Society's ChildS


Eye 1

Police state: Two high-schoolers arrested and jailed for two days for wearing sagging pants in school

Matt Agorist
Free Thought Project
Tue, 08 Dec 2015 20:03 UTC
pants sagging

On Monday, two children were released from the Hardeman County jail after being locked in a cage over the weekend for their choice of attire.

In a shocking and secretive ruling last week, two seniors at Bolivar Central High School were sentenced to two days behind bars for merely violating the school's dress code.

In early November, a school resource officer, in an effort to protect the world from the horrors of sagging pants, charged two students with indecent exposure.

Officer Willie Hoyle said he had warned the students several times that the pants they were wearing were inappropriate for school, according to court documents.

Hoyle claimed that his actions were noble as the older seniors were setting a poor example for the younger children and their future attire choices.

Comment: The parents should sue the school and the police for the overly hysterical reaction to a violation of school dress code. Whatever happened to detention or suspending students? The punishment far outreaches the crime here, and the authorities involved should face the consequences of their ridiculous overreaction.

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Pistol

Active shooter reported at Arkansas State University


RT
Thu, 10 Dec 2015 19:48 UTC
Arkansas State University
© astate.eduArkansas State University
Arkansas State University in Jonesboro is warning of an active shooter at the student union on campus. The school is asking students to evacuate to the west side of the building and clear the area.

Students have received Campus Alert text messages that say, "Man with weapon is on east side of student union. Campus lockdown immediately," KATV reported.

The flagship campus of Arkansas State system has 14,000 students. It is located about two hours northeast of Little Rock, the state capital.

The report of an active shooter comes two days after two members of the school's football team were arrested on drug charges. Chris Stone, a 23-year-old senior defensive end, and Tyler Trosin, 22-year-old senior receiver, were arrested at about 2 a.m. Tuesday, according to the Craighead County Sheriff's Office. A judge found probable cause to charge the two men with felony possession of cocaine, possession of drug paraphernalia and furnishing prohibited articles, the Jonesboro Sun reported.

The gunman was surrounded by police just after 1:45 p.m. local time, the school tweeted. No shots were fired or injuries reported.
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Black Cat

How the TTIP will violate your human rights

Mark Dearn
The Independent
Thu, 10 Dec 2015 19:48 UTC
Merkel TTP
© Michael Kappeler/Agence France-PresseActivists work on a float showing Angela Merkel lighting a TTIP-bomb during a demonstration in Berlin, 9 October 2015
The clause in the EU-US trade contract will threaten our right to health, a decent wage and a healthy environment

"A revolution against the law"

That's how UN independent expert Alfred de Zayas describes the controversial and increasingly used 'investor-state dispute settlement' mechanism which enables corporations to sue states for lost profits - including those yet to be made.

The UK government want this 'corporate court' included in the secretly negotiated EU-US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). This is despite widespread public opposition that resulted in the biggest ever response to a European Commission public consultation: 97% of people called for investor-state dispute settlement to be removed from TTIP.

TTIP is promoted as being focused on the "shared values" of the USA and EU, including "upholding and promoting human rights". However, the USA and EU prefer to protect corporations from human rights law; they were the strongest opponents of a UN move to create a binding mechanism for holding corporations accountable to international human rights law supported by 80 countries and 400 organisations.

In June, an unprecedented 10 UN independent experts released a joint statement outlining their fears for human rights in the 'new generation' trade deals including TTIP.

So, in honour of Human Rights Day, here are three ways that investor-state dispute settlement cases have led to the trading of human rights for profit.

Comment: Further reading:

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Megaphone

Revealed: Thailand's most senior human trafficking investigator to seek political asylum in Australia

Gay Alcorn, Keryn Reynolds & Margaret Simons
The Guardian
Wed, 09 Dec 2015 19:25 UTC
Major General Paween Pongsirin says his investigations into human trafficking implicated senior figures in police and military and he now fears for his life

Major General Paween Pongsirin
© Meredith O'Shea for the Guardian Major General Paween Pongsirin in Melbourne. He was appointed to lead an investigation into the discovery of more than 30 mass graves that was later stopped by influential people, he says.
Thailand's most senior police investigator into human trafficking is seeking political asylum in Australia, saying he fears for his life because influential figures in the Thai government, military and police are implicated in trafficking and want him killed.

Major General Paween Pongsirin arrived in Melbourne a few days ago on a tourist visa and has now told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's 7.30 program and Guardian Australia he plans to seek asylum.
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Heart - Black

Above the law: Police chief guilty of covering up his own hit-and-run gets $260k severance package and avoids criminal charges

William N. Grigg
Free Thought Project
Wed, 09 Dec 2015 19:24 UTC
golden parachute
In yet another of the endless illustration of the fact that police and their political cronies constitute the American equivalent of the Soviet nomenklatura, a police chief who was involved in a drunken hit-and-run collision last Spring, then lied and obstructed the investigation, will not only escape criminal charges, but will be given a severance package of $260,000 in accumulated salary and benefits — which will include a retroactive increase of his 2015 salary to nearly $150,000.

Drunk driving can be tremendously profitable — as long as the irresponsible part is protected by "qualified immunity."

