Police in Utah have killed more people in the past five years than gang members, drug dealers or child abusers. That's the sobering finding of a Salt Lake Tribune review of nearly 300 homicides over the same period. Only intimate partner violence surpasses police use of force as the most common way that Utah residents kill each other. A number of high-profile incidents this year--Michael Brown's, Eric Garner's and John Crawford's deaths, the death this weekend of a 12-year-old Cleveland boy holding a toy gun, and a slew of cell phone videos capturing police brutality--has catapulted the issue of "police use of force" and public trust into main street conversations. Last month, outgoing attorney general Eric Holder urged the creation of a national commission to examine and modernize police tactics and training.
Few were surprised today when Darren Wilson, a white police officer who gunned down an unarmed black youth in Ferguson, Missouri, was not indicted by the grand jury tasked to judge whether a criminal case could be made against him.
It’s not just cynicism about a racially-charged case, in which the officer’s description of Michael Brown’s death has been contradicted by multiple witnesses. It’s just an empirical reality: Few US police officers are asked to answer allegations of violent misconduct, and in fact, police killings are unevenly monitored by the government.
While there is no clear answer for why so few police misconduct reports lead to criminal charges, the plausible reasons—besides innocence—include the close working relationship between prosecutors and police officers, which could lead to conflicts of interest, and the benefit of the doubt that many citizens give to police officers doing a tough job.
Here’s what we do know about police indictments: The most complete recent study of law-enforcement misconduct comes from the Cato Institute, a libertarian think-tank, which tracked reports of officer misconduct from April 2009 to December 2010. In that time, 2,716 officers were involved in incidents where their use of force was questioned; 426 cases involved a fatality. Here’s how that turned out:
That’s pretty old data, and indeed, journalists who’ve examined the issue since Brown’s killing have found that there is little official monitoring of law enforcement’s use of violence. The FBI consistently undercounts police killings in its national crime statistics database, and even then its data show that as the violent crime rate is falling, and along with it the number of police officers killed in the line of duty, “justifiable” police killings are on the rise.
Several crowd-sourced efforts have been launched in an attempt to make up the information gap, including Fatal Encounters and Killed by Police. As their datasets grow, we should be able to learn more about the patterns of police misconduct. But it shouldn’t be the responsibility of volunteers to track the fatal mistakes of the police.
Tyler Johnson, 31, claims he has brought 13 corpses back to life as part of his work on the Dead Raisers Team, a group of evangelicals who travel around sharing their gift for resurrection and faith healing, and teach others how to make miracles too. Read the rest
Wearing hoodies emblazoned with the phrase "Run for Justice," Hall and Mills, a 29-year-old small business owner, left Atlanta on Nov. 3 and covered about 35 miles a day over a 20-day span. They raised more than $3,400 in donations for their expenses, and hope to raise more to "help with bail and court fees of those wrongfully arrested" during the expected protests.
Tregenna wrote four of the best episodes of Torchwood (Out of Time, Captain Jack Harkness, Meat, Adam), including one which garnered a Hugo nomination (Captain Jack Harkness, which lost to Moffat's Blink). She's also written for a number of other British TV series, and is also an acclaimed playwright.
Doctor Who's been bringing in a lot of new writers in the past couple years, with some excellent results (notably Jamie Matheson and Neil Cross). But as Neil Gaiman recently pointed out, the show hasn't had any female writers since 2008 . Luckily, it looks like Torchwood veteran Catherine Tregenna is writing for season nine.
New worldwide survey results conducted by a Canadian think tank show that most people around the world (60 percent) have heard of Edward Snowden, but just over a third "have taken steps to protect their online privacy and security as a result of his revelations."
The study, which was released Monday by the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), surveyed more than 23,000 people in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Poland, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, Tunisia, Turkey, and the United States. The survey did not break out respondents by nationality.
The figures varied widely: 94 percent of Germans surveyed heard of the National Security Agency whistleblower, while only 76 percent of Americans had. Kenya rounded out the bottom of the list at 14 percent. Globally, this resulted in an average of 60 percent.
There was almost certainly a "boo" or two from the audience, although come to think of it, they might have been saying "Boo-urns." The home kit was very predictable and was a decent look into what would happen if Manchester City had signed an adidas kit deal instead of one with Nike.
In a shocking (read: not at all surprising) turn of events, NYCFC's home kit was light blue and white with navy blue around the front for the inaugural season jock tag and sponsor logos. It also missed a trick by failing to more prominently incorporate the colors on the club's badge where the vibrant orange, a color that is very much a part of New York City, could have been used to break up the monotony of the almost entirely sky blue top.
The newly-unveiled away kit from the club goes a long way to fix the home kit's flaws and is not even the least bit boring. The kit is almost entirely black and that's a very good thing as it's nice departure from the kits that Manchester City are wearing this season. Early reaction on Twitter indicates that the kit is a hit among fans and kitnerds alike with the old fire emoji getting a very solid workout.
