Monday, June 22, 2020

Black Lives Matter: Will it lead to reform of Police Forces in the USA?

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Kanika Bajaj

Article Title

Black Lives Matter: Will it lead to reform of Police Forces in the USA?

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Global Views 360

Publication Date

June 22, 2020

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Police in riot gear

Police in riot gear | Source: AJ Alfieri-Crispin via Wikimedia

The spontaneous eruption of the “Black Lives Matter” protest after the unfortunate death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police has once again put the spotlight on the operational methodology of the police department at different cities around the USA. There is a chorus across the country, more so in the Democratic Party strongholds to do fundamental reorganization of the police force by focussing on community policing. Some of the extreme and radical activists have gone so far to demand “defund the police” and re-distribute its budget to marginalized communities, municipal corporations and necessity institutions.

“There is no magic switch to turn off and boom there’s no police department,” said Alex Vitale, a sociology professor at Brooklyn College. She released a book named ‘The End of Policing’. The book has become a manifesto for protests and police-reform advocates. The defund development calls for diminishing networks' dependence on police for various administrative problems like, observing the homeless, settling household quarrels, restraining understudies, reacting to upheavals by individuals with mental illness, paring down violence in neighbourhoods, and proportional reaction to minor inconveniences like somebody attempting to pass a fake $20, the allegation that set off the police call that resulted in Floyd's demise. The funds saved by reducing the workload of police could be utilised by social and community workers to resolve street feuds. “When we talk about de-funding the police, what we're saying is invest in the resources that our communities need,” Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza told NBC News.

There are cities which have approached this reform in a positive manner. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has decided to shift the money from NYPD budget to youth recreational programs. A whopping $150 million is being pulled out of the LAPD by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. This money is proposed to be invested in healthcare systems and build peace centres. Similarly Portland and Oregon have consented to pull police from state funded schools. A few Minneapolis organizations, including the government funded school region, the University of Minnesota and the Park and Recreation Board, have moved to diminish or end their agreements with city police.

Dallas has earlier experienced the positive results of diverting emergency mental health calls, not only on hospitals but also police to non-police establishment when in 2018 RIGHT Care  was provided $3 million funding to look after these issues. Since the program started, ambulances and emergency vehicle calls for individuals encountering emotional wellness inconveniences have declined in the south-local region of Dallas where the program works, which has opened up officials to manage different calls, authorities said. This transition was also done after the outcry over the shooting of a schizophrenic man holding a screwdriver in 2014 and subsequent defence of police personnel by the police boss David Brown.

Law enforcement officials and conservative activists believe that de-funding police would lead to an upsurge in criminal activities. President Donald Trump has started making this as a key plank of his re-election campaign while the Former Vice President Joe Biden, who is running against Trump, also came out against de-funding police.

It is therefore too early to predict whether the current phase of “Black Lives Movement” after the death of George Floyd will be successful in bringing some substantial reform in the working of police forces across the cities of the US or the momentum will be lost with some incremental tweaking here and there.  

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February 4, 2021 4:58 PM

Turkey: A new player in Killer Drone Arena

It is almost two decades since the military drone (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle --UAV) was used by any country (The USA) for aerial attack in a combat mission. It has led to a rush among the countries to acquire military drones through indigenous development programs or import from other countries.

Turkey tried to import the military drones from the USA and Israel but the product which it got was not up to the mark. After experiencing the difficulties in importing effective military drones, Turkey, through its robust private sector defence industry, started serious work to develop indigenous capability around 2010.  This focus paid off and in less than a decade Turkey became a major player in the production and export of military drones.

Bayraktar TB2 is Turkey’s first indigenously produced armed drone. It is developed by a private company “Baykar Makina.” This drone can fly at an altitude of 24,000 feet for up to 24 hours and relies on ground control stations for communication. With a range of up to 150 kilometres, it can carry a payload of 120 pounds and has become the backbone of its unmanned air force

The other heavier and satellite-linked military drone is ANKA-S which made its operational debut in 2019 during the battle over Idlib in Syria. It is manufactured by Turkish Aerospace Industries which is the giant of defence production in Turkey. It can fly for more than 24 hours carrying a 400-pound payload, and has the ability to detect, identify and track ground targets.

As of March 2020, Turkey has around 130 armed drones belonging to different versions of Bayraktar TB2, ANKA, and Karayel in service. These drones were critical in Turkey’s strikes against the Kurdish rebels and regime forces in Syria. Turkish drones were also credited to swing the momentum in the favour of UN recognised Libyan government against the onslaught by the renegade strongman; General Haftar led Libyan National Army in Libya

A report published by C4ISRNET, a publication that covers technology for defence and intelligence communities, said “Turkey’s decision to send a mass-coordinated UAV attack points to its availability of options It also stated that "Turkey joins the United States, United Kingdom, France, Israel, China and Iran as drone-armed nations."

As a logical extension to expanding drone programs Turkey has started looking for the opportunities in the competitive global market for military drones. It has so far exported the drones to Qatar, Ukraine, and Azerbaijan and is reportedly in talks with Pakistan, Indonesia, and Tunisia for the same.

The rapid advancement in the design, development, deployment, and export of killer drones has put spotlight on Turkey as a new player in a fiercely contested arena which is so far dominated by established heavyweight players.

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