Society's ChildS


USA

5 cops disciplined after failing to act when Trump supporter sucker-punched protester


WRAL
Thu, 17 Mar 2016 17:26 UTC
man attack protesters trump rally
The Cumberland County Sheriff's Office said that five deputies have been disciplined in connection with the assault of Rakeem Jones at a Donald Trump rally in Fayetteville on March 9.

The sheriff's office said the deputies witnessed the assault and did not take action. Three of the deputies were demoted and were also suspended without pay for five days. The other two were suspended without pay for three days. All five deputies face one year of probation.

"I applaud the sheriff's department for their work and finding the deputies responsible," said Jones.

In a statement, Sheriff Earl "Moose" Butler said the deputies faced disciplinary action for "unsatisfactory performance and failing to discharge the duties and policies of the office of the sheriff."

"The actions of the deputies and their failures to act in situations such as that which occurred during the Trump rally at the Crown Coliseum have never been and will never be tolerated under the policies of this office," Butler said in a statement.
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Blackbox

San Francisco's BART cars knocked out by 'mystery glitch' again, snarls commute

Matier & Ross
San Francisco Chronicle
Wed, 16 Mar 2016 16:49 UTC
BART transit knocked out glitch
© Michael Short/San Francisco ChronicleCrowds of commuters wait to board San Francisco bound trains at the MacArthur BART station in Oakland.
For the second time in a month, a mysterious power surge knocked out numerous BART cars Wednesday — puzzling agency officials who thought they had the problem under control the first time around, and making life miserable for commuters packed into shortened trains.

BART was able to repair some of the 25 or so cars that lost their propulsion systems on the Pittsburg-Bay Point line, but not all of them — raising the likelihood that many trains will be short of cars for the Thursday morning commute.

BART engineers worked into the night trying to find an answer for what is becoming a major problem for the aging rail system.

When the first round of problems began in late February, BART focused on a new electrical substation that had been installed a few months earlier near the Oakland end of the Transbay Tube. Wednesday's problems, however, happened far from there — between the North Concord and Bay Point stations.

"It's the same symptoms," said BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost. "But we don't know if it's the same cause."

Comment: There's been a fair number of problems lately attributed to electrical glitches and faults. The BART's issues are fairly minor. Could there be something affecting the Earth's fields? Just a small sample:

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Pistol

Cop mistakes fellow black cop in shootout as suspect, shoots and kills officer

Jordan Sargent
Gawker
Thu, 17 Mar 2016 17:19 UTC
Jacai Colson
© AP
Jacai Colson, a Prince George's County (Mary.) cop, was killed over the weekend by friendly fire during a shootout outside PGC police headquarters. Today in a press conference, police chief Hank Stawinski said that Colson was shot not accidentally, but instead "deliberately," by a fellow officer who mistook him for one of the three suspects who participated in the offensive.

According to Stawinski, Colson, who was an undercover narcotics detective, was not in uniform and had gotten out of an unmarked vehicle at the station prior to being shot. It's also worth noting that like the three suspects—Michael, Elijah, and Malik Ford—Colson was black. But Colson, pictured above, looked nothing like the suspects, who are pictured here.

Michael Ford, 22, was the leader of the attack on the police station. While no officers aside from Colson were wounded, Ford was shot and hospitalized. While Michael Ford fired at officers, his brothers filmed the assault on their phones. In an earlier press conference, per the Washington Post, Stawinski said the brothers will face dozens of charges, including second-degree murder and first-degree attempted murder.

The Prince George's County PD has a long history of recklessly using its weapons. In a study of police shootings across the 1990s, the Washington Post found that the PCG PD had the highest rate of fatal shootings per officer of any major city or police force in America. In 2001, the same year the Post investigation was published, Ta-Nehisi Coates published a long examination of the PCG PD's history of violence against its black citizens inWashington Monthly.
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Black Magic

Thanks America! All of Syria's UNESCO world heritage sites damaged or destroyed


RT
Tue, 15 Mar 2016 06:59 UTC
Syrian al-Atroush mosque destruction
© Abdalrhman Ismail / Reuters A general view shows the damage at the ancient al-Atroush mosque in the old city of Aleppo, Syria January 28, 2016.
The destruction of the ancient city of Palmyra has made a real impact, but in fact each and every ancient site in Syria inscribed on the World Heritage List has suffered during the five years of conflict. RT looks back at unique landmarks shattered by military action.

Palmyra

Before Islamic State's (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) arrival, Palmyra, which means "City of Palms", was a revered open-air museum just 210 km from the Syrian capital Damascus. The unique landmark, described by UNESCO as an "oasis in the Syrian desert" was captured by Islamic State in May of 2015. Before the Syrian conflict erupted in 2011, over 150,000 tourists visited the city every year. The jewel of the ancient ruins at the UNESCO heritage site in Palmyra - the iconic Arch of Triumph - was blown up by IS extremists engaged in what has been dubbed as "cultural cleansing" of the Middle East.

"This new destruction of culture in Palmyra reflects the brutality and ignorance of extremist groups and their disregard for local communities and the Syrian people," Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO, said.

Comment: In its exportation of 'freedom and democracy' the Empire of Chaos is unparalleled at leaving a wide path of death, destruction and displacement in its wake.

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Newspaper

Group of homeless people sue Los Angeles for violation of civil rights and destruction of property


RT
Thu, 17 Mar 2016 17:00 UTC
homeless
© Carlos Barria / Reuters
A group of homeless people are suing the City of Los Angeles and the police department for "criminalizing" their homelessness, violating their civil rights and destroying their possessions.

"We brought this suit to prevent the city from engaging in a practice of unlawfully seizing and destroying homeless people's property. It is an ongoing issue that is only increasing in frequency, which is why we brought the case," the plaintiffs' attorney Shayla Meyers told Courthouse News.

The federal civil rights lawsuit, filed in the US District Court in Los Angeles on Monday, accuses the city and the police department of wrongfully arresting homeless people and seizing their lawful shopping carts as part of a "criminalization" campaign.

Comment: If won, this lawsuit can set a precedent for more humane treatment of homeless people all over the country.

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Heart - Black

Civil rights defender jailed on pot charge dies in custody after being unable to pay $100 bail

Matt Agorist
Free Thought Project
Wed, 16 Mar 2016 16:42 UTC
handcuffs
Last week, police, in their efforts to keep the world safe from a dangerous plant, arrested Jeffrey Pendleton for possessing a small amount of cannabis.

He was then locked in a cage last Wednesday after a Nashua District Court judge had set his bail at $100 cash. Unable to pay his extortion fee for possessing a plant that is legal in some form in 23 states, Pendleton, 26, was found dead in his cell five days later at 2:45 on Sunday.

"There appeared no indication that Mr. Pendleton was in any form of distress," said Superintendent David Dionne. The Manchester police are now investigating his death.

An autopsy was scheduled for Monday. However, the results have yet to be released publicly, leaving some questioning the circumstances of his untimely death — especially considering his outstanding history of activism against police abuse of the homeless.

Pendleton is no stranger to police in the area as he had won settlements for civil rights violations from both the Hudson and Nashua police departments last year. Pendleton won a settlement of $7,640 from Hudson after he was unlawfully arrested for standing on public property holding a sign that read, "Homeless and Struggling."
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V

Flashback Italians sign petition calling for "Nuremberg for Israel" over genocide of Palestinians


RT
Thu, 07 Aug 2014 16:27 UTC
rome protest
© AFP Photo / Andreas SolaroPeople hold a banner in solidarity with Palestinian people during a protest at the Pantheon in Rome.
Hundreds of Italians have signed an online petition slamming Israel's actions in the Gaza Strip as a "slow genocide" of the Palestinians and demanding a "Nuremberg trial" for Israel over the "destruction" of Palestine.

The petition was signed by 525 Italians, mainly academics, Haaretz reported. The signees say they are dismayed by the events in Gaza and accuse Israel of pursuing colonial policies and "ethnic cleansing" of the Palestinians.

The document calls for Israel to face an international tribunal, a Nuremberg-like trial, for its war crimes and the "slow genocide" of the Palestinian people. Italian activists believe that not only the Israeli military and the government, but also the entire state of Israel and "its accomplices" should be brought to trial over current events, as well as those in the past and "the foreseeable future."

