Salon.com > Katti Gray

Can more armed guards keep our schools safe?

Tue, 07 May 2013 21:17:00 +0000

The debate over placing more armed guards in schools has turned the spotlight on school resource officers who comprise an increasing share of law enforcement personnel in schools—and who worry that their role is misunderstood.

A point of view largely missing from the discussion is whether someone who is sworn to protect school safety should be armed, says Mo Canady, executive director of the National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO)

“When I first got started in this, I was a little concerned that kids were going to be focused on my gun,” adds Canady, a former police lieutenant who spent 12 of his 25 years as a school safety officer in Hoover, AL—where he still lives, and where the national association is based.

“But they weren’t. As I interacted with them and got to know them, it humanized my role. And, yes, I do realize that they still were seeing me as law enforcement.”

Can elder abuse be stopped?

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 20:30:00 +0000

Americans aged 65 and older are the nation’s fastest growing demographic group, according to the 2010 U.S. Census. And although crimes committed against the elderly are increasingly a matter of concern, advocates say too little is being done to address the problem.

“It’s the dirty little secret no one wants to talk about,” said Robyn Grant, public policy and advocacy director for the National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care in Washington, D.C.

“We’ve got to give it the attention that child abuse and domestic abuse are given in this country.”

Banned from voting booths: Ex-convicts

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 21:06:00 +0000

With voter suppression a hot-button issue of Election 2012, a coalition of civil rights advocates and prison reformers is stepping up its campaign to restore voting rights to almost 6 million ex-offenders.

Despite reforms over the past decades, advocates say the number of Americans disenfranchised by state laws barring ex-prisoners from voting has grown—with a disproportionate impact on people of color.

“When you talk about the right to vote, you’re not just talking about enfranchising an individual,” says ex-offender Desmond Meade, president of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition.

“Every day, in minority communities, you have people getting arrested … As that individual loses [his or her] right to vote, that community loses another voice, to the point that that community becomes insignificant.”

Meade’s coalition is fighting to overturn a Florida law passed last year that denies automatic restoration of voting rights to those who’ve served their time.