Statement from the American Council of the Blind on the Death of Nurul Amin Shah Alam
Posted on March 2, 2026
Statement from the American Council of the Blind on the Death of Nurul Amin Shah Alam March 2, 2026
The American Council of the Blind (ACB) is deeply saddened by the death of Nurul Amin Shah Alam, a Rohingya refugee who was blind and died in Buffalo, New York, shortly after his release from federal custody.
People who are blind or have low vision, like all people with disabilities, deserve to be treated with dignity and provided reasonable accommodations in their interactions with government agencies. Serious questions remain about the circumstances surrounding Mr. Shah Alam’s death, including whether his disability and communication needs were appropriately considered at each stage.
ACB urges a full and transparent investigation into what occurred, with particular attention to how disability-related needs were addressed. That review should identify clear steps to help prevent similar tragedies in the future and ensure that policies and practices fully protect the rights and safety of people with disabilities, including those who are blind or have low vision.
ICE Agents CAUGHT Arresting Comedian For HUMILIATING Them
Forget tone "policing" RantWoman is about to go full generalissimo with a humble request to protestors.
1. Evidence from ICE hiring standards and ICE Barbie's endless propaganda efforts is that a lot of the brand new just signed on for the bonus ICE recruits are undertrained, uneducated, humor-impaired, and extremely thin-skinned. NONE of that is an excuse for all the different thuggery they are trying to pull off, but MAYBE could y'all, all y'all protestors possibly consider passing on at least SOME of the opportunities to torment and antagonize them? RantWoman admires creativity and really, really, really thinks y'all could all do MUCH better about verbal communications. So PLEASE try. Pretty please.
2. I don't blame the vulnerable families, veterans, people with disabilities, NEIGHBORS across from the ICE House of Ill Repute in Portland for being resentful of tear gas, blast balls. Try to sound concerned about them and keep pointing out that protestors aren't the ones bringing the tear gas and blast balls.
3. Remember this is about immigrants and all the hard work, creativity, richness they bring to the country. RantWoman is not sure how, meaningfully, to say "we've got your back," President #StableGenius keeps going off about how immigrants bring diseases. Immigrants have the same health issues as many other people in the US, but the President complaining about immigrants is NUTS when his own Secretary of Health and Human services is doing everything he can to shred public health infrastructure, disease surveillance, and OF COURSE vaccination. Plenty of other really important "don't blame the immigrants talking points need airing and people who aren't crazy about running around in frog suits need to get their points heard too. Word!
And another video for the road
And Robby Roadsteamer in his own words. RantWoman recants, SOMEWHAT.
RantWoman definitely does not look at entire videos in full detail. RantWoman tends to listen and only occasionally invest enough eye focus to see detail.
So the channel is fascinating because it spells out a LOT of things that are happening visually. Sometimes it feels like reason 320 zillion why blind people and sighted people miscommunicate, although RantWoman could be vaguely interested in seeing how much of the same info could be picked up by voice.
First, this video points out lots of visual specifics in Erika's speech at Charlie Kirk's funeral.
What Changed With Erika Kirk? Body Language Analyst Reacts to funeral
YouTube is full of opinions about whether Erika Kirk is grieving appropriately. RantWoman would just leave the poor woman alone. RantWoman's experience with grief is that it comes and goes unpredictably for a long time.
As far as the state of national dialog about Charlie's death:
--RantWoman was part of a conversation where one participant made the fascinating point that it doesn't matter that lots of Charlie's detractors are disgusted by #MAGA comparisons between Charlie Kirk and MLK. What matters is that is how Kirk's followers see him.
--In that conversation, RantWoman pointed out that MLK never helped raise millions of dollars to help elect a corrupt pedophile as President. It will take some maneuvering to keep the gravy train running but the other question is what messaging will remind people that their presence in the national conversation is valuable as they HOPEFULLY come to grips with some disagreeable realities.
--Apparently #SecDef Pete Hegseth is terribly shaken by Kirk's assassination.
Somewhere in this line of thinking MIGHT be some threads Erika Kirk is thinking about.
RantWoman does not share Erika's theological certainty about what happens after death. RantWoman has enough faith not to worry about that until she gets there. RantWoman remembers one family hiccup after RantDad passed away about cremation. RantDad's younger sister was worried that if RantDad were cremated, he would somehow miss out on the Rapture. RantWoman's view: any deity that can pull off the Rapture can give people whatever corporeal presence they need for the situation.
RantWoman is interested in one moment in particular, the clip in the post here right at the beginning of her speech when the President summons her to the stage.
The way the President summoned Erika creeped RantWoman out a little bit because of something about the President's voice. Erika strode out like someone used to the kind of summons that bothered RantWoman Erika won Miss Arizona in a beauty pageant run by the not-yet-President and perhaps is used to the kind of kiss on two cheeks that Spidey called out.
Something in the second video, from a different angle made RantWoman wonder about a really gross possibility. RantWoman just naturally assumes the President is a pervy lech who will grab every chance he gets to paw at beautiful women. Watching the President Embrace, RantWoman wondered whether there was some over-the-line pawing going on. Even worse, RantWoman found herself wondering whether the President tried to kiss Erika on the lips rather than on the cheeks. RantWoman can't really tell, but the question adds a possible interpretation. Did Erika pull away a little and bury her face in the President's shoulder far away from his lips.
All of this gets RantWoman to another #TPUSA irony: TPUSA preaches "tradwife" values about women's relationships with their husbands. But Erika has now become the head of the entire #TPUSA empire.
This also harkens back to CO Congresswoman Lauren Boebert's appearances at TPUSA events. Lauren in her spiky heels and scary red lipstick pranced around talking about Biblical values in marriage while she was busy divorcing her husband. So THANGS are not always what they seem, and there is probably room for LOTS of people to think carefully about what matters to Gen Z.
RantWoman is quitely collecting media accounts of various cities reactions to offers of national guard troops for no apparent emergency, especially when there are areas where there are emergencies that tne Guard is not getting sent to.
Let's talk about Trump, troops in Memphis, and a fact check....
PS. RantWoman is a big fan of Belle of the Ranch for concise and always pithy reporting and analysis
Washington School for the Blind superintendent resigns, citing harassment and threats
By Jake Goldstein-Street (Washington State Standard)
Aug. 11, 2025 1:54 p.m.
The longtime superintendent at the Washington State School for the Blind is resigning amid threats from a disgruntled former employee, he announced this month.
“Change can bring fresh energy and perspective, and I am hopeful the agency will continue to grow and thrive in the years ahead,” Scott McCallum wrote in his resignation letter. “I have decided it is best for me and for the WSSB that I resign from my role as superintendent to seek new leadership opportunities.”
McCallum has been the Vancouver school’s superintendent since 2016. Gov. Bob Ferguson reappointed McCallum upon taking office in January.
In his resignation letter to Ferguson, McCallum attributed his departure, effective Aug. 15, partially to “continuous harassment from a former employee that has created significant disruption across the agency.”
“I remain hopeful that such disruption and threats may cease once I depart my role as superintendent,” he wrote to the governor Aug. 1. “Also, with the recent shift to your administration and our school year ending, I believe this is the appropriate time for WSSB to begin a new chapter under new leadership.”
In a court filing in May related to the alleged harassment, McCallum said he worried the former employee would escalate threats and commit violence. He was especially worried since many of the staff at the school are blind or visually impaired.
“Her continual focus on us and violence, and our particular vulnerabilities has us all worried and scared,” he wrote. “I regularly drive new routes to work. I park in different places at work regularly, always backed in to make for a quick escape. I can’t leave my house without looking out to see if she is outside and I have found new routes to walk my dogs.”
McCallum didn’t respond to requests for further comment last week.
Ferguson tapped Pam Parker, the school’s outreach director, to serve as interim superintendent for the 2025-26 school year.
The school serves blind, visually impaired and deaf-blind students. Fifty students were enrolled this past school year, according to state data. It has about 100 full-time equivalent employees and a state budget of around $29 million.
McCallum has a national reputation in education of students who are blind or visually impaired. He helped implement the country’s first online adaptive state assessment that is accessible to students who read Braille.
In 2022, the National Federation of the Blind awarded McCallum with the Distinguished Educator of Blind Students award.
Before coming to Washington, McCallum worked in education in Oregon.
This week, hundreds of former Israeli military officials issued a letter saying that Hamas poses no military Threat to Israel.
