Society's Child

Several people shot outside Empire State Building

A. Mach, S. Prokupecz & J. Dienst
NBC News
Fri, 24 Aug 2012 08:52 UTC

At least four people were shot Friday morning outside the Empire State Building in New York City, officials told NBC News, adding that there could be as many as 10 victims.

© NBC News
An aerial view of the scene at the Empire State Building in New York where a shooting occurred Friday morning,

The suspected gunman was killed, officials said. Another person was reportedly dead too. It wasn't immediately clear if the gunman's wound was self-inflicted or if the suspect was shot by police.

The condition of the other victims is unknown at this time.

A law-enforcement official said the shooting did not appear to be terror-related, and may have been the actions of a disgruntled employee of a business in the Empire State Building, which houses 1,000 businesses.

"I heard pop, pop, pop, pop, and I ran back into my offices," a witness, Gloria Walker, told NBC News. "I ran, I ran, I ran," she said when she heard it.

Dogs Gone Wild! Pack of Crazed Pit Bulls Demolish California Minivan

Erik Ortiz
New York Daily News
Wed, 22 Aug 2012 09:31 UTC

In an attack reminiscent of 'Cujo' four pit bulls attack Dodge minivan trying to get to cat hiding in fender.

© Palm Springs Police Dept./AP/KPSP/CBS News
Palm Springs, California - This stray kitten was stuck in the bumper of a Dodge minivan and survived a 25-mile drive to Palm Springs and an attack by four pit bulls, who mauled the car's bumper. It has been named Fender Lynx.

A pack of pit bulls ripped through the front of a Southern California man's minivan in a stunning display of force that would make Cujo cringe.

So what drove the dogs to such destruction? A kitty stuck in the bumper area, Palm Springs police Sgt. Mike Kovaleff said Tuesday.

The unidentified owner's Dodge minivan was parked at his home in Banning where he saw the damage to his vehicle Monday morning, according to CBS affiliate KESQ in Palm Springs.

"He discovered that his vehicle had been significantly damaged by his four pit bull dogs, in an attempt to attack an unknown animal or rodent while his vehicle was parked overnight,"' Kovaleff told the station.

15-Year-Old Girl Alleges She was Gang-Raped on Carnival Cruise Voyage to Bahamas

Erik Ortiz
New York Daily News
Wed, 22 Aug 2012 10:54 UTC

Teen says another passenger supplied her and a group of underage boys with alcohol and then led sexual assault.

A Florida man accused of leading a gang rape of a 15-year-old girl during a cruise to the Bahamas denied taking part in the alleged attack - but admitted Tuesday to plying the group with alcohol, according to reports.

Casey Dickerson, 31, was arrested Monday and thrown into Orange County Jail on sexual-assault charges after the incident on a Carnival Sensation cruise Sunday, the Orlando Sentinel reported.

Dickerson, of Casselberry, declined to say what occured in the room, but repudiated the rape accusation.

"I didn't rape anybody," he told ABC affiliate WFTV in a jail house interview Tuesday.

But, he said, "I admit I bought alcohol."

Dickerson was reportedly on the cruise with his wife leaving from Port Canaveral on Aug. 16. The couple was upset about noise heard from inside their cabin and were given a second room - but were also permitted to keep the first one.

It's inside the original cabin where Dickerson allegedly hosted a booze-filled gathering with four underage boys as well as the 15-year-old girl and her 15-year-old friend, according to The Sentinel.

Drunk Georgia Lab Tech Parties with Escaped Monkeys

Click Orlando
Wed, 22 Aug 2012 02:49 UTC

University employee found with pants down, monkeys roaming free

A Georgia Health Sciences University lab tech was recently discovered in a campus locker room engaging in unusual behavior.

Authorities said 32-year-old Coley Mitchell was jailed after he was found intoxicated with his pants down in a locker room in the Sanders Research and Education Building while two lab monkeys were found roaming free, outside their cages, the Augusta Chronicle reported.

Mitchell was booked into Richmond County jail on charges of public intoxication. The monkeys were examined and found to be unharmed.

Elderly Parisioner's Touch-Up to 19th century Spanish Church Fresco Turns Jesus into Cartoon

Andy Soltis
New York Post
Thu, 23 Aug 2012 01:25 UTC

An elderly parishioner's attempt to touch up this cherished but deteriorating Spanish church fresco has turned Jesus into a cartoon figure.

