Society's ChildS


People 2

Minnesota parents form organization to fight government 'legally kidnapping' children

Jay Syrmopoulos
The Free Thought Project
Sat, 09 Jun 2018 15:38 UTC
Children police
© The Free Thought Project
St. Paul, MN - A parent's rights organization filed a letter in federal court on Tuesday asking a federal judge strike down Minnesota's current child protection laws for being too expansive and removing children from loving and safe homes without due process.

"Families are being abused, and in some cases, destroyed, as a result of laws that are inappropriate," said Dwight Mitchell, the lead plaintiff in the case and founder of the parents' association. "This is legal kidnapping."

The Star Tribune reported that growing parents' movement "Stop Child Protection Services From Legally Kidnapping, said it has documented nearly 50 cases in 23 counties across the state in which children were wrongly removed and placed into foster care, based on false or disputed evidence."

The organization, which represents a coalition of civil rights groups, black parents and attorneys, seeks a court order declaring that specific state laws governing circumstances under which a child can be removed from the home deprive families of due process and are unconstitutional.

Stop Child Protection Services From Legally Kidnapping argued in the letter that "Minnesota's laws wrongly criminalize parents for what they consider to be routine parental discipline and have a disproportionate impact on black families," according to the Star Tribune.

Comment: Destroying families is the sort of thing that results when social practices are forced to change beyond what's reasonable for the sake of some ideal. 'Lets traumatize for life a toddler by taking him away from their parents - but for the love of God, don't spank him!'

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Heart - Black

Indian man 'sacrifices' his daughter to appease God


RT
Sun, 10 Jun 2018 15:30 UTC
decorative knife
© Andres Stapff / Reuters
An Indian man slaughtered his 4-year-old daughter, to appease God through "sacrifice," local media reports. He later told police that Satan made him slit his child's throat.

The chilling story occurred in Jodhpur on Thursday, when Nawab Ali Qureshi, 26, decided to make a "sacrificial offering" to God during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, local media report. On that day, Qureshi bought some sweets and lured his daughter Rizwana, who at the time was staying at her grandmother's place, into his house.

Late at night, the man took Rizwana to a room on the ground floor, cited verses from the Koran, and slit her throat, Jodhpur police official Rajan Dushyant told the Times of India. He then went back to sleep.

Qureshi's wife, Shabana, woke up early in the morning to find the lifeless body of her daughter lying on the veranda. Police searched the crime scene and summoned Qureshi for questioning.
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Pistol

Mexico: Parliamentary candidate shot dead right after debates - Over 100 politicians murdered so far during campaign


Sputnik
Sun, 10 Jun 2018 15:25 UTC
ambulance Mexico
© AFP 2018 / YURI CORTEZAmbulance in Mexico - file photo
A candidate for Mexico's Congress from Coahuila state, Fernando Puron, was shot dead in the city of Piedras Negras on Friday night, immediately after the debates, local media reported on Saturday.

Puron stood outside the building of a state university with a woman who asked him for a photo when a killer approached him from behind, fired a shot at the back of the head and fled the scene, El Universal newspaper reported, publishing a CCTV video of the incident.

Comment: Sadly, Mexico keeps descending down the spiral of barbarism.

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Chess

Russia cancels plan to scrap 10,000 reserve tanks - will retain at least 6,000 units

Dave Majumdar
The National Interest
Wed, 06 Jun 2018 15:22 UTC
Russia’s T-90A tank
Russia’s aging but still highly effective T-90A battle tank
Another possibility is that these surplus vehicles might be used to supply client states with low-cost combat vehicles. There are plenty of Russian client states that cannot afford brand new frontline hardware like the T-90SM. "It also makes sense as a cheap way to arm a proxy force or poorer allies like Syria," Kofman said. Whatever the case, the Russian forces will have 6,000 more tanks available to it in the coming years. The question is what will the Russians do with these additional vehicles.

