Society's ChildS


Eye 1

Flashback Men impersonating cops robbing people,were just cops robbing people

bad cops
© AP Two police officers, one of the Detroit department and one of St. Clair shores, have been taken into custody in connection with a robbery at a gas station on Detroit's east side, Detroit Police Chief James Craig said Monday, July 29, 2013.

A good Samaritan with a camera helped in catching an off-duty Detroit Police Officer and his former DPD accomplice, who were involved in a pistol-whipping and robbery outside a Citgo gas station. It was originally thought that the men conducting the robbery were impersonating police officers. Then, according to DPD Chief James Craig, "Several unidentified police officers were working this particular robbery case, recognized one of the suspects in the photographs as being a member of the Detroit Police Department."

According to WJBK, now under arrest are two police sergeants, a 47-year-old officer and 20-year veteran of the Detroit Police Department and his 42-year-old buddy from the police academy, who is a former DPD cop and 17-year veteran of the St. Clair Shores Police Department. The latter recently received a distinguished service award.

"In fact, they were police officers, just not working on-duty at the time," Craig said. One of the alleged victims identified the St. Clair Shores sergeant from a photo lineup.

Comment: It's becoming a lot more difficult to discern good guys from bad guys these days, isn't it?


Bulb

Why employers demanding Facebook passwords from applicants is now illegal In New Jersey

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© Shutterstock
Add New Jersey to the list of states where employers demanding passwords to Facebook and other online services from employees or applicants is now illegal, as a law took effect Sunday in the Garden State, The Record reported.

According to The Record, the new law does not cover social media accounts used for business purposes, and employers can still access all information that has been made public, as well as investigate harmful actions on social media sites, such as sharing confidential company information or harassment.

The first violation will result in a $1,000 fine, rising to $2,500 for further violations, The Record reported, adding that the bill was signed by Gov. Chris Christie Aug. 29.

Employers Association of New Jersey Head John Sarno told The Record:
The employer can't coerce or require an employee to give up a password for a privacy-protected personal website.

House

Man moves into home while family is away and claims he now owns it

Abandoned house
© Harry Engels/Getty Images
Imagine going out of town to visit a dying relative only to come home and find a complete stranger living in your house; and worse, that stranger now says he legally owns that house.

WLWT-TV reported that Robert Carr moved into a house, changed the locks, and emptied the house.

Carr says he is able to claim the property through something called a "quiet title." He says the family abandoned the house and gave up their rights.

Carr wants to keep the home and not have to pay a penny.

"What he's looking for is full title and ownership of the home," Alison Warner, the family's attorney, told WLWT. "He's in their home. They don't know when he's there. He can be there now."

The family has charged Carr with breaking and entering but he is even fighting that charge.

Comment: More on the story, courtesy of WLWT:




Arrow Down

Michigan police shoot dog 8 times after barking complaint

Lexie
© WXYZ.comBrittany Preston’s dog, Lexie.
Saint Clair Shores - When a man with dementia accidentally left a dog outside all night, neighbor's called police to silence the dog's barking. Police obliged by firing 8 rounds into the dog in its front yard.

Brittany Preston left her puppy, Lexie, in the care of her grandfather as she went to work an overnight shift.

Unfortunately her grandpa's mild dementia caused his memory to be impaired. During the evening he let the dog into the yard to go to the bathroom, and forgot to let the dog back in.

Hours went by. The dog waited by the door, barking for its owner's attention. Preston's grandfather failed to hear the barking or remember his mistake.

Neighbors, tiring of the noise, called the police. Sometime after 7:00 a.m., police arrived and surrounded the dog in the yard. Preston's grandfather was awake now, and opened the door to usher the dog back into the house. But the dog continued to bark at police instead of going inside.

Police asked if he was the owner of the dog. Fumbling the question, he said he was not. Of course, his granddaughter was, but he did not make this clear. Police made the assumption the dog didn't belong there.

Saint Clair Shores Police spent some time trying to lasso the dog with a dog stick, but were ultimately overcome by "fear for their lives," a common malady in police work.

According to the police report, police officers opened fire when the dog "charged" at them. Eight rounds were fired into Lexie.

Bad Guys

Two million Facebook, Gmail and Twitter passwords stolen by 'criminal gang'

hackers
© Alphaspirit/GettyHackers published two million passwords online, security experts have said.
Two million passwords for social media and email accounts have been released online by hackers, IT security experts have discovered.

The passwords for the compromised accounts are believed to have been collected by a botnet which uses infectious software to take note of the keystrokes of its targets.

Thousands of Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts were hacked with details published online by what are believed to be cyber criminals.

Of the passwords there were 318,000 Facebook, 70,000 Google (including Gmail, Google+ and YouTube), and 60,000 Yahoo accounts - though their age is unknown.

'We don't know how many of these details still work,' security researcher Graham Cluley told the BBC.

Attention

Pollution rife on Okinawa's U.S.-returned base land

arikaki
© JON MITCHELLTainted legacy: Seiryo Arakaki, chairman of the Okinawa Prefectural Assembly's special committee on U.S. bases, stands at the former U.S. military land of Nishi-Futenma, while pollution fears leave the housing area's redevelopment in limbo.
When the last U.S. service members moved out of the Nishi-Futenma housing area at Camp Foster, in 2006, the land was slated to return to civilian use as part of ongoing attempts by Tokyo and Washington to reduce the military burden in Okinawa - host to more than 70 percent of American bases in Japan.

The reversion of the 52-hectare parcel - an attractive hilltop overlooking the East China Sea - was supposed to be a sign of improved ties between the U.S. military and its Okinawa neighbors. But instead it has come to signify a problem that is increasingly straining relations in the prefecture: military pollution.

