Society's ChildS


War Whore

New plan to build trust: Chicago police to undergo de-escalation training, expand bodycam use

Chicago cops
© Jim Young / Reuters
Along with an $8 million plan to add more body cameras, Chicago Police Department Superintendent Eddie Johnson wants to teach officers to de-escalate conflicts. These moves come as the department is under federal investigation.

In a news conference Monday, Johnson told reporters that about 12,500 police officers will report to the Chicago Police Academy to receive a two-day training in de-escalation techniques. The training was developed with both policing experts as well as mental health experts.

Johnson hopes that this announcement will begin to rebuild the department's relationship with the community, telling the press, "That's how we build trust."

"By letting the public know we are doing everything we can to resolve conflicts peacefully," he added.

Comment: See also:


Bomb

Ahmad Rahami: Suspect in Chelsea bomb attack taken into custody

Ahmad Khan Rahami
© FBI / ReutersAn image of Ahmad Khan Rahami, who is wanted for questioning in connection with an explosion in New York City, is seen in a a poster released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on September 19, 2016.
Police in Linden, New Jersey have arrested Ahmad Khan Rahami, named as the suspect in the multiple explosions in New Jersey and New York over the weekend. Though no one was killed, police are treating the blasts as possible terrorism.

Rahami was identified in an unusual alert sent to the general public via mobile devices on Monday morning. The "Be on the lookout" (BOLO) notice described him as 5'6" tall, driving a 2003 blue Honda Civic with New Jersey license plates. It also identified him as a naturalized US citizen, born in Afghanistan in 1988.

Authorities have "directly linked" Rahami to the Saturday evening blast in the Lower Manhattan neighborhood of Chelsea, as well as a Saturday morning explosion at Seaside Park, New Jersey, minutes before the start of a Marine Corps charity race.

He was also linked to the Sunday evening blast at the Elizabeth, NJ train station. The FBI declined to disclose the nature of the connection, citing an ongoing investigation.

Comment: See also: SOTT News Snapshot: September 19 edition - First Syrians, now Afghans - Americans bomb Afghan police - while terror distracts America


Bulb

British intelligence agencies setting up anti-slavery taskforce

refugees
© Giorgos Moutafis / ReutersRefugees and migrants jump off a boat as they arrive on the Greek island of Lesbos, November 26, 2015
British intelligence agencies are set to join the fight against modern slavery and human trafficking for the first time, Theresa May announced at the UN General Assembly in New York as she urged world leaders to band together to "rid the world of this evil."

The heads of MI5, MI6 and GCHQ are setting up a new anti-slavery taskforce, which will begin work next month, May said on Monday night in New York.

Both MI6 and GCHQ will be given additional resources to disrupt networks working in countries most involved in the slave trade, such as Albania, Nigeria and Vietnam. Meanwhile, MI5 will work with police within the UK to facilitate evidence gathering and prosecutions against people smugglers and those who benefit from the trade.

"We owe it to the innocent men, women and children who are being tricked into a life of hard labor and abuse to rid our world of this evil," May said.

Comment: One wonders what took so long. Modern slavery didn't exactly just appear in the UK due to the refugee crisis:


Piggy Bank

Scammers hit 'every 15 seconds' in Britain as financial fraud soars

ATM machine
© Bogdan Cristel / Reuters
A financial scam takes place every 15 seconds across Britain, according to Financial Fraud Action (FFA), which says fraudsters are increasingly developing sophisticated tactics to trick people out of their money.

FFA says there were more than 1 million cases of card, check, phone or online fraud recorded from January to June. That is a 53 percent rise on the same period last year.

Scammers are directly targeting customers through email deception, known as phishing, and phone and text-based scams, known as vishing and smishing.

Many are pretending to be from legitimate bodies such as banks, utility companies or customs. Other fraudsters are hacking into email accounts and then posing as the builder, solicitor or tradesperson that the consumer has legitimately employed.

Attention

Masked intruder with history of stirring up commotion, threatens Utah elementary school with bomb

bomb threat utah elementary
A masked man ordered children be evacuated at Eagle Valley Elementary School in Eagle Mountain, Utah, so that "no one will get hurt." The threat prompted bomb squad and sniper-armed police to the scene, where evacuations took place.

The suspect is in custody, the Utah County Sheriff's Department told KSTU.

All children are off the school premises, Assistant to the Superintendent of the Alpine School District Kimberly Bird told KSTU.

Bird told the local Fox affiliate that a man wearing a mask entered the school office shortly after 2:00pm, warning, "Evacuate the kids and no one will get hurt."

The suspect was photographed wearing a flowing, bright green outfit with a white head covering.

Wine n Glass

Jewish New Year gift gaffe: US embassy sends Israeli West Bank wine to NGOs opposed to settlements

wine glass
© Stefano Rellandini / Reuters
Members of Peace Now, a group opposed to Israeli settlements in the West Bank, had to do a double take when they opened up a gift basket from the US embassy in Tel Aviv, sent ahead of the Jewish New Year. There was a bottle of wine... made in a West Bank settlement.

