AND NOW A WORD FROM EMERSON
Self-trust
is the essence of heroism.
All
I have seen teaches me to trust the creator for all I have not seen.
Truth
is the property of no individual but is the treasure of all men.
Truth
is the summit of being; justice is the applicati0n of it to affairs.
Truth
is beautiful without doubt; but so are lies.
“Begin
by learning to draw and paint like the old masters. After that, you can do as
you like; everyone will respect you.” Salvador
Dalí
WHY THE WORLD NEEDS EDITORS.....................
DON’T WORRY-BE HAPPY
What
playfulness can do for you
By Leon Neyfakh
GLOBE STAFF
THE ADULT HUMAN is a serious
animal: a worker, a thinker, a problem solver. He or she strives for focus and
efficiency, resisting frivolity in the name of being a grown-up and staying on
task.
OK, so maybe that’s not always
true. If it were, there probably wouldn’t be Ping-Pong tables popping up in
America’s trendiest office buildings or karaoke nights in downtown Boston. And
there probably wouldn’t be so many funny dog videos on Facebook or such a
premium placed in social situations on making other people laugh.
The fact is, even the most
responsible adults occasionally indulge in what can only be described as
playfulness: pursuing delight in all its forms, engaging in friendly,
low-stakes competition, and investing precious resources in amusing themselves
and others. While it’s easy enough to say from personal experience that we do
this stuff because it’s fun, scientists who specialize in the psychology of
play have only recently started getting a grip on what it is that makes
otherwise self-possessed, mature adults inclined toward fooling around and
being silly—and what long-term benefits they get out of it.
“Adults are playful—that’s a
fact,” said René Proyer, a psychologist at the University of Zurich who has
written more than a dozen papers on adult playfulness over the past three
years. “[But] psychologists haven’t thought much about this, probably because
it wasn’t deemed worthy enough.”
What Proyer and the other
researchers who have recently moved to fill that gap are discovering is that
playfulness, as a personality trait, is not only complex but consequential.
People who exhibit high levels of playfulness—those who are predisposed to
being spontaneous, outgoing, creative, fun-loving, and lighthearted—appear to
be better at coping with stress, more likely to report leading active
lifestyles, and more likely to succeed academically. According to a group of
researchers at Pennsylvania State University, playfulness makes both men and
women more attractive to the opposite sex.
But wait: Before you run to the
store to buy a yo-yo and a pair of roller skates in hopes of nailing your next
exam or upping your romantic game, you should know that the whole endeavor of
researching playfulness in adults involves a conundrum. As British researchers
Patrick Bateson and Paul Martin argue in their 2013 book, “Play, Playfulness,
Creativity and Innovation,” it’s crucial to distinguish between engaging in
behavior that is technically play—battling it out in an intense game of tennis,
for instance, or wasting time on an addictive iPhone game—and doing it in a way
that is actually playful, which for Bateson and Martin means “cheerful, frisky,
frolicsome, good-natured, joyous, merry, rollicking, spirited, sprightly
[and/or] vivacious.” An important challenge facing researchers in this field is
figuring out how to isolate and define playfulness as an internal state of mind
rather than a mere description of how someone is acting.
“Playfulness is something even
laypeople can recognize when they see it,” said Xiangyou Sharon Shen, a
research consultant with a PhD in leisure studies from Penn State who has
developed a psychological instrument to determine a person’s predisposition
toward playfulness. “But playfulness research is still in its infancy, in that
there’s a lot of confusion and disagreement surrounding what playfulness even is,
and how to measure it.”
The high-playfulness test
subjects actively enjoyed being in the boring room, even though camera footage
showed they didn’t do anything but sit still.
It might seem ironic, even counterproductive,
to try to nail down and analyze something as ineffable as “playfulness” as
though it were a dead insect on a pin. But as researchers learn more about how
it fits into the structure of human personality, it raises the hope that we can
not only define playfulness scientifically, but actually teach ourselves to
incorporate it into our lives, long after we’ve put our toys away.
***
THE SUBJECT OF PLAY has attracted
the interest of some of history’s great minds, including Charles Darwin, who
was curious about the mechanics of tickling, and Sigmund Freud, who wrote about
the role of play in emotional development. With few exceptions, however,
psychologists interested in play have focused on children rather than adults.
Over the years, a wealth of research has suggested that child’s play is an important
part of growing up—that, among other things, it helps kids “practice” for the
real world by prompting them to solve problems and deal with emotions they
might encounter later in life.
Playfulness in adults did not
become a significant area of research until recently—perhaps because play tends
to become less central as people get older. “I think it just didn’t seem as
respectable as other things, which is too bad,” said Scott Eberle, the editor
of the American Journal of Play. “The grave and the serious seem more important
than the way we find levity in our lives.”
One of the first researchers to
break with this tradition was Mary Ann Glynn, now a professor at Boston
College, who, along with her coauthor Jane Webster, published a paper in the
early 1990s that described adult playfulness as “a predisposition to define and
engage in activities in a nonserious or fanciful manner to increase enjoyment.”
Based on a series of lab experiments and surveys, Glynn and Webster concluded
that playfulness in adults was linked to “innovative attitudes” and “intrinsic
motivational orientation,” meaning playful people were more likely to do things
without regard for their practical purpose. The researchers also found that
when study participants were asked to compose sentences using a specific set of
words and told to treat the task as work, they exhibited less creativity and
figurative thinking than people who were primed to approach the exact same task
as play.
Glynn didn’t end up staying in
the adult playfulness lane for long; she now studies innovation in large
organizations. But in the past decade or so, a crop of researchers, including
Proyer and Shen, have begun chipping away at the subject again with new rigor.
There are now four separate psychological “scales” designed to measure people’s
inclination toward playful thinking and behavior. Multiple conferences have
been held to discuss the value of play in the past several years. There is even
a 10-hour documentary TV series being developed called “Now Playing,” about
“the vital importance of play to our happiness, well-being, and the future of
life.”
According to Proyer, part of the
reason for the recent boomlet in adult-playfulness research is the concurrent
rise of positive psychology and its premise that it’s just as useful to
understand happiness and well-being as sadness and dysfunction. The research on
adult playfulness is still in its early stages, Proyer said. “Honestly
speaking, psychology is way behind reality here,” he said. “Because if you look
at the entertainment industry—if you look at some of the computer games that
they sell...they are directed at adults. You have amusement parks where you
have some of these rides that children aren’t even allowed to go on.”
One of the most interesting
findings Proyer has generated so far is that playful people perform better
academically—a discovery he made after conducting a study on his own students
over the course of a semester. “The more playful the students were, the better
the grades were,” he said. (He pointed out that the course in question was
extremely challenging and technical, not one where being particularly playful
would confer an obvious advantage the way it would in, say, clown college.)
Another intriguing finding,
reported by University of Illinois associate professor and playfulness expert
Lynn A. Barnett, is that playful people are less likely to encounter stress in
their lives, and that when they do, they’re better at coping with it. “People
who are playful don’t run away from stress, they deal with it—they don’t do
avoidance,” Barnett said.
In a separate study, Barnett
found that people who scored high on her playfulness test were much better at
entertaining themselves when forced to sit in an empty, boring room than people
who didn’t. “The low-playfulness people hated it. They couldn’t wait to get out
of there,” said Barnett. The high-playfulness test subjects, on the other hand,
actively enjoyed being in the boring room, even though surveillance camera
footage showed that they didn’t do anything but sit still while they were in
there. “They were just in their heads—they entertained themselves.,” she said.
Another study, coauthored by Penn
State professor Garry Chick, found that when asked about qualities they looked
for in potential romantic partners, participants said they preferred playful
people. Chick theorizes that this has evolutionary roots: Playfulness makes men
seem less threatening to women, and women seem younger to men—and thus more
fertile. A separate study conducted at Penn State, this one focused on the
elderly, showed that playfulness in later life is associated with better
cognitive and emotional functioning.
In the future, said Proyer, we
can look forward to the results of studies, already underway, about the role
playfulness plays in happy romantic relationships, and the possibility of a
perfect ratio of playful to not-playful people when it comes to groups working
together in a professional capacity.
***
IT’S CLEAR THAT playful people
have a better time. But are you stuck with the level of playfulness that comes
naturally to you, or is it something you can knowingly cultivate? “It’s the 64
million dollar question,” said Barnett, noting that the one relevant study
she’s aware of, in which researchers tried to train children to become better
at pretend-play, ended in failure.
