Society's ChildS


Handcuffs

The USA Bush & Obama Created: San Francisco's police union sues city for right to kill fleeing drivers, choke citizens

San Francisco Police Officers Association
© Jessica Christian/SF ExaminerThe main entrance of the San Francisco Police Officers Association.
San Francisco's police union sued the city last week over its approval of a new policy that bars officers from shooting at moving vehicles or using chokeholds on suspects.

Citing recent attacks in Nice, France, and Columbus, Ohio, where vehicles were used as weapons against civilians, the union says the new policy will hinder officers' ability to protect themselves and the public from killers behind the wheel.

The city currently faces a string of lawsuits over police killings, including the shooting death of 29-year-old Jessica Williams in May. Williams was shot dead by a police sergeant while attempting to flee in a stolen vehicle, according to the wrongful death suit filed by her family in October.

Williams' death prompted the resignation of former Police Chief Greg Suhr, who faced mounting pressure to step down after a series of fatal police shootings and two sets of scandals over officers exchanging racist text messages.

The city announced last week it had selected Bill Scott, a black deputy police chief from Los Angeles, to head the San Francisco Police Department starting in late January after months of searching for a new chief.

Candle

Hamas condemns viral video of Bahrain celebration with Jews and Muslims

Muslims Jews dancing viral video
© Today's Video / YouTube
Hamas condemned the king of Bahrain for hosting a menorah-lighting ceremony to mark the first day of Hanukkah, a Jewish national holiday. Video documenting the ceremony, showing Muslims and Jews dancing together, has gone viral.

Hamas, a political and militant group from Palestine, issued a statement condemning the king of Bahrain, Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, after he hosted a candle-lighting ceremony together with a group of American Jews. The video of the ceremony, showing Muslims and Jews dancing together, has gone viral on the web.

Last year was the first time that the king of Bahrain, the only Muslim-dominated country with a synagogue, officially marked the first day of Hanukkah. Bahrain had one of the smallest Jewish populations in the world, about 1,500 Jews in 1948, and most left after the creation of Israel in that year. Less than 50 Jews are said to reside in the country today.


Comment: ‌One of the issues facing the Middle East is that many Muslim countries have been co-opted by the West and Israel to stand by and even participate in the atrocities committed against Muslims. Bahrain's monarchy has been long been a part of this club. On the face of it, this video appears to show a sought-after human union between those who have struggled against one another. However, at the level of kings and the elite such struggles often do not exist, at least not in the same way experienced by the people. It is often their collusion that foists conflict and suffering upon the everyday person.

So Hamas's reaction is at least understandable on this level. But at the same time, they need to lighten up. They'd be better suited focusing on things that actually matter, instead of straining at gnats and doing no favors for their public image.


Dollars

Denmark: Unemployment benefits to ISIS members in Syria; sends woman who fought against ISIS to prison

Danish ISIS member
© TwitterDane who joined ISIS in Syria (guy on the right), collects unemployment.
Denmark has discovered that dozens of its citizens fighting for ISIS have continued to receive cash benefits. According to local media the government somehow expects terrorists to pay the improperly distributed funds back. At least 36 people who are known by authorities to have left Denmark to allegedly to join the ranks of ISIS continued to receive welfare payments, according to the Ekstra Bladet newspaper.

Joanna Palani
© IBTimes UKDane Kurd fighter Joanna Palani jailed, fought ISIS.
Thirty-four alleged terrorists received cash benefits from municipal authorities, and two others from private but heavily state-subsidized funds. The newspaper obtained the figures from the Danish Employment Ministry through a freedom of information request.

The municipalities and the private funds demanded a repayment of the improperly distributed benefits from 29 of the alleged terrorists. The seven others have presumably been killed in action. It remains unclear, exactly how the organizations expect to get the money from terrorists back, who in total have received a hefty sum of 672,000 kroner (around $77,300).

Comment: The Danish Government: Lose track of citizens to ISIS who commit acts of terrorism, pay them benefits, admonish them for receiving it and then demand and expect repayment. Then, they send a brave woman who fights same terrorism to jail. Are they grossly incompetent or just Danishly daft?


