A 14-Hour Filibuster Ends After GOP Agrees To Vote On Gun Control
Earlier today, SenatorChris Murphy of Connecticut, responding to the terror in Orlando, launched a filibusterin the hope of pushing Congress to work toward meaningful gun control. Fellow Democrats joined him throughout the afternoon and said all the things youd expect lawmakers to say. Then Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts took the floor.
We need to ban gun sales on sites on the Internet like Facebook and Instagram, he said. Right now, anyone can do a search for AK-47 or AR-15 or even guns for sale on Instagram and find guns for sale.
Hes right. Even now, years after the issue of gun sales onsocial media platforms came to light, you can still find plenty of them available. We searched #gunsforsale on Instagram minutes after Markeys comments and got nearly 8,000 results. The listings ranged from handguns of every description to a Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine gun.
But then, in real time, the results began to shift for people throughoutthe WIRED office. The number of results dwindled with subsequent searches, then disappeared entirely before reappearing a short time later with the addendum Recent posts from #gunsforsale are currently hidden because the community has reported some content that may not meet Instagrams community guidelines. Instagram, and its parent company Facebook, didnt say so, but it appeared that Markeyilluminated an unintended use of the platform and the company was struggling to keep it in check.
Instagrams guidelinesspecifically state thatthe platform is not a place to support or praise terrorism, organized crime, or hate groups. Offering sexual services, buying or selling firearms and illegal or prescription drugs (even if its legal in your region) is also not allowed. That may sound like a prohibition on listing guns for sale, but its not that simple. And while more recent #gunsforsale posts may be hidden, older ones still appearand may even be legit.
Back in March 2014, Facebook issued a statement that users will not be permitted to specify no background check required, nor can they offer to transact across state lines without a licensed firearms dealer. Essentially, that means no backroom deals, but posts about legitimate sales are fine.
In a statement to WIRED, a Facebook representative said, When we are made aware of content that promotes the private sale of regulated items whether in groups, on profiles, or on pages, it will be deleted. The same policies and enforcement apply to Instagram. We dont allow people to advertise gun sales on Facebook or Instagram. We also do not allow people to post offering to buy, sell, or trade firearms. We do allow stores or online retailers to post about a sale that would take place off of Facebook.
The Armory, located in Woburn, Massachusetts, does exactly that. Store director Matt DeVito says The Armory started posting items for sale on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter two years ago. Its free marketing. The gun community is very active on lots of forms of social media, he says. It allows us to open up our clientele from just here in Massachusetts to sell across the entire country.
To complete a sale online, a licensed dealer like The Armory receives a direct inquiry from a buyer via contact information listed in the social media post. The store then ships the gun to a licensed dealer near the buyer, who must prove their identity before receiving the firearm.
But a cursory search of #gunsforsale or combinations including #guns, #forsale, #ak47, or #ar15 yielded results from users who clearly are not licensed firearms dealers, and who specifically offer to conduct business through direct messages within Instagram. That violates the platforms user agreement and terms of service, but unless they are reported by other Instagram usersor mentioned, say, on the Senate floorthose posts may never get removed.
Instagram is not intended to be a marketplace. But havingusers police ads that violate guidelines suggests there is an acceptable amount of content that evades detection. Its time for social media platforms to stop relying on users and start looking for these things themselves.
Additional reporting by Charley Locke and Angela Watercutter
New Stanford research on thousands of police interactions found significant racial differences in Oakland, California, police conduct toward African Americans in traffic and pedestrian stops, while offering a big data approach to improving police-community relationships there and elsewhere.
Go to the web site to view the video.
Video by Kurt Hickman
Stanford researchers found racial disparities in how Oakland Police Department officers treated African Americans on routine traffic or pedestrian stops. The researchers suggest 50 measures to improve police-community relations, such as better data collection, bias training, and changing cultures and systems.
The report makes 50 specific recommendations for police agencies to consider, such as more expansive data collection and more focused efforts to change the nature of mindsets, policies and systems in law enforcement that contribute to racial disparities.
Among the findings, African American men were four times more likely to be searched than whites during a traffic stop. African Americans were also more likely to be handcuffed, even if they ultimately were not arrested.
Across the United States, the report noted, police agencies are guided by the commitment to serve communities with fairness, respect and honor. Yet tensions between police and communities of color are documented to be at an all-time high.
Oakland, located in the San Francisco Bay Area, has a population of 390,724; 34.5 percent is white, 28 percent is African American, and 25.4 percent is Latino, according to 2010 census data.
