Items

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  2021-04-12

  Being Asian During Covid

  This piece describes the minor hardships I have experienced during Covid as a young man who happens to be Asian.
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  2021-03-29

  Justice for Sofia Ramirez

  Photographer Malcolm Dole has been documenting street art during the pandemic.
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  2021-03-29

  Street art during the pandemic

  Malcolm Dole is a Seattle photographer who is capturing photographs of street art during the pandemic.
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  2021-03-23

  News Article: Here's how much vaccines are selling for on the illegal market

  This article relays data gleaned from cybersecurity firm Check Point Software to a CNN reporter, Samantha Kelly, related to the illicit market for COVID-19 vaccines and proof of vaccination cards available for purchase through the dark web.
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  2021-03-29

  Senior Border Patrol officer says border migrant flow will only worsen

  "Senior officer says border migrant flow will only worsen" By Lyda Longa, lyda.longa@myheraldreview.com, Mar 29, 2021 The situation with undocumented migrants flocking to the Southwest border of the United States from Mexico is only going to worsen, a senior Border Patrol agent warned Friday. The agent, who spoke to various media outlets during a conference call, said at least 380,000 undocumented people had been apprehended at the Southwest border in February and the numbers would be higher for March and beyond. The agent spoke on background with the agreement that media would not reveal his name. “I fully expect to see the numbers increase as we go into the summer months,” the senior agent said, concerning migrant crossings. In Cochise County that warning has begun to bear out near Douglas and in Willcox, where the already stretched-thin Border Patrol is arresting more single adults attempting to slip into the country or taking in and processing children who are flocking to the border unaccompanied. Douglas Mayor Donald Huish said Friday the latest information he received this week from Border Patrol agents at the station just outside Douglas is that they’re confronting and repatriating about 100 single adults daily who are trying to slip in illegally. “They are getting closer and closer to town,” Huish said. What concerns Huish even more is that Border Patrol agents from the Douglas station are being pulled out to help in busier areas such as Yuma and Tucson. “They’re siphoning them off to the western part of the state and leaving us with a skeleton crew,” Huish said. In Willcox, Mayor Mike Laws said he was told two weeks ago by the Border Patrol there were 54 unaccompanied children at the Border Patrol station. “That was two weeks go. Who knows now?” Laws said. “The station can only hold up to 81.” Laws said he was told by Border Patrol that a “third party” has been arriving at the facility and taking 10 to 20 children to Phoenix by via bus. The mayor said he does not know how often the transportation comes or who the third party is. “We have not seen anyone (undocumented migrants) running the streets so far,” Laws said. “All we have is the youths, but we don’t see them either.” Laws and Sierra Vista Mayor Rick Mueller said citizens in their respective communities would gladly help the undocumented migrants but there aren’t enough resources available to do so. Laws, Mueller and other mayors in Cochise County signed a letter recently asking the federal government for help with the matter. Last week, the town of Gila Bend, which has a population of about 2,000, declared an emergency after Border Patrol agents dropped off a group of migrant families with children in a park. Gila Bend Mayor Chris Riggs told reporters he and his wife ended up using loaned vans to drive the families to the Phoenix Welcome Center so they would have a safe place to stay. Riggs said Border Patrol agents told him to expect more of the same. Mueller said there have been no such issues in Sierra Vista, but he is worried that the municipality, if hit with something similar to what happened in Gila Bend, would have no resources to offer. Last week Arizona senators Kyrsten Synema and Mark Kelly announced they’ve been pushing for more federal resources to help Arizona cities with a sudden influx of undocumented migrants. The senators helped secure at least $110 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency as reimbursement to cities that assist migrants left within their jurisdictions. Also last week, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey and Florida Senator Rick Scott — who sits on the Homeland Security Committee — called on President Joe Biden and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to visit the Southwest border. Ducey and Scott, accompanied by a handful of law enforcement and other elected officials, had toured a portion of the border near Douglas. At his first press conference on Thursday since taking office in January, Biden said he would come to the border soon, but thought a visit now would deflect attention from the issue at hand. The senior Border Patrol agent who spoke Friday, meanwhile, said 300 Border Patrol agents who work along the northern border of the U.S. have been “mandated” to the Southwest border to assist with the influx of migrants. He said about 2,000 family units out of the 6,000 who are trying to cross daily are being processed in Texas by the Border Patrol. The agent revealed that unaccompanied children are being kept in Border Patrol facilities longer than the 72 hours established by law because too many are showing up and agents are overwhelmed. “They’re keeping them a few days, sometimes up to a week,” the senior agent said. Once an unaccompanied child is encountered, Border Patrol contacts the Department of Health and Human Services. The latter makes arrangements for the migrant children to be taken by the Office of Refugee Resettlement. The agent also mentioned an increase in the criminal element among undocumented migrants. “The threats we see are significant,” the senior agent said. “We have seen criminal (undocumented migrants).” Additionally, he said that COVID testing for migrants is only being done in facilities in Del Rio, Texas, and soon in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas. Other than that, testing is being undertaken by non-governmental agencies that are helping the migrants and U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officials. He said it was probable that some migrants with COVID-19 may have been released into communities.
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  2021-02-14

  "I'm Done Downplaying My Asian American Experience"

  In response to the rise in anti-Asian racism and crimes, Allure magazine reached out to six prominent Asian Americans within the beauty industry to share their experiences as Asian Americans. They share not only accounts of bullying and racism, but also how the beauty industry can help change the narrative.
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  2021-03-21

