Society's ChildS


Attention

Senior Guardian editor, two other journalists reportedly under investigation for sexual harassment

Mark Di Stefano
BuzzFeed
Fri, 10 Nov 2017 13:06 UTC
ian prior guardian
Ian Prior

The Guardian's digital editor Ian Prior has been absent from work after female staff members reported harassment allegations to management, BuzzFeed News has learned.

Guardian sources say Prior - the UK news organisation's digital editor and former head of sport - is away from work while management investigate the allegations, made in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein revelations that have created shockwaves across Hollywood, the media industry and politics.

When reached by BuzzFeed News over the phone on Friday, Prior was asked if he had been suspended pending an investigation.

"I prefer to not comment on anything at the moment," he said.

A Guardian spokesperson said: "We do not discuss specific personnel matters. We take any allegations relating to our staff seriously and have established procedures which we follow rigorously."
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People

Incestuous family: Oklahoma mother married both her daughter and son


Tulsa World
Wed, 08 Nov 2017 19:05 UTC
Patricia and Misty SPan
© Stephens County JailPatricia Spann and Misty Spann.
A Duncan woman who married her biological mother last year received a 10-year deferred sentence Tuesday after pleading guilty in Stephens County to committing incest.

Court records indicate that Misty Velvet Dawn Spann, 26, was set for a bench trial Tuesday but instead pleaded guilty to illegally marrying 44-year-old Patricia Ann Spann, who is identified as Patricia Ann Clayton on their marriage license application, filed in March 2016 in Comanche County.

Patricia Span also was once married to her biological son.

District Judge Ken Graham gave Misty Spann a deferred sentence of 10 years, at least two of which must be under the supervision of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, court minutes show.
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Camcorder

Leaked body cam video shows cop planting cocaine in man's wallet

John Vibes
The Free Thought Project
Sat, 11 Nov 2017 18:49 UTC
LAPD planting ecidence
One of the major criticisms against police-worn body cameras is the fact that the vast majority of police departments across the country have absolutely no transparency, and refuse to release footage of contentious arrests to the public.

The Los Angeles Police Department is no different - however, 12 videos from a 2016 arrest were recently handed over to CBS2 by a defense attorney handling the case. This is the first time that footage has been released to the media since the body camera program was implemented in Los Angeles, and if this case is any indication of what the hidden footage looks like, things certainly do smell rotten at the LAPD.

Attorney Steve Levine said he believes that body camera footage from his client's arrest shows LAPD officers planting drugs. He also noticed several inconsistencies in the video that contradict statements the officers made in their police reports. His client, 52-year-old Ronald Shields was arrested after a car accident for possession of cocaine.
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People

Thousands of Palestinians join to commemorate Arafat in Gaza


Al Monitor
Sat, 11 Nov 2017 18:41 UTC
Palestine Yasser Arafat Gaza City
© MOHAMMED ABED/AFP/FilePalestinian children play in front of a mural of late nationalist leader Yasser Arafat in the Al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza City
Tens of thousands of Palestinians gathered in Gaza on Saturday to commemorate the death of veteran leader Yasser Arafat in the first such memorial in the Hamas-run territory since 2007.

The anniversary event was billed as a show of national unity after the Islamists of Hamas struck a reconciliation agreement last month with the rival Fatah movement founded and led by Arafat until his death in 2004.

The deal, which is supposed to see Hamas cede civil control of Gaza to the Palestinian Authority led by current Fatah leader Mahmud Abbas by December 1, ended years of bitter division between the rival factions.
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Snakes in Suits

Indonesian museum removes full-sized waxwork of Adolf Hitler following outcry


RT
Sat, 11 Nov 2017 18:32 UTC
Wax Hitler
© Henryanto / AFP
An Indonesian museum, which until recently, had allowed visitors to snap selfies with a full-sized waxwork of Adolf Hitler against the backdrop of the Auschwitz death camp gates, has taken down the figure following a storm of criticism.

The De Mata De Arca visual effects museum has around 100 waxworks of celebrities, politicians and fictional characters, according to its website. Until Saturday, the figure of Hitler could be found standing between Star Wars' Darth Vader and Indonesian leader Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo.

The Nazi Germany leader was placed against a wall-sized banner depicting the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp with the notorious "Arbeit macht freit" (Work sets you free) sign. The wax Hitler proved popular with locals, who shared their selfies on social media platforms. The snapshots show some of the visitors even engaged in the Nazi salute.
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Heart - Black

Undercover video exposes brutal animal abuse at one of Florida's largest dairy farms


Associated Press
Sat, 11 Nov 2017 18:31 UTC
mad cows
An undercover video that purports to show workers kicking cows in the head and hitting them with metal rods has prompted authorities to open a criminal investigation at one of Florida's largest dairy farms.