The Oakland Police Department has been under federal monitoring for more than a decade since the so-called Riders case involving police misconduct. The Stanford researchers, led by psychologist Jennifer Eberhardt, were engaged to assist Oakland in complying with the federal order to collect and analyze stop data by race. Oakland police started wearing body cameras in 2010 one of the first departments in the U.S. to do so.
The two-year Stanford study, conducted in close cooperation and collaboration with the Oakland Police Department, examined data from body camera footage, police stops and reports, and community and resident surveys.
Jennifer Eberhardt, an associate professor of psychology at Stanford who led the research study, offered training to the Oakland Police Department on how implicit bias can influence decision making and behavior. (Image credit: Kurt Hickman)
Eberhardt applauded the willingness of the Oakland Police Department to share its data and the departments interest in identifying new ways to build better ties between law enforcement and the local residents. Transparency and data will set you free, she said.
Oakland Police Assistant Chief Paul Figueroa said, This report provides a road map forward for the Oakland Police Department and police agencies across the country. This critical work moves from data collection to action. Oakland has already implemented many of the recommendations in the report and will move quickly to implement the remaining items.
He added, I would like to thank Stanford University and SPARQ for their commitment to this multi-year project. Their strong research methodologies are evident throughout the report. Throughout this project they involved numerous stakeholders, held listening sessions, and included voices at all levels. This has not been an easy task when fairness in policing and all criminal justice systems are in question.
Eberhardt is a faculty director of Stanford SPARQ, which stands for Social Psychological Answers to Real-world Questions. The Oakland police project is an example of how SPARQ partners with government, businesses and nonprofits to craft solutions to pressing issues in communities.
Research findings
The study analyzed traffic stop data from police body cameras that occurred between April 1, 2013, and April 30, 2014. During this period, 28,119 traffic and pedestrian stops were recorded by 510 police officers. Police can legally stop people on the basis of traffic violations, probable cause, reasonable suspicion, or for being on probation or parole, among other reasons.
With audio recordings from a one-month period, researchers scrutinized more than 157,000 words, including the specific language and tone officers used with residents during traffic stops. They tracked words related to respect or anxiety, and words that reveal how the interaction went and how the resident experienced the interaction with the officer.
The researchers also examined more than 1,000 police reports or narratives on traffic stops and surveyed more than 400 Oakland residents about their views on police-community issues.
They found that 60 percent of police stops in Oakland, or nearly 17,000 stops, were made of African Americans. This rate is more than three times that of the next most common group, Hispanics (whites accounted for 13 percent). The research also showed that:
When officers report being able to identify the race of the person before stopping them, the person stopped is much more likely to be African American (62 percent) than when officers couldnt tell the race (48 percent).
African American men were more likely to be handcuffed during a stop (1 out of 4 times) than whites (1 out of 15 times), excluding arrests.
African American men were also more likely to be searched (1 in 5 times vs. 1 in 20 times for whites), though officers were no more likely to make a recovery from those searches.
African American men were more likely to be arrested after a stop by police 1 in every 6 vs. 1 in 14 for white men.
Also, 77 percent of Oakland police officers who made stops during the 13-month period never discretionarily searched a white person, but 65 percent did so with an African American person.
Likewise, 74 percent of these officers did not handcuff a white person who was not ultimately arrested, yet 72 percent did so with an African American person. Also, the degree of racial disparities in handcuffing and arrests was lower for more experienced officers than less experienced ones.
Racial disparities are real, as this research shows, Eberhardt said. Differences exist in how police officers treated African Americans compared to those of other ethnic groups.
The researchers point out that racial disparities are not defined as overt racism in fact, they found no such acts by Oakland police officers while conducting the study. It is not so much an individual as an institutional problem or pattern, they note.
Co-investigators involved in the study were Rebecca C. Hetey, a postdoctoral psychology research associate; Benot Monin, a psychology professor; and Amrita Maitreyi, a psychology researcher, all of Stanford.
Hetey said, We found a consistent and persistent pattern of racial disparity, even when we controlled for variables such as crime rate.
She said that drilling deep into the data allowed the researchers to identify problem areas and evidence-based recommendations.
Were using science to diagnose the problem and design solutions that can realistically work, Hetey said.
Recommendations
The researchers suggest that police departments in Oakland and elsewhere can overcome a subtle bias problem. Using better data, providing education and becoming informed are the first steps.
In fact, the Stanford researchers have already conducted training workshops on the subject of bias for about 700 or 90 percent of the sworn officers in Oakland. The researchers suggest brief, frequent training sessions with feedback on effectiveness for all police forces.
