Society's ChildS


Dollars

Citibank: No significant negative impact in wake of Brexit


RT
Mon, 01 Aug 2016 16:27 UTC
citibank
© Reinhard Krause / Reuters
Citigroup has not seen any "significant negative impact" on its results or client activity in the aftermath of Britain's vote to leave the European Union, the bank said on Monday.

According to Citi's regulatory filing, market activity has increased after the UK referendum, but it still expects the operating environment to continue to be challenging.

"The result of the referendum has raised numerous uncertainties, including as to when the UK may begin the official process of withdrawal and the commencement of negotiations with the EU regarding the terms of the withdrawal," the bank stated, adding it hadn't yet faced "any significant negative impact to its results" from the vote.
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Syringe

Presidential influence: 465 drug dealers/addicts killed in Philippines in July after Duterte's call for extrajudicial killings


RT
Tue, 02 Aug 2016 16:09 UTC
Philippines
© Czar Dancel / ReutersFuneral workers carry the body of one of the five suspected drug pushers killed in a police operation in Quiapo city, metro Manila, Philippines July 3, 2016.
The Philippines president's appeal to eliminate all drug-related suspects has so far reaped a bloody harvest of hundreds of victims. The criminal world is ready to pay over $1 million for Rodrigo Duterte's head, but his popular support remains huge.

Statistics published twice a week in the national Philippine Daily Inquirer have counted 465 deaths of drug dealers, pushers and addicts, killed by vigilantes in July alone. This means that on average, 15 people have lost their lives extra-judicially every day for alleged links to drug trafficking.

Duterte, 71, launched his anti-drug campaign immediately after being sworn in on June 30.

"If you know of any addicts, go ahead and kill them yourself as getting their parents to do it would be too painful," Duterte said on July 1, a day after entering office. At the same time the president pledged to remain within the boundaries of the law.

"As a lawyer and former prosecutor, I know the limits of the power and authority of the president. I know what is legal and what is not. My adherence to due process and rule of law is uncompromising," Duterte said.

Comment: It's hard to see how Duterte squares his call for killings of this sort with the rule of law... The drug lords aren't the only ones who don't like him (to put it mildly). He's a thorn in the side of the Empire:

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Info

Hundreds join PEGIDA rally in Dresden to protest Berlin's refugee policy


RT
Mon, 01 Aug 2016 16:09 UTC
Dresden protestors
© Lutz Bachmann / YouTube
Hundreds of people have taken to the streets of the German city of Dresden to participate in an anti-immigration and anti-Islamism rally organized by the Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West (PEGIDA) movement.

Demonstrators marched through the city and gathered at the Neumarkt square in the Old Town.

The rally began at 18:30 (local time) (17:30 GMT). According to the witnesses, about 2300-2900 people joined the rally.

Participants were protesting against German Chancellor Angela Merkel's open door refugee policy and what they called the "Islamization of Europe." They also voiced discontent with the influx of Muslim migrants and refugees.
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Handcuffs

LA sheriff to face trial for county jail abuses


RT
Tue, 02 Aug 2016 16:05 UTC
Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca
© Kevork Djansezian / ReutersLos Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca
Former Los Angeles County sheriff Lee Baca will face trial on charges of lying to the FBI during an investigation into corruption and abuse at county jails. Baca had pleaded guilty in a deal with prosecutors, but the judge rejected it as too lenient.

Baca, 74, was the county sheriff from December 1998 to January 2014, when he resigned under the cloud of a federal probe into corruption and brutality by county deputies. Baca and his deputy, Paul Tanaka, were accused of lying to the FBI, hiding a Bureau informant from federal agents, and intimidating a female FBI agent involved in the investigation. Tanaka was sentenced in June to five years in prison, the maximum sentence for making a false statement to federal investigators.

In the agreement reached between Baca's lawyers and the prosecution in February, the former sheriff would have faced only six months in prison in exchange for a guilty plea. The deal was rejected last month, however, by US District Judge Percy Anderson, who said the deal "would trivialize the seriousness of the offenses," citing "the need for a just punishment, the need to deter others."

Monday's hearing was reportedly delayed until the afternoon, in hopes of hammering out another plea agreement, but nothing came of it. Rescinding his previous guilty pleas, Baca will go to trial on September 20.

Comment: Note that the punishment went from a six month plea deal to a five year sentence, not for the seriousness of abusing inmates, but because of his behavior towards the FBI.

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Heart - Black

Welsh mother jailed after filming sex abuse with 14 year old son


RT
Tue, 02 Aug 2016 15:47 UTC
gavel
A Welsh mother has been jailed for five years after filming videos of her having sex with her 14-year-old son. She then sent the videos to a cousin of hers in Pakistan, alongside indecent images of her three-year-old daughter too. Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court heard how the 36-year-old, who has not been identified, recorded the "truly shocking" pornographic clips on her mobile phone, including oral sex and other sex acts.

"The videos showed the boy rubbing her breasts and rubbing her vagina," prosecutor Ian Kolvin told the court Monday." Under instructions she gave him they are seen having sexual intercourse."

It's understood the mother-of-four recorded the videos at the request of a cousin in Pakistan, according to The Express. The videos were discovered by the woman's 13-year-old daughter when she borrowed her brother's phone during a birthday party. She forwarded the images to her iPad and then on to her father, who no longer lives with their mother.

When police seized the woman's phone, they also discovered indecent images of her three-year-old daughter. Lawyers for the woman, who appeared via video link from Eastwood Park prison in Bristol, argued that "cultural differences" had hugely impacted the direction of her client's life and that this was "completely out of character."

