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In 2015, a record number of cops were charged with murder or manslaughter - Not a single officer has been convicted

Andrew Emett
The Free Thought Project
Thu, 07 Jan 2016 18:47 UTC
police violence
Although the number of cops charged with murder or manslaughter sharply spiked last year, not a single officer was convicted for these unjustified deaths. With less cops killed in the line of duty in 2015, the number of people killed by police increased yet again.

The accumulated number of people killed by police in the U.S. last year remains between 986 and 1,200, with The Guardian currently totaling 1,138 victims. Although many disagree on the exact number of fatalities caused by cops, most concur that 2015 saw an escalation in both the total of people killed by police and the number of officers charged with murder or manslaughter.

Within the last decade, an average of five cops per year have been charged with murder or manslaughter in fatal on-duty shootings. Last year, that number more than tripled as 18 cops were arrested for unjustified shootings. This number does not comprise non-shooting homicides, including the six Baltimore officers charged with fatally severing Freddie Gray's spine. Nor does it include the cops who will not face criminal charges for the deaths of Tamir Rice, Zachary Hammond, Natasha McKenna, Troy Goode, or Antonio Zambrano-Montes.

On December 3, Pike County Deputy Joel Jenkins was arrested after fatally shooting his neighbor in the head while drunk and off-duty. Charged with involuntary manslaughter, reckless homicide, and tampering with evidence in connection with his neighbor's death, Jenkins was also charged with felony murder and reckless homicide in a separate shooting. On March 28, 2015, Jenkins was on-duty when he shot Robert Rooker to death following a police pursuit after Rooker had already crashed his vehicle.
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Heart - Black

Muslim woman ejected from Trump rally

Caitlin Yilek
The Hill
Fri, 08 Jan 2016 04:05 UTC
Rose Hamid, escorted out of Trump rally

Rose Hamid, escorted out of Trump rally
A Muslim woman was escorted out of Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump's rally in South Carolina on Friday after she stood up in silent protest.

Rose Hamid, a 56-year-old flight attendant, was sitting in the stands behind Trump, according to CNN, when the billionaire suggested Syrian refugees fleeing a civil war were affiliated with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
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Display

FBI hacks world's largest child porn site, 1,300 arrested


RT
Fri, 08 Jan 2016 16:23 UTC
hacker
© Kacper Pempel / Reuters
The FBI has hacked the dark web, infiltrating "the largest remaining known child pornography service in the world".

The 'unprecedented' sting op saw 1,300 people arrested.

The site, known as 'Playpen', launched in August 2014 and allowed users to sign up and upload images, primarily for "the advertisement and distribution of child pronagraphy".

Within a month of Playpen's launch, the website had garnered nearly 60,000 members. By 2015 that number had jumped to almost 215,000, with 11,000 unique users visiting the site each week, and a total of 117,000 posts.

Many of those posts contained some of the most extreme child abuse images one could imagine, according to FBI testimony seen by Motherboard.

Comment: There are far too many psychopaths breathing our air.

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War Whore

Internal charges laid against NYPD sergeant in connection to Eric Garner chokehold death


RT
Sat, 09 Jan 2016 03:12 UTC
eric garner police brutality
© Time/Youtube
Eric Garner's arrest in New York City
As part of the ongoing internal investigation into the death of Staten Island's Eric Garner at the hands of police, a New York Police Department sergeant has been stripped of her gun and badge.

Sergeant Kizzy Adonis of the 120th Precinct was charged with "failure to supervise" because of her role in overseeing the police action that led to Garner's death by chokehold in July 2014, officials said.

"Probationary Sergeant Kizzy Adonis of the 120th Precinct was served with disciplinary charges today in connection with the NYPD internal review of the July 17, 2014 incident on Staten Island involving Eric Garner," a Friday statement from the NYPD's Deputy Commissioner of Public Information said. It added that she's been placed on "modified assignment status" until the internal case is completed.

The NYPD provided no further details on the case against her. Police consulted the US attorney's office in Brooklyn, which in turn is conducting its own probe to determine whether Garner had his civil rights violated.

Comment: Justice may be slow in coming, if at all. The enforcers of the control system have no conscience.

