Reporting In The Public Interest: A Case In Point >> Release of Police Shooting Video

Here's the story as reported by ProPublica
How One Reporter Got the Police Shooting Video Everyone Wanted
by Cynthia Gordy
ProPublica, March 28, 2016, 8 a.m
Readers of this blog can decide for themselves if it is in the public interest to get the Mesa Police Department to release the police officer-involved shooting of a suspect in the bodycam video during an incident here on January 18, 2016. It might be unlikely that since there was no racial issue like in Chicago, a delay in the release of this deadly encounter video might may have similar consequences for the county attorney . . . time will tell. Justice may get delayed but frequently it is not denied.

Case in point: Brandon Smith [seen in the image to the right], an independent journalist, forced public disclosure of the video (which sharply contradicted police’s recounting of events) by suing the city after his Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request was denied. On this week’s podcast, Smith speaks with ProPublica senior reporter Julia Angwin about how he was the only journalist in Chicago to sue for the video, the challenges and benefits of practicing journalism independently in his free time, and his thoughts on what “counts” as journalism.
Highlights from their conversation you can see here: [open in  new window by clicking on the underlined link] . . . Italics are for emphasis by MesaZona blogger

• A judge ordered the tape’s release just three months after Smith filed his lawsuit.
  Smith: We asked him, "Please speed this up. This is really important." If the Freedom of Information Act is for anything, it's for this case. This is a case wherein a representative of the government literally killed someone and people want to know why.
• Smith, whose legitimacy as a journalist has been questioned, disagrees with the notion that journalists can’t be activists.
  Smith: If something is heinous enough, you almost have to come out and take a stance against that thing. If you're a journalist reporting on the Iraq War, and you find that huge numbers of birth defects are occurring in areas where battles took place, then you kind of have a duty, if someone asks you a personal question about it…to say, "This is not a cool thing that the United States government used depleted uranium bullets.” … I don't think that makes them an activist only. They're a journalist reporting this story, trying to tell the facts.
• Smith left a secure reporting job, choosing to work independently instead.
  Smith: I had this beat where I had to cover certain things. I had to make sure I had a few stories every week. Those stories had to be on this topic of city government. I did that for a while and just kept thinking, "Man, there are such bigger stories out there with national implications, many of them." I was literally not allowed to report on them.

Listen to this podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud or Stitcher.
For more, follow Smith’s work at brandonsmith.com.

ASU Downtown | Community Forum: Fill-In The Survey Blanks PLEASE > Just Talk + No Action ??

 Already five community colleges, colleges and universities here with very few students > what's the problem? - and two have moved on to other locations.
Do we really need more competition between institutions of higher learning for student dollars spent on education?.
No campus life with commuter and online options?
Just "floating a balloon" from the usual redevelopment tool-box? 
Shoot it down/ask questions Will this fly? ...

Please note, dear readers, this idea was announced with mucho mainstream media hyper-promotion as a fait accompli at Mayor John Giles State of The City speech back in January as part of his re-election campaign - not his usual "under-promise and over-deliver" mantra.
If this idea means so much to the president of ASU Michael Crow, why was he in London for an online course business signed agreement between ASU-Australia-England and not here in Mesa? It was a done deal, not an idea with no substance.
However, all the members of the Mesa City Council posed for a photo-op with ASU mascot "Sparky" here in the image to the right by photographer Ivan Martinez.
In a comment made by Mesa Economic Development director Bill Jabjiniak at the March meeting of the Economic Development Advisory Board, he states "it's just talk, nothing definite . . . "

 

ASU in Downtown Mesa

RAILmesa will hold a forum with Mayor John Giles on Tuesday, April 12 at 6pm at Volstead Public House.

Questions are posed . . . readers might want to ask how this will get financed and what locations are getting targeting for the brick-and-mortar part of this?

Will it be re-use of existing real estate or new construction?

If readers want to take the survey, you can find it here >> https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1fvlJtR0sHZGF_PGkzn1IAOZ7db_oKI64ttD1QQOYZIo/viewform?c=0&w=1

Boeing! Boeing! Broadway TONY Awards 2008 Best Play Revival Hits The Stage @ MAC April 2016

 

Break A Leg! . . .  To  the program and event planners at the biggest arts n' entertainment venue in the New Urban Downtown Mesa, home on the "outskirts" of the center city for the Apache A-64 Helo Boeing production plant.
An original1965 movie comedy starring straight comedian Jerry Lewis and s8/gay Tony Curtis was adapted for the stage on Broadway eight years ago and is now scheduled here presented by the resident Mesa Encore Theatre . . .
Maybe about polygamy? Or just playing the field?

