Society's ChildS


Sheriff

Albuquerque police fight the war on drugs by becoming crack dealers

albuquerque crack
© Burque Media
A reverse buy bust appears to be in the works for the Albuquerque Police Department, but the details of how they plan to go about catching low-level drug users — by becoming crack cocaine manufacturers — signifies everything inherently corrupt about the U.S.' war on drugs.

Burque Media exclusively revealed APD's intentions to become temporary crack manufacturers, after a confidential source shared the affidavit about the impending bust.

"Powdered cocaine may be taken into APD's Criminalistics Unit to be made into crack cocaine," reads the Affidavit and Motion to Release Evidence, dated February 25, 2016, and signed by a District Court Judge. In addition to the police-manufactured crack, APD is also permitted to use methamphetamine, cocaine, and heroin from its cataloged evidence stores to become drug dealers in order to catch individuals who use those illegal substances.

Comment: What a bizzaro world! This ranks right up there with Connecticut and UK police breaking into people's homes and cars to teach them lessons about burglary. The line between police officers and organized crime gangs gets blurrier by the minute.


2 + 2 = 4

In dark times - why teachers matter

education
© Jared Rodriguez / Truthout"Public schools and higher education are 'dangerous' because they hold the potential to serve as laboratories for democracy," writes Henry A. Giroux.
Americans live in a historical moment that annihilates thought. Ignorance now provides a sense of community; the brain has migrated to the dark pit of the spectacle; the only discourse that matters is about business; poverty is now viewed as a technical problem; thought chases after an emotion that can obliterate it. The presumptive Republican Party presidential nominee, Donald Trump, declares he likes "the uneducated" - implying that it is better that they stay ignorant than be critically engaged agents - and boasts that he doesn't read books. Fox News offers no apologies for suggesting that thinking is an act of stupidity.

A culture of cruelty and a survival-of-the-fittest ethos in the United States is the new norm and one consequence is that democracy in the United States is on the verge of disappearing or has already disappeared! Where are the agents of democracy and the public spaces that offer hope in such dark times? Many are in public schools - all the more reason to praise public school teachers and to defend public and higher education as a public good.

Comment: Another good article by Henry A. Giroux: Beyond the Politics of the Big Lie: The Education Deficit and the New Authoritarianism


Pirates

Flint water rates, already highest in the nation, could double within five years

flint michigan water pipes
© FlintWaterStudy.orgThese are worth the highest rates in the nation?
Michigan state officials announced Thursday that Flint residents will not be charged for their water usage in May as part of an effort to help flush the system, but the long-term picture for the lead-poisoned city is far less rosy, according to a new report.

In fact, the Michigan Department of Treasury analysis presented Friday shows that water rates in Flint, already among the highest in the nation, could double within five years unless changes are made to the crumbling water system.

Comment:


Post-It Note

The Great Fleecing: How government takes away your rights and sells them back to you as 'licenses'

Government
© CellPointMobile
Government licensing as an extortion racket and depressor of prosperity

Government, has for thousands of years, refined its methods of extracting wealth from people, perhaps with no greater efficiency than in 20th century America. The Federal Reserve, corporatism, and consumerism proved a winning combination for achieving what is known as The Great Fleecing.

While this brought about the largest transfer of wealth in history from the middle class to the 1 percent, through taxes it has also fueled the growth of an incomprehensible leviathan. The Pentagon alone "spends" (actually borrows from the Fed) $600 billion a year using our tax dollars to perpetuate endless war, and it's never been audited.

Heart - Black

Refugee centers in Germany have experienced 45 arson attacks in 2016, majority carried out by locals

migrants frankfurt germany
© Kai Pfaffenbach / Reuters Migrants make their way to buses to travel to a different shelter, from a temporary registration centre in the village of Schwarzenborn, northeast of Frankfurt, Germany
German police have recorded 45 cases of arson at refugee centers across the country since the start of 2016. The majority of attacks were carried out by locals living near the centers.

Holger Munch, president of the German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), revealed the alarming statistics.

"This year there have already been 45 arson cases at refugee centers," Munch said in an interview with the Funke media group.

