Animal Farm

Refugees detail widespread abuse at Australian asylum camp

"Australian Immigration Minister Tony Burke described as 'horrific' explosive claims that asylum-seekers at one of its processing camps in Papua New Guinea are being raped and tortured. A former senior official at the Manus Island facility also detailed 'almost daily' self-harm and attempted suicides while warning weapons were being accumulated in readiness for a break-out attempt. The allegations come just days after Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced that the facility would be massively expanded to accommodate 3,000 people, from the original 600, as part of a new hardline plan to send all asylum-seeker arrivals to Papua New Guinea." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingRefugees detail widespread abuse at Australian asylum camp

A Nation of Rules: The US Justice System

"Edward Lamar Young knew he should not be committing crimes of burglary, especially after he already had served time in Tennessee prison more than 15 years earlier for the same thing. He had promised to 'go straight' after his 1996 release and had done so until 2011, when he 'fell off the wagon' and stole some items from cars and a business warehouse. However, he sits in federal prison for 15 years and never was prosecuted for burglary. Why? He had some shotgun shells in his possession (he did not have a shotgun in which to use them) and according to federal law, a person with any criminal conviction cannot own either firearms or ammunition." Continue reading →

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Police blame ‘poor lighting’ after killing innocent grandfather, 72, while searching the wrong home

"Fort Worth, TX., police have blamed poor lighting after responding May 28 to a burglary alarm, searching the wrong home and shooting dead beloved husband Jerry Waller. The city of Fort Worth has had more than one incident involving misidentified homes this year, the second resulted in the wrong house being bulldozed. Mr. Waller’s home is across the street from the home the police should have been responding to. ‘We were disturbed by suggestions that the police may have felt threatened by a man in his own garage faced with unknown trespassers yielding flashlights,’ Waller’s daughter Angie told media the following day." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPolice blame ‘poor lighting’ after killing innocent grandfather, 72, while searching the wrong home

A Death Before Dying: Solitary Confinement on Death Row

"We know that the death penalty system is broken. Racial bias, junk science, underfunded public defense, and other serious breakdowns in our legal system can mean that people – sometimes innocent people – will languish on death rows for years while pursuing appeals. Spending these years in extreme isolation can erode mental health to the point that some will 'volunteer' to die rather than continue to live under such conditions. Many prisoners die a slow and painful psychological death before the state ever executes them." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingA Death Before Dying: Solitary Confinement on Death Row

More countries abolishing capital punishment, but some returning to it

"Although 33 of the 40 countries that still have the death penalty are ruled by despots, some 'liberal democracies' returned to capital punishment in 2012, the report said. 'While China seems to be progressively improving, some liberal democracies seem to be going the opposite way,' said Sergio d'Elia, Hands off Cain secretary. In 2011, of the 'liberal democracies', just the United States and Taiwan carried out executions, while in 2012 Japan, Botswana and India began using capital punishment again after many years in which the practice was suspended. This year, Indonesia joined them, carrying out its first death penalty for five years." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMore countries abolishing capital punishment, but some returning to it

Sex Offenses, No Matter How Minor or Understandable, Can Ruin You for Life

"In 2013 alone, at least nine new laws were proposed in the California legislature to tighten or expand sex offender laws; if passed, these new laws would be applied indiscriminately to the entire registry, a list which includes persons convicted of public urination, teens having consensual sex, as well as serial rapists and violent pedophiles. In California, registration is for life. Current prohibitions include not being permitted to live within 2,000 feet of a school, park, nursery or church; obtain a contractor's license; practice medicine or law; foster a child. Sex offenders are ineligible for some federal and state grants and cannot live in federal public housing." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSex Offenses, No Matter How Minor or Understandable, Can Ruin You for Life

Police arrest woman after request to see warrant

"Slaton police came to this woman's house, who wishes to remain anonymous, to arrest her son. But by asking one simple question, she found herself behind bars instead. The complainant said she was aware police would be coming to apprehend her 11-year-old son based on a criminal complaint, and that she just wanted to see the warrant. As it turns out, that warrant didn't exist. She spent the night in jail while her son was left at home." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPolice arrest woman after request to see warrant

State Department has hired agents with criminal records, memo reveals

"The State Department has hired an alarming number of law-enforcement agents with criminal or checkered backgrounds because of a flawed hiring process, a stunning memo reveals. The background problems are severe enough that many of the roughly 2,000 agents in State’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security can play only limited roles in agency efforts to police bad conduct and prosecute wrongdoers. The problems in the bureau are the latest revelation in an exploding scandal that also involves accusations that members of former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s security detail and those of the US ambassador to Belgium solicited prostitutes overseas." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingState Department has hired agents with criminal records, memo reveals

IRS Wants to Be Exempt from Obamacare While also Making the Rest of Us Comply

"There are lots of despicable people in Washington engaged in a lot of unsavory behavior, so it would be very difficult to get agreement if you asked regular people to select the most odious feature of the political class. Many people would probably choose corruption as the defining characteristic of Washington, and it would be hard to argue with that choice, but I think hypocrisy is an even better choice. There’s something fundamentally wrong when people push for policies while making sure they don’t have to abide by the results. Yet it happens all the time in government." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIRS Wants to Be Exempt from Obamacare While also Making the Rest of Us Comply

Baton Rouge sheriff’s office targets gay men under ‘crimes against nature’ law

"A sheriff’s office task force in Baton Rouge, Louisiana has been conducting undercover investigations that target gay men under the state’s defunct sodomy law. At least a dozen gay men have been arrested for agreeing to have sex with undercover officers, according to the report. The District Attorney Hillar Moore III told the Baton Rouge Advocate his office refused to prosecute the cases because they found no criminal violation had occurred. The Baton Rouge sheriff’s office, meanwhile, told the Baton Rouge Advocate that it would continue to prosecute all laws currently on the Louisiana books." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBaton Rouge sheriff’s office targets gay men under ‘crimes against nature’ law