In the report, Eberhardt wrote, Our recommendations are broad but are anchored in our primary mission of pushing agencies to collect more data and to do more with the data they collect. For many agencies, this will require a change in mindset: it requires seeing themselves not only as crime-fighting institutions, but also as institutions of learning.
In broad terms, the researchers recommendations suggest:
Use data to measure what matters: Continue collecting traffic-stop data, expand these efforts and update the forms; and standardize, track and analyze crime-related communications provided to officers.
Leverage police body-worn camera footage: Use the footage to train officers and evaluate policies and require officers to self-audit racially charged footage.
Make data accessible: Build a stop data dashboard; automate stop data and narrative analyses; use automatic speech recognition systems; and improve the back-up systems for footage.
Collaborate with data partners: Hire a data manager and partner with experts to analyze traffic stop data.
Improve feedback channels: Give officers feedback on their stop performance and more efficient ways for them to communicate with command staff; conduct customer-service audits after routine stops and community surveys.
Train officers in social tactics: Expand officer training topics; hold more frequent but shorter workshops; hire a training coordinator; and measure the effects of all trainings.
Increase positive community contact: Hold monthly relationship-building meetings; require squad-based community projects; train officers and community members together; show more care in high-crime areas; and hold critical incident discussions and trainings and annual conferences on police-community relations.
Enhance risk management: Identify officers who may be problems; monitor and reduce time pressures, stress and fatigue on officers; review policies on handcuffing people in searches, searching people who are on probation or parole, and asking people whether they are on probation or parole.
On the latter point, the Stanford researchers suggest that police agencies publish an annual Racial Impact Statement on stop data and analyze the data for trends over time, as well as develop early warning systems to head off future problems of bias.
Eberhardt and her colleagues said that by becoming learning institutions, police agencies in Oakland and elsewhere can understand how to best change their cultures.
Increasingly, it is a matter of law. In California, law enforcement agencies around the state will soon be required to collect stop data and to track that data by race.
This new law presents an opportunity for change. The Oakland Police Department leadership has begun to answer the call for change, the researchers wrote.
What do the findings mean?
Prior research, the Stanford scholars point out, suggests that stereotypes of African Americans lead people to believe they are dangerous, violent, aggressive criminal.
But the problem is even deeper, Eberhardt said. Independent of ones own values, biased attitudes can arise from observing how other people behave toward African Americans in a given situation or environment.
For example, if officers frequently witness the handcuffing and searching of African Americans, this behavior becomes normal and expected a script for what is supposed to happen, according to the report.
Hetey said racial disparities are not overt, intentional biases, but are best described as something people are generally unaware of or almost knee-jerk reactions to which people have been conditioned as a result of social norms, group pressure, culture, and systemic and policy influences.
Eberhardt pointed out that decades of research in social psychology and sociology suggest that norms and culture are significant drivers of behavior.
The reach of such implicit bias, Eberhardt wrote, is enduring and often unrecognized, especially in the context of criminal justice. Implicit bias refers to the attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding, actions and decisions in an unconscious manner.
Sig Sauer MCX .177 Co2 Air Rifle Review, Shooting Test, Loading Tips!
Folksthe demonization of the AR-15 rifle has begun in the media. The usual talking points about its lethality, its rate of fire, and its scariness are coursing through the veins of the anti-gun Left following the Orlando attack. Omar Mateen committed the worst mass shooting in U.S. history on Sunday morning, which will likely be reclassified as a terrorist attack, when he murdered 49 people at a gay nightclub (Pulse). As Bob Owens and Streiff noted at Bearing Arms and RedState respectively, Mateen didnt use an AR-15 rifle, but the media has a narrative to dole out (via CBS News):
A law enforcement source said that the shooting suspect legally purchased recently the two weapons used in the attack at the shooting center in Port St. Lucie near his Fort Pierce home. He had a Glock 17 handgun purchased on June 5, a Sigsauer MCX assault rifle purchased on June 4 on his person during the shootout, and investigators later found a .38-caliber weapon in his vehicle.
Owens noted that the rifle Mateen bought has no major parts that interface with AR-15s in any way, shape, or form:
The rifle used by the Islamist terrorist in Orlando was instead a Sig Sauer MCX carbine, a modular, multi-caliber (able to swap to different calibers, including 5.56 NATO, 300 BLK, and 7.6239) rifle system that sometimes utilizes STANAG magazines common to more than 60 different firearms, but otherwise has no major parts that interface with AR-15s in any way, shape or form.