Most researchers in the field
seem optimistic, though. Pat Bateson, for one, says playfulness should be seen
not as a fixed trait but rather as a mood that some people are more likely to
express than others. That being the case, he wrote in an e-mail, he hopes that
“non-playful people can be encouraged to become more playful.”
Even those researchers who do
think of playfulness as a personality trait—a way of being in the world that
persists over time and across situations—suspect it’s a malleable one, which
people can develop in themselves if they want to. To test this hypothesis,
Proyer is working on what he calls a series of “intervention” programs designed
to help people become more playful.
There is an obvious irony hanging
over the entire field, and one its researchers are aware of. The minute you
identify “play” as something that matters because it’s useful, it stops being
play. As Anthony Pellegrini, an education psychologist and author of the 2009
book “The Role of Play in Human Development,” put it, “What play is—and this is
a crucial distinction, especially when you get to adults—is an a orientation
where the means are more important than the ends, where you’re much more
concerned with the process than the result.” For example, a person who goes
swimming during lunch every day to enjoy himself, like Pellegrini does, may be
doing something playful. A swimmer in the next lane over who’s there to lose
weight or train for an important race may not be.
That might make it seem
self-defeating to try to become more playful: If people engage in such behavior
for a pragmatic reason, it might not really be play at all. According to
Barnett, this is what’s tricky about actively making use of the findings that
she and others in her field have generated: “If you’re self-monitoring, that’s
going to get in the way of being playful,” she said. “A lot of playfulness is
spontaneity, unpredictability, just being adventurous. As soon as you employ
your more rational cognitive faculties, I think you’re interfering with it.”
That doesn’t mean that
adults—even the most goal-oriented among us—can’t ever be truly playful in the
way we used to be as children. It just means we need to allow ourselves to
indulge in the pleasures of pointless or sheerly enjoyable activity, whether
that means board games, dancing, pulling pranks, or making other people laugh.
Growing up, in other words, doesn’t have to mean cutting fun and
lightheartedness out of our lives. On the contrary, it may mean realizing that
engaging in such childishness is an excellent use of our time.
Leon Neyfakh is the staff writer
for Ideas. E-mail leon.neyfakh@globe.com.
AND NOW A WORD FROM SHAKESPEARE
AND NOW A WORD FROM SHAKESPEARE
As
soon go kindle fire with snow, as seek to quench the fire of love with words.
Visit
our Shakespeare Blog at the address below
http://shakespeareinamericanenglish.blogspot.com/
Anyone
can practice some nonviolence, even soldiers. Some army generals, for example,
conduct their operations in ways that avoid killing innocent people; this is a
kind of nonviolence. Thích Nhất Hạnh
It’s
often just enough to be with someone. I don’t need to touch them. Not even
talk. A feeling passes between you both. You’re not alone. Marilyn Monroe
Once
the realization is accepted that even between the closest human beings infinite
distances continue, a wonderful living side by side can grow, if they succeed
in loving the distance between them which makes it possible for each to see the
other whole against the sky. Rainer
Maria Rilke
We
must get beyond passions, like a great work of art. In such miraculous harmony.
We should learn to love each other so much to live outside of time… detached. Federico Fellini
Love
never dies a natural death. It dies because we don’t know how to replenish its
source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and
wounds; it dies of weariness, of witherings, of tarnishings. Anaïs Nin
NYCPlaywrights October 3, 2015
10/03/15
Groups, Newsletters
To: NYCPlaywrights
Outlook.com Active View
Associate Lighting Designer
Associate Lighting Designer Caroline Chao takes care of all
the details for a lighting designer, including handling the production
schedule, helping to draft the lighting plot, and keeping track of…
00:06:47
Added on 10/28/13
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Greetings NYCPlaywrights
*** FREE THEATER IN NYC ***
The Fools & Kings Project
JULIUS CAESAR
Athens Square Park Astoria Queens
Summit Rock, Central Park West Manhattan
"Julius Caesar" runs through Sunday, October
11th.
Below are all of the dates and locations for the performances.
Saturday, October 3rd @ 4:30pm at Summit Rock
Sunday, October 4th @ 4:30pm at Summit Rock
Saturday, October 10th @ 4:30pm at Athens Square Park
Sunday, October 11th @ 4:30pm at Athens Square Park
The Fools & Kings Project aims to produce Shakespeare's
plays with a focus on character development. By delving thoroughly into the
text, we use the language as a map to create engaging & timeless concepts
with simple - but compelling - design.
We are proud to be presenting our third show of this season, an
all-female "Julius Caesar".
Directed by Kristen Penner, Fight Direction by Jason Paul Tate, and
Stage Management by Liza Penney.
The show boasts an ensemble cast of just 10 actors in a
fast-paced, raw, 90 minute adaptation of the script. Featuring Nikita Chaudhry,
Katya Collazo, Kisky Holwerda, Lorelei Mackenzie, Melissa Meli, Shannon Paul,
Zoey J. Rutherford, Callan Suozzi-Rearic, Courtney A. Vinson, and Vanessa
Wendt.
All performances run approx. 90 minutes without intermission
and are free to the public.
Athens Square Park is located at 30th Ave & 30th St in
Astoria - just one block away from the 30th Ave stop on the N/Q train.
Summit Rock is located just inside the 81st St & Central
Park West entrance to Central Park.
More information
http://thefoolsandkingsproj.wix.com/fools-and-kings
Promotional art:
http://static.wixstatic.com/media/841167_1423a16dc9444988a9cf3df3fd40418c.jpg
*** SUBMISSIONS WANTED ***
Venus/Adonis Theater Festival 2016 ~ Our Eighth Festival
Season
Acknowledgement in the form of excellent prizes: $2,500 for
Best Play and $500 each for Best Actress, Actor and Director, as well as $300
for Best Musical and $200 for Best Original Play. This is more than any other
U.S. festival that we know of.
There is no question why
Venus/Adonis has taken the world of playwriting festivals by storm, becoming
the second largest festival in the country in just 4 years.
It's because
playwrights enjoy staging their plays with us!
We are a
group of playwrights who, after years of staging our plays in NYC festivals,
said: "Why don't we create a festival that includes everything we dreamt
of having while being part of others? "
The
result is beyond our wildest expectations. In just a few years, Venus/Adonis
has caught fire as the number of submissions we receive continues to grow every
year.
Is this sheer luck or an acknowledgment of what we
offer?
Let's find out at:
http://venusnytheaterfestival.com/
*** PLAYWRIGHTS OPPORTUNITIES ***
Women's Project Theater Lab Application
WP Theater is looking for 15 female-identified playwrights,
directors, and producers who crave an artistic home, professional support, and
the resources to launch them into the next phase of their careers to join the
2016-2018 WP Lab.
Lab provides up to fifteen artists with community, a vital
professional network, entrepreneurial and leadership training, free rehearsal
space and, most significantly, tangible opportunities for the development and
production of bold new work for the stage.
***
Greenbrier Valley Theatre (GVT) is pleased to announce that we
are now accepting submissions for our 2016 New Voices Play Festival! This
festival is an opportunity for up¬ and¬ coming or accomplished playwrights to
submit their work which, upon selection, will be produced on the mainstage at
GVT, the State Professional Theatre of West Virginia. The performance of these
plays is an invaluable tool for playwrights to workshop what’s working in the
play and what may need revision. The New Voices Play Festival has become a
popular event among our patrons who are eager to enjoy these new works.
● Plays must be 5¬ to 10 ¬minute one ¬act plays.
● Playwrights may submit up to two works for consideration.
● Plays must be unpublished and must not have had a full
professional production.
● The subject matter of submitted plays is open; however,
excessively strong language is discouraged.
***
Premiere Stages is committed to supporting emerging and
regional playwrights by developing and producing new plays. Through our Play
Festival script competition, Premiere Stages offers developmental opportunities
to four playwrights. We provide playwrights with an encouraging and focused
environment in which they can develop their work through discussions,
rehearsals, sit-down readings, staged readings, and full Equity productions.
Premiere Stages will accept submissions of unproduced new
plays from playwrights born or currently residing in the greater metropolitan
area (New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania). There is no fee to
enter. All plays submitted to the festival are evaluated by a professional
panel of theatre producers, dramaturgs, playwrights, scholars and publishers. e
presented in one evening, so plays that have minimal tech and set requirements
are preferred.
*** FOR MORE INFORMATION on these and other opportunities see
the web site athttp://www.nycplaywrights.org ***
*** STAGE LIGHTING ***
Stage lighting is the craft of lighting as it applies to the
production of theatre, dance, opera and other performance arts.[1] Several
different types of stage lighting instruments are used in this discipline.[2]
In addition to basic lighting, modern stage lighting can also include special
effects, such as lasers and fog machines. People who work on stage lighting are
commonly referred to as lighting technicians.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stage_lighting
***
American Association of Community Theater
The Lighting Designer’s Job
At its most basic, stage lighting functions to make the actors
and their environs visible to the audience. But it can also be used to:
• Evoke the
appropriate mood
• Indicate time
of day and location
• Shift
emphasis from one stage area to another
• Reinforce the
style of the production
• Make objects
on stage appear flat or three dimensional
• Blend the
visual elements on stage into a unified whole
The Designer's work
The lighting designer begins by reading the script to be
produced noting the type of light it calls for in each scene. Designer and
director share their ideas about how light could be used to enhance the
production concept at their first meeting. Early meetings with the set designer
are also important because the set and lighting designers must collaborate on
how to achieve the desired "look" for the play. The plan for the set
may influence the placement and direction of the necessary lighting
instruments, so flagging any potential problems in this area as early as
possible makes sense.
Lighting designers attend rehearsals to get a feel for the
lighting cues and to plan how to light the actors as they move from place to
place on stage. When the blocking is set, the lighting designer can start to
work out which lighting instruments will be used and where each one will be
located.
More…
http://www.aact.org/lighting-designer
***
How to Work with a Lighting Designer
by Jeffrey E. Salzberg
Many people think the lighting design is created in the
technical rehearsal. This is not so. Others see the myriad pieces of arcane
drawings and paperwork which surround the professional designer and think that
they constitute the design. Again, not so. The lighting design is created in
the designer's head over the course of several weeks before the production
loads into the theater. The technical rehearsal is when the design is realized.
The various pieces of paper serve as road maps to further us on our journey.
This is why designers find it frustrating when choreographers turn to us during
technical rehearsals and say things such as, "Oh, I wanted this section to
be blue." The subtext of that (which the choreographer may not even
realize but which the lighting designer most certainly does) is, "The time
you've already spent working on this dance means nothing to me." The
choreographer certainly has the right to have that particular section be blue,
but it would have been more respectful of the designer's time -- and art -- for
that information to have been shared earlier.
How much time have I already spent on the dance by that point?
I've watched it, either live or on video at least three times -- usually 5-6
times. I've analyzed the movement in terms of focus, mood, and tempo. I've
spent an hour or more (depending on the length, complexity, and overall nature
of the dance) transcribing notes and writing cues. I've spent a total of 4-8
hours drafting the light plot and preparing the associated paperwork. The
stagehands have spent 4-8 hours (sometimes much, much more) hanging the show
and I've spent several hours working with them to focus each fixture
When I begin working on a dance, I first watch it one or two
times to get the general "feel" of it. I rarely take any notes at
this point; the idea is to get an overview of the work. After this, now that I
have a frame of reference, I like to talk to the choreographer and get her or
his ideas (more on this later). I then begin to take detailed notes on movement
and music, watching the dance two or three more times.
In most cases, by this point I have not yet written a single
light cue. I then watch the dance several more times, first taking general
lighting notes and progressively getting more detailed. At this point, I have
several pages of notes, none of which are in any form that a stage electrician
could use to realize the design in the theater; in other words, I have a
lighting design, but not in a usable format. After I've watched and made my
decisions for each dance on the program, I must draft the light plot (the
drawing which tells the stagehands which lights go where) and prepare the
various documents which contain explanatory detail.
More…
http://www.jeffsalzberg.com/materials-how-to-work-with-a-lighting-designer.php
***
CADD Drawings of NYC Area Theaters by Jeffrey E. Salzburg
These drawings are provided as a free service to the
theatrical community. No guarantee of accuracy is either stated or implied. If
you wish to contribute drawings to this library, many blessings will rain down
upon your head. Please send as a DXF or DWG file to: jeff@jeffsalzberg.com. All
contributions will receive appropriate on-screen credit.
http://www.jeffsalzberg.com/materials-cadd-drawings.php
***
Stage Lighting for Students
Jeffrey E. Salzburg with Judy Kupferman
It is important to remember that, although stage lighting may
rely more heavily on technology than do most genres, it is no less an art than
are singing, acting, and dancing. The lighting designer — like the
choreographer, director, and actor — is an artist.
There is a tendency to become bogged down in the technology —
to concentrate on that aspect rather than on the art. This is the equivalent of
an architect's fixating on the wood and brick rather than on the overall
appearance of the building.
Any designer who doesn't admit that her/his designs have on
occasion been saved by good technicians is probably either very new to
professional theatre, or lying. Being a technician is an honorable and
admirable vocation, but there's a difference between designers and technicians.
The technician is in no way "below" the designer; the two positions
are equal in importance, but they are not the same. One person may well be
both, but not necessarily so.
You should always remember that the designer is primarily an
artist, and you should be kind enough to help your colleagues who are actors,
dancers, musicians, and directors to remember it, also.
http://www.stagelightingprimer.com/index.html?slfs-right-frame.html
***
A LIFE IN THE THEATRE: Lighting Designer Kenneth Posner Talks
About 30 Years in the Business
Kenneth Posner, the prolific lighting designer who received
three Tony nominations for the 2012-13 season, talks about 30 years in the
industry.
"I discovered theatre at a young age, as a mechanism,
frankly, to escape," Posner said. He was seven years old. His parents, who
were immersing him in theatre, had just divorced. His mother created costumes
for community stage groups in Westchester County, New York, where he grew up.
"She brought me and my brother along to the warmth and
safety of these companies. I became involved in this world of storytelling, of
creativity and expression. I never chose to leave it. I developed a passion for
theatre, for telling stories in a proscenium arch."
More…
http://www.playbill.com/news/article/a-life-in-the-theatre-lighting-designer-kenneth-posner-talks-about-30-years-207497
***
Lighting Designer Time Line: 1877 -
1877- Brigham introduces Gel (color media) to the theatre
world
1878- Joseph Swan "invents" the incandescent lamp
1879- Thomas Edison "invents" the incandescent lamp
1880's
1881- London's Savoy Theatre installs the first theatrical
electrical lighting system
—————
1890's
1899- Appia's Music and Staging is published
—————
1900's
1900- Lamp dip is introduced to color the bulbs used in the
border and foot lights
1903- Kliegl Brothers installs a 96 dimmer stage lighting
system at the Metropolitan Opera House
1904- Louis Hartmann uses a "baby len" in Belasco's
The Music Teacher
1908- Maude Adams installs a 2' deep by 32' wide light bridge
in Charles Frohman's Empire Theatre.
1908- RoscoGel is introduced
—————
1910's
1915-Robert Edmond Jones designs The Man Who Married a Dumb
Wife
1916- Norman Bel Geddes builds a 1000 watt Spotlight from a
carbon arc lens box.
1916- Bel Geddes lights the Little Theatre of Los Angles
entirely with 1000 watt Spotlights.
1918- Jones and Bel Geddes work together at the Pabst Theatre
in Milwaukee
More…
http://www3.northern.edu/wild/LiteDes/ldhist.htm#timeline
***
American Theatre Wing
Associate Lighting Designer
Associate Lighting Designer Caroline Chao takes care of all
the details for a lighting designer, including handling the production
schedule, helping to draft the lighting plot, and keeping track of notes,
follow spots, and the cue list. She takes us through her role in the production
process, and points out the advantages of being a lighting associate and assistant.
Chao has worked on multiple shows at once with lighting designer Don Holder,
and is seen here teching Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2RKUHmCL6w&list=PL1Z7hhTht6qG0ZbMLI5kvYs1PWHm1n-Xi
***
Meet a Lighting Designer
Lucy Birkinshaw has completed a Bachelor of Arts (Curtin
University) and an Advanced Diploma in Lighting Design (WAAPA). She has worked
extensively in the industry as a Lighting Designer, Head Electrician, Lighting
Programmer and Production Manager. Lucy is a founding partner of Filament
Design Group, a creative and technical project management team producing
theatrical, concert and corporate events.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1AB07JtQnY&index=3&list=PL1Z7hhTht6qG0ZbMLI5kvYs1PWHm1n-Xi
***
MIT Open Courseware
Lighting Design for the Theatre
This class explores the artistry of Lighting Design. Students
gain an overall technical working knowledge of the tools of the trade, and
learn how, and where to apply them to a final design. However essential
technical expertise is, the class stresses the artistic, conceptual,
collaborative side of the craft. The class format is a "hands on"
approach, with a good portion of class time spent in a theatre.