Hundreds of Gazans have been killed in the insanity that currently passes for food distribution in #Gaza
Radio broadcasts are filled with Israeli voices saying, essentially," Genocide? What Genocide? Famine? What Famine?"
Polls in Israel show both that many Israelis are disgusted with the current situation and that they just want hostages home. Some in Israel would be too happy just to drive the Palestinians out, bulldoze the place and transform it from an open air prison to some kind of grand Trumpian resort.
And Hamas releases disgusting pictures of hostages starving along with the rest of the population.
It would be just awesome, to RantWoman at least, if visible vigils or protests included feet on the ground demands like allowing UNRWA to resume management of food delivery or admitting the internaional press.
Instead, there are media reports of Rep Adam Smith's town meeting getting shut down by protestors.
RantWoman's instinct at firstwas just wait to coment. RantWoman assessed the initial reports as standard protestor vs protested they said / they said.
Leave it to Brandi Kruse to provide details of the initial court hearing.
Socialists arrested for disrupting townhall of Democratic Congressman
Oh, FFS.
There is being as obnoxious as possible. If the point is to be as obnoxious as possible, sure. way to go. Congratulations Kshama, with a bonus for rushing the stage, which RantWoman always considers dangerous as well, of course, as rude.
And there is persuading people to take different actions, that is different actions besides arresting protestors, as if the criminal justice system is not already overcrowded and overused.
RantWoman's other problem: RantWoman is trying to imagine Kshama addressing some of the things RantWoman knows Rep Smith gets to address.:
--Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth emphatically is not doing his job about proposing a budget on the timeline required by law, RantWoman would certainly want a smaller defense budget and different priorities, but RantWoman just can't see Kshama having productive conversations about legitimate policy considerations.
--Hegseth's campaign to fire women and people of color in prominent positions is more about a white supremacist military than effective national defense.
--Hegseth and the President's politicized personnel decisions are about as dumb as Putin firing everyone who disagrees with Russia's "special military operation in Ukraine."
--There is a whole generation of people who have returned from endless wars, some deeply committed to Constitutional principles that MIGHT pull the country back from the current administration's thunderous stomps toward authoritarianism. RantWoman is quite certain these people are far better equipped to speak to others in their ranks ready to tear down US society than Kshama or anyone working for her.
--Hegseth clearly has no concept of the importance of diplomacy and the right person applying the right words at the right time in challenging situations. See for instance Hegseth's disgraceful treatment of General Milley who called up his Chinese counterpart during the aftermath of #January6 and probably forestalled some kind of international crisis on top of the domestic outrages.
Should RantWoman go on?
RantWoman is not in the "Kshama never again" camp, but Protest Curmudgeon has plenty else to opine about and would not mind less rhetoric specifically from Kshama and maybe even more actionable policy discussions.
One indication that RantWoman is rapidly approaching an age that can be described as "older than dirt:" RantWoman has never really gotten into binge-watching, say, TV series.
We will not discuss whether or not a raging YouTube habit counts.
The last couple days, RantWoman has so badly wanted to escape everything to do with the President and his disagreeable Cabinet shredding the constitution, that RantWoman has fled to....drum roll, please...Court TV.
RantWoman barely dipped her toes into the sentencing of Brian Kohlberger for 4 heinous murders of University of ID students.
RantWoman thanks Mr. Kohlberger for pleading guilty. RantWoman was not looking forward to a whole summer of gruesome testimony and trial related social media.
RantWoman realizes this path probably will not ease grieving families gut wrenching grief.
RantWoman would not mind never again hearing Brian Kohlberger's name and having celebration of lives every year for the 4 murdered students as often as they need.
RantWoman had ZERO desire to even dip her eyeballs into more info about the sentencing than a short news snippet.
The other legal situation RantWoman is binge watching: the case of WA vs. Ali and Ali. Videos are widely available on YouTube via CourtTV or another called Justice is a Process, as well as J.D. A lawyer explains.
The next several posts will feature RantWoman opining about different aspects of the case. RantWoman had been holding off with commentary until verdicts have been returned. Verdicts have now been returned and sentencing has been set for August 18. That is still miles to go before we sleep. So please read on.
