By Sharon Bernstein and Alex Dobuzinskis

SACRAMENTO/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Did police tell an unarmed black man who they were before shooting him to death in a dark backyard in Sacramento, California? That question is forcing an examination of policies dictating when and how police identify themselves while encountering suspects.

Two Sacramento police officers, responding to a report of someone shattering car windows, killed Stephon Alonzo Clark, 22, on Sunday in a hail of bullets.

Police video has shown the officers chasing Clark around the side of his grandparents' house, yelling "Show me your hands" and "Gun" before firing. Police said they believed Clark held a gun, but it turned out to be a mobile phone.

The release of the video late on Wednesday sparked street protests. Clark's family, through their attorney Benjamin Crump, disputed the police account that Clark was breaking windows.

Many protesters have said police did not appear to have identified themselves when they confronted Clark on that dark night as he stood in his grandparents' backyard. On the video, the officers cannot be heard saying they are police.

"He (Clark) didn't make any threats against the police, there is no evidence he committed a crime, there was no warning from the police, there was no identification from the police," Crump said.

Crump represented the family of black teenager Michael Brown, whose shooting death in Ferguson, Missouri, by police in 2014 sparked nationwide protests.

Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg said this week that city officials would examine police protocol for how they identify themselves in such cases.

"I have a 21-year-old son and I never had to teach him the importance of holding his hands high if he is ever stopped by a police officer," Steinberg said Friday on Facebook. "No words can describe how it must feel for an African-American family who has to teach that lesson as a reality of growing up black."

Sacramento police guidelines posted on the department's website do not specify that officers must identify themselves when encountering suspects. Sacramento police spokeswoman Linda Matthew said she did not believe such a policy existed.

Jim Pasco, executive director of the National Fraternal Order of Police, said that policies for departments vary across the country, but it would be impractical under such circumstances to expect officers to identify themselves.

"If you're in a chase and everybody's running, there isn't a lot of talking back and forth going on," he said.

The Sacramento shooting could lead some police departments to change their rules, but such policies can be difficult to follow in the heat of the moment, said Eugene O'Donnell, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City.

"It won't surprise me if some departments add some other specific rule after this, but the cops are already weighed down with rules," he said.

Sacramento police spokeswoman Matthew said Clark could have assumed police were in the area because a Sacramento County Sheriff's Department helicopter was circling overhead.

"The officers were in full uniform and the suspect fled from them," she said.

Investigators are looking into whether the officers, who were searching the neighborhood for several minutes for a suspect, announced to Clark that they were police, Matthew said.

"With this incident and with every incident we have, we always look for ways in which we can improve," Matthew said. "However, this was very rapidly evolving."

(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento and Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Editing by Ben Klayman, Toni Reinhold)

Demonstrators march to protest the police shooting of Stephon Clark, in Sacramento, California, U.S. March 23, 2018. REUTERS/Bob Strong

(Yahoo)

By Catherine J. Frompovich

Researchers at the Ramazzini Institute in Bologna, Italy, published duplicating research results and data regarding brain and heart tumors in Sprague-Dawley rats exposed to mobile phone radiofrequencies (RFs) from prenatal life to their natural death, similar to what the National Toxicology Project research performed [1] and found to be scientifically factual.

The report, which I encourage everyone to read—especially States Public Utility Commissioners and the Federal Communications Commission—to learn and to understand what you apparently don’t know about electromagnetic frequencies transmitted using microwaves and radiofrequencies, specifically from every-day, ubiquitous cell phones, iPhones, etc.

The Conclusion of the Ramazzini study states:

The RI findings on far field exposure to RFR are consistent with and reinforce the results of the NTP study on near field exposure, as both reported an increase in the incidence of tumors of the brain and heart in RFR-exposed Sprague-Dawley rats. These tumors are of the same histotype of those observed in some epidemiological studies on cell phone users. These experimental studies provide sufficient evidence to call for the reevaluation of IARC conclusions regarding the carcinogenic potential of RFR in humans.

It’s going to be interesting to see what the NTP’s Scheduled Peer Review of March 26 to 28, 2018 comes up with. Certainly, Ramazzini Institute seemingly has called “check mate” on NTP and, personally, I truly hope there is no back-pedaling on the part of NTP reviewers. If there is, there should be total scientific backlash, in my opinion. Consensus science should not rule over actual factual science!

In my professional opinion, the World Health Organization’s IARC must update their classification for cell phone microwaves to Group 1, Carcinogenic to humans or, minimally, to Group 2A Probably Carcinogenic to humans [2].

It’s about time global and federal health agencies take seriously and remediate the health problems that have been potentiated on unsuspecting consumers, especially by the microwave technology industry, which knows microwaves are not benign.

Where are the rat studies for 5G?

References:

[1] https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/high-exposure-radiofrequency-radiation-linked-tumor-activity-male-rats
[2] http://monographs.iarc.fr/ENG/Classification/

Three teenagers were arrested in Memphis, Tennessee, after allegedly raping a teenager and broadcasting the attack on Facebook Live.

Martin Milan, 19, Antun Hester, 18, and Rayford Smith, 19, were all charged with aggravated rape and especially aggravated exploitation of a minor after the 17-year-old girl reported the attack Wednesday, reported WREG.

The girl had invited Milan to her house to have sex but when he asked if he could bring his “brother” she said she was not interested, reported the Memphis Commercial Appeal newspaper, citing the arrest affidavit.

Police have reportedly recovered text messages between the girl and Milan.

Milan later arrived at her home with Smith and Hester in tow, but she said that she was only interested in Milan and asked the others to wait in a different room while they had sex.

Several minutes later, Smith and Hester allegedly entered the teenager’s room and raped her, according to police.

Smith is accused of recording the attack on video and posting it on Facebook Live. Officers recovered the footage from his cellphone.

After the attack, the teenager allegedly hid in her grandmother’s bathroom and telephoned police.

The suspects were due to appear in court Friday, with Milan's bond set at $100,000 and Hester and Smith's at $50,000 each.

(newsweek)

A Wisconsin man who authorities said posted an advertisement on Craigslist to sell his then-4-year-old daughter for sex has been sentenced to 60 years in prison.

Andrew James Turley was sentenced Friday after a jury in Harris County, Tex., convicted him of trafficking a child and compelling prostitution of someone under the age of 18, prosecutors said. The sentence comes more than two years after Turley, 30, caught the attention of Houston police officers who saw a Craigslist ad called Play with Daddie’s Little Girl.”

Andrew James Turley (Houston Police Department)

Turley described his daughter as “younger than 10” as he arranged for a meeting with a potential client in more than 70 email exchanges, according to the Harris County district attorney’s office.

He told the client in several emails that he would give the child some sleep medication ahead of the encounter and that he charges $1,000 for two hours. The district attorney’s office said Turley implied that his daughter “might be too young for intercourse but everything else was OK.”

Unbeknown to Turley, the client was an undercover police officer.

Turley was arrested in November 2015, after the undercover officer showed up at a Houston apartment where the child was living with her mother. Turley was in Houston to visit with his daughter, prosecutors said.

The girl was in a bedroom, unresponsive and lying naked under blanket, ABC affiliate KTRKreported.

[ Infant and her 5-year-old sister, allegedly on sale for $600, rescued in FBI sex trafficking sweep ]

The child’s mother, who was not charged, did not know what Turley was doing, KTRK reported.

“This case broke my heart,” said Stewanna Miskell, one of the assistant district attorneys who prosecuted the case. “A father is supposed to be a protector not a predator. Jurors saw the need to keep him out of our community.”

Turley was sentenced to 30 years on each of the two charges. He will not be eligible for parole until he’s 75.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children said it responded to more than 10,000 reports of possible child sex trafficking in 2017. It’s unclear how many of the reports resulted in criminal charges and convictions. Staca Shehan, the organization’s executive director, said there are no reliable statistics for how many children are trafficked for sex every year in the United States.

In October, an infant and her 5-year-old sister were among the dozens of “sexually exploited juveniles” rescued after a nationwide sting that resulted in the arrests of 120 accused sex traffickers, the FBI announced. The agency said the infant and her sister were for sale for $600.

Eli Rosenberg contributed to this story.

(The Washington Post)