Society's ChildS


TV

Shock and awe? Reporters allowed into apartment of suspects in San Bernardino shootings

CNN San Bernardino
© CNN
A baffling, surreal scene just played out on the two networks, where the landlord of the San Bernardino shooting suspects apparently allowed reporters into their apartment.

The result was disturbing. On live national television, reporters sifted through the remains of the lives of Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik. They picked over children's toys. They held up photos, speculating about whether the woman depicted in one might be Malik. They displayed Social Security cards and driver's licenses with readily identifiable information—and not just for the deceased suspects:


As if the journalistic irresponsibility of baselessly speculating while holding up images of potentially innocent people on TV wasn't bad enough, it beggars belief the scene wasn't taped off and guarded. Reporters were given free rein to walk through an apartment that is an important part of the investigation, and they were allowed to handle what one would expect to be evidence. Police didn't appear to know the media tour was going on. Brian Ries of Mashable reports:


However, an NBC spokeswoman said the tour was approved by the FBI:


Comment: What a perfect distraction from Russia's expose of Turkey and their relationship with ISIS.


Bad Guys

San Francisco cops gun down man in Bayview area; 15 bullets, point-blank range for 1 kitchen knife

Mario Woods
© San Francisco Examiner/Courtesy of familyMario Woods
A group of San Francisco policemen cornered a 26-year-old man and opened fire on him at point-blank range, riddling his body with 15 shots Wednesday afternoon. The killing, graphically depicted in a video posted on Instagram, took place in the Bayview section of the city, one of its poorest neighborhoods. The video can be viewed here.

The victim, later identified as Mario Woods, 26, was armed only with a kitchen knife, which he held onto despite being pepper-sprayed and shot with beanbag ammunition. Woods was making no move to attack police, and can be seen in the video backing away and raising his hands in front of him as though in self-defense.

Woods is backed into a wall by at least a half-dozen cops, all with guns drawn. He attempts to sidle along the wall to his right. Then one of the cops accosting him steps in front of him, cutting off his last route of escape. When Woods takes one further step, the cops open fire, while bystanders scream in horror.

The police were responding to a report by a stabbing victim who was receiving treatment at San Francisco General Hospital, who claimed he'd been attacked at Third Street and Le Conte in Bayview-Hunters Point. Woods was at that location when police arrived. The resulting confrontation was recorded on smartphone video by a witness on a city bus passing by.

When the uploaded video caused widespread outrage, the San Francisco Police Department sought to smear the victim, releasing a report that he had been identified as a gang member in 2009, affiliated with the so-called Oakdale Mob, and subjected to a civil injunction.

The "gang injunctions" issued by San Francisco authorities after 2006 amount to lifetime bans on individuals going to certain neighborhoods of the city, usually the poor neighborhoods in which they had grown up and where their families live. Eyewitnesses and acquaintances told the local press that Woods was no threat to anyone, someone who "wouldn't hurt a fly" and was frequently seen hanging around in the neighboring smoking or drinking a beer.


Comment: Warning: Graphic video, explicit language.



Comment: Another completely unnecessary and brutal murder by San Francisco police officers. We hope the family sues.


Family

There is nothing to fear but the fearful themselves

fear Hannity
When I first learned of the recent attacks in Paris, a chill went down my spine. "No," I thought, "This is all happening too fast."

I was terrified. I was not terrorized, mind you. What happened in Paris was tragic, of course. But I was not so ignorant and innumerate as to think the kind of violence it represented was a statistically significant direct threat to myself and my loved ones. I was fully cognizant that, even with the recent uptick in terror attacks, the probability of my family ever being caught up in one was vanishingly minuscule. I am more likely to be felled by a deer or a bolt of lightning than by a jihadist's Kalashnikov.

What terrified me was the response of all the people who are incapable of such a proportional perspective: those who saw the news from France and panicked, thinking "I'm next!" As distant as it was, the Paris attacks unleashed in America a surge of fear and of calls for greater police powers, as well as an attendant wave of anti-Muslim hate and war lust.

