Thursday, June 25, 2020

Anonymous Twitter accounts in Brazil are pressuring advertisers to drop conservative media campaigns
Raphael Tsavkko Garcia Jun 18, 2020

Brazil's president Jair Bolsonaro. Reuters


Sleeping Giants is a Twitter account that has participated in news-making actions that have inspired many advertisers to pull funding from conservative media outlets, such as Fox News and Breitbart.

In 2020, a copycat account was made in Brazil, finding fast success in getting ads pulled from numerous right-wing sites.

In Brazil's regional media economy, numerous off-shoot accounts have sprung up to pressure local advertisers.


In 2016, Matt Rivitz created Sleeping Giants, a Twitter profile dedicated to reporting big brand advertisements on conservative websites. With a few clicks, Rivitz helped catalyze an international political movement.

After finding huge success in pushing for the withdrawal of millions in funds from right-wing websites and news organizations in the US, such as Breitbart and Fox News, his idea ended up spreading across the world and reached Brazil where, in less than a month, the profile Sleeping Giants Brasil has quickly managed to convince brands to withdraw ads from the Jornal da Cidade Online, considered one of far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's largest mouthpieces and propagators of misinformation. It's also the target of a Congressional investigation.
Through Google's ad platform, websites like Jornal da Cidade Online earn money based on views and clicks on ads displayed from advertisers who buy advertising spaces with target audience data.

Sleeping Giants Brasil was created on May 18 and in just a few days it managed to dry up the ads-revenue of its first target — more than 130 brands have committed to remove ads from Jornal da Cidade Online, demonetizing the publication of about $70,000.

On June 5 Sleeping Giants Brasil set its sights on a second target, right-wing site Conexão Política. In less than 24 hours it removed its advertising tool.

The reaction was immediate in Bolsonaro's camp, with one of the sons of the Brazilian president revolting on Twitter and Bolsonaro's followers accusing the companies that removed ads of "censorship." Carlos Bolsonaro, a city councilman in Rio de Janeiro and son of the president, was appointed by the Federal Police as the leader of the so-called "Office of Hate," a term coined by government leader Joice Hasselmann to describe a group of advisors to the president who allegedly spread misinformation in support of the government as part of their job.

After being alerted by Sleeping Giants, Banco do Brasil (Brazil's largest state-owned bank) removed its advertisements from Jornal da Cidade Online. The reaction of the government and the "Office of Hate" was swift. Carlos Bolsonaro and the government's communications secretary, Fabio Wajngarten, complained about the decision and the bank's marketing department removed the advertising restriction on the website.
A conservative version of Sleeping Giants Brasil has been created in response to the movement

In response to Sleeping Giants Brasil, the conservative "Gigantes Não Dormem" (Giants Don't Sleep) was created, though it only has a fraction of the followers (about 28,000 followers compared to more than 360,000). Its target is the left-wing website Brasil 247 — accused of receiving money from lobbyist Milton Pascowitch at the request of then Workers' Party treasurer João Vaccari Neto. The payment was discovered during investigations of the Car Wash Operation, in 2015.


The success of the far-right venture, however, is so far doubtful.

According to the founder of Sleeping Giants Brasil, who remains anonymous for fear of political retribution, the idea of creating the profile came from reading an article in the Spanish newspaper El País about the movement created by Rivitz, noting that it's not restricted to far-right sites.
Regional off-shoot accounts are targeting different ad markets

Sleeping Giants Rio Grande do Sul told Insider that "the movement has no political party and no ideological tendency. It has a very simple objective: to fight fake news and hate speech that goes against democracy and science, with the intention of providing a service to companies that often do not know that they advertise on these sites."

They added that "there are people [within the movement] with different worldviews, but everyone respects the goal and knows how to separate [their own view with the work done]. We don't exclude left-wing websites from the analysis, but the daily use of lying from emerging ultra-right sites is remarkable. We don't perceive this same commitment in left-wing sites, for example, in how they deal with the issue of pandemic, quarantine, chloroquine, etc. We have truth, science and democracy among our principles. Any website that attacks [these principles] will have more weight in the choice."


Insider also talked to Sleeping Giants Curitiba's profile administrator. Curitiba is the capital of the southern state of Paraná. They said there were inspired "to look for ways to combat disinformation" and decided to "adapt to the Brazilian reality," in part by regionalizing their activity. "There are particularities in Brazil, for example the capillarity of regional initiatives, unprecedented until then."

"The purpose of regional accounts is simple," They said. "As programmatic advertising is geolocalized they serve to inform local advertisers. This work has proven to be the most complicated because they are generally not large companies, they are smaller companies without marketing departments that buy Google AdSense ads without knowing the tool itself. Many do not even seem to know how to do the filters there. It's more of an orientation job. We're developing tutorials to help."

The Sleeping Giants Rio Grande do Sul profile administrator also explained to Business Insider that they concluded "that it would be a good idea to create regional profiles, because Brazil is very large and the algorithms currently allow a well regionalized dissemination [of advertisements]. This way, many regional advertisers don't reach the [main] centers of the country, so they wouldn't be approached."

But, the profile administrator added, "these regional advertisers are many and they alone are enough to sustain a large network of hatred and lies," and this is why the first regional profile, the Sleeping Giants RS, was created, "which immediately got positive responses from several big local brands."


"There have been cases of ad agencies and giant companies that just didn't know who had bought the ads and how to block them," they added. "The campaign is to inform and charge for more enlightened advertising, we don't propose boycotts or coercion to companies. We have been particularly careful with small businesses."

The demonetization of their targets via Adsense has occurred faster than they expected and Rio Grande do Sul's creator said that "without the regional ones I imagine that the work of the national profile would take more time."

Their targets are chosen based on lists of the largest misinformation propagators given out by fact-checking agencies, such as A Pública. "We're in the midst of a very serious pandemic, [therefore] websites that spread many lies related to Covid-19 will have more weight in the choice. We work with one target at a time to increase the effectiveness of the action."

Sleeping Giants Brazil membership has grown exponentially, as has its success, which has caused serious problems for the Brazilian far-right.


"All we want is for society to stop being ruled by fake news propagators," said the administrator of Sleeping Giants Rio Grande do Sul.

