Society's ChildS


Black Cat 2

Symbolic? Major US cities struggle with growing rodent problems


RT
Sat, 23 Apr 2016 03:31 UTC
rats
Cat lovers, prepare to gloat. Several major US cities have seen a serious uptick in rat-related complaints. Residents of Boston, Chicago, New York, and Washington, DC are growing frustrated with the surge in the rodent populations.

Major US cities are seeking new and creative ways to curtail their rat populations as complaints continue to roll in. The number of grievances in Boston tripled in the first quarter of 2016, while reports of rodents increased by 70 percent in Chicago and 39 percent in New York City, USA Today reported.

Washington, DC was previously headed towards a four-year decline in rat complaints, but the national capital's current trend seems inclined to ruin that streak, with 699 complaints as of April 15 compared to 2,004 complaints for all of 2015.

What is behind the spike in the rat populations? To start, the mild winters have not helped. In addition, seemingly minor transgressions common to city life - such as dog waste, open trash, and feeding other outdoor animals - can benefit rats.
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Family

Powerful gas blast in northern France leaves one dead, 4 injured


RT
Sat, 23 Apr 2016 03:07 UTC
gas explosion France
© Regis Duvignau / ReutersFrench firefighters
A strong explosion caused part of a residential building to collapse in the town of Nonacourt in northern France, killing one resident and injuring at least four.

One person died when they were buried under the rubble of the building, the town's sub-prefect reported according to AFP.

"Rescuers have managed to identify the person who was buried from under the rubble, but he passed away. According to our information, nobody else should be under the rubble, but we will continue removing it until the whole area is cleared," he is quoted as saying.

Le Point, citing police sources, reports that four people have been injured.
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Fire

Fire crews responding to blast, fire - train evacuated at Washington, DC metro station


RT
Sun, 24 Apr 2016 02:25 UTC
explosion, washington dc
© Google
Washington DC's Tenleytown and Friendship Heights Metro stations were evacuated after reports that an explosion in a mechanical room had caused a fire and heavy smoke. Witnesses describe a chaos and poor communications by metro staff.

People reported hearing blasts and seeing flames and smoke underground.

Social media messages described the panic on a smoke-filled Red Line train.
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Stormtrooper

Cop picks up a 2X4 at a shelter and beats 3 dogs, killing one: Report

John Vibes
The Free Thought Project
Sat, 23 Apr 2016 21:24 UTC
rock
© MCAS Rock, a 5-year-old pit bull mix, was euthanized at the Montgomery County Animal Shelter Saturday
An off-duty police officer was recently accused of brutally assaulting 3 dogs with a large wooden board while visiting an animal shelter with his family to adopt a dog.

Staff members at Montgomery County Animal Shelter said that they were not involved in the incident, but allegedly, the officer let at least three different dogs out of their pens and into an exercise area where the animals began to fight.

The officer has not been officially named by the media or the police department.

According to the staff, fights sometimes do occur, but they usually avoid having the dogs in the same area so they can bypass that problem.

Comment: We would guess he is probably not fit to be responsible to protect and serve humans either.

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Cell Phone

The zombie apocalypse is here: People have merged with their smartphones


Truthstream Media
Sat, 23 Apr 2016 20:57 UTC
smartphone merger
Have you looked around lately? The zombie apocalypse is already here. It's as if people have merged with their smartphones, as if the device is now a part of their bodies like another hand or another foot.

Reality is becoming a little less real by the day. Can you even imagine what it will be like when virtual reality hits the mainstream?

Comment: This may (or may not) help: The Complete Guide to Breaking Your Smartphone Habit

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Handcuffs

Outrageous: UK govt pushing for 10-year web piracy sentences


RT
Sat, 23 Apr 2016 18:56 UTC
matrix computer
© Alexandr Kryazhev / Sputnik
The UK could impose extremely harsh punishments for online copyright infringement, as the government has confirmed it is pushing for legislation that would increase the maximum sentence for web piracy to 10 years behind bars.

Baroness Lucy Neville-Rolfe, the Minister for Intellectual Property, has confirmed that the British government is leaning toward the idea of increasing the sentence to bring it into line with that for physical infringement.

"Last year the government consulted on increasing the maximum term to 10 years. We received over a thousand responses, which have played a significant part in helping to shape the discussion," she stated in a document published on Thursday.

"As a result we are now proposing changes that include increasing the maximum sentence, but at the same time addressing concerns about the scope of the offence."

Comment: More potentially draconian new legislation from the UK government. Despite Neville-Rolfe's caveats, this has the potential to be used to stifle dissent, to cover for mass media lies, and to censor civil society members whom the government fears. All this while serial political pedophiles are walking around free. How's that for priorities?

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Red Flag

The American bureaucrat's descent into madness

Sean Kerrigan
Activist Post
Sat, 23 Apr 2016 20:28 UTC
Bureaucratic insanity
In the United States today, a child can be charged with battery simply for throwing a piece of candy at a friend. Students can even be locked in solitary confinement for skipping school. Adults aren't much better off. The Supreme Court decided in 2011 that anyone arrested, even for an offense as minor as an unpaid traffic ticket, can be strip searched at the discretion of police. These authoritarian and merciless acts of force are just the tip of the iceberg in our authoritarian society, still cruelly nicknamed "the land of the free."

The number of rules and laws we are subjected to is comedically excessive. But what makes it so unbearable is that they are often enforced with a kind of insatiable, self-righteous venom. Increasingly, modern American bureaucrats - whether they be police, teachers, or government paper-pushers - are obsessed with conforming to rules and mercilessly punishing those who fail to comply.

Comment: Another name for these micro-managing rule enforcers is authoritarian follower. Since they have no moral exoskeleton of their own they need strict rules to keep themselves in line and force their worldview onto others.
It becomes clear why such people - with intense moral concerns combined with a reliance on external moral structures to keep one's own forbidden impulses in check - would support a state that enforces moral rules and a social culture that stigmatizes those who violate those rules. It really is a threat to them - a threat to their own inner moral order - when the society around them fails to be clear in its rules and strict in its enforcement. ...

It is their dependence on the strength and integrity of the external moral order that drives many "exo-skeletons" to crusade to make the whole world around them conform to the moral system to which they themselves are striving to adhere. The unspoken - and generally unacknowledged - need is: please, society, be morally strict enough to keep me on the straight-and-narrow path."


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Brick Wall

The school-to-prison pipeline: It's time to get cops out of schools

Karen Dolan
Truthout
Sat, 23 Apr 2016 17:18 UTC
school prisons
© studentrightsalliance.org
I'm still shaking from watching the recently released video of a white, uniformed police officer violently body-slamming a 12-year-old Latina girl face-first into a brick walkway. You can hear a "crack" when her face slams into the brick.

The child was reportedly talking with another student when other kids gathered to see if there was an argument brewing. Officer Joshua Kehm apparently didn't want to wait to see if the middle schoolers would indeed start arguing.

Kehm was fired after the video was released, but it's the school-to-prison pipeline he represents that most deserves to be indicted. Officers like Kehm send thousands of children into the legal system each year for petty misbehavior at school - or, often, for no misbehavior at all.

Comment: Police state education - cops called every 2.6 seconds
According to figures released by the U.S. Department of Justice, 76% of all high schools in the country have police officers working on the campus all day, and teachers are calling them in for the most trivial disciplinary problems. According to statistics released by the U.S. Department of Education and published by NBC News, in the 2011-2012 school year, teachers called the cops on students a total of 31,961 times in the state of California alone, leading to 6,341 arrests.

With 175 8-hour-long school days, that means that every 2.6 seconds a cop is called!


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Arrow Down

Kuwait to DNA test and tag all tourists

Thinus Ferreira
Traveller24
Sat, 23 Apr 2016 11:00 UTC
DNA Testing
© 92 News HD
All visitors and tourists to Kuwait will now have to submit to a DNA test and be DNA tagged before they're allowed to enter the Persian Gulf state.

In a world first, Kuwait wants to DNA "tag" everybody in, as well as entering the country with the new DNA legislation that will become law this year.

The Kuwait government says the forced DNA testing won't affect people's personal freedom and privacy but will be done to keep track of people and to help if they commit crimes.

Tourists and visitors to Kuwait will get their DNA taken through specimens of saliva or a few drops of blood done at a special DNA testing facility at the airport.

The DNA collection will be done at a special testing centre at Kuwait International Airport and there will be "consequences of rejecting its procedures" for visitors who refuse the mandatory test.

Citizens will be DNA tested by using mobile testing centres that will move through the state and residents will have their DNA captured when they apply for the issuing or renewing of residency visas during medical examinations.

According to The Kuwait Times, the DNA testing law is "aimed at creating an integrated security database". The law - the first of its kind in the world - and the DNA tagging will only be used for "criminal security purposes" according to Kuwait officials.

"Kuwait will have a database including DBA fingerprints of all citizens, residents and visitors. This law is the first of its kind in the world and Kuwait is the first country worldwide to apply the system," notes the publication.
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Green Light

New report states police forces are preparing for riots on a national scale

Claire Bernish
The Anti Media
Fri, 22 Apr 2016 19:11 UTC
police state america
Fascism doesn't often sweep in overnight and take over some hapless nation's government; rather, it gradually seeps into the cultural fabric — as is quietly taking place all around the globe, evidenced by an upsurge in sales of riot equipment that has gone largely unnoticed.

A new report from analysts with industry research group, Sandler Research, forecasts the Global Riot Control System Market for the next four years — but beyond a burgeoning market to parallel the expanding global police state, it appears world governments are also keenly aware of civilian discontent. Sandler predicts the market will have an annual growth of 3.5 percent, and makes a telling juxtaposition, emphases added, involving the United States:
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