RantWoman is by turns deeply saddened, horrified and furious on multiple grounds about renewed college campus protests. The most immediate message RantWoman would like to hear, from as many directions as possible, even before lots of pieces play out further:
Call for Immediate Aid Access to Gaza
The world is at an all-hands-on-deck moment, because of the total blockade of humanitarian aid to Gaza. For more than two months, now, there has been no food, water, fuel, or medicine allowed to reach over 2 million Palestinians and the remaining Israeli hostages. Massive starvation is imminent. The problem is not a lack of food. Aid agencies are poised with 3,000 truckloads of humanitarian aid waiting at the border but barred from entry.
Make a public statement immediately calling for unfettered humanitarian access into Gaza in compliance with international law.
Take action now to save lives.
Just DO IT. Don't get stuck about what Boeing will or won't do or about divestment. Start from the immediate humanitarian crisis.
On religious notes:
RantWoman once attended an event where it took facilitators an hour and a half of back-and-forth discussion to get to enough agreement to have opening prayers. Praying together is not everyone's go-to but prayer seems highly on point for anyone who prays.
RantWoman considers it antisemitic to give anyone a pass about genocide because of their religion. RantWoman does not know of a single religious tradition that does not in some way or another call people to find their better selves and to get along with others.
Also, IT'S NOT COLLEGE if one does not encounter ideas and circumstances that challenge at least one core part of one's identity. Hopefully this results in stronger, wiser, more aware and flexible contributors to the fabric of society!
Enough said, or RantWoman's Dial-a-Tirade will erupt!
I am old. I think a VERY urgent message about the humanitarian crisis and ethnic cleansing in Gaza is getting lost.
I fear that all the visuals will be dumpster fires and complaints about protestors' clothing choices.
I have no patience with voices that clamor "domestic terrorism" in the presence of nonviolent protest.
I am also sick of the idea that ANY insistence that Palestinian people have rights terrifies others. Long ago in a university across the country, I organized speakers about a number of topics. The ONLY topic that consistently got bomb threats was Palestinian human rights. Where does anyone imagine THOSE bomb threats came from?
RantWoman has discovered a new and exotic way to distract herself from....
It's a YouTube channel called "What's going on with Shipping" RantWoman may have written of it before, but it's time to do it again.
RantWoman considers the channel an AWESOME go-to for LOTS of different shipping and navigation terminology. Not exactly comprehensively indexed as far as RantWoman knows, but a MASSIVE well of terminology.
The other point: paying attention to all the dimensions of global shipping offers one window into why the heck a certain President is getting expansionist about both Canada and Greenland. Global warming could be a GOOD thing if one wants easier shipping and access to mineral resources in the arctic and doesn't care too much about filling the atmosphere with carbon dioxide from traffic in and burning of fossil fuels.
No RantWoman, do not go there. Do not wander further into SCIENCE just because someone on Twitter / X brought up the calving of Antarctic glaciers in the spirit of "all this talk of climate change is a hoax."
A chunk of glacier "the size of Rhode Island" has calved off a glacier in Antarctica.
RantWoman did not appropriately mark the tweet that referred to a satellite study saying that an incident like that is about average for yearly glacial calving, a point which is only one of the hazards of attempting scientific discussion 280 characters at a time in Elon's sandbox. The other part of the assertion: so no one can blame global warming on someone's SUV's.
Wanna bet?
First, receding glaciers aside, there a TON of urban design and pedestrian safety reasons for a #WarOnCars.
Next, meander back into historical records of the Little Ice Age, sundry volcanic eruptions and patterns of glacial recission all over the planet over recent decades. Do not attempt precise scientific reasoning 280 characters at a time. Do not mention sea level rise or shifting mountain tree lines or...
Then, although RantWoman is desperately seeking escape from any meditation upon the current occupant of the White House, apparently going there is almost inevitable. As long as #DementiaDonOld spouts all kinds of nonscience nonsense, tries to reroute hurricanes with a sharpie, blubbers about bringing prices down... why the heck NOT also blame receding glaciers on a presidential Bad hair day or something?
OK, OK. RantWoma, ENOUGH for tonight. Save further commentary about Elon's sandbox for another evening.
The musical soundtrack and the word of the hymns are a fascinating aspect of this video. I would have to think to articulate the points that seem significant. It definitely enhances the sense of theater.
