Society's ChildS


USA

Police 'exceptionalism' through Blue Lives Matter Law leading America towards more fractures

Civil war
United States — Lurched back and forth in the ever-quickening spiral of an American empire circling the drain, we — as a people — have chosen battle lines on nearly every issue from politics to foreign policy, domestic surveillance to policing.

Thrust back into national focus, the last issue — policing in the U.S. — might even surpass in contention the ongoing race to the White House. And it stands to reason, with the world lashing out against failed globalism in its various nefarious incarnations — largely driven by American exceptionalist military presence nearly everywhere on the planet — the empire sees expediency in heading off a possible insurrection.

To that end, the past fifteen years have seen the initially-surreptitious padding of law enforcement agencies with the tools, gear, vehicles, and — most alarmingly — weapons of war. Because terrorism, said the government, when its more apparent concern had to do with potential dissidents who have grown tired of corruption and the almost wholesale abandonment of constitutional and human rights.

Summoning the peculiar willful ignorance common in Americans' worship of authority in uniforms — found in the anachronistic hero cop avatar —militarization of police slipped beneath the radars of most, who were instead pleased with the added protection against nebulous terrorist threats in the interest of the safety of the Boys in Blue.

Comment: See also: Ominous threats of civil war now being issued from cops across the U.S.


Arrow Down

Dallas police whistleblower claims department routinely targets blacks to fill arrest quotas

Nick Novello dallas police
Dallas police officer Nick Novello says large numbers of the black community in Dallas distrusted the police and had been wrongly arrested to help fulfill an arrest 'quota' laid down on officers.
Following the murders of five officers in Dallas, the media and public alike lamented that the attack had ironically been perpetrated against 'one of the most progressive police departments in the nation,' thanks to Chief David Brown at the helm — but a current Dallas officer has now come forward with allegations much to the contrary.

Officer Nick Novello serves in the Dallas Police Department, and has for 34 years, but the leadership of Chief Brown, the officer says, has been anything but the rosy portrait of unity he paints in public.

In fact, even before the fatal shootings earlier this month, bitterness and animosity over Brown's leadership decisions have marred morale in the department. Novello accuses Brown of making sweeping choices concerning schedules and more without consulting anyone — and, as a consequence, officers are overworked and underpaid.

But a rather striking accusation tears apart Brown's supposed outreach to the black community: Novello says distrust of the department by African-Americans has been fueled by a number of wrongful arrests to fill drug and public intoxication quotas.

Bomb

Aleppo tunnel bomb 'kills 38 government troops'

bombing
A rebel group posted a video online that showed an explosion from several different angles
Dozens of pro-government troops were killed when rebels blew up a tunnel underneath a building in the Syrian city of Aleppo, reports say.

A UK-based monitoring group said 38 troops died in the blast, which it said happened on Thursday.

The Thuwwar al-Sham rebel group posted a video online that appeared to show a building used by government troops being destroyed by a huge blast.

Aleppo is divided between the rebel-held east and government west.

Hundreds of thousands of people live in the east of the city, which was effectively cut off by government forces earlier this month.

Government forces backed by Russian air strikes have intensified their military campaign against the city's rebel-held areas in recent weeks.

The city has been divided between the two sides for the past four years.

Light Saber

People power! Amish man beats Big Brother 4 times running

amish farmer
'If at first you don't succeed at harassing a farmer ...try again, and again, and again'

State and township officials in Pennsylvania who have been trying to disrupt an Amish farmer's practice of allowing members of a private food-buyers club into his barn to buy his products have gone to court and lost.

And gone to court, and lost. And a third time. And even a fourth.

"If at first you don't succeed at harassing a farmer out of business, try again ... and again ... and again," explains a report from the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund, which works on, monitors, and reports on such fights.

"That has been the tack the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and Hopewell Township have taken since 2012 against Amish farmer and FTCLDF member Chris Zook. Four times either the commonwealth or the township have brought a court action for alleged violations of either the local zoning code or the Pennsylvania Uniform Construction Code against Zook; each time the farmer has emerged victorious," the report said.

FTCLDF General Counsel Gary Cox has represented Zook.

Comment: Read more stories about 'state regulators' going after the Amish:
For the USDA and its sister food regulator, the FDA, there's a problem: many of the farmers are distributing the food via private contracts like herd shares and leasing arrangements, which fall outside the regulatory system of state and local retail licenses and inspections that govern public food sales.

In response, federal and state regulators are seeking legal sanctions against farmers in Maine, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and California, among others. These sanctions include injunctions, fines, and even prison sentences.