V

Hundreds in Berlin protest horrific, inhumane treatment of refugees

Germany Protest refugees
© WSWSProtest at LaGeSo against conditions facing refugees
On the evening of November 29 hundreds of people demonstrated outside the Berlin refugee registration centre, the State Office for Health and Social Affairs (LaGeSo), to protest against the inhumane treatment of refugees. The demonstration was organized at short notice by volunteers from the group "Night before LaGeSo" via Facebook and was supported by other groups, including "Moabit Helps".

Many of the demonstrators, who gathered despite pouring rain, brought homemade signs and banners bearing slogans such as "Refugee crisis? No, a management crisis!" "First welcome, then (allowed to) freeze" and "Stop the shameless spectacle".

Rebecka, a student at Humboldt University who regularly helps refugees, came to the demonstration because she regards the conditions at LaGeSo as scandalous. "The behaviour of the Berlin Senate can only be described as institutional racism", she said. "The temperature has dropped and the first fatality is only a matter of time. This can only be explained by the fact that people are to be forced to quit Berlin."

A similar assessment was to be heard from almost everyone aware of the conditions prevailing at LaGeSo and who had decided to attend the demonstration. For months, hundreds of refugees have been forced to wait for hours at the gates of the site in all weather conditions, to sign up for an asylum procedure or receive vital provisions. Those forced to queue include many sick persons, the elderly and children.

Although the initial registration of refugees has now been outsourced, many still wait at the LaGeSo premises for transport to the new application centre in Bundesallee. Hundreds also wait day after day to obtain a guarantee of payment for accommodation in a hostel, a medical certificate or other essential social services.

LaGeSo's Kafkaesque numbering system has collapsed, and so it is now basically: first come, first served. This deliberately created situation means that people begin queuing in the evening and then spend the night in front of LaGeSo in the hope of securing an appointment the next day.

Comment: Read the latest report from the German editors of SOTT.net on the rise of hatred towards refugees and Muslims in Germany.

Refugee crisis in Germany - Nazis on the rise - 'Never again' is happening again

See also:


Cow Skull

Staged reality: The brutal onslaught of bullcrap

MSM talking heads
The stuff we're forced to witness and read about is incredible. Literally.

Besides this obviously orchestrated clampdown and ramped up war mongering following the Paris "incident', front and center is the Syrian turnaround by a bold stepping, clear minded Russia. The media is beside itself furiously trying to bury, minimize, justify and demonize this wise and functional step , the barefaced truth of which is turning this psychopathic move toward western hegemony on its warped head.

The ongoing genocides in Yemen, Ukraine and Palestine continue with nary a flicker of mention in the western press, with the Yemen extermination recently exacerbated no doubt by weaponized storms further jeopardizing the lives of millions in that defenseless country.

If that isn't dystopian enough, the newly placed head of the Human Rights Commission of the so-called United Nations is none other than Saudi Arabia, a country deeply tied to all things terrorist who have just announced a mass beheading to take place as part of their public relations inspired move to continue to appear as barbaric as possible.

Star of David

More than 1,000 IDF soldiers storm Shuafat refugee camp to demolish 1 Palestinian's home with explosives

IDF forces Shuafat
© Via FacebookIsraeli police patrol Shuafat refugee camp in East Jerusalem during a demolition on December 2, 2015.
Yesterday in a major operation more than 1,000 Israeli forces crowded the streets of Shuafat Refugee camp in East Jerusalem to demolish by explosion the family home of a Palestinian who killed three and wounded 14 in a car ramming attack in November 2014, causing clashes between residents and Israeli police.

While the demolition was in progress Israeli forces closed all entrances into the camp and roads inside of the congested neighborhood. Ambulances were prevented from driving into the area to retrieve patients wounded with rubber bullets in unrest until the Israeli army left the camp, Red Crescent spokesperson Erab al -Fuqaha told Mondoweiss.


During the explosion, debris damaged the homes of numerous neighboring Palestinians, cracking foundations and walls and shattering windows.


Scores of Shuafat residents logged the incursion over social media. A Facebook page for the camp posted photos showing dark blue clad police in riot gear walking through the street. Video footage from the Israeli military and camp residents show police using maps to guide them to the al-Akri family home, drilling holes in the wall to implant explosives, and detonating incendiary devices which caused a mushroom cloud of smoke.