This hilarious 1960’s period farce features self-styled Parisian lothario Bernard, who has Italian, German, and American fiancées, each beautiful airline hostesses with frequent "layovers." He keeps "one up, one down and one pending" until unexpected schedule changes bring all three to Paris and Bernard's apartment at the same time, resulting in laugh-out-loud chaos. April 8 - 24
TIMES VARY
THURS - SAT 7:30PM; SAT AND SUN 2:30PM
Farnsworth Studio
$29 Adults
$26 Students with ID
Tickets can be purchased at the on-site box office or here

Here's an old "teaser" from YouTube

Photography is NOT A Crime > Release The Mesa Police Body Cam Video

Time and time again when photographic/video/body cam evidence is suppressed in police officer-involved shooting incidents it results in a delayed public outrage about the use of excessive force, headline-grabbing demonstrations, social media outrage, investigation after investigation, notices and settlements of multi-million dollars claims against cities, and the arrests and prosecutions of those paid to serve, protect and defend the public interest.
Since 18 January 2016 when an incident happened here in Mesa - almost four months ago - it started out with just an item on that day's crime reports, slowly gaining traction to create a crescendo in social media over the weekend.

Why?

Mesa Police Officer-Involved Shooting > Sensational Media Beat Reporting

Within the last 24 hours there have been more than 15 articles and reports in local and national media about this incident on 18 January at the La Quinta Inn. Unfortunately it's all getting more sensational all the time - now getting attention from Gawker and tabloid NY Daily News . . . tens of thousands of people have read online and social media or watched news coverage of this one incident here in Mesa.
With the release of a 12-page investigation report on Monday by the Mesa Police Department about officer Philip "Mitch" Brailsford, seen in the accompanying image from that report, headlines are multiplying.

Daniel Shaver, unarmed man killed by Arizona police officer, cried and begged for life before shooting
By Jason Silverstein NY Daily News/

Updated: Wednesday, March 30, 2016, 2:49 PM

An unarmed man who was shot and killed by an Arizona police officer in January cried, complied with police orders and begged for his life before the fatal firing, according to a newly released police report.
Mesa Police Officer Philip Brailsford has been charged with second-degree murder for the death of Daniel Shaver, a 26-year-old Texas man. Authorities have declined to release Brailsford’s body cam footage from the deadly encounter.Source: NY Daily News

Unarmed man begged for life before AZ cop with "YOU'RE FUCKED" sticker on rifle shot him to death
/ Cory Doctorow / 3:35 pm Wed Mar 30, 2016

The body-camera video that presumably shows the shooting of an unarmed man by a former Mesa police officer at a hotel will not be released . . .

From Singapore Today: SF Fed Prez John Williams | Janet Yellens US Fed Reserve Bank Chief @ NY Economic Club



Both in the same day, worlds apart, saying what they think about the global and U.S. economies + some other people talking about what they didn't say
Yellen - "mixed"
Williams - the spoiler alert is that it’s not as bad as everyone thinks.
[links and details to follow]

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said on Tuesday the U.S. central bank should proceed only cautiously as it looks to raise interest rates, pushing back on a handful of her colleagues who have suggested another move may be just around the corner.

In her first comments since the Fed decided to hold rates steady two weeks ago, Yellen said inflation has not yet proven durable against the backdrop of looming global risks to the U.S economy, including still-low oil prices and concerns over China.

The comments, which boosted stocks and bonds and hit the dollar, come as healthier measures of U.S. inflation and manufacturing have prompted some other Fed officials to say another policy tightening could come as soon as April.










Trick of the Light?
The U.S. Economy, Global Growth, and International Risks in Perspective
http://www.frbsf.org/our-district/press/presidents-speeches/williams-speeches/2016/march/trick-of-the-light-us-economy-global-growth-international-risks/

A Lesson In Advertising For Visit Mesa: Millenials Don't Like to Get Targeted

Just a quick flashback to a post here on 14 March about the spoon-fed news published by reporters in certain media outlets.
Your MesaZona blogger posed a question: Why focus on millennials as one population group for this ad campaign-buy [contract price not disclosed] when you can easily see in the infographic from the U.S. Census Bureau from July 2014 that there's almost an even spread in generation lines from the ages of 25-65+?

Ten days later on March 24, 2016 Bloomberg Surveillance presented a discussion with Kevin Roberts, the Chairman of one of the world's most creative organizations - the highly  respected Advertising/Public Relations companies Saatchi & Saatchi, speaking from London.

Here's a link to watch >> A Lesson in Advertising
Some take-away, but take the time to see this video
1. Millennials want to be involved but they don't like being marketed to . . . that's a failure
2. Segmenting the public by age is over
3. We don't live in an age-based culture
4. Everything is available to all of us

If the tourism-marketing arm for the City of Mesa chooses to spend money to sell downtown Mesa as the playground for millennials, let's see some results for the 7-month campaign.

Owens Harley included a link to the video you can go to >> here
 "Our downtown Is Your Playground"
Downtown Mesa is a place bursting with energy and life. Between nightlife, festivals, funky little side shops, and proximity to light rail, Downtown Mesa has quickly become one of Arizona’s booming urban centers. So how does an agency tell this story? With a music video, of course.
From creative concept to song writing to drone flying, the OH team led all creative elements of Downtown Mesa’s music video production. We hope you’ll enjoy watching — and visiting — as much as we enjoyed making it.

Tags: advertising, Arizona, content marketing, Digital, digital advertising, Mesa, music, Music Video, Social Media, Tourism, Video

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