Star of David

Israel: 19yo Palestinian student, shot 4 times, sentenced 16 years in prison and fined

Dwayyat
© Israeli PrisonIsraeli injustice to prevent rejection of occupation.
In another example of the lengthy sentencing practices especially targeting Palestinian youth and women in Jerusalem, Shorouq Dwayyat was sentenced to 16 years in Israeli prison by a Jerusalem court on Sunday, 25 December. Dwayyat, 19, from the village of Sur Baher, was also fined 80,000 NIS (approximately $21,000.) She was shot by an Israeli settler and seized by occupation forces on 7 October 2015 in eastern Jerusalem and accused of attempting to stab an Israeli settler. Witnesses reported that she was harassed by the settler prior to the alleged incident.

Dwayyat is a student at Bethlehem University who was studying history and geography. She graduated from high school, achieving a result of 90% in the national secondary Tawjihi examinations in 2015. Classes at the university were cancelled for two days after her shooting and arrest in October 2015.

Dwayyat was severely injured by the four bullets lodged within her body, unlike the Israeli man she was accused of attempting to stab, who suffered no serious injuries. Following the court's ruling, the Israeli Interior Ministry stripped the imprisoned Dwayyat of her Jerusalem residency, claiming "breach of trust," using the case as a mechanism to further the Israeli state policy of attacking Palestinian existence in Jerusalem. Amjad Abu Assab of the Prisoners' Committee in Jerusalem said that "this is a racist policy...with the aim of killing the spirit of challenge by Jerusalemites and preventing any manifestation of rejection of occupation in the occupied city of Jerusalem."

She is one of 52 Palestinian women - including 12 minor girls - imprisoned in HaSharon and Damon Israeli prisons and now is serving one of the longest sentences. The longest-held Palestinian woman prisoner, Lena Jarbouni, is serving a 17-year sentence in Israeli prison. The recent trend of particularly elevated sentences include those against Maysoon Musa (15 years), Nurhan Awad (13.5 years) and Israa Jaabis (11 years).

Comment: The Israeli methods of justice reveal their motives. Until all countries join the effort to address the persecution of Palestinians, WITH CONSEQUENCES, and stop funding Israel's inhumanity, there will be no change in its trajectory nor justice for its victims.


Propaganda

Oklahoma newspaper endorsed Clinton, not forgiven by angry citizens

The news and eagle
© The New York Times, Nick OxfordJeff Mullin, senior writer; Jeff L. Funk, publisher
One Sunday after church, Jeff Mullin and his wife were in line at the Western Sizzlin steakhouse here when a man, fists clenched, threatened to beat the hell out of him. "My first thought was just to kind of try to keep things calm. Otherwise, it was going to be two old guys rolling around on the floor of the steakhouse, and that would be pretty unseemly," recalled Mr. Mullin, 64, the mustachioed senior writer for Enid's daily newspaper, The Enid News & Eagle. The dispute was not personal. It was, of all things, editorial.

Mr. Mullin's red newspaper in a red county in what is arguably the reddest of states went blue this campaign season and endorsed Hillary Clinton for president. The editorial board, in a gray-shaded column on Page A4 on Oct. 9, wrote that Donald J. Trump lacked "the skills, experience or temperament to hold office." The headline and subhead read: "For U.S. president: Hillary Clinton is our choice for commander in chief."

It was the first Democratic endorsement for president in the modern history of the newspaper, which was founded in 1893. As the man's reaction at the steakhouse suggested, Enid was stunned, and this slow-paced agricultural town of 52,000 near the Kansas state line has not been the same since.

The News & Eagle, with a circulation of 10,000, lost 162 subscribers who canceled the paper. Eleven advertisers pulled their ads, including a funeral home that had a sizable account. Someone stuck a "Crooked Hillary" bumper sticker on the glass doors of the paper's downtown office. A man left a late-night message on the publisher's voice mail, expressing his hope that readers would deliver, to put it delicately, a burning sack of steaming excrement to the paper.

Comment: So, this is the story at the local level. Red state, red constituency. Why was it implemented? What was the Clinton leverage at corporate offices and how was that conveyed? Was there something more 'demanding' behind the Democratic media grab in solid red territory or did this parent corporate company make the mistake of falling into the propaganda swirl of the MSM swamp? This 'musepaper' paid a price.


Dollar

Finland introducing trial of basic income for unemployed, becoming first country to adopt the policy

finland basic income
The primary objective of the experiment is to assess whether an unconditional basic income promotes employment.

Scandinavian country becomes first to adopt policy with new trial of 2,000 unemployed people


Finland is to introduce a basic income for some citizens from next month, becoming the first country to adopt the policy.

Two thousand unemployed people will be given €560 (£480) every month for two years, without any restrictions or conditions attached. Leaders hope the move will improve life quality, reduce unemployment and create jobs.