Canadian Museum for Human Rights employees say sex harassment complaints dismissed by human resources
© Tyson Koschik/CBC The Canadian Museum for Human Rights is dealing with fallout from allegations of racism and its admission that it censored and sometimes hid LGBT content. Now women who work at the museum are going public for the first time with… 

Warning: Story contains graphic descriptions and images that may be disturbing to some users. Caution advised.
Five current and former female employees at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights allege they've been sexually harassed by the same male colleague and say their complaints to human resources were dismissed.

The women, who've come forward to CBC News, allege the man, who works with visitors at the national museum in Winnipeg, has grabbed and touched them, stared at their genital areas and made inappropriate comments about them and other women for years.

Gabriela Agüero, a former program developer and tour guide, said she's seen the man get close to women and objectify them. She said he would also repeatedly get close to her and ask her to go places, even when she told him no and asked him to stop inviting her.

She said he was allowed to keep working at the museum after an internal probe into his conduct. "It left us all traumatized because we all had to continue working with him, be in the elevators, in the lunchrooms, everywhere."
© Lyza Sale/CBC Gabriela Agüero, a former program developer and museum tour guide, says she was horrified after she went to HR with another woman about a male colleague, and instead of feeling listened to, she felt unprotected.
Agüero, who said she left the museum after being bullied by her manager, said she went to the museum's human resources department after the man allegedly clapped his hands and told a female employee much younger than him, "Oh you're so hot" in a meeting while looking her up and down.

Agüero and the woman, Madeleine McLeod, now 26, went to HR together in 2018 to report the incident.


"And then essentially [the HR director] asked me [whether I thought] he maybe meant 'I'm so hot because of the weather, like it was hot outside.' So when she said that comment, I just already knew it's not going to go anywhere," McLeod said in a phone interview from Vancouver, adding the museum is normally very cold.

"I just felt really belittled by her, just the whole interview was not very pleasant. I ended up being really emotional and I actually thought of quitting right away because I thought I don't want to work for the institution that promotes human rights, and they can't even deal with such a basic human right."
© Jeff Stapleton/CBC This current employee, who CBC News is not identifying, says she has been harassed by a male colleague and seen him harass new female staff and look at young visitors inappropriately.

McLeod, who started working at the CMHR in 2017 and left last July, said before going to HR she told her manager about the incident, and his response was, "'Oh not again,'" so I'm assuming that at that time, [the man] had previous warnings."

CBC News reached out to the man on Facebook but hadn't received a response as of publication.

A current museum employee said she has been harassed by the man, seen him harass new female staff and look at young visitors inappropriately.

"They have just been hired, looking at them in very inappropriate ways, touching them, feeling like he can do that," she said.

CBC News has agreed not to identify the woman because she fears reprisals for speaking out.

The employee said multiple complaints have been made to HR about the man, investigations have been launched and an external lawyer was brought in to review the allegations.

She said she was shocked when she first started experiencing the behaviour at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

"How come these people cannot understand that you're working in a place where you're promoting rights for everyone, human rights?"
Union wants anti-harassment training

The union representing employees at the museum said it is aware of incidents of sexual harassment.

The Public Service Alliance of Canada said there have been some resolutions to complaints, but they are not always adequate for employees.

The union said it has approached management in the past before asking some members to file a grievance after not being satisfied with how HR handled complaints.

Three weeks ago, the union said, it made a proposal in contract talks with the museum to create mandatory anti-harassment training for all museum staff, including management, but those proposals were rejected.

"The union will continue to push for the anti-harassment training this week during contract negotiations, and we hope to see more openness from management on this proposal," said Marianne Hladun, PSAC's regional executive vice-president for the Prairies.
2 external reviews into harassment

Museum spokesperson Louise Waldman said while she was unable to comment on a particular case, the CMHR has twice hired an external lawyer to lead investigations into sexual harassment complaints.

"In both of those instances, we have accepted their findings and followed the recommendations provided."

Waldman said all complaints of sexual harassment are handled under guidelines outlined in the CMHR's Respectful Workplace Policy.

She said the museum requires all employees and managers to take mandatory respectful workplace training that it is reviewing and updating.

The allegations from the women come a week after CBC News revealed the museum would sometimes ask staff not to reveal content related to gay rights at the request of certain guests on tours, including religious school groups.

The employees said the practice was common for at least two years, and in one case a staff member from the LGBT community was asked to physically block a same-sex marriage display from a passing group.

After the story ran, the museum's CEO, John Young, said he wouldn't seek reappointment, and former Winnipeg mayor Glen Murray resigned from the fundraising arm of the museum in protest. 
© Jaison Empson/CBC John Young, CEO of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, is not seeking reappointment when his term ends. He acknowledges there are shortcomings when it comes to dealing with racism at the institution dedicated to the principle of human rights.
The CMHR then issued a public apology a day later for excluding, and even in some cases hiding, LGBT content.

Federal Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault said in a statement the government is committed to promoting healthy workplaces where harassment is not tolerated.

"We have zero tolerance for harassment, abuse or discrimination. Everybody deserves a healthy working environment. As mentioned before, we respect [CEO John] Young's decision not to pursue a new term ... and we hope the upcoming transition will be beneficial to both the museum's educational mission and the dedicated staff of the CMHR."

Last week, the CMHR announced the hiring of Winnipeg lawyer Laurelle Harris to investigate allegations of discrimination at the museum after former employees began posting stories earlier this month on social media about racism they say they experienced while working at the institution.

Agüero said she hopes that by speaking out, life will get better for women who still work there. "I'm always of the idea that there's a hope for change.... We can change things together," she said.

"Because of [the police killing of] George Floyd in the States and what happened, we have no right to leave things the way they were."

Kevin Bittman reflects on departure from CRC and Unifor 594

Arthur White-Crummey, Regina Leader-Post

© BRANDON HARDER REGINA, SASK : April 29, 2020 -- Unifor Local 594 President Kevin Bittman prepares to speak in front of the Saskatchewan Legislative Building 

The man who led more than 700 refinery workers though a gruelling dispute with the Co-op Refinery Complex (CRC) is leaving his position at the plant and with the union.

Kevin Bittman, president of Unifor Local 594, said he is done at the plant. In a text message exchange with the Leader-Post, he said there is already a replacement for his role as president of the local.

He expressed hope that his departure would make it easier for his colleagues as they head back to the job over the coming weeks.

“It is time for the workers to get back in the plant and that is all that matters,” he said Wednesday.
“The company made no secret what they thought of me when they came after me during the lockout,” Bittman added. “Now that it is over, it is time for building back the relationship and I am not sure (that) can be done with me in the picture.”

Bittman headed Unifor Local 594 for 13 years. He has worked at the CRC for more than 20 years, and was working as a master operator when the lockout began on Dec. 5 .

He was a regular fixture at the Unifor demonstrations and protest actions that followed over the nearly seven-month struggle that followed. It ended with a vote ratifying a seven-year deal with the company on Monday.

He even ended up facing contempt of court allegations due to his forceful speeches, though he was found not guilty by a court in February .

Bittman said he will simply take the summer off before deciding what’s coming next in his life. He said whatever he does next will be focused on “trying to better the environment for people that work in this province.”

He said he’s currently feeling well, despite the pressures of the long battle with the company.

“Life sometimes takes us in different directions,” he said. “You can dwell on the past or embrace life and look at the future.”
13 things you probably didn't know about the Black Panther Party

K. Thor Jensen Jun 16, 2020
Black Panther Party members protesting in New York City on April 11, 1969. David Fenton/Getty Images


The Black Panther Party was founded in 1966 by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale.
It advocated for Black liberation and combated police brutality with armed patrols known as "copwatching."

There were violent encounters with cops and accusations of gang activity. J. Edgar Hoover said the BPP "represents the greatest threat to the internal security of the country."

The BPP also launched dozens of social programs including free breakfasts and medical clinics.

Learn more about the untold history of the Black Panther Party.

The Black Panther Party was one of the most influential grassroots political forces of the 20th century.

Founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale in 1966, the Panthers eschewed civil disobedience in favor of armed shows of force, particularly to confront police violence.

The Black Panthers march in protest of the 1968 trial of co-founder Huey P. Newton in Oakland, California. Bettemann
The BPP was controversial from the start: There were shootouts with police, murders, and accusations the Party was a front for drug-dealing, prostitution, and extortion.


Black Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver speaks to students at a rally at American University in Washington, DC, in October 1968. Bettmann

But the BPP's belief in Black self-determination fueled dozens of social programs benefiting tens of thousands, including free-breakfast programs and no-cost medical clinics.

Eventually, the Party opened "liberation schools," where children learned Black history and political science. They practiced penmanship by writing letters to incarcerated members.
A group of children give the Black Panther salute, on December 20, 1969. Bettemann

At its height, the BPP had thousands of members in nearly 70 cities. In-fighting, FBI infiltration, and other factors led to the group's decline, and the Panthers officially dissolved in 1982.
Black Panther Party buttons. Bettemann

In the wake of the killing of George Floyd, the call against police brutality has gone out again.

The Black Panther Party was formed in response to the killing of an unarmed Black teen by police.
Huey Newton (right) with Bobby Seale at Black Panther Party headquarters in San Francisco in 1967. Ted Streshinsky/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Image

On September 27, 1966, a police officer shot Matthew Johnson, an unarmed 16-year-old, in the back in San Francisco's Hunters Point neighborhood, sparking violent unrest for several days.

Huey Newton decided the only way to address police brutality was to monitor the authorities. He read up on California's open-carry laws and, within weeks, had armed men patrolling the streets of Oakland.

If they saw an arrest, they would approach with their firearms visible and inform the suspects of their rights. The practice came to be known as "copwatching."


California repealed its open-carry law because of the Panthers.

Two members of the Black Panther Party are stopped by police on the steps of the California State Capitol in Sacramento, on May 2. 1967. Bettmann

In the late 1960s, photographs of visibly armed Black men panicked conservatives.

In April 1967, California State Assemblyman Don Mulford introduced a ban on carrying loaded firearms in public. Weeks later, a group of armed Panthers barged into the State Assembly in Sacramento to protest.

The Mulford Act was soon passed by a large majority and signed into law by then-Governor Ronald Reagan.

"There is no reason why, on the street today, a citizen should be carrying loaded weapons," Reagan said at the time. "Guns are a ridiculous way to solve problems than have to be solved among people of good will."


They chose black leather jackets and berets as their uniform because they were easy to find.

A line of Black Panther Party members outside a New York City courthouse on April 11, 1969. David Fenton/Getty Images

According to Stanley Nelson, director of "The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution," Huey Newton and Bobby Seale chose the Panthers' look because "it was something that everybody had in their closet."

"They said, 'You know, every young black man has a black leather jacket or can get one or can borrow one if they can't buy one," he told Fresh Air's Terry Gross."Everybody could get a beret. Everybody could get some sunglasses and get the Panther look."

The uniform was also calculated to be distinct from the suit-and-tie look favored more traditional civil-rights activists.


They developed a free school-breakfast program that fed thousands of children every day.

Two boys in 1969 at a free breakfast for children program in New York City sponsored by the Black Panther Party. Bev Grant/Getty Images

In 1969, the Black Panther Party began serving free hot breakfasts to kids in Oakland, soliciting food from local grocers and consulting nutritionists on healthy and filling recipes.

The Free Breakfast for School Children Program eventually expanded to 45 cities and fed tens of thousands of kids, according to History.com.

Schools and parents praised it, but the police and FBI spread rumors the BPP was using the meals to indoctrinate or even poison kids.

In 1975, just as the BPP's breakfast programs were being shut down, the USDA permanently authorized the nationwide School Breakfast Program, which fed more than 14 million children in 2016 alone.

The Black Panthers opened free medical clinics and ambulance services.

A poster advertising the Bobby Seale People's Free Health Clinic. National Archives

After the success of its free-breakfast programs, the BPP addressed the imbalance in America's healthcare system by opening no-cost health clinics in 13 cities.

People's Free Medical Centers offered vaccinations, checkups, cancer screenings, and more in storefronts and trailers. They were staffed by doctors and trained volunteers.

