Sunday, July 26, 2020

Black Lives Matter: Can viral videos stop police brutality?

Sunday, July 26, 2020 0
George Floyd's death might not have caused global outrage if it hadn't been filmed. But do viral videos actually reduce police abuse?
"They killed this man, bro. He was crying, telling them 'I can't breathe.'"
For more than five minutes Darnella Frazier rambled on Facebook Live about the killing she had witnessed - repeating over and over again that she had video evidence.
A short time later on that night in late May, Frazier uploaded a video of the death of George Floyd - including the eight minutes and 46 seconds in which Derek Chauvin forced his knee onto his neck.
Had it not been for that video and other footage from bystanders, it's likely that Mr Floyd's death would never have sparked global outrage. But does that make viral videos, shot on the phone in your hand, an effective check on police abuse?

Why was this one different?

Darnella Frazier's video was far from the first viral footage to document police brutality.
In 2016, Philando Castile died after being shot by police in his car. Like the death of George Floyd, Mr Castile's death also happened in Minnesota - in Falcon Heights, just a short drive from Minneapolis. His girlfriend live-streamed the immediate aftermath on Facebook, including shots of Castile's lifeless body in the driver's seat.
The day before, Alton Sterling was killed by two police officers outside a convenience store in Louisiana. Video evidence filmed on a smartphone was posted online.
In 2014, footage captured events leading up to the deaths of Eric Garner in New York and Laquan McDonald in Chicago. In fact, many cite the beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles police officers, captured on videotape in 1991, as one of the first "viral" police abuse videos - long before the social media era.





None of those events, however, sparked quite the same level of global outrage as the footage of George Floyd.

Experts put the impact of Floyd's death down to the length of the video, combined with the specific nature of its graphic content.
"While a gunshot is very quick, it is immediately traumatic and very easy for one to look away," says Allissa Richardson, author of Bearing Witness While Black: African Americans, Smartphones, and the New Protest #Journalism.
"This video transfixed people because of the callous nature of the killing coupled with the brazen nature of the police, who knew they were being filmed and still did it anyway," she says.

Online activism

The Black Lives Matter movement started in 2013, and the deaths of Mr Garner and of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, sparked huge protests the following year.
But Ms Richardson says rather than ushering in a brand new form of activism, new technology is simply being deployed for a much older purpose.
She uses the term "black witnessing" to explain how African Americans have historically tried to record injustices, dating back to the era of slavery in pre-Civil War America, drawing inspiration from Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave who led America's abolitionist movement. In his first autobiography, Douglass documented his experiences as a slave.
"When black people are picking up their cell phones, they're not just recording in the wrong place at the right time," she says. "They're attempting to connect, historically, dots between atrocities."
Others note the defensive nature of the mobile phone.
"For African Americans, every encounter with a law enforcement officer is potentially a life and death situation," says clinical psychologist Monnica Williams. "They film these interactions for their own protection."

Watching the police

In the wake of George Floyd's killing, videos have also been used by activists to monitor the policing of protests, often in chaotic and confusing situations.
When David Frost pressed record on his phone's camera during a protest on 31 May, he thought the police had taken another life.
"I wanted as many people to see it [as possible]," he says. "I was six feet away ... when he got shot."
Mr Frost, a white man, started filming after 20-year-old Justin Howell, an African American, was shot in the head with a "less-lethal" bean bag munition in Austin, Texas. In the video, protesters were seen carrying the injured man towards police, in an attempt to get help. Then police opened fire again.

Police officer punched in scuffles outside Downing Street at Black Lives Matter protest in London

Mr Howell suffered life-changing injuries as a result, including brain damage and a fractured skull. Mr Frost's video was viewed over 10 million times on Twitter, and was widely covered by US media.
"It wasn't until we had gotten almost three million hits that the Austin Police Department even mentioned anything," he says.
After the incident went viral, Austin police announced they would no longer be using bean bag munition for crowd control.
Justin's brother, Josh Howell, told BBC Trending: "The quickness with which the video spread on social media really added to the whole response."

