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150+ arrested amid Bastille Day celebrations marked by tear gas and barricades

paris yellow vests bastille day
© Reuters / Pascal Rossignol
A tale of two sides: Bastille Day in Paris, July 14, 2019
Riot police and anti-government protesters faced off during Bastille Day celebrations in Paris. Dozens of people were arrested, with calls for president Emmanuel Macron to resign again being chanted out loud.

An increasing number of demonstrators flocked to the Champs Elysees avenue around midday on Sunday, setting objects alight and trying to block the iconic street with metal barricades, dustbins and other debris.

Protesters also hurled rocks and bottles at the riot-police present, who responded with tear gas. Several people were injured, reports say, without specifying numbers.

Comment: Macron's party did not go off as triumphantly as planned. Sputnik reports:
French President Emmanuel Macron was met with a less than courteous reception at the Bastille Day parade in Paris on Sunday.
macron bastille day parade
© Reuters/Charles Platiau
Macron heads Bastille day parade
As Macron arrived, driving down the Champs-Elysées in Paris to officially open the military parade which occurs annually to mark France's national day, protesters loudly booed and heckled the president from the sidewalk.

Calls of "Macron resign!" could be heard as the presidential car drove past.


By and large the parade proceeded untarnished, as Macron used the day as a pulpit to demonstrate European military cooperation, surrounded by troops from many EU countries which make up the Paris-based European Intervention Initiative.

Macron hosted a lunch following the parade with other EU leaders such as Germany's Angela Merkel, Belgium's Charles Michel, the Netherlands' Mark Rutte, and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. With the UK being represented by David Lidington, deputy to Prime Minister Theresa May.

Parallel to the lunch however, saw an enflaming of protests and demonstrations which saw violent clashes with French police. The police launched tear gas towards crowds as they chanted anti-government and anti-Macron slogans.

The protesters were not dressed in yellow vests as anyone adorned with the garment was refused entry.
protests bastille day paris
© AGence France-Presse/Getty
A protester said: 'We managed to get round security by leaving our yellow vests at home, and this allowed our protest to go ahead. It's a humiliating day for Macron'
152 people were arrested prior to the event however, according to AFP.

Twitter saw varied reactions from users.

Some expressed "solidarity" with the protestors.


Critics of Macron laughed and called the president "pompous and arrogant".


Some even compared Macron to King Louise XVI.


Others referenced recent criticisms of President Trump's decision to add tanks to his own military parade, accusing the critics of having double standards.






Handcuffs

Illinois woman gets prison for soliciting husband's murder

Jail cell
A southern Illinois woman has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for soliciting the murder of her 76-year-old husband and helping to conceal his body.

The (Carbondale) Southern Illinoisan reports that Jackson County State's Attorney Michael Carr announced last week that 55-year-old Carmen Stonemark of DeSoto pleaded guilty to solicitation to commit murder and concealment of a homicidal death.

Handcuffs

ICE releases report of illegal immigrants who allegedly committed crimes after local cops ignored detention requests

ICE raids officer
© CNN/ICE
Ice raids set to recommence in July
As the Trump administration engages in an operation to locate and deport illegal immigrants across the country, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has released a report meant to illustrate the necessity for removing those who have committed crimes.

The first of what will be quarterly "Declined Detainer Reports" details incidents from the second quarter of fiscal year 2018, where law enforcement agencies arrested undocumented immigrants, ignored ICE requests to hold them until federal authorities could pick them up, and then those individuals were arrested on new charges. The report features highlighted cases, including ones where the arrests were for rape, murder, assault, burglary, car theft, drug possession, and DUI.

Comment: The operation has begun in several major cities:
In an exclusive interview on "FOX & friends," Acting ICE Director Matt Albence said while he couldn't speak to anything specifically from an operational perspective, the overarching concern when the agency conducts any sort of enforcement operation is "the safety and security of both our officers that are conducting the operation as well as the public."

"We are doing targeted enforcement actions against specific individuals who have had their day in immigration court and have been ordered to be removed by an immigration judge," Albence told Fox News' Griff Jenkins. "We are merely executing those lawfully issued judge's orders."

Albence, who said using the term raid does everyone "a disservice," added the agency is focusing on people who had had the opportunity to make an asylum claim in front of an immigration judge and chose not to do so or didn't appear for their first hearing. The acting director added that ICE gave those individuals the opportunity back in February to arrange for an orderly process to be removed from the country, but only 3 percent of people responded to letters that were sent out.

