BREAKING NEWS: 2 Police Officers Shot During Ferguson Protest (UPDATED)

Posted on March 12, 2015 by Gene Howington

 Posted by Gene Howington

Huff Po reports:

Two police officers were shot outside the Ferguson Police Department just after midnight Thursday, police and eyewitnesses said. The shootings came during protests following the Ferguson police chief’s resignation on Wednesday afternoon.

In a press conference outside the hospital where the officers were being treated on Thursday morning, St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar said that a 32-year-old officer from suburban Webster Groves was shot in the face and a 41-year-old officer from St. Louis County was shot in the shoulder, according to the Associated Press. Belmar said the injuries were “very serious” but that both officers were conscious, and that he assumed they were targeted because they were police officers. Police had no one in custody in connection with the shooting.

The Guardian reports:

Sergeant Brian Schellman, a spokesman for St Louis County police, told the Guardian that both officers were being treated in hospital. “No update yet on condition,” said Schellman. The St Louis Post-Dispatch reported police sources saying both were expected to survive.

Belmar said the shots appeared to have been aimed at the police as they were fired “parallel with the ground” and did not appear to have ricocheted. “I would have to make an assumption that these shots were directed exactly at my police officers,” he said.

Several protesters at the scene said the shots appeared to have been fired from a hill behind a dwindling group of demonstrators who were celebrating the resignation of Ferguson police chief Thomas Jackson and were gathered across from the police department on the other side of South Florissant Road.

Tony Rice, a Ferguson resident and protester, said: “The shots came from up Tiffin Avenue” – an upwards-sloping street directly opposite the police department. DeRay Mckesson, a prominent leader of the Ferguson protest movement, agreed that the shots were fired from “the alley or street” behind where protesters stood.

“I’m 100% sure on that,” Rice told the Guardian. “Clearly no one shot a gun close to me.”

Yet, when asked to confirm that the shooter or shooters had not been among the protest, Belmar said: “I don’t know who did the shooting, to be honest with you right now. But somehow they were embedded in that group of folks.” The police chief said he had no details on descriptions of suspects or on the weapon or weapons used.

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Posted in Crime, Law Enforcement, Local Government, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology, United States | 26 Comments

Arkansas Horror Story, Part 2: Republican State Representative Who Gave Up Adopted Daughters to a Rapist Believed They Were “Possessed by Demons”

Posted on March 11, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro
State Rep. Justin Harris (R-Arkansas)

State Rep. Justin Harris
(R-Arkansas)

By Elaine Magliaro

On Friday, I posted a story about an Arkansas lawmaker who gave up his adopted six-year-old daughter to a man who raped the young girl. At a press conference late last week, State Representative Justin Harris told reporters that “he sent his two adopted daughters to live with another family, where one of them was later sexually abused, because he would have faced abandonment charges by the state.”

Benjamin Hardy (Arkansas Times) said that Harris was responding to the Arkansas Times’ report that had uncovered “Harris’ ‘rehoming’ of his children…” The state legislator said that the Department of Human Services (DHS) had “failed” him “when he told employees the girls were too difficult for the family to handle.” Harris said the DHS had threatened to  “charge him with abandonment”—which, he claimed—“could have cost him custody of his three biological sons.” Harris added that the DHS had “misled” him about “severe behavioral issues with the girls.” According to Harris, the children “suffered from reactive attachment disorder, a condition sometimes occurring among children with unstable backgrounds that results in severe emotional and social problems.”

While Harris is casting the blame on DHS “for the fallout related to his adoption of three young girls,” Hardy said that “sources familiar with the situation contradict his story and paint a troubling picture of the adoption process and the girls’ time in the Harris household.”

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Posted in Christianity, Countries, Crime, Media, Pedophillia, United States | Tagged , , , , , , | 16 Comments

Sometimes You Gotta Have Sympathy for the Police: Open Carry Gun Nut Triggers Lockdown at Michigan High School…Taunts Cops (VIDEOS)

Posted on March 10, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro

PolicePic - CopyBy Elaine Magliaro

Last week, a gun advocate triggered a brief school lockdown while he was demonstrating his open carry rights near Lamphere High School in Madison Heights, Michigan. According to Travis Gettys (Raw Story), police said that they had received “about a million calls” about the man, “who lives near the school and was carrying a rifle and holstered pistol.”