  Oral History: Interview with Anonymous Peace Officer #2

  James Rayroux 0:01 My name is James Rayroux, and I'm a graduate student in global history at Arizona State University, and I'm working as a curation intern with the "Journal of the Plague Year" COVID-19 archive. Today is March 21, 2021, and it's just after 8:12pm or 2012 hours here in Arizona. I'm speaking with a narrator who wishes to contribute to the COVID-19, archive anonymously. Sir, I first want to thank you for speaking with me and contributing to this COVID-19 archive. Do you consent to having this interview recorded, transcribed, and immediately posted to the "Journal of the Plague Year" COVID-19 archive, where it will be made accessible to the public? Anonymous Officer 0:43 Yes, I do. JR 0:44 Thank you again for agreeing to speak with me and making time for this interview. In lieu of your name, or location, can you provide a summary of your background and professional experience in law enforcement? AO 1:01 Sure, I've been sworn law enforcement for almost 23 years in a state in the Rocky Mountain region. I've worked both for municipal and state government, and I work for small to medium sized agency now about 35 sworn officers. I'm a military veteran, I was US Navy prior to my time prior to going to the police academy, and I worked a variety assignments from patrol to drug and alcohol enforcement, auto theft Task Force, Joint Terrorism Task Force, supervision, criminal investigations, and command. JR 1:44 During that time what are some of your most prominent or important achievements within the law enforcement profession? AO 1:54 You know, I think that this profession, namely, is typically not about the individual. I would probably point towards successes in the community and successful team building and successful growth of individuals into the business. I think one of my most proud achievements I think, something I'm tremendously, I feel tremendously accomplished for is somehow I failed to convince my son to be a firefighter, and he was just sworn in at another municipality in the same state as a sworn law enforcement officer. So while I have failed him and trying to convince him to do literally anything else, I'm also extremely proud and accomplished that I have raised my son into a similar professional lineage, and he's elected to take the oath to protect his community, as well. JR 2:57 What are your current roles or assignments within your organization? AO 3:04 I'm currently assigned as a patrol supervisor, a watch commander. I supervise a shift of a number of police officers and currently working day shift. So in those roles, I'm essentially the emergency manager for our smaller community, supervise police response to emergencies, meet with the public, interact with command staff, meet with public stakeholders, and then, essentially, a customer service rep who happens to be a sworn law enforcement agent. JR 3:37 When and how did you learn about the SARS-CoV-2 virus in early 2020, and what were some of the first conversations you remember having about it at work? AO 3:51 So COVID became on the tip of everybody's tongue probably in early January. And previously, in the end of 2019, it was somebody else's problem. It was, it was a China problem, it was a Wu Han problem, specifically. It was, it was out of sight out of mind. And, of course, you'll know this about law enforcement, there's only two kinds of problems in law enforcement, those being "my problem," and "not my problem." And during the first part of 2020, it wasn't our problem. There was a limited amount of cases in the US, they trickled in. Most of what we understood about the virus that causes COVID-19 was based on the media, was based on, you know, what you might catch a snippet of on NPR on Fox News, which has no news about foxes, I might add, and essentially, just the snippets we would get on the media and I don't remember having official tangential conversations about the COVID-19 virus in a strategic way, until probably February. A lot of those initial conversations, you know, as, as trained observers and trained investigators, I know many, many law enforcement officers who don't immediately give a lot of trust or credence to things their government tells them. So, for the first little while, it was kind of an attitude of scrutiny, one of a lack of credibility. We weren't really sure whether this was hype and whether there was really any risk, and there was a lot of conversations about the corollary between, you know, the standard flu and other illnesses that killed just as many if not more people, and there was a lot of disagreement about their trajectory, and the volume, and the scope, and really how this thing was going to manifest. JR 6:04 How did your agency first deal with the COVID-9 pandemic in an official way? AO 6:12 The first steps that were taken initially, mostly just surrounded, strategic outward facing changes to how we did business on the street, basic social distancing, wash your hands, don't touch your face, basically just mimicked CDC advice. You know, be careful more to come. Very low level, very basic, no real operational changes, no testing, no recommendations for symptoms that was, you know, under the umbrella of "flatten the curve," keep yourself healthy sort of jargon, that was shared from both the government and from the administration of our, our small community downwards towards the police department and other, other trades in the region. JR 7:13 What did your first pandemic briefing or roll call look and feel like after those changes were made? Where you and your squad entirely in masks for that first time, or was that yet to come? AO 7:29 When the government of our state first mandated masks, there was specific legislation that excluded law enforcement. It was quickly decided that masks were recommended, but were not required initially. So there was this sort of juxtaposition and feeling out period in our community where not a lot of people wore masks. It was recommended. You were supposed to wear them when you were outside, you were supposed to wear them, you know, when you were in contact with others. The science hadn't really been affirmed. There weren't a lot of links to credible research yet. And, of course, a pandemic of this nature has never been experienced or dealt with for generations previous to this. And so, you know, I'm 100% cofident telling you that literally everyone was just winging it, and that was immediately apparent in that first briefing where we discussed what we were going to do. Still scrutiny, still somewhat lack of credibility, lots of, lots of eye rolling with a few critical and strategic thinkers, you know, raising, you know, what would later be the first semblance of some alarm, saying, "Hey, you know, maybe, maybe this is going to be a big deal. Maybe we haven't experienced anything like this before, we ought to be as careful as possible." JR 9:03 How did your agency's policies and procedures change over time after that initial effort? AO 9:13 So the, you know, the, the tide came in, in a big way very quickly. And as you'll remember, as the COVID-19 virus, sort of sieged Italy and New York and the Eastern Seaboard, everybody started paying attention in a big way. And we're, you know, a couple 1000 miles from there, but local and state governments started reacting very, very quickly. Masks were mandated for all persons in contact with the public. A scramble was afoot to obtain PPE [personal protective equipment], which supply chains being, you know, any resemblance of the way they were in 2019, there was no problem. You just got on Uline or Amazon or, you know, you know, whoever your main commercial supplier was, and you ordered them by the skid and PPE was readily available and there was no reason to hoard it. But all of a sudden, there weren't any. There wasn't any, the supply chains were just curb-stomped into this sort of perpetual waiting period where nobody was sure what they were going to need, and everybody thought that N-95 respirators were the new hotness, and everyone had to have some from car dealers to people working the drive thru to baristas to, you know, the guy doing my front end alignment. So all of a sudden, we were trying to balance what was practically happening on the street, what our day-to-day call volume looked like, and what we were really supposed to do with the PPE we had knowing that our resupply was probably distant. And when we wove all that together and put all that minutia in a pot and stirred it up, what we came up with was pretty much this overwhelming sense of nobody knowing anything that was reliable. And it was anybody's best guess how long this was going to last and what we're going to need. That was echoed among our local hazmat [Hazardous Materials responders], our local health departments, our local health organizations. Nobody had any PPE to give us, nobody knew how long it was going to last, and nobody could have any real recommendations except for this sort of parroted, you know, don't touch your face, wash your hands, wear a mask in contact with everybody. Once masks were required, we had some pretty significant changes to the way that we did business in the community. You know, as a forward facing law enforcement agency, we contact, you know, one officer might contact 10s of people every day, sometimes might make 15 or 20 contacts before, you know, the afternoon's said, and by doing so, what we know now to weave a fabric of a contact trace that is essentially impossible. I mean, we remove Degrees of Separation all day long just by talking to people. And none of that technology and contact tracing and science had really entered the social jargon. But we were out there just trying to be as careful as possible, and it wasn't until probably...probably late March is when you know rivers turned to blood and the sky fell as far as the government was concerned. And it was then that definitive, codified changes were made to procedure where there was a moratorium put on traffic enforcement and all proactive street contacts, except for egregious emergency violations. We didn't make traffic stops for weeks. There was a moratorium immediately placed on warrant arrests and on booking people at the jail because, having a potential infectious patient in your vehicle, nobody knew what the consequences of that were or how to decon [decontaminate] it. So we didn't arrest anybody. If it was a crime of violence, or a crime against a person with a victim, we would screen it at the jail first. Everybody warned N-95 mask, and we would transport them as quickly and safely as possible. If it was a warrant for anything nonviolent, warrant for bench warrants, and courts and anything, we just let them go. Even if somebody told us that they had COVID symptoms, or were COVID positive, there was still no viable testing in the system, and no way to confirm or deny that those statements were true so we didn't book them. So many suspects in cases either went uncontacted, cases were dismissed, or the warrants were skipped just because the precautions weren't in place yet, and the agency and all the businesses and other agencies we worked in the region were trying to just to stay healthy. Proactivity probably took a, I think, I would call a permanent shift. I have not seen a resurgence of practice enforcement and the likes of which I might like. Cops just stopped doing business the way that they used to, and some of the badges we'd wear and some of the honor that we took in protecting the community came from making contacts: suspicious vehicle, suspicious people, you know, local transients, patrolling, you know, bike racks and stealing cars and stealing bikes and harassing people and it, it turned into kind of this proactive wasteland where law enforcement was worried about exposing themselves. They were worried about exposing each other. They were worried about exposing their families. And they were worried that if they happen to make a contact, they might expose the next people, the next 10 or 15 people that they talked to that day. So the only way to eliminate that was just to stop doing it. So by eliminating, you know, the patient zero style traffic stops, we hoped to have an impact on that, and flatten our own curves by just not talking to anybody unless it was an emergency. JR 15:38 Do you remember the first call or the first contact that you went on where you and the public were both wearing masks? AO 15:51 I don't remember it specifically. But I remember a handful of contacts that were made in right around March when, you know, when I said that when the king tide came in with news and with panic and fear. And I remember a handful where nobody really was sure what to do. Everybody was, had this sort of weaponized social distance, and people would walk the other direction when you tried to talk to him, and we hadn't mastered the, you know, the little elbow bump or the little nod, and so nobody could figure out how to talk to one another, and there was quite a few instances of the COVID card being played where people just simply didn't want to talk to the police. So they, they feigned fear and panic for exposure and wouldn't come out of their homes and open their car doors or their windows. And then shortly thereafter, it became socially stigmatic to participate in the fear and panic. And if law enforcement didn't wear masks, we sort of became this pariah immediately. So it was, it was optional for a very short period of time, but then very, very quickly, virtually every single contact we made had to have a mask on, of course, which, you know, brings with it all the problems associated