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<ul class="summary-list"><li>A lawyer who once represented scammer Anna Sorokin (AKA Anna Delvey) has been disbarred.</li><li>A special referee found Audrey Thomas took $600,000 from an elderly client.</li></ul><p>A lawyer who previously represented the convicted scammer Anna Sorokin has been disbarred by the state of New York after a special referee found she was running her own scam in which she took around $600,000 from an elderly client, <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23307521-audrey-thomas-disbarment-order">court filings show</a>.</p><p>In a statement to Insider, Sorokin provided an illustration of a mock book cover titled "How to Get Disbarred in 10 Days" and said she is glad Thomas can no longer represent other clients.</p><p>"I'm happy that the real story is being told and shedding light on my issues," Sorokin told Insider. "I'm mostly comforted that she cannot do damage to anyone else's case and life."</p><div type="image" title="anna sorokin delvey artwork how to get disbarred in 10 days audrey thomas" height="2048" width="1535" msid="95564719" hostid="261"></div><p>The attorney, Audrey A. Thomas, was disbarred on November 9 over a finding that she misappropriated funds a client starting in 2013, according to court records viewed by Insider. The disciplinary hearing opinion, made public on Tuesday, ordered Thomas to desist from practicing law and said she would be disbarred.</p><p>Thomas has pleaded not guilty to criminal charges stemming from the allegation.</p><p>Thomas formerly represented Sorokin in the appeal of her criminal case and for immigration issues.</p><p>Sorokin is best known for pulling off her own con, which was chronicled in the <a href="https://www.insider.com/anna-delvey-writes-about-inventing-anna-and-life-in-jail-2022-2">Netflix show "Inventing Anna."</a> She was convicted in 2019 for pretending to be a wealthy European heiress named "Anna Delvey" to scam financial institutions and hotels out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Upon completing her New York state prison sentence in February 2021, Immigration and Customs Enforcement brought her back into custody and tried and deport her back to Germany, where she's a legal resident.</p><p>Sorokin <a href="https://www.insider.com/anna-sorokin-delvey-hires-new-legal-team-not-deported-2022-4">fired Thomas earlier this year</a>, frustrated by the lack of progress on her immigration and criminal appeal cases and because Thomas refused to work during the month of April, which she described as her "birthday month."</p><p>Thomas told Insider in a statement on Wednesday, after this article was initially published, that she would get the last laugh. </p><p>"Just remember I may not be admitted to practice law anymore but there's nothing to stop me from appearing pro se," she said in a text message "Tell Anna I said he who laughs last laughs the best. I AM still Audrey A Thomas AKA Sandy!!!!!!!!"</p><p>Thomas' disbarment last week was over a completely different case that dates back nearly a decade. </p><p>According to the disbarment order, Rhea Murra hired Thomas in 2013 to help sell an apartment in Brooklyn. Thomas had access to two escrow accounts that held money from the sale.</p><p>Bank records reviewed by the special referee appointed to oversee the grievance against Thomas showed that, over the course of a year, the now-former lawyer siphoned more than $630,000 in funds to different bank accounts, including one that belonged to her law firm.</p><p>Thomas said she used the money to promote herself "as an author and radio show host" and for legal expenses but that Murray signed off on her use of the funds due to "a longstanding personal relationship." (Thomas is the author of <a href="https://affiliate.insider.com?postID=6373e93d16ce4f03a2532e61&amp;site=in&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.barnesandnoble.com%2Fw%2Fego-has-no-place-in-the-law-audrey-thomas-esq%2F1141059701">the book "Ego Has No Place in the Law."</a>)</p><p>But in a grievance hearing, Murray denied giving Thomas permission to take the proceeds from the sale and testified that she specifically asked Thomas to use the money to help pay down mortgages on other properties she and her family members owned — something Thomas never followed through on.</p><h2>Thomas promised to pay back the money — but never followed through</h2><p>Two of Murray's daughters testified in a grievance hearing — one of 15 in the case that took place between July 2019 and December 2020 — that they confronted Thomas about the missing money from the escrow accounts in 2016 and that Thomas "confessed to them that she invested their mother's money in her own name" and "urged them not to pursue the matter further."</p><p>Thomas promised to repay them in installments but stopped adhering to the payment plan after several months, having only reimbursed $31,300. Disciplinary proceedings against Thomas started in 2018, and the family members never received the remaining balance of roughly $600,000 they were owed, according to the order.</p><p>The Queens District Attorney's office <a href="https://qns.com/2019/07/rosedale-lawyer-charged-for-allegedly-stealing-200k-in-escrow-funds-from-a-brooklyn-home-sale/">took Thomas into custody in July 2019</a> on second-degree larceny charges for the alleged scheme. She pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial. Thomas's criminal defense attorney didn't respond to Insider's request for comment.</p><p>While Thomas had hoped to face no more than censure from the grievance proceedings, the Grievance Committee decided on revoking Thomas' law license in the state, given that the client the committee found Thomas to have taken money from was a senior citizen and Thomas showed a "lack of remorse and acceptance of responsibility," the committee said. </p><p>Insider was unable to reach Murray for comment.</p><div type="image" title="anna sorokin delvey parole visit" height="1665" width="2221" msid="95564721" hostid="261"></div><p>Thomas is also in trouble over her work with Sorokin. Thomas <a href="https://www.insider.com/anna-sorokin-delvey-hires-new-legal-team-not-deported-2022-4">told Insider in an interview in April</a> that Sorokin was an "ungrateful bitch" who serves as a reminder to "eschew the evil that she tries to inspire in me and all who try to help her."</p><p>A phalanx of new lawyers <a href="https://www.insider.com/fake-heiress-anna-sorokin-to-be-released-from-ice-custody-2022-10">successfully sprung Sorokin from immigration custody in October</a>, and she remains under house arrest in Manhattan as her criminal appeal and immigration case progress.</p><p>But when her new criminal defense team sought to obtain records from Sorokin's trial to prepare for her appeal, they said Thomas refused to hand them over.</p><p>Duncan Levin, Sorokin's appellate lawyer, <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/anna-delvey-sorokins-ex-lawyer-run-away-court-file-impeding-appeal">filed an ethics complaint against Thomas</a>. Sorokin also <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/09/26/anna-sorokin-sues-ex-lawyer-for-withholding-court-records/">sued Thomas in September</a>, asking she be held in contempt of court after <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/anna-sorokin-delvey-finally-had-a-good-day-in-court-in-her-appeal-process">she refused to comply</a> with an order from New York Supreme Court Justice Diane Kiesel, who oversaw Sorokin's criminal trial, <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/anna-sorokin-delvey-finally-had-a-good-day-in-court-in-her-appeal-process">to transfer the documents to Levin</a>.</p><p>"We are glad that Ms. Thomas can no longer do to other clients what she did to my client, Anna Sorokin," Levin told Insider Tuesday.</p><p><em>This story has been updated with a response from Thomas.</em></p>

A former lawyer for scammer Anna Sorokin was disbarred for taking $600,000 from an elderly client

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Voters in southeast <keyword id="6385073" type="LOCATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="georgia">Georgia</keyword> on Tuesday ousted Jackie Johnson, the longtime Republican prosecutor who recused herself in the case of the killing of 25-year-old <keyword id="9174117" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="ahmaud-arbery">Ahmaud Arbery</keyword>. </li><li>Arbery was followed, shot, and killed on February 23 in Georgia by a father and son and their neighbor while on a jog, but no arrests were made in the case until May.</li><li>Johnson received 34% of the vote compared to her opponent, independent Keith Kiggins, who received 66%, according to the <a href="https://www.glynncounty.org/DocumentCenter/View/68425/Unofficial-and-Incomplete--November-3-2020-General-Election-Election-Summary-Report-PDF">Glynn County Board of Elections</a>.</li></ul><p>Voters in the coastal Georgia city of Brunswick voted Tuesday to oust the longtime Republican prosecutor who declined to investigate the death of Ahmaud Arbery, the 25-year-old Black man who was followed, shot, and killed by a group of three white men.</p><p>Keith Higgins, an independent, won 66% of the vote compared to the incumbent Jackie Johnson's 34%, according to <a href="https://www.glynncounty.org/DocumentCenter/View/68425/Unofficial-and-Incomplete--November-3-2020-General-Election-Election-Summary-Report-PDF">unofficial results from the Glynn County Board of Elections</a>. No Democrats qualified by the primary election deadline to run against her, <a href="https://www.news4jax.com/news/georgia/2020/11/04/keith-higgins-unseats-jackie-johnson-as-brunswick-district-attorney/">News4Jax</a> reported.</p><p>As Insider's Rhea Mahubhani reported in June, <a href="https://www.insider.com/ahmaud-arbery-shooting-killed-jogging-travis-gregory-mcmichael-georgia-justice-2020-5">Arbery went for a run in his Georgia neighborhood during the early afternoon on February 23</a>. While on his run, Arbery was pursued by Gregory McMichael, a former police officer, and his son, Travis. A neighbor, William Bryan, joined and recorded the moment Arbery was shot and killed.</p><p>Months later, in May, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation <a href="https://www.insider.com/gregory-mcmichael-travis-mcmichael-arrested-for-ahmaud-arbery-killing-2020-5">arrested the father and son, Gregory and Travis McMichael.</a> Later that month, Bryan was arrested. All three men have denied wrongdoing.</p><p>In June, a Grand Jury <a href="https://www.insider.com/greg-travis-mcmichael-william-bryan-indicted-in-arbery-death-2020-6">indicted Gregory and Travis McMichael and William Bryan on nine charges</a> related to Arbery's killing. Johnson, who was in office for a decade, had recused herself from the case because the elder McMichael had previously been an investigator in her office. While Johnson handed the case to another district attorney, he too was removed from the case due to an additional conflict of interest, News4Jax reported.</p><p>There have been specific questions raised about Johnson's behavior in the case. The McMicahels, for example, were permitted to return home and were not arrested on the day Arbery was killed, according to NBC <keyword id="6355005" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="news">News</keyword>. A Glynn County commissioner also claimed that police officers had been reluctant to make an arrest because Johnson's office said it wasn't necessary, News4Jax reported.</p><p>Johnson's office called that allegation a "vicious lie," the report said. </p>

