Uber’s New Delivery Service Only Caters To D.C’s White Neighborhoods

ThinkProgress

Uber, the popular ride share service, is rolling out a new feature in Washington, D.C. that allows the city’s residents to request quick deliveries of everything from Altoids to Zest Ocean Breeze Refreshing Bar Soap.

That is, some of the city’s residents. Twitter user @DonnyBridges was quick to note that Uber’s delivery areas — currently two sections of Northwest and Southeast DC — looked suspiciously familiar:

The practice of “redlining” has been utilized for decades by industries ranging from supermarkets to banking. But if brick and mortar stores engage in a kind of quiet discrimination by simply choosing not to opt in to low-income or minority neighborhoods, companies like Uber, which are highly scalable and inherently mobile, make conscious decisions to purposefully opt out of entire neighborhoods from their service areas.

Technology companies in particular, born in the lily-white incubators of Silicon Valley and Alley, are increasingly coming under fire for their questionable relationships to minority communities. Most recently, the makers of smartphone app Sketch Factor, which advises users which neighborhoods are “sketchy,” faced harsh criticism for stoking racial profiling by flagging predominantly minority neighborhoods.

St. Louis Pastor: Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson Should Resign

DemocracyNow

Community outrage grew in Ferguson, Missouri, over the weekend after the police named the officer who shot Michael Brown, Darren Wilson, after withholding his identity for five days. But in naming Wilson, the police also released video footage showing a young man who appeared to be Brown shoplifting a box of cigarillos from a convenience store. The Ferguson police released the video while continuing to withhold all other details about Brown’s killing, including how many times he was shot and the incident report from the shooting. In disclosing the video, the police appeared to suggest Brown may have been stopped as a suspect in the shoplifting. But hours later, Ferguson police admitted the officer did not know about the incident and had stopped Brown solely for walking in the middle of the street. Joining us from St. Louis, the Rev. Clinton Stancil, senior pastor at the Wayman AME Church, says Police Chief Tom Jackson should resign. He also says that efforts are being made to galvanize African-American voters in the next election to address concerns over the lack of diversity in the city’s elected officials.

"Overpoliced & Underprotected": In Michael Brown Killing, Neglect of Black Communities Laid Bare

Democracy Now!

As we continue to discuss the developments since the fatal shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown by a white police officer, we turn to john a. powell, professor of law, African American studies and ethnic studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the director of the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society. "The black community tends be overpoliced and underprotected," powell says. "That’s a very serious problem."

American Army general again accused of obstructing probe of US-funded 'Auschwitz-like' Afghan hospital

CitizensforLegit

A two-star Army general, reprimanded once already for misconduct, is being accused of obstructing another investigation into patient abuse and fraud at a U.S.-funded hospital in Afghanistan made infamous for its grisly conditions, according to a new watchdog report. The Project on Government Oversight recently published a redacted version of the Pentagon inspector general report on Maj. Gen. Gary S. Patton. It's the second time in less than a year Patton has been cited for his role in obstructing an official investigation into the conditions at Dawood National Military Hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan. Dawood, which has gotten millions of dollars in U.S. taxpayer support, has been plagued by graphic accounts of abuse. Congressional hearings in 2012 aired accounts of "Auschwitz-like" conditions at the facility. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, at the time pointed to evidence of Afghan soldiers enduring starvation and "botched operations," and accounts that doctors conducted procedures "without anesthesia or painkillers." Doctors and nurses, he said, demanded bribes for care, and left patients who didn't pay to die "in their hospital beds."

Ebola Outbreak: Liberian Army Ordered to 'Shoot on Sight' Anyone Crossing Sierra Leone Border

Citizens for Legit

Liberia's armed forces have been given orders to shoot people on sight who are attempting to illegally cross the border from Ebola-stricken Sierra Leone, according to local media reports. The order was given to soldiers stationed in Bomi and Grand Cape Mount counties on the border with Sierra Leone in hope of preventing the spread of the deadly virus, deputy chief of staff, Colonel Eric Dennis said. The decision comes as the search for 17 Liberian [alleged] Ebola patients, who escaped an attack on a quarantine centre in the Liberian capital, Monrovia, continues.

