RSN: Sanders Draws a Record Crowd in Brooklyn. A Sign of What's to Come?, The Sheriff Who Wants the Public to See How Brutal His Jail Guards Can Be, You Have to Drive an Hour for a Rape Kit in Rural America

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Erica Garner | I Feel a Political Revolution Coming 
 
Erica Garner, Reader Supported News 
Garner writes: "When it comes to lifelong proof that one's words matches his intentions, it's evident that Bernie Sanders is the best choice to serve as the next president of the United States - especially for African Americans." 
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Sanders Draws a Record Crowd in Brooklyn. A Sign of What's to Come? 
Story Hinckley, Yahoo News 
Hinckley writes: "Ahead of Tuesday's New York primary, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I) of Vermont held a rally in Brooklyn's Prospect Park for 28,300 supporters, which campaign leaders say is the candidate's largest rally yet." 
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The Supreme Court Is All Tied Up 
Dahlia Lithwick, Slate 
Lithwick writes: "A bitter, partisan 4-4 ruling is on the cards over immigration, showing just how broken the system is." 
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Democracy Awakening: Mass Civil Disobedience Planned on Capitol Hill to Cap Week of 900+ Arrests 
Amy Goodman, Democracy Now! 
Excerpt: "More than 900 people have been arrested over the past week on Capitol Hill in a series of unprecedented protests against the influence of big money and corporate lobbying in politics. More civil disobedience is scheduled for today." 
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The Sheriff Who Wants the Public to See How Brutal His Jail Guards Can Be 
Conor Friedersdorf, The Atlantic 
Friedersdorf writes: "After years of inmate abuse, a Cook County, Illinois, lawman is trying to flood the facilities he runs with sunlight." 
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Cook County sheriff Tom Dart. (photo: Chicago Tribune)

After years of inmate abuse, a Cook County, Illinois, lawman is trying to flood the facilities he runs with sunlight.

risoners are brutalized by correctional officers with scandalous frequency. A recent abuse scandal in Los Angeles County ultimately sent former Sheriff  Lee Baca to jail. In Texas, “the state prison system’s inspector general has referred nearly 400 cases of staff sex crimes against inmates to prosecutors. An analysis by The Marshall Project found that prosecutors refused to pursue almost half of those cases.” In Maricopa County, Arizona, Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s list of misdeeds is too long to summarize in a sentence. In New York, the union for prison guards has helped dozens of abusive members to keep their jobs. Last year,human rights groups “called for a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into Florida state prisons, contending that ‘immediate intervention’ is necessary to stop the widespread abuse, neglect, torture and deaths of inmates in the Florida Department of Corrections.”

And in Cook County, Illinois? There is brutal inmate abuse there, too. But Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart is making efforts as aggressive as any I’ve seen to confront and improve on the status quo. In recent years, he installed 2,400 fixed-position video cameras and purchased handheld cameras and body cameras for guards.

Then, last week, he took a very unusual step: “He decided to release videos in cases where a civilian oversight board has sustained allegations of excessive force without waiting for Freedom of Information Act requests,” the Washington Post reports.

He declared, “The public has a right to know when officers abuse the public trust.” If you follow police reform efforts you’ve probably guessed who opposes his approach:

The local union called the videos' release “nothing but a political move.”

“Posting these videos on public websites is not only a violation of privacy of our officers, but it’s infringing on their right to a fair trial. The 'transparency' of these videos only goes one way,” Teamsters Local 700 said in a statement. “It’s not a true outlook of what happens at the jail on a daily basis, which are only small clips of the entire alleged incidents.”

There is a grain of truth to what the correctional officer’s union says. This is a political move. The sheriff wants to fire guards who abuse inmates. The union fights to save the jobs of guards who abuse inmates. And insofar as it can wage the fight behind closed doors, it can more easily prevail. But the political calculation changes if the public is permitted to see the behavior in question. Suddenly it’s a lot harder to keep guards on the job after particularly egregious brutality.

The other union objections are weak.

The video is only released after an independent oversight panel sustains allegations of excessive force, and the union is free to file a public-records request and post even more video if it feels a clip was truncated at a misleading moment.

The footage released so far involves 14 officers.

“Five of them were fired, one resigned, and eight were suspended without pay for between 45 and 180 days,” the Chicago Sun-Times reports, citing the sheriff’s office. The incidents happened in 2011 and 2012. And Cara Smith, a Cook County Sheriff Department spokesperson, told the newspaper “the public should expect to see more videos in the coming months, as cases come before the merit board.”

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/36400-the-sheriff-who-wants-the-public-to-see-how-brutal-his-jail-guards-can-be

You Have to Drive an Hour for a Rape Kit in Rural America 
Danielle Paquette, The Washington Post 
Paquette writes: "A new report from the Government Accountability Office reveals another weakness in America's treatment of rape victims - one that starts at the hospital: There's a serious shortage of medical examiners who collect DNA evidence." 
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Yellowstone Bison Granted More Home to Roam 
Laura Zuckerman, Yahoo News 
Zuckerman writes: "The country's largest band of wild bison can roam public lands outside its home at Yellowstone National Park without facing certain slaughter, under an agreement reached by U.S., state and tribal leaders on Wednesday." 
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