Society's ChildS


Red Flag

Corrupt to the core: Crimes in Kiev solved in only 1 out of 10 cases - cops protecting crimes of fascist Azov battalion


RT
Sun, 20 Mar 2016 16:16 UTC
ukraine explosion
© ReutersPolice and forensic experts work at the site of a car explosion in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv
Crime rates have risen in Ukraine while law enforcement's ability to investigate them has dropped, according to the country's first deputy prosecutor general. In the capital Kiev only one in ten reported crimes leads to a court trial.

Overall in Ukraine crime detection rate has dropped to about 20 percent, Deputy Prosecutor General Yuri Sevruk said in an interview on Saturday with TV channel 112. He voiced the numbers to disprove speculation that the situation was even worse, as some experts in Ukraine claim as few as three or five percent of crimes were solved.

"The crime rates have risen over the past five months and the rise was gradual, while crime detection rates have fallen. This is especially true for crimes against property - burglaries, robberies, car thefts," he said.

Sevruk added that the drop in performance was caused partly by ongoing reforms disrupting the police force, which involved evaluating all serving officers for their fitness to serve in their positions.
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Vader

Navy Vet on hunger strike after Kansas CPS kidnaps his kids, hospitalizes his 13yo son and forcibly medicates him

Matt Agorist
The Free Thought Project
Mon, 21 Mar 2016 15:53 UTC

Comment: The state of Kansas is a complete joke. Not only has their education system been taken apart by Gov. Brownback and his regime, but they're giving tax breaks to the wealthiest in the state and raising taxes on the poor. Kansas has become a model for what it looks like when the Tea Party gets its way, and has control of both the executive and legislative branches of the government. They're also trying to change the rules regarding impeaching judges that would allow them to remove any judge who does their job, and protects the constitution against the continued insanity.


Schwab
Disabled Navy veteran Raymond Schwab moved to Colorado last year to free himself from addictions that grew out of the pharmaceuticals prescribed by the VA to treat his service-related physical and psychological injuries. Because Schwab is legally using medicinal cannabis in Colorado, officials in prohibitionist Kansas have abducted five of his children, ranging from 5 to 16 years of age.

In an email to the Free Thought Project, Schwab tells us that he has begun a hunger strike until his children are returned. The strike began Monday and, according to Schwab, will continue until he is reunited with his children.

In a letter to Kansas Governor Sam Brownback, Schwab writes:
Now, realizing Riley County Courts do not care about their oath of office, nor the Constitution or the law I will be on a hunger strike at the State Capitol until my children are returned, a Federal lawsuit or injunction is filed against you or those who have committed this crime are indicted. Some have said your State will not care, and they will let me starve to death. If that happens it will be on your doorstep, and my blood will be on your hands. Give me my children. "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." - Jesus- Ms. Brownback said recently that Kansas DCF and foster care should be a model for the nation. God help us all if that ever becomes a reality.
As Veterans for Medical Cannabis Access points out, medical cannabis is an effective treatment for veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), where other drugs fail. Veterans are successfully treating themselves despite the federal government's prohibition. The ransom demanded by the Kansas "child protection" bureaucracy is a promise that Schwab will refrain from using cannabis, and four months of "clean" urinalysis test results.

"They're basically using my kids as a pawn to take away freedoms I fought for," Schwab explained to the Denver Post. "It's a horrible position to put me in."

Last April, a child abuse investigation cleared Schwab of harming his children in any way. Yet a judge has ruled that the children will remain in state control until Schwab and his wife foreswear any further legal use of cannabis.
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Snakes in Suits

Microsoft addresses gender hiring issues by booking scantily clad 'schoolgirls' for St Patrick's Day party


RT
Sat, 19 Mar 2016 14:43 UTC
female dancers
© Jennifer Scheurle @Gaohmee / Twitter
Microsoft faces the glare of women everywhere after addressing its gender hiring issues in the worst way possible by booking scantily clad "Irish Catholic schoolgirls" for its St Patrick's Day party at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.

The company, which on its website states the aim of "recognizing and encouraging technical women," hired the dancers for an after-party attended by mostly male professionals from the gaming industry, which is also struggling with gender equity and misogyny problems.

Pictures and videos of the event, which had proceeded a "Women in Gaming Luncheon" organized by the tech giant, showed women wearing mini-skirts and crop tops dancing on podiums.

Comment: The Microsoft execs that approved of this are a bunch of misogynistic pigs.

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Cowboy Hat

Maryland police routinely use tasers in non-threatening situations and disregard safety guidelines


RT
Mon, 21 Mar 2016 04:23 UTC
taser gun pistola
© Reuters/Sebastien Nogier
Police officers in Maryland regularly used Tasers in "non-threatening situations" and disregarded safety guidelines, according to an investigation examining three years of Taser incidents in the state.

