Quick takesRail safety delays; Chicago’s trigger-happy police; killing Bangladeshi bloggers

Train derailment outside Philadelphia // Source: commons.wikimedia.org

Rail safety: Congress extends safety-measures deadline yet again
The growing volume of oil shipments by rail – and the consequent increase in the number of derailments accompanied by polluting oil spills – have moved lawmakers to require rail line operators to install speed-control systems in engines. In October the Congress agreed to extend the deadline for installing the systems to 2018, and the Federal Railroad Administration said it would strictly enforce the requirement, so all engines will be equipped with the safety device by the new deadline. Earlier this month, however, Congress extended the deadline for deploying speed-control systems until the end of 2020 — and the installment of positive train control, a technology which would have prevented accidents such as the deadly Amtrak crash in Philadelphia in May, may well wait even longer.

Chicago: Police officers to be equipped with Taser guns
By June 2016, all Chicago police officers will be equipped with non-lethal Tasers. The move is part of a plan by city authorities to curb the sharp rise in the number of people – all of them African Americans — killed by police shooting. The anger against what appears to be a trigger-happy police force reached new heights in the wake of the November 2014 shooting of a 17-year old high school student LaQuan McDonald. McDonald, who was high on drugs, was carrying a small pocket knife in his hand and walking unsteadily in the middle of the street. He refused orders by the police to stop and walked away from the officers. Jason Van Dyke, a white police officer, then shot the confused, unthreatening McDonad from a distance of about twenty feet – and continued to shoot him while he was lying dead on the ground. In all, Van Dyke emptied sixteen rounds into McDonald’s body. Van Dyke has been fired from the force and has been charged with a first-degree murder.

Bangladesh: Blogger killers sentenced to death
Bangladesh is a Muslim-majority nation, and it designates Islam as its state religion. The country has been relatively tolerant and open, however, and has also preserved a secularism clause in its constitution. There is one exception, though: the country does have laws against blasphemy, and the authorities enforce these laws. The laws against blasphemy call for jail time for those who “deliberately” or “maliciously” engage in “hurting religious sentiments.” In the past five years or so, more extreme Islamists in Bangladesh have been complaining that the authorities are not strict enough in enforcing the anti-blasphemy strictures, and some have taken matters into their own hands, targeting bloggers who post stories and opinions on their Web sites which call for separation of religion from politics. In 2015 alone, at least four bloggers and a publisher were murdered while others went into hiding, or fled abroad, prompting widespread calls for protection. The murder of one of the more influential secular blogger, Ahmed Rajib Haider, nearly three years ago culminated on Thursday in death sentences against two young men who killed him after having been radicalized by local Islamists. Haider, an architect, was targeted after he helped run protests against the leaders of an Islamist party.