Artwork stating 'Education Destroys Barriers', 'We Demand Treatment', and 'I Need A Chance'

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  • This is how the Police Advisory Commission should work in Philadelphia

    Truly independent citizen review boards can serve as an effective check on police misconduct if they are structured properly, but too many cities are like Philadelphia, where a lack of power and resources means they serve mainly as window dressing. The history of the Philadelphia Police Advisory Commission shows how initial efforts by community groups to establish real oversight fizzled through political gamesmanship and limits on the panel’s power to investigate and discipline. More promising models exist in Phoenix, Denver, and St. Louis.

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  • Europe offers creative ways to fight domestic violence during Covid-19. Why not bring them to Philadelphia?

    Philadelphia’s domestic violence shelters filled during the pandemic, emergency funding ran dry, and officials offered victims little recourse if they were trapped at home with their abusers. These gaps in protection could be remedied by copying what has been done in Spain and France, where pharmacists were enlisted to turn coded language – a request for a particular kind of mask – into a call for help, and pop-up counseling centers at supermarkets and funding for emergency shelter and counseling organizations expanded to keep pace with a spike in incidents.

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  • Training Police to Step In and Prevent Another George Floyd Audio icon

    While most police-reform ideas focus on top-down imposition of standards, peer intervention puts the burden on individual police officers to prevent misconduct. Grounded in studies of bystanders’ behavior in the face of abuses by others, the method first was adopted by the New Orleans Police Department in light of widespread misconduct following Hurricane Katrina and has been credited with that department’s “remarkable progress” in shifting its culture. Now its use is spreading nationwide.

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  • Philly police should adopt this ethics program that reformed NOLA force

    Eight years after the New Orleans Police Department served as a model of how not to police, its Ethical Policing Is Courageous (EPIC) program has done more to dismantle the “blue wall of silence” than any other reforms. Citizen complaints and horrific examples of brutality have gone down while citizen satisfaction has risen. Now the training of officers in “peer intervention” is spreading nationwide, empowering street officers schooled in the use of peer pressure to stand up to misconduct without fear of retaliation.

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  • Why So Many Police Are Handling the Protests Wrong

    Half a century of research showing the dynamics of how protesters and police interact under pressure teaches that when police respond with escalating force, it doesn’t work. But police continue to lean on such tactics out of instinct and culture, even in the face of strong evidence that they often instigate the very riots they ostensibly seek to prevent. Defusing tension is no simple matter, and officer safety concerns are often legitimate. But much can be learned from common mistakes and from some model strategies that have been deployed successfully.

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  • What We Can Learn From South Korea's Coronavirus Response

    Lessons learned from the outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in 2015 helped South Korea uniquely prepare a quick and effective response to the recent coronavirus outbreak. With several new strategies in place including contact tracing protocols and "laws clarifying the roles of national and local government, public health, and industry sectors in the event of another outbreak," the country was able to largely contain the virus faster than other countries which reported cases emerging at similar times.

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  • Thousands of Complaints Do Little to Change Police Ways

    Derek Chauvin's journey through the Minneapolis Police Department’s officer-disciplinary system illustrates the weaknesses of that system and the failure of efforts to fix it. Chauvin, the officer charged in the death of George Floyd, survived at least 17 misconduct complaints before he was fired for killing Floyd by kneeling on his neck. Critics charge the department never complied with recommendations by federal analysts to improve the tracking and disciplining of problem officers. That and other administrative failures are coupled with political and cultural barriers to neuter many reform ideas.

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  • 'Stopgap' or life saver?: Italy's scheme to help the self-employed survive the coronavirus crisis

    The Italian government's attempt to assuage the financial fallout of the pandemic on small businesses, freelance workers, and the self-employed did not achieve the desired results despite the enormous size of the aid package: 25 billion euros. Delays, technical glitches, and language barriers for international workers have plagued the application process from the day it was launched and over half a million applications have yet to be processed. Italians also criticized the 600-euro amount which is the average rent in the country, often higher in some areas. The government has announced additional aid.

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  • How Kerala managed to flatten the coronavirus curve

    The local government in Kerala implemented swift and aggressive measures to contain the coronavirus, within three days of learning that China was experiencing an outbreak. The success of the state is largely due to the way the government functions under the "Kerala model," which is a culmination of "decades of progressive politics and an egalitarian development strategy." Although the curve has been flattened, there are still significant socio-economic ramifications that are posing a challenge to recovery.

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  • Covid-19: The government officials only visit our shacks when they want our votes, not when we need food

    South Africa took decisive steps to contain the spread of Covid-19, including closing borders, requiring strict social distancing, and making screening and testing available nationwide. The lock-down, however, made citizens who already lacked money, food, and access to clean water more insecure. Social services increased in some areas, but not enough to provide sufficient food and secure access to clean water to those who needed it. Some local organizations, such as the KASI Arts School & Rehabilitation Centre, shifted their operations to supply food to their local communities, but many remain in need.

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