The Raw Story

Monday, 16 February 2015

Man robs 6-year-old girl selling Girl Scout cookies outside gas station

Police in Beech Grove, Indiana are trying to identify a man who stole over $300 from a Girl Scout selling cookies outside a gas station, WRTV reports.

Six-year-old Whitney Allen was selling cookies outside of a gas station when a man approached her and her mother and began to browse.

According to Whitney's mother, Stephanie, the man said "'eenie, meenie, miney, mo,' and once he said 'mo,' he snatched my black [money] book right out from underneath my notebook and just took off running."

She noted that she was just as concerned about the fact that the man absconded with her customer's names, home addresses and phone numbers as she was about the missing money.

A local man ponied up $200 to help Whitney cover her losses, and local businesses contributed another $100 to ensure that her day was not a waste.

Chomsky: We Are All – Fill in the Blank.

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In dashcam video released as evidence in an excessive force lawsuit against the St. Louis Police Department, an officer is heard warning her fellow officers to "hold up" with the arrest until the camera can be turned off, the is reporting.

The video, which has been held back since April 10, shows the suspect being dragged from a car, beaten, and kicked by up to seven officers while resisting arrest.

Lawyers for the suspect, Cortez Bufford, 18, released the video after filing the lawsuit on Jan. 22. The video was previously used as evidence to have charges dropped against Bufford.

In the video, police can be seen attempting to take Bufford and a companion into custody after receiving a 911 call about shots fired. As Bufford's companion exits the vehicle and is handcuffed, officer Nathaniel Burkemper argues with Bufford through the car window before reaching inside and opening the car door.

As Burkemper struggles with Bufford, pulling him from the car, multiple officers rush in, kicking him repeatedly while shocking him with a Taser. According to the police report, Burkemper warned the other officers that Bufford had a gun.

Police recovered a 9mm semi-automatic pistol with four rounds in the magazine and one in the chamber from Bufford.

When officers attempt to get the suspect to his feet, an officer identified as Kelli Swinton warned them "we're red now," indicating the dashcam was recording.

"Hold up, hold up, y'all. Everybody hold up," she can be heard saying near the end of the video."It's red right now, so if you're worried about cameras, just wait," before the video cuts off.

A separate dashcam video recorded what happened after Burkemper's camera was turned off, with officers huddled around Bufford.

That camera shuts off too, leaving a gap of more than two minutes before Bufford is seen stumbling and falling once as he's taken to a police vehicle.

A lawyer for the St. Louis Police Officers' Association stated that the video reflects a proper use of force used against an armed suspect reaching for a gun.

Bufford was initially charged with unlawful use of a weapon and a misdemeanor of resisting arrest, but those charges were dropped on Aug. 26.

A police spokesman said the officer who turned off the camera "has been recommended" for discipline, but is appealing.

Watch the video below from the /Fox2:

A woman who was savagely beaten and had her throat slashed by the father of her children has been told she must write letters to her attacker in jail or face imprisonment herself, is reporting.

In 2011 Natalie Allman, 29, was tortured for over seven hours and had her throat slashed in front of her twins by her boyfriend Jason Hughes, 42, because he wanted to make her look "ugly" after she attempted to leave him.

Hughes, who lived in Ross-on-Wye in England with Allman, is currently incarcerated, serving a nine year term for the attack that left Allman with a lacerated throat and five facial fractures requiring plastic surgery to repair the damage.

A judge, citing Section 8 of the Children's Act, has told Allman that she must send three letters a year to Hughes, including photographs of their five-year-old boys, updating him on their lives. Failure to do so could result in a contempt of court charges and imprisonment.

In an interview, Allman said she is being victimized again by her former boyfriend.

"We are the victims, not him. I thought he was going to kill me that night for no reason and my boys saw that. They were terrified," she said. "I'm so angry that the law still defends his parental rights and that he is still being allowed to control us from behind bars."

In 2011, right after Allman broke off her engagement to Hughes, he attacked her in bed, first attempting to smother her with a pillow before repeatedly striking her with a dumbbell.

According to authorities, Hughes then used the blade from a mini-tool to slash a 20cm-long cut across her throat, narrowly missing a major artery in her neck.

