Society's ChildS


Brick Wall

Police dismantle tiny homes constructed for homeless in Denver park, 10 activists arrested

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Ten activists were arrested this weekend for attempting to help the homeless in the city of Denver by building tiny houses in a park. The houses were also immediately destroyed just after the arrests were made.

The activists belong to a group called Denver Homeless Out Loud, released a statement after the arrests which read:

Comment: Makes you want to cry: What local, state and federal funds and resources should be allocated towards - serving those most in need - gets destroyed, and those creative enough and caring enough to work on this project get punished for exercising their creativity and expressions of conscience. And, of course, the homeless are still left in the cold. Welcome to Amerika.


Pistol

Nervous Austrians snapping up guns as refugees crises intensifies

Hand guns and rifle sales are spiking in Austria, with some shops reporting they are running out of stock of shotguns, since no license is needed to buy them.

"Yes, I can confirm, the demand in Austria for weapons is growing. My revenue doubled in September. And in October it has doubled again, and we are still in October," a gun shop owner told RT.

Obtaining a firearms purchase license in Austria involves passing special courses concerning basic handling and knowledge of weapons. The gun shop owner confirmed to RT that the number of people taking the gun handling courses has increased tremendously.

"In the past, I had one appointment a week for 'weapon license training' with one or two people. Now I have a fixed second event, with 6 to 10 people attending," the gun dealer said.

"Most of the people who came to me in the last week for a consultation or to buy a weapon, are telling me, and I always ask them, that the reason for buying is the 'current situation' in Austria," the man told RT.

The "current situation" in this context is the influx of refugees entering Austria.

Comment: Arming themselves against unarmed refugees is an accident waiting to happen.


Family

China ends one-child family planning policy

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© Reuters/Kim Kyung-Hoon/Files
A woman and her baby wait on the street for a military parade marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War Two, in Beijing, China, in this September 3, 2015 file photo.

China will ease family planning restrictions to allow all couples to have two children after decades of the strict one-child policy, the ruling Communist Party said on Thursday, a move aimed at alleviating demographic restraints on the economy.

The policy is a major liberalisation of the country's family planning restrictions, already eased in late 2013 when Beijing said it would allow more families to have two children providing the parents met certain conditions.

A growing number of scholars had urged the government to reform the rules, introduced in the late 1970s to prevent population growth spiralling out of control, but now regarded as outdated and responsible for shrinking China's labour pool.

For the first time in decades the working age population fell in 2012, and China could be the first country in the world to get old before it gets rich.

Comment: Westerners have about as much moral right to lecture the Chinese on how to live as Americans do to Iraqis.


Heart - Black

Cuban cancer patient deprived of medicine by US blockade

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© CubaDebate
A Cuban girl is being deprived of urgently needed cancer treatment due to the United States' blockade, doctors said Wednesday.

Seven-year-old Noemi Bernardez underwent surgery to remove a brain tumor in September, and is now undergoing further treatment including radiation therapy. However, her doctors say the likelihood Bernardez will survive is low without access to a specialized drug made in the United States, Temozolomida.

Comment: The US has a long history of acting hostile towards countries when it doesn't agree with a given country's government. Such behavior obviously harms innocent people, more often than not bringing about the early and unnecessary death of the victims.


Heart

Man camps out for Black Friday sale 33 days early — For homeless awareness

sutton
© ABC News
A man in Orlando, Florida is planning on camping outside of a Best Buy for 33 days in order to be the first person in line for Black Friday 2015. However, 37-year-old Kevin Sutton isn't concerned about scoring the best deals on electronics, he is doing this to raise awareness about the people who sleep on the street year round.

Last year, the internet was filled with news articles about two women who had camped outside of a Best Buy in Beaumont, California for three weeks. Sutton's camp out will be considerably longer than that. During the encampment, Sutton will accept donations in the forms of money, toys, and food which will be given to the Love Pantry. Sutton is a radio host and the program director of a fatherhood program.

During his time outside of the electronics retailer, Sutton will sacrifice many of the comforts homeless people do not have. He plans on only eating food and water that is donated to him, and will bathe with baby wipes. He gives away perishable food like pizza and burgers to homeless people. He does, however, have the luxury of using the restroom in Best Buy. Many private businesses frown on the homeless using their restrooms, unless they purchase something.

This isn't the first time Sutton has done this. Last year, Sutton camped outside of a Best Buy for 15 days. His efforts produced a lot more than just attention. In 15 days, Sutton collected 3 tons of food for charities.

Sutton says he got the idea when he was waiting in line for a Black Friday sale and saw homeless people in the area. In an interview with ABC News, Sutton recounts the time that he saw a man pull a sandwich out of a dumpster because he hadn't eaten in three days. Sutton asked the man to join him and eat some of the food he had brought with him while he waited in line. It turned out the man had lost his job, and that was the reason he had not eaten in three days.

"We sat and talked for about an hour and that was the most heart wrenching conversation I ever had. ... You know, that hit me so hard where I was like, 'I don't know what I can do to change this for anyone else,'" Sutton said.

