implies growing diversity

A new act aims to reduce unnecessary interactions with the police that often go awry.

Shelby Hiens Student Writer

Philadelphia’s city council passed the Driving Equality Act last month in a 14-2 vote. The law encompasses a set of bills aimed at removing negative police interactions and promoting trust in the police department.

The first bill prohibits police from stopping drivers for seven types of low-level traffic stops with the goal of healing policecommunity relations.” The law is set to go into effect 120 days after the initial signing.

The law is supported by the city’s police department who are dedicated to making the necessary changes to police training. “We believe this is a fair and balanced approach to addressing racial disparity without compromising public safety,” the department said. “This modified enforcement model for car stops furthers the Department’s priority of addressing the issue of racial disparity in the Department’s investigative stops and complements the Department’s efforts to address these same issues in pedestrian stops.”

Black drivers accounted for 72 percent of approximately 310,000 traffic stops in Philadelphia from October 2018 to September 2019 while comprising 48 percent of the city’s population, according to the Defender Association of Philadelphia. This year, Black drivers have accounted for 67 percent of traffic stops while white drivers make up 12 percent. The association has projected that this initiative could result in 300,000 fewer police interactions a year.

Acting chief defender for the Philadelphia based association Alan Tauber described the legislation as a “great first step to building more trust between our police and communities of color.” Tauber added, “We’re hopeful that passage of the Driving Equality Bill is just the beginning of informed and meaningful conversations about positive changes to our justice system that will benefit all Philadelphians.”

“... the city’s police department ... are dedicated to making the necessary changes ...”

traffic violations. Infractions such as broken lights, bumper issues, minor obstructions and license plates that are not visible are now considered secondary level traffic violations. Primary violations include actions which pose an imminent threat or safety risk to the public and are still subject to traffic stops. All secondary traffic violations remain illegal and will result in citations and fines issued through the mail. The companion bill requires police to record all traffic stop information in a public database.

Mayor Jim Kenney approved the law and issued an executive order on Wednesday, Nov. 3. Kenney followed this with a statement, “This legislation establishes Philadelphia as the first large U.S. city to ban minor

The bill originated as a response to the settlement of Bailey v. City of Philadelphia, a federal class action filed in 2010 on behalf of eight African-American and Latino men who were “stopped by Philadelphia police officers solely on the basis of their race or ethnicity,” according to ACLU Pennsylvania. The lawsuit alleged that Philadelphia police officers are illegally stopping thousands of people to frisk and detain them.

Minor infractions included in the secondary level of the new law have been criticized for acting as a guise for racially motivated traffic stops. “These bills end the traffic stops that promote discrimination while keeping the traffic stops that promote public safety,” the City Council said in a statement.

Missouri kidnapping case leaves questions

The disappearance, followed by a complex investigation, has led to various rumors spread online.

Logan Guthrie

Sports Editor

On Aug. 25, 33-year-old Cassidy Rainwater from Missouri was reported missing by her family. As of right now, no information regarding her current whereabouts or if she is even alive has been released. Two suspects have been apprehended and charged with Rainwater’s kidnapping. However, there have been several turns and speculations in the past month with this case that makes it appear to be much more than a kidnapping. ton, the second suspect, who did not corroborate Phelps’ statement. In his first interview, the police found inaccuracies in Norton’s statements, who claimed that he did not live in the house with Phelps, but in his car working as an overload trucker. According to court records, the police followed up with Norton again the following day, when he admitted to assisting Phelps in restraining Rainwater, leading to their arrests. Another search of the house did not turn up any new evidence according to reports.

The investigation has continued, however. Not long after his arrest, Phelps’ rent house in Lebanon was burned to the ground, and investigators have concluded it was the result of arson. A tripwire was discovered

“... Phelps’ rent house in Lebanon was burned to the ground ...”

Around mid-September, an anonymous tip was sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation containing photos of a partially nude woman locked in a cage. Upon seeing the photo, a Dallas County detective recognized the caged woman as being Rainwater. Not long after, a search warrant was issued for the phone of James Phelps, one of the two suspects and upon investigation one of the last people to see Rainwater alive. Seven more such pictures of Rainwater were found on Phelps’ device.

