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Charlotte demonstrators defy curfew on third night of protests


FARS News
Fri, 23 Sep 2016 10:05 UTC
Charlotte curfew protest
Several hundred people defied a midnight curfew as protests in the US city of Charlotte continued for their third successive night.

Unlike on the two previous evenings, however, the demonstrations on Thursday were apparently entirely peaceful. The only encounter with police came when some protesters climbed onto Interstate 277 and stood in the middle of the highway. A line of police officers with shields and face masks advanced on the protesters, and many dispersed and climbed back up embankments off the road.

The demonstrators - protesting over the shooting dead of a black man by police on Tuesday - eventually dispersed at around 1.40am. Before doing so, they huddled together and raised their right fists into the air.

"Don't forget our message," said one of the protest leader, who gave his name as Chewy Torres. "Last night the news showed us looking like looters. We have to know what we stand for. We have to respond with love."

Mayor Jennifer Roberts had signed documents on Thursday night to put in effect a curfew in the North Carolina city from midnight until 6am. But as midnight passed, several hundred protesters continued to march and chant and it became clear that police would not enforce the rule while the crowds remained peaceful. The presence of up to 100 members of the clergy among the protesters was credited by many as helping keep things peaceful.

Comment: See also: Witnesses refute public account of killing of Justin Carr at Charlotte protest - say it was police ambush

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Eye 1

Police officers resign after forcing teen to eat marijuana during traffic stop


RT
Fri, 23 Sep 2016 09:53 UTC
Police
Three Phoenix police officers resigned, while a lieutenant was demoted after they forced a 19-year-old to eat marijuana at a predawn traffic stop. The cops were wearing body cameras that were turned off at the time.

Phoenix Police Chief Joe Yahner named three officers who have resigned following a September 13 incident, where they pulled over a 19-year-old at 3:30 a.m. and found that he had a gram of marijuana in his vehicle. Instead of taking the young man to jail, they offered him an alternative: eat the drugs and go home.

Naturally, he took the option that did not involve spending time in jail for a drug charge. He brought the matter to the department's attention later and reported that after eating the weed, he received a traffic ticket and was allowed to leave. He was sick as a result, Arizona Republic reported.

All three of the officers had been members of the Phoenix Police Department for less than a year. However, one of them was in fact a 10-year veteran of the force, transferring from the Chicago Police Department.
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Pistol

Witnesses refute public account of killing of Justin Carr at Charlotte protest - say it was police ambush


RT
Fri, 23 Sep 2016 07:35 UTC
Justin Carr shooting
© Todd Zimmer / Facebook
Protests in uptown Charlotte took a violent turn when a protester was shot outside the Omni Hotel. The protester, identified as Justin Carr, has died, and now eyewitnesses tell RT they blame the police. Meanwhile, an investigation is ongoing.

Wednesday night's demonstrations in Charlotte became a riot after the shooting of a protester named Justin Carr. On Thursday, he was pronounced dead after being shot in the head, and tensions risk increasing with witnesses blaming police and the initial police position being it was a civilian-on-civilian attack.

The uprising in Charlotte was inspired by the death of Keith Scott who was shot by police Monday. Some came to protest the police department's refusal to release the footage from the officer in question's dash cam. Others came to show their support for efforts to end police brutality, and some agitators also convened.

The City of Charlotte tweeted Wednesday night that the shooting in uptown Charlotte was "civilian on civilian," and "CMPD did not fire shot." However, other demonstrators dispute that version of events and claim that the police ambushed Justin Carr.

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Family

In a country so 'exceptional': For New York City seniors, it's not safe to go outside

Shari Logan, Shawn Cohen and Daniel Prendergast
New York Post
Thu, 22 Sep 2016 01:14 UTC
Maria Vasquez
© NY PostMaria Altagracia Vasquez, 94, was in a clothing store called Regines on 116th Street on Sept. 7 when a young male thief followed her into the store and took $600 in cash from her.
They're robbed as they walk their dogs, go on moonlit strolls or sit waiting for buses. They're robbed as they lean on their canes or sit in their wheelchairs. In some cases, they're shoved to the ground and even kicked while they're down.