When a Black teen in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, died because an ambulance refused to take him to the hospital, the Panthers converted an old hearse into a free ambulance service.

They created the first nationwide testing and screening program for sickle cell anemia.

A young girl grimaces as she gets a blood test for sickle-cell anemia, in 1972. Dave Buresh/The Denver Post via Getty Images

First identified in 1910, sickle cell anemia attracted little scholarship or funding because it primarily affected people of African descent.

The Panthers established a national screening program, training volunteers to go door-to-door in predominantly Black neighborhoods and give free fingerstick tests. Followup care for anyone who tested positive was arranged with local hospitals.

The Panthers' high profile campaign put pressure on President Nixon to sign legislation that funded sickle cell research and clinics in 1972.


Huey Newton took a delegation to China, where he met Premier Zhou Enlai.
Huey Newton (right) at a press conference in San Francisco after returning from a meeting with Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai in China. Bettmann

Huey Newton was heavily influenced by Chinese revolutionary Mao Zedong, and even sold copies of the Little Red Book to buy guns.

Mao's philosophy appealed to the BPP because, as Eveline Chao wrote in ChinaFile,, "it made Marxism, which otherwise seemed like something for the white New Left, applicable to people of color."

In 1971, Huey Newton and Elaine Brown flew to Beijing and met with Premier Zhou Enlai and Mao's wife, Jiang Qing.

They were met by throngs of cheering young people at the airport, waving copies of the Little Red Book and signs that read "We support the Black Panther Party, down with U.S. imperialism."


They helped migrant workers organize against Safeway.

A Black Panther rally against Safeway in Oakland, California, circa 1969. Harold Adler/Underwood Archives/Getty Images

In the early 1970s, Cesar Chavez's United Farm Workers union boycotted Safeway in California for selling grapes picked by non-union workers.

Safeway, coincidentally, was one of the few markets to refuse to donate to the Panthers' free-breakfast program.

Seizing the opportunity, the BPP began ferrying shoppers to competing Lucky's supermarkets free of charge.

The boycott was successful enough that at least one Safeway in Oakland was forced to close.


The Black Panthers taught self-defense classes to senior citizens.

A woman sits on a bench outside the Black Panther offices in Harlem, circa 1970. Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

The Black Panthers launched Seniors Against A Fearful Environment (SAFE) after a group of older Oakland residents asked them to teach them self-defense to fend off muggers.

The seniors had originally approached the police for help but were told to just "walk close to the curb," according to the Atlanta Black Star.

The SAFE program also provided free transportation so older locals could deposit their social security and pension checks.


FBI director J. Edgar Hoover called the Black Panthers "the greatest internal threat to the security of the country."

FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover in 1970. The Life Images Collection/Getty Images

Hoover used a special counterintelligence program, COINTELPRO, to discredit party leaders.

Agents sent letters to members' wives accusing them of infidelity, according to Historian Thomas J. Reed, "to terrorize and divide the Black Panthers into warring factions."

Newton and others alleged the FBI arranged the assassination of BPP member Fred Hampton in December 1968.

Hoover terminated COINTELPRO in 1971 after its undercover activities were exposed by The Washington Post and other outlets.


Chaka Khan was once a member of the Black Panthers.

Chaka Khan, circa 1970. Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

The singer, born Yvette Stevens, was recruited by the Panthers to sell newspapers in 1969, when she was just 14.

"I was totally against all the sock hops and shit my school had to offer to keep the natives quiet. We used to call them 'slave gatherings,'" she told The Guardian in 2019. "So, I had my combat boots on, my green khaki pants. I didn't feel in danger – it wasn't like that. We were doing the right thing."

She became disillusioned with the party, though, when she was given a gun.

"I'm telling you, every moment I had that gun it changed me," she said. "I felt physically sick." Khan said she didn't feel better until she threw the .38 in a pond.


There was a White Panthers Party.

A female member of the White Panthers at Woodstock in 1969. Ralph Ackerman/Getty Images

When reporters asked Huey Newton what white allies could do to support the Black Panthers, he said they could form their own party.

In 1968, former MC5 manager John Sinclair launched the White Panther Party as an anti-racist political collective.

That same year, Sinclair and Pun Plamondon were indicted for conspiracy to destroy a CIA branch office. The case brought to light the government's extensive wiretapping of Black Panther offices, according to the San Francisco Bay View.

In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court ruled that warrantless wiretapping was a violation of the Fourth Amendment.


A woman led the Black Panther Party for four years.

Elaine Brown (standing) at a Black Panther Party press conference on August 22, 1975. Bettmann/Getty Images

When Panther leader Huey Newton fled to Cuba after being charged with murder, he appointed Elaine Brown the party's new chair.

It was a revolutionary move, challenging the group's entrenched sexism.

A woman in charge "was the violation of some Black Power principle that was left undefined," Brown wrote in her 1992 memoir, "A Taste of Power." "I knew I would have to muster something mighty to manage the Black Panther Party."

As leader, Brown focused on community service, education, and politics. She managed Lionel Wilson's successful bid to become Oakland's first Black mayor.

After Newton's return in 1977, Browns stepped down and soon broke ties with the Panthers. She alleged Newton authorized the beating of another female member.

The vicious attack, she wrote in her memoir, sent a signal "denoting an inferiority in the female half of us."
The UK's justice minister said the country will ban its 'rough sex gone wrong' legal defense that led to lesser charges for killing women  

James Pasley Jun 16, 2020

Crystal Cox/Business Insider


On Tuesday, Justice Minister Alex Chalk said an old legal defense in England and Wales known as the "rough sex gone wrong" defense will be banned later this year.
It's been used to get lower sentences since 1972 — acts of violence are framed around victim's supposed desire for things like BDSM.

Campaign group We Can't Consent To This compiled a list of all the times it had been used in the UK since 1972, and found 60 women's killers had used the defense.

Louise Perry, a co-leader of the group, told the Independent it was a similar defense to one known as the "nagging and shagging defense," which tries to justify violence based on a partner's actions, like having less sex or annoying the perpetrator.

