Society's ChildS


Jet4

Minnesota Freedom Fund spent $200K on bail despite millions in donations

Lia Eustachewich
NY Post
Tue, 16 Jun 2020 18:22 UTC
Protesters in Minneapolis
© Getty ImagesProtesters in Minneapolis, Minnesota
The Minnesota Freedom Fund said it's spent "well over" $200,000 in bailing protesters out of jail — despite receiving more than $30 million in donations.

"We are working on doing more," the fund tweeted on Monday.

The fund, established in 2016, briefly stopped accepting donations, which have been flowing in since the police-involved death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25.

"We are no longer the same organization we were one week ago," MFF wrote on its website on June 2. "One week ago we were a small bail fund struggling to get anyone to listen about the harms of cash bail and pre-trial detention. We are now flooded with resources and we are going to take a beat while we marshal those. We have some big plays in mind."
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Dominoes

NYPD to disband 600-strong plainclothes anti-crimes unit in a move toward community-focused '21st century policing'


NBC New York
Mon, 15 Jun 2020 18:14 UTC
nypd
© Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images
The NYPD will transition its anti-crime units into other assignments including detective work and neighborhood policing, NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said Monday.

The change will affect roughly 600 plainclothes officers, he said, with officers in every precinct being reassigned as the department switches focus to community-based efforts. Some officers could also be put into school detective roles or other positions.

"Thankfully, here in New York City, angry demonstrations have turned peaceful. Thoughtful discussions about reform have emerged," Shea said at a Monday afternoon news conference. "We welcome reform, but we also believe that meaningful reform starts from within."

The commissioner said work will still be done to get guns off the street, but through smarter methods, like technology and intel, rather than through things like raids targeted at those suspected of carrying weapons. Intelligence officers will continue working on targeting suspected gang leaders and weapons dealers. Shea also said that the department can do better and be safer for the public and for cops, while admitting he predicts a potential storm cloud ahead as shootings are up city-wide.
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Briefcase

Supreme Court will not reexamine doctrine that shields police from lawsuits in misconduct suits

Nina Totenberg
NPR
Mon, 15 Jun 2020 17:56 UTC
supreme court building
© Andrew Harnik/AP
Amid the tumult over police brutality allegations across the country, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to reexamine the much-criticized, modern-day legal doctrine created by judges that has shielded police and other government officials from lawsuits over their conduct.

In an unsigned order, the court declined to hear cases seeking reexamination of the doctrine of "qualified immunity." Justice Clarence Thomas dissented, saying the "qualified immunity doctrine appears to stray from the statutory text."

It takes the votes of four justices to grant review of a case.

Developed in recent decades by the high court, the qualified immunity doctrine, as applied to police, initially asks two questions: Did police use excessive force, and if they did, should they have known that their conduct was illegal because it violated a "clearly established" prior court ruling that barred such conduct?
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Blue Pill

NYC COVID-19 contact tracers instructed to not ask about George Floyd protest participation

Greg B. Smith
The City
Tue, 16 Jun 2020 17:44 UTC
nyc protesters
© Ben Fractenberg/THE CITYProtesters laid down on Flatbush Avenue in honor of George Floyd, May 31, 2020.
Over the two last weeks, Mayor Bill de Blasio and others have voiced concerns that packed police brutality protests across the city could trigger a new wave of COVID-19 infections.

Whether or not that's the case, however, remains unknown — and de Blasio's team won't be directly trying to find out.

The hundreds of contact tracing workers hired by the city under de Blasio's new "test and trace" campaign have been instructed not to ask anyone who's tested positive for COVID-19 whether they recently attended a demonstration, City Hall confirmed to THE CITY.

"No person will be asked proactively if they attended a protest," Avery Cohen, a spokesperson for de Blasio, wrote in an emailed response to questions by THE CITY.
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Snakes in Suits

Ex-eBay executives harassed couple who gave company negative reviews with live roaches, 'bloody' pig mask, stalking

Nicolas Vega
NY Post
Mon, 15 Jun 2020 17:38 UTC
ebay
© Getty Images
Six former eBay employees have been charged with undertaking a coordinated stalking campaign against a couple who ran an e-commerce newsletter, going so far as to mail them live bugs and a "bloody pig face" mask.

The Department of Justice alleges that the employees targeted the Natick, Mass., couple after executives at the site took issue with perceived negative coverage from the husband and wife's newsletter.

The harassment began in August of 2019, according to the Department of Justice, after the eBay executives saw an article in the newsletter about litigation involving eBay, and sent messages about the publisher, saying it was time "to crush this lady."

The employees, including eBay's former director of safety and security, James Baugh, set up a "three-part harassment campaign, the first of which involved the defendants ordering "anonymous and disturbing deliveries to the victims' home, including a preserved fetal pig, a bloody pig Halloween mask, a funeral wreath" and "a book on surviving the loss of a spouse."
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Pistol

One person shot after protesters attempt to pull down statue in Albuquerque, New Mexico


RT
Tue, 16 Jun 2020 17:24 UTC
Albuquerque shooting
© Via Twitter@SimonRomero
A demonstration in Albuquerque, New Mexico ended in violence after an individual was shot as protesters attempted to topple a statue. Unconfirmed reports claim the shooter was a member of a militia, but this has been disputed.

