SACRAMENTO, USA // A Missouri grand jury’s decision not to indict a white Ferguson police officer in the shooting death of an unarmed black teenager is prompting renewed calls for cops to wear body cameras.
A lawyer for the family of Michael Brown, the 18-year-old killed in the August 9 incident, called for legislation requiring such devices. Police departments have been slow to adopt the technology, citing privacy concerns. A 2013 survey found that only 25 per cent of the police forces polled used body cameras.
“We won’t have to play this game of witnesses’ memories and secret grand jury procedures,” family attorney Benjamin Crump said on Wednesday at a news briefing. “It would just be transparent, and we could see it ourselves, and we could hold people accountable when they have interactions with citizens.”
A day after rioting, looting and arson tore apart Ferguson following the announcement that Officer Darren Wilson wouldn’t be charged, police across the US, together with government officials and community leaders, are searching for lessons from an incident that began with jaywalking and ended with police gunfire.
The devices, also known as on-officer recording systems, can be mounted on eyewear, a hat, an epaulette or chest to capture an officer’s interaction with the public. When deployed, the cameras create a visual record of an incident, which can be shown to the public if necessary.
“What we need now is reform and action, not violence or vengeance,” New York City Public Advocate Letitia James said in a statement. “Our cities, starting with New York, must speed up reforms like effective police assignments, body-worn cameras and appropriate police oversight.”
Mr Wilson said he feared for his life while fending off punches by Brown, who had reached into the officer’s vehicle, according to a transcript of his grand jury testimony. Without any video footage of the shooting, the grand jury relied on Mr Wilson’s testimony, witness accounts and physical evidence.
“Police officers do the right thing 99.9 per cent of the time, and they should have proof of that,” said Chuck Drago, a former Florida police chief who now consults departments nationwide on tactics and procedures. “They help the officer prove his point.”
Cops in Ferguson started wearing the devices in the weeks following Brown’s shooting.
Studies have found that in departments where cameras are worn, there’s a reduction in use of force and complaints, according to a report by the Police Executive Research Forum, a law enforcement research group. Of 254 police departments that responded to a survey by the group in 2013 asking if they deploy body cameras, 75 per cent said they didn’t.
Mr Wilson told the 12-member grand jury that despite being 93 centimetres and weighing about 95 kilograms, he felt like a small child attempting to restrain former professional wrestler Hulk Hogan.
Mr Wilson said he struggled for his own gun with the 289-pound Brown, eventually firing two shots at the 18-year-old. When Brown ran, Mr Wilson said he gave chase, only to have Brown turn around and charge him before he fired several more shots.
Police departments need to look at how their officers are trained to avoid putting themselves in a spot where a minor incident escalates into a shooting, Mr Drago said.
Mr Wilson had originally encountered Brown and another man walking in the middle of the street, according to the grand jury transcripts. One matched the description of a suspect who had just stolen cigarillos from a nearby store.
Mr Wilson had called for backup, though Brown was already down by the time other officers arrived. Having a partner in his vehicle might have helped Mr Wilson, though studies have shown that two-person patrols aren’t any safer for cops, Mr Drago added.
“What police departments have to take from this is how do we keep police officers from getting in those positions to begin with?” Mr Drago said. “How does an officer allow a suspect, an individual like this, to get on top of him in a police car?”
* Bloomberg News
Tips from the expert
Dobromir Radichkov, chief data officer at dubizzle and Bayut, offers a few tips for UAE residents looking to earn some cash from pre-loved items.
- Sellers should focus on providing high-quality used goods at attractive prices to buyers.
- It’s important to use clear and appealing photos, with catchy titles and detailed descriptions to capture the attention of prospective buyers.
- Try to advertise a realistic price to attract buyers looking for good deals, especially in the current environment where consumers are significantly more price-sensitive.
- Be creative and look around your home for valuable items that you no longer need but might be useful to others.
BUNDESLIGA FIXTURES
Friday (UAE kick-off times)
Borussia Dortmund v Paderborn (11.30pm)
Saturday
Bayer Leverkusen v SC Freiburg (6.30pm)
Werder Bremen v Schalke (6.30pm)
Union Berlin v Borussia Monchengladbach (6.30pm)
Eintracht Frankfurt v Wolfsburg (6.30pm)
Fortuna Dusseldof v Bayern Munich (6.30pm)
RB Leipzig v Cologne (9.30pm)
Sunday
Augsburg v Hertha Berlin (6.30pm)
Hoffenheim v Mainz (9pm)
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
Fanney Khan
Producer: T-Series, Anil Kapoor Productions, ROMP, Prerna Arora
Director: Atul Manjrekar
Cast: Anil Kapoor, Aishwarya Rai, Rajkummar Rao, Pihu Sand
Rating: 2/5
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
We Weren’t Supposed to Survive But We Did
We weren’t supposed to survive but we did.
We weren’t supposed to remember but we did.
We weren’t supposed to write but we did.
We weren’t supposed to fight but we did.
We weren’t supposed to organise but we did.
We weren’t supposed to rap but we did.
We weren’t supposed to find allies but we did.
We weren’t supposed to grow communities but we did.
We weren’t supposed to return but WE ARE.
Amira Sakalla
Ticket prices
General admission Dh295 (under-three free)
Buy a four-person Family & Friends ticket and pay for only three tickets, so the fourth family member is free
Buy tickets at: wbworldabudhabi.com/en/tickets
MATCH INFO
Inter Milan 1 (Martinez 18' pen)
Juventus 2 (Dybala 4', Higuain 80')
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
BUNDESLIGA FIXTURES
(All games 4-3pm kick UAE time) Bayern Munich v Augsburg, Borussia Dortmund v Bayer Leverkusen, Hoffenheim v Hertha Berlin, Wolfsburg v Mainz , Eintracht Frankfurt v Freiburg, Union Berlin v RB Leipzig, Cologne v Schalke , Werder Bremen v Borussia Monchengladbach, Stuttgart v Arminia Bielefeld
War
Director: Siddharth Anand
Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Tiger Shroff, Ashutosh Rana, Vaani Kapoor
Rating: Two out of five stars
Five films to watch
Castle in the Sky (1986)
Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
Only Yesterday (1991)
Pom Poki (1994)
The Tale of Princess Kaguya (2013)
Frankenstein in Baghdad
Ahmed Saadawi
Penguin Press
The%20specs%3A%202024%20Mercedes%20E200
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