Society's ChildS


Pistol

The real life Serpico: The police are still out of control

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Frank Serpico
In the opening scene of the 1973 movie "Serpico," I am shot in the face - or to be more accurate, the character of Frank Serpico, played by Al Pacino, is shot in the face. Even today it's very difficult for me to watch those scenes, which depict in a very realistic and terrifying way what actually happened to me on Feb. 3, 1971. I had recently been transferred to the Narcotics division of the New York City Police Department, and we were moving in on a drug dealer on the fourth floor of a walk-up tenement in a Hispanic section of Brooklyn. The police officer backing me up instructed me (since I spoke Spanish) to just get the apartment door open "and leave the rest to us."

One officer was standing to my left on the landing no more than eight feet away, with his gun drawn; the other officer was to my right rear on the stairwell, also with his gun drawn. When the door opened, I pushed my way in and snapped the chain. The suspect slammed the door closed on me, wedging in my head and right shoulder and arm. I couldn't move, but I aimed my snub-nose Smith & Wesson revolver at the perp (the movie version unfortunately goes a little Hollywood here, and has Pacino struggling and failing to raise a much-larger 9-millimeter automatic). From behind me no help came. At that moment my anger got the better of me. I made the almost fatal mistake of taking my eye off the perp and screaming to the officer on my left: "What the hell you waiting for? Give me a hand!" I turned back to face a gun blast in my face. I had cocked my weapon and fired back at him almost in the same instant, probably as reflex action, striking him. (He was later captured.)

Sherlock

Florida police found to have entrapped men with online sex stings and then seized their property

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A drawn-out struggle to obtain public records has started to yield results for 10 Investigates, as local agencies have started releasing limited records - and providing insight - regarding how law enforcement conducts controversial sex "predator" stings.

Records recently obtained by 10 Investigates - primarily through the court system, since law enforcement agencies continue to deny public record requests - detail the incredible man hours dedicated to the stings, ways some officers violated the rules to boost arrest totals, and even how agencies take valuable property from individuals accused. 10 Investigates previously reported how many of the men arrested and publicly shamed by made-for-TV press conferences were not actually looking for children online. Instead, they were looking for other adults when detectives started to groom and convince them to break the law.

And while law enforcement leaders have denied any widespread issues with the operations, 10 Investigates continues to find evidence - in documents those agencies wanted to keep private - that details a pattern of officer misconduct in an effort to boost arrest totals.

Stock Down

Top experts predict global economic disaster in 2015

2015
© unknown
Will 2015 be a year of financial crashes, economic chaos and the start of the next great worldwide depression? Over the past couple of years, we have all watched as global financial bubbles have gotten larger and larger. Despite predictions that they could burst at any time, they have just continued to expand. But just like we witnessed in 2001 and 2008, all financial bubbles come to an end at some point, and when they do implode the pain can be extreme. Personally, I am entirely convinced that the financial markets are more primed for a financial collapse now than they have been at any other time since the last crisis happened nearly seven years ago. And I am certainly not alone. At this point, the warning cries have become a deafening roar as a whole host of prominent voices have stepped forward to sound the alarm. The following are 11 predictions of economic disaster in 2015 from top experts all over the globe...

#1 Bill Fleckenstein: "They are trying to make the stock market go up and drag the economy along with it. It's not going to work. There's going to be a big accident. When people realize that it's all a charade, the dollar will tank, the stock market will tank, and hopefully bond markets will tank. Gold will rally in that period of time because it's done what it's done because people have assumed complete infallibility on the part of the central bankers."

Comment: For more on the economic house of cards see: 2015, the BRICS checkmate Western finance?


Eye 1

UK schoolteachers urged to report terrorist toddlers

girl at school lunch frowning
© iStock
Just three years ago, we found out that children in Britain as young as three could be "blacklisted" - labeled "racist" on their permanent file for such evil thought crimes as calling a fellow classmate a "broccoli head."

When my brother was six and I was 12, he called me a "carnival head." I always thought it was because he was being a six-year-old little brother. I never knew until today that it was because he was totally racist... You know, against... uh... theme parks??

But I digress...

Now according to a new government directive from UK's Home Office, teachers including nursery school staff, have been handed a serious "duty" to "prevent people being drawn into terrorism."

Evil Rays

Ferguson grand juror sues prosecutor to speak out

protest
© ReutersPeople take part in a march against police violence, in New York December 13, 2014.
A member of the grand jury that declined to indict former police officer Darren Wilson over the August 2014 shooting death of Michael Brown is back in court, this time to try and win the right to speak publically about those proceedings.

On Monday this week, attorneys for an individual named only as "Grand Juror Doe" filed a lawsuit alleging that St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch mischaracterized the case against Wilson, a former officer with the Ferguson, Missouri Police Department, and presented evidence to the jury in a manner inconsistent with how such investigations are normally conducted.

Cow

Fight club for Jesus: Churches encourage members to fight, 'men made for combat'

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© Vivek Prakash/ReutersToday over 700 evangelical US churches now integrate MMA into their ministry programs.
"Can you love your neighbor as yourself, and at the same time knee him in the face as hard as you can?" American Christian Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) champion Scott "Bam Bam" Sullivan wonders in an interview with The Times (London).

Today over 700 evangelical US churches now integrate MMA (also known as cage-fighting) into their ministry programs. The phenomenon has even been featured in a recent documentary film, 2014's Fight Church.

