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NYPD officers at George Floyd protests are covering their badge numbers in violation of own policy

Nick Pinto
The Intercept
Wed, 03 Jun 2020 00:22 UTC
New York police officers
© Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Police stand by as demonstrations continue against the murder of George Floyd on June 1, 2020 in the Brooklyn, N.Y.
New York Police Department officers policing the protests in New York City are increasingly covering their badge numbers with black bands, making it difficult for people to identify them and hold them accountable for their actions. On Wednesday, the National Lawyers Guild sent a letter to the department and to the city's corporation counsel, warning that if the NYPD doesn't put an end to the practice, it could expect a lawsuit.
"The trend of individual officers to sidestep what minimal accountability exists, in order to more effectively and with greater impunity brutalize protesters for pretextual reasons, is unacceptable."
The practice of police obscuring their badge numbers — a form of identification that many jurisdictions require officers to make available to the public when interacting — has taken on a heightened significance amid the nationwide protests over the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. The protests have been met with a show of force from officers, sometimes veering into brutality, leaving the risk that those without visible identification are acting with the very impunity to commit violence that spurred the protests in the first place.

The NYPD has strict regulations around displaying badge numbers — and a history of suppressing protests with violence and without accountability.

Comment:





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Hammer

Paul Joseph Watson: Wokevirus

Paul Joseph Watson
Summit News
Wed, 03 Jun 2020 00:00 UTC
Paul Joseph Watson
Anti-lockdown protesters were publicly shamed & called "granny killers".

BLM protesters are celebrated & applauded by health workers & the media.

Apparently, coronavirus is 'woke' and takes a break if the cause you're championing is left-wing.

"It's OK when we do it!"


Comment: Warning: crude language


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Bizarro Earth

History and psychology predict protests and riots after lockdowns

Nicole Fisher
Forbes
Sat, 21 Mar 2020 11:48 UTC
protests
© Reuters / Jeenah Moon

Comment: Note that this article was published March 21st, before the current situation in the US erupted, and that is fast spreading throughout the Western world.


What's happening around the globe is both new and old. While SARS-CoV-2 is new, pandemics and the effects of infectious disease are as old as mankind. And when we think about how to grapple with the situation in front of us, we should be looking to the past for guidance - because this is about far more than a pandemic, it's about humans. Specifically, human behavior.

One of the greatest challenges facing leaders today is determining just how to control the spread of a virus, while not having control over millions (globally billions) of autonomous individuals. Local, state, and federal government are having to make decisions daily (even hourly) about how many restrictions to place on the American people. And if you've been following the news, you know that states and cities are taking very different approaches. But as they consider strong restrictions and forced quarantines, it is important to look back at what has happened in the past when those in power place their constituents on lockdown.
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Attention

China school stabbing: Video shows blood-soaked kids rushed to hospital after security guard stabs 39

Johnlee Varghese
International Business Times
Thu, 04 Jun 2020 22:07 UTC
china stabbing school
Thirty-seven school children and two adults were injured after the security guard at a school in China went on a stabbing spree. A heartbreaking video of the incident shows kids as young as six covered in blood being rushed to the hospital.

As per local reports, the man, who is in his 50s went on a stabbing spree at around 8.30am at the Wangfu Town Central Primary School in the city of Wuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

A video of the incident shows young students, being rushed out of an ambulance soaked in blood. According to the police, in the knife attack, a total of 39 people were injured. Initial reports said that the condition of the school principal, a security guard, and a young student was critical.
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Stock Down

Another 1.877 million Americans file for unemployment benefits

Heidi Chung
Yahoo Finance
Thu, 04 Jun 2020 19:51 UTC
unemployment usa coronavirus
© Yahoo Finance/David Foster
The state of employment in the U.S. took centerstage Thursday when the U.S. Labor Department released its weekly jobless claims report.

An additional 1.877 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits in the week ending May 30, exceeding economists' estimates for 1.843 million initial jobless claims during the week. The prior week's figure was revised higher to 2.13 million from the previously reported 2.12 million.

This week's report marked the first time that weekly initial jobless claims came in below two million in 10 weeks. Over the past 11 weeks, more than 42 million Americans have filed for unemployment insurance.

After peaking in the week ending March 28, weekly jobless claims have been on a steady decline, but the pace of the decline might not be swift enough, according to economists.

"The downward trend is obviously good news, but in the context of an economy that is re-opening it is extremely high, especially when viewed against previous recessions. It may well be that businesses that had been trying to look after their staff and keep them on the payrolls have had to capitulate," ING Chief International Economist James Knightley wrote in a note Thursday.

"For example, social distancing constraints have made the business unviable or demand has not returned as hoped and they have been forced to adjust the numbers of staff to the new reality," Knightley added.

Comment: Was it worth it?

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Megaphone

Ryanair boss slams UK's 14-day quarantine rules as 'shambolic', claims it won't be enforced, experts predict economic disaster

Kara Godfrey
The Sun
Thu, 04 Jun 2020 08:15 UTC
Ryanair

Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary has warned the new quarantine rules for UK arrivals is a 'shambles'
RYANAIR boss Michael O'Leary has hit out once again over the government's 14-day quarantine rules being enforced from next week, calling them a 'shambles'.

He also warned that they won't be enforced as it relies on passengers self-isolating without being monitored.

2Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary has warned the new quarantine rules for UK arrivals is a 'shambles'

Mr O'Leary, who has previously slammed the travel rules, told ITV yesterday: "It's been one shambles after another, of mismanagement, making it up as they go along, and the latest of which has been today's frankly shambolic announcement of an ineffective and useless quarantine."

