Society's ChildS


MIB

New York SVU detective investigated for sexual assault of rape victim

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© Shutterstock
Manhattan Special Victims Unit detective has been demoted and is under investigation for allegedly assaulting a rape victim while working on her case, telling her during an evening of drinking, "You're my favorite victim," according to the New York Daily News.

In an exclusive, the News reports that Det. Lukasz Skorzewski, 31, along with his supervisor Lt. Adam Lamboy, 44, have both been transferred from the sex crimes unit following their actions in Seattle where they were interviewing the woman who had alleged that she was raped while a student in New York City in 2013.

According to the unidentified 24-year-old woman, the two detectives initially interviewed her in an office on July 15 of last year before agreeing to meet with her the next day to answer some additional questions she had.

The woman states that she met the two policeman, who were accompanied by another unidentified woman, at a pier and they invited her to go have drinks which she agreed to after Lamboy assured her, "You'll be safe with us."

The woman claims she spent the evening drinking with the detectives, during which time Skorzewski reportedly said to her, "You're my favorite victim."

She says she stayed with the two officers after the other woman left - reportedly after having an argument with Lamboy - before pointing out that her car was located some distance away. The woman said that Skorzewski offered to let her stay in his hotel room, giving her the bed while he slept on the couch.

Skorzewski reportedly told her "You're really cool. No, you're awesome," before turning in for the night.

Comment: Sexual predators often take positions where they are trusted and have easy access to their victims. See or read the SOTT editor's interview with Dr. Anna Salter, author of Predators: Pedophiles, Rapists, And Other Sex Offenders.

SOTT Talk Radio: Predators Among Us - Interview With Dr. Anna Salter

See also:
"Honey Traps" and the Strauss-Kahn Affair: A Stealthy Coup d'état at the IMF?


Heart

One third of Americans would give up sex for their cell phone

cell phone
© AFP Photo / Don Emmert
In a sign of a new type of connectedness, almost one-third of the American population would forgo sexual relations for a year than surrender their mobile phone for that long, according to a new survey.

The survey of 1,003 Americans was conducted from September through November of last year by the Boston Consulting Group, and was commissioned and partly paid for by semiconductor maker Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM), Bloomberg reported.

America's love affair with the communication devices was proven in a number of other scenarios as well: More than 55 percent said they'd be willing to stop eating out for one year rather than part with their mobile phones, many of which give users an Internet connection, access to social media and an abundance of apps that Americans seem to find more indispensable than a healthy romp.

Comment: Brainwashing complete? We don't know what's sadder: the slavish dependency and attachment to a technology that takes you out of the real world or the suggestion that so many people seemingly lack a healthy, loving relationship in which sex can express that love.


Alarm Clock

Going to sleep: Tranquilizer use spikes in France after Paris attacks

pills
© Reuters / Srdjan Zivulovic
People in France have reportedly consumed a record number of tranquilizers over the week that followed the deadly Charlie Hebdo attack, with the intake increasing by 20 percent in just a few days.

The research was conducted by French health data consultancy firm Celtipharm, the Times reported.

After contacting 4,800 chemists, Celtipharm reported skyrocketing consumption of tranquilizers over the several days after the attack. Between January 9 and 13 there was an 18.2 percent rise.

"This type of phenomenon has never been observed before," Celtipharm CEO Patrick Guerin told The Times.

Comment: How symbolic. The French, in response to a flagrant manipulation of their society and emotions chooses to 'go to sleep' rather than wake up and take a stand against their real enemy: the psychopaths in their own government and intelligence agencies. The Charlie Hebdo attacks were brutal, criminal, and highly traumatic. But after every trauma, it's important first of all to understand it. The French seem to have skipped that step, and are reacting based on manipulated emotional impulses, impulses that are only strengthening the racist tendencies advanced by publications like Charlie Hebdo.


Pistol

Armed man takes hostages in Paris suburb post office

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© AFP/Getty ImagesFrench Research and Intervention Brigades (BRI) officers prepare near the post office where an armed man is holed up with two hostages in Colombes.
A hostage taking is under way in a post office in Colombes, a suburb of northwest Paris.

According to police, an armed man is currently detaining two hostages, but they insisted there was no link to terrorism.

The man is known by the authorities, and had contacted the police himself, they said. Police are in communication with the man, trying to talk him into giving up the hostages.

According to local Socialist MP Alexis Bachelay, the man was carrying out an "armed robbery".

