It's not customary here to comment much on crime or law enforcement issues, but the Sanford Florida killing of a young black man has infuriated me and disturbed me deeply. I had not heard of the "Stand Your Ground" law groundswell and didn't know a lot about ALEC and the NRA's focus on regressing the nation to the days of the Old West or the Old South (or both).
Justice should not depend on whether your daddy is a retired Judge. It should not depend on whether you have friends on the local police force. Police should make arrests when there are suspects in a shooting. Period. And all of us should have enough decency not to resort to lying, in the face of absolutely clear evidence of absence of harm to ourselves.
The Zimmerman clan's defense and defensiveness get more and more absurd and more and more contemptuous every news cycle. Maybe in the days of the Wild West or the Old South, you COULD get away with lying about phone calls being made because there were no such thing as phone call logs. But to try to tell us today, that someone did not make a call, when there are phone logs that prove the call was made, is contemptuous and dishonest. It discredits anything else that the claimant might assert.
Walking while black (or yellow, or red, or gay, or a dog-lover, for that matter!) should not be enough to absolve a murderer of guilt and responsibility.
Arrest George Zimmerman. Repeal "Stand Your Ground" across the country. Defund the NRA and ALEC.
Showing posts with label killing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label killing. Show all posts
Friday, March 30, 2012
Monday, March 26, 2012
Analysis, Accountability, Innovation
County Executive Rushern Baker launched the public side of CountyStat this morning. It is an adaptation of similar "stat" programs (short for "statistics") in other jurisdictions, including the State of Maryland. Although a feature of the website is the analysis and charts of County agency performance data, maybe the most welcome news is that CountyStat does provide more actual data than has probably ever been freely accessible by members of the public or the media. In addition, the CountyStat model includes an open process, in which meetings between County leadership and agency personnel are open to the public, and documents transmitted as part of analyzing effectiveness are shared openly.
The idea is to keep an eye on what the County is doing right, and acknowledge it, but also to keep close tabs on what needs improvement, and to engage in friendly "borrowing" from other jurisdictions if their approaches show more success for the community.
Of particular interest to us at George of Denmark, is that the DER Animal Management Division is, for the first time, being asked some questions that we think better reflect the concerns that County residents have about hw dogs, cats, and other animals are being treated by County facilities, especially the impound facility. You can check out some of the CountyStat data on this here, in a DER memo responding to various questions, and you can see all of the CountyStat analysis and documents made public to date at the County's webpage here.
I'd be very interested in your impressions as you read the analyses, and I will be posting mine as I review at least some of them. Stay Tuned!
The idea is to keep an eye on what the County is doing right, and acknowledge it, but also to keep close tabs on what needs improvement, and to engage in friendly "borrowing" from other jurisdictions if their approaches show more success for the community.
Of particular interest to us at George of Denmark, is that the DER Animal Management Division is, for the first time, being asked some questions that we think better reflect the concerns that County residents have about hw dogs, cats, and other animals are being treated by County facilities, especially the impound facility. You can check out some of the CountyStat data on this here, in a DER memo responding to various questions, and you can see all of the CountyStat analysis and documents made public to date at the County's webpage here.
I'd be very interested in your impressions as you read the analyses, and I will be posting mine as I review at least some of them. Stay Tuned!
Monday, July 11, 2011
Today in the "animal sheltering industry" is just like .... the 1990s.
Over at Cruel, Crazy, Beautiful World, Valerie recounts the long-ago and the not long-ago enough stories of shelter "leaders" who decided to add to the cruelty of their everyday by publicly doing what they do best - using a syringe of Fatal Plus to destroy a life.
I once heard it said that "when the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail." I think that's what is going on in the animal "sheltering" field. It's NOT that there are never hard choices to make, never days when the job makes you work hard. It's the double-standard. Shelter "leaders" like Sturla and now, Herring and Vesco-Mock want ordinary people like accountants, computer techs, and sanitation workers to treat pets like fine china. In the meantime, these people who proudly describe themselves as in the "sheltering industry" set the bar SO low for their own work, that all they have to do is shave a spot, and inject, over and over.
Look at most ANY rescue organization, the places where there's a lot more passion and inspiration than money or resources. It's in tiny rescue groups, or in individual rescuers' hands, that animals get the best chance at second chances.
Impound industry leaders, there's nothing to be proud of about what you're doing.
I once heard it said that "when the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail." I think that's what is going on in the animal "sheltering" field. It's NOT that there are never hard choices to make, never days when the job makes you work hard. It's the double-standard. Shelter "leaders" like Sturla and now, Herring and Vesco-Mock want ordinary people like accountants, computer techs, and sanitation workers to treat pets like fine china. In the meantime, these people who proudly describe themselves as in the "sheltering industry" set the bar SO low for their own work, that all they have to do is shave a spot, and inject, over and over.
Look at most ANY rescue organization, the places where there's a lot more passion and inspiration than money or resources. It's in tiny rescue groups, or in individual rescuers' hands, that animals get the best chance at second chances.
Impound industry leaders, there's nothing to be proud of about what you're doing.
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