Russia is sharply curtailing the number of Soviet-era tanks that is planning to scrap. In previous years, Moscow had planned to send some 10,000 of its older model tanks to the junk yard for disposal, now that figure could be reduced to as few as 4,000.

"Initially, when the program was drafted, it was planned that about 10,000 Soviet-made armored fighting vehicles (AFVs) stored in warehouses...will be scrapped," Lt. Gen. Alexander Shevchenko, chief of the main armored directorate of the Russian Defense Ministry, told the TASS news agency.
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Handcuffs

Pedophile cop sentenced to 27 years in Texas prison for making child pornography

Jack Burns
The Free Thought Project
Sat, 09 Jun 2018 15:12 UTC
Andrew C. Sustaita pedophile cop
A Harris County Sheriff's deputy, who was fired after the department found he'd produced and starred in a video where he was having sex with a dog, has been sentenced to 27 years in prison. The cop, Andrew C. Sustaita Jr., 31, was not sentenced to prison for having sex with a dog. Instead, he's been remanded to Texas' penal system because he was found to have been in possession of child pornography.

As TFTP reported last year, Sustaita's bestiality made national headlines but once investigators secured search warrants for his computer, some 200 videos and images of child pornography were discovered, some involving a family member's daughter.

According to the Houston Chronicle, U.S. District Judge Sim Lake handed down Sustaita's lengthy 27-year prison sentence. In addition to his time spent in prison, Lake also ordered Sustaita to a lifetime of supervised release as a registered sex offender. The judge also ordered Sustaita to have no contact with children without the express permission of a probation officer.

Judge Lake described the images found on Sustaita's electronic devices, which showed babies and children being sexually abused, as "some of most horrific" he had ever seen. Lake was particularly troubled that the collection of kiddie porn included multiple lewd videos made after a child was invited over to the officer's house for a sleepover in 2015. The victim's mother addressed Sustaita:

Comment: The general inmate population don't take too kindly to these types, for example: Poetic justice: Pedophile who raped baby found dead in cell with penis chopped off

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Attention

American children suicide rates up 70 to 77 percent over the past 10 years - worse during school year

John Vibes
The Free Thought Project
Sat, 09 Jun 2018 15:08 UTC
school depression
© The Free Thought Project
Research has shown that the risk of depression and suicide in children as young as 10 years old increases significantly during the school year.

While the annoying cultural cliche suggests that our years in school should be the best times of our lives, for many of us it is actually a traumatizing experience that has lifelong consequences for our mental health. After graduation, many of us are left to work through issues such as anxiety, depression, low-self esteem, dependence on authority, need for external validation and a long list of mental health problems that can lead to drug and alcohol abuse, antisocial behavior, or worse.

Suicide is the second-leading cause of death for people over the age of 15, and the third-leading cause for those over 10. According to statistics from the CDC, over the past 10 years, the suicide rate for White children and teens between the ages of 10 and 17 was up 70 percent, and up 77 percent among African-American children. Since mental health is such a serious problem among teens, it is time to start examining the place where they spend the vast majority of their time.

Peter Gray of Psychology Today and The Foundation for Economic Education has pointed out that suicide rates among teens actually increase during the school year, citing numerous studies.
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Smoking

It's for the kids: San Francisco bans flavored tobacco products

John Vibes
The Free Thought Project
Sat, 09 Jun 2018 22:20 UTC
cigarette products
As the entire state of California has recently taken a step forward in the drug war by legalizing cannabis, the city of San Francisco has taken a step back by passing a ban on E-cig liquid and menthol cigarettes. The law had been pending since last summer, due to challenges from a coalition of businesses including tobacco giant R.J. Reynolds, the producer of Newport, the most popular menthol cigarette.

Surprisingly, the ban was supported by nearly 70 percent of the city's voters.

"San Francisco's groundbreaking law stands-and will stop the tobacco industry from targeting kids, African Americans and other populations with menthol- and candy-flavored products, as the industry has done for far too long. The San Francisco vote gives a powerful boost to growing efforts around the country to end the sale of flavored tobacco products," Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids President Matthew Myers said in a statement.

E-cig liquid has been targeted for the ban because critics say that it is marketed to children because it is colorful and flavorful. However, children are not the only human beings on the planet who like to add flavor to something that they are enjoying. Lawmakers point to the fact that E-cigs have become especially popular among young people, but tobacco products have always been popular among teens - this is not a new or recent phenomenon.
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Stormtrooper

Pennsylvania cops raid city council president's home after he exposed their corruption

Jack Burns
The Free Thought Project
Sat, 09 Jun 2018 15:08 UTC
police raid Masontown
© The Free Thought Project
Days after a city council president motioned for an audit of the local police department, his home was mysteriously raided by police.

When the president of the city council learned about theft committed by the local police and began calling for an audit of the department over "seemingly corrupt and unethical actions," police responded by raiding his home and stealing from his property.

John Stoffa told The Free Thought Project that he raised his concerns about past theft within the department at a city council meeting in January, and he openly called for an audit. Days after the meeting, in what is now alleged be a clear act of retaliation, Stoffa's home was raided by police.
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Stock Up

Suicide on the rise in US - 10th leading cause of death, 30% increase since 1999 in half the states

Melissa Healy
Omaha World-Herald
Thu, 07 Jun 2018 15:01 UTC
depression
More than a decade of steadily rising rates have made suicide the nation's 10th leading cause of death and one of only three causes of death - including Alzheimer's disease and drug overdoses - that are increasing in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In a report that examines trends in suicide at the state level from 1999 to 2016, the CDC says suicide rates have increased in nearly every state. In half the states, the agency found the rate rose more than 30 percent.

In releasing the report - the same week fashion designer Kate Spade was found dead by suicide - CDC officials noted that more than half of those who died by suicide - 54 percent - did not have a known diagnosed mental health condition.

A new study on suicide trends in 27 states found that many victims acted after relationship problems or loss; substance misuse; physical health problems; or job, money, legal or housing stress.

"Our data suggests suicide is more than a mental health issue," said Deborah M. Stone, lead author of that study. Noting that suicide is "very rare" among those with chronic depression, Stone said friends, families and co-workers should not overlook the risk of self-harm among people who have never been diagnosed with mental illness.

Comment: Life is suffering, often unbearably so. The only antidote is meaning, something mainstream culture does not offer - unless you want to attach yourself to rightwing or leftwing identity politics. But there's an antidote to chaos and useless suffering. It can start with something as simple as clearing up your diet ... or your room. In other words, take responsibility for yourself, your environment, and the people around you. Pay attention, make yourself useful, and realize that what you do actually matters.

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Attention

Newborn baby found dead off Florida coast puzzles investigators

Terry Spencer
AP
Mon, 04 Jun 2018 14:57 UTC
Baby and fatther
After a newborn baby girl's body was found floating off the Florida coast, detectives are trying to unravel the mystery of how she died and how long she had been in the water.

Palm Beach County Sheriff's Capt. Steven Stravelli said Monday that it's unknown whether the child found floating about 100 feet (30 meters) off the Boynton Beach Inlet on Friday was alive when she was placed in the water. Autopsy results are pending.

He said the baby was no more than 2 weeks old and was likely black, Hispanic or multiracial, but could have been Caucasian with dark skin. She wore no clothing.

"We have actually tried our best to identify the nationality of the child, but we cannot rule out any one," Stravelli said. He said DNA testing is being done.

The baby appeared to be of healthy weight but Stravelli declined to say whether there were signs of abuse. He said it's also unclear whether the baby was placed in the water from a boat, by someone wading into the water or tossed from shore or a nearby bridge.

He said it is also possible she had been on a boat bringing immigrants illegally from Cuba, Haiti or elsewhere. The area is a frequent landing spot.
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