Society's ChildS


Sheriff

Cop who was fired after testing positive for cocaine after killing rape suspect could be charged

Travis Gettys
Raw Story
Thu, 12 Feb 2015 21:52 UTC
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© Tribune ReviewFormer Allegheny County Sherrif's Detective Richard Dwyer
A Pennsylvania sheriff's deputy could be charged with manslaughter if investigators determine he was high on cocaine when he shot and killed a rape suspect last month.

Richard Dwyer was fired by the Allegheny County sheriff after he tested positive for cocaine shortly after he and a U.S. Marshal fatally shot Leslie Sapp as they attempted to arrest him Jan. 6 at his Knoxville home, reported the Tribune-Review.

The 44-year-old Dwyer fired at least one of the seven shots that struck Sapp, who was accused of sexually assaulting a young girl.

Prosecutors said Sapp took a shooting stance with what was later found to be a pellet gun as deputies and members of a U.S. Marshals task force attempted to take him into custody.

Dwyer could be charged if investigators are able to determine his cognitive abilities were impaired at the time of the shooting.

"If an officer is under the influence of drugs and it affects his cognitive skills, and somehow this person is dead because he didn't act properly because of the drugs, that could be involuntary manslaughter," said District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr.

Drug tests are part of the standard investigative procedure during officer-involved shootings.
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Eye 2

Chapel Hill shooter Craig Stephen Hicks had ongoing parking dispute with victims


CBS News
Thu, 12 Feb 2015 21:18 UTC
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© AFP Photo/Sara D. DavisCraig Stephen Hicks sits in the Durham County courtroom for his first appearance in the shooting deaths of three University of North Carolina students on February 11, 2015.
Police say that an ongoing dispute over parking may have led a triple murder on Tuesday night, but CBS affiliate WRAL reports that the local prosecutor is not ruling out the possibility that the shooting was a hate crime. All three victims were reportedly Muslim.

Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, has been charged with first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23, his wife, Yusor Mohammad, 21, and her sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19.

Sources told WRAL that all three victims were shot in the head.

Comment: Killing over a parking dispute? This is purely a hate crime despite what Hicks' wife claims:
The wife of alleged Chapel Hill shooter Craig Stephen Hicks may have defended her husband in the wake of the murder of three Muslim students Tuesday, but Karen Hicks is now seeking a divorce from the suspect, according to a report from the Associated Press. After saying her husband "champions the rights of others," Hicks released a statement through her lawyer saying that she was divorcing Craig, who many believe targeted the students because of his anti-religion views.

Hicks, who had been married to the alleged shooter for seven years, told reporters Wednesday that the shooting had "nothing to do with religion" but was related to a long-standing parking dispute with the victims, CBS reported. Her lawyers also asserted that the suspect, 46, was a "champion of Second Amendment rights" who "believed everyone is equal."

Hicks is accused of murdering Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23, his wife, Yusor Mohammad, 21, and her sister Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19. The three were found shot dead in their apartment in the condominium complex where Hicks also lives. The killings have sparked outrage among people who view it as a possible bias attack based on Hicks' social media postings expressing anti-religion views.

"When it comes to insults, your religion started this, not me," Hicks wrote in a post on his Facebook page, according to the Raleigh News and Observer. "If your religion kept its big mouth shut, so would I. But given that it doesn't, and given the enormous harm that your religion has done in this world, I'd say that I have not only a right, but a duty, to insult it, as does every rational, thinking person on this planet." The father of the female victims said he believes the students were targeted for their Muslim faith and that his daughters had previously told him that Hicks "hates us for what we are and how we look," the News and Observer reported.

Cynthia Hurley, the suspected shooter's ex-wife, told the AP that prior to their divorce 17 years ago, his favorite movie was "Falling Down," a 1993 film about a divorced unemployed engineer who goes on a shooting rampage. "That always freaked me out. He watched it incessantly. He thought it was hilarious. He had no compassion at all," she said.


