We take a bigger picture look at how Ezell Ford fits into the national narrative of police use of force and where Los Angeles stands. Also, President Obama ordered the deployment of up to 450 more U.S. troops to Iraq on Wednesday. Then, how has the art of a good headline changed in the age of search engine optimization and social media?
The significance of Ezell Ford in LAPD and Los Angeles history
Ezell Ford’s family rejoiced at the finding of The Los Angeles Police Commission Tuesday that one of the officers' actions were improper across the board. The commission is now calling on the District Attorney to file charges.
Los Angeles seems to be one of the few cities where a civilian oversight committee has rendered a decision that the victim’s family feels was justified. We take a bigger picture look at how Ezell Ford fits into the national narrative of police use of force and where Los Angeles stands.
Read the full story here.
Guests:
Jim Newton, Editor of Blueprint, a new magazine for CA, covered the LAPD for the LA Times from 1992-1997
Francisco Ortega, Senior Policy Analyst, City of Los Angeles Human Relations Commission
Nana Gyamfi, a human rights lawyer based in Los Angeles
Former World Cup champion Brandi Chastain on women’s role & representation in sport
After coming up just short in 2011 against Japan, the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team are back on the pitch in Canada, trying to bring another World Cup back stateside.
So far, things are looking good for the Americans, who pulled out an easy 3-1 win over Australia in their first game of group play. They will face Sweden on Friday and Nigeria next Tuesday, and with solid play in both of those games, should be one of the 16 teams who advance to the elimination rounds.
If you’ve never watched the U.S. Women’s team play, you’re missing out on quite a spectacle. They’re a perennial powerhouse and always a favorite to be in the final stages of World Cup competition. Yet despite the ladies’ prowess on the pitch and a recent increase in American’s interest in the beautiful game, women’s soccer (and women’s sports in general) are vastly under-covered when it comes to the media.
Data suggests that there’s been a decline in the tendency to portray female athletes as sexualized objects, and that the trend has been replaced by a tendency to look at female athletes in their roles as mothers, the vast majority of sports media coverage goes towards the big three: pro and college men’s basketball, football, and baseball.
How are women represented in sports today? Do the media give enough attention to women’s sports? How much has women’s soccer grown in popularity in the last 20 years?
Looking for a spot to watch your favorite team? Check out KPCC’s guide to where to watch the Women’s World Cup:
Guests:
Kavitha A. Davidson, sports columnist at Bloomberg View. Her latest article is titled “Reform FIFA? Treat Women Fairly First.”
Cheryl Cooky, associate professor of women’s, gender, and sexuality studies at Purdue University. She’s also co-author of the report "It’s Dude Time!” A Quarter Century of Excluding Women’s Sports in Televised News and Highlight Shows."
Brandi Chastain, retired soccer player and former member of the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team. Her game-winning penalty kick during the 1999 Women’s World Cup Final led the U.S. to a win over China. Chastain is now a coach for the varsity soccer team at Bellarmine College Preparatory School in San Jose.
Debating stepped up US military deployment to Iraq
President Barack Obama ordered the deployment of up to 450 more U.S. troops to Iraq on Wednesday to advise and assist local forces in an effort to reverse the recent gains of the Islamic State.
Under the plan, the United States will open a fifth training site in Iraq, with the goal of integrating Iraqi Security Forces and Sunni fighters. The immediate objective is to retake the city of Ramadi, seized by the Islamic State last month.
Obama made the decision at the request of Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and based on advice from Pentagon leaders, the White House said. The U.S. troops will not be used in a combat role.
A year ago today , Islamic State (IS) fighters achieved a significant, foreboding victory: the capture of Iraq's second largest city, Mosul. The militants have maintained their momentum in Iraq and Syria despite U.S. and coalition airstrikes which officials claim have killed more than 10,000 fighters in the last 10 months. The death toll at the hands of IS militants is less certain, but a spray of a humanitarian crises spreads across the Levant including seizure of Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus where IS has blocked delivery of food and aid from reaching thousands.
On Monday, speaking at the G-7 in Germany, President Barack Obama had said the U.S. still lacks a "complete strategy" for training Iraqi forces to fight the IS, but that U.S. presence there would remain around 3,000 troops for train-and-assist missions. He continued to say the IS remains "nimble, aggressive and opportunistic." In other related news, Senator Joe Manchin (D-W. VA.) today suggested the world community should consider supporting splitting Iraq into three separate states to quell sectarian violence between Shiites, Sunnis, and Kurds.
What would that mean for oil resources throughout the country? Would Arab states support that move? Is Obama’s authorization for new troops today an about-face from his earlier position and how does it align with what Pentagon leadership envisions? How will the current U.S. strategy for dealing with IS play into the presidential campaigns?
With files from the Associated Press.
Guest:
Christopher Harmer, Senior Naval Analyst, Institute for the Study of War - a described as a non-partisan, non-profit, public policy research organization dedicated to advancing an informed understanding of U.S. military affairs.
Eric M. Davis, Professor of Political Science at Rutgers University and past director of the University's Center for Middle Eastern Studies. He keeps the blog, The New Middle East and has written extensively about IS, Iraq, and Syria.
Hussein Ibish, Senior Resident Scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington - a non-profit institution focused on bridging the U.S. and Arab Gulf countries; Ibish is a long-time policy analyst and advocate based in D.C. focusing on Middle East issues; Ibishblog.com
How police are trained when it comes to using profanity on the job
As last week’s video of a McKinney, Texas police officer throwing a 15-year-old girl to the ground continues to circulate, a larger discussion is forming around the use of profanity in professional settings.
The officer, Eric Casebolt, used profane language in front of and at teenagers after tensions arose at a pool party. While the incident allegedly started because two white women told the black teens to “go back to their Section 8 homes,” the situation continued to escalate as the officer cursed at the teens.
Daniel Malenfant, lodge president of the McKinney Fraternal Order of Police, stated that police cursing at juveniles or citizens “diminishes the professional image which is expected” yet qualified that by saying it may happen in situations when officers try to “gain control of unruly subjects who are not complying with officer demands.” McKinney Police Department Chief Greg Conley called Casebolt’s actions as “out of control” and “indefensible.” Officer Casebolt has resigned.
Is there ever an appropriate situation for police to use profanity at the scene of the crime? Does it make a difference that the suspects were juveniles? What are police trained when it comes to using profanity on the job?
Guest:
John Crank, author of “Understanding Police Culture” (Routledge, 2004) and retired professor at the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Nebraska, Omaha
‘National Enquirer’ executive editor on the art of writing a killer headline
The man behind what some have called the greatest newspaper headline ever has died. He was 74.
Vincent Musetto was a longtime news editor and film critic at the New York Post, where he cranked out countless headlines and pieces.
But five words stood out, which Musetto penned to encapsulate the gruesome murder of a bar owner in Queens. “Headless Body in Topless Bar” screamed the front page headline of the April 15, 1983 edition of the New York Post.
Nodding to those iconic words, AirTalk looks at the art of crafting a snappy newspaper headline. What makes a great headline? How has that changed in the age of search engine optimization and social media?
Guests:
Barry Levine, executive editor and director of news of the National Enquirer
Roy Peter Clark, Vice President and Senior Scholar, Reporting, Writing & Editing Faculty at Poynter Institute for Media Studies. He is the writer of a number of books on writing. His latest is “How to Write Short: Word Craft for Fast Times” (Little, Brown and Company, 2014)”
Eric Zassenhaus, Assistant Managing Editor of digital content at KPCC