The man, known to police for previous criminal offences, phoned emergency services claiming he was "heavily armed with grenades and a kalachnikov", AFP reported.

Newspapers Le Figaro and Le Monde reported that the man was equipped with a military weapon.

"He phoned number 17 [the French emergency number] saying rambling things," a source said, adding that no shots had been fired.

The man is reportedly "mentally unstable and acted after failed relationship," according to France Info.

Witnesses said he entered the post office at 12.30pm local time and some customers were able to escape. He is now inside with two hostages.

Sheriff

Connecticut police officer that handcuffed & raped teen gets insultingly low sentence

Truball, CT officer Ruscoe
Accused and convicted rapist, William Ruscoe accepts plea bargain and receives only 30 month sentence.
This week, former Trumball police officer William Ruscoe began a drastically reduced 30-month prison sentence for handcuffing and raping a teenage girl in his home. The 45-year-old Ruscoe, who resigned from the police department following his arrest and later pleaded guilty to second-degree sexual assault, blamed his crime on financial problems that made it hard to support his wife and two children and a lack of support from the state's criminal justice system- he claimed a man who threatened him with a gun was released on probation, according to Connecticut Postings.


Comment: "blamed his crime"?! There is NO reason to rape a woman EVER!


During a sentencing hearing Ruscoe pleaded with the court to give him a downward departure in sentencing from the 6-year prison term he agreed to in his plea bargain. "Please show them (his children) the justice system their daddy worked to uphold for nearly 20 years is also fair and compassionate," Ruscoe urged the judge. State's Attorney John Smriga added that he felt the agreed upon plea deal of a 6-year sentence was appropriate for the crime committed by Ruscoe. "It's not that he (Ruscoe) just had a bad day, this was an action that was planned out," said Smirga.

Comment: The police can shoot and kill unarmed civilians and dogs, so why not let them get away with rape too? Anna Salter Ph.D wrote, Predators: Pedophiles, Rapists, And Other Sex Offenders - who they are, how they operate, and how we can protect ourselves and our children. It's a must read for anyone with children.

You can also find an interview SOTT did with Anna Salter:


Handcuffs

Chicago crematorium being investigated after raid finds hundreds of body parts inside

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An investigation into the possible illegal selling of human body parts continues after two suburban locations were raided Tuesday.

CBS 2's Brad Edwards reports it is part of a year-long, national investigation.

Sources tell Edwards that at Cremation Services Inc. in Schiller Park they're sifting through hundreds of body parts. The facility was raided by FBI agents on Tuesday, along with an office called the Biological Resource Center of Illinois in Rosemont, a body donation service.

The ventures are owned by Donald Green. Green was seen in a YouTube video that also features Secretary of State Jesse White. His office tells Edwards Secretary White's appearance was never authorized for that video.

A business under the same name was recently raided in Arizona, part of the tentacles in an ongoing investigation that started in Detroit, where a now shuttered east side warehouse was used to house thousands of body parts on ice, allegedly fresh for the black market.

A lawyer for the Biological Resource Center of Illinois released a statement saying, "As part of an ongoing investigation of two former Biological Resource Center of Illinois business associates, the federal government and State of Arizona investigators executed search warrants today at Biological Resource Center of Illinois. We are aware that the two organizations have been under investigation for several months, and we are cooperating with authorities to better understand the issues and provide all requested information to assist in their investigation.

"Biological Resource Center of Illinois remains committed to serving both our donor families and clients by providing safe anatomical material that further medical research, training and education. We are committed to continuing to serve our donor-families and clients with the highest level of integrity and standard of care, as we have done over the last two decades."

Hotdog

Reddit users describe growing up poor; dumpster diving, syrup sandwiches, stolen clothes

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© Richard Newstead/Getty Images
Growing up poor leaves a mark that can't be erased and habits that are hard to break.

Thousands of poor or formerly poor Reddit users discussed their experiences after someone posted a topic asking: "What do insanely poor people buy, that ordinary people know nothing about?"

Commenters described shopping for expired food, Dumpster-diving, and using improvised cleaning products to save money and meet their basic needs.

"Often bakeries will toss out stale breads and things but leave the bag on them," wrote commenter robutmike. "We would get them, dump the breads out of the bags at home into something clean, wash our hands, and have some fancy bread that was still perfectly good. You had to carefully check the bag for punctures of course, unless you were particularly hungry, then you could just remove the portion that was exposed and eat the rest."