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/music-and-theater-arts/21m-734-lighting-design-for-the-theatre-fall-2003/
--
GOOD WORDS
TO HAVE………………..
Extradite: to send
(one who has been accused of a crime) to another state or country for trial. Some
countries have a tradition of extradition—a fact which might concern criminals.
Likely of significantly less concern to most criminals is the fact that
extradition and tradition are related; both come from the Latin verb tradere,
which means "to hand over." (Think of a tradition as something handed
over from one generation to the next.) Some other words that have been handed
down from tradere include betray, traitor, and treason.
DON'T YOU JUST YOU LOVE POP
ART?
Reconstruction by Eugenia Loli
THE ART OF PULP
REFORMING OUR POLICE BECAUSE
THEY HAVE BECOME A LEADING NATIONAL SOCIAL PROBLEM
Alternatives
to Bullets
From liquids that smell like
dead animals to high-temperature heat rays, the present and future of
non-lethal weapons.
By ELI HAGER
In the wake of recent
high-profile police shootings, manufacturers of non-lethal weapons have seized
on the opportunity to sell devices they say might have saved the lives of
Michael Brown, Walter Scott, Tamir Rice, and many others. Companies with names
like Micron Products, Alternative Ballistics, and Bruzer Less Lethal
International are now a part of the decades-old field of less-lethal weapons —
also called “compliance” or “pacification” devices — offering everything from
bullets that don’t penetrate to devices that slow bullets down.
“I just looked out there and
there wasn’t anything that really would have been practical and useful in a
tense one-on-one situation like in Ferguson,” says Christian Ellis, the CEO of
Alternative Ballistics, which tried to sell one such device to the Ferguson
police department. “That’s why we got into this business.”
Police officers, for their
part, already have less-lethal tools on their belts — nightsticks, pepper
spray, and TASERs — and some feel that the additional options are not much more
useful despite their variety and complexity. “It’s like comparing phone plans,”
says Sid Heal, former commander in the L.A.P.D. and an expert on less-lethal
force.
Whatever the future holds for
these alternatives, police departments already have, in recent years, added a
few gentler tools to their arsenals. Below, an inventory of some of those
tools, as well as a look at what might flood the market soon.
Bean Bags
A sock-shaped pouch filled with
lead, silicone, or rubber balls, fired from a shotgun. The pouch expands in the
air for wider impact.
Approximate cost: $4.50 to
$6.50 per round.
When it’s most useful: Anytime
a person is "noncompliant" but far away and "not yet a direct
threat," says Steve Ijames, the police chief in Republic, Mo. and an expert
on less-lethal force.
Effect on target: Pain, muscle
spasms, and temporary immobility, but no penetration of the skin.
Why it’s appealing: It’s
inexpensive.
Potential downsides: Unless a
shotgun containing bean bags is adequately marked in a different color (usually
orange), it can easily be confused with a shotgun loaded with real shells,
which police call "cross-contamination" and has repeatedly
causeddeaths, according to the National Institute of Justice. Even if the
correct gun is used, there is a risk of serious or deadly injury if the bean
bag is fired at the head — and it’s difficult to avoid hitting the head, face,
throat, or center of the chest "when a person is twisting or running
around," says Heal.
Where it’s used: Different
versions of bean bags have existed for over three decades, and are perhaps the
most widely-used non-lethal weapon outside of the TASER, pepper spray, and
nightstick. As the technology has evolved (from a flatter, squarer bag that was
inaccurate as a projectile and sometimes failed to expand properly mid-air), it
has become significantly less dangerous.
Blunt-Impact Projectiles
Plastic bullets (37 mm or 40
mm) capped with gel, silicone, or foam, fired from a single-shot gas launcher
or giant revolver. The bullets are designed to flatten upon impact. They can
also be filled with pepper spray or liquids that smell like fecal matter,
rotten eggs, or dead animals, to further repel the suspect.
Approximate cost: $350 to $1200
for the gun, $25 per round.
When it’s most useful: Subduing
a potentially violent suspect from a distance, and when the officer has time to
get a large, specialized weapon out of the trunk.
Effect on target: Severe, blunt
pain.
Why it’s appealing: The
projectiles have a soft, wide surface of impact and should not be able to
pierce through skin or injure internal organs.
Potential downsides: Very
expensive and only useful at long range; also liable to cause serious or deadly
injury if fired at the head, neck, or chest.
Where it’s used: The newest
version has already been purchased by at least 16 law-enforcement agencies,
including the SWAT teams in L.A. County and Sacramento.
Pepperballs
Small (.68-inch), round,
plastic balls filled with synthetic capsaicin powder, the active ingredient in
chili peppers. A paintball-style gun rapidly fires the balls, which explode
after hitting any surface, releasing the powder.
Approximate cost: $150 to $300
for a paintball gun or $250 to $500 for a brand-name PepperBall gun; $3 to $5
per round.
When it’s most useful: Indoors
(including in jails and other correctional situations), when the officer can
aim at walls and ceilings to release the pepper powder.
Effect on target: Puffy,
watery, stinging eyes; runny nose; difficulty breathing; and coughing.
Why it’s appealing: One of the
few alternatives that doesn't need to make direct contact with the target —
police can shoot it anywhere nearby, and the effect of the capsaicin powder
will be the same. However, cops’ training and instincts often cause them to aim
for "center mass," says Heal. According to Ijames, the pepperballs
"beg a shot to the upper body, because the officer wants to make sure the
suspect gets the worst of the pepper."
Potential downsides: The round
shape of a pepperball is relatively unstable as it flies through the air, and
because of "trajectory degradation," it is not nearly as accurate as
a sleek, pointed bullet.
Where it’s used: Most famously
used in 1999 during the “Battle of Seattle” anti-WTO riots. In 2004, the Boston
Police Department accidentally killed a 21-year-old college student who was
celebrating the Red Sox's World Series victory — by firing a pepperball at her
eye.
“The Alternative”
An orange metal attachment that
an officer can quickly clip onto the barrel of his handgun before firing a
shot. The clip-on “catches” the bullet — like an airbag — making it fly about
one-fifth as fast.
Approximate cost: $45 per unit.
When it’s most useful: Anytime
an officer needs to fire his regular service weapon but does not want the shot
to be deadly, and has time to attach this device.
Effect on target: Instead of
penetrating and potentially killing the suspect, the slowed-down bullet only
knocks him down. “But it might break ribs and it feels like getting hit in the
chest with a hammer,” says Ellis, the CEO of the company that manufactures the
product.
Why it’s appealing: The
Alternative is a compact device that is relatively easy to incorporate into
everyday use. The officer can take the clip-on from his belt and attach it to
his handgun.
Potential downsides: According
to Heal, one “weapons platform” should deliver only one type of force — either
lethal or non-lethal. Combining the two on the same gun, he says, is inherently
dangerous: What if the officer instinctively “double-taps” (pulls the trigger
twice), as most police are trained to do? The result would be the firing of a
lethal round right after the non-lethal one has already been discharged.
Where it’s used: A month after
the shooting of Michael Brown, the assistant chief of Ferguson's police
department took to Google, searching for a less-lethal option for cops. He came
up with The Alternative, but after a group of experts sent a letter saying how
dangerous they believed the device was, Ferguson has stopped considering it.
“The XREP”
Manufactured until 2012 by
TASER International, the XREP is essentially a long-range, wireless version of
the traditional TASER, firing plastic shells that each contain sharpened
electrodes, a battery, a transmitter, and a microprocessor. When a shell hits
the suspect, the electrodes are released and pierce through clothes and skin,
releasing up to 50,000 volts of electricity for 20 seconds.
Approximate cost: Over $1,000
for the launcher, $100 per round.
When it’s most useful: For
incapacitating people from a distance.
Effect on target: Muscles
contract uncontrollably, causing the person to freeze and fall to the ground.
And if the person attempts to pull out the electrodes, a circuit is created,
spreading the effect.
Why it’s appealing: Like a
TASER, the XREP can effectively subdue a person who is suicidal or under the
influence of drugs, or otherwise has a high threshold for pain. And unlike a
TASER, the XREP can be fired from a distance.
Potential downsides: The XREP’s
high cost is its main downside. But, like TASER products, it could be
dangerous: According to a 2013 report by Amnesty International, the TASER has
caused more than 500 deaths in the United States since 2001.
Where it’s been used: TASER
discontinued the XREP back in 2012, because it was expensive and “departments
just weren’t buying it,” says TASER spokesperson Steve Tuttle. But several
police departments around the country still have the XREP, and few use it
occasionally. It was used in March by cops in Albuquerque, N.M., against a
mentally-ill person.
“ML-12” Less-Lethal Launcher
A two-shot pistol that shoots
most types of less-lethal ammunition (bean bags, pepper rounds, rubber balls,
flares, etc.).
When it’s most useful: Close or
hand-to-hand confrontations, at traffic stops, in small rooms.
Approximate cost: $549 for the
launcher and holster, $4 to $7 per round.
Effect on target: Depends on
the type of round.
Why it’s appealing: This is a
weapon that the officer can wear on his/her belt and have on hand in any
situation.
Potential downsides: It only
fires two shots, and two-thirds of use-of-force encounters require an officer
to fire more than twice, according to the National Institute of Justice.
Where it’s used: Tommy Teach,
the founder of Bruzer Less Lethal International, the company that markets the
ML-12, says it has been purchased by over a hundred "small, rural police
departments — who prefer it to the TASER because of its lower cost."
“Active Denial System”
Designed by the military, the
ADS, also known as the “pain ray,” is shaped like a satellite dish and shoots
an invisible, 95 GHz wave of heat at the suspect — similar to the waves inside
a microwave.
How it would be used: To stop,
deter, and force the retreat of a person who is approaching too aggressively.
Effect on target: Heats the
skin to 130° Fahrenheit in under two seconds, causing excruciating, quickly
unbearable pain.
Why it’s appealing: The ADS has
been thoroughly researched by the Department of Defense, and after 13,000 tests
on human subjects, there have been only two serious injuries and no lasting
side effects, according to the Pentagon.
Potential downsides: The ADS is
very large; the existing model is designed to be mounted on top of a humvee or
military-sized vehicle. Police would need a much smaller version with less
range but greater portability (and one that doesn’t take half a day to boot
up). The ACLU has also called the ADS a torture device.
Status: Available to the
military in Afghanistan for deterring individuals who were getting too close to
U.S. troops, the ADS was considered for use at the Pitchess Detention Center in
Los Angeles County to disrupt assaults and fights. The National Institute of
Justice has long considered developing a smaller, handheld version — to be used
by law enforcement.
Reform asset forfeiture in
criminal justice system
BY THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Citizens Voice.Com
Under the umbrella of fighting
drug crimes, state governments have created a profitable if nefarious business
from seizing the assets of people who are not responsible for the crimes.
Pennsylvania’s law is among the
most draconian. If the government can show that property is even tangentially
connected to a crime, it can seize the material. And the law imposes only a
civil standard based on a preponderance of the evidence, rather than the
criminal standard of evidence beyond a reasonable doubt, to seize cash, cars,
houses and anything else. The burden of proof is on the property owner, rather
than on the government seizing the property.
Pennsylvania averages about $14
million a year in such civil asset forfeitures.
Nationwide, the power is widely
abused by state and federal police agencies. The laws provide an incentive for
that abuse, in that money derived from the asset forfeitures go directly to
those police agencies for whatever purposes they choose.
Some local courts have been
cautious about allowing such seizures. But in those cases local police agencies
often have skirted that obstacle by inviting federal law enforcement agencies
into the investigation, which then enables the government to shop for the least
restrictive venue in which to bring the forfeiture case.
The feds and local police then split the proceeds.
The feds and local police then split the proceeds.
New Mexico, where the practice
had become egregious, is the first state to establish sweeping reforms based on
due process and actual proven criminality of the property owner.
Reform bills based on New
Mexico’s new law were introduced this year in both houses of the state
Legislature, with bipartisan support from libertarian property-rights advocates
and progressive advocates of criminal justice reform. They have not moved from
committees.
The bills would require the
criminal conviction of the property owner to trigger asset forfeiture and close
the “equitable sharing” loophole by which local agencies hand off cases to the
feds.
Also, to end the incentive, the
bills require proceeds from forfeitures to be deposited in the general fund of
the government where the action takes place, rather than directly into the
police agency’s account.
The Legislature should restore
fairness and accountability to the system by adopting these badly needed
reforms.
Lippman Announces Initiatives
to Reform 'Broken' Bail System
Andrew Denney, New York Law
Journal
While unveiling a package of
reforms to New York's bail system on Thursday, Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman
used words from "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" to describe the
system today: "Sentence first, verdict afterwards."
"They are meant as a
parody of justice," he said. "Yet the words ring true for New York's
bail system."
The reforms Lippman announced
include the launch of a pilot electronic supervision program for Manhattan
Criminal Court, new review procedures for setting bail and enhanced training
for judges and clerks on alternative forms of bail.
"With the reforms
announced today, we will make major strides in overhauling our broken system of
bail," Lippman said at a forum in Manhattan hosted by the Citizens Crime
Commission of New York City. "Reforming the institution of bail in New
York will go a long way toward ensuring that our justice system not only
protects the public safety, but also is fair and just for each and every New
Yorker, rich and poor alike."
The changes will be enacted
within the constraints of the court system's existing statutory authority and
thus do not need approval from lawmakers in Albany, where Lippman's efforts to
implement comprehensive bail reform have languished.
Under the new plan, one judge
in each of New York City's five boroughs will be assigned to conduct de novo
review of bail amounts for misdemeanor defendants that will be triggered if the
defendants cannot make bail.
Chief Administrative Judge
Lawrence Marks said the five judges would likely be chosen in the next few
weeks.
Lippman said the bail review
judges will have more time than arraignment judges to consider bail
determinations, as "enormous" caseloads and legally imposed time
constraints often preclude an arraignment court's ability to thoroughly
consider bail issues.
Additionally, defense attorneys
will be able to present a "more accurate" client record to the court,
a release from the Office of Court Administration stated.
OCA will issue rules to require
regular judicial review of bail amounts in felony cases. Judges will hold
status conferences—in which prosecutors may be asked if the parties are ready for
trial and when they were last in contact with key witnesses—to evaluate the
viability of prosecutors' cases and potentially change defendants' bail
statuses.
Marks said a "good
yardstick" for judges to hold such conferences is every three months, but
he said the rules will be flexible. "This will be left in large part to
the judge's individual discretion. There could be some variation from case to
case."
The pilot electronic
supervision program will be limited to misdemeanor cases where defendants are unable
to post bail and do not involve domestic violence, assault and sexual offenses.
The average cost of detention
in New York City is $100,000 annually, according to the OCA, but Marks said
that electronic supervision of low-level offenders can cost as little as a few
hundred dollars per year. He said the program is expected to launch later this
year.
Alternate Bail
State statutes allow judges to
use seven different types of bail, but in practice, judges only use two: cash
bail and insurance company bail bonds. To encourage judges to tap a wider array
of bail types, including payment by credit cards, the court system will enhance
training for judges and clerks.
About 14 percent of people
arraigned in New York City, or about 45,500, are sent to jail because they
cannot make bail, according to city officials. More than half of those remain
incarcerated until their cases are deposed.
For low-income people, Lippman
said, spending even a few days in jail can cause the fabric of their lives to
unravel, as they risk losing their jobs; losing access to public assistance or
falling behind in school. He also said being detained carries its own health
risks by potentially exposing defendants to violence and disease.
"Lives that may be
precarious to begin with can fall apart, creating an avalanche of social
ills," Lippman said.
He framed his remarks with the
case of Kalief Browder, a robbery suspect who was held at Rikers Island for
three years until his case was dismissed. Browder, who maintained that he was
innocent of the robbery, killed himself in June.
In a statement issued following
Lippman's announcement, Tina Luongo, attorney-in-charge of the criminal
practice for the New York City Legal Aid Society, said that Legal Aid is
"extremely encouraged" by the reforms.
"As the primary public
defender in New York City representing over 200,000 indigent people, we see the
devastating effects that bail and pretrial detention create in the lives of our
clients and families," Luongo said. "For many of our clients, bail as
low as five hundred dollars is unaffordable and forces people to plead guilty
to escape the horrors of Rikers Island and return to their families."
Manhattan District Attorney
Cyrus Vance Jr., who attended the event, said during a question-and-answer
session that he supported the reforms. But to make them a success, he said,
judicial vacancies should be filled and judges should be willing to set firm
trial dates.
"If you wish cases to move
forward expeditiously, as you do, first and foremost we must have a system that
actually gets cases out to trial," Vance told Lippman.
Lippman said the bail bond
industry, which opposed his legislative recommendations, is generally unwilling
to write bonds for less than $1,000 because they are not "sufficiently
lucrative."
