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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
6/9/2015 11:14:52 PM

Community leaders ask judge for arrests in Cleveland boy's death

Reuters



Samaria Rice, the mother of Tamir Rice, the 12-year old boy who was fatally shot by police last month while carrying what turned out to be a replica toy gun, looks on as Benjamin Crump (R) speaks to the media during a news conference at the Olivet Baptist Church in Cleveland, Ohio December 8, 2014. REUTERS/Aaron Josefczyk

By Kim Palmer

CLEVELAND (Reuters) - Community leaders asked a municipal court on Tuesday to invoke an obscure Ohio law so that a city judge could bring murder charges and issue arrest warrants for two policemen in the fatal shooting of a 12-year-old boy.

If the judge agrees, it could pile pressure on prosecutors in the 2014 case that raised questions about police use of force in the United States, particularly against minorities.

The two Cleveland officers involved in the shooting are white and the boy, Tamir Rice, was black.

"The police’s use of deadly force was fatal, unconscionable, that we deem criminal in nature," read the 131-page citizen complaint filed in a Cleveland Municipal Court.

The 1960 law has been seldom invoked in Ohio, one of a handful of states that allows "citizens knowledgeable of the facts" of a crime to seek an arrest and criminal charges through the courts, bypassing prosecutors.

Those who presented the citizens' affidavits said they have grown frustrated and distrustful of authorities handling the case. The group includes a university professor and local clergy.

Cleveland's police department agreed last month on a plan to minimize racial bias and the use of excessive force after the U.S. Justice Department found a pattern of abuses against civilians by police.

Rice was shot outside a city recreation center last Nov. 22 while playing with a Airsoft-type replica handgun used in pretend combat.

Rookie police officer Timothy Loehmann fired at Rice twice within two seconds of arriving at the scene with his partner Frank Garmback in response to a 911 emergency call about a man with a gun outside the recreation center, according to authorities. The sixth-grader died the next day.

Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty has said the evidence in the shooting will be presented to a grand jury to decide on bringing charges against Loehmann and Garmback after a county sheriff's department completed its investigation last week.

Rice family lawyer Walter Madison said his clients were worried about the transfer of the case to the prosecutor in light of the acquittal of Cleveland police officer Michael Brelo in May in another case.

Brelo, who is white, was charged with two counts of voluntary manslaughter in the deaths of a black man and a woman.

(Editing by Jon Herskovitz and Lisa Lambert)




Cleveland leaders seeking an arrest in boy's death


The move, made possible by an obscure Ohio law, signals the community's mistrust in the handling of the
Tamir Rice case.
Details

"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
6/9/2015 11:40:39 PM

Commissioners walk out of meeting over police shooting of L.A. man

Reuters



People stand on chairs in protest of the death of Ezell Ford, after the police commission walked out due to an audience disturbance, during a meeting of the Los Angeles Police Commission in Los Angeles, California June 9, 2015. REUTERS/Patrick T. Fallon
By Katherine Davis-Young

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Los Angeles police commissioners meeting to decide whether two officers were justified in shooting an unarmed black man last year briefly walked out of the session on Tuesday after activists began chanting and holding signs.

All five members of the Los Angeles Police Commission, who had said that they would halt the proceedings if activists became unruly, left the meeting for about 10 minutes during a tense public comment section.

A line of more than a dozen police officers then stood at the front of the room, asking the crowd to calm down, before commissioners returned.

One man who had spoken earlier was arrested in a hallway outside the meeting room for interfering with a police officer, said Commander Andrew Smith, a Los Angeles Police Department spokesman.

Commissioners were expected to decide during the administrative hearing on Tuesday whether two LAPD patrolmen were justified in shooting 25-year-old Ezell Ford to death last Aug. 11.

The officers could be subject to discipline within the department if the commissioners find the shooting was unjustified.

Los Angeles police officials have said two officers shot Ford, who has been described by a family lawyer as mentally challenged, after he struggled with one of them and tried to grab the officer's holstered gun.

Ford's death came days after the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, and touched off demonstrations outside police headquarters in Los Angeles.

Ford's family has filed two lawsuits over the incident, which came during a time of heightened national scrutiny of police use of force against young black men.

