Society's ChildS


Handcuffs

Mayor who promised to "restore dignity and never embarrass the community" arrested on child porn charges

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© State's Attorney General's OfficeWilson Longanecker, Jr.
The former mayor of Sorrento, Louisiana faces 40 counts of possession of child pornography after he was unable to dispose of the material while police were raiding his home, The Advocate reports.

Wilson Longanecker, Jr. entered office promising to "restore dignity," saying that he would never do anything that would "embarrass this community."

Less than a year after being elected, however, he stopped going to his office, citing a medical procedure - but he also stopped responding to emails, phone calls, and text messages. After five months, Randy Anny - the man Longanecker, Jr. beat in the election by a single vote - had to step in and act as mayor pro tem in order to manage the city's finances.

Dereliction of duty became the least of Longanecker, Jr.'s problem on Thursday, however, when investigators with a multiagency child pornography task force raided his home and discovered 40 videos depicting children between the ages of 3 and 14 engaged in sexual activities.

Longanecker, Jr. attempted to destroy the material while the investigators were collecting it, the Louisiana Attorney General's Office said, so he will also be charged with at least one count of obstruction of justice.

He faces between five and 20 years in prison, as well as a fine of $50,000, for each count if convicted.

"Crimes like this illustrate how important it is to actively, aggressively pursue those who exploit our children," Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell said in a statement.

Quenelle

Russell Brand admits to being 'open-minded' about U.S. government being behind 9/11 attacks

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© Newsnight
In an interview on BBC2, comedian/activist Russell Brand stated that he is "open-minded" to the idea that the U.S. government was behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

During the interview with Newsnight's Evan Davis, Brand called the relationship between the families of former US president George Bush and the al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden "interesting," reports The Independent.

Brand who is currently promoting his latest book, Revolution, was asked by Davis about references Brand made in the book to the 9/11 attacks that resulted in over 3,000 deaths.

Brand refused to rule out the possibility that the American government was behind the attacks, while accusing the BBC of pushing an "anti-Islamic narrative" during its coverage of the attack on the Canadian parliament by a gunman.

Eye 2

Conman stole thousands from neighbor with dementia then faked a coma for two years to avoid trial

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Let's pretend: Alan Knight in a 'coma' pictured with his wife Helen
He claimed to be a quadriplegic so ill he would frequently slip into a coma.

But when a judge saw video pictures of Alan Knight shopping in Tesco and driving across the Severn Bridge, he was unmasked as a callous fraudster.

Knight stole £41,000 from an elderly neighbour then spent two years pretending to be too sick to stand trial.

At Swansea Crown Court today, where the 47-year-old admitted 19 counts of forgery, fraud and theft, he appeared in a wheelchair and neck brace, only to be told by an unimpressed Judge Paul Thomas: "You should see the videos".

Knight, of Sketty, Swansea, who was living on benefits, claimed to be caring for next-door neighbour Ivor Richards who was suffering from dementia.

But DC Paul Harry, lead officer in the case, speaking after Knight's guilty pleas, said he systematically "drained" Mr Richards' accounts using cheques and withdrawals and taking money from Mr Richards' shares, spending the cash on "a nice caravan" and holidays in places like Dorset and Cardigan.

Knight even admitted writing out a false will with him as the beneficiary, claiming it had been written by Mr Richards, who is now aged 85 and being cared for in a nursing home.

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Star of David

Gilad Atzmon: On cognitive partitioning

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Acclaimed Israeli saxophonist Gilad Atzmon, author of The Wandering Who? -A Study of Jewish Identity Politics, offers a theory of cognitive ability distribution to explain Zionism, Jewishness, anti-semitism, and identity politics generally. September 29, 2014 video by Joe Friendly

Stormtrooper

'IDF don't see Palestinian people as people, children as children'

Isreal-soldiers
© Reuters / Yannis Behrakis
Israeli troops serving in the occupied West Bank see Palestinians not as humans, and when they are ordered to arrest someone, it does not matter whether it is a child or an elderly person, former IDF soldier Nadav Bigelman, told RT's In the Now show.

On Sunday the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) arrested an 11-year-old mentally ill Palestinian boy living in the outskirts of Hebron, a Palestinian town in the West Bank, a video revealed by Israeli rights group B'Tselem revealed. The teenager was arrested for throwing rocks at military vehicles.


Black Cat

SWAT team cop kills suicidal man after "talks failed"

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A Roy, Utah man, Jose Calzada, 35, placed a call to a suicide prevention hotline at 4:00 a.m. Tuesday morning and threatened to kill himself, seven hour later he was shot and killed by police, according to law enforcement.
Authorities in Roy, Utah are investigating a 35-year-old man's shooting death at the hands of a police SWAT team hours after he phoned a suicide prevention hotline seeking help.

KTVX-TV reported that Jose Calzada called the hotline around 4 a.m. on Tuesday threatening to kill himself inside the home he shared with his girlfriend and her children.

Shortly afterwards, dispatchers in Weber County sent the officers to the residence. The other residents in the home left after the call was placed.

