Society's ChildS


Bizarro Earth

Copycat shooters on a rise after Connecticut rampage

guns
© Agence France-Presse/Mario Tama
Several armed suspects have been arrested for attempts to recreate the Connecticut elementary school shooting massacre, which killed at least 27 people, including 20 children.

In Indiana, a man identified as Von Meyer, 60, was arrested on Sunday after threatening to light his wife on fire and kill as many people as possible at Jane Ball Elementary School. Police discovered 47 guns and ammunition in his home, worth a total of over $100,000.

Officials fear the Indiana man is only one of a number of copycats who may try to imitate the Connecticut massacre, CBS reported.

The copycat shooting phenomena, in which an attacker is inspired by a gun massacre and tries to re-create it, is not new. The US has seen numerous copycat shooting, even giving the syndrome a name - the 'Werther Effect.' Adolescents are said to be the most susceptible to it.

Another incident over the weekend involved a shooter opening fire at a clinic in Uruguay to imitate the Connecticut school shooting, according to the suspect's police statement. The suspect fired three shots and was arrested on site, local media reported.

Pistol

Police gunned down at grocery store

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A shooting outside a Kansas grocery store left two police officers dead last night.

They were shot while responding to a report of a suspicious vehicle near a Topeka grocery store.

Officers tracked the suspected gunman down to this nearby home early this morning.

They say they tried to make contact with the suspect several times before finally deploying gas.

They say the suspect then came out with a gun in hand.

He was shot by officers and pronounced dead at a hospital.

Now, a store employee is reacting. "It was kind of shocking."
"We're a good store and nice people and nice employees, but this could happen anywhere."

Police have not identified the suspect.

But they have named the two officers killed, 50 year old Corporal David Gogian and 29 year old Officer Jeff Atherly.

Source: KTKA


  • Smoking

    Anti-smoking police are set to patrol New York neighbourhoods and stop people smoking in their own homes

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    Anti-smoking police are set to patrol New York neighbourhoods and stop people smoking in their own homes, secret new documents reveal. Community groups will be sent out to convince landlords and tenants across the city to turn their private buildings into smoke-free zones, according to the documents seen by the New York Post.

    The community groups would 'work with property managers, tenants, and others on adoption of voluntary smoke-free policies', the document says. In return for their work, each community group will collect a $10,000 bounty - paid for out of a Centers for Disease Control grant.

    The news comes one year after the city banned smoking in parks and beaches, despite promises by Mayor Bloomberg that there were no plans to extend a ban to apartment buildings. The document explains how neighbourhood contractors would help develop New York health department's agenda in tobacco, alcohol, exercise and diet.

    Comment: Nicotine - The Zombie Antidote


    Heart - Black

    Ex-police chief starts casino fight, dies of heart attack after being tased

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    © KDKA
    Pittsburgh - The former Rankin Police chief died Friday after an apparent heart attack, while in police custody following an altercation with his estranged wife and her male companion.

    The altercation started Friday around 11:30 p.m. at the Meadows Racetrack in Washington County.

    Police say former Rankin Police Chief Darryl Briston was at the racetrack when he saw his estranged wife with another man at the Meadows' casino.

    Briston approached them and punched the man in the face, according to the police report.

    Casino security then intervened and requested backup from the State Police Gaming Enforcement Office and North Strabane Police.

    Briston then ran away and made it at least one-quarter mile before police caught up with him and took him into custody.

    Police say Briston resisted their attempts to restrain him and would not follow commands to place his hands behind his back, and was warned that he would be tased if he didn't comply.

    Attention

    Society is crumbling right in front of our eyes and banning guns won't help

    Gun Control
    © The Economic Collapse Blog
    What in the world is happening to America? I have written many articles about how society is crumbling right in front of our eyes, but now it is getting to the point where people are going to be afraid to go to school or go shopping at the mall. Just consider what has happened over the past week.