Comment: It is not mere 'cultural differences' that prompted this woman to abuse her son in such a horrific way. The mothering instinct is one of the strongest that exists, and clearly this drive to protect her children was either extremely twisted and warped or non-existent all together.

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Info

Anthrax outbreak? Russian biowarfare troops rushed to Arctic after at least 40 people hospitalized

Will Stewart
The Sun
Fri, 29 Jul 2016 17:35 UTC
Russian troops to Arctic

Biological warfare troops have been rushed to the Russian Arctic amid growing concerns over a serious anthrax outbreak. A total of 40 people - more than half of them children - are now hospitalised amid fears they may have contracted the deadly infection.

This follows the death of 1,200 reindeer suspected of contracting the disease after a contaminated corpse - buried at least 70 years ago - thawed because of a heatwave in the Yamal peninsula in northern Siberia.

Russian experts have blamed global warming for the prolonged high temperatures - of up to 35C - at the Tarko-Sale Faktoria camp, north of the Arctic Circle.

There were dramatic scenes as the Russian army's Chemical, Radioactive and Biological Protection Corps, equipped with masks and bio-warfare protective clothing, flew to to regional capital Salekhard on a military Il-76 aircraft to deal with the emergency.
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Pistol

Dozens of French towns to arm local police as mayor says non-lethal weapons are not enough


RT
Tue, 02 Aug 2016 15:23 UTC
French police
© Pascal Rossignol / Reuters
The terrorist attack in Nice which killed 84 people when a truck plowed through crowds celebrating Bastille Day has prompted several French mayors to arm local police. Non-lethal weapons are incapable of stopping a "crazed attacker," one mayor said.

"Along the Promenade des Anglais [in Nice] the municipal police and the national police had the same mission - to stop a crazed vehicle or murderer," said Francois Bayrou, the mayor of Pau.

"Our weapons against incivility, such as the Taser or the flash-ball, are obviously worthless in stopping a vehicle," he added, according to franceinfo.fr.

The Pau mayor has decided to give guns to some 35 municipal police officers. Bayrou noted that 75 percent of those who will be given the arms "were either in the police or in the national police or in the army, and are therefore trained in handling the weapons." All the officers are required to undergo 57 hours of training to obtain authorization.
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Info

Fear on the seas: French armed sea marshals could patrol aboard English Channel ferries


RT
Tue, 02 Aug 2016 15:17 UTC
Brittany Ferries boat
© Damien Meyer / AFP
Armed sea marshals could soon patrol aboard ferries crossing the English Channel between France and Britain as authorities anticipate further terrorist attacks.

No plan is yet in place for the introduction of armed marshals, but Brittany Ferries is said to be considering the move after conducting a security exercise in the Channel.

The exercise came in response to growing demand for greater security in France after recent terrorist attacks in Nice and Normandy forced authorities to raise the national security alert to its highest level.

French security services are one step closer to introducing sea marshals to patrol routes between Plymouth and France.
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Pistol

Terrorism fears prompt private security boom in Germany


RT
Tue, 02 Aug 2016 14:41 UTC
German security services
© Reuters
The recent terror attacks in Germany have boosted a demand for private security, Die Welt reports.

After the series of bloody attacks that shocked the country, each festival or party is now more comfortable with having an armed guard, the newspaper says.

Parties that used not to be guarded now want security. And even those that had security guards in the past ask for more.

"We've had several requests for armed guards this week. Everyone is nervous at the moment. Since the last attacks, demand has boomed," said the manager of one security firm in Bavaria.

However, requests for armed personnel are being widely rejected, as events need special permission from state authorities to provide armed guards. Such permission is rarely granted.

Comment: Germany sees record permit requests for self-defense weapons amid fears of lone-wolf attacks

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V

#ShutDownCityHallNYC: Protesters want NYPD commissioner fired over police brutality


RT
Mon, 01 Aug 2016 02:29 UTC
police brutality protest NY city hall
© wewillnotbesilent / Instagram Protesters in New York City are hoping to force City Hall to shut down until the police commissioner is fired. Other demands include reparations for victims of police brutality and re-investing the NYPD's budget in minority communities.
The all-day demonstration is being run by the Millions March NYC group, a spin-off of the Black Lives Matter movement. They are protesting against police brutality and a justice system that is not race-blind.

Million March NYC is asking Mayor Bill de Blasio to fire New York Police Commissioner Bill Bratton and end the "Broken Windows" policy, which, they say, "Frederick Douglass presciently summarized in 1845: 'The slaveowner's plan was to whip for the smallest offenses, to prevent the commission of large ones'."

They are also seeking reparations for the survivors and victims of police brutality, the money for which should come out of the NYPD's $5.5 billion budget ‒ the remainder of which would be re-invested into minority communities.


The group does not promise to remain peaceful.

Comment: "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." -- John F. Kennedy

Update:
Bratton to resign

New York Police Commissioner Bill Bratton will resign Tuesday, August 2, a day after protesters called for his ouster, city officials said. He will be replaced by Chief of Department James O'Neill.

On Monday, an all-day demonstration run by the Millions March NYC group, a spin-off of the Black Lives Matter movement, vowed to shut down city hall until Mayor Bill de Blasio fired the commissioner. They also protested against police brutality and a justice system that is not race-blind.

However, Bratton's decision to resign was made last week, the Wall Street Journal reported. It is a voluntary decision, city officials told WABC.

Administration officials had already been interviewing potential replacements for New York City's top cop, but Bratton will stay on the job until September to ease the transition to the new commissioner, according to the WSJ. Bratton is expected to rejoin the private sector after he leaves the NYPD.
The face may change, but whether the problems of NYPD brutality are addressed is entirely another matter.

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