ACLU: Taking Action to Stop Police Sexual Violence

Taking Action to Stop Police Sexual Violence

Last month, a 47-year-old Black woman named Ternell Brown filed a complaint against the Baton Rouge Police Department in Louisiana for hauling her to a warehouse and subjecting her to a sexually abusive search after a traffic stop. This is the same police department that in 2016 fatally shot Alton Sterling while he was lying on the ground, leading to uprisings. And now, three Baton Rouge officers have been arrested for allegedly destroying video evidence of excessive force during a strip search.

This is shocking, but not surprising. Sexual abuse, like that alleged by Ms. Brown, is one pernicious form of persistent police violence. And like excessive force, it grows from conditions that condone or fail to curtail police misconduct. To address police sexual abuse, authorities should prevent its occurrence and repair its harms.

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The Prevalence of Sexual Violence by Police

Police sexual violence is when officers, on or off duty, commit sexually abusive or degrading acts against others. This may include sexual harassment, sexual assault, invasive and degrading frisks and strip searches, and sexual extortion. Police sexual violence is grossly underreported, but research shows it’s systemic. One study found that, over a 10-year period, a police officer was caught committing sexual abuse or sexualized misconduct at least every five days. Another found that sexual violence was the second most reported form of police misconduct, after excessive force.

The people most targeted by police for sexual violence are from historically marginalized backgrounds, including women of color, LGBTQ+ people, sex workers, and people vulnerable to threats of incarceration. For example, the ACLU and the ACLU of Montana recently filed an amicus brief supporting L.B., a Northern Cheyenne woman who was sexually assaulted by an on-duty federal law enforcement officer after calling for help. The officer coerced L.B. to perform sexual acts by threatening to arrest her and have social services remove her children.

This is not merely a problem of “bad apples.” It’s a problem enabled by power imbalances between officers and community members and a patriarchal culture of secrecy and silence. It commonly arises in police departments where leadership and local authorities ignore and tolerate patterns of abuse. One of us, for example, recently represented a Black man with a substance use disorder who was beaten and repeatedly punched in the groin by officers from the Bronx Narcotics Unit. There were 560 prior lawsuits against this unit, with over 150 for excessive force, including for sexually abusive conduct like strip searches and handcuffing a naked pregnant woman to a bed. The officers involved had previously been defendants in at least 50 lawsuits alleging similar misconduct. None appear to have faced consequences, and they’re still on the job. The Baton Rouge Police Department also has a long record of excessive force and brutality complaints.

We Need Accountability for Those Who Commit Violence Against Native Women

Source: American Civil Liberties Union

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How to Rectify and Repair Police Sexual Violence

There’s no simple solution to the problem of police sexual violence. A solid start, though, is acting to rectify the violence and repair its harm.

In this context, “rectify” means establishing systems inside and outside a police department that interrupt and prevent abuse. One example is a system whereby a police department tracks lawsuits and complaints against officers and investigates allegations to determine whether there’s a widespread problem. If their investigation reveals a problem, they take corrective action. Research shows that such proactive interventions can reduce excessive force. Layered over this should be outside, transparent review to ensure proper, timely action is taken. Had Baton Rouge used a system like this, Ms. Brown could have been saved from that horrific ordeal.

Rectify also means preventing recurrence by holding officers accountable and demonstrating governmental commitment to upending norms of abuse. This includes strengthening discipline and civil liability for officers who commit sexual violence. The L.B. case, for example, asks the court to recognize that law enforcement officers act in the scope of their employment — and that the government is therefore liable under the Federal Tort Claims Act — when they weaponize their authority to commit sexual assault. The ACLU and the New York Civil Liberties Union have also supported expanding the power of civilian review boards to investigate police sexual violence.

“Repair” means ensuring the harms from police sexual violence are redressed at an individual and community level. Localities should act swiftly to acknowledge the harm and compensate those injured, without subjecting people with credible claims to painful and often prolonged litigation. Localities should recognize that police violence can ripple through heavily policed neighborhoods, causing widespread trauma and leaving many estranged from law enforcement. Localities should work with those in the impacted community to design safety and accountability measures on their terms. This might include measures like investing in health care or housing for those affected, or investing in alternatives to police like civilian traffic enforcement or mental health responders. And repair must avoid reliance on overly punitive carceral responses that drive unjust racial disparities and only further harm impacted communities.

In this way, localities will not only heal the damage that police violence causes; they will help to build communities that are safer for all.

We need you with us to keep fighting

Donate today

Published October 20, 2023 at 01:16AM
via ACLU https://ift.tt/TmRw8BF

ACLU: Taking Action to Stop Police Sexual Violence

Taking Action to Stop Police Sexual Violence

Last month, a 47-year-old Black woman named Ternell Brown filed a complaint against the Baton Rouge Police Department in Louisiana for hauling her to a warehouse and subjecting her to a sexually abusive search after a traffic stop. This is the same police department that in 2016 fatally shot Alton Sterling while he was lying on the ground, leading to uprisings. And now, three Baton Rouge officers have been arrested for allegedly destroying video evidence of excessive force during a strip search.

This is shocking, but not surprising. Sexual abuse, like that alleged by Ms. Brown, is one pernicious form of persistent police violence. And like excessive force, it grows from conditions that condone or fail to curtail police misconduct. To address police sexual abuse, authorities should prevent its occurrence and repair its harms.

---

The Prevalence of Sexual Violence by Police

Police sexual violence is when officers, on or off duty, commit sexually abusive or degrading acts against others. This may include sexual harassment, sexual assault, invasive and degrading frisks and strip searches, and sexual extortion. Police sexual violence is grossly underreported, but research shows it’s systemic. One study found that, over a 10-year period, a police officer was caught committing sexual abuse or sexualized misconduct at least every five days. Another found that sexual violence was the second most reported form of police misconduct, after excessive force.

The people most targeted by police for sexual violence are from historically marginalized backgrounds, including women of color, LGBTQ+ people, sex workers, and people vulnerable to threats of incarceration. For example, the ACLU and the ACLU of Montana recently filed an amicus brief supporting L.B., a Northern Cheyenne woman who was sexually assaulted by an on-duty federal law enforcement officer after calling for help. The officer coerced L.B. to perform sexual acts by threatening to arrest her and have social services remove her children.

This is not merely a problem of “bad apples.” It’s a problem enabled by power imbalances between officers and community members and a patriarchal culture of secrecy and silence. It commonly arises in police departments where leadership and local authorities ignore and tolerate patterns of abuse. One of us, for example, recently represented a Black man with a substance use disorder who was beaten and repeatedly punched in the groin by officers from the Bronx Narcotics Unit. There were 560 prior lawsuits against this unit, with over 150 for excessive force, including for sexually abusive conduct like strip searches and handcuffing a naked pregnant woman to a bed. The officers involved had previously been defendants in at least 50 lawsuits alleging similar misconduct. None appear to have faced consequences, and they’re still on the job. The Baton Rouge Police Department also has a long record of excessive force and brutality complaints.

We Need Accountability for Those Who Commit Violence Against Native Women

Source: American Civil Liberties Union

---

How to Rectify and Repair Police Sexual Violence

There’s no simple solution to the problem of police sexual violence. A solid start, though, is acting to rectify the violence and repair its harm.

In this context, “rectify” means establishing systems inside and outside a police department that interrupt and prevent abuse. One example is a system whereby a police department tracks lawsuits and complaints against officers and investigates allegations to determine whether there’s a widespread problem. If their investigation reveals a problem, they take corrective action. Research shows that such proactive interventions can reduce excessive force. Layered over this should be outside, transparent review to ensure proper, timely action is taken. Had Baton Rouge used a system like this, Ms. Brown could have been saved from that horrific ordeal.

Rectify also means preventing recurrence by holding officers accountable and demonstrating governmental commitment to upending norms of abuse. This includes strengthening discipline and civil liability for officers who commit sexual violence. The L.B. case, for example, asks the court to recognize that law enforcement officers act in the scope of their employment — and that the government is therefore liable under the Federal Tort Claims Act — when they weaponize their authority to commit sexual assault. The ACLU and the New York Civil Liberties Union have also supported expanding the power of civilian review boards to investigate police sexual violence.

“Repair” means ensuring the harms from police sexual violence are redressed at an individual and community level. Localities should act swiftly to acknowledge the harm and compensate those injured, without subjecting people with credible claims to painful and often prolonged litigation. Localities should recognize that police violence can ripple through heavily policed neighborhoods, causing widespread trauma and leaving many estranged from law enforcement. Localities should work with those in the impacted community to design safety and accountability measures on their terms. This might include measures like investing in health care or housing for those affected, or investing in alternatives to police like civilian traffic enforcement or mental health responders. And repair must avoid reliance on overly punitive carceral responses that drive unjust racial disparities and only further harm impacted communities.