Seven hours later Hughes allowed Allman to call for an ambulance, with authorities arriving to find her and her then-2-year-old twins in the bed and covered in blood.

As Allman was rushed to a hospital, Hughes was arrested at the scene.

In January 2014 Allman was told that Hughes had requested six letters a year - as well as phone calls from the twins on their birthdays and at Christmas - under the Children's Act.

Despite spending £3,000 on legal fees to fight the order, the court instructed her that she would have to comply by updating Hughes on the children's school progress, health, and emotional development.

"I couldn't believe it, " she said. "I could end up being split up from my children and sent to prison when he was the one who attacked me. I'm the one being treated like a criminal."

© Reuters / Vincent Kessler

Desecrated tombstones are seen at Sarre-Union Jewish cemetery, eastern France, February 15, 2015

Hundreds of tombs in a Jewish cemetery have been vandalized in eastern France. The incident follows a rise in the number of attacks against European Jews, including Sunday morning's shooting in Copenhagen.

What happened in the town of Sarre-Union was a "despicable act," French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said on Sunday, referring to the defaced Jewish tombs. "The country will not tolerate this new injury which goes against the values that all French people share."

"Every effort will be made to identify, question and bring to justice the person or persons responsible for this ignominious act," he added.

France's Prime Minister Manuel Valls also condemned the act of desecration on Twitter, referring to the incident as "an antisemitic and ignoble act."

The Sarre-Union cemetery has witnessed several cases of vandalism in the past. Approximately 60 Jewish gravestones were overturned and thrown to the ground in 1988, and another 54 tombs were destroyed in 2001.

The attacks come amid growing religious tensions in Europe. France has been in the center of it all, since the attacks in Paris last month.

On January 7, Islamists attacked the office of French satirical magazine , known for its controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. The assailants said they "revenged their Prophet." Two days later, a gunman linked to the attackers took hostages at a Paris kosher store, killing four Jews there. A total of 17 people were killed in the attacks.

The most recent attack shocked Denmark's Copenhagen this weekend, when two people were killed in two separate shootings outside a synagogue and at a free speech debate in a café. The slain suspect was identified by police as a 22-year-old Danish-born man with a criminal record and history of gang-related offenses.

On Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu renewed his call for Jewish immigration to Israel, echoing his words that followed January's terrorist attacks. "Jews were killed on European land just because they were Jewish. This wave of attacks will continue. I say to the Jews of Europe - Israel is your home," he said.

Netanyahu said Israel will discuss a $46 million plan to encourage Jewish migration from Belgium, France, and Ukraine, stressing that Israel is the home to all Jews.

Five French teens aged 15 to 17 are being held for questioning over the incident, a local prosecutor said Monday. All five are from the Sarre-Union region.

Prosecutor Philippe Vannier told reporters that the youngest of the group turned himself in after being shocked by the mass public outcry over the vandalism.

A recent attack in Denmark has triggered new calls from Israel's PM for Jews to immigrate, provoking a backlash from Paris. French PM Valls asks the Jews living in France to ignore the calls while President Hollande says French Jews "have a place."

Prime Minister Manuel Valls said on RTL TV channel.

French President Francois Hollande joined, speaking in the northeastern commune of Montry, said that

The French government's statements followed the killing of two people in shootings in Copenhagen at the weekend and the subsequent calls from the Israeli premier.

Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated the statement he made after the Paris attacks last month, in which four people were killed in a hostage-taking at a kosher shop.

he said.

the Israeli PM added.

The French PM said he Netanyahu's words.

Being in the middle of an election campaign [the general election in Israel takes place on March 17] doesn't mean you authorize yourself to make just any type of statement. The place for French Jews is France," Valls said. "We wouldn't be the same without the Jewish community in Denmark."

On Sunday, several tombs were defaced at a Jewish cemetery in eastern France, labeled by the French government.

Jair Melchior, Denmark's chief rabbi, said on Sunday he was by Netanyahu's call for immigration, stating that

Liberman: 'Come home, Jews, you will be safe here'

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman on Monday said that he hopes that all of the world's Jews will eventually make aliya to Israel.

Speaking to Army Radio from Paris, where on Sunday he participated alongside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other world leaders in an anti-terror march following a violent week in France, Liberman said that "Israel's message is that we are here with them. We won't forget our brothers, no matter where they are."