Georgia voters ousted the district attorney who oversaw Ahmaud Arbery's case

<p><div type="image" title="Elon Musk" height="2000" width="3000" msid="75588695" hostid="261"></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="6355315" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="elon-musk">Elon Musk</keyword> has suggested that <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-live-updates-latest-news">coronavirus</a> death counts in the US are inaccurately high.</li><li>He criticized the federal government for classifying all <keyword id="1754604" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="coronavirus">coronavirus</keyword> patient <keyword id="6419711" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Deaths">deaths</keyword> as <keyword id="8763838" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="covid-19">COVID-19</keyword> deaths, regardless of whether an underlying condition was a contributing factor. That's "misleading to the public" and "a lie," Musk said.</li><li>However, the coronavirus is known to make chronic health problems fatal.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fdny-ems-first-responders-trauma-guilt-coronavirus-ptsd-2020-4">New York City emergency responders</a> and funeral directors also told Business Insider that, if anything, the state has under-counted COVID-19 deaths.</li><li>Musk has criticized stay-at-home orders as <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-shutdown-could-threaten-elon-musk-750-million-tesla-payday-2020-4">"fascist,"</a> but copious scientific <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-lockdowns-successful-evidence-from-around-the-world-2020-4">research shows they save lives</a>. </li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul><p>Elon Musk is not happy about stay-at-home orders.</p><p>During Tesla's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-earnings-q1-2020-profit-revenue-eps-elon-musk-china-2020-4">earnings call</a> last week, Musk, the company's CEO, launched into an <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-shutdown-could-threaten-elon-musk-750-million-tesla-payday-2020-4">expletive-ridden tirade</a>, describing the restrictions as an "outrage."</p><p>"I would call it forcibly imprisoning people in their homes against all their constitutional rights. That's my opinion, and breaking people's freedoms in ways that are horrible and wrong and not why people came to America or built this country — what the f---," he said.</p><p>Then, in series of tweets, Musk suggested that US authorities are over-counting COVID-19 deaths, since the federal government classifies the deaths of coronavirus patients as COVID-19 deaths, regardless of any underlying health issues that may have contributed to their passing.</p><p>Musk said that was <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1255926376948830208">"misleading to the public"</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1255970250962567170">"needs to stop."</a></p><p>Of course, lockdown orders have hindered Tesla and SpaceX's abilities to build <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-pandemic-shows-tesla-is-just-like-every-other-automaker-2020-3">cars</a>, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-spacex-astronaut-rocket-launch-demo2-mission-essential-coronavirus-pandemic-2020-5">spaceships</a>, and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/last-town-before-mars">rockets</a>, and temporarily stymied progress toward Musk's ultimate goal — <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-plans-1-million-people-to-mars-by-2050-2020-1">populating Mars</a>. Tesla was forced to close its main US car factory in California, which <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-earnings-q1-2020-profit-revenue-eps-elon-musk-china-2020-4">poses a "serious risk"</a> for the business, Musk said. </p><p>However, scientific research clearly shows such measures <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-lockdowns-successful-evidence-from-around-the-world-2020-4">save lives</a> by slowing the coronavirus' spread. What's more, data on <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/excess_deaths.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">excess deaths</a> and frontline observations from funeral directors and emergency responders in New York City suggest that if anything, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fdny-ems-first-responders-trauma-guilt-coronavirus-ptsd-2020-4">the US was at first undercounting deaths</a>.</p><h2>The challenge and imperative of counting COVID-19 deaths</h2><p><div type="image" title="coronavirus covid 19 deceased dead international funeral service new york dave mosher business insider 00098" height="1130" width="1507" msid="75588696" hostid="261"></div></p><p>Counting the people killed by the coronavirus is no simple task, especially given that many with preexisting conditions are getting sick, lockdowns affect access to medical services, and there's still not enough diagnostic testing nationwide. </p><p>Given that, Dr. Deborah Birx, the response coordinator for the White House coronavirus task force, recently confirmed that the US would count all coronavirus patient deaths as COVID-19 deaths, even though some countries don't ascribe to that protocol.