Society's ChildS


Black Cat

Tennessee church hid rape of 3-year-old boy, lied to parents, urged against prosecution; lawsuit filed

Fellowship Baptist Church bathroom
© Fellowship Baptist Church training videoA church volunteer takes children to the bathroom.
A family filed a lawsuit this week against a church in Brentwood, Tennessee for allegedly covering up the rape of their 3-year-old child. The lawsuit, which was obtained by WTVF, indicates that the family left their 3-year-old-boy in the care of the church's Children's Ministry on the Sunday of August 24, 2014.

When the boy said that he did not want to go back to church the next week, the family discovered that a teenage volunteer had raped the child in one of the church's bathrooms. The family explained in the lawsuit that they confronted church leaders, who initially claimed that the child was lying about the incident. The church later "urged the [family] not to pursue criminal charges against the perpetrator," the lawsuit stated.

After the volunteer pled guilty to aggravated sexual assault, the lawsuit said that the church "sought to hide the truth about the perpetrator pedophile and about the rape of [the 3-year-old child] from other families."

"We want justice for this family," attorney Kathryn Barnett of Morgan & Morgan told WTVF. "But also we want to make sure that every child at this church and every church is safe." "It's not okay to wait until a child is raped before you start to take youth protection seriously." she added.

A Fellowship Baptist Church training video that was created earlier this year explains that the Children's Ministry has a strict bathroom policy. "In all cases, no one should be alone with a child," the video says. "Two adults are required to escort a child to the bathroom."

Comment: We hope they get millions from the church. Sadly, for this child, his family and other families yet to be victimized, churches are a place where where predators have easy access to children and most offenses are covered up by the church. The best we can do in this day and age is educate and protect ourselves with knowledge of where and how these sexual predators operate. Listen to or read our interview with Dr. Anna Salter, author of the best-selling book, Predators: Pedophiles, Rapists, and Other Sex Offenders, Who They Are, How They Operate, and How We Can Protect Ourselves and Our Children. And do read the book.

See also: Men Who Hate Women: The Franklin Scandal and the Truth About Our Leaders


Newspaper

Owner of Varsity Theater, Loring Pasta Bar accused in Children's Theatre sex-abuse suit

2 allege they were abused by founder, teacher in '80s

Pasta Bar sex abuse
© Jeff Wheeler, Star TribuneAttorney Jeff Anderson with plaintiff Laura Adams during a news conference at his office in St. Paul Tuesday afternoon.
Alleging sexual abuse in the 1970s and '80s, two former student actors at Children's Theatre Company have filed suit against the Minneapolis theater, co-founder John Clark Donahue and Minneapolis entrepreneur Jason McLean.

The civil complaint, filed Monday in Hennepin County District Court, revisits a disturbing chapter of the company's past that sent Donahue to jail after he pleaded guilty in 1984 to sexual misconduct with three teenage boys.

Eye 1

Has the NSA stopped mass surveillance on the American people? Absolutely not!

american spying
The mainstream press says that the NSA has "ended" its bulk phone records collection program.

Does that mean we can all relax ... and forget about mass surveillance?

We asked the highest-level NSA whistleblower in history - William Binney - the high-level NSA executive who created the agency's mass surveillance program for digital information, 36-year NSA veteran widely regarded as a "legend" within the agency, who served as the senior technical director within the agency, and managed thousands of NSA employees

WASHINGTON'S BLOG: The mainstream U.S. news is saying that the NSA's metadata collection program is over.

Can we all relax and enjoy a beer now? Or is the NSA still spying on Americans?

Handcuffs

Big surprise: Research shows 45% increase in deaths from law enforcement during past 15 years

deaths legal intervention
© Florida Atlantic UniversityResearchers from the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine at Florida Atlantic University and colleagues conducted analyses of nationwide data on individuals who were killed as a result of legal intervention or law enforcement in the US between 1999 and 2013.
Between 1999 and 2013 in the United States, between 279 (in 2000) to 507 (in 2012) people were killed each year by legal intervention or law enforcement, other than by legal execution. In 2013, an estimated 11.3 million arrests in the U.S. resulted in approximately 480 deaths from legal intervention. Between 1999 and 2013, there were 5,511 deaths by legal intervention.

Researchers from the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine at Florida Atlantic University and colleagues conducted analyses of nationwide data on individuals who were killed as a result of legal intervention or law enforcement in the U.S. between 1999 and 2013.

Results from this report show:
  • During this 15-year period, there was a 45 percent net increase in deaths from legal intervention.
  • 96 percent of these deaths occurred among men, of which 78 percent occurred between ages 15 and 44 years.
  • In men ages 15 to 44 years, American Indians or Alaska Natives (whose numbers were small) had the highest rates of death from legal intervention, but blacks and African Americans, and white Hispanics or Latinos all had rates that were significantly higher than those experienced by non-Hispanic whites and Asians or Pacific Islanders.

Comment: While these statistics are hardly surprising to regular readers of Sott.net, it may be that a scientific study published in the mainstream press is what is needed to get the attention of the masses. However, as the authors 'suggest the need for further research', it is likely that little else will be done (as usual) to stop the progression of the lethal police state.


Treasure Chest

Russia continues record oil production

Russian oil plant
© Oleg Popov / Reuters
Russia's oil output has continued hovering at post-Soviet record levels in November despite the plunging crude price and the global glut.

Production of crude and gas condensate stood at 10.779 million barrels a day (mbd) during the month, according to the Russian Energy Ministry. Output was slightly beneath the record October level of 10.782 mbd.

Russian oil and gas output rose by 6.62 million tons from January to November, compared with the same period last year.

Crude exports reached 5.32 million bpd last month, which is an 11 percent higher from the previous year but 2.4 percent lower than October.

Experts say that the low oil price has no impact on Russia's output. Russian oil companies have increased profits and output since the weaker domestic currency has protected their business. The depreciating ruble cut costs and taxes for the companies that generate earnings in US dollars but pay most of their expenses in rubles.

Comment: Those anti-Russian sanctions are apparently working very well; for Russia that is.


Arrow Down

France has devolved into a police state following the Paris attacks

police in crowd
The fact that France has turned into a police state shouldn't be that surprising to most people. After the terror attack in Paris, their government declared a state of emergency, which may last another three months. As a result, travel has been restricted, there is a heightened police and military presence on the streets, and thousands of raids have been conducted throughout the country in recent weeks.

It doesn't take a genius to recognize that as a police state. It's practically a textbook definition. However, there's more to this state of emergency than heightened security. What France is seeing right now is outright tyranny. The Paris attack was the perfect excuse for their government to transform their society into an open air prison, and there's no telling what their country will look like when the dust settles.

Comment: Slowly but surely, and country by country, the whole world is marching into a new dark age.


Quenelle

Public shaming: Brazilian social media users have their racist messages posted on giant billboards

Brazil Twitter
© racismovirtual.com.br/virtual-racism
In an effort to curb intolerance, the racist Tweets of Brazilian citizens are being printed on massive billboards near their homes. The campaign was launched after a black TV weather presenter was the subject of racist taunts online.

The "Virtual Racism, Real Consequences" campaign is organized by civil rights group Criola, which uses geotagging data to determine the location of racist Twitter and Facebook users. Those tweets are then printed on billboards in the offenders' communities.

"Those people [who post abuse online] think they can sit in the comfort of their homes and do whatever they want on the Internet. We don't let that happen. They can't hide from us, we will find them," Criola founder Jurema Werneck told the BBC.

Handcuffs

Law enforcement took more stuff from people than burglars did last year

2015 Asset Forfeiture
© Washington Post
Here's an interesting factoid about contemporary policing: In 2014, for the first time ever, law enforcement officers took more property from American citizens than burglars did. Martin Armstrong pointed this out at his blog, Armstrong Economics, last week.

Officers can take cash and property from people without convicting or even charging them with a crime — yes, really! — through the highly controversial practice known as civil asset forfeiture. Last year, according to the Institute for Justice, the Treasury and Justice departments deposited more than $5 billion into their respective asset forfeiture funds. That same year, the FBI reports that burglary losses topped out at $3.5 billion.

Sheeple

Descent into fascism: Marine Le Pen's far-right Front National makes political gains in France after Paris attacks

Marine Le Pen
© Michel Spingler/APMarine Le Pen, leader of the Front National, at a campaign rally in Lille for this Sunday’s regional elections.
Far-right party poised to win two regions for first time as it reaps electoral advantage from France's fear of Islamists and migrants

Looking out across hundreds of flag-waving supporters at a rally in the northern city of Lille, the far-right leader Marine Le Pen told the crowd that the Front National was the only party that could reassure France in this moment of "infinite sadness".

The deaths of 130 people in the Paris terrorist attacks were, she claimed, the result of government inaction, lies, and, above all, its "crazy, undiscerning immigration policy". The Socialist president, François Hollande, who had declared war on terrorism, was "a war chief who hasn't even got the measure of the enemy!" she boomed. Only 10 months after the attacks on Charlie Hebdo and a Paris kosher supermarket left 17 dead, the government had failed to protect French people from another attack and was "more than just responsible" she cried.

The crowd stamped their feet and roared support, chanting "Hollande resign! Hollande resign!"

The political fallout from the Paris terror attacks looks likely to shake France's Socialist government this Sunday when the country votes in the first round of key regional elections. Even though Hollande has seen his popularity rise since the attacks, this has not helped his wider party and its candidates. Instead, it is Le Pen's Front National that stands to make the most gains at the ballot box.

2 + 2 = 4

How poor single moms survive

Welfare reform has driven many low-income parents to depend more heavily on family and friends for food, childcare, and cash.

poor single mom
Pity the married working mom, who barely has time to do the dishes or go for a run at night, much less spend a nice evening playing Boggle with her husband and kids.

But if married working parents are struggling with time management these days, imagine the struggles of low-income single parents. Single-parent households (which by and large are headed by women) have more than tripled as a share of American households since 1960. Now, 35 percent of children live in single-parent households.

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