More than once a day on average this year, someone over the age of 65 was mugged somewhere in New York City. And the numbers are up, particularly in the Bronx and Manhattan.

City seniors know they are vulnerable — and given the choice between safety and freedom, they're choosing the former, limiting what they do and where they go in order to keep safe.

"It's not right that they are targeting senior citizens," Jorge Baiz, 75, said as he sat in his motorized wheelchair outside the Soundview Senior Center in the Bronx. "It's scary. That's why when the sun goes down, I go home. I am not outside at night."

Strong-arm robberies of senior citizens are up 7.8 percent citywide, stats show. There were 316 this year through Sept. 18, compared with the 293 for the same period last year. Muggings of the elderly were markedly higher in Manhattan South, with 43 seniors victimized between Jan. 1 and Sept. 18 — nearly a 140 percent increase over the same period last year.

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Bomb

Bomb threat closes West Point Academy visitor center


Hudson Valley News
Thu, 22 Sep 2016 17:38 UTC
West Point Academy
© Hudson Valley News
A bomb threat closed West Point's Visitor Center in Highland Falls temporarily on Thursday.

U.S. Military Academy officials say they evacuated the visitor control center after a man claimed there was a bomb in his vehicle near the Thayer Gate in Highland Falls.

Officials immediately evacuated the area and closed down Main Street near the installation.

Military, state and local police conducted a full search of the grounds, and determined that there was no explosive material.

Once the bomb squad gave the all-clear, the visitor control center resumed normal operations.

The scare is the second false alarm at West Point within the week. On Monday, a tipster called authorities claiming a man resembling bombing suspect Ahman Khan Rahami entered West Point.
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Newspaper

Abandoned rice cookers prompt bomb squad responses in Vacaville and San Francisco

Sarah Ravani and Hamed Aleaziz
SF Gate
Thu, 22 Sep 2016 13:28 UTC
Lonely rice cooker
© Sarah Ravani/San Francisco ChronicleA rice cooker left at a bus stop on South Van Ness Avenue at Mission Street prompted bomb-squad response and the shut down of the major intersection Thursday morning for about two hours. Police determined that the cooking device was not a threat.
A rice cooker left at a bus stop on South Van Ness Avenue and Mission street prompted a police bomb squad response Thursday morning and the shut down of the major intersection and surrounding streets for about two hours before the kitchen device was determined not to be a threat.

Just 30 minutes after the rice cooker was declared safe in San Francisco, the Vacaville Police Department received a call about an abandoned rice cooker discovered under the I-80 overpass on Mason Street between Peabody Road and Depot Street.

A Muni bus driver called the San Francisco police around 7:30 a.m. after spotting the first abandoned rice cooker at the bus shelter in front of a Goodwill store at the intersection.

Police blocked off the intersection and called in a bomb squad to investigate the cooking device, authorities said. The squad's robot was deployed and found the rice cooker was empty and did not pose a threat.

Traffic was blocked off in the area until about 10 a.m., although pedestrians were allowed to return to the area about 9:30 a.m.
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Heart - Black

European bison 'Sauron' poisoned, decapitated at wildlife reserve in Spain


Yahoo! News
Wed, 21 Sep 2016 21:28 UTC
Bison Sauron
© Sky News
A half-ton bison was poisoned and decapitated so that his head could be used "as a trophy".
Sauron, named after the Lord of The Rings character, was found on Friday in the 800-acre Valdeserillas reserve in Spain's eastern region of Valencia.

Sauron's head was missing, with reserve spokesman Rodolfo Navarro saying the attackers wanted it for a trophy. Mr Navarro said the animal had been "the biggest and most powerful" of the herd and had become a "sort of symbol of the reserve".

El Pais reported that investigators had not found any bullets or cartridges at the scene. They quoted the Civil Guard's nature protection group - Seprona - as saying there had been at least two people involved and they used an axe. Mr Navarro agreed, adding: "It must have been a gang because one person couldn't commit this kind of brutality on their own."