Kamala and Barack are the only two people of color in this sea of white people. I don't think it would have helped to have Michelle Obama there. I wonder whether there is a gender aspect to the visual exchange or lack of between Kamala and Barack
As an asterisk, Trump clearly cleans up well, compared for instance to the sketch artist images from his NY trial. But I also mean that there have been SO many comments about his body odor at different points and there was NO indication of that from anyone around him.
All of the former Presidents are smiling because as one of you noted, they are very attuned to engaging and they are all with their peers.
Hillary and Kamala are the only two women who have ever been at the top of a national party ticket and they have both lost to someone who has SUCH a long and deplorable record of behavior toward women. If I were writing an SNL sketch about this sequence, it might be WAY too much to play that up WAY beyond what is anywhere near appropriate at a state funeral. Daggers in their eyes....
The comments about the wives were interesting.
I am guessing that some of Emhoff's expression might be desire to protect his wife. He is also the only Jew in the group at this very Christian funeral. He is probably used to that feeling of difference, but I imagine this might have been exacerbated in the context of everything else.
I think Trump might be a little bit afraid of heat from his base if he admits to friendliness, even faint, with Obama.
Anyway the commentary is really interesting. I am legally blind and probably would have missed everything here without the commentary.
The following compilation of videos and commentary is dedicated to:
--Everyone who knew Shawn Kim, everyone who helped nab his killer, and everyone remembering what a great guy he must have been.
--All the transit drivers who will be working through the holiday season, especially the ones who deliberately choose routes that come with different difficulties
--Everyone whose holidays include transit and especially when holiday dramas spill over on the ride to or from festivities (count a couple mildly memorable moments from the RantFamily.)
--Everyone who, like RantWoman, thanks our drivers when we get off the bus. This social point is one reason RantWoman is not necessarily eager to consign bus driving to some kind of robot overlords.
Happy Holidays!
Drivers who choose to drive the night runs.
Like everyone else whose lives are entwined with transit, RantWoman was outraged to wake up last week to news of the stabbing of Shawn Kim.
RantWoman has seen plenty of times when drivers were able to deescalate all kinds of extremely stressful situations. People sleeping on buses also often do not react well when drivers waken them at the ends of routes. Murder is horrifying.
The stream of details becomes more heartbreaking with every new media account.
Rant: the murder occurred in the U district. Were there no University police anywhere in the area? Transit police are from the King County Sheriff Office, but do local police routinely respond if a 911 call comes from a specific jurisdiction?
RantWoman is really grateful for comments from people who knew Mr. Kim. RantWoman totally sympathizes with grieving relatives who really might have no mental space for media figures sticking microphones in their faces. At the same time, at this point, enough images of the suspect. How about more images of the murdered public servant?
Bananas did not go to the vigil
RantWoman apologizes if the heading above sounds flip.
RantWoman is very glad there was a vigil. RantWoman expressed interest in finishing off her day of errands with a stop at the vigil, more or less on RantWoman's way home anyway.
But RantWoman scored bananas at a very cool new supermarket she will celebrate separately.
And, completely unsurprisingly, there was a Metro alert advising riders to expect delays on every bus route that travels through the crime scene. So, RantWoman picked a different route home; the video will have to be enough for now, and not enough of course for all the events every day on Metro.
Description!
RantWoman, like a lot of armchair experts on social media would not have minded more of a description of the suspect sooner. Too much of the social media RantWoman saw was certain the killer must be Black. Like every transit driver in the area, RantWoman was glad to have enough of a description to rule out a lot of the riding public. 6'5" and white comes with a pretty definite body characteristic more useful to RantWoman than brown hair and brown eyes as well as some expectations about voice.
RantWoman is very thankful not to have encountered the killer.
RantWoman is very glad drivers had the description!
Arrest: a secure place to sleep.
RantWoman comment: this is pretty much a picture-perfect arrest from the police perspective. Completely cooperative suspect. No altercation of any kind. RantWoman also only sees white faces.
We are all grateful that this guy will have a secure place to sleep for a long time, without even any bus drivers to wake him up at the end of every run he lands on.
During intros at a meeting today, a person RantWoman would NOT have predicted to be interested in Burning Man said she is going "again...next week." Zoom meetings being not great for side chats during breaks, RantWoman is left wanting to know more, except about the schedule.
Turns out, the Democratic National convention starts Monday August 19. More separately.
Burning Man 2024 runs from Monday August 25 to Monday September 2.
