Society's ChildS


2 + 2 = 4

Pennsylvania teacher sentenced to 5 years for sexting with student, blames him as aggressor

Victor Skinner
EAG News
Tue, 11 Apr 2017 17:50 UTC
Jenna Leahey
Jenna Leahey
A former Pennsylvania high school English teacher was sentenced to five years in prison for sexting with a 16-year-old student, who she attempted to paint as the aggressor.

Former Parsippany Hills High School teacher and field hockey coach Jenna Leahey pleaded guilty in January to endangering the welfare of a child in a pleas agreement that allowed the 35-year-old to escape a more serious charge of official misconduct, the Daily Record reports.

Leahey repeatedly rejected plea offers from prosecutors last year and initially alleged her sexually explicit conversations with a junior at the school between February and June 2013 were instigated by the student.

But a selection of the thousands of text messages exchanged between the two - read out loud in court by Morris County Assistant Prosecutor Meg Rodriguez - told a much different story. "I'm horny all the time," "It's wrong; I still want it though," "You are one lucky kid," and "God, I want u, I know I shouldn't" and others far more explicit showed the relationship went both ways.
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People

Same pollsters who predicted Hillary's win now say: New poll reveals 63% of American voters want more US intervention in Syria


RT
Wed, 12 Apr 2017 17:48 UTC
Donald Trump
© Jonathan Ernst / Reuters
A new poll has found that the majority of American voters, 63 percent, want the Trump administration to do more in Syria. It was conducted as the Trump administration carried out a missile strike on Syria over allegations of a chemical gas attack.

The new Morning Consult/Politico poll published on Wednesday found that 31 percent of Americans believe the US should be doing "much more" in Syria, while another 32 percent believe the US should be doing "somewhat more."

The poll also found that 66 percent of respondents supported the Trump administration's decision to launch a missile strike on the Syrian Army's Shyrat Airbase last Friday.
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Stormtrooper

California cop pummels man for jaywalking - 'he just kept hitting him, and kept hitting him'

Sonseeahray Tonsoll
Fox40
Mon, 10 Apr 2017 23:04 UTC
Nandi Cain Jr.
© Courtesy of Naomi MontaieNandi Cain
There was a dramatic police take down of a young black man on the streets of Sacramento's Del Paso Heights neighborhood -- a take down followed up by what appears to be only police fists flying in the face of that same young man on the ground.

Naomi Montaie says she was in shock and recorded that video, posting it to Facebook because she felt everything she saw was wrong.

"I never witnessed anything like that. He just kept hitting him, and kept hitting him, and I was like 'oh my God...why you hitting him like that? Why you hitting him like that? You need to stop hitting him.' And he kept hitting him," she said with tears streaming down her face.

Montaie calls the young man in the video "nephew," but she says Nandi Cain Jr. is really just a sweet person from her apartment complex whom she's gotten to know over the last year.

She says officers who questioned her after the incident told her they were trying to stop Cain for jaywalking.

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Handcuffs

Twin Falls, Idaho cop charged with sexually abusing young girls

Alex Riggins
magicvalley.com
Tue, 11 Apr 2017 16:52 UTC
William Jansen
© KMVTWilliam Jansen
A Twin Falls Police officer was charged Monday with sexually abusing at least two pre-teen girls within the last 11 years. The alleged crimes happened before he was a police officer, but a sheriff's investigator said he believes "many more" victims will be uncovered.

William Anthon Jansen, 33, of Twin Falls faces four felony counts of lewd conduct with a minor under 16 and one misdemeanor count of disseminating material harmful to a minor. He's accused of touching the girls' genitals with his hands.

Jansen, a patrol officer, was placed on paid administrative leave when the allegations surfaced March 31, Twin Falls city spokesman Joshua Palmer said. His leave was switched to unpaid when he was officially charged Monday, Twin Falls Police Chief Craig Kingsbury said. "As soon as we found out about the allegations, we forwarded to the sheriff's office for investigation," Palmer said. "Then they conducted their investigation."
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Snakes in Suits

Despite rampant corruption and sexual abuse, top federal prison officials receive millions in bonuses

Justin Gardner
The Free Thought Project
Wed, 12 Apr 2017 14:14 UTC
federal prisons bonuses
If mass incarceration, the War on Drugs, and mandatory minimum sentencing were not enough of an affront to society, it was recently reported that top federal prison officials received millions in bonuses - despite that fact that federal prisons are mired in scandal and corruption.

USA Today reports:
"The U.S. Bureau of Prisons paid more than $2 million in bonuses to top administrators and wardens during the past three years while the agency was confronting persistent overcrowding, sub-par inmate medical care, chronic staffing shortages and a lurid sexual harassment lawsuit that engulfed its largest institution, according to government records and court documents.

The awards ranged from a $7,000 payment last year to a D.C. administrator, to $28,000 to the agency's acting director Thomas Kane, and $25,500 for Deborah Schult, assistant director of the Health Services Division. The bulk of the payments, nearly $1 million, were approved last year and amounted to almost double the combined amounts in the previous two years."
Prison staffers are outraged that their bosses - who did virtually nothing to stop pervasive sexual harassment from inmates over the course of 16 years - are receiving "performance awards," even as their lawsuit is pending a settlement.