According to WXYZ in Detroit, police said that the man identified himself as an Open Carry advocate who was exercising his rights. It is reportedly legal in Michigan to carry “either a handgun in a holster or a long gun that is not pointed in a threatening way in public.”

Around 11:30 a.m. last Wednesday, police “spotted the man, who they recognized from previous encounters…” Gettys said that police officers called school administrators “when the man approached school property.” Administrators then “locked down the school for nearly an hour.”

Rita Lewis, the human resource director with the school district, said police “had their eye on him. He started in Royal Oak, and he walked quite a ways to Madison Heights and then walked back.”

Police question open carry advocate walking with rifle

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Posted in Constitutional Law, Countries, Law Enforcement, Media, Short Video, United States | Tagged , , , , , , | 7 Comments

From Governor Rick Scott’s “You-Can’t-Say-That Land”—Employees of Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection Were “Unofficially Banned” from Using the Terms “Climate Change” and “Global Warming” in Their Official Communications

Posted on March 9, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro
Governor Rick Scott of Florida

Governor Rick Scott of Florida

By Elaine Magliaro

Yesterday, the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting (FCIR) reported that officials of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) had “been ordered not to use the terms “climate change” or “global warming” in any official communications, emails, or reports…” That’s what FCIR had learned from “former DEP employees, consultants, volunteers and records that it had obtained.”FloridaSeal

Tristam Korten of FCIR said that the state policy “goes beyond semantics and has affected reports, educational efforts and public policy in a department that has about 3,200 employees and $1.4 billion budget.” Christopher Byrd, an attorney with the DEP’s Office of General Counsel in Tallahassee from 2008 to 2013, said, “We were told not to use the terms ‘climate change,’ ‘global warming’ or ‘sustainability.’ That message was communicated to me and my colleagues by our superiors in the Office of General Counsel.” Another former DEP employee, Kristina Trotta, said that a supervisor had told her not to use the terms “climate change” and “global warming” during a 2014 staff meeting. Trotta added, “We were told that we were not allowed to discuss anything that was not a true fact.”

Terence McCoy (Washington Post), who reported on the story, wrote: “It is one of the profound ironies of climate change that a state besieged by its effects — where coastal islands face existential threats and daily floods render major thoroughfares difficult to navigate — is also populated by powerful politicians who express deep suspicion of the relevant science.” McCoy said that Governor Rick “Scott’s aversion to discussions of man-made climate change has been brought to bear on a department charged with protecting a state that already exhibits many of the changes scientists predict will overtake other coastal regions.”

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Posted in Climate Change Deniers, Climatology, Conservatives, Countries, Democracy, Denialism, Education, Free Speech, Government, Government Propaganda, Political Science, Politics, Propaganda, States, United States | Tagged , , , , , , | 41 Comments

Someone…Anyone…Please Tell the Dumbass Senator with the Snowball That the Route for the Iditarod Race Had to Be Changed Because of Alaska’s Warm Winter

Posted on March 8, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro
Sen. James Inhofe R-Oklahoma

Sen. James Inhofe
R-Oklahoma

By Elaine Magliaro

Over a week ago, I posted a column titled Dumbass Politician from Oklahoma Throws Snowball on the Senate Floor in an Effort to Prove That Climate Change Is a Hoax. That dumbass senator happens to be James Inhofe (R-Oklahoma), a well-known climate change denier who officially took the gavel as chairman of the Senate’s Environment Committee in late January.

Maybe you remember the following video that I posted with that column:

Inhofe, “the biggest and loudest climate change denier in Congress,” thought he was SOOOO clever bringing a snowball into the Senate chamber and tossing it to someone while he was speaking on the floor. You see, a cold spell had hit Washington, D.C.–so, of course, that disproves global warming. Inhofe thought he’d take advantage of the untypical weather by attempting to make the point that climate change ain’t a happenin’ on the third rock from the sun because it was freezy cold in the District of Columbia.

Steve Mirky (Scientific American) said, “But his facile argument, that it’s cold enough for snow to exist in Washington, D.C., therefore climate change is a hoax, was rebutted in the same venue by Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse.” And Whitehouse did an excellent job of rebutting the dumbass senator!

I hope that someone…anyone…will inform the climate change skeptic that it’s so warm in the state of Alaska this winter that the route for the famous Iditarod Race had to be moved farther north.