He added: "People now have to fill in a form which the UK government hasn't even published yet."

Yesterday, the government announced that the new quarantine restrictions will start from June 8 and run for at least three weeks.

Comment: Meanwhile the rest of Europe are simply scrapping any idea of quarantine, that includes Italy which claimed to have been hardest hit. But, as noted above, none of it makes sense - and that's because this is political, not scientific, nor has it ever been about the health of the people.

See also:

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Bizarro Earth

Moscow Mayor says that despite not understanding the coronavirus face masks are mandatory until entire city has been vaccinated

Jonny Tickle
RT
Thu, 04 Jun 2020 10:23 UTC
Sobyanin
© Sputnik / Grigory Sysoev
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin
For much of the world, lockdown feels like it has been going on forever. In Moscow, despite measures and restrictions easing off, Mayor Sergey Sobyanin believes it will take a year for everything to get back to normal.

In an interview with news agency TASS, Sobyanin explained that Muscovites will soon go back to their usual way of life once the pandemic is over.

"People tend to quickly forget the bad. That's how psychology works, thank God. I think that we will completely return to our previous way of life in a year," Sobyanin said. "How long we have to wear masks largely depends on the timing of a mass vaccine. According to various estimates, it will happen between October and February next year. I want to believe that we will receive the first large batches of the vaccine in October."

Comment: If weather had anything to do with transmission, why were most countries throughout Europe, enjoying an unseasonably warm and dry spring, on lockdown? With countryside walkers harassed by police drones? But then, as the Mayor said himself, he doesn't really understand the virus, which is all the more worrying because for someone so admittedly uninformed he seems rather eager to have the populace vaccinated with a rushed, experimental and potentially deadly vaccine: Engdahl: The warp speed push for coronavirus vaccines

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Sherlock

German prosecutors believe Madeleine McCann is dead, investigating 43 year old national on suspicion of murder

Kate Connolly
The Guardian
Thu, 04 Jun 2020 14:26 UTC
McCann
© REX/Shutterstock
Madeleine McCann went missing in 2007.
German public prosecutors investigating a German man on suspicion of murder have said they believe that Madeleine McCann, the British girl who disappeared in Portugal in 2007 aged three, is dead.

"The public prosecutor's office in Braunschweig is investigating a 43-year-old German national on suspicion of murder. From this you can see that we assume that the girl is dead," Braunschweig state prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters said.

Madeleine disappeared from her bedroom on 3 May 2007 during a family holiday in the Algarve while her parents were dining with friends nearby in the resort of Praia da Luz.

Comment: See also:

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Handcuffs

Three more officers arrested in killing of George Floyd, Chuavin's charge upgraded to 2nd degree murder

Stephen Montemayor and Chao Xiong
Star Tribune
Thu, 04 Jun 2020 19:41 UTC
kueng lane thao
© HENNEPIN COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE
The booking mugs of the three former Minneapolis officers charged Wednesday with aiding and abetting murder. From left are J Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao. Derek Chauvin, who was previously charged, had a count of second-degree murder added.
Attorney General Keith Ellison's office on Wednesday upgraded charges against the former Minneapolis police officer who knelt on George Floyd's neck and charged the other three officers at the scene with aiding and abetting murder.

The decision came just two days after Ellison took over the prosecution from Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman and followed more than a week of sometimes-violent protests calling for tougher charges against former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who had pinned Floyd to the ground and held him there for nearly nine minutes. Protesters also demanded the arrests of the three other former officers who were present but failed to intervene. All three were booked into the Hennepin County jail on Wednesday.

"To the Floyd family, to our beloved community, and everyone that is watching, I say: George Floyd mattered. He was loved. His life was important. His life had value. We will seek justice for him and for you and we will find it," Ellison said

However, he said, he doesn't believe that "one successful prosecution can rectify the hurt and loss that so many people feel. The solution to that pain will be in the slow and difficult work of constructing justice and fairness in our society."

Chauvin, who was recorded on video kneeling on Floyd's neck as he begged for air on Memorial Day, now faces the more serious charge of second-degree murder, in addition to the original charges of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter with culpable negligence.

Comment: Bail for the three officers has been set at $750k. At the bail hearing, Lane's attorney said the following:
First appearances are typically procedural. But the hearing quickly turned contentious, with Lane's attorney, Earl Gray, arguing that the cases against the officers are weak and that they did nothing wrong. Gray said Lane twice asked if they should roll Floyd on side but that Chauvin said no. "What was he supposed to do... go up to Mr. Chauvin, grab him and throw him off?" Gray said.


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Snakes in Suits

Looking up! Cuomo's inspirational curfew message spawns dystopian memes


RT
Wed, 03 Jun 2020 23:08 UTC
NYPD and victim
© Reuters/Eduardo Munoz
NYPD officers detain a suspected looter amid heated anti-police brutality protests, in the Manhattan borough of New York City, June 2, 2020.
Governor Andrew Cuomo has taken over a billboard in New York City's Columbus Circle to give updates on the curfew. Its eerie aesthetic drew dystopian comparisons and fueled a lot of memes.

In addition to the curfew schedule, the billboard features a variety of changing text messages, which for whatever reason seem to be designed to look like the governor's tweets: "DO NOT BE A CRIMINAL," "LOOTING INSULTS GEORGE FLOYD'S MEMORY," "HELP ME RESTORE CALM."

The dystopian aesthetic has been widely panned on social media, prompting horrified reactions like "We are living in a dystopian nightmare. Please tell me this isn't real."

Comment: Never expect creativity from politicians. They just can't do it.

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