Oops. Probably way too late for RantWoman even to think of putting together an expedition, but here we are:
RantWoman is not in tech troubleshooting mode, but somewhere on the site, the screen reader kept just reading Article, article. RantWoman is not going to try to reproduce the problem unless there is a clamor of comments from people who had the same experience.
Please note very articulate statements from people about why they are there, clear demands, and the STUNNING absence, compared to #J6, of assaults on police, gallows, bear spray, body armor fashion statements....
Military people in both US and Israel say there is no military path to victory.
Youtube has an abundance of additional clips.
RantWoman here notes a couple comments from Protest Curmudgeon.
--Somewhere in the protest an AMerican flag was burned. RantWoman is NOT a big fan of flag burning: frankly, anyone mad enough to burn a flag should TRY to find a more constructive way to deal with what one is PO'ed about. RantWoman herself has a complicated relation to flags: they matter and something in the Sunday school RantWoman was steeped in as a child still half regard flags as idols. So, no flag burning, and not quite the same veneration as others might express.
And from X, a protest at Union Station, not far from the Capitol involving a replica of the Liberty Bell placed by veterans.
Children being murdered in Gaza every day for nearly a year: *silence*
A replica Liberty bell, not even the real one, gets vandilized with magic marker: My heart is broken 💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 https://t.co/RhmjrCIhrM
There were several comments similar to the one here. There also were calls to arrest, jail, deport the "artists." RantWoman imagines that people who spread graffiti all over the bell might expect to get arrested, fined, and perahps asked to make restitution. RantWoman does not consider that inappropriate. RantWoman also has the impression that the graffiti should be easy to clean up, but RantWoman is no expert.
RantWoman originally posted in a hurry without commentary.
RantWoman has seen many videos in English and does not intend to offer a complete translation but does want to convey the flavor of the event.
Hundreds, probably a few thousand people have been detained at protests like this in cities all over Russia.
There are at least two categories of police.
Officer with a megaphone says various things "Please keep moving" "Please stay clear of the metro entrance."
The yellow vests say "PRESS."
Trigger warning: some instances of police violence.
At times the crowd shouts "Shame! Shame!".
RantWoman has not tested automated translation except if readers click the Youtube button, there will be a Translate into English option by every comment in Russian.
The event takes place at the monument to victims of political repression on Sakharov Street in Moscow. Readers who have never heard of physicist Andrei Sakharov are invited to consult Wikipedia or preferred search engine.
Even erecting such monuments was a thing of the late 1990's and very early 2000's before the post-Soviet windows into Soviet history started to close.
Readers will appreciate all the literary layers of this geography.
The video opens with police a third police office asking the journalist for her ID and she says they are probably going to ask a fourth and fifth time.
The video shows several young people saying why they have come, why others are afraid to, how much hope Navalny inspired.
RantWoman assumes Navalny's death is state violence. If RantWoman were to compare Navalny to a figure in the US though, the Kennedys come to mind, and this in spite of some views RantWoman has no respect for.
Navalny's final message: "Never give up!"
And anti-war candidate Boris Nadezhdin is still, RantWoman believes, appealing to have his name on the presidential ballot for the March elections in Russia. (FWIW "Nadezhdin" is a variant of the word for Hope.)
RantWoman has not previously heard about the impact the Lewiston ME mass shooting had on the deaf community.
RantWoman nearly threw things at the computer when they said that interpreters were kept out of the ER!!!!
RantWoman shared the post with someone who said, basically, "that wouldn't happen where I work." RantWoman unfortunately can see how a mass casualty event involving multiple deaf people, both injured and trying to navigate a waiting room would be really confusing. RantWoman will be interested to know whether, say, any kind of educational video results from learnings after the event.
RantWoman offers this example of AI-based journalism as an artifact of all that is wrong with #AI-based journalism.
1. PRONOUNS!!!! If the entire #GOP #GQP is melting down over the subject of pronouns, RantWoman would have A TAD more confidence in the product if the product got the pronouns right for the subject of the story. Liz Cheney herself may or may not care, but it seems a dumb thing to get wrong.
2. The Text to Speech voice is just flat, lacking in even the nuances now available in at least SOME of the Text to Speech options in RantWoman's life.