Seven years after the land at Nishi-Futenma was vacated, its future is still in limbo. The dozens of beige bungalows that used to house U.S. families are abandoned - their screen doors torn and walls overgrown with vegetation.

People

Eco-community battles Greek crisis

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In light of Greece's economic crisis, a group of city-dwellers has built a self-sufficient eco-community. As many people struggle with growing food security problems, the group produces its own food and electricity.

Rain falls over a vegetable patch on the small Greek island of Evia where Apostolis Sianos, a tall, tanned 32-year-old man with long dark hair, picks vegetables. He will use these tomatoes, green beans, and eggplants for today's lunch.

The gardens here are teeming with life. Bees zip past the herbs and vegetables toward the new apple orchard.

"Natural farming has proven that one acre (4,840 square yards) is more than enough for a single family, as long as there are no animals on it," Sianos said. "We have about 15 acres, so you can imagine how much food we produce."

Sianos is part of the "Free and Real Community," as they call themselves. It's a group of city-dwellers who packed up their lives and moved into the country to build an eco-community off-the-grid. Just as they were breaking earth on their new plot of land, Greece began sinking into the most severe economic depression in living memory.

Attention

Congressman Eric Cantor's office calls in police to threaten singing children with arrest

A group of children calling for immigration reform were forced to leave House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's (R-VA) office on Thursday after Capitol Police officers threatened to arrest them.

In a video posted to YouTube by the group Keeping Families Together, the children are seen in Cantor's personal office singing: "We want reform, we want it now. We are titanium. Keep our families together. We want reform right now."

At that point an officer interrupted the protest to ask if anyone there was planning on getting arrested.

"I heard what you're doing, I appreciate what you're doing," the officer explains. "The congressman can't do anything right now, they can't meet with you. So, please, set [an appointment up] through email. Please don't sing again, guys."

"We have to ask you to leave. If you don't want to leave... if you want to stay in, you're subject to arrest," he adds.

After another verse, the frustrated officer warns against that "everyone that stays in this room may be arrested."

While the children did eventually decided to leave peacefully, another clip shows them being loudly scolded for singing outside Cantor's office.

Watch the videos below from Keeping Families Together, broadcast Dec. 5, 2013.

Arrow Down

The Death Dealer - 'Secret' guru James Arthur Ray led three people to their deaths... and now he's at it again

James Arthur Ray
© Jack Kurtz/Associated PressJames Arthur Ray

When James Arthur Ray lifted the heavy tarp door and beckoned his devotees into a wood-frame dome, they obeyed. Tall and confident, Ray watched them enter one by one, more than 50 of them. Stooping under the low ceiling, they crowded into the dark, windowless space and sat in two tight rings around a pit filled with heated stones.

Many had spent more than $10,000 to be there, in what Ray called his "sweat lodge." It culminated five days with the self-proclaimed "catalyst for personal transformation" at Angel Valley Spiritual Retreat, a ranch near Sedona, Arizona. During his "Spiritual Warrior" program, he'd asked participants to shave their heads, spend 36 hours in the desert meditating without food or water, and play the "Samurai Game," in which a white-robed Ray, playing "God," declared people dead, forcing them to remain motionless on the ground.

Before they entered the dome, he warned them his final test was a symbolic death. "You are not going to die. You might think you are, but you are not going to die," he said, according to several attendees. Around 2:30PM on October 8th, 2009, he lowered the tarp, closing off the only source of light and oxygen. The ceremony began.

James Arthur Ray had gone from obscure motivational speaker to self-help superstar. After more than a decade of writing and lecturing, he'd appeared in The Secret, a 2006 film touting "the law of attraction" - a belief that "thoughts become things." Positive thoughts attract positive outcomes, The Secret promised; a dream life awaits anyone with a properly focused mind.

Oprah gushed over the film, twice showcasing its stars and telling her audience, "Watch it with your children." The Secret became a cultural phenomenon; a companion book sold 19 million copies. Ray soon appeared on Larry King Live to say, "Well, Larry, science tells us that every single thing that appears to be solid is actually energy. Your body is energy. Your car is energy, your house, everything, money, all of it is energy." The Today Show, Fox Business News, and local network affiliates followed. He toured the country while guesting on smaller venues from Tom Green's internet talk show to Coast to Coast AM with George Noory. He even judged a Miss America pageant. "Whatever you fear or love will come into your life," he'd repeat for his agreeable hosts.

Stormtrooper

Brazil government plans 'World Cup courts' to break up peaceful demonstrations against social injustice and rising food prices

World cup protests brazil
© Victor R Caivano/Associated PressProtesters hurl rocks during a demonstration in Belo Horizonte in June 2013. Photograph:
Country set to take South African-style measures as concerns rise that demonstrations will flare up during tournament

World Cup courts are likely to be established at next year's tournament in Brazil as organisers address the country's high crime rate and brace for the possible return of the mass demonstrations that overshadowed the Confederations Cup this summer.

Although the rallies, which brought more than a million people on to the streets this year, were largely peaceful, the host nation said it will establish exclusion zones around stadiums and step up intelligence-gathering operations aimed at preventing violent protest.

"We have boosted the gathering process to prevent demonstrations during large-scale events, to gather relevant information to put in place whatever measures are required to prevent violent demonstrations," said Andre Rodrigues, special adviser for major events at the Ministry of Justice. He said the creation of dedicated courts has also been proposed by national, state and city level governments.

Comment: Food prices surge in Brazil

Truck drivers join mass protests in Brazil as country grinds to a halt

Protesters numbering 30,000 march against Brazil's World Cup and Olympics spending