The shirt features light blue accents for the sponsor logos and the adidas stripes on the shoulders, as well as having the color appear as thick bands for the shirt's hem and at the base of the sleeves. The collar features a bright orange insert that travels from the neckline down to the middle of the NYCFC crest on the left side of the shirt. The MLS logo that appears on both sleeves takes on a new look with a black body, orange stroke, and City blue for the wordmark and three stars. The back of the shirt features the interlocking NYC emblem from the crest at the base of the neck and the front features the subway tile-inspired inaugural season jock tag in the same color. The shirt also features five diagonal tonal stripes, one for each of New York City's boroughs.
The shorts complete the kit by bringing that black color all the way through and matching the shirt's light blue accents with a thin line running around the side. The kit will be on sale to the public in early 2015 with plenty of time for fans to pick the look up before NYCFC kick off in MLS for the first time.
Ever since this 12th century blade was discovered under a tree in 1975, archeologists have wondered how it got all the way from Sweden to Siberia. A controversial new theory suggests it belonged to none other than Ivan the Terrible — one of history's most notorious figures.
MacLaren became a favorite back in August, taking several meetings. Things cooled over the autumn as the studio widened its search. There was pressure from within to hire a woman for the job as the character has such a strong association with the notion of female empowerment. But at the same time, Hollywood realities were forcing producers and execs to acknowledge that while women directors work in the indie drama spheres or in TV comedy, few have done big-budget, CG-laden tentpoles. In fact, in recent history of comic book movies, no project has been directed by a woman.
MacLaren—whose “muscular” work on The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones reportedly made her the top choice for the job—will work with as-yet-unnamed writers to bring the script together. What do you guys think? Personally, it seems obvious that Diana is in good hands:
I hate to break it to you guys but Michelle MacLaren already directed Wonder Woman. pic.twitter.com/YuPauL8fnk
The police officer who fatally shot an unarmed 18-year-old in Ferguson, Missouri, setting off weeks of ongoing protests, has gotten married.
Records at the St. Louis County Recorder of Deeds office show that 28-year-old Darren Wilson married Barbara Spradling on Oct. 24. A municipal judge performed the ceremony in Overland, Missouri.
Wilson and his first wife divorced in 2013.
T-Mobile will begin giving its customers clearer information about when they're placed on reduced data speeds. Under a new agreement with the Federal Communications Commission, T-Mobile will provide customers with a link to a speed test when they're placed on reduced data speeds so that they can accurately see what kind of service they're getting. The updated policy was announced today and will go into effect within 60 days.
"Consumers need this information to fully understand what they are getting."
The agreement is meant to clarify potential confusion around how T-Mobile has handled network speed tests. On a number of T-Mobile plans, customers will be placed on dramatically reduced data speeds once they run through their allotment on high-speed data. The trouble has been that, since June, running a speed test would not show a customer how fast their current service is — rather, it would show them how fast the network as a whole was. While this practice of exempting speed tests from reduced data may not change, T-Mobile has agreed to direct customers to tests that can accurately measure their reduced speed too.
"The FCC is committed to ensuring that broadband providers are transparent to consumers. I’m grateful T-Mobile has worked with the FCC to ensure that its customers are better informed about the speeds they are experiencing," FCC chairman Tom Wheeler says in a statement. "Consumers need this information to fully understand what they are getting with their broadband service."
The commission has been investigating the speed reduction practices of wireless carriers this year, and it's already resulted in one other major change. Last month, Verizon ended its practice of throttling the speeds of customers on its unlimited data plans.
T-Mobile will take a number of other actions to clarify its reduced speed policies. T-Mobile already sends customers a text message to inform them when they've used up their high-speed data allotment and are being moved onto reduced speeds, and it'll modify the language in those messages to note that some speed tests only show full network speeds. The messages will also better explain what type of speeds customers can expect. T-Mobile will also update its website to better explain its speed test policies and will provide a button on customers' phones that will direct them to an accurate test.
The commission makes the agreement sound like one that was reached on amicable terms, which seems to be the FCC's goal with this ongoing investigation. T-Mobile's policies have always been outlined — they've just been confusing because of the carrier's new speed test policies, and this should at least help to resolve that issue.
Today, employees across the Sony Pictures offices were greeted with the strange picture as they tried to login to their computers. Since this afternoon, computers at the company have been completely unresponsive, showing a glowering CGI skeleton, a series of URL addresses and a threatening message from a hacker group that identifies itself as #GOP. Dozens of Sony Twitter accounts were also commandeered to tweet out similar messages, although Sony seems to have regained control of those accounts. Early reports from Sony employees suggest the studio has yet to regain computer access.