"My mom would send my sisters and I to volunteer at the food pantry so we could get the freshest expired food," wrote another commenter, Dharma42. "We would ride along with the organizers of the pantry in a church bus early in the morning and collect day old KFC, pizza hut and any groceries that were past the 'sell by' date."

They also recalled making meals with a bare minimum of cheap, barely palatable ingredients - such as lard or syrup sandwiches.

"One time I also ate noodles covered in hot ketchup," wrote commenter workshits. "It was literally the worst thing."

Some commenters shared tips for finding free food and avoiding hunger pangs.

Comment:


Star of David

European Jewish organization petitions EU to allow Jews to carry guns

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© APA French soldier helps secure the perimeter of a Jewish school in Paris
One of Europe's most prominent Jewish organizations is petitioning the European Union to pass new legislation that would permit Jewish community members to carry guns "for the essential protection of their communities," according to a letter obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

The European Jewish Association (EJA), which represents Jewish communities across Europe, says that gun license laws must be altered following a string of deadly attacks on Jews in France and other European countries, where anti-Semitism has been growing at an alarming rate.

The recent attacks, including one on a Kosher market that killed four, "have revealed the urgent need to stop talking and start acting" in a way that empowers Europe's Jews, according to a letter sent Tuesday by EJA General Director Rabbi Menachem Margolin to EU leaders.

The EU, which has enacted very stringent gun control laws, should empower and train Jews to be proficient with guns in order to maintain their safety, according to Margolin.


Comment: What's next, they alter laws to make it legal for Jews to shoot and kill anyone that they feel threatened by? Just carrying a weapon won't stop people from hurting each other. And what about the safety of everyone else? I guess it's not as important as the safety of Jews.


"The Paris attacks, as well as the many challenges and threats which have been presented to the European Jewish community in recent years, have revealed the urgent need to stop talking and start acting," Margolin writes.

Red Flag

Hysteria: Parents investigated for neglect after letting their children walk home alone

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© Family photoThe Meitiv children outside the National Gallery in Washington this month
It was a one-mile walk home from a Silver Spring park on Georgia Avenue on a Saturday afternoon. But what the parents saw as a moment of independence for their 10-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter, they say authorities viewed much differently.

Danielle and Alexander Meitiv say they are being investigated for neglect for the Dec. 20 trek - in a case they say reflects a clash of ideas about how safe the world is and whether parents are free to make their own choices about raising their children.

"We wouldn't have let them do it if we didn't think they were ready for it," Danielle said.

She said her son and daughter have previously paired up for walks around the block, to a nearby 7-Eleven and to a library about three-quarters of a mile away. "They have proven they are responsible," she said. "They've developed these skills."

The Meitivs say they believe in "free-range" parenting, a movement that has been a counterpoint to the hyper-vigilance of "helicopter" parenting, with the idea that children learn self-reliance by being allowed to progressively test limits, make choices and venture out in the world.

"The world is actually even safer than when I was a child, and I just want to give them the same freedom and independence that I had - basically an old-fashioned childhood," she said. "I think it's absolutely critical for their development - to learn responsibility, to experience the world, to gain confidence and competency."

Yoda

Best of the Web: Muslim cartoonist: It's not the cartoons

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In the last few days I've seen more than enough cartoonish clichés of pens and pencils vs. swords and guns scrolling through my Twitter feed.

I don't think this is about cartoons.

Imagine a world where the western powers were not invading, occupying, drone bombing, kidnapping, torturing and holding Muslims in prison without trial. Now try to imagine that world in which cartoonists who drew Islamophobic cartoons were murdered.

I can't.

Comment: "We cannot make offensive art illegal if we want to live in a free society, but we can examine the context and power structures under which bigoted cartoons are created and hopefully come to the conclusion that cartoons mocking the prophet Muhammed ﷺ‎ will just be considered one of those socially unacceptable things you just don't do."

It's a moral question: Given the license to be a bigot, should one do so? There's a difference between 'self-censorship' and common decency. Many are arguing that it's a good thing the Mohammed cartoons were published, because it exemplifies the expression of freedom of speech. But what aim is really fulfilled by insulting minority groups? People should definitely have the freedom to express offensive opinions, but so should they have the freedom to condemn the backward, bigoted nature of those opinions. That's one advantage of free speech: it gives us the opportunity to see the true bigoted character of many who use it to spread hatred and violence, whether that's some psychopath in ISIS, or in Washington.