The online document also blames the US for supporting Israel, and the EU for "active or passive complicity" in Israel's actions against the Palestinian people. The petition signees also accuse the United Nations of its failure to stop Israel. The Western media, according to activists, paints the events in the wrong light, justifying the Israeli offensive in Gaza as a self-defense operation.

Called 'Noi Accusiamo' (We Accuse), the petition was initially published on an academic website, Historia Magistra, but has gone viral after being re-posted on the website of left-wing newspaper Il Manifesto.
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Heart - Black

How the US government's collusion with Big Pharma is driving the opioid epidemic

Dr. Mercola
Mercola.com
Wed, 16 Mar 2016 00:00 UTC
Pills
© Enny Nuraheni / Reuters
We are in the middle of an opioid and heroin epidemic, which is killing ever increasing numbers of Americans at an astonishing rate.

In 2014, almost 30,000 people died from heroin and opioids (also called narcotic prescription painkillers), exceeding those who died from car accidents during the same year, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).1

Prescriptions for opioids have risen by 300 percent over the past 10 years and fed the heroin epidemic as the tolerance of opioid addicts surpasses their allotted prescription dosage and/or they are no longer allowed to refill their prescription.

In April of 2015, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) also noted that "Controlled prescription drug abusers who begin using heroin do so chiefly because of price differences."2

Most people know there is a prescription painkiller epidemic underway but few realize how much the government is enabling it, how much taxpayers are subsidizing it, and how this is the root cause of the current heroin epidemic.

Comment: Despite Obama's new federal initiative to combat the epidemic, the appointment of Robert Califf, a pharma industry insider, will only insure that pharmaceutical cartel profits will continue to be placed well above those of the health and safety of the population. Although you won't be hearing about this on mainstream news, there are alternatives that can help with pain:

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Eye 2

More overkill: Israeli forces routinely shoot up Palestinian corpses


Sputnik
Wed, 16 Mar 2016 01:08 UTC
IDF Sniper
© Flickr / Israel Defense Forces
Autopsies of those killed by Israeli defense forces reveal that Jerusalem is not only systematically executing Palestinians, but also intentionally firing rounds into corpses.

On Monday, Israeli soldiers shot and killed three Palestinians. Qassem Farid Jaber, 31, and Amir Fuad al-Juneidi, 22, were gunned down after opening fire on Israeli troopers near the Kiryat Arba Israeli settlement in the West Bank.

An Israeli soldier was reportedly injured during the incident.

A third Palestinian man was killed in a separate incident on the same day. Yousef Waleed Tarayra, 18, was shot dead after allegedly attempting a ramming attack in his car, injuring two Israeli soldiers.

Comment: The IDF's behavior towards Palestinians has turned from murderous to macabre. As the article indicates, there is a culture of raw hatred inculcated towards Palestinians that goes far beyond the sane and rational perception Israel likes to project about itself.

A case in point:

Israeli hate t shirts


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Snakes in Suits

Bayer and Johnson & Johnson caught hiding data from New England Journal of Medicine

Katie Thomas
NY Times
Tue, 01 Mar 2016 15:10 UTC
bayer
It is a startling accusation, buried in a footnote in a legal briefing filed recently in federal court: Did two major pharmaceutical companies, in an effort to protect their blockbuster drug, mislead editors at one of the world's most prestigious medical journals?

Lawyers for patients suing Johnson & Johnson and Bayer over the safety of the anticlotting drug Xarelto say the answer is yes, claiming that a letter published in The New England Journal of Medicine and written primarily by researchers at Duke University left out critical laboratory data. They claim the companies were complicit by staying silent, helping deceive the editors while the companies were in the midst of providing the very same data to regulators in the United States and Europe.

Duke and Johnson & Johnson contend that they worked independently of each other. Bayer declined to comment. And top editors at The New England Journal of Medicine said they did not know that separate laboratory data existed until a reporter contacted them last week, but they dismissed its relevance and said they stood by the article's analysis.

But the claim — that industry influence led to the concealing of data — carries echoes, some experts said, of an earlier era of drug marketing, when crucial clinical data went missing from journal articles, leading to high-profile corrections and a wave of ethics policies to limit the influence of drug companies on medical literature.
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