Society's ChildS


Syringe

Cattle rustling makes a comeback: Meth and heroin addicts stealing livestock to feed their habits

cattle rustling
Cattle rustling, a crime associated with the Wild West, is on the rebound in the heart of the U.S. cattle industry, driven largely by ranch hands stealing livestock to get money to feed their drug habits.

The crime has evolved from rustlers on horseback driving their plunder across the range, often portrayed in the early 1960s U.S. TV program Rawhide, to modern-day cowboys using pickup trucks and trailers to make off with cattle.

The recent rise in rustling is driven by the spread of heroin and methamphetamines to rural areas, an issue that has dogged states across the nation. In Oklahoma and neighboring Texas, lonesome cattle grazing on thousand-acre ranches that can fetch about $1,000 to $3,000 at market are proving to be easy targets for rustlers on the down and out.

Among Oklahoma cattle thieves, about 75 percent are doing so to feed addictions, most often to meth amphetamines, according to Jerry Flowers, a retired Oklahoma City police detective and the state's top "cattle cop."

"Some city meth head is going to be kicking your door in and taking your TV. An outlaw here in the country is going to be cutting your fence and taking your cattle," said Flowers.

Health

F-18 fighter jet crashes in UK, killing U.S. pilot, with eyewitness reports of "explosion in the air" and "massive fireball"

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© HO / ReutersA U.S. FA-18 Hornet fighter-bomber
An F-18 fighter jet has reportedly crashed shortly after take-off from RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk. Local police confirmed the pilot died at the scene. The jet was one of six returning from combat operations in the Middle East and reportedly failed to rendezvous with a fuel tanker before the crash occurred.

A US Air Force official confirmed the crash. However, US Navy officials have reportedly claimed they had no planes in the air when the fighter jet crashed near the British base.

A United States Air Force (USAF) offical has arrived at the scene together with an explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) truck and a bomb squad vehicle to examine the crash site.

Cambridgeshire police have confirmed the pilot was the only crew member to die in the crash.

Heart - Black

Sexual abuse complaints at Rikers Island suppressed by prison officials

Rikers Island
© Brendan McDermid / Reuters
Most reports of sexual abuse at New York City's Rikers Island prison were never passed on to the police, the city's public advocate says. The prison reported only two incidents out of the 116 complaints, and none of the 28 accusations of rape.

The city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH), which oversees health care at Rikers, registered 116 reports of sexual abuse in 2014, including 28 separate allegations of rape. They were passed on to the Department of Corrections (DOC), but only two misdemeanor assaults were reported to the NY Police Department, according to court documents filed Monday by the New York City Public Advocate Letitia James.

"Our affidavit proves the disturbing prevalence of sexual harassment and abuse allegations on Rikers Island," James said in a statement following her filing. "I have petitioned the Board of Correction to begin formal rule-making to better protect inmates from sexual violence, and they must start tackling this problem with the urgency it deserves."

Attention

Jerusalem chaos is a warning of things to come

Al Aqsa Mosque
© Intifada
Among Palestinians and Israelis, the recent upsurge in violence has been variously described as the children's, lone-wolf, Jerusalem and smartphone intifadas. Each describes a distinguishing feature of this round of clashes.

The steady erosion of Fatah and Hamas' authority during the post-Oslo years, as the Palestinian factions proved incapable of protecting their people from the structural violence of the occupation, has driven Palestine's orphaned children to the streets, armed with stones.

The growing hopelessness and sense of abandonment have led a few so-called "lone wolves" to vent their fury on Israelis with improvised weapons such as knives, screwdrivers and cars. These attacks have attracted the most publicity, becoming the equivalent of the second intifada's suicide bomber. But they serve chiefly as a barometer of Palestinian despair.

Jerusalem is the centre of events, with the Palestinians' only unifying symbol, Al Aqsa mosque, at its heart. For Palestinians, the incremental takeover of the compound - and the West's indifference - is like watching the mass dispossession of 1948 play out again in slow motion.

In addition, Jerusalem is the main fault line. Israel's illegal annexation of the city has left Palestinians there in an extreme form of isolation - indefinitely stateless and supremely vulnerable.

Handcuffs

Former DEA agent receives prison sentence for extortion and money laundering

DEA, drug trafficking DEA
A former US Drug Enforcement Administration agent was sentenced to 6.5 years in prison for extortion and money laundering in connection with the Silk Road investigation.

On top of his jail time, Carl Force was ordered to pay $340,000 in restitution and to serve an additional three years of supervised release.

Force, 46, pleaded guilty in July in federal court in San Francisco.

He is one of two federal agents so far who have been charged with crimes in connection with their roles in investigating Silk Road. Force had served as a DEA agent for 15 years.

Shaun Bridges, a special agent with the Secret Service, obtained access to a Silk Road website administrator account just before a huge theft of Bitcoin from the website.

In August, Bridges pleaded guilty to taking more than $800,000 of electronic Bitcoin currency while investigating Silk Road.

Comment:


Arrow Down

Debtor's prisons: Mississippi city accused of running illegal revenue generation scheme

Debtors' Prisons
© American TalleyrandDebtors' Prisons.
Poor people are being illegally arrested and jailed in Biloxi, Mississippi, because they cannot afford to pay court fines and fees sought by the city to generate revenue, the American Civil Liberties Union said in a federal lawsuit filed on Wednesday.