Recently, it was used unsuccessfully by the man who killed 21-year-old British woman Grace Millane in New Zealand.
The United Kingdom's justice minister has made it clear that a legal defense in England and Wales known as the "rough sex going wrong" defense will be outlawed.

On Tuesday, Member of Parliament Alex Chalk made the declaration at a Public Bill Committee debate over the UK's new Domestic Abuse Bill.

"It is unconscionable for defendants to suggest that the death of a woman — it is almost invariably ​a woman — is justified, excusable or legally defensible simply because that woman consented in the violent and harmful sexual activity that resulted in her death," he said.

He said the government was committed to making the fact it was unconscionable "crystal clear."

He made the declaration after Jess Philips, the Labour Party's shadow minister for domestic violence and safeguarding, spoke about a proposed amendment on the legal defense, according to the BBC.

Phillips said: The law should be clear to all: you cannot consent to serious injury or death, but the case law is not up to the task. When a woman is dead, she cannot speak for herself. Any man charged with killing a woman, or a current or former partner, should simply say, "She wanted it."

The amendment was withdrawn after Chalk's assurances.

The "rough sex defense" has been used to explain why violence occurred to get a lighter sentence for people who have committed crimes, including murder.
It was first used in 1972, when the man who killed a woman named Carole Califano — who was trying to leave him — had his charge dropped from murder to manslaughter.

More recently, it was used unsuccessfully by the man who strangled 21-year-old British woman Grace Millane in New Zealand to death. In a court in the UK, he argued she died accidentally in a "sex game gone wrong," according to The Independent.

The defense has become increasingly common, according to We Can't Consent To This, a campaign group created in 2018 to raise awareness about the defense.

Louise Perry, a co-leader of the group, told The Independent: "Killers are becoming increasingly aware of this defense. Lawyers aren't meant to propose it but people are aware of it, and its potential success."

"Men have always murdered women, this is just a new way of getting rid of them," she said.

She said it was a similar defense to another one known as the "nagging and shagging defense," which tries to justify violence based on a partner's actions, like having less sex or annoying the perpetrator.

She said that when people hear the term "rough sex" the harm is framed in a relatable way, but often the injuries are horrific.

Co-founder Fiona McKenzie compiled a list of all the times it had been used in the UK since 1972. She found 60 women's killers used the defense.

There have also been 114 women and one man who have been to court and listened to claims that they consented to violence — including things like beating, strangling, waterboarding, and asphyxiation.

The Domestic Abuse Bill is due to come into force later this year.
Police training programs have a pseudoscience problem

Kelly McLaughlin  Jun 17, 2020
Police officers stand guard during a June 3, 2020 protest against the police killing of George Floyd. Eduardo Munoz/Reuters 

Police training programs often have little basis in scientific research, and experts say misinformation runs rampant without anyone to regulate it.

According to the California-based Institute on Criminal Justice Training Reform, police trainings rely too much on assumptions, anecdotal information, and unverified information.

Bill Lewinski, who trains police officers and often serves as an expert witness in cases, has been criticized by experts for relying too much on studies that lack rigor.

Experts from the American Society of Evidence-Based Policing have called for a nationally recognized, independent, nonpartisan organization that could help provide resources to police departments across the US.

As Black Lives Matter protests continue to be held throughout the US following the death of George Floyd, many people are evaluating the role of policing in society.

Activists have since called for police departments to be defunded or abolished, and those calling for reform say use-of-force maneuvers should be banned and that police need more de-escalation training before they're allowed to patrol the streets.

There's also another issue that needs attention: Pseudoscience. Experts say beliefs falsely regarded as scientific are pervasive in the world of policing.

Renee Mitchell, an executive committee member of the American Society of Evidence, told Insider that every state has its own regulations when it comes to police training, but many academies lack empirical research when teaching new policies.

"Police don't do a literature review examining research before they implement policy or practice," she told Insider. "They do what's called best practice, which is essentially common practice. They call another agency to see what agencies do, but there's nothing that verifies whether that approach works or not."

The underlying issue, experts told Insider, is not only that there's a lack of science in police training, but there's also no one to regulate the spread of misinformation.
Police often rely on assumptions, anecdotal information, and unverified information instead of data when it comes to training

According to the California-based Institute on Criminal Justice Training Reform (ICJTR), police training programs often rely on assumptions, anecdotal information, and unverified information over scientific research when educating new hires.

As put in a 2008 study from the University of Emory titled "Science and Pseudoscience in Law Enforcement: A User-Friendly Primer," law enforcement has "long struggled with the throne problem of distinguishing scientifically supported from scientifically unsupported practices."
HIDALGO, TX - NOVEMBER 05: U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), agents in riot gear take part in a training exercise at the international port of entry on the U.S.-Mexico border on November 5, 2018 in Hidalgo, Texas. Days before, U.S. Army soldiers put up razor wire at the same location as part of "Operation Faithful Patriot." John Moore/Getty Images
"Police and other law enforcement workers, like individuals in all applied disciplines, must keep a watchful eye on pseudoscientific and otherwise unsubstantiated claims," the study said. "If they do not, they can end up making flawed decisions that result in confessions, erroneous convictions, confabbed memories of early trauma, and a plethora of other harmful real-world consequences."

The study's authors recommended that police go through training programs that would help them distinguish science from pseudoscience.

"By attending to the differences between scientific and pseudoscientific assertions, police officers and other law enforcement officials can minimize their risk of errors and make better real-world decisions," the study said.
A leading trainer in policing has become a controversial figure because of his data

One of the police industry's leading training institutions is the Force Science Institute, run by psychologist Bill Lewinski, who in 2015 was the subject of a New York Times article about his work serving as an expert witness for police in shooting cases.

Lewinski also hosts use-of-force and deescalation training courses for police, and much of his research looks into police reaction times. In one study, he argued that suspects can draw guns more quickly during the time it takes for an officer to draw their own gun, aim, and shoot. He has also studied how suspects can end up shot in the back by police officers and why officers "continue to fire 'extra' rounds in high-adrenaline confrontations, even after the threat has ended," according to the Force Science website.

In recent years, police departments in New York and Ohio have backed out of trainings with Lewinski, and his work has been criticized by Lisa Fournier, a Washington State University professor and an "American Journal of Psychology" editor.
NYPD police officers detain a protester as they clash during a march in Brooklyn, New York, May 30. REUTERS/Jeenah Moon

I
n an interview with Insider, Lewinski said his company does not teach pseudoscience, but did acknowledge that such practices are an issue in police training programs.

"In law enforcement, it is expert opinion that still drives much of training, and so our research started off by looking at the threats that officers face and the type of dynamic situations that they got into," he said.

Lewinski urged police academies to use more research in their courses and said officers should spend more time on science-based studies, de-escalation techniques, and communication while learning policing techniques.


"Most of the people who criticize us don't look at what the main purpose of our research is," Lewinski said. "You got to understand what the problem is, and nobody has researched that problem like we have."

Lewinski has a list of journals he has had studies published in on his website, and he also publishes findings in police magazines and his company's newsletter in hopes of reaching more of an audience in law enforcement.
A protester confronts police while rallying against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in Portland Reuters

Von Kliem, a spokesperson for Lewinski, told Insider that government agencies and police departments regularly rely on his work and that Force Science uses research-based methods to teach officers "to recognize and safely de-escalate threats before any force becomes necessary."

"Decades of research have gone into understanding force encounters so that officers are able to manage safer outcomes for all involved," Kliem said.

But Fournier told Insider that the work of Lewinski's that she has evaluated often lacked control groups, and drew conclusions without the support from data. She said she had issues with Lewinski's peer-review processes, and said she didn't believe enough scientists were involved.

"It's amazing to me that the Force Science Institute gets away with this stuff," she told Insider.
The 21-foot Tueller Drill is still taught as science, even though its creator says it shouldn't be

Randy Shrewsberry, the founder of the ICJTR, used the Tueller Drill as an example of a "junk science" self-defense exercise that police departments sometimes use to prepare officers for short-range attacks.

The technique was named after Salt Lake City Police Officer Dennis Tueller, who in 1983 published an article in SWAT Magazine about the "reactionary gap" that he said was needed for police to react decisively and effectively. The article said that if the suspect was any closer than 21 feet, the person could charge before an officer could unholster their gun. Many officers have used the drill as an argument to justify use of force.


In the years since, the Tueller Drill has been debunked by a number of publications, and even Tueller himself has said it's not a hard-and-fast rule.

But police training programs still teach the drill.

"What we hear daily is that it's not a rule — it's a guideline," Shrewsberry told Insider. "Dennis Tueller has come out and said 'This wasn't intended to be literal.' But it's taught all over, and it's used for justification for force all the time."

Shrewsberry called the drill "dangerous," and urged police training programs to stop teaching militarization concepts in which officers are told to put their own safety over the community's.

"If we train police officers to be soldiers, we dress them like soldiers, and equip them like soldiers, we can never be surprised that they act like soldiers," Shrewsberry said.

Tens of thousands of people across the US have taken to the streets in recent weeks to protest militarization, brutality, and systemic racism within police departments. The protests emerged after the death of Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes while he repeatedly said he couldn't breathe.

And while protests have focused on police brutality and use of force among officers, even some de-escalation techniques lack basis in research.
Demonstrators march during a protest against racial inequality in the aftermath of the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in Brooklyn, New York, U.S., June 16, 2020. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
Gary Klugiewicz, a former sheriff's department captain who now teaches courses at Vistelar, a conflict-management institute, told Wired in 2015: "Most of the stuff we have done and I've done is at a personal level. A lot of them use our own experience."

Insider reporter Rhea Mahbubani reported last week that implicit bias training used to address underlying racist attitudes don't even have evidence to back them up. Studies show that trainings meant to address implicit bias don't change people's behaviors.

Obed Magny, a Sacramento police officer with a doctorate in education who also works with the American Society of Evidence-Based Policing, told Insider that one of the main issues with police training is that much of it is based on the idea of "We've always done it this way so this is why how we're going to do it."

"I can give you eight billion examples of where that has actually caused people their lives," he said. "You can also see in some instances today where pseudoscience is literally eroding the trust and legitimacy of the institution of policing."
Experts think there should be an independent, nonpartisan body providing research and education to police departments

The past several weeks of protests have fostered a distrust toward police, and there have been several reports of police officers driving squad cars into crowds, shoving protesters, attacking people with pepper spray and batons, and shooting rubber bullets at journalists and demonstrators.

And the distrust in Black communities is especially high. A Black person is more than twice as likely to be fatally shot by a police officer than a white person, according to the Washington Post.

show solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement in the wake of the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died after a police officer knelt on his neck in Minneapolis. DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP via Getty Images
Magny told Insider that unlike physicians and dentists, who have guidelines, research, and resources accessible to those in the industry, policing has "no such thing."

"Because you don't have anything like that, you have 2,000 police departments doing 18,000 different things," he said. "That's a problem. Because what happens is one agency affects agencies across the country. And if you don't have a uniform model, everybody's not speaking the same language."

Magny's colleague Mitchell agreed that there should be a nationally recognized, nonpartisan, independent body much like the American Medical Association or American Psychological Association that can have experts and research on hand to provide national policing recommendations.

She said that organization should be created alongside a college of policing, in which students can learn the skills they'd need to become police officers through education featuring both law enforcement officers and academics.

"And it's gotta be both — you can't just have academics in there telling cops, 'here's how to be a cop,' because the first thing they're going to say is 'You've never been on the street.' That's not how stuff works," Mitchell said. "I try to teach cops that yes, your experience is very important to add to the conversation, but you don't study what happens as a whole."

Magny said, however, that putting these policies in place could take time.

"Here's the biggest mistake we're making right now: Everybody things there's some kind of quick fix, you know, just a couple things here and there, then everything changes tomorrow," Magny told Insider.

He said that because of how institutionalized policing is, it could take years to make actual polity changes within police departments and police training programs.

"We need more science and we need more data. And we need evidence-based practices in everything we do," Magny said.

