Tag: Police

Another police observer for assembly polls arrives in West Bengal

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Another police observer for the assembly elections in West Bengal Anil Kumar Sharma arrived here on Wednesday to oversee preparedness for the polls, a source at the CEO’s office said. The Election Commission had on Monday appointed Sharma, a retired IPS officer, as the new police observer.

The poll panel had earlier appointed Ajay V Nayak as the special general observer and Vivek Dubey as the special police observer. They have been holding meetings with government officials to overview poll preparedness and take stock of the law and order situation in the state. ”The new police observer will meet the officials soon,” the source at the office of chief electoral officer said.

Also Read: Assam Assembly Elections 2021: ADR report says 16% candidates in Phase-1 of polls face criminal cases

B Murli Kumar has also been appointed as the special expenditure observer. Elections to the 294 assembly seats in West Bengal will be held in eight phases between March 27 and April 29.

Votes will be counted on May 2.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

From Delhi to Mumbai, police officials scramble to save man showing ‘suicidal activity’ on Facebook

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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A timely alert by an Ireland-based Facebook staffer to Delhi police saved the life of a 27-year-old man, who was under financial stress because of the coronavirus lockdown and showing “suicidal activity” on the social media platform, officials said Sunday.

The man had been posting videos on Facebook that apparently showed him preparing to end his life and this raised a red flag on the social media giant’s network. Facebook feared any attempt to contact the man directly could drive him to expedite his suicide plans, officials said.

So a company official contacted Delhi Deputy Commissioner of Police (Cyber) Anyesh Roy as the phone number used to create the Facebook account was registered in the national capital. The Facebook staffer shared the details of the “suicidal activity” with Roy on his email just before 8 pm Saturday, and what began then was a race against time to save the man.

Police traced the phone number to a woman resident of east Delhi, the DCP said. Roy reached out to Deputy Commissioner of Police (East) Jasmeet Singh and they immediately sent a police team to the address but found everything fine at the residence. The case then took a turn when the woman told the police officials the Facebook account was used by her husband who had left for Mumbai two weeks ago after a fight with her.

She also said the man was working as a cook in a small hotel in Mumbai, police said. The woman had her husband’s phone number but did not know his address.

DCP Roy got in touch with his counterpart in Mumbai, DCP (Cyber) Rashmi Karandikar, but the man’s phone number was found “unreachable”. Karandikar said she received a phone call from Roy around 11pm Saturday, more than three hours after the matter first came to light in Delhi.

“Our biggest challenge was to trace him and our priority was to reach him quickly because we were told he had put out at least four videos of himself preparing to end his life by hanging. Until 12.30 am, we were struck,” Karandikar told PTI over phone from Mumbai.

The Mumbai police then asked the man’s mother to videocall him on WhatsApp, so that they would be able to trace his location, but the call got disconnected after a single ring. “The man then contacted his mother through another number and that’s how we traced his location. For an hour, one of my officers kept him engaged on phone call and tried to convince him to not take any an extreme step,” the senior Mumbai police officer said.

By 1.30 am, a police team reached his address and counselled him.
The man told Mumbai police that he was under severe financial distress for a few months because of lockdown and had fought with his wife. He said he was worried how would he be able to raise his recently born child and decided to end his life, the officer said.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

COVID-19: Maha activates single emergency helpline no ‘112’ in 5 cities

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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After a series of trials, the single emergency helpline number 112, which will connect people in distress with the police, has been made operational in five cities of Maharashtra, officials said on Friday.

Citizens in distress can get immediate assistance from police in the state on dialling the helpline number ‘112’ from their phones in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane, Nagpur and Pune, they said.

In the next phase, emergency services like police (100), fire (101), medical (108) and assistance to women in distress (1090) will be integrated with the 112 helpline number across the state, an official said.

The single emergency response number has been activated in five cities and this service will be rolled out in different parts of the state in the near future, he said.

The work of connecting remaining cities of the state with this service is also going on, the official said.

The call made on the number goes to the Emergency Response Centre and from there it is directed to police authorities to assist the citizen in distress, he explained.

In the future, other government agencies will also be integrated with the helpline number, the official said.

The response time of the call is expected to be around eight minutes, he said, adding the quality of the service will be improved gradually.

Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh had reviewed the progress of this most ambitious project in February, he said.

