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John Oliver discusses the state of policing in the U.S. on the latest episode of Last Week Tonight, focusing on the systemic racism of the country and impact on law enforcement. Oliver, who has mostly been covering COVID-19 in his “Coronavirus” series of episodes, talks about issues such as police brutality, and the role lawmakers have played in worsening the issue.

In the episode, Oliver talks about issues with policing that have arisen from multiple aspects of the profession, including the way police forces have been trained. Oliver highlights particularly divisive police tactics, such as stop-and-frisk, which he says “essentially allow police officers to search people at random.” He also notes that the stop-and-frisk practice, used by the New York City Police Department, overwhelmingly target latino and black communities.

“[This] sort of aggressive policing was accompanied by constant calls to increase the number of police officers on the streets,” Oliver adds. He notes that both of the major political parties in the U.S. have advocated not only for more police, but more draconian police tactics.

Oliver also says that the problems with policing have been stoked by politicians at just about every level of governance. Oliver implicates everyone from “big city mayors” to the U.S. presidents sourced from both political parties over the past several decades.

One of the biggest problems that needs to be considered, according to Oliver, is that of police having what’s known as “qualified immunity.” Qualified immunity is a legal doctrine in U.S. federal law that “shields government officials from being held personally liable for discretionary actions performed within their official capacity, unless their actions violated ‘clearly established’ federal law or constitutional rights.” Qualified immunity, Oliver says, leads to a lack of punishment for the use of overtly assaultive police force.

“There is a chance that the Supreme Court decides to reconsider qualified immunity,” Oliver says, and adds that there’s even a current bill in congress aimed at abolishing the legal doctrine. But even if the bill passes, Oliver says, “it may have to wait for a new president to sign it, and we may not get one of those anywhere from the next four years to never.”

Feature Image: LastWeekTonight

The post John Oliver Examines History of Policing in America appeared first on Nerdist.

Shawn, Dominic, and Keith discuss the state of the world in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, another unarmed Black man in America killed by the police. https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/thenerdsofcolor/HNL196.mp3 Here are some resources to donate to, amplify, and support: Black Lives Matter George Floyd Memorial Fund Racial Justice Network The Movement for Black Lives […]

I have some interesting news about baseball. It appears that the MLB might propose shorter season which the baseball players would get full prorated salaries. The commissioner Manfred said they could cut the length of the season short, like 40-50 games and pay prorated salaries. However, there is no intention for MLB to propose that now, as hope remains that they will play a season of meaningful length.

Stay tuned for MLB updates.

The post MLB Season? appeared first on The Nerd Element.

It’s easy to forget that the people we elected to public office do, in fact, work for us. Especially when some of them behave like entitled, pre-ordained monarchs. But they’re not: we pay their salaries, we support their campaigns, and we in turn demand that they make good on those promises. And if they fail to do what we elected them to do, a functioning democracy allows us to call them out on their failures and eventually vote them out of office.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey has found himself in just such a position ever since the police murdered George Floyd, kicking off an international wave of protests against police brutality. Frey was quick to condemn the murder and declare that Black Lives Matter, in an unequivocal response to police brutality. The 38 year old civil rights lawyer was elected in 2018 in part on a platform of police reform.

But we’ve heard politicians call for police reform before. And Black people keep getting murdered by the police. This has led to call to defund police forces, which take up an obscenely over-sized amount of city budgets across the country.

Yesterday, Minneapolis advocacy group Black Visions led a protest march that ended at Frey’s house. When Frey came out to address the protesters, he was asked on the spot whether or not he would commit to defunding the Minneapolis police force. Frey said, “I have been coming to grips with my own responsibility, my own failure in this,” but when pressured to give a yes or response he said, “I do not support the full abolition of the Police Department.”

Immediately, the crowd began booing the mayor and chanting “shame!” and “Go home Jacob, go home!” as he walked away from the protest. It’s an unbelievably powerful video to watch:

Listen at 1:30. This is critical. The leader knew he was up for reelection so she put him on the spot with a firm yes or no on defunding the police.

Come prepared and hold elected officials' feet to the fire. Stop treating them like mini-celebs.pic.twitter.com/i5Jua7XW0M

— jordan (@JordanUhl) June 7, 2020

Later, Frey stated that he supported “massive structural reform” to the city’s police force. He added, “If you’re asking whether I’m willing to do everything I possibly can throughout the rest of my term to make sure that the police union, the police contract, the arbitration system, and some of these policies that have resulted in problems for specifically Black and brown people and murder over series of generations, I’m all for that … I’m not for abolishing the entire police department, I will be honest about that.”

Rep. Ilhan Omar also spoke at the protest where she said, “The Minneapolis Police Department is rotten to the root and so when we dismantle it, we get rid of that cancer and we allow for something beautiful to rise.”

The video is a stark and powerful reminder that we can and should demand more from our leaders. And if they fail to rise to the challenge, then they will be held accountable. The time for lip service is over. The people demand action, not platitudes.

(via Star Tribune, image: Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)

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