Society's ChildS


Pistol

Iraq Vet: Ferguson cops have better weaponry, armor than we carried in combat

Rafael Noboa y Rivera
Billmoyers.com
Fri, 15 Aug 2014 10:05 UTC
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© AP/Maya Alleruzzo
In my year in Iraq, I lost track of how many times my guys asked me why so many Iraqis viewed us with distrust when we were trying to help them. The question would arise while we were walking the beat with Iraqi police officers, manning checkpoints, or in our forward operating base after we went off-duty.

Invariably, my response went something like this: "Imagine that you're back home, OK? Suddenly, you got a whole mess of Iraqi soldiers in your town. They're all over the place, doing the same things we're doing right now. How do you think you'd react? You'd probably get pretty hot, right?"

The notion that my illustration would become anything other than that scarcely crossed my mind. Yet, here we are in August of 2014, 10 years after I got back from Iraq, and the police agencies that have patrolled the streets of Ferguson, Missouri - until they were relieved of duty on Thursday amid public outrage over their heavy-handed tactics - have the kind of armor and weaponry that my men and I would have envied in the performance of our duties in an actual combat zone.

Let me repeat that: the police in Ferguson have better armor and weaponry than my men and I did in the middle of a war. And Ferguson isn't alone - police departments across the US are armed for war.
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Light Saber

John Oliver: Deny militarized cops their 'f*cking toys' as long as they're killing unarmed black men

Tom Boggioni
Rawstory.com
Mon, 18 Aug 2014 07:49 UTC
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© Rawstory
On HBO's Last Week Tonight, host John Oliver used the recent events in Ferguson, Missouri, to address the increased militarization of America's police departments, mocking the wearing of camouflaged uniforms in urban environments and purchases of armored vehicles better suited to war zones.

Starting with the tone-deaf response from the Ferguson police chief and mayor following the shooting, Oliver pointed out the disparity between reality in the racially divided town and city official's assertion that there is no racial issues in their community.

"Here's the thing the mayor doesn't understand, "Oliver explained, "As a general rule, no one should ever be allowed to say 'There is no history of racial tension here.' Because that sentence has never been true anywhere on Earth."

Relaying several stories about past police abuses against black citizens in St. Louis County, Oliver got into the increased militarization of the police, pointing out that police departments have been outfitted with over $4.3 billion in military hardware since 1996.

"This has allowed small towns like Keene, New Hampshire to apply for a Bearcat, a military-grade armored personnel truck, which they needed because, as their application argued: 'The terrorism threat is far-reaching and often unforeseen,'" Oliver explained. "And cited as a possible target, their annual pumpkin festival."
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Propaganda

Trolling the Wikipedia trolls


RT
Sun, 17 Aug 2014 22:31 UTC
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© RTWikimania festival
As global conflicts lurch into the second half of 2014, the nature of their online documentation is of great importance, and the Wikimedia Foundation bears great responsibility. Satirist Nimrod Kamer put their staffers to the test in a report for RT.

Kamer reports for RT from Wikimania, the annual Wikipedia festival to probe the founders over locked pages, 'article vandalism', and the deficit of emojis on Wikipedia articles posing questions to the foundation's chiefs and using examples from his own page edits to illustrate the fallibility of the online encyclopedia.

Now and then, entries get 'locked' because of excessive editing, and topics such as the Israel/Gaza conflict, MH370 and even the Ebola virus have fallen victim to such edits.

"Entries like this are locked temporarily from time to time when there's excessive vandalism or an argument has broken out that's become too emotional or too personal," Jimmy Wales, Co-founder of Wikipedia told RT.

Watch part 1 of Kamer's report:

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Stormtrooper

Ferguson curfew extended amid unrest


RT
Sun, 17 Aug 2014 21:01 UTC
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© Scott Olson/Getty Images/AFPPolice fire tear gas at demonstrators protesting the shooting of Michael Brown after they refused to honor the midnight curfew on August 17, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri.
The authorities in Ferguson, Missouri, are still enforcing the curfew that bars residents, bent on venting their outrage at the murder of a black teenager by a police officer, from being on the streets after midnight.

"We are trying to use the least amount of force to provide people the ability to speak while also protecting the property of the people of Ferguson," Missouri governor Jay Nixon said on Sunday in an interview on CNN.