In this way, localities will not only heal the damage that police violence causes; they will help to build communities that are safer for all.

We need you with us to keep fighting

Donate today

Published October 19, 2023 at 08:46PM
via ACLU https://ift.tt/PsnRzuE

ACLU: Why School Discipline Reform Still Matters

Why School Discipline Reform Still Matters

From affirmative action to classroom censorship, race is a hot topic in our nation’s schools and in the politics of education. Unfortunately, much of the public chatter centers on efforts to restrict how or even if racial discrimination and its legacies can be taught (or explored) in classrooms and libraries. A fundamental fact, often ignored, is that a student’s race has a substantial impact on how the student experiences education, including the opportunities they are likely to be provided or denied.

Defending Our Right to Learn

What you need to know about the new string of classroom censorship and book ban attacks impacting students and teachers across the country.

Source: American Civil Liberties Union

Nowhere is this more evident than how and when Black students are formally punished. Efforts to undermine nascent school-based efforts to make classrooms more welcoming to Black students have made matters worse, ultimately creating a hostile climate. These attacks on learning about race and racism have made it even more difficult to remedy long-standing patterns of racial bias in those schools.

Today, Black students are more likely to experience all forms of discipline, from being removed from the classroom to being sent to the police. Black students with disabilities are substantially more likely than any other group to experience the most extreme forms of discipline, from losing classroom instructional time due to out-of-school suspension, to being punished through intentional physical pain in the many states where corporal punishment is still legal.

In 2023, the U.S. Education and Justice Departments took several steps to highlight unlawful discrimination they have found when investigating complaints of mistreatment over the last three presidential administrations. The departments concluded that “[D]iscrimination based on race, color, and national origin in student discipline was, and continues to be, a significant concern.” While racial disparities in school discipline do not automatically violate federal laws that ensure fairness, there are many instances in which discrimination underlies these disparities.

Careful inquiry by these federal agencies — by examining student records or other information in school files, interviewing members of school communities, and more — identified six patterns that significantly and negatively impact Black students:

• More frequent punishment for infractions that are subjectively measured — such as disorderly behavior — and for low level infractions, compared to white students.
• Harsher punishment for the same infraction. Consistently, race has been found a factor when Black students are compared to other students who have the same disciplinary records or who committed the same infraction.
• Using exclusionary interventions, such as removal from class or school, on Black students compared to white students who are found to have committed the same infractions.
• A tendency to call the police when Black students are involved, compared to white students.
• Failure by school officials to offer legitimate non-discriminatory reasons for disciplinary actions taken against Black students.
• Poor administration of discipline systems, including providing incorrect data (which often understates the impact on Black students), as well as a tendency to violate proscribed discipline procedures.

It is well established that Black students are not generally more likely to misbehave than other students, even after accounting for different socioeconomic backgrounds. Yet, adults are far more likely to punish Black students, and to punish them severely, when comparing similar conduct of their white peers.

School-to-Prison Pipeline — Back to School with ACLU of North Carolina

Despite clear evidence of its negative impact, North Carolina continues to devote millions of dollars to placing armed officers in schools.

Source: Back to School with ACLU of North Carolina

A recent report by the ACLU of North Carolina found that between 2017 and 2023, statewide law enforcement and school staff filed school-based complaints of disorderly conduct against Black students at nearly four times the rate of their white counterparts. The disparity in the rate of referrals for disorderly conduct in schools is even worse for many state counties, where adults refer Black students at a rate of 23 to 42 times more than their white classmates.

What are the responsibilities of school officials in ensuring that students are treated fairly?

Federal officials have highlighted three key guidelines to ensure the nondiscriminatory administration of student discipline.

First, schools must enforce their standards in an evenhanded way. Standards must be legitimate, and not serve as a pretext for engaging in discrimination. Disturbingly, the departments have found instances in which the stated reasons for disciplinary policies or actions were an excuse to treat certain students unfairly, rather than legitimate reasons.

