Mediaboss Marketing

Democratic Reps. Ayanna Pressley (Mass.), Cori Bush (Mo.) and other progressives are introducing new legislation seeking to transform the nations public safety response by funding and researching non-carceral alternatives to police.

The Peoples Response Act, co-led by Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), would create a new public safety agency in the Department of Health and Human Services to fund research and grants into health-centered investments in public safety.

This would include launching a federal first responders unit to support states and local governments with emergency health crises, as well as some $2.5 billion for those governments and community organizations to hire first responders who are mental health and substance abuse counselors.

For too long, our flawed approach to public safety has centered criminalization, surveillance and incarceration, rather than care, justice and healing, Pressley said in a news release.

Bush said that the vision for the legislation is to transform public safety into a system of care rather than criminalization, healing rather than incarceration, and prevention rather than policing.

Last year, in the wake of the police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other Black people, activists renewed calls to defund police departments and reinvest in communities, namely in alternative responses to 911 calls, including with mental health expert responders.

In several high-profile cases, people have been killed by police after a 911 call seeking support for a mental health crisis or substance abuse issue.

In 2019, Fort Worth police shot and killed Atatiana Jefferson, a 28-year-old Black woman, in her own home after responding to a neighbors request for a welfare check.

In January, a police officer in Killeen, Texas, fatally shot Patrick Warren, who was Black and unarmed, on the lawn of his home, after his family called for mental health support.

And earlier this year, after a neighbor called 911 reporting a man who appeared drunk in a park in Alameda, California, police arrived and handcuffed Mario Gonzalez, thenkneeled on his back for minutes, killing the 26-year-old Latino father.

Since the wave of protests last summer against racist police violence, some cities have responded by redirecting funds budgeted for law enforcement to alternative public safety efforts.

Last week in Oakland, California, for instance, the city council voted to use some $18 million (out of an over $300 million annual police budget) to fund alternatives to policing, including having unarmed fire department staff respond to nonviolent 911 calls.

Calling all HuffPost superfans!

Sign up for membership to become a founding member and help shape HuffPost's next chapter

More:
Democrats Introduce Bill To Invest In Public Safety Alternatives To Police - HuffPost

DNC Chair Jaime Harrison, Secretary Jason Rae and LGBTQ Caucus Chair Earl Fowlkes released the following statement on the 52nd anniversary of the Stonewall uprising and the 51st anniversary of the first Pride parades:

Fifty-two years ago, transgender and lesbian women of color took to the streets against the injustice and discrimination the LGBTQ community had endured for years. A year later, Pride was born and the tradition of fearlessly celebrating their identities began. Today, we celebrate the hard-won progress forged by the trailblazers who put their lives at risk for the chance for all of us to live our true selves freely and without fear.

President Biden and Democrats are dedicated to achieving equality for LGBTQ Americans. In his first weeks in office, President Biden signed executive orders directing federal agencies to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, and reversing the Trump administrations unacceptable ban on transgender individuals serving openly in the military. Not only has the president shown commitment to empowering the LGBTQ community with policies, hes demonstrated it with his administration personnel: Nearly 14 percent of the Biden administrations agency appointees identify as LGBTQ. The administration also includes the first openly gay person confirmed to serve in the Cabinet, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg; and the first openly transgender person to be confirmed by the Senate, Assistant Secretary for Health Dr. Rachel Levine.

There is more to be done to ensure that the right to live without persecution is cemented everywhere. This is why Congress must pass the Equality Act to codify into law civil rights protections for LGBTQ individuals and families across the nation. Pride is about resilience, justice, and love. We must recommit ourselves to the work for LGBTQ equalityso everyone can live freely and proudly.

###

Here is the original post:
DNC on 52nd Anniversary of Stonewall Uprising - Democrats.org

Democratic senators, led by Cory Booker of New Jersey, say they worry about how Google's products and policies may perpetuate bias. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images hide caption

Democratic senators, led by Cory Booker of New Jersey, say they worry about how Google's products and policies may perpetuate bias.