</p><p>"There are other countries that if you had a pre-existing condition, and let's say the virus caused you to go to the ICU [intensive care unit] and then have a heart or kidney problem," she said during <a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?471020-101/vice-president-pence-coronavirus-task-force-briefing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">an April 7 news briefing</a>. "Some countries are recording that as a heart issue or a kidney issue and not a COVID-19 death."</p><p>The US's rational for reporting those as COVID-19 deaths is straightforward and sensible: Having <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hypertension-diabetes-conditions-that-make-coronavirus-more-deadly-2020-3">a comorbidity, or added risk,</a> often greatly increases the chance a person with COVID-19 will die. Research also increasingly shows the disease impacts more than just our lungs. It can cause <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-blood-clot-complications-in-severe-covid-19-treatment-debate-2020-4">blood clots</a> that may lead to strokes and require amputations, even in <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/blood-clot-coronavirus-covid-19-patient-lung-heart-kidney-2020-4">young, healthy</a> patients. There's also mounting evidence the virus <a href="https://www.advisory.com/daily-briefing/2020/04/17/organ-damage" target="_blank" rel="noopener">may harm organs</a> like the heart, kidneys, and the nervous system.</p><p>Yet Musk slammed the inclusive approach, <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1255918585991454721">tweeting</a>: "Classifying all deaths as corona even if corona didn't cause the death is simply a lie." </p><h2>Too many excess deaths</h2><p><div type="image" title="uhaul bodies" height="500" width="1000" msid="75588697" hostid="261"></div></p><p>The pandemic's carnage is clear in excess deaths numbers, which compare current death rates to historic data. </p><p>Recent analyses by <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/28/us/coronavirus-death-toll-total.html">the New York Times</a> and <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/6bd88b7d-3386-4543-b2e9-0d5c6fac846c">Financial Times</a> lined up several years' worth of weekly death rates and compared them to 2020's weekly death rates. The difference between the two suggests the federal government — even with a wide scope of what counts as a COVID-19 death — is <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-deaths-likely-much-higher-than-official-tolls-ft-analysis-2020-4">significantly undercounting</a>.</p><p>Between March 8 and April 11 in New York City, for example, the New York Times reported there were 11,900 excess deaths yet only 10,261 confirmed COVID-19 deaths — a gap of 1,700. New York state (excluding the city) saw a similar gap, with 4,200 excess deaths and 2,425 confirmed COVID-19 deaths. Similar disparities have been reported in other states, including Michigan, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, and Colorado.</p><p>A graphic from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that the share of US deaths due to pneumonia, flu, and COVID-19 spiked sharply beginning in February. By April 11, nearly one-quarter of all deaths in the country were related to one of these three respiratory illnesses.</p><p><div type="image" title="coronavirus covid19 covid us american mortality deaths data graph animated cdc" height="675" width="1200" msid="75588698" hostid="261"></div></p><p>The trend applies to other countries, too. In the region of Lombardy, Italy, there were 13,000 excess deaths from March through part of April, but 4,348 reported COVID-19 cases.</p><p>The higher-than-normal number of excess deaths is almost certainly due to a mix of COVID-19 infections and situations created by the pandemic. Medical examiners interviewed <a href="https://apnews.com/8e87ae0f842fce6503a7a603680d83b5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">by the Associated Press</a>, for example, cited increases in deaths related to drug overdoses, at-home accidents, and people being afraid to go to the hospital. Calls and texts to suicide hotlines have also <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-causes-spike-number-of-texts-to-crisis-text-line-2020-4">increased sharply</a>, and many cancer patients have had elective surgeries delayed or canceled.</p><p>However, excess deaths are especially high in places with high rates of COVID-19 cases, such as Italy's Bergamo province, and lower in regions under lockdown that have seen fewer cases. This suggests the biggest reason for excess deaths is COVID-19, not other risks brought about by lockdowns.</p><p>Frontline workers and funeral directors in New York City have also said repeatedly that the number of COVID-19 deaths outside of hospitals was initially undercounted.</p><h2>The death count 'does not include the people who are left behind'</h2><p>Oren Barzilay, the president of the New York Fire Department's Local 2507 union, told Business Insider <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fdny-ems-first-responders-trauma-guilt-coronavirus-ptsd-2020-4">in early April</a> that "the numbers that are being reported of deaths does not include the people who are left behind."</p><p>"When the <keyword id="1246393" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Medical-Examiner">medical examiner</keyword> gets there, they're just marking it as 'natural death' without testing them," he explained. "So these numbers are skewed from what's being reported and what actually is happening. I think if they counted the bodies we leave behind, that number would significantly increase by a few hundred each day."</p><p>New York City has since tweaked its official counts to include probable COVID-19 deaths, drawing the ire of Musk.