Image of the Day

it appears that Iran crossed a red line when it chose to move ahead with its
nuclear program after the revolution of 1979.
As a signatory to the NPT, Iran has a legal right to produce nuclear
energy for peaceful purposes. Its announcement in 1974 of a plan to build
23 large nuclear reactors was supported by the West. Construction of
Iran’s first nuclear power plant at Bushehr was originally contracted to a
German firm in 1975. Read More
When Police Are Encouraged to Abuse, Not Protect
By
Robert Gangi
While the harmful effects of the NYPD’s stop and frisk tactic tactic
have received the most public attention, this practice does not represent
the most serious problem with current policing policy in NYC. It is not the
true dark heart of the beast. That honor goes to an agency wide quota
system that police brass use to evaluate the performances of officers on the
street and that drives a harsh, aggressive approach to law enforcement
which, in a misguided effort to keep a lid on crime, results in the targeting
and abusive treatment of our city’s most vulnerable groups.
Every day the City’s police engage in objectionable practices that
waste government resources and that result in more, rather than less, social
disorder. Black and brown young men stopped and frisked for no apparent
reason, at times arrested and ticketed for trespass while standing in front
of their own buildings; drivers pulled over and ticketed for not wearing a
seat belt even though they were using the device; people in psychiatric
crisis, clearly disoriented and confused, thrown to the ground, handcuffed,
and locked up; LGBT persons called derogatory names, questioned rudely
and inappropriately touched as they enter a local community center or
gather in a group on a neighborhood street corner; sex workers arrested for
simply carrying condoms or forced to provide sex in return for their
release; street vendors hassled, fined and arrested for violating minor rules
that are arbitrarily enforced; homeless people roughed up – their
belongings often destroyed – and apprehended for begging on the subway
or sleeping on a park bench; officers apologizing to people they are