Nixon didn't mention if authorities are planning to cancel the curfew any time soon, adding it depends on the community. "We'd like to see it ratcheted down. What we'd like to see, that will be judged by the community," he said.

Missouri Highway Patrol spokesman Justin Wheetley elaborated further, saying that officials will decide on whether to cancel the curfew on a day-by-day basis.

During the previous night, some of the most hardline protesters remained on the streets after the curfew, annoyed by what they say are the authorities' efforts to quell the protest by imposing more restrictions on residents instead of addressing the issue.

Police used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd, and arrested seven people for disobedience. One person has also been shot and critically wounded, and the shooter is still at large, police said.

Comment: Governor Nixon has it backwards. It's not the community that is out of control. It is the city's dehumanizing militarized police force that is on the rampage. When authorities lose their humanity in their inability to work out issues with people who are understandably outraged over police brutality and unjustified murder, they should lose their authority all together.

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Quenelle - Golden

Setting Jon Voight straight regarding Gaza, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the establishment of the state of Israel, in a new open letter

Mark Levine
Huffington Post
Fri, 15 Aug 2014 22:36 UTC
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© UnknownJon Voight, another one of many well-knowns who has no knowledge of the facts of Israel's true history, but is more than willing to sound off about it.
Dear Jon Voight,

We write to you as admirers of your work for many years. We are also professors of modern Middle Eastern studies, specializing on the history and contemporary realities of Israel, Zionism and Palestine, and between the two of us, we have written and edited over half a dozen books on the country and the two peoples who are destined -- or doomed, depending on your point of view -- to share it.

We have read your open letter to Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz and other critics of the latest Israeli bombing and invasion of Gaza, in response to their own open letter condemning Israeli actions during the war. Your passion for defending Israel is clearly as great as your passion for acting. However, behind your passion is a view of Israel's history and current actions that are utterly at odds with the actual history and present-day realities in the country. They are simply dead-wrong, and your belief in them has led you to adopt views that will ultimately -- and at this rate, sooner rather than later -- doom, not defend, Israel. Moreover, while you have laudably said that they or other actors should not face industry sanctions for standing up to Israel, we believe that the intensity of your criticism, coupled with the inaccuracy of the arguments, not only exacerbates the rewriting of the conflict's history in the mainstream media but contributes both to a toxic atmosphere of hatred against Palestinians and to a purported blacklist against them.

Comment: See also: Actress Penelope Cruz reportedly blacklisted by Hollywood studios for her support of Palestine

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Pistol

One shot, seven arrested in Ferguson, Missouri while state defended its action

DeNeen L. Brown, Manuel Roig-Franzia and Jerry Markon
The Washington Post
Sun, 17 Aug 2014 00:00 UTC
State officials on Sunday defended their tough response to the chaos that enveloped this St. Louis suburb on the first night of a curfew and imposed a second night of restrictions as signs emerged of heightened federal involvement in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager.

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon (D) stood behind his decision to order the midnight-to-5 a.m. curfew, after a night marked by gun violence, tear gas and armored vehicles on the streets, the latest wave of protest over the Aug. 9 death of 18-year-old Michael Brown. The shooting has made this town of 21,000 people the epicenter of a national debate about race and justice in African American communities.

"Last night's curfew - I think everybody worked well," Nixon said on CNN's "State of the Union." "We're always disappointed when things aren't perfect. But thousands of people spoke last night, thousands of people marched, and [there was] not a single gunshot fired by a member of law enforcement last night."

Capt. Ronald Johnson of the Missouri Highway Patrol, who is overseeing security in Ferguson and had earlier mingled with protesters, took a new tack Sunday, calling the police response "proper" and saying he was "disappointed" in the actions of the demonstrators. A highway patrol spokesman told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the curfew would be extended for another night.

In Washington, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. issued an unusual statement ordering an independent autopsy of Brown's body by a federal medical examiner. Spokesman Brian Fallon said the Justice Department was responding to requests from Brown's family and "the extraordinary circumstances involved in this case." Brown was killed by a white police officer, Darren Wilson.
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Evil Rays

Villagers raid Liberian quarantine center, up to 30 Ebola patients flee


CBS News
Sun, 17 Aug 2014 08:07 UTC
liberian ebola mob
A mob overruns an Ebola isolation centre in the West Point slum of Monrovia, claiming there is no Ebola in the city.
Liberian officials fear Ebola could soon spread through the capital's largest slum after residents raided a quarantine center for suspected patients and took items including bloody sheets and mattresses.

The violence in the West Point slum occurred late Saturday and was led by residents angry that patients were brought to the holding center from other parts of Monrovia, Tolbert Nyenswah, assistant health minister, said Sunday.

Local witnesses told Agence France Presse that there were armed men among the group that attacked the clinic.

"They broke down the doors and looted the place. The patients all fled," said Rebecca Wesseh, who witnessed the attack and whose report was confirmed by residents and the head of Health Workers Association of Liberian, George Williams.

Up to 30 patients were staying at the center and many of them fled at the time of the raid, said Nyenswah. Once they are located they will be transferred to the Ebola center at Monrovia's largest hospital, he said.
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Quenelle

The Jewish Chronicle apologizes for running a Palestinian charity ad, says it still supports Israeli assault on Gaza

JTA
Haaretz
Sat, 16 Aug 2014 20:15 UTC
Palestine charity
© AFPA Palestinian man carries boxes given to him as aid containing sanitation kits and soap at a UN school on August 15, 2014 in Gaza City.
The Jewish Chronicle, a British newspaper, has apologized for running an advertisement for a charity raising funds for the crisis in Gaza.

The weekly paper said running the ad for the Disasters Emergency Committee's Gaza Crisis Appeal was "meant as a purely humanitarian gesture," BBC reported.

In response to controversy over its decision to run the ad, The Jewish Chronicle's editor, Stephen Pollard, issued a statement Thursday explaining that the ad was not an expression of the newspaper's editorial view, which he said is separate from its commercial operations.

"The ad was approved by the chairman of the JC, who has no involvement in editorial decisions, as an ad for humanitarian aid which nowhere makes political or partisan points," Pollard wrote.

Comment: What's worse? The Jewish Chronicle's supporting Israel's genocide in Gaza or apologizing for running an ad to support the victims of said genocide? It's completely heartless either way.

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Light Sabers

One shot, 7 arrested as Ferguson police disperse protesters who defied curfew


RT
Sun, 17 Aug 2014 19:56 UTC
Image
© Reuters/Lucas Jackson

Protestors march and hold their fists aloft as they march during ongoing demonstrations in reaction to the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri August 16, 2014.
One person is in critical condition and seven people have been arrested in the latest Ferguson protest, local police said in a news conference. They also confirmed the use of tear gas.

Earlier, conflicting reports suggested either tear gas or smoke bombs were used.
#Ferguson cops say smoke, other media down it are reporting tear gas pic.twitter.com/JtWAWog40W
- David Carson (@PDPJ) August 17, 2014
Police officials are saying what they are firing is not tear gas, but smoke #ferguson
- Anastasia Churkina (@NastiaChurkina) August 17, 2014
I have been teargassed many times, the police definitely used it today in #Ferguson
- Tim Pool (@Timcast) August 17, 2014
Police radio said that a person has been shot, and it's not clear if rubber bullets were used. It's also reported that the man has been taken to hospital.

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Handcuffs

Oakland protesters march over Ferguson shooting - two arrested


KTVU.com
Sat, 16 Aug 2014 14:01 UTC
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© APProtesters in Oakland marched over of the shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri.
Two men were arrested and an officer was sent to a hospital during an anti-police march through downtown Oakland streets Friday night, police said.

The planned march was part of nationwide demonstrations in response to an officer-involved shooting in Ferguson, Missouri that happened one week ago. Most of the people in the march Friday night were protesting peacefully, however a small group of people became violent and pepper sprayed officers, police said. One officer was transported to a hospital after being assaulted by several people while trying to make an arrest, according to police.

A 45-year-old Oakland man was arrested in connection the assault at Third and Castro streets around 7:30 p.m., police said. About two hours later in the 5200 block of Telegraph Avenue, a 41-year-old Hayward man was arrested on suspicion of obstructing, delaying and resisting police officers, according to police.

The march started at 14th Street and Broadway near Frank H. Ogawa Plaza at 6 p.m. then moved down Telegraph Avenue towards Berkeley. The protestors also vandalized multiple businesses, wrote graffiti, broke windows and disrupted traffic, police said.
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