Ebola nations urged to screen all travellers

Aljazeera West African nations affected by the worst-ever outbreak of Ebola have been urged to screen "all people at international airports, seaports and major land crossings" in order to stop its spread. The World Health Organisation said on Monday that authorities should stop anyone with signs of the virus from travelling, days after it warned that the magnitude of the outbreak was "vastly underestimated". The WHO reiterated that the risk of getting infected with the virus on an aircraft was small and there was no need for wider travel or trade restrictions.

‘Afromaidan’: Foreign media cite Ferguson as evidence of US ‘failed state’

Aljazeera

It should come as no surprise that the wall-to-wall U.S. coverage of the turmoil provoked by the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, was echoed in the global media. And a quick survey of international coverage of the ongoing protests suggests that it often reflects pre-existing views of the United States.  

Russian and Iranian media have, perhaps unsurprisingly, printed scathing judgments about the police response to protests in Missouri. One Russian site, Svobodnaya Pressa, coined the term “Afromaidan,” implying that the U.S. is getting a dose of its own medicine for backing anti-Russian Euromaidan rallies in Kiev, Ukraine. The article poked fun at the notion of a land of opportunity, signaling that America’s “race war” proves Washington’s hypocrisy.

PressTV in Iran led with the Ferguson story on its website Monday. A news feature quoted an African-American historian referring to “institutionalized racism” in the U.S. and calling the country a “human rights failed state.” And Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s Facebook page read Sunday: “Look at what they do to the black community in their own country … . The police may beat them to death over the crime of having dark skins!”

Egypt's official news agency MENA reported Tuesday that the country's foreign ministry was "closely following the escalation of protests in the US city of Ferguson" and urged restraint in cracking down on protesters. The statement issued was strikingly similar to the White House's comments in July 2013 about demonstrations in Cairo.

‘Deeply rooted chronic’ issue

Chinese state media, meanwhile, appear to have focused on Ferguson after Sunday night’s protests. In reaction to intensified clashes between demonstrators and police, Monday’s headline from the English edition of Xinhua read: “Ferguson riot reveals U.S. racial divide, human rights flaw.”

The article quotes Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech: “African-Americans living in the United States today are enjoying elevated political and social status. Notably, the country is having its first African-American president in history,” read an excerpt from the story. But the article goes on to describe the persistent, underlying tension in U.S. society as “a deeply rooted chronic disease that keeps tearing U.S. society apart, just as manifested by the latest racial riot in Missouri.”  [MORE]

Jesse Williams on Ferguson: 'We Are Not Treated Like Human Beings'

ColorLines

Actor Jesse Williams spoke all sorts of truth about what's happening in Ferguson this morning on CNN. Jezebel put together some of his most pointed statements:

"We also have to talk about the narrative and making sure that we're starting at the beginning. You'll find that the people doing the oppressing always want to start the narrative at a convenient part, or always want to start the story in the middle. This started with a kid getting shot and killed and left in the street for four hours. I've never seen a white body left in the street for four hours in the sweltering heat. The cop doesn't call in the shooting, the body isn't put in an ambulance, it's shuttled away in some shady unmarked SUV.

There's a lot of bizarre behavior going on and that is the story, that's where we need journalism. That's where we need that element of society to kick into gear and not just keep playing a loop of what the kid may have done in a convenience store. That's unfortunate, if that happened, that's going to be factored in, like it or not. But we need journalism to kick in and start telling the story from the beginning, this is about finding justice for a kid that was shot, an 18-year-old that was shot, period.

This idea that because he stole a handful of cheap cigars, what's that $5? I've lived in white suburbs of this country for a long time, I know plenty of white kids who steal stuff from a convenience store. [There's] this idea that every time a black person does something, they automatically become a thug worthy of death when we don't own drug crimes. We're not the only ones who sell and do drugs all the time. We're not the only ones that steal and talk crazy to cops.

There's a complete double standard and a complete different experience that a certain element of this country has the privilege of being treated like human beings, and the rest of us are not treated like human beings, period. That needs to be discussed, that's the story. That's what gets frustrating for people -- because you don't know five black folks, five black men in particular, that have not been harassed and felt threatened by police officers. You can't throw a rock and find five of them. We're not making this up."

