Tracy Martin (L) and Sybrina Fulton, the parents of Trayvon Martin, participate in a candlelight vigil to mark the anniversary of the shooting death of their son in New York, February 26, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Keith Bedford
Hiển thị các bài đăng có nhãn report. Hiển thị tất cả bài đăng
Hiển thị các bài đăng có nhãn report. Hiển thị tất cả bài đăng
Thứ Sáu, 5 tháng 4, 2013
Thứ Ba, 2 tháng 4, 2013
Report Sees Guns as Path to Safety in Schools - New York Times
By Marcus Mabry, Ben Werschkul, Channon Hodge, Pedro Rafael Rosado, Axel Gerdau, Erica Berenstein and Alyssa Kim
N.R.A. Unveils Plan to Arm School Guards: The Times's Sheryl Gay Stolberg discusses a new proposal commissioned by the National Rifle Association to place trained guards in American schools."
WASHINGTON — With the Senate set to debate gun control this month, a National Rifle Association task force released a 225-page report on Tuesday that called for armed police officers, security guards or staff members in every American school, and urged states to loosen gun restrictions to allow trained teachers and administrators to carry weapons.
Asa Hutchinson, a former Republican congressman from Arkansas who led the task force, unveiled the report at a packed news conference with unusually heavy security, including a bomb-sniffing yellow Labrador retriever. A dozen officers in plain clothes and uniforms stood watch as he spoke; one warned photographers to “remain stationary” during the event.
Among the study’s central conclusions is that “the presence of armed security personnel adds a layer of security and diminishes response time” in a shooting, Mr. Hutchinson said. He cited a 1997 Mississippi case in which an assistant principal ran to his truck to retrieve a .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol and subdued a gunman who had already killed two students.
The recommendations — which also included expanding the police presence in schools — drew immediate criticism from gun control advocates and many Democrats, who have been fighting to tighten gun restrictions after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., in December.
“Arming the teacher is merely a response to the last tragedy,” said Representative Mike Thompson, a California Democrat who is chairman of a House task force on gun violence. “The one before that was in a shopping mall in Oregon, and the one before that was in a movie theater in Colorado. I don’t think the proper response is to arm all the projectionists in the movie theaters or all the vendors in the mall.”
After the Newtown shooting, Wayne LaPierre, the rifle association’s executive director, announced that the association would come up with a plan to put armed guards in every school. Technically, Mr. Hutchison’s task force is independent of the rifle association, even though it paid for the study, and Mr. LaPierre was not present on Tuesday. But critics see no distinction between the two.
Marian Wright Edelman, president of the Children’s Defense Fund, an advocacy group here, criticized the study as “nothing more than a continuation of the N.R.A.’s attempts to prey on America’s fears, saturate our schools with more guns and turn them into armed fortresses.”
But the report did get support from at least one Newtown parent: Mark Mattioli, whose 6-year-old son, James, was killed at Sandy Hook.
“I think politics needs to be set aside here, and I hope this doesn’t lead to name-calling,” said Mr. Mattioli, who joined Mr. Hutchinson at the news conference. “This is a recommendation for solutions, real solutions that will make our kids safer. That’s what we need.”
The panel called on the Departments of Homeland Security, Education and Justice to coordinate school safety efforts and provide grant money for schools to assess their ability to prevent and respond to attacks. It recommended that officers or employees who are armed take a 40- to 60-hour training course to be developed by the rifle association based on a model the task force has designed.
The group also called on states to require schools to develop security plans. Most schools do not have a formal written security policy, the task force found, and even when such plans exist they are often inadequate.
But how and whether the task force recommendations will be put into effect — and what it would cost to do so — was unclear.
The timing of Tuesday’s announcement was not a coincidence: Congress will wrap up its spring recess after this week and is expected to consider gun legislation after lawmakers return. President Obama has called for tough new controls on gun ownership, but the prospects for such legislation are murky — a testimony to the rifle association’s prowess as a lobbying force.
A plan to revive and revamp a ban on assault weapons, which expired in 2004, is almost certain to be defeated. Mr. Obama is pushing for a measure that would impose mandatory background checks for gun buyers, and the Senator Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, the majority leader, has promised to present a bill that would expand background checks to the floor for a vote. But Senate passage is hardly assured.
Thứ Tư, 27 tháng 3, 2013
IPCC report on Bettison claims due
27 March 2013 Last updated at 22:10 ET
A report into alleged misconduct by former West Yorkshire Chief Constable Sir Norman Bettison is due later.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission has been investigating allegations he gave misleading information after the 1989 Hillsborough tragedy in which 96 football fans died.
At the time, Sir Norman was a chief inspector with South Yorkshire Police.
He resigned from West Yorkshire Police in 2012, saying the inquiry was "a distraction" to the force.
He is also facing a second allegation that he attempted to influence the decision-making process of the West Yorkshire Police Authority in connection with its own inquiries into the matter.
While serving with the South Yorkshire force, Sir Norman was a key figure in compiling its report into how it handled the aftermath of the tragedy.
Although the force's investigation has since been discredited, Sir Norman has always denied being involved in any cover-up.
Last autumn, following his resignation as Chief Constable, the West Yorkshire Police Authority asked the IPCC to investigate whether Sir Norman had tried to interfere with its inquiries into his role at Hillsborough.
When he resigned last October, five months before his scheduled retirement, Sir Norman said he would co-operate fully with the IPCC investigations.
The IPCC said his departure would not prevent Sir Norman from being prosecuted should criminal offences be identified.
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