Meet School Committee Chanllengers 7-22-19

The challenge of the non-incumbents

The Worcester Branch of the NAACP is sponsoring an education meet and greet for non-incumbent school committee candidates. The public is invited to meet the new candidates and ask them one on one questions.

The first part of the meet and greet will be the candidates giving their opinion about fully funded schools (Chapter 70) and disparate discipline enforcement (Chapter 222). The NAACP has met with mayor regarding these issues.

The meet and greet will take place

                                           Monday, July 22, 2019, 6 pm

                                          Centro Community Centr
                                          11 Sycamore St.
                                           Worcester MA 01610
The new candidates are:

Cara Lisa Berg

Chantel Berthea

Laura Clancey

Jernah Kamara

Mariah Martinez

Tracy Novick

Ruth Rodriiguez (write-in candidate)

John Tobaugh

NO IMMAGE 

Hermones McConner

Hate Crimes, Body Cams, Diversity, and Worcester Police

Hate Crimes, Body Cams, Diversity, and Worcester Police

 The Worcester Police under Chief Sargent has become more transparent. They seem to have changed for the better without affecting their effectiveness.  It was surprising when I heard activists in the Blacklives Matter movement say the same. I hope I don’t have to eat these words.

Several years ago the police in Worcester were hated. They used excessive force and harassed the teenagers out of the downtown and other places. The Worcester Human Rights Commission monitored the civilian complaints against the Worcester Police and at the urging of the Progressive Labor Party and other groups the police also began to report on incidents of hate crimes.

The incidents of both complaints and hate crimes have gone down. Although there is some questions regarding the methods of the statistical analysis, there seems to be a real reduction of incidents.

Since the Blacklives Matter movement there was a so called commitment by the City of Worcester for the implementation of the use of body cams for the police. After petitions to the City Council and the embarrassing admmittal in 2018 that there were no concrete plans for body cams, Chief Sargent got the police union to agree to pilot program for their use.

The chief was uncertain at the Worcester Human Rights Commission 6-3-19 meeting about the criteria that were to be used in the evaluation of the body cameras and policing. He sounded like he was making up policy at the meeting, but one can take away that he is in favor of the body camera use.

PLP petitioned City Council that it establish policy for the use of body cameras. This petition was sent to the Public Safety subcommittee chaired by Kate Toomey.

This city councilor has done nothing on the issue. I think she should resign from Public Safety subcommittee for abrogation of her duties.

Recruitment seems to be an area of confusion and double speak.  The recruitment Sargent spoke of the many things he has done including working with the Diversity Officer in the City Manager’ office. However as long as ex-military get first hot at the police positions, the recruitment of women and people of color is almost zero. There are no Black females on the police force in Worcester.

We will see soon enough if the transparency is long lasting. The body cams are evaluated in November. The complaints, diversity,  and hate crimes next report is due in early 2020.

Crimes Against Humanity at the United States Border with Mexico

Crimes Against Humanity at the United States Border with Mexico

 

The wall at San Diego

The details of the miserable conditions and injustices that asylum seekers are suffering at the United States border with Mexico is generally known, but many of the details are not. A friend, Ramona, and others from the Progressive Labor Party recently went to the San Diego/Tijuana crossing to provide legal and social aid. The details of their advocacy has helped in the understanding of the crimes against humanity by the American government.

 Most of the asylum seekers are from Central America and Mexico. The American government’s threat of sanctions against their countries of origin has only increased the incentive of asylum seeker to move to relatively safer United States. Surprisingly there were Haitians, Yemenis, Russians, Somalis, Iraqis, Brazilians, and more nationalities.

At the border crossing is a plaza, El Chaparral, to which scores of asylum seekers go every day. They wait there to get a number on the “List” or wait in the hope that their number would be called from the List. In December of 2018 the American government closed down the List and some who had gained entry to the United States were deported without standing. 

From the scores of people who gathered daily in El Chaparral, only 40 would be processed each day. In frustration many asylum seeker give up and self deport.

Given the miserable conditions in the countries of origin self- deportation is a choice of almost certain death. The asylum seekers on the Mexican side of the  border are kept in camps and live and sleep outdoors. Their clothing is not suited for the sometime cold nights of Norther Mexico. This is especially true for the youngest children and the elderly.

 Both girls and boys are preyed upon by human trafficker and sexual predators. Boys are targeted by the American Border patrol and arrested immediately and deported right away even when in the United States.

The miserable conditions improve only slightly for the people whose numbers are called and get processed. These people are sent to a facility called “The ICEbox”. Their outer clothing is confiscated and aluminum blankets are issued. The blankets are not suitable given the temperature. The ICEbox lacks proper sanitary appliances, privacy, and food.

When people are released from the ICEbox, the American government ships them to concentration like camps that could be anywhere in the United States. These camps aka ICE detention center jail people until their cases are heard. This may take years. It is at these camps that the children of asylum seekers are separated from their parents.

