Society's ChildS


Bullseye

#BelieveAllWomen fail: Selfie saves man from 99 year prison sentence after his ex-girlfriend falsely accuses him of assault


RT
Fri, 16 Nov 2018 15:58 UTC
selfie
© Getty/ Hero Images
The maniacal obsession with taking selfies is often derided, but on this occasion a single random snap turned out to be a life-saver for a man who faced spending the rest of his life in jail for a crime never committed.

It all unraveled when Texan Cristopher "CJ" Precopia, 21, was accused by his high school ex-girlfriend of breaking into her home in Bell County, assaulting her, carving an "X" onto her chest and cutting her face, ABC reports.

In a handwritten statement to police obtained by the outlet's Austin affiliate KVUE, the woman wrote, "I could hear the slices being made and it stung a lot."

His lawyer, Rick Flores, said Precopia was taken aback when officers from the Temple County Police Department showed up with an arrest warrant in September 2017.

When his client asked them on what grounds they were taking him into custody, the officers responded "something along the lines of, 'Don't act like you don't know what we're talking about," Flores said.

Comment: The accuser should be prosecuted and held liable for Precopia's legal fees. See also:

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Russian Flag

Russian crime boss dines on caviar and crab while in prison and the Kremlin is outraged


RT
Fri, 16 Nov 2018 15:51 UTC
caviar and Vyacheslav Tsepovyaz
© Sputnik / Tatyana Kuznetsova,Alexey Nasyrov
Revelations that a brutal Russian gang lord, convicted of organizing murders and extortion, turned his prison cell into a hotel room with cellphone, delicacies and parties, are "outrageous," the presidential press-secretary said.

The photos of Vyacheslav Tsepovyaz, nicknamed 'Zlodey' (the Villain), munching on crab meat, caviar and kebabs, while serving his almost 20-year prison term, have caused a vast public outcry after surfacing online earlier in November.

The criminal also held parties with other inmates and used a mobile phone with internet access, which is strictly forbidden for prisoners.

As one of the bosses of the infamous Tsapok gang, Tsepovyaz was jailed in 2013 for his part in organizing a massacre in Kushchevskaya, southern Russia. In the 2010 incident, a farmer and his guests, 12 people including 4 children, were slaughtered.

"It's an outrageous, disgusting situation," Dmitry Peskov, the president's press secretary said.
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Eye 1

Biometrics companies want to offer incentives to lure consumers into using with facial recognition


RT
Fri, 16 Nov 2018 15:43 UTC
facial scanner
© Reuters / Damir Sagolj
Operating on the gradual model of Google and Facebook, biometrics companies are plotting a slow rollout of facial recognition technology, barbed with incentives to hook customers and distract them from the demise of privacy.

Arenas, airports and stores are already adopting facial recognition software to identify criminals, from shoplifters to potential terrorists - so marketing is the natural next step, according to Arturo Falck, CEO of Whoo.ai and one of several biometrics execs interviewed by trade publication Biometric Update.
Once companies are using this type of technology for crime prevention purposes, there's no reason why they should not be using it for upselling their customers.
And what if those customers don't want to be upsold? A Brookings Institute survey last month indicated half of Americans still oppose facial recognition for theft prevention purposes, let alone marketing, indicating Whoo.ai has an uphill battle ahead. Along those lines, 50 percent think there should be limits on the technology's use by law enforcement. Emails recently obtained by the Project on Government Oversight reveal Amazon has pitched its own facial recognition systems to ICE and other government agencies.
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Cult

Hotel owner paid cop to leave blindfolded foster kid in his 'sex dungeon,' CT police say

Josh Magness
Miami Herald
Thu, 15 Nov 2018 09:18 UTC
hessler
It started in October, when Connecticut police say they noticed a person with the email "daddydomboss@baymontct.com" was looking to do a "casting couch interview" with a young Mexican girl.

Now, police have arrested 46-year-old Simon Hessler, whom they accused of trying to purchase an underage foster child so he could have "limitless sex" with her in his "sex dungeon" that he had set up in a trailer near the hotel he owns, according to Fox61.

Det. Samantha McCord was investigating child sex trafficking when she went undercover to reach out to Hessler, who provided photos of "an elaborate sado-masochism room with multiple beds with whips and chains and handcuffs on the wall" that he hoped to use with an underage girl, police say, according to The Hartford Courant.

For two decades, Hessler had been doing the "training of slaves" in his trailer with the aid of clients from New York and Boston, he allegedly told McCord, according to NBC Connecticut.
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Question

'Wrong on so many levels': Priest in a Porsche uses children as beasts of burden to pull him through the town parade


RT
Fri, 16 Nov 2018 13:57 UTC
kids tow priest
© Carmel Saliba
A newly appointed parish priest is being accused of using his stature to put on a "ostentatious" public display, during which children were seen pulling a Porsche through the streets of a Maltese town with the clergyman inside.