Demonstrators assembled outside the Albuquerque Museum on Monday, in what was initially billed as a "prayer gathering" and a "peaceful call" for the removal of a nearby statue of a Spanish conquistador. But it appears the group decided to take more active measures to ensure the statue's removal - a trash bag was put over the conquistador's head, and a metal chain was tied around the its neck.

As the crowd began to pull on the chain, all hell broke loose. In a video of the incident, protesters begin to shout at a man carrying a firearm. A masked protester then strikes him with a skateboard, as someone is heard screaming: "It's a cop, it's a cop!" The man then pulls back and slowly walks away as the group follows in pursuit. Screams of "Get him! Follow him!" can be heard.

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Newspaper

Once the statues are all dethroned, should we tear down the BBC, the Mail & the Guardian with their Nazi & slavery links?

Chris Sweeney
RT
Tue, 16 Jun 2020 16:26 UTC
Newspapers in London
© Reuters/Luke MacGregorBritish newspapers are at a newsagent's stand in central London.
The Black Lives Matter protests have sparked a look-back at important people's histories, but the newspapers and media who report on all of this have the same skeletons in their closets.

Britain is divided by its legacy, best displayed right now by Sir Winston Churchill. To some he's the hero who masterminded the war effort and to others, he's an example of abhorrent racism for his belief in using poison gas to kill "uncivilised tribes" and also for his role in the Bengal famine that saw three million die.

Churchill is just the latest in what has become statue-gate, kicked off by Edward Colston's effigy being thrown in a river. These are inanimate objects and by definition only relate to one person, whose life and times are there to be judged.

It's not so simple to analyse the media.


Comment: Propaganda would be a better word to use.


Britain has the biggest newspaper market in the world, where the press have long wielded much power and been afforded respect by the population. However, their own past certainly raises a few unpalatable truths.

Comment: As the propaganda arm of the governments, these fake news outlets have incited violence, fomented wars based on abhorrently dishonest reporting. Maybe they should be dethroned and tossed in the rubbish bin.

See also: Fake News: The weapon of choice for a handful of countries

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Attention

Leftist cognitive dissonance: Self-styled CHAZ leader filmed handing out AR-15s to followers


RT
Tue, 16 Jun 2020 17:08 UTC
chaz
© Reuters / Goran TomasevicProtesters hang around an entrance of the Seattle Police Department East Precinct at the self-proclaimed Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ), in Seattle, Washington.
Raz Simone, the so-called warlord of the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone carved out of Seattle by activists, has been filmed handing out assault rifles to minors. That's a state felony, if only there were anyone to enforce the law.

Video that surfaced on Monday - from Simone's own June 10 Facebook livestream, apparently - shows him handing out assault rifles that look like the ubiquitous AR-15 semi-automatic, including to individuals who look far younger than 21.


Washington state law, which came into effect last year, makes it a gross misdemeanor to transfer an assault rifle to anyone under 21, with any subsequent offenses considered felonies.

Moreover, under the law, persons between the ages of 18 and 21 are only able to possess a semiautomatic assault rifle or pistol in their place of residence or business, on real property under their control or when moving houses or traveling "to and from" allowed storage locations, as well as in the case of selling to those over 21.

Comment: Meanwhile, in Seattle proper, the City Council has made the use of tear gas, pepper spray, and chokeholds on peaceful protesters illegal.

See also:

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NPC

GitHub gives in to the woke mob, will replace the term 'master' with alternative term to avoid slavery references

Catalin Cimpanu
ZDNet
Sun, 14 Jun 2020 16:17 UTC
master and slave computer
GitHub is working on replacing the term "master" on its service with a neutral term like "main" to avoid any unnecessary references to slavery, its CEO said on Friday.

The code-hosting portal is just the latest in a long line of tech companies and open source projects that have expressed support for removing terms that may be offensive to developers in the black community.

This includes dropping terms like "master" and "slave" for alternatives like "main/default/primary" and "secondary;" but also terms like "blacklist" and "whitelist" for "allow list" and "deny/exclude list."

The concern is that continued use of these racially-loaded terms could prolong racial stereotypes.

"Such terminology not only reflects racist culture, but also serves to reinforce, legitimize, and perpetuate it," wrote academics in a 2018 journal.

Comment: When it comes to the woke progressives, no longer can words have multiple meanings. If a word can be read as politically incorrect in a single context, all the other contexts are irrelevant. That is the logic of the thought police.

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Bizarro Earth

Bizarro world: Southern California gym to reopen with pods for clients to exercise inside

Jennifer McGraw
KRON 4
Sun, 14 Jun 2020 16:01 UTC
workout pods
When a Redondo Beach gym reopens to clients Monday, it will look very different.

Those walking into Inspire South Bay Fitness on Artesia Boulevard will be told to sanitize their hands, have their temperature taken, asked to sign a waiver and then assigned into a pod, each with its own dumbbells and other equipment inside.

The pods took three days to build using shower curtains and pipes — a lower-cost alternative to installing plexiglass dividers, the gym's owner Peet Sapsin said.

Gyms and fitness centers have been shuttered for months as the state grappled with the spread of the coronavirus.
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