Society's ChildS


Handcuffs

California cops beat teen for filming his parents' arrest

Christian Aguilar beating
© NBC
A visit to the LA county fair turned into a police brutality nightmare for Christian Aguilar, who was beaten and tased for doing nothing other than film police.

After Pomona Police officers beat the teen, they maliciously charged him, his parents, and the uninvolved man who filmed the boy's assault.

According to the man who filmed the beating, Robert Hansen, police confiscated his camera, arrested him, and edited the video before submitting it for the investigation.

Eventually, all charges against Hanson, Aguilar, and Aguilar's parents were dropped — but not before cops lied to cover the incident up. The video below, however, does not lie.

Heart - Black

99 year old woman facing eviction from San Francisco apartment where she has a 'lifetime' lease

iris canada eviction
An African-American woman nearing her 100th birthday could be evicted from her apartment in San Francisco over legal fees. This time the fight isn't with a real estate developer, but with her neighbors who want to convert her apartment into a condo.

Iris Canada, 99, has lived in her home for more than half a century, but she is facing eviction over $164,000 in legal fees that were accrued during a fight in housing court over a previous eviction notice. She won that case.

Demonstrators came out to support the retired nurse on Monday night, at a time when affordable housing in San Francisco is fast disappearing.

The issue for Canada is that the owners of the six-unit building on Page Street where she lives want to convert her apartment into a condominium. Over a decade ago, they formed a tenancy in common, a form of concurrent ownership in which two or more people possess the property simultaneously, while the apartments can still be sold off individually. Canada was promised that she could keep her apartment for the rest of her life, for $700 a month.

Comment: Epidemic Evictions: As rent soars, longtime San Francisco tenants fight to stay


Heart

Pope Francis calls for Catholic Church to apologize for its treatment of women and gays

Pope Francis
© Tony Gentile / Reuters
Pope Francis has publicly declared the Church should ask gay people and women for forgiveness for hundreds of years of ill treatment at its hands.

The comments were made as the Pope flew back from a visit to Armenia. Francis did not restrict them to just the LGBT community and women, adding that the Church was "turning a blind eye" to child labor and should apologize for "blessing"weapons, according to Reuters.

Francis was answering a question about a similar remark by a German cardinal regarding an apology to gay people. He reminded journalists that, according to Christian teachings, gays "should not be discriminated against. They should be respected [and] accompanied pastorally."

He went on to say: "I think that the Church not only should apologize ... to a gay person whom it offended, but it must also apologize to the poor as well, to the women who have been exploited, to children who have been exploited by [being forced to] work. It must apologize for having blessed so many weapons."

Heart - Black

Cops protect and serve family by beating the parents into the dirt

saenz family beating
An excessive force lawsuit has been filed against Rosenberg Police Department over a brutal and unnecessarily violent incident in July 2014 — partially captured on cell phone video footage.

According to the suit, as Fox26 reported, Christine and Steven Saenz had been arguing with their daughter and retreated to their vehicle, which was parked outside the daughter's home.

The daughter, hoping to keep the peace, called the police to her home. When Rosenberg PD arrived, the slight disturbance caused by the family dispute turned horribly brutal.

First, officers dragged Christine out of the car. According to the Saenz' attorney, Steven, then 58-years-old, immediately exited the vehicle upon seeing this treatment of his wife, to discuss the incident with officers.

Comment: Never call the cops for anything.


Heart - Black

Heartbreaking video shows discrimination against 'homeless looking' children

homeless girl
© global poverty project
A heartbreaking viral video by NowThis, highlighting the UNICEF #FightUnfair campaign - exposes how homeless children are treated worse than well-dressed kids - as part of a "social experiment" conducted in Tbilisi, Georgia.

According to the UNICEF website the campaign aims to give underprivileged children an opportunity:

"Every child has the right to a fair chance in life. But around the world, millions are being left behind - disadvantaged, endangered and deprived of everything they need to thrive. It doesn't need to be this way. Investing in the poorest children not only improves their lives, but also their children's lives - breaking the vicious cycle of poverty."

Attention

U.K.: Brexit vote prompts spike in racist hate crimes

hate crime
U.K. police chiefs have called emergency meetings following an explosion in hate crimes across the country. The horrifying spike in racist attacks, which have come in the wake of Britain's vote to leave the European Union, has prompted police to call for enhanced sentencing for those convicted of such disorder.

