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Eye 1

Alabama teenager tased by police three times during grand mal seizure; mother knocked to ground, handcuffed, tased and arrested for trying to help

William Thornton
al.com
Mon, 13 Jul 2015 15:17 UTC
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© Tina Noto/gulflive.com
A lawsuit filed this month by an Etowah County woman alleges that police officers from Rainbow City repeatedly fired Tasers at her and her teenage daughter at a concert while the daughter was suffering from grand mal seizures.

The 32-page lawsuit, filed July 9 in U.S. District Court, accuses at least five Rainbow City officers and three Gadsden officers who were allegedly handling security for a Jan. 16 hip-hop concert of excessive force, torture "and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment." It also names Rainbow City Police Chief Greg Carroll and Center Stage, the entertainment venue where the suit alleges the incident took place.

The woman and her daughter seek damages for pain, emotional distress, medical expenses, punitive damages and attorney's fees.

Gregory Harp, attorney for the plaintiffs, said the lawsuit speaks for itself.

"A Taser was used three times on a child's chest, during a medical emergency, while she was pinned to the ground by officers," he said. "Other officers present at the scene failed to intervene. Her mother was knocked to the ground, handcuffed, and then she herself Tased and arrested."

Gadsden City Attorney Lee Roberts said he had no comment as he has not seen the suit. A message left for Center Stage was not returned. Rainbow City Attorney Jim Turnbach said he had not seen the lawsuit, but said it would be "vigorously defended."

Comment: How absolutely horrifying for them both. May they get millions!

See also: Psychopathic corporate capitalism in the U.S. is the foundation of police brutality and the prison state

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Padlock

Amid budget cuts, UK prisons plagued by increase in violence, squalor and self-harm


RT
Tue, 14 Jul 2015 19:01 UTC
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© Reuters/Peter Macdiarmid
Violence has reached new heights in prisons across England and Wales, as increasing numbers of jails are characterized by staff cuts, overcrowding and failed rehabilitation practices, Britain's chief inspector of prisons warns.

In his annual report published on Tuesday, Nick Hardwick said too many jails in Britain are "places of violence, squalor and idleness."

Citing official state statistics, the report revealed there were over 15,000 assaults in men's prisons in England and Wales in 2014 - the highest figure in a decade.

Hardwick's damning report also found that staff cuts and overcrowding in jails have had "significant" impact on Britain's penal system, and have sparked increased numbers of attacks on prison staff and inmates.

The study revealed there were 1,466 serious assaults by the close of 2013 in UK prisons, compared with 2,009 at the end of 2014. It said the majority of these assaults were serious, with more weapons being used in 2014 than in 2013.

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It also found many of these attacks were "fueled by the increased use of new psychoactive substances."

Reflecting on Britain's prison crisis, Hardwick said inmates are more likely to die in jails today than they were five years ago. He said murders, cases of self-harm, serious assaults and violence are on the rise in male prisons.

Comment: Historically, shrinking government budgets have led to increased corporate takeover the the prison systems, which has led to worse treatment and more exploitation of the prisoners. The view this 'leader' is taking is just another variation of blaming the victim. The increase in violence, squalor and self-harm is more likely due to the environment itself, not the prisoners. He's also likely to be alluding to or preparing UK society for the idea that more of them should be forced to work for outside corporations, for as little money as possible. Since they need a good, believable reason to do that, violence is it. That would bring us a little closer to the truth, maybe.

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Eye 1

Man who repeatedly raped girlfriend while she slept walks free from court; judge praises rapist's honesty

John Hall
Daily Mail, UK
Tue, 14 Jul 2015 16:08 UTC
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  • Magnus Meyer Hustveit, 25, admitted repeatedly raping his girlfriend, 28
  • She confronted him about the attacks and he confessed in a written email
  • Said: 'Now I've written this, you can have me prosecuted. I hope you won't'
  • Victim suffered anxiety, eating disorder and attempted to commit suicide
  • But Irish judge suspended the rapist's sentence and praised his honesty, adding: 'In truth this case comes here today out of his own mouth'
A Norwegian man has avoided a prison sentence despite admitting to repeatedly raping his sleeping girlfriend while he was living in Ireland. On trial at Dublin Central Criminal Court, Magnus Meyer Hustveit, 25, from Sandvika, confessed to sexually assaulting the 28-year-old Irishwoman up to 10 times over the course of a year.

After one episode the victim woke up and confronted him, prompting Hustveit to write an email for her to use as evidence against him. Despite the victim revealing that the attacks had caused her to develop anxiety issues and an eating disorder, as well as leading her to attempt suicide, the Irish judge decided not to jail Hustveit.

Justice Patrick McCarthy said that it was 'important' to take into consideration that Hustveit had confessed to the crime from the first confrontation, adding that without the confession a prosecution would have been impossible. He also pointed out that in his email to his then girlfriend, Hustveit had actually encouraged her to prosecute him.

'In truth this case comes here today out of his own mouth,' he said before suspending the sentence.

During the trial the victim described how Hustveit had admitted raping her in early 2012 - just a few months after the couple moved in together.

The victim, who is described as a deep sleeper, told of waking up to find herself covered in semen. Upon asking Hustveit what happened, he is said to have immediately admitted to raping her.
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Arrow Down

Millions facing acute water shortages in eastern Ukraine as a result of U.S. backed war

Magdalena Mis
Reuters
Tue, 14 Jul 2015 15:27 UTC
donbass
Up to 1.3 million people in war-torn eastern Ukraine are facing acute water shortages and a serious water crisis due to damaged or destroyed infrastructure, the United Nations children's agency UNICEF said on Tuesday.

Many in the Luhansk region have to rely on water trucks or travel to neighboring villages to get water. In Mariupol, a city of 500,000 in the Donetsk region, they rely on water from a "rapidly depleting" reservoir, UNICEF said.

"Water is one of the most acute needs of children and adults in eastern Ukraine," Giovanna Barberis, UNICEF representative to Ukraine, said in a statement.

"No children and families should have to risk their lives in order to access one of life's basic necessities for survival."

Comment: The U.S. government is responsible for creating this catastrophe simply to control the Ukraine as part of its strategy to encircle and contain Russia. The conscienceless psychopaths who have engineered this fiasco have no concern whatsoever for the monstrous conditions they have created for innocent civilians. In contrast, Russia has been sending humanitarian aid convoys on a continual basis. Putin actually has a sense of conscience, which is quite a rarity amongst the current crop of world leaders.

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Cow Skull

Environmental scientist who studied health effects of 9/11 dust, collapses, dies at Newark airport


RT
Mon, 13 Jul 2015 21:54 UTC
Image
© Reuters/Shannon Stapleton
Paul James Lioy, an environmental scientist known for his work on the health effects of dust produced by the World Trade Center disaster on September 11, 2001, died this week after collapsing at Newark Liberty International Airport. He was 68 years old.

Lioy was an internationally renowned authority on exposure science. He received two lifetime achievement awards for his work - the Wesolowski Award from the International Society of Exposure Analysis and the Frank Chambers Award from the Air and Waste Management Association. He also authored the book 'Dust: The Inside Story of its Role in the September 11th Aftermath.' He was also a professor of environmental and occupational health and vice chair of the Department of Environmental Medicine at the Rutgers University School of Public Health in New Jersey, according to the university's website.

In the field of exposure science, Lioy specialized in toxins and pollutants affecting both the environment and occupational health.

The cause of his death has not yet been determined, his wife Jean Lioy told the New York Times.

Having witnessed dust rising from the ruins of the World Trade Center from his home in Cranford, New Jersey, Lioy became one of the first scientists to gather and test samples from the site.

"It was unprecedented in terms of the complex characteristics of the materials released," Lioy told USA Today in 2011.

Comment:

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Dollars

Florida police used civil asset forfeiture to fund money laundering operation for drug cartels

Nick Sibilla
Forbes
Fri, 10 Jul 2015 00:00 UTC
drug money laundering, police corruption
Posing as money launderers, police in Bal Harbour and Glades County, Fla. laundered a staggering $71.5 million for drug cartels in an undercover sting operation, according to an in-depth investigation by The Miami Herald. With fake identities, undercover officers made deals to pick up cash from criminal organizations in cities across the country. Agents then delivered the money to Miami-Dade storefronts and even wired cash to banks overseas in China and Panama. After laundering the cash, police would skim a three percent commission fee, ultimately generating $2.4 million for themselves.

"If you think of all the money that's made from drugs, at some point it has to be cleaned up and become legit," remarked Finn Selander, a former DEA agent and a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. But unless proper precautions are taken, sting operations can "backfire" and "come back and bite you in the proverbial ass."

Together, the Bal Harbour Police Department and the Glades County Sheriff's Office formed the Tri-County Task Force, which, despite the name, consisted of only two agencies. From 2010 to 2012, the task force passed on information and tips to federal agencies that led to the government seizing almost $30 million. Yet the undercover unit laundered over $70 million for drug cartels—more than twice as much as what was actually taken off the streets.

Comment: The so-called war on drugs has been quite lucrative for banksters, the U.S government / CIA, private prisons and police departments while devastating poor neighborhoods where these drugs are often pushed on the young and vulnerable. It is rare for anyone at the top of chain to receive a jail sentence, yet millions are incarcerated for the most minor drug offenses to keep the gullible public believing that this fake drug war is necessary.

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Alarm Clock

Countdown: The last days of 'normal life' in America

Michael Snyder
End of The American Dream
Sun, 12 Jul 2015 00:00 UTC
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If you have got family and friends that you would like to visit before things start getting really crazy, you should do so within the next couple of months, because these are the last days of "normal life" in America. The website where I have posted this article is called "End of the American Dream", but perhaps I should have entitled it "The End of America" because that is essentially what we are heading for. The debt-fueled prosperity that so many of us take for granted is about to come to a screeching halt, and we are about to enter the hardest times that any of us have ever known. And I am not just talking about economics either. Based on all of the intel and information that I have gathered, we are about to enter a "perfect storm" that is going to shake this country in just about every possible way that it can be shaken. So I hope that you will truly savor this summer - days like this will not come around again any time soon.

Have you ever known someone that lived a seemingly charmed life even though that individual made foolish decision after foolish decision?

In the end, reality almost always catches up with people like that.

Comment: For an in-depth discussion of what the author is getting at here and what he believes will help to get us through - listen to: SOTT Radio Network - The Truth Perspective #22: Michael Snyder - Economic Collapse and Global Chaos

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Gold Bar

The Texas bullion depository is no joke - as mainstream media would have you believe

Bron Suchecki
The Perth Mint
Mon, 13 Jul 2015 00:00 UTC
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So Texas wants to build a bullion depository. Welcome to the club - The Perth Mint, wholly owned by the state of Western Australia, has been offering storage services to locals and overseas investors since the 1980s. Is it a smart idea or a fiscal folly pandering to doomers and preppers, as some in the mainstream media imply?

While being used to mainstream media derision about gold, I was surprised at the way the media made fun about Texas' move, some examples:
  • Bloomberg: Texas wants its gold back from the Yankees, wherever they're keeping it.
  • LA Times: Whether you call them visionaries or call them chuckleheads
  • Talking Points Memo: And in case the Fed or Obama wants to confiscate Texas's gold, nice try Fed and Obama!

Comment: Obviously, the safest approach to gold storage lies in direct possession outside of banking/financial institutions. But if you had to pick a vault, the Texas depository might not be a bad choice.

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Heart - Black

Autogenocide: Over a quarter million US veterans have died while waiting for basic healthcare


RT
Tue, 14 Jul 2015 08:09 UTC
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The VA estimates some 300,000 US veterans live on the streets
A leaked document shows nearly one-third of the 847,000 veterans in the Department of Veteran Affairs' backlog died while waiting for treatment, amounting to more than 238,000 patients, according to documents obtained by the Huffington Post.

The VA maintains that the number is so large because it has no mechanism to purge the list of dead applicants, and that some of the veterans may have died years ago. VA spokeswoman Walinda West told the Huffington Post that some people on the list may never have completed an application, or could be using other insurance.

She said 81 percent of the veterans who come to the VA "have either Medicare, Medicaid, Tricare or some other private insurance," West said. "Consequently, some in pending stays may have to use other options instead of completing their eligibility application."

Comment: Whatever happened to supporting the troops?

When the Feds say 'Support Our Troops', what they mean is: 'Support our troops when they're killing innocents for profits that we will reap... but actually supporting them? Nah, we'll just let them die.'

What is autogenocide? The extermination of a country's citizens by its own people or government.

See also:

America's Darkest Secret: The Nine Stages of American Autogenocide

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Fire

2 blasts rock oil refinery in southern France, 10km from Marseille Airport


RT
Tue, 14 Jul 2015 05:33 UTC
oil refinery blasts in France

Screenshot from Google Maps
Two blasts have rocked a petrochemical plant in Bouches-du-Rhône department in southern France, authorities say. The explosion occurred close to Marseille Provence Airport, the fifth-busiest in the country.

"Two tanks, 500 meters apart from each other and filled with chemicals, are affected," a source close to the investigation told France's press.

The first tank contained gasoline and the second had naphtha, a flammable liquid hydrocarbon mixture. Some 120 firefighters were immediately dispatched at the scene. Authorities say they have implemented special measures to prevent possible hydrocarbon pollution of the town and nearby communities. A "preventive dam" was installed in the city near the plant to prevent hydrocarbon pollution related to fire-fighting water.


Impressive plumes of smoke are visible at the site and air pollution is expected in the areas within a radius of 1.5km from the affected plant, France Bleu Provence radio reported. A northwestern wind spreads the plumes of smoke to the surrounding towns of Marignane, Les Pennes-Mirabeau and St Victoret.
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