The unidentified woman, in her 80s, was upset at the damage that moisture was wreaking on the 19th century fresco in the Sanctuary of Mercy Church near Zaragoza.

Without authorization, the devoted woman scraped away some of the paint, leaving white marks on the wall.

Then she took out a paintbrush and replaced the strokes of artist Elias Garcia Martinez with her own, Spanish media reported.

When she realized how badly it had turned out, she contacted the city's culture councilor, Juan Maria Ojeda.

"I think she had good intentions," Ojeda was quoted as saying.

As it turns out, the woman's efforts weren't even necessary. An organization that restores Spanish artwork, El Centro de Estudios Borjanos, had just received a donation from Martinez's granddaughter to repair the damage done by the moisture.

Ojeda said art experts are trying to determine whether the woman's work can be undone.

"If we can't fix it, we will probably cover the wall with a photo of the painting," he said.

Ronald Weekley Jr., Skateboarder Alleging Excessive Police Force, Hires Trayvon Martin Family Attorney

CBS News - Crimesider
Wed, 22 Aug 2012 01:04 UTC

© CBS Los Angeles
Image from cell phone video is believed to show Los Angeles police officers on top of Ronald Weekley, Jr., as they subdued and arrested him on Saturday, Aug. 18, 2012.

Ronald Weekley Jr., a 20-year-old skateboarder who alleges that police used excessive force when they arrested him on Saturday, has hired Benjamin Crump, the attorney representing the family of Trayvon Martin, CBS Los Angeles reports.

According to the Los Angeles Police Department, officers tried to stop and detain Weekley at 6:25 p.m. on Saturday after spotting him skateboarding in traffic on Sunset Avenue in Venice, a violation of the vehicle code.

CBS Los Angeles reports a cell phone video of the arrest of Weekley shows four officers on top of the skateboarder, who is face down on a lawn. It appears as though Weekley is punched in the face repeatedly by one of the officers, as the other three wrestle with him on the ground.

Crump questioned why police stopped Weekley in the first place.

"Was he stopped because he was on the wrong side of the road, or was he attacked because he was the wrong color?" Crump asked.

California Man in Jail Two Years after His Conviction was Overturned

RT
Thu, 23 Aug 2012 00:00 UTC

A federal magistrate ordered Daniel Larsen to be released from prison in 2010. Two years after the court agreed that he had been denied the right to a fair trial, though, the 45-year-old man remains behind bars in California.

Larsen was sentenced to 27-years-to-life after being found guilty of possession of a concealed weapon in 1999. A repeat offender, California's three-strikes rule mandated a harsh sentence for Larsen, despite his conviction coming from a trial that has been debated ever since. After a decade in prison, two witnesses contested the original police claims that had convicted Larsen, in turn causing the court to demand a release.

More than two years after the fact, Larsen remains locked up.

"It's reflexive, it's just what they do," Larsen's attorney Jan Stiglitz tells Southern California Public Radio. "They have never been willing to sit down and interview our witnesses."

Stiglitz says that during his client's original trial, his earlier attorneys were "constitutionally and practically deficient," and failed to bring forth witnesses that would have allowed Larsen to walk free. Because a federal habeas petition was not filled on time though, the California Office of the Attorney General is giving Larsen and his lawyer a hard time about allowing the court-mandated release.

Prosecutors Say Colorado Theater Shooting Suspect was Angry Over Poor Academic Performance

The Washington Post
Fri, 24 Aug 2012 11:34 UTC

James Holmes during his first court appearance on July 23. Was he 'greenbaumed'?

Centennial, Colorado - James Holmes was a promising neuroscience doctoral candidate, but by the end of the program's first year, he had fallen out of favor with professors and failed a key exam, prosecutors said.

Details of his behavior before he became a suspect in a suburban Denver theater shooting were not released. But it raised enough concerns for campus police to run a background check on Holmes, although University of Colorado spokeswoman Jacque Montgomery declined to elaborate on the reason Thursday.

