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Charges dropped for Texas man who shot cop 6 times after it was found to be in self-defense

Demontae Walker police shooting
Demontae Walker was facing a slew of charges earlier this year for shooting a San Antonio police officer. However, earlier this month, all those charges were dropped once the truth came out and the District Attorney found that Walker was justified in shooting officer Dezi Rios-who was the aggressor in the situation.

The tragic incident unfolded on May 29 as Walker brought his wife's cousin to work at a local gentlemen's club. According to Walker's attorney, Charles Adams, it all began over a fit of road rage.

"(Walker's) story was that a vehicle driving at a very high rate of speed, he estimated over 100 mph, cut him off while he was exiting the freeway to drop his wife's cousin off for work," Adams said. "He was forced to swerve back into the I-10 lane, not the exit lane, then come to an almost complete stop and then exit.

Comment: At least there was some justice done for this man and his family. But what punishment has this officer received for driving drunk, threatening these two with a loaded weapon, shooting a woman, paralyzing a man, and lying about it? Loss of his role as a physical trainer at the Police Academy and a 15-day suspension that's already over. At least now the city can see him for what he is - not a hero wounded in battle, but a coward and a bully.


Arrow Down

Justice for All? 73% of America's top universities don't guarantee fair hearings for students

Lady Justice statue
A new report asserts that among the top 53 universities in the country, as ranked by U.S. News & World Report, 73% do not guarantee students they will be presumed to be innocent until they are found guilty.

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) surveyed the universities, and found a shocking lack of respect for due process. Among their findings they found that almost half of the schools did not hold that fact-finders should be deemed impartial; 52.8% required that these fact-finders, who often act as the arbiters of the case at hand, be impartial.

Additionally, only 30.2% of the universities assured a hearing in which each party could witness the evidence presented by the opposing party. A whopping 47 of the 53 universities surveyed got a D or F grade from FIRE for at least one disciplinary policy; that meant they did not offer more than 4 of the 10 elements of a fair procedure that FIRE rated. FIRE added, "86.8% of rated universities receive a D or F for protecting the due process rights of students accused of sexual misconduct. Of the 104 policies rated at the 53 schools in the report, not a single policy receives an A grade."

Comment: Also see: It might be too late to save our universities


Heart - Black

Former model says she had a toxic relationship with Woody Allen starting when she was just 16

Woody Allen
© Getty Images
Former model Christina Engelhardt says in a new profile that she engaged in an eight-year relationship with Woody Allen that began in October 1976 when she was just 16 and the director was 41.

Engelhardt, then Babi Christina Engelhardt, told The Hollywood Reporter that Allen never asked her age, but that she told him she was still in high school. She would not turn 17, then the legal age of consent in New York, until December of that year.

In the piece, Engelhardt says that their relationship was consensual but complicated and she describes having little agency in the relationship.

Bizarro Earth

Amnesty International's damning report of violence by France's police on protesters, journalists and children

pepper spray gilet jaune yellow vests
© AFP
French authorities must exercise restraint when policing demonstrations expected on Saturday and avoid any repetition of the injuries caused by their extremely heavy-handed response to protests by the "gilets jaunes" and high school movements, said Amnesty International.

Police used rubber bullets, sting-ball grenades and tear gas against largely peaceful protesters who did not threaten public order and the organisation has documented numerous instances of excessive use of force by police.

"As the clouds of tear gas lift, a clearer picture has emerged which shows police have used excessive force against largely peaceful protesters, journalists and even children," said Rym Khadhraoui, Amnesty International's West Europe Researcher.

Comment: The evidence is damning and yet this report doesn't even cover the agent provocateurs (who seem to be present at every major demonstration), police mobbing and battering unarmed protesters or the crimes of the mainstream media outlets caught doctoring footage, but then, with Macron running the show, clearly his minions are taking their cue from their master.

See also: Man pepper-sprayed in face by Belgian police collapses, left by wayside

Also check out SOTT radio's:
yellow vest

A woman is sprayed with teargas by the riot police officer in Brussels as the French protest movement spread to neighbouring Belgium.



Yoda

Journalist wins FOIA appeal: Met Police must release communications between US & UK regarding WikiLeaks and Assange

Assange banner Ecuadorian embassy
© Agence France-Presse
A banner outside Ecuadorian Embassy, where WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been holed up for over eight years.
In a win for WikiLeaks, a journalist has won a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) appeal with the Met Police to defend press freedom and reveal the existence of communications, between UK & US authorities, about WikiLeaks editors.

Stefania Maurizi, a La Repubblica journalist and longtime media partner on WikiLeaks releases, has been pursuing various multi-jurisdictional FOIA requests about WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange over the past few years, and secured a victory against the Met at a first-tier Tribunal appeal.