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Eye 2

Man fatally shot by police for throwing rocks

Shamar Walters
NBC News
Thu, 12 Feb 2015 21:15 UTC
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The death of Antonio Zambrano-Montes at the hands of police has sparked protests.
Police in Washington fatally shot a man who was throwing rocks at them, officials confirmed Wednesday, as purported footage of his death sparked protests and online anger.

Officers responded to a busy intersection Tuesday after receiving reports that a man was throwing rocks at vehicles, according to Police Chief Bob Metzger of the Pasco Police Department.

Metzger said Antonio Zambrano-Montes threw at least one "softball size" rock and did not respond to the officers' orders to put down the projectiles. He said officers deployed a Taser, but that it had no effect on Zambrano-Montes.

Police said Zambrano-Montes was pronounced dead on the scene and identified the officers as Ryan Flanagan, Adam Wright, and Adrian Alaniz. The shooting is under investigation and the officers have been placed on administrative leave, according to the statement.


Comment: That police chose to fire in a crowded intersection at a man who was simply throwing rocks is unconscionable. As the cousin of the victim says, there are other ways of dealing with this than simply killing the man. As the video shows, the man was running away from the police and was unarmed. The officers who murdered this man should be fired, charged, and jailed for cold-blooded murder.

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Padlock

U.S. jail system full of poor, mentally ill, non-violent and drug-addicted detainees


RT
Wed, 11 Feb 2015 19:53 UTC
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© Reuters/Tony Gentile
Local jails in the US are full of poor, mentally ill and drug-addicted detainees accused mostly of minor violations, and they have been jailed for longer periods over the past 30 years given their inability to pay court-ordered fines, a new report says.

According Vera Institute of Justice's new report, "Incarceration's Front Door: The Misuse of Jails in America," there are, on any given day, about 731,000 people held in America's 3,000 local and county jails - nearly 20 times the number of annual admissions to state and federal prisons.

Even though both violent and property crimes in the US are down 49 and 44 percent, respectively, from peak levels more than 20 years ago, the annual numbers of those jailed has doubled since 1983, to 11.7 million, many of whom are repeat offenders.

The study found that those incarcerated in local jails are spending an increasing amount of time in jail, staying there from 14 days to 23 days given bond requirements that are out of their financial reach. Three out of five people there have not been convicted of a crime but are too poor to post bail while their cases are processed.

The overwhelming majority of jailed pretrial detainees and sentenced offenders are in for nonviolent infractions, such as traffic, property, drug or public order infractions.

"Underlying the behavior that lands people in jail, there is often a history of substance abuse, mental illness, poverty, failure in school, and homelessness," the study found.

The report echoes typical grievances surrounding the US police-court-prison mass incarceration system, which has received heightened scrutiny since the fatal police shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., last August.

On Feb. 8, lawsuits were filed against Ferguson and Jennings, another St. Louis suburb, alleging systems akin to a modern debtors' prison. The mass of excessive fines and jailings over minor offenses issued in those cities, they argued, amount to a "municipal scheme designed to brutalize, to punish and to profit."

The new study also focused on the disproportionate amount of people of color within the local jail system.

Comment: The prison-industrial complex profits by keeping prisons full. Most of the prisons and jails in the U.S. are outsourced to mega-corporations who are concerned about profits not rehabilitation. The way the police state is progressing in our society, with the restrictions on our freedoms, there is not, and will not be much difference between being locked up and living in society.

The prison state of America

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Stock Up

Why public banks outperform private banks and how the private banks intend to destroy them

Ellen Brown
Web of Debt Blog
Tue, 10 Feb 2015 10:00 UTC
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© Unknown

Public banks in North Dakota, Germany and Switzerland have been shown to outperform their private counterparts. Under the TPP and TTIP, however, publicly-owned banks on both sides of the oceans might wind up getting sued for unfair competition because they have advantages not available to private banks.

In November 2014, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Bank of North Dakota (BND), the nation's only state-owned bank, "is more profitable than Goldman Sachs Group Inc., has a better credit rating than J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and hasn't seen profit growth drop since 2003." The article credited the shale oil boom; but as discussed earlier here, North Dakota was already reporting record profits in the spring of 2009, when every other state was in the red and the oil boom had not yet hit. The later increase in state deposits cannot explain the bank's stellar record either.

