Tag: needed

Biden says his administration will do ‘no matter is required’ to assist states reeling from tornadoes

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United States President Joe Biden speaks about the deadly tornadoes that struck Kentucky on December 11, 2021 in Wilmington, Delaware.

Kevin Lamarque | Reuters

president Joe Biden said his government stood by and ready to do “whatever it takes” after several dozen people were killed in a swarm of powerful tornadoes and storms that swept across six states from Friday night.

“The federal government will do everything it can to help,” Biden said during a press conference on Saturday from Wilmington, Delaware.

“I promise you whatever is needed, whatever is needed, the federal government will find a way to deliver it,” added Biden.

Irene Noltner comforts Jody O’Neill in front of the Lighthouse, a women’s and children’s home that was destroyed by a tornado on December 11, 2021, along with much of downtown Mayfield, Kentucky, USA.

Matt stone | USA Today | Reuters

Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi, and Tennessee were hit by more than 30 tornadoes. Biden said FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, is on site in each of the six states to assess the damage.

At least 70 people have died in Kentucky, and the number could climb to more than 100. Governor Andy Beshear said he believed the tornado will be the deadliest to ever hit the state. More than 180 National Guardsmen are stationed in areas in western Kentucky, the hardest-hit part of the state.

A woman exits a line of ambulances on the Mayfield Consumer Products Candle Factory property after it was devastated by a tornado on December 11, 2021 in Mayfield, Kentucky.

John Amis | AFP | Getty Images

“All government resources are used,” said Michael Dossett, director of emergency management for Kentucky, at a news conference.

The president approved the Kentucky state of emergency earlier in the day and added on Saturday afternoon that he was ready to approve proposals for the other states.

In Illinois there were at least two people after one Amazon Edwardsville warehouse collapsed.

Amazon truck cabs are seen in front of a damaged Amazon distribution center on December 11, 2021 in Edwardsville, Illinois. The distribution center was reportedly hit by a tornado on Friday evening.

Michael B. Thomas | Getty Images

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said on Twitter that the company was “unhappy” about the deaths.

“As this situation continues to develop, I want our Edwardsville community to know that we are working closely with local officials and first responders to provide support. My deepest condolences go to the Amazon community and all concerned, ”he said.

At least three people were killed in the storms in Tennessee, said a spokesman for the state emergency management agency Associated Press. According to the New York Times, two people were fatally injured in Arkansas.

Before and after satellite imagery showing the destruction of tornadoes in Mayfield, Kentucky on December 11, 2021.

Courtesy: Maxar Technologies

“We’re going to get through this, and we’re going to get through this together,” said Biden. “The federal government will not go away.”

The officials continued to assess the extent of the damage throughout Saturday. Press reports and social media show destroyed buildings and fallen trees. According to reports compiled by PowerOutage.us, more than a hundred thousand customers are still without power.

One of the storms torn by four states, Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee, and Kentucky, on a journey of at least 220 miles. The trail counts it among the longest tornadoes in US history if it stayed on the ground. The National Weather Service will conduct an official poll to determine if this is a single, ongoing tornado, NBC News reported.

More cash, much less divisiveness wanted for colleges – WIZM 92.3FM 1410AM

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MADISON, Wisconsin (AP) – Wisconsin’s chief education officer called for more courtesy Thursday as schools across the state grapple with the coronavirus pandemic.

Jill Underly, who is in her freshman year as the headmistress of Wisconsin, condemned angry displays at school committee meetings in her Capitol education speech.

“We should support one another instead of tearing down those who dare to lead in times of crisis,” she said.

Underly, who was elected in April after a Democratic-backed campaign, said the state is missing out on a generation of children by underfunding schools and allowing funding gaps to widen. She called for the establishment of a literacy task force to research and advise educators on how to teach reading more effectively. She also pointed out the need for a government-funded kindergarten for 4-year-olds.

Underly’s power is limited as lawmakers can rewrite their budget proposals and districts can disregard their guidelines on issues such as pandemic safety and curriculum recommendations.