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Posted in Climate Change Deniers, Climatology, Conservatives, Countries, Government, Government Propaganda, Politics, Propaganda, Society, United States | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 23 Comments

ProPublica Journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones Explains Why “Black America Fears the Police”

Posted on March 8, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro
Nikole Hannah-Jones

Nikole Hannah-Jones

By Elaine Magliaro

Nikole Hannah-Jones is an award-winning journalist who joined ProPublica in 2011. Her writings focus on segregation and discrimination in housing and schools. Previously, she covered governmental issues, the census, and race and ethnicity at The Oregonian. Hannah-Jones won the Society of Professional Journalists Pacific Northwest Excellence in Journalism Award three times and the Gannett Foundation Award for Innovation in Watchdog Journalism.

Last week, Hannah-Jones published an article titled Yes, Black America Fears the Police. Here’s Why. (ProPublica & Politico). She opens her article with a personal tale about an excursion that she took with her family and friends to Long Island to celebrate the Fourth of July last summer. While she and her family were walking along the shore, “a young man extended his arm and fired off multiple shots along the busy street running parallel to the boardwalk.”

According to Hannah-Jones, the gunshots stopped as quickly as they had started…and the man then “disappeared between some buildings.” While she, her husband, and friends looked at each other in disbelief, the author of the article turned to check on Hunter, “a high school intern from Oregon who was staying with my family for a few weeks.” Hunter was talking to someone on her cellphone–and explaining that there had just been a shooting on the beach. Hannah-Jones said she couldn’t imagine whom her intern would have called at such a time…so she asked her “somewhat indignantly, if she couldn’t have waited until we got to safety before calling her mom.”

Hunter explained that she had called the police. Hannah-Jones said that she and her friends “locked eyes in stunned silence. Between the four adults, we hold six degrees. Three of us are journalists. And not one of us had thought to call the police. We had not even considered it.”

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Posted in Civil Liberties, Countries, Crime, Democracy, Equal Rights, Justice, Law Enforcement, Local Government, Racism, Society, United States | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

NEWSFLASH: Mayor of Ferguson Claims Scathing DOJ Report ‘Not Proof’ of Widespread Abuses

Posted on March 7, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro
James Knowles III Mayor of Ferguson

James Knowles III
Mayor of Ferguson

By Elaine Magliaro

Regarding the Justice Department’s investigation of Ferguson, Missouri, which found that “there was probable cause to believe the police and court routinely violate people’s civil rights” in that community: Ferguson Mayor James Knowles III is not convinced “that widespread problems exist” despite the “DOJ’s damning findings…”

During an interview on Friday, Knowles said that “city officials had a lot of work ahead examining the findings of the scathing, 102-page report.” The mayor added, “There are stories that have been told in that report … that are very concerning, and those things have to be addressed. What they’ve shown is that it has happened. Now, how often has that happened? I don’t know. Their assertion is it happens regularly. Based on what? I’m not sure yet.”

Knowles continued, “Do they have a statistic that tells me that they’ve examined every arrest that we’ve made for the past four years and that half, or all, or 10 percent, or 5 percent are unconstitutional or without cause? They do not have that. They have not examined at that level that I know of at this point.” Knowles said that he and other city officials would be “going through and examining those issues to make sure that there are not conclusions being based on anecdotal evidence.” Knowles “emphasized, though, that any civil rights violations were ‘unacceptable, and you need to write that down.’”

Jeremy Kohler (St. Louise Post-Dispatch) said that although the DOJ report “stated there was probable cause to believe the police and court routinely violate people’s civil rights,” Knowles said, “that’s not proof.” Then the mayor added that “there is probably another side to all of these stories.”

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Posted in Civil Law, Constitutional Law, Countries, Democracy, DOJ, Equal Rights, Government, Hypocrisy, Jurisprudence, Justice, Law Enforcement, Local Government, Missouri, Politics, Propaganda, Racism, Society, United States | Tagged , , , , | 29 Comments

“One Day When the Glory Comes”: The March from Selma Continues (VIDEO)

Posted on March 7, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro

Bloody_Sunday-officers_await_demonstratorsBy Elaine Magliaro

Fifty years ago today, Alabama State Troopers attacked voting-rights demonstrators on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. In commemoration of that historic event, I’m posting a video of the Academy-Award-Winning song Glory from the movie Selma. Glory was written by John Legend, Common and Che Smith. The video includes the lyrics to the song.