Then what does explain it? The BND turns a tidy profit year after year because it has substantially lower costs and risks then private commercial banks. It has no exorbitantly-paid executives; pays no bonuses, fees, or commissions; has no private shareholders; and has low borrowing costs. It does not need to advertise for depositors (it has a captive deposit base in the state itself) or for borrowers (it is a wholesome wholesale bank that partners with local banks that have located borrowers). The BND also has no losses from derivative trades gone wrong. It engages in old-fashioned conservative banking and does not speculate in derivatives.

Lest there be any doubt about the greater profitability of the public banking model, however, this conclusion was confirmed in January 2015 in a report by the Savings Banks Foundation for International Cooperation (SBFIC) (the Sparkassenstiftung für internationale Kooperation), a non-profit organization founded by the the Sparkassen Finance Group (Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe) in Germany. The SBFIC was formed in 1992 to make the experience of the German Sparkassen - municipally-owned savings banks - accessible in other countries.

Comment: Is there an area of public interest that the Obama administration hasn't tried destroying yet?

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Bug

Florida man sexually assaults six-year old; claims it's her fault it happened


NBC Miami
Wed, 11 Feb 2015 06:31 UTC
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Andres Bartolome Juan
Authorities say they've arrested a South Florida man who admitted to sexually assaulting a 6-year-old girl but claimed it was the child's fault.

The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office reports that 23-year-old Andres Bartolome Juan was arrested Saturday and charged with two counts of sexual assault.

The girl told detectives that she had been riding her bike outside her Lake Worth apartment Jan. 31 when she went into the laundry room. That's where the girl says Juan assaulted her twice, according to reports. The attack was interrupted when the girl's mother found her bike unattended and began calling out for her.

The girl ran out the laundry room "with a panicked look on her face," the report said. The girl's mother went inside the laundry room and found Juan trying to exit through a back window. His belt was unbuckled, his pants open and his zipper down, the mother told detectives.

The Palm Beach Post reports that a neighbor later identified Juan to detectives. A resident in the apartment where Juan once lived told detectives that Juan came to him and said, "I touched the little girl."

While a DNA swab sample was being obtained from Juan, he told a detective: "It's [the girl's] fault this happened," according to the report.

Comment: Such horrendous sex crimes against children is a global epidemic. The best defense we have to protect ourselves and our children is to learn more about how these predators operate. The book: Predators: Pedophiles, Rapists, and Other Sex Offenders, Who They Are, How They Operate, and How We Can Protect Ourselves and Our Children written by psychologist Anna Salter is invaluable in exposing and understanding these predators. As Dr. Salter says: "Knowing how they think and act and operate is the only protection we have." You can listen to our interview with Dr. Salter here.

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USA

America's colleges have become political correctness indoctrination centers

Michael Snyder
End of the American Dream
Mon, 09 Feb 2015 18:45 UTC
Zombies
© endoftheamericandream.com
Most parents assume that when they send their kids to college that they will receive training which will prepare them for a lifetime of employment. Sadly, the truth is that very little time is actually spent imparting practical skills to students at most of America's colleges. Instead, an extraordinary amount of classroom time is spent telling students what they should think and what they should believe.

At this point, most institutions of "higher learning" in this country have been transformed into political correctness indoctrination centers. There is a reason why college towns have a reputation for being extremely liberal. The truth is that they are bastions for "progressive" thought. Each and every day, millions of young adults all across America are literally being systematically brainwashed.

In case you are wondering, I know what I am talking about. I spent eight years getting three degrees at public universities. And it doesn't even really matter what area of the country you attend school. The "education" that students are receiving at schools in very liberal states is virtually the same as the "education" that students are receiving at schools in very conservative states.

Our young adults represent the future of this nation, and they are receiving a level of indoctrination that is so comprehensive that it would make Joseph Goebbels proud.