The Baltimore Sun created a database of every reported Taser use by police from 2012 to 2014 with information obtained through the Maryland Public Information Act, in the first-ever analysis of Taser use in Maryland.

Out of nearly 3,000 Taser uses over three years almost 60 percent of the people that police hit with Taser guns were described as "non compliant and non-threatening"; 64 percent of those hit were black men.

Only 20 percent of suspects who were tased were armed with a weapon and only 2 percent were in possession of a gun.

Comment: Cops in Maryland are not the only ones with a cavalier attitude toward the use of tasers. According to a recent report in The Guardian:
...many police departments are still not regulating the use of Tasers in accordance with nationally accepted standards. According to 29 guidebooks on ECWs obtained by the Guardian from police departments where a death has occurred after the weapon was deployed this year, an overwhelming majority of them flout key tenets of the expert advice:
  • Twenty police departments do not guide officers against more than three shocks in all but exceptional circumstances.
  • None of the 29 departments, according to their use of force guidelines, mandate use-of-force investigations into incidents where an ECW is deployed for more than 15 seconds.
  • Twenty-two departments do not advise against deploying ECWs if the sole justification is that the suspect is fleeing.
  • Twenty-five departments do not advise against using an ECW's "drive stun" mode, when the weapon is thrust directly into the skin to cause pain, as a compliance technique.
  • Thirteen departments do not explicitly restrict officers from deploying their ECWs if a suspect is already in handcuffs and does not pose an exceptional threat.
  • Eight departments do not even explicitly require officers to give a warning, when possible, before the ECW is deployed.


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Snakes in Suits

Flint is not an aberration: Government negligence and abuse in America is systemic

Janet Phelan
New Eastern Outlook
Sun, 20 Mar 2016 00:00 UTC
flint water pollution
If you wonder how the US could be supporting Turkey that is waging a veritable war on its civil Kurdish population, maybe you should take a look at the way people are being treated in America first. Back in the mid-twentieth century, the city of Flint, Michigan was a bustling industrial town. Home to General Motors car manufacturing plants, Flintonians enjoyed union wages with an average annual income higher than San Franciscans or Chicagoans.

When the General Motors plants began to close in the 1980s, a blue collar work force was left without the blue collar jobs. Unemployment soared. The plant jobs had attracted a largely black population and Flint, once a boom town, became a bust town. In 2011 a state of financial emergency was declared by Governor Rick Snyder. Out of 80,000 industrial jobs, Flint was reportedly left with only 8,000.

Lesson 1: Government disinterested and negligent

It was only after Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, an Iraqi immigrant and director of pediatric residency at a local hospital, made public her findings that the children of Flint were being poisoned with lead from drinking water that the government was forced to act. The results of her lead screening documented the profound level of lead in Flint children's systems and made Dr. Attisha an overnight global hero. Said Dr. Attisha in a recent interview, "....when we shared our results at our press conference we were attacked. They were like 'No, this is wrong, you are an unfortunate researcher, you're causing near hysteria, our numbers are not consistent with your numbers.'"

Comment: America it's time to confront our toxic legacy

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Stormtrooper

Man beaten and tasered violently by police "each cop wanted to rip a limb off of him"

Matt Agorist
Free Thought Project
Mon, 21 Mar 2016 13:17 UTC
cop beatings
Royal Oak police were caught on video on St. Patrick's Day outside of BlackFinn Ameripub in Michigan last week in a clear and cut case of excessive force.

The video was uploaded to Facebook over the weekend and has sparked controversy and a response from the Royal Oak police department. The man who took the video described the chaotic scene saying, "Looks like each cop wanted to rip a limb off of him!"

According to police, the 25-year-old man was allegedly involved in an altercation inside the pub.

"This individual was observed fighting with other patrons in the bar," Lt. Dave Clemens said.

Even if this man had been involved in an altercation inside the pub, when the video starts, he is standing there with his hands behind his back and not posing a threat or even resisting in any way. However, that does not keep him safe from the multiple cops who seemingly wanted to tear him in half.

Comment: The 25-year-old man who was arrested claimed he was never in a physical fight. "One witness said the man saw another man hit a woman inside the bar, and began arguing with him when bouncers intervened and tossed him out." So in other words the man stood up for a woman being hit by a man and the police response was to brutally beat the defender of the women. Good old American justice.

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Heart - Black

Profit above all: How Sunday stopped being a 'day of rest' for the American worker

Lydia DePillis
Washington Post
Thu, 17 Mar 2016 13:02 UTC
sunday shopping worker unions
© Gilbert R. Boucher II/Daily Herald/Associated PressPSometimes it's harder to come to work than other times.
Following the rest of the retail industry, Walmart gets rid of Sunday premium pay altogether.

