British Supreme Court Rules Against Unlawful Use of Prolonged Solitary Confinement

July 31, 2015 by Garrett Zehr

The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom handed down a ruling this week against the use of prolonged solitary confinement without mandatory external review.

Britain’s highest court has ruled that putting individuals in solitary confinement for an extended period of time without external review is unlawful.
The appellants Kamel Bourgass and Tanvir Hussain were both wrongfully held in solitary for more than six months because the process lacked oversight, the UK Supreme Court ruled.
“The decisions to continue the segregation of the two appellants were taken without lawful authority, and … their segregation beyond the initial 72 hours was therefore unlawful,” the court said in the unanimous ruling.
Legislation governing prison rules in Britain requires that decisions to hold someone in segregation longer than three days must be made by the Secretary of State for Justice and not by prison officials.  The Court noted that the rules are designed to provide a safeguard against excessively prolonged segregation by prison staff and that this protection can only be effective if the oversight is external to the prison.
The appellants’ also filed a human rights claim of procedural fairness under the European Convention on Human Rights, but this was dismissed.
Bourgass and Hussain were both put in solitary after being accused of assaults on other individuals.   Both were alleged to have bullied others in prison over their faith, claims the men deny. Prison officials claimed it was necessary to separate them from other prisoners “for good order and discipline.”
Bourgass was detained in segregation at Her Majesty’s Prison Whitemoor prison from March 10 to April 22, 2010 and after being released for a day was sent back until October of that year. Hussain was in segregation at HMP Frankland prison from April 24 to October 2010.
While in solitary, the men were locked in their cells for 23 hours per day and were not allowed contact with other prisoners.  Exercise was restricted to a solitary caged area and they were not allowed physical visits with visitors.
The court heard substantive evidence about the effect of segregation on individuals. The ruling cited a report published in June 2015 by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman for England and Wales that found that 28 prisoners died of suicide while being held in solitary between January 2007 March 2014.
It also quoted a Prison Service Order issued by the Secretary of State in 2013 that said: “Research into the mental health of prisoners held in solitary confinement indicates that for most prisoners there is a negative effect on their mental wellbeing and that in some cases the effects can be serious. A study by Grassian & Friedman (1986) stated that, ‘Whilst a term in solitary confinement would be difficult for a well adjusted person, it can be almost unbearable for the poorly adjusted personality types often found in a prison.’ The study reported that the prisoners became hypersensitive to noises and smells and that many suffered from several types of perceptual distortions (eg hearing voices, hallucinations and paranoia).”
The Court also noted that according to the Secretary of State, segregation was to be used only as a last resort after all other alternatives such as transfer to another area of the prison, closer supervision, and incentives, were exhausted.
Both Hussain and Bourgass are serving sentences for terrorism-related offences. Hussain was convicted for his role in a 2006 airline bomb plot while Bourgass was found guilty of a 2002 ricin terrorist plot.
A Prison Service spokesman told media after the ruling: “We are currently considering the Supreme Court judgment but are pleased it found no fault with the majority of the procedures around the segregation of prisoners. All prisoners who are segregated are already subject to a careful assessment so their physical and mental wellbeing is safeguarded.”
According to the Guardian newspaper, no individuals are expected to be released from solitary confinement as a result of the ruling. But the Howard League, a leading British prison reform organization, believes that the practice of placing people in prolonged solitary without proper review is widespread. “We welcome this landmark decision,” Howard League head Frances Crook said in a press release. “The Secretary of State for Justice will need to take urgent steps to alter the segregation process to ensure that it complies with the Prison and Young Offenders’ Rules by providing for external scrutiny of decisions to segregate beyond 72 hours.”

SC cop killed teen with two shots to the back during weed bust — and didn’t even report it

SC cop killed teen with two shots to the back during weed bust — and didn’t even report it: attorney

Police shot and killed a South Carolina man during an undercover marijuana sting — and his family’s attorney said evidence shows the 19-year-old was shot twice in the back from near-point blank range.

Zachary Hammond was shot to death Sunday night in a Hardee’s parking lot, where an undercover officer had arranged a drug buy to lure 23-year-old Tori Morton into an arrest, reported Greenville Online.



Continue reading:

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/07/sc-cop-killed-teen-with-two-shots-to-the-back-during-weed-bust-and-didnt-even-report-it-attorney/

Cincinnati Cop Who Killed Samuel DuBose Already Out of Jail

Cincinnati Cop Who Killed Samuel DuBose Already Out of Jail

 
 

By Claire Bernish | ANTIMEDIA | July 30, 2015 Cincinnati, Ohio — After spending one day in jail, University of Cincinnati police officer Ray Tensing has already been released from custody on bail following his indictment for the murder of Samuel DuBose. Meanwhile, two UC Cincinnati police officers have now been placed on leave in the fallout […]

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Mullah Akhtar Mansoor: Taliban's new leader has a reputation for moderation

Mullah Omar’s reported successor joined the group at its founding and is known to be in favour of peace talks with the Afghan government

