 |
Donate items to the Philippine National Police? Really? |
City Council meets in a combined session Monday evening (November 19) at 7:00 PM in the Council Chambers / Courthouse at Watchung Avenue and East 4th Street.
A separate legal notice several days ago announced that there will be a public hearing on deer management policy. Readers will recall that the City's agreement with the County to allow bow hunting in the Cushing Road Basin caused a firestorm among local animal rights activists. The hearing is listed as Item 6 on the agenda and will come very early in the meeting.
Discussion items include acknowledgment of the Police Divison's recent re-accreditation under Director Carl Riley, a report by Parks and Recreation Superintendent Veronica Taylor on recreation activities and future programs (it should be recalled that thievery in the program stopped the moment she was appointed), and a review of the DLGS CY2018 Best Practices for Municipalities. (It would be well worth your time to review the document -- included in the online packet here -- and see how the state delves into what is going on in municipalities.)
A resolution (R344-18) is set to accept 11 bids totaling $485K for city-owned properties; however, the online printout did not contain the list, so anyone interested will have to do some digging to find out what was sold, for how much and to whom.
Two resolutions (R352-18) and (R353-18) deal with redevelopment on East 3rd Street and South Avenue respectively. The South Avenue item is the former Loizeaux Lumber Yards.
If this ends up being yet more housing, the tilt in development is decidedly skewed toward the 2nd Ward, which should raise some questions of equitableness. (Meanwhile, the housing proposed at South Second and Grant in the 4th Ward seems stuck in limbo, with trees growing out of the piles of crushed concrete from the old factory floor.)
There are also three nominations to the Board of Trustees of the Plainfield Public Library, an unusually high number to be filled at one time.
And the new Director of Health and Social Services, Shep Brown, is putting forward a resolution urging the Trump administration not to penalize resident aliens who use social services such as Food Stamps (R358-18).
However, the truly eyepopping resolution (R346-18) is to donate holsters and magazine pouches to the Philippine National Police.
Those who follow the news will know that Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte -- a favorite of President Donald Trump -- has alarmed many with his policy of encouraging extra-judicial killings by police in his "war on drugs."
Extra-judicial means the police may summarily execute suspects on the spot, and upwards of five thousand have been killed in this manner since he took office in 2016. In addition, there is evidence that police are using this authority to settle personal scores that have nothing to do with drugs.
Discussions of the issues involved range all the way from the staid Council on Foreign Relations (see here) to the Human Rights Watch advocacy group (see here) to a report by Reuters this past June that Duterte told the UN human rights officials to "go to hell" (see here).
As a community where many people have rallied around the #blacklivesmatter movement against extra-judicial killings of Black Americans by police, shouldn't we be asking ourselves if this is really a gesture we want to make?
Is there no one else less objectionable to give these items to?
I hope so.
-- Dan Damon [ follow ]
View today's CLIPS here. Not getting your own CLIPS email daily? Click here to subscribe.
About Cookies: This blog is operated by Google, which uses cookies to improve the user's experience. By continuing to read this blog you agree to their use.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment