Society's Child

Russian jail torture victim granted state protection, 17 prison workers suspended

RT
Sun, 12 Aug 2018 15:35 UTC

Russian inmate Evgeny Makarov, whose brutal beating by more than a dozen of correctional officers was filmed and sparked public outrage after going viral, was placed under state protection.

Makarov received documents designating him as a victim in the prisoner abuse case on Wednesday, the Public Verdict Foundation, a human rights group which represents him, said in a statement posted Saturday. The new status grants Makarov state protection. His lawyers previously said that Makarov expressed fear for his life.

The torture incident occurred in a prison in the central Russian city of Yaroslavl more than a year ago, but was uncovered only last July when a gruesome video of Federal Penitentiary Service officers assaulting Makarov was released by Novaya Gazeta. The 10-minute footage, provided to the newspaper by Makarov's lawyer, shows the officers pinning the handcuffed inmate on the table and taking turns mercilessly beating him with rubber batons and their fists. Some of the officers could be heard making jokes. The victim reportedly lost consciousness several times during the torture.

Comment: US cops routinely commit abhorrent acts of abuse and rarely would an investigation like this occur. So while Russia still suffers corruption, unlike the US, it does appear to be doing something about it: Russian authorities apologize to prison inmate beaten in captivity, arrest guards in question

See also:

Judge allows Nebraska to conduct the first US fentanyl execution

Press TV
Sun, 12 Aug 2018 11:55 UTC

A US federal judge has allowed Nebraska to go ahead with its planned execution of an inmate using a powerful drug produced by a German company.

© The Independent
Small vials of fentanyl are shown in the inpatient pharmacy at the University of Utah Hospital in Salt Lake City.

The judge rejected a request by drug manufacturer Fresenius Kabi to block Nebraska from using its products in the execution of Carey Dean Moore planned for Tuesday.

"While Fresenius Kabi takes no position on capital punishment, Fresenius Kabi opposes the use of its products for this purpose and therefore does not sell certain drugs to correctional facilities," the company said in the lawsuit, which was filed in the US District Court for the District of Nebraska.

Comment:

Cost of living rising at its fastest rate in decades

Justin Wise
The Hill
Sat, 11 Aug 2018 12:07 UTC

The cost of living in the U.S. is rising at its fastest rate in 10 years, according to new data from the Labor Department.

The data, released Friday, revealed that consumer prices increased 2.9 percent in July from the year before, meaning Americans may be earning less than they did at this time last year.

The consumer price index, meanwhile, rose 0.2 percent last month, which analysts largely attributed to rising housing costs, CNBC reported. Annual inflation remained unchanged from June's pace at 2.9 percent.

Energy, medical care and apparel costs dropped in July, while food prices ticked up.

"Rising rents remain the source of inflation. This is driven by shortages of housing in desirable markets," Dean Baker, senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, told CBS News.

"Unfortunately, the downward trend in housing construction means that these shortages are unlikely to be addressed on the supply side in the foreseeable future."

CBS reported that, when adjusted for inflation, average weekly earnings have dropped 0.1 percent in the past year.

Comment: See also:

Twitter suspends rightwing group Proud Boys on eve of deadly Unite the Right rally anniversary

Julia Carrie Wong
The Guardian
Sat, 11 Aug 2018 13:23 UTC

Twitter suspended numerous accounts associated with the rightwing "western chauvinist" group the Proud Boys on Friday, the eve of the anniversary of the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville.

Verified accounts belonging to the group and its founder, Gavin McInnes, were suspended for violating the platform's policy against "violent extremist groups", a company spokeswoman confirmed. A number of non-verified accounts for various Proud Boys chapters were also suspended.

The action by Twitter is notable for its timing, coming at the end of a week in which the company bucked a trend set by Apple, Facebook and YouTube to ban the accounts of the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Jones built a wide audience on social media while disseminating a toxic mix of conspiracy theories, misinformation and hyper-partisanship, but he was ultimately banned over his hateful speech toward minority groups.

The content moderation policies of all the major internet platforms have come under intense scrutiny by the media and public in recent years, as the companies have lurched from controversy to controversy over issues such as foreign interference in elections, rising political extremism and violence, fake news and misinformation, and targeted harassment campaigns.

Abuse: School officer handcuffs autistic 10yo, forces him to the ground

RT
Sat, 11 Aug 2018 19:19 UTC

Body cam footage has emerged showing the moment a school resource officer forced a 10-year-old boy with autism to the ground and handcuffed him. The child's mother says the entire incident amounts to "abuse."

The video begins by showing the young boy, Thomas, sitting in a cubby by himself in a classroom at Lee Elementary School in Denton, Texas in April. His teacher tries to encourage him to "hop out of the cubby" and eventually takes him by the wrist to help pull him down.

