Society's ChildS


Laptop

'Look up' experiment highlights kids' disturbing technology addiction

girls with iPad
Wow. This says a lot about the Brave New World we are steadily marching into these days.

This "experiment" is an ad for the yet-to-be-released Dolmio Pepper Hacker, a sneaky gadget that looks like a harmless pepper grinder but actually cuts the WIFI signals at the dinner table so parents can bring their tech addicted children back to reality.

In the video below, they set up several tuned out elementary age kids obliviously playing games on their iPads and other devices at the dinner table by changing up the room's decor around them and finally, swapping out their own parents and siblings with completely different people dressed similarly... all without the children noticing what was happening around them.

Comment: Though the above advert treated the situation as a joke, the truth is technology addiction is like digital heroin.
Many parents intuitively understand that ubiquitous glowing screens are having a negative effect on kids. We see the aggressive temper tantrums when the devices are taken away and the wandering attention spans when children are not perpetually stimulated by their hyper-arousing devices. Worse, we see children who become bored, apathetic, uninteresting and uninterested when not plugged in.



Handcuffs

Machete-wielding man attacks Serbian police officers

Serbian police
© Ivan Milutinovic / Reuters
A man was arrested in southwestern Serbia after he tried to assault police officers with a machete while shouting Allahu Akbar, Serbian media report, referring to the man as self-proclaimed Salafist.

A man, identified only as B.N., tried to attack police officers who had come to summon him for questioning. He first tried to barricade himself inside the house, but then ran out wielding a machete and shouting "Allahu Akbar." However, when one of the officers fired a warning shot into the air, the man ran away, only to rush at the officers again.

During his second attempt, the man was shot in the leg, after which he was taken to hospital and eventually arrested. The attack occurred in the Serbian town of Raska located not far from Serbia's border with Kosovo, according to some media, while other news outlets say it took place in the neighboring Roma settlement of Kucevski Lug.


Comment: In the US, the assailant would have been shot dead.


Sheriff

Four cops fired in fallout of Oakland PD underaged sex scandal

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf
© Noah Berger / ReutersOakland Mayor Libby Schaaf
The investigation of Oakland's Police Department is winding down as a dozen officers face repercussions for having sexual contact with a teenage sex worker. Four will be terminated, seven suspended without pay and one will undergo counseling.

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf and City Administrator Sabrina Landreth have announced the conclusion of their investigation into the sex scandal that rocked the Oakland Police Department (OPD).

The four officers that have been fired are accused of attempted sexual assault, assisting in the crime of prostitution, being untruthful to investigators, evading arrest for the crime of prostitution, accessing law enforcement databases for personal gain, and failing to report a violation of law by not reporting a minor having sexual conduct with police officers.

They are also accused of "bringing disrepute" to the Oakland PD, KRON reported.

Comment: See also:


Camcorder

Community outraged after video shows a cop throwing down a 16 year old girl to "deal with" her

police brutality
© fabiusmaximus.com
A video posted to Facebook this week has the internet in an uproar as it shows an Asheville police officer allegedly assaulting a 16-year-old girl.

The video shows a short interaction between 16-year-old Kacee Fleming and officer Shalin Oza. According to Cherrell Mooney, the woman who took the video, Fleming approached police as they were arresting her brother, Dominic Fore. According to APD, they had a warrant for Fore's arrest.

"She was asking them, 'Why are y'all arresting my brother?'" Mooney said. "The officer was being rude, they didn't want to talk to them."

The video apparently shows the aftermath of this questioning as the officer grabs Fleming and throws her to the ground.

Attention

Fracking banned in Victoria, Australia

fracking protest
© Damian Kelly PhotographyAustralia's indigenous flag is raised in protest to fracking on aboriginal land.
The state of Victoria in Australia has voted to ban fracking on its territory, further cementing the moratorium first put in place in 2012. It is the first Australian state to impose such a ban.

Premier Daniel Andrews announced Tuesday.

"It is clear that the Victorian community has spoken," the premier's office said in a statement. "They simply don't support fracking. The government's decision is based on the best available evidence and acknowledges that the risks involved outweigh any potential benefits to Australia."

The Victoria government had conducted a parliamentary inquiry into fracking for onshore gas in the state and received more than 1,600 submissions. Most of these were opposed to fracking.

The newly imposed ban will help protect agricultural industries and workers, the government said.

Comment: Communities worldwide are calling for bans on fracking with good reason. Germany and France have instituted fracking bans. Maybe Australia will follow suit.


