Society's ChildS


Eye 1

Why are police part of the public school system and how do we get them out?

Image
© Monica Almeida / The New York TimesPolice officers with the Los Angeles United School District stand outside Venice High School in Venice, Calif., March 16, 2015.
Charges have yet to be brought against Ben Fields, the white police officer in South Carolina who slammed a 16-year-old Black student to the floor of her classroom at Spring Valley High School, injuring her face and neck and breaking her arm.

Nearly a month has passed since the video of the October 26 incident went viral, and while Fields was fired from his job on October 28, he has not been arrested or charged with assault or battery under South Carolina law.

Fields had previously been sued for use of excessive force and currently faces a federal lawsuit in which attorneys claim that he "recklessly targets African-American students." A federal investigation to determine whether or not any federal laws were violated during the incident is underway.

Comment: Public education and hystericized society: For children in the U.S., school is the first indoctrination into the American police state


Pistol

At least sixteen shot during parade after-party in New Orleans, Louisiana

Image
© Michael Democker/AP
The after party that followed the Nine Times Social Aide & Pleasure Club's annual second line was in full swing at Bunny Friend Park when gunfire erupted within a crowd of hundreds of revelers, several witnesses recounted Sunday.

Music from a DJ was playing. As many as 300 people were wandering throughout the Upper 9th Ward park when the shots rang through the air. One witness, a nurse who would not give her name, said it sounded like New Year's Eve, when celebratory gunfire often occurs, all over again

People scattered everywhere. Three witnesses said they saw a man with a silver-colored machine gun head toward Louisa Avenue. They also heard more gunshots coming from within the crowd as he ran away.


New Orleans police officers had been monitoring the second line, but witnesses say they were beginning to disperse as the after party kept going. As soon as gunshots were heard, however, officers were on the scene immediately, witnesses said.

Several victims were lying on the sidewalk along Gallier Street sidewalk after the chaos died down a bit.
Image
© Michael Democker/APPolice remove a victim from the chaotic shooting scene.

Wolf

Delta will no longer accept pets as checked baggage

Image
Following the deaths and disappearances of dozens of pets in the last 10 years, Delta has recently announced that beginning in March of 2016, they will no longer make pets fly in the cargo hold of their passenger planes.

"Delta will no longer accept pets as checked baggage, but will continue to transport allowable pets in all cabins of service except Delta One, effective March 1, 2016," Delta said in a statement. "Customers may also ship pets for travel within the United States as freight through Delta Cargo."

Ambulance

Funding cuts to mental health services triples number of emergency psychiatric visits

women mental health
© Unknown
Countywide reductions in psychiatric services -- both inpatient and outpatient -- led to more than triple the number of emergency psychiatric consults and 55 percent increases in lengths of stay for psychiatric patients in the emergency department. The before and after study of the impact of decreasing county mental health services was published online in Annals of Emergency Medicine ('Impact of Decreasing County Mental Health Services on the Emergency Medicine').

"As is often the case, the emergency department catches everyone who falls through the cracks in the health care system," said lead study author Arica Nesper, MD, MAS of the University of California Davis School of Medicine in Sacramento. "People with mental illness did not stop needing care simply because the resources dried up. Potentially serious complaints increased after reductions in mental health services, likely representing not only worse care of patients' psychiatric issues but also the medical issues of patients with psychiatric problems."

Comment: This is worrisome at a time when the economy is already taking its toll on mental health. If the expected economic and social turmoil continues to increase, emergency facilities will be quickly overwhelmed.


Footprints

Euro-skepticism: Finland's parliament to debate leaving the Eurozone

finnish flag puzzle
Finland is in a rather unique position within the European Union. Their nation is by all accounts, very prosperous and stable with a relatively small debt to GDP ratio. However, their nation is also being crippled under the influence of the Eurozone. They've endured a relentless recession accompanied by negative economic growth and high unemployment. In fact, their economy has contracted by .6% this past quarter, which is worse than any other EU nation including Greece. Their current downturn has lasted even longer than the post-Soviet crash of the early 90's.

Because of their recent economic woes, Finland has become the perfect example of how detrimental it is to be a part of the EU. That's because they don't fall under the stereotypes of their Southern peers like Greece, Spain, and Italy. Finland isn't a debt ridden basket case nation, rife with corruption, dysfunction, and empty promises. And yet, the Euro is still wrecking their economy.

Horse

Trump's xenophobia and "memory" of 'thousands and thousands' of Arabs cheering 9/11 in New Jersey

Image
Donald Trump claims that "thousands" of people in New Jersey were "cheering" amid the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on US soil.

In an interview on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday, Trump doubled down on his assertion that he saw people in New Jersey — where the real-estate mogul claims there are "large Arab populations" — cheering as the World Trade Center came down.
"There were people that were cheering on the other side of New Jersey, where you have large Arab populations. They were cheering as the World Trade Center came down," Trump said on Sunday. "I know it might be not politically correct for you to talk about it, but there were people cheering as that building came down — as those buildings came down. And that tells you something. It was well-covered at the time."

Comment: Trump appears to be inventing things nearly out of whole cloth in order to justify his deeply xenophobic, fascistic thinking. He has entered the mind set of the 'reality creators': politicians who have no problem whatsoever making up stuff to get others to think and do as they would want them to. We should not underestimate the capacity for buffoons to behave in incredibly destructive ways.