Colleges and universities all across this nation spend an extraordinary amount of time and effort to alter the belief systems of their students. This even extends to teaching them what words are "appropriate" to use and which words are not. For example, just check out what is happening at the University of Michigan...
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Shoe

Record number of Americans renounce citizenship due to FATCA


Sputnik
Wed, 11 Feb 2015 18:19 UTC
FACTA
While the debate over undocumented immigrants in the US dominates the political landscape, a record number of Americans are pursuing the American Dream abroad.

According to the Treasury Department, around 3,415 Americans renounced their citizenship in 2014, up from 2,999 in 2013 and more than three times the number in 2012.

The reason is: FATCA provisions.

The law also requires foreign banks to report Americans with accounts over $50,000. Non-compliant banks will be frozen out of US markets, so all banks are complying.

Comment: It seems that the Obama administration is using financial terrorism to force foreign governments and financial institutions to become branches of the NSA and collect financial data on both U.S. citizens abroad and foreign nationals in their own country, while protecting US politicians and their corporate cronies who, generally speaking, pay no tax at all. See:

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Light Saber

A line in the sand: When Ukrainians choose not to die in a war

Dmitry Kolesnik
The Left
Mon, 09 Feb 2015 05:31 UTC
ukraine anti-conscription
Anti-conscription rally in village of Dneprovka, Zaporizhye region of Ukraine, Feb 2, 2015
"Imagine all the people, living life in peace." Maybe John Lennon's famous musical lyric can be called naive, but it's a hopeful vision all the same. Antiwar protests, mass soldier desertions, refusal to serve and fight in defiance of government orders and repression - these have stopped many wars once people decide there is nothing righteous in killing their fellow humans.

The current war situation in eastern Ukraine and the decision of the government in Kyiv to begin a new, fourth wave of military conscription and mobilization is unleashing a firestorm of mass opposition and refusal to fight. Protest is rising in all the regions of the country. For sure, there are still nationalist fanatics and far-right militarists exercising violence and intimidation against antiwar protests, but their capacity to stamp out protest is diminishing.

Ukraine is historically a peaceful nation. For some time now, it has avoided military conflicts like those that have flared elsewhere in eastern Europe - Yugoslavia, Georgia, etc. That came to a crashing end last year when the Kyiv government launched its 'anti-terrorist operation' against the people in the east of the country. But from the beginning of the conflict, Ukraine has seen refusals by soldiers to fire on their fellow citizens, desertions from the army and refusals to show up for conscription. Women - the mothers, wives, sisters and daughters of military conscripts - have held protests and even riots against the war or against force military service.

The protests have been sparked, first of all, by the fact that many Ukrainians do not accept the interpretation of the war as offered by the government. They don't necessarily see foreign (ie Russian) aggression. They only know that when a Ukrainian soldier lifts his gun or artillery barrel, it is a compatriot, a fellow Ukrainian, who appears in the gunsight.

Secondly, many people don't want to die for the current government which they view as composed of extreme nationalists and neoliberals. They are unwilling to be cannon fodder dying for the interests of Ukrainian oligarchs whose only apparent interest is to pursue a civil war, siphon Western financial aid and suppress opposition to their rule. A young woman recently voiced this sentiment searingly at a rally held in her village in south-central Ukraine.
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Pistol

Missing from mainstream news: 3 Muslims gunned down in N. Carolina


RT
Wed, 11 Feb 2015 15:37 UTC
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© Photo from facebook.comDeah Shaddy Barakat, 23, his wife, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, 21, and her sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19, all three of whom were killed in Tuesday's shooting.
Three members of a Muslim family in North Carolina's university town of Chapel Hill were gunned down in their home. What some are alleging was a hate crime has sparked grief and anger in the US and beyond.

The victims in the triple homicide have been identified as Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23, his wife, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, 21, and her sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19.

Police responded to a call about gunshots in the family's apartment complex at 5:11 pm Tuesday. The discovered the bodies of the victims, all of whom were pronounced dead at the scene.

Comment: This is absolutely tragic! Such a senseless act on good people doing good for the neighborhood and being gunned down for no reason. An inconceivably mindless act! This is pure evil folks.

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