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- Written by: Lake County News reports
LOWER LAKE, Calif. — On New Year’s Day, over 100 visitors decided to get a healthy start to 2024 by participating in the tenth annual First Day Hike held at Anderson Marsh State Historic Park.
Hikers of all ages enjoyed a beautiful, sunny day in the park, and ranged from “old timers” who regularly hike in the park to first time visitors.
“The First Day Hike has become a Lake County tradition,” said Henry Bornstein, one of the State Parks volunteer hike leaders. “With the exception of 2021, which was canceled due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, the First Day Hikes at the park have attracted over 100 attendees for each of the past ten years. To allow folks to “sleep in” on New Year’s Day, we always begin the hikes at noon.”
The hike this year covered a three-mile loop on the park’s trail system and was led by an all-volunteer team of State Park docents.
The hikers were divided into two groups to accommodate the large number of visitors, with each group starting in a different direction and passing each other in the middle of the hike.
Each group stopped periodically to allow the hike leaders to discuss the flora and fauna that was encountered on the trail.
The recent rains created a good opportunity to identify the animal tracks on the trails and the sunny day was made brighter by Western bluebirds finding perches in the trees and shrubs.
“State Park staff and volunteers at Anderson Marsh State Historic Park are looking forward to the start of another year of guided nature walks at the park, culminating with next year’s First Day Hike,” Bornstein said.
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- Written by: Lake County News reports
If approved, store thefts would no longer be processed as a misdemeanor with no jail time if a suspect has been convicted of two or more specified theft-related offenses, and punishment could range from imprisonment in the county jail ranging from six months to as long as three years.
“Shoplifting, smash-and-grab thefts, and other acts of retail theft trends are causing retailers to close their businesses and endangering customers and employees,” said Ramos. “Since the pandemic, these crimes have increased. That is not the direction California needs to go.”
He added, “The Public Policy Institute reported that the 2022 rates for commercial burglary rates had increased by almost 16 percent compared to 2019. The PPIC also reported that shoplifting in 2022 had increased by nearly 29% from the pandemic years.”
In 2014, voters approved Prop 47 by a 60% to 40% vote and categorized some nonviolent offenses as misdemeanors rather than felonies.
One provision increased the threshold amount for theft misdemeanors from $450 to $950 and did not allow prior such convictions to count toward the new $950 threshold.
If Ramos’ measure becomes law, it would become effective only upon voters’ consent at the next statewide election.
AB 1772 does not state a new threshold for triggering the increased penalties for retail theft, only the existence of prior convictions on the suspect’s criminal record.
In February 2023, the legislator requested the state auditor to review the effectiveness of Proposition 47 to determine whether it had escalated crime rates in San Bernardino and Riverside counties and if so, what categories had been affected.
The auditor’s report is expected later this year.
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- Written by: Lake County News reports
The report analyzes millions of vehicle and pedestrian stops conducted in 2022 by 560 law enforcement agencies in California — a major expansion from the 58 participating agencies in the previous report — under the Racial and Identity Profiling Act, or RIPA.
In addition to providing an in-depth look into policing in 2022, the Board’s report contains a wide array of best practice recommendations related to policing, with a particular focus on the impact of pretext stops, law enforcement interactions with youth, civilian complaint processes, police union effects on law enforcement accountability, and trainings on racial and identity profiling.
Overall, the findings from the latest RIPA report are consistent with the disparities observed in prior years’ data with respect to perceived race, age, and disability status.
“California is leading the nation in identifying and addressing racial and identity profiling,” said Andrea Guerrero, co-chair of the RIPA Board and Executive Director of Alliance San Diego. “This report marks a major milestone as the first to include stop data from law enforcement agencies across the entire state. The scale of data that California is collecting allows us to say definitively that profiling exists — it is a pervasive pattern across the state. We must now turn to the hard work of ending profiling by bringing all the stakeholders to the table to ascertain and change the policies and the practices that enable it. I'm proud to work alongside community and law enforcement leaders on the RIPA Board who are having the tough conversations needed to bring about change. Public safety depends on all of us, and we invite all stakeholders to join the RIPA Board on our path to progress."