Info

Explosion hits US embassy in Myanmar during tear gas training

Myanmar police officers
© AP Photo/ Gemunu Amarasinghe
An explosion occurred at the US embassy in Yangon, the capital of Myanmar, on Sunday, Xinhua reported. A tear gas bomb test allegedly was the cause of the incident.


The US embassy has not confirmed the incident.


War Whore

Cop who shot innocent unarmed behavioral therapist to "protect" him was 'Officer of the Month' — twice

Officer of the month
In the ongoing debacle following the putatively accidental shooting of a black behavioral therapist by a North Miami Police officer whose intended target was actually the man's patient with autism — who was 'armed' with ... a toy truck — was previously named 'Officer of the Month,' twice.

Officer Jonathan Aledda, a four-year veteran of the force, had been named the top performing officer for September 2013 and October 2014, as Photography Is Not A Crime's Carlos Miller reported, before he shot behavioral therapist Charles Kinsey earlier this week under circumstances best described as inexplicable.

Cellphone video of events leading to the shooting went viral this week, showing Kinsey prone on his back with arms raised straight over his head and elevated slightly off the ground as he counsels the distressed man with autism holding a toy truck.

Comment: See also: Baby Bou Bou, Opie the dog and shot behavioral therapists: Why Americans are fed up with the cops


Attention

Not again! Machete-wielding man kills 1 and injures 2 in Reutlingen, Germany

Map of Germany
At least one person has been killed and two more injured in an incident in the German town of Reutlingen. A man wielding a machete apparently randomly attacked passersby in the street.

The motives of the man are still unclear.The incident took place near a doner kebab stand at Listplatz square, Germany's Bild Reports.

The perpetrator has been arrested by police, German media report, citing eye witnesses.

Comment: Germany: Refugee injures 4 in grisly axe attack before being killed by police


Sheriff

Baby Bou Bou, Opie the dog and wounded behavioral therapists: Why Americans are fed up with the cops

bullet hole truck
Officer Friendly — the iconic image of the neighborhood cop who smilingly greets residents as he protects them from 'bad guys' — now exists, for the large part, only in the American collective memory, having been replaced some fifteen years ago by an authoritarian, militarized soldier.

And though that collective memory is powerful enough many Americans remain beguiled of police — perhaps too uncomfortable to acknowledge Officer Friendly's disquieting metamorphosis — a growing number of people realize that with the militarized transformation came the attitude and tactics to match.

Because of that discrepancy in perspective, a bitter disconnect took root between those who insist the authority in a badge means police literally do no wrong and advocates, activists, academics, and family and friends of law enforcement victims, who warn quite the contrary is true.

Beaker

County officials use faulty test kits to incite fear about THC in water supply — scientists say it's impossible

cannabis in water
On Thursday, the residents of Hugo, population 750, started getting calls from local officials about the drinking water. They were told it was contaminated and to avoid drinking the water or letting their pets drink it, and even to avoid bathing in it.

The purported danger came not from lead or arsenic or E. coli or any of the usual contaminants, but THC, the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis.

Colorado is one of four states that have legalized recreational cannabis use as well as medicinal, although Hugo has not permitted any cannabis facilities to be built in their jurisdiction.

The sheriff's office issued a dire warning: "At this time, investigators are assessing the situation with state and federal authorities. Bathroom usage is still safe, but until more information is known to us, out of an abundance of caution, avoid drinking Town of Hugo water."

Comment: See also: Colorado town warned against drinking water after tests reveal presence of THC


Stock Down

The subprime U.S. economy disintegrating due to subprime auto, housing, bond and energy debt

Subprime loan risk cartoon
The U.S. financial system continues to disintegrate even though most Americans hardly notice. The system is being gutted from the inside out... much the same way a chronic disease weakens a patient even before any symptoms are felt. However, we are already experiencing painful symptoms as U.S. economic indicators continue to weaken.

Here are just a few of the recent headlines:

Energy Giant Schlumberger Fires Another 8,000 As "Market Conditions Worsen" in Q2

The Financial System Is Breaking Down At An Unimaginable Pace

Potential Crisis Triggers Continue To Pile Up In 2016

Just In Time— - Big Wall Street Housing Investors Cashing-Out On Housing Bubble 2.0

Corporate Bond Defaults Hit Highest Rate Since Financial Crisis

These are just some of the recent headlines pointing to BIG TROUBLE AHEAD. However, the U.S. financial system is in dire shape due to the SUBPRIMING of the entire economy. Today, anyone can purchase a car for little or nothing down and finance it for 84 months. The U.S. housing market is also in the same predicament.