2020
August
26
Wednesday

Monitor Daily Podcast

August 26, 2020
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A white officer was filmed shooting a Black man in the back in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Sunday while his three children watched. Outrage and riots have followed. 

Jacob Blake’s shooting once again tragically confirms racial bias in policing. Or does it?  

It turns out the research on police brutality is all over the map.  

Black men are about 2.5 times more likely to be killed by police over the life course than are white men,” a 2019 study by sociologist Frank Edwards concludes.

But commentator Coleman Hughes writes that other studies show white Americans are just as likely as Black Americans to be fatally shot by police. (One of the four research papers cited by Mr. Hughes has since been withdrawn from publication.) This isn’t to say that racism doesn’t exist in law enforcement. In fact, one of those studies found that for all non-fatal police interactions – such as traffic stops and arrests – even when they’ve been compliant, Black Americans are 21% more likely to be subject to use of (non-lethal) force than white Americans.

On average, every day three Americans are killed by police. The racial breakdown of that data can be parsed various ways. But as Mr. Hughes, a Black writer, suggests, we need an “honest and uncomfortable” conversation about the problem. And if the data suggests the problem of excessive force is less fueled by racism and more by police training and a hair-trigger mindset, that should be addressed. 

And solving that problem could make all Americans safer.

 


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

David T. Foster/Reuters
President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence appear together at the Republican National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Aug. 24, 2020.

Vice President Mike Pence offers a portrait of loyalty and durability in an administration marked by turnover and drama. Our reporter looks at what’s made this relationship work.

California wildfires: Why this year is so intense

Sometimes, extreme adversity can offer a learning experience. In the case of California’s wildfires, our reporter finds this might invigorate a rethinking of our relationship with nature.

SOURCE:

Chart 1: NASA MODIS; Chart 2: California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection; Chart 3: "Climate change presents increased potential for very large fires in the contiguous United States," International Journal of Wildland Fire

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Jacob Turcotte/Staff

Patterns

Tracing global connections

The deal has rightly been lauded as historic and a radical reframing of the path forward. But our columnist wonders about the political and value judgments, such as rule of law and stability, that once formed the core assumptions of U.S. diplomacy in the Middle East.

JAXA/NASA
A bacterial exposure experiment took place from 2015 to 2018 using the Exposed Facility located on the exterior of Kibo, the Japanese Experiment Module of the International Space Station. The researchers found that some bacteria could survive long durations in space.

The origin of life on Earth is perhaps biology’s biggest mystery. But what if life arrived from elsewhere? We look at new research that tests the resiliency of microbes transiting the cosmos.

Andreas Gebert/AP
Bayern Munich's Alphonso Davies, shown here after scoring Bayern Munich's fourth goal during a match against Eintracht Frankfurt on May 23, 2020, enjoyed a stellar season in the German Bundesliga, earning rookie of the year honors in 2020-21.

Prepare to be inspired. Our reporter profiles a young Canadian soccer star. It’s a rags-to-riches tale of a Liberian refugee who exudes humility, joy, and gratitude for his adopted home.  


The Monitor's View

AP
Women create a human chain in Minsk, Belarus, during an Aug. 23 protest against the regime of Alexander Lukashenko.

In violent conflicts, peace often comes in unexpected ways, and directly from the work of women. Take note of what happened in Belarus after a rigged election on Aug. 9 resulted in peaceful demonstrations against dictator-president Alexander Lukashenko – and then a brutal crackdown by police on the protesters.

The violence brought thousands of women to the streets of Belarus. For days in mid-August, they wore white, held flowers aloft, and talked to the police. They held hands in long chains of nonviolent civil resistance. Soon after, many workers in state factories went on strike. European leaders took notice and threatened sanctions against the regime for its violence.

As the pro-democracy protests have continued and now include a wider range of people, the regime has been forced to switch tactics. It is detaining or questioning protest leaders one by one. Much of Belarusian society is clearly no longer on the side of a violent ruler.

One leader of the women’s demonstrations, Maria Kalesnikava, explains why their use of symbols of peace and empathy – hugs, smiles, flowers, the color white – helped turn public opinion. “We decided to appeal to mutual respect and personal dignity,” she told the Atlantic Council. “These signs help to build respect between people.”

“For the last 26 years, authorities showed disrespect, humiliation, and intimidation to people in different positions. ... Anger, violence – it works for a very short term. Self-esteem, respect, love [is] something eternal,” she said.

In many countries where violence has erupted, the work of women often made a difference in peacemaking because many of them bring qualities of inclusiveness. Their role was pivotal, for example, in ending a civil war in Liberia, arranging cease-fires in Colombia, and toppling a dictator in Sudan. Based on studies, when women serve as mediators or signatories, peace accords are 35% more likely to last at least 15 years. Since 2000, when the United Nations began to focus on including more women in negotiating an end to violent conflicts, the portion of peace agreements that included a reference to women rose from 11% to 27%.

“We must not overlook the importance of increasingly involving women in peace building, because they’re rarely involved in causing the conflict in the first place,” says Nancy Lindborg, former president of the U.S. Institute of Peace.

In Belarus, the “women in white” did step up to curb police violence, thus helping to widen the appeal of moving the country to democracy. Peace can indeed come in unexpected ways.


A Christian Science Perspective

About this feature

Each weekday, the Monitor includes one clearly labeled religious article offering spiritual insight on contemporary issues, including the news. The publication – in its various forms – is produced for anyone who cares about the progress of the human endeavor around the world and seeks news reported with compassion, intelligence, and an essentially constructive lens. For many, that caring has religious roots. For many, it does not. The Monitor has always embraced both audiences. The Monitor is owned by a church – The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston – whose founder was concerned with both the state of the world and the quality of available news.

Unexpectedly caught in the middle of a riot, a man had this inspiration: “Just love.” The idea that nothing can overpower the Love that is God brought courage and the peace of mind he needed to safely leave the area, and the disturbance soon dissipated, too.


A message of love

Sergei Grits/AP
Nobel literature laureate Svetlana Alexievich (center) walks surrounded by supporters and journalists on her way to the Belarusian Investigative Committee in Minsk, Belarus, Aug. 26, 2020. Ms. Alexievich has been summoned for questioning over protests in an apparent attempt by authorities to intimidate her.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Karen Norris and Jacob Turcotte. )

A look ahead

Thanks for joining us. Come back tomorrow: We’re working on a story about the rise of fish farming in the Gulf of Mexico. 

More issues

2020
August
26
Wednesday

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