Some school leaders in Wisconsin, like elsewhere in the country, have resigned or withdrawn because of parents’ anger over masking requirements. Many counties do not require masks or other safety protocols despite a surge in COVID-19 cases, including in children.

Wisconsin’s rate of new COVID-19 cases, which has increased in recent months due to the highly contagious Delta variant, was highest in people aged 14 to 17 last week, according to preliminary data from the state Department of Health, The Wisconsin State Journal reported. Children aged 9 to 13 years in Wisconsin had the second highest incidence of new cases.

Underly said that during school tours she noticed that students didn’t mind wearing masks.

“They were ready to do whatever was necessary to protect each other and make their learning disruptive,” she said. “We could learn a lot from them.”

Underly also criticized the legislature for the fact that schools were underfunded for the next two school years despite a historical inflow of taxpayers’ money in the state budget. Republican lawmakers redirected much of the revenue into tax cuts and chose not to raise the state limits on school district revenue.

Democratic Governor Tony Evers, who was Underly’s predecessor as head of state schools, agreed to her call for more school funding in a video response on Thursday.

Republicans argued that about $ 2 billion in federal pandemic aid would bolster schools. However, some school district leaders said the temporary federal funds could not be used to fill the annual budget holes created by the state budget and could lead to layoffs.

Congregation spokesman Robin Vos denied Underly’s arguments that schools needed more funding, reiterating the infusion of federal stimulus funds.

“The Democrats’ unique focus on putting more money in schools is not a winning strategy for our children,” Republican Vos said in a statement. “We need to think about how they are taught and why so many students struggle with the basics – reading, writing, and arithmetic.”

Baskin: extra county cash, accountability for Buffalo anti-violence teams wanted

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The Erie County’s Legislative Chair is proposing training and data collection for nonprofits working to curb violence in the city of Buffalo.

BUFFALO, NY – The increase in gunfights and killings in Buffalo is a major concern for any elected official representing the city.

That certainly applies to April Baskin. Their Erie County Legislature District includes the east and west sides of Buffalo, which have the most violent neighborhoods.

But for Baskin it’s also very personal.

“My first cousin, Marcus Robinson, stopped on April 24th to get some refueling. A couple of guys drove up and killed him, ”Baskin said.

The crime scene is across from Baskin’s district office on East Delavan Avenue. The case remains unsolved.

To help defuse disputes that can escalate into violence, there are a number of nonprofit groups operating in Buffalo. These include Peacemakers, Mad Dads of Greater Buffalo, Stop the Violence Coalition, and The Fathers.

Baskin, as chairman of the county legislature, wants them to receive county funding, but with constraints and questions.

“Solving these problems isn’t just about dumping money into programming or just writing checks. What grants do the members of these groups receive? What kind of work do you do? ”Baskin asked in a recent interview with 2 On Your Side.

Baskin put together a proposal that she calls the Erie County Gun Violence Relief Alliance. She wants to support the work of these anti-violence groups with district money in a certain way.

The proposal calls for $ 500,000 to train members of these groups in peer mediation, conflict resolution, and trauma-informed care. And she wants another $ 300,000 to be spent on a software system to analyze data collected by the anti-violence groups to show “the results of their … contact”.

If that sounds like Baskin wants to see the county get results in exchange for their money, this is exactly what they are looking for. 2 On Your Side asked Baskin what she would say to groups who might be afraid of being judged in this way.

Her answer: “If we are to do the job and improve the results, there should be no need to be reluctant or concerned. But those who disagree with the type of structure I am proposing should perhaps question their opposition. Anyone who opposes this means that they are reluctant to get better results and so there is no longer any room for them to act in this area. “

Pastor James Giles agrees.

Giles heads the Back to Basics Ministry, which oversees Peacemakers, the best known of the local anti-violence groups. He says other government sources of funding for peacemakers already require various records of achievement.

But Giles wants a voice in evaluating his group because he says elected officials are often unaware of the depth of the work involved in deterring violence.

