Uvalde Cops Failed _ Children Died

Uvalde Cops Failed.

Parents prevented from rescuing kids.

To the layman, it might seem strange to read an Associated Press story about how, when a mass shooter invaded an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, the local police refused to attack him for about 40 minutes despite the urging of nearby parents. “Go in there! Go in there!” one said. The police instead waited for a tactical unit from the Border Patrol (which reportedly got another student killed by instructing them to call out for help before the shooter had been apprehended).

During the delay, parents even tried to rush in themselves. “Let’s just rush in because the cops aren’t doing anything like they are supposed to,” Javier Cazares said. The parents didn’t, but it seems only because the police stopped them. According to a cellphone video apparently taken at the scene, the cops threatened to tase desperate, screaming parents to stop them going in. Cazares’s child Jacklyn was killed in the attack.

Angeli Rose Gomez told The Wall Street Journal that she drove 40 miles to the school, which her two children attended, and begged police on the scene to intervene. Instead, federal marshals arrested her for “intervening in an active investigation.” After talking some local cops into letting her out of the cuffs, watching a second parent get tackled by police, and a third get pepper-sprayed, she snuck around the crowd, sprinted into the school, and brought out her kids.

But this horrifying story should come as no surprise. What it illustrates is simply the cowardly culture of American police in action. Contrary to the chest-thumping rhetoric of police unions, they are neither trained nor legally expected to protect citizens in danger. In the pinch, they frequently put their own safety above those they are charged with protecting—even elementary school kids.

As an initial matter, it should be emphasized that this school had done everything that conservatives and experts from the school safety consulting industry recommend. To comply with a 2018 Texas law passed in response to a different school shooting, the “district adopted an array of security measures that included its own police force, threat assessment teams at each school, a threat reporting system, social media monitoring software, fences around schools and a requirement that teachers lock their classroom doors,” report Suzy Khimm and Jon Schuppe at NBC News.

It didn’t work, and neither did police on the scene rush in to stop the killer. Now, of course this is the polar opposite of approved police tactics these days. After the Columbine shooting, where police waited outside for hours while a teacher bled to death, police are supposed to dash into the scene as fast as possible. They just didn’t do it. The reason is the powerful fear instilled by other parts of police training, as well as the overall police culture. Consider David Grossman, one of the most famous and influential police trainers in the country. Justin Peters took one of his “warrior cop” classes for a Slate article, and found a message that was equal parts hysterical exaggeration of the ambient risk in American society and creepy obsession with killing people. “Increasingly the police must face organized opponents armed with assault rifles and bombs,” says Grossman; cops face an “explosion in violent crime” and an “extraordinary rise in violence.”

antiracismdsa: Lulac and Little Joe Lead Protests Outside NRA Eve...

antiracismdsa: Lulac and Little Joe Lead Protests Outside NRA Eve...:   View as web page LULAC And Tejano Music Star Little Joe Lead Coalition Protest Outside NRA Event In Houston Nation’s Oldest and Largest La...

Walter Garcia Kawamoto

 

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The Attacks on Teachers Threatens Public Education

 How the Attack on Teachers Threatens the Future of Public Schools By Sarah Jaffe

Illustrator: Adrià Fruitós

Two years ago, Nicole McCormick was so passionate about teaching that she ran for vice president of the West Virginia Education Association. A music teacher for 11 years, McCormick “always had high expectations of what a music teacher should do,” and on top of lesson planning and caring for her family, she put in extra hours after school to make her union stronger, too. 

But now she has left the classroom and is unsure if she will ever return. The increasing workload, the uncertainty and pressure of the pandemic, the combined stress of parenting her own four children, looking after her ill mother, worrying about the health and safety of her students, and the low pay and constant disrespect drove her out. 

“Part of teaching is putting on a show,” McCormick said. “Because we all know that these children are living with trauma. I couldn’t put on a show anymore. Because if I did, if I successfully put on that show during the day, by the time I got home, there was nothing left.”