As part of this project, the police department is purchasing 1,502 four-wheelers and 2,269 two wheelers to respond to emergency calls in time, the official said.

Similar to the United States and many other developed countries, India had launched the service of single emergency helpline number ‘112’ in February 2019.

Initially, 16 states and Union Territories had planned to roll out the service.

Also, catch all the latest updates and trends on the novel coronavirus with CNBCTV18’s blog.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Microsoft joins Amazon, IBM in pausing face scans for police

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Microsoft has become the third big tech company this week to say it won’t sell its facial recognition software to police, following similar moves by Amazon and IBM.

Microsoft’s president and chief counsel, Brad Smith, announced the decision and called on Congress to regulate the technology during a Washington Post video event on Thursday.

We’ve decided we will not sell facial recognition technology to police departments in the United States until we have a national law in place, grounded in human rights, that will govern this technology, Smith said.

The trio of tech giants is stepping back from law-enforcement use of systems that have faced criticism for incorrectly identifying people with darker skin. Ongoing protests following the death of George Floyd have focused attention on racial injustice in the US and how police use technology to track people.

But while all three companies are known for their work in developing artificial intelligence, including face recognition software, none is a major player in selling such technology to police. Smith said Thursday that Microsoft currently doesn’t sell its face recognition software to any US police departments.

Also Read: No place for hate, racism in society: Satya Nadella on George Floyd’s death

He didn’t say if that includes federal law enforcement agencies or police forces outside the US

Several other companies that are less well known dominate the market for government facial recognition contracts in the US, including Tokyo-based NEC and the European companies Idemia and Gemalto.

Microsoft, Amazon and IBM are calling on Congress to set national rules over how police use facial recognition something that’s now being considered as part of a police reform package sparked by the protests following Floyd’s death.

If all of the responsible companies in the country cede this market to those that are not prepared to take a stand, we won’t necessarily serve the national interest or the lives of the black and African American people of this nation well,” Smith said. “We need Congress to act, not just tech companies alone.

Microsoft has spent two years warning of the potential dangers of face-scanning technology being abused to enable oppressive mass surveillance, but the company has opposed outright bans on government use of the technology passed in San Francisco and other cities. That’s led to criticism from groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union, which says Microsoft is lobbying for weak regulations that could end up legitimizing and expanding police use of facial recognition.

“Congress and legislatures nationwide must swiftly stop law enforcement use of face recognition, and companies like Microsoft should work with the civil rights community — not against it — to make that happen,” said Matt Cagle, an attorney with the ACLU of Northern California, in a statement Thursday.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Trump says he’ll pursue police use-of-force standard

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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President Donald Trump said Thursday he would pursue an executive order to encourage police departments to meet “current professional standards for the use of force,” while accusing Democrats of broadly branding police as the problem.

He also defended his calls on governors and mayors to aggressively quell violent protests that erupted across the country after the death of George Floyd, boasting, “We’re dominating the street with compassion.”

Trump offered few details about the yet-to-be-formalized order during a discussion on race relations and policing before a friendly audience in Dallas. The call for establishing a national use-of-force standard amounted to his first concrete proposal for police reform in response to the national outcry following Floyd’s death in a violent encounter with Minneapolis police.

The president also acknowledged that law enforcement may have some “bad apples,” but he said it is unfair to broadly paint police officers as bigots.

“We have to work together to confront bigotry and prejudice wherever they appear,” Trump said. “But we’ll make no progress and heal no wounds by falsely labeling tens of millions of decent Americans as racists or bigots.”

The president said the nation also needs to bolster its efforts to confront its long-simmering racial relations problems by focusing on inequality, redoubling on his contention that solving economic issues is the fastest way to healing racial wounds.

He said his administration would aggressively pursue economic development in minority communities, confront health care disparities by investing “substantial sums” in minority-serving medical institutions, and improve school choice options.

Dallas Police Chief U. Renee Hall, Dallas County Sheriff Marian Brown and Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot did not receive invitations to the event, according to their offices. Mayor Eric Johnson was invited but did not attend because of prior commitments, according to an aide.

A senior administration official who briefed reporters ahead of Trump’s trip noted other law enforcement officials were in attendance but did not directly respond to a question about why the three officials weren’t invited.

Trump filled the roundtable with police union officials and allies from the African American community, including a member of Black Voices for Trump — many who spoke glowingly about the president.