Second, the “duty not to discriminate extends to those who carry out some or all of the schools’ function, including security staff, private security companies, or other contractors, as well as school district police officers or school resource officers.” This requirement is especially significant given the expansion in the number and roles of law enforcement in schools, as well as the increase in student arrests and referrals to law enforcement in the years before the pandemic. Nationwide, student arrests increased 5 percent and referrals to police increased 12 percent in just two years, according to the Department of Education.

Third, schools are generally permitted by federal law — indeed encouraged — to host programming, clubs, and other educational forums that allow children to learn about the history of race in America, the history of their own cultural groups, establish mentoring programs to support students from non-privileged backgrounds, and to organize listening sessions to hear about students’ views on what may contribute to or limit inclusive environments and positive racial climates.

These programs must remain open to all students and not promote hateful or demeaning stereotypes or violence against specific groups of people.

This year’s guidance follows prior federal resources on avoiding discrimination in school discipline and a 2015 White House summit tackling this very issue, underscoring the persistence of this problem.

Alarmingly, some of these earlier federal efforts were scuttled by the Trump/DeVos administration using the false and unsupported claim that discipline reforms aimed at reducing racial discrimination contributed to school shootings. That assertion has been debunked. Moreover, the largest discipline research study ever conducted, which examined the records of about 1 million Texas students, found that while Black students were more likely than other students to be disciplined during middle and high school years, they were less likely to commit offenses where school removal is required by law due to the seriousness of the infractions.

Discriminating against students on the basis of their race does not make schools safer — it makes them more dangerous for Black students, who are more likely to be denied equal educational opportunity because they are pushed out through harsh and inappropriate punishments. These federal resources remind us that our common goal should be to ensure that “all students attend schools where they are supported, safe, and able to access an excellent education. A school environment that is free from discrimination is essential to meeting that goal.”

We need you with us to keep fighting

Donate today

Published October 19, 2023 at 10:17PM
via ACLU https://ift.tt/br7tk5m

Zimbabwe: Technical Assistance Report—FSSR Follow up Technical Assistance—Implementation of the Basel II/III Capital Framework

Zimbabwe: Technical Assistance Report—FSSR Follow up Technical Assistance—Implementation of the Basel II/III Capital Framework
Published October 19, 2023 at 07:00AM
Read more at imf.org

ACLU: Why School Discipline Reform Still Matters

Why School Discipline Reform Still Matters

From affirmative action to classroom censorship, race is a hot topic in our nation’s schools and in the politics of education. Unfortunately, much of the public chatter centers on efforts to restrict how or even if racial discrimination and its legacies can be taught (or explored) in classrooms and libraries. A fundamental fact, often ignored, is that a student’s race has a substantial impact on how the student experiences education, including the opportunities they are likely to be provided or denied.

Defending Our Right to Learn

What you need to know about the new string of classroom censorship and book ban attacks impacting students and teachers across the country.

Source: American Civil Liberties Union

Nowhere is this more evident than how and when Black students are formally punished. Efforts to undermine nascent school-based efforts to make classrooms more welcoming to Black students have made matters worse, ultimately creating a hostile climate. These attacks on learning about race and racism have made it even more difficult to remedy long-standing patterns of racial bias in those schools.

Today, Black students are more likely to experience all forms of discipline, from being removed from the classroom to being sent to the police. Black students with disabilities are substantially more likely than any other group to experience the most extreme forms of discipline, from losing classroom instructional time due to out-of-school suspension, to being punished through intentional physical pain in the many states where corporal punishment is still legal.

In 2023, the U.S. Education and Justice Departments took several steps to highlight unlawful discrimination they have found when investigating complaints of mistreatment over the last three presidential administrations. The departments concluded that “[D]iscrimination based on race, color, and national origin in student discipline was, and continues to be, a significant concern.” While racial disparities in school discipline do not automatically violate federal laws that ensure fairness, there are many instances in which discrimination underlies these disparities.

Careful inquiry by these federal agencies — by examining student records or other information in school files, interviewing members of school communities, and more — identified six patterns that significantly and negatively impact Black students:

• More frequent punishment for infractions that are subjectively measured — such as disorderly behavior — and for low level infractions, compared to white students.
• Harsher punishment for the same infraction. Consistently, race has been found a factor when Black students are compared to other students who have the same disciplinary records or who committed the same infraction.
• Using exclusionary interventions, such as removal from class or school, on Black students compared to white students who are found to have committed the same infractions.
• A tendency to call the police when Black students are involved, compared to white students.
• Failure by school officials to offer legitimate non-discriminatory reasons for disciplinary actions taken against Black students.
• Poor administration of discipline systems, including providing incorrect data (which often understates the impact on Black students), as well as a tendency to violate proscribed discipline procedures.