"I hope that aliya will bring all the world's Jews to Israel, it doesn't matter from where," he said.

Liberman said that his call for aliya doesn't necessarily have to do with the recent anti-Semitic attack in Paris at a kosher supermarket. "Israel's policy has always been to have an aliya of Jews to Israel."

"The nation of Israel, after thousands of years, finally has a state of our own, and we want to see all of our Jewish brothers here."

On Sunday, dozens of world leaders including Muslim and Jewish statesmen linked arms leading more than one million said participants in an unprecedented march under high security in Paris to pay tribute to victims of Islamist terrorist attacks.

President Francois Hollande and leaders from Germany, Italy, Israel, Turkey, Britain and the Palestinian territories among others, moved off from the central Place de la Republique ahead of a sea of French and other flags. Giant letters attached to a statue in the square spelt out the word Pourquoi?" (Why?) and small groups sang the "La Marseillaise" national anthem.

'Jew' was painted on some 20 vehicles before the man was apprehended

A 73 year old man was caught Monday trying to tag the word "Jew" on vehicles in the upmarket 16th district of Paris. The man and his wife, who is Jewish, had previously filed filed complaints in July and August when anti-semitic graffiti was "discovered in their building."

On Monday around 4pm, a man was caught writing the word "Jew" on vehicles parked on Avenue du General-Clavery and Avenue Dode de la Brunerie in the 16th district. Some twenty cars were tagged. "The police handcuffed him, then arrested him. He's completely crazy to be doing something like this. An official at the scene told me that the guy acknowledged what he was doing," said one witness to MetroNews.

The suspect was immediately taken into custody. The man was born in April 1941 and is named 'Pierre B.' He was already known to police - not as a suspect but as a victim. Last summer, he twice visited the police station in the 16th district to denounce anti-Semitic remarks left near his property.

In July, Peter and his wife Suzanne B., who is Jewish, went to the police to report the presence of swastikas on their mailboxes, their doorframe, and on the door of their apartment in a building owned by the Property Management of the City of Paris (RIVP) and located Rue Abel Ferry (also in the 16th district). In August, they also lodged formal complaints to denounce the fact that it had been done to them again.

Six months later, in December, new graffiti were found in the couple's building . "Dirty Jew", a swastika and other tags were scrawled on the walls of the building. The same thing happened again in January. "It started happening a lot," says a source close to the case. "Several people were interviewed and writing tests were carried out. That's when the police realized that something really weird was going on."

Indeed, when comparing handwriting, the investigators found that the complainant's was eerily similar to that found on the walls and the mailbox of the building. "Another coincidence is that the 'B.' couple claimed that they had to temporarily leave their apartment because they felt unsafe there. During this period, no graffiti or markings were made there," notes the source close to the case. "The police were convinced that it was him, but lacked proof. Having now caught him in the act, they could not have been better served."

It was unclear Monday night whether the wife of Pierre B. was or was not an accomplice to her husband. "The couple wanted to change accommodation. We do not know why because they lived for two years in their apartment of 59m². He had made two requests for a transfer to the RIVP that were denied. "It was perhaps part of their strategy to remain undetected," says the source, before adding that both the husband and his wife have had several stays in psychiatric hospitals.

On Tuesday afternoon, Pierre B. was still in custody. All the local residents were shocked. They too had heard of the couple's desire to change accommodation. "To go from that to attacking the Jews, moreover when we know that the wife of the suspect is Jewish, it's surreal," concluded a neighbor.

The suspect's custody was extended Tuesday to 17 hours. According to our information, the individual was to be presented to a psychologist in the evening.

The Raw Story

Focused on providing independent journalism.

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Monday, 16 February 2015

Man robs 6-year-old girl selling Girl Scout cookies outside gas station

Cop warns other officers not to arrest man until dashcam is turned off

Court demands woman write letters to man in prison who savagely beat her and cut her throat or face jail

Wave of anti-Semitism in France: Hundreds of Jewish tombs defaced

French leadership urges Jews to ignore Netanyahu's calls for Exodus

Israeli foreign minister Liberman: 'I hope all the world's Jews will come to Israel'

Serial complainer about anti-Semitic graffiti left on and near his home in Paris... caught daubing cars with anti-Semitic graffiti

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