“The annual collection of the RIPA stop data is making California communities safer by directing thoughtful and reflective reform,” said Attorney General Rob Bonta. “Over the last several years, we’ve collected and analyzed information on more than 16 million police encounters in our state. In turn, with the support of our staff at the California Department of Justice, the RIPA Board has continued to issue key recommendations for our law enforcement agencies to promote transparency and take critical steps to enhance, and in some cases, repair the public trust.”
The information collected under RIPA includes data on peace officers’ perceptions of the demographics of stopped individuals, such as race or ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, and disability.
The board collects this information to determine whether disparities can be found across demographic groups. The board uses several well-established methodologies to analyze stop data to determine if bias may exist.
Some of the key findings from the board’s report include:
• Number of stops: A total of 4,575,725 stops were conducted by 560 agencies from January 1, 2022 to December 31, 2022.
• Population comparison: Overall, the disparity between the proportion of stops and the proportion of residential population was greatest for Black individuals, who were stopped 131.5 % more frequently than expected.
• Search rates: Black individuals were searched at a rate 1.66 times the rate of White individuals. Although stopped individuals perceived to be Black or Hispanic/Latino were searched at a higher rate relative to individuals perceived to be White, officers discovered contraband or evidence during stops in which they conducted searches at a lower rate for individuals perceived to be Black or Hispanic/Latino.
• Actions taken: Officers reported not taking any reportable action during 75% of stops and taking actions during 25% of stops. Of all the racial or ethnic groups, stopped individuals whom officers perceived to be Native American had the highest rate of being searched (22.4%) and handcuffed (17.8%). Stopped individuals whom officers perceived to be Black had the highest rate of being detained curbside or in a patrol car (20.2%) and ordered to exit a vehicle (7.1%). Individuals perceived to be transgender men/boys also had actions taken towards them during half of their stops (50.0%).
In addition to the data analysis, the board issues best practice recommendations that law enforcement agencies, the Legislature, local policymakers, the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST), community members, and advocates should consider when implementing evidence-based and data-driven policy reforms geared to eliminate racial and identity profiling and improve law enforcement and community relations.
Examples of the board’s recommendations from the report include:
• Ending all pretextual stops and searches by taking actions such as ending consent or supervision searches as well as limiting law enforcement roll in the enforcement of traffic laws;
• Prohibiting the collection of field interview cards and entries into CalGang or any agency database in absence of an arrest;
• Adopting internal policies that prohibit law enforcement agencies and district attorneys from pursuing criminal charges for standalone resisting arrest without other citable offenses;
• Prioritizing a care-first model, reducing unnecessary criminal justice intervention or law enforcement response in favor of a community-based response for youth with disabilities and youth experiencing mental health crises;
• Considerations related to the efficacy of school police and law enforcement contacts, such as identifying specific student conduct or statutory violations that require disciplinary action that should be handled by school staff, and for which law enforcement officers should not be involved;
• Calling for further research on how Police Officer Bills of Rights and provisions or agreements with unions affect police accountability;
• Amending Penal Code section 832.5 to include a standardized definition of “civilian complaint”;
• Reviewing all available video footage and incorporating root cause analysis into complaint investigations; and
• Seeking community and Board input early in POST’s course development process and integrating feedback into the course curriculum before finalizing the course.
For more on RIPA and other criminal justice data, members of the public are encouraged to visit OpenJustice, a data-driven initiative that works to increase access to criminal justice data and support the development of public policy.
A copy of the report announced today is available here. More information about the Board is available here.
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- Written by: Diane Rohlman, University of Iowa
Think about your first job. Maybe it was delivering pizza, bagging groceries, busing tables or doing landscaping work. Did you get enough training to avoid potential injuries? Chances are, you didn’t – and your boss or supervisor just told you to get to work.
Employing young people helps them in many ways. They can learn a trade, develop job skills, become more responsible and earn money. But there’s danger, too: Americans between 15 and 24 years old are up to 2.3 times more likely to get injured on the job than workers who are 25 and over.
In 2021, 398 workers under 25 died after getting injured on the job.
In my research about the unique occupational safety hazards young workers face, I’ve identified three common causes of this susceptibility to injury: their lack of experience, developing bodies and brains, and reluctance to speak up.