The 'TikTok grandma' who started the prank targeting Trump's Tulsa rally has only been a Democrat for one year and voted for Libertarian Gary Johnson in 2016

Rachel E. Greenspan Jun 23, 2020
The noticeably scarce attendance at Trump's Tulsa rally, after the campaign bragged about the expected turnout, has been credited to an Iowa woman. Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images; @MaryJoLaupp/TikTok

After low attendance was observed at President Donald Trump's 2020 campaign rally in Tulsa on Saturday, TikTok teens and K-pop stands took a victory lap, claiming that their prank flooding the event with false ticket requests led to the campaign's inflated expectations.

Mary Jo Laupp, the newly-dubbed "TikTok grandma" with volunteer experience on Pete Buttigieg's Democratic nomination campaign, started the trend. 

Laupp, who only became a Democrat in 2019 to caucus for Buttigieg and says she's "voted all over the place," will soon begin volunteer work with a grassroots group supporting Joe Biden's 2020 campaign. 

Many have praised TikTok teens and K-pop stans for seemingly inflating the Trump campaign's expected attendance for a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma Saturday. But it was a grandmother from Iowa who originated the idea for claiming the event's free tickets as a massive trolling effort.

Ahead of the rally, Trump's 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale said on Twitter that the campaign had received more than one million ticket requests for the free event, which would admit guests on a first-come, first-serve basis.

But the nearly 20,000-person Bank of Oklahoma (BOK) Center was noticeably empty on Saturday, with at least one-third of the venue's seats empty, The New York Times reported. The campaign had constructed a second stage outside of the arena, which Trump and Vice President Mike Pence could have used to directly speak to an overflow of attendees. That idea was dashed when the real number of attendees proved to be much lower than projected.

Mary Jo Laupp, who's been dubbed the "TikTok grandma" and previously volunteered for Pete Buttigieg's presidential campaign, appeared to be one of the first TikTok users to spread the idea. She said she knew the best way to bother Trump would be to have empty seats at his first-rally, which Tulsa's public health head called the "perfect storm of potential over-the-top disease transmission," referencing the possible spread of COVID-19.


In a June 11 TikTok video, Laupp explained that people could book the free tickets for the rally, originally planned for June 19, with no intention of going, because holding the rally in Tulsa, the site of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre, on Juneteenth, was "a slap in the face to the Black community." The campaign later acquiesced to outrage over the Juneteenth rally and postponed it to the following day, Saturday.


"I recommend all of those of us that want to see this 19,000-seat auditorium barely filled or completely empty go reserve tickets now, and leave him standing there alone on the stage," Laupp, 51, said in her original video. Thousands of people on TikTok followed the call, each claiming to have reserved their two free spots at the rally with their cell phone numbers or with Google Voice-created numbers.

TikTok users largely took credit for the underwhelming turnout, claiming they reserved free tickets online in an effort to irk Trump and reduce the crowds following Laupp's video, though the actual effect that the reservations had on real turnout is unclear. Anonymous Trump campaign officials told The New York Times that many of the reservations to the event were trolls, which theoretically would have led to inflated attendance expectations, though the campaign claims they took those into account in their estimates.

Mary Jo Laupp was a lifelong independent voter who voted for Gary Johnson in 2016, until Pete Buttigieg changed her mind.
Mary Jo Laupp poses with Pete Buttigieg in Iowa in November 2019. Courtesy of Mary Jo Laupp
Laupp only registered as a Democrat last year after lifelong independent voter status, during which she "voted all over the place."

"I've never been an official member of a political party," she told Insider. But then, in 2019, she decided to register so that she'd be able to caucus for Buttigieg in Iowa. "That's what pushed me to make that decision," she said. While she has no plans to leave the Democratic party, Laupp did say she has never voted a straight-party ticket, and probably won't in November. In the 2016 election, she said she voted for Gary Johnson.

Since her newly viral moment, Laupp confirmed to Insider that she will be supporting Joe Biden in the 2020 election, and is collaborating with a grassroots organization called Biden's Digital Coalition to support the campaign. (The group is not officially affiliated with Biden's campaign, which has its own digital team.)

While many TikTokers spreading the ticket-claiming prank said they wanted to make the president angry, Laupp said she did this not to harm Trump, but on behalf of her friends in the Black community who dealt with the trauma of the rally being held in Tulsa close to Juneteeth.

"This was always about, for me, the location and the date," she said, adding that Black Wall Street, the site of the 1921 massacre, is close to the BOK Center, where "an entire neighborhood was wiped out because of racism."
When asked for her opinion on Trump, Laupp said, "I think there are times that he says things without thinking carefully first."

"I think he is trying to be president in a way a CEO would run a company," she continued. "America's not a company."

The popularization of the trend has also been largely credited to the K-pop fandom community, which has been a huge source of activism during worldwide racism and police brutality protests sparked by the May 25 killing of George Floyd. Laupp, a musician who has always worked with local high schoolers, has been impressed with the activism of teens, particularly on TikTok during the Black Lives Matter protests.

"It's important for them to see that the older generations are supporting the material because they hear so much about how useless they are, how lazy they are, how entitled they feel. And that's not what I'm seeing out of that [generation] at all," she said.

Read more:
TikTok teens say they tanked Trump's comeback rally in Tulsa by reserving thousands of tickets then not showing up
Protesters join class-action lawsuit against the Los Angeles Police Department alleging they were shot in the head or torso by projectiles


Charles Davis Jun 23, 2020
Protesters march past LAPD officers during a demonstration over the death of George Floyd while in Minneapolis Police custody, in downtown Los Angeles, California, June 6, 2020. - Demonstrations are being held across the US following the death of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, while being arrested in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Kyle Grillot/AFP

A class-action lawsuit accuses Los Angeles police of using excessive force against Black Lives Matter protesters.

An amended complaint filed this week details a number of cases where protesters say they were shot in the face or torso in violation of police training.

LAPD Capt. Gisselle Espinoza told the Los Angeles Times that the department was "fully committed to investigating every allegation of misconduct or excessive force related to the recent protests."

A lawsuit filed against the City of Los Angeles, its chief of police, and the department he leads alleges that peaceful protesters were shot in the head or torso with rubber bullets and other projectiles, causing lasting injury in defiance of the law. Thousands were also detained for hours in conditions conducive to the spread of COVID-19, according to the suit.