She is not alone. Many teachers around the country are reaching a breaking point. They have been demonized in the press and blamed for school closures, and the ways COVID-19 has dramatically changed public education have piled heavily on top of attacks and shortages educators and public schools have been enduring for years. No longer able to give their best to their students, many teachers are leaving the field and the impact on the future of public education could be catastrophic.

There are now 567,000 fewer educators in public schools than at the beginning of the pandemic, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the ratio of hires to job openings has reached new lows, with 0.57 hires for every open job. A poll released in February by the National Education Association also found that 55 percent of polled educators plan to leave the field earlier than they originally thought because of the pandemic, and 80 percent of union members reported that “unfilled job openings have led to more work obligations for the educators who remain.”

There are now 567,000 fewer educators in public schools than at the beginning of the pandemic.

Moreover, a February report from the Economic Policy Institute noted that nearly every state is seeing “substantial losses” in public education employment, with 16 states having losses of 5 percent or more. And it’s not just teachers either. Support staff, from bus drivers to custodians, have also been leaving as districts scramble to fill positions. In Massachusetts, some 200 members of the National Guard were even called in for a couple months to help drive kids to school.

Democrats and Super Pacs

 

Dem Voters Want Dem Pols Who Do Things

ALEXANDER SAMMON

The Joe Manchin wing of the party lost big on Tuesday.

Tuesday’s primary elections were defined by historic super PAC spending attempting to quash a number of progressive candidates and an attempted hostile takeover of the Democratic primary process like we’ve never seen. At last count, just a handful of super PACs had dumped $18 million to influence the outcome in favor of moderates. The expectation in politics is that the person with the most money wins. And that played out in several races Tuesday night. In numerous races, massive super PAC money backed moderate candidates with institutional endorsements and little enthusiasm. But surprisingly, progressives largely won the argument that voters want to see their representatives fighting for an agenda rather than fighting to stop it. The candidates most tied to trying to slam the brakes on progress were defeated. The candidates who organized their communities in favor of getting things done for the people were successful. And in one incredible instance, voters saw through the hollowness of millions of outside dollars. The night’s early returns were headlined by the triumph of Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman over moderate House Rep. Conor Lamb for the state’s Democratic Senate nomination. Fetterman was expected to win, but did so resoundingly, winning every single county while holed up in a hospital bed recovering from pacemaker surgery. Fetterman is a bit of an unorthodox progressive candidate. He’s championed a $15 minimum wage, weed legalization, Medicare for All, and higher taxes on the rich. He’s also embraced Title 42, the immigration policy that the Trump administration enacted to turn away asylum seekers using COVID as a pretense, and pledged to support Israel. The latter decision likely kept some of the massive super PAC spending from AIPAC’s United Democracy Project PAC and Democratic Majority for Israel PAC out of the race. Still, Lamb benefited from millions of dollars in super PAC spending thanks to Penn Progress, a super PAC composed primarily of financial titans and set up specifically to buoy his candidacy, despite the fact that Lamb has previously condemned corporate money in elections.