Scores of incidents of hate crime and racial abuse have been recorded since last week's Brexit vote. Attacks have included the verbal targeting of those on the street who appear visibly different, an increase in immigration rhetoric, violent assaults, and vandalism on buildings. A startling Facebook album called "Worrying Signs" has been created to document incidents in which people have allegedly been targeted with racist assaults and xenophobic comments. It includes details of attacks on Polish community centres, as well as instances of people being called "Paki's" and told to "f*ck off back to your own country."

Bullseye

Effective immediately: Pedophiles in Indonesia will be punished with castration or death

stop pedophilia
© asklegal.my President Joko
Last week, news surfaced of SC Johnson billionaire Samuel Curtis receiving a four-month prison sentence for sexually abusing his 12-year-old stepdaughter for three years. Understandably, activists were upset by the news, especially since the lenient sentence was a result of his affluent ties.

If Johnson had received the punishment reserved for child rapists in Indonesia, however, the world would have likely been too happy with with the reprimand received for his heinous crime.

As it is, only Indonesia seems to have a real understanding of the trauma inflicted upon young children when they're sexually abused - or an awe-inspiring sense of justice. This was made clear when the president of Indonesia decreed a new law which punishes child sex abusers with chemical castration and/or death.

Comment: The punishment of death or castration will not be much of a deterrent for types who are hard wired to prey on the most vulnerable. For more on this scourge and how to protect yourself and your children see: Behind the Headlines: Predators Among Us - Interview With Dr. Anna Salter


People

Number of UK residents seeking to leave country for work doubles after Brexit

brexit
The number of British residents looking for jobs abroad increased twofold in the two days after the United Kingdom's EU membership referendum was held, a report by the jobs site Indeed revealed on Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, the Irish Embassy in London urged British citizens to put off applying for Irish passports after it received some 4,000 applications on Monday, compared with the usual 200. The Canadian visa website saw a 325% spike on the day of the Brexit referendum results.

"We saw the share of job seekers looking for opportunities outside the UK in European countries doubling in the 48 hours that followed the announcement of a Brexit," a spokesman for the Indeed website, Mariano Mamertino, said, commenting on the job inquiries.

Comment: These UK residents clearly have little faith in the future of the UK's economy, but they're not the only ones! Check out:


Cross

Texas Supreme Court rules for family that refuses to educate kids while awaiting the rapture

Supreme court Texas
If you thought you were about to be Raptured away into paradise, would you bother teaching your kids about things like math, science and literature?

One Christian family in Texas has been accused of refusing to educate their nine children because they believe the Rapture is imminent — and they've just won a big case in front of the Texas Supreme Court.

Comment: Its a wonder in this fascistic day and age that the parents weren't arrested and the children not taken into 'protective custody'.


Handcuffs

U.S. immigration officials making secret deals with companies in the business of locking up families

U.S. immigrant detention center
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is striking deals with private prison companies to lock up a "guaranteed minimum" of mothers with their children in euphemistically-termed family detention centers.

The 2009 congressional mandate for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to keep a minimum of 34,000 people minimum locked up at any given time is already well-established. But a new report by the Center for Constitutional Rights and Detention Watch Network reveals that this federal quota rests, in part, on aggressive deals with companies in the business of locking up families.

"Guaranteed minimums, which appear mostly in ICE contracts with private contractors (though some exist with local governments), guarantee that ICE will pay for a minimum number of people to be detained at any given time," states the report, whose lead authors are Dawy Rkasnuam and Conchita Garcia of Detention Watch Network. "Because the government seeks to avoid paying for detention space that isn't being used, guaranteed minimums are essentially local 'lockup' quotas that influence ICE's decision-making about immigration enforcement, whether or not people will be released, where people will be detained, and ultimately, who will profit or benefit from their detention."

According to the investigation, which based its findings on documents obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests, such local quotas are "even more widespread than previously reported, covering at least 24 detention facility contracts," accounting for at least 12,821 of the 34,000 beds established by the national quota. Ninety-three percent of those beds are in privately-run detention facilities.

Comment: The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world, which is directly correlated with the rise of the highly profitable private prison system. Conditions in detention centers are barbaric; prisoners are forced to work for substandard wages (if they are paid at all), hunger and lack of medical care is common, basic sanitation is lacking and prisoners are often put into solitary confinement. Immigrants fleeing desperate conditions in their home countries have now discovered what American 'exceptionalism' actually means.