Society's ChildS


Black Cat

US Feds get expanded hacking powers

Hacker
New rules that expand the US government's hacking powers take effect today.

Multiple efforts in Congress to block the changes—which some worry will threaten basic privacy rights—were intercepted by Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), Reuters reported.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), with bipartisan support from fellow lawmakers, made a trio of attempts to prevent the implementation of a federal court procedure known as Rule 41.

Approved in May, the guideline makes it easier for the Justice Department to obtain warrants for remote electronic searches. It also allows judges to issue a single warrant authorizing government hacking of numerous devices around the world.

Stock Down

Natural selection? Population decreasing in some European countries - Europe facing overall decline

ageing population
© Reuters/John Kolesidis
When Spanish business consultant Alejandro Macarrón started crunching the numbers behind Spain's changing demographics, he couldn't believe what he was seeing. "I was astonished," said Macarrón. "We have provinces in Spain where for every baby born, more than two people die. And the ratio is moving closer to one to three."

Spain has one of the lowest fertility rates in the EU, with an average of 1.27 children born for every woman of childbearing age, compared to the EU average of 1.55. Its crippling economic crisis has seen a net exodus of people from the country, as hundreds of thousands of Spaniards and migrants leave in the hope of finding jobs abroad. The result is that, since 2012, Spain's population has been shrinking.

Record numbers of economic migrants and asylum-seekers are seeking to enter the European Union this summer and are risking their lives in the attempt. The paradox is that as police and security forces battle to keep them at bay, a demographic crisis is unfolding across the continent. Europe desperately needs more young people to run its health services, populate its rural areas and look after its elderly because, increasingly, its societies are no longer self-sustaining.

Comment: It would be interesting to know if these kinds of conversations take place in the halls of power... "Declining population in your country? Let me talk to my colleague in the war department; he tells me there are a few million people at a loose end in the neighboring region - maybe we can shift some of them your way..."

It's all so 'practical' and 'rational' to them because they have zero understanding of how upsetting such mass dislocations are for the people directly involved.

The bigger, long-term issue here is of course the declining population in Europe, which is mirrored in the US. This has never happened before in 'the West' in the modern era. The projections above are based on 'all things remaining equal' - but if more wars, more terror attacks, more financial crises, more chronic unemployment, more environmental upheaval, and more crop failures occur... population numbers could decrease far faster than they currently are.


Eye 1

Chicago cop sued again after second fatal shooting of unarmed black man

A demonstrator holds a sign as protesters try to disrupt Black Friday shopping in Chicago
© Joshua Lott / Reuters A demonstrator holds a sign as protesters try to disrupt Black Friday shopping in Chicago, Illinois, November 25, 2016.
Claiming "unjustified and excessive use of force," the family of Kajuan Raye has sued the police sergeant who fatally shot the unarmed teen last week in Chicago, Illinois. John Poulos, the accused sergeant, also fatally shot an unarmed black man in 2013.

The Chicago Police Department has not named the officer responsible for Raye's death on November 23, but a lawsuit filed Tuesday by Raye's mother identified Poulos, 44, as the shooter, according to the Chicago Tribune. In addition, Ja'Mal Green, a Chicago activist and spokesman for Raye's family, also identified the sergeant as Poulos on his Facebook page and during a press conference on Tuesday.

Fire

Swedish police suggest organized crime is behind wave of car-burnings as number of Stockholm 'no-go areas' grow

torched cars
© Red IceCar burning epidemic.
The Scandinavian country has been plagued with arsonist thugs setting vehicles alight, with hundreds of cars burning out since 2015. In 2016 alone, more than 70 cars have been destroyed as police struggle to combat the increasing violence and criminal activity in the famously liberal country.

The latest video shows three cars in Hallunda in southern Stockholm engulfed by flames as firefighters battle to put out the blaze. Overnight Sunday another car was also reported to be burning out in the crime hotbed, which was heavily hit by arson attacks in 2015. Hallunda was one of the cities which was placed on Sweden's National Criminal Investigation Service's list over "no-go" zones due to the police force's increased lack of control over anti-social behaviour.

In February, Express.co.uk reported the Scandinavian country had seen a huge surge in crime since the start of the migrant crisis in Europe - with a rise in sex assaults, drug dealing and children carrying weapons. At the time around 50 areas were put on a "blacklist" which are then divided into three categories from "risk areas" to "seriously vulnerable" as it was announced Stockholm had over 20 no-go areas where over 75,000 people live. However, the figure was increased to 55 in September as the Swedish police force face a recruitment crisis, with on average three officers handing in their notice every day.

Comment: This has actually been going on in Sweden since the mid-90s, when Sweden opened its doors to refugees of the West's war against Yugoslavia. Since then it has increased by over 500%. The consequences of Washington and London's wars have only just begun to 'strike home'...

Car burnings Sweden
Car burnings in Sweden from 1996 - 2012, approximately a 500% increase.
Incredibly, we can find hardly any online reports of convictions for these crimes. After a spate of attacks in Malmo in August, a police official there reportedly said:
"This crime is very hard to investigate. We don't see any patterns and we don't have any suspects."
Is there more to this phenomenon than meets the eye? Or are the police incompetent? Or are the culprits just so much smarter than them? Or is it that modern liberal ideology and political correctness denies people the ability to describe a problem for fear of censure?


