Society's ChildS


Handcuffs

Volunteers threatened with arrest for feeding homeless in Raleigh, North Carolina

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© WRAL
A spokesman for the Raleigh Police Department says a police officer was enforcing a city ordinance when he reportedly told, without explanation, a group of volunteers Saturday that they could be arrested for serving breakfast to the homeless.

Love Wins Ministries posted on its website Saturday that the officer approached them as they were preparing to pass out free coffee and sausage biscuits to more than 70 homeless people in downtown Raleigh.

"This morning we showed up at Moore Square at 9:00 a.m., just like we have done virtually every Saturday and Sunday for the last six years," the ministry's pastor and director, Rev. Hugh Hollowell, wrote in a blog post. "Today, officers from Raleigh Police Department prevented us from doing our work, for the first time ever. An officer said, quite bluntly, that if we attempted to distribute food, we would be arrested."

Hollowell said the officers wouldn't tell the group which ordinance they were violating, but simply told them they had to leave.

Police spokesman Jim Sughrue said in an email Sunday that no one was arrested and that the group was "simply informed of a city ordinance that prohibits the kinds of actions some groups have been engaged in at the park."

"Work is ongoing with those involved, some of whom are developing alternative sites," Sughrue said. "Ultimately, the ordinance is a city issue, of course, and when final determinations are made, the police department works with everyone to handle things in the smoothest way possible."

Love Wins is one of a number of nonprofits who help feed the homeless near Moore Square on weekends.

Todd Pratt, a volunteer with Human Beans Together, said his group was also notified recently that it could no longer serve the homeless on public property. On Sunday, the group moved to a private parking lot across the street from Moore Square, but police also asked them to leave that area.

"We had lots of volunteers and lots of hungry people and nowhere to go," Pratt said.

William McLaurin, who owns the private lot, allowed the volunteers to stay, but said he was worried about liability issues in the future.

Berrie Alston and Raheen Andrews say they are grateful for meals from volunteers.

"This is the only place that some people can go for a meal," Alston said. "They are trying to push us out of the park."

Comment: The Banksters, Politicians and wealthy Elite have a simple solution to the "Homeless problem" ...starve them to death.


Yoda

S. Africa says Mandela showing "great resilience", still critical

mandela
© Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko A well-wisher takes a picture using a cell phone of a banner with the image of former South African President Nelson Mandela, outside the Medi-Clinic Heart Hospital where he is being treated, in Pretoria
Former South African President Nelson Mandela, who has been in hospital since early June with a lung infection, is showing "great resilience" although he remains in a critical but stable condition, the presidency said on Saturday.

"While at times, his condition becomes unstable, the doctors indicate that the former president has demonstrated great resilience and his condition tends to stabilise as a result of medical interventions," it said in its latest update on the condition of the 95-year-old anti-apartheid hero.

"Doctors are still working hard to effect a turnaround and a further improvement in his health and to keep the former president comfortable," the presidency added in the statement.

Handcuffs

Couple charged after 40 pythons found in Brantford, Ontario, motel

ontario pythons
© Cory Ruf/CBCBrandon James, an inspector with the Brant County SPCA, holds one of the 40 pythons that were seized at a Brantford, Ont., motel on Aug 15
Snakes found in 5 cramped bins, left without water

A Brantford, Ont., couple were charged with three counts of animal cruelty after 40 ball pythons and five eggs were found unattended and dehydrated in plastic containers earlier this month.

Police found the snakes in five plastic storage bins at the Bell City Motel on Colborne Street in Brantford, west of Hamilton.

The pair both face one count of causing distress to an animal, failing to provide care necessary for an animal's general welfare and failing to provide enough water.

The snakes ranged from 30 centimetres to 1.3 metres in length.

Pistol

Man kills boss and co-worker before killing himself in Florida 'complete shooting rampage'

A gunman went on a shooting spree across Union County, Fla., Saturday, killing three people, including himself, police said.

Hubert Allen, Jr., 72, a longtime employee of Pritchett Trucking, Inc., shot four former co-workers, according to a statement from the Union County Sheriff's Office.

Allen allegedly shot and killed a former co-worker, Rolando Gonzalez-Delgado, 28, at an unspecified location around 9:20 a.m., police said.

He then traveled just a short distance away and allegedly gunned down Marvin Pritchett, 80, the owner of the trucking company, according to the statement.

Allen then allegedly confronted another former co-worker, Lewis Mabrey, Jr., 66, driving a farm tractor. Allen allegedly fired one shot from a small bore shotgun, which struck Mabrey in the left arm and his side.