“I rarely see one of them at funerals. They don’t actively engage with the players or with the gangs. They don’t know who the gangs are. They don’t know why they’re shooting You don’t hang out in the clubs where there are fights. I don’t see them in clubs out there on Chippewa. So it is really hard for you to determine measurements for me. ”

Baskin says she discussed her proposal with Erie County’s executive director, Mark Poloncarz, who earlier this year described gun violence as a county public health crisis, indicating more county spending on the issue.

However, Baskin insists that any increase in funding comes with collecting data to know what the county is getting in return.

“We’re going to be doing more with funding and we’re going to be giving a lot more, but when we do we will have a transparent process to understand that it is having an effect,” Baskin said.

Dallas Morning Information: A 9/11-style fee is required to look at the Afghanistan withdrawal

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The lesson of the president’s power is not drawn from how it is wielded in the best of times, but from how it manifests itself in crisis. Mistakes arise in a crisis and hopefully mistakes become knowledge to improve future decisions.

A long list of the president’s foreign policy misjudgments has defined the government’s legacy, reshaping leadership for an incumbent president and sometimes for future inmates of the Oval Office.

In 1961, John F. Kennedy launched the Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba, a covert operation to overthrow Fidel Castro. From the start, an unsound strategy, pathetic tactics, and an abundance of intelligence errors failed. Out of this crisis, JFK accepted the guilt and reorganized its advisors and decision-making processes. When faced with the Cuban Missile Crisis a year later, Kennedy asked the right questions and led the nation on the other side of a nuclear threat that could have killed 80 million Americans in a matter of moments.

President Joe Biden has already announced that he will not call for resignation for the deaths of 13 soldiers and countless Afghans by a suicide bomber in the last days of the Airlift. This week, Biden described the evacuation as an “extraordinary success”, although Americans and Afghans who wanted to leave the country stayed when the last plane departed without them.

Nonetheless, questions must be answered, both internally and externally, about the decisions and tactics that lead to and through the United States’ last moment in Afghanistan. Historians and experts will debate whether the die of inevitability was cast years ago, but leaving Kabul is undeniable, while historical and massive, heroic and tragic also represented a failure of the imagination.

We have heard this criticism before in the history of the President. Yale psychologist Irving Janis called the Bay of Pigs’ decision-making mistakes “groupthink,” which describes the pursuit of consensus in a way that prevents alternatives from being properly considered. According to a Harvard Business Review case study, historian Arthur Schlesinger later wrote that “our meetings were held in a strange atmosphere of supposed consensus. [and] nobody spoke against it. “

The nation has to go down the path of difficult issues regarding Afghanistan. The follow-up investigation by the 9/11 Commission, an independent, bipartisan body, identified missed signs, unresolved conflicting intelligence and information silos that were gathering vital information but unable or unwilling to link to threat advisories in other parts of government. The Commission’s overall conclusion was that coordination and information sharing could have provided a clearer and potentially workable warning of the impending terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon.

Right now, we urge Congress to empower an independent, bipartisan commission to review the final stages of the end of the American presence in Afghanistan – from the Trump administration’s ill-considered unilateral peace deal with the Taliban to the chaotic evacuation of the Biden. Administration.

This commission must have credible leadership, similar to what Republican Tom Kean, a former governor, and Democrat Lee Hamilton, a former US Congressman, gave the nation after the 9/11 attacks.

The commission, established by Congress and signed by President George W. Bush, had the authority to summon witnesses and the credibility to maneuver the minefields of executive privilege and segregation of power. Above all, however, it was not an effort to assign blame, but to find out why, in retrospect, such obvious indications that could have prevented the deadly attacks on US soil escaped analysis.

There are many Americans who can jointly conduct a fair investigation, such as former US Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, a Republican from Texas, and former US Senator Bob Kerrey, a Democrat from Nebraska, also on the 9/11 commission.

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell, former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, former CIA director and retired Army General David Petraeus, former Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, former US MP Jane Harman and Leon Panetta who served as White House Chief of Staff, The CIA director and secretary of defense would also be good choices. These individuals and other men and women of goodwill would bring insights from their administration during the Bush and Obama years, but they were either outside the administration or not part of the inner circles of the Trump and Biden administrations when politics was on clearest was shifted towards retreat.

We cannot stress enough that this commission must look beyond partisanship and be an honest broker. The commission cannot be a replica of the GOP partisan attack on the September 11, 2012 terrorist attacks in Benghazi that killed four brave Americans – Chris Stevens, Sean Smith, Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty. Nor should the Democrats oppose an investigation into any administration of their party, as the Republicans did when they overwhelmingly voted against an independent commission and a select congressional committee to review the January 6 insurrection.

There are many lessons to be learned from 20 years of war in Afghanistan, including missed opportunities, a shifting mission, the lack of a stable central government, and interference from regional neighbors like Pakistan. But the past two years, including the first eight months of the Biden administration when the withdrawal became a reality, deserve additional scrutiny and insight that only a substantial commission and fair approach can provide.

The war in Afghanistan and how that war ended will reverberate in American political circles for at least a generation. The light footprint that marked the beginning of the war was likely the result of a reluctance to deploy American troops, a reluctance that had persisted since the Vietnam era. It is therefore vital that a commission document all the facts and the context in which decisions were made. This will give us valuable insights and material lessons from this chapter of our history.

No proof a booster shot is required, says Dr. Ashish Jha

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Covid booster doses are currently not required, said the dean of the School of Public Health at Brown University on Friday, as highly transmissible new variants test the protection of available vaccines.

“Let me tell you where we are: the Dates are very clearwhen you got your two shots of Modern or Pfizer or single shot of NOT A WORD, they have a very high level of protection against all variants, including Delta, “said Dr. Ashish Jha.” I haven’t seen any evidence yet that anyone needs a third shot. ”

Jha’s comments come after Pfizer and BioNTech announced Thursday that they are Development of a Covid-19 booster vaccination The aim of the delta variant. Company officials say another vaccination may be needed as immunity to the vaccine appears to decline over time.

On CNBCs “The news with Shepard Smith”, Jha emphasized the importance of waiting for the data when it comes to a booster shot.

“When this evidence comes along, and of course we will want to take that into account, I think I think it is unlikely that we will need third shots for most people,” Jha said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration issued a joint statement that Americans who are fully vaccinated do not need a booster vaccination.

“Americans who have been fully vaccinated currently do not need a booster vaccination. FDA, CDC, and [the National Institutes of Health] are involved in a science-based, rigorous process to check if or when a refresher might be needed, “said a joint statement released Thursday evening.

Blur “Reunites When Wanted” | Leisure

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Damon Albarn says Blur will meet again “if necessary”.

The Britpop legend hasn’t toured with them since the 2015 run in support of comeback LP The Magic Whip, but the 53-year-old frontman has bandmates Dave Rowntree, Alex James, reunited with Graham Coxon on Africa Express. Show 2019 in his hometown of Leytonstone.

And Damon revealed that the hitmakers of “Song 2” have “ideas” up their sleeves for a comeback, but want to wait for the right moment.

When he said NME he said:

“But we had an idea. Obviously I was a bit busy right now. When that happens, I will be supplemented.

“I do it when I need it. I don’t want to force someone like that unnecessarily. “

Gorillaz stars previously announced that they have turned down an offer to reunite with Blur for Brexit to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their original LP “Parklife”.

The 1994 classic, which celebrated its 25th anniversary on April 25, 2019, was coined as “Cool Britannia” when there was optimism in Great Britain after the turmoil of the 70s and 80s. Dismissed in, Damon didn’t feel the right to celebrate the record when the country was under the command of then Prime Minister Theresa May prior to leaving the European Union.

When asked if the band was asked to play a milestone annual show on “Park Life” – one of the clearest records of the Britpop era, alongside rival band Oasis “Maybe” Was – he replied, “Yes, if a second Should a referendum take place “I would like to play the record as a celebration and memory. Political It was a time when I had an idea of ​​the British.