Taliban fighters on a training exercise in 2011. Photograph: Ishtiaq Mahsud/AP

Bette Dam

Thursday 30 July 2015 20.04 BST Last modified on Friday 31 July 2015 00.01 BST

Mullah Akhtar Mansoor – believed to be the Taliban’s new leader – has an unexpected reputation as a relative moderate and vigorous proponent of peace talks, raising hopes that his leadership could pave the way for an end to years of fighting.
He was a founding member of the group, who knew Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden personally, but kept a relatively low profile until the deaths and arrests of more prominent insurgent fighters thrust him to power.
“He is known among fighters in the field as more into peace talks than Mullah Omar, and less strict,” said one Taliban commander who asked to stay anonymous.
Mansoor grew up in Maiwand district of Kandahar province in Afghanistan, and lived not far from the home of Mullah Omar when the country descended into civil war after the withdrawal of Soviet troops.
He joined the Taliban when it began as a movement to tackle venal and brutal warlords in the area, helping bring in money and guns from rich businessmen in his tribe.
The young Mullah eventually rose to become aviation minister, handling the grinding day-to-day logistics of the group’s air battles against opposing factions in the north.
He got to know Bin Laden in that period because the Saudi fighter lived not far from Kandahar airport, where Mansoor spent most of his time, and would sometimes drop by to talk with volunteer Arab fighters.

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He surrendered in 2001, like many senior Taliban; going to the new Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, to ask for amnesty and then retiring to his home district.
But American forces refused to believe that the commanders had given up fighting, and after a series of aggressive night raids he fled to Pakistan, where he helped reshape the Taliban as an insurgent force.
Initially a minor figure, he rose within the group after more senior fighters were killed or arrested by Pakistani security forces. A companion who travelled with him to Dubai in 2001, when the Taliban were discussing the expulsion of bin Laden, remembers a friendly, moderate man.
Mansoor’s name first rose to public prominence in 2010 when western intelligence officials spent tens of thousands of dollars ferrying a “senior commander” to Kabul for peace talks, only to discover that they had been courting an imposter, a grocer pretending to be Mansoor.
Mansoor has never publicly commented on what was widely seen as a debacle for the Nato forces fighting in Afghanistan.

Taliban officially announce death of Mullah Omar

Read more

The real Mansoor had been a strong advocate of peace talks, and supported meetings in Doha this year, where for the first time the Taliban used the word “election” and made more moderate statements about the role of women.
As deputy leader already, he takes up the top role from a position of strength, but this is the Taliban’s first leadership transition and it may take some time to see how strong his grip on power is.
Rivals likely to vie for influence include Mullah Omar’s son, Yacoub, who reportedly walked out of a meeting about the succession in anger, and former military leader Abdul Qayum Zakir.
Zakir is a hardliner who has been in conflict with Mansoor for years now, and has a strong power base in Helmand province.

PA announces government reshuffle, Hamas calls move a 'coup'

JULY 30, 2015 6:11 P.M. (UPDATED: JULY 30, 2015 6:14 P.M.)

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BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- The Palestinian Authority on Thursday announced that a long awaited reshuffle of the Palestinian cabinet had been agreed upon, Palestinian officials told Ma'an.

Hussein al-Araj, formerly the Deputy Minister of Local Governance and Governor of Nablus and Hebron, will serve as the Minister of Local Governance, sources said.

Sabri Saydam will serve as the Minister of Education. He formerly served as the Minister of Communications and Information Technology.

Former Minister of Public Works, Deputy Minister of Planning and International Cooperation, and representative of The Palestine Investment Fund, Samih al-Abed, will become the Minister of Transportation.

Sufian Sultan, the former head of the Palestinian Environmental Authority -- which was later merged, in part, into the Ministry of Agriculture -- will serve as the Minister of Agriculture, while Abeer Odeh will serve as the Minister of National Economy. 

Odeh served as the CEO of Palestine Capital Market Authority, a governmental financial institution.

The new ministers will be sworn-in on Friday after prayers in the Palestinian Presidential headquarters in Ramallah.

There had been talk of a reshuffle for months, but in mid-June it was announced at a Fatah council meeting that the entire government would soon be dissolved.

The reshuffle is an attempt to preserve and reform the body, instead of dismantling it.

The unity government was formed in June 2014 in a bid to end division between the Fatah-led PLO and Hamas, but has so far been unsuccessful in doing so.

The Hamas movement said Thursday that it disapproved of the unity government's reshuffle and called the move “unconstitutional and outside consensus.”

Hamas spokesperson, Sami Abu Zuhri, added that the reshuffle represents a coup on the unity deal and said that the PA has become a separatist government.

Officials told Ma'an in June that Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah's resignation was an imminent part of the reshuffle, but it has yet to officially materialize.

Hamdallah also serves as the Minister of Interior.

The other 19 ministry positions have remained unchanged. Currently, four ministers hold positions as heads of up to three different ministries.

Attempts for reform came after the unity government formed in June last year repeatedly failed to overcome divisive issues between Fatah and Hamas.

Power has remained divided between the Hamas-led Gaza Strip and Fatah-dominated West Bank since 2007.

http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=766752

Alberta Teachers Sharing Their Own Food With Hungry Students

Alberta Teachers Sharing Their Own Food With Hungry Students: Survey

It appears most Alberta teachers are serving up more than just lesson plans to their students. Read more.

Taiwan soap company denied trademark because name ‘refers to gay sex’

IP office says the name Soap Picker would be 'detrimental to good morals'

Soap Picker's logo incorporates a buttocks in its design.

Photo via Facebook

29 July 2015 by Darren Wee

A handmade soap company in Taiwan had its trademark application denied because its name ‘refers to gay sex’ and would be ‘detrimental to good morals.’