Fox's Pinkerton Baselessly Speculates Michael Brown Could Have Been "High On Some Drug, Angel Dust Or PCP"

Limbaugh Politicizes Michael Brown Shooting: "The Democrat Party, I Think, Profits From Racial Strife" [he might be right. but Dems Do Little to Challenge White Supremacy/Racism]

Media Matters

Right-Wing Racist Media Push "Black-On-Black" Crime Canard To Deflect From Ferguson Police Shooting - Black on Black Crime is Caused by White Supremacy

MediaMatters

Right-wing media emphasized the supposed prevalence of "black-on-black" violence in response to the shooting death of unarmed black teen Michael Brown by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. But such emphasis takes the crime statistics out of context in order to hype the racial aspect.

Conservative Media Invoke Canard Of "Black On Black" Crime To Hijack Ferguson Conversation

WSJ's Riley: "We Need To Talk About Black Criminality." Appearing on the August 17 edition of NBC's Meet the Press, The Wall Street Journal's Jason Riley discussed the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson by saying: "Let's not pretend that our morgues and cemeteries are full of young black men because cops are shooting them. The reality is that it's because other black people are shooting them." Riley went on to assert that "we need to talk about black criminality" because blacks make up "50 percent of homicide victims in this country, and 90 percent of those victims are killed by other black people." [NBC, Meet the Press, 8/17/14]

Fox's MacCallum: Where Are Obama And Sharpton On "Black-On-Black Violence?" During an August 18 segment questioning the appropriateness of President Obama sending condolences and issuing a statement about the death of Michael Brown, co-host Martha MacCallum asked: "What about the children who are being killed in the streets in Chicago? What about black-on-black violence? Where is Al Sharpton on that? Where is the president on that?" [Fox News, America's Newsroom, 8/13/14]

NRO: Black-On-Black Violence, Not "Nasty White Cops," Are "What's Plaguing Black America." In an August 18 post for National Review Online, Bernard Goldberg pivoted from a discussion of the death of Michael Brown to discuss how intraracial violence was "what's plaguing black America." Goldberg declared that the "African-American elite" and "white liberals" don't care about the lives of young black men because they don't talk about black people killing one another:

That doesn't mean that all white cops are angels who don't harbor any racial animus. But when it comes to crime, nasty white cops aren't what's plaguing black America.

I'm pretty sure that if George Zimmerman had been black, we'd never know the name Trayvon Martin. And if 18-year-old Michael Brown had been white, we probably wouldn't know his name, either . . . and neither national news reporters nor the civil-rights establishment would even know what state Ferguson is in.

Members of the African-American elite, along with many white liberals, have said we don't put enough value on the lives of young black men. They certainly don't. Or they would have a lot more to say when a black kid gets shot in the street -- by another kid who is black. [National Review Online, 8/18/14]

Radio Host Limbaugh: People Don't Talk About Violence In Chicago Because It's Not "Mixed Race." During the August 14 edition of his radio show, host Rush Limbaugh complained that people don't pay attention to violent deaths in Chicago because they were not "mixed-race" murders like the Brown shooting in Ferguson, which he deemed to be "made to order ... for outrage" by the media. [Premiere Radio Networks, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 8/14/14]

Black-On-Black Murder Statistics "Lack Important Context"

PolitiFact: Claims Of Black-On-Black Violence "Lack Important Context." In 2013, PolitiFact analyzed claims of black-on-black violence made popular during the racially charged Trayvon Martin trial. Concluding that these claims lacked "important context," they explained that while it is true that most black murders are intraracial, this also "holds true for whites":

Also, this claim lacks important context. Yes, it's true that the majority of black murder victims are murdered by blacks, but the same holds true for whites: Most whites are murdered by whites. And in both cases, this race statistic is not available for all murders, but only ones where the race of both perpetrator and victim can be determined. [PolitiFact, 7/14/13]

Daily Beast: "There's No Such Thing As 'Black-On-Black' Crime." In a July 2013 article for The Daily Beast, Jamelle Bouie said that "there's no such thing" as "black-on-black" crime, explaining that "for the large majority of crimes, you'll find that victims and offenders share a racial identity" (emphasis added):

But there's a huge problem with attempt to shift the conversation: There's no such thing as "black-on-black" crime. Yes, from 1976 to 2005, 94 percent of black victims were killed by black offenders, but that racial exclusivity was also true for white victims of violent crime -- 86 percent were killed by white offenders. Indeed, for the large majority of crimes, you'll find that victims and offenders share a racial identity, or have some prior relationship to each other.