A Denton Police Department school resource officer, who had been called to the room, can then be heard saying "do you want help?" to which the teacher replies that she does.

Comment: The family should take legal action and this police officer should lose his job.

Pew Research: Two years on, most Trump voters still have 'very warm' feelings for him

Pew Research Center
Thu, 09 Aug 2018 19:47 UTC

In the wake of Donald Trump's 2016 election victory, an overwhelming majority of those who said they had voted for him had "warm" feelings for him.

By this spring, more than a year into Trump's presidency, the feelings of these same Trump voters had changed very little.

In March, 82% of those who reported voting for Trump - and whom researchers were able to verify through voting records as having voted in 2016 - said they felt "warmly" toward Trump, with 62% saying they had "very warm" feelings toward him. Their feelings were expressed on a 0-100 "feeling thermometer." A rating of 51 or higher is "warm," with 76 or higher indicating "very warm" feelings.

Norway to hand out free heroin to drug addicts

AFP
Fri, 10 Aug 2018 17:30 UTC

Norway, which has one of the highest deadly drug overdose rates in Europe, will test prescribing free heroin to the most serious addicts to improve their living conditions, the government said on Friday.

The Norwegian Directorate for Health and Social Affairs has been tasked with proposing an experimental project to identify patients likely to benefit from the programme, to examine the implementation method, and to calculate the costs.

"We hope that this will provide a solution that will give... a better quality of life to some addicts who are today out of our reach and whom current programmes do not help enough," Health Minister Bente Hoie wrote on Facebook.

Norway has one of the highest overdose mortality rates in Europe, with 81 deaths per million in 2015 after Estonia (132 deaths per million) and Sweden (88 deaths per million), according to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction.

Already adopted or tested in Switzerland, the Netherlands and Denmark, medical heroin therapy is controversial, but supporters argue that in addition to improving the quality of life of addicts and lowering overdose mortality, it reduces crime and the costs associated with it.

The first treatments under the project will begin in 2020 at the earliest, the health ministry said in a statement.

The initiative could benefit up to 400 drug addicts, according to the daily Aftenposten.

Comment: Maybe a better tactic is to completely decriminalize drugs as they did in Portugal. See also: "Shooting galleries": UK police plan to fund free heroin to addicts

70,000 people protest plan to relocate US army base in Okinawa

RT
Sat, 11 Aug 2018 19:50 UTC

Around 70,000 people protested the Japanese government's plan to relocate a US air base within Okinawa island. Locals say the base will hurt the environment and claim they have sacrificed enough for Japan's security alliance.

The demonstrators gathered at a park in the prefectural capital of Naha on Saturday, in an attempt to urge the central government to abandon their plan to transfer the US Marine Corps Air Station Futenma from the crowded town of Ginowan to the less populated coastal region of Nago.

Suicide bomber's belt of explosives blew up before he got to Christian church celebration in Egypt

RT
Sat, 11 Aug 2018 17:21 UTC

© Amr Abdallah Dalsh / Reuters
A nun cries as she stands at the scene inside Cairo's Coptic cathedral, following one of the 2016 bombing.

Egyptian security forces have thwarted a suicide bomber as he attempted to position himself among members of a church congregation wearing a belt of explosives, during a religious celebration at a heavily guarded Christian church.

The suicide bomber was attempting to enter the Church of the Virgin Mary in Mostorod, Shubra Al-Khaim, when tight security prevented him from getting close to the crowds of Coptic Christians. Abdel Maseeh Basset, pastor of the Church, told local media that the bomb went off before the would-be killer got to the church.

Conservative Twitter voices being hit with malicious 'abusive speech' complaints

RT
Sat, 11 Aug 2018 19:32 UTC

Several prominent journalists raised alarm at baseless complaints being sent to Twitter over stories on sensitive topics, such as the activities of British spy Christopher Steele, and links between Sen. Dianne Feinstein and China.

Conservative newspaper Washington Examiner's Byron York was reported for posting an apparently innocuous link to his own August 9 story, which exposed the lobbying work Steele, notorious for his Donald Trump dossier, performed for Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska.

York said that he was not found guilty of violating the social network's rules.

Comment:

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DeliciousTears

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Society's Child

Russian jail torture victim granted state protection, 17 prison workers suspended

Judge allows Nebraska to conduct the first US fentanyl execution

Cost of living rising at its fastest rate in decades

Twitter suspends rightwing group Proud Boys on eve of deadly Unite the Right rally anniversary

Abuse: School officer handcuffs autistic 10yo, forces him to the ground

Pew Research: Two years on, most Trump voters still have 'very warm' feelings for him

Norway to hand out free heroin to drug addicts

70,000 people protest plan to relocate US army base in Okinawa

Suicide bomber's belt of explosives blew up before he got to Christian church celebration in Egypt

Conservative Twitter voices being hit with malicious 'abusive speech' complaints

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