The owner of Soap Picker Studios, Miss Chiang, posted a letter from the Intellectual Property Office on Facebook that said the term ‘pick up the soap’ referred to ‘gay men’s sexual behavior.’
The letter, dated 28 July, goes to say that the name would give an ‘unpleasant impression’ and therefore it could not be registered under regulations on trademarks ‘detrimental to public order or good morals.’
Jiang has already appealed the decision.
‘Strange, since you are a girl, if gay men want  got to do with you!’ she wrote on Facebook, referring to a Miss Kuo at the IP office.
Soap Picker’s logo designer, Kris Chu, criticized the IP office’s action as ‘not only arrogant, but also discriminatory.’
He admitted that the logo incorporates a human buttocks in its design, but said businesses had the right to choose what logo to use.
He said the intellectual property department could only advise businesses to reconsider, not deny registration.

LGBT website founder fined under Russia's gay propaganda laws

Yelena Klimova fined 50,000 roubles after court rules Deti-404 site guilty of distributing ‘propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations among minors’

Anti-gay rights activists stand on a rainbow flag during a protest in Moscow. Deti-404 (Children-404) is one of the few platforms for Russian teenagers to discuss LGBT issues in a safe space. Photograph: Maxim Shemetov / Reuters/REUTERS

Alec Luhn in Moscow

Wednesday 29 July 2015 15.31 BST Last modified on Wednesday 29 July 2015 17.03 BST

The founder of an online community for LGBT teenagers in Russia has been fined under the country’s law against gay propaganda.
Elena Klimova was fined 50,000 roubles (£540) after a court in Nizhny Tagil concluded that Deti-404, which has pages on Facebook and Russian social network VK, was guilty of distributing “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations among minors”. Klimova said she would appeal against the ruling.
Kilmova successfully appealed against a fine levied by a court in the same town in January.
With parents and teachers often unsympathetic or even hostile, Deti-404 (Children-404) is one of the few platforms for Russian teenagers to discuss LGBT issues in a safe space. Nearly every day, young people write in with stories and photographs – with their faces and names often hidden – describing the harassment, beatings and confusion they suffer due to their sexuality.
The group has recently come under attack by the authorities and pro-Kremlin activists. At the request of the local prosecutor general’s office, a court in St Petersburg in March found Deti-404 guilty of gay propaganda and ruled that its VK page should be blacklisted. The court said it would have the state communications watchdog block the page, but it has remained accessible. Klimova said she also intends to appeal against this ruling.
Putin signed the law against gay propaganda in June 2013. Later that year, gay rights campaigner Nikolai Alexeyev and fellow activist Yaroslav Yevtushenko became the first people to be fined under the law after they stood outside a library in Arkhangelsk with banners that said: “Gay propaganda does not exist. People do not become gay, people are born gay.”
A newspaper editor in Khabarovsk was also fined under the law after he ran an article about gay rights activist Alexander Yermoshkin, who said he had been assaulted and forced to quit his job because of his sexuality.
Activists have said the legislation has resulted in increased harassment and violence against LGBT people, especially teenagers.

Russian anti-gay law prompts rise in homophobic violence

“The law against gay propaganda legitimised violence against LGBT people, and they now are banning street actions under it,” Klimova said. “People are afraid because they understand that gay propaganda is banned, and even mentioning LGBT relations is essentially forbidden.”
Klimova herself has been the subject of vituperative online commentary after creating Deti-404 in spring 2013. In April, she published a photo album on her social media page called “Beautiful People and What They Say to Me,” where she paired users’ profile pictures with threatening, expletive-laced messages they had sent her. “Go and fucking kill yourself before before they come for you,” wrote a woman pictured smiling with a bouquet of roses in her profile picture. “Gunning you down, you little bitch, is just the beginning of what you deserve,” wrote a man pictured alongside a baby goat.
Earlier this month, Yermoshkin left Russia following a state television broadcast that claimed to show US intelligence agents recruiting him to hold LGBT rallies in Russia. The activist said the conversation with the supposed intelligence agents was a setup and he cooperated out of concern for his safety.