Police filming

There is no single database counting the number of people killed by police in America each year, but data collected by the independent research group Mapping Police Violence has found that on average nearly 1,100 people have been killed by police since 2013.
While most are white, the dead are disproportionately African American: last year they made up 24% of the total despite being 13% of the American population.
Lawyers and activists say they are seeing more video evidence in cases involving police brutality.
There is a "huge increase," in the number of clients who are coming in with filmed evidence, says Tracey Brown, who heads the civil rights and police brutality group at the Cochran Firm in New York City.
That marks a change, she says, from the first wave of Black Lives Matter protests. Then, many activists pushed the idea of police body cams and dashcams mounted in police cars. But studies show they haven't led to a decrease in police shootings or an increase in accountability.
"In many municipalities the police officers don't get charged," Ms Brown says. She notes that in many places, it's impossible to obtain disciplinary records which contain, she says, "critical information when trying to bring charges against police officers".
And just because videos exist, it doesn't mean lawyers or the public are always able to see them.
"Police departments don't release videos until you're well into a criminal prosecution or a civil lawsuit," she says.
In one notable case, dashcam footage showing that Laquan McDonald was walking away from Chicago officers when he got shot was kept under wraps for over a year, until pressure by activists and journalists succeeded in getting it into the public domain. Officer Jason Van Dyke was eventually convicted of second-degree murder.
Ethan Zuckerman, director of the Center for Civic Media at the MIT Media Lab, says neither police cameras nor bystander footage can really be an effective check on abuse.
"Our legal system gives so much flexibility to the police to use violence in the course of carrying out their duties," he says.
"Imagery may matter as far as getting people out into the streets, but it does not matter as far as preventing police from using violence in the first place."

What next?

Darnella Frazier's footage of George Floyd's death wasn't the first viral video documenting a police killing - nor was it the last. While such videos may have limited impact in actually stemming violence, African Americans and others will continue to document abuses for reasons beyond simple prevention.
"Black people pick up their cell phones to do two things," says Alissa Richardson, "to say to the person who is dying, 'I will not let you die alone', and 'I will carry the message forward to your family - because I know that nobody would believe what happened to you here today.'"

Tags:

Wednesday, July 15, 2020

Covid-19 news: Coronavirus restrictions reimposed around the world

Wednesday, July 15, 2020 0

The latest coronavirus news updated every day including coronavirus cases, the latest news, features and interviews from New Scientist and essential information about the covid-19 pandemic


Hong Kong Disneyland has closed less than a month after it reopened.



Latest coronavirus news as of 5 pm on 14 July


Restrictions reimposed around the world as global cases pass 13 million
Tighter lockdown restrictions and social distancing measures in the US, Hong Kong, the Philippines and other countries are being reimposed as states and cities attempt to control new waves of coronavirus cases. The governor of California yesterday closed all bars in the state and ordered restaurants, cinemas and museums to halt indoor operations, reversing the reopening of these venues in mid-June. Today authorities in Hong Kong imposed new social distancing measures including making masks mandatory on public transport, limiting the size of gatherings to four people and closing Hong Kong Disneyland less than a month after it reopened. In Manila, in the Philippines, a quarter of a million people are expected to be put back under lockdown later this week to try to slow down the spread of infections. In the UK, tighter restrictions could be imposed on people in Blackburn after a spike in coronavirus cases. 
Other coronavirus news
Face coverings will become compulsory in shops and supermarkets in England from 24 July and the police can issue £100 fines for those who don’t comply, the government announced today. Children under 11 and people with certain disabilities will be exempt. The government has been under growing pressure from scientific organisations, including the Royal Society and the recently formed Independent SAGE, to introduce legislation making face coverings mandatory in indoor spaces. World Health Organization guidelines also support the use of face coverings in confined or crowded places where physical distancing isn’t possible. 
More than 5 million workers in the US are estimated to have lost their health insurance this year due to the economic impact of the pandemic, according to a report by Families USA, an advocacy group for healthcare consumers. This is the highest increase since the 2008 financial crisis when 3.9 million adults became uninsured, according to the report. 
The coronavirus may be able to spread from a pregnant person to their fetus, suggests a case study published in Nature Communications. Tests of placental samples from this case study are consistent with transmission in the womb, physician and study author Daniele DeLuca at the Antoine Béclère hospital in Paris told the Guardian. DeLuca said he suspects this isn’t the first such case, but this is the first time it has been confirmed that coronavirus was transmitted in the womb. The baby who tested positive for covid-19 developed brain inflammation a few days after birth, but he and his mother have both since recovered. The study builds on earlier, more preliminary evidence that the coronavirus can be spread via the placenta
Coronavirus deaths






The worldwide death toll has passed 574,000. The number of confirmed cases is more than 13.1 million, according to the map and dashboard from Johns Hopkins University, though the true number of cases will be much higher.


Latest on coronavirus from New Scientist

Second wave in winter: A bad winter could bring a second wave of coronavirus infections that leads to around 120,000 deaths in UK hospitals, twice as many as the first wave, according to an estimate of a reasonable worst-case scenario.
How drug cartels get around lockdowns: Like most other industries, the illegal drug trade has been affected by the covid-19 pandemic, but it hasn’t stopped cartels from finding ways around national shutdowns and anti-narcotics police operations. 
The pandemic’s impact on other diseases: The effect of the coronavirus pandemic on healthcare for tuberculosis, malaria and HIV could lead to deaths on a scale similar to those from covid-19 in some parts of the world, a new analysis finds.