with not being able to see somebody's face. It's hard to hear, it's hard to talk on the radio. It's hard to smell intoxicants, you know, it just added sort of this, it was basically like dimming the focus one click on your whole world by having to cover your face. But, you know, at that point, some of the science was starting to become more consistent and more published, and every, most everybody at that point was pretty convinced that at least when in contact with the public and the unknown, that some sort of mask was viable and necessary. JR 17:50 In Western society, handshaking has long been a very important social event. And that's obviously gone by the wayside with the general public since the pandemic began. In lieu of having that physical contact to make direct human connections, how have you tried to establish rapport with the public when you do have to contact them? AO 18:21 It's been weird. You know, handshakes have been sort of the status quo of a show of respect and humility for so many years. I mean, you know, you hold your hand out, it's almost instinctual. It's almost primordial. You know, in this culture in Western culture, someone holds your hand out, and you don't take it, like, them's are fighting actions, right? So it's, it was weird. We had to figure out ways to break the ice, we had to figure out ways to do that acknowledgement, and I'll answer it two ways. The first way was we had to figure out how to communicate with people even though they couldn't really see our faces, and there could be no sort of context to breaking sign of respect, like the handshake. So you know, you come up with this weird elbow bump, or you give the little, you know, the little nod that one bro gives to another across the urinal, and you find out ways to just break the ice with people. And the second challenge that we experienced was that we could no longer show those signs of respect to one another in view of the public. So if one cop was touching another, or, you know, giving a little handshake or playing grab ass, or high five, or even just a fist bump, all of a sudden, we were cast out, right? All of a sudden, those little, that that lack of social distancing became this socially virtuous thing to exploit and to ridicule, and so we had to be exceptionally careful in public even though within shifts, we considered our shifts to be close contact circles. I mean, any sworn law enforcement officer working during the COVID shutdown very likely saw their shift mates more than they saw their blood families. And so there was just no way to socially distance internally at work, because of the, just close knit manner in which the job is done and the proximity we had to one another throughout the day. Yet in public, you know, we're in our own cars we're socially distanced, we got to have masks on, you better boil yourself between each contact, and you got to wear booties and a Tyvek suit and touch everybody with a little wand. And in the mix, I feel like our isolationism increased, and I feel like our bonds of society from a law enforcement perspective became even more tenuous. So, you know, one of the things I adopted was I started using my first name with everybody. I stopped using rank, I stopped using identifiers. I just told him who I was. I asked them for their first name, I use my first name, I tried to break it down. And I would always, you know, have these little catch conversations I do and I introduced everybody, and just try to acknowledge that this is a new time and, you know, you hear in the media and you see it a lot. And in every, every, you know, corporation, commercial for six months, it was, "in these trying times." So, that sort of became the catchphrase like, "Hey, in these challenging times, things are different. Here's the business I'm here to do. My name is so-and-so. We're trying to keep the peace, how can we be helpful?" And we interacted with all kinds of people. Some people thought it was a hoax. Plenty of, plenty of sovereign citizen scam-demick, plan-demick jargon being thrown our way. And then on the other side of that spectrum, were extremely scared, extremely isolated...people wouldn't come out of their houses, people were afraid to take a Grubhub delivery. People were, you know, boiling their utensils. And somewhere in the middle, law enforcement just kind of figured out a way to break the ice, and I think it's, I think it's going to be permanently different. And I can tell you that because the day before yesterday, I was on a burglary call where I talked to the informant. Without even thinking, I reached my hand out to shake his hand because he told me his name. He said, "Hey, thanks for coming. I'm so and so." And without even thinking about it, my mammal brain shot my hand out in a greeting. And it took him about five seconds of staring at me before I figured out that we just don't do that anymore. And it's super weird, but we, we're working around it. JR 22:51 What do you miss most about your job or your daily work duties from 2019? AO 23:02 You know, I don't know if this is going to be directly related to the pandemic. I think that in 2019, we were dealing with a community that understood what the rules were. Everything was, you know, we call it "pre-COVID," we call it "olden days," I don't know if we're ever going to return to those times, but cops are out there doing business in the community, and we were fighting crime and protecting people. And we were making this self sacrifice and serving our community and being forward facing and just eatin' meat and just leaning in just to get business done. And we did it no way that served our customer and served our client base. And I don't know any law enforcement officer who's been on the job for more than 10 minutes who doesn't do this because they love the community they work, or they love the service that they provide, or the people they protect. And I think we've permanently changed the way that law enforcement officers are viewed by their communities. I think we've done, and I say "we," I mean we as a culture, good, bad, or indifferent, have done irrevocable damage to the reputation of law enforcers in our community and the public trust that they must hold in order to be successful. And then all of a sudden, the communities "why nots" became really, really strong. And cops had to start making excuses really quickly about why we weren't the bad cops. And why we weren't doing this to violate your civil rights. And why we're just, we're just out there trying to do the job and just trying to, you know, serve policy and serve the constitution and it might not be about you and your mask. And I feel like this stigma, the social stigma became leveraged against law enforcement in a really big way without any real underlying facts. No one, you know, it just became this sort of socially virtuous stigmatic status to hate the cops, whether it was for their efforts to preserve the public peace in the pandemic, or whether it was your interpretation of their worth based on events taking place in the national landscape. It became cliche to hate the cops. And I think I miss, I missed the real relationships we had in 2019 that were based on sort of a shared respect, and a common understanding and actual virtues of character and integrity. And now, you know, it's, it's an uphill climb. We're sort of this Sisyphussian rock-pushing force, just always trying to push this public opinion and public trust rock up the hill only to, you know, take two steps back, and I miss that quite a bit. JR 26:15 What do you wish that the public understood about law enforcement during the COVID-19 pandemic? AO 26:27 I think if I could choose one thing, I wish that the public understood that nothing changed in the way that law enforcement supports and loves and wants to collaborate with the community. During the pandemic, law enforcement was shined in three or four different colored lenses varying from, you know, rosy to catastrophic, and most police officers on the street during the pandemic, were humans just trying to figure out how to navigate their space and provide for their families, and to continue to protect the public and somehow navigate shark infested waters of this, the sudden unknown COVID-19 enemy. And it was a huge struggle, you know, policy was changing on the daily. Science and procedure was being released several times a day at, you know, at its busiest, and most law enforcement were just caught in the wake of this rapidly changing information, hugely volatile work environment, and trying to keep themselves and their families healthy while still being effective. I wish the public knew how much most law enforcement officers hate racism and prejudice and corruption. I wish they knew that nobody hates dirty cops more than we do. And that virtually all the law enforcement officers they contact on the daily are still doing the job because they've considered the risks to their lives and their risks to their health and the risk to their family's health, and are still willing to suit up every morning or every night, and put body armor on, and put 30 pounds of gear on, and go out there and risk their health and safety to protect our community, and mostly people they don't even know and have never met. And I think that's what's really at stake when the rhetoric gets really loud and the disinformation gets really deep. And the panic and the fear really starts to grab older people is they start to lash out against the government as a whole and what they don't understand in, you know, in some way is that that uniform represents just another member of their same community who is trying to stand between the two entities and make good decisions, and protect the constitution and uphold the peace and protect the, you know, the victims and protect, you know, the weak from the oppression and you know, all the things we stand for. But all those cops out there are just the same community members. Some of them don't have any toilet paper at home. Some of them couldn't buy peanut butter. Some of them didn't have fresh food for weeks because they couldn't go to the grocery store because of their shifts. So it wasn't that there was this divide. It wasn't that there's this this pantheon of law enforcement officers who were out there trying to screw everyone, it was members of the very same community who just happened to put that uniform on by choice to save it and protect the community despite the fact that there was this, you know, this crazy pandemic and all the fear and panic going on at the same time. JR 29:56 Knowing that I intended to speak with you about law enforcement and your experience in that profession during this pandemic, what, perhaps, was one of the questions that you hoped to answer or that I didn't ask? AO 30:18 One of the things I was thinking about talking about was that, for the first several weeks, I would say maybe even two months, there was no viable testing for any first responders in our region. So if one of my guys or gals was symptomatic, they simply had to be quarantined, and there was no way to test. We begged and borrowed and pled, and, you know, by hook or by crook, tried to figure out how to make a relationship with a clinical entity so that we could protect our people and keep them in place and keep them effective and keep them assigned on the street. What happened was any flu-like symptoms were just viewed as COVID quarantine, and so there was a couple of days there where I almost didn't have an emergency dispatch center because I didn't have anybody to work. There was a couple of days where we were hemorrhaging overtime money paying the cops that were healthy to cover the cops that were not because we couldn't get them tested. It took quite a while until we had a viable, and until the turnaround was fast enough that it was sustainable to test people. Because if the turnaround was 10 days, and the quarantine was 14 days, and almost was you know, half a dozen, six of another, you were gonna stay home anyway. So until the testing was fast enough and efficient enough, we burned a lot of time, and a lot of cops sat at home for 14 days under quarantine who maybe didn't mean to, and there was no way to test them. Once testing was viable, and available, I feel like we did a better job of that. But at the beginning, there were several of us who were pretty sure we had contracted the virus and suffered its effects as early as January or February, a ton of us were sick in January and February and early March before, way before viable testing was available in our communities. And that was, that was a challenging and an alarming period of time where even my first responders we just didn't know. And if you weren't admitted to the ER, if you weren't seen clinically, and if you didn't have co-morbidities or other risk categories, you just didn't get tested because the resources didn't exist. And why would we waste a test on a first responder who can just quarantine for two weeks and be otherwise healthy when we need to use it on, you know, the septuagenarian co-morbid patient who's, you know, got 15 different ailments, and I understand that math. But it was pretty frustrating to just have to hemorrhage overtime money and just suffer and figure out how to cover shifts and work 16, 18 hours in a row because there just wasn't anybody else. JR 33:23 I am incredibly grateful for your time and for sharing your expertise and your thoughts with us. Thank you so much. AO 33:31 You're very welcome, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. Transcribed by https://otter.ai
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  2021-03-20