Upon questioning in the initial stages of the investigation, Phelps confirmed that Rainwater had stayed with him at his house on Moon Valley Road. However, he claimed that she was only staying there until she could get back on her feet, and he had not seen her since she left his house in the middle of the night on July 25, the last confirmed sighting of Rainwater. The authorities left Phelps’ home after first searching the loft in which Phelps said the missing woman was staying. The loft appeared to be “stripped,” with no sign of any of Rainwater’s belongings.

But Phelps was not the only person listed as living at his Moon Valley Road house. The police followed up with Timothy Norby law enforcement, who alerted a local firefighter immediately. The fire was started by the discovered explosive’s controlled detonation by bomb squad professionals and no one was hurt in the process.

A new Lebanon resident, Rachel Nicholson, spoke on the incident: “All a sudden, the house collapsed and the flames got bigger. We could feel the heat,” said Nicholson. “Everything was on fire, and we sat there and watched it collapse. I called 911 because I was worried about it catching the woods on fire and spreading to the other houses.”

According to Dallas County Sheriff Rice, it is upsetting that misinformation surrounding the investigation has been passing around on Facebook and elsewhere. Such conspiracies include claims from an amateur blogger of reliable sources connected to law enforcement that confirm remains were found at the site of the fire that could be Rainwater. Others involve Norton and Phelps being involved in an extensive underground cannibalism ring in Missouri and ate Rainwater, or that police officers are being pulled off the case for leaking information. No reports have been made that corroborate such rumors at this time.

Philadelphia is the largest city to implement these reforms as of yet. courtesy Wikimedia Commons

Tulsa race demographics imply increasing diversity

TU Professor Dr. Travis Lowe offers insight into Tulsa’s 2020 census data and critiques common conceptions of race.

Julianne Tran Variety Editor

Following the release of the 2020 census’ results, news articles emblazoned claims of dramatic shifting demographics. The phrase “majority-minority” and “less than 50 percent white” filled numerous headlines, hoping to draw eager and curious readers. However, these changes are not nearly as straightforward.

Particularly in the city of Tulsa, the recent census results showed a stark shift in population. In the 2010 census, 57.9 percent of Tulsa’s population identified as white. The 2020 census shows that this percentage decreased to 48.5 percent, with less than half of the city’s population identifying as white. However, this one-to-one comparison cannot be taken at face value.

Dr. Travis Lowe, professor of sociology at the University of Tulsa, discusses these population changes and the problematic portrayal of populations as “majority-minority.”

Given that the 2020 census asked the question of race with a new write-in option, this change belies results and comparisons from past years. As Dr. Lowe explains, “When you provide a write-in option, that’s going to affect how the data is measured.” Because of this new mode of collecting data for the race question specifically, “it’s going to be a lot more difficult to make an applesto-apples comparison.”

Particularly regarding the question of racial identity, Lowe explains that “The race variable is one that has received a lot of scrutiny over the decades. And then the big concern is that if and when we do change how this is measured, it is going to be more difficult to make those longitudinal comparisons.”

Dr. Lowe describes that someone who identifies as mixed race “could theoretically identify as one or the other depending on how the question was asked.” He continues by explaining that “Nowadays the color line is more fluid than it has ever been, because of the willingness of people to adopt these [multi-racial] identities.”

Rather than thinking along the dichotomous white/non-white line, it is important to be attentive to this fluidity of racial identity. As opposed to emboldening claims like “majority-minority,” we must look beyond these outdated conceptions of race.

Explaining the danger of phrases like “majority-minority,” Lowe explains his biggest concern that “it is easy to ‘other’ people that are in those nebulous, non-white categories.” These are people who “might have white ancestry or might even pass as white in their everyday life” but are “experiencing life differently than someone who identifies monoracially.”

“Race used to be seen in an exclusionary sense, pick one or the other… [but] as our population is changing, people are more comfortable adopting multi-racial identities. They don’t have to not make that choice.” This cultural shift actually has a more “unifying effect” than phrases like “majority-minority” that may lend itself to polarization and fear from white populations that they are becoming less demographically dominant.

Phrases like “majority-minority” misconstrue and force the data so that the white block appears smaller than it really is. In reality, those who had previously identified solely as white on past census questions, may now answer to be multi-racial.

