Society's Child

Music professor threatens to sue university for investigating him over defense of 'racist' composer

Henry Kokkeler
The College Fix
Tue, 11 Aug 2020 18:41 UTC

Heinrich Schenker

The University of Northern Texas denies that its investigation into an academic journal accused of racism will chill the academic freedom of faculty.

Timothy Jackson, a distinguished university research professor, is under investigation with other editors at the Journal of Schenkerian Studies. Students and faculty publicly condemned both the editors and the journal for a recent volume that debated the namesake of the journal, the 19th century composer Heinrich Schenker (above).

Jackson is considering legal action against the university, his attorney Michael Allen told The College Fix via email. "Please understand that Professor Jackson," who is currently ill, "is fighting for his life's work right now," and the investigation has had an "immediate and detrimental effect on" the professor's health, Allen said.

He said "at least one individual" has "indicat[ed] they were coerced into signing the petitions that now swirl around the internet denouncing" Jackson and his journal. The lawyer was not more specific about this individual or Jackson's illness.

The controversial volume was a response to a 2019 paper, and later a plenary address, by Hunter College Prof. Philip Ewell in the Society for Music Theory's journal Music Theory Online. Ewell's paper sought to explain the "white racial frame" that is "structural and institutionalized" in the field of music theory.

The black professor argued that Schenker was "an ardent racist and German nationalist" whose ideas exist "to benefit members of the dominant white race of music theory."

Mother of arrested Key West boy suing city, police officers, teacher and school district

David Goodhue
Yahoo! News
Tue, 11 Aug 2020 17:50 UTC

Lawyers for the mother of a now 10-year-old boy who Key West police officers tried to handcuff in 2018 at his elementary school after he was accused of punching a teacher filed a civil rights lawsuit Tuesday in federal court against the school district, the city, the individual officers involved as well as the teacher and two school officials.

The video of the incident at Gerald Adams Elementary School in Key West received national attention this week after the attorney for the mother, civil rights lawyer Benjamin Crump, posted it on his Twitter account Monday morning.

It outraged police critics already angry over the killing of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, the 26-year-old emergency room technician shot and killed in March in her Louisville, Kentucky, home by police serving a no-knock warrant, looking for drugs. No drugs were found in the home.

The video also stoked concerns over how police handled cases involving minors, including the handcuffing of a 6-year-old girl in Orlando at her school in September 2019.

Hong Kong court acquits district councillor of police assault charge; magistrate says officers 'told lie after lie'

Kelly Ho
Hong Kong Free Press
Thu, 13 Aug 2020 17:53 UTC

A Hong Kong court found Eastern District Councillor Jocelyn Chau and her assistant not guilty of assaulting police on Wednesday, after ruling the officers concerned were "unreliable" witnesses" who "told lie after lie."

Chau, 23, and her 23-year-old male assistant Lao Chak-hin were accused of attacking Constable Hui King-yiu outside North Point's Kiu Kwan Mansion on August 11, 2019. On that day, protests broke out across multiple districts in opposition to a now-axed extradition law. Chau and Lao were reportedly broadcasting live on Facebook near to where some men had assaulted passerby and journalists nearby.

According to local media, Eastern Court Magistrate Stanley Ho said the case was mainly based on testimonies by officer Hui and Senior Inspector Lam King-nin, as the alleged attack was not recorded in the footage submitted to court.

Both Hui and Lam told the court that people were shouting profanities at Chau and Lao, so they decided to stop the duo out of concern for their safety and urged them to leave. But magistrate Ho said the footage showed there was no conflict at the scene, questioning the description given by the officers: "It was like describing another parallel universe," Ho said.

Ho went on to say that the officers were "frivolous" and had appeared to attempt to block Chau's camera. He raised doubts over why the police asked Chau and Lao to leave the scene, rather than intervening in the party that started the conflict.

Metro Nashville council member wants people not wearing a mask to be charged with murder or attempted murder

Laura Baigert
The Tennessee Star
Sun, 09 Aug 2020 17:25 UTC

Metro Nashville At-Large Council Member Sharon Hurt said Wednesday during a virtual meeting of the Joint Public Safety and Health Committee that there should be stronger legislation for those not wearing masks and suggested they be charged with murder or attempted murder.

Hurt said that she works for an organization that, "If they pass the virus, then they are tried for murder or attempted murder."

Hurt thinks the same standard should apply to the general public.

"This person who may very well pass this virus that's out in the air because they're not wearing a mask is basically doing the same thing to someone who contracts it and dies from it," she said.