"The victory in Stefania's case is important first step," WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Hrafnsson told RT, adding that the tribunal decision sets "an important example for journalists in FOIA cases."

Comment: Kudos to Ms. Maurizi for not giving up, and to La Repubblica for standing behind her.


Cards

Jordan B. Peterson's free speech fight: Author plans to ditch Patreon as censorship battle rages

jordan peterson
"12 Rules for Life" author Jordan B. Peterson is fed up with the questionable practices of tech giants when it comes to honoring the idea of free speech.

The recent decision by crowdfunding platform Patreon to remove popular YouTuber Carl Benjamin, aka Sargon of Akkad, may have been a free-speech tipping point for the clinical psychologist. Mr. Peterson and fellow pundit Dave Rubin of YouTube "The Rubin Report" announced plans to build a "better alternative" for intellectuals and content creators.

"We've been engaged in lengthy series of email exchanges with all of the people in our network, and no one is happy at all with what's been happening," Mr. Peterson said a joint video released Sunday. "We've been determining what our options are. We looked at Subscribe Star, but it looks like PayPal decided to cut funding out from them."

At issue is Patreon's decision to kill the account of Mr. Benjamin in early December after its staff was made aware of a guest appearance on a small YouTube channel 10 months ago.

Broom

Famous atheist Sam Harris deletes Patreon account in protest of its biased political bans

Sam Harris
On Sunday evening, famed atheist Sam Harris fired off a tweet announcing he would delete his Patreon account on Monday to protest Patreon banning several content creators from using their platform. Harris wrote:


Patreon has banned several personalities from the platform, including British YouTuber Carl Benjamin, better known as Sargon of Akkad, commentator James Allsup, and Milo Yiannopoulos. In July 2017, Patreon banned former Rebel Media personality Lauren Southern.

Comment: Deluded souls in the Silicon Valley blue bubble would be wise to remember that competition still exists. See also:


Binoculars

Ron Paul: Financial market correction could make economy 'worse than 1929'

1929 stock market crash
Former presidential candidate, Dr. Ron Paul says that the current market conditions are ripe for a correction of 50% and Wall Street is vulnerable to depression-like conditions in the next year. "It could be worse than 1929," Dr. Paul said recently in an interview.

Paul said Thursday on CNBC's "Futures Now that "Once this volatility shows that we're not going to resume the bull market, then people are going to rush for the exits." Paul added that "it could be worse than 1929." He was referencing the fateful day in October of 1929 when the stock market crashed, and the United States was flung into the Great Depression that lasted ten years. During that year, a worldwide depression was ignited because of the U.S.'s market crash. The stock market began hemorrhaging and after falling almost 90 percent, sent the U.S. economy crashing a burning.

And of course, no one believes it could happen again. But Dr. Paul is continuously warning against the media's constant optimism. As well-known Libertarian, Paul has been warning Wall Street that a massive market plunge is inevitable for years. He's currently projecting a 50 percent decline from current levels as his base case, citing the ongoing U.S.-China trade war as a growing risk factor. "I'm not optimistic that all of the sudden, you're going to eliminate the tariff problem. I think that's here to stay," he said. "Tariffs are taxes." And these tariffs are a direct tax on the American economy and consumer.

Stock Down

China and Japan continue slashing holdings of US debt

US debt
China and Japan, two of the largest non-U.S. holders of Treasuries, slashed their holdings of U.S. government debt in October, Treasury Department data showed on Monday, in line with the decline in global reserves.

China had $1.138 trillion in U.S. Treasuries in October, down from $1.151 trillion the previous month. The world's second-largest economy has cut its Treasury positions for five straight months, but remains the largest holder of U.S. Treasuries outside the United States.

"China's foreign exchange reserves fell during the month of October, perhaps as it was trying to defend its currency. They sell Treasuries to do that," said Gennadiy Goldberg, interest rates strategist at TD Securities in New York.

No Entry

Netanyahu's son Yair gets banned by Facebook for a day over anti-Muslim messages

Yair Netanyahu
© AP Photo / Uriel Sinai
The son of Israeli Prime Minister, Foreign Minister, Defense Minister, Immigration Minister and Health Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Yair, was briefly banned from Facebook after he shared a series of incendiary posts on the platform last week.

In one of the posts, he claimed that peace would not exist in Israel until all Muslims are gone.

Yair Netanyahu has, Al Jazeera noted, "faced criticism of being a grown man living in the prime minister's residence despite having no official role," causing controversy in his father's administration on multiple occasions.

Chief among those controversies, perhaps, was "strippergate," which centered around an audio recording of Yair's ride in a government vehicle as he was "drunkenly ping-ponging between strip clubs," according to Israel's oldest daily newspaper, Haaretz. One of Yair's friends joked that a government security guard would have to be killed if he quit his job because he overheard their conversation.