Good morning,
British Police Shame
A serving police officer by the name of Wayne Couzens, has been convicted of flashing a police badge at young Sarah Everard during the pandemic lockdown, and the using his handcuffs he abducted, raped and burned the 33yr old woman’s body in a field last March.
Yesterday Couzens who strangled the girl with his police belt, was given a full life sentence for murder. But the story doesn’t end there.
Revelations now emerge that Couzens had a Whatsapp group with other police officers, where they shared offensive sexual material. At least five other police are now under criminal investigation for their part in the lewd chats, but it is also known Couzens had been nicknamed “the rapist” by other officers. And further that Couzens had sexually exposed himself at least twice, and if the police had acted on those complaints. he would have been removed from policing instead of going on to murder a woman. Why was he never suspended?
There are calls for a police review at the Met as it’s known, and gaping confidence in policing here by women who rightly don’t feel safe or reassured by the police.
People are being told to double check police id, but Couzens had proper identification, and if you can’t trust the police who can you trust? There are calls for the female head of the Met to resign.
When I was a crime reporter back in the 1980’s, Toronto Police spent millions on psychological profile testing for police, and it was known then how critical screening and up to date assessments of wanna be and serving police officers needed to be.
U.S. Police Shootings
A new study says more than half of police killings in the U.S. are not reported in official government data, and Black Americans are most likely to experience fatal police violence, according to a new study released Thursday.
55% of deaths from police violence from 1980 to 2018 were unreported in official vital statistics reports, according to the The Lancet medical journals.
U.S. Infrastructure Vote Delayed
It’s a setback for the Biden Presidency, because the trillion dollar infrastructure bill including climate change and social safety net spending goes to the heart of the Democrats domestic agenda, and last night they didn’t have enough votes in the House to pass it.
The vote has been delayed to today and possibly beyond as there is a lot of division in the Liberals agenda and Biden can’t seem to bridge differences to get the legislation passed.
For the moment The House and Senate have passed the Government funding vote, to avoid a Government shutdown, and fund the Gov until at least December 3.
Europe Virus Surge
Only three European Countries have vaccinated more than 75% of the population with Covid vaccines, and as a result the European Center for Disease Prevention is warning of a fall virus surge.
Which three? Surprisingly not the ones I would have guessed. So far, only 61% of the total population in the EU/EEA have been fully vaccinated, and the three countries are Malta, Portugal, Iceland, have vaccinated more than 75% of their total population.
Australia FreeTrade Deal On Ice
Talks with Europe and Australia have been suspended because of France’ anger at being cut out of a multi billion dollar submarine contract, that has seen the UK and U.S. step to to supply nuclear powered submarines in a deal called AUKUS.
The trade talks were supposed to take place today, but Europe has warned business with Australia will no get back to normal until the controversy with France is solved.
On Back Story with Dana Lewis podcast, today I will be interviewing a high ranking former Rear Admiral of the British Navy who will discuss whats wrong with AUKUS strategically including nuclear proliferation. A link to be sent later to the podcast.
And, also on Back Story a collapsing global supply chain. Frightening shortages loom. And yes here in the UK there are still lines for petrol and many gas stations closed.
That’s a quick look at the news this Friday. Have a good day everyone and a terrific weekend. Please subscribe to the newsletter and if you have already please share it! We welcome comments from paid subscribers. (Links to original news articles below)
Dana
https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/news-events/high-risk-autumn-surge-covid-19-cases-and-deaths-countries-insufficient-vaccination
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/30/us/politics/infrastructure-democrats-pelosi.html
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/16296933/five-police-officers-misogynistic-wayne-couzens/
https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20211001-eu-postpones-trade-talks-with-australia-amid-submarine-row
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/09/30/police-killings-unreported-government-data-lancet-study-finds/5915807001/