Society's ChildS


Sheriff

"Shocking lack of respect": Amnesty report finds police in every single U.S. state fail to comply with international standards on lethal use of force


Sputnik
Fri, 19 Jun 2015 19:58 UTC
Image
© Flickr/ Thomas Hawk
A report from Amnesty International called out US police across the board for showing a "shocking lack of fundamental respect for the sanctity of human life," as every single state fails to comply with international standards on lethal use of force.

Amnesty International found that nine states have no laws whatsoever in place to deal with police use of force, and 13 states fall short of the standards set by US constitutional law, which are considerably more lax than international standards.

"While law enforcement in the United States is given the authority to use lethal force, there is no equal obligation to respect and preserve human life. It's shocking that while we give law enforcement this extraordinary power, so many states either have no regulation on their books or nothing that complies with international standards," Amnesty USA's executive director, Steven Hawkins, told the Guardian.

The United Nations' principles state that lethal force should be limited to use only when less extreme means have failed and there is no other option available to law enforcement. They also state that officers should provide warning of their intent before using lethal force — a standard that is only required by law in eight US states.
Read More...
Red Flag

Man walks into predominantly black church shouting racial slurs and threatening to kill church members


RT
Fri, 19 Jun 2015 18:58 UTC
Image
© Reuters / Mike Segar
A Virginia man was taken to a mental hospital after he approached a predominantly African-American church on Thursday, shouting racial slurs and threatening to kill congregants. It follows Wednesday's shooting of nine people at a church in Charleston.

A video posted by local news outlet WRIC shows the white man outside United Nations Church International in Richmond, rapping on a window and shouting racial slurs.

"All I know is he had a weapon in his hand, banging on the glass, and calling us n*****s," the church's senior pastor, Bishop Oren Pullings, told the station.

Church member Lydia Jones said the man was shouting "You're taking over!" at those inside.

The incident began around 8:45 p.m., when children inside the church first spotted the man.
Read More...
Magnify

Best of the Web: Charleston shooting: The government and media narrative of terrorists is mainly informed by the shooter's race


RT
Fri, 19 Jun 2015 18:41 UTC
Image
© Reuters / Jason MiczekPolice lead suspected shooter Dylann Roof, 21, into the courthouse in Shelby, North Carolina, June 18, 2015
Had a black person or a Muslim carried out the Charleston shooting, the media narrative would have been completely different and much of the blame has to do with US public policy, says Solomon Comissiong, host and founder of Your World News Radio Show.

On Wednesday 9 African-Americans were killed in a church in South Carolina, allegedly by a white man named Dylann Storm Roof. The attack took place during evening prayers at the city's Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church, one of the oldest in the United States which has one of the largest black congregations in the south. Nevertheless, US officials and the President do not seem to see any hate crime in this story.

Is America colorblind only when covering crimes involving whites? For more on this, RT's show "In the Now" talked to Solomon Comissiong, host and founder of Your World News Radio Show.
Read More...
Handcuffs

Charleston shooting suspect Dylann Roof charged with 9 counts of murder, firearm possession


RT
Fri, 19 Jun 2015 17:34 UTC
Image
© Reuters / Brian SnyderMourner kneels outside the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina June 18, 2015
Dylann Roof has been charged with nine counts of murder and possession of a firearm during the commission of a violent crime, according to police. He confessed to killing nine people at a Charleston church on Friday, according to officials cited by CNN.

Police made the announcement in a Friday Twitter post, adding that Roof's bond hearing will take place at 2 p.m. local time on Friday.

Roof reportedly said he wanted to start a race war.

The 21-year-old was arrested by authorities in Shelby, North Carolina, on Thursday, following the tragic shooting which left six women and three men dead.

The .45-caliber handgun used in the attack was apparently purchased by Roof in Charleston in April. Previous reports stated that the gun was a birthday gift from his father. However, his grandfather stated that Roof was merely given "birthday money," and that his family didn't know what he used it for.
Read More...
Airplane

EasyJet passenger plane forced to make emergency landing in Liverpool due to major electrical fault

Sam Matthew
Daily Mail
Fri, 19 Jun 2015 15:15 UTC
easyjet landing electrical fault
Fire engines surrounded the aircraft after it landed safely at John Lennon Airport this afternoon
A passenger plane was forced to make an emergency landing after suffering a mid-air electrical fault.

The easyJet flight returned to Liverpool shortly after take-off, with officials confirming the defect.

The aircraft was headed to Paris when the pilot radioed air traffic control and declared an emergency.

Fire crews assembled on the runway, before the aircraft landed safely around 20 minutes later.

A spokesman for the airline said the decision to return to Liverpool was purely a 'precaution.'

Eyewitnesses said the twin-engine Airbus A320 'sounded bad' as it came into land.

Others also suggested the planes doors were open, but this was denied by both easyJet and the airport.

Passenger Jan Nethercote told how it was around 20 minutes into the flight to the French capital when the announcement was made.

'They told us a minor fault had happened with one of the engines and they were taking us back to Liverpool,' she told the Liverpool Echo.

'It was explained to us later the fault happened at take off but they made the decision to continue.

'However it developed into something more serious and in the end it looks like they lost the use of an engine.'

Comment: There have been numerous incidences of airplane mishaps around the world since March of this year, and they seem to be increasing quite dramatically. See:

Read More...
Sherlock

Tragedy in Charleston: Mass shooting, mass hysteria, mass propaganda

Tony Cartalucci
Land Destroyer
Fri, 19 Jun 2015 00:00 UTC
Image
© Unknown
Nine lives were ended in a tragic mass shooting at a historic church in Charleston South Carolina, perpetrated by a deranged, apparently brainwashed 21 year old man whose motivations appear to be centered around extreme racism.

In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, a familiar, shameful charade of exploitation unfolded yet again, seeking to reassert the "gun control" agenda amid both national public opinion and across America's legislative bodies.

Yet the engineered, concerted, deceitful propaganda campaign launched by the corporate media and America's political circles fails to put into perspective the recent shooting and the greater "gun control" debate.

Instead, a mad rush has ensued to exploit anger, sorrow, and fear to once again attempt to snatch from responsible Americans their right to bear arms based on the criminal actions of a single individual.

Comment: In the coming days we are likely to hear more about the shootings and how the facts don't quite fit the narrative being presented by the mass media. Its happened before and fits a pattern that serves no one but the groups involved in stripping away the rights of US citizens. Ever wonder why these mass shootings only ever seem to happen in the United States? Where else in the world has the relentless drive towards totalitarianism been so rife? In any case, Obama has wasted no time in responding to the shootings:
President Obama renewed his call for stricter gun laws Thursday following a shooting spree at a Charleston, S.C. church that killed nine people.

"We don't have all the facts, but we do know that, once again, innocent people were killed in part because someone who wanted to inflict harm had no trouble getting their hands on a gun," Obama said.

Obama's remarks were not unlike the 13 others he's given following a mass shooting during his presidency. But this time, he said the usual condolences could not express "the heartache and the sadness and the anger we feel" about the overnight shooting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church Wednesday night.

"Any death of this sort is a tragedy. Any shooting involving multiple victims is a tragedy. There is something particularly heartbreaking about the death happening in a place in which we seek solace, and we seek peace, in a place of worship," Obama said.

The Charleston shooting hit home to Obama in part because Obama knew at least one of the victims, and because of the historic nature of the church, which Obama called "a sacred place in the history of Charleston, and the history of America."

"We knew their pastor, Rev. Clementa Pinckney, who along with eight others, gathered in prayer and fellowship and was murdered last night," he said.


Read More...
Cardboard Box

Government report: Over 14-million elderly, low income Americans go hungry


RT
Mon, 15 Jun 2015 23:25 UTC
Image
© Reuters/Lucy Nicholson
Some 17 million elderly Americans are in need of government-funded meal services, but 90 percent of them don't receive it, according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office. About 83 percent of those adults in need are food insecure.

"An estimated 90 percent of low-income older adults do not receive meals services like those funded by Title III programs, according to our analysis of 2013 CPS data," the GAO wrote in a report released Monday. "About 83 percent do not receive meals among low-income adults who are food insecure, meaning they report three or more conditions such as skipping meals because they did not have enough money for food."

The GAO analyzed the most recent data from two national surveys, the 2013 Current Population Survey (CPS) and the 2012 Health and Retirement Study (HRS). The report, requested by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), updated the agency's findings from a 2011 report on what is known about older Americans' need for services that were provided for by the Older Americans Act.

Comment: They are insisting on more tax money for social services? They can't take care of the adults they have now:

Another dirty little secret in America: Adult Protective Services often perpetrators of elder abuse

The way the U.S. treats and impoverish the elderly, infirm and even children portrays itself, in many different ways, like a death march. How disgusting for a country so 'exceptional'.

Read More...
USA

Amnesty estimates between 400-1,000 U.S. citizens killed yearly by police


Sputnik
Thu, 18 Jun 2015 19:25 UTC
Image
© Fotolia/ Dominik Herz
Aside from self-defense, some US states allow police officers to use weapons to suppress opposition to arrest and control crowd violence.

"The United States has failed to track how many people are killed by law enforcement officers. No-one knows exactly how many people are killed each year but estimates range from 400 to over 1,000," the Amnesty International USA stated in the report.

People of African-American descent and those with darker skin color in the United States often fall victim to a disproportionate use of lethal force by police, the human rights group highlighted.

Comment: Since law enforcement organizations are not required to report how many citizens they have killed, it's likely that the number of citizens killed by police is much larger than 1,000.

Read More...
Sherlock

US archbishop resigns amid cover-up charges directed at his archdiocese

Nicole Winfield
AP
Mon, 15 Jun 2015 16:48 UTC
Image
© © AP Photo/Craig Lassig, FileIn this July 30, 2014 file photo, St. Paul-Minneapolis Archbishop John Nienstedt speaks at his office in St. Paul, Minn.
The archbishop of St. Paul, Minnesota, and a deputy bishop resigned Monday after prosecutors there charged the archdiocese with having failed to protect children from unspeakable harm from a pedophile priest.

The Vatican said Pope Francis accepted the resignations of Archbishop John Nienstedt and Auxiliary Bishop Lee Anthony Piche. They resigned under the code of canon law that allows bishops to resign before they retire because of illness or some other "grave" reason that makes them unfit for office.

Earlier this month, prosecutors charged the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis as a corporation of having "turned a blind eye" to repeated reports of inappropriate behavior by a priest who was later convicted of molesting two boys. No individual was named in the indictment.

The resignations came just days after Pope Francis approved the creation of a new tribunal inside the Vatican to hear cases of bishops who failed to protect children from sexually abusive priests. Francis' decision followed years of criticism that the Vatican had never held bishops accountable for having ignored warnings about abusive priests and simply moved them from parish to parish rather than report them to police or remove them from ministry.

Comment: It seems that the Pope is genuinely trying to improve the Church, only time will tell if his direction will yield fruit however. For those interested in some of the events surrounding the formation of this abuse tribunal you can read more here:

The Vatican's Sex-Abuse Tribunal and the Cover-Up that Went Unpunished

Read More...
Pistol

Shots fired into Tennessee church on same night as Charleston shooting


RT
Thu, 18 Jun 2015 16:29 UTC
Image
© St. Matthews Learning Center
Shots were fired into a church in Memphis, Tennessee on Wednesday night. Police found no victims at the site. The shooting reportedly happened during night choir practice at St. Matthew Missionary Baptist Church.

The Deacon of the church told FOX13 that he noticed holes from the bullets when he was leaving the building after the event early Thursday morning.

Local police say there are no suspects so far. This comes as 9 people were killed when a gunmen opened fire in a historic church in Charleston, SC., killing 9 people.

"There is nothing indicating that this shooting is connected in any way to the shooting in South Carolina," Memphis police told FOX13.
Read More...