"Maybe there needs to be stronger legislation to say that if you do not wear a mask, and you subject exposure of this virus to someone else then there will be some stronger penalty as it is in other viruses that are exposed," the council member added.

Hurt's suggestion comes as the Nashville-Davidson County COVID-19 dashboard indicates a recent decline in new daily cases of COVID-19 and a fatality rate of 0.9 percent.

Photos show Ghislaine Maxwell, Jean-Luc Brunel on Epstein's 'Pedo Island'

Kate Sheehy
New York Post
Tue, 11 Aug 2020 16:54 UTC

Bombshell new photos obtained by The Post show Jeffrey Epstein's alleged sex-victim recruiters — Ghislaine Maxwell and modeling-agency pal Jean-Luc Brunel — romping together on the hedge-funder's "Pedophile Island.''

The stunning snaps offer an inside look at the pair's this-close relationship — and a slice of life on Epstein's disturbing paradise-turned-orgy isle.

The cozy pair was caught playfully nuzzling on camera, with Brunel grabbing Maxwell and appearing to jokingly try to kiss her as she covers herself.

In another photo, Maxwell wraps her arms around the laughing talent-agency honcho's waist and buries her head in his stomach.

Comment:

The Belarusian protests are not a 'color revolution' - they're the result of Lukashenko repeating Soviet mistakes

Bradley Blankenship
RT
Wed, 12 Aug 2020 20:36 UTC

© REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina
Placard depicting Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko outside the Belarusian in Moscow, Russia August 12, 2020

Protests following Sunday's presidential election in Belarus have entered the fourth day. Videos of police brutality spread online and foreign ministries across the world are condemning the actions of the Belarusian police.

While temping to default to the knee-jerk reaction that what's going on in the country is a 'color revolution', claims by President Alexander Lukashenko that the protests are foreign-organized are bunk and should not be taken seriously. The political actions of Belarusians now are legitimate and deserve our attention.

Hundreds of thousands of Belarusians - including what I would categorize as an entire generation of young talent - who are IT workers, engineers, data analysts and others in in-demand fields are regrettably fleeing the country not due to war or conflict, but because of an endemic lack of opportunity that is plaguing the country. No matter where you are in the world, no matter what political system a state has, no matter the level of democratic freedoms, this translates to general frustration and is the source of much of the animosity surrounding this election and its aftershock.

Comment: RT reports on the continued unrest:

Tensions soar in post-election Belarus amid reports of police firing at apartment windows & officers being run over

Four days after its presidential election, Belarus continues to be plagued by clashes between demonstrators and law enforcement, with the latter facing a mounting backlash over the crackdown.

The unrest showed little sign of abating on Wednesday, amid days of protests following incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko's landslide victory in Sunday's election, which the opposition insists was rigged.

In the capital of Minsk and other cities, demonstrators formed so-called 'human solidarity chains' to voice support for the opposition and those who have fallen victim to hamfisted police tactics. Many of those lining up were women.

Protesters in Minsk also attempted to block roads and lit flares.

Despite peaceful protests highlighting the fourth day of post-election turmoil, violence has hardly subsided. A video has emerged purporting to show riot police in Minsk opening fire on an apartment block as they chased protesters on the ground. Witnesses report that officers aimed their weapons at the building's windows after residents sought to help the demonstrators to dodge arrest.

As night approached, clashes erupted with sounds of loud bangs, reportedly from concussion grenades, roaring through the city.

As tensions across the country soared, the authorities said on Wednesday that two traffic police officers were run over in Minsk and Baranovichy, a city of some 180,000 people in western Belarus.

A video of the Minsk incident has been released by the Belarusian Ministry of Internal Affairs. It shows a traffic officer hopping on one foot due his limp before being led away by his companion to receive first aid on the spot. The perpetrator, whose motives are unclear, fled the scene and was arrested later in the day. The officer was taken to hospital.

In a similar incident in Baranovichy, a driver attempted to flee, sparking a frantic car chase after he ran over an officer. Police shot one of the fleeing car's tires after the driver refused to pull over. However, when the traffic police arrived, the suspect had already fled on foot, leaving his vehicle behind. The hunt for the man is currently ongoing.

Two protesters have died and 6,000 have been detained since angry crowds took to the streets across Belarus after the results of Sunday's election showed Lukashenko, who has led the country since 1994, winning 80 percent of the vote. Demonstrators have cried foul play, believing that his main rival and united opposition candidate, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, was robbed of victory.

