[NYT] BRENTWOOD, N.Y. -- Four dead teenagers. Two weeks. One town. And a ruthless gang, the authorities say, was most likely responsible for the toll. Again.
On Sept. 13, Nisa Mickens, 15, and her best friend, Kayla Cuevas, 16, were murdered, their battered bodies found near an elementary school here. A week later and just two miles away, the skeletal remains of two more teenagers -- identified as Oscar Acosta, 19, and Miguel Garcia-Moran, 15 -- were found in the woods near a psychiatric hospital. Oscar had been missing since May, Miguel since February. Their deaths have been ruled homicides.
Brentwood, a hardscrabble town of nearly 60,000 on Long Island, 40 miles east of Manhattan, has reached another crisis point. For nearly two decades, MS-13, a gang with roots in Los Angeles and El Salvador, has been terrorizing the town, the authorities say, especially its young people. Since 2009, its members have been accused of at least 14 murders, court and police records show.
School officials are scrambling. Police officers are searching. Students are frightened. Parents are anguished.
"It’s so hard, I’m hurting," Evelyn Rodriguez, Kayla's mother, said last week. "I wish I could hold my daughter again."
#1
The path to such a plan, however, runs through a fractured Suffolk County. Its former police chief is headed to jail, its district attorney is under federal investigation and a Justice Department settlement mandated changes in the Police Department in 2013 after findings of bias against Latino residents.
#3
If the government can't or won't provide security in your person, your family or your property, it's no longer anymore legitimate than someone else who will. Both will expect 'taxes'. Why pay two?
[SouthAfricaToday] Officers shot and killed a man in south Los Angeles at the end of a car chase on Saturday, sparking protest by several dozen people frustrated by another fatal police shooting of a black man.
The chase began when officers tried to pull over a car with paper plates, suspecting the vehicle may have been stolen, and the driver refused to stop, Sgt. Barry Montgomery said. He said the passenger got out of the car during the pursuit and ran into the back of a house, where he was shot. The driver fled the scene and remained on the loose.
Early Sunday morning, the Los Angeles Police Department said in a statement that it found a handgun at the scene of the shooting. The department did not provide any more information about the gun.
The shooting drew several dozen people to the scene. As news of what happened spread, a group of several dozen protesters blocked an intersection near the house Saturday night. Some people waved signs that read “Black Lives Matter,” and others shouted at officers standing behind yellow police tape and wearing riot helmets.
Relatives of the dead man in Los Angeles identified him as 18-year-old Carnell Snell Jr., and they told the Times he was killed on the same street where he lived.
Was he a gentle giant and an aspiring rap artist?
His mother and his little sister love him -- will that do?
#1
Relatives of the dead man in Los Angeles identified him as 18-year-old Carnell Snell Jr., and they told the Times he was killed on the same street where he lived.
...Given that the LAPD has been told to avoid shootouts, I'd be willing to bet that Carnell thought that if he got back home before the cops could nail him, he could start yelling about being Persecuted By The Man(TM) and a bunch of armed people would have come out the door to voice their disapproval - at the very least outnumbering the police, and possibly convincing them that it just wasn't worth it for a stolen hooptie.
Seems to me Mr Snell was just off a few crucial seconds in his timing, and had he been smart enough to keep that piece holstered (or in whatever pocket/elastic band/orifice he might have been keeping it) there's a good chance he might have walked free.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
10/03/2016 6:06 Comments ||
Top||
#2
I wonder if we get more shooting of black by police because black perps feel more secure and behave more aggressively now?
#3
I don't know if we do get more police shootings of young black males now than we did before. Is anybody keeping statistics? Is anybody reporting the statistics? Somehow I suspect the shootings that were at one time considered local news, if they were considered news at all, are now getting much more attention in the national MSM. It doesn't help when politicians claim the police are racists. But think about the poor cop who is left with no choice but to shoot when he is confronted by a violent young man who is obviously stoned out of mind.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
10/03/2016 11:03 Comments ||
Top||
#4
I think the election has something to do with it. Riots in swing states, in true-blue states like California we get several dozen people protesting.
Several dozen (and however many they had in El Cajon) sound like legitimate family and friends complaining. Riots sound like Soros style rent-a-mobs.
Limbaugh suggested as much last week and I don't see a flaw in the arguement so far.
#5
I remember the rash of so-called 'black-church' burning back in the 80's or 90's. It was all the media outrage at the time.
Only there were just as many, if not more, percentagewise burning of non-black churches. Somehow that little factoid never made it into the media reports.
I think this is a similar situation. the media is creating a 'crisis' where none exists to advance their political agenda.
[Daily Caller] The Air Force announced a new set of 13 inclusion initiatives Friday with the goal of ensuring the force isn't as white, male and heterosexual as it is now.
Air Force officials are intent on building upon a foundation of nine initiatives from 2015, in order to boost diversity. Those nine initiatives weren't enough to make the Air Force as diverse as desired, which is why it is taking more intensive steps in 2016.
The first new initiative mandates that at least one diverse candidate will have to be in the running for important developmental positions like aide-de camp, senior enlisted advisor and executive officer, among other roles.
#2
The Air Force announced a new set of 13 inclusion initiatives Friday with the goal of ensuring the force isn't as white, male and heterosexual as it is now
Simple - bar them from enlisting or taking a commission. We'll see how that works out.
#5
The branches of the military should cut a deal. Diversity will include all of them, not each individually. The Air Force will take on as many women as required and correspondingly the more physically demanding forces will take on fewer.
The Navy/Coast Guard will take on gays and transgenders and can crew entire ships with similar types to avoid prejudice among a crew.
#9
So we get a diversified pilot corps based upon quotas to fly the F-35...what could go wrong.
Maybe they'll subcontract the pilot training to some Indian call center so they can figure out how to make the "flying computer" actually fly. Every pilot will have a cell phone with the customer service number on speed dial.
#10
navy tried that with female carrier pilots and tomcats: instead of most capable, just drafted some.
remember how well that worked out; this will e more of the same, only clusterfuck-sized.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] A woman is among 4 kidnappers jugged Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! by the operatives of the Afghan intelligence as they claimed a ransom of around $25,000 for the release of a 4-year-old boy kidnapped by the group.
The Afghan intelligence, National Directorate of Security ...the Afghan national intel agency... (NDS), said the group was busted from the vicinity of Lashkargah city, the quiet provincial capital of restive Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... province.
A statement by NDS said the group was led by Qudratullah son of Sher Agha and had kidnapped the boy identified as Shafiullah from Lashkargah city.
The statement further added that the child was rescued from the custody of the kidnappers and was handed over to his family.
Kidnap for ransom cases still continue in parts of the country despite the Afghan intelligence nabbed two MAFIA bosses involved in major kidnappings who were later executed by the government.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/03/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
[MSN] A women's rights group has filed a legal complaint against an Egyptian politician who called for mandatory virginity tests for women seeking university admission, the al-Masry al-Youm newspaper reported Sunday.
It quoted Maya Morsi, head of the state-sanctioned National Council for Women, as saying the complaint demands the expulsion from parliament of Ilhami Agena and a criminal investigation into his actions. She said the politician was harming the reputation of Egyptian women, men and the country itself.
Agena said in an interview last week that virginity tests were needed to combat the proliferation of informal marriages, known as "gawaz orfy," between students. Virtually expense free, such marriages have become more popular in recent years because of high youth unemployment and a shortage of affordable housing.
The gawaz orfy is widely viewed as a religiously sanctioned way of having premarital sex, a taboo in mostly conservative and majority Moslem Egypt. Moslemholy mans have spoken out against such marriages.
In Egypt, as in other conservative, Moslem countries, a young woman's virginity is widely seen as a matter of family honor, the loss of which could prevent her from getting married.
The military was alleged to have conducted virginity tests on 19 women tossed in the slammer You have the right to remain silent... after troops violently broke up a protest in Cairo's Tahrir Square in March 2011, shortly after longtime President Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... resigned in the face of a popular uprising.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/03/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[AlJazeera] Pressure is intensifying for Venezuela's government as people continue taking to the streets in some of the country's largest known protests, calling for a recall referendum that will put an end to President Nicolas Maduro's reign.
Basic commodities have become a rarity, inflation is at an all-time high and crime is also on the rise.
In response, Maduro is tightening the screws on the media yet again. Foreign journalists, local reporters and even drone images were denied access and permissions to cover 'the taking of Caracas' protest march.
[The Economist] “WE ARE the 80%!” declared Henrique Capriles, governor of the Venezuelan state of Miranda and a leader of the opposition to the country’s autocratic left-wing government. He was one of a parade of speakers who took to a makeshift stage at the Miranda sports complex in Caracas on September 26th to rail against the regime. The week before it had taken steps that will make it far more difficult to remove the president, Nicolás Maduro, by constitutional means.
Protests will start immediately, said the opposition Democratic Unity alliance (MUD). October 12th will be “a special day of national mobilisation”. It will be followed by the “real conquest of Venezuela”, on October 26th-28th. Those are the days fixed by the national electoral council (CNE) to record public support for launching a referendum to recall Mr Maduro.
According to one recent poll, 84% would vote to remove Mr Maduro from office. But the regime is manoeuvring to ensure they do not get that chance, or that it happens too late to trigger a fresh presidential election. Despite economic catastrophe and popular rage, the government is finding ways to cling to power.
[NYT] On the sidelines of a peace ceremony in Colombia, President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela and Secretary of State John Kerry met for the kind of brief exchange that, under normal circumstances, might have been the start of a thaw after years of icy relations. But these are not normal circumstances: Venezuela’s economic and political crises have left it more isolated than it has been in years — and not just from the United States.
Shortages of food and medicine have left Peru calling for a bloc of countries to pressure Mr. Maduro to accept humanitarian donations, something that he declines to do. Mercosur, the South American trade bloc, has threatened to expel Venezuela over human rights violations and not complying with its trade laws.
And even the State Department, after Mr. Kerry’s meeting with Mr. Maduro, issued a statement indicating that the men’s encounter in Cartagena was not a photo op but rather Mr. Kerry’s chance to express “our concern about the economic and political challenges that have affected millions of Venezuelans.”
The year, marked by economic collapse, has been one of the most unstable for Venezuela, leading to fears among diplomats who now struggle for ways to reach out to a country whose leftist leaders have closed ranks.
Other countries are voicing concern about Venezuela’s humanitarian crisis, asking Mr. Maduro to simply accept assistance. This month, the new Peruvian president, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, called for a group of countries including Chile, Argentina and Colombia to begin sending drugs and food. Yet he did not seem hopeful.
“Now Maduro doesn’t want that because he says everything is perfect in Venezuela, but that’s not true, everybody knows that,” he said in a recent television interview. “And the second thing is there has to be pressure in a nice way, without trying to interfere too much. There has to be some kind of moral persuasion.”
[WSJ] Voters rejected a peace accord between President Juan Manuel Santos and a Marxist rebel group that would have ended 52 years of conflict, a startling outcome that thrusts this country into uncertainty.
With 99.9% of votes counted in Sunday’s plebiscite, 6,430,889 had rejected the accord, fewer than 60,000 more than those who voted "Yes."
The results mark the latest instance of voters rejecting counsel from their government and the establishment, after the U.K. vote to leave the European Union in June. ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... The vote in Colombia came barely a month after the government and the Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia, or FARC, concluded four years of peace negotiations in Cuba. Polls had earlier shown the "Yes" vote comfortably winning the referendum.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/03/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[13 views]
Top|| File under: Commies
#1
"Polls had earlier shown the "Yes" vote comfortably winning the referendum"
Where have I heard this before?
Posted by: European Conservative ||
10/03/2016 15:59 Comments ||
Top||
[DeutscheWelle] Refusing arraignment for terrorism charges, members of The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... 's Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) will be taken to court by force if they do not stand trial. Diego Cupolo reports from Ankara.
In Turkey, nearly every politician with the leftist, pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) is facing trial this fall. Of the party's 59 members of parliament, 54 have been charged with alleged links to terrorist organizations.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife ||
10/03/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[10 views]
Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
[AnNahar] Turkish police on Sunday detained a brother of the U.S.-based preacher Fethullah Gulen who is accused of masterminding the failed July coup aimed at ousting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, state media said.
Kutbettin Gulen was detained by police acting on a tip-off at the home of a relative in the Gaziemir district of the western Izmir province, Anadolu news agency said.
He is the first of Gulen's siblings to be detained after the coup bid.
According to previous Turkish media reports, Gulen has five brothers: Seyfullah and Hasbi, who are dead, and Mesih, Salih and Kutbettin. He also has two sisters, Nurhayat and Fazilet. Their current whereabouts are not known.
In July, the authorities arrested Gulen's nephew Muhammet Sait Gulen in the eastern city of Erzurum, long seen as one of the hubs for his supporters. Another nephew, Ahmet Ramiz Gulen, was arrested in August in the southeastern city of Gaziantep.