Democrats on Capitol Hill have unveiled sweeping police reform legislation, including provisions to ban choke holds and limit legal protections for police. Congressional Republicans say they are also open to some reforms, including a national registry of use-of-force incidents so police officers cannot transfer between departments without public awareness of their records.

White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and senior adviser Jared Kushner have been discussing possible packages with GOP lawmakers, but it’s unclear what the president himself would be willing to accept.

Trump, for his part, lashed at some in the Democratic party who have called for “defunding the police,” a broad call to reframe thinking about how communities should approach public safety.

“”Unfortunately there’s some trying to stoke division and to push an extreme agenda, which we won’t go for, that will produce only more poverty, more crime, more suffering,” Trump said.

Glenn Heights, Texas, Police Chief Vernell Dooley urged Trump to increase resources to provide police with more training. “We need training,” Dooley said. “This is not the time to defund police departments.”

Activists say it isn’t about eliminating police departments or stripping agencies of all their money. They say it is time for the country to address systemic problems in policing in America and spend more on other things communities across the US need, like housing and education.

Trump has previously publicly expressed sympathy for Floyd’s family of Floyd, but did not mention them during the roundtable discussion, held two days after Floyd was buried in Houston. He previously suggested that Minneapolis Officer Derek Chauvin, who prosecutors say pressed his knee on Floyd’s neck for several minutes, must have “snapped.” US Surgeon General Jerome Adams, who took part in the panel, started his remarks by extending condolences to the Floyds and Texans.

Attorney General William Barr, who accompanied Trump to the event, backed up the president’s emphasis on law and order. Barr said what happened to Floyd shouldn’t obscure the fact that police offers are decent people “who put their lives on the line for us.”

“We can’t let this event obscure the fact that the real oppression and danger to our communities comes more from violent crime and lawlessness than it does from the police,” Barr said.

Former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, dismissed Trump’s Dallas visit in advance as a “photo op” and charged that the president has “run away from a meaningful conversation on systemic racism and police brutality.”

Trump, whose campaign effort has been largely sidelined by the coronavirus, also held a high-dollar fundraiser during his visit to Dallas. The intimate event for about 25 supporters was expected to raise USD 10 million to be split between his campaign, the Republican National Committee and 22 state parties, according to a GOP official.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Amazon bans police use of its face recognition for a year

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Amazon on Wednesday banned police use of its face-recognition technology for a year, making it the latest tech giant to step back from law-enforcement use of systems that have faced criticism for incorrectly identifying people with darker skin.

The Seattle-based company did not say why it took action now. Ongoing protests following the death of George Floyd have focused attention on racial injustice in the US and how police use technology to track people. Floyd died May 25 after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into the handcuffed black man’s neck for several minutes even after Floyd stopped moving and pleading for air.

Law enforcement agencies use facial recognition to identify suspects, but critics say it can be misused. A number of US cities have banned its use by police and other government agencies, led by San Francisco last year.

On Tuesday, IBM said it would get out of the facial recognition business, noting concerns about how the technology can be used for mass surveillance and racial profiling.

Civil rights groups and Amazon’s own employees have pushed the company to stop selling its technology, called Rekognition, to government agencies, saying that it could be used to invade people’s privacy and target minorities.

In a blog post Wednesday, Amazon said that it hoped Congress would put in place stronger regulations for facial recognition.

“Amazon’s decision is an important symbolic step, but this doesn’t really change the face recognition landscape in the United States since it’s not a major player,” said Clare Garvie, a researcher at Georgetown University’s Center on Privacy and Technology. Her public records research found only two US agencies using or testing Rekognition. The Washington County Sheriff’s Office in Oregon has been the most public about using it. The Orlando police department tested it, but chose not to implement it, she said.

Studies led by MIT researcher Joy Buolamwini found racial and gender disparities in facial recognition software. Those findings spurred Microsoft and IBM to improve their systems, but irked Amazon, which last year publicly attacked her research methods. A group of artificial intelligence scholars, including a winner of computer science’s top prize, last year launched a spirited defense of her work and called on Amazon to stop selling its facial recognition software to police.

A study last year by a US agency affirmed the concerns about the technology’s flaws. The National Institute of Standards and Technology tested leading facial recognition systems — though not from Amazon, which didn’t submit its algorithms — and found that they often performed unevenly based on a person’s race, gender or age.

Buolamwini on Wednesday called Amazon’s announcement a “welcomed though unexpected announcement.”

“Microsoft also needs to take a stand,” she wrote in an emailed statement. “More importantly our lawmakers need to step up” to rein in harmful deployments of the technologies.

Microsoft has been vocal about the need to regulate facial recognition to prevent human rights abuses but hasn’t said it wouldn’t sell it to law enforcement. The company didn’t respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

Amazon began attracting attention from the American Civil Liberties Union and privacy advocates after it introduced Rekognition in 2016 and began pitching it to law enforcement. But experts like Garvie say many US agencies rely on facial recognition technology built by companies that are not as well known, such as Tokyo-based NEC, Chicago-based Motorola Solutions or the European companies Idemia, Gemalto and Cognitec.

Amazon isn’t abandoning facial recognition altogether. The company said organizations, such as those that use Rekognition to help find children who are missing or sexually exploited, will still have access to the technology.

This week’s announcements by Amazon and IBM follow a push by Democratic lawmakers to pass a sweeping police reform package in Congress that could include restrictions on the use of facial recognition, especially in police body cameras. Though not commonly used in the US , the possibility of cameras that could monitor crowds and identify people in real time have attracted bipartisan concern.

The tech industry has fought against outright bans of facial recognition, but some companies have called for federal laws that could set guidelines for responsible use of the technology.

“It is becoming clear that the absence of consistent national rules will delay getting this valuable technology into the hands of law enforcement, slowing down investigations and making communities less safe,” said Daniel Castro, vice president of the industry-backed Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, which has advocated for facial recognition providers.

Ángel Díaz, an attorney at New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice, said he welcomed Amazon’s moratorium but said it “should have come sooner given numerous studies showing that the technology is racially biased.”

“We agree that Congress needs to act, but local communities should also be empowered to voice their concerns and decide if and how they want this technology deployed at all,” he said.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

New York passes bill to unveil police discipline records

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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New York state lawmakers repealed a decades-old law Tuesday that has kept law enforcement officers’ disciplinary records secret, spurred by the national uproar over the death of George Floyd.

The measure to make officers’ records and misconduct complaints public is among several police accountability bills racing through the state legislature. Lawmakers passed other bills that would provide all state troopers with body cameras and ensure that police officers provide medical and mental health attention to people in custody.

Many of those bills were first proposed years ago, but got new momentum after huge protests nationwide condemned police brutality.

The passage came as criminal charges were brought Tuesday against an NYPD officer over his rough treatment of a protester during demonstrations following the death of Floyd, who pleaded he couldn’t breathe as a white Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee on his neck May 25.

Eliminating the law, known as Section 50-a, would make complaints against officers, as well as transcripts and final dispositions of disciplinary proceedings, public for the first time in decades.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has recently supported reforming the law, has said in the wake of the protests that he will sign the repeal. Only Delaware has a similar law.

Momentum for ending the secrecy law reached a crescendo in recent days as marchers filled streets in Brooklyn, Manhattan and elsewhere to rally against police abuses — amplifying the calls of reform advocates who spent years pushing for change in the wake of other high-profile police killings, including that of Eric Garner in 2014.

“This is no time for rejoicing,” said State Senator Kevin Parker, a Democrat representing parts of Brooklyn. “This bill has been around for over a decade … And the only reason why we’re bringing it to the floor now because the nation is burning.”

Several family members of New Yorkers killed by police officers gathered at New York City Hall Tuesday to call for the defunding of police and repealing 50-a, which state courts have cited in decisions to withhold officers’ personnel records.

“We are tearing down the wall of secrecy that has been shielding officers across the state,” said Constance Malcolm, mother of the late Ramarley Graham, who was unarmed when he was shot to death by a white NYPD officer in the bathroom of his apartment in 2012.

The state Senate and Assembly passed the 50-a repeal largely along party lines, as Republicans argued the law would allow the release of unsubstantiated or false complaints against officers.

But one of the bill’s sponsors, Sen. Jamaal Bailey, a Bronx Democrat, said the public has a right to view complaints: “Sometimes unsubstantiated complaints happen because people don’t want to follow up.”

The legislature on Monday passed other police accountability measures, banning police from using chokeholds, guaranteeing the right to record police activity and making it easier to file lawsuits against people making race-based 911 calls.