This month, workers who have been with Walmart for at least five years received a one-time bump in their paychecks. A couple hundred extra dollars is usually welcome, but this time, it actually symbolizes a loss: No longer will those workers receive premium pay for their Sunday shifts, as the idea of compensating people for toiling on what some consider a day of rest fades from American business.

Walmart discontinued Sunday premium pay, which had been $1 extra per hour, for new hires back in 2011. Those who had continued to receive it will receive a lump sum equal to half the amount of Sunday pay they received last year, according to a company release in January outlining a handful of adjustments that Walmart explained were a way of "simplifying its pay structure" — and reducing the overall cost of increasing base wages to $10 an hour across the board.

That hasn't worked out so well for more experienced employees like eight-year Walmart veteran Nancy Reynolds, a 69-year-old cashier in Merritt Island, Fla., who works Thursday through Monday. Her base pay was already slightly above $10 an hour, so she didn't get much of a raise, and the loss of a few extra Sunday dollars a week will hurt. "The younger people, the ones who haven't been there that long, they got it, and I'm glad for them," Reynolds says. "But they did it at the expense of me and everybody who's been there a long time."

Comment: More down-grading of the worker from human being to replaceable drone. The corporate world's union-busting activities have made it easy to push the exploitation of their work forces. Various state governments are following suit.

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Quenelle

Much to Washington & EU's disappointment, sanctions still aren't starving Russia

Gilbert Doctorow
Russia Insider
Mon, 21 Mar 2016 04:54 UTC
Boy with Russia flag
© news.yahoo.comCrimea returns to Russia.
During my latest 10 day visit to St Petersburg, I have kept my eye on prices in the supermarkets, in the municipal food markets, and I have some conclusions to share as a follow-up to my first shopping basket survey published on these pages at the end of July 2015.

Statistics on inflation for 2015 started from a high annualized rate of 15% coming out of the EU sanctions and Russian counter-sanctions, namely the food embargo. Food had always occupied a heavy position in Russians' family budgets, partly because eating well is a core value which is relatively inelastic. Therefore, inflation in food prices due to the removal from the market of certain cheap imported products would exert a greater impact on official statistics than other lines in the budget.

At year's end, official inflation had been cut in half. This corresponds to a curtailment in spending on food generally to save money in a period of job uncertainty. This is what the supermarkets report in their lower sales volume and reduced margins. But those numbers need to be inspected more closely. Reduced spending also results from changes in the food basket towards domestic suppliers, which in turn have changed their offer and pricing in many areas.
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Snakes in Suits

What is the state of our Presidential candidates' mental health?

Barry Lando
Counterpunch
Fri, 18 Mar 2016 00:00 UTC
Trump disturbed
It's become normal for Americans to demand—and receive-a professional assessment of the physical health of the candidates for president—just as they expect updates on the medical state of the president himself. After all, there have been many infamous cases of presidents, from Franklin Roosevelt to Jack Kennedy, who secretly endured serious debilitating illnesses.

Thus, the current crop of presidential hopefuls has provided medical information—though not necessarily from the most objective sources. Hillary Clinton's doctor, for instance, declared her "fit to serve as president". Donald Trump's physician, opined that Trump's blood pressure and lab results were "astonishingly excellent", his "physical strength and stamina are extraordinary." He concluded, "If elected, Mr. Trump, I can state unequivocally, will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency."

But what about Trump's mental health?

Surely, we care if a candidate is mentally deranged. If we consider it reasonable that someone with severe psychiatric problems be prevented from purchasing a firearm, why go along with a system that might permit a similarly disturbed individual to gain control over the largest military arsenal the world has ever known?
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Airplane

Private plane slams into buildings in Brazil, killing 7 on board, injuring 1 on ground


RT
Sun, 20 Mar 2016 04:26 UTC
Brazil plane crash
© Walyson Alveslima/YouTube
A small private plane has slammed into two buildings in a northern suburb of Sao Paulo, killing seven people on board, and injuring one person on the ground, according to Brazil's emergency services.

The plane crashed at around 3:20pm local time (6:20pm GMT), shortly after taking off from Campo de Marte airport, authorities have announced. All six of the aircraft's passengers as well as the pilot were killed in the accident.

According to local fire department officials, only one person inside the buildings which had been struck by the aircraft was injured, while the rest were evacuated safely.

The seven seater CA-9 model plane belonged to the former CEO of a mining company named Vale, Roger Agnelli. According to Brazilian O Globo Newspaper, the businessman was killed on board the aircraft.

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