[EN.TREND.AZ] The Turkish prime minister accused the Fetullah Terrorist Organization, or FETO, of perpetrating rumors of a possibility of second coup attempt, Anadolu reported.
“There will be a new [coup] attempt, it will be tonight, [they] will come tomorrow… Those are a pack of lies to create unrest in the society,” Binali Yildirim said, accusing Fetullah Terrorist Organization, or FETO of being behind the rumors.
Speaking to reporters during a reception to mark the new legislative term of the Turkish parliament, Yildirim said that the government was taking all the necessary measures to prevent any such attempt.
Yildirim's remarks came after several media reports claimed that the government feared a second coup attempt. He said those who would try to plot another coup attempt would pay a price higher than those who organized the one on July 15.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
10/03/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
For years, debates in the OPEC conference room were dominated by clashes between top producer Saudi Arabia and arch-rival Iran, Reuters reported. But as the two managed to find a rare compromise on Wednesday - with Riyadh softening its stance towards Tehran - a third OPEC superpower emerged.
Iraq overtook Iran as the group's second-largest producer several years ago but kept its OPEC agenda fairly low-profile. On Wednesday, Baghdad finally made its presence felt. What it did, however, pleased neither Saudi Arabia nor Iran.
Iraq, for all its troubles, is the 2nd largest producer in OPEC. Imagine how well it -- and we -- would be doing if Champ had simply kept the word of our country and kept our forces in Iraq. The stability there would have allowed us a much freer hand with both Iran and the Saudis.
Iraq's new oil minister Jabar Ali al-Luaibi told his Saudi and Iranian counterparts, Khalid al-Falih and Bijan Zanganeh, in a closed-door gathering in Algiers that "it was an OPEC meeting for all ministers", a source briefed on the talks said.
Luaibi also said he didn't like the idea of re-establishing OPEC's output ceiling at 32.5 million barrels per day (bpd), according to sources in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.
Reviving a ceiling, abandoned a year ago because of a Saudi-Iranian clash, was seen by some members as crucial in helping OPEC manage a vastly oversupplied market and prop up prices that stand well below the budget needs of most producers.
But Luaibi told the meeting the new ceiling was no good for Baghdad as OPEC had underestimated Iraq's production, which has soared in recent years.
Confusion followed, according to sources, and after a debate OPEC chose to impose a ceiling in the range of 32.5-33.0 million bpd - a decision dismissed by many analysts as weak and non-binding. OPEC's current output stands at 33.24 million bpd.
As ministers including Falih and Zanganeh emerged smiling from the room and praised OPEC's first output-limiting deal since 2008, Luaibi called a separate briefing to complain about OPEC's estimates of Iraqi output.
"These figures do not represent our actual production," he told reporters. If by November estimates do not change, "then we say we cannot accept this, and we will ask for alternatives".
Luaibi went even further and asked a reporter from Argus Media - whose data OPEC uses among other sources to compile estimates of countries' production - to disclose from where Argus' estimates were coming.
"Your sources are not acceptable. And if there is deviation from the government, then Argus will not work in Iraq," Luaibi told the Argus reporter.
The usual thuggery and bullying...
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/03/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Iraq overtook Iran as the group's second-largest producer several years ago but kept its OPEC agenda fairly low-profile. Is Iraq's agenda not the same as Tehran's agenda these days.
[Ynet] The Paleostinian Authority paid the Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) NIS 590 million
1 New Israeli Shekel = US$ 0.27, so 590,000,000 x 0.27 = $159.3 million. That more than covers the measly $20 mil. Israel just sent to Turkey so they'd shut up about getting their precious Mavi Mara terrorists killed.
on Sunday, the first payment in the debt settlement agreement signed two weeks ago.
As part of the agreement, the electrical grid in the Paleostinian Authority will be under Paleostinian responsibility. This will be done as part of a new body that will buy electricity from the IEC exclusively and ensure payment for the Paleostinian residents' electricity consumption.
Also as part of the agreement, a debt of some NIS 500 million was forgiven, out of the total of NIS 2 billion the Paleostinians owe.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] A woman is among 4 kidnappers 
In response, Maduro is tightening the screws on the media yet again. Foreign journalists, local reporters and even drone images were denied access and permissions to cover 'the taking of Caracas' protest march. 
[WSJ] Voters rejected a peace accord between President Juan Manuel Santos and a Marxist rebel group that would have ended 52 years of conflict, a startling outcome that thrusts this country into uncertainty.