Prosecutors went before a judge Thursday to seek the school's records on Holmes, including his application, grades and course schedules, and anything concerning his termination or withdrawal from the school in June. He had failed an oral board exam on June 7, then withdrew from the school three days later.

Holmes faces charges in a July 20 shooting during the new Batman movie that left 12 dead and 58 others wounded.

"What's going on in the defendant's life at the time is extremely relevant to this case," Chief Deputy District Attorney Karen Pearson said of their need for the documents.

Holmes' defense lawyer, Daniel King, has said Holmes is mentally ill, setting up a possible insanity defense. But Pearson's arguments Thursday revealed a possible motive: Holmes' anger that he was failing at school, "at the same time he's buying an enormous amount of ammunition, body armor and explosives."

Mass Police Raids in Germany Signal Neo-Nazi Crackdown

RT
Thu, 23 Aug 2012 00:00 UTC

© Agence France-Presse/Caroline Seidel/Germany Out
Nazi paraphernalia and weapons are on display at a press conference after they were seized by police during a raid on the right-extremist "Nationalen Widerstand Dortmund" on August 23, 2012 in Dortmund, western Germany

Over 900 police officers raided clubhouses and apartments of alleged neo-Nazis in Western Germany on Thursday, seizing far-right propaganda, weapons, and computer hard drives. The move follows the decision to ban three far-right groups in the region.

Police searched 146 premises, across 32 cities and towns in North-Rhine Westphalia, to collect evidence against the three neo-Nazi groups who recently found themselves on the wrong side of the law.

The regions interior minister, Ralf Jaeger, described the banned groups as "xenophobic, racist and anti-Semitic," adding: "They employ fists and knives against their political opponents," Reuters cites him as saying.

Election posters of the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD) were among the materials seized, which Jaeger says highlights the groups' links to Germany's neo-Nazi movement.

While no arrests were made, Jaegar said evidence collected during the raids could be used in forthcoming efforts to add the NPD to the list of banned groups, believing they secretly support the country's more violent far-right militants.

"These groups are anti-foreigner, they are racist and they are anti-Semitic," Jaeger said at a news conference. "We will continue to crack down on these enemies of the state and tread on their black leather boots," he continued.

The NPD has deputies in two state assemblies though they are yet to clinch any seats in the federal parliament. While the NPD have taken a staunchly anti-immigrant line, they have avoided attempts to be labeled a neo-Nazi party, which would facilitate their ban.

Mass-Killer Breivik Sane and Sentenced to Prison

USA Today
Fri, 24 Aug 2012 00:00 UTC

© The Associated Press/Frank Augstein
Anders Behring Breivik talks to his lawyer Vibeke Hein Baera in the courtroom in Oslo where he was sentenced to prison.

Oslo, Norway - Anders Behring Breivik got what he wanted - a prison term instead of an insanity ruling - as he received his sentence Friday for bomb and gun attacks that killed 77 people last year.

Breivik, a self-styled anti-Muslim militant, looked pleased as Judge Wenche Elisabeth Arntzen read the ruling, declaring him sane enough to be held criminally responsible for Norway's worst peacetime attacks.

Going against the recommendation of prosecutors, who had asked for an insanity ruling, the five-judge panel in the Oslo district court convicted Breivik of terrorism and premeditated murder. They imposed a sentence of "preventive detention," a special prison term for criminals considered dangerous to society.

She set the minimum length of imprisonment to 10 years and the maximum at 21 years, the longest allowed under Norwegian law.

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Society's Child

Several people shot outside Empire State Building

Dogs Gone Wild! Pack of Crazed Pit Bulls Demolish California Minivan

15-Year-Old Girl Alleges She was Gang-Raped on Carnival Cruise Voyage to Bahamas

Drunk Georgia Lab Tech Parties with Escaped Monkeys

Elderly Parisioner's Touch-Up to 19th century Spanish Church Fresco Turns Jesus into Cartoon

Ronald Weekley Jr., Skateboarder Alleging Excessive Police Force, Hires Trayvon Martin Family Attorney

California Man in Jail Two Years after His Conviction was Overturned

Prosecutors Say Colorado Theater Shooting Suspect was Angry Over Poor Academic Performance

Mass Police Raids in Germany Signal Neo-Nazi Crackdown

Mass-Killer Breivik Sane and Sentenced to Prison

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