A group of Democratic senators is urging Google parent company Alphabet to investigate how its products and policies may be harming Black people.

In a letter to the tech giant's CEO, Sundar Pichai, and other executives, Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey, Ron Wyden of Oregon, Mark Warner of Virginia, Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said they worried about bias and discrimination, both in the products Google makes and the way it's handled workplace diversity.

"We are concerned about repeated instances where Alphabet missed the mark and did not proactively ensure its products and workplaces were safe for Black people," the senators wrote.

They highlighted several examples of Google products that appeared to produce biased results or potential harms for Black people.

"Google Search, its ad algorithm, and YouTube have all been found to perpetuate racist stereotypes and white nationalist viewpoints," they wrote.

They cited recent reporting from Vice showing that a new app to identify skin conditions hadn't been trained using a "sufficiently diverse" dataset and therefore wasn't effective on people with dark skin.

They also pointed to the controversial firing of prominent artificial intelligence ethicist Timnit Gebru, who was the first Black woman to be a research scientist at Google as well as a vocal critic of the company's diversity efforts.

The senators suggested the company has not made good on racial justice pledges Pichai made in a letter to employees and congressional testimony following the murder of George Floyd a year ago.

The first step, the senators said, is a "racial equity audit." They want Google to work with outside civil rights and legal experts to identify the root causes of any discrimination within the company and its tools, and what it can do to address the problems.

Google and other tech giants have long come under criticism for making slow progress in diversifying their largely white workforces. At Google, for example, only 3.7% of U.S. staff is black, according to its 2020 diversity report, compared with 2% in 2013.

The companies have also been slammed for not paying enough attention to the impact of their technologies on people of color and the way their design and development may perpetuate bias.

In their letter to Google, the lawmakers pointed to Facebook and Airbnb, which have done similar audits examining racial bias and discrimination on their platforms and within their companies after outside pressure from activists and lawmakers.

Facebook's audit, completed last year, gave a damning assessment of what the outside auditors called the company's "vexing and heartbreaking decisions" to prioritize free speech over civil rights.

The senators said a similar investigation is long overdue at Google.

"As Congress and the federal government do more to protect communities of color from civil rights violations online, companies need to do their part by examining areas for improvement and ensuring their workplaces are safe for members of these communities," they wrote.

"We can no longer rely on promises and need Alphabet to take affirmative steps to protect Black people and other people of color."

Google did not respond to NPR's request for comment.

Editor's note: Google, Facebook and Airbnb are among NPR's financial supporters.

Original post:
Senate Democrats Urge Google To Investigate Racial Bias In Its Tools And The Company - NPR

AUSTIN, Texas Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa issued the following statement on the results of the Fort Worth mayoral election:

Deborah Peoples fought a strong campaign, and I thank her for stepping forward to offer Fort Worth her powerful leadership and true commitment to building a better future for Texas fifth largest city. While we didnt make it over the line tonight, the historic turnout in todays elections shows the groundswell of Democratic energy that is rising in Fort Worth and across the state. Texans came out in high numbers today to vote against the failures of Texas Republicans, and to demand the leadership they deserve.

To everyone who added their support in our push to elect a proven leader and the first Black mayor of Fort Worth, thank you for your hard work to bring change and progress that all Fort Worth communities can share in. From registering voters to defending voting rights, Texas Democrats will keep organizing to defeat Texas Republicans and fighting like hell for Texas future.

Chair Deborah Peoples issued the following statement:

From the beginning, this campaign has been about building One Fort Worth. While one nights results may not have been what we wanted, the historic turnout sent a clear message that voters are crying out for leaders who accept Texans of all backgrounds, races, and walks of life. I will continue the fight to give more communities a seat at the table, expand prosperity to all our neighborhoods, and elect leaders who truly represent all the people.

