PREPARING FOR THE NEW YEAR

There will be no new blog post over Christmas. Breathe... enjoy time with your family and friends. If you have an inclination to do some work for this course, here's what your energy should be spent on:

1. CULMINATING PORTFOLIO - be sure all your marked assignments have been corrected and placed in a folder marked with your name and the title Culminating Portfolio. Share this folder with me if you have not already done so. It is due Jan. 21st or Jan. 25th at the latest.

NOTE - I would like to publish 2 or 3 pieces from each class member in a class book. These should be creative prose or poetry, and can be course assignments or something new. I will be asking you about this when we return.

2. YOUR BLOG - Take the time to go back to each of your past posts and make the suggested corrections if you have not already done so. This does not mean rewriting anything, just corrections to spelling, grammar and punctuation. It is due Jan 16th.

3. COLLABORATIVE WRITING - Each member should take a share of the agreed upon task. Get the text into a computer, get the images and layout organized. When we have draft versions of the children's books ready I will arrange to visit kindergarten classes to test the stories. Finished products by Jan. 21st.

JANUARY NEWSLETTER - We were caught with a very short submission timeline for the next school newsletter, and there will be little news in the way of school events. So we are doing an issue on "Student Voice". I have submitted the following;
- Emma's Mission article in an abbreviated version
- Toby's value of exercise article in an abbreviated version
- Matteo, Sierra, Jackie, Kim & Nadia - excerpts from your blogs on Grit and Growth Mindset
- Shelby, Renzel & Megan excerpts from your blogs on The Future

TO PROTECT AND SERVE

"Hey, hey. Ho, ho. These killer cops have got to go." (chant on NY streets this evening)

Ferguson, Missouri protestors

"Protect and Serve" is the motto of the LAPD, the OPP's motto is "Safe Communities, A Secure Ontario" and the Guelph Police Service  slogan is "Pride - Service - Trust", but can citizens feel safe when confronted with police officers? The Free Thought Project website suggests that Americans are more likely to be killed by a US police offer than a terrorist. Mint Press News, an online news service, reports that US police have killed 5,000 civilians since 9/11. This week protests erupted in New York City because a white police officer was not charged for the choke-hold death of an unarmed black man named Eric Garner. For the past several weeks the town of Ferguson, Missouri has suffered violent rioting because a white police officer shot Michael Brown, an unarmed black man, 12 times.

Just in case you think this only happens to black citizens and residents of the United States...

In July 2013 a bystander video recorded a Toronto police officer shoot Sammy Yatim (a white youth who was on a Toronto streetcar with a knife) 9 times and then tasered his inert body. Then in August 2013 RCMP officers went to the home of Josee Valiquette on Cold Lake Alberta’s First Nation’s reserve with the intent of arresting him, when a fight broke out Valiquette was shot dead. And just in case you think using tasers instead of guns is the answer, Robert Dziekanski was tasered to death at the Vancouver airport in 2010. Robert did not speak English and a witness video documents the aggressive police response to his failure to comply.

NYPD body camera pilot project

British police officers traditionally do not carry guns. New York City police a testing body cameras, initially to protect officers against wrongful accusations of excessive force, but knowing they are on camera has been found to modify police behaviour. 

Here's your reflection question: If you were on a consulting committee to a police force, what would you suggest as a means to address the problem of police officers killing unarmed citizens? Is this a matter of improved training, restricted weapons, stronger consequences following incidents, or something else?

Don't rant. Don't ramble. Develop a clear, concise statement of opinion.