MMA is a combination of kickboxing, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Greco-Roman wrestling and Thai boxing. Fighters face off against one another, brutally inflicting pain by punching, kicking, kneeing, and elbowing their opponents into submission. The intensity of the sport's violence caused Senator John McCain to call for an outright ban on MMA in the US. He denounced it as "human cockfighting," a "blood sport," and a "blood bath."


Comment: There's a case to be made for a more martial 'Jesus' than that presented in the Bible, especially if the Jesus myth was inspired by accounts of the achievements, betrayal, murder, and deification of Gaius Julius Caesar. But even Caesar, a master general and warrior, his clemency was even more regarded and remembered. These "Fight Churches" seem to foster a primitive 'fighting for fighting's sake' mentality, appealing to the lowest common denominator. But then, it's quite fitting, for a nation that sees an answer to everything it perceives as problems in the form of the fist, the torturer's instruments, and the gun.


Sheriff

Cops tase and kick man in the face after he holds his hands up and lies down

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© YouTubeTimothy Whittle
A drug task force video of an arrest differs markedly from the police reports written by the plainclothes detectives involved in the incident, The Kansas City Star reports.

The video - available below - begins with the final moments of a car chase between Timothy Whittle and two plainclothes detectives, Michael Chinn and Kip Bartlett.

Chinn and Bartlett were members of the Mid-Missouri Drug Task Force, and they were approaching Whittle's home in order to serve a warrant allowing them to search the premises for materials used to manufacture methamphetamine - but they never got the chance, as Whittle and another man left the home in an SUV and drove to a nearby property.

Once they arrived, Whittle exited the SUV and entered a black pickup truck. At that point, task force officers charged and Whittle took off. The officers gave chase - as did a Missouri National Guard helicopter, which was recording the events.

After a long pursuit, Whittle drove into a field, jumped out of the still-moving truck and ran. He eventually gave up, and raised his hands in surrender. He then lay down on his stomach.

Comment: The police routinely lie giving their statements, like in this situation where the video disproves the statements made by the officers involved. But what is the deterrent? They can make up all the lies they want, and even when there is video evidence that proves the statements as false, nothing happens. What is there to stop any police officer from making up events in order to make the citizens they are apprehending look bad and them look good? Nothing, and that's why the U.S. has become a police state. You can put all the cameras on police that you like, if nothing happens when the police's story is contradicted by the video evidence, the cameras will turn out to be useless for the purpose they are being used.


Sheriff

Family calls police to help with son acting out - police kill son

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© KWCHJohn Paul Quintero, 23 years old, was unarmed when killed by police
The family of a Kansas man shot by police Saturday night are saying he was unarmed and they want to know why officers had to kill him, reports KWCH.

John Paul Quintero, who recently turned 23, was shot and killed by Wichita Police after the family had called 911 following an incident in their home involving a knife. When police arrived at the home, Quintero was seated in an SUV parked in front of the home with his father.

According to police, they approached the vehicle and asked both men to exit the car, and the older Quintero complied.

Police state that the younger Quintero was drunk and confrontational and refused commands from the officer. After exiting the SUV he began walking towards the back of the vehicle as officers at the scene ordered him to show his hands. According to authorities, one officer then used a Taser on him when he failed to comply.

Saying the Taser seemed to have no effect on him, authorities say the officers saw him reach for his waistband - and a backup officer shot him with a patrol rifle, hitting him twice in the midsection.

Following the shooting, Quintero was taken to a local medical facility where he died a few hours later.

Comment: This is par for the course for police in the U.S. Instead of being a calming presence, they make things so much worse with their inability to control situations and handle individuals with anything but lethal force. The best thing people can do in almost all instances is to NEVER call the police for help, lest they want to end up another murdered citizen.


Eye 2

Woman files lawsuit against police for breaking her ribs after confronting her about crime she didn't commit

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© ShutterstockMary Frances Jones is suing the police for brutally assaulting her at her home when she was guilty of no crime
A Texas woman has filed a lawsuit against three police officers in Victoria, claiming that they brutally beat her and broke her ribs without a good reason.

Mary Frances Jones told the Victoria Advocate that the three police officers woke her up early in the morning on Dec. 22, 2013 over reports that a truck that she had purchased the day before had been seen driving in a local creek.

Jones said that she had been unaware at the time that her sons borrowed the truck while she was sleeping. After officers claimed that she was lying about owning the truck, Jones said she tried to go back inside her home, and that's when they forced her to the ground.

"One of them had his foot on my arm, and the other kicked me and broke my ribs," she recalled. "They hurt me. They hurt me bad, and they know they did."

According to Jones, she had to plead no contest to a charge of disorderly conduct-vulgar language so that she could go to the hospital. Her fiance, 50-year-old Mathew Milberger and two sons, William and Danny Wallace, were also arrested and charged with disorderly conduct-vulgar language.

Quenelle

Grand juror sues prosecutor of Michael Brown case, alleges mishandling of case

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© Cristina Fletes-Boutte, AFP/Getty ImagesSt. Louis County Robert McCulloch
A member of the grand jury that declined to indict the white Missouri police officer who fatally shot an unarmed black 18-year-old sued the prosecutor in the case on Monday, criticizing the way evidence was presented to grand jurors and seeking court permission to speak publicly about the way the case was handled.

The lawsuit was filed in federal court in St. Louis against St. Louis County prosecutor Robert McCulloch by the grand juror, whose name was withheld and was referred to as "Grand Juror Doe."

The lawsuit relates to the Aug. 9 shooting of Michael Brown by officer Darren Wilson in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson. Brown's death and the grand jury's decision not to indict Wilson triggered months of protests over police treatment of African-Americans in the United States.

Comment: Also see: