Society's ChildS


Stock Down

Heartbreaking: Study estimates over 100,000 UK children will be homeless this Christmas


RT
Mon, 02 Nov 2015 17:40 UTC
homeless child in shelter
© Jessica Rinaldi / Reuters
More than 100,000 vulnerable children in Britain will wake up homeless on Christmas Day, a leading charity has revealed.

The report by homelessness charity Shelter found the number of children who will be homeless on Christmas morning has risen by more than 15,000 on last year. This is equivalent to four youngsters in every UK school.

It also found the number of children living in temporary accommodation is at the highest level since 2008, and is predicted to hit 105,251 by the end of 2015.

Since 2010, the year Prime Minister David Cameron first took office, the number of families living in bed and breakfast accommodation has more than trebled to almost 2,700, the report found.

Comment: It's truly heartbreaking to see so many children suffering from economic disparity and homelessness while the rich just keep on getting richer and richer. A government run by people with consciences would tax the excessively wealthy and the corporations to ensure that no child went hungry or homeless, especially at Christmas. See more:

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Stormtrooper

New Jersey cops beat a man bloody over parking infraction, their department says 'nothing wrong'


Filming Cops
Sat, 31 Oct 2015 23:06 UTC
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Phillip A. DuBose and his wife, Cheryl, sued the city, the Bridgeton Police Department and six police officers after a Feb. 20, 2013 traffic stop that left DuBose with a concussion, two orbital fractures, eye injuries, and numerous abrasions, according to court documents cited by the Press of Atlantic City.
Bridgeton city has paid half a million dollars to settle a court case filed by a couple that suffered abuse at the hands of local police two years ago. However, the department says the officers involved acted responsibly and exactly as they should have, that they engaged in "no wrongful conduct."


Comment: That's a terrible contradiction. The department settled the lawsuit for half a million dollars, but still maintains these officers 'acted responsibly and exactly as they should have?' If that's so, why the payout?


On February 20, 2013 Cheryl DuBose was hoping that the staff at the Bridgeton police station would be helpful. She had gone there looking for her husband. A police officer named Lieutenant J. Branch seemed to have some information about Phillip DuBose, but his attitude was far from helpful.

He asked: "Wanna see your husband, Missy?" Then he showed her photograph of her husband, which had been taken only hours ago; in it Philip's face was bruised and he was bleeding profusely. For Cheryl this was a complete shock.

In addition to this, the officers at the station made it extremely difficult for her to post her husband's bail. They asked her numerous times for her bank book and other documents. Branch is not the only officer who showed insensitivity towards the DuBoses that night.

Comment: So not only did they brutally assault this man over a parking infraction, they harassed him and his wife afterward. Then the 'thin blue line' comes down hard and defends the officers actions? Time and time again we see police behaving like childhood bullies, committing crimes in the process, and getting away with it.

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Sheriff

Ex-cop on trial for raping a teenage girl while on duty, other officers reportedly watched

Cassandra Fairbanks
The Free Thought Project
Mon, 02 Nov 2015 22:41 UTC
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Erasmo Mata, Jr. pictured right, is accused of repeatedly sexually assaulting a child
Trial is set to begin December 1, in the case of former Pharr police officer Erasmo Mata, Jr., accused of repeated first-degree felony sexual assaults of a child. A federal civil lawsuit filed with Texas Southern District Court back in May accused Mata of assaulting the minor five times, on five separate occasions, all while on duty. The suit alleges that the attacks took place in abandoned houses around the city as other Pharr police officers stood by and watched.

The lawsuit also accused the department of engaging in a cover-up to protect the officers from criminal charges, as well as not conducting a rape kit or immediately testing the evidence.

The lawsuit was filed against the officer, the City of Pharr, the Pharr Police Department and the Pharr police chief. Claims against the City of Pharr and the Pharr Police Chief Ruben Villescas were dismissed, however the motion to dismiss Mata was denied. The Pharr Police Department did an internal investigation, but the family claims Chief Villescas told them not to hire an attorney and that he would personally take care of the allegations against the officer, Valley Central reports.


Comment: In typically psychopathic fashion, someone took the fall. The larger crime of covering-up the rape or indicting the higher-ups gets a pass, however. More evidence that the problem with the police is not 'a few bad apples'.


Comment: It's been clear to those of us paying attention to the police force in the US that there is a systemic problem. Officers who commit crimes are generally never charged. When they are, the rate of convictions is very low, and then their sentences are much lighter than the general population. One could argue that when an officer abuses his or her authority they should receive harsher sentences, but that doesn't seem to happen.

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Cross

Dirty laundry? Two senior Vatican officials arrested in new VatiLeaks scandal


RT
Mon, 02 Nov 2015 21:37 UTC
Vatican priests
© Alessandro Bianchi / Reuters
The Vatican capped a months-long investigation into internal leaks to the media by arresting two high-profile officials over the weekend, just days before the publication of a pair of books promising incendiary revelations about the Holy See.