    Adam Lanza savagely murdered 20 children and 6 adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. 42-year-old Marcus Gurrola threatened to shoot innocent shoppers and fired off more than 50 rounds in the parking lot of Fashion Island Mall in Newport Beach, California. After police apprehended him, he told them that he "was unhappy with life".

    Earlier in the week, a crazy man wearing a hockey mask and armed with a semi-automatic rifle opened fire on the second floor of a mall in Happy Valley, Oregon. He killed two people and injured a third. On Saturday morning, a lone gunman walked into a hospital in Alabama and opened fire. He killed one police officer and two hospital employees before being gunned down by another police officer.

    So have we now reached the point where every school, every mall and every hospital is going to need armed security? How will society function efficiently if everyone is constantly worried about mass murderers?

    In response to the horrible tragedy in Connecticut, many in the mainstream media are suggesting that much stricter gun laws are the obvious solution.

    After all, if we get rid of all the guns these crazy people won't be able to commit these kinds of crimes, right?

    Unfortunately, that is not how it works. The criminals don't obey gun control laws. Banning guns will just take them out of the hands of law-abiding American citizens that just want to protect their own families.

    Adam Lanza didn't let the strict gun control laws up in Connecticut stop him from what he wanted to do. Connecticut already has some of the strictest gun laws in the nation, and Adam Lanza broke at least three of them.

    However, if there had been some armed security officers or some armed teachers at that school, they may have had a chance to protect those dear little children from being brutally gunned down.

    If gun control was really the solution to our problems, then cities that have implemented strict gun control laws should be some of the safest in the entire country.

    But sadly, just the opposite is true.

    Sheriff

    Chief: Indiana man wasn't serious about school threat

    Von Meyer
    © WLS Von Meyer
    Cedar Lake - A northern Indiana police chief said Sunday he believes a man arrested after allegedly threatening to "kill as many people as he could" at a school was just bluffing when he made the ominous remark during a heated argument with his wife.

    Interim Cedar Lake Police Chief Jerry Smith said Von I. Meyer, 60, was arguing early Friday morning with his wife and initially threatened to set her on fire while she was sleeping at their home.

    Meyer, who was arrested Saturday on seven felony charges, then told his wife he would kill her "at the school" and "would kill as many people as he could before police could stop him police," Smith said.

    Meyer's wife works at the cafeteria at Jane Ball Elementary School, less than 1,000 feet from the couple's home in Cedar Lake, about 45 miles southeast of Chicago.

    Smith said Meyer's wife stayed away from that school Friday and police boosted security at the elementary school and three other area schools as a precaution, taking those steps before 26 people, including 20 students, were shot and killed at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn.

    "We just didn't want to take any chances," he said of the extra security at the schools.

    Bizarro Earth

    Man with assault rifle shot dead by police after Alabama triple murder

    A man armed with an assault-style rifle and suspected of killing three men in a domestic dispute was shot dead by police after a car chase and shootout that left an officer wounded, marking a second incident of deadly gun violence in Alabama in two days, officials said on Sunday.

    The two shootings on Saturday in Alabama came a day after 20 children and six adults were shot to death by a gunman who went on a rampage with a military-style rifle at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut and then killed himself.

    In Alabama, a gunman identified as Romero Roberto Moya, 33, was shot multiple times by police in the town of Oxford, east of Birmingham, as he stepped from a hijacked car that struck another vehicle on Saturday, police said.

    A short distance away before he was killed, Moya had exchanged gunfire with other police after crashing his initial getaway car, leaving one officer critically injured, Oxford police Lieutenant L.G. Owens said.

    Oscar

    Morgan Freeman hoax: Statement is false but what did the actor really say about the Newton school shootings?

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    © Reuters
    I've seen Morgan Freeman come up as the center of a Twitter death hoax or two that got blown painfully out of proportion, but the Morgan Freeman hoax uncovered today is one which should not be considered any joking matter at all.

    Its seems, just last night it was discovered that the controversial statement Morgan Freeman was reported to have made concerning shootings and shooters such as those involved in the recent Sandy Hook Elementary tragedy, taking place in Newtown, Connecticut this week were actually not his at all.