Comment: The "war on terror," imperialism, and anti-Muslim hysteria


Pirates

Policing for profit: Civil forfeiture revenue has doubled in past twelve years

civil asset forfeiture
Among the worst violations of liberty and property brought about by the American police state is the insidious practice of civil asset forfeiture (CAF). Also known as policing for profit, CAF allows cops to seize cash, cars and other assets on the spot - with no evidence of a crime having been committed.

Police departments and other agencies keep these stolen assets, using them to buy equipment, pay salaries and for purposes simply marked as "other." The innocent victims of this theft must pay expensive legal fees just for the chance to get their cash or assets back, with no guarantee it will work.

In the latest egregious example, the Arkansas Court of Appeals approved the theft of nearly $20,000 from Guillermo Espinoza during a traffic stop, even though he was never charged with a crime and prosecutors had attempted to dismiss the case. Espinoza even provided paychecks and tax filings to show that his cash was "lawful earnings," but this did not satisfy corrupt Arkansas authorities.

The Institute for Justice (IJ) closely monitors this kind of abuse being carried out on citizens across the country. Federal, state and local authorities are all players in this racket that amounts to billions of dollars in cash and assets being seized.

Comment:


Alarm Clock

Kentucky woman says man beat her for looking too masculine — as people stood by and watched

battered ky woman
© Facebook.comBrittany N Wallace in hospital after beating.
Paintsville, Kentucky woman said that she was attacked and brutally beaten on Thursday for looking too masculine.

In a post on her Facebook timeline, Brittany Nicole Wallace wrote, "Today I was assaulted. A man assaulted me because I look like a 'dike'! He told me that he would 'beat me like the man I want to be.' He said, 'people like me make him hate the world.'"

Comment: Woman gang raped on Florida beach while other spring breakers just watch


Arrow Up

College faculty and students outraged that 'war criminal' Madeline Albright headlining graduation ceremony

Madeleine Albright
Propaganda slinging crypt keeper, Madeleine Albright
Scripps College students and faculty are protesting former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, saying they are outraged that a "war criminal" is headlining a graduation ceremony.

A number of staff members at the small liberal arts college have refused to sit on the same stage as the former diplomat during Saturday's ceremony as a sign of protest.

Faculty members published a letter in the college newspaper citing the reasons they are "outraged," focusing on Albright's long record as secretary of state and US ambassador to the UN, where she shaped policy that saw the US intervene in many disastrous overseas conflicts and "supported several policies that led to the deaths of millions of people."

Comment: 8 reasons why folks want the US diplomat Madeleine Albright in the Hague. Why stop with her?


Sheeple

Idiocracy: Yellowstone tourists put bison calf in car 'because they thought it was cold'

yellowstone_bison_calf
© Karen RichardsonSome concerned tourists in Yellowstone National Park thought a bison calf was cold and put it in their SUV on Monday.
Karen Richardson of Victor was one of several parents chaperoning a group of fifth-graders on a field trip to Yellowstone this week.

Richardson says on Monday, as students were being taught at Lamar Buffalo Ranch, a father and son pulled up at the ranger station with a bison calf in their SUV.

"They were demanding to speak with a ranger," Richardson tells EastIdahoNews.com. "They were seriously worried that the calf was freezing and dying."

Rob Heusevelet, a father of a student, told the men to remove the bison from their car and warned they could be in trouble for having the animal.

"They didn't care," Heusevelet says. "They sincerely thought they were doing a service and helping that calf by trying to save it from the cold."

Comment: Very sad and pathetic that there are people who are so disconnected from nature that they don't understand it what-so-ever!


No Entry

Insult inscribed pig's head found outside of Angela Merkel's office; manhunt underway

piggy
© Sputnik/Alexey Danichev
German police are searching for the unknown person responsible for lobbing a pig's head with an insulting inscription addressed to German Chancellor Angela Merkel at one of her constituency offices, German media reported.

The unusual "gift" was placed at the constituency office in the town of Stralsund, Focus wrote.

According to reports, the police found the animal's head on Saturday morning. Law enforcement officers have not disclosed the content of the inscriptions, but pointed out that the insulting text was personally addressed to Merkel.