</p><p>"This needs to stop," he <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1255970250962567170" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tweeted</a> on April 30, in response to a video posted by a right-wing activist group.</p><p>But a New York funeral director whose identity is known to Business Insider but who asked not to be named to avoid retaliation from Musk's followers, dismissed Musk's claim as a "conspiracy theory."</p><p>"The issue was they were putting things like 'community pneumonia,' 'probably COVID-19,' and 'recent flu-like symptoms,' and those weren't being counted in the COVID-19 count," the funeral director said.</p><p>Fixing such underreporting is imperative — not just so US statistics are accurate but also so family members can make final arrangements. </p><p>"When a family wants cremation, we have to submit the death certificate to the medical examiner's office, they review the cause of death, and they determine if that person can be cremated," Patrick Marmo, founder and director of <a href="https://www.intlfuneralserviceny.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">International Funeral Service of New York</a> in Brooklyn, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-covid-19-body-removal-new-york-city-morgues-2020-3">told Business Insider</a> in March. "What's happening is doctors that don't have confirmed case of COVID, they're putting 'pneumonia.' So now [medical examiners] are not accepting this cause of death. We have to wait to get the right cause of death that would be cleared for cremation."</p><h2>Musk says lockdowns are 'fascist,' but research shows they save lives</h2><p><div type="image" title="coronavirus protest" height="1678" width="2330" msid="75588699" hostid="261"></div></p><p>On the April earnings call, Musk said he didn't think anyone should be forced to stay at home.</p><p>"If somebody wants to stay in their house, that's great. They should be allowed to stay in their house, and they should not be compelled to leave," he said, adding, "But to say that they cannot leave their house, and they will be arrested if they do, this is fascist. This is not democratic. This is not freedom. Give people back their goddamn freedom."</p><p>The same day, <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1255678979043778560">Musk said in a tweet</a> that "hospitals in California have been half empty this whole time" to support the idea that lockdowns weren't necessary. But he failed to note that many hospitals aren't at full capacity precisely because of the effectiveness of lockdowns. He also did not address the fact that many Americans with COVID-19 are dying in their homes because they're <a href="https://www.statnews.com/2020/04/23/coronavirus-phobia-keeping-heart-patients-away-from-er/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reluctant to visit a hospital</a>.</p><p>Overwhelming scientific evidence suggests that <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-lockdowns-successful-evidence-from-around-the-world-2020-4">lockdowns help contain coronavirus outbreaks</a> and prevent additional deaths.</p><p>China, Germany, and Spain all saw their <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/coronavirus-europe-lockdown-effectiveness-graphics/">numbers of new daily infections drop</a> after lockdowns went into effect. In Italy, researchers recently simulated <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/04/22/2004978117">what could have happened if the country's restrictions</a> had been relaxed in March or not imposed at all. The results showed the lockdown prevented around 200,000 hospitalizations between February 21 (when Italy's first case was reported) and March 25. It also reduced transmission by around 45%.</p><p><div type="image" title="wuhan lockdown coronavirus" height="1000" width="1500" msid="75588700" hostid="261"></div></p><p>In Wuhan, China, meanwhile — where the virus was first identified — a <a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w26906">recent study</a> found that the city's lockdown on January 23 prevented tens of thousands of infections. Cases in Hubei would have been 65% higher without such restrictions, the study found. </p><p>Scientists also found that Chinese cities that implemented restrictions before they discovered any COVID-19 cases saw <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/03/30/science.abb6105">one-third fewer cases during their first week of infections</a> than cities with more delayed responses to the outbreak. Overall in China, researchers have determined that social distancing <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/04/28/science.abb8001">reduced the number of daily interactions</a> at least sevenfold, thereby lowering transmission. </p><p>"Social distancing provided by the lockdowns has clearly slowed the spread of the virus," <a href="https://www.covid-datascience.com/">Jeffrey Morris</a>, director of the biostatistics division at the University of Pennsylvania, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-lockdowns-successful-evidence-from-around-the-world-2020-4">previously told Business Insider</a> of the US's stay-at-home measures. He added that lockdowns "ultimately save some lives."</p><p>It's understandable that business leaders like Musk are itching to reopen. But moving too fast <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/covid-19-models-early-lockdown-lifts-deaths-georgia-2020-4">will almost certainly prove deadly</a>.</p><p>"If you lift the restriction too soon, a second wave will come, and the damage will be substantial both medically and economically," Turgay Ayer, a research director for healthcare analytics at Georgia Institute of Technology, told <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/ending-coronavirus-lockdowns-in-mississippi-georgia-and-florida-could-doom-thousands?ref=home">The Daily Beast</a>. "We don't want to throw away the sacrifices we have made for weeks now."</p><p><em>Aria Bendix, Rhea Mahbubani, and Morgan McFall-Johnsen contributed reporting to this story.</em></p>Read the original article on <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-coronavirus-death-counts-lie-too-high-2020-5">Business Insider</a>

