Travis Gettys
Raw StoryThu, 11 Aug 2016 20:50 UTC
Austin Wilkerson
A former University of Colorado student avoided prison despite admitting he sexually assaulted a drunken woman after pretending to care for her.
Austin James Wilkerson was convicted in May of sexually assaulting a helpless victim and unlawful sexual contact, which carried a possible 12-year prison term,
reported the Daily Camera.
Boulder District Judge Patrick Butler sentenced the 22-year-old Wilkerson to 20 years to life on probation and two years in the Boulder County Jail on a program that will permit him to leave during the day to work or attend classes, and then return to jail at night.
The judge said he spared Wilkerson from prison, which prosecutors had sought, because Colorado law would have kept him there under the sex assault conviction until he was deemed fit.
"I've struggled, to be quite frank, with the idea of, 'Do I put him in prison?'" Butler said. "I don't know that there is any great result for anybody. Mr. Wilkerson deserves to be punished, but I think we all need to find out whether he truly can or cannot be rehabilitated."
Comment: This is another case of authorities going soft in their prosecution of convicted rapists. If authorities would treat the rapists in proportion to how they treat the victims, perhaps it would deter more people from committing rape. But giving lenient sentences to an "entitled liar who plays the system" just perpetuates the reality of authority figures not understanding the correct punishment for rapists.
RTWed, 10 Aug 2016 02:34 UTC
© Evan Habeeb / Reuters
After being reprimanded by a Justice Department report accusing it of having a pattern of inappropriate and discriminatory behavior, the Baltimore Police Department (BPD) has already undertaken reforms, including firing offending officers.
The 160-page report, which was made public on Wednesday, is the culmination of a yearlong investigation, and claims that BPD officers routinely conducted unlawful stops and often used excessive force in low-income black neighborhoods.
"Policing that violates the Constitution or federal law severely undermines community trust, and blanket assumptions about certain neighborhoods can lead to resentment against police," Vanita Gupta, head of the Department of Justice's (DoJ) Civil Rights Division, said at a Wednesday conference. She added that the department's "zero-tolerance" policing had little impact on reducing crime, but degraded relations between the department and the community.
Reforms that are already underway include the firing of six officers who engaged in the most serious of such violations.
"Fighting crime and having a better, more respectful relationship with the community are not mutually exclusive endeavors. We don't have to choose one or the other. We're choosing both. It's 2016," Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said.
© Getty
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been living in the Ecuadorian Embassy since 2012
Julian Assange is set to be quizzed by Swedish police over sexual assault allegations four years after entering the Ecuadorean embassy under political asylum.
The Wikileaks founder has been protected from repeated requests by the Swedish prosecutor to question him about an alleged 2010 sex attack, which he denies.
But a possible breakthrough to the impasse over his case has been revealed by the Ecuadorian attorney general who has delivered a document of agreement.
Mr Assange believes he will be taken to the United States to be quizzed over the activities of WikiLeaks if he goes to Sweden for the questioning. The 45-year-old has offered to be questioned inside the embassy but the Swedish prosecutors only recently agreed.
© heavy.com
Mary Knowlton
A 73-year-old librarian became the latest victim of police in Punta Gorda, Florida. However, her tragic death — in front of 34 people, during an officer's demonstration about police use of deadly force — is far from the, unfortunately common, tales of violence by law enforcement.
Mary Knowlton signed up to be a student in the citizen police academy hosted by the Punta Gorda Police Department, intended to show residents of the small town why and how officers do what they do.
After the group of 35 participants toured the police station and spoke with officers — a popular public relations tactic used by departments across the country amid the epidemic of police violence — Knowlton and another person decided to volunteer for a
demonstration.
To illustrate how and when officers decide to use lethal force, the officer had the two students role-play a scenario putting citizens in cops' shoes. According to
Charlotte Sun photographer, Sue Paquin, who was there to cover the event, Knowlton
played the role of a victim, while the officer played "bad guy."
Such a simulation would ordinarily not pose any danger to participants, as weapons would either be fake or empty. Not this time. When the officer fired, live ammunition hit Knowlton — several times.
The elderly wife and mother was promptly rushed to Lee Memorial Hospital, but was pronounced dead.
Comment: There is always more to a story as it unfolds.
The officer who shot Mary Knowlton, subsequently identified as Lee Coel, has a prior history of violations and excessive force before being hired by PGPD.
The weapons used (see Wink News video starting at 4:40) in demonstrations were supposed to be modified to not allow for live ammo. This particular gun had allegedly been used in demos before and the PGPD claims only blanks were available and only blanks could be used. In addition, three people have to check this weapon before use. So there is a question regarding this particular gun, its modification and the choice of ammo. Did Officer Coel use other than a modified gun? Indisputably, he used real bullets.
UPDATE 8/11/16: Police Chief Lewis
confirmed the officer was Lee Coel. He also assured the public that real guns will no longer be used during "shoot, don't shoot" exercises. "We do not have live ammunition or live weapons anywhere near the building or the room in which we're having these scenarios or these role players at all," said Sgt. Douglas Dever of the Collier County Sheriff's Office.