Dear Straight Men, Come Out Already

Posted: 07/30/2015 11:39 am EDT Updated: 07/30/2015 11:59 am EDT

Apparently, they called it a "bro-job," which referred to the oral sex the male rowers occasionally engaged in with one another in the showers back in high school. Or at least that's what my friend told me. Neither he nor any of the other guys on the team identified as gay, but according to his reports, they would often hook up post-practice, but "like bros, you know? Not in a gay way."
Every time we talked about it, we always stalemated on the same issues. How can a guy hook up with another and still be straight? Isn't the act of hooking up with and sexually desiring someone of the same sex inherently gay?
Jane Ward may attempt to shed some light on this in her up and coming book, Not Gay: Sex Between Straight White Men. Crotch-deep in the world of "straight guy-on-guy action," Not Gay explores the ways in which straight men engage in sexual activity with other straight men. According to the NYU Press release, "Ward illustrates that sex between straight white men allows them to leverage whiteness and masculinity to authenticate their heterosexuality in the context of sex with men."
But controlling for race, can engaging in homosexual sex really reaffirm a man's heterosexuality? Can being with another man make him more straight? Or is it more like the "one-drop rule" -- one homosexual interaction and you are forever labeled gay? All of this begs and points to the million-dollar question: Is it the act or the person that makes someone gay or straight? And to this, I look to the split between "identity" and "preference."
I believe that there is a distinct difference between "gay" and "homosexual." By definition, homo- and heterosexuality refer specifically to a person's sexual attraction or preference. In other words, it merely relates to whether the individual prefers or is attracted to partners of the same or opposite sex. Meanwhile, "gay" and "straight" are identities or social categories, which can only fully be assigned to an individual when self-proclaimed, either via declaration or coercion. Thus, I believe that a person is not truly gay until "out," or in the worst-case scenario, "out-ed."
Following this logic, I think that an out gay man can have sex with a woman and still be seen as rightfully gay. While the preference and act may be heterosexual, the individual identifies as gay, and identity trumps act. However, as soon as the roles are reversed, everything feels highly suspect. If a straight man has sex with a man, how can he still be straight?
I posit that this suspicion comes from the nature of the LGBT identity as self-selecting. Because sexual orientation is unlike other forms of identity, which are typically seen as inscribed on the body at birth -- race, gender, ability -- sexual orientation and identity can only be known by the individual. You mark it yourself, ideally, if and when you are ready to do so.
At the same time, we live in a hegemonically heteronormative society. What this means is that "straight" is the presumed default. So, while the gay man must internalize, come to terms with and re-present his sexuality back out into the world, the straight man simply has to be born. Everyone is straight until proven guilty.
This puts straight people in a tenuous position, as their sexual identities never have to be proven outside of the act of sex. Which is why, I believe, straight men who hook up with other men are regarded with such sexual suspicion. To the third party observer, these identities have gone unchecked and unquestioned, and because of this, it is unclear if these actions are part of the individual's preference and identity or the beginning of a self-exploration process that may end in a gay declarative.
So, to Ward's Not Gay point, I think straight men can engage in homosexual sex and still be deemed socially acceptably straight, if and only if they too come out -- as straight. Rather than simply accepting their unmarked, default straight identity, they should have to interrogate, work through, accept and ultimately present their sexuality back out to the world.
Everyone should go through this process of self-identification. Think about what you prefer. Why do you prefer it? Are you OK with that? If the answer is yes, keep going. Keep questioning it. Keep rethinking what it is that you like and how it changes. And if and when you're ready to tell the world, do it, unabashed and unashamed.
I honestly believe that if everyone did this, the world would be a more understanding place. Through the process of sexual and preference based interrogation, people would realize that sexuality is a fluid spectrum, with preferences ebbing and flowing through all forms of attraction. And while identity may encompass specific subsets of these spectrums, the mere act of questioning them individually would do away with much of the long held beliefs, assumptions, and prejudices surrounding marriage, partnership and equal rights.
So, bottom line: coming out shouldn't just be for the gays. It should be for everyone -- a coming of age process that all people are lucky enough to take part in. And if you do that and bro-jobs are still your thing, by all means, proceed. No questions asked.

‘Rubber stamp for endless detention’: Judge rejects Gitmo detainee’s legal challenge

‘Rubber stamp for endless detention’: Judge rejects Gitmo detainee’s legal challenge

RT | July 31, 2015

A federal judge has rejected a legal challenge from a Guantanamo Bay inmate who said his continued imprisonment was unlawful since President Barack Obama had declared an end to the war in Afghanistan. The detainee has been held for 13 years.
The challenge brought by lawyers for detainee Muktar Yahya Najee al-Warafi said the Obama administration’s statement that the war in Afghanistan had come to an end made their client’s detention unlawful under the Authorization for the Use of Military Force of 2001. The authorization provides legal justification for imprisoning foreign fighters captured overseas.
The plaintiff’s argument also pointed to President Obama’s January 2015 speech declaring that “our combat mission in Afghanistan is over.”
The Washington, DC federal judge, Royce Lambert, wrote in his 14-page opinion that the president’s statement notwithstanding, the government had offered “convincing evidence the US involvement in the fighting in Afghanistan, against Al-Qaeda and Taliban forces alike, has not stopped,” and that al-Warafi’s detention remains legal.
“A court cannot look to political speeches alone to determine factual and legal realities merely because doing so would be easier than looking at all the relevant evidence,” Lambeth wrote, according to a report by the Associated Press. “The government may not always mean what it says or say what it means.”
Brain Foster, a lawyer for al-Warafi, said the judge’s opinion amounted to “a rubber stamp for endless detention” and would review the opinion to decide whether to appeal.
Foster also took to Twitter to say al-Warafi had worked in medical clinics in Afghanistan, a position that would provide him with protection under The Geneva Conventions.
Al-Warafi, a Yemeni, was captured in Afghanistan by the Northern Alliance in 2001 before being detained by the US at Guantanamo in 2002.
More than 700 inmates have been held at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, at a cost of more than $5 billion, since it opened in 2002 in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. The facility has been mired in scandal throughout its history, with allegations of torture, force feeding and sexual abuse.
There are still 116 detainees at the prison. Speaking at national security conference in Aspen, Colorado on July 24, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said it “doesn’t make fiscal sense” to keep Guantanamo open.
Johnson said that it costs nearly $900,000 per year to house each prisoner at Guantanamo, amounting to a total cost of more than $100 million per year. In comparison, he said the cost of housing an inmate in a high-security federal prison was $80,000.