Elon Musk keeps attacking lockdowns and US coronavirus death counts. His arguments ignore a dangerous reality.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>American <keyword id="11098" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="police">police</keyword> violence has come under renewed focus, and a debate has opened up on the nature of policing and how to fix it.</li><li>Some say that police need stricter oversight, more training, and better education.</li><li>Others argue that procedural and piecemeal maintenance will not fix the American policing system, calling for the system to be abolished wholesale.</li></ul><p>Rayshard Brooks was running away from two police officers, having grabbed one of their Tasers, when then-officer Garrett Rolfe shot Brooks in the back twice, killing him.</p><p><a href="https://www.insider.com/who-is-rayshard-brooks-family-shooting-death-atlanta-police-2020-6">The June 12 killing in Atlanta, Georgia, caused an uproar</a>: The fast-food property where Rolfe killed Brooks, a 27-year-old Black man, was reduced to ash and rubble a day later, torched by protesters. Others blocked a highway for hours. </p><p>It also renewed the questions about American policing that were already on the top of mind since George Floyd died in Minneapolis, in late May, <a href="https://www.insider.com/george-floyd-non-responsive-before-officer-took-knee-off-neck-2020-5">as a police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes</a>. What will it take to stop police from killing Black men at disproportionately high rates? What must be done to keep all communities safe?</p><p>Over the past few weeks, Insider has spoken to a range of experts who've suggested a range of options for fixing policing — from better types of training to abolishing the police altogether. Here's what they came up with.</p><h2>1. Create a uniform code of policing</h2><p>Among the most frequently cited problems with American police forces, at least among reformists, is that police trainings vary by department. <a href="https://www.insider.com/national-standards-for-police-training-could-help-reduce-biases-2020-6">There is no standardized code of police education</a>. </p><p>Los Angeles police officers, for example, receive 960 hours of training before hitting the streets, including implicit-bias courses. On the other coast, New York police get 700, and the NYPD website does not mention bias training. </p><p>Some 36 states allow police officers to start working <a href="https://www.insider.com/some-police-academies-require-fewer-hours-of-training-plumbing-2020-6">before they've attended basic training</a>, and the average police officer spent about how as much time training as a licensed barber.</p><p><div type="image" title="police training" height="1334" width="1779" msid="76451651" hostid="261"></div></p><p>The divergence in training protocols is a national problem. "Honestly, it's not even like apples to oranges," Dr. Rashawn Ray, a fellow at the Brookings Institute, <a href="https://www.insider.com/national-standards-for-police-training-could-help-reduce-biases-2020-6">told Insider's Connor Perrett</a>.</p><p>"It's more like fruit to vegetables. That's just how different they are," Ray, who is also executive director of the University of Maryland's Lab for Applied Social Science Research, added. "That is something that definitely needs to change."</p><p>Such a program could also help limit the spread of misinformation in police training programs. Currently, <a href="https://www.insider.com/police-training-programs-have-a-pseudoscience-problem-experts-say-2020-6">many programs include strategies that lack a basis in research</a>, and there's no central body to regulate them.</p><h2>2. Focus on recruiting the right people instead of relying on implicit bias training</h2><p>In the wake of so many police shootings of Black Americans, some politicians have called for a renewed focus on anti-bias training. Police departments should be trained for "racial and religious bias," <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/06/10/biden-root-out-systemic-racism-not-just-divisive-trump-talk-column/5327631002/">Biden opined in USA Today</a>, adding that chokeholds should be banned and officers should be tracked for their use of force.</p><p>But many police forces already receive such training, and bias training does not work, <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/dv8tu/">according to a scholarly review of 492 studies</a> on such training.</p><p>"It's not actually going to threaten any entrenched interests or cause any significant change in policing," Dave Bicking, vice president of the Minneapolis-based Communities United Against <keyword id="53374" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Police-Brutality">Police Brutality</keyword>, <a href="https://www.insider.com/police-defensive-deescalation-techniques-implicit-bias-training-2020-6">told Insider's Rhea Mahbubani</a>.</p><p><div type="image" title="police recruit program" height="1732" width="2310" msid="76451658" hostid="261"></div></p><p>Jacinta Gau, an associate professor of criminal justice at the University of Central Florida, instead <a href="https://www.insider.com/police-defensive-deescalation-techniques-implicit-bias-training-2020-6">proposed establishing programs that recruit a more diverse set of officers</a>, helping local police forces integrate into the communities they're supposed to serve.