For more analysis on the situation in Belarus, see:

Half a million incorrect absentee ballot applications sent out in Virginia, including to dead people

Nicholas Ballasy
Just the News
Mon, 10 Aug 2020 11:16 UTC

"Approximately half a million applications sent to eligible voters in Virginia included incorrect information, and we are working diligently to address the issues," says the Center for Voter Information.

A non-profit group says more than a half-million inaccurate applications for absentee ballots were mistakenly sent across Virginia this week — including to dead voters, errant relatives and even a pet — in an unprecedented mailing flub that has heightened concerns about the integrity of expanding mail-in voting efforts.

The mistakes raised alarms with recipients as diverse as election monitors, members of the League of Women Voters and a retired FBI agent. The Center for Voter Information, the nonprofit group that sent the mailers with pre-filled absentee ballots, is now apologizing.

Comment: See also:

Chicago residents confront BLM protesters in tense standoff

RT
Thu, 13 Aug 2020 10:09 UTC

© Reuters / Shannon Stapleton
An activist holds a sign during a demonstration against police violence in Chicago, Illinois, July 24, 2020.

Residents of Chicago's Englewood community angrily accosted a group of Black Lives Matter protesters who showed up to demonstrate at a police station, where hostilities between locals and activists nearly boiled over into a brawl.

A BLM protest march from Englewood to Chicago's 7th District police station on Tuesday ended in a showdown with community members, at times devolving into shouting matches as locals insisted the demonstrators were giving their neighborhood a bad name.

"If you ain't from Englewood, get the f**k out of here!" longtime south side resident Darryl Smith was heard shouting at the protesters, who he said were not from the community.

Comment: See also:

Alabama just passed a law to castrate child sex offenders

Alice Edwards
AWM
Wed, 29 Jul 2020 00:01 UTC

Alabama has made a decision to stand strong against convicted child molesters. Because most Americans agree that criminals who steal the innocence of children are among the worst of the worst, Alabama has decided to pass a chemical castration bill that would forever change any person convicted of an abhorrent sex crime against a child under the age of thirteen, which is a measure approved by most people across the state.

State Representative Steve Hurst, a Republican, introduced the bill. It was passed by the state legislature and was recently signed into law by Governor Kay Ivey. Because the state wants to make it abundantly clear that child molesters are not welcome, the law now requires that any child sex offenders over the age of 21 will be chemically castrated before they leave prison and entered society again.

"They have marked this child for life, and the punishment should fit the crime," Hurst said.

Comment: See also:

Council revokes business license of NJ gym that defied COVID-19 order

David Chang
NBC
Wed, 12 Aug 2020 06:20 UTC

The gym opened its doors in May, starting a legal battle over whether New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy's order for non-essential businesses to remain closed was constitutional.

Councilmembers voted to revoke the business license of a defiant gym in Bellmawr, New Jersey, that ignored multiple orders to close amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The vote took place Tuesday at the Bellmawr council meeting. Atilis Gym co-owner Frank Trumbetti told NBC10 his gym will remain open without a license.

It was the latest move in a standoff with Atilis over coronavirus-related restrictions.

Comment: The gym owners appeared on Tucker Carlson's show to say the gym is still open, despite having business licence revoked.

I said from the start of this in March 2020 it was obvious adverse mental and associated poor health would far outweigh any lockdown measures...

Kevin Smith

All of us with working brain cells predicted this. And, still, nothing changes.

ReRan

At least the WHO, stopped their concert immediately, when that tragedy happened in Cincinnati. This, on the other hand is reprehensible.

JTF Truth

Designer Federica Cavenati, who was known to friends as Kikka, has very sadly passed away, aged just 28, after a short and sudden illness Another...

HashAttack2

Assange took refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy in 2012 to avoid extradition to the USA via Sweden where he faced sex offence allegations for which...

JTF Truth

Society's Child

Music professor threatens to sue university for investigating him over defense of 'racist' composer

Mother of arrested Key West boy suing city, police officers, teacher and school district

Hong Kong court acquits district councillor of police assault charge; magistrate says officers 'told lie after lie'

Metro Nashville council member wants people not wearing a mask to be charged with murder or attempted murder

Photos show Ghislaine Maxwell, Jean-Luc Brunel on Epstein's 'Pedo Island'

The Belarusian protests are not a 'color revolution' - they're the result of Lukashenko repeating Soviet mistakes

Half a million incorrect absentee ballot applications sent out in Virginia, including to dead people

Chicago residents confront BLM protesters in tense standoff

Alabama just passed a law to castrate child sex offenders

Council revokes business license of NJ gym that defied COVID-19 order

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