What Shapiro and others miss about crime, in general, is that it's driven by opportunism and proximity; If African-Americans are more likely to be robbed, or injured, or killed by other African-Americans, it's because they tend to live in the same neighborhoods as each other. Residential statistics bear this out (PDF); blacks are still more likely to live near each other or other minority groups than they are to whites. And of course, the reverse holds as well -- whites are much more likely to live near other whites than they are to minorities and African-Americans in particular. [The Daily Beast, 7/15/13]

FBI Data Show That White Police Officers Killed A Black Person "Nearly Two Times A Week"

USA Today: Shooting Of Michael Brown "Not An Isolated Incident." In an August 15 article, USA Today reported that a black person had been killed by a white police officer "nearly two times a week" over a seven-year period ending in 2012. Citing data from the FBI, the article explained that the numbers show the death of unarmed teen Michael Brown at the hands of a police officer was "not an isolated event in American policing":

Nearly two times a week in the United States, a white police officer killed a black person during a seven-year period ending in 2012, according to the most recent accounts of justifiable homicide reported to the FBI.

On average, there were 96 such incidents among at least 400 police killings each year that were reported to the FBI by local police. The numbers appear to show that the shooting of a black teenager in Ferguson, Mo., last Saturday was not an isolated event in American policing.

The reports show that 18% of the blacks killed during those seven years were under age 21, compared to 8.7% of whites. [USA Today, 8/15/14]

Racist Suspect Bill O'Reilly Dismisses FBI Statistics On Police Killings Of Blacks

Arizona Loose With Its Rules in Executions of Non-Whites, Records Show

NY Times

In an execution in 2010 in Arizona, the presiding doctor was supposed to connect the intravenous line to the convict’s arm — a procedure written into the state’s lethal injection protocol and considered by many doctors as the easiest and best way to attach a line. Instead he chose to use a vein in an upper thigh, near the groin.

“It’s my preference,” the doctor said later in a deposition, testifying anonymously because of his role as a five-time executioner. For his work, he received $5,000 to $6,000 per day — in cash — with two days for practice before each execution.

That improvisation is not unusual for Arizona, where corrections officials and medical staff members routinely deviate from the state’s written rules for conducting executions, state records and court filings show. Sometimes they improvise even while a convict is strapped to a table in the execution chamber and waiting for the drugs coursing through his veins to take effect.

In 2012, when Arizona was scheduled to execute two convicted murderers, its Corrections Department discovered at the last minute that the expiration dates for the drugs it was planning to use had passed, so it decided to switch drug methods. Last month, Arizona again deviated from its execution protocol, and things did not go as planned: The convicted murderer Joseph R. Wood III took nearly two hours to die, during which he received 13 more doses of lethal drugs than the two doses set out by the state’s rules.

1 In 6 Food Charities Could Close Down Soon, And 5 Other Disturbing Facts From A New Hunger Report

ThinkProgress

Every four years, Feeding America releases its massive “Hunger In America” (HIA) study to document how millions of volunteers and tens of thousands of anti-hunger charities bring aid to the tens of millions of people who live on the brink of hunger in the planet’s richest country. The newest HIA, released Monday, reports that 46.5 million people in 15.5 million households received food from the roughly 58,000 separate programs operated by the network’s affiliates.

Those topline statistics are upsetting on their own, but many more troubling numbers are buried underneath them. A fifth of the households Feeding America serves include a current or former member of the armed forces. Four in 10 of them include a child. Their median annual income is just $9,175, less than one fifth the median earnings for American families overall. These numbers tell a story of American hunger that is tragic but not surprising: past headlines have warned about high food insecurity nationwide, among children, and within our armed forces.

At about 160 pages, though, the HIA sports many other easily-overlooked numbers that add detail to the broader story. Here are six of the most disturbing facts from Feeding America’s study.

1. About 1 in 6 Feeding America charities are worried they’ll have to shut down.

The study confirms what hunger experts were saying during last summer’s fight over food stamps cuts: charities are already stretched beyond their capacity. In late 2012 and early 2013, “almost 28 percent of programs reported having less food available than required to meet client needs,” the HIA notes. The vast majority of Feeding America’s affiliated programs provide uncooked food rather than cooked meals, and a full third of such “grocery programs” said they didn’t have enough food in stock to keep up with community needs. With the network already that far from being able to meet the needs of America’s deprived, the last thing Feeding America needs is a significant contraction in the number of charity programs in operation.

But that’s exactly what the 2014 HIA warns of: Nearly 16 percent of the total agencies in the network are worried about having to close their doors. This is largely because these groups are so reliant on individual donations for their funding, which makes them vulnerable to economic downturns. Almost 11,000 individual agencies — nearly a quarter of Feeding America’s total agency partners — reported some form of service reduction in the previous year. One in every 8 agencies that works with Feeding America cut their hours of operation in order to stay afloat; one in every 9 cut back the geographic area they serve; and one in every 11 laid off staff — a move the report calls “particularly notable” given that half of Feeding America agencies don’t have any paid staff to begin with. (These agencies all rely upon volunteers, and the numbers on voluntarism offer a silver lining of sorts: “In a typical month, nearly 2 million volunteers dedicate more than 8.4 million hours of their time to hunger relief,” the report says.)

More than 1 in 5 of the groups that made reductions are “very worried” about being able to continue to operate, and over two-thirds of them are either very or somewhat worried. Most of the worried agencies cite a lack of funding as the biggest threat to their existence.

2. Millions are forced to eat expired food.

To cope with food insecurity, 56 percent of Feeding America client households eat expired food and almost 80 percent buy cheap, unhealthy options. About 35 percent reported pawning or selling their property, and four in 10 “water down food and drinks to make them last longer,” the study says. More than half of clients surveyed use a combination of three or more of these coping strategies to get through the month, and almost two-thirds rely on food charities for their monthly budgeting.

3. Tens of millions of people have to choose between buying food and keeping up with bills.

About 66 percent of Feeding America households reported choosing between food and health care spending at some point in the previous year. Almost six in 10 made trade-offs between food and housing expenses at least once, and nearly 70 percent traded off between food and paying utility bills. Extrapolated across more than 15 million households and 46.5 million individuals, those trade-off statistics mean that tens of millions of individuals faced these choices during the year. Even more shocking, 31 percent had to choose between food and health care every single month for the year.

4. There are nearly 5 million households who could be getting food stamps but aren’t.

Given the gutwrenching trade-offs and coping mechanisms Feeding America’s clients employ, it is striking to read that 32.5 percent of the households these charities serve are probably eligible for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) but do not receive it. A fifth of households have never even applied. The report also notes that just 40 percent of the food programs in the network provide some form of assistance with SNAP enrollment, and just a third of that group does so automatically when a needy person shows up. Overall, that means that just one in seven programs will proactively push to enroll eligible clients in the premier federal anti-hunger program.

SNAP is hardly a cure-all for Feeding America clients, though. Among the nearly 55 percent of households who do get food stamps, a fifth exhaust their full month’s benefit within a week. Only a handful of SNAP recipients are able to make their food stamps last longer than three weeks. The program has been targeted for cuts in recent years despite record-high levels of hunger and food insecurity.

5. Men and women use the food charity system in very different ways.

About two-thirds of Feeding America’s clients are women, when the group calculates demographics for the whole 46.5 million-person pool. But the gender numbers flip almost all the way around for programs that serve prepared meals. Men make up 57.5 percent of clients at Feeding America meals programs and fewer than 30 percent of clients at grocery programs.