Arrow Up

Vindicated at last: US returns life savings seized from innocent college student

asset forfeiture, charles clark
© ij.orgInstitute for Justice announced that the US had settled with Clarke in the case, giving back the $11,000 with interest, though no compensatory damages were offered.
Authorities at a Kentucky airport confiscated the life savings of student Charles Clarke in early 2014 on an unverified suspicion that the cash was connected to illicit drug sales. Now, the US has settled with Clarke, returning his $11,000 with interest.

Clarke was a 24-year-old college student headed to Florida in February 2014 when a ticketing agent at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport told police that that his luggage smelled like marijuana. An airport detective, a US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) agent, and a drug-sniffing dog searched Clarke's belongings, finding nothing illegal on him or in his bags.

Despite that, DEA Agent William Conrad and Detective Christopher Boyd seized the $11,000 in cash that Clarke was carrying - savings he had collected to pay for college - "upon probable cause that it was proceeds of drug trafficking or was intended to be used in an illegal drug transaction," according to Conrad's report of the incident.

Comment: Federal civil forfeiture law is legalized robbery. It empowers the government to seize private property from Americans without ever charging, let alone convicting, them of a crime. Perversely, the government then pockets the proceeds while providing no prompt way to get a court to review the seizure. Mr. Clarke is fortunate as most people never have their property returned.


Stop

'Toxic' Trump trolls: Reddit vows to take 'aggressive' action in the form of warnings, timeouts and permanent bans

Reddit
© Global Look Press / Reuters
Reddit CEO Steve Huffman has vowed to crack down on "poorly behaving communities" including the "toxic users" of the controversial subreddit dedicated to President-elect Donald Trump.

Reddit has installed a ban on "stickied" posts in the 'r/the_donald' community from appearing on the 'r/all' page, which is the site's latest move to block users that are "devoted to antagonizing the broader Reddit community".

"The United States is more divided than ever, and we see that tension within Reddit itself," wrote Huffman on the discussion site.

Comment: See also: Reddit CEO says he modified pro-Trump posts on The Donald subreddit after closing down #pizzagate discussion Of course, this is old news, while the reddit community may have been lulled into a false sense of security at the ousting of Chairman Pao, the truth is, reddit has been this way for a long time, as the infamous #gamergaters will recall.


Fire

Explosion at Italian oil refinery, residents ordered to stay indoors

Explosion at Italian oil refinery
© Provincia di Alessandria - Protezione Civile / Facebook
An explosion has been reported at one of Italy's biggest oil refineries in Sannazzaro de' Burgondi, near Pavia, about 40km south of Milan.

Local authorities have ordered residents to stay indoors while an emergency plan is activated.




Smoking

Anti-Smoking Fascists: No smoking on your balcony or with open windows in certain hours, Austrian court tells man

smoking ban
© Reuters
For the first time, the Austrian Supreme Court has ruled on when and where someone is permitted to smoke in their own home.

According to the court's decision, from now on a Viennese man is not allowed to smoke on his balcony or with the windows open from 8am to 10am, 12pm to 3pm, and 6pm to 8pm between May 1 and October 31, Austrian media report. From November 1 to April 30, he is not allowed to smoke 8am to 9am, 1pm to 2pm, and 7pm to 8pm. Every night, regardless of season, he is forbidden to smoke between 10pm and 6am.

The ruling is unprecedented in Austria.

"For the first time a smoking case has been heard at the OGH [Austrian Supreme Court],"Senate President of the Supreme Court Karl-Heinz Danzl told the Austria Press Agency.

Arrow Up

Violent & sexual crime on the rise in Britain

UK police crime scene
© David Moir / Reuters
Serious and violent crime incidents in the UK have trebled over the past five years, according to a new measurement which ranks crimes according to their severity.

Figures published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reveal a rise in serious violent and sexual crimes, while non-violent crimes such as theft either stabilized or fell.

A new measurement, which ranks crimes on the basis of the harm they cause to society and individuals, found West Yorkshire had the highest crime severity score, with the London-based Metropolitan Police coming in second.

Pistol

Arizona law enforcement officers equip Russian non-lethal handguns to curb police brutality

Man carrying handgun
© Flickr/ weaverphoto
American police recently purchased Russian-made Osa handguns that shoot rubber bullets and have a laser target pointer. The guns are supposed to reduce the number of casualties when it comes to standoffs between police and criminals.

Police brutality in the United States has been a subject to heated debates over the last couple of years. Now there is a hope that the situation could change for better. A sheriff's office in Arizona made an unprecedented purchase of 60 Osa guns and 10,000 shells. The Arizona police agency is the first in the US to buy the Russian-made non-lethal handgun. "Sheriffs in Arizona purchased a party of multifunctional Osa handguns. This is the first time in recent history when the American security forces officially purchased Russian non-lethal weapons," says a statement of the press-service of the Tekhmash group, the producer of the weapon.