Michelle Esquenazi, chair of
the New York State Bail Bonds Association and president and CEO of Empire Bail
Bonds, said in response that "day in and day out," New York bail bond
companies issue $500 bonds. She also said the bail bond industry ensures
defendants show up in court while protecting public safety. "We are an
integral part of the criminal justice system," she said.
Jerome McElroy, executive
director of the New York City Criminal Justice Agency, the city's contracted
pretrial agency, said the initiative to set up a bail review system "seems
very appropriate," as arraignments tend to take place in 10 minutes or
less.
But he said officials should go
further and form a commission made up of attorneys and lawmakers to study the
"front end" of criminal proceedings—from the point where a defendant
is charged to the arraignment phase—to determine if the processes used in New
York should be changed.
"I think that would be the
ideal way to proceed, but I don't know that there would be an awful lot of
interest in doing that," he said.
In early 2013, Lippman called
for top-to-bottom reforms of the state's bail system that required changes to
state law. Among them was creating a statutory presumption of release for
defendants without bail in cases where judges find defendants do not pose a
flight risk or a danger to public safety¬, and granting judges the authority to
impose a range of pretrial release conditions.
Currently, New York judges are
not allowed to take public safety into account when setting bail, which is
allowed in 46 other states and in the District of Columbia.
But Lippman, who will retire at
the end of the year, said Thursday that reform efforts in Albany have stalled
because lawmakers are "paralyzed by hard-on-crime, soft-on-crime finger
pointing."
On Thursday, State Sen. Michael
Gianaris, a Queens Democrat, announced that he plans to propose legislation in
the upcoming session to eliminate bail entirely.
"The bail system has been
bastardized to become a means of imprisoning people without due process,"
Gianaris said in a statement posted on his Senate website. "Too often bail
is used as a means to incarcerate someone before they're even tried and
convicted, and what we've seen is on very minor offenses, people spend more
time in jail waiting for their trial than the offense would justify."
Earlier this year, Vance's
office and New York City announced they were pooling $17.8 million to expand
supervised release programs, and the city is in the process of setting up a
$1.4 million fund for bail set at less than $2,000.
New York City Councilman Rory
Lancman, a Queens Democrat who chairs the City Council's courts and legal
service committee, said the council is still working to find a not-for-profit
organization or organizations to manage the fund.
"We want to get it up and
running, but we want it to be done right," he said.
Andrew Denney can be reached
via email or on Twitter @messagetime.
Southeast Asia
Rises Against the Death Penalty
Will the tiny tigers hang their
eye-for-an-eye doctrine out to dry? Cambodia, East Timor and the Philippines
have eliminated firing squads. Brunei, Myanmar and Laos have unplugged their
electric chairs. Just four countries in the region still allow capital
punishment: Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. Even they are cutting
back, and compared to the hundreds of executions in previous decades, only 119
people have been put to death in the region in the last eight years — a number
activists hope will soon drop to zero.
Surge in executions in death penalty
countries
“The 13th World Day against the
Death Penalty will take place on 10th October. What is the current situation
worldwide?” asks Ben from London.
The response is from Raphaël
Chenuil-Hazan, Executive Director of Together Against the Death Penalty and
Vice-President of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty.
About 30 or 40 years ago, two
thirds of countries worldwide used to apply the death penalty regularly. Today
it’s the exact opposite: two thirds of UN countries have abolished the death
penalty, either in law or in practice.
Executions surge
However, in recent years, we have
seen a surge in executions particularly in countries which had not executed
prisoners for years or were part of a moratorium process.
Executions and death sentences
are mostly due to drug-related crimes.
Europe is almost 100%
abolitionist except Belarus. Latin America is nearly 100% abolitionist except
for some Caribbean islands.
Sub-Saharan Africa is more and
more abolitionist. And the Maghreb has not executed prisoners for more than 20
years now.
Death penalty zone
So, to sum up, the poles of executions
and death convictions can be found in 3 areas: the Middle East, Asia and then
I’ll add to these two areas, the unfortunate US exception.
It’s still very difficult to
collect data especially from China and Iran for instance. According to the
figures given by Human Rights NGOs, around 600 to 700 people are executed every
year worldwide. But actually it must be around 3,000 to 4,000.
The terrorist threat does not
justify maintaining the death penalty as we’ve seen in Iraq for example. The
more violent the response of the Iraqi State through the death penalty, the
more terrorism there has been. As we abolished slavery, we must put an end to
this totally cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.”
What Laws Should Be Passed to Reform
Policing?
Answer by Tim Dees, retired cop
and criminal justice professor:
If I could change any law, I
would grossly simplify the tax code, but I assume since I'm a former police
officer, it's more interesting to hear about how I would change law enforcement
and criminal justice.
Law enforcement officers would be
required to have, at minimum, a bachelor's degree. Those intending a police
career would participate in a ROTC-style training program all four years. The
certification would be valid nationwide. Police education and training would
place considerable emphasis on the “why” as opposed to the “how.” Every new
officer would have a thorough, documented understanding of the proper role of
police in a free society and oriented toward problem-solving as opposed to
enforcement as a first and only option.
Everyone with police powers
(every rank) would have to pass an annual medical, psychological, and physical
fitness exam. There would be rehabilitative services available, but if you
couldn't pass the tests in a reasonable amount of time (say, a year), you would
cease to be a law enforcement officer.
Cops would have to spend at least
five years in the basic assignment of their agency (typically uniformed patrol)
before they could even apply for promotion or a more specialized assignment.
Those aspiring to be supervisors in a specialty area like detectives or
training would be required to have at least three years of nonsupervisory
experience in that area. Every specialized assignment would have a list of
skills and minimum qualifications. Acquiring these skills and qualifications
would require considerable personal effort from the employee and would
typically take several years to complete. When openings in a specialized
assignment occurred, only employees who had completed that list would be
eligible for the assignment.
Every sworn officer, regardless
of rank, would spend at least one week per year working in the basic mission of
the agency—again, typically uniformed patrol. Those above the rank of sergeant
would spend two weeks and would spend an equal amount of time on each shift.
Each state and the federal
government would have a commission on law enforcement accountability.
Misconduct investigations, criminal and procedural, would be performed by this
agency, which would also be where misconduct complaints were lodged.
Investigators could have no prior connections with the agency they were
investigating. Officers found to have committed willful misconduct would have
their law enforcement certifications suspended for a period commensurate with
the level of misconduct or revoked altogether. Each officer subject to
discipline would have the right to a trial-type hearing before an impartial
arbiter with law enforcement experience. Both the state and the officer would
have subpoena power for these hearings, and testimony would be sworn. If a
misconduct complaint was clearly fabricated, the person making the complaint
could be charged with false swearing or filing a false police report. The
police standard of professional conduct with regard to culpability would
increase with rank and seniority. An act of misconduct that might merit a
two-day suspension for a rookie officer would be likely to earn an executive a
month's suspension.
Whistleblower protections would
be extended to all public employees and enforced vigorously.
Before the commencement of a
criminal trial, the accused would supply the judge with a sealed statement. The
statement would contain the account of what happened in the incident(s) on
which the trial is based, from the accused's perspective. Each major element of
the defense would be included. At the conclusion of the trial, the judge would
open and review this statement. If the defense case was consistent with this
account, nothing would happen. If the defense presented a different fact set
(i.e., they lied), the accused would be charged with perjury, and the state
would have the opportunity to retry the case without double jeopardy attaching
if there had been an acquittal. (I didn't think this up. It came from Guilty:
The Collapse of Criminal Justiceby Harold J. Rothwax.)
California asset forfeiture reform fails despite
conflicts of interest: Guest commentary
By Diane Goldstein
Upton
Sinclair famously stated, “It’s difficult to get a man to understand something
when his salary depends on him not understanding it.” This quote rang
especially true when the California Assembly voted down Sen. Holly Mitchell’s
civil asset forfeiture reform bill despite overwhelming voter support.
Asset
forfeiture was originally intended to cripple drug dealers by stripping them of
their profits, but civil forfeiture, a type of asset forfeiture, has permitted
police to seize property from individuals without having to convict them of a
crime and is usually used against the poor and marginalized. Mitchell’s Senate
Bill 443 would have required law enforcement to “seek or obtain” a conviction
to make a lawful seizure, ensuring due process for innocent owners.
