Society's ChildS


USA

Thousands of Americans are serving life sentences for nonviolent crimes

Prison
© Associated Press

A new investigation by the ACLU has found more than 3,000 people in this country who are serving life sentences without parole for nonviolent crimes, like drugs or theft. Unless something changes, these people will die in prison.

The ACLU's nationwide analysis turned up 3,278 people serving life without parole for nonviolent crimes across the nation. (Most of them are federal prisoners. Only nine individual states provided these statistics to the ACLU, so the real total could be higher.) They calculate that it will cost taxpayers nearly $1.8 billion to keep these people in jail until they die. The vast majority of the group - almost 80% - are in jail for nonviolent drug crimes. Of those, four out of five are victims of mandatory sentencing laws that left judges with no choice.

About two thirds of these prisoners are black, and another 15% are Latino.

Among the drug crimes that people cataloged in the ACLU report committed which sent them to prison for life without parole: possession of a single crack rock, possession of about an ounce of weed, possession of "a bottle cap containing a trace, unweighable amount of heroin," and "sharing several grams of LSD with Grateful Dead concertgoers."

I encourage you to read the full report, including the profiles of dozens of people who are locked in prison until death, and ask yourself if we should be proud to call this this American system of justice.

Attention

Court Judgment: Andrew Chambers is a threat to society

In the bright light of Veterans' Day, Americans across the country take the time to reflect on and be thankful for the sacrifice made by military members, especially those who've served in combat. Yet, there is a severe lack of attention paid to many of the most troubled veterans who either don't know where to ask for help, or - if they do - are turned away.

Such is the case of Andrew Chambers, whose TEDx talk is going viral after Veterans' Day, and who knew he needed help but was sent away by a beleaguered Department of Veterans Affairs.


Heart - Black

Parents Outraged: Battle Creek school forbids students from memorializing 12-year-old

Caitlyn Jackson
© Unknown
Parents in Battle Creek, Mich., were shocked to learn that students were forbidden from honoring their 12-year-old classmate , who died of cancer on Saturday after a four-year battle with leukemia.

Students wore T-shirts with Caitlyn's name on them to Lakeview Middle School on Monday, but grief counselors told them they had to cover up because of a school policy that forbids student memorials, WWMT reported.

Students had to turn their shirts inside out or put tape over Caitlyn's name.

Eye 2

Third person reports being anally violated by New Mexico police

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© KOB-TV screenshotACLU lawyer Laura Schaur Ives
A third New Mexico resident is claiming that she was physically abused by police and medical staff who exceeded their authority to search for drugs she never had.

The woman's attorney came forward with her story just a few days after a local news channel reported similar stories involving New Mexico police forcing two suspects to undergo invasive surgery to prove they weren't carrying drugs. Police used expired and nonexistent warrants to justify the improper and unethical searches, according to KOB-TV 4.

The unnamed woman is being represented by Laura Schaur Ives of the New Mexico chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. Schaur told KOB-TV 4 that her client was stopped by police in El Paso, Texas. After a drug-sniffing dog indicated that she might have drugs, police strip-searched her and then allegedly assault her by sticking their fingers into her vagina.

When the on-site search failed to turn up any drugs, police took the woman to University Medical Center of El Paso. There, she was given an X-ray, cat scan and full body search. Medical personnel probed her anus and vagina, according to Schaur.

"They then did a cavity search and they probed her vagina and her anus, they described in the medical records as bi-manual - two-handed," she said in a statement. "Again, they found nothing."

Shopping Bag

U.S. Postal Service to deliver Amazon packages on Sundays

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© AFP Photo
The US Postal Service has entered a partnership with online retail giant Amazon to deliver its packages on Sundays for the first time.

The first deliveries for Amazon "Prime" customers will be in large US metropolitan areas starting in New York and Los Angeles, Amazon said in a statement early Monday.

Amazon "Prime" members pay an annual $75 service fee in exchange for low-cost or free shipping.

Sunday deliveries will expand "to a large portion of the US population in 2014″ including Dallas, Houston, New Orleans and Phoenix, the statement read.

The move is welcome for the government-run Postal Service, which has been hemorrhaging money for years.

Magnet

Hundreds flocking to 'atheist megachurch' gatherings across U.S.

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Thousands of American nonbelievers are gathering for weekly Sunday Assembly meetings that both supporters and detractors call "atheist megachurches."

The founders of the movement, which started earlier this year in Great Britain, are introducing the gatherings in cities across the U.S. as part of the group's "40 Dates, 40 Nights" tour.

British comedians Sanderson Jones and Pippa Evans, who founded the Sunday Assembly to gather like-minded nonbelievers in a congregation-like setting, say their movement is not intended to be a joke.

The meetings have been drawing several hundred men, women and children for music performances, inspirational talks and quiet reflection in cities such as San Diego, Nashville and New York.

Light Saber

People power! France to postpone contested new truck tax by six months - tax revolt spreads

French president Francois Hollande
© Reuters/Alain Jocard/PoolFrench president Francois Hollande delivers his speech as he launches World War I commemorations at the Elysee Palace in Paris, November 7, 2013.
The French government plans to defer by six months the introduction of a new levy on heavy trucks at the heart of a gradually spreading anti-tax revolt, Le Monde newspaper reported on Saturday.

President Francois Hollande's government is struggling to rein in the public deficit, but it has had to suspend the January 1 application of the tax, without bowing to protesters' demands for it to be scrapped altogether.

Voicing concerns about the government's ability to cut the deficit in the face of violent protests, Standard & Poor's cut France's credit rating on Friday to AA from AA+.

Le Monde reported that the government intended to wait to apply the tax, which is supposed to bring in more than one billion euros (£830.2 million) per year, until July after municipal and EU elections in March and May, in which Hollande's Socialists risk big losses.

An official with Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault's office would not confirm the report, but said the tax had not been entirely scrapped.

Increasingly under pressure over France's high fiscal burden, the government already dropped a planned change in corporate tax unpopular with business and has ditched new charges on special savings products.

Heart - Black

Homeless man finds $850, turns it in and gets benefits cut for his honesty

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© AFP Photo
A homeless man who turned over $850 he found on a New Jersey street is a bit poorer for his honesty now, after the Hackensack Human Services Department cut his newly-granted Medicaid and housing benefits for failing to report new income.

James Brady, 59, a former news photographer, found an envelope with $850 in it in April, and turned it in to the Hackensack police, The Bergen Record reported. Brady became a minor celebrity after word spread of his good deed, with honors from the city council and media coverage shedding light on his plight.

After his story drew attention, Brady had begun to receive psychiatric help and medication for emotional trauma - a canceled business meeting at the World Trade Center on 9/11 left him reeling for years, The Record reported. He received housing and subsistence vouchers from the city, and is beginning to turn his life around.

Pistol

Family of kidnapped Louisiana woman Bethany Arceneaux kill her captor

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The family of a kidnapped woman in Duson, La., Bethany Arceneaux, took justice into their own hands Friday when they rescued Arceneaux from her captor, Scott Thomas, killing Thomas in the scuffle that ensued.

Arceneaux, 29, was kidnapped on Wednesday from a child-care center parking lot by Thomas, 29, the father of her son, reported The Advertiser. Their 2-year-old son was in her car at the time and was not harmed.

Arceneaux's family received a tip that she was being kept in an abandoned house nearby. As law enforcement had not yet acted, a half dozen family members assembled at the house and kicked down the door. They said they did not know what they would find.

They found Arceneaux, bloody but alive, and Thomas. In the confrontation between Arceneaux's family and Thomas, guns were fired and Thomas was fatally shot.

Arrow Down

Transatlantic trade deal is a full-frontal assault on democracy

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© Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty ImagesDavid Cameron with Barack Obama at a state dinner in Cameron's honour in 2012 at the White House.
Brussels has kept quiet about a treaty that would let rapacious companies subvert our laws, rights and national sovereignty

Remember that referendum about whether we should create a single market with the United States? You know, the one that asked whether corporations should have the power to strike down our laws? No, I don't either. Mind you, I spent 10 minutes looking for my watch the other day before I realised I was wearing it. Forgetting about the referendum is another sign of ageing. Because there must have been one, mustn't there? After all that agonising over whether or not we should stay in the European Union, the government wouldn't cede our sovereignty to some shadowy, undemocratic body without consulting us. Would it?

The purpose of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership is to remove the regulatory differences between the US and European nations. I mentioned it a couple of weeks ago. But I left out the most important issue: the remarkable ability it would grant big business to sue the living daylights out of governments which try to defend their citizens. It would allow a secretive panel of corporate lawyers to overrule the will of parliament and destroy our legal protections. Yet the defenders of our sovereignty say nothing.

The mechanism through which this is achieved is known as investor-state dispute settlement. It's already being used in many parts of the world to kill regulations protecting people and the living planet.