  Oral History: Interview with Anonymous Peace Officer #1

  James Rayroux 0:00 My name is James Rayroux. I'm a graduate student in global history at Arizona State University, and I'm working as a curation intern with the "Journal of the Plague Year" COVID-19 archive. Today is March 21, 2021, and it's just after 5pm or 1700 hours here in Arizona. I'm speaking with a narrator who wishes to contribute to the COVID-19 archive anonymously. Sir, I first want to thank you for speaking with me and contributing to this COVID-19 archive. Do you consent to having this interview recorded, transcribed, and immediately posted to the "Journal of the Plague Year" COVID-19 archive, where it will be made accessible to the public? Anonymous Officer 0:39 I do. JR 0:40 Thank you, I greatly appreciate you making time to share your experience with us. In lieu of your name and city, can you provide me with a summary of your background and professional experience in law enforcement? AO 0:57 Yeah, I've been a sworn police officer for a little over 10 years in northern Colorado. I've worked for a couple different departments during that time. I started off at a small municipality, and at one point worked for a state law enforcement agency and then working for a municipality that has approximately 150,000-160,000 citizens within the jurisdictional limits of our department. JR 1:25 Can you give me a summary of your life before law enforcement and what led you to police work? AO 1:33 Yeah, so I grew up with a family of cops, a grandfather and two uncles who were police officers, so I'd always kind of had that in the back of my mind. When I was a teenager, I started working out with an alcohol and tobacco compliance team. So I would go in and attempt to buy tobacco and alcohol products underage to ensure that corporations were properly ID'ing the people who came in to buy those products. I studied criminal justice a little bit in college, although that's not what my degree's in. I went to a police academy and then worked at the departments that I previously mentioned. And then within the realm of police work, my emphasis has mainly been of a traffic safety, impaired driving nature, so that's where my expertise kind of lies within the realm of police work. JR 2:38 What are some of your professional goals over the next few years, and where would you like to, what would you like to accomplish before the end of your career? AO 2:50 My sights in the next couple of years, I'm currently working on a master's degree in organizational leadership. With that degree, I would like to promote within my department to at least the rank of sergeant. And like I said earlier, I work for a larger department. Previously, I came from smaller departments, and I kind of missed that small town feel, so eventually, I'd like to parlay that supervisor experience in my larger department into being a supervisor at a smaller municipality or a smaller county agency where I think I could bring both sides of working for a small agency as well as looking at working for a large agency to help a smaller agency, because they don't usually get a lot of super qualified candidates for the higher positions. It's kind of what is already at the department, which sometimes is great, and sometimes it's not so great, and I think that having somebody that just hasn't came up through that agency to bring some new kind of fresh ideas is really good for us. That's ultimately the goal. JR 3:58 And when and how did you first learn about the SARS-CoV-2 virus in early 2020? AO 4:08 Initially, I heard about it on the news, broadcast news, and then I visited enough websites, mainly Reddit, which is often called "the front page of the internet" that kind of started talking about it and how it was kind of on the West Coast. Obviously, Northern Colorado is more westerly in the US, than, you know, the middle of the country, and Denver, our biggest city in Colorado, obviously has an international airport, and there's lots of things that come through, so I kind of kept an eye on it. Also with the nature of my work, I come into contact with people of all different kinds of races, religions, sexes, creeds, orientations, all of that both, willingly and unwillingly, so I kind of kept my eye out and knowing that there could be a good chance that if it came to Colorado that I would be involved with it just because, traffic stops, disturbances, sometimes we have to take people into custody against their will if they have a warrant, or they're fighting us, so that's a really close contact, like hands-on situation. So I knew if it did get worse, I didn't expect to be this bad, but if it did get worse, that it'd probably end up affecting us in one way or another. JR 5:22 Do you remember what some of the early conversations were like that you had about the SARS-CoV-2 virus or COVID-19, what those conversations at work were like or were about? AO 5:36 Yeah, a lot of them were just kind of like, you know, this is just a really bad flu. As long as you, you know, sanitize your hands after you deal with people, which is a pretty common thing that cops do. I know, the majority of cops that I work with carry around a little bottle of sanitizer, either on their person or in their what we call a "war bag," a little bag that sits in the front seat that holds all our tickets and everything else we need for the shift. So it was initially just, you know, be smart. If somebody's sick, keep your distance if you can, wash your hands, sanitize. And then once summer comes in, because early it was spring, where it's still pretty cold here, that once summer comes, the heat will naturally kill it off, and it's not going to be anything worse than the normal flu was initially the talk around town. JR 6:24 How did your agency first deal with the COVID-19 pandemic? AO 6:30 So initially, we got multiple emails, kind of just updating it from what they've heard from the Surgeon General in Colorado that was disseminated to people higher up in the city side of our agency, with just tips, kind of like what I just talked about, wash your hands, you know, don't touch your face or mouth, sanitize your hands, sanitize your cars. And it was just kind of a more official version of what we all kind of thought, which was that it was just a worse flu as long as you, you know, stay at home with your sick, don't voluntarily interact with sick people, etc, etc, that it would be good and we'd be done by summer. JR 7:13 At what point did your agency start encouraging or mandating mask use by employees? AO 7:23 So I want to say early March is when the governor of Colorado put us on a statewide lockdown. So I want to say maybe mid February to late February, is when we got a order to make sure that we're wearing masks, if we're around each other, if we're going to be in somebody's house. They were saying they prefer it on traffic stops, but they know because of the nature of us standing in traffic and it's kind of already hard to hear that, that was kind of our discretion. But I want to say mid to late February was the big one. It's also when we stopped doing in-person briefings. We have a specific briefing room where our sergeants, commanders will talk to us about what happened earlier in the shift, what they expect of us tonight, just conversations about our shift in general that's usually done in a room. It was about that time that we move that outside. So we all just kind of stood outside our police department and ended it to be a little bit safer than being in the booking room. But even when we did that we still wore masks were outside doing our briefing. JR 8:28 What do you remember or what did that first pandemic briefing or roll call look like when everyone showed up in, in masks? AO 8:37 It was definitely interesting. You know, it's just something that you usually don't see unless you're in a hospital setting, which we obviously go to sometimes if we have bad car accidents or bad assaults. But again, even that's usually if the person is thought to have been sick or something else, where you're obviously not standing in the emergency or the surgery department. So it was a little bit different seeing everybody with these, at the time, surgical masks. We ended up getting given cloth masks and everybody eventually started you know, finding a mask they liked better, but initially, it was just paper surgical mask like you see at the hospital, so it was definitely a strange sight to see twenty cops standing around with their mask on. JR 9:23 How have your agency's policies and procedures changed since that initial response in February 2020? AO 9:31 Um, so as COVID kept going up and more and more cases and especially in Colorado, and especially Northern Colorado where there was a higher outbreak than the rest of the state, we got, I don't know the name of the product but it's essentially a super medical grade cleaning product that is so strong that you have to wear gloves and a mask anyway when you're using it because it can burn your hands and you don't want to inhale it. So we are given directives to wipe down everything we touch on our car. So steering wheel, driver-side door handles, radio mics, computers, shifter, etc, with that cleaning product both before and after our shift. And then our department also bought a bunch of small hand sanitizer bottles for everybody to carry with them. And then we had two big jugs in our, what we call patrol room where we type our reports, that we could refill those smaller bottles with. And then we were given a mandate to wear masks anytime we were in contact with somebody. And if we could, any calls that we were, we can, we would normally take in person, such as like a cold theft or something just for customer service reasons, if we're not super busy, we'll usually go to that person's house and just get their statements so they can have a face-to-face contact. We were given a directive, though, to do all that over the phone as much as we can. So there would be nights that just wasn't a busy in-progress night, and I would take fifteen calls, all from my car parked in a parking lot somewhere. So after a decade of doing this, that was a big difference in what I was used to. JR 11:12 For the benefit of the audience, can you explain what a cold theft report is? AO 11:17 Yeah, so a cold theft report is if somebody came home from dinner, and let's say their son, their twelve-year-old son left their bicycle just outside in the front yard leaned up against the house, they get home and that bike was gone. And they don't have any kind of surveillance systems, you know, they weren't home when it happened, so they know that something was stolen, but they have no idea of exactly when, no real description of who might have taken it, and we call that a cold theft. It just means that it's not something that's in-progress. Like if somebody were to call and say, "Hey, you know, there's actively a fight going on right now at the mall." Um, that would be an in-progress call, or a hot call is what some people call it. Anything cold, so a cold theft, a cold burglary, a cold auto theft just means that it's something that's not actively happening, and they don't really have much information to go on. JR 12:05 Thank you. Do you remember what your first inperson call was after you began wearing masks, and maybe your first call after the public started wearing them as well? AO 12:19 I don't recall the specifics of either. I know that there was a couple calls I went to when you know, we were mandated to wear the masks. And you know, police officers still have freedom of speech just like everybody else does. But, you know, working for any organization, whether public, like the government or private, you still follow the rules and policies, procedures of your police department or your, your company. In this case, my police department or my company said that, you know, there's a new policy that we'll wear these masks. So it was weird, because there are some houses we go to where we would talk to people in-person and, you know, they'd be like, "Well, this is dumb. I don't know why you're wearing this mask. This is essentially the flu, why would you wear it?" You know, I'd have to be like, "Well, you know, my opinion on it is irrelevant. At this point, I'm here for a reason, but my boss told me to wear this, and my department told me to wear this, and that's why I'm doing it." And then we get the opposite where we go somewhere, and we would have the mask on and so would they and they're like, "You know what, I'm really glad that you guys are taking this seriously, and, you know, there's a lot of people that aren't." At that point, they're happy so I'm not going to say anything to change it. But you know, we would give people a mask that would ask us. "I'm glad you guys are doing this. Do you think this is as bad as it is?" And I would say, "You know, well, my again, my opinion on it's irrelevant. My boss told me to wear this mask, my department told me to wear this mask, so that's why I'm wearing it. Anyway, how can I help you with the reason that you called today?" JR 13:53 Has the pandemic changed your sense of security around fellow cops or fire crews or EMS personal? AO 14:02 I don't know if it's so much has changed my sense of security. I know it's changed things that we've, we've done things a lot different. It's not uncommon for police officers and my agency or anywhere across the United States to also be dispatched to fire medical calls. And we provide what's called scene security. So firefighters, a lot of them also double as paramedics and EMTs. And obviously EMTs and paramedics are those things. They have a job to do, and that's you know, rescuing people or providing life saving medical intervention on people. And sometimes especially if it's drug or alcohol fueled, there can be other people on scene that are concerned or upset and they want to get involved with it. And so law enforcement will get dispatched to assist with that and make sure that the scene is safe or secure, so that the firefighters and EMTs can do what they need to do. And usually we'd always go to those. It changed a lot where if somebody was COVID-19 positive or had symptoms of it, and it didn't seem like we needed to be there, we would go to a lot less of those just to keep our officers safe and not put them in unnecessary danger. JR 15:11 Has the COVID-19 