6. The families that rely on food charities are almost never homeless.

You might think that families who need food banks and meal kitchens to get through the month are indigent, drifting from one temporary shelter situation to another. Indeed, about a million of them are. But 93 percent of Feeding America client households are in permanent housing. Over 15 percent own their home and are making mortgage payments, and 11.5 percent own their homes free and clear. About three-quarters of clients have lived in the same place for the past year, meaning that the majority of people who need Feeding America’s help are living relatively stable lives. The foreclosure crisis makes an appearance in the HIA as well: 16 percent, or roughly one food charity client out of every six, has been foreclosed or evicted at some point in the last five years. There is a big disparity here between those “grocery” programs that provide uncooked ingredients and the “meal” programs that feed people directly. Meal programs make up just 14 percent of Feeding America’s offerings around the country, so the fact that a third of all meal program clients lack permanent housing doesn’t shift the overall housing numbers very far.

South Africa: Full accountability for the Marikana killings urgently needed

Amnesty

On the second anniversary of the catastrophic events in Marikana, justice for the victims and full accountability are still urgently needed, Amnesty International said today. All those involved in the unlawful decision to use lethal force must be held fully accountable and the disturbing pattern of obstruction of the investigations into the deaths must stop. 

Amnesty International believe that the police, acting on an unlawful decision, used unjustified lethal force against the miners, leaving 34 dead and more than 70 others injured. The police, possibly in collusion with others, also concealed and falsified evidence and attempted to mislead the judicial Commission of Inquiry into the deaths. 

“Two years after the Marikana shootings, the need for full co-operation with the inquiry and accountability for both the unlawful killings and the cover-up of these crimes is as urgent as ever,” said Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for Southern Africa. 

“Despite the scandalous attempted cover-up, which began immediately after the shootings and delayed the work of the Commission for at least a year, justice must be done.” 

In spite of the fact that bloodshed was foreseen by those who took the decision to use lethal force, adequate medical assistance was not on hand and the delay in getting paramedics to the scene is likely to have contributed to the suffering of the injured. Chillingly, four mortuary vans had been ordered by the police. 

The decision to disarm, forcibly if necessary, and arrest the striking miners was taken on 15 August 2012 by the Provincial Commissioner and endorsed at an Extraordinary Meeting of the National Police Management Forum. The decision, which was not dependent on any escalation of threat to life, and the subsequent deployment of tactical units with firearms using live ammunition, including R5 assault rifles capable of automatic fire, had no basis in international or domestic law. 

The “loss” of the minutes from this critical meeting is just one of a litany of incidents which suggest a systematic attempt by the police authorities, with possibly higher level involvement, to conceal or falsify evidence and to mislead the Commission. Other incidents include: tampering with the crime scene; withholding or delaying the submission of police weapons for ballistics testing; the withholding of police computer hard drives; and the provision of statements lacking in detail as well as evasive oral evidence by senior police officials and commanders. 

 “Achieving full accountability in this case is not just vital for the victims of Marikana and their families, but is also essential to ensure the respect and protection of human rights in South Africa,” said Deprose Muchena. 

“The killings at Marikana were not a tragic accident but a completely avoidable outrage and until those responsible are brought to justice, the threat of a repetition of such unlawful killings will hang over South Africa.” [MORE]

Michael Brown Grand Jury Could Begin Wednesday

Atlantic Wire 

A grand jury in St. Louis County could reportedly begin hearing evidence in the Michael Brown case on Wednesday. The jury would decide whether to indict police officer Darren Wilson, who shot and killed Brown in Ferguson, Mo., last week.

What to Look For In Dueling Autopsies of Michael Brown

Propublica

In the next few weeks, separate teams of doctors will issue autopsy reports about Michael Brown, the unarmed African American shot to death by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. If history is any guide, they will differ, perhaps significantly, on how to interpret the gunshot wounds on his body. Michael Baden, the veteran medical examiner chosen to autopsy the body by Brown's family, has released the preliminary results of his autopsy and both the St. Louis County Medical Examiner and U.S. Justice Department have announced plans to conduct or commission separate post mortems.

