Yearly Archives: 2013

Cop Beaten Up on Camera While Bystanders Watch; No One Calls 911

"When a Philadelphia transit officer attempted to detain a ticket-scam suspect near a train station platform last week, surveillance video records the suspect turning on the cop and wrestling him to the ground, pinning him between a glass barrier and a bench. But the video also shows a crowd of at least seven transit customers observing the fight, including one who pulled out her phone to record the incident. Notably a similar incident happened at the same train station last week, WTXF reported. And again video captured two plain-clothes officers getting beaten up in front of a much larger crowd at Cecil B. Moore station in north Philadelphia." Continue reading →

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“For Their Own Protection”: Children in Long-Term Solitary Confinement

"Solitary confinement was once a punishment reserved for the most-hardened, incorrigible criminals. Today, it is standard practice for tens of thousands of juveniles in prisons and jails across America. Far from being limited to the most violent offenders, solitary confinement is now used against perpetrators of minor crimes and children who are forced to await their trials in total isolation. Often, these stays are prolonged, lasting months or even years at a time. How can a practice be both widespread and hidden? State and federal governments have two effective ways to prevent the public from knowing how deep the problem goes." Continue reading →

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Police change story after video shows breaking student’s leg over ticket

"A group of police officers who allegedly broke the leg of an arts student and told her 'we don't care if it's legal' have been allowed to change their defence at the eleventh hour after CCTV footage of the assault emerged. Rachel Gardner is suing the NSW police force claiming she was kicked, sat on, handcuffed, pushed against a fence, loaded into a paddy wagon and then dumped at a nearby train station without charge after being caught without a train ticket on March 13, 2011. Police initially denied the kick occurred but sought to amend their defence in the Sydney District Court on Monday, minutes before the beginning of a five-day trial." Continue reading →

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Are Government Schools a Form of Child Abuse?

"Two seventh-grade students in Virginia Beach, Va., were handed long-term suspensions Tuesday that will last until the end of the school year for playing with an airsoft gun in one of their front yards while waiting for the school bus. WAVY-TV reports that 13-year-old Khalid Caraballo and Aidan Clark will face an additional hearing in January to determine if they will be expelled for 'possession, handling and use of a firearm' because the guns were fired at two others playing in Caraballo’s yard. The school’s so-called 'zero-tolerance' policy on guns extends to private property, according to the report." Continue reading →

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Making the Victim Pay for the Bullet

"A few months after being assaulted by police in an entirely unjustified raid, Mrs. Injeyan filed a $290,000 damage claim with the City of Laguna Beach – an impressively modest amount, given the expenses incurred to the victim as a result of grotesque police overkill. After that claim was rejected, Marilyn filed a federal lawsuit. The City responded with a motion for summary judgment on the basis of the spurious and all-sufficient doctrine of 'qualified immunity.' Judge O’Connell added another layer of vindictive privilege to this familiar ritual by ordering the elderly, impoverished victim of police abuse to pay the legal costs incurred by the government whose agent had assaulted her." Continue reading →

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Facebook Must Face Gambit Suit Over Social Game Currency

"Facebook Inc. (FB), owner of the world’s most popular social network, must face a lawsuit that accuses the company of breaking antitrust laws in the virtual-currency market. Kickflip Inc., which does business as Gambit, sued in October 2012, saying Facebook destroyed competition for virtual currency services and payment processing when it began offering services of its own in 2009. Facebook sought to get the suit dismissed, arguing that Kickflip failed to allege an injury. U.S. District Judge Leonard Stark in Wilmington, Delaware, today rejected that request." Continue reading →

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QE3 is a Huge Subsidy to the Top 10%.

"The Federal Reserve System’s policy known widely as QE3 is a massive subsidy of the rich at the expense of the middle class. This is the conclusion of Stephen Roach, who for years was chief economist for Morgan Stanley. He calls this policy destabilizing. He says this: the FED 'is courting an increasingly treacherous endgame at home and abroad.' The FED’s creation of $85 billion of counterfeit money — euphemistically called 'liquidity' — is based on a theory. The theory is that rich people, who buy most of the stocks and bonds, will feel wealthier, and therefore will buy more stocks and bonds. In short, QE3 is an indirect way to goose the equity markets." Continue reading →

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Cashless trend is redefining money, and a central bank’s role as printer

"Throughout the world, central banks have woken up to the fact that their wholesale interbank clearing and settlement systems can be bypassed by mobile-to-mobile payments. Indeed, who will get the seigniorage, or the right to interest on the monetary creation, which traditionally has belonged to the state and been delegated to the central bank? Of course, we used to believe that central banks could only print money when it is backed by gold or promises to pay by the government. Today, advanced central banks are printing money faster than ever." Continue reading →

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ObamaCare Is Just a Stepping Stone to Nationalized Health Care

"Many people roll their eyes at 'those idiots in Washington!' as if these obvious outcomes are somehow a surprise. No, the people in Washington have trained economists on their staffs. They understand incentives, even though their rhetoric suggests that they don’t. Over the coming years, as the delivery of US healthcare suffers and citizens become justifiably outraged, they will be led to demand greater and greater government involvement to thwart the 'greedy' insurance companies and 'overpriced' hospitals. This is part of the plan, as some glib proponents of ObamaCare have let slip." Continue reading →

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Home Depot Sending 20,000 Part-Timers to Health Exchanges

"Home Depot Inc. (HD), the world’s largest home improvement retailer, plans to end medical coverage for about 20,000 part-time employees and direct them to government-sponsored exchanges scheduled to open next month as companies revamp benefits to fit the U.S. Affordable Care Act. Employees with fewer than 30 hours a week will no longer be offered limited liability medical coverage, Stephen Holmes, a spokesman, said today by telephone. About 5 percent of Atlanta-based Home Depot’s 340,000 employees are enrolled in that plan. United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS), Trader Joe’s Co. and other employers have been cutting benefits ahead of next month’s roll-out." Continue reading →

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