pandemic affected your process or procedures for detaining, arresting, or booking suspects or arrestees? AO 15:23 Not so much for detaining or arresting, those thresholds are met at certain times, and for various reasons. You know, so I've detain people before that, I don't think are alleged to have committed crime at that point. But because of their general behavior, or things they've said or things they've done it, they're detained from an officer safety perspective, so they can't hurt us, and they don't hurt anybody else. Obviously, I've detained people because I feel like they may flee from us, and, you know, I have a reasonable suspicion that they've committed a crime, and so they're going to get detained until we can figure everything out. So our department is really great about stressing as far as keeping yourself and your partner safe, nothing changes. So whatever you need to do to make that happen is fine. I work for a municipality, so our "booking standards" is what we call them, so what we can and cannot book people for is set by the sheriff of our county, who runs the the jail. Because of the COVID things, and obviously, you get inmates that are together in tight spaces, and there's a lot of them, he relaxed them, and essentially lowered the threshold of crime that it would take. So in Colorado, we have three different classes of misdemeanor with M-1 or misdemeanor-one being the highest and M-3, or misdemeanor-three being the lowest. Same with felonies, there's one through six, one is the highest sixth lowest, he essentially made it where we can't book on any misdemeanor charges for a while, which are the majority of what we deal with, I'd say. And two, we just cite them into court and give them a summons to court to appear in front of a judge to address the charges that they're alleged to have committed. That was different. So I think that was the sheriff's way of trying to control the inmate population so it just doesn't have as many people packed together. JR 17:18 In the past few months, do you suspect or have you thought that, during your interactions, a member of the public or a suspect or even another officer has attempted to use the pandemic or a possible COVID-19 infection to, to alter your interactions with them? AO 17:42 I don't think I've seen that from officers. We have definitely seen it from people that we've contacted on the street, and especially people that still meet those arrestable jail booking standards. We were told by the jail to ask a series of questions before we brought them in. You know, "Have you been in contact with anybody with COVID recently? Have you tested positive for COVID? Have you been out of the country?" There's a bunch more other ones, and it's pretty easy to kind of tell what we're getting at by the directions, the questions go. And we've had people that have been like, yep, I have COVID, my mom has COVID I've been in contact with them. And they think that that's going to make it where they don't go to jail. In all actuality, all it really did was delay that slightly because we had to go to the hospital. At which point the, the medical staff would give them a quick COVID test if they were running a fever show any outward symptoms. If they didn't show any outward symptoms, they would clear them for jail, which just means a doctor says this person is healthy enough to be incarcerated right now. And then I believe that jail would quarantine them in a separate wing. If they said they had COVID or if they did have a positive COVID test. Jail, for people that don't know, is a little bit different than prison. It's either filled with people that are doing shorter sentences, so like weeks, months sentences, not ever years, or people that have just been arrested on crimes. And a lot of times especially in Colorado, they will quickly get them out of what's called a PR or "personal recognizance" bond, essentially a piece of paper they sign that just says "I promised to come to my court hearings," and if they sign that piece of paper, the jail will release them without paying any money. So the jail would usually try to turn them out pretty quick, so give them that PR bond and get them out of the jail just as a further way to lower the risk to the jail staff and the other inmates that were in there. JR 19:39 Have you had to personally enforce any aspect of COVID-19 pandemic compliance with any member of the public? AO 19:48 No. Luckily, again, our department's been pretty great about things. We got a directive from our chief of police that said you know, "We're not enforcing governor orders," essentially. The businesses have every right to refuse service people that aren't gonna wear masks, and that's fine. If those people you know, then try to assault somebody or, or do something like that, then that's a police issue at that point. But if it's just one of those things where the people won't leave, and they've told them multiple times, he said, we can show up and you know, tell them, "Hey, this is probably business, the owner doesn't want to here. Please leave." But we are given pretty strict orders not to forcefully remove anybody for violating a civil policy from the store, essentially, the police deal with criminal matters. So if you know Guy A punches Guy B in the face that's assault, can't do that, it's criminally protected. If Guy A said he's going to pay Guy B $20, and he does not pay him $20, that is a civil matter. There's nothing criminal they agreed into, or entered into an agreement, so the masks generally fall into the civil matter. So we haven't had too many people, too many issues with it. Stores have refused service, and we've gotten a couple of calls from customers who said that it's a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act and all the things that people have seen on any "Karen" videos. But generally, when the people say, "Hey, we, we don't want to get you in trouble, please leave or we're going to call the cops," the people left. So we don't have too many issues with it up here. Luckily. JR 21:23 Part of some of the changes that have taken place during this pandemic are the way that people interact with each other, and in Western society, shaking hands has long been a critical foundation of trust in humanity. And I suspect that's probably also true between many cops and the people that they serve. How have you worked to build rapport without having direct human contact? AO 21:51 Yeah, that's actually one of the things that you can tell a cop besides their ages, you know, there's there's officers that get into this career, late life, I got into it pretty early. I was in my very early 20s. And that's a common thing, as you know, me, somebody looked me in the eye and shake their hands. It's pretty easy to tell cops that have been doing this for any amount of time. Because if somebody does that, they usually have the canned response of like, "Oh, no, no offense, I don't shake hands. It's just, you know, a hygiene thing." Most cops are borderline germaphobes, after some of the stuff that we see and deal with, so people understand that even more now because of COVID, which is nice. The, the one that I think every cop has gotten pre and during and post COVID is the drunk guy who was just trying to be cool with everybody, and he wants to shake your hand or give you like a, you know, knuckles, pound it out. You know, we just tell him, "Oh, yeah, no, man, because of COVID we're just not trying to touch anybody." And it's cyclical, like, "Oh, no, man, I get it." Sometimes it turns into like being angry because he thinks we're being rude to him, or he just forgets and then goes back. So usually, for the 99.9%, we just explained that, "you know, because of the COVID and our policies, we're not allowed to touch anybody unless we absolutely have to," and most people are like, "Nope, I totally understand." So they've, our citizens have been really great at understanding that. JR 23:11 What do you miss most about your job and your daily tasks from 2019? AO 23:17 Um...I'm really over sanitizing my car twice a day. It's a process that isn't too long. It's, you know, five, ten minutes, but um, it just adds another checklist thing that we have to do before we start our shift. Cops by personality traits are usually Type A people, so they are very, "This is the way we do things." But that involves getting my gear in the same way it is on my belt and my vest every day, setting my car up the way that I want to set it up, getting logged into our computer, our MDT system. It's just another thing that we have to do. And I work for a pretty busy municipality, so there's times that we'll we'll be called "hit the street" or we come on-duty, and there's already a bunch of calls holding. That means there's no officers at them, and they're just sitting there waiting for somebody to take them and a whole shift is delayed by fifteen or twenty minutes because we're cleaning out our cars and sanitizing them, which is for our and for everybody else's safety, but just another thing that we have to do on top of everything else. JR 24:22 What alterations to your work life, to your daily tasking, do you expect you'll keep from this pandemic, and what do you wish to change immediately? AO 24:35 Uh, I think personally, I like handling a lot of things by phone that don't require an officer in-person. It allows us to be a little more centrally located and if something else big comes up, we can tell the person "Hey, I'll give you a call right back," and we can take off and do that. I also think that there's a lot of people that actually prefer just having an officer call them back because they're at home. They don't, you know, want the officer coming to their home, or sometimes they're not at home, they report something that happened at home when they get to work. So I like that portion of it. I was already kind of a germaphobe before this happened. I think that's probably going to, at a minimum stay the same and if not amplify a little bit more. But just doing a better job personally of, after I've been in somebody's house, even if I don't shake hands with them, just making sure I throw on hand sanitizer, wash my hands, just as a force of habit. No matter how clean and dirty the house is, we just don't know the people generally, so just kind of keeping that cleanliness I think is going to be a big help going forward. JR 25:39 Through this pandemic, and your experience working as a police officer during this time, what do you most wish the public knew about the COVID-19 pandemic, as it relates to your profession and to cops and police work in general? AO 25:58 I think, for us, it's real easy to see every police officer as one entity, just the person with the uniform and the badge. They forget that we also have families that are out, you know, in the same public places, that we have children that go to the same schools as the people that we deal with daily, that all of the stressors that everybody else has from this, this pandemic of not being able to, it's loosening now, but especially last summer and this fall, the same stressors of not being able to go out to eat with friends and blow off steam, or just go to the bar and have a beer with a buddy. We have all those same stressors because, you know, we're cops 40 plus hours a week, but the rest of the time, we're citizens that live in the same community as everybody else. So it's, it's understandable when, when the people that we deal with, you know, think that we're just the the strong arm of the government enforcing these rules that you know, they don't think are constitutional, or whatever it is, but we have to follow the same rules and get the same stress from that on top of having the stress of having to enforce those rules, which whether or not we do or don't agree with them, we have a job do and we signed up to do that. So just wishing that people would understand that we have, we go through all the same stuff they have on both sides of it, on our work side and also on our personal side, and just being a citizen of the same community that they live in. JR 27:21 Now, knowing that I was going to ask you about your experience as a police officer during this pandemic, what question did you most want to answer during this or that you wish I would have asked you during this interview? AO 27:40 I think my biggest one we actually touched on, which was how did the officers feel about the mask mandates and the, you know, various states closing down in-person dining and all that. And my answer, which I touched on, if it was asked directly, was at the end of the day doesn't matter. You know, there's officers are just a small segment of the whole population. You know, we have men, women, gay men, gay women, trans men, trans women, black, white, Asian, Hispanic, those are all actual officers that I work with in every single one of those categories, so they're just a small sample size of the entire agency. So you're gonna have people that are far left Democrat, that are far right Republican, and at the end of the day, our personal beliefs should not and in my case, don't matter. As far as if I believe this is a real virus, if I, you know, think that everybody should wear masks, they don't, you know, we're sworn to uphold the Constitution of our state and our country, and rules and regulations set forth by our municipalities or counties. So just knowing that kind of, you know, you should never know after talking to a cop for any length of time, what their stance is on is on any polarizing subject. So you should never really know what religion they are, if they're religious, what Republic or what political party they lead with. That's one of the, the what I think makes a good cop is they can help anybody, no matter where they're at in life, rich, poor, whatever color religion they are. So realizing that, you know, we have our own thoughts on it, but we still have a job to do. It's just something I wish that people would realize that wherever we stand on it doesn't matter because we're given our policies, our procedures, and we're going to follow those and hopefully that, in the end, will help this get over a little bit sooner and help everybody get back to a normal life. JR 29:44 I greatly appreciate your time and willingness to share your expertise. Thank you so much. AO 29:49 Thank you Transcribed by https://otter.ai
• 
  2021-03-21