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Black Magic

Book Review: The Worst Interest of the Child: The Trafficking of Children and Parents Through U.S. Family Courts

Janet Phelan
Activist Post
Fri, 08 Jan 2016 22:21 UTC
The Worst Interest of the Child
© Burning Sage Publishing House
I've been writing about the abuses going on in adult guardianship proceedings now for over ten years. Details regarding the physical and financial abuse of seniors and disabled are nothing new to me. One might have thought I would have been prepared for The Worst Interests of the Child, by Keith Harmon Snow. But I was not.

"This book is about the organized crime of Family Courts in the United States," writes Snow in the preface to this book. Keith Harmon Snow is an award- winning journalist, photographer and writer who has worked in 45 countries. He worked as a journalist accredited with the United Nations Observer Mission in Congo (MONUC), as a human rights investigator for Genocide Watch, and as genocide investigator for the United Nations in Ethiopia.

In this compelling and disturbing book, Snow has launched an expose of Family Court in Connecticut, although his research and findings are echoed in courts across America. The victims in his study, like the victims of guardianship court, are vulnerable and cannot protect themselves. However, unlike the elderly victims of guardianship court, these young victims are just beginning their lives. The scars from the abuses that Family Court refuses to address, refuses to protect them from, will be carried throughout the rest of their lives. Through no fault of their own, through the unfortunate happenstance of being born the child of a predator, these children have received, as Snow so aptly states, a life sentence.

Snow writes:
The problem with Family Courts is that financial interests outweigh the judicial issues, and the entire legal system has been geared to support the financial plunder of clients. This is most evident by examination of the behavior of lawyers who take cases for both perpetrators of abuse and protective parents (not only, but usually, the mothers).
His investigation reveals a seamy web of professionals—lawyers, judges, guardian ad litems, psychiatrists and supervised visitation companies—whose back room connections well serve their own financial interests at the expense of an abused child's welfare. As Snow repeatedly demonstrates in multiple case histories, the protective parent's resources are drained by these professionals, as she seeks to do whatever is financially necessary to protect her child.

Comment: On top of trafficking and exploiting abused children and families for profit, it sounds like a pedophile ring in Connecticut is being exposed. Unfortunately for these mothers and children, the psychopathic legal system cannot help them. There is a large slimy web of pedophiles in powerful places who protect each other, hidden from the public's view. It's much worse than you can imagine. See: And educate yourselves and your families:

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Info

Environmental Protection Agency finally admitted that the world's most popular pesticide kills bees—20 years too late

Tom Philpott
Mother Jones
Thu, 07 Jan 2016 02:08 UTC
Bees
© Armando Frazao/Shutterstock
Bees are dying in record numbers—and now the government admits that an extremely common pesticide is at least partially to blame.

For more than a decade, the Environmental Protection Agency has been under pressure from environmentalists and beekeepers to reconsider its approval of a class of insecticides called neonicotinoids, based on a mounting body of research suggesting they harm bees and other pollinators at tiny doses. In a report released Wednesday, the EPA basically conceded the case.

Comment: See more:

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Георгиевская ленточка

Local Syrians dub Putin "lion, defender, savior"


Fort Russ
Fri, 08 Jan 2016 23:45 UTC
putin assad

Meanwhile in Latakia.
The Syrians have proclaimed Putin "lion and defender" in the belief that he will bring peace to their country, said Russian Spring.

Zeinab is a town not far from Damascus. There, two years ago, fierce battles were fought. The Salafists fired on it until the government was able to conclude a truce with them. There is also the mausoleum of Seyyids Zeinab, revered among Shiites. ISIS terrorists have repeatedly fired on the mosque, named in honor of his holiness.

After years of shelling, the city is in complete ruin, but now it is gradually coming back. Locals speak of the Russian President with gratitude and hope that he will bring peace and calm to their land.

"You know, Vladimir Putin - he came here as our savior and protector! We call him Haydar, Lion - the nickname of our Imam Ali," say residents of Zeinab.

At the entrance to the city there is a poster depicting the Russian President, along with Shiite leaders - Syrian President Bashar Assad and the head of the "Hezbollah" movement, Hassan Nasrallah.

