Tuesday, May 14, 2024
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A View From the Ground
News and information about politics, government, civic participation and engagement from the URL Media network.
Capital B reports that the term “runaway” is often given to missing children of color, resulting in reduced urgency in search efforts, fewer law enforcement resources allocated to these victims, and minimal or no media coverage. In response to these challenges, Morris, who recently represented Griffin's family at a press conference, founded Bury the Violence, an organization dedicated to finding missing people and bringing media coverage to those who are often forgotten. >>> Capital B News
Family calls for justice after body cam footage shows fatal killing of Bangladeshi American teen: Following the tragic shooting of 19-year-old Win Rozario by New York Police Department (NYPD) officers in March, his family is now calling for justice. The family's demands come after the NYPD released body camera footage of the incident, which advocates argue shows unnecessary and excessive force used by the police. Rozario's brother, Utsho, recounted the events, emphasizing that Rozario was in a mental health crisis when he called 911. Despite Rozario's mother's attempts to calm the situation and restrain him, body camera footage released by the state attorney general's office shows police firing a taser twice at Rozario, causing the teen to collapse, before shooting him multiple times.
The family is now demanding that the officers involved in the shooting — who are currently on “modified assignment” — be fired.
“The police was so aggressive and reckless that they could have killed my mom and me, too, in our own house," said Utsho on Democracy Now. "If someone, if anyone that wasn’t a cop did what [the officers] did, they would have already been in jail. But yet they’re still collecting their paycheck from the city like nothing happened.” >>> AsAmNews
“As an incarcerated person, I feel connected to the people of Gaza”: In this poignant essay published in Prism, Carla J. Simmons, an incarcerated woman who is currently serving a life sentence in Georgia, draws parallels between the oppressive structures of the U.S. prison system and the enduring plight of Palestinians. She highlights how dominant media narratives perpetuate injustices by normalizing violence and erasing the context of systemic oppression.
"The violence against oppressed people in both Gaza and U.S. prisons is a direct result of imperialist fundamentalism and the brutal policing that must be used to maintain power and corruption," Simmons writes for Prism.
She also discusses the overrepresentation of crime in American media as a means to justify the expansion of U.S. prison populations, as well as news outlets' complicity in upholding narratives that serve vested interests — often at the expense of marginalized communities.
"As an incarcerated person, I know firsthand how the public narrative is used as a tool to maintain power and destroy lives. Every day, crime reporting that fuels racist narratives around Black and [B]rown men erases the context of their lives."
When it comes to the siege on Gaza, Simmons writes that many Westerners have routinely ignored the long history of Palestinian displacement, stolen resources and the fight for political independence. Simmons adds that if it wasn't for a friend who visited her in prison following a trip to the Middle East and shared her observations of Palestinians ten years ago, she would have a "very narrow view of Palestine and Israel" today. >>> Read more at PrismPlus: Tomorrow marks the 76th anniversary of the 1948 Nakba. Learn about this commemoration and why it matters >>> NPR News
Five takeaways from Sahan Journal's investigation of a Minn. charter school — and a $132M loophole in the state’s anti-corruption laws: Serving nearly 70,000 kids, where a third are students of color, Minnesota's charter schools are a major part of the state's education landscape. Despite their impact, these schools often fly under the radar when it comes to being the subject of in-depth reporting from local newsrooms, highlights Sahan Journal's education reporter Becky Z. Dernbach. Autonomy is a defining feature of many of these schools, and can sometimes lead to crucial issues being overlooked. From substandard building facilities to high-turnover school boards, these challenges can have significant repercussions and, in some cases, result in school closures leaving students and families scrambling to find a new school.
Sahan Journal's deep dive into charter school contracting practices uncovered a lack of oversight on multimillion-dollar outside contracts, which are not subject to the same scrutiny that governs contracting practices for public school districts and other local government units. The outlet's investigation began with a complaint against Noble Academy, a “high-quality charter school” serving mostly Hmong students. Read more to learn what this investigation uncovered. >>> Sahan Journal
🗞️ More headlines
Student protests at UC Berkeley echo Vietnam War era (El Tecolote)
Congressman praises heckling of pro-Palestinian protesters, including one who made monkey gestures at Black woman (Black Girl Times via Associated Press)
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