"The leaking of confidential information and documents is a crime," said a communiqué from the Vatican, which has its own police force and legal system.

Comment: For more on the new Pope: "Washington's Pope"? Who is Pope Francis? Good guy or bad guy?

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Heart - Black

Dallas woman arrested for attempting to kill three children by feeding them ant poison


Star Tribune
Mon, 02 Nov 2015 13:35 UTC
Image
© Screenshot via FoxNews
A Dallas mother accused of forcing her 4-year-old son to drink ant poison after telling her three children that she planned to kill them and herself has been charged with attempted capital murder. Paw Eh, 31, was arrested Saturday. She remained in Dallas County jail on $500,000 bond on Monday. She did not have an attorney listed.

The 4-year-old child was being treated at a hospital, where his condition improved from critical to stable on Sunday. Dallas police did not have an update on his condition Monday. Police say Eh also tried, but failed, to force her 12-year-old daughter and a 7-year-old son to ingest the poison.

According to an arrest warrant affidavit, the 7-year-old boy told authorities: "My mom wants to kill us with poison powder that kills ants and stuff." That boy also told authorities that his mother had put ant poison in a spoon, added water and tried to force his brother to drink it. He said his brother didn't want to drink it and held his mouth closed so their mother slapped the 4-year-old on the cheek, causing him to cry. Eh then put the spoon in his mouth.

The 12-year-old girl told authorities that her mother had told them earlier in the day that she was going to kill them and herself, the affidavit says. Neighbor Nay Thaw, a friend of the family, told CBS 11, that Eh "treated her children well, when I met her."

Child Protective Services spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner said Eh did not have a history with the agency, and that all three of her children have been taken into CPS custody.
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Robot

Missouri community shuns sexual abuse victim as liar - even after 'good, admirable man' pleads guilty to raping her

Travis Gettys
Raw Story
Mon, 02 Nov 2015 11:57 UTC
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© Rawstory
A child sex abuse victim says she's been denied housing after accusing a "good man" of molesting her for years — and Missouri prosecutors are mystified that so many community members are supporting the admitted sex offender. Darren Paden was sentenced to 50 years in prison Friday after pleading guilty in August to two counts of first-degree statutory sodomy — but friends, family members, church elders and community leaders begged a judge to go easy on him.

Prosecutors said the 52-year-old Paden sexually abused the girl up to 300 times over a decade, beginning before she was 5 years old. His 28-year-old son, Anthony Paden, was also charged with sex abuse, although his case remains pending. But community members have turned their backs on the girl, who is now 18 years old and testified against her abuser in court, and rallied around Paden.

"There are certainly a few good people in this community who have offered support to this young victim," said Platte County Prosecuting Attorney Eric Zahnd. "It is shocking, however, that many continue to support a defendant whose guilt was never in doubt. If it takes a village to raise a child, what is a child to do when the village turns its back and supports a confessed child molester?"

Community members simply don't believe the girl, reported the Kansas City Star. "Only God, Darren and (the victim) know what truly happened," said Gene Blankenship, a trustee at the New Market Christian Church in Dearborn. "I feel Darren may have admitted to things he did not do after hours of interrogation and all the pressure to admit guilt."

Blankenship was among about 16 community members who sent letters to the court since September, praising Paden for his service in the Gulf War and a junior deacon at New Market Christian Church. "Darren is one of the most admirable people I know," wrote friend Adele Brightwell. "He holds fast to his morals." Others begged the judge for leniency, arguing that Paden had already suffered enough.


Comment: Shocking, indeed. That sort of 'moral' blindness to reality is what allows sexual predators to get away with what they are doing.

From Predators: Pedophiles, Rapists, and Other Sex Offenders, Who They Are, How They Operate, and How We Can Protect Ourselves and Our Children by Dr. Anna Salter:
"One molester, who himself was a minister, said: 'I considered church people easy to fool ... they have the trust that comes from being Christians ... They tend to be better folks all around. And they seem to want to believe in the good that exists in all people. And because of that, you can easily convince, with or without convincing words.'

In interviewing victims in the growing number of cases involving priests, I have been surprised - although I should not have been - by how deeply religious many of the victims' families were. I have never before grasped that it was the most religious families who were thrilled to have a priest take an interest in their children, who wanted their children to be altar boys, who could not believe that a priest would do anything so wrong.

The growing crisis in the Catholic Church just underlines the fact that offenders can recognize ideal settings for child molesters even if the rest of us can't. In truth, a deeply religious and trusting group of people, plus the requirement of celibacy (an ideal cover for any man who has no sexual interest in adults), plus a hierarchy that doesn't report complaints to the police and simply moves the offender on to new and fresh territory with new potential victims, is the ideal setting for pedophiles."

Comment: The reaction of the community truly defies all common sense and understanding. A classic example of the effects of ponerology on a microscopic level.

See also:

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Family

Building friendships: Great exchange rate has tourists flocking to Moscow

Alexander Vorobioff
Russian Insider
Mon, 02 Nov 2015 19:12 UTC
moscow tourists
In the first 9 months of 2015, Moscow has seen over two million tourists visit the city.