See more here:
Texas Democrats' Statement on the Results of the Fort Worth Mayoral Election - Texas Democratic Party

The dearth of polling on the question Do people like holidays? suggests that the answer is not complicated. (J. Scott Applewhite / AP Photo)

Thank you for signing up forThe Nations weekly newsletter.

Democrats tend to leave easy points on the playing field out of a misguided sense of modesty, the term Joe Biden used recently when recounting his experiences in the Obama White House. By refusing to take a victory lap and crow about his accomplishments, President Biden argued, Barack Obama failed to maximize the political benefits from the things he did.

Political scientists call this the art of credit claiming: convincing voters that you are the reason something good has happened. Biden himself missed an opportunity when he declined to put his name on the $2,000er, I mean $1,400economic relief checks sent out earlier this year, as Donald Trump had done. Liberals tend to see that kind of politicking as tacky, which of course it is. Its also important and necessary.

Theres nothing wrong with taking the layup, with pandering to voters most basic interests. With control of the White House and Congress, and with the predictable pushback to Bidens proposed infrastructure spending bringing his honeymoon period to an end, Democrats could make an easy play to curry favor with voters by creating new federal holidays.

Sure, some of the same people now loudly complaining that no one wants to work will oppose the idea of Americans working less for any reason. But its difficult to imagine that the issue would be, on balance, anything but a net political win. (The dearth of polling on the question Do people like holidays? suggests that the answer is not complicated.)

Creating a federal holiday requires a vote in Congress. Presidents can declare holidays unilaterally, but only for a single, nonrecurring date (such as when July 4 falls on a weekend, and a different date, like July 3, is given temporary holiday status). The worst-case scenario, politically, for a unified Democratic House and Senate proposing new holidays would be to force Senate Republicans to defend using their various obstructionist tricks to prevent passage. If Democrats cant collectively win a rhetorical battle framed as We voted to give you more holidays, they refused, then perhaps politics is the wrong line of work for them.The Argument

There are obvious candidates for additional holidaysJuneteenth and Election Day leap to mindbut its worth remembering how little most Americans use holidays for their official purpose. Is Labor Day really used to solemnly remember the victories and sacrifices of the labor movement? Or is it just a three-day weekend at a point in the calendar when most of us could really use one? Growing up in Illinois, I learned firsthand that having Casimir S. Pulaski Day off from work or school was enjoyable even for the majority of people who neither knew nor cared who Pulaski was.

While the number of federal public holidays in the United States is below but roughly comparable to that of our peer nations, the absence of paid vacation time (or the meager amounts for many who have it) puts American workers at a serious disadvantage when it comes to leisure. And messaging that leisure is good, that quality of life is important would be effective. For all the political posturing around the joys of work, most of us are thrilled to take a day off when the opportunity arises.Current Issue

Subscribe today and Save up to $129.

One complicating factor is the disparity between salaried and hourly workers, since the latter are often not paid if they do get a holiday off. But the hourly pay on holidays is often at time-and-a-half or better, giving the pro-holidays faction an argument that people can still benefit economically, if not in additional leisure time.

The usual suspects like the Chamber of Commerce will wail and rend their garments over any proposal for new federal holidays, and right-wing media will try to turn it into a culture war issue regardless of whether Congress proposes Juneteenth or National Corn Dog Day (the third Saturday in March, obviously). Let them. The counterpointWouldnt it be nice to have another three-day weekend?is formidable.

Expanding the holiday calendar is not the nations most pressing matter, but that is precisely the point. With other, more difficult issues that lack consensus still on the table and Republicans forever inventing issues that pander to their base (campus cancel culture), Democrats need to find issues that enable them to do some posturing of their own. Arguing that Americans work too much and deserve some additional days off has a very limited downside.

Its OK to do some politics. I promise. Democrats should learn to pick the low-hanging fruit when its available.

See the original post here:
Democrats Should Just Create More Federal Holidays - The Nation