As lawmakers acted on accountability legislation, NYPD Officer Vincent D’Andraia was being arraigned on assault and other charges days after a bystander recorded him pushing protester Dounya Zayer, causing her to hit her head on the pavement.

D’Andraia was released after his lawyer entered a not guilty plea on his behalf. The officer was ordered to stay away from Zayer who was hospitalized after the May 29 altercation with what she said were a concussion and a seizure.

“Dounya was assaulted for the very reason she was protesting, and that’s police brutality,” said Zayer’s attorney, Tahanie Aboushi, adding that D’Andraia’s supervisor should face punishment beyond an announced reassignment.

“If not for this being on video it would have been business as usual for the NYPD,” Aboushi said.

In a statement announcing the charges, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said he was “deeply troubled by this unnecessary assault.” Zayer, 20, called D’Andraia a coward and suggested the assault would only deepen mistrust of law enforcement.

“I was protesting for a reason,” Zayer said in a video tweeted from her hospital bed. The officer, she added, “should have had the self restraint to not hurt the people he’s supposed to be protecting.”

The police department suspended D’Andraia, 28, last week without pay. His lawyer, Stephen Worth, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. If convicted, he could face a year behind bars, but first-time offenders rarely see any jail time.

D’Andraia is the first New York City police officer to face criminal charges over alleged misconduct exhibited during days of unrest that roiled the city in the wake of Floyd’s death in Minneapolis. Two Buffalo officers were charged with assault last week after they were seen on video shoving a 75-year-old protester to the ground.

D’Andraia’s union said de Blasio and police leaders were “sacrificing cops to save their own skin” by sending officers out to protests with “no support and no clear plan.”

“They should be the ones facing this mob-rule justice,” Police Benevolent Association president Pat Lynch said. “We will say it again: New York City police officers have been abandoned by our leadership. We are utterly alone in our efforts to protect our city.”

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

President Donald Trump rules out defunding of police; says they protect people by risking own lives

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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US President Donald Trump has ruled out defunding or dismantling the police departments in the American cities, saying members of the force risk their own lives to protect others.

Trump’s remark came on Monday amidst the growing demand from a section of the Americans to defund the police in the aftermath of the custodial death of African-American George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25.

“We won’t be defunding our police, we won’t be dismantling our police. We won’t be disbanding our police, we won’t be ending our police force in a city. I guess you might have some cities that want to try but it’s going to be a very sad situation if they did because people are going to be protected,” Trump said during a White House round table with the law enforcement officials from across the country.

Floyd, the 46-year-old victim from Houston, was handcuffed and pinned to the ground by the white police officer who kneeled on his neck as he gasped for breath on May 25 in Minneapolis.

Floyd’s death triggered nationwide violent protests with a section of the protesters resorting to looting and rioting across the country, leaving behind a trail of destruction.

In Minneapolis, Derek Chauvin, the police officer charged with the second-degree murder without intent, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, made his first court appearance.

The court set him a bail of USD 1 million. The Democrats, opponents of President Trump and rights bodies have started demanding that the police be defunded in the wake of series of killings of African-Americans in the country.
Trump outrightly rejected any such move.

These people do a tremendous job of protecting citizens of our country. But whether they were paid or not, that’s what they do. They protect people, risk their own lives for people they’ve never seen before, people in many cases they don’t know, he said.

Referring to the decline in crime rates as shown in the latest statistics, Trump said that the Police has done a fantastic job.

“We have among the best numbers we’ve ever had in terms of recorded history certainly, but this has been a very strong year for less crime-let’s put it that way-less crime; and there’s a reason for less crime, that’s because we have great law enforcement,” Trump said, as he rejected the demands being made by his political opponents and rights bodies.

“I am very proud of them. There won’t be defunding, there won’t be dismantling of our police and there are not going to be in the disbanding of our police. Our police have been letting us live in peace and we want to make sure we don’t have any bad actors in there,” Trump said.

Earlier, the White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said that the President is appalled by the “Defund the Police” movement.

“The fact that you have sitting congresswomen wanting to defund the police — notably Rashida Tlaib; notably Biden advisor AOC, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez; former Clinton and Eric Holder spokesperson Brian Fallon wanting to defund our police across this country — it is extraordinary,” she said in response to a question.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Vehicle-borne IED blast averted in Pulwama: police

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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A vehicle-borne IED blast was averted as security forces detected a car fitted with explosives in Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday, police said.