"At this point, we have no choice but to go out and execute those lawfully-issued removal orders from an immigration judge," he told "FOX & friends."

In addition to the enforcement operation, ICE also released a report on Sunday meant to illustrate the necessity for removing those who have committed crimes.

[...]

In the cases described in the report, three of the individuals were eventually caught by ICE and removed from the U.S., one is believed to again be in law enforcement custody while ICE awaits action on a new detainer, and 12 are believed to still be at large.

In one such case, ICE said an illegal immigrant had been arrested and released 10 times by San Francisco police between February 2018 and January 2019, despite ICE issuing detainers. Each of those arrests included charges related to either burglary or a stolen vehicle.

"That individual is a one-man crime spree," Albence said on "FOX & friends."

[...]

The operation will target people with final deportation orders on 10 major court dockets, including Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and Miami. Albence said that doesn't mean arrests will be limited to certain areas. Authorities will go where their investigations lead, even if it's five states away from where the case is filed.
the meantime, some city mayors have said since the raids were first announced in June, that they will not cooperate with ICE:
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said in a statement that the city has taken steps to support immigrants families, and that ICE agents would get no assistance from the city.

"I reiterated that CPD will not cooperate with or facilitate any ICE enforcement," said the first-term mayor. "I have directed - and Superintendent [Eddie] Johnson has confirmed - that CPD has terminated ICE's access to CPD's databases related to federal immigration enforcement activities."

Meanwhile, Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser said her city "remains a proud sanctuary city, and we are committed to protecting the rights of all our immigrant families in the face of these disturbing threats."

Past raids have seen significant opposition from California, and the upcoming roundups are facing similar resistance from the blue state. Gov. Gavin Newsom called the impending removals "cruel."

"I want Californians to know they have legal rights and protections, regardless of their immigration status," said Newsom. "California is a place of refuge - that includes our schools, our courts and our hospitals and clinics. We hold certain institutions sacred and people should continue to access programs and services they need."

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti also said his city and local law enforcement wouldn't participate in the operation.

"Los Angeles will always stand with our immigrant brothers and sisters, and our law enforcement officers will never participate in these actions," Garcetti said in a statement. "No Angeleno should ever have to fear being snatched from their home or separated from their loved ones — and we are doing everything we can to provide immigrant families with the information and support they need."

Trump dismissed the opposition on Saturday, saying they were mostly "high crime" cities.

"Well some cities are going to fight it. But if you notice they're generally high crime cities, if you look at Chicago they're fighting it. If you look at other cities they're fighting it. Many of those cities are high crime cities and they're sanctuary cities," he said.
All about preserving your (illegal) voting base?


Black Cat

Two Americans killed in Somalia, but not a peep from Ilhan Omar, let alone any expression of 'outrage'

Asasay hotel bombing somalia
© Sky News
The aftermath of the attack on the Asasey Hotel in Kismayo, Somalia
At least 26 people, including two Americans, a Briton as well as Kenyans and a prominent Canadian-Somali journalist, have been killed in a car bomb and gun attack on a hotel in Somalia.

A suicide car bomber detonated outside the building where local elders and politicians were meeting, before three gunmen stormed inside and killed those left in the building.

It took security forces 11 hours to bring the overnight siege to an end, with two gunmen being killed and another captured alive, according to a regional president.

Comment: Ms. Omar is very selective about her outrage.

Some of it is good: Some of it is appalling: But the fact that she has no comment about the terrorists ravaging her home country, taking the lives of supposedly fellow citizens is telling.


Heart - Black

Researchers to look for more graves at Florida 'reform school of horrors'

University of South Florida anthropology student
© Edmund D. Fountain/Tampa Bay Times via AP, File
FILE- In this Feb. 4, 2014 file photo, University of South Florida anthropology student.
A former Florida Panhandle reform school known for horrific abuse, where the remains of 55 people were unearthed after the state shut its doors, might have more grisly mysteries underneath its grounds.

University of South Florida forensic anthropologist Dr. Erin Kimmerle will be back at the former Dozier School for Boys on Monday, the same place where she spent four years researching and unearthing the remains of boys buried on the massive 1,400-acre site in Marianna, located about 60 miles (96 kilometers) northwest of Tallahassee.