Fr John Sultana, who this week was named the new parish priest for Gozitan community, Malta, was honored with a traditional parade by local followers. However, the pastor's use of a rather luxurious vehicle and manner in which he was heralded into his new role has drawn widespread criticism.

Footage showing Fr Sultana standing inside a convertible Porsche as lines of children pulled the Porsche Boxster through the streets of Żebbuġ has been labelled by some as "crass" and unbefitting of a representative of the Catholic Church.
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Evil Rays

Zombie nation: US college turns mass shooting survival drills into casual routine


RT
Fri, 16 Nov 2018 13:34 UTC
Memorial for Parkland school shooting victims
© Reuters / Carlos Garcia Rawlins
Memorial for Parkland school shooting victims.
With mass shootings killing more people than ever in America, a New York college is offering students regular drills in surviving "active shooter incidents," preparing them for an emergency that has seemingly become routine.

Stony Brook University is hoping that instructing students and faculty in the finer points of running and hiding might up their chance of surviving a mass shooting on campus. The class offers students an opportunity to role-play "active shooter scenarios" not just in the classroom but also in dorm hallways and off-campus housing.

Students run the drills once a week, equipped with helmets, assault shields, bullet-proof vests, and of course, (fake) weapons.

Comment: To really tackle the issues involved here there has to be a multi-prong approach. There needs to be a stress management program that does more than give students crayons and puppies. They need to teach the students to deal with stressors of all kinds effectively in order to make the students more resilient, and that will make them less likely to panic in any emergency situation. The schools and the media need to stop feeding the school shooter social contagion by no longer naming the shooters. The list goes on, but the point is that having students take these courses aren't really helping the students and won't prevent future shootings.

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Sherlock

London: Manhunt underway for attacker who slashed woman across her buttocks


RT
Fri, 16 Nov 2018 13:50 UTC
london police
© Reuters / Simon Dawson
London's Metropolitan Police are hunting a man who sliced across a woman's bottom with a sharp object, in a random attack, leaving her needing hospital treatment, the Evening Standard reports.

Detectives have released CCTV footage of the moment the attacker follows the unsuspecting woman to the entrance of a flat on Craven Terrace, Westminster, before cutting across the victim's bottom from behind. The assault took place on October 28.

The woman, believed to be in her 20s, is seen turning around and grabbing the point of contact, by which time the perpetrator, who had barely broken stride, flees the scene.
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Attention

Four Russian prison guards sentenced for beating an inmate to death


Radio Free Europe
Thu, 15 Nov 2018 13:46 UTC
Map of Russia
Four guards at a penitentiary in the Russian city of Chelyabinsk have been handed prison terms for beating an inmate to death.

A court in Chelyabinsk on November 15 found the four men guilty of abuse of power with violence and sentenced them to prison terms between three and eight years.

Inmate Sultan Israilov was found dead in the Corrective Colony No. 2 penitentiary in December 2015.

The prison authorities initially claimed the death was a suicide.

But some 500 inmates started a hunger strike, demanding an investigation into Israilov's death, which led to a probe in which five prison guards were arrested.

One of the guards committed suicide in May 2016 while under house arrest.
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Water

So much Murika: Diabetes spike in Mexican town where Coca-Cola used as drinking water, currency & religious offering


RT
Fri, 16 Nov 2018 13:20 UTC
Coca-Cola San Cristobal
© Martha Pskowski
In Zinacantán, a Tzotzil indigenous community outside San Cristobal, Coca-Cola is widely sold during the festival for the town's patron saint, San Jerónimo.
A Mexican town, next to a Coca-Cola plant, is running so low on water that locals have turned to the sugary drink as an alternative. It's drunk, used in religious ceremonies and even as a currency. While diabetes and obesity soar.

Cristobal de las Casas, in the Mexican state of Chiapas, has for years been caught between an inept local government and a multinational corporation which is draining its local water supply in a case of crony capitalism at its worst.

Coca-Cola is produced locally at the Femsa plant, which bottles and sells the drink across Mexico. Under a long-standing agreement with the Mexican government, the factory owns the rights to draw out more than 300,000 gallons (around 1,135,623 liters) of water per day.
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Star of David

Attacks on Palestinian schools increase as Israel escalates settlement activities

Madeeha Araj
Israel Palestine News
Fri, 16 Nov 2018 11:03 UTC
Israeli army guys
© Israel Defense Force / FlickrSoldiers in the Israel Defense Force during a training mission
Israeli settler violence - with IDF complicity - is becoming more and more commonplace, even targeting elementary schools. The government has also approved extensive Israeli settlement expansions and Jewish-only roads to be built on Palestinian land, which will result in isolation of Palestinian communities and loss of olive trees.

In addition, Jerusalem has seen an increase in extremist Jewish visits to the Al-Aqsa mosque.

School attacks and demolitions

In a clear violation of all laws and human rights principles, including the right to education and access to educational institutions, many Palestinian schools in the countryside and Bedouin communities were attacked by Israeli soldiers and settlers.
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