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US Dismantles Forensic Science Commission (washingtonpost.com)
hondo77 writes a report via Washington Post: Thought the Trump Administration's war on science was just about climate change? Think again. "Attorney General Jeff Sessions will end a Justice Department partnership with independent scientists to raise forensic science standards and has suspended an expanded review of FBI testimony across several techniques that have come under question, saying a new strategy will be set by an in-house team of law enforcement advisers," reports Washington Post. The National Commission on Forensic Science, "jointly led by Justice and the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has prompted several changes," including "new accrediting and ethical codes for forensic labs and practitioners" and the FBI abandoning "its four-decade-long practice of tracing bullets to a specific manufacturer's batch through chemical analyses after its method were scientifically debunked." "The availability of prompt and accurate forensic science analysis to our law enforcement officers and prosecutors is critical to integrity in law enforcement, reducing violent crime, and increasing public safety," Sessions said in the statement. "We applaud the professionalism of the National Commission on Forensic Science and look forward to building on the contributions it has made in this crucial field."
For Trump supporters and most Republicans, it's always Trump/party before country. No matter what issue.
IN unrelated news the FBI formed a Divination unit that applies forensic goat entrails reading to predict future crimes. Jeff sessions was quoted as saying, "Liberal Judges have long prevented the proven science of witch drowning as a standard of guilt. Everyone knows Witches float, it's so simple to prevent occult crimes. Now we can."
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Statement from National District Attorney Association
http://www.ndaa.org/pdf/NDAA%20Statement%20on%20Expiration%20of%20National%20Commission%20on%20Forensic%20Science.pdf
The Commission lacked adequate representation from the state and local practitioner community,
was dominated by the defense community, and failed to produce work products of significance for
the forensic science community. Very few of the recommendations from the Commission were
adopted and signed by the previous Attorney General during its existence. Those that were signed,
such as universal accreditation, had already begun to develop organically within the forensic science
community as accepted best practices, thus replicating ongoing work and wasting taxpayer dollars.
Seriously. Who the fuck was calling for lowered standards in forensic science?
Private prisons. They lobby for anything that results in higher and longer incarceration rates.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
https://www.usatoday.com/story...
No this is just some biased news reporting as usual.
From the article:
In a statement Monday, Sessions said he would not renew the National Commission on Forensic Science, a roughly 30-member advisory panel of scientists, judges, crime lab leaders, prosecutors and defense lawyers chartered by the Obama administration in 2013.
First, they do not "dismantle" the commission, they just don't renew its mandate. Second, it was a mostly idle project launched 4 years ago by Obama, it's not a long-standing institution of law enforcement.
lucm, indeed.
Sessions isn't "dismantling" anything. The commission was created in 2013 and was supposed to do its job by 2017. It apparently has done that, Sessions has thanked them. The Trump administration is now deciding what to do next.
Calling this "ordering the Justice Dept. to end forensic science commission" or "dismantling forensic science commission", as if Trump or Sessions had taken extraordinary steps to kill the commission, is tendentious, politically motivated b.s. that reflects badly on the Washington Post and the submitter.
And Stone coordinating his campaign with hacker Guccifer, Manasfort? Millions of dollars putting Putin agents in power in democracies.
Even Kushner sneaked the Russian ambassador into Trump tower, shortly followed by a director of VneshEconomBank (a Putin controlled bank previously known for bailing out Putin projects and funding legal defenses of Russian spies)... but it's all innocent, VneshEconomBank says it was just a commercial meeting regarding Kushners property interests (which would be an illegal violation of sanctions). Kushner says its totally innocent meeting with VneshEconomBank in his role as temporary acting State Dept, making connections to Putin. (i.e. he's totally aware the bank is a Putin front!). Neither story adds up.
Perhaps you think I'm kidding, but no, this is sadly true:
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/03/27/politics/kushner-meeting-russian-banker-tied-to-putin/index.html
Flynn? Secret meetings with Russian ambassadors, was to have fulfilled Putin's promise to Erdogan on extraditing a US cleric to Turkey. The go-to man for the smaller deals.
But I think you're rather missing the bigger picture. Look at their recent earnings declarations. Kushner is claimed to have assets of 750 million, yet income of 100k. That doesn't make sense. When I dig through their public accounts none of the numbers add up. They are 2 orders of magnitude out of best estimates. Trump still hasn't release his tax returns, only leaking a two page sheet from 2005, which was probably the last time the numbers looks plausible.
So Trump is a conman, and he'll take apart forensics, he'll take apart accounting standards bodies, he'll undermine ethics groups. It's not that Trump is some string puppet of Putin's. It's more that he's a crook, and Putin is a fellow crook, and there is a mutual interest.
Look at the raid in Syria. Russian was pre-informed about it, they in turn warned Assad, all the fighter jets were removed, there were two helicopters placed in the center of the runways for the photo-op, but those helicopters aren't normally parked blocking a runway! Trump blows up some tarmac and some concrete. Who the fuck would do that? Why would you do that? You know there will be zero useful assets to destroy if you inform Putin, yet you inform Putin.
From the article:
The commission jointly led by Justice and the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has prompted several changes.
You:
mostly idle
Your bias is showing.
Those 30 people have made a total of 20 recommendations since 2013. Here's the latest one:
The Attorney General should direct the Bureau of Justice Statistics to create a proposal for the development of a nationally representative survey to determine forensic capabilities for those who write reports and offer testimony within federal, state and local law-enforcement agencies and for medical examiner and coroner offices. The survey instrument should be developed in collaboration with the relevant stakeholders organizations by the next commission meeting.
1/2 page.
You want more? Here's the 2nd latest recommendation, made ONE YEAR before.
Proficiency testing is required of all accredited FSSPs. As a recognized quality control tool, it is the view of the Commission that proficiency testing should also be implemented by nonaccredited FSSPs in disciplines where proficiency tests are available from external organizations.
That's it. The entire corpus of that immensely valuable recommendation spans 7 pages; of those 7 pages, 4 are an appendix describing terms like "Accreditation".
That commission is a big joke. See, there's a webcast of their meetings.
https://www.nist.gov/topics/fo...
Huge waste of time.
lucm, indeed.