She'll lead a team on a mission to see if 27 anomalies discovered by a contractor using ground-penetrating radar on the site are likely to be human graves.

"At the end of a couple of weeks we'll have a real good sense of what's going on and hopefully that will provide some clarity. There are a lot of people really invested in that history and the men and boys who were there. It will be nice to give them some answers," Kimmerle said in a phone interview Friday.

Comment: See also: Dozens of boys' bodies discovered buried at Florida school of horrors


Arrow Down

Man shot polar bear and left its body outside his home for five months

Polar bears
© Bonnie Jo Mount
Polar bears are spending more time on land in Alaska due to diminishing sea ice.
A man has been charged with killing a polar bear and leaving the body to rot outside his home in Alaska for five months.

Christopher Gordon, 35, allegedly shot the animal dead when it ventured into his front yard to try and eat some butchered whale meat.

He then failed to report the polar bear carcass or attempt to "harvest" it for food between December 2018 and May this year.

Gordon also allowed the bear to be covered with snow, which resulted in one of its legs being ripped off by a passing snowplough.

Finally, on 22 May, he burned the carcass at the village dump in Kaktovik.

Megaphone

Detroit cops arrest their police commissioner at heated meeting over facial recognition

Detroit Police
© Reuters / Rebecca Cook
FILE PHOTO Detroit Police Officers
A police board meeting escalated when Detroit cops tackled a police commissioner to the ground and arrested him at a heated hearing where protesters demonstrated against the city's controversial facial recognition scheme.

Commissioner Willie Burton was annoyed that the Board of Police Commissioners had held secret, closed door meetings that he and the public were not allowed to attend during which an expansion of the facial recognition scheme was planned, Metro Times reports.

He attempted to call out the board on the issue at Thursday's meeting, but was told to be quiet by board chair Lisa Carter, who objected to him speaking for longer than his allotted time, and then asked that he be removed.

Comment: An official with principles standing up for the rights of the common man is a rare sight nowadays. As for facial recognition technology, that's being rolled out from the US to Australia and most people are entirely unaware:


No Entry

Police use tear gas against protesters occupying Champs Elysees

protest paris france tear gas yellow vest
© AFP 2019 / KENZO TRIBOUILLARD
Earlier in the day, a parade was held at the Champs Elysees to mark the national day, known as July 14 in France and Bastille Day abroad.

French police have used tear gas to disperse protesters who occupied the Champs Elysees hours after French President Emmanuel Macron together with European leaders took part in a military parade.

Prior to the police reaction, the protesters started destroying the barriers installed on the streets, trying to build barricades and chanting yellow vest movement slogans.

Star of David

Seeing the light? One day in occupation causes young Jews to turn against Zionism

apartheid street Israel Palestine
© gettingoffthearmchair.wordpress.com
Shuhada Street in Hebron/al-Khalil
We are as critical of the New York Times as anyone, but we need to salute the superb report in the newspaper by David Halbfinger on a liberal Zionist trip for American Jews to see the occupation. Titled, "Touring the Israeli Occupation: Young U.S. Jews Get an Unflinching View," the July 10 article offered horrifying glimpses of Palestinian conditions in Susiya and Hebron that left the young Jews staggered.

The article was about a very lukewarm tour of the occupation indeed, by the Zionist group J Street, which has very pro-Israel motivation; it wants these young people to engage in Israel advocacy, and it wants to influence the more rightwing Jewish trips to Israel, notably Birthright, to stop off in Palestine.

But the thrust of the article was that one day's exposure to the desolation of occupation caused two young Jews to question Zionism itself.

Arrow Up

Australian TV host claims his son might be the reincarnation of Princess Diana

Biilly and Diana
© Getty
Billy's uncanny statements shocked his family.
An Australian TV host has gone public with his belief that his 4-year-old son might be the reincarnation of the late Diana, Princess of Wales.

David Campbell made the stunning claim in a recent magazine column, telling readers that his son Billy says he "used to be the princess".

He initially laughed off the boy's statements but was driven to reveal them when they became more accurate as Billy began sharing details of Diana's life and tragic death.

Writing in Stellar magazine, Campbell began: "OK. This is going to be the strangest column I have ever written, so bear with me."

"Our youngest, Billy, is 4. From the age of about 2 and a half, he has shared several tales that at first seemed silly.

"He provided more information as the years went on and now we don't know what to do with it.

"You see, Billy believes he was once Princess Diana."