Los Angeles city council bans high-capacity gun magazines

Los Angeles city council bans high-capacity gun magazines

Thursday 30 July 2015 at 9:07 AM ET by William Helbling

©  WikiMedia (Cryillic)

[JURIST] The Los Angeles City Council [official website] on Tuesday passed [roll call] an ordinance [text, PDF] banning high-capacity gun magazines. The new rule will take effect in one year and provides a 60-day widow to allow citizens to legally turn over their high-capacity magazines. According to the new ordinance, a high-capacity magazine is defined as "any detachable ammunition feeding device with the capacity to accept more than 10 rounds." While it is a misdemeanor to possess the magazines, the new rule provides exemptions for a person who is a federal or state employee whose job entails the use of certain firearms.
Gun control has been the center of attention since the Newtown, Connecticut, shooting in December 2012. Last December the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled [JURIST report] that a law prohibiting individuals who have been committed to a mental institution for any amount of time from possessing a firearm is unconstitutional under the Second Amendment. This court was the first to strike down a federal gun law under the Second Amendment since the Supreme Court [official website] effectively struck down [opinion] Washington, DC's ban on firearm ownership six years ago. However, mass shootings in Colorado, Connecticut and elsewhere have spurred some state legislatures to create and adopt gun control laws. In August a federal judge for the US District Court for the District of Maryland [official website] upheld [JURIST report] portions of Maryland's gun control law, which banned certain types of "assault weapons" and a limited gun magazines to 10 rounds, explaining that the law served a legitimate government interest of ensuring public safety. In June a judge for the US District Court for the District of Colorado [official website] upheld [JURIST report] two Colorado statutes that expanded mandatory background checks and banned high capacity magazines.

India executes man convicted in 1993 bombings

India executes man convicted in 1993 bombings

Thursday 30 July 2015 at 10:55 AM ET by Alexandra Farone

©  WikiMedia (Deepak Gupta)

[JURIST] Yakub Memon, convicted in the 1993 Mumbai bombings, was executed by hanging on Thursday at the Nagpur Central Jail. Memon's case has divided India, with many criticizing the decision to execute [Times of India (TOI) report] him. Former India Supreme Court [official website] judge Markandey Katju criticized [JURIST report] the decision earlier this week. Katju called it a "gross travesty of justice" that Memon was convicted on weak evidence, citing the police's affinity for planting evidence and using torture to gain confessions. Fearing public unrest, Mumbai has tightened security [TOI report] in light of the execution, particularly in the areas where Memon's family resides.
Yakub Memon has been in prison since 1994, when the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) [official website] purportedly arrested him in Kathmandu. Sources in the Mumbai Police department said he had returned voluntarily. In July 2007 an Indian court sentenced [JURIST report] Memon to death for orchestrating the attacks that spread havoc throughout the city and included a horrific attack on the Bombay Stock Exchange. Memon is the brother of the attack mastermind "Tiger" Memon who currently remains at large. In March 2013 the Indian Supreme Court upheld [JURIST report] Memon's death sentence. The court, in upholding the sentence, found that his actions were "carried out with utter disregard to human life and dignity" which justifies the rare imposition of the death penalty.

Appeals court rules letter to abortion clinic not necessarily protected speech

Appeals court rules letter to abortion clinic not necessarily protected speech

Thursday 30 July 2015 at 11:42 AM ET by Laura DeGeer

©  WikiMedia (Dave Walker from Birmingham, AL, USA)

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit [official website] on Tuesday overturned [opinion, PDF] a summary decision that an anti-abortion activist's letter was protected speech under the First Amendment [LII backgrounder]. Angel Dillard had written a letter to a doctor, who had publicly announced plans to open an abortion clinic, claiming that someone may place a bomb under the doctor's car. The original complaint [complaint, PDF] asserted that the letter violated the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE) [text]. The US District Court for the District of Kansas [official website] held [opinion, PDF] that "the government...failed to demonstrate the existence of a true threat" and the letter was therefor protected speech as a matter of law. The Court of Appeals, however, held that the question of whether Dillard's letter constituted a "true threat or mere political speech" is not clear and must be put to a jury on remand.
Abortion [JURIST news archive] related issues have been a heated topic of discussion for the past several years in the US. In July Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker signed into law [JURIST report] the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, limiting the ability of a woman to seek an abortion more than 20 weeks into her pregnancy. Last month the US Supreme Court granted a motion to stay [JURIST report], allowing over half of Texas' 18 abortion clinics to stay open by temporarily blocking a law that would place stringent requirements on clinics requiring the majority of them to close. Also last month a Kansas judge for the Shawnee County District Court blocked a law [JURIST report] that would have effectively banned most second-trimester abortions performed in the state. In May the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit struck down [JURIST report] portions of two Idaho abortion laws.

