Society's ChildS


Sheriff

Investigation reveals Florida police entrap men to boost sex sting arrest totals

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© WTSPBut Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, when asked about over-aggressive detectives, instead went on the offensive: "The concern (I have) is that you inflate your investigative reporting to make it glitzy."
This is the first of a two-part series examining how law enforcement is blurring the lines on due process.

In the decade since Chris Hansen and "To Catch a Predator" popularized Internet sex stings, more than 1,200 men in Florida alone have been arrested, accused of preying on underage teens and children for sex.

But as the stings put more and more men behind bars, detectives are working harder and harder to keep up their arrest numbers. And the tactics they're using to put alleged sexual offenders in jail are sweeping up large numbers of law-abiding men, too.

A yearlong investigation by 10 Investigates reveals many of the men whose mugshots have been paraded out by local sheriffs in made-for-TV press conferences were not seeking to meet children online. Instead, they were minding their own business, looking for other adults, when detectives started to groom and convince them to break the law.

While detectives used to post ads suggesting an underage teen or child was available for sex, they now routinely post more innocuous personal ads of adults on traditional dating sites. When men - many of them under 25 with no criminal history - respond, officers switch the bait and typically indicate their age is really 14 or 15 years old. However, sometimes the storyline isn't switched until the men, who were looking for legal love, already start falling for the undercover agent.

According to arrest affidavits inspected by 10 Investigates, law enforcement is also now routinely making first contact with men who have done nothing wrong, responding to their ads on dating sites like PlentyOfFish.com. After men start conversing with what they think are adults, officers change the age they claim to be, but try to convince the men to continue the conversation anyway.

Propaganda

Guardian is called out for running what is clearly a racist and pro-Israel ad

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© Honestreporting.comBritain's Guardian Newspaper demonstrates a deep-seated pro-Israel bias by running a hateful and hopelessly slanted ad that other papers have rejected.
A major UK-based newspaper has come under attack for its pro-Israeli bias after publishing a widely-censured ad paid for by a Zionist group that accused Palestinian resistance group Hamas of "child sacrifice."

Britain's Guardian newspaper has been accused of pro-Israel bias after publishing a widely condemned advertisement paid for by Jewish group This World: The Values Network, which accused Hamas of "child sacrifice."

The pro-Israeli advertisement sponsored was previously run in US-based dailies, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post but had been rejected byThe Times in London.

Explaining its rejection of the controversial ad, The Times of London said, "The opinion being expressed is too strong and too forcefully made and will cause concern amongst a significant number of Times readers."

Comment: The other part of this story would seem to be about Elie Wiesel. One would think that such an individual as Wiesel who has survived the Holocaust and has written and spoken so extensively about it could recognize the IDF's atrocities in Gaza for exactly what they are. Rather than that, however, he has chosen the low road of lies, racism, apartheid, hate and genocide - all in the name of being 'pro-Israel'.


Wine n Glass

Arizona teacher showed up to school drunk a day after DUI arrest

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© KPNX-TV
An Arizona math teacher arrived drunk at her high school and hit the bottle again in the classroom, where she yelled at her students before one of the pupils alerted administrators, authorities said on Thursday.

Kathleen Jardine, 57, a teacher at Poston Butte High School faces one count of public consumption of alcohol stemming from the incident on Wednesday in the community about 35 miles southeast of Phoenix, said Sergeant Pat Ramirez, a spokesman for the Pinal County Sheriff's Office.

Ramirez said a student called the main office to alert them that Jardine appeared drunk and was yelling at the students.

An on-site sheriff's deputy responded and he could tell she was "extremely intoxicated," police said.

Later, a school security officer found in her classroom a half bottle of vodka, an empty single-serving bottle of white wine and a half-empty bottle of an orange drink, police added.

Eye 2

Utah man wearing headphones gunned down by police after not complying with orders

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Police shot and killed a 20-year-old Monday who was wanted for probation violation, but the man's brother said he was wearing headphones and could not hear officers' orders.

Officers were called about 7 p.m. to a 7-Eleven store in Salt Lake City after witnesses reported a man waving a gun around.

Dillon Taylor was walking out of the convenience store with his brother and cousin when officers arrived, and police said Taylor matched a description of the suspect.

Three officers said they ordered Taylor to reveal his hands, but they said he ignored their commands and was "visibly upset."

Taylor was then shot by police and was pronounced dead at the scene.

V

Bill O'Reilly criticized by Russell Brand over Ferguson protest coverage

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© Reuters / Gus Ruelas
British comedian Russell Brand took to his online series The Trews to criticize Bill O'Reilly of Fox News for insisting that protesters angry over the death of unarmed teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson are not letting justice take its course.

On the latest episode of The Trews, Brand performed running commentary of a recent O'Reilly segment where the Fox News host begins by saying the death of Brown, 18, at the hands of a police officer "is now being investigated by state and local authorities, but that hasn't stopped rioting and looting in the area."

"I like that immediate implication," Brand said, mimicking police: "We're investigating! You can stop rioting and looting!"