This narrowing of the data to show those who solely identify as white reflects an antiquated understanding of racial identity. Lowe describes the idea of the “onedrop rule” that reflects the statement: “if you have any non-white blood in you, then you can’t be white.” When you expand the lens to include those who identify as multiracial, and one of those races being white,

“‘... our population is changing, people are more comfortable adopting multi-racial identities.’”

With this in mind, claims that Tulsa is now less than 50 percent white do not describe the full picture. The write-in option may have increased the number of people recorded in this new census data as identifying with more than one race. Indeed, as reflected in the national data, the aggregated 50 city populations gained nearly one million persons identifying with two or more races. Lowe describes that this “makes situation seem [less] stark than it is.”

This is not to say that the Tulsa population has not changed at all. However these changes are not as stark and straightforward as they appear, in the data and in recent headlines. Tulsa’s growing diversity cannot be captured in terms of white/non-white. It is seen in the fuller sense of deep, fluid racial identity. It is who we are, not who we are on paper.

President Joe Biden claims to practice the faith’s tenets, but devout individuals have doubts.

Logan Guthrie

Sports Editor

There is no denying that President Joe Biden’s relationship with the Catholic Church is rocky at best. As the United States’s second president to be a practicing Catholic, he’s one of the nation’s most prominent figures of this faith who is not a member of the clergy. He holds a unique place as a representative of his religion to his fellow Americans and on the world’s political stage. As a result, he has painted a target on his back for other Catholic Christians for his political standings.

President Biden has specifically caught the attention of traditional Catholic bishops over his open advocacy in favor of abortion. For instance, he has urged the Supreme Court in the past to not overturn the Roe v. Wade ruling from 1973. The original ruling legalized abortion in the United States. Biden revisited it in reference to a restrictive abortion law in the state of Mississippi that led to a tense internal battle within the U.S. Catholic Church. His administration also sued the state of Texas for its much stricter policies on abortion, nearly an absolute ban of the procedure entirely.

Such public pro-choice advocacy is seen as directly challenging Catholic Church Doctrine, which states clearly that abortion is the murder of an innocent child, and therefore immoral and a mortal sin. By receiving an abortion or cooperating with the actions of abortion as is the case with our President, you are now no longer in a state of grace, and therefore not supposed to receive the Eucharist, or Catholic Holy Communion.

The Eucharist is the center of the Catholic faith, and by far the most important of their sacraments, as believed to miraculously become the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ Himself. This is clearly something that Catholics must, and do, take very seriously. It is the obligation of the priests first and foremost to protect the Eucharist, and as such President Biden has come under fire for receiving the Eucharist despite his public abortion advocacy, prompting many Catholic clergyman to promote a ban on Biden receiving the Eucharist at all. The U.S. bishops also issued a document detailing the doctrine of Holy Communion again as a reminder to Catholics about the need to be in a state of grace. Biden has responded previously to such actions by stating, “I dare you to deny me Communion.”

The controversy added new layers with the recent meeting between President Biden and Pope Francis at the Vatican. Sparking the zeal of many prominent Catholic leaders, high profile individuals implored the

President Joe Biden is only the second Catholic U.S. president. courtesy Wikimedia Commons courtesy Wikimedia Commons Residing in Rome and from South America, the current pope come under fire several times.

Pope to stand firm on the Eucharistic ban. On Oct. 27, Bishop Tobin tweeted, “Dear Pope Francis, You have boldly stated that abortion is ‘murder’. Please challenge President Biden on this critical issue. His persistent support of abortion is an embarrassment for the Church and a scandal to the world. Thank you. Very respectfully, Your brother +Thomas.”

According to President Biden, in their private meeting Pope Francis called him a “good Catholic” and told him to continue Catholic doctrine, then he knows the Church teaches no one should receive the Eucharist when not in a state of grace, and he has a duty to his religion to be bold in his actions and uphold this by not receiving currently.