"These people got bonuses off the backs of people who were actually dealing with the predators," said Sandra Parr, a vice president of the national union of prison workers. She went on to say that top agency officials "chose to ignore it," which allowed the problem to spiral out of control.
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Eye 2

Semi-famous gay-hating Georgia pastor found guilty of child molestation

Jack Burns
The Free Thought Project
Wed, 12 Apr 2017 16:37 UTC
Kenneth Atkins
© thefreethoughtproject.comGeorgia pastor, Kenneth Atkins
A Georgia pastor has been convicted on eight charges of molesting a teenage girl and boy in his church seven years ago. The jury took less than an hour to find Reverend Kenneth Atkins, 57, guilty of all the charges brought against him. Atkins, a convicted felon who has also reportedly been married four times (fathering ten children), was the only member of his family present in the courtroom as his verdict was being read. Ironically, the outspoken pastor was somewhat infamous for being anti-gay.

When The Pulse nightclub, in 2016, was attacked by lone gunman Omar Mateen, and dozens of gay partygoers were murdered, Bishop Atkins, as he's known, said in a tweet, the victims "got what they deserved." But now, it seems, Pastor Atkins is getting what he deserves.

The Georgia pastor was first charged in August of 2016, with one male victim coming forward with allegations of molestation. As is often the case when pedophilia is involved, the victim is often blamed. Charlotte Atkins, the pastor's wife, made the following comment about AJ, the victim in the case. "The young man was part of our teen ministry. We loved him as part of our church family. He is a deeply troubled young man to be sure," she said adding, "Our prayers and our thoughts go out to him and remain with him even now."
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Handcuffs

Mentally ill man dies in California jail after 46 hours in restraint chair

Matt Fountain
San Luis Obispo Tribune
Tue, 11 Apr 2017 19:30 UTC
Carty and Andrew Holland
© calcoastnews.comCarty Holland with his son, Andrew.
A San Luis Obispo County Jail inmate died in January from an intrapulmonary embolism about 20 minutes after he was released from a plastic restraint chair where he had been held for nearly two days, according to a county coroner's report.

The manner of Andrew Chaylon Holland's death was ruled "natural" — a finding disputed by his family.

An intrapulmonary embolism usually begins as a blood clot in a leg vein, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Holland, 36, was found unresponsive Jan. 22 in a glass observation cell normally used for sobering inmates. A Sheriff's Office news release issued a day after his death said Holland had been placed in the cell after he was seen "striking and inflicting injury upon himself." The Sheriff's Office also stated that Holland was "under observation and was monitored and checked approximately every 15 minutes."

When guards noticed he was unconscious, the news release stated, custody and medical staff tried unsuccessfully to revive him.
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Syringe

The Navy SEALs have a major drug problem


RT
Wed, 12 Apr 2017 14:23 UTC
Navy Seals
Navy SEALs are largely seen as heroes, serving in one of the most respected units in the US military. However, the branch is silently battling a growing drug epidemic, a CBS News investigation has revealed.

Three Navy SEALs - one active duty and two retired - spoke to CBS correspondent David Martin in an exclusive Nightly News interview, during which they revealed the severity of the problem plaguing the US special operations force.

"People that we know of, that we hear about, have tested positive for cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, marijuana, ecstasy. That's a problem," one of the SEALs said.

Comment: The drug epidemic is hitting all segments of American society, and it's no surprise that the military's 'elite units' are being particularly affected as they are involved in many of the darker operations of the US empire.

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Star of David

New York Times piece: Hey Jews, don't talk about Israel on Passover

Philip Weiss
Mondoweiss
Tue, 11 Apr 2017 15:05 UTC
Leon Wieseltier
Leon Wieseltier, from his twitter feed
This is interesting: the New York Times has run two pieces in the last couple of days arguing that religion has nothing to do with the real world. Passover is offered as a source of mystery, but not as a window on what is happening in Israel and Palestine. These pieces have the exact opposite argument to Marc Ellis's and Robert Cohen's; those Jews see Passover as a holiday in which Palestine must be dealt with.

Here are the Times pieces:

David Gregory reviews Abigail Pogrebin's book My Jewish Year, about her spiritual pilgrimage of celebrating 18 Jewish holidays, which was prompted in part by her discussion with Leon Wieseltier. Gregory says in the review that Wieseltier also brought him to greater religious study, and warns the reader not to mix up religion and the real world. No, religion is about things unseen:
Living up to one's faith is never easy, and opening your heart to the spiritual touch takes time...

To me, the essential question is, Where is God? For Pogrebin, as for many Jews, this is a complicated question — she is a believer, "not in God as all-powerful, but in God as protector and healer." The question of God is, in my view, one we must spend more time exploring if we are to find meaning and purpose as a community beyond culture and debates over Israel. I prefer going deeper into Jewish liturgy to celebrating the new year for trees.
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Info

AP report: 2,000 allegations of sexual abuse against UN peacekeepers in 12 years


RT
Wed, 12 Apr 2017 14:11 UTC
Helmets belonging to UN peacekeeping forces
© Afolabi Sotunde / Reuters
As the United Nations continues to "grapple" with sexual exploitation by members of its ranks, the Associated Press says it has uncovered 2,000 allegations of abuse against personnel working as peacekeepers.

An AP investigation, drawing on internal UN reports and testimony from victims, states that nearly 2,000 allegations of sexual exploitation have been leveled against peacekeepers worldwide in the past 12 years.

The investigation uncovered more than 300 allegations involving the sexual abuse of children, some as young as 12.
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