As a journalist, I've read roughly 1,000 autopsy reports and spent much of my career reporting on fatal encounters between police officers and civilians. Here's some of what Baden found and what experts will be looking for as they examine Brown's corpse:

1. Evidence that Brown was fleeing from the officer who shot him, Darren Wilson. Shots to the back are a red flag, indicating the victim may have been running from the officer rather than attacking. The basic law on use of force turns on whether a police officer acted from a "reasonable belief" that he or she was facing a lethal threat. Baden — who was hired by Brown's family — believes Brown was shot at least six times with all the bullets striking him from the front.
2. Signs of a physical altercation. Forensic pathologists study the exterior of the body for bruises, scrapes and lacerations which can be signs that a scuffle preceded the fatal shots. Witnesses have said Brown and Wilson wrestled in the moments before the killing. On Baden's diagram of Brown's body, the doctor does not appear to have noted any significant injuries other than the gun shot wounds. Baden did not find gunpowder residue on Brown's hands, one piece of evidence that would likely be present if the two men were struggling for control of a gun discharged at close range.
3. Bullet trajectory. Shots fired at a downward angle may indicate the officer fired while the victim was on his knees or laying on the ground. A person in those positions generally poses less of a physical threat. Baden said a shot to Brown's head appeared to have come from above; he believes this was the fatal shot.
4. Number of shots. Baden voiced concern over the fact that Brown was hit by at least six shots. The doctor, who served earlier in his career as chief medical examiner for New York City and as an expert for the New York State Police, was quoted by the New York Times as saying, "In my capacity as the forensic examiner for the New York State Police, I would say, 'You're not supposed to shoot so many times.'" The number of shots may or may not be significant. Training on lethal force varies from department to department. Many forces train officers to continue firing until the suspect has been completely subdued. Some experts say that incidents in which a civilian has been hit with a single shot are more suspicious than those with multiple shots: The lone bullet could have been fired accidentally or in a moment of rage.
5. Gunshot residue. The presence of gunshot residue (GSR) on the skin or clothes of the victim may mean that the person was shot at very close range. Baden found no GSR on Brown's body, but said he did not scrutinize his clothing. Additionally, bullets fired from a few inches away leave distinct wound patterns on the flesh. Baden's report suggests the shots were fired from further away.
6. The presence of alcohol or drugs. Baden has not reviewed the toxicology tests, but results of those tests should be available soon (though it could take the authorities months to release them). Forensic pathologists typically fill vials with bodily fluids — urine, blood, or vitreous humor, the fluid within the eyeballs — and send them off to outside laboratories to be screened for alcohol, prescription drugs, and street drugs. If drugs or alcohol are discovered Brown's system, that information might provide some additional context to the fatal events.

Dominican Republic: Killings at the hands of the police rise while reforms stall

Amnesty

The number of killings perpetrated by the police is on the rise again in the Dominican Republic whilst legislation intended to fix the problem stalls and stagnates in Congress, said Amnesty International today.

The past six months have seen the number of people killed by the police rise by 13% compared with the year before, with 87 people dead between January and June this year, according to figures released by the National Observatory on Citizen Security (Observatorio de Seguridad ciudadana).

“Fourteen people a month are dying at the hands of the police in the Dominican Republic. Many of these killings seem to have been unlawful. Clearly the government needs to push harder for concrete action to stop these abuses once and for all,” said Erika Guevara Rosas, Amnesty International’s Americas Director.

“It’s a tragic state of affairs when the police, the very people tasked with protecting the human rights of citizens, are the ones committing such terrible crimes, further endangering public security in the country.”

Crime in the Dominican Republic is rife and public security is a major concern for the population. However, evidence shows that far from helping to tackle the problem, hard-line policing methods are contributing to escalating violence and crime.

News of the increase in police killings comes as President Danilo Medina celebrates the mid-point of his presidential term. Police reform was a key component of the President’s election manifesto, but two years into his presidency the reform has yet to start while allegations of unlawful killings and torture by the police continue to be rife.

Amongst those killed this year was Walder Sánchez. Although the official police line was that he died in a shoot-out on 30 May, witness testimony suggests Walder Sánchez was deliberately shot several times while unarmed. He was apparently in his bedroom with his pregnant girlfriend and begged the police not to shoot. During the operation, his landlady and girlfriend were also reportedly beaten by the police. An investigation into the incident has now been opened by the Attorney of Santo Domingo Province.

As well as allegations of unlawful killings, Amnesty International has also received numerous complaints of torture and ill-treatment at the hands of the police. [MORE]