Society's ChildS


Heart - Black

Mentally disabled inmate isolated and starved to death in Virginia jail cell after stealing $5 worth of snacks

jail cell
© Jenevieve Robbins/Reuters
A mentally disabled Virginia man accused of stealing $5 worth of snacks from a convenience store was often left in isolation, without water in his cell, and essentially starved to death, according to a lawsuit from his family.

Twenty-four-year-old Jamycheal Mitchell was arrested in Portsmouth, Virginia in April 2015 for stealing a bottle of soda, a candy bar and a snack cake worth $5.05. After he was taken to jail and ruled unfit to stand trial - Mitchell suffered from bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, and was described in school records as mildly "mentally retarded" - he nevertheless remained in jail for four months instead of being transferred to a hospital.

In August 2015, Mitchell was found dead in his cell, having lost 40-50 pounds. A medical examiner found that he was "nearly cachectic," meaning he had lost so much weight that the process couldn't be reversed nutritionally.

Comment: Hopefully, the family will win. This was nothing short of state-sanctioned, prolonged torture. No matter how many similar stories are reported prison conditions do not improve. This speaks volumes about the prison-industrial complex and the 'people' who run it.


Heart - Black

Medical predators: French doctors extorting money from migrants

doctor
© Regis Duvignau / Reuters
French authorities are investigating a Parisian doctor accused of repeatedly charging migrants hefty fees for forged medical certificates that would guarantee approval of their residence applications.

A hepatologist from the Pitie-Salpetriere hospital in Paris, who supposedly issued fake medical certificates for foreigners, was suspended from his office "as a precaution" on May 10, the city's public hospital system AP-HP announced, according to Le Parisien newspaper.

This case is just the tip of it. We found that many doctors were engaged in racket schemes with migrants. They ask them to pay hundreds of euros for medical certificates so that they could qualify for residence," said Laura Petersell of La Cimade, a French NGO that was first to detect the irregularities.

Comment: These refugees have been through hell and then to have unscrupulous doctors exploit their vulnerable situation (which is largely due to Western intervention in their countries) is absolutely shameful.


Info

Update: Bison calf euthanized after Yellowstone tourists thought they were saving it from the cold

yellowstone_bison_calf
© Karen RichardsonSome concerned tourists in Yellowstone National Park thought a bison calf was cold and put it in their SUV on Monday.
The tourists believed the baby bison was cold. So during their visit to Yellowstone National Park last week, they "rescued" it — and were then scolded for doing so.

In fact, the National Park Service said Monday, the calf had been rejected by its herd because park visitors wouldn't leave the newborn alone.

The bison calf was released and its 'rescuers' were ticketed May 9 at Yellowstone National Park. Karen Richardson via KECI-TV

In addition, interference by people can cause mothers to reject their offspring. In this case, park rangers tried repeatedly to reunite the newborn bison calf with the herd. These efforts failed.

The outcome, the service said in a statement, couldn't have been more grim.

"The bison calf was later euthanized because it was abandoned and causing a dangerous situation by continually approaching people and cars along the roadway," the statement said.

Network

College students discover their favorite teaching assistant wasn't human

Computer graphic
Professor Ashok Goel tricked an entire online class into taking their questions to an artificial intelligence robot using IBM's Watson technology.

Ashok Goel, a computer science professor at Georgia Tech University introduced his online graduate-level Artificial Intelligence course students to their new teaching assistant, Jill Watson, without letting them in on a big secret.

The professor listed Jill, along with the other TAs, on the course website, should students have questions during the course. Professor Goel said that students ask thousands of questions per semester and his staff of TAs often struggle to keep up and provide quality answers.

A few discerning students found the name Jill Watson to be notable in an Artificial Intelligence course, but no one concluded that the teaching assistant was not human, but rather a chatbot powered by IBM's Watson technology. One student unwittingly nominated Jill Watson as outstanding TA in the university's teacher survey.

Comment: For more on this story: Students mostly couldn't tell 'Jill Watson' wasn't human


V

Activists correctly label Saudi Embassy in Berlin 'Daesh Bank' using projection

Saudi Embassy
© PixelHELPER / Facebook
The embassy of Saudi Arabia in the German capital has been decorated with an ISIS flag and labeled the "Daesh Bank" in a projection stunt performed by human rights activists in an effort to draw attention to the kingdom's purported links to terrorist organizations.

Artist Oliver Bienkowski and the Pixel Helper collective performed the stunt to draw public attention to Saudi Arabia's egregiously bad human rights record and country's alleged support of extremist groups.

saudi embassy
© PixelHELPER / Facebook
Although Saudi Arabia plays one of the key roles in the US-led coalition aimed at eradicating Islamic State, the kingdom has faced criticism from its western allies for not making enough of an effort in the fight against terrorism.

The kingdom has been regularly accused of supporting and financing various extremist groups serving their interests in the region. A 2009 memo published by WikiLeaks revealed that Hillary Clinton, who was back then the US Secretary of State, said that Saudi Arabia had been financing ISIS, Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Saudi Arabia shrugged off the allegations, underscoring the initiatives it undertakes to prevent people from financing the terrorist groups.

Heart - Black

Lawsuit alleges teacher at Christian school fired after reporting rape of her daughter by school employee

Zachary Retzlaff
Zachary Retzlaff - mugshot
A former teacher at a private Christian Science high school in St. Louis claims she was fired from her job as part of a cover-up after reporting to police that her underage daughter had been sexually assaulted multiple times by a school employee.

Zachary Retzlaff, the director of telecommunications at Principia School, was indicted on charges of statutory rape after allegedly assaulting the 16-year-old daughter of teacher Phoebe McVey last year, reports the Riverfront Times.

According to McVey, she became aware that Retzlaff had been preying on her daughter after chaperoning a class trip to New Hampshire in 2015. After reporting him to police when she returned to St. Louis, the 31-year-old man was taken into custody and officially charged two months later.

Attention

1 in 3 Brits in poverty over past 3 years, PM says Brexit will make it worse

woman sipping
© Chris Helgren / Reuters
A third of Britons have experienced poverty at least once in the last three years, and almost four million live in "persistent poverty," research suggests. Cameron has presided over years of falling living standards, but says Brexit could make it worse. Office for National Statistics (ONS) data says Britain has the 12th-highest "overall poverty" rate of the 28 countries in the EU, despite being the second-richest country after Germany.

The official measure of overall poverty is someone who has a disposable income 60 percent lower than the national average. But about 6.5 percent of the UK population, or 3.9 million people, have lived in "persistent poverty," defined as those who have experienced relative low income for at least the last three years.

That means the UK has the third-lowest persistent poverty rate in the EU, behind Denmark and the Czech Republic. Romania, at 20 percent, has the highest rate of persistent poverty. Bulgaria is second on 16.5 percent and Lithuania third with 16 percent. The persistent poverty rate in 2014 was 1.5 percent higher among women than men, and the likelihood of falling into poverty shoots up to 43 percent for those who leave education without any formal qualifications.

Prime Minister David Cameron, whose government has implemented a program of harsh austerity measures over the past six years, warns the poorest and most vulnerable people in the UK would be hit hardest by the economic consequences of leaving the EU. He says leaving the EU would see prices rise and threaten jobs, while remaining in the union would help working people and British manufacturing.


Comment: It is the end of prosperity for the common man as long as those who make decisions for the common good calibrate their actions to the benefit of the few, Brexit or not.


2 + 2 = 4

Oh, the irony! Thousands of UK children at risk of 'indoctrination' in illegal schools

Classroom
© Julie Gordon/Reuters
Thousands of children across the UK may be at risk of indoctrination in a growing number of 'illegal schools' an investigation by the UK schools watchdog Ofsted has revealed.

Ofsted inspectors have identified 100 suspected unregistered schools across the UK since January when a taskforce was set up to investigate the problem. Last month, the education watchdog issued warnings to schools in cities including London, Birmingham and Luton, where 350 children were found on the premises.

Ofsted chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw warned this number is likely to be just "a small proportion of the illegal schools operating across the country" and that new suspected cases were being reported every week.

In a letter to Education Secretary Nicky Morgan, Wilshaw said inspectors are "deeply alarmed" by what they have found. "The evidence they have gathered so far during this short period firmly reinforces my belief that there are many more children hidden away from the view of the authorities in unregistered schools across the country than previously thought," he said.

Sheriff

New York police used 'body bags' to restrain, arrest 122 people in 110 days

NYPD 'body bag' arrest
© Via YouTube/Nexonews.com
In March, a video was posted to YouTube showing NYPD macing a man and then restraining him in what the uploader described as a "body bag," zipping it all the way over the arrested man's head. The bag, which we learned is called an EDP bag (but sometimes referred to as a "burrito"), is used to restrain people who are emotionally disturbed, and there don't appear to be any guidelines for the NYPD specifying EDP usage. The New York Times has a piece out today on the restraining devices, and reports that they were used 122 times between January 1st and April 20th in 2016. That comes out to more than once a day.

The man restrained in the bag in the video posted in March allegedly failed to pay his subway fare, the Times reports, and he's said to have became violent when officers tried to arrest him, flailing his arms, kicking, and spitting. He allegedly struck one officer in the head with his elbow and injured another. He now faces charges for felony assault, among others—but his lawyer, Andrew Miller, says that's completely backwards.

"He was the victim of the assault, instead of the other way around," Miller said, calling the officers' actions "excessive and totally unreasonable."

According to the product description for a similar bag as the one that appeared in the video, "the EDP Bag deploys in a split second and can be used to secure an EDP (emotionally disturbed person) in just moments. The fabric is strong and allows fluids to pass through, and can be cleaned and decontaminated easily after each use." It retails at about $750.


Comment: The NYPD are a gang of thugs and criminals who engage in rampant brutality and jawdropping misconduct.


Arrow Down

Hurting all over: Aberdeen, UK suffers in oil price downturn

aberdeen oil price collapse
© Jeff Mitchell/Getty Images The oil price collapse is still looming over Aberdeen
"It has got to the point where I run into old friends and ask them whether they're in work, almost as a greeting. It's become the same as asking 'how are things?'," says oilfield safety worker Spencer Owen.

"In Aberdeen just having a job answers a lot of that question."

After months of dragging oil prices the capital of North Sea oil is caught in the grip of a vicious downturn which has wrought financial pain throughout the local economy. Dips are to be expected of a city so deeply dependent on the fluctuating price of oil, but the latest downturn is unlike anything its 195,000 residents have seen before.

The oil price rout has run deeper and longer than any oil market downturn in history, and comes at a time when the aging North Sea basin is losing its economic edge against cheaper exploration areas.

As the economic contagion spreads through Aberdeen, so do the anecdotes of its fall from one of the richest cities in the UK to a city in crisis.

Tales of oil executives queuing up for food banks or to sell their Rolexes to overwhelmed pawn brokers are breathlessly repeated by cab drivers. One tells of how financed sports cars are being abandoned in dealership forecourts overnight by those unable to keep up with payments. Another claims to have driven an enterprising young man to snap up a paid-in-full Porsche from a desperate owner to re-sell at a profit in London.

"I've been driving people from the Aberdeen airport into town for almost twenty years so I've seen downturns before. This one is different," says one driver.

Comment: So much suffering, not only in oil industries around the world, but the industries dependent on this fundamental enterprise. All for the purpose of hurting Russia. But psychopaths have never themselves with the "little people".