The improvised explosive device (IED) was safely defused.

“A major incident of a vehicle borne #IED blast is averted by the timely input and action by #Pulwama Police, CRPF and Army,” the Kashmir zone police wrote on its Twitter handle.

According to sources, a white coloured private car was flagged by security forces at a mobile vehicle check point but the driver sped away.

They said the security forces fired few shots at the car, which they found abandoned some distance away.

During checking, an IED was found fitted in the vehicle, which was later defused, the sources said.

Further details are awaited.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

As lockdown fuels domestic abuse, social media users fight back

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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When British teenager Kaitlyn McGoldrick heard domestic violence was increasing under lockdown, she posted a video on social media showing victims how to make a silent emergency call to police without their attackers finding out.

“I just wanted to get the message out there that there are still places you can go,” said McGoldrick, 14, a volunteer police cadet whose post has had more than 50,000 views on the TikTok video-sharing platform.

As coronavirus curbs trap victims under the same roof as abusers, the United Nations has called domestic violence a “shadow pandemic”, and the issue has led to a flurry of online campaigns by charities, celebrities and ordinary social media users.

Inundated with positive responses to her video, McGoldrick plans to share more advice posts with backing from the local police youth volunteer group to which she belongs.

Some of the anti-abuse posts circulating on social media are proving more controversial, however.

There has been criticism of a trend on TikTok in which young women wear lurid fake blood makeup to depict domestic violence scenarios. Critics say such videos could upset victims and often appear more clickbait than genuine campaigning.

Domestic violence campaign groups have also expressed concerns about posts inviting victims to get in touch for support instead of directing them to more expert advice.

SPOTLIGHT ON VIOLENCE

Still, most campaigners say attention-grabbing posts and videos have shone a spotlight on violence within the family, which is often cloaked in shame and fear that stops many victims seeking help.

“We need and appreciate attention on this critical and all-too-often hidden issue,” Latanya Mapp Frett, chief executive of the Global Fund for Women, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

While celebrities from Russian punk band Pussy Riot to Bollywood stars have spoken out in anti-domestic violence campaigns, the vast majority of online posts are shared by ordinary social media users.

Some post on their own stories of abuse, often offering to support others going through similar situations.

Others share clips including tips such as how to secretly call police under the guise of ordering a pizza.

Attention-grabbing videos like those posted on TikTok could particularly help reach young people who might be less able to spot warning signs of abuse, said Marcella Pirrone, of Women Against Violence Europe (WAVE).

She cautioned that posters should offer emotional support and information rather than pressuring women to potentially put themselves at risk by demanding they contact police, but said wider discussion of the issue was valuable.

“What’s interesting is there is a lot of talk about violence now and that’s something we had always been asking for: to have awareness-raising, to have proper attention to this,” she said.

RAISE AWARENESS

The involvement of celebrities and social media influencers is also helping to raise awareness about the heightened risk of abuse during worldwide lockdowns.

“COVID-19 has not created new problems for women, it has just exacerbated the old ones,” US comedian and presenter Samantha Bee said in a clip from her late-night television show addressing gendered abuse and shared on her social media pages.

The video, which has gathered hundreds of thousands of views, includes helpline details and highlights virtual support groups for women unable to leave the house.

A social media campaign starring more than a dozen Bollywood and theatre actors was launched in India earlier this month by Mumbai-based Women in Film and Television (WIFT).

“If you’re beaten at home, if you’re facing excesses or bad behaviour and you want to report it, please call on the helpline numbers below,” said actor Richa Chadha in an online video in the #baskuchdinaur (‘Just a few more days’) campaign.

In Russia, a popstar who was condemned for suggesting women who spoke out against abuse had mental problems has sought to make amends by producing an informative YouTube movie about domestic violence that has racked up more than 4 million views.

In a country with high levels of abuse where speaking out is often stigmatised, Regina Todorenko’s 80-minute film has drawn “unprecedented” public attention to the issue, said Janette Akhilgova, a Russia consultant for rights group Equality Now.

With many people spending more time on social media during the lockdown, the teenager McGoldrick said it was a vital tool for increasing awareness.

“It’s such an important subject to get out there,” she said. “The more people are spreading the word about it, the better.”

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow