Society's ChildS


Snakes in Suits

Judge under fire for forcing defendants to give blood or go to jail


RT
Wed, 21 Oct 2015 15:33 UTC
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© David Mercado / Reuters
A rural Alabama judge is under fire for offering minor crime offenders the option of giving blood in lieu of paying monetary fines for their crimes, or going to jail - a choice the Southern Poverty Law Center has called unconstitutional.

The payment-due hearing at the Perry County Courthouse took place on September 17, when Judge Marvin Wiggins was to face hundreds of offenders owing fines for crimes ranging from drug possession to hunting after dark, according to the New York Times. The offenders were mailed notices to show up at the hearing, the Southern Poverty Law Center reported.

"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen," said Judge Wiggins, according to a recording of the hearing.

"For your consideration, there's a blood drive outside,"he said, according to audio obtained by the Southern Poverty Law Center. "If you don't have any money, go out there and give blood and bring in a receipt indicating you gave blood."

For anyone short of blood or money, Wiggins, an Alabama circuit judge since 1999, declared, "The sheriff has enough handcuffs."
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Black Magic

New Jersey suspect in two-state, seven-person murder spree says devil told him 'just eat, eat, stop being so picky'

Michael Rubinkam
NorthJersey.com
Tue, 20 Oct 2015 20:15 UTC
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© Lehigh Valley Live/courtesy photoTodd West is charged in three killings in the Lehigh Valley and four in New Jersey.
A man accused of killing seven people in New Jersey and Pennsylvania over a seven-week period told police he heard the devil's voice in his head, a detective testified Tuesday.

Todd West, 23, of Elizabeth, New Jersey, and two co-defendants were ordered to stand trial on homicide and robbery counts in connection with the July 5 shooting deaths of a man in Easton and a man and a woman in nearby Allentown.

The victims were chosen at random, Lehigh County First Assistant District Attorney Steven M. Luksa said.

Arrested a day after the shootings, West described for police how he spotted Kory Ketrow, 22, walking down the street in Easton shortly after 3 a.m. July 5 and directed his co-defendant to pull their SUV over. He said he climbed out, said "See ya later," and emptied his six-shot, .38-caliber revolver at Ketrow, testified Allentown police Detective John Brixius, who interviewed West.

West allegedly told police he didn't think he had killed Ketrow because he didn't see him "stiffen up." He also said he heard a voice in his head, Brixius testified. "The voice was telling him, 'Eat, eat, stop being picky, eat,'" the detective said West told him.
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Fire

Man who set girlfriend's house on fire and danced on the roof now in police custody

Julie Pursley and Matt Mckinney
WRTV
Mon, 19 Oct 2015 15:19 UTC
man dances burning house
A man who barricaded himself in a house on Indianapolis' northeast side, then later danced on the roof was taken into custody by police Monday morning.

Officers with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department responded to a house on the 3500 block of Layman Avenue around 10:30 a.m. for a barricaded subject.

Police say a man, later identified by authorities as Matthew Russ, 25, stole his ex-girlfriend's keys from her house, took her car and crashed it into a pole.

Police say they found Russ in a chair in the driveway holding a knife. He then went into the house and onto the roof with the knife in his hand. An IMPD officer then fired rubber bullets at him, and he retreated back into the house.Around 11 a.m., smoke was seen coming from the house, leading to the fire department being called to the scene.

Comment: Society is deteriorating at an ever faster rate.

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MIB

Minnesota man bludgeons 84-year-old grandmother for blowing nose at dinner table


The Smoking Gun
Mon, 19 Oct 2015 14:54 UTC
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© Dakota County JailTimothy Steele
A Minnesota man arrested for bludgeoning his grandmother to death with a hammer told police that he attacked the 84-year-old victim because she blew her nose at the dinner table, according to a criminal complaint.

Timothy Robert Steele, 35, also told investigators that he was angry with Agnes Wagner-Steele because she had "caused a hole in one of [his] jackets."

Steele, pictured above, was charged today with second-degree murder in connection with the October 15 slaying at a residence in Farmington, a city outside Minneapolis.

Responding to an emergency call placed by Steele's mother (who is the victim's daughter), cops found Steele sitting on a living room couch late Friday evening. Asked what was going on, a "calm and collected" Steele reportedly told cops, "I killed my grandmother."

After being read his rights, Steele told officers he was "annoyed by the victim blowing her nose at dinner." As detailed in a probable cause statement, Steele then spoke of becoming fixated on the feeling of mucus in his mouth and could smell mucus because the victim had blown her nose at dinner."

Steele, who claimed to have heard voices in his head, told police that he "believed that if he killed the victim the feeling and smell of mucus that he was experiencing would go away." Steele confessed to striking his grandmother in the head with a hammer "seven to eight times."

Investigators found Wagner-Steele dead in an upstairs bedroom. "Police observed injuries on the right side of the victim's head," the court filing notes.Steele, who is locked up on $750,000 bail, faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted of the octogenarian's murder. (3 pages)
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Sheriff

Off-duty cop gets wasted, molests woman, bites her friend's testicles when he pulls him off her


Filming Cops
Tue, 20 Oct 2015 14:23 UTC
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Officer Michael Faig bit down on the man’s testicles, causing severe bleeding during an altercation at a night club. The officer was off duty and 'reeked' of alcohol.
Disturbing reports have surfaced online according to which a police officer in Anne Arundel put his mouth on a citizen's groin area and bit so hard that the citizen began bleeding. Officer Michael Faig bit down on the man's testicles, a form of abuse that certainly cannot be justified by police procedures for use of force or compliance techniques, reports say.

The incident began when Officer Flaig went to a nightclub while he was off-duty.Once inside, Officer Flaig evidently began putting his hands on a woman without her consent, and attempting to move them lower down the back of her body, reports say. That is when the woman's male companion stepped in to stop the Officer's behavior.

Officer Flaig was apparently heavily intoxicated by this point and could not be controlled. The male called the police while holding Flaig down.But this is when the unthinkable happened.Officer Flaig opened his mouth and began biting the man's testicles.

This caused the man to keel over in pain, at which point Officer Flaig escaped.When police finally caught up with Flaig, they found blood stains on his shirt, and observed that he slurred his words while reeking of alcohol.He was charged with misdemeanor second-degree assault, public intoxication and endangering a victim's safety.

Comment: Certainly if someone gets so intoxicated they engage in sexual assault and behave like a rabid dog, they shouldn't be allowed to resume duties as a police officer. In the USA, with today's laws it seems cops like this are the rule, rather than the exception.

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Fire

Another blast at Chinese explosives factory leaves 9 missing, 2 injured


RT
Wed, 21 Oct 2015 00:06 UTC
China blast
© Stringer / Reuters
A blast at a civilian-use explosives factory in eastern China has left two people injured and nine missing. The incident became the last one in a chain of explosions rocking Chinese industrial facilities over the last three months.

The explosion at Shandong Tianbao Chemical Industry Corporation factory in Shandong province's Pingyi county occurred at 8:20am local time (00:20 GMT), Xinhua reports.

"The cause of the blast is being further investigated," Xinhua said.

Comment: Maybe not so much 'safety standards' but acts of sabotage.

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Red Flag

"Being raped for a living": Chris Hedges interview with former prostitute Rachel Moran dispels the myths of sex work


The Real News
Tue, 20 Oct 2015 23:24 UTC
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Rachel Moran is a former prostitute, writer, blogger and prostitution abolition activist from Ireland. She is a founding member of SPACE International, an organization for survivors of prostitution. Her book is Paid For: My Journey Through Prostitution.

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Pirates

Riot police clash with homeless families squatting in an abandoned building in Italy


RT
Tue, 20 Oct 2015 21:30 UTC
riot cops clash with protesters in bologna
© Radio Città del Capo / YouTube
Riot police and protesters clashed in Bologna on Tuesday, as authorities attempted to evict dozens of families from an abandoned former Telecoms headquarters, local media has reported. Some of the protesters were injured.

Police surrounded the building, which has been housing over 250 people, in an attempt to evict the residents.

However, several dozen squatters including minors climbed onto the roof of the building, banging and screaming "no more homeless" and "we will not leave" in protest, local media reported.

Comment: It's a sad state of affairs in the world where people who need housing are removed from making a creative solution and re-using a building that was probably just going to decay while a "private fund" held onto it to make itself look richer.

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Heart - Black

Growing wave of Islamophobia sparks racially-motivated attacks and harassment


Mint Press News
Tue, 20 Oct 2015 21:23 UTC
anti muslim protest texas
© Brittney Martin/The Dallas Morning NewsProtesters attend an anti-Muslim rally at the the Texas capitol.
Two incidents of racially-motivated attacks against Muslims in the American Midwest highlight what experts say is a growing wave of Islamophobia and violence.

Police in Streamwood, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, are investigating a disturbing flier found on a vehicle outside a Muslim family's home earlier this month:
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Ambulance

11-year-old loses leg after mother pushes him in front of oncoming train in Hamburg, Germany


Sky News
Mon, 19 Oct 2015 10:38 UTC
The boy is believed to have lost his leg after he was trapped under the wheels of the train for almost 40 minutes
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© CEN
An 11-year-old boy has serious injuries after his mother pushed him in front of an approaching train.

According to German media reports, travellers watched as the boy fell onto the tracks at Hamburg's Hoheluftbruecke railway station on Sunday.

The driver was unable to stop in time and the boy's leg was crushed under the wheels.

His mother, known only as 31-year-old Jana, then attempted to flee but was quickly apprehended by police, Germany's Bild newspaper reported.

According to Bild, it took rescue services almost 40 minutes to free the boy, who has been named as 11-year-old Leon, from underneath the train.

He is understood to have remained conscious throughout the ordeal.

Hamburg Police told Sky News the boy remains in a severe condition, but did not suffer life-threatening injuries. They would not comment on local media reports that doctors have had to amputate the boy's leg.

His mother is currently undergoing a psychiatric evaluation amid reports that she is suffering from a psychological condition.

A newspaper vendor who witnessed the incident told the Hamburger Morgenpost newspaper she was "completely hysterical" as she was taken from the scene.
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