Because of a cheaper Ruble, a vacation in Moscow costs 1.5 times less than in Berlin, 2.3 times less than in London, and 3 times less than in Paris. The cost for two in a three star hotel in Moscow's center during New Year's (Russia's most important holiday) is presumed to be about 30 thousand Rubles. A similar accommodation in Berlin, long known for its low prices, will go for 46 thousand Rubles, in London for 69 thousand Rubles, and in Paris, a whopping 87 thousand Rubles!

Better prices are not the only reason why many tourists visit Moscow. Due to Russia's visa-free policies with Southeast Asian countries, the influx of tourists from this region has dramatically grown. Sergey Shpilko, Deputy Head of the city's Department of Multicultural Policy, Interregional Cooperation and Tourism, says tourism from South Korea, has grown by 47%. He adds "last year, because of a visa-free policy, 110 thousand Chinese tourists visited, this year the number is already 200 thousand." Thus, while the number of European and North American tourists slightly fell, the amount of Asian and Middle Eastern tourists has grown.

Moscow is also the most popular travel destination for Russian tourists followed by Saint-Petersburg and Sochi.

Comment: What better way to create healthy relationships between countries than visiting each other? Russia does well opening its doors to the world

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Red Flag

Despite dangers, 97% of American children under four have used mobile device


RT
Mon, 02 Nov 2015 19:22 UTC
Image
© Michael Kooren / Reuters
Say goodbye to the days of puzzles and outdoor play - children these days are being kept occupied by more sophisticated toys. New research has found that a staggering 97 percent of US children under the age of four use mobile devices, regardless of family income.

The research - published in the journal Pediatrics on Monday - studied 350 children in a low-income, minority community. The findings noted an "almost universal exposure" to mobile devices, indicating that such technological luxuries are not limited to financially well-off families. In fact, the parents' education and the child's gender and ethnicity did not play a role in whether a child owned a mobile device.

The child participants were between six months and four years of age. The older the children were, the more likely they were to have their own technology. By age four, about three-quarters had their own mobile device, and half had their own TV.


Comment: It is rather startling how many young children are using mobile devices. The effects of daily use aren't even completely known, but what is known is that frequent use can have wide-ranging health effects:

Ninety-seven percent were found to have used a mobile device, and about half frequently multi-tasked, using more than one device at the same time.

The study also found that 20 percent of one-year-olds have their own tablet computer, and that 28 percent of two-year-olds can navigate a mobile device without help.
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V

Anonymous plots next Nov. 5th Million Mask March in UK - world-wide demonstrations expected


RT
Mon, 02 Nov 2015 18:15 UTC
guy fawkes day protest UK
© Bernadett Szabo / ReutersProtesters hold up their Guy Fawkes masks on the Liberty Bridge during a demonstration by supporters of the Anonymous movement as part of the global "Million Mask March" protests, in Budapest, November 5, 2014.
Activist collective Anonymous have released details of the 2015 Million Mask March, which will see coordinated demonstrations in cities across the globe protesting against corruption, human rights abuses and censorship.

Following in the footsteps of previous marches, the worldwide demonstration will take place on November 5, coinciding with bonfire night in the UK.

This year's message is "building a better future through collective action," a statement from the group released on Monday reads.

Comment: For a more rounded view of Anonymous:

Ripe for Vectoring: The Darkness Corrupting Anonymous

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Quenelle - Golden

Quentin Tarantino is correct to stand with the victims of US police brutality

John Wight
RT
Sun, 01 Nov 2015 17:01 UTC
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© Eduardo Munoz Alvarez / AFPUS film director Quentin Tarantino (L) takes part in a march against police brutality called "Rise up October" on October 24, 2015, in New York
After taking a public stance in solidarity with the victims of lethal violence in the United States, Hollywood filmmaker Quentin Tarantino is learning that free speech in the land of the free comes at a price.

The movie director recently attended a public demonstration in New York to commemorate the victims of police killings in the US. He did so, he said, because he "stood on the side of the murdered."

Those are undoubtedly strong words, which predictably have met with a fierce reaction in the shape of politicians, chiefs of police, and commentators attacking him. Even more extreme has been the campaign launched by police unions across the country to boycott his movies - the latest of which, The Hateful Eight, is due for release in December.


Comment: Being anti-police brutality doesn't mean being anti-police! But the law enforcement individuals getting riled up here are so identified with their perceived right to abuse the public that they feel the need to lash out at the more-than-justified criticism.


Comment: You would think that there were at least some police and law enforcement organizations who are brave enough to come out in support of Tarantino and others' stance here. Where is the conscience and the bravery of these individuals - who must know that there is something very wrong with this picture? Perhaps it will be individuals like Tarantino who help make it safe to address this serious problem for what it is - to the extent that it is still possible in a ponerized Amerika. Big kudos to Quentin Tarantino for standing up to the pathocracy!

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