Police Shootings, Gaza, The Turkey Farm: 3 News Stories You Should Read Today – 5/15/2018
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In the category of: The numbers are staggering
In One Year, 57,375 Years of Life Were Lost to Police Violence
A new study finds police killings exact a toll greater than accidental gun deaths.
To find the true toll of police violence, the authors focused on years of life lost. They used data from “The Counted” a Guardian database of people killed by police, to find the races and ages of everyone who died at the hands of police in the United States, then compared them to the average life expectancy for those groups.
Of the 1,146 and 1,092 victims of police violence in 2015 and 2016, respectively, the authors found 52 percent were white, 26 percent were black, and 17 percent were Hispanic. Together, these individuals lost 57,375 years to police violence in 2015 and 54,754 to police violence in 2016. Young people and people of color were disproportionately affected: 52 percent of all the years of life lost were lost by nonwhite, non-Hispanic ethnic groups. Whites also tended to be killed by police at older ages than African Americans and Hispanics—though this is partly because in the general population, whites are older on average than the other groups.
In the category of: Repeating Hamas did it over and over doesn’t make it true.
Gaza protests: All the latest updates
Thousands of Palestinians also wounded by Israeli live fire during rallies calling for the right of return for refugees.
At least 58 Palestinians were killed on Monday in Gaza and more than 2,700 others wounded as the Israeli army fired live ammunition, tear gas and firebombs at protesters assembled along several points near the fence with Israel.
The demonstrations, which coincided with protests against the opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem, are part of a weeks-long movement calling for the right of return for Palestinian refugees to the areas they were forcibly expelled from in 1948.
The US blames Hamas for Gaza violence
White House spokesman Raj Shah has accused Hamas’ leaders of making a “gruesome and unfortunate propaganda attempt” after the killing of at least 55 Palestinian protesters by Israeli forces.
Speaking to reporters at a White House briefing, Shah also declined to join with other countries – including France and Britain – in calling for Israel to exercise restraint in its response to the demonstrations.
The White House instead reiterated the Trump administration’s refrain that Israel had a right to defend itself.
Trump vs. the “Deep State”
How the Administration’s loyalists are quietly reshaping American governance.
Trump is less impeded than ever, a fact that impresses even those he has mocked and spurned. Stephen Bannon (who Trump said had “lost his mind”) recently told me, “He is unchained. This is primal Trump—back to the leader he was during the campaign, the same one the American people voted into office. There are no more McMasters in the apparatus. He’s got shit he’s got to get done, and he’s just going to get it done.”
Midway through its second year, Trump’s White House is at war within and without, racing to banish the “disloyals” and to beat back threatening information. Bit by bit, the White House is becoming Trump’s Emerald City: isolated, fortified against nonbelievers, entranced by its myth-maker, and constantly vulnerable to the risks of revelation. ♦
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