That being said, the Bishops denying him communion are also in the wrong. Who are they with all their flaws to deny another member of their faith the fundamental rite of their religion? There doesn’t seem to be records of the same treatment for President John F. Kennedy, the first Catholic Presi-

“Bishops denying [President Biden] communion are also in the wrong.”

to receive the Eucharist. It is very likely that these words are being taken by President Biden out of context. Pope Francis is known for encouraging people to receive the Eucharist regularly as a medicine for the spiritually sick and food for the soul, but the pope remains very outspoken that abortion is murder. By the comment that Biden is a good Catholic, he may be comparing him to the artwork that he gave the President as a gift in their meeting: a pilgrim traveling to Rome. And, like the pilgrim, Biden is not there yet. He is a good Catholic because, at least in the eyes of Pope Francis, he is trying despite his flaws and disagreements with Church doctrine.

It is no secret that the pope’s words are often twisted for others purposes, such as a fabricated quote from an examiner.com story where he supposedly said that women are not fit for public office, with no evidence to corroborate the statement. That being said, no matter the skepticism surrounding the pope’s words, President Biden should not be receiving the Eucharist. If he truly believes dent of the United States, for his sexual promiscuity and this inconsistent approach hints at another motive. The clergy cannot reasonably police President Biden’s personal salvation. Denying him the Eucharist could drive him away from his faith and the Church. Also, while he objectively should receive the Eucharist because of his supposed beliefs, it is also his own obligation to make things right and to keep himself accountable. There are plenty of other people out there that deserve just as much dedicated time from their religious leaders as our President is getting right now, and the increasing politicization of the clergy points to a rather worrying trend of disassociating from the day-to-day matters of tending one’s flock.

With finals coming, bake a cake this week

The 11 straight weeks of class have left their mark, but we should take a moment to rest before finishing strong, hopefully.

Julianne Tran

Variety Editor

With bowls and measuring cups splayed across my countertop, I vigorously beat butter and sugar until fluffy and pale. I hummed “Hear in My Arms” by Leon Bridges as I tipped leveled cups of flour and teaspoons of baking powder into another scratchedbottom mixing bowl. Nevermind those impending deadlines, the essays will get done. But first, I will assemble this two-layered strawberry cake (with cream cheese frosting).

It’s that time of year! Everyone is stressed beyond what they thought they’d already experienced. We have too many commitments, many of which we do not genuinely care about. That class that we thought was going to be a breeze is actually the worst. Purchasing hasn’t reimbursed my club’s pizza and when was the last time I ate a vegetable? Professors demand more. We demand more of ourselves. And, most of all, we’re tired. But just one more long night will catch me up (or keep me as ahead as I hold myself to be), right?

The solution is not to stay up later, cancel all your plans, or eat your lunch while staring at your exam study guide. Bake a cake. Shrink your timeline. Do something unproductive for the sake of productivity. Or pure enjoyment. (Mostly the latter.)

There is an odd (but knowing TU students, not so unexpected) density of TU organizations devoted to majors and career goals. We spend our time studying and completing assignments for the sake of a degree that is for the sake of some future goal. Whenever we’re not doing work related to classes, we’re doing work for these organizations that are similarly for the sake of the future.

Why is it that all the work we do needs to be productive? When we have “time off” from classes, we turn to “extracurriculars” that are of some productive, future use. We pass our classes. We stuff our resumes. And sometimes, we enjoy it. Other times, we are lost in the whirlwind of striving, accomplishing, and grasping as we stare mindless as the hazy “tomorrow.” The timeline stretches longer and longer towards the nebulous future. The work piles on. There’s another meeting to sit through. Let’s hear about people’s successful interviews and exam grades! Let’s complain together and then retreat to grind it out all night!

Instead, bake a cake this week. Let those impending deadlines seep out of your mind for just a little bit. Do something you love, or used to love before you knew the canned answer to “What’s your major? What’re you going to do with that?” Quiet the ticking clock of your mind. Move your body, have an actual conversation, sing a song.

Whatever your cake is this week, I hope that you do it. It might not take away the burdens of your semester, but for that small moment in time, I hope you enjoy yourself. I hope you are reminded that you are a person who likes to do things other than study and become a “working professional.” At the very least, you might have some cake to eat after you fail that test.

photo by Julianne Tran While baking a cake is a good and delicious option, taking a dog for a walk, doing some sketching, anything to take it easy should be priority number one in times of stress.