3. Devastating or at least Detailed Plan: SAY MORE!
4. The content is mush. CITATIONS would be lovely including precise references to names connected with different points of view. so that RantWoman can back track and decide whether she would draw more nuanced conclusions than the AI!
The following is a invitation from the Indian American Community Services both to sign on to their statement regarding the police killing of Jaahnavi Kandula and to sign a petition at Change.org
As an aside, RantWoman deeply appreciates the statement on the IACS website about Black Lives Matter
The link to the Change.org petition is within this statement.
Key asks
the IACS and its partners seek the following from the City of Seattle and Seattle Police Department:
Creation of an independent body to investigate Jaahnavi Kandula’s and other civilian deaths involving SPD officers, and report results back to the community in a timely manner.
Identification and disclosure all details of the fatal accident to the public including the high speed at which Officer Kevin Dave was driving. Provide clarity on what basis Officer Auderer had already determined that it was not reckless driving that fatally killed Ms. Kandula.
Release all of investigative reports from the Office of Police Accountability regarding this case to the public, providing full transparency.
Accountability for the three officers involved in the death of Ms. Kandula and subsequent events:
Officer Kevin Dave who struck Ms. Kandula, resulting in her death.
Officer Daniel Auderer, vice president of SPOG, who laughed about the deadly crash, dismissedany implication of responsibility or criminality, and demeaned Ms. Kandula’s life to be of “limited value.”
Officer Mike Solan, president of SPOG, who callously engaged in this horrific conversation with Officer Daniel Auderer.
Organizations supporting thispetition include:
Indian American Community Services (IACS)
Asian Counseling Referral Service (ACRS)
Asia Pacific Islander Coalition (APIC) Seattle
Asia Pacific Islander Coalition (APIC) East King County
Eastside For All
Indo-American Friendship Forum (IAFF)
Japanese American Citizens League (JACL)
Pacific Islander Health Board of WA State
Asia Pacific Islander Coalition (APIC) South Puget Sound
Town Hall Seattle
AWU
Asia Pacific Islander Coalition (APIC) Snohomish County
Refugee & Immigrant Services Northwest
Muslim Community Network Association MCNA
Asian Pacific American Advocates of Greater Seattle
Indian American Friendship Forum (IAFF)
WA State Commission of Asian Pacific American Affairs (CAPAA)
Tasveer
Coalition of Seattle Indian Americans CSIA
Khalsa Gurmat
Asia Pacific Islander Coalition (APIC) Pierce County
4 Tomorrow
Africans on the Eastside
Indian American Muslim Council IAMC – Seattle Chapter
Humanize Homelessness and Dignity First
Ambedkar International center, USA
Ambedkar King Study Circle
Asian Pacific Islander Coalition of Yakima
Periyar Ambedkar study circle
A couple additional RantWoman comments.
--Jaahnavi Kandula's death is one of far too many car vs. pedestrian accidents in Seattle. Car vs Pedestrian accidents are increasing nationwide. Some of the factors common to many of them include:
Poor pedestrian infrastructure
High speed
SUV's are more deadly than other vehicles and large vehicles are an increasing percentage of all road traffic.
--RantWoman hopes that Jaahnavi's family has connected with an appropriate lawyer for the situation
--Initially, one of the pain points for the public was the delay in announcing that the person struck by the police vehicle had died. NO ONE anywhere on the planet wants to find out a loved one has died from the internet. RantWoman hopes the police handled notifications sensitively.
--RantWoman is thinking about a separate rant about black humor. RantWoman does find it hard to swallow the police department's claim that they were joking about how lawyers present cases because, drum roll please, the Seattle Police Officers Guild has spent decades getting help from lawyers to avoid transparency and accountability.
--The other point about black humor has to do with job stress, community stress, and more that needs to be said but not necessarily here.
One of the better videos RantWoman has seen
One of the most concise and focused articulations RantWoman has seen of circumstances related to the January incident where a police SUV driving at a very high rate of speed mowed down a pedestrian crosswalk. Also comments that speak to RantWoman about police reform.
Interests: Digital Inclusion, Languages and language access, walkability, accessibility, disaster preparedness.
When in doubt, laugh about something!
http://rantwoman.blogspot.com
PLEASE NOTE: I use both screen reading and screen enlargement. I would love to say Blogger is screen-reader friendly, but I am in no position to comment!