</p><p>"We cannot train our way out of the current problems," she told Insider. </p><p>"Cadet programs can get teens involved in the department and start them on the path toward eventually becoming sworn officers," she added. "Establishing relationships with Black clergy can be a productive way for police to improve their image as well, and possibly reach out to Black youth."</p><h2>3. De-militarize the police</h2><p>Since the September 11 attacks, <a href="https://www.dla.mil/DispositionServices/Offers/Reutilization/LawEnforcement/JoinTheProgram.aspx">the Pentagon</a> and the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/20/police-billions-homeland-security-military-equipment">Department of Homeland Security</a> have struck deals with local and state police departments, giving them low-cost military-grade weaponry and equipment. The proliferation of military gear has had a noticeable impact on American policing – and the communities they operate in. </p><p>Ryan Welch and Jack Mewhirter, the authors of <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2053168017712885">a 2017 study</a> on the militarization of police found a direct correlation between the rise of militarization and more police killings.</p><p><div type="image" title="police mine car militarization military" height="1728" width="2304" msid="76451661" hostid="261"></div></p><p>"Even controlling for other possible factors in police violence (such as household income, overall and black population, violent-crime levels and drug use), more-militarized law enforcement agencies were associated with more civilians killed each year by police," <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/06/30/does-military-equipment-lead-police-officers-to-be-more-violent-we-did-the-research/">they wrote in the Washington Post</a>. "When a county goes from receiving no military equipment to $2,539,767 worth (the largest figure that went to one agency in our data), more than twice as many civilians are likely to die in that county the following year."</p><p>And it's not just the equipment. Military-style training causes unneeded deaths, Craig Atkinson, a documentarian who covers police training, <a href="https://www.insider.com/bulletproof-dave-grossman-police-trainer-teaching-officers-how-to-kill-2020-6">told Insider's Kelly McLaughlin</a>.</p><p>"Obviously not all cops are bad, but you take good cops and you give them warrior training and you quickly have an outcome that we see moving across this country right now," Atkinson said.</p><h2>4. Stop training officers like warriors</h2><p>Part of the trend of militarizing police includes training them like they're in a warzone.</p><p>It's common for police officers involved in killings to have a record of violence. Derek Chauvin, the officer who knelt on Floyd's neck <a href="https://www.insider.com/black-man-george-floyd-dies-after-police-officer-kneels-neck-2020-5">for nearly nine minutes</a>, had been the subject of numerous complaints and internal investigations. Tao Thao, who stood guard as Chauvin killed Floyd, <a href="https://www.insider.com/derek-chauvin-police-history-shootings-violence-george-floyd-2020-5">settled an excessive use-of-force lawsuit out of court</a> in 2018 for $25,000.</p><p>And existing de-escalation trainings aren't always effective. <a href="https://www.insider.com/atlanta-rayshard-brooks-police-garrett-rolfe-training-deescalation-cultural-awareness-2020-6">Rolfe</a>, for his part, <a href="https://www.ajc.com/news/crime--law/breaking-atlanta-officer-who-killed-rayshard-brooks-identified/hBd198BmRV9Rgt7uSjvoZP/">completed a nine-hour training course on de-escalation</a> 49 days before he killed Brooks.</p><p><div type="image" title="police training recruitment long beach" height="1714" width="2285" msid="76451663" hostid="261"></div></p><p>That culture is embodied by the teachings of Dave Grossman, an Army-veteran-turned-police-trainer who describes himself as a "killologist."</p><p>"He doesn't see the separation between Fallujah and Ferguson," Atkinson told Insider. "And so he thinks of the police as the first line of defense to Al Qaeda, and there's no difference."</p><p>What does he teach the hundreds of police departments he's instructed since 1995? "<a href="https://www.insider.com/bulletproof-dave-grossman-police-trainer-teaching-officers-how-to-kill-2020-6">Killology</a>," a doctrine that dispels with the idea that police should feel shame for killing Americans.</p><p>"Are you emotionally, spiritually, psychologically prepared to snuff out a human life in defense of innocent lives?" Grossman asked one group of trainees. "If you can't make that decision, you need to find another job."</p><p><div type="image" title="Dave Grossman." height="1584" width="2113" msid="76451667" hostid="261"></div></p><p><a href="https://www.policeforum.org/assets/guidingprinciples1.pdf">According to a 2016 survey</a>, police departments spend an average of 58 hours on gun training, 49 hours on defensive tactics, and eight hours on de-escalation, crisis intervention, and electronic control weapons like Tasers.</p><p>Communities United Against Police Brutality railed against the "warrior-cop" style of policing.</p><p>"Officers routinely hear that 'every single traffic stop could be, might be, the last stop you ever make in your life,'" <a href="https://www.insider.com/bulletproof-dave-grossman-police-trainer-teaching-officers-how-to-kill-2020-6">the organization wrote in a 2018 pamphlet shared with Insider</a>. "Awakening officers' fear that their work continually puts them in lethal danger, Grossman begins cultivating fear of the public and a readiness to kill."