On December 1, Chief William C. King was allowed to "retire in good standing," stipulated the official "Agreement and General Release" that was exhumed through the diligence of John Paff, Chairman of the New Jersey Libertarian Party's Open Government Advocacy Project. Not only will there be no criminal charges against King, but any administrative charges arising from his misconduct were dropped, and he "will be indemnified from all civil actions brought against him so long as he was acting within the scope of his employment...." In other words, tax victims residing within the borough will pay legal costs in the event that King is sued by the owner of the vehicle he damaged during his drunken joyride.

King was allowed to keep his service weapon, holsters, and three ammo magazines. He also received "a retired Chief's Badge and identification card," and the Borough agreed to "retain any letters from the [Somerset County Prosecutor's Office] clearing King of any administrative charges..."

Comment: It's no wonder police go around killing innocent civilians. They are being shown that police are held to a different set of laws than the citizens they are paid to protect. How does wearing a badge equate with being able to break laws that would put the average citizen in jail? Only a police state would allow such a discrepancy in justice to exist.

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Blue Planet

Iran reiterates call for ending Saudi-Led aggression on Yemen


Fars News Agency
Thu, 10 Dec 2015 06:06 UTC
Iranian DFM
© UnknownDeputy foreign minister for Arab and African affairs Hossein Amir Abdollahian
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Amir Abdollahian reiterated the country's position on the need to stop the Saudi-led attacks against Yemen, and stressed support for true national talks in the war-ravaged country.

Amir Abdollahian made the remarks in a telephone conversation with UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed on Thursday.

They also discussed the latest developments in Yemen on the threshold of Geneva meeting.

Appreciating the UN envoy's efforts to settle the crisis in Yemen, Amir Abdollahian said that Tehran has from the beginning rejected military approaches and has always underlined diplomatic means.

Tehran will continue encouraging effective and real Yemeni-Yemeni talks, he said.
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Bad Guys

Citadel military cadets sing Christmas carols while wearing KKK hoods

Travis Gettys
Raw Story
Thu, 10 Dec 2015 12:25 UTC
Citadel KKK
© WCIV/FacebookCitadel cadets wearing white Ku Klux Klan-style hoods
Officials at The Citadel are investigating social media photos that appear to show cadets wearing Ku Klux Klan hoods.

A woman who posted the photos said she was threatened and offered bribes to remove the images from her Facebook page, reported WCIV-TV.

"I was threatened, harassed and offered money from numerous Citadel Cadets to take it offline in order to not 'ruin their lives,'" the woman said.
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Bizarro Earth

America's real-life dystopia: Wal-Mart is straight out of George Orwell and Aldous Huxley

Aaron Hanlon
Salon
Wed, 02 Dec 2015 17:58 UTC
walmart
© Unknown
An amazing new piece details life as a Wal-Mart worker -- and how monitored its employees are at all times

It's difficult to read Susan Berfield's outstanding story on how Wal-Mart monitors its workforce without thinking of Aldous Huxley's dystopian novel, "Brave New World."

In a 1949 letter to George Orwell, Huxley compares "Brave New World" to Orwell's recently issued 1984, writing:
...whether in actual fact the policy of the boot-on-the-face can go on indefinitely seems doubtful. My own belief is that the ruling oligarchy will find less arduous and wasteful ways of governing and of satisfying its lust for power, and these ways will resemble those which I described in Brave New World.

Comment:

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House

Muslim family in Texas being targeted with hate crimes

David Edwards
Raw Story
Wed, 09 Dec 2015 15:43 UTC
Muslim family, Texas
© KTVKIslamic group calls attack on Plano family a hate crime
A Muslim family in Plano, Texas fear that they may have been targeted with a hate crime after rocks smashed through their windows at least two times in the last week.

The family told KTVT that they moved to Plano six weeks ago, and that they believe that the people throwing the rocks may be sending a message about their religion.

Comment: See more:
  • Obama's remarks to US Muslims draws criticism, discrimination
  • Trump, in all of his fascist wisdom, calls for a complete ban on Muslims entering the US and 'closing up' of the internet


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Sheriff

'What kind of police do you call on the police?': Oklahoma City cop on trial for raping 13 women

Goldie Taylor
The Daily Beast
Thu, 10 Dec 2015 06:00 UTC
Daniel Holtzclaw
© Oklahoma County Sheriff's Office/ReutersDaniel Holtzclaw
Daniel Holtzclaw should be a household name. He should be on the front page of every newspaper in the country. His criminal trial should be featured in the A-blocks of national news broadcasts.

We should be able recognize him on sight. We should be able to number and name the horrendous crimes he allegedly committed. Should he ever walk the streets again, he should enjoy not a single moment of anonymity.

Holtzclaw, a 28-year-old former Oklahoma City police officer, is an alleged sexual predator who prosecutors say used his badge to rape at least 13 women over a seven-month period. The alleged victims of his increasingly brazen pattern of attacks, prosecutors say, included an underage girl and a grandmother. Ranging in age from 17 to 57, all but one are black and all live in the same poverty-stricken, predominantly African-American neighborhood in the northeast section of the city.

Comment: We can only hope that the jury has some common sense. This predator should be locked away forever.

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