“It was about our music and culture. It was a bit naive and undeniable, but it had some interesting aspects, humor and in some parts satirical.

“So I’m not against playing this album, but I don’t want to do it when I feel like it’s a matter of money.”

Good, Bad and Queen singers said the band needed a second referendum to play the song “Park Life”.

He laughed, “Well, if you want to be that rude.”

Measures wanted to return girls to workforce post-Covid

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Indian women wait in line for food in New Delhi.

SOPA pictures | LightRakete | Getty Images

The World Bank has warned that while the pandemic is recovering, critical measures must be taken to get women back into work and on the path to gender equality.

The pandemic has exacerbated existing gender gaps, and more efforts are needed now than ever to advance women, World Bank group global director Caren Grown told CNBC on Friday.

“While everyone was exposed to the same storm, it really affected men and women differently,” said Grown. “Squawk Box Asia. “

For example, although the death rate from Covid-19 was generally higher in men, women are more socially and economically affected, she said.

This is partly due to the disproportionate representation of women in heavily affected industries such as hospitality and tourism, but also to the additional care obligations that they normally face.

It has always been referred to as a shadow pandemic, but when we think about a recovery we actually need to initiate stronger responses.

Caren has grown

global director, World Bank Group

Even before the pandemic, the World Bank estimated that it could take 150 years for women to achieve gender equality with men. The health crisis has likely lengthened that schedule.

To overcome these differences, ensuring equitable access to vaccines is critical, Grown said. This includes making sure women have the time and resources to schedule their appointments.

In addition, further financial and nursing support is required to get the most affected women back on their feet and back to work.

Eventually, more safeguards against gender-based abuse need to be put in place, she said.

“What has been exposed during this pandemic is the increase in gender-based violence,” Grown said. “It has always been called the shadow pandemic, but when we think about a recovery we actually need to take stronger responses and preventative measures.”

‘Particular’ driving type wanted for McLaren F1 automotive “not pure” for Ricciardo

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Ricciardo has made a difficult start at McLaren since his winter change and ended up behind his teammate Lando Norris in four of the five races so far this season.

The Australian’s struggles continued over the Monaco Grand Prix weekend, which Ricciardo described as a “disaster” after finishing only 12th, while Norris finished third on his second podium of the year.

McLaren Team Principal Seidl believes that Ricciardo’s progress towards the full upgrade has been hampered by the challenge of customizing it to the specific characteristics of the MCL35M.

“I think if you look back we have made good progress with him since the beginning of the season,” said Seidl.

“In order to drive our car fast at the moment, you need a special driving style that Daniel cannot take for granted. That’s why it’s not that easy for him to do the laps and extract the power.

“Now we just have to keep working together as a team, keep calm, keep analyzing, keep learning and do two things that will make it further adapt to our car.

On the subject of matching items

“Because he sees that the potential is there, which I think is the positive for him to see it, and that Lando can do it.

“And at the same time, we’ll also be looking at the team page to see what we can do to help him on the car side and get back his natural feeling that you need to drive fast.”

Ricciardo was baffled after finishing 12th in qualifying and said he was “Refuses to believe” His deficit went to teammate Norris, who drove a lap good enough for fifth on the grid.

After the race, the seven-time Grand Prix winner admitted that he still lacks the confidence to repeat what Norris can do in the car.

On the subject of matching items

“There are differences in the data and that’s why Lando is faster in this corner and I can see it, but I am not convinced I will be able to,” he said.

“But we will see. Maybe it’s still a little bit of me trying to get used to the car, but I’m sure they will check everything out too. When it’s that far away, it’s a little difficult. “

Ricciardo stressed, however, that he wanted to avoid over-analyzing his performance over the weekend and said it would take him a few days to grapple with what was happening.

“I will obviously keep working on it,” he added.