Essential information about coronavirus

What to read, watch and listen to about coronavirus

Humans of COVID-19 is a project highlighting the experiences of key workers on the frontline in the fight against coronavirus in the UK, through social media.
Coronavirus, Explained on Netflix is a short documentary series examining the on-going coronavirus pandemic, the efforts to fight it and ways to manage its mental health toll.
New Scientist Weekly features updates and analysis on the latest developments in the covid-19 pandemic. Our podcast sees expert journalists from the magazine discuss the biggest science stories to hit the headlines each week – from technology and space, to health and the environment.
The Rules of Contagion is about the new science of contagion and the surprising ways it shapes our lives and behaviour. The author, Adam Kucharski, is an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK, and in the book he examines how diseases spread and why they stop.
Contagion: The BBC Four Pandemic is a sober documentary about the progression of a hypothetical pandemic which the BBC simulated in 2017. Fronted by science journalist and TV presenter Hannah Fry, and made with the support of some of the country’s best epidemiologists and mathematical modelers, it’s very relevant to today’s covid-19 pandemic.

Previous updates





UK prime minister Boris Johnson walking with a paramedic during a visit to London Ambulance Service in London.




13 July

People may soon have to wear face coverings in shops in England, says Boris Johnson
People should wear face coverings in shops and the government is looking at making it mandatory to do so in England, UK prime minister Boris Johnson said today. Describing face coverings as “extra insurance” to stop the spread of coronavirus, he said that the government was looking at how a change in policy might be enforced.  Face coverings are already compulsory on public transport in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland and the government recommends that people wear them in other enclosed public spaces where social distancing isn’t possible, although this isn’t mandatory. This comes as a growing number of scientists are calling for the UK government to increase legislation on face coverings. Independent SAGE, a group of scientists offering alternative advice to the UK government, has said that face coverings should be made mandatory in indoor spaces wherever possible, including in shops and in entertainment venues, as well as on public transport. Earlier this month, the president of the Royal Society, Venki Ramakrishnan said that not wearing a face covering should be regarded as anti-social.
Other coronavirus news
Antibodies against the coronavirus in a person’s blood may peak about three weeks after symptoms first appear, then decline rapidly, according to a preliminary study that hasn’t been peer-reviewed. The study, led by researchers at King’s College London, monitored antibody levels in the blood of 65 covid-19 patients and 31 healthcare workers who’d had a positive coronavirus antibody test, between March and June. Three months after antibody levels peaked, only 17 per cent of people tested still had an antibody response with the same level of potency against the virus, the study found. In some people, antibody levels fell 23-fold over the same time period. One concern is that a short-lived antibody response might limit the ability of a coronavirus vaccine to induce immunity. But alongside antibodies, there’s evidence that other parts of the body’s immune system – such as immune cells called T-cells – may also contribute to immunity against the coronavirus and could be harnessed by a future vaccine.
Scotland reported no deaths from covid-19 today for the fifth consecutive day, the nation’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon announced during a press briefing. But there are concerns that people travelling across the border from England may make it difficult for Scotland to achieve full elimination of the virus. 
Mexico saw record daily numbers of new coronavirus cases last week and now has the fourth-highest number of recorded deaths from covid-19, after the US, Brazil and the UK. There have been more than 299,000 coronavirus cases and more than 35,000 deaths from covid-19 in Mexico since the pandemic began. Officials in Mexico say these numbers are probably a significant underestimate, because of a limited testing capacity.
Coronavirus deaths





Monday, July 13, 2020

The wearable cyborgs that use brain waves to power up your muscles

Monday, July 13, 2020 0
Kristen Sorensen was 55 when she became paralyzed from the neck down last year.
"It came out of nowhere," says Sorensen. "I'd been fine and exercising every day, but it just started with tingling in my fingertips then progressed."
Diagnosed in October 2018 with Guillain Barre syndrome, a rare disorder that affects the body's nervous system, she never expected to walk again.
    But earlier that year, the Brooks Cybernic Treatment Center in Jacksonville, Florida, became the first US center to use a unique rehabilitative technology developed in Japan -- the Hybrid Assistive Limb (HAL).
    HAL -- essentially a wearable cyborg -- helps those with spinal cord injuries and muscular dystrophy regain their movements and strengthen their nerves and muscles. Known as exoskeletons, they're a type of lightweight suit, with joints powered by small electric motors, that serve as mechanical muscle.
    Here's what's truly mind-blowing: Patients use their brain waves to control them.
    When Sorensen heard about the brain wave-controlled exoskeleton, which was developed by Japanese roboticist Yoshiyuki Sankai, she knew she had to give it a try. She was determined to walk at her daughter's wedding a few months later in December.
    But it's not just those with disabilities or injuries who stand to benefit. By 2050, there will be more than 2 billion people over age 60, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), and exoskeletons could offer a solution to the world's aging population.
    In the future, as human bodies wear down with age, an exoskeleton -- powered by active minds -- could help people stay on their feet.
    With such huge potential applications available, the global medical exoskeleton market will be worth an estimated $2.8 billion by 2023, according to research company Markets and Markets.