Comment: Another glimpse into what life is like for Palestinians under the domination of a psychopathic regime. It is absolutely horrifying what they have to endure under Israeli occupation.


No Entry

Tajikistani court sentences seven IS supporters

recruit
© www.rferl.orgA screen grab of recruiting for Islamic State in Yekaterinburg, Tajikistan, March 2015.
A court in Tajikistan's southern Khatlon province has sentenced seven local residents to prison terms ranging from 7 to 27 years on charges of involvement in the activities of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group (outlawed in Russia), the court secretariat told TASS on Friday.

According to the verdict announced by the judge, the defendants are charged under several articles of the country's Criminal Code, including the establishment of a criminal organization, public appeals for changing the existing political system, promotion of IS ideas and recruitment of citizens for taking part in the fighting in Syria.

"The law enforcement bodies of the province traced the extremist group, among its members were three young people under 18, after the incident with rising the IS flag in the city of Shaartuz in August," a source in Tajikistan's Interior Ministry told TASS. The investigation proved the involvement of the group's members in attempts to recruit young residents of Shaartuz to Islamic State, active correspondence in social networks with supporters of the terrorist organization and a statement of their support for their ideas.

According to the State Committee for National Security of Tajikistan, more than 700 citizens of the country, mostly young people, are taking part in the fighting in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan on the side of the Islamic State.

Comment: IS tentacles reach far and wide. Every point of recruitment is an anchor to and of this devastating societal plague and territorial end-game, brought to someone else's (your) doorstep courtesy the US, UK, Israel and NATO. No restrictions apply.

Recruitment involves a propaganda video, promises of money and a "carefree life" for those who travel to IS-controlled areas in Syria and Iraq. Most recruits come from labor migrants. Scaremongering plays on the fears of the "Islamist threat" and the societal effects/ramifications of radicalization. Over a million Tajik migrants work in Russia.


Eye 1

Google accused of spying on children as young as 7 years old

google office
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission in which they allege that Google has been violating the privacy of students as young as seven years old by mining their data.

The EFF's Tuesday complaint said that Google can track every search term, site, and video students view using a feature that is enabled by default on the Chromebooks that are sold to schools. The data collection is allegedly not used for advertising purposes, but rather to "to improve Google products."

The complaint alleges that the monitoring is in violation of a Student Privacy Pledge that Google signed in 2014, which the EFF said is legally enforceable under the Federal Trade Commission Act.

Comment: Isn't Google's motto "Don't be evil"? Perhaps they don't consider spying to be evil.


Arrow Up

Met Police reports Islamophobic attacks triple in London following Paris attacks

UK Muslim in bus
© Bernadett Szabo / Reuters
Hate crimes against Muslims in London have risen threefold in the wake of the Paris attacks, according to police. British Muslims fear further attacks after MPs voted to extend airstrikes against Islamic State (formerly ISIS/ISIL) from Iraq into Syria.

On November 10, three days before the Paris attacks, 24 hate crimes were reported to police from the previous week. By contrast, 76 were recorded in the week ending November 24.

Islamic communities across the country are fearful of more hostility resulting from parliament's decision to launch airstrikes on Syria.

Speaking to the BBC, Mussurut Zia from Muslim Women's Network UK said the situation in Syria "increased the likelihood of them being targeted."

Comment: For more on this rising phenomenon:


Alarm Clock

NASA-funded study: Over 32 advanced civilizations have collapsed before us, and we're next in line

civilization collapses
As any long-time reader of this column knows, we routinely draw from historical lessons to highlight that this time is not different.

Throughout the 18th century, for example, France was the greatest superpower in Europe, if not the world.

But they became complacent, believing that they had some sort of 'divine right' to reign supreme, and that they could be as fiscally irresponsible as they liked.

The French government spent money like drunken sailors; they had substantial welfare programs, free hospitals, and grand monuments.

They held vast territories overseas, engaged in constant warfare, and even had their own intrusive intelligence service that spied on King and subject alike.

Of course, they couldn't pay for any of this.

French budget deficits were out of control, and they resorted to going heavily into debt and rapidly debasing their currency.

Stop me when this sounds familiar.