Light Saber

'The disorder is in the system, not the children': Florida teacher leaves profession due to standardized testing

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© Baynews9.comWendy Bradshaw
Dr. Wendy Bradshaw resigned from her teaching position in Polk County, Florida, and her announcement has gone viral. Though Bradshaw is far from retirement age and she has PhD in education, she's leaving her profession because of standardized testing, which she explained in a Facebook post which has been shared more than 44,000 times since it was posted on Oct. 23. Her letter has been edited for brevity:
To: The School Board of Polk County, Florida

I love teaching. I love seeing my students' eyes light up when they grasp a new concept and their bodies straighten with pride and satisfaction when they persevere and accomplish a personal goal. I love watching them practice being good citizens by working with their peers to puzzle out problems, negotiate roles, and share their experiences and understandings of the world. I wanted nothing more than to serve the students of this county, my home, by teaching students and preparing new teachers to teach students well... I not only love teaching, I am excellent at it, even by the flawed metrics used up until this point. Every evaluation I received rated me as highly effective.

Like many other teachers across the nation, I have become more and more disturbed by the misguided reforms taking place which are robbing my students of a developmentally appropriate education. Developmentally appropriate practice is the bedrock upon which early childhood education best practices are based, and has decades of empirical support behind it.

However, the new reforms not only disregard this research, they are actively forcing teachers to engage in practices which are not only ineffective but actively harmful to child development and the learning process. I am absolutely willing to back up these statements with literature from the research base, but I doubt it will be asked for.

Comment: Just how valuable is learning in today's schools? How valuable is a main stream education that creates unthinking machines? Good, caring teachers are answering those questions by leaving the profession in droves.


Red Flag

Milwaukee Sheriff declares Black Lives Matter subversive and 'will join ISIS'

Milwaukee Sheriff David A. Clarke, Jr.
© YouTube/Steve Schuster
A Milwaukee Sheriff who thrives on attention has taken to Twitter to claim that Black Lives Matter activists will soon join forces with ISIS to bring down "our legal constituted republic."

David A. Clarke, Jr. describes himself as an NRA Endowment Member and Constitutional Sheriff, yet he runs on the Democratic ballot.

His website, thepeoplessheriff.com states, "I firmly believe law-abiding American citizens do not deserve to be treated as random statistics."

Yet, apparently, those who fight to stop human beings from becoming one of the 983 people killed by police in 2015 are his enemies.

Comment: No police brutality?! BLM joining ISIS? This man shows the real face of police in America: delusional, 'radicalized', and dangerous. Milwaukee needs to dump this sheriff sooner rather than later.


Heart - Black

Released dashcam video shows cop's murder of teen Zachary Hammond

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© Seneca Police DepartmentA composite image from the dashcam video of Lt. Mark Tiller's patrol car shows Tiller approaching Zachary Hammond's vehicle, and then firing two shots.
On July 26, Seneca Police Lt. Mark Tiller ran towards 19-year-old Zachary Hammond's car with his gun drawn as Hammond's date, Tori Morton, allegedly sold a few grams of marijuana to an undercover cop.

According to Seneca Police Chief John Covington, Hammond drove toward Lt. Tiller in an attempt to murder him. Fearing for his life, Tiller shot Hammond twice at point-blank range killing him. But according to witness statements and Hammond's autopsy, the teenager was not attempting to run down Tiller in the moments before his death.

Hammond's autopsy revealed that the teen was shot in the back of his left shoulder and his side.

In a letter from Hammond's attorney to the FBI, a witness has recently come forward describing officers planting evidence under Hammond's body and high-fiving his dead hand after the shooting. Although police found no weapon or drugs on Hammond, Chief Covington claims that a white powdery substance was found at the scene.


Comment: How is it that someone who is committing a crime, but clearly not a threat, deserves being murdered in cold blood by a trigger-happy cop who has no appreciation for human life? It's sickening to see cops get away with this. People need to start standing up against these blatant criminal acts and put these cops in jail where they belong.


Eye 2

Judge could face impeachment after freeing man who confessed to raping 5-month-old daughter

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© Cole County Sheriff's DeptMugshot of confessed child rapist Aaron Michael Fisher
The judge who freed the Missouri man who confessed to raping his 5-month-old daughter is coming under heavy scrutiny, with one lawmaker calling for her impeachment.

According to LakeExpo.com, court documents show that Aaron Fisher — who Judge Patricia Joyce freed last week on the grounds that his constitutional right to a speedy trial had been violated — actually waived his right to a speedy trial after claiming it had been abridged.

For six years, Fisher's case has wound its way laboriously through Cole County Missouri's small court system. Two judges recused themselves and Fisher has switched attorneys multiple times, while simultaneously making his legal team's work more complicated by submitting handwritten motions from behind bars.

Fisher and his team have been granted multiple continuances and delays. Then, six weeks before the latest scheduled trial date, his case came before Judge Joyce, who released him.

Attention

More trouble in the kingdom: Saudi people start new wave of protests, call for Sheikh Nimr's freedom

Protest in Saudi Arabia
People in Saudi Arabia started a new wave of anti-regime protests, calling for the freedom of the jailed senior Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr.

The protests heightened after the Saudi interior ministry approved Sheikh Nimr's execution.

Protesters in the Awamiya region of the city of Qatif once again started spraying anti-regime graffiti to show condemnation of Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz,

"Down with Al Saud" read one of the graffiti signs sprayed in different streets of the Qatif city, including al-Thura street, while the other one called Prince "Salman, the Traitor".

Comment: If the Saudi rulers know this death sentence will inflame the public and are preparing for it, how psychopathic is that?