The wine was a kosher Cabernet Sauvignon from the Zion Winery, in the West Bank settlement of Mishor Adumim, east of Jerusalem. The gift was placed in the basket by a third party vendor from whom the embassy purchased the pre-wrapped presents, a US source told the Jerusalem Post.

The baskets were sent to several Israeli organizations ahead of the Rosh Hashanah Jewish New Year, which falls on October 2, but were not checked before distribution.

"We would not have included the wine had we known that it was from the settlements," US embassy spokeswoman Valerie O'Brien told the newspaper.

"We strongly oppose boycotts targeting the State of Israel, but maintain our long-standing policy that settlements are illegitimate and harmful to the prospects for peace and to Israel's long-term security," she added.

Snakes in Suits

Dodging responsibility: Michigan denies Flint right to sue state over lead contamination

Flint Mayor Karen Weaver
© Alex Wong / Getty / AFPFlint, Michigan Mayor Karen Weaver
A sneaky move by Michigan removed Flint's ability to hold state officials accountable for actions resulting in the city's water supply being laced with lead. The new policy would require the state's permission to be sued, which is unlikely.

Mere days after receiving notice from Mayor Karen Weaver about her possible intention to sue Michigan on behalf of the city of Flint, Michigan changed the rules. While Weaver did not have plans to sue the state, she filed her intent to sue so that the door could be open.

However, the state-appointed Receivership Transition Advisory Board still controls part of the city's policies. With all of the five members on the board appointed by Michigan Governor Rick Synder (R), the board quickly slammed the door on the lawsuit by requiring their approval for any lawsuits, according to the Detroit Free Press.

Comment: Michigan state officials lied about lead in Flint's water - knowingly poisoning countless children


Stock Down

Crude prices continue decline upon concerns of global oversupply

oil prices falling graphic
Crude prices continued to fall on Tuesday as Venezuela announced global supply needs to be cut 10 percent to meet demand.

"Global production is at 94 million barrels per day (bpd), of which we need to go down 9 million barrels per day to sustain the level of consumption," Venezuela's Oil Minister Eulogio Del Pino said in an interview with state oil company PDVSA. Del Pino is also the company's president.

Oil prices fell half-a-percent on Tuesday on renewed concerns over global oversupply. The North Sea Brent benchmark crude slipped to $45.67 per barrel and US WTI slid to $43.07, as of 9:00am GMT.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia keeps upping production. The kingdom pumped 10.6 million barrels per day in July, up 120,000 bpd from the previous month. There's no official data on Saudi production in August, but Reuters reports it's expected to fall slightly.

Pirates

Employees, customers warned of Wells Fargo fraudulent bank accounts years ago - Feds blew it off

Wells Fargo bank fraud
© Shannon Stapleton / Reuters
Calling into question why Wells Fargo was only recently fined $185 million for fraudulently opening more than 2 million accounts, the US Senate is now hearing reports that employees and customers blew the whistle on the Wall Street bank's illegal activity several years ago.

After settling with regulators for $185 million over signing up its customers for more than 2 million accounts without their knowledge and subsequently charging them fees, Wells Fargo became the focus of a Senate Banking Committee hearing on Capitol Hill on Tuesday.

White-collar criminologist William Black told the Real News that the hard work exposing the bank's practices was "done by the customers, by the employees and by Los Angeles County, that bought the suit in 2015, building on these whistleblowers."

"You see almost no credit for that, in the coverage," said Black, associate professor of economics and law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. "Instead these federal agencies held absolutely not a single individual accountable, there were no admissions, there was absolutely no admissions in the settlement agreement. So this settlement agreement, principally negotiated by the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB) is disgustingly weak."

Comment: Notice that the FBI and the regulators were very happy to go after small community banks. The big fish like JP Morgan, Citibank, or Goldman Sachs get off with a wrist slap if they are prosecuted at all.


Stop

Indian woman stabbed 22 times in middle of New Delhi street, no one helps

New Delhi skyline
© Flickr/ Ben Sutherland
The shocking incident occurred in broad daylight and was caught on security cameras.

A young woman was stabbed 22 times, resulting in her death in the streets by her older stalker. The shocking incident raises questions about the safety of women in Delhi and what steps the government is taking to protect them.

The suspected murderer, Surendar Singh, was reported to have been harassing the victim, Karuna, 21, for some time and was enraged after seeing a picture of the girl with another boy. "Karuna aged 21 years was stabbed by Surendar Singh, age 34. Deceased was a teacher at Novel Reaches School. He claims that he was in affair with this girl and today he saw some compromising pics sent by girl to another boy and that made him angry," reads a statement issued by the police.

The most appalling part of the crime is that no onlooker dared to come to the help of the victim, letting her die on the streets. Delhi is notorious for crimes against women and incidents of harassment and rape are not uncommon.