It is well established that Black students are not generally more likely to misbehave than other students, even after accounting for different socioeconomic backgrounds. Yet, adults are far more likely to punish Black students, and to punish them severely, when comparing similar conduct of their white peers.

School-to-Prison Pipeline — Back to School with ACLU of North Carolina

Despite clear evidence of its negative impact, North Carolina continues to devote millions of dollars to placing armed officers in schools.

Source: Back to School with ACLU of North Carolina

A recent report by the ACLU of North Carolina found that between 2017 and 2023, statewide law enforcement and school staff filed school-based complaints of disorderly conduct against Black students at nearly four times the rate of their white counterparts. The disparity in the rate of referrals for disorderly conduct in schools is even worse for many state counties, where adults refer Black students at a rate of 23 to 42 times more than their white classmates.

What are the responsibilities of school officials in ensuring that students are treated fairly?

Federal officials have highlighted three key guidelines to ensure the nondiscriminatory administration of student discipline.

First, schools must enforce their standards in an evenhanded way. Standards must be legitimate, and not serve as a pretext for engaging in discrimination. Disturbingly, the departments have found instances in which the stated reasons for disciplinary policies or actions were an excuse to treat certain students unfairly, rather than legitimate reasons.

Second, the “duty not to discriminate extends to those who carry out some or all of the schools’ function, including security staff, private security companies, or other contractors, as well as school district police officers or school resource officers.” This requirement is especially significant given the expansion in the number and roles of law enforcement in schools, as well as the increase in student arrests and referrals to law enforcement in the years before the pandemic. Nationwide, student arrests increased 5 percent and referrals to police increased 12 percent in just two years, according to the Department of Education.

Third, schools are generally permitted by federal law — indeed encouraged — to host programming, clubs, and other educational forums that allow children to learn about the history of race in America, the history of their own cultural groups, establish mentoring programs to support students from non-privileged backgrounds, and to organize listening sessions to hear about students’ views on what may contribute to or limit inclusive environments and positive racial climates.

These programs must remain open to all students and not promote hateful or demeaning stereotypes or violence against specific groups of people.

This year’s guidance follows prior federal resources on avoiding discrimination in school discipline and a 2015 White House summit tackling this very issue, underscoring the persistence of this problem.

Alarmingly, some of these earlier federal efforts were scuttled by the Trump/DeVos administration using the false and unsupported claim that discipline reforms aimed at reducing racial discrimination contributed to school shootings. That assertion has been debunked. Moreover, the largest discipline research study ever conducted, which examined the records of about 1 million Texas students, found that while Black students were more likely than other students to be disciplined during middle and high school years, they were less likely to commit offenses where school removal is required by law due to the seriousness of the infractions.

Discriminating against students on the basis of their race does not make schools safer — it makes them more dangerous for Black students, who are more likely to be denied equal educational opportunity because they are pushed out through harsh and inappropriate punishments. These federal resources remind us that our common goal should be to ensure that “all students attend schools where they are supported, safe, and able to access an excellent education. A school environment that is free from discrimination is essential to meeting that goal.”

We need you with us to keep fighting

Donate today

Published October 19, 2023 at 05:47PM
via ACLU https://ift.tt/qxINwtC

Suriname: Third Review Under the Extended Arrangement Under the Extended Fund Facility-Press Release; Staff Report; and Statement by the Executive Director for Suriname

Suriname: Third Review Under the Extended Arrangement Under the Extended Fund Facility-Press Release; Staff Report; and Statement by the Executive Director for Suriname
Published October 16, 2023 at 07:00AM
Read more at imf.org

Republic of the Marshall Islands: 2023 Article IV Consultation-Press Release; Staff Report; and Statement by the Executive Director for Republic of the Marshall Islands

Republic of the Marshall Islands: 2023 Article IV Consultation-Press Release; Staff Report; and Statement by the Executive Director for Republic of the Marshall Islands
Published October 16, 2023 at 07:00AM
Read more at imf.org