But I feel like we’ve been so far away and so far back this weekend that part of me just wants to switch off for a few days. Otherwise it is like paralysis about the analysis.

“I’ve been there before and I don’t want to go back to it.”

The Australian public purse is already pumping large cash into housing – simply not the place it’s wanted | Hal Pawson

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H.Reuse is likely to be a major point of contention in the upcoming parliamentary elections. This emerged from the latest ALP budget Answer. Labor had already supported the coalition’s first homeowner initiatives. But the budgetary response of opposition leader Anthony Albanese Promise to boost social and affordable housing marked a clear difference to the government.

This wasn’t difficult to achieve. Despite the continued rise in housing affordability stresses over the past decade in many cities and regions, successive liberal national governments have noted a persistent shortage of off-market housing. In his stock response to calls for an incentive for social housing after CovidThe Minister of Housing Michael Sukkar has repeatedly washed his hands by explaining it purely state and territorial responsibility.

What exactly does the federal work have in mind? At an estimated cost of $ 10 billion, the proposed social and affordable building program would produce 30,000 homes over five years. That would represent a quadrupling of recent construction rates – certainly a welcome prospect for a sector that has effectively shrunk by a third since the 1990s (from 6% to 4% of all housing).

Albanese’s pledge to supply residential real estate follows the groundbreaking announcement by the Victorian government to provide $ 5.4 billion in 2020 Big housing construction Initiative as an integral part of the state’s post-pandemic recovery plan. As part of the BHB, more than 10,000 new social and affordable housing will be added to the housing stock in Victoria over a period of four years. One important difference, of course, is that this is a plan and not – as in the Albanian declaration – just a proposal.

After a decade of inactivity in social housing, both the plan and the proposal deserve applause. But neither is a commitment that changes the scale of the game. According to Victoria’s plan, social and affordable construction would increase from 0.5% of total housing construction in the state to around 5% – dramatically, but well below that 16% seen across Australia [1945-70[1945-70

The scheme proposed by the ALP would expand current annual rental of social and communal accommodation by a worthwhile but modest 18%. In terms of its contribution to the national social housing stock, the annual production of the 6,000 housing system would lag well behind that of the program 15,000 just had to keep up with the growing population (and demand).

While most Australians are well housed and many have suffered huge financial losses in the real estate market, our current system is poorly served by significant and growing numbers. over 200,000 households are on waiting lists for social housing and census-informed evidence suggests that well over double that number are either homeless or living in unaffordable or otherwise unsuitable housing.

Do Australian governments just have to face the need to spend more on housing? Many of us would say no. Indeed, public finances are already supporting huge, but not targeted, housing spending. Most notoriously, the negative gearing and capital gains tax rebate concessions that private landlords benefit from. The highly regressive nature of these can be assessed using the Grattan Institute estimate 80% of the CGT discounts flow to the top 10% of income recipients.

Adding the generous tax breaks granted to homeowners as well as direct support such as direct lending, we calculated that the public purse is already effectively pumping more than $ 100 billion in our housing system every year. But only about $ 8 billion Of this, they specifically aim to lower income earners through social housing subsidies, homeless assistance and rent support.

This imbalance is not only socially unjust, it also significantly distorts our entire housing system. It is far too strong an incentive to over-invest in a market whose ability to react quickly is inherently limited. The result is all too well known: high and soaring property prices.

Expanded social housing programs are undoubtedly an integral part of Australia’s better housing future. Reversing the decline in the social rental sector would be beneficial in all circumstances. A reasonable long-term goal would be to expand care to the OECD average – 7.1% of all apartments.

But only through more fundamental reforms can Australia really get a grip on the greater unaffordable housing. We need to rebalance a system that unduly benefits existing homeowners and landlords at the expense of tenants, especially lower-income tenants. We need to move away from a path that increasingly restricts young adults’ home ownership opportunities to those who have access to family wealth.

