Society's ChildS


Stop

Sexualizing children: Fashion brand hires tiny child models to walk runway in skimpy bikinis

Sophie Roberts
The Sun, UK
Sun, 17 Jul 2016 18:13 UTC
Child in a bikini
© AP
An annual swimwear event has sparked controversy after allowing child models to walk the catwalk in skimpy bikinis.

In celebration of Miami Swim Week, a new fashion collection has been paraded down the runway.

The three day event, which is held in South Beach, Florida, has promoted an entire range of swimwear, for both children and adults.

In one fashion collection by brand Hot As Hell, primary school children have walked down the catwalk in an array of different bikinis and swimming costumes.

Some defended the Hot As Hell brand, remarking that the kids look "cute"

Since photos and videos from the event have emerged online, some commenters have hit-out at the parents of the young models. One internet user remarked that using kids in fashion shows is "child abuse", while another begged: "Please look after your daughters".

Comment: Encouraging children to be sexual at such an early age can be linked to pedophiles in power all over the globe. It's the new normal in a society dominiated by pathological values.

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Sheriff

Judge rejects plea deal - says 6 months in prison for former LA county sheriff is not enough


RT
Mon, 18 Jul 2016 21:34 UTC
lee baca police brutality
© Kevork Djansezian / ReutersFormer Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca.
A judge has rejected a plea deal that would have given former Los Angeles County sheriff up to six months in prison. Lee Baca pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI during a probe of his department's attempts to cover up abuse by deputies at county jails.

US District Court Judge Percy Anderson said the plea agreement between Baca and prosecutors in the case "would trivialize the seriousness of the offenses ... the need for a just punishment, the need to deter others," the Los Angeles Times reported. Anderson said Baca could withdraw his guilty plea. The deal would have meant up to six months in prison for Baca.

The agreement required Baca, 74, to plead guilty to lying to FBI investigators during an interview in April 2013 related to department corruption and deputy conduct. During the interview, Baca had said he did not know of attempts to intimidate an FBI agent who was involved in an investigation of the LA County Sheriff's Department's conduct, specifically allegations of deputy brutality at county jails, as well as corruption accusations.

Comment: For more background on the corruption surrounding Lee Baca:

Scandal-plagued Los Angeles County police head named U.S. "Sheriff of the Year"

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Attention

Axe-wielding man attacks German railway passengers injuring over 20


RT
Mon, 18 Jul 2016 21:11 UTC
German train
© Michaela Rehle / Reuters
Over 20 people have reportedly been injured after an axe-wielding man attacked passengers on the railway line between Wurzburg-Heidingsfeld and Ochsenfurt, central Germany, local media reported.

German police confirmed that between 10 and 15 people were injured in the attack. Meanwhile local media reports suggested that up to 21 people could have been hurt.

At least three of the victims suffered "serious" injuries, police spokesman told local news outlet Blaulicht Würzburg.

Another person suffered light injuries, while all 14 passengers who had been in the same car of the regional train were in a state of "shock" following the onslaught.

A police helicopter was reportedly circling the area and a large number of officers were deployed to the scene. Over a dozen paramedics also arrived on site, according to photos shared on Twitter.

Witnesses said that the attacker fled the scene after the initial onslaught. The perpetrator was later shot by police, reported Gong.

Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann announced that authorities believe that a 17-year-old teen of Afghan origin was behind the attack.

The suspect entered the country as an "unaccompanied minor" and lived with a "foster family" for the last two weeks. Before that he had been housed at the Kolping-Heim refugee center, FOCUS online reported.

The minister also refuted claims of a possible second attacker, and are treating the attack as a "single perpetrator" case.

Authorities have organized an alternative bus route for passengers as the train line between Wurzburg-Heidingsfeld and Ochsenfurt has temporarily been shut down.
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Newspaper

Man arrested in deadly attacks on homeless had long history of crime, mental health issues

Julie Watson and Robert Jablon
The Associated Press
Sat, 16 Jul 2016 14:12 UTC
San Diego police officer
© AP/Gregory BullA police official walks near where a man was beaten Friday, July 15, 2016, in San Diego. San Diego police early Friday detained a person in the investigation of a spate of deadly attacks on homeless men — shortly after finding the latest victim, a 55-year-old man bleeding under the freeway overpass with severe trauma to his upper body.
A man arrested for a string of deadly attacks on the homeless had a long history of crime and mental health issues and was himself living in subsidized housing for the homeless, it was reported.

