Talibs Weekly Email - Week 21
👮Systems that protect the Cops, 😷 Protests mean more COVID, 🤼 UFC's dirty secret
Good Morning,
The last days have been difficult for many and I cannot understand what black people across the globe are going through yet I try to learn more and educate myself on the systematic oppression they have been under.
If you are interested in reading more about the movement and the racial disparities, I suggest you click here. I’m not an expert so my action has been to listen & learn at this time.
Lastly, If you know someone who has been unemployed recently, please share this document with them. Its a document that should help one apply for EI and get through these difficult times.
What I’m listening to as I write this weeks email
Tweet that got me thinking
Link to his take here
(Thanks Akshay)
👮 The Systems that Protect the Police
😷 The ongoing protests will spread COVID
🤼UFC facing a $5 billion lawsuit as it becomes the most dominant force in MMA
Podcasts
👮The Daily : The Systems that Protect the Police
TLDR: The number of protections that Police officers have in place make them immune to almost any action they undertake.
🇺🇸 Current Situation: Derek Chauvin has had at least 17 misconduct complaints in the 19 years he’s been with the force. None of these complaints have resulted in any suspension.
👀Police Data: There is usually lots of secrecy behind police records. At times it is very limited with no specific data regarding the complaints or at times its removed after a certain period of time. Investigators have often used civil lawsuits & news accounts to piece officer history. For Minneapolis - they actually have a searchable database online where they put out the list of complaints. (This site is now down)
There are systems that have been setup to protect police officers.
🚓 Internal Investigations: Policing themselves
These are internal complaints - Internal committees that review complaints against their own tend to be charitable towards their own.
In 2010 - David Smith was held down by two officers for 4 minutes, he ended up dying. The case was settled and officers after an internal investigation were never disciplined. (This literally happened right in Minneapolis 10 years ago. )
👥Civil Service protections - If we strictly follow based on precedent - no reform
Public officials (Cops) are allowed to appeal to an independent body. These independent boards are often made up with ex cops and other civilians.
These arbitration boards rely heavily on following precedents. Often reformer police chiefs have a difficult time setting new policies in place because the boards are increasingly reliant on old cases. (i.e the past haunts the future)
In Minnesota - 46% of the time police officers were fired - they were re-instated after the appeal to this board.
🗣️Civilian Review - a recommendation board and not binding (0.46% action in MN)
There are often many complaints generated towards the police, justifiable since interactions are not usually pleasant.
The idea is that non-police officers should be able to review the police tapes, testimonies, body cams and determine if the police are meeting community standards.
Across the country, civilian review boards(members of the public) have been weak, they gather accounts but cannot enforce any recommendations. Police departments usually ignore these recommendations.
Since 2012 in Minnesota, there were 2600 complaints generated and only 12 faced any discipline. (0.46%)
🚨Police Unions - (Unions protect at all & any costs + Increase $$)
These represent the rank & file members and the unions job is to protect their members at all and any costs.
They are lead by ex officers who are the biggest opponents for reform minded chiefs. For ex. - the leader of the Minnesota union is Lt. Bob Kroll; he has had 29 complaints in his career. He has already said his priority is to get the jobs back for 4 officers involved
Aggressive unions have rallied for increased police budgets and pay raises for their employees. They are a significant reason why police budgets have consistently increased year after year.
More information on Bob Kroll’s perspective on the aggressive force and budgets here. (Its terrifying)
👩⚖️Reasonable Fear (The Law is based on fear - not actual events)
Now if you are able to take a specific case to trial (prosecutor gets past all the hurdles above etc). The case is built on reasonable fear - If the officer can make an argument that a reasonable officer would be afraid in that moment. The Jury cannot convict them.
This was created to protect officers as officers have difficult and dangerous jobs where to have to make split second decisions
⏱️My Thoughts: These rules have two sides to each story. If you view this an employee - employer relationship; employees do not want to be at the helm of an unreasonable boss hence they have the ability to appeal a decision. Employees want to be compensated accordingly based on risk and hence why they have a large powerful union to make sure they are taken care of financially and legally.
This is a messed up system that was built on a foundation of lack of trust. Usually systems or relationships that work - are built on an underlying trust - there is none to begin with here.
Articles
😷The Atlantic: The Protests Will Spread the Coronavirus
TLDR: Public health experts warn that we should expect a spike in less than two weeks.
🦠Virus Spreading? The virus appears to spread when people yell (chanting slogans), sneeze (think the pepper spray impact) & cough (inhaling tear gas). It is transmitted most efficiently in crowds and large gatherings.
🚨How many protests? There have been at least 75 cities in the United States that have seen widespread protests.
😷What are the experts saying?
Expectation that there will be spikes in cases in 10 to 14 days. Its a question of when & where.
Source: Covid Tracking Project
Experts strongly encourage people wear a mask over their mouth and nose. They reduce the risk of transmitting the virus.
👮Whats the difference between these Protests & Anti-lockdown Protests?
Anti-lockdown protests opposed mask mandates and social distancing rules which at very least - many protesters were wearing masks - reducing the risk of transmission to the community.
When it comes down to the sheer volume of people - they are both large gatherings and have the potential to spread the virus. That is the difficult and honest truth.
👥Why not cancel the protests?