    Instead, they were traced back to a fellow named Mark who reportedly lives in Vancouver. Mark's statement actually first appeared on Facebook, before making its way to Reddit, where it went viral within moments, prompting those who started the hoax to say the following later:

    "Was actually written by a dude named Mark in Vancouver. Couple of us thought it'd be funny, since it was a well written article, to attribute it to Morgan Freeman--Day Later, Reddit Front Page. Bravo, Internet."
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    © reddit.com

    Eye 1

    Thinking the Unthinkable

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    Michael holding a butterfly
    In the wake of another horrific national tragedy, it's easy to talk about guns. But it's time to talk about mental illness.

    Three days before 20 year-old Adam Lanza killed his mother, then opened fire on a classroom full of Connecticut kindergartners, my 13-year old son Michael (name changed) missed his bus because he was wearing the wrong color pants.

    "I can wear these pants," he said, his tone increasingly belligerent, the black-hole pupils of his eyes swallowing the blue irises.

    "They are navy blue," I told him. "Your school's dress code says black or khaki pants only."

    "They told me I could wear these," he insisted. "You're a stupid bitch. I can wear whatever pants I want to. This is America. I have rights!"

    "You can't wear whatever pants you want to," I said, my tone affable, reasonable. "And you definitely cannot call me a stupid bitch. You're grounded from electronics for the rest of the day. Now get in the car, and I will take you to school."

    I live with a son who is mentally ill. I love my son. But he terrifies me.

    A few weeks ago, Michael pulled a knife and threatened to kill me and then himself after I asked him to return his overdue library books. His 7 and 9 year old siblings knew the safety plan - they ran to the car and locked the doors before I even asked them to. I managed to get the knife from Michael, then methodically collected all the sharp objects in the house into a single Tupperware container that now travels with me. Through it all, he continued to scream insults at me and threaten to kill or hurt me.

    That conflict ended with three burly police officers and a paramedic wrestling my son onto a gurney for an expensive ambulance ride to the local emergency room. The mental hospital didn't have any beds that day, and Michael calmed down nicely in the ER, so they sent us home with a prescription for Zyprexa and a follow-up visit with a local pediatric psychiatrist.

    Black Cat

    Paedophile ring at Elm Guest House being re-investigated by police

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    Elm Guest House, Rocks Lane
    Boys in care were allegedly being groomed for sex at parties at a south-west London house attended by well-known and powerful figures. James Hanning and Paul Cahalan investigate

    There is no more ordinary-looking row of suburban Edwardian houses in the country than Rocks Lane, south-west London. But nowhere has given rise to such an outlandish series of allegations than the one formerly known as Elm Guest House. The claims are now being re-investigated by the Metropolitan Police, decades after they were first made. Attempts have been made by care workers to lay bare the secrets of Rocks Lane but to no avail. Whatever the outcome of their investigations in the past, the police seem convinced that a number of serious wrongs need to be righted.

    Rocks Lane is a conspiracy theorist's dream, taking in allegations of the grooming of young boys in care for sex, elaborate gay parties involving senior public figures including members of the Conservative Party, charges of a police cover-up and even the suggestion of murder. The police believe that in the context of the Jimmy Savile scandal and renewed claims over the treatment of boys in care in North Wales, there is every reason to look again at an extremely murky saga.

    A month ago, in conditions of the utmost secrecy (so much so that nothing was even put on computers), the Metropolitan Police set up Operation Fairbank, to look into, among other things, allegations made by Tom Watson in the House of Commons. The Labour MP had spoken of a "powerful paedophile ring" and its links to a previous prime minister's "senior adviser". Mr Watson has been uncharacteristically diffident about speaking to journalists on the issue since then, saying that he is passing on any information to the police. He said yesterday: "I'm not seeking to add any specific allegations myself, but hope that my comments will help the authorities get to the bottom of this."