In
its report “Above the Law: An Investigation into Civil Asset Forfeiture in
California,” The Drug Policy Alliance documented many of the abuses that have
occurred in California. Most notable is that the average seizure in 2013 was
for $8,542 and is clearly not drug kingpin money. Last year, a Washington Post
analysis of the Federal Equitable Sharing Program, (the funding mechanism
between agencies) found less than 10 percent of assets seized resulted in an
indictment.
Yet
the California law enforcement lobby claimed it would lose $80 million a year
if SB 443 passed, making the drug war profitable not just for criminals but
also for law enforcement. This has resulted in the corruption of our mission
and prioritizes profits over fundamental civil liberties.
I
agree with the original architects of civil asset forfeiture, John Yoder and
Brad Cates, who stated in a 2014 Washington Post opinion piece that the program
should be abolished. They said, “The program had failed in both purpose and
execution,” and that the tactic itself is evil, “with the corruption it
engendered among ... law enforcement coming to clearly outweigh any benefits.”
As
a criminal justice professional, I testified in three committees and met with
California lawmakers and legislative staffers in the Senate and the Assembly
before the vote. Staffers said that California Police Chiefs Association (CPCA)
and California Association of District Attorneys (CADA) were calling
legislators directly to tell them the latest amendments would continue to
impact funding and participation on federal task forces and result in the
federal government decertifying California. All of this is untrue. It is this
behavior that Yoder and Cates discuss when they point to how the asset
forfeiture program, designed with good intentions, has been corrupted.
SB
443 would not have removed any investigatory tools or the ability of law
enforcement to seize property from criminals at the local level or while
working in a taskforce. This bill simply provided transparency while upholding
one of the fundamental principles of our Constitution: due process.
Recent
polls continue to find Americans don’t believe there is accountability for
criminal justice misconduct, misuse of force, or racial discrimination.
Aggressive lobbying and mischaracterization of this bill is just another
indicator of the many systemic issues in policing and in our courts. It’s time
for legislators to fix the conflict of interest that exists when police and
prosecutors have a budgetary stake in forfeited property and are able to
circumvent legislative oversight as required by law.
Diane
Goldstein is a retired lieutenant spent more than 20 years with the Redondo
Beach Police Department. She is an executive board member of Law Enforcement
Against Prohibition.
When Independent Police Oversight
Becomes Too Independent
New Orleans’
independent police monitor released videos of police violence. Now her job is
in danger.
BRENTIN MOCK
@brentinmock Sep 30, 2015 1 Comment
New Orleans
police barged into the Allen family home on March 7, 2012, armed with a search
warrant secured only minutes before and with a lot of guns. One of the cops was
also armed with a stealth video-recording device, unbeknownst to his squad.
Within seconds of tearing through the house’s back door and first floor, which
was filled with children, Officer Joshua Colclough ran up the steps and
encountered Wendell Allen, who the officer then shot in the chest.
Allen, 20
years old, was unarmed and was wearing only pajama bottoms. He died from
Colclough’s shot. Allen’s brother and a friend, both 19, witnessed the
shooting. Normally it would have been their word against the police’s in terms
of who was at fault. At least one police investigator was reportedly framing
the crime scene interrogations in terms that suggested Allen was trying to kill
Colclough.
Two things
stopped that story from becoming the prevailing narrative: the secretly
recorded video of the sting, and the independent police monitor who reviewed
the investigation. Ultimately, Colclough pled guilty to manslaughter and is
serving a four-year sentence in jail. The Allen family has filed a federal
civil suit against the New Orleans Police Department, which has not yet been
resolved. It’s clear from the many investigation reports released about this
incident that Allen’s family would not have achieved justice without the video
and the police monitor.
This sounds
like a compelling example of police accountability in action. But in fact, it
may result in getting New Orleans’ independent police monitor fired. The New
Orleans Advocate newspaper reported on Friday that the city’s Inspector
General, Ed Quatrevaux, wants the Chief Independent Police Monitor Susan Hutson
gone. According to The Advocate, the reasons for this stem from years of
squabbling between the two city offices, including the inspector general’s
disgruntlement with the police monitor for releasing information about violent
police to the public without his permission.
If the
inspector general gets his way, this may prove to be an example of what happens
when civilian police oversight becomes too effective—or at least, too
independent. Meanwhile, legislators in a number of places have tried to pass
legislation that would limit or prevent public access to video evidence of
police violence.
This raises a
few questions: If a police officer shoots or harms someone on camera but the
public can’t see the video, did it happen? In cases where video is released,
how does the public know that it hasn’t been tampered with without someone
independent from the police monitoring the investigation? To paraphrase Boogie
Down Productions’ 1989 question: The police are sent to protect, but who
ensures protection from the police?
Government-created
commissions and social-justice organizations are both trying to pin down
answers to these questions.
The Forward Through Ferguson Commission, created in the aftermath of the police killing of Michael Brown, made a broad call for civilian oversight of police in a 198-page report released earlier this month. Civilian police review boards, independent police monitors, and similar oversight entities have been around for decades, working somewhat impressively in cities like Cincinnati and Pittsburgh. In Atlanta, the police chief swaps phone numbers with organizers ahead of demonstrations to keep an open line of communication during protests and rallies.
The Forward Through Ferguson Commission, created in the aftermath of the police killing of Michael Brown, made a broad call for civilian oversight of police in a 198-page report released earlier this month. Civilian police review boards, independent police monitors, and similar oversight entities have been around for decades, working somewhat impressively in cities like Cincinnati and Pittsburgh. In Atlanta, the police chief swaps phone numbers with organizers ahead of demonstrations to keep an open line of communication during protests and rallies.
David Harris,
a policing expert at the University of Pittsburgh, tells CityLab that the
effectiveness of civilian oversight—whether through review boards or
monitors—boils down to a few things:
“Is it
independent? Does it have its own governing board, and its own subpoena power?
Does it have its own non-law-enforcement investigators, its own budget and a
working staff? That’s the minimum package required for these things to
succeed,” says Harris. “In a lot of cities, in how they’re set up, they don’t
have all those things.”
Without those
ingredients, efforts to produce effective civilian oversight can actually end
up becoming counterproductive, which Harris says he’s seen happen.
Sometimes how
it goes is, “police oversight reforms get proposed and put in place by a city,
but they have not given [the reforms] the proper tools to succeed, and after a
short time people think it’s a paper tiger,” says Harris. “When you have what
sounds like what should be an impressive way of ensuring policing accountability,
but they see it goes nowhere, a lot of times these things have not only not
helped inspire community confidence in the police, they actually hurt it.”
Communities
of color are lately demanding more muscular regulation of police operations
that includes the full suite of features Harris describes—the
“non-law-enforcement investigators” in particular for instances when police
kill. Campaign Zero, a policy platform generated by Black Lives
Matter-associated activists, has made this an essential component of its
police-reform agenda.
In Wisconsin
Professional Police Association Executive Director James Palmer’s testimony to
the White House’s 21st Century Policing Task Force, he said that any
police-involved-killing investigation should be “conducted by at least two
investigators … neither of whom is employed by a law-enforcement agency that
employs a law-enforcement officer involved in the officer-involved death.”
New Orleans
is one of the few cities that has a monitor who’s not on the police force, but
who has powers to audit investigations into civilian injuries and deaths caused
by police or those that occur while in police custody. The independent police
monitor’s office was approved by 70 percent of New Orleans voters in 2008
through a ballot referendum, and was activated in 2009 under the city’s Office
of Inspector General. It’s led by a civilian, Susan Hutson, an attorney who
worked for Los Angeles’ inspector general’s office prior to coming to New
Orleans.
The city also
has a federal monitor who ensures compliance with the consent decree between
the New Orleans Police Department and the U.S. Department of Justice. The
city’s independent monitor is part of that consent decree, meaning that any
violation of the independent-monitoring requirements is considered a violation
of the federal agreement. The federal monitoring team, which is composed mostly
of past and present police chiefs from other cities, is also led by an
attorney, Jonathan Aronie, who once served as deputy independent monitor for the
Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C.
In New
Orleans, there are additional layers of monitoring from the Public Integrity
Bureau and the Force Investigative Team, which are both made up of city police.
The bureau is essentially an internal affairs department, while the
investigative team is a separate unit under the bureau that focuses
specifically on officer-involved violence.
When it comes
to police violence: Pics, or it didn’t happen.
It’s a
whirlwind of monitoring, but it’s warranted—as the consent decree, a history of
corruption, and the well-circulated stories of police brutality during Katrina
made abundantly clear. Yet, it also creates the kind of wire-crossing and
barbed entanglements that currently have the independent police monitor’s job
in jeopardy.