The weapon used in the incident was not in use among all officers, and is not similar to one that police officers are issued. "We believe that the particular caliber of the weapon used, that there were only blank rounds available to the officer,"
Coel's background:
A graduate of Broward College police academy.
A former Miramar officer with a troubled record, forced to resign at the end of 14 months.
Stripped of his gun and badge in 2013 from two complaints filed for excessive force.
Placed on administrative leave and failed to meet the department's probation period.
Committed two department policy violations.
.
As an officer of the Punta Gorda PD, he was sued for ordering his K-9 to attack an unarmed bicyclist who was riding at night without lights on his bike. Coel's report stated the man was coming at him, but dashcam video does not verify this. The dog tore into the defendant, gnawing his right side under his arm. The victim was hospitalized two weeks for severe injuries requiring surgery. The dog ate part of his armpit muscle. This case is ongoing.
Marcus Williamson
MediumThu, 02 Jun 2016 18:39 UTC
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RTThu, 11 Aug 2016 18:29 UTC
© Bobby Yip / Reuters
Rurik Jutting
A British banker accused of murdering two Indonesian women who were found mutilated in his upmarket Hong Kong apartment attended a pretrial hearing on Thursday, ahead of his October trial.
Rurik Jutting, 31, was charged with murder after two women believed to be sex workers were found dead in his home.
The former Bank of America Merrill Lynch employee appeared much thinner than in his previous public appearance last October after he was charged.
Dressed in a button down shirt and accompanied by four police officers, Jutting listened attentively at the pre-trial hearing, which was closed to the public.
RTThu, 11 Aug 2016 18:24 UTC
At least one person has been killed and 11 more injured, including foreigners, as two explosions rocked the tourist hotspot of Hua Hin in Thailand, according to local media reports.
The bombs were hidden in plant pots, some reports suggest, while others claim these were motorbike explosions. A woman selling street food died in the attacks, according to a witness on Twitter.
The blasts took place at night in the resort town, which is located nearly 200km from the capital of Bangkok. Several foreign citizens are believed to be among the injured.
© Unknown
If Obamacare enrollments continue their current trend and insurers continue to hike premiums at alarming rates then
Republicans may not have to worry about "repealing and replacing Obamacare" as it might just work itself out "naturally". The 4th open enrollment period for Obamacare begins on November 1, 2016 and industry experts are warning that another year of tepid demand from "young and healthy" Americans
could force more insurers out of the exchanges effectively marking the end of Obamacare as we know it. According to a story published by
The Hill, 11 million people bought health insurance through the exchanges for 2016 which was drastically below the Congressional Budget Office's initial projection of 21 million.
Well we're shocked!
Turns out that whole "adverse selection bias" was a real thing. So you're telling us that young, healthy people don't want to pay for insurance they know they'll never use? We guess America's youth can actually do basic math, after all. Apparently they were able to figure out they would rather take the lower tax associated with Obamacare penalties than the larger tax associated with buying a healthcare policy they'll never use. We guess Millennials are a little less enthusiastic about embracing socialism when the costs are coming out of their pockets.
Comment: Obamacare was a fraud since its very inception.
© Jefferson Seigel/NY Daily News
A dim-witted Donald Trump fan used suction cups to scale the mogul's namesake Midtown tower Wednesday in a failed bid to meet the blowhard.
The 19-year-old Virginia man evaded frustrated cops for nearly three hours in the oppressive summer heat as he clung to the side of the Fifth Ave. skyscraper "Mission: Impossible"-style.
He was eventually yanked to safety through a 21st-floor window by NYPD officers.
The daredevil started off slowly climbing the glass tower around 3:30 p.m. using handheld suction cups, ropes and a climbing harness — stunning visitors on the fourth-floor terrace as he began his ascent.
© AFP Photo/Karen Bleier
The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Financial Times have been relatively successful with paywalls because of their unique content
Paywalls were supposed to help rescue newspapers from the crisis of sinking print circulation as readers shifted to getting their news online.
But with a few exceptions,
they have failed to deliver much relief, prompting some news organizations to rethink their digital strategies.
Newspapers in the English-speaking world
ended paywalls some 69 times through May 2015, including 41 temporary and 28 permanent drops, according to a study by University of Southern California researchers.
Paywalls "generate only a small fraction of industry revenue," with estimates ranging
from one percent in the United States to 10 percent internationally, the study in July's
International Journal of Communication said.
"People are far less willing to pay for online news than for print," said USC journalism professor Mike Ananny, an author of the study.
Comment: The state of journalism today is a tragedy. On the one hand, we say good riddance: MSM is the semi-official propaganda arm of the deep state. On the other hand, the world needs real journalists, and there just isn't a system in place for good journalism to exist and thrive. John Oliver highlighted some of this recently:
Comment: This is another case of authorities going soft in their prosecution of convicted rapists. If authorities would treat the rapists in proportion to how they treat the victims, perhaps it would deter more people from committing rape. But giving lenient sentences to an "entitled liar who plays the system" just perpetuates the reality of authority figures not understanding the correct punishment for rapists.