Jon David Guerrero, 39, was arrested Friday by police who heard a homeless man screaming after he was attacked. Guerrero remained jailed Saturday on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and arson. It wasn't immediately clear whether he had a lawyer.

Police told reporters that they have no doubt they nabbed the man responsible for five attacks since July 3 that left three men dead. The victims - all homeless men - received serious upper-body injuries and two were set on fire. Police said they had not determined a motive for the attacks.

Guerrero grew up in the wealthy community of Coronado, across the San Diego Bay, known for its mansions and picturesque beaches. But since January he had been living in a rented one-room apartment in downtown's Alpha Square, a subsidized housing complex for the poor and homeless, KNSD-TV reported, Bob McElroy, president of the Alpha Project, said he had met Guerrero. "Nothing exceptional," he told the TV station. "Very well mannered, 'yes sir' and 'no sir.' Cordial. Quiet. Loner."

Comment: Homeless targeted in San Diego attacks - 2 dead, one in critical condition

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Bad Guys

The latest findings on the Nice truck attacker: Violent, obsessed with sex, dated 73-yo man


RT
Mon, 18 Jul 2016 18:46 UTC
Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel
© French Police Source / AFPThis image shows a reproduction of the residence permit of Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, the man who rammed his truck into a crowd celebrating Bastille Day in Nice on July 14.
The latest findings suggest that Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, the driver of the truck that killed at least 84 people in Nice last week, was an unlikely jihadist, who ate pork, and reveled in alcohol, drugs, and sexual relations with both women and men.

Comment: See also: Nice truck attacker: History of mental illness, psychiatric drugs, violence - sent unusually large amount of money to family in weeks before attack

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People 2

Waking up? 79% of Americans say nation is headed in wrong direction


RT
Mon, 18 Jul 2016 18:48 UTC
Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, republican U.S.presidential candidate Donald Trump
© Reuters
A large majority of Americans believe the United States is not on the correct track, a new poll says, while a dismal number of supporters of both presidential nominees, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, are proud of their preferred candidate.

Nearly 80 percent of Americans say they are not hopeful about the current state and direction of the United States, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll. That is up 15 points from when the same poll measured Americans' feeling about US affairs last year.

As the Republican National Convention begins in Cleveland, Ohio on Monday, respondents to the poll displayed low enthusiasm, overall, for presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his Democratic counterpart, Hillary Clinton.

Only 22 percent of respondents said they would be proud to have a President Trump, while only 27 percent said the same about Clinton.
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Monkey Wrench

Shot at Plumbers Union apprenticeship program has hundreds of men camping on New York street

Ali Bauman and Carol D'Auria
CBS New York
Mon, 18 Jul 2016 18:01 UTC
plumbers apprentice application camp out
© DNAinfo/Ewa Kern-JedrychowskaMore than 1,000 people waited in line despite scorching heat Thursday morning for the chance to become a plumber’s apprentice.
Hundreds of young men are sleeping on the streets of Queens Sunday night for a shot at a job.

CBS2's Ali Bauman reported they are waiting for an application to the Plumbers Union Apprenticeship Program. One thousand applications are handed out in order Monday morning. After tests and interviews, only a percentage are accepted to the five-year program.

"It's a long shot, so hopefully I get it," Anthony Hughes said.

Signs on the training center tell applicants not to camp out, but if they listen, they don't really have a shot, like Mauricio Cruz who showed up Sunday afternoon.

"I walked up, added every chair and three for every tent and came out to 1,226," Cruz said. "I know I'm after that. It's insane. I don't know if I'm gonna wait."

Many of the applicants waited through the rain on Saturday and the stifling heat on Sunday. Most are already plumbers looking for a promotion.

"The 'A' guys top out at $67 an hour. The 'B' guys top out at $40 an hour," Anthony Sala said.

Comment: What does this say about the 'opportunity' for advancement in America.

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Clipboard

Protesters swarm Netroots convention as Dems try to ward off internal power struggles

Dan Roberts
The Guardian
Sun, 17 Jul 2016 16:14 UTC
clinton sanders
© Zuma Wire/Rex/Shutterstock Smug Killary looks like cat that ate the canary.
Despite Bernie Sanders' endorsement of Hillary Clinton, the party faces fears of civil war: 'It's important for progressives not to be taken for granted'

No sooner had the question been posed of where angry young activists would go after the Bernie Sanders campaign than a group of angry young activists provided the answer: to the streets.