    Users in the driving seat

    When Sorensen first tried HAL, she could barely move across flat surfaces.
    A trained physiotherapist at the Brooks Center helped her fit HAL over her waist and trousers, connecting her to sensors that help pick up faint bio-electric signals on the surface of the skin, which communicate a patient's intention to move. Once HAL receives these signals, it helps support the person's movements.
    Kristen Sorensen was 55 when she became paralyzed from the neck down in 2018.
    But you can't just put on HAL and expect to be sprinting in seconds. Rehabilitation requires time, determination and the help of a physiotherapist and a body weight harness that ensures patients are supported and kept upright while they use HAL on a treadmill. During that training, physiotherapists keep a log of each patient's motions and the settings used -- from walk to jog mode. They can monitor the user's movements and adjust the settings accordingly, so their movements come more naturally.
    Sorensen says it initially felt like HAL was doing most of the work by helping induce her muscles to make small leg movements that mimic natural walking patterns, but then she found herself increasingly in the driving seat.
    "After the first couple times, your brain connects to HAL, and I could see I was moving my legs myself," she says. "It was just incredible -- my heart was just bursting."
    Kristen Sorensen was determined to walk at her daughter's wedding.
    She overcame her paralysis by training with HAL.
    Usually it takes those with less severe mobility issues than Sorensen between two to 10 tries for patients to get used to HAL so that the sensors and the brain can start working together, according to Sankai. But after almost 40 training sessions, each lasting an hour-and-a-half, Sorensen was back on her feet, albeit with the support of a walker. She made it to her daughter's wedding.
    Currently, Sankai's exoskeletons are helping patients restore their muscle movements in Japan, the Philippines and in Germany and Poland.

    Tech for good

    The brain behind HAL is bespectacled billionaire roboticist Sankai. He heads up Japanese company Cyberdyne -- founded in 2004 -- where his vision has been to create these "wearable cyborgs" designed to "fuse man, machine and information."
    And while the name of Sankai's firm might recall the scary Cyberdyne Technologies that created villainous robots in US science-fiction blockbuster "Terminator," the Japanese roboticist wants to create tech not for war, but for peace and rehabilitation.
    Yoshiyuki Sankai wants to augment humanity with his exoskeleton devices.
    When Sankai was a 9-year-old in the 1960s, he discovered "I, Robot" by science fiction writer Isaac Asimov and became entranced by the positive applications of technology. He decided to pursue engineering at the University of Tsukuba in Japan. In 1998, Sankai made his first HAL prototype, which became the world's first, and spent the next decades refining the product into the sleek, lightweight version of today.
    Previously robotic-assistance tech centered on military use. But these days, HAL is part of a wave of research that focuses on using exoskeleton tech to treat ailments or provide support to wearers. For example, researchers at Harvard unveiled a soft exosuit in 2014 that enhances a patient's strength, much like HAL. And automobile makers like Ford are using exoskeletons on factory floors to reduce worker fatigue. HAL, too, has potential beyond the medical field, with everything from rescue and support and labor intensive factory work to entertainment and elderly care.
    "The average age of workers (in Japan) is very high, so these technologies can help them and gradually increase elderly people's physical functions so they can remain independent," says Sankai.
    But when new technologies are created there are few or no social and legal rules to regulate them.
    Sankai says these measures must be debated in advance so all parties involved in the manufacture and use of technologies such as exoskeletons maintain control over the development direction. Cyberdyne has two ethics committees; one dedicated to promoting research; the other on standing by the idea of peace when creating and developing new devices and technologies.
    Next up, Sankai and his team are collecting data on their treatment method to better improve their existing medical devices. Sankai's aim is to prepare medical devices that will maintain and increase human health for longer.
      For now, he is happy seeing everyone from seniors to the severely disabled regain independence. It's a thought that Sorensen shares.
      "When I used HAL, there were people who came from all over the country to use the equipment," she says. "I would like this kind of technology to be more readily available."

       
      International News. Design by Pocket