This of course will make no difference at all to the anti-gun politimedia, who dont particularly care about factual accuracy and who likely wouldnt be able to tell an AR-15 from a toaster oven if their lives depended on it.
Via Streiff, the purpose of the narrative is to clear a path for its prohibition for civilian use:
Now this Sig is every bit as dangerous as an AR-15. It is sold in a semi-auto version to sportsmen and in full automatic by assorted special operations forces worldwide. The point is that it is not an AR-15 and no one, other than the media, ever claimed it was an AR-15. In fact, there is no humanly possible way it could be mistaken for an AR-15. This is not a mistake. This is a narrative. It is designed to build a consensus that the AR-15 is uniquely dangerous and contrive to outlaw it. Once that is accomplished the cry will be raised to outlaw similar weapons.
This is aSig Sauer MCX Carbine:
We must remain vigilant. We must fight back against this narrative, but as of right nowa new ban on so-called assault weapons isnt going to happen, folks. That could change if we lose to Hillary Clinton in November, and if Republicans lose the Senate. The Second Amendment is on the ballot. Choose wiselyand by wisely I mean, saying h**l no to Clinton.
Our sister site,Bearing Arms, will have a more detailed post about the difference between the two rifles later today. Stay tuned.
Jennifer Aniston Sparks New Pregnancy Rumors in PDA Bikini Pics with Husband Justin Theroux
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Jennifer Aniston Shows Off Toned Arms in Tank Top After Rep Denies Pregnancy Rumors
Jennifer Aniston clearly isnt letting pregnancy rumors get in the way of spending some time with her main man.
The 47-year-old actress was spotted out in New York City with husband Justin Theroux on Wednesday amid reports that the couple is expecting their first child together, which Aniston"s rep was quick to deny.
EXCLUSIVE: Jennifer Aniston Reveals Why She"s Intimidated by Her Pal Julia Roberts
Aniston showed off her toned arms in a white tank top while exposing the lower half of a noticeably flat tummy. She paired the casual tank with blue trousers and tan sandals, a baseball cap and sunglasses.
Photo: 247PAPS.TV/Splash News
Photo: 247PAPS.TV/Splash News
Rumors started that the former Friends star was pregnant after The Daily Mail obtained pictures of Aniston in a bikini during a getaway with Theroux in Eleuthera, Bahamas, on June 11. In Touch also put one of Aniston"s bikini photos on this week"s cover with the headline, "Jen"s Finally Pregnant."
EXCLUSIVE: Jennifer Aniston Is at a "Peaceful" Place in Life
However, Aniston"s rep told ET on Wednesday, "She is not pregnant," adding: "What you see is her having just enjoyed a delicious big lunch and her feeling safe on private property."
WATCH: Jennifer Aniston Calls Marriage to Justin Theroux "Normal and Fun"
Watch the video above for more on the pregnancy rumors.
Leone Village Performance For 2016 Flag Day Related Coverage
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) First, Governor Mike Pence ordered flags in the state to be at half-staff for an Indiana native who died at Fort Hood. Before they could even be raised, President Obama made a half-staff proclamation to the whole country in honor of the Orlando shooting victims.Since Sunday June 5,thats how flags have flown across the state, and people have noticed.
I notice them at school a lot, Storm Corwin said. Whenever I would look outside or we would do the Pledge of Allegiance Id notice they were at half staff all the time and Id always ask.
However, Corwin said often her teachers didnt know why the flags wereat half staff, and othersI talked to dont know what constitutes that a flag should be flying at half-staff.
I dont know, Corwin said, I honestly dont know.
Any type of tragedy, Emily Purinton guessed.
According to U.S. Code, the President and state governors have the authority to issue proclamations for flags to be flown at half-staff when someone in federal or state government dies or in the event of a death of an Armed Forces member during active duty.However, the President does have the power to make proclamations even if it doesnt meet the previous guidelines like in the case of the Orlando shooting.
Although it makes people sad to see the flag at half staff, it also allows them to get out of the hustle and bustle of everyday life and remember those who are gone.
Sometimes when I see [flags at half-staff]I think to myself about what we are going through, the stuff thats going on around the world, Lawrence Thompson said.
Were all going though stuff so when you see something like [a flag at half staff]you should support it, Tyrus Brown said.