Last week,
Inspector General Ed Quatrevaux sent a letter to the city’s Ethics Review Board
asking to eliminate Hutson from her post as chief police monitor. Her office
sits within the inspector general’s office, and the inspector general
determines the monitor’s budget. But Hutson has accused the inspector general
of creating a hostile work environment, and of compromising the independence of
her monitoring team. It’s gotten so bad that both offices are, or at least
were, working on amending the city’s charter so that they can officially
divorce.
Quatrevaux
cited a few reasons for wanting to get rid of Hutson—one of them being a
scathing report the monitor recently released that categorically ripped apart
the police department’s investigation into the 2012 killing of Wendell Allen.
Quatrevaux believes all police reports need his approval before they’re
released to the public. Hutson maintains that this would essentially undermine
her office’s obligation to the public, which is to bring transparency to police
actions, especially in matters of life and death.
This is the
kind of scenario that could play out in other cities as they design new
infrastructure for law enforcement oversight. Independent police monitoring is
endorsed from Ferguson to the White House—on paper. But if independence is not
clearly defined in the design, then problems like the one in New Orleans are
fated to arise. Establishing independence in this context boils down to how
transparent the police, and their unions, will allow themselves to be.
In the
Wendell Allen case, transparency was forced. It was the independent police
monitor’s office that coerced the police department into collecting the video
evidence from the cop who recorded the sting operation—evidence that New
Orleans police didn’t even want to acknowledge existed.
The police
monitor then released the video recording of Allen’s killing to the public,
against the police department’s wishes. It was the only way to refute the
police’s narrative of what happened. The police initially claimed, and have
maintained, that they announced themselves before barging into Allen’s house.
The video proved that they didn’t. The police also initially stated that Allen
might have attempted to attack the police officer. The video proved this false
as well.
This summer,
the independent police monitor also released video of a New Orleans cop who
beat a mentally ill 16-year-old girl. This rankled the inspector general and a
court judge, who then reportedly directed the police department to limit the
monitor’s access to video evidence.
When it comes
to police violence: Pics, or it didn’t happen. This is why the independent
police monitor has insisted on video evidence, but according to Quatrevaux’s
letter, such evidence led the judge to accuse Hutson of “attempting to
'sensationalize' police incidents.”
This alone illuminates the unbalanced scales
of justice in law enforcement. Police can instantly publicize video of
civilians committing crimes—think Michael Brown in Ferguson. It doesn’t matter
how trivial the criminal violation.
In fact, many believe that aggressive cracking down on even the mildest of crimes is good policy. But there’s no “broken windows” theory for cracking down on police misconduct, just broken transparency.
In fact, many believe that aggressive cracking down on even the mildest of crimes is good policy. But there’s no “broken windows” theory for cracking down on police misconduct, just broken transparency.
New Orleans’
Ethics Review Board will hold a hearing on October 23 to consider whether to
honor the inspector general’s request to fire the police monitor. The board’s
decision will signal to other cities designing their own police monitoring
reforms just how much independence is considered too much.
HERE'S MY LATEST BOOK.....
This is a book of
short stories taken from the things I saw and heard in my childhood in the
factory town of Ansonia in southwestern Connecticut.
Most of these
stories, or as true as I recall them because I witnessed these events many
years ago through the eyes of child and are retold to you now with the pen and
hindsight of an older man. The only exception is the story Beat Time which is based on the disappearance of Beat poet Lew
Welch. Decades before I knew who Welch was, I was told that he had made his
from California to New Haven, Connecticut, where was an alcoholic living in a
mission. The notion fascinated me and I filed it away but never forgot
it.
The collected stories
are loosely modeled around Joyce’s novel, Dubliners
(I also borrowed from the novels character and place names. Ivy Day, my
character in “Local Orphan is Hero” is also the name of chapter in Dubliners, etc.) and like Joyce I wanted
to write about my people, the people I knew as a child, the working class in
small town America and I wanted to give a complete view of them as well. As a
result the stories are about the divorced, Gays, black people, the working
poor, the middle class, the lost and the found, the contented and the
discontented.
Conversely many of
the stories in this book are about starting life over again as a result of
suicide (The Hanging Party, Small Town
Tragedy, Beat Time) or from a near death experience (Anna Bell Lee and the Charge of the Light Brigade, A Brief Summer)
and natural occurring death. (The Best
Laid Plans, The Winter Years, Balanced and Serene)
With the exception of
Jesus Loves Shaqunda, in each story
there is a rebirth from the death. (Shaqunda is reported as having died of
pneumonia in The Winter Years)
Sal, the desperate
and depressed divorcee in Things Change,
changes his life in Lunch Hour when
asks the waitress for a date and she accepts. (Which we learn in Closing Time,
the last story in the book) In The
Arranged Time, Thisby is given the option of change and whether she takes
it or, we don’t know. The death of Greta’s husband in A Matter of Time has led her to the diner and into the waiting arms
of the outgoing and lovable Gabe.
Although the book is
based on three sets of time (breakfast, lunch and dinner) and the diner is
opened in the early morning and closed at night, time stands still inside the
Diner. The hour on the big clock on the wall never changes time and much like
my memories of that place, everything remains the same.
http://www.amazon.com/Short-Stories-Small-William-Tuohy/dp/1517270456/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1443990030&sr=1-1&keywords=short+stories+from+small+town
HERE'S PLEASANT POEM FOR YOU TO ENJOY................
NO MAP
BY STEPHEN DOBYNS
How close the clouds press this
October first
and the rain—a gray scarf across
the sky.
In separate hospitals my father
and a dear friend
lie waiting for their respective
operations,
hours on a table as surgeons
crack their chests.
They were so brave when I talked
to them last
as they spoke of the good times
we would share
in the future. To neither did I
say how much
I loved them, nor express the
extent of my fear.
Their bodies are delicate glass
boxes
at which the world begins to
fling its stones.
Is this the day their long cry
will be released?
How can I live in this place
without them?
But today is also my son’s
birthday.
He is eight and beginning his
difficult march.
To him the sky is welcoming, the
road straight.
Far from my house he will open
his presents—
a book, a Swiss army knife, some
music. Where
is his manual of instructions?
Where is his map
showing the dark places and how
to escape them?
Sculpture this and Sculpture
that
IF INDUSTRY WON’T ACT RESPONSIBLE, THEN IMPOSE A
SUGAR TAX
Soda Is
Bad For You & the Industry's Finally Starting To Suffer
BY REBECCA FISHBEIN IN FOOD
(Carrie Dennis / Gothamist)
It's no secret that soda is
killing you one 20-ounce bottle at a time, whether your preferred beverage
comes packed with sugar, aspartame, or (ugh) stevia. But even with all the
health warnings, failed soda bans/taxes, and Parks & Recreation episodes,
Big Soda's still been pocketing dollar after dollar, until now—a new report in
the Times claims the soda industry seems to be starting to fizzle.
"[S]oda companies are losing
the war," the Times crowed today, noting that despite failed policies like
Mayor Bloomberg's soda ban and soda taxes in Philadelphia and San Francisco,
sales of full-calorie sodas have fallen by over 25 percent in the last two
decades. Americans are taking heed of health initiatives pointing out that
sweetened beverages are, among other things, major contributors to weight gain
and obesity, and are starting to swap out Coke for water—the average American
buys about 35 gallons of water per year and 40 gallons of soda, as opposed to
15 gallons of water and 50 gallons of soda in 2000.
The best news (for humanity, not
for soda companies) is that American kids are drinking far less soda than they
used to. A recent study noted that children's daily soda consumption dropped by
as much as 79 percent from 2004 to 2012—some of this is credited to the removal
of soda vending machines in public schools and other government buildings. In
Philadelphia, where Big Soda managed to kill a soda tax in 2010, health
initiatives have knocked soda consumption down so much that 24 percent fewer
teens were drinking the bubbly stuff in 2013 than they were in 2007, which
correlated with a decline in childhood obesity.
Indeed, the Times piece likens
soda to the "new tobacco," and notes that the fewer Americans grow up
drinking soda, the fewer will choose it as a beverage in adulthood. Which is
good news, indeed, considering even diet soda might not be all that good for
you. At least booze gets you drunk
I LOVE BLACK AND WHITE
PHOTOS FROM FILM
Bloodied members of the American Legion recover following a fight with members of the German American Bund (American Nazi Party) in 1938.
HERE'S SOME NICE ART FOR YOU TO LOOK AT....ENJOY!
Kenneth Noland, Song, 1958
Lois Dodd