National Football league NFL draws sharp criticisms for how it handles domestic violence
winter veggies Stop neglecting your health and shop for local produce
MEN’S SOCCER Rutgers falls to Columbia, 1-0 on senior night, finish regular season winless at home
SEE food & drink, page 8
SEE opinions, page 6
SEE sports, back
WEATHER Intervals of clouds and sun High: 52 Low: 36
Serving the Rutgers community since 1869. Independent since 1980.
rutgers university—new brunswick
wednesday, october 26, 2016
ONLINE AT DAILYTARGUM.COM
Air pollution still issue in NJ, health officer says
Professors explain police impact on US race relations
kira herzog correspondent
noa halff associate news editor
Students at the University of California—Irvine called for an end to campus police in a recent “Blue Lives Don’t Matter” protest. A discussion on the issue of police brutality and police-community relations on Oct. 7 at the school was interrupted by Black Union Students chanting, marching and holding banners that read “Police Kill the Mentally Ill” and selling “F**k the Police” T-shirts, according to lifezette.com. The protest at the University of California—Irvine is reflective of the national debate, said John Cohen, a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice, which he categorizes as “hyper-polarized and intellectually dishonest.” “The fact that members of the community were willing to express their anger so quickly is reflective of a broader problem in the community,” he said. The opposing sides on the issue of criminal justice reform have such fixed beliefs that they do not care to hear the views of others, Cohen said. Individuals are unwilling to move beyond their own position to the extent that they are standing in the way of progress being achieved
Students at The University of California—Irvine held an anti-police protest on Oct. 7, but Rutgers professors said campus police is necessary for school. DIMITRI RODRIGUEZ / PHOTO EDITOR / SEPTEMBER 2016 in dealing with the issues they are fighting for, he said. The protest is a perfect example of this issue, he said. When the protest occurred, a diverse group of community leaders, academics and police professionals were having an open discussion on criminal justice reform, police bias, police community-relationships and the erosion of trust in local law enforcement among minority communities. “Those discussions were undermined by a group of individuals who are so angry and so entrenched in their position that they were actually promoting things which were not only factually and intellectually ignorant but they had no hope of ever being accomplished,” he said. “In a sense they undermined a discussion that could have been an important step toward addressing the very issue they were allegedly concerned about.” But the claim that “Blue Lives Don’t Matter” would not be
widely supported, said Lisa Miller, a professor in the Department of Political Science. An individual does not have to be anti-police to be pro-black lives, she said. In her research, Miller has found that residents of high-crime communities, which are disproportionally black, are willing to work with police. “I would argue to say that the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement is not to say other lives don’t matter,” she said. “It is simply calling attention to the fact that historically African-Americans have been granted police protection much less frequently than whites and sometimes subjected to abuse by police, which is a historical phenomenon as much as a contemporary one.” It is not that these communities do not want police, they simply want fair police, she said. But there has been a recent increase in anxiety over the proliferation of policing, Miller said, See RELATIONS on Page 5
Middlesex is 1 of 13 counties in New Jersey to receive a failing grade for ozone emissions by the American Lung Association. More than one-third of harmful chemicals and metals released in the atmosphere nationwide in 2014 originated from just 100 power individual plants and refineries, according to a recent study by the Center for Public Integrity. Wind patterns make New Jersey the recipient of both local chemical emissions and air pollution from neighboring states, Health Officer for the Monmouth County Regional Health Commission David Henry said. Some of these refineries are located in or within proximity of New Jersey, Henry said. There are very few measures enacted to prevent excessive air pollution from manufacturing companies. “New Jersey is also a very congested state in terms of motor vehicles,” Henry said. “Right now, the emissions standards for New Jersey vehicles are actually the same as the standards that exist in California.” The immediate effects of air pollution are severe and can be seen through the prevalence of childhood asthma in New Jersey, he said. In Middlesex County alone, more than 16,000 cases of pediatric asthma
are reported annually, according to the State of the Air report. “Asthma is an indication of our air quality and how New Jersey compares to the rest of the country,” Henry said. “The problem is that high ozone days represent a particular risk for old people and young children with respiratory illnesses.” The city issues high ozone alerts when air quality reaches potentially harmful levels. Effects of the phenomenon can effectively be equated with those of a sunburn. Overexposure to ozone and smog can cause permanent lung damage as well as irritation of existing respiratory conditions, according to an article published in NorthJersey.com. Genevieve Cullen, a School of Arts and Sciences junior, said the lack of publicity surrounding the effects of pollutants is concerning. “More awareness needs to be raised about this because I have lived in New Jersey my whole life and I never knew ‘high ozone days’ existed,” Cullen said. “It is terrifying to think that there were days when it was theoretically dangerous for me to go outside and that I did it anyways because I didn’t know.” Cullen said she supports increased regulation of industrial plants and factories. See OFFICER on Page 5
Professor explains differences between Russia, America nick huber staff writer
David Foglesong, a professor in the Department of History, spoke about U.S. and Russian relations and provided some insight about the relationship the U.S. has with its greatest opponent. Foglesong’s book “The American Mission and The Evil Empire,” was a main interest and discussion point on Russia Today on Oct. 13. There are two major themes central to Russian and American relations since the late 19th century which are in the title of his book, Foglesong said. “Ronald Reagan called Russia an ‘Evil Empire,’ and that’s important to have in mind because I think that we have gone backwards,” Foglesong said. “Now we have seen a deterioration of relations in the last ten years back to the point where we are almost as tense and hostile as we were in the 1980s when Reagan called them an Evil Empire.” The word “mission” in his book meant Americans felt they had a
duty to try and make Russia free, he said, which meant free of three different things. “They meant converting Russians from the superstitious and corrupt church to a more protestant religion, making Russia more free for capitalist enterprise and economic development and political freedom,” he said. Americans first regarded the Russians as evil when it was under a monarchy and czarist autocracy, not a communism autocracy, Foglesong said, but up until the 1880’s the U.S. and Russians had very good relations. “There was the phase of positive relations when the two fought together in World War II against Nazi Germany, but it keeps coming back to periods of tension, hostility and mutual demonization,” he said. Mutual demonization is a major key to the reasons behind tense American and Russian relations, he said. There is a long history of vilification of Russian leaders and a demonization of Russia and the Soviet Union as an Evil Empire and a foe.
“One way of looking at it is to treat Russia as a scapegoat or whipping boy to divert attention away from the sins of America’s history,” he said. “One way to divert attention from the problems the U.S. had in its history is to say those problems pale in comparison to the horrible problems in Russian history.” U.S. calling the Russians an “Evil Empire” and the Russians using propaganda to frame the U.S. as an aggresive, imperialistic power, were the scapegoat tactics used, he said. Russians and Americans are more alike than they seem, Foglesong said. “I think it’s correct that Americans tend to regard Russia as an imaginary twin, an alter ego, as a mirror image for the United States,” he said. Both America and Russia had a frontier experience, he said. While America emancipated the slaves in 1863, the Russians had already emancipated the serfs in 1861. Despite all the tension between the two nations, there have been
David Foglesong, a professor in the Department of History, said the United States and Russia have a long history. He discussed this history on Russia Today earlier this month. RUTGERS.EDU periods where the U.S. and Russia have been able to get along without banding together because of a mutual enemy.
In the 19th century they had a mutual opponent, Britain, but
VOLUME 148, ISSUE 95 • University ... 3 • opiNIons ... 6 • classifieds ... 7 • FOOD & DRINK ... 8 • Diversions ... 9 • SPORTS ... BACK
See DIFFERENCES on Page 5