Comment: There's a reason Putin is so popular not just in Russia but around the world. He's not the lesser of many evils; he's the best that the world geopolitical system has to offer. And as long as he continues to act with real integrity, his popularity will probably just increase. Further reading: The Fear of Death and the Human Need for Heroes

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Nuke

Calls for Michigan Gov. Snyder's arrest in lead water poisoning scandal

Sarah Lazare
Common Dreams
Thu, 07 Jan 2016 20:47 UTC
Michigan Governor Rick Snyder
© Bill Pugliano/Getty Images
Michigan Governor Rick Snyder speaks at a press conference at the Detroit Institute of Arts June 9, 2014 in Detroit, Michigan.
Calls for Michigan Governor Rick Snyder's ouster—and arrest—are growing after internal emails showed that his high-level staffers were aware of lead poisoning in Flint's public water supply six months before the administration declared a state of emergency.

According to the newly-released emails, which were obtained by NBC News, Snyder's chief of staff at the time, Dennis Muchmore, wrote to an unnamed high-level health department staffer: "I'm frustrated by the water issue in Flint."

"These folks are scared and worried about the health impacts and they are basically getting blown off by us (as a state we're just not sympathizing with their plight)," Muchmore wrote in the email, according to journalists Stephanie Gosk, Kevin Monahan, Tim Sandler and Hannah Rappleye.

"I really don't think people are getting the benefit of the doubt," wrote Muchmore. "Now they are concerned and rightfully so about the lead level studies they are receiving."

Comment: More information about the ongoing crisis in Michigan:

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Vader

Obama's crocodile tears

Patrick Martin
World Socialist Web Site
Thu, 07 Jan 2016 00:00 UTC
obama tears
During a White House press appearance Tuesday, President Obama shed tears over the death toll among US children due to mass shootings, a display of emotion that was given widespread publicity by the American media. The attention was in part due to the obvious contrast with the cold and indifferent demeanor normally maintained by the US chief executive.

More emotionalism is likely to be on display tonight, when Obama hosts a "town hall" meeting on gun violence in the United States at George Mason University in the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington. The hour-long event is to promote the executive actions restricting gun sales that Obama announced on Tuesday.

A few responses are in order. First and foremost is to note the utter hypocrisy of an American president, responsible for the killing of tens of thousands of children in the Middle East and other US-targeted countries, putting on a display of sorrow over the deaths of innocents.

President Obama, as has been well documented, personally selects the targets of US drone missile assassination strikes from a list supplied by the CIA and Pentagon. This takes place at meetings dubbed "Terror Tuesdays" by his staff. Thousands of civilians, and hundreds of children, have been massacred in these attacks, mainly in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen and across North Africa.
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Heart - Black

School resource cop denigrates Tamir Rice and his mother on Facebook, gets paid leave

William N. Grigg
The Free Thought Project
Fri, 08 Jan 2016 18:55 UTC
tamir rice
Matt Cicero, a "mobile patrol officer" employed in the Cleveland school district where the late Tamir Rice was a student has been placed on paid vacation (officially called "administrative leave") after publishing a Facebook post in which he denigrated the victim of a police killing, insulted his grieving mother, imputed pecuniary motives to the family's decision to pursue a lawsuit — and, most seriously, expressed a clear intent to kill other children should he find himself in similar circumstances.

Twelve-year-old Tamir Rice, who was playing in a park with a plastic pellet gun resembling an authentic handgun, was killed by Cleveland Police Officer Timothy Loehmann within two seconds of the officer's arrival on the scene. Loehmann and his partner responded to a 911 report of what appeared to be a gun-toting male of indeterminate age, although the caller specified that the apparent weapon was "probably" a toy. Loehmann, whose personnel record unambiguously described someone unqualified to be a police officer, was clearly primed to kill Rice — and the victim never had time to comply with an order to drop his toy. Nor did the shooter or his partner render medical aid to their victim.

Following the template used in the investigation of Darren Wilson's shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, Cuyahoga County District Attorney Timothy McGinty referred the Tamir Rice shooting to a grand jury, but rather than seeking an indictment he conducted a mini-trial in which he acted as both prosecutor and defense attorney for Officer Loehmann. Thisrais yielded the entirely predictable — and, most likely, intended — result when the grand jury declined to indict Rice's killer.
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