V

More than 1,000 in Boston protest Massachusetts governor's anti-refugee stance

Image
© Boston GlobeMore than 1,000 people protested Gov. Charlie Baker's position against allowing Syrian refugees into the state.
Hundreds of people took to the streets of Boston to protest against the efforts of Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker to stop the resettlement of Syrian refugees in the state, local media reported Saturday.

According to The Boston Globe newspaper, the event that brought together some 500 people took place Friday night.
"Don't give into racist fear! Refugees are welcomed here," the people chanted, as quoted by the media outlet. Speakers from several refugee organizations gave speeches in support of the refugees and calling for compassion.

Baker was one of the governors calling to stop the refugee resettlement program in fears that the security measures in place were not enough to stop extremists from entering the country disguised as refugees.

On Thursday, the US House of Representatives passed a bill that would block the presidential administration from resettling some 10,000 Syrian refugees as well as Iraqi refugees to the United States in 2016, as was announced by Obama earlier in the year. The move followed the deadly attacks in Paris last week which claimed lives of at least 130 people. The Islamic State extremist group claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Rose

California man crushes 1-year-old girl to death with his foot; felt 'taken advantage of' for being asked to babysit

Image
© Via San Bernadino County Sheriff
A California man is facing 25 years to life in prison for killing a one-year-old girl by crushing her with his foot while he watched television. Daniel Ruiz, 25, was found guilty November 19 of one count of second-degree murder and one count of assault on a child causing death, according to the San Bernadino County District Attorney's Office. He faces 25 years to life when he is sentenced January 15.

Ruiz was asked to watch two children in August 2013, while his girlfriend Terra and her friend Andrea went to the store.

In court, the convicted murderer said that he decided to crush the baby because he felt "taken advantage of" by the baby girl's mother when she asked him to watch her children for 30 minutes.

Ruiz said that he was angered by the request and decided to take it out on one-year-old Scarlett. He put his foot on her chest and pushed down as hard as he could with his 230 pounds of weight on her body. As the baby gasped for air, he got up and turned on the television.

After changing channels for a few minutes, Ruiz noticed that Scarlett appeared to be having a seizure, police say. He reportedly tapped her on the cheek to get her to snap out of it. The two women returned home shortly after that and Ruiz ran outside to tell Scarlett's mother that she needed to go to the hospital. According to officials, the women were gone for about 30-45 minutes.

Andrea was unable to get through to 9-1-1, so she grabbed Scarlett and ran directly to the fire station across the street.The fireman and hospital workers were unable to revive Scarlett, however, and she died in the hospital soon after. The cause of her death was discovered in an autopsy two days later.

Comment: Just25 years?
"The defendant stated that he actually felt better after stepping on the victim, as he sat there watching television," DiDonato said. "The whole time, Scarlett was behind him, lying on the floor trying to catch her breath. Fighting for her life."

Hesperia man convicted of Second Degree Murder and Assault on a Child Causing Death
If this cold-blooded murderer doesn't get life, we'll have to wonder what the heck is wrong with the U.S. justice system.


X

CNN punished its own journalist for fulfilling a core duty of journalism

Image
Weapons of mass deception

CNN suspended its global affairs correspondent, Elise Labott, for two weeks for the crime of posting a tweet critical of the House vote to ban Syrian refugees.
Whether by compulsion or choice, she then groveled in apology. This is the original tweet along with her subsequent expression of repentance:

Image

Black Cat

Arkansas judge accused of molesting young men skips court date, keeps full pay, no arrest

Image
© One Page News
A judge who has been accused of sexually assaulting numerous defendants who passed through his courtroom, has skipped court this week and failed to show up to defend himself against these charges.Judge Joseph Boeckmann had reportedly been coercing young men into sexual acts since as far back as 2009.

Boeckmann would select young men that passed through his court, and he would give them community service near his house. Once they were near his home, Boeckmann would get them inside and force them into sexual acts and sometimes take photos. Boeckmann would offer the young men lighter sentences or money in exchange for their silence. He reportedly had a fetish for spanking the boys, both for their "punishment" and for his personal enjoyment.

According to the complaint:
"The 'work' usually consisted of picking up cans either alongside city roads in Wynne, or actually picking up cans at Boeckmannn's residence, wherein Boeckmann would photograph the buttocks of the men as they were bending to retrieve the garbage. Multiple male litigants have been photographed by Boeckmann during these 'community service' type sentences. Boeckmann maintained these photographs of male litigants' buttocks in his home for his own personal use. In addition to the illegal sentences, Boeckmann has used his judicial status to form relationships, personal and sexual, with male litigants. Boeckmann has engaged in a consistent pattern of seeking out young Caucasian male litigants before Cross County District Court for the purpose of forming personal sexual relations with the litigants, thus creating a self-imposed conflict of interest for himself in his role as Cross County District Court judge."
All of the men that Boeckmann molested were over the age of 18, however, it is suspected that he has child pornography on his computer, and it has been reported that his computer has been confiscated since the allegations have been made public.

Comment: In a totalitarian state, the rule of law is divided in two. One rule of law for the elite and another for the rest of us.