Mabrey was rushed by emergency responders to University of Florida Health Shands Hospital in Gainesville, Fla., where he is slated to undergo surgery late Saturday for a broken arm and other injuries. He is listed in fair condition, according to hospital spokeswoman Michelle Perkins.

Allen then went to the Pritchett Trucking Company premises and shot a third co-worker, David Griffis, 44. Griffis was stuck in the stomach and rushed to the UF hospital for immediate surgery, according to police. He is listed in critical condition, Perkins said.

Authorities are investigating a motive and circumstances for the shooting, the release said. Investigators believe Allen acted alone.

X

Eight-year-old boy kills grandmother after 'playing violent video game Grand Theft Auto IV'

An eight-year-old boy who had reportedly just finished playing computer game Grand Theft Auto IV shot and killed his grandmother as she sat watching television.
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© IMOS/FILEAn eight-year-old boy reportedly killed his grandmother after playing Grand Theft Auto IV
The child, from Slaughter, Louisiana, retrieved the family gun after finishing a session on the violent simulation and then shot the 90-year-old woman in the back of the head, US police said.

The pensioner was confirmed dead at the mobile home, with detectives revealing the boy had told them he shot his grandmother by accident.

Pistol

Russian kills official, says aimed at bird - Investigators

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© RIA Novosti. Vladimir PesnyaRussian Kills Official, Says Aimed At Bird – Investigators
A Russian man who has been detained on suspicion of having killed an official in central Russia says he had aimed at a crow, Russia's investigative committee said Sunday.

The head of a village administration in the Kaluga Region was fatally shot on Tuesday morning while on the way to her office on a scooter. "A clap sounded, and after that the scooter fell together with the woman," the statement said.

Stop

Plane overshoots runway in Moscow, no injuries

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RIA Novosti. Alexey Kudenko
A passenger plane overshot the runaway at Moscow's Domodedovo airport on Sunday, but no one was hurt in the incident, a police spokesman said.

The Boeing-737 landed at about 12.35 p.m. local time on a flight from Rhodes, Greece. No injuries were reported among 170 passengers and seven crew members.

A police spokesman said the aircraft has landed "in the grass." The passengers are being evacuated.

Megaphone

4 year old girl's vegetable garden must go, says USDA

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With each passing day, it seems the United States of America, "Land of the Free and Home of the Brave" is becoming more and more like the Communist Russia I learned about in elementary school where people weren't allowed to grow their own food unless the State "allowed" it.

In this latest crackdown on citizens simply trying to provide for themselves using the most basic of skills - gardening - the USDA's Rural Development Agency is forbidding Rosie, an industrious 4-year old girl in South Dakota from using a small, unused area outside her subsidized housing unit to grow green vegetables.

Rosie's mother, Mary (names changed to protect the child's identity), is single and severely disabled. She and her daughter live on a fixed income disability payment of $628/month. The garden vegetables growing just outside her backdoor lovingly tended by Rosie provide a fresh and healthy addition to their diet that they could not otherwise easily afford.

Rosie started the garden in May 2013, but now the property management company has ordered the garden be removed this week!

The reason?

The property management company claims that gardening goes against the rules set by the USDA's Rural Development Agency which forbids residents to have structures of any kind within landscaped areas. It seems to me that the practice of growing vegetables by the most needy in our society would take precedence over landscaping, wouldn't you agree?

I wonder if the USDA plans to establish "rules" about breathing air in subsidized areas too?

The Federal bureaucracy seems to think that it owns those individuals who receive any sort of government assistance and that their behavior is completely within its jurisdiction to control no matter how ridiculous or blatantly un-American the power-tripping "rules" they decide to put in place may be.

Sheriff

Bennettsville, SC Police Office forgets his Police Dog in car, dog dies of heat stroke, no charges

Police in New York pushed to make it a felony for a citizen to kill a police dog, yet what happens when a police officer kills his own dog?

Apparently, not much.

Bennettsville, South Carolina police officer Robert Miller left his dog named "Tank" in his police cruiser with the windows rolled up and no water when he went to do some paperwork at the police department. He completely forgot he left Tank in his car and the dog, which by the way no doubt cost tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars to train, died a horrible death from heat stroke.

Was the officer charged with negligent homicide? Animal cruelty?

Of course not, he faced no charges. Instead he got a meager 90-day suspension and was forbidden from being a K-9 officer.

A tax-slave citizen in Maryland who did exactly the same as this officer by leaving her dog in her hot car when she went to the mall for some 90 minutes was just charged with animal cruelty, specifically for "confinement in an unsafe manner," she's facing 90 days in jail and $1000 fine, and her dog lived and is seemingly doing just fine.

There are two sets of laws in this country, those for the rulers, and those for the ruled.

Sheriff

Frederick County, MD Sheriff' Deputies murder man with Down syndrome, get off scott free, and are back on the job

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© Scripps Media, IncEmma and Ethan Saylor
Emma Saylor got a frantic call from her mother last January that her 26-year-old brother Ethan had been rushed to the hospital after a confrontation with Frederick County, Md., off-duty sheriff's officers at a movie theater showing of "Zero Dark Thirty."

Ethan, who had Down syndrome, enjoyed the film so much that he decided to go back to his seat for a second showing while his aide went to get the car to take them home. When he refused to buy another $12 ticket, off-duty police moonlighting as security guards allegedly tackled him in an attempt to eject him from his seat.

An hour later, the young man was dead from "asphyxiation by homicide," according to the medical examiner's report.

The case went to a grand jury , which declined to indict the three sheriff's officers involved in the Jan. 12 incident, according to the Washington Post.

And now Saylor, 23, wants some answers about what happened to her older brother. "It was unreal," said Saylor, who works in affiliate relations for the National Down Syndrome Society.

"It's not clear what happened exactly and that's where our questions are coming from," she said. "All we know is he ended up dead. No one expects their brother to go to a movie and not come home."

Saylor said when the mall officers pulled Ethan from his seat he panicked and then screamed for his mother.

When the aide, whom Saylor would not identify, returned to witness the police asking Ethan to buy a ticket or leave, she told them he didn't like to be touched and would "freak out." The family alleges officers ignored her pleas as Ethan was handcuffed and dropped to the floor, then stopped breathing.

Saylor said the aide was "too upset" to make much sense of what was happening.

When ABCNews.com asked Sheriff Chuck Jenkins for the police report on the incident, which was made public in July, he referred all requests to the agency's lawyer, Daniel Karp. However, Karp was in court at press time and could not return calls for comment.

Now, Saylor has filed a petition on change.org calling for a new investigation and better law enforcement training, which has garnered more than 207,000 signatures. She has also asked the Maryland attorney general and governor to reopen the case.

The National Down Syndrome Society has asked the Justice Department to investigate whether Ethan's rights were violated under the Americans With Disabilities Act. A Department of Justice spokesperson would only confirm that they are "reviewing" the case.

Saylor says her brother, at 5-foot-6 and 294 pounds, was "overweight" and the Chief Medical Examiner Office in Baltimore indicated that may have contributed to the asphyxiation. The medical examiner also noted damage to Ethan's larynx that may have contributed to his death, according to numerous press reports.

"The manner of death was determined to be homicide," said Bruce Goldfarb, assistant to the chief ME. "It was complicated by Down syndrome, atherosclerotic disease and some cardiac abnormalities."

After living independently in an apartment, Ethan had decided to return to live in an in-law apartment at his family's home in Frederick with his parents, sister and 21-year-old brother Adam.

Saylor said her brother had a sunny disposition.

"He was always making us laugh and doing something goofy," she said. "Often we would drive to the mountains and do something special together. He was very funny and could lighten any mood in any situation."

Police indicated that Ethan had been belligerent, according to reports in the Washington Post. But Saylor said that was not typical of adults with Down syndrome or her brother.

"I would not call it an aggressive side," she said. "When it came to communication, he had a lot of frustrations. He had language skills, but when he was overwhelmed or over-stimulated, they kind of went out the window. That's why he had staff with him and why she tried to advocate for him and tell the officer what Ethan needed."

Cpl. Jennifer Bailey, a spokeswoman for the sheriff's office, told the Washington Post that Ethan swore and began kicking and hitting the deputies, who were not in uniform.

She said the officers held him down with three sets of handcuffs linked together and removed him from the theater. Ethan landed on the ground and showed signs of medical distress and was transported to the hospital, where he died.

Calls to Bailey at the Frederick County Sheriff's Office were not returned. Reports in the Washington Post indicate that a grand jury declined to bring charges and the three deputies are back on the job.

ABCNews.com called the Maryland Attorney General's office for comment, but they did not return calls.

Saylor said that the police report had numerous statements from witnesses: "Some said that the deputies had their hands on his shoulders and knees and back; and others said they went down on a pile on him. That's why we want it investigated -- there is no explanation in the report how he suffered these fatal injuries."

Comment: "Grand Juries" are now being hand picked by prosecutors to insure that the innocent are indicted on request while the guilty get away with murder, as long as they wear a badge. This is our new legal system in the United Police State of America.