Unfair Redistricting - West Sacramento

May 16, 2022 Dear City Council, Re: Redistricting in West Sacramento City Elections; City Council Selects Horrible Map for Minorities and Poor People. Undisputable data shows Map 4a  discriminates against poor people but even more blatantly discriminate against Latinos and African Americans who are most concentrated in Broderick/ Bryte. The city council is turning the CVRA on its head. Map 4a splits a Latino/Black minority area in much the same way governor De Santis split a Black district in Florida so they could not elect a candidate of their choice. The whole reason for the CVRA lawsuit was to use the CVRA to create a remedial district for the historically underserved and marginalized Broderick/Bryte community North of Sacramento Avenue. Instead, the City (Orozco, Ledesma, and Daunte) chose a map that will prevent the poor Latino/Black areas from ever electing anyone. The unfairness to Broderick is easily proven. In Map 4a, Broderick has 3027 registered voters and the area south of Broderick has 3816 registered voters. That is a huge difference. Splitting Broderick from Byte virtually guarantees that Broderick will be unable to elect a City Council representative of their choice. The demographic maps of the city show that Broderick has very different problems than the affluent Bridge district. Broderick has a concentration of Spanish speakers, unemployed, and a myriad of social problems. Given the difference in registered voters, Broderick would have to vote in much higher numbers than the Bridge District in order to have any chance of winning. However, the data shows that voters from poor neighborhoods do not vote in higher percentages than middle class neighborhoods. Moreover, Map 4a dilutes the Latino vote in Broderick which is 33% Latino by grouping it with areas only 25 % Latino and with which it has far less community of interest. Map 4a is also unfair to Bryte. Bryte has 35% Latino voters, but it is districted with more affluent areas south of Bryte that have a much lower Latino voter percentage of 25 % Latino and does not share a community of interest with Bryte. Map 4a intentionally dilutes the Latino minority in Bryte vote so they can never elect a candidate of their choice either. The city council is turning the CVRA on its head. The stated public policy reason for the CVRA is to prohibit “the use of an at-large election in a political subdivision if it would impair the ability of a protected class, as defined, to elect candidates of its choice or otherwise influence the outcome of an election.”  There is a community of interest between Broderick/Bryte that does not exist with the more affluent areas South of the Freeway with which Broderick/Bryte have been grouped. The CVRA requires a court to implement “appropriate remedies,” including the imposition of district-based elections, that are tailored to remedy a violation of the act. Please post my letter. Please include this letter with the map you submit to the court for approval.  Respectfully yours, Carlos Alcala President Dolores Huerta Club of Broderick/ Bryte. Chair Chicano Latino Caucus California Democratic Party

 

May 14. March Sacramento

 

Texas Governor Seeks to Ban Immigrant Children from School Plyler V Doe

 Texas Governor Ready to Challenge Schooling of Migrant Children

Gov. Greg Abbott may target a 1982 Supreme Court ruling that requires schools to educate undocumented children. Some conservatives see an opening for a fresh look at old precedent.

 

 

Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas has taken a hard stance on immigration, using the issue to beat back challengers in the Republican primary.Credit...Brandon Bell/Getty Images

 

By J. David Goodman

May 5, 2022

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HOUSTON — With the Supreme Court signaling a willingness to reverse decades-old precedents like the Roe v. Wade decision on abortion, Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas said on Thursday that he would seek to overturn a 1982 court decision that obligated public schools to educate all children, including undocumented immigrants.

Mr. Abbott’s comments opened a new front in his campaign to use his powers as governor to harden Texas against unauthorized migration. And they demonstrated just how expansively some conservatives are thinking when it comes to the kinds of changes to American life that the court’s emboldened conservative majority may be willing to allow.

The latest proposal for closing public schools to undocumented children significantly widens the range of precedents up for debate. After a draft opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade leaked this week, focus had been primarily on other rights that could be legally linked to the 1973 decision, such as access to contraception and same-sex marriage.

Little has changed in the legal landscape surrounding the education of undocumented children since 1982, when the court issued a 5-to-4 decision to strike down a Texas law allowing schools to refuse admission to unauthorized migrant children, legal experts said. Several attempts over the years to chip away at the decision in the case known as Plyler v. Doe have been unsuccessful, including an effort by Alabama more than a decade ago and in California in the 1990s.

May Day

 Dear Friends,

Let me take this opportunity to wish each and every one of you a very happy May Day.

The concept behind May Day is extremely profound. It is the understanding that real power lies in solidarity, and that when working people in our country and around the world come together, there is nothing that can stop us in the struggle for justice. 

It is also a day in which we recommit ourselves to take on the incredible greed and power of the corporate elite and the exploitation and misery they create — not just here in the United States, but internationally.

Clearly, one of the great crises facing the global community today is that the basic right of ordinary people to control their own lives at home and at the workplace is on the defensive.

And the root of this crisis is the fact that a handful of incredibly wealthy people are exerting enormous economic and political power over the planet.

These are people who are so addicted to greed that they are willing to step over working people, many with families and young children, in order to satisfy a pathological desire for more, more and more wealth. 

Unbelievably, in the global economy today, the top 1 percent owns more wealth than the bottom 99 percent, and a handful of billionaires own more than the bottom half of the people around the world — and that is more than 3.7 billionpeople.

And things have only gotten worse during the pandemic.