Unfortunately, the Supreme Court of the United States eviscerated the Voting Rights Act in 2013. Last year, Dana Liebelson (Mother Jones) wrote an article titled The Supreme Court Gutted the Voting Rights Act. Liebelson said when the Roberts court weakened the civil-rights-era law, the Chief Justice wrote that “our country has changed.” Liebelson said Roberts was wrong.

Liebelson:

When the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to overturn a key section of the Voting Rights Act last June, Justice Ruth Ginsburg warned that getting rid of the measure was like “throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet.” The 1965 law required that lawmakers in states with a history of discriminating against minority voters get federal permission before changing voting rules. Now that the Supreme Court has invalidated this requirement, GOP lawmakers across the United States are running buck wild with new voting restrictions.

Selma Movie – Glory Lyric Video

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Posted in Alabama, American History, Conservatives, Constitutional Law, Countries, Courts, Democracy, DOJ, Equal Rights, Free Speech, Government, History, Hypocrisy, Jurisprudence, Law Enforcement, Media, Movies, Music, Poetry, Political Science, Politics, Presidents, Propaganda, Racism, SCOTUS, Short Video, Society, States, United States | Tagged , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Arkansas Horror Story: Republican State Representative Gave Up His Adopted 6-Year-Old Daughter to Man Who Then Raped Her

Posted on March 6, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro
State Rep. Justin Harris (R-Arkansas)

State Rep. Justin Harris
(R-Arkansas)

By Elaine Magliaro

David Ferguson of Raw Story reported on a truly troubling tale out of Arkansas yesterday. Justin Harris, a Republican state representative, is said to be “facing serious scrutiny after he apparently ‘rehomed’ his adopted daughters to a household where one of the girls, age 6, was sexually abused by the father.” The father–a 38-year-old resident of Bella Vista named Eric Cameron Francis–was arrested by State Police on April 4, 2014, for the rape of the 6-year-old girl who was in his temporary care. The rape occurred in January of 2014, when Francis’s wife was out of state. Francis, who confessed to the sexual assault, is currently serving a 40-year sentence.

Rep. Harris and his wife Marsha run Growing God’s Kingdom Preschool–the Christian pre-school where Francis had been employed for a short period of time.

According to the Arkansas Times, Harris and his wife adopted the young girls through the state Department of Human Services in March 2013. The two girls ended up in the care of Francis who sexually abused the six-year-old just six months later. Harris said he was “devastated and sickened” by news of the abuse. Last April, the state lawmaker told the Arkansas Times that Francis had been in his employ for approximately three months, from November 2013 to January 2014, before being fired for poor work attendance. Harris’s adopted  daughters “were in Francis’ custody at the time, and it is apparent that Harris left the girls with Francis even after he fired him.”

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Posted in Christianity, Courts, Crime, Criminal Law, Law Enforcement, Pedophillia, United States | Tagged , , , | 20 Comments

How Much Do Black Lives Matter in Ferguson, Missouri?: Justice Department Investigation Finds Pattern of Racial Bias in Ferguson Police Department and Courts

Posted on March 4, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro

By Elaine Magliaro

Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson

Ferguson Police Chief
Tom Jackson

The Justice Department released two reports today. In one report, the DOJ explained why it does not plan to “pursue federal civil rights charges against Darren Wilson, the white police officer, who shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old, in Ferguson, Mo., last August.” The DOJ found that Officer Wilson’s actions did not “constitute a prosecutable violation” and there was no evidence upon which prosecutors could “rely to disprove Wilson’s stated subjective belief that he feared for his safety.”

According to Sara Horwitz (Washington Post), the second report released by the DOJ contained “seven racist e-mails written by Ferguson police and municipal court officials.”  Horowitz said that a “November 2008 e-mail, for instance, stated that President Obama could not be president for very long because ‘what black man holds a steady job for four years.'”

Horwitz:

Another e-mail described Obama as a chimpanzee. An e-mail from 2011 showed a photo of a bare chested group of dancing women apparently in Africa with the caption, “Michelle Obama’s High School Reunion.”

The Justice Department did not specifically identify who wrote the e-mails and to whom they were sent, but said they were written by police ad court supervisors who are currently employed by the city.

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Posted in Civil Liberties, Conservatives, Countries, Crime, Democracy, DOJ, Equal Rights, Government, Justice, Law Enforcement, Local Government, Media, Missouri, Political Science, Politics, Propaganda, Racism, Society, United States | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 164 Comments