Books

South Africa: Rape scenario in student textbook comes under fire for blaming the victim

S.A. Students
© Mike Hutchings / ReutersStudents use computers to study at Elswood Secondary School in Cape Town.
A South African school textbook that has been in circulation for the past five years has come under fire for including a question about a rape victim suggesting she was to blame for the assault. The harshly criticized publisher has promised a re-issue.

South Africa officially has the highest rate of rape in the world, according to police statistics, which show that 147 sexual assaults are committed per day on average. In an age when victim-blaming is overwhelmingly frowned upon, publisher Pearson has been slammed by NGO ActionAidInternational and South Africa's Department of Basic Education for including a question in its textbook which implies that a student's questionable behavior may have led to her being raped.

According to Timeslive.co.za, the book entitled Focus Life Orientation, which is aimed at 15- and 16-year-olds, presents students with a scenario in which a girl named Angie leaves for a party without her parents' permission, gets drunk, and ends up being pushed into a bedroom and raped by a boy.

Sheriff

Denver mother called police because her son had a warrant, cops showed up and killed him

woman and son
© The Free Thought Project
Calling law enforcement for assistance has been a fatal mistake for thousands of American families — but that painful reality didn't occur to Colorado mother, Tobi Ferguson, until her son joined the astonishingly long list of those killed by police.

Instead of the much-needed assistance Tobi hoped her call to officers would provide for her troubled son, Michael, police showed up and killed him.

Knowing Michael had several outstanding warrants, including a felony, his mother naively felt calling the cops was the right thing to do. But instead of straightening out his issues, Tobi's call to police became cause for planning Michael's funeral.

"My son was in trouble a little bit, I'm not defending my son in any way," she emphasized, according to the Denver Channel. "We were trying to help him and bring him in safely."

Michael took a truck from his mother's workplace — but failed to return the vehicle by the agreed upon 5 p.m.

Knowing Michael would be headed for her best friend's house in the now-stolen truck, Tobi alerted police to his whereabouts — though she informed them of various extenuating circumstances in an attempt to thwart potential misunderstandings at the scene.

"I let them know that he was unarmed, I let them know that he was scared, I let them know that he would try to run," she recalled.

Her caveats, however, weren't heeded by responding officers.

Comment: It doesn't matter the color of you skin, your age, your gender, or how sincere and well-meaning your intentions - everyone is in danger of "law enforcement" over-reactions. Call the police at your own risk.


Handcuffs

Video shows callous officer stand and watch as 16-yo girl gasped for air and died right in front of him

Gynnya McMillen
© LaChe Simms via Facebook
A Kentucky family has now filed a lawsuit after a 16-year-old girl took her last breaths inside a cell at a juvenile detention facility — while a guard stood outside, watching.

Gynnya McMillen coughed and gasped for air in her cell as she suffered a seizure on January 11, according to the lawsuit cited by CBS News. Those coughs alerted youth worker Reginald Windham, who, at 11:39 p.m., went "to check on her to make sure she had not thrown up or was choking or something like that."

For a full 18 seconds shown on surveillance video cited in the lawsuit, Windham appallingly stood outside McMillen's cell, witnessing "her last gasps and dying breaths and final uncontrollable movements and seizure" — before turning and callously walking away.

Ambulance

Primary school kids 'struck down with flesh-rotting skin disease'

leprosy at Indian Hills Elementary
Worried parents and kids, pictured, are demanding more info after letters were sent home warning of leprosy at Indian Hills Elementary
Parents and students in Jurupa Valley could be dealing with a rare disease from the Middle Ages.

Scared parents were demanding more information Tuesday after letters were sent went home to parents saying two students at Indian Hills Elementary in Jurupa Valley "might" be sick with leprosy. School officials say the letter was sent Friday out of what they called, an abundance of caution.

Some parents refused to send their children to school Tuesday after receiving the warning from the Jurupa Unified School District.

It was unclear whether the students are related to each other.

Handcuffs

First person arrested under Louisiana's 'Blue Lives Matter' law protecting cops

Raul Delatoba
© Orleans Justice Center jailRaul Delatoba
New Orleans police have arrested a man for shouting slurs at officers, charging him with a hate crime under Louisiana's unique "Blue Lives Matter" law. This the first case involving the new statute protecting cops, firefighters and emergency responders.

Raul Delatoba was arrested early Labor Day morning after a reports came in of a drunk man banging on a window of the Royal Sonesta Hotel, located in the city's French Quarter.

Two Louisiana State Troopers showed up at the scene in order to restrain Delatoba, 34, who refused to comply with requests to stop, and instead started shouting obscenities against hotel staff, witnesses and the police.

He was taken to the police station, where he continued to verbally "attack members of the New Orleans Police Department," according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

Delatoba allegedly called an African-American male officer a "dumb n****r" and a female police officer a "dumb c**t."