Recipients will not need to prove they are looking for work and the money will be given regardless of any other income the person earns.

The Finnish government is planning to study whether the policy helps recipients find work. It suspects many unemployed people are put off getting a job because they will lose unemployment benefits and therefore be worse off financially - a similar problem to that which tax credits were designed to solve in the UK.

Monkey Wrench

Disintegrating society: Florida highway shut down by naked man behaving erratically and jumping on cars

naked man shuts down tampa highway
Dale Mabry Highway in Tampa was shut down Wednesday morning by what police say was a naked man running in the road and jumping on cars.
Dale Mabry Highway in Tampa was shut down Wednesday morning by what police say was a naked man running in the road and jumping on cars.

Police say they had to subdue the man, who was acting erratically, running around and jumping on cars in the roadway. The incident began at approximately 5:36 a.m. near Dale Mabry and Spruce Street.

FOX 13's Ken Suarez was there Wednesday morning, and reports 10 cruisers on the scene, blood in the street, and a car with bloody hand prints on it.

Comment: It seems there have been a number of such instances recently where people are disintegrating into animal-like behavior. Is this a reflection of the collective insanity gripping the world, or is it something else?


Arrow Up

Landmark decision: Canadian government ordered to pay First Nation people $3.3M to settle 131 year old claim

Beardy’s & Okemasis First Nation Canada
© Beardy’s & Okemasis First Nation
The Canadian government has been ordered to pay 4.5 million Canadian dollars (US$3.3 million) to indigenous peoples for failing to pay treaty money following an uprising in 1885.

The North-West Rebellion was a failed insurrection in Saskatchewan against the government of Canada. It largely involved the Métis people, who are of mixed First Nation and European descent, as well as some First Nation groups.

In the wake of the uprising, the government mislabelled many people "rebel Indians" and withheld treaty payments as punishment. Even men, women and children who couldn't possibly have played any part in the rebellion were punished.

Star of David

Raising tensions: Over 170 Jewish settlers storm Al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem

Dome of the Rock
© AFP 2016/ AHMAD GHARABLI
More than 170 Jewish settlers on Wednesday stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the Old City of Jerusalem, trying to perform religious Talmudic rituals there, the mosque director, Sheikh Omar Qiswani, said.

"Some 176 settlers, backed by Israeli special forces, stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound since this morning. The Jewish settlers tried to perform Talmudic rituals near the Al-Qibali mosque and the Dome of the Rock but they were prevented from doing so by Muslim worshipers and the mosque guards," Qiswani was quoted as saying by Anadolu news agency.

He added that the Israeli police forces arrested one of the mosque guards.

Comment: This incident comes on the heels of the latest UNSC resolution: Israel's hysteria is solidifying its status as a rogue nation


Eye 1

Want to see a U.S. ball game? Iris scan, please


Comment: An Orwellian society is becoming more real every day due to one of the greatest lies ever told: 9/11.


Lazaro Torres, a die-hard Miami Heat fan, was scurrying to reach his seat before tip-off one night last month when he hit an all-too-common roadblock: Two dozen fans stirring impatiently in the security-check line. Not a problem. He slid into a special entrance line, laid two fingers on a print scanner and, with the Heat's rapid blessing, cruised into the arena.

"It's been great," Torres, a 43-year-old season-ticket holder, said of the service, known as Clear, which offers queue-skipping privileges for six U.S. sports teams including New York's Yankees and Mets baseball franchises. His interview was necessarily brief. "I'm running a little late."
Biometric security clearance
© Scott McIntyre/BloombergClear security clearance
Attending a game used to be a low-tech pleasure: Buy a ticket and grab a bleacher seat. Now, with metal detectors and bag checks standard at almost all major sporting venues, companies have begun offering biometric and other tools to create the equivalent of express security lanes like those in airports. Those fingerprints and iris scans also allow teams to track fans' behavior and purchasing habits, helping them rake in more revenue and fatten profits while triggering at the same time the privacy concerns that dog this sort of technology in other parts of the economy.

Clear, owned by Alclear LLC, also provides similar security services at 16 airports, where passengers can get fast-tracked for $179 a year.At stadiums, teams pay a licensing fee and fans nothing.

Other companies offer streamlining at stadiums and other venues to government-vetted members of PreCheck, the Transportation Security Administration's service for airline travelers. And Walt Disney Co. theme parks offer expedited fingerprint-based identity scanning to customers who've bought certain passes.

Comment: "There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment... It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time." - George Orwell's 1984