  Ilhan Omar Thread on Current Border Policy

  People who lack empathy to imagine circumstances outside their own two feet is what we’re dealing with. A bunch of folks who have never left America, let alone their own state. If they did it was to the “big city” and their understanding of American politics is that it’s a game and they don’t want to lose. They don’t know why they’re playing they just don’t want to lose. They have no faith in anything other than the American myth of pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps. How do we lead a horse to water who isn’t thirsty? Focus the herd towards the water and the stubborn horse will eventually drink
• 
  2021-03-19

  Stop AAPI Hate

  Nearly 3,800 anti-Asian racist incidents occurred in America last year, mostly against women, based on data by Stop AAPI Hate. Yesterday, Asian Americans and allies called for solidarity and condemned discrimination and racist violence in Minnesota. They also honored the lives of Delaina Ashley Yaun, Xiaojie Tan, Daoyou Feng, Julie Park, and Hyeon Jeong Park -- employees of an Atlanta-area spa who were killed on Tuesday by a gunman.
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  2021-03-10

  Justice for Angelo Quinto

  Tonight AAPIWL joined Angelo Quinto's family + community, the incredible organizers of @justiceforangeloquinto, Civil Rights Attorney @johnburrislawfirm , the mother of Oscar Grant- Rev. Wanda Johnson, @justice4steventaylor grandmother, @robbonta, Cat Brooks @antipoliceterrorproject, Antioch's elected officials, and hundreds of community members from all over the Bay Area to celebrate Angelo's 31st birthday. Tonight we all learned that Angelo was well loved by his family in Antioch and in the Philippines. His family talked about how amazing and special he was, and they were proud that he wanted to pursue his passions in art. We learned more about the powerful community that will continue to support the Quinto family in their fight for Angelo. Thank you again to the organizers for this beautiful celebration and vigil, for uplifting Angelo and his family, the call for solidarity, the need for mental health resources, demanding the end of police violence and the need for accountability for Angelo and the countless men who were also murdered by the Antioch Police Department while having a mental health crisis. We will continue to fight with you all. #JusticeForAngeloQuinto #JusticeForAngeloJusticeForAll #AAPIWomenLead #InSolidarity #StopAAPIHate
• 
  2021-03-13

  Love Our Communities

  There are different events happening today - thanks to the organizers across the US for your work. We’ve been learning alongside LA in particular - THANK YOU to all of the organizations + individuals who’ve been working SO hard to make today happen. We love our communities + we are building collecting power. Hope you join this movement. #InSolidarity @ccedla NAME CHANGE: In an effort to amplify our message of solidarity, we are no longer using “Stop Asian Hate” in the title for this event. CCED recognizes that the emphasis on hate crimes limits the scope of the conversation, implying these attacks are merely isolated racist attacks + that policing is the solution. Hate crime legislation funds surveillance but does not actually change the material realities that working class Asian Americans live in. Anti-Asian violence is tied to the collective struggle of BIPOC under white supremacy. We’ve provided some reading materials in our link in bio for folks to learn further! . . Join our communities THIS SATURDAY 3/13 @3:30PM @jamuseum in Little Tokyo (in person or via livestream!) for “LOVE OUR COMMUNITIES: BUILD COLLECTIVE POWER”--a grounding, healing space in the wake of anti-Asian Violence. Meet, collaborate, and build with grassroots organizations doing direct work in Los Angeles Asian American communities. Artwork by Cynthia Yuan Cheng @cynthiaycheng Organized by: Chinatown Community for Equitable Development @ccedla Ktown4BlackLives @ktown4blacklives Tuesday Night Project @tnproject Nikkei Progressives @NikkeiProgressives Sunday Jump @thesundayjump API Equality LA @apiequalityla Kabataang maka-Bayan / Pro-People Youth @kmb_la Progressive Asian Network for Action (PANA) Palms Up Academy @palmsupacademy J-Town Action and Solidarity @jtown.action.and.solidarity Hosted by: The Japanese American National Museum @jamuseum **Masks required. Double masking encouraged. Social Distancing required per CDC Guidelines** ADA accessibility + streaming details to be announced. Check out the FB Event Page @ccedla link in bio. [image description - more info on @ccedla page at comments]
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  2021-03-16

  Surge in Hate Crimes Against Asian Americans

  As the U.S. continues its battle against COVID-19, it is also battling a rise in hate crimes against Asian Americans. A recent report found that hate crimes against Asian Americans in major U.S. cities surged by nearly 150 percent in 2020 —even as the number of overall hate crimes fell. Stephanie Sy looks at how the violence has marred one community, and how they are coming together in its wake.
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  2021-03-14

  Brenda Cohen Oral History

  In this oral history, I interview my mom, Brenda Lee Cohen on her pandemic experience with a particular focus on her work with the Calgary police service as a crime and intelligence analyst supervisor. In this interview, Brenda talks about her initial experience with the COVID-19 pandemic, she recalls the first day of the pandemic as she and her husband were stuck in America. This particular interview touched upon what her work environment was like during the pandemic and topics such as systemic racism, the police ‘culture’ and the revocation of a popular program for city employees known as the ‘golden handshake’ in the midst of the pandemic. Brenda also spoke briefly about her experience with misogyny within the workplace and how these ideas are so prevent within a space which mixes the civilian and police worlds. Finally, Brenda also spoke about what she is most thankful for in this pandemic, and ultimately reflects on her own inability to express her thoughts and emotions – and how one day when she is out of the police environment, things will be different. Interviewee Name: Brenda Cohen Interviewer Name: Padraic Cohen Date of Interview: 03/14/2021 Location: Cochrane, Alberta Canada. Transcribed by https://otter.ai Partially transcribed by Padraic Cohen
• 
  2021-01-25

  Voices for Ethnic & Multicultural Awareness (VEMA) Gathered to Honor Estavon Elioff and Eddie Uti

  Voices for Ethnic & Multicultural Awareness (VEMA) and community members gathered to honor the lives of Estavon Elioff and Eddie Uti from the Iron Range region of Minnesota. Elioff was a 19-year-old Latinx male who was shot and killed while unarmed by Sheriff's deputies in Mountain Iron, MN last year. There is an active investigation into his death by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Eddie Uti was a 29-year-old Samoan father of two from Hibbing, MN found dead in 2020. His last known contact was with the Itasca Sheriff's department. A medical examiner’s report revealed he died from a drowning after being “found floating near the shore of Pokegama Lake.”
• 
  2021-02

  California mom who vanished during 'pandemic road trip' 8 months ago found dead in desert

  It broke my heart to hear that she was found dead. Single mom from San Francisco who just wanted to get out for an adventure on a "pandemic" road trip, went missing several months ago.
• 
  2021-03-02

