Thousands of cops from the NYPD & out-of-state turned their backs on NY mayor de Blasio as he eulogized Rafael Ramos, the cop murdered in a random act of violence by a deranged individual. They pulled the same stunt when the mayor spoke last week. The cops are still enflamed de Blasio didn’t  sic them on those protesting the deaths of Michael Brown & Eric Garner.

NY Police Commissioner, William Bratton, has a SWAT team approach to policing but was hired by de Blasio so he’s equivocating up a storm, afraid to bite the hand that feeds him & unwilling to call the NYPD to order for insubordination.

It’s no big deal if they’re insubordinate to the mayor. Who gives a hoot!? They’ve been likened to the Westboro Baptist Church crowd who do anti-gay protests at military funerals. They’re far more akin to the storm troopers & brownshirts who facilitated Hitler & Mussolini’s rise to power. It’s scary as hell to think these people have been unleashed on Black youth.

To defend civil rights & civil liberties, all those of good will must respond to the call of the new civil rights movement.

This sweet-faced 29-year-old orangutan named Sandra has been held in captivity in a Buenos Aires, Argentina zoo for 20 years. She is the subject of a historic & unprecedented legal ruling allowing her to be transferred to a sanctuary in Brazil more suitable to animal life than cement cages.

Argentina’s Association of Professional Lawyers for Animal Rights (AFADA) filed a habeas corpus writ against unlawful imprisonment at the Buenos Aires Zoo. The court ruled Sandra is “a nonhuman being that has certain rights & can enforce them through legal procedure” & granted her basic rights of life, freedom, & a premise of no harm either physically or psychologically. Previously animals have been regarded as things.

This is the first such ruling in the world & sets a legal precedent for the humane treatment of animals. It’s also the first wee step in the direction of outlawing zoos & animals in circuses. Some legal experts argue this ruling only applies to great apes (chimpanzees, gorillas, & orangutans) who share 96% of their genetic identity with human beings & are considered comparable in cognitive & emotional life. (That depends entirely on which human beings they’re being compared to. When compared to the US Congress, the great ape’s cognitive & emotional skills leave the senators in the dust.) It isn’t certain the legal experts are interpreting the ruling correctly but animal rights activists will surely use the precedent to push for the inclusion of all living beings to be treated with dignity & respect–& not as spectacle.

Hats off to Sandra’s attorney, Andrés Gil Domínguez, who argued animals suffer deep & serious harm from confinement. Buenos Aires Zoo officials have up to two weeks to issue an appeal. Let’s hope the tigers get them if they refuse to come to their senses.

(Photo by Juan Mabromata/AFP/Getty Images)