Okeechobee County Sheriff Noel Stephen said during a news conference Thursday that he assigned an investigator to the case involving Larson Dairy. And Florida-based Publix supermarkets announced it has suspended milk deliveries from Larson, adding in a statement the company is "shocked" by the treatment of cows.

Publix said it has contacted the Florida Department of Agriculture about the alleged abuse. In a statement the company said, "we are disturbed by the images and shocked by the cruelty toward animals."
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Telephone

Women in Film organization launches their own sexual harassment tip line

Hazel Cills
Jezebel
Fri, 10 Nov 2017 18:35 UTC
Asia Argento
© GettyActor Asia Argento, one of the many women who said Harvey Weinstein assaulted her .
The organization Women in Film is launching a hotline to help women and men in Hollywood report sexual harassment.

The hotline, which launches December 1st, will also be part of an effort that includes a pro-bono legal aid service. Variety reports:
Women in Film said Friday that its Sexual Harassment Help Line and Pro-Bono legal aid panel will be integrated programs to refer men and women in need of assistance to other survivors, designated mental health counselors, law enforcement professionals, and civil and criminal lawyers and litigators. The help line will also serve as a crisis center and centralized information source.
The line was created, Women in Film executive director Kirsten Schaffer says, because their "phones have been ringing off the hook since these harassment stories began to break."
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Attention

Weinstein effect: Top Israeli journalists and senior politicians chime in on #MeToo campaign

Mazal Mualem
Al-Monitor
Fri, 10 Nov 2017 00:00 UTC
moshe katsov
Moshe Katsov
The Weinstein effect is spreading. The American actresses who have gone public with their stories about Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein over the past month undoubtedly inspired Israeli women to speak openly to the media about the men who harassed and assaulted them. There have been dozens of recent headlines about sexual harassment and assault in Israel. One common denominator among so many of them is that the women sharing their stories are well-known, influential figures at the top of their professions.

For the past few years, most of the stories that have come out about sexual assault have featured perpetrators in positions of power over their victims. Senior Israel Defense Forces (IDF) officers were accused of assault, such as retired general and former Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordechai, Ofek Buchris and Liran Hajbi, and major political figures including former President Moshe Katsav, former ministers Haim Ramon and Silvan Shalom, Knesset member Yinon Magal and highly regarded actor Moshe Ivgy.
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Pistol

Blue on Blue violence: Drug bust goes bad for Detroit cops


RT
Sat, 11 Nov 2017 18:21 UTC
Detroit Police Officers
© Rebecca Cook / Reuters
The Detroit Police Department is conducting an internal investigation after officers from two of its precincts exchanged blows during an undercover sting operation that went wrong.

The cops in question were working undercover in Andover on Detroit's east side Thursday, posing as drug dealers to entrap customers.

Two special ops officers from the 12th Precinct were pretending to be drug dealers, when two officers from the 11th Precinct approached.

The 11th Precinct police ordered the other officers to the ground, thinking they had nabbed two dealers, WJBK reports
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Book

College professors write a book encouraging teachers to push social justice issues in class

Toni Airaksinen
Campus Reform
Thu, 09 Nov 2017 17:42 UTC
college teacher
Two professors just published an entire anthology dedicated to teaching educators how to infuse their curriculum with "social justice concerns."

The book, Promoting Social Justice Through the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, published by Indiana University Press, was spearheaded by Georgia Southern Professor Delores Liston, and Regina Rahimi, who teaches at Armstrong State University.

"[T]eachers must recognize their role as one as one of mentor, even peer, on the journey towards greater justice in society." Tweet This

Teachers should use both "critical pedagogy" and "transformative practice" in their classes to promote social justice, Rahimi and Lison argue in the book's introduction.

Critical pedagogy, they say, refers to "a variety of perspectives that encourage learners to think critically," including "multiculturalism, postmodernism, deconstructionism, constructivism, black feminist thought, critical race theory, and critical race feminism."

These theories must then be implemented through "transformative education" or "transgressive practice," both of which refer to the "use of critical pedagogy to engage students in the 'practice of freedom,'" Rahimi and Liston note.

Central to uplifting students is the recognition of students' "lived experience." The oppressed, the professors say, "know their own social locations," and therefore have "epistemic privilege" that gives them access to unique forms of information.

Comment: University offers 30 week program to train campus-based social justice warriors

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