Some people unable to either get into the United States and unable to return to their country of origin have applied for “humanitarian “visa from Mexico. This allows them to work up to one year in Mexico. These visa adversely affect the asylum seeking status of the refugees. The Mexican government tells the refugees that legal help costs up $5,000 and that they are better off taking the visas.

Once the visas are taken the asylum seeker become the most exploited workers in Mexico, selling themselves as day laborers.  

Like the American government the Mexican government is creating conditions to make asylum seekers self deport. It has ordered recently the evacuation of the Benito Juarez Shelter. The government sent in its riot police to blockade food and supplies from going to the shelter, when the people refused to be evacuated.

My friend, Ramona, worked at Enclave in Tijuana. There she and many other American volunteers provided legal help, food, childcare, and medical support. While there Ramona said around 1500 asylum seeking people were helped. She said that she and other volunteers stay overnight in San Diego and travelled to Tijuana in the morning.

Sometimes the volunteer were hassled. Ramona recalled the time she was delayed because her passport had been stamped in an African country. A border patrol agent wanted to know why she was there. Ironically the Border Patrol agent was an immigrant from Uganda.

Some of the significant groups helping asylum seekers are World Central Kitchens, Food Not Bombs, and  Pueblo sin Frontera.

There are organizations of deported people including DACA Moms whose children are still in the United States. They stay near the border so that they can sometime see their children.  Another group is Deported Veterans, US military troopers who have been deported.  

Recently the Head of the American Homeland Security Nielson had resigned. Given the crimes against humanity going on at the United States border, it would not be a surprise if she had done so to stay one step ahead of the International Criminal Court.

REDEMPTION, RACE, AND COUNCILLOR LUKES

REDEMPTION, RACE, AND COUNCILLOR LUKES

 

Councillor Lukes

Worcester City Councillor Konstantina Lukes should not return to the City Council of Worcester. She has a history of arguing against solutions to what is now called disparate impact racism. There seems to be no redemption for what some consider her underlying racism.

Councillor Lukes is a lawyer and knows how to put forward what many consider racist ideas while seeming to be a Liberal.  An example of this are the magnet schools which were built to integrate Worcester school students. The liberal cover for opposing magnet schools was neighborhood schools. The neighborhood schools policy would have continued a separate and unequal school system.

Recently Councillor Lukes has attacked immigrants by using the liberal viewpoint that only people who came to the USA with papers should stay. Of course the issue of immigration is more complicated, as seen with DACA and asylum seekers. The impact of a policy of only people with papers entering the USA has a disparately racial.

Protesters again Ms., Lukes antj immigrant policies 2016

Ms. Lukes has taken her lead from the fascist-like Tea Party and other racists.  A recent display of disparate impact racism was her support of William T. Breault who has organized anti-immigrant events,

In the 1960s Ms. Lukes was in the ACLU of Massachusetts.  It seems that she mentions this every time she attacked Blacklives Matter. When Blacklives Matter demanded more accountability of the police, Councillor Lukes supported a City Council resolution praising the status quo police policies.

                                               Hands Up Don’t Shoot 2014

For a time I thought Ms. Lukes was capable of Redemption and Salvation as she had once supported a Black Woman for superintendent of schools. However her subsequent actions including an attack on the City’s affirmative action policies belay that conclusion.

It is now reasonable to conclude that Ms. Lukes continuing in the City Councillor would be more harmful than good.

Time To Change the Worcester School Committee

Time To Change the Worcester School Committee

A way to change the Worcester School Committee for the better is change the Worcester City Charter to include district school committee members. The districts would be based on the four City high schools quadrant. Another requirement would be that these district school committee members have a child in the Worcester public schools.

 The Worcester School Committee consists today of sincere and knowledgeable people. Unfortunately they do not vigorously represent the student population of the Worcester Schools.

It is no secret that the Worcester School District student population is becoming more poor, more foreign born, and with more students with dark skin.  The Worcester School Committee has not become representative of them.

The last Latina on the School Committee is Hilda Ramirez. The last school committee member, that I recall, with children in the Worcester School District is Tracy O’Connell Novick. Both ladies were defeated after they vigorously defended students against the adverse impact of the racist school to jail policies.

The Worcester School Committee is entirely White and without children in the Worcester School district. For the most part they are the same people who hired a favorite daughter, principal from South High School, to be Superintendent of Worcester Schools. This was a disappointment as the then acting Superintendent was Latino, spoke Spanish, and had a Doctorate. The present Superintendent has none of these qualities.

At the last election Dante Carparretto was elected to the School Committee replacing a Tea Party sympathizer. Although a good man Dante has no children in the Worcester Schools.

Presently the Worcester City Charter requires that school committee candidates run an election throughout the entire city which allows the more affluent voters an advantage over the poorer, foreign born, or dark skin populations.

Many White parent just send their children to public grammar schools and afterward to the parochial high School. Many Black and Latino parents do the same. The Public high schools populations consist to a larger extent that the elementary schools low income, foreign born, special needs, and dark skin students. Which means that they are underrepresented at the decision making levels of government. 

There are several pockets of voters who have no children in public schools and seem intent on restricting public education and promoting racist school to jail policies. The Tea Party and especially a right blogger have harmed the public school systems.

A similar system of district representation is working well in Worcester City Council where there are Black, White, and Latino Councillors.  The district representation allows all parts of the City a voice in government.

BlackLives Matter And Body Camera For Worcester Police 2019

BlackLives Matter And Body Camera For Worcester Police 2019

BlackLives Matter has been one of the more significant advocates for police body cameras. The movement for police accountability has gained legitimacy from the recording of police misconduct, especially the shoot of unarmed young Black men by law enforcement at the moment of initial interaction with civilians..

It appears that law enforcement is now more cautious in regards to the moments before an arrest than it had been previously. Although I have no statistics for a comparison, it seems that there are fewer news stories of unarmed Black men being shot by police.

An ancillary effect of police body cameras has been that some complaints against the police can be more easily be found to be without merit.  The body camera captures violations by the civilian as well. The camera systems protects all parties with what can be called material evidence.

Not too long ago a study done in Washington DC questioned the value of body cameras. The studied was premised on the theory that people changed their behavior from bad to better when we are watched. In this instance by the camera. The study concluded that there was not much change in people’s behavior even when we were being watched.

The smaller pilot program for Boston police body camera use over a 12 month period ending in January 2018 resulted in 12 fewer complaints against police..

The premise that the main purpose of a police body cameras is to make us act better is not the premise of put forward by BlackLives Matter. We advocated for the material evidence of whether an encounter by law enforcement was justified or not. This material evidence would protect both the civilian and the police.

Starting in 2014 BlackLives Matter in Worcester created a coalition of activists and others who want good policing and an end to racist police misconduct. The coalition included CUC, NAACP, Progressive Labor Party, ACLU, and many others. For many years there was no movement on the issue by the City.

As recently as November of 2018 the Police Chief, the City Manager, and City Council could not say that anything was scheduled in terms of the pilot program for the use of body cameras. This lack of action was despite the police union and the City signing a contract to use body camera.

Police at Human Rights Commission 2018

It was something of a surprise when the City Manager and the Police Chief announced in January 2019 that a pilot program for body cameras would be initiated by the Worcester police sometime in 2019.  The announcement indicated that the evaluation would be based on effectiveness and costs.

This tidbit of information regarding the evaluation of body camera use by the Worcester Police leaves a lot out.  First there is not much information about the Police contract. Second, there is no useful information about the criteria that will be used in the evaluation of the use of body cameras.  Third, there is no information about the protocols that will be used in the pilot and the potentislly permanent program. Fourth, input from the public has not been defined by the parties.

The ACLU has developed a set of body camera protocols that protect both the police and the civilian. These protocols should be considered by the parties ast practice. They should be in effect at least temporarily during the pilot program.

The Human Rights Commission should play a role in the evaluation of the use of body cameras.

There should be more transparency regarding the terms of the police contract on this issue. The City Council should have public hearings

Cost Effectiveness of Worcester Mounted Police

Are Mounted Patrols Needed and Cost Effective?

A mounted officer’s  crowd control

At a recent Worcester Human Rights Commission meeting regarding the policies of the Worcester Police Department the representatives from the Police said that the mounted patrols are not evaluated for policing effectiveness or cost. Formerly published statements from the Police Chief Sargant and City Manager Edward Augustus Jr. set  the goals of the mounted patrols as: neighborhood patrol, crowd control, and public relations.

 

Worcester Human Rights Meeting

There is some anecdotal evidence that the horses are good ambassadors for the City.

The City Manager and the Police Chief want us to believe there is no costs to the taxpayers for the mounted patrols. This is counter intuitive as Boston has eliminated its mounted patrols due to the high costs and the relative ineffectiveness in achieving policing goals.

The horses are stabled at the County Jail and facilities’ costs are born by the County Jail and inmate labor. When the mounted patrols first started,  $25,000 for each of four horses were donated by private businesses. Because there is no evaluation, it is not certain to me whether these donations have continued.

It is certainty that there are at least seven police officers assigned to the mounted patrol unit and four horses. In addition there are two trucks and two trailers. These officers and vehicles have a cost to the taxpayer. Seven times $50,000 minimum salary is $350,000.

Worcester horse trailer

The mounted patrols of the Worcester Police are not publicly evaluated nor does it seem to be any internal evaluations. The horse patrols do not seem effective for community policing which is the official policy of the Worcester Police Department. Who can community police when sitting 12 feet in the air? It is not clear in what neighborhoods the mounted patrols are used if any.

In terms of crowd control the history has been that horses are used against Black and other working class people since the times of the slave patrols. It does not seem that the Worcester mounted patrols have ever engaged in any serious crowd control.

Anti-Trump rally in Long Island

It is surprising that not one City Councillor is questioning the effectiveness of the mounted patrols in achieving policing goals. Several years ago I used to commute to Boston with the City’s Mayor Petty. He is by all measures a liberal democrat and a decent man, but he is also a strong proponent of the horses.

It might be the case that the mounted patrols are needed and cost effective. No one in the City can make that claim as there has been no evaluation ever of the Worcester’s Calvary.