</p><h2>5. End the stigma around seeking help for mental health</h2><p>Police forces' self-understanding as warriors may also contribute to a culture of silence, where getting mental-health treatment is taboo. Ninety percent of police officers in the LA police union said seeking therapy was stigmatized, <a href="https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/los-angeles-lapd-police-officer-ptsd-law-enforcement-survey/49206/">NBC News found in a 2018 poll</a>.</p><p>"It's the 'stiff upper lip, don't show any emotion, don't let anything bother you' mentality, but, of course, internally, the stress of the job is impacting you," Risdon Slate, a criminologist at Florida Southern College, <a href="https://www.insider.com/police-officers-stress-mental-health-stigma-impacting-public-2020-6">told Insider</a>. "The problem is, traditionally, if police officers were to ask for help, they ended up being placed on what we call the 'bow-and-arrow squadron' — their service revolver was taken away and they were given a desk job."</p><p>That kind of attitude is going to have an effect on the communities officers are supposed to serve, <a href="https://www.insider.com/police-officers-stress-mental-health-stigma-impacting-public-2020-6">according to Thomas E. Coghlan, a psychologist and retired New York City Police Department detective</a>.</p><p>"It's going to show itself at work and show itself in social interactions out in the community," Coghlan told Insider. "You're putting an officer on the street and out into the public with the right to enforce the law and make an arrest and use lethal force, who's not operating at an optimal capacity and is potentially impaired by some sort of mental health issue."</p><h2>6. Defund the police</h2><p>In response to militarization and a level of police violence that disproportionately impacts Black communities, numerous experts have advocated limiting police departments' operational capacity, by defunding them and shoring up social and community services with the newfound cash.</p><p><div type="image" title="police protest nypd" height="1000" width="1333" msid="76451669" hostid="261"></div></p><p>"When we talk about defunding the police, what we're saying is 'invest in the resources that our communities need,'" <a href="https://www.insider.com/calls-for-defund-the-police-budget-cuts-duty-changes-2020-6">Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza told NBC's "Meet the Press."</a></p><p>The idea has found some success. Last week, San Francisco Mayor London Breed <a href="https://www.insider.com/san-francisco-outlaws-tear-gas-non-criminal-calls-george-floyd-2020-6">proposed redirecting police-budget money</a> to "programs and organizations that serve communities that have been systematically harmed by past City policies." New York City will slash its $6 trillion police budget by $1 trillion, and Los Angeles is considering up to $150 million in cuts to its $2 trillion police budget.  </p><h2>7. Maybe we should just abolish the police altogether</h2><p>While reformists believe that police need better education and more oversight. Abolitionists believe that the essential function of policing begets racialized violence, originating as it did in "slave patrols and social control, where human property of enslavers was 'protected' with violence and impunity against people of African descent," as <a href="https://www.insider.com/united-nations-experts-slam-racial-terror-lynchings-united-states-2020-6">United Nations experts wrote</a>.</p><p>After defunding the police, they must eventually be abolished, the abolitionists say. "It's time instead to have a complete rethink about why we're using police in the United States to solve every problem under the sun," Alex Vitale, a sociologist at Brooklyn College and author of "The End of Policing," <a href="https://www.insider.com/george-floyd-protests-police-violence-reform-change-2020-6">told Insider</a>.</p><p><div type="image" title="A woman faces off against San Francisco police, May 31, 2020, in California. (Karl Mondon_Digital First Media_East Bay Times via Getty Images)" height="851" width="1135" msid="76451670" hostid="261"></div></p><p>This proposal has little purchase so far. In fact, none of the abolitionists' demands have been taken up on the national stage.</p><p>"Nobody is going to defund the police," <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/14/politics/james-clyburn-defund-police-cnntv/index.html">said Rep. James Clyburn</a>, the House Majority Whip. Last week, Biden called for an additional $300 million to police departments to "<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/biden-300-million-for-reshaped-police-departments-in-op-ed-2020-6">reinvigorate community policing</a>."</p><p>But in places like Minneapolis, where police officers killed George Floyd in late May, the conversation about policing strikes a different tone. </p><p>"We can send a city response that makes situations better. We can resolve confusion over a $20 grocery transaction without drawing a weapon, or pulling out handcuffs," Minneapolis City Councilmember Steve Fletcher said in early June, announcing that <a href="https://www.insider.com/minneapolis-city-council-members-look-to-disband-police-department-2020-6">the body will disband its police department</a>.</p><p>"The whole world is watching, and we can declare policing as we know it a thing of the past, and create a compassionate, non-violent future," Fletcher added. "It will be hard. But so is managing a dysfunctional relationship with an unaccountable armed force in our city."</p>Expanded Coverage Module: black-lives-matter-module

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