Animal Farm

Cop indicted for aggravated assault at McDonald’s drive-through

"According to a Forsyth County Sheriff’s report, Biumi was upset about how long the order from the truck in front of him was taking. He then pointed a handgun at one teen's head and yelled 'you don't know who you are [dealing] with,' according to the report. He then withdrew his gun, got back in his Impala and drove away without getting his order of two hamburgers and a small fries. Sheriff’s investigators determined the suspect was a law enforcement officer based on the man’s actions as reported by witnesses and captured on the restaurant surveillance video. The teens in the truck also reported a tag number on the Impala, which matched a police-issued vehicle." Continue reading →

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Police ignore Taser heart attack risk and keep firing at suspects’ chests

"British police have fired Tasers hundreds of times at suspects’ chests despite explicit warnings from the weapon’s manufacturer not to do so because of the dangers of causing a cardiac arrest, the Guardian can reveal. Following the death last Wednesday of a man in Manchester after police hit him with a Taser shot, figures obtained from 18 out of 45 UK forces show that out of a total of 884 Taser discharges since 2009 – the year when Taser International first started warning the weapon’s users not to aim for the chest – 57% of all shots (518) have hit the chest area." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPolice ignore Taser heart attack risk and keep firing at suspects’ chests

What Bothered Me Most About the Zimmerman Trial

"Toward the end of the state’s summation, it was said that if a person wanted to do what George Zimmerman did 'you’d better have one of these' (whereupon a photo of a policeman’s badge was projected onto the screen). What the state was implicitly acknowledging – whether such was its intent or not – was the real-world dual standard that operates on the streets of virtually every city in every state: a police officer will almost never be held to account, criminally, for wrongs committed against innocent victims. Take the identical facts in the Zimmerman case and change just one: have George Zimmerman be a city-appointed police officer." Continue reading →

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Loophole lets Colorado lawmakers avoid photo radar fines

"A loophole in state law has allowed Colorado state senators and representatives to avoid photo radar tickets because of special treatment given to lawmakers when they get license plates. Most license plates are issued to specific vehicles. But license plates for lawmakers are issued to individuals and aren't registered in state computers. The city has an aggressive photo radar program that sends out millions of dollars in photo radar tickets every year. However, police have not been able to send citations to legislators whose cars carry the special plates." Continue reading →

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$20 Million Claim Against Dept. Of Corrections By Man Shot In Bed 16 Times

"Thirty-year-old Dustin Theoharis is in Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, recovering from his twelfth surgery - this one to reconstruct his jaw. It’s unlikely he will ever fully recover from the barrage of bullets fired by police on Feb. 11, 2011. His attorney, Erik Heipt said that Theoharis suffered 'a broken shoulder, 2 broken arms, broken legs, he had a compression fracture to his spine, damage to his liver and spleen.' Theoharis wasn’t the guy police were after. The King County Sheriff’s deputy and Washington Department of Corrections officer who shot him were at the house to arrest a man who’d violated his parole." Continue reading →

Continue Reading$20 Million Claim Against Dept. Of Corrections By Man Shot In Bed 16 Times

South Korean court orders Japanese steel company to pay for forced labor in WWII

"A South Korean court on Wednesday ordered a Japanese steel giant to pay compensation over forced wartime labour in what was described as the first ruling of its kind, a report said. The decision marked the latest chapter in a 16-year legal battle launched by four South Koreans, now aged in their eighties and nineties, who were drafted to work for the predecessor of Nippon Steel before World War II. The forced labour issue and wartime sexual slavery remain key points of contention between Seoul and Tokyo after Japan’s brutal colonisation of the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945." Continue reading →

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Monetary Mavens Talk, Talk, Talk

"The thrust of central banking coverage is one that emphasizes high finance, complicated terminology and impressive circumstances. The reality is that the tools are very limited and the choices are, well ... simplistic. Either a central bank prints money or it doesn't. Either it sets interest rates high or low. Officials can choose various targets but essentially, 'targeting' doesn't change the basic mechanism: more money or less, higher interest rates or lower ones. It's very simple and the amount of time, energy and mainstream media coverage lavished on these rudimentary – and primitive – decisions is incredible." Continue reading →

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Mexican journalist acquitted of drug charges pens book on hellish prison experience

"'They handcuffed me, covered my face with a hood and kidnapped me for two days in a location unknown to police chiefs,' Lemus told AFP. 'I endured torture that I never imagined could exist,' he said. He said his captors wrapped plastic bags around his head to deprive him of oxygen, electrocuted his testicles and beat him with wooden boards. Still, he refused to sign a confession saying he was a member of a drug cartel. He later signed a document admitting he was detained alongside two drug traffickers, enough to get him sentenced to 20 years in prison." Continue reading →

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India’s poor ‘duped’ into clinical trials for untested drugs

"Many desperate and poor people in India are unwittingly taking part in clinical trials for drugs by Indian and multinational pharmaceutical companies that outsource the work to unregulated research organisations. Testing pharmaceuticals on humans is a mandatory and expensive step for drug companies who must prove to regulatory authorities that treatments have no dangerous side-effects in order to bring them to market. The Confederation of Indian Industry estimates that companies save up to 60 percent by undertaking the different phases of testing a new drug in India as compared to developed countries." Continue reading →

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What Every Student in America Needs to Know About the Federal Reserve

"This whole concept of infinite fiat is hard for people to grasp; it is something outside of their experience. People's lifelong experience with money is that it is a limited resource. It is hard to conceive of a group of people who have unlimited, infinite money. Yet the Federal Reserve has just that. The Fed is not like a doctor who prescribes a short-term stimulus for a patient who is feeling run down. The Fed is not like a parent who temporarily puts training wheels on a bike until the kid learns how to ride it. These metaphors make people think that the Fed's fiat printing is temporary and limited. It is not." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWhat Every Student in America Needs to Know About the Federal Reserve