  As virus-era attacks on Asians rise, past victims look back

  From the article: Nearly a year after they were almost stabbed to death inside a Midland, Texas, Sam's Club, Bawi Cung and his two sons all have visible scars. It's the unseen ones though that are harder to get over. Cung can’t walk through any store without constantly looking in all directions. His 6-year-old son, who now can't move one eyebrow, is afraid to sleep alone. On a Saturday evening in March, when COVID-19 panic shopping gripped the nation, Cung was in search of rice at a cheaper price. The family was in the Sam's Club meat section when Cung suddenly felt a punch to the back of his head. A man he didn't know then slashed his face with a knife. The assailant left but soon returned to stab the boys. He wounded the 3-year-old in the back and slashed the 6-year-old from his right eye to a couple of inches past his right ear.
• 2021-02-18

  A Multi-Million Dollar Fake Vaccine Scam

  Hundreds, an estimated 600, of fake vaccines were shipped to Hong Kong and internationally by a group led by "Kong". These vaccines consisted of nothing but saline solution or mineral water. They were being sold to medical facilities and other places at inflated prices. Officials in China have made at least 70 arrests in relation to this case with more suspected. It's reported that the group made an estimated profit of 18 million yuan or nearly 3 million U.S. dollars in this scam.
• 
  2021-02-12

  Local man becomes victim of COVID-19-fueled spike in unemployment fraud

  Along with COVID-19 came a spike in identity theft. These thieves then use the stolen information to apply for COVID-19 unemployment benefits. In some cases, the states try to get the victims to pay back the money given to the thief.
• 
  2021-02-05

  Reducing Jail Sentences for Inmates with Preexisting Health Conditions

  The study conducted by the Brennan Center for Justice (BCJ) found that prisons, jails, and detention facilities are rushing to make an effort to release unnecessarily incarcerated people to improve healthcare and conditions of confinement for the remaining inmate population. As part of a larger project to end mass incarceration, the BCJ analyzed the unique health challenges posed by the inmate population both 65 and older, as well as those with preexisting medical conditions. "Brennan Center Recommendation: Elderly and sick people and those incarcerated for parole violations should be released or recommended for release under compassionate release provisions or another authority. Barring that, prison officials should use their discretion to transfer people to community corrections options."
• 
  2021-01-21

  Nearly 1 in 5 Defendants in Capitol Riot Cases Served in the Military

  The article discusses the Capitol riots and the veterans who participated in them, as well as recent extremist behavior within the military and the government's response.
• 
  2020-05-04

  New Mexico Invokes Riot Law to Control Virus Near Navajo Nation

  This article discusses the use of a rarely used Riot Law Act to help diminish the tension between the Navajo reservation and the small towns bordering the reservation in Gallup, New Mexico. The upsurge in cases on the reservation resulted in accusations that the Navajo brought the virus into Gallup and its suburbs. The tribe has fired back that Gallup citizens are refusing to follow social distancing mandates and as a result, Gallup has one of the highest case rates in the nation. This report relates to the JOTPY archive as it an example of the friction COVID-19 has created between the local government and tribal reservations.
• 2021-02-03

  Canada labels the Proud Boys, neo-Nazi groups as terrorists

  I’m mainly sharing this article for posterity; it was published on the day when the Canadian parliament listed the Proud boys and 13 other white supremacist/Nazi organizations as terrorist groups throughout Canada. For me, this is a positive development in my country; yet it shouldn’t have taken this long, nor should it of needed a coup attempt on the U.S. government to occur in the first place. This relates to the social justice collection mainly that it is an example of the state actually taking action against white supremacy (for a change), largely this is the result of Jagmeet Singh, the NDP and Canadians who voiced their fears and concerns regarding the effects of white supremacy, and the threat it poses to each and every one of us. I wanted to include this to demonstrate the effects of the January 6th coup on Canadian politics and society; it should also be interesting that Canada is the first country to label the Proud Boys as a terrorist organization.
• 2021-02-03

  The Proud Boys have been listed as a terrorist organization, now what?

  Earlier this week, the Proud Boys were successfully listed as a terrorist organization by parliament thanks to the tireless efforts of Jagmeet Singh, the NDP, and Canadians who voiced their concerns regarding the fascistic proud boys, following their role in the January 6th coup attempt in Washington D.C. This news article was written in the wake of the ruling, that while the listing of the Proud Boys as a terrorist organization is undoubtedly a good thing, there have been questions raised in regards to effectively combating white supremacy and subsequently the amount of work that went into resisting expanding Canada’s description of ‘terrorist organizations.’ Essentially, by listing the Proud Boys as a Terrorist organization, we have been confronted with a possibility that future, more repressive or Conservative governments could easily utilize these legal systems against BIPOC community organizations, indigenous sovereignty and anti-fascists across the country. That essentially, we are relying too overly on the state itself to counter harmful movements which are fermenting across our country. That in order for lasting, and efficient change – we must be able to break from relying on state security and secret intelligence and tackle the problem at its core; mainly, what is causing the spread and radicalization processes of white supremacists. Essentially, we are only kicking the can down the road – that while this development is undoubtedly good for all Canadians, we are failing to address why white supremacy is so prevalent, and violent in our country, as the article concludes, “I understand why it feels good to call this organization a terrorist organization and why it might send the right signal but I think it also sends a false signal,” he said. ”Are we actually dealing with the underlying ideology of white supremacy by doing this? No we’re not.” I’m uploading this document to highlight the ongoing debate and conflict with white supremacy in Canada, providing how Canadians are now being confronted with the question of “what now?” following the ruling. For me, we will not defeat white supremacy in Canada until we address the influence of the institutions which are entrenched in our colonial history, and the subsequent ideology of white supremacy, such as the RCMP. The RCMP were a rural police force created solely to facilitate the Westward expansion of white Canadian settlers, effectively a state tool of genocide towards Indigenous peoples; to this day they still carry on the torch of eroding and combating Indigenous sovereignty, they are often the tool of the state and private business interests on unceded Indigenous land.
• 
  2020-02-04

  Only in Florida...

  A car was stolen in Florida containing up to 30 vials of the Covid-19 vaccine, worth around $10,000. Police issued a nationwide alert, and do not know if the suspect knew they were in the car or not. Only in Florida.
• 
  2021-01-06

  "internal security threat"

  From post: The House and Senate recessed from their session to count state-certified Electoral College votes as pro-Trump protesters breached the Capitol and the building locked down. ⁠ ⁠ A notice from Capitol Police sent to all Capitol staff warned them of an "internal security threat" and told them to shelter in their offices and stay away from windows.⁠ ⁠ Lawmakers posted messages urging protesters to be peaceful, and reporters inside the Capitol shared videos of protesters wandering the halls of the Capitol looking for lawmakers to confront about the electoral votes. Photo shows mayhem in the Capitol. Some masked. Was this a super spreader event?
• 
  2020-12-28

  Ben Crump demands charges against ‘Karen’ who allegedly attacked Black teen at hotel

  From article: As theGrio reported, the 14-year-old son of Grammy-winning trumpet player Keyon Harrold was apparently accosted by a white woman who claimed he had stolen her iPhone at the Arlo SoHo Hotel in New York over the weekend. At one point, it appears she even lunged at Keyon Harrold Jr. and left him with scratches. The acclaimed musician posted the encounter to his Instagram and it went viral. Video shows masked woman accosting a man in public.
• 
  2020-06-02

  Aftermath of the looting of Good Life Pharmacy in The Bronx

  Aerial shot portraying the aftermath of the looting of Good Life Pharmacy in The Bronx
• 
  2020-06-02

  Co Workers pose cleaning up their smashed up storefront on East Fordham Road

  Two co-workers pose while sweeping the broken glass that is scattered all around their store after the looting of several stores along Fordham Road as an unfortunate side effect of the George Floyd Civil Rights protests.
• 
  2020-12-05

  Media Impact on Outcomes of Criminal Court cases

  This is a good way of seeing if media changes the mind of people
• 
  2020-12-05

  Media Impact on Outcomes of Criminal Court cases

  This is important as you can see the how the 3 criminal cases play out and during the court
• 
  2020-12-14

  B.C. looks at speedy increase in fines for repeat COVID-19 offenders

  Following several incidents where groups of people refused to obey orders banning in-person religious gatherings, B.C. Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth asks to increase fines for those people breaking COVID-19 laws multiple times.
• 
  2020-12-14

  Media Impact on Outcomes of Criminal Court Cases

  This is important because it shows that media has an effect on outcomes in a lot of criminal court cases. We need to be aware of how media affected some of the most famous cases in the United States.
• 
  2020-12-04

  Mass Incarceration & COVID-19

  It is important to know that even during a pandemic mass incarceration is still going on.
• 
  2020-11-21

  #ENDSARS protest shooting

  The article describes the shooting that occurred in Nigeria during a protest October 20, 2020
• 
  2020-08-17

  Jewish Melbourne: NCJWA (Vic) Covid taskforce response on child safety

  Information provided by NCJWA (Vic) to provide advise to community members on ensuring child safety during pandemic times.
• 
  2020-10-05

  The Pandemic in Prisons: Covid-19, Repression, and the Carceral State

  This podcast episode is from the Revolutionary Left Radio podcast featuring show host Breht and guests.
• 
  2020-07-23

  Snap Judgment podcast episode on covid-19 in San Quentin state prison (CA)

  Podcast episode produced by Snap Judgment in which they look at covid-19 outbreaks in San Quentin prison
• 
  2020-11-14

  Who you gonna call...?