Are the types of action that would be required to move in this direction just a breeze? Perhaps, but a progressive housing tax and legislative reform are not impossible. The New South Wales government recently committed to mimicking the phased introduction of ACT Replacement of stamp duty with property tax. And just a few weeks ago the Victorian government significantly strengthened Tenant rights.

Farther away, and on a much larger scale, Britain saw this Elimination the home mortgage interest tax break in the 1990s and greatly reduced tax breaks for investors landlords in the 2010s. Both initiatives were implemented under conservative governments. Perhaps more remarkable in what has been described as “A step towards a fairer tax system“In 2017, the US government significantly cut two of the major homeowner subsidies available to wealthy Americans.

What is needed above all in Australia is clear ownership by our national government, as well as states and territories, for the challenge of housing affordability. Only then could the country set the course for a more balanced and fairer housing system for the benefit of all.

Prof. Hal Pawson, UNSW, is the author of casing Politics in Australia: An Argument for System Reform (Palgrave 2020)

Extra money wanted to sort out inequality, says Merseyside police chief | Police

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More money needs to be put into fighting inequality to curb crime, said the first woman policeman with the Merseyside police force, arguing that “the police are a bigger partner [in society] than just imprisoning the bad people ”.

Serena Kennedy, who took on the role last month, said she agreed with her predecessor who said if he were given £ 5bn to reduce crime he would get £ 1bn in law enforcement and £ 4bn in the fight against poverty stuck.

Andy Cooke did that unusually frank comments on the relationship between deprivation and insult when he stepped down with the force after 36 years, the last 11 under a Conservative government accused of widening inequality.

In her first few weeks in that role, Kennedy endorsed his comments, stating that she wanted to make crime prevention a priority by working with partners to “investigate and address the root causes of crime.”

“I agree with Andy. Merseyside has massive inequalities in terms of where our communities are in terms of the nature of the poverty gap. “

She pointed to academic research showing that post-Covid inequality is likely to worsen in northwest England.

“For me, this inequality means that people’s aspirations, their expectations and their chances in life are influenced. So we should definitely work with our partners to investigate these causes, ”added Kennedy.

Comparing government health papers showing that investing in prevention would mean less spending in the long run on diseases such as obesity, Kennedy said the same is true from a police perspective in terms of the cost of prosecuting people. “It’s cheaper, but that’s not why, it’s because you’re giving that person a better chance in life.”

I will quote Robert Peels first Principle of policing Kennedy said policing is an integral part of community safety. “One of my priorities is the relentless pursuit of those criminals who tarnish the lives of our communities and target the vulnerable. Absolutely, that is our role, but we need to play a role with our partners in the earlier intervention and change the inequalities that will only worsen. “

Some might interpret Kennedy and Cooke’s comments to be in line with a key demand made by Black Lives Matters protesters who have made calls “Defund the Police” by transferring funds from the criminal justice system to health, social and educational systems. In response, Kennedy said, “It wasn’t just about taking money away from the police, it would require a fundamental change in the way you use resources in the area.”

Again citing a preventive approach, she used the example of assigning every child in a school a place in a breakfast club, rather than just specific children, to improve bonding and reaching. “To do this, the long-term benefits must be recognized across the public sector. Education, policing, social welfare, housing … It’s not a political statement, it’s just a mind-set about how we fund our services, “she said.

Kennedy began her career with the Greater Manchester Police Department in 1993 and joined Merseyside four years ago as the deputy chief of police. She rose to the rankings and is among the 29.4% of women police chiefs in England and Wales. Amid renewed debate about institutional sexism in policingShe said that in her 28 years of service she had never seen what she would consider misogyny, but admitted that some of her colleagues had a different experience.

With a reputation for fighting organized crime, one of the force’s key ongoing operations is the investigation into fraud, bribery, corruption and misconduct in public office, which has resulted in the arrest of about a dozen people, including the former mayor. He has not been charged and denies any wrongdoing. Does it take courage to go through an operation that has resulted in some very high profile arrests and throws? Liverpool in political unrest? Kennedy will only say that the force “will always investigate allegations of crime” when there are allegations of crime.