"The police shot and killed an unarmed teenager, what's there's to investigate?" Brand added, comparing the killing of Brown to the slaying of Trayvon Martin, both African American teens who have become emblems of "larger social unrest."


Sheriff

Ferguson police identify Michael Brown shooter as Officer Darren Wilson

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Michael Brown
Authorities named Darren Wilson as the police officer who killed an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri last weekend, saying the officer had a good record and the incident came in the aftermath of a robbery in which the teen was a suspect.

Wilson, who shot and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown on Saturday afternoon outside an apartment complex, had served six years on the force and had a good record, Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson said at a news conference Friday.

Jackson said there had been a report of a robbery of cigars in a convenience store in the area a few minutes before Wilson encountered Brown walking down the street near an apartment complex. The robbery suspect had been described as a black male wearing a white T-shirt, according to police records Jackson released Friday.

The deadly interaction was swift: Jackson said Wilson encountered Brown at 12:01 p.m. and had shot him by 12:04 p.m.

Bad Guys

The Michael Brown shooting: What you're not being told

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StormCloudsGathering weigh in on the murder by cops of unarmed teenager Michael Brown...


Comment: In the wake of the tragic shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, there has been widespread protesting. As people continue to stand their ground and express their outrage at yet another example of police brutality, the police have reacted as can be expected: they have responded with more police brutality and intimidation.

Fed by the military-industrial complex, even small, local police forces have been beefed up to the extreme with 21st century military technology. And now that they have it, they fully intend to use it.

The above is an excellent, yet brief, compilation of the events that led to Mike Brown's murder. It puts the tragedy within a perspective of the larger systems in which innocent people die, the people's will is smashed, and America seems further ground into the dust.

For further reading:

Social media used to illustrate mainstream media bias towards minorities in police shooting of Michael Brown

Militarized Police: St. Louis County police were supplied with military grade weapons by Pentagon during Ferguson protests

FBI opens civil rights investigation into shooting death of unarmed teenager Michael Brown by police


Sheriff

Best of the Web: Goon cops have gone wild all over America

police confrontation
© unknown
Ferguson, Mo. is a small overwhelmingly black town whose government and police are white. The Ferguson police murdered an 18 year old black kid who has his hands over his head. Moreover, it is unclear that the kid had committed any offense. If you take a look at the photo of the three goon thugs pointing military rifles in his face at point blank range, any one of the over-sized goons unarmed could have restrained the small kid.

So what did the police goons do? They shot him to death.

This is murder. There is no question whatsoever that it is murder. But it will be covered up by the white government and the white police force if protests are limited to the black small town population of Ferguson. Who cares about them? Justice? That's only for the mega-rich.

Comment: Also see: Police are more dangerous to citizens than criminals


Handcuffs

13 cops brutally arrest 15 year old girl because one officer thought he 'smelled weed'

police brutality
Injuries Sustained by a 15-year-old girl inflicted by police.
Residents of the Countryside mobile home park in Fargo, ND have expressed concerns over racial profiling and police misconduct for some time. A recent cellphone video has captured a brutal example of this misconduct.

On July 25th, 2014 at 11:30 PM a 15 year old girl was sitting in a car in front of her sister's house, charging her phone when 2 Fargo police officers approached her and accused her of smoking marijuana.

After telling the officers that she was actually charging her phone and not smoking marijuana, the 15-year-old was then violently dragged from the car.

According to the People's Press Project, the girl explained that when officers removed her from the car they caused,
excruciating pain to her arms and wrists, which she said were pulled too forcefully and too far up, and to her wrists which she said were handcuffed too tightly causing her circulation to be cut off. The 15 year old girl also stated that during the violent and painful arrest, her head was repeatedly pounded into the hood of the parked car outside her sister's house, then they wrestled her to the ground with additional officers who arrived on the scene, (4 participating in the arrest and 13 officers in total), hog tied her and put her in the back seat of a squad car.

Bomb

Gaza: IDF has wiped whole villages off the map

Gaza suffering
© unknown
I'm writing now from my home, but I still feel dizzy from shock and nauseated by the sights and smells on my visit to Khan Younis and Khuza'a.

Yesterday I decided to use the opportunity of the ceasefire to visit my family in Khan Younis. I especially wanted to see my sister who had open heart surgery before Israel's assault. I hadn't seen her for 36 days. I'm lucky that I have enough fuel in my car to drive 24 kilometers (15 miles) so I struck out towards the south.

I drove down Salaheddin Road and passed rubble from mosques, houses, and factories. Some buildings were destroyed completely and some partially. Later on in my drive, I saw dozens of big trees uprooted and smashed, fruit trees destroyed and farms and gardens decimated and ruined. The Israeli bombs were aimed to destroy the infrastructure, to destroy Gaza's economy. Even the main cookie factory was targeted and destroyed.

I passed UN trucks distributing food to people in long lines. This siege and assault by the Israelis has made everyone in the Gaza Strip live as a refugee, missing basic needs and struggling to survive.