Society's ChildS


Red Flag

Retired cop to use 'stand your ground defense' after fatally shooting Florida moviegoer for texting daughter's day care provider

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© WFTSCurtis Reeves
A retired police officer who gunned down a married father who threw popcorn at him will use Florida's "stand your ground" law as his defense when he goes on trial for murder.

The lawyer for Curtis Reeves confirmed that the retired Tampa police captain would use the controversial law to claim self-defense in the fatal Jan. 13, 2014, shooting, reported the Tampa Bay Times. The 73-year-old Reeves was charged with second-degree murder after he shot 43-year-old Chad Oulson to death because he refused to stop sending a text message to his 2-year-old daughter's day care provider.

The former police officer fatally shot Oulson once in the chest, and the man's wife, Nicole, who was sitting next to him during the matinee showing of "Lone Survivor," was grazed by a bullet — which prompted an additional charge of aggravated battery. "Just to think that in the blink of an eye, my whole world just got shattered into a million pieces, and now I'm left trying to pick them all up and putting them back together," Nicole Oulson said after her husband's slaying.

Reeves' attorney has maintained all along that video recorded inside the Wesley Chapel movie theater will show that Oulson attacked the older man first — causing Reeves to fear for his life. Defendants must show they had a "reasonable belief" that they were threatened before using force — even if no such threat actually existed.

Comment: It's nice to see some common sense coming from law enforcement in the whole 'popcorn is a weapon' defense.


Heart - Black

Activist releases disturbing video of animal cruelty at Tyson chicken factory

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© Issei Kato IK / Reuters
A graphic video secretly recorded by an animal rights activist inside a Tyson Foods plant has led to two firings after it showed workers punching chickens and ripping their heads off. The footage could instigate legal proceedings against the fast food chicken supplier.

In September, a Mercy for Animals activist went undercover to accept a job with Tyson Foods at its plant in Carthage, Mississippi, then filmed coworkers abusing chickens in a variety of violent acts, including bashing chickens with their fists or by throwing them against equipment. Among other abuses, the domesticated birds, called broiler chickens, had their heads manually ripped off while they were still alive and conscious.

"We do not believe the behavior shown in this video by the two team members we have now terminated is representative of the actions of the thousands of workers we employ across the country," Tyson wrote in a public statement.

"Ongoing and systemic" is how affidavits filed by Mercy for Animals described the maltreatment at the slaughterhouse, which processes 2.5 million chickens a week.

Comment: So on top of filling their chicken with poisonous anti-biotics and feeding them GMO foods, Tyson is literally torturing their chickens before they are killed. Anyone with a conscience and a desire to eat healthy foods should refuse to eat anything with the Tyson name on it.


Ambulance

Plane at Florida airport catches fire on runway

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© @mikejdupuy /Twitter
An airplane has caught fire at Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood international airport in Florida.

All the passengers appear to have been safely evacuated to the terminal building, as emergency crews battled flames on the port-side engine of the Dynamic Airways Boeing 767-200, with the registration N251MY.


Brick Wall

Police dismantle tiny homes constructed for homeless in Denver park, 10 activists arrested

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Ten activists were arrested this weekend for attempting to help the homeless in the city of Denver by building tiny houses in a park. The houses were also immediately destroyed just after the arrests were made.

The activists belong to a group called Denver Homeless Out Loud, released a statement after the arrests which read:

Comment: Makes you want to cry: What local, state and federal funds and resources should be allocated towards - serving those most in need - gets destroyed, and those creative enough and caring enough to work on this project get punished for exercising their creativity and expressions of conscience. And, of course, the homeless are still left in the cold. Welcome to Amerika.


Pistol

Nervous Austrians snapping up guns as refugees crises intensifies

Hand guns and rifle sales are spiking in Austria, with some shops reporting they are running out of stock of shotguns, since no license is needed to buy them.

"Yes, I can confirm, the demand in Austria for weapons is growing. My revenue doubled in September. And in October it has doubled again, and we are still in October," a gun shop owner told RT.

Obtaining a firearms purchase license in Austria involves passing special courses concerning basic handling and knowledge of weapons. The gun shop owner confirmed to RT that the number of people taking the gun handling courses has increased tremendously.

"In the past, I had one appointment a week for 'weapon license training' with one or two people. Now I have a fixed second event, with 6 to 10 people attending," the gun dealer said.

"Most of the people who came to me in the last week for a consultation or to buy a weapon, are telling me, and I always ask them, that the reason for buying is the 'current situation' in Austria," the man told RT.

The "current situation" in this context is the influx of refugees entering Austria.

Comment: Arming themselves against unarmed refugees is an accident waiting to happen.


Family

China ends one-child family planning policy

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© Reuters/Kim Kyung-Hoon/Files
A woman and her baby wait on the street for a military parade marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War Two, in Beijing, China, in this September 3, 2015 file photo.

China will ease family planning restrictions to allow all couples to have two children after decades of the strict one-child policy, the ruling Communist Party said on Thursday, a move aimed at alleviating demographic restraints on the economy.

The policy is a major liberalisation of the country's family planning restrictions, already eased in late 2013 when Beijing said it would allow more families to have two children providing the parents met certain conditions.

A growing number of scholars had urged the government to reform the rules, introduced in the late 1970s to prevent population growth spiralling out of control, but now regarded as outdated and responsible for shrinking China's labour pool.

