Democracy Now’s Race-Based Blaming is
Distractive and Destructive
Regarding a health emergency, a required “lockdown,” and actions of law enforcement, associate director at Human Rights Watch’s Europe and Central Asia
division, Judith Sunderland, tells Al Jazeera:
“‘The general rule
is that restrictions on rights, like we’re seeing right now, are legitimate and
permissible, if they’re lawful, to meet a legitimate objective; and if they are
imposed for the shortest amount of time and proportionate to the objective.’”
CONDITIONS
in Lockdown
On
the Street
In the Home
L
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aw Enforcement and Community Relations
Britain—Al Jazeera reporting March 31, 2020
“UK police accused
of abusing power to enforce COVID-19 lockdown”
“Some police may
have gone ‘further than they should have,’ says government minister, amid
concerns over civil liberties.”
Britain—New Statesman (Anoosh Chakelian) reporting March 31, 2020
What can police
actually force you to do in the coronavirus lockdown?
Police forces have been accused of overreaching their new
powers to keep people indoors during the pandemic.
Some police officers appear to have gone too far
England (Derbyshire, East Midlands)
- Police uses drone to film dog walkers and ramblers in the Peak District.
North London (Edgware)
- Police officer threatens a bakery manager with a fine for drawing two-meter chalk markings on the pavement to aid social distancing.
England (Warrington, Cheshire)
- Police officer issues summons to “multiple people from the same household for going to the shops for non-essential items” and those “out on a drive due to boredom.”
England (West Yorkshire)
- An officer takes a 13-year-old boy into custody because the boy, out and about, “wouldn’t give his details” to the officer.
Wales (South Wales)
- Police officer publicly admonishes [a member of parliament] for posting a picture of himself sitting meters away from his father’s front doorstep on his birthday
Britain - The New Statesman reports
“Overzealous
enforcement and shaming people for their behavior arises from the grey area
between what is actually written in the legislation—the Health Protection
(Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) Regulations 2020 and equivalents for the
rest of the UK—and the government’s advice and guidance…, which is regularly
tweaked and updated at the daily No 10 press conferences.”
Rules promulgated by British government
Four-step Police response:
- Engaging
- Explaining
- Encouraging
- Enforcing and we fully support this approach.
Individuals will only be allowed to leave their home for very limited purposes:
- Shopping for basic necessities, as infrequently as possible
- One form of exercise a day - for example, a run, walk or cycle - alone or with members of their household
- Medical need, to provide care or to help a vulnerable person
- Traveling to and from work, but only where they cannot work from home
Participating in
gatherings of more than two people in public spaces is also not permitted
except in very limited circumstances, for example, where it is for essential
work purposes.
Police may penalize noncompliance with stay at home, avoidance of non-essential
travel rules
- instruct people to go home, leave an area, or disperse
- ensure parents are taking necessary steps to stop their children breaking the rules
- issue a fixed penalty notice of £60, … lowered to £30 if paid within 14 days
- issue a fixed penalty notice of £120 for second-time offenders, doubling on each further repeat offence
Individuals not paying “a fixed penalty notice under the regulations
could be taken to court, with magistrates able to impose unlimited fines”
Individuals continuing to refuse compliance “will be acting unlawfully,
and the police may arrest them where deemed proportionate and necessary.”
The National Police
Chiefs Council (NPCC) and College of Policing are reportedly drafting guidance
that warns police “not to overreach their lockdown enforcement powers.” Among
the guidelines is one advising police that they may not “bar bar people from
taking a run or a drive.”
Europe—Al Jazeera (Ylenia Gostoli) March 17, 2020
“As COVID-19 crackdowns grow in Europe, rights groups urge caution”
“Action to stop coronavirus which limits civil liberties is acceptable
but only in short term, human rights experts warn”
According to the
Health Protection Coronavirus Regulations published by the government last
month, failure to comply with self-isolation rules can be punished with a fine
of up to 1,000 pounds ($1,200), and anyone who is suspected to be ill and found
outside can be temporarily detained.
Nepal (Kathmandu)—Myrepublica March 29. 2020
Police confiscate
102 vehicles on roads, breaching the lockdown.
Police take action
against over 600 people for violating lockdown orders in capital
India
(Howrah district West Bengal)Police assault a 32-year-old in West Bengal’s Howrah district who had gone out for milk. The man later died.
(Northern India: Budaun, Uttar Pradesh)Police made people walking toward their native places crawl wearing their bags, as a punishment for violating lockdown [Asian News International (ANI)]. Superintendent of Police investigation underway
Other reported incidents of Indian police beating citizens with a lathi
(a long, heavy bamboo stick used as a baton) “for stepping out during the
lockdown, sometimes even when the citizens are out to buy essentials.”
In addition to ordinary citizens, workers presumably exempted under the
“‘essential services’” clause—“e-commerce companies delivering essentials such
as groceries, medicines, and food— have also alleged harassment by the police
and security guards.”
