter argued that preventing children under 16 years old from marrying "denies the fundamental purpose of marriage," robbing teen parents from the ability to remain together under one roof for any children they might bear together—even though nothing in state law would prevent those children from co-parenting.

"Since young men and women may be physically capable of begetting and bearing children prior to the age of 16, marriage MUST remain open to them for the sake of those children," the post read. "The sad fact that physical maturity often does not match emotional and intellectual maturity is an indictment of our modern educational system. That is a problem that should be addressed. But we should not use it as an excuse to instantiate bad law."

In related news, Tennessee Republicans barely missed completely eliminating ANY age requirements for marriage.

Suddenly the absolute insistence on forced birth for 10 year olds begins to make a lot more (disturbing) sense.

Arranged and forced child marriages are far less common in the United States than you'd probably like to believe. According to World Population Review:

U.S. Child Marriage Facts

In the U.S., about 200,000 minors have married between 2000 and 2015. Of the 200,000 child marriages: 67% of the children were 17, 29% of the children were 16, 4% of the children were 15, less than 1% of children were 14 or under, and there were 51 cases of 13-year-olds getting married and 6 cases were of 12-year-olds. According to the Pew Research Center, child marriage is more common in the southern United States, including the states of West Virginia, Florida, Texas, Tennessee, Arkansas, and North Carolina. California and Nevada have high incidences of child marriage as well.

Some extreme cases of child marriage in the U.S. are:

• In 2010 in Idaho, a 65-year-old man married a 17-year-old girl
• In Alabama, a 74-year-old man married a 14-year-old girl
• In Tennessee, three 10-year-old girls married men ages 24, 25, and 31, respectively.
• The youngest boy to marry was an 11-year-old who married a 27-year-old woman in Tennessee in 2006

Looking at this, and keeping in mind general GOP support for maintaining (and even expanding) child marriage in America, it becomes evident that they've got a damn troublesome definition of "grooming" if this isn't included in it.

(Child marriage is completely prohibited by law in Delaware, by the way -- one of only four states.)

There is one major private organization out there fighting against the forced and arranged marriages of children in the United States: Unchained at Last.

According to Ron DeSantis, 54% of Americans (including 1/3 of Republicans) are WOKE!!!

 

In December 2022, Ron DeSantis' attorneys, in arguing why a judge should not halt the "Stop WOKE" Act, were required to provide a definition of "woke." Here is what they provided:

“DeSantis' lawyers were forced by the court to define "woke." The lead lawyer described it as "The belief there are systemic injustices in American society and the need to address them."

OOPS.

Turns out, that by that definition, Americans across the nation are "woke" by nearly a 2-1 margin.

Here's the money quote from the analysis of the new Yahoo News/YouGov poll on how many Americans believe (or don't) that systemic racism exists here:

Asked if there is “a problem with systemic racism in America,” nearly every demographic group says yes more often than not: Democrats (by a 63-point margin), Black Americans (by a 61-point margin), adults under 30 (by a 28-point margin), independents (by a 26-point margin) and even white Americans (by a 13-point margin). Overall, far more Americans say yes, the U.S. has a problem with systemic racism (54%) than say no, it does not (30%).

The only groups that say no more often than not are on the right: Republicans (by a 15-point margin) and Trump voters (by a 33-point margin).

If you think about it, this gets even worse for the far right.

Why?

It turns out that 33% of Republican and even 26% of Trump voters believe systemic racism is a problem in America today (see breakout results below)"

You get that?

According to Ron DeSantis, 33% of Republicans are "woke."