For the first time in decades the working age population fell in 2012, and China could be the first country in the world to get old before it gets rich.

Comment: Westerners have about as much moral right to lecture the Chinese on how to live as Americans do to Iraqis.


Heart - Black

Cuban cancer patient deprived of medicine by US blockade

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© CubaDebate
A Cuban girl is being deprived of urgently needed cancer treatment due to the United States' blockade, doctors said Wednesday.

Seven-year-old Noemi Bernardez underwent surgery to remove a brain tumor in September, and is now undergoing further treatment including radiation therapy. However, her doctors say the likelihood Bernardez will survive is low without access to a specialized drug made in the United States, Temozolomida.

Comment: The US has a long history of acting hostile towards countries when it doesn't agree with a given country's government. Such behavior obviously harms innocent people, more often than not bringing about the early and unnecessary death of the victims.


Heart

Man camps out for Black Friday sale 33 days early — For homeless awareness

sutton
© ABC News
A man in Orlando, Florida is planning on camping outside of a Best Buy for 33 days in order to be the first person in line for Black Friday 2015. However, 37-year-old Kevin Sutton isn't concerned about scoring the best deals on electronics, he is doing this to raise awareness about the people who sleep on the street year round.

Last year, the internet was filled with news articles about two women who had camped outside of a Best Buy in Beaumont, California for three weeks. Sutton's camp out will be considerably longer than that. During the encampment, Sutton will accept donations in the forms of money, toys, and food which will be given to the Love Pantry. Sutton is a radio host and the program director of a fatherhood program.

During his time outside of the electronics retailer, Sutton will sacrifice many of the comforts homeless people do not have. He plans on only eating food and water that is donated to him, and will bathe with baby wipes. He gives away perishable food like pizza and burgers to homeless people. He does, however, have the luxury of using the restroom in Best Buy. Many private businesses frown on the homeless using their restrooms, unless they purchase something.

This isn't the first time Sutton has done this. Last year, Sutton camped outside of a Best Buy for 15 days. His efforts produced a lot more than just attention. In 15 days, Sutton collected 3 tons of food for charities.

Sutton says he got the idea when he was waiting in line for a Black Friday sale and saw homeless people in the area. In an interview with ABC News, Sutton recounts the time that he saw a man pull a sandwich out of a dumpster because he hadn't eaten in three days. Sutton asked the man to join him and eat some of the food he had brought with him while he waited in line. It turned out the man had lost his job, and that was the reason he had not eaten in three days.

"We sat and talked for about an hour and that was the most heart wrenching conversation I ever had. ... You know, that hit me so hard where I was like, 'I don't know what I can do to change this for anyone else,'" Sutton said.

Light Saber

'The disorder is in the system, not the children': Florida teacher leaves profession due to standardized testing

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© Baynews9.comWendy Bradshaw
Dr. Wendy Bradshaw resigned from her teaching position in Polk County, Florida, and her announcement has gone viral. Though Bradshaw is far from retirement age and she has PhD in education, she's leaving her profession because of standardized testing, which she explained in a Facebook post which has been shared more than 44,000 times since it was posted on Oct. 23. Her letter has been edited for brevity:
To: The School Board of Polk County, Florida

I love teaching. I love seeing my students' eyes light up when they grasp a new concept and their bodies straighten with pride and satisfaction when they persevere and accomplish a personal goal. I love watching them practice being good citizens by working with their peers to puzzle out problems, negotiate roles, and share their experiences and understandings of the world. I wanted nothing more than to serve the students of this county, my home, by teaching students and preparing new teachers to teach students well... I not only love teaching, I am excellent at it, even by the flawed metrics used up until this point. Every evaluation I received rated me as highly effective.

Like many other teachers across the nation, I have become more and more disturbed by the misguided reforms taking place which are robbing my students of a developmentally appropriate education. Developmentally appropriate practice is the bedrock upon which early childhood education best practices are based, and has decades of empirical support behind it.

However, the new reforms not only disregard this research, they are actively forcing teachers to engage in practices which are not only ineffective but actively harmful to child development and the learning process. I am absolutely willing to back up these statements with literature from the research base, but I doubt it will be asked for.

Comment: Just how valuable is learning in today's schools? How valuable is a main stream education that creates unthinking machines? Good, caring teachers are answering those questions by leaving the profession in droves.


Red Flag

Milwaukee Sheriff declares Black Lives Matter subversive and 'will join ISIS'

Milwaukee Sheriff David A. Clarke, Jr.
© YouTube/Steve Schuster
A Milwaukee Sheriff who thrives on attention has taken to Twitter to claim that Black Lives Matter activists will soon join forces with ISIS to bring down "our legal constituted republic."

David A. Clarke, Jr. describes himself as an NRA Endowment Member and Constitutional Sheriff, yet he runs on the Democratic ballot.

His website, thepeoplessheriff.com states, "I firmly believe law-abiding American citizens do not deserve to be treated as random statistics."

Yet, apparently, those who fight to stop human beings from becoming one of the 983 people killed by police in 2015 are his enemies.

Comment: No police brutality?! BLM joining ISIS? This man shows the real face of police in America: delusional, 'radicalized', and dangerous. Milwaukee needs to dump this sheriff sooner rather than later.