During emotional remarks at the meeting, Ford's mother, Tritobia Ford, asked the commission to find against the officers in the administrative proceeding.

"I'm asking you, I’m begging you, please. My son would never grab a gun, he wanted to live. That’s all he wanted

He didn’t deserve to die for it," she said.

The Los Angeles Times reported last week that Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck and an inspector general who acts as an independent watchdog had determined that the two officers who shot Ford were justified.

Department investigators found evidence indicating Ford had struggled for control of the gun of one of the patrolmen, supporting the account the officers gave after the incident, the newspaper cited two sources as saying.

(Reporting by Katherine Davis-Young; Writing by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Peter Cooney)

"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
6/9/2015 11:56:51 PM

Protesters seek firing of Texas officer who threw girl to ground

Reuters


Hundreds of protestors rally against what demonstrators call police brutality in McKinney, Texas June 8, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Stone

By Mike Stone

McKINNEY, Texas (Reuters) - Hundreds marched through the Dallas-area city of McKinney on Monday calling for the firing of a police officer seen in a video throwing a bikini-clad teenage girl to the ground and pointing his pistol at other youths at a pool party disturbance.

McKinney Police Corporal Eric Casebolt has been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation of how he responded to the disturbance on Friday in the city about 30 miles north of Dallas, an incident that has raised fresh questions about racial bias in U.S. policing.

Casebolt, who is white, is seen shouting obscenities at black youths in a multiracial crowd, shoving a black teenage girl, briefly pointing his gun at African-American youths and throwing the girl in her bathing suit, who is black, to the ground, burying his knees in her back.

"We are demanding that the officer be fired and be charged with assaulting the youth," said Dominique Alexander, the president of the Next Generation Action Network, which helped organize the rally.

About 800 people took part in the peaceful rally, carrying signs demanding an end to police brutality and calling for police accountability.

The incident comes after a string of cases over the past year fueled waves of protests across the United States over what civil rights activists say is law enforcement's unjustified use of force, often lethal, against minority groups.

The seven-minute video, viewed more than 7 million times on YouTube as of Monday, shows officers responding to the incident, which police said started when scores of youths attended a party with a disc jockey at a community pool and refused requests to leave.

Civil rights leaders met McKinney officials on Monday and told reporters they saw the officer's actions as being racially motivated. They also said they wanted a U.S. Justice Department probe.

Casebolt, a 10-year veteran once named the department's patrolman of the year, was questioned by authorities on Monday. He has not spoken publicly about the incident.

At the start of the video, one officer cordially tells some teens: "Don’t take off running as soon as cops get here."

Dajerria Becton, the 15-year-old girl thrown to the ground by Casebolt, told broadcaster KDFW the officer twisted her arm and grabbed her by the hair.

"Him getting fired isn’t enough," she said.

Several wrote on the McKinney Police Facebook page that the youths antagonized police and they should have obeyed when officers told them to stay put and keep quiet. A few area residents told media the case was about unruly teens and not about race.

McKinney has about 150,000 people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. African-Americans make up 10.5 percent of the population and whites about 75 percent.

(Writing by Jon Herskovitz in Austin, Texas; Editing by Alan Crosby and Peter Cooney)

"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
6/10/2015 12:16:05 AM

Pro-Russian Separatists In Donetsk And Luhansk Now Willing To Remain Part Of Ukraine


By on
Separatist soldiers and their leader Alexander Zakharchenko (center) seen in Donetsk, Ukraine, on an unknown date. Reuters


Pro-Russian separatist leaders in the contested regions of Donetsk and Luhansk are now prepared to remain part of Ukraine under a specially recognized status, according to Ukrainian media, a move which has full support from Russian President Vladimir Putin. The status, which would be codified in amendments to the new Ukrainian constitution, would mark the end of efforts to make the self-proclaimed "people's republics" independent states, or have them annexed by Russia. The likely scenario is that they would become semiautonomous regions, but still part of the sovereign state of Ukraine.

While the the text of the constitutional amendments says only that "some regions with special status (or their associations) are an integral part of Ukraine," parliament would pass laws declaring which regions, cities and towns inside the regions will be given that status.

However, disagreement about the current ceasefire, which is being breached almost daily, persists between the two sides and hampers any progress on the status issue. Rebel leaders have demanded that Ukrainian government forces respect the Minsk II agreement, which came into force on Feb. 15 this year, before they can fully agree to autonomous status. Kiev has said exactly the same of the rebels.

The text of the proposed amendment, which has been published by pro-rebel media and Ukrainian news agencies, allows the leaders of the Luhansk People's Republic and Donetsk People's Republic, Igor Plotnitsky and Alexander Zakharchenko respectively, to retain their posts.

"Senior officials in charge of the executive branch on the territory of individual regions of Donetsk and Luhansk regions on the date of adoption of these amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine shall continue to exercise their powers until the termination of powers in accordance with the procedure established by the acts of individual regions with special status in Donetsk and Luhansk regions," the text reads.

Putin, whose army is supporting the separatist militias -- a charge he denies -- has already said he supports the idea that both breakaway regions should remain as part of Ukraine, which has been fighting a yearlong war with the rebels. Some analysts say Putin's chief reason for supporting autonomy rather than independence is that he is keen to avoid taking on the economic burden of rebuilding the war-torn region and being financially responsible for its people. Eastern Ukraine is among the poorest parts of a nation that is among the poorest in Europe; Ukraine's gross domestic product per capita is around $3,900 -- just one-ninth of the European Union's average.

"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
6/10/2015 12:25:51 AM

Another clear sign Assad is getting desperate to hold on in Syria

Business Insider

(Reuters) A fighter loyal to Syria's President Bashar Al-Assad hangs his picture as fellow fighters rest by a Syrian national flag after gaining control of the area in Deir al-Adas, a town south of Damascus, Daraa countryside on February 10, 2015.

The Syrian civil war has continued unabated into its fourth year, and the Assad regime is beginning to seriously feel the toll of the years of constant conflict.

The Syrian army has recently lost territory to rebels in the country's northwest and to ISIS in thecountry's center.

And now Assad is reaching out to Tehran for more than money to counter tha largely Sunni rebellion.

"Recently, the Syrian foreign minister asked Iran to send 100,000 fighters, according to the diplomat who regularly visits Syria," Raja Abdulrahim reports for The Wall Street Journal. "The request was denied because Iran feared turning the conflict into an open sectarian war, he said."

However, this concern of turning Syria into a fully sectarian struggle has not prevented Iran from sending Assad military supplies and Shia fighters in the past.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies estimates that the country's military has shrunken to a force of only 178,000 regular soldiers from a pre-war force of 325,000.

This diminished force is augmented by an irregular force, established by Iran, that adds 80,000-strong National Defense Force as well as Iranian troops and guerrilla fighters from Tehran's Lebanese proxy Hezbollah.

Tehran even reportedly sent hundreds of illegal Afghan immigrants to fight in Syria, often on the front lines as cannon fodder. It's difficult to determine exactly how many Afghans have fought in Syria for the Assad regime. But Spiegel estimates that at least 700 Afghans were killed in fighting around Aleppo and Damascus alone.

View gallery

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Syria map
(RNGS Reuters)

The Iranian sway is showing.

The New York Times reported in late April that Hezbollah "now leads or even directs the fight in many places," at the expense of Syrian commanders.

Also in April, Assad's head of political security was reportedly beaten to death by a fellow top regime official, an incident that may have stemmed from a disagreement over Iran's outsized role in the war effort.

More recently, Iran reportedly executed three Sunni commanders after taking over the fight in northwest Syria after key losses to rebels.

This slow-motion collapse of the Syrian military and a reliance upon foreign support has led to an abandonment by the Syrian state of areas deemed non-vital to the continuation of the Assad regime. Largely, these forces are now based in Damascus, Homs, and the Alawite stronghold of the Syrian coast from where Assad draws most of his support.

“Of course they are overstretched and weakened. ... I think they are reassessing their own strategy,” an unnamed diplomat in Syria told the WSJ. “It’s a matter of surviving. I don’t think the Syrian regime has the ability to think long term.”

"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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