The surprise walk-out of protesters from a conference of US progressives in St Louis this weekend forced the cancellation of its panel on "translating millennial votes into power". But here was more vivid testimony. Despite Sanders urging his supporters to back Hillary Clinton in an official endorsement a few days earlier, the energy once captured by his campaign - and beyond it, in the Black Lives Matter protests - appeared already to be slipping out of the hands of Democrats.

Hands Up United - a group born of anti-police violence protests in nearby Ferguson - brought both the Netroots convention and surrounding freeways to a standstill, accusing the largely white delegates of becoming "occupiers" in the "disunited States of America". "Mic check, mic check," they chanted, in an echo of the Occupy movement that used voices in the street to amplify its message.

Across the corridor in another unofficial Netroots spin-off, a different group of activists were plotting to do the same on a bigger stage in Philadelphia, where the Democratic party is holding its national convention in a week's time. Democracy Spring is planning non-violent civil disobedience on a daily basis, scheduling sit-ins and mass arrests until the party promises to scrap the system of super-delegates that so enraged Sanders supporters during the long and bitter nomination contest.

Comment: After two hundred plus years of "democracy" you'd think the populace would figure out that candidates say what they need to get what they want. Notice the complete lack of focus on Killary's voting record on U.S. military interventions, and her promise to increase them.

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Eye 1

Pokemon Go 'terms & conditions' clauses strip users of legal rights

Natasha Lomas
Tech Crunch
Sun, 17 Jul 2016 15:53 UTC
people playing Pokemon Go
Hordes of students converge to catch an imaginary animal at Florida International University.
Players of Pokemon Go are not only giving up their right to act like sane human beings in public, as they walk around, zombie-esque, reaching into the phones held in front of their faces, they are also likely to be waiving legal rights if they don't take a very close look at Niantic Labs' Terms of Service for the game.

As spotted earlier by The Consumerist, an arbitration notice states that Pokemon Go users automatically agree to waive their rights to any future trial by jury or class action lawsuit unless they opt out of a binding clause in the T&Cs...
ARBITRATION NOTICE: EXCEPT IF YOU OPT OUT AND EXCEPT FOR CERTAIN TYPES OF DISPUTES DESCRIBED IN THE "AGREEMENT TO ARBITRATE" SECTION BELOW, YOU AGREE THAT DISPUTES BETWEEN YOU AND NIANTIC WILL BE RESOLVED BY BINDING, INDIVIDUAL ARBITRATION, AND YOU ARE WAIVING YOUR RIGHT TO A TRIAL BY JURY OR TO PARTICIPATE AS A PLAINTIFF OR CLASS MEMBER IN ANY PURPORTED CLASS ACTION OR REPRESENTATIVE PROCEEDING.
To opt out of the legal rights waiver, users need to email termsofservice@nianticlabs.com or can send regular mail to 2 Bryant St., Ste. 220, San Francisco, CA 94105.

But the opt out process is only valid if exercised within 30 days following the date a user first accepted the T&Cs.

Having a short opt-out window for legal rights embedded within T&Cs which the vast majority of users won't read before clicking 'I agree' and rushing into their neighbor's garden to try to catch a pikachu is a very aggressive stance.

Comment: Further reading:

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Sheriff

Cleveland police calling for suspension of open carry laws during Republican National Convention

Hannah Gold
Gawker
Sun, 17 Jul 2016 20:15 UTC
police RNC Cleveland
© AP
President of the Cleveland Police Patrolman's Association, Steve Loomis, called upon Ohio Governor John Kasich to suspend laws that permit the open carry of firearms at the Republican National Convention, which begins on Monday. Loomis's request came hours after six police officers were shot in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

The police union leader said he wouldn't mind temporarily breaking the law in order to protect police officers, who enforce laws, at least in theory.

Loomis told Reuters, "I don't care what the legal precedent is, I feel strongly that leadership needs to stand up and defend these police officers."

In an interview with CNN, Loommis said, "We are sending a letter to Gov. Kasich requesting assistance from him. He could very easily do some kind of executive order or something—I don't care if it's constitutional or not at this point."

Comment: Cleveland police tighten security plan for Republican Convention in light of the Dallas shootings

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