  After the city council expressed a desire to defund and possibly disband the police altogether, a vast number of officers decided to leave the department on their own, frustrated with the lack of support. Now, Minneapolis is scrambling to find additional officers from other agencies to deal with the rapidly escalating crime surge in their city.
• 
  2020-11-12

  First you don't want help... Then you NEED help...

  Earlier in the year, Minneapolis was one of the first locations to start crying, "Defund the Police..." Now after a long year of protests and riots and all other types of struggles, the city realizes that those they had previously seen as the enemy, the source of the problem were actually the ones holding back the tide and now they see how much the police are really needed.
• 
  2020-11-12

  Don't Defund the Police

  In this article, author Paul Boyer discusses the lack of logic behind the Defund the Police movement and asks who really would benefit from a decreased police presence. The article makes some sound points and raises important questions that many might not have even considered.
• 
  2020-10-25

  Trapped at the Border: Asylum seekers protest Matamoros camp conditions

  On October 25, 2020, over fifty of 1000+ people in the Matamoros Border Camp gathered along the barbed-wire fence to protest their living conditions. The Migrant Protection Protocols (M.P.P.), a Trump Executive Order, requires many Spanish-speaking asylum seekers to stay in Northern Mexico until granted a court date. In March 2020, the administration sealed U.S. borders and closed immigration courts as part of the COVID-19 emergency response. Many asylum seekers trapped in the camps may never get a full hearing. Although protests could provoke retaliation from Mexican and U.S. immigration officials, these families demonstrated because they felt desperate. As in much of the southern border, cartels plague the Brownsville-Matamoros region. Many South and Central American migrants have experienced kidnapping, theft, extortion, and rape on their journeys through Mexico. In the camps, bounded by a fifteen-foot fence and heavily armed security forces, they face daily threats from poisonous snakes, hurricanes, flooding, and unsanitary conditions. Because the Mexican government does not give camp occupants sufficient resources, nonprofit organizations like Catholic Charities and Team Brownsville provide food, water, and medical care. On the day of the protest, two U.S. citizens from a Methodist ministry stood with demonstrators inside the camp. The asylum seeker who organized this demonstration sent her two daughters (ages 9 and 11) across the Rio Grande, accompanied only by a cartel-affiliated coyote (guide), to turn themselves into Customs and Border Protection (CBP). While she misses her daughters every day, she believes that separation is safer for them than remaining in Mexico or returning to Honduras. She trusts that God will protect everyone in the Matamoros camp because their cause is just. After the protest, I held her hand through the gate’s wire diamonds and promised to pray. Some protesters held signs with Bible verses like Matthew 25:35-40, while others called for the protection of LGBTQ+ migrants and an end to MPP. Many protesters addressed the U.S. presidential election. Voten inteligentemente, one sign reads – vote intelligently. Joe Biden promised that, if elected, he would repeal M.P.P. within the first hundred days of his presidency. Asylum seekers realize that without a leadership change, they have very little chance of entering the U.S. I witnessed this reality while I stood in an hour-long customs line, waiting to cross the International Bridge back into Brownsville. The line held a mix of Mexican and U.S. citizens, including a family carrying spider-shaped piñatas and orange-frosted cupcakes for a Halloween party. A group of two adults and three children passed me in line. I watched them approach CBP officers, a journalist following close behind. Five minutes later, a security officer was escorting the family back to Matamoros. The journalist noticed me watching and stopped to explain: “They asked for asylum, but CBP said no. They have to wait in Mexico.” “No somos malas personas. Solo queremos vivir.” The mother repeated this phrase like a mantra as she passed us, holding her six-year-old daughter’s hand. We are not bad people. We just want to live. *This is a photograph that I took on my cell phone outside the Matamoros, Mexico border camp on Sunday, October 25, 2020. Faces are blurred to protect their privacy.
• 2020-11-09

  Getting scammed over $5000 overseas.

  It was late at night, around 2-3 AM. I was staying up because I didn’t have school due to the pandemic. I was browsing on a trading website called Alibaba. It is where manufactures around the world sell their products to other traders to resell. I was just browsing anything that came to my mind and i thought of searching a car i have wanted for a long time. I searched up a Mercedes G63. Apparently these people had their car inventory in Greece but they first ship the vehicle to somewhere else before shipping it to me. I was so manipulated to think I was getting something too good to be true. I bank transferred $2000 then $3000 overseas. This was the biggest mistake of my life but one to learn from.
• 
  2020-05-31

  Black Lives Matter in North Dakota

  After the George Floyd murder, citizens in Minot, ND put together a protest and vigil for Mr. Floyd at Oak Park in Minot, ND. Minneapolis is a mere eight hours from Minot and there were many people affected by Floyds murder in North Dakota.
• 
  2020-10-12

  Indigenous People's Day Gathering

  This is a photograph of various indigenous peoples, from tribes in the Pacific NorthWest, gathering in downtown Seattle to celebrate Indigenous People’s Day and commemorate missing and murdered indigenous people.
• 
  2020-10-19

  California Defendants Entitled to Mental Health Care Languish in Overcrowded, Unhealthy Jails FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditShare

  The writers’ son is a patient with mental health-related rights that have gone unfulfilled, along with thousands of others, in the downtown Los Angeles jail nicknamed the Two Towers.
• 
  2020-05-21

  “Savior or strongman? El Salvador's millennial president defies courts and Congress on coronavirus response”

  Aside from being the death of hundreds of thousands, COVID-19 may also be the impetus for the decline of democracy in El Salvador, one of the smallest countries in Latin America. In an article for CNN, journalist Patrick Oppmann provides a brief summary of how El Salvador’s populist president, Nayib Bukele, is taking advantage of the pandemic to attack the nation’s political institutions and consolidate personal power. Ever since he was elected as a political outsider in 2019, President Nayib Bukele has utilized social media to attack his political opponents and journalists, who he believes are obstacles to his personal agenda. He also marched soldiers into the National Assembly to intimidate lawmakers into signing a bill to increase police and military funding, arousing the fear of those who remembered El Salvador’s history of military dictatorships. The emergence of COVID-19 has given Bukele the opportunity to further attack the nation’s institutions and to consolidate his own power. He placed stringent quarantine measures and deployed military policemen on the streets to catch violators, who would then be sent to quarantine centers. Bukele also used the pandemic to go after gangs such as MS-13, whose members were rounded up and taken to densely packed prisons and stripped naked. This particular measure not only violated human rights, it also harmed efforts to reintegrate gang members, according to a former gang member interviewed by Oppmann. Despite these heavy handed measures, Bukele and his administration maintain high approval ratings. Bukele has leveraged this high approval rating to ignore El Salvador’s Supreme Court and National Assembly. The former ruled that he had no authority to extend lockdown orders, while the former proposed a bill to reopen the nation’s economy ahead of the reopening date scheduled by Bukele. Rather than acceding to their demands, Bukele had instead taken to social media, castigating both of these institutions as unrepresentative and illegitimate. Oppmann ends his article by noting that, as the pandemic continues, there will most likely be more clashes between El Salvador’s young, populist president and the nation’s other institutions.
• 
  2020-04-20

  The Committee to Protect Journalists Advises Protection Strategies for Protest Events

  This redacted photo from the Associated Press covers anti-lockdown protests in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on April 20, 2020. I redacted the original to protect the identities of the protestors. The crowd demanded the reopening of their state’s economy. Their demonstrations came on the heels of new social distancing measures to help diminish the spread of Covid-19. The article that accompanies this photo should be essential reading for both journalists’ safety and the public’s safety. The tips on protecting oneself in a violent crowd are widely applicable.
• 
  2020-08-21

  Arizona’s opioid epidemic under COVID-19

  The rise of COVID-19 cases and restrictions have been linked to a rise in both smuggling arrests and overdose cases. In July 2020 alone, the overdose deaths in Pima County nearly outnumber the entire number for 2019. Members of addiction centers talk about what caused the spike and ways to help, and a candidate for county attorney talks about justice reform that will help with addiction recovery.
• 
  2020-07-15

  Making Mafia Stronger

  When most families and business owners were wondering how to pay the bills, for Gaetano Vitagliano the period of lockdown was the perfect time to strike a deal. On raiding cafe's the police found something which seemed suspicious! On investigating it was found that the business was allegedly bought by mafia money, linking to Camorra, an organized crime syndicate in Italy. Read this article by VICE to find out what happened in Naples, Italy where Raffaele Gallo was killed in the streets by Camorra ambush.