In India, as in other countries, there seems to be insufficient clarity
among law enforcement personnel as to what is and is not permitted during the COVID-19
period of lockdown.
H
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ome and Family Relations
France—Al Jazeera reporting March 31, 2020
“As domestic abuse
rises in lockdown, France to fund hotel rooms
After the
restrictions came into force, cases of violence against women have increased,
including two murders.”
New Zealand—New Zealand Herald April 12, 2020
“Covid 19
coronavirus: Domestic violence is the second, silent epidemic amid lockdown: Around
the world, lockdowns enforced to stop the spread of coronavirus have led to a
second epidemic—the escalation of violence against women and children.”
China
Jianli County: “police station reported receiving 162 reports of
intimate partner violence in February — three times the number reported in that
month last year.”
Australia
40 percent of frontline workers report “increase in ‘pleas for help’
70 percent report increase in complexity of cases
[Gender and COVID-19 Working Group, 400 frontline workers surveyed]
Good Friday New Zealand police-released
statistics on domestic violence [‘family harm’]: 20 percent spike in cases on March
29, first Sunday after the lockdown, compared with the previous three Sundays.
Incidents of violence had arisen during the COVID-19 lockdowns but they were “linked to relationships that were already fraught.”
Incidents
- One sibling stabs another because he “got sick of his sister playing music in the lounge where he was sleeping.”
- Police remove a man for “assaulting his wife” and the man takes the woman’s “only access to their bank account— leaving her unable to buy food.”
- Teenagers are “physically fighting with their parents after being told they weren’t able to go out.”
- One case worker worried that incidents were far more than reported. In one case, a case worker had talked with a woman whose “partner was monitoring her mobile phone”; and since the start of the lockdown, she had not heard from the woman.
I
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have a particular problem with media outlet Democracy
Now!’s slant, a regular pattern, in programming and performance.
Recent examples
Headline April 15, 2020“‘I Want an Apology’: Black Doctor Who Tests Homeless for Coronavirus Handcuffed by Miami Police” https://www.democracynow.org/2020/4/15/dr_armen_henderson_arrest_miami
Headline April 20, 2020“Handcuffed: Black Miami Doctor Who Works with Homeless Says He Was Racially Profiled by Police” https://www.democracynow.org/2020/4/20/dr_armen_henderson_florida_fisher_island
The problem I have with “Democracy Now!” (“Dishonesty Now,” some have called it), and especially
Amy Goodman, is this
- their zeal and endless campaign to drive a further chasm and protracted conflicts among and between groups of people in the United States; and
- in that zeal, their omission of or deliberate distraction from underlying problems or prior conditions, which are never solved (perhaps the intent is not to solve them), or even addressed, with hysterical and racialized headlines.
In current matters of overreach amidst a pandemic, it seems the
underlying problem concerns law enforcement personnel’s (and also domestic partners’) lack of sufficient discipline, maturity, rules
of conduct; proper monitoring and oversight, checks, reflection, and correction.
As with many situations in society, the underlying problem, or a
significant part of it, is rooted in principles, personnel, and relations. This
is true in many sectors of society—including government and media, and families.
Sources
https://www.thequint.com/news/india/police-harassing-citizens-delivery-agents-amid-covid-19-lockdown
Al Jazeera “UK police accused of abusing power to enforce
COVID-19 lockdown: Some police may have gone 'further than they should have',
says government minister, amid concerns over civil liberties” March 31, 2020 https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/03/uk-police-accused-abusing-power-enforce-covid-19-lockdown-200331084607759.html
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/03/domestic-abuse-rises-lockdown-france-fund-hotel-rooms-200331074110199.html
https://www.newstatesman.com/science-tech/coronavirus/2020/03/police-coronavirus-lockdown-government-punishment-advice
https://myrepublica.nagariknetwork.com/news/police-take-action-against-over-600-people-for-violating-lockdown-orders-in-capital/
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/03/domestic-abuse-rises-lockdown-france-fund-hotel-rooms-200331074110199.html
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12324237
My Facebook page response today
to Democracy Now’s! performance:
Whenever Amy Goodman
stops racializing her programming content and racializing other people’s motives
and actions, never her own—Democracy Now
just might become a decent current events program.
This is as vulgar as
the vulgarity of Donald Trump and Maxine Waters and as sinister and journalistically
dishonest as is Limbaugh’s outright commentary colors.
Over the years, I
have become increasingly disgusted with the caliber of Democracy Now’s Amy
Goodman performance.
Someone has crafted
the online image “Dishonesty Now,” which fits the case precisely. What makes it
so is that Democracy Now pretends to
be on the “good” side of matters. Perhaps it is better to report hard news, and
not side at all. Siding tends to leak its true colors. https://www.facebook.com/carolynladelle.bennett
Insight Beyond Today’s News, CLB - © All Rights
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