The group said the Gulf Coast city known for its casinos and white-sand beaches locks up hundreds of indigent debtors each year for days or weeks at a time without access to a court hearing or lawyer, a violation of their constitutional rights.

"People are being jailed because they're poor," said Nusrat Choudhury, an attorney with the ACLU's Racial Justice Program. "There's no chance for them to explain that their inability to pay is because of poverty."

So-called debtors' prisons across the country have been targeted by lawsuits in recent years. Organizations including the ACLU and the Southern Poverty Law Center say their investigations have shown cities and towns are increasingly trying to raise money by collecting unpaid court fees imposed in traffic and other misdemeanor cases.

Comment: Despite debtor's prisons being illegal in the US since 1833, the poor continue to be preyed on by the American injustice system.


Apple Green

McDonald's turning teachers into profit centers promoting unhealthy fast food

mcteachers, mcdonadls
There are times when a corporation comes up with a marketing strategy that is so aggressive you just have to ask "why?"

Unsurprisingly, this is exactly what McDonald's has done with its recent McTeacher's Program, a clever act of marketing that involves enlisting schoolteachers as employees and walking billboards placed in school buildings.

McTeachers "employs" volunteer teachers during evening hours as a fundraising event. Students, parents, and other supporters are urged to patronize McDonald's on the evenings their teacher is "working" so everyone can see their teachers serve up "hamburgers, shakes, and fries."

McDonald's USA claims that schools typically receive between 10 and 20 percent of proceeds toward their fundraiser. Some of it depends on the participating franchises.

This program, however, has drawn the ire of a number of parents, education, and teachers organizations as well as corporate and education watchdog groups. These groups agree that the program essentially turns teachers into walking billboards for McDonald's and that it promotes an unhealthy diet and consumption of fast food.

Comment: These are tactics of dying corporate dinosaur. McDonald's franchises are awash in red ink and the company has plans to close 700 locations. As the company itself stated, and like most corporate giants, profit is their only concern - the health and well-being of future generations is of no concern to these psychopaths.


Sheriff

No charges against cop accused of helping his brother dispose of his girlfriend's body

Crystal Rogers, Brooks Houck and son
© facebookCrystal Rogers, Brooks Houck and son
Police Officer Nick Houck is under investigation for helping his brother dispose of his murdered girlfriend's body, and investigators say that forensic evidence ties him to the cover-up. Also, both Nick and his brother Brooks claim that they have temporary amnesia and can't remember anything that happened during the time of the murder.

According to investigators, traces of blood were found on a blanket and trunk of a Bardstown Police cruiser that was registered to Nick Houck.

Detectives say that Brooks Houck confronted his girlfriend about an affair she was having and ended up killing her, then called his cop brother to help him get rid of the evidence.

During an interview after the murder, detectives told Nick about the case that they had against him.

Snakes in Suits

Judge under fire for forcing defendants to give blood or go to jail

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© David Mercado / Reuters
A rural Alabama judge is under fire for offering minor crime offenders the option of giving blood in lieu of paying monetary fines for their crimes, or going to jail - a choice the Southern Poverty Law Center has called unconstitutional.

The payment-due hearing at the Perry County Courthouse took place on September 17, when Judge Marvin Wiggins was to face hundreds of offenders owing fines for crimes ranging from drug possession to hunting after dark, according to the New York Times. The offenders were mailed notices to show up at the hearing, the Southern Poverty Law Center reported.

"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen," said Judge Wiggins, according to a recording of the hearing.

"For your consideration, there's a blood drive outside,"he said, according to audio obtained by the Southern Poverty Law Center. "If you don't have any money, go out there and give blood and bring in a receipt indicating you gave blood."

For anyone short of blood or money, Wiggins, an Alabama circuit judge since 1999, declared, "The sheriff has enough handcuffs."

Black Magic

New Jersey suspect in two-state, seven-person murder spree says devil told him 'just eat, eat, stop being so picky'

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© Lehigh Valley Live/courtesy photoTodd West is charged in three killings in the Lehigh Valley and four in New Jersey.
A man accused of killing seven people in New Jersey and Pennsylvania over a seven-week period told police he heard the devil's voice in his head, a detective testified Tuesday.

Todd West, 23, of Elizabeth, New Jersey, and two co-defendants were ordered to stand trial on homicide and robbery counts in connection with the July 5 shooting deaths of a man in Easton and a man and a woman in nearby Allentown.

The victims were chosen at random, Lehigh County First Assistant District Attorney Steven M. Luksa said.

Arrested a day after the shootings, West described for police how he spotted Kory Ketrow, 22, walking down the street in Easton shortly after 3 a.m. July 5 and directed his co-defendant to pull their SUV over. He said he climbed out, said "See ya later," and emptied his six-shot, .38-caliber revolver at Ketrow, testified Allentown police Detective John Brixius, who interviewed West.

West allegedly told police he didn't think he had killed Ketrow because he didn't see him "stiffen up." He also said he heard a voice in his head, Brixius testified. "The voice was telling him, 'Eat, eat, stop being picky, eat,'" the detective said West told him.