Newsweek International 5/14/2021

1993 “Looking to a possible next war, the Pentagon is fighting the last one, seeing intervention in Bosnia as Desert Storm II,” Newsweek wrote. There were 2.28 million refugees displaced or trapped within Bosnia and Herzegovina, with another 1.76 million scattered across Europe. U.N. troops were already on the ground in opposition to the Serbs, but what was needed was “to give those forces more clout.” The Clinton administration opted for a strategy of embargos and air strikes until, in 1995, the atrocities kept growing. That year, the U.S. deployed troops and assisted the negotiation of the Dayton Peace Accords. 1963 Concerned by the “rapidly expanding knowledge of the biochemists who may soon possess the ultimate secret of life,” some scientists feared they were “playing God,” said Newsweek. Since the…

I WANT US TO HAVE A HARD CONVERSATION— about race, about injustice and about the possibility that America could seize the unprecedented moment we are in right now, the aftermath of prosecutors and a jury finally holding a violent police officer accountable for killing an unarmed Black man, to finally address the systemic problems that brought us to this point. But first I’d like to talk not about racism and murder, but about peanut butter. Yeah, peanut butter. Imagine with me for a moment that the FDA has issued an emergency nationwide recall on peanut butter. All of it. Creamy and crunchy. The organic expensive stuff and the super processed store brands. Even products that have peanut butter in them, from Uncrustables to Captain Crunch, they’ve all gotta go. I…

I’M A PRACTICING LAWYER OF 49- plus years in Los Angeles, who in March of 1990 became involved in the tragic case of Rodney King. Although Mr. King was my most notable client, I have represented numerous individuals who were assaulted and killed at the hand of police officers, and have tried these cases in both state and federal court. Now that the trial of Derek Chauvin has resulted in the jury finding the former police officer guilty on three charges—including the most serious charge of second-degree murder— we can see how far our nation has come since the Rodney King beating. Officers from multiple law enforcement agencies pulled over Mr. King following a pursuit on a California freeway. He was suspected of speeding, and possibly driving under the influence. Mr.…

When Rosa Brooks, a Georgetown University tenured law professor, decided to become a reserve police officer with the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department in 2015, she explored the “blue wall of silence” from the inside. Through her experience, she discovered that today’s hot-button issues about policing are not easy to solve; in her recent book, TANGLED UP IN BLUE (Penguin Press), Brooks shares what she learned on the force, her recommendations for better laws and policing and her analysis of the complex issues surrounding race and policing that are increasingly timely in a world wracked by the use of deadly force by police and the resulting public protests. In this excerpt from her book, Brooks explores the indoctrination cops get as part of their training about their own vulnerability—both at…

At least 1,050 civilians and law enforcement personnel died in police encounters between George Floyd’s murder and the conviction of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis Police Department officer who killed him. Chauvin’s conviction is a statistical anomaly. In the 1,127 police killings recorded in 2020, only 16 cases—1.4 percent—resulted in a charge against the offending officer. Even as jurors were deliberating in the Chauvin trial, a police officer shot and killed 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant in Columbus, Ohio. She was seen charging at someone with a knife on police body cam footage. Between Floyd’s death and Chauvin’s conviction, at least 979 people were killed in encounters with law enforcement personnel, according to data collected by the Mapping Police Violence website. At the same time, 181 Black people died in police encounters.…

04/09/2021 Sergeant Jim Smith (51), Grundy Center, IA 04/06/2021 Deputy Sheriff Christopher Knight (30), Macon, GA 04/03/2021 Lieutenant James Kouski (58), Hometown, IL 04/02/2021 Police Officer William Evans (41), Washington, D.C. 03/31/2021 Trooper Chad Walker (38), Mexia, TX 03/26/2021 Trooper Joseph Gallagher (38), Brentwood, NY 03/25/2021 Corporal Kyle Davis (38), Bartlesville, OK 03/23/2021 Correctional Officer Robert McFarland (46), Anamosa, IA 03/22/2021 Police Officer Eric Talley (51), Boulder, CO 03/15/2021 Border Patrol Agent Alejandro Flores-Bañuelos (35), Salton City, CA 03/12/2021 Police Officer Gary Hibbs, Chicago Heights, IL 03/09/2021 Police Officer Jesse Madsen (45), Tampa, FL 03/03/2021 Police Officer Jose Anzora (31), Los Angeles, CA 03/01/2021 Captain Justin Bedwell (48), Brinson, GA 02/26/2021 Reserve Deputy Constable Martinus Mitchum (38), New Orleans, LA; Police Officer Nick Winum (48), Stanley, WV 02/21/2021 Lieutenant Eugene…