this pressed: Inspector general: Some NY police use chokehold as first response|info 24.us

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A new inspector general blasted the New York City Police Department on Monday for failing to punish officers who used banned chokeholds on citizens, sometimes as a first response in a confrontation.

The first official report by police Inspector General Philip Eure comes a month after New York was shaken first by a grand jury’s decision not to indict an NYPD officer in the chokehold death of Eric Garner and then by the killing of two NYPD officers by a gunman avenging the Staten Island man’s death.

It looked at 10 recent cases in which the NYPD’s Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB), an independent agency tasked with investigating excessive force claims, concluded officers used chokeholds, which are banned by police department regulations. The cases were documented between 2009 and July 2014 and do not include Garner’s death on July 17, 2014.

Among the 10 cases was a Bronx high school student who was walking away from school officials disciplining her on Jan. 8, 2008, and was placed in a chokehold by a police officer assigned to the building, the report said.

EW YORK (Reuters) – A new inspector general blasted the New York City Police Department on Monday for failing to punish officers who used banned chokeholds on citizens, sometimes as a first response in a confrontation.

The first official report by police Inspector General Philip Eure comes a month after New York was shaken first by a grand jury’s decision not to indict an NYPD officer in the chokehold death of Eric Garner and then by the killing of two NYPD officers by a gunman avenging the Staten Island man’s death.

It looked at 10 recent cases in which the NYPD’s Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB), an independent agency tasked with investigating excessive force claims, concluded officers used chokeholds, which are banned by police department regulations. The cases were documented between 2009 and July 2014 and do not include Garner’s death on July 17, 2014.

Among the 10 cases was a Bronx high school student who was walking away from school officials disciplining her on Jan. 8, 2008, and was placed in a chokehold by a police officer assigned to the building, the report said.

via Inspector general: Some NY police use chokehold as first response.

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Are you or someone you know a student in New York Public? Cell Phone Ban Lifted for New York Students

Cell Phone Ban Lifted for New York Students

The ban on students having cell phones in New York City’s public schools will soon end, with mayor Bill de Blasio announcing that phone regulation will be up to school principals. Each principal is free to create a policy or use a default one that allows students to bring their phones, so long as they are not used during school hours. The new rules are scheduled to go into effect in March. Currently, many students pay a small fee to leave their phones at a storage location—typically a grocery store or a roaming van—during the school day. More… Discuss

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Article of the Day: Ticker-Tape Parades

Article of the Day

Ticker-Tape Parades Ticker-tape parades were originated in New York City by Grover Whalen, the city’s official greeter from 1919 to 1953. The welcome ceremonies he staged for Charles Lindbergh and returning soldiers from both world wars, among others, featured a festive snow of confetti—originally ticker-tape from stockbrokers’ offices in lower Manhattan—thrown onto the parade from the tall buildings along the route. Today the parades most often fete sports champions. What is the “Canyon of Heroes“? More… Discuss

the ALAMO: Word of the standoff ricocheted across America, prompting a deluge of supportive messages for the fatigued but tenacious holdout.

The Alamo, built in the 18th century from locally quarried limestone, rests deep in the heart of Texas. (Photo: Library of Congress) – See more at: http://www.historynet.com/here-is-where-holding-the-fort-in-san-antonio.htm#sthash.BtnOn3Zo.dpuf

Barricaded in a freezing cold, rat-infested room inside the Alamo, the lone defender had gone almost three days without food, water or sleep after armed men had positioned themselves around the compound. Word of the standoff ricocheted across America, prompting a deluge of supportive messages for the fatigued but tenacious holdout.

“Win or lose, we congratulate you upon your splendid patriotism and courage,” read one telegram from New York signed by John B. Adams, a descendant of President John Adams. Editors from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch wired San Antonio: “Commandant of the Alamo:—Will you send…a message to the women of St. Louis, who are watching with great interest your own gallant defense of the Alamo?”

The “commandant” was no military officer but a 46-year-old Texas schoolteacher named Adina De Zavala, who had commenced her one-woman siege on February 10, 1908. De Zavala replied to the Post-Dispatch: “My immortal forefathers suffered every privation to defend the freedom of Texas. I, like them, am willing to die for what I believe to be right. . . . The officers cannot starve me into submission.”

De Zavala’s impassioned statement echoed the urgent message Lt. Col. William Barret Travis had dashed off 72 years earlier, on February 24, 1836, when his 200 Texan and Tejano rebels were fortified inside the old mission, surrounded by several thousand Mexican troops under President General Antonio López de Santa Anna.

“To the People of Texas and All Americans in the World,” Travis wrote, “I am besieged, by a thousand or more of the Mexicans under Santa Anna—I have sustained a continual Bombardment & cannonade for 24 hours & have not lost a man—The enemy has demanded a surrender at discretion, otherwise, the garrison are to be put to the sword, if the fort is taken—I have answered the demand with a cannon shot, & our flag still waves proudly from the walls—I shall never surrender or retreat. Then, I call on you in the name of Liberty, of patriotism, & every thing dear to the American character, to come to our aid, with all dispatch. . . . If this call is neglected, I am determined to sustain myself as long as possible & die like a soldier who never forgets what is due to his own honor & that of his country—Victory or Death.”

