U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions war on science/forensics: (Part Eleven); My first exposure to 'The Daily Banter.' A biting, merciless, sharply written evaluation of Session's agenda by reporter Justin Rosario, under the heading 'Trump's Attorney General Just Told the Police it's OK to Fake Forensic Evidence Again." (Bravo Jeff. HL)..."Here's an unpleasant fact about forensic science: Science only works if you do it right and American law enforcement has developed a nasty habit of doing it wrong. Sometimes the "science" gets botched because they're overworked and understaffed. Sometimes they get it wrong through simple incompetence. And sometimes they get it wrong because they want to."..."Television has created an aura of infallibility around forensic science that has no basis in reality. The police and prosecutors rely on this myth to dazzle juries and secure convictions based on "evidence" they know to be garbage. That's not to say forensic science is worthless, but it only works when rigorous standards are applied. Which is exactly what Jeff Sessions wants to prevent. By getting rid of the nonpartisan oversight commission, Sessions is signalling that prosecutors and police labs will be free to fabricate the hell out of their evidence again. He's literally inviting systemic abuse and, prepare to be shocked, guess who that will impact the most? Law enforcement's favorite punching bag, of course: Minorities. The police already profile, arrest, prosecute and convict minorities far more often than whites; faked forensics will accelerate that trend. And that's the entire point." PS: Warning: Check reflect carefully on Rosario's last line before reading this post. Very carefully. HL);

STORY: "After years of push back against sloppy and dishonest practices used to secure wrongful convictions, Jeff Sessions wants to reverse course to further his white supremacist agenda," by  reporter Justin Rosario, published by The Daily Banter on April 13, 2017. (The stridently center-left Jewish-Puerto Rican atheist liberal your conservative grandparents warned you about, Justin is also a full-time stay at home parent to an autistic son and a neurotypical daughter, a doting husband, a donor daddy to a lesbian couple, a PTA president, a sci-fi geek and still finds time to write about politics and social issues for a living.)

GIST: "If you were to sit down and create a checklist of how to use American law enforcement to terrorize and tear apart minority communities, you'd be hard pressed to come up with a blueprint that looks substantially different from what Attorney General Jeff Sessions is doing. In addition to reinvigorating the long-debunked "war on drugs" and almost literally telling the cops they can indulge their most racist tendencies without fear of repercussions, Sessions is busy making it easier to put hundreds of thousands of innocent men in jail: Prosecutors applauded the April 10 announcement by Attorney General Jeff Sessions that the Department of Justice was disbanding the nonpartisan National Commission on Forensic Science and returning forensic science to law enforcement control. In the same statement, Mr. Sessions suspended the department’s review of closed cases for inaccurate or unsupported statements by forensic analysts, which regularly occur in fields as diverse as firearm and handwriting identification, and hair, fiber, shoe, bite mark and tire tread matching, and even fingerprinting analysis. Here's an unpleasant fact about forensic science: Science only works if you do it right and American law enforcement has developed a nasty habit of doing it wrong. Sometimes the "science" gets botched because they're overworked and understaffed. Sometimes they get it wrong through simple incompetence. And sometimes they get it wrong because they want to. The Justice Department and FBI have formally acknowledged that nearly every examiner in an elite FBI forensic unit gave flawed testimony in almost all trials in which they offered evidence against criminal defendants over more than a two-decade period before 2000. That was not an accident. They knew exactly what they were doing and why they were doing it. Television has created an aura of infallibility around forensic science that has no basis in reality. The police and prosecutors rely on this myth to dazzle juries and secure convictions based on "evidence" they know to be garbage. That's not to say forensic science is worthless, but it only works when rigorous standards are applied. Which is exactly what Jeff Sessions wants to prevent. By getting rid of the nonpartisan oversight commission, Sessions is signalling that prosecutors and police labs will be free to fabricate the hell out of their evidence again. He's literally inviting systemic abuse and, prepare to be shocked, guess who that will impact the most? Law enforcement's favorite punching bag, of course: Minorities. The police already profile, arrest, prosecute and convict minorities far more often than whites; faked forensics will accelerate that trend. And that's the entire point. If I were writing Sessions' checklist of "How to Destroy Brown and Black Lives", these would be the next things on my list..."There are 572 days left to the 2018 elections.  This article kills fascists."

The entire story can be found at:

http://thedailybanter.com/2017/04/jeff-sessions-hates-justice-loves-mass-incarceration/

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy; Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog;