Society's ChildS


Heart - Black

Counter-terrorism playbook in action: FBI grooms, arrests young man with mental capacity of a child

Mahin Khan, FBI sting mentally ill
An 18-year-old recently arrested on terrorism charges in Arizona has the mental capacity of a child and had been in regular contact with the FBI for years before his arrest, according to family members, former teachers, and medical documents reviewed by The Intercept. Mahin Khan was arrested July 1 on charges of plotting to support the Taliban as well as the militant group the Islamic State and commit acts of terrorism in the local community.

People close to Khan say that he suffered from serious mental and emotional illnesses and that the FBI was aware of this, having met with him regularly since he was a young teenager. According to medical records and statements from family members, he was first referred to the FBI after sending a threatening email to one of his teachers at the age of 15. After an initial meeting with the FBI, he spent 45 days at an inpatient psychiatric facility for evaluation. His family says this stay at the facility was coordinated with FBI officials. Agents reportedly continued to meet with Khan regularly after he returned home and continued to do so up until the time of his arrest.

A community activist told The Intercept that after Khan's initial contact with the FBI, he began regularly meeting with the teenager in an attempt to mentor him. He said that during these meetings, Khan had exhibited obvious signs of mental illness. "He was unable to even tie his shoelaces and his mother would have to do it for him. He would say things supporting extremism and terrorist groups but then would later start crying and apologizing," the activist said. The activist did not want to be named for fear of retribution from law enforcement.

Comment: The FBI has a history of setting up mentally ill people to commit crimes they could never have accomplished on their own:


Attention

'By fear of death, we stop living': Europe's top flea market scrapped over terrorist threat, first time since WWII

Visitors attending the annual Braderie de Lille
© Philippe Huguen / AFPVisitors attending the annual Braderie de Lille (Lille Fleamarket) in Lille, northern France.
The Lille flea market, the largest in Europe and welcoming millions each year, has been canceled over a terrorist threat. The event was last time revoked during World War II, French media say.

"The stalls with goods, and the crowds of such size will be impossible to control. It is a painful decision to make," the mayor of the northern Lille, Martine Aubry, told a press conference on Friday.

She said that even despite the state's readiness to provide the city with means for ensuring maximum security "there are risks we can't reduce."

"I prefer to face the anger of those who lose money than those who lose their child," the prefect of France's North, Michel Lalande, who was at the press conference as well, said. "At a certain moment, regardless of our passions or convictions, we have to say stop to a model that overcomes the essential security demands."

Bizarro Earth

Two Muslim women who work for the US govt, escorted off plane by officers because staff felt 'unsafe'

aeroplane woman
© TheFreeThoughtProject.com
In a growing list of victims of paranoid, or perhaps bigoted, flight attendants, two American Muslim women were asked to leave an American Airlines plane after discussing a lack of food and water when their flight was delayed on the tarmac — for five hours.

A flight attendant said the two women made him feel "unsafe."

Niala Mohammad, a journalist for the U.S. government-funded news agency Voice of America, and her federal government employee friend, whom the Independent reported wished to remain anonymous, were traveling from Miami to Washington when they were asked to leave the plane.

Mohammad explained their American Airlines flight had remained on the ground in Miami for five hours, but the crew refused to allow passengers to purchase food or beverages.

A white male passenger seated behind the pair began discussing the issue and the lengthy delay with the journalist's friend.

Comment: Related articles:

Muslim chaplain refused can of coke by United Airlines so she wouldn't weaponize it
US, California: Muslim woman removed from Southwest plane to sue
American Airlines backs stewardess who announces over intercom she was "watching" Muslim passenger, then kicks him off flight


Dollars

Cash isn't king: Businesses have no obligation to accept dollars

banned cash
We've been talking about society's transition to a cashless society for a long time, but it begs an important question: Can stores and other retail establishments refuse to take your dollars and cents?

As odd as it sounds, this is not hypothetical anymore as a small number of stores and industries have stopped accepting cash and allow payment only by credit card, debit card or via a smartphone app.

Sweetgreen, a high-end salad restaurant, stopped accepting cash in its New York City stores in January. A Boston restaurant near Fenway Park went cashless this past December. Most airlines stopped taking cash for in-flight purchases of food and beverages around 2010.

While the trend of smaller stores refusing to accept credit cards because of the high fees is more well-established, the opposite trend of refusing to take cash hasn't been as well-explored. Let's examine why they do it and if they can get away with it.

Comment: The Powers That Be certainly want to kill cash. The following articles are just a few examples of their efforts to move away from cash.


Arrow Up

Jury convicts Virginia police officer in fatal shooting of unarmed black teen, jury recommends two-and-half-years jail time

Stephen Rankin
© Portsmouth Police
A Virginia jury convicted a white police officer for the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager, William Chapman, who was accused of shoplifting. The jury recommended he serve two-and-half-years in jail.

A Virginia jury has convicted a white police officer for the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager, William Chapman, who was accused of shoplifting.

The former Portsmouth police officer, Stephen Rankin, shot Chapman, 18, in the face and chest outside a Walmart store last year, after a security guard reported a theft from the store.

Rankin was charged with voluntary manslaughter on Thursday and now faces between one and 10 years in prison. The sentencing phase of his trial began immediately. The jury recommended two-and-a-half years behind bars.

"I think this is a terrible tragedy. I wish it had never happened. I wish none of it had every occurred," Ranking testified after being found guilty, reported Associated Press. "I can't begin to fathom how much pain that family is going through. I wish I could have done more to keep him alive."

Info

Canada has biggest jobs loss since 2011

Canadian flag
© AFP 2016/ TIMOTHY A. CLARY
The unemployment rate increased to 6.9%, full-time employment fell by 71,000 from June to July, while part-time work was up by 40,000, according to official statement.

The Canadian economy lost 31,200 full-time jobs in July, making the the biggest drop since October 2011, Statistics Canada said in a statement on Friday.

"The unemployment rate increased...to 6.9%," the release stated. "Full-time employment fell by 71,000 from June to July, while part-time work was up by 40,000."

Handcuffs

Poll shows many young blacks and Hispanics have experienced police harassment or violence

NY police
© Brendan McDermid / Reuters
Two-thirds of young blacks and two-fifths of young Hispanics say that they or someone they know has experienced harassment or violence, according to a new poll.

According to the GenForward poll released Thursday, those figures include 20 percent of both blacks and Hispanics aged 18 to 30 said they have personally experienced violence or harassment by police. When only selecting young black men, however, that number increases to 30 percent saying that they have personally been on the receiving end of such behavior.

The poll results were released following high-profile fatal shootings of young black men by police, such as the July 5 shooting of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and of Philando Castile in St. Paul, Minnesota, just a day later.

MIB

Death of privacy: IDI 'data-fusion' company has a profile on every American adult

spies
© Mustafa Hacalaki/Getty Images
Forget telephoto lenses and fake mustaches: The most important tools for America's 35,000 private investigators are database subscription services. For more than a decade, professional snoops have been able to search troves of public and nonpublic records—known addresses, DMV records, photographs of a person's car—and condense them into comprehensive reports costing as little as $10. Now they can combine that information with the kinds of things marketers know about you, such as which politicians you donate to, what you spend on groceries, and whether it's weird that you ate in last night, to create a portrait of your life and predict your behavior.

IDI, a year-old company in the so-called data-fusion business, is the first to centralize and weaponize all that information for its customers. The Boca Raton, Fla., company's database service, idiCORE, combines public records with purchasing, demographic, and behavioral data. Chief Executive Officer Derek Dubner says the system isn't waiting for requests from clients—it's already built a profile on every American adult, including young people who wouldn't be swept up in conventional databases, which only index transactions. "We have data on that 21-year-old who's living at home with mom and dad," he says.

Comment: IDI is a private company, and it claims to have a profile for every adult American. Just imagine what the NSA's 'profiles' look like...


War Whore

Cops who killed unarmed mentally ill man and kept jobs, suing dept — say being put on desk duty is racist

LAPD kept jobs
Responsible for killing an unarmed, mentally ill man and shooting him in the back, two LAPD officers filed a lawsuit against the city on Wednesday alleging they are victims of racial discrimination within the department. Although the cops illegally stopped Ezell Ford and violated his civil rights without any probable cause, these incompetent officers want financial restitution from the city because they have not received promotions within the last two years.

On August 11, 2014, officers Sharlton Wampler and Antonio Villegas of LAPD's Newton Area Gang Enforcement Detail saw Ford walking down the sidewalk and decided to conduct an investigative stop. According to an LAPD press release, Wampler and Villegas exited their vehicle and attempted to talk to Ford who reportedly continued walking with his hands in his pockets.

Due to the fact that Wampler had arrested Ford for marijuana possession in 2008, the officer had been aware that Ford suffered from depression, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. Seeking another easy drug bust, Wampler and Villegas exited the vehicle with Villegas immediately drawing his gun for no apparent reason.

According to Wampler, Ford stepped between a parked car and some bushes when the officer suddenly grabbed the mentally ill man's right shoulder from behind. Although Wampler claimed that he suspected Ford had been carrying drugs or a weapon, neither were found at the scene.

Comment: See also: Police State Roundup: Cops assault, rape, and shoot civilians - lie about it - and get away with it


Handcuffs

Scottish aristocrat surprised to be arrested after Kenyan police seize 100kg of cocaine in drug trafficking bust

Jack Alexander Wolf Marrian
© Stringer / AFPBritish national Jack Alexander Wolf Marria
A Scottish aristocrat who went to school with Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton has been arrested in Kenya for allegedly smuggling cocaine. Jack Alexander Wolf Marrian, a trader, has been charged with trafficking nearly 100kg of cocaine, worth £2.2 million (US$2.9 million), in one of Kenya's biggest drug busts. The blue-blooded businessman was remanded in custody by Kenyan authorities and appeared in court on Thursday, where he denied the charges.

Prosecutors successfully argued Marrian, 30, is a flight risk and he will now be held in custody until Monday, when he will return to court for a bail hearing. The British national, who belongs to a noble Scottish clan and is the grandson of the sixth Earl of Cawdor, grew up in Nairobi, but was educated at the expensive private school Marlborough College.

Comment: The 'sugar' wasn't merely contaminated with cocaine. The police found 100kg! Perhaps Marrian recently made some enemies for him to be 'found out' by Interpol.