– See more at: http://www.historynet.com/here-is-where-holding-the-fort-in-san-antonio.htm#sthash.BtnOn3Zo.dpuf

word: circumspect

circumspect

Definition:	(adjective) Heedful of circumstances and potential consequences; prudent.
Synonyms:	discreet
Usage:	Because the drug was shown to have adverse side effects, physicians are now more circumspect about recommending its use. Discuss.

Did Anastasia Survive? (THE GREATEST UNSOLVED MYSTERIES OF ALL TIME) (My media collection)

SEVERAL APPS WERE EMPLOYED IN THE MAKING OF THIS IMAGE:

1. Scanner
2. IrfanView Software (to assemble the two jpegs, in horizontal display)
3. FastStone Photo Editor Software ( for image editing-colors, contrast and illumination, and finally for the border mask and final cropping)

I like what came out of it!

Did Anastasia Survive? (THE GREATEST UNSOLVED MYSTERIES OF ALL TIME) (My Media Collecttion)

this pressed for clarity: A black hole for our best and brightest | The Washington Post

NEW YORK — The thing Deborah Jackson remembers from her first interviews at Goldman Sachs is the slogan. It was stamped on the glass doors of the offices in the investment bank’s headquarters just off Wall Street, the lure of the place in two words, eight syllables: “Uncommon capability.”

Jackson joined Goldman in 1980, fresh from business school and steeped in the workings of government and finance. She found crackerjack colleagues and more business than she could handle. She worked in municipal finance, lending money to local governments, hospitals and nonprofits around the country. She flew first class to scout potential deals — “The issue was, can you really be productive if you’re in a tiny seat in the back?” — and when the time came to seal one, she’d welcome clients and their attorneys to Manhattan’s best restaurants.

The clients would bring their spouses and go to shows.

A black hole for our best and brightest

Wall Street is expanding, and the economy is worse off for it.

via A black hole for our best and brightest | The Washington Post.

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this pressed: Democracy Now: Hands up, Don’t choke!

https://soundcloud.com/democracynow/sets/todays-democracy-now

Thursday, December 4, 2014 Previous | Next

Hands Up, Don’t Choke

3,342

SHARED

By Amy Goodman with Denis Moynihan

Another police killing of an unarmed man of color. Another grand jury deciding not to indict: Not for murder. Not for manslaughter. Not for assault. Not even for reckless endangerment. We live in a land of impunity. At least, for those in power.

This past summer, after covering the protests in Ferguson, Mo., I flew back to New York City and went straight to Staten Island to cover the march protesting the police killing of Eric Garner, a 43-year-old African-American father of six. This story was strikingly similar to the police killing in Ferguson, where Officer Darren Wilson gunned down unarmed African-American teenager Michael Brown. Both cases involved white police officers using deadly force. Both of the victims were unarmed African-Americans. In both cases, local prosecutors, with close ties to their local police departments, were allowed to control the grand jury. There were some differences between the cases. Most notably, Eric Garner’s killing was captured on video.

If you look at the video closely, just as NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo puts him in an illegal chokehold, you see Eric Garner put his hands up, the international signal of surrender. He is then taken down by a gang of police officers. You hear him repeatedly say, “I can’t breathe!” He says it a total of 11 times before he goes limp and dies.

Where did this video come from? A young man named Ramsey Orta was standing near Garner on that July 17 afternoon when the police moved in. Orta flipped open his cellphone and videoed the whole thing. Pantaleo was caught red-handed. The evidence was there for everyone to see. Well, the grand jury decided not to indict Pantaleo. Only two people were arrested in the wake of Garner’s death: Ramsey Orta, who shot the video, and his wife, Chrissie Ortiz. Chrissie told a local television station that since Ramsey was identified as the videographer, they had been subjected to police harassment. Ramsey was arrested the day after the city medical examiner declared Garner’s death a homicide. Chrissie was later arrested as well. I saw them at the Staten Island march that Saturday, standing near where Garner died. I asked them for comment, but they were afraid. They huddled on the same stoop that Ramsey was on when he filmed Garner’s death.

At that march on Staten Island on Aug. 23, while Ramsey and Chrissie chose not to speak, many did. “The Staten Island [district attorney] should not be prosecuting this case,” Constance Malcolm told me. “We need the feds to come in and take this case right now. We need accountability.”

Click here to read the full column posted at Truthdig.

Click here to listen to Amy Goodman’s podcast. Subscribe to her weekly podcast on SoundCloud and Stitcher Radio.

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word: ubiquitous

ubiquitous 

Definition:	(adjective) Being or seeming to be everywhere at the same time.
Synonyms:	omnipresent
Usage:	She is the most ubiquitous media personality around. Discuss