A police spokesperson, Detective Matthew Gwynn, told KTVX that a SWAT negotiator spoke with Calzada for about seven hours before the talks "failed." He was shot and killed around 11:15 a.m.

Comment: The lesson here is: whatever you do, don't call the police.

Police are more dangerous to citizens than criminals


Arrow Down

Profits rule over safety: US opposes nuclear safety proposal

nuclear plant
© AFP Photo / Toru Hanai
The United States is reportedly trying to fend off an attempt out of Switzerland to change a multi-national nuclear safety agreement in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan.

Reuters and Bloomberg News both reported this week that Swiss officials are seeking addendums to the 77-nation Convention on Nuclear Safety, or CNS, so that countries around the globe are compelled to upgrade energy facilities in hopes of preventing fallout like the one spawned by the Fukushima meltdown more than three years ago.

But while Reuters says the Swiss-led initiative is tentatively being backed by other European countries, the newswire alleges that energy officials in the US, Russia and Canada are all opposed to the measure, which would likely increase industry costs.

Comment: It's unsurprising that the US opposes this proposal as corporate profits always take the lead over the health and safety of the populace. As Chris Hedges wrote:
The goals of corporate capitalism are increasingly indistinguishable from the goals of the state. The political and economic systems are subservient to corporate profit. Debate between conventional liberals and conservatives has been replaced by empty political theater and spectacle. Corporations, no matter which politicians are in office, loot the Treasury, escape taxation, push down wages, break unions, dismantle civil society, gut regulation and legal oversight, control information, prosecute endless war and dismantle public institutions and programs that include schools, welfare and Social Security. And elected officials, enriched through our form of legalized corporate bribery, have no intention of halting the process.



Stop

Two dead from high school shooting in Washington state; shooter identified as Jaylen Rey Fryberg

Two students at a Washington state high school are reportedly dead after one of them opened fire early Friday.
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© Screenshot from AP video
Emergency calls were made late Friday morning local time at around 10:45 a.m. by individuals reporting a suspected shooting at Marysville-Pilchuck High School.

Around 75 minutes later, Marysville Police Commander Robert Lamoureux told reporters: "We are confirming that there is one deceased, and that is the shooter."

CNN and CBS have since reported that at least two people have died, including the suspected shooter. Dr. Joanne Roberts, the chief medical officer at Providence Hospital, told King 5 News that three students were at the facility in critical condition following the shooting.

Heart - Black

Psychopathic war criminals: Shocking video shows Ukranian forces executing three civilians and throwing them into a mass grave

Ukraine execution
This video was provided by NAF. They had captured a vehicle, belonging to Donbass National Guard battalion. The vehicle had a dashboard camera, where a recording of a massacre of civilians was found. In it you can see people in uniform waiting in the dark in a countryside by a makeshift grave. When the second car arrives, a banderite greeting is exchanged: "Glory to Ukraine!" - "Glory to heroes!" (This is also a code for telling your own from the enemy.) Then you can hear a person inside the car shouting "F$%ken dogs!" at the captured, while trying to get them out of the car. Three people are dragged out of the car and thrown into a mass grave, two males and one female. You can see the flashes of gunfire in the dark, after which the executioners shout "Glory to Ukraine! Glory to heroes" three times.

As we know, multiple mass graves have been found on the territory formerly occupied by Ukrainian forces.

Kristina Rus


Comment: Remember this horrific scene the next time you hear a US spoke person claim that these neo-nazi criminals are somehow the victims of Russia. The only victims in this drama are the people of Ukraine who did not ask for a fascist takeover of their government, in particular those in the East who dared to opt out of such madness and who are now the subject of such brutality.


Pistol

Ad campaign depicts African-American children in bulletproof vests

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© Twitter/@Dreamdefenders
A public-service ad campaign in Florida, which depicts African American children in bulletproof vests, is urging voter participation to encourage the election of candidates who support repeal of the state's stand-your-ground gun law.

The "Vest or Vote" campaign, pushed by social justice organization The Dream Defenders, includes a billboard in Tallahassee, the state capital, and online ads that will appear on Facebook and Twitter. Dream Defenders said the campaign wants to put the state's loose gun laws - and their impact on communities of color - front and center.
Sale on bulletproof vests for kids! Pick yours up today! Visit http://t.co/mKHWBsh24z or call 1-800-462-2405 pic.twitter.com/0zmt1ASZgd

- The Dream Defenders (@Dreamdefenders) October 14, 2014
"In November, Florida's voters will be faced with the question first posed by Malcolm X, 'the ballot or the bullet,'" Ciara Taylor, political director for Dream Defenders, said in a statement reported by Ad Week. "That dichotomy is what this election is ultimately about."

The billboard mimics a clothing ad such as those one might associate with H&M or Gap, according to The BRPR Group, a Miami advertising agency that worked on the campaign. In the ad, an African American child is shown with arms outstretched, showing off a black bulletproof vest, called in the ad "The Dream Vest."