Physical and cognitive limitations
The 19 million young people employed today make up approximately 13% of the U.S. workforce.
Work is more dangerous for young people because they’ve simply had less time to become aware of many common workplace hazards than their older co-workers.
And yet this problem isn’t typically addressed during onboarding: Even those who have been trained to do a specific job may not be taught ways to avoid common injuries. These include tendinitis from scooping ice cream for hours on end, burns from operating a deep fryer, lacerations from sharp objects, and slips, trips and falls.
It’s also important to remember that bodies and brains continue to develop well into adulthood – up to age 25. This can make some tasks riskier before that point for the 55% of individuals between the ages of 16 and 24 who work.
For example, workers in their teens and early 20s may be smaller and weaker than older workers. Furthermore, some safety equipment, such as gloves and masks, may not properly fit.
In addition to physical changes that occur during adolescence, the brain is also developing and restructuring into early adulthood. The frontal cortex, which is used for decision-making and helps you to think before you act, continues to develop into adulthood and can lead to risky behaviors.
Young people are inclined to seek approval and respect, which influences their decision-making.
They also engage in risky behaviors both on and off the job that may affect their performance at work.
Finally, many young workers are reluctant to speak up if they have concerns, or to ask questions if they don’t know what to do, because they don’t want to lose respect from their boss or supervisor. To avoid appearing unqualified, they may not want to admit that they need help.
Weaker protections in some states
Despite these inherent risks, Arkansas, Iowa and other states have recently weakened labor laws, loosening restrictions about the kinds of work teens can do and increasing the number of hours they can work.
This is happening at a time when the number of child labor violations are rising and more children are dying or getting injured, especially when they do tasks that violate federal labor laws.
Duvan Tomas Perez, for example, died on the job while cleaning machinery in the Mar-Jac Poultry plant in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, in August 2023. Perez was 16. So was Michael Schuls, who died in June 2023 while attempting to unjam a wood-stacking machine at Florence Hardwoods, a Wisconsin lumber company. Will Hampton, another 16-year-old, also died that month in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, while working at a landfill.
Teachers at a Nebraska middle school figured out that students who had trouble staying awake at school were working night shifts at a slaughterhouse, doing dangerous cleaning work that caused chemical burns.
Enacted in 1938, the Fair Labor Standards Act established federal standards to ensure workplace safety for workers under 18 and bars employers from interfering with their educational opportunities. This law sets 14 as a minimum age for formal employment, restricts when and how many hours children may work, and outlines the type of work children may safely perform.
Some of the new state labor laws allow children to work in more dangerous jobs and limit their employers’ liability for injury, illness or even death on the job.
When state labor laws are less restrictive than the federal law, however, the federal standards apply.
The federal government is also ramping up enforcement efforts. The Labor Department found 4,474 children employed in violation of federal child labor laws between Oct. 1, 2022, and July 20, 2023. Employers, including McDonald’s and Sonic fast-food franchisees, owed more than $6.6 million in penalties as a result.
3 steps employers can take
In addition to following the law, I believe that employers and supervisors need to address the unique risks to young workers by taking these necessary steps:
• Provide training on how to do tasks safely and supervise young workers until key tasks have been mastered. Training should not only occur right before a new employee gets ready for their first shift, but whenever new tasks are assigned, when there is a new hazard in the workplace, and after an injury or near miss occurs in the workplace.
• Model safe behaviors. Remember that young workers often learn by watching their bosses and co-workers, whose actions can reinforce safety expectations and build a culture of safety.
• Take into account a worker’s abilities when assigning tasks, and check in on them regularly, especially when switching tasks. Ask open-ended questions, such as, “What are the steps you are going to take when you do this task?” as opposed to questions that can be answered with a yes or no, like, “Do you know how to do this task?” Be sure to let workers know how to report concerns and who they can talk to if they have questions about workplace procedures and policies.
These strategies are easy to implement and cost little to follow.
And they surely make it safer for workers in their teens and early 20s to gain the valuable work experience they want and need, while helping their employers to maintain safe, productive workplaces that nurture the workers our economy will increasingly depend upon in the years ahead.
Diane Rohlman, Associate Dean for Research, Professor and Endowed Chair of Rural Safety and Health, University of Iowa
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