Three other bison are missing, presumed dead, and five others are ill with diarrhoea but responding well to treatment. Mr Navarro said the 12 bison were brought to Spain from the Netherlands, Ireland and the UK after years of planning. "It was like a murder," he told The Guardian of the attack.

"It's just senseless and it has really damaged not only our image and Valencia's, but also Spain's." The European bison were hunted to extinction in the wild, with the last of the animals shot in Poland in the 1920s, but they have been reintroduced across Europe from captivity. There are now about 5,500 around the world, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

Comment: Have humans forgotten the basic tenets of empathy?

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Bad Guys

Wannabe martyr: Philadelphia mom arrested after planning to abandon kids and join ISIS

Jeremy Roebuck
philly.com
Wed, 21 Sep 2016 21:29 UTC
north philly house
© Elizabeth Robertson/Staff photographerThe FBI arrested Keonna Thomas in April 2015 at her three-story brick-and-stucco rowhouse, on 10th Street near Brown, in the Richard Allen Homes public-housing project.
A North Philadelphia mother of two admitted Tuesday that she planned to abandon her children and travel to Syria to pursue "martyrdom operations" with an ISIS fighter she married over the internet.

Keonna Thomas, 32, pleaded guilty to attempting to provide material support to a terrorist organization during a brief hearing in federal court. She acknowledged her plans were derailed last year only when federal agents raided her home the day she was scheduled to leave the country.

"I believe that I'm guilty of this charge," said Thomas, dressed in a head scarf and green prison jumpsuit, when asked by U.S. District Judge Michael Baylson why she was changing her plea.

Federal authorities had couched the case as the latest in a string of prosecutions to combat what they describe as a "more decentralized, more diffuse, more complicated" homegrown terror threat from U.S. citizens radicalized over the internet.
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Camcorder

Israeli troops caught on camera beating unarmed Palestinian during 'routine check'


RT
Thu, 22 Sep 2016 10:33 UTC
IDF Palestinian
© Mussa Qawasma/ReutersIsraeli soldiers detain Palestinian during searching raid by IDF, West Bank city of Hebron
Israeli soldiers have been photographed brutally detaining a Palestinian man in Hebron on Tuesday. One of the five troops in the vicinity could be seen kicking the man, while another soldier pinned the Palestinian to the floor with his knee. The incident took place near a Jewish neighborhood in Hebron, with the Israeli soldiers saying that the man was resisting arrest.

"During a routine security check, the Palestinian who was documented [in the photos] refused to be frisked. The forces had arrested the suspect. The troops' conduct is being looked into and the incident is being investigated," the military said in a statement, as cited by Haaretz. However, the photographs, which were shot as the detention was taking place, shows what seems to be unnecessary force being used by the Israeli soldiers. The Palestinian man was not wearing any shoes, and was dressed in a T-shirt and pants.

The troops, who were from the Nahal 50th battalion, surrounded the man with one of the soldiers pinning him to the ground with his knee.

Another photograph shows a soldier appearing to kick the man, who was unarmed, with either his foot or his knee.
Palestinian under foot IDF
© Mussa Qawasma / ReutersIsraeli soldiers' method of detainment.

Comment: When atrocities become routine and then mundane, Israel is one of the best examples to never be emulated.

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Stormtrooper

Criminal cops: Autopsy shows child killed by police was shot three times - in the back

Claire Bernish
Free Thought Project
Tue, 20 Sep 2016 00:00 UTC
Tyre King
Thirteen-year-old Tyre King was "more likely than not" running from Columbus, Ohio, police when Officer Bryan Mason fatally shot him, an independent medical examiner retained by the child's family has now found.

Because results of the completed autopsy performed by the local coroner will not be revealed for another six weeks, King's family hired Francisco J. Diaz, a forensic pathologist from Michigan, "to evaluate the number, characteristics and location of the gunshot wounds on Tyre," the Guardian reported.

According to a statement from the family, published by attorneys Shawn L. Walton and Chanda L. Brown, Diaz said:
"Based on the location and direction of the wound paths, it is more likely than not that Tyre King was in the process of running away from the shooter or shooters when he suffered all three gunshot wounds."
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