A now-deleted tweet captured by B2C, calling out Sony Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton
The group appears to have obtained a number of sensitive documents from Sony Pictures, many of which are named in a .zip file shared at the posted URLs, and is threatening to release them if Sony pictures does not comply with the group's demands. (The demands themselves are still unclear.) The documents named in the .zip file appear to be primarily financial records and password files, the latter of which would explain how the group was able to commandeer so many Twitter accounts at once. There is already a Reddit thread devoted to piecing through the files. The attackers are threatening to release the full records at 6pm Eastern Time, after which we may know more.
In the meantime, the compromise seems to have brought day-to-day work at the studio to a crashing halt. Employees are reportedly unable to send email, use their computers or even answer phones. As one employee told Deadline, "We are down, completely paralyzed."
“I don’t have autism, I’m not on the spectrum,” the 60-year-old comedian told Billy Bush. “I just was watching this play about it and thought, ‘Why am I relating to this?’ I related to it on some level. That’s all I was saying.”
During his earlier interview with Williams, Seinfeld said he could identify with particular symptoms that are often associated debilitating neurological condition.
In his interview with “Access Hollywood,” Seinfeld didn’t apologize for what he’d said. But, he said: “Comedians mess up all the time, you know, that’s just part of that business.”
A few months ago, Facebook changed its default settings to enable auto-play of video content on the social network's news feed, whether users accessed the site on a desktop browser or through its mobile app. Even though the latter has auto-play enabled by default with an "only on Wi-Fi" asterisk, the change has swept through millions of news feeds, perhaps as a way to ease users into Facebook's video advertising initiative.
Now, users are calling that default video-play toggle into question thanks to a rise in disturbing content distributed via social media. Should an ISIS beheading or similarly disturbing content find its way to someone's Facebook news feed while that user hasn't opted out of the site's video feature—a process possibly more complicated than it needs to be—they're in for a rude awakening.
It's tough to catalog exactly how many gore-filled videos have been successfully circulated via Facebook without the site intervening or taking them down. Publicly, Facebook representatives have argued that such content isn't subject to removal. And as an example of video auto-play gone wrong, Ars readers directed us to a gory video posted to Facebook that had yet to receive any form of takedown in over a week. Its opening moment features the mass execution of children, all shot by a machine gun, and we chose not to watch the entire video (nor link to it) to see how much worse it got.
Visions of Arrakis is an upcoming art show tribute to the amazing characters, creatures, and worlds from Frank Herbert‘s sci-fi masterpiece Dune at Bergeron’s Books in Oakland, California. The show, which will feature original artwork created by over two dozen local artists, is scheduled to open on December 5, 2014 from 7 – 10 PM PST. Interested parties can RSVP for the event online via Facebook.
True Detective season two finally has its female leads. Actors Rachel McAdams and Kelly Reilly are both joining the cast for the show's second outing, alongside Vince Vaughn and Colin Farrell. Friday Night Lights alum Taylor Kitsch will also round out the cast.
The news confirms McAdams' involvement in the new season, which has been rumored for some months. According to the HBO release, she will play Ventura County Sheriff Ani Bezzerides, a detective "whose uncompromising ethics put her at odds with others and the system she serves."
FERGUSON, MO—Ahead of a grand jury’s decision over whether to indict officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown, police in the city of Ferguson have reportedly heavily increased their presence this week...
A statement said that Cosby's Saturday performance at the 1,500-seat theater had been postponed indefinitely.
The Capitol Theatre performance was scheduled the day after Cosby's date at Las Vegas' Treasure Island, which was canceled last week in the wake of the allegations.
His only public comments about the matter came during the recent Stern interview, when he expressed mixed feelings over his routine.
"This is the first time that's happened, and it's very weird," Buress said when Stern asked him how he felt about making headlines. "This was unexpected. I didn't want to do that. If I were going to do that, I would have done it on my own. It wasn't my intention to make this part of a big discussion. It was just something I was doing at that venue right then."
Asked by Stern if he regretted the rant, Buress replied, "I said it, and I gotta stand on it. But it's an interesting situation."
"M.T.A.", often called "The MTA Song", is a 1949 song by Jacqueline Steiner and Bess Lomax Hawes. Known informally as "Charlie on the MTA", the song's lyrics tell an absurd tale of a man named Charlie trapped on Boston's subway system, then known as the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA). The song was originally recorded as a mayoral campaign song for Progressive Party candidate Walter A. O'Brien. A version of the song with the candidate's name changed became a 1959 hit when recorded and released by the Kingston Trio, an American folk singing group.
The song has become so entrenched in Boston lore that the Boston-area transit authority named its electronic card-based fare collection system the "CharlieCard" as a tribute to this song. The transit organization, now called the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), held a dedication ceremony for the card system in 2004 which featured a performance of the song by the Kingston Trio and then-governor Mitt Romney.
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Super Opinionated.
