An oft-used phrase heard during this past decade-plus of warfare is that America has to “win the hearts and minds” of the civilian populations that it erroneously harms during active conflict and occupation.
Under the Foreign Claims Act, such civilians have recourse for compensation for damages caused by U.S. troops. However, the law doesn’t cover what occurs during active combat. This is where solatia comes to bear.
America began awarding condolence payments early in the Iraq war. Such expenditures only began in Afghanistan in 2005 from cash funded by Congress. Before that, such solatia payments generally came out of a unit’s operating budget.
Currently in Afghanistan, condolence payments can be up to $5,000 for a death or injury or $5,000 for property damage. In certain cases they can be much higher and in fiscal year 2012, the U.S. made 219 payments, totaling $891,000 (ProPublica).
But as another civilian grand jury refuses to indict another police officer for the death of another unarmed black man, I wonder just how hard our government is trying to win the hearts and minds of African-Americans involved in situations such as those in Ferguson or New York. Continue reading →
The Unfortunate and Lazy Absurdity of #BlackLivesMatter
Hillary Clinton said it best when she asked, “What do we do next?” My problem and it shouldn’t only be mine, stems from the fact that it’s Hillary Clinton asking the question; a virtual outsider and not one who knows the movements of the black communities as #BLM protesters do, or should.
It illustrates a sticking point about the whole agenda of the demonstration; this reckoning of whether or not #BlackLivesMatter should be concerned with the frequency of inner city violence, black-on-black crime, and whether or not such violence has anything to do with police shootings of unarmed African Americans. The absurdity not only comes in thinking that the two are in no way connected but also in the idea that you can ignore what’s happening. Continue reading →
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Filed under Commentary, Justice, Race
Tagged as #BlackLivesMatter, African-Americans, black-on-black crime, Ferguson Missouri, Hillary Clinton, inner city violence