Noting that the vast majority of those arrested during recent protests were nonviolent, per the testimony of Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore, the lawsuit — filed on behalf of Black Lives Matter Los Angeles and others alleging harm at the hands of law enforcement — accuses police of "unreasonable and excessive force" that deprived protesters of their right to free speech.

The class-action lawsuit, filed by a number of local civil rights attorneys earlier this month and amended with new details this week, describes a number of cases where nonviolent protesters were shot in the face with "non-lethal" projectiles of the sort that, since 1990, have left hundreds of people with permanent disabilities.

Tina Črnko, who attended a Black Lives Matter protest on May 30, was shot in the head with a rubber bullet soon after Chief Moore addressed the crowd while in riot gear. "She still suffers nerve damage in the area of the impact," the lawsuit states.

Abigail Rodas attended another rally that day to protest the killing of George Floyd. It was while leaving that protest that she was "struck in the face by a projectile and momentarily lost consciousness," the lawsuit states. The object fractured her jaw, requiring surgery and a 48-hour hospital stay; she now has screws in her gums, with rubber bands immobilizing her jaw while she heals, according to the complaint.

Steven Roe was walking backward away from a line of police when one officer "shot him in the stomach with a kinetic impact projectile," the lawsuit states. The resulting injury remains visible over two weeks later.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs believe there are many others like them: over 3,000 people were arrested and, the lawsuit notes, detained for hours in close quarters amid a pandemic. They are asking the court for compensatory damages for those harmed or improperly detained, and for the deletion of all arrest records for those who were engaged in nonviolent protest.

An LAPD spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment. But Capt. Gisselle Espinoza earlier told the Los Angeles Times that the department was "fully committed to investigating every allegation of misconduct or excessive force related to the recent protests."
Meet the artists behind Time magazine and the New Yorker's powerful cover images about police brutality and racism

Natalie Colarossi
Jun 15, 2020,
Titus Kaphar (Left) and Kadir Nelson (Right) both designed magazine covers about police brutality in the US. Getty Images

Time magazine and the New Yorker both commissioned Black artists to create powerful cover images of police brutality and racism.

In Time, artist Titus Kaphar honors victims of racist killings by painting a grieving mother holding a hallowed-out baby, while the red border lists the names of 35 Black Americans who have died at the hands of police or other Americans.

In The New Yorker, artist Kadir Nelson created a piece called "Say Their Names," which includes a painting of George Floyd with the faces of other Black men and women who have been killed.

Both artists have a prominent record of depicting African American history in their work.

Following the death of George Floyd and the massive wave of protests across the US, Time magazine and the New Yorker both commissioned Black artists to create cover images to reflect the issue of police brutality and racism in America.

Both images make a powerful statement at a time when many Americans are grappling with the harrowing reality of systemic racism and violence against Black Americans.

Titus Kaphar and Kadil Nelson are both renowned for their work, and have a prominent history of featuring African American history into their pieces.

Here's a look at their recent pieces, and acclaimed careers.





Titus Kaphar, 'Analogous Colors'

In Time magazine, artist Titus Kaphar created a piece called "Analogous Colors," in which a grieving Black mother holds the silhouette of a child. Kaphar chose to cut the baby out of the canvas to signify the loss of African American mothers whose children have been killed by police or other Americans.

In a poem to accompany the piece, Kaphar writes, "In her expression, I see the Black mothers who are unseen, and rendered helpless in this fury against their babies."

Along the border of the cover, Kaphar lists the names of 35 Black Americans who have been killed in acts of racial violence.

Kaphar was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in 1976. He received an MFA at the Yale School of Art, and has since become a nationally recognized artist whose work has appeared in The Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, among many others.

—TIME (@TIME) December 10, 2014

As a multimedia artist, Kaphar has created paintings, sculptures, and installations that often explore ideas of history and representation. According to his website, "his practice seeks to dislodge history from its status as the 'past' in order to unearth its contemporary relevance."

Kaphar works with a variety of materials and methods with the "aim to reveal something of what has been lost and to investigate the power of a rewritten history."

In some of his previous work, Kaphar has investigated the criminal justice system and its relationship to Black Americans. When a series of protests broke out in Ferguson, Missouri, after the death of Michael Brown in 2014, Kaphar created a painting titled "Yet Another Fight for Remembrance," that was also featured in Time magazine.

Throughout his career, Kaphar has received a number of awards, and has since created a program in New Haven, Connecticut, called NXTHVN to give early-career artists opportunities for mentorship and networking.




Kadir Nelson, 'Say Their Names'

In the New Yorker, artist Kadir Nelson created a memorializing cover image in which the faces of 18 Black Americans who have been killed by racial violence are shown within the outline of George Floyd.

The piece, titled "Say Their Names," includes the faces of Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, Trayvon Martin, and Eric Garner, as well as icons of the civil rights movement.

According the Washington Post, Nelson said the cover was a "memorial to all of the African Americans who were and continue to be victimized by the long shadow cast by racism in America and around the globe."

Nelson, 46, practices art in Los Angles and has become widely recognized for his work.


After receiving a BFA at the Pratt Institute in New York, DreamWorks Pictures commissioned Nelson to create pieces for two separate films, including Steven Spielberg's Oscar-nominated film, "Amistad," about a slave uprising on a ship.

This work led him to create children's books about African American history, including, "Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom and Henry's Freedom Box: A True Story of the Underground Railroad," and, "We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball," which was a New York Times bestseller.

In his work, Nelson often focuses on history and heroes within American culture. His art has been featured on the cover of albums by Michael Jackson and Drake, and he has created imagery for National Geographic, HBO, and Nike, among others.

He also has artworks on permanent display in the US House of Representatives, the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture, to name a few.

See more of Kaphar's and Nelson's work at their websites.


Pedestrians pass by Steve “ESPO” Powers' Black Lives Matter mural in New York's Union Square neighborhood.



Lower Manhattan's boarded-up storefronts are being transformed into powerful murals dedicated to racial justice

SEE REST OF MURAL ART HERE
https://www.insider.com/boarded-up-windows-in-soho-turned-into-black-lives-matter-murals-2020-6



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