6/14/16: Rangers outmuscle the A"s 10-6 in Oakland
Oakland police and ambulance crews respond to a reported multiple shooting near the 1300 block of Franklin Street early Tuesday evening. (Courtesy @SamanthaLari Youngman) (George Kelly)
OAKLAND -- A 17-year-old Antioch girl gunned down while attending a vigil in downtown Oakland has been identified as Reggina Jefferies, police said Wednesday.
Reggina, a Deer Valley High School student, was with a group about 5:41 p.m. Tuesday, on the 1300 block of Franklin Street, when a gunman opened fire. She was hospitalized in grave condition and later died; three other teens, two boys and a girl, suffered gunshot wounds and were treated and released from a hospital, according to police.
Police did not release any information on a motive for the shooting. Shell casings were discovered at the scene and a vehicle was seeing fleeing eastbound on 13th Street afterward. No suspects have been arrested.
The group was attending a vigil in the area of 14th Street and Broadway for two 15-year-old Oakland boys who drowned in Stanislaus County over Memorial Day weekend.
Josiah Pratt-Rose and his best friend, Jamari Wilson, died May 28 after jumping into the Woodward Reservoir, apparently without life jackets, according to the Stanislaus County Sheriff"s Department.
Oakland police initially said there were as many as six people wounded by gunfire Tuesday, but later changed that figure to four after further medical evaluation determined some of the injuries were not caused by the shooting itself.
Pastor Kevin Hope, who officiated the funeral services for the two boys at Acts Full Gospel Church in East Oakland Tuesday, said he was shocked by the events that happened at the vigil afterward.
"She performed a praise dance during the funeral service, she did a fantastic job. It"s just an unfortunate tragedy," Hope said.
Several hundred people attended a vigil for Reggina Wednesday evening, sharing stories about the teenager.
"Let"s stop the killing and start the healing," people in the crowd shouted after one fiery testimony from one woman who lamented having to attend funerals as well as graduations.
As Oakland police officers stood off to one side by the Golden Lotus, where wooden panels replaced the glass shot out by bullets Tuesday, people stood and listened, showing equal measures of sadness and resolve.
Sharon Rafferty, mother of Kris Rafferty, who was on the Fruitvale BART platform when Oscar Grant was later shot and killed by a BART officer, talked about the lingering pain of losing her son to gun violence.
"It doesn"t just hurt, and these thugs or cowards on the street, they don"t realize the damage that they do," she said. "Yes, you have killed your enemies, but you have also killed the mothers, the fathers, the children. ... It"s not right."
Police and Crime Stoppers of Oakland are offering up to $25,000 in reward for information leading to the arrest of the shooter. Anyone with information can call police at 510-238-3821 or Crime Stoppers at 510-777-8572.
The 2-year-old boy killed by an alligator at Disney World is one of at least 15 deadly gator attacks in Florida since 1997.
Experts at the East Texas Gators and Wildlife Park in Grand Saline, Texas say alligators possess a lethal combination of strength and speed. They can run and swim at speeds of more than 20 miles an hour and use their tails to thrust nearly their entire body out of the water, reports CBS News correspondent Omar Villafranca.
Charlie Harris takes care of 41 alligators at his East Texas gator ranch.
"In the wild, alligators will eat once every three to five days. Here, we feed them twice a day, every day," Harris said.
All of the reptiles swimming in his pond were caught living too close to humans, including one 13-foot giant. Harris said some alligators are migrating from swamps to the city.
"They come over on rivers and they go up the creeks and the creeks go to the lakes," Harris said.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, American alligators live in waters all along the Gulf Coast, from Texas to Florida, even in Oklahoma and Arkansas and as far north as North Carolina.
Last month, police captured one gator lurking near a Dallas middle school. And in suburban Houston, cops had to lasso a nearly seven-foot-long gator found in the middle of the road.
Rachel Lilienthal knows the terror alligators can unleash on people. She lost her arm in an alligator attack last year while swimming in the Wekiva River, about 20 miles north of Orlando. She was rescued by two people in a nearby kayak.
"It rolled me around the water. I had no idea how long it was going to keep me underwater," Lilienthal recalled. "Alligator swims off, I"m like, "I"m free," and then I realized I have only one arm. And that was... that was devastating."
Harris said alligators are dangerous because of the way they hide and hunt.
"They are more active at night. They do most of their feeding at night," Harris explained. "They can appear and disappear like a ghost. Alligators are an opportunist eater. They will lay and wait for hours and hours until something comes along close enough that they can s****h it up."
In Florida, since 1948, there have been 384 reporter alligator bites not caused by someone handling or intentionally harassing a gator. Deaths are more rare - only 24 of those attacks resulted in fatalities.