Evidence of war crimes by Israel in retaliation for captured soldier

AI: Evidence of war crimes by Israel in retaliation for captured soldier

Thursday 30 July 2015 at 11:48 AM ET by Dominic Yobbi

©  WikiMedia (ISM Palestine)

[JURIST] Amnesty International (AI) [official website] on Wednesday released a report [official report] that points to evidence of war crimes committed by Israel in the August 2014 retaliation for the capture of an Israeli soldier by Hamas [BBC backgrounder]. By analyzing hundreds of photos, videos, satellite images and eyewitness testimony, researchers allege that Israeli forces targeted entire areas of the city of Rafah in Gaza with disregard to civilian and residential areas. The attacks led to 135 Palestinian civilian deaths, including 75 children. The capture of Israeli Lieutenant Hadar Goldin led to Israel implementing the "Hannibal Directive", which allowed Israeli soldiers to use great force in responding to the capture of a soldier. The report notes that in accordance to this directive, the Israeli soldiers may have been motivated by revenge when using such extreme force on the city of Rafah. This is emphasized by the fact that even though Goldin was declared dead on August 2nd, one day after attacks began on August 1st, the Israelis decided to continue their brutal attacks until August 4th. Israel claims that the report is flawed [Jerusalem Post report] in its methodologies and facts.
The Israel-Palestine conflict [HRW backgrounder] continues to be a significant international legal issue. In June Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said that he had presented documents [JURIST report] to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to assist in the investigation of alleged Israeli war crimes. Also in June a report released [JURIST report] by the UN Independent Commission of Inquiry on the 2014 Gaza Conflict found that both Israel and Hamas may have committed war crimes during the conflict. In May AI accused [JURIST report] Hamas forces of leading a series of abductions, torturous acts and unlawful killings against Palestinians. In April a UN independent board of inquiry announced [JURIST report] that it uncovered evidence that at least 44 Palestinians were killed by "Israeli actions" while sheltering at UN locations during the Gaza conflict.

Palestinian toddler burned to death in settlers’ arson attack

Palestinian toddler burned to death in settlers’ arson attack

 

July 31, 2015 By FalastinNews Staff 

 

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NABLUS, — A Palestinian toddler was burned to death while three of his family members were injured at dawn Friday after a group of settlers deliberately set fire in two homes in Duma town south of Nablus.
The one-and-a-half years old toddler Ali Saad Dawabsha died after sustaining serious burns, said the local activist Ghassan Daghlas.
His mother and father, Riham and Saad, and their son Ahmad, 4, also sustained moderate injuries and were evacuated to a nearby hospital, he added.
Daghlas clarified that the group of settlers from nearby settlements also threw firebombs at a second home belonging to Maamoon Dawabsha, located at the entrance to the town.
Racist graffiti and anti-Arab slogans were sprayed across both homes reading “revenge” and “long live the Messiah” in Hebrew, Daghlas added.
Shortly after the arson attack, the Palestinian Authority held the Israeli government fully responsible for “the heinous crime.”
This crime would not have happened if the Israeli government didn’t insist on settlement expansion and settlers’ protection, spokesman for the PA Nabil Abu Roudeina said.
He also charged that the international community’s continued silence paved the way for more Israeli settler attacks.
He vowed to prosecute all those responsible for and involved in the crime before the international criminal court.
Source: english.palinfo.com

Why Mormons are so devastated by the Boy Scout vote on gay leaders

The Boy Scouts’ vote Monday to lift its ban on openly gay troop leaders was a blow to traditional faith groups heavily involved in scouting, but perhaps to none more than the Mormon Church, in which scouting and the religious life of boys are deeply intertwined.

Mormons have been deeply invested in Boy Scouts for more than a century, and any boy who goes to a Mormon congregation is automatically part of the Boy Scouts. The rites and rituals of the church are intentionally connected with those of the scouts: As you rise through becoming a deacon, a teacher and then a priest – rites of passage for Mormon teen males – at the same time you rise through scout positions as well. The local bishop selects scoutmasters. Many of the 16 presidents of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints received high scout honors.

The Boy Scouts is, literally, the youth program of the Mormon Church for boys, a bond forged because the church saw their core values as the same: Patriotism and devotion to God. The Mormon Church is also the largest Boy Scout charter; about 20 percent of all scouts are Mormon.

Boy Scout leaders vote to end ban on gay adults(1:33)

Eric Hay of Scouts for Equality praised the Boy Scout leaders' vote to allow gay adults to lead. Pastor Robert Jeffress criticized the decision, saying Christians may now send their boys to other organizations. (AP)

Reconciling its relationship with the Boy Scouts as the national youth group become more accepting of  gay equality appears to be growing more difficult for the Mormon Church, whose press office put out a statement Monday, saying leaders were “deeply troubled” by the lifting of the ban, as well as by the fact that they had asked for a delay in the vote because the church bureaucracy takes off in July.

Facing litigation, the Scouts Monday approved a new policy allowing troops to pick openly-gay volunteer leaders and banning discrimination in the hiring of employees. But it leaves it to individual troops and councils, most of which are faith-based, to choose leaders who reflect their own values.

Church officials declined to elaborate on the statement Tuesday. But it puzzled some observers because the Mormon Church has made high-profile efforts in the last year or so to soften its comments about sexuality and the place of gays and lesbians.

This spring gay advocates and Mormon leaders in Utah made headlines when they announced they’d been secretly meeting for many months and had hammered out a compromise to ban discrimination in housing and employment against LGBT people. Both sides said they were willing to recognize the needs of the other.

[Here’s the story of the unlikely compromise Mormons, gay leaders hammered out in Utah]

One detail of that compromise, however, may shed light on the new tension over the Scouts: The sole requirement church leaders had at the time was that there be an exemption in the compromise legislation for the Boy Scouts, so they could continue to not hire openly gay employees.

On Tuesday Mormons and longtime church observers were trying to sort out what was going on. Was the church being sidelined by its longtime partner? Why did the church seem blindsided by a vote that had been in the making for some time? Was this really a shift away from compromise? Is it possible to imagine the Mormon Church separating from scouting?

Jim Dabakis, an openly gay Utah senator who was involved in that compromise, said the church statement was “puzzling” but that he suspected it was part of the overall flux in a country feeling the push-pull of competing rights – those of traditional religious believers and those of LGBT people.

“I suspect there is some post-same-sex-marriage-ruling jitters there,” he said, referring to the Supreme Court’s recent finding of a constitutional right to same-gender marriage. “It’s been a long, hard road on LGBT issues for all sides, and these social battles go back and forth, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.”

Rather than making a dramatic move away from scouting, a core of Mormon life, Dabakis – who grew up Mormon – said he hopes his bargaining partners would wait a while to see how the changes plays out. “Don’t respond in the heat of either victory or losing. It’s just bad policy.”

Mormon blogs from progressive ones to those closely affiliated with the church showed a range of views, from church members applauding the move either because they don’t like Boy Scout programming or because they oppose gay equality, to those who were embarrassed by the church’s statement because it seemed condemning of gays. When the Scouts welcomed openly gay youth in 2013, the Mormon Church made clear that its teachings call all youth to chastity and that gay youth are welcome along with straight youth. In other words, they tried to downplay the difference.

“Wow. What an I’m-taking-my-ball-home comment! If Scouting is good for young American men, then it will surely remain good whatever the outcome of the vote. And to be grumpy like this in public seems remarkably impolitic,” Ronan James Head wrote on the popular progressive Mormon blog bycommonconsent.

Some complained that the girls’ youth programs aren’t as extensive.

Commenters on the church-run ksl.com news site debated the wisdom of church officials who said this week that the Mormon Church may break off and form its own youth program, one that matches church teachings and thus would be easier for the church to adapt to its many overseas missions. Some said the Scout vote was a good reason to leave while others said the prominence and history of the Boy Scouts would not be simple to replace.

“I’ve been waiting for the day when the church will drop the scouting program. I hope this was the last straw. It overshadows the Duty to God program which is paramount to anything regarding the young men these days. Forget the basket-weaving merit badge; time to refocus our efforts on that which really matters,” one ksl.com commenter wrote.

Quin Monson, a political scientist at Brigham Young University – who is also a Mormon who was in scouts, and whose son is in scouts – said Tuesday that the church statement doesn’t reflect the fact that the Mormon Church has sought more conciliatory positions on hot-button issues than some other religiously conservative faiths.

Monson, who last year published “Seeking the Promised Land: Mormons and American Politics,” said his research shows that Mormons – more than evangelical Protestants, among others – are more open to compromises such as civil unions and are becoming increasingly so.

“I think if you read between the lines [of the church’s statement Monday], they were just trying to get this to slow down and have a conversation. My guess is it’s not necessarily a visceral negative reaction,” he said.

The Catholic Church’s scouting association put out a statement Monday saying the new policy seemed workable — if it continues to allow church-affiliated troops to pick their own leaders, and if clear guidelines are set for how “sexual orientation” is described. Catholic teaching accepts that people are gay or lesbian in their identity but forbids same-sex sexual behavior.

[Here is the Catholic Church’s new statement]

Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s public policy arm, said Southern Baptist churches have been “cooling” toward the Boy Scouts in recent years due to their opening on gay issues. “This will probably bring that cooling to a freeze,” Moore told The Associated Press.

Mormon Church leaders said Tuesday that they wouldn’t expect any comment until August, when their full leadership regroups.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2015/07/28/why-mormons-are-so-devastated-by-the-boy-scout-vote-on-gay-leaders/

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New Jersey State Trooper Fires Gun at Teens for Mistakenly Knocking on his Door

New Jersey State Trooper Fires Gun at Teens for Mistakenly Knocking on his Door

By Carlos Miller | PINAC | July 30, 2015

Three teens mistakenly walked up to the home of a New Jersey state trooper at 2 a.m. last Sunday and began knocking on the door, thinking it was their friend’s home, who lives on the same block.
But when a man on the other side of the door began yelling and cursing at them, they realized they had the wrong home and began walking back to their car.
When the angry man stepped out of the home, they began running and hopped in their car.
And when they saw him aiming a gun with a laser pointer towards them, they stepped on the accelerator to make their escape down the street in front of the home.
But the off-duty trooper, whose name is Kissinger Barreau, stepped into the street and fired three shots, including one that struck the tire.
“We realize it’s a gun and we panic. I’m like ‘dude, dude, dude, accelerate,’” Jesse Barkhorn told NJ.com.
What they didn’t realize was that the man who shot at them was a cop, which meant that his buddies were going to do everything they could to justify firing a gun at three teens who were not even on his property anymore.
About a mile-and-half away from the trooper’s home, once they believed they were safe from the crazy gunman, they stopped the car and one of the teens called his mom to tell her what had happened. He then called police to tell them what had happened.
Minutes later, when the teens noticed police helicopter and police dogs conducting a search in the area, they figured the cops were looking for the trigger-happy gunman.
But then they found themselves surrounded by cops, who searched and handcuffed them before leaving them in the back of a patrol car for hours on accusations that they had attempted to burglarize his home.
They were then driven down to Sparta police headquarters where they were photographed and placed in different cells.
Then they were transported to State Police Barracks where they were handcuffed to a steel bench for five hours before they were interrogated.
During that interrogation, police kept trying to get the teens to say they drove the car towards the cops, which, of course, would have made him fear for his life and justify the shooting.
But the teens just wouldn’t take the bait.
“That’s the exact opposite of what we were trying to do. We were just scared and trying to get out of there with our lives,” Barkhorn told the local news site.
The teens were eventually released when the cops confirmed that they did have a friend living on the same block and realized they were not going to admit to something they did not do.
And that was unfortunate for them because it meant they had to investigate their fellow trooper and we know they don’t like doing that. At least not very thoroughly.
The investigation is now being conducted by the state attorney general’s office, who are predictably taking a very pro-cop stance.
According to NJ.com:

The state attorney general’s office says its preliminary investigation has found an off-duty state trooper fired three shots from his personal gun as three teens fled his street in a car early Sunday morning — an account that’s largely consistent with what one of the teens has told NJ Advance Media.
But not entirely consistent.
Both say the teens knocked on the trooper’s Whispering Woods Lane door late at night after mistaking his home for a friend’s. Both say the trooper came downstairs with a gun — the AG’s office says it was his personal handgun. What the AG’s office describes as a “verbal exchange through the door,” teen Jesse Barkhorn, 18, describes as yelling and cursing by the trooper.
And both say that as the teens got in their car and fled, the trooper entered the street with the gun.
Where they notably differ: According to the AG’s office, the trooper says he identified himself as a trooper and pursued the teens on foot as they fled. Barkhorn says the trooper never identified himself.

It’s going to be interesting to see how this pans out because it appears that the only way to justify the shooting would be to criminalize the teens, either accusing them of trying to run the cop over or fleeing the scene even after they were told he was a cop, which should not make a difference considering anybody can claim they are a cop when they are out of uniform.

Who Put Confederate Flags Around Martin Luther King Jr.'s Church?

Disgusting.

Carol Kuruvilla Associate Religion Editor

Posted: 07/30/2015 11:38 AM EDT | Edited: 45 minutes ago

Dr. Raphael Warnock received the disturbing news on Thursday morning -- someone had draped four confederate flags around the campus of his church in Atlanta.
It would be unnerving for any black church to find Confederate flags on its grounds. But this was the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, the spiritual home of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It’s where the beloved civil rights leader was baptized, preached fiery sermons on freedom, and eulogized after his death.
It’s very clear for Warnock that the perpetrators -- who, according to security tape, may have been two white men -- were motivated by hatred. One of the flags was planted right underneath a sign that said, “Black Lives Matter.”
“Perhaps the message is that black lives don’t matter,” Warnock told HuffPost. “I certainly view this as a cowardly act by misguided individuals.”
Activists on Twitter seemed to agree.

If he had a chance, Warnock said he’d be happy to sit down with the culprits, pray for them, and hear about what caused them to target his church in this way.
Since the church shooting in Charleston, Warnock said that Ebenezer has been in the process of upgrading its security protocols. After Thursday’s events, he says the church will continue to tighten security.
But he won’t let this deter the church from its mission.
“This will deepen our resolve to fight for freedom and against hatred and injustice,” Warnock said. “We will continue to worship and serve our community, as we’ve been doing since 1886.”

More from The Associated Press:
ATLANTA (AP) — Confederate battle flags were stealthily placed on the grounds of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s church, and authorities said Thursday they were looking for two white males who were recorded on surveillance camera leaving the banners behind.
Atlanta police Chief George Turner said his agency was working with federal authorities and they have not determined what charges might be levied. Turner said they have not ruled out a hate crime.
The Rev. Raphael Warnock, senior pastor at King's home church Ebenezer Baptist, called it a "terroristic threat."
"It is a hateful act," he said. "I view it as an effort to intimidate us in some way, and we will not be intimidated."
It was the latest volley in the fight over the Confederate flag and Civil War-era monuments ever since a white gunman was accused of killing nine black church members in South Carolina. Statues of the Confederacy have been vandalized around the South, and state governments in South Carolina and Alabama have removed battle flags entirely from Capitol grounds.
Atlanta police officer Gary Wade said a maintenance worker discovered the flags at 6 a.m. Thursday and notified the National Park Service, which operates The King Center.
"Our grounds men were so upset, they took pictures and then they moved them," said the Rev. Shannon Jones of Ebenezer Baptist.

The flags weren't stuck in the ground but instead set neatly on top of it. One was placed on the ground near a bell tower and poster that said: "Black Lives Matter." The slogan has become part of a movement of civil rights supporters who say police treat blacks unfairly.
A conference on the role on black churches in social justice issues has been going on in Ebenezer's facilities. Warnock said the hateful act only strengthens their resolve, and he promised the city would remain peaceful.
Confederate flags have been placed at the King Center before.
"It was disturbing and sickening, but unfortunately not terribly surprising," Warnock said of the latest incident. "We've seen this kind of ugliness before."
King preached at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, which is near the new church where the congregation now meets and where the flags were placed.
The King Center complex is near the eastern edge of downtown Atlanta. It is centered on Auburn Avenue, once a bustling center of commerce for Atlanta's African-American businesses and residents.
The center and church are a short walk from the home of Martin Luther King Jr.'s maternal grandparents, where the late civil rights leader lived for the first 12 years of his life.