This may not be a legally or legitimate constitutional move. In the 1960s and 70s, it become clear that governments were using the pretext of Public Health and Safety to limit or violate civil rights.
International Jurists developed a set of ideas called the - “Sircusa Principles”. These principles are about when some human rights could be violated or restricted to protect others. Inherent in those rules is that the right to assembly cannot be limited in a discriminatory way and that any restriction must be based on evidence.
International law understands these protests very differently than the anti-mask protests, mainly because it places a premium on the use of civil rights to keep governments accountable. This is also the reason why the Anti-lockdown protests weren’t illegal either.
Protesting is protected by constitutional and international law, and yet, at this moment, inescapably dangerous
👩🔬Whats next?
Cases have significantly declined in the Northeast. It might also ultimately be hard to separate the signal of these protests from the signal of many states and counties relaxing some social-distancing rules.
⏱️My Thoughts: This is the unfortunate truth of the reality of what is happening. I fear for the impact of COVID on communities across especially considering the income disparities that exist. However, the article pointed a fascinating quote which I think is important
“Structural racism has been a public-health crisis for much longer than the pandemic has.”
We have not treated structural racism as a crisis yet and its about time we do.
I hope the COVID impact is mitigated and people are being relatively cautious but politically - this could be a nightmare for anyone advocating on stricter social distancing measures in the near future.
💰Businessweek: UFC Wants You to Watch Brawls, Not Its $5 Billion Lawsuit
TLDR: The UFC has become a monopolistic empire using their power to hold down pay and protections for their fighters. (Thanks Mo for this article recommendation)
💰What has has happened? There are half a dozen former UFC fighters who filed a $5 billion antitrust lawsuit against Zuffa LLC (the parent company that owns UFC). The suit has been ongoing for five years and could be certified as a class action with over 1,200 claimants. They accuse UFC of leveraging monopoly power against fighters and holding down their pay.
⚖️The Case: They centre their argument that UFC can get away without paying them a lower share of the sport’s revenue than other pro athletes receive because its a Monopoly. Zaffa claims that mixed martial artists wouldn’t be earning any kind of living without its spending (promotion/PPV events etc)
🤼UFC Background:
UFC claims to be the largest PPV provider with around 318 million Nielson viewers.
Dana White bought this company with Lorenzo Fertilla (brother of Houston Rocket owner) for $2m in 2001, at this time - UFC was not even allowed on pay per view and was compared to “human cockfighting” by Senators (I guess $$$ really changes the outlook now..)
📺Growth:
Lorenzo got onto the Nevada Athletic commission and negotiated with state regulators to make the sport legal again. The Trump Taj Mahal was the first name brand venue to host the new UFC’s bouts and Dana White credits Donald Trump big time for giving them their first big break.
They started investing into their image such as creating the reality show “The Ultimate Fighter” - the execs actually paid the first seasons production costs themselves essentially they took a bet on themselves.
They grew this business and sold it Zaffa LLC (Endeavour) for $4 billion.
Source: StatsZone
👥Competition?
In early days, competition among promoters meant fighters had more leverage. however UFC started acquiring rivals such as Affliction and Pride. This allowed UFC to have all the best fighters in the world on their roster and eliminating any threat of a rival org.
🤕Salaries: Unlike the major leagues where the leagues spend around half of the revenue on players, UFC revenue that goes to the fighters is around 20%.
UFC contracts would require fighters to do autograph sessions and open workouts for free and let UFC profit from their likeness and trading cards without going back for permission. Fighters also paid their costs of training, gear and a range of medical bills.
They were classified as independent contractors like Uber Drivers.
UFC contracts began having to agree to a certain number of fights in a given period with the company retaining the right to extend the deal if he/she got injured, turned dow a match by management, became champion or even tried to retire.
Monopsony Power - the outsize leverage some employers have because they can limit workers’ opportunities elsewhere.
🇺🇸The Return from Pandemic? UFC was one of the first few events that came back after the Pandemic. They held a UFC event on May 9, with no spectators but there was no social distancing in place because athletics were declared an essential industry by the governor.
There was a fighter that tested positive for COVID-19 and UFC had to pull that fighter from the cards. All fighters had to sign a waiver acknowledging the following
UFC made no guarantees about their protection from the covid exposure
bans fighters from saying that UFC events lack appropriate health and safety precautions on penalty of their fight pay
Makes clear that the fights are voluntary and discloses the risks involved.
UFC has a contract with ESPN that calls for a total of 42 before the year is out, until May 9 - they had approx 7 events.
⏱️My Thoughts: This is a marketing/growth case in the making. The way UFC has grown over the years is incredible - they funded their own events and took calculated risks that paid off. The UFC was nearing bankruptcy in 2001, MMA had a poor reputation and was banned in 36 states and not even allowed on PPV.
However as the company gets bigger - you are bound to encounter new issues that challenge your exponential growth. The employee relationship is difficult one since they are “independent contractors” and not subject to any union or protections.
In the end - this is the same product as before that was banned for a reason (“human cockfighting”). Makes you wonder what $$ and research have to do to change something from illegal to legal.
Books
Here are my books to read/finish for the next while
Completed
Educated by Tara Westover (9/10)
Loonshots by Safia Bahchall (8/10)
Range - David Epstein (7/10)
If you’re looking for books to get, I would suggest checking out bookdepository.com or thriftbooks.com (both are cheaper than amazon at times)