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A judge spelled out the hideous depths of depravity and suffering contained in child pornography as he sentenced a 30 year old for possessing sick images.

Robert King sobbed as the judge described images of "very young children, crying in pain and scared" as they were being raped by adult men.

"That is what you've been viewing," Judge Robert Linford told King, of Courtlands, Langford Budville, near Wellington.

"That's what you made other people view when they examined your computer."

Taunton Crown Court heard that King initially denied having illegal material on his computer when police visited his home as a result of a tip-off.

He later admitted a charge of making indecent images of children, possession of extreme pornography and possession of prohibited images of children.

He has been spared jail.

READ: Minehead paedophile doctor, 96, loses appeal against sentence on grounds of 'extreme old age'

Prosecutor William Hunter said: "Police seized three devices, a laptop and two computers and went on to find a number of images of child abuse,"

There were 49 category A images and nine movies, 261 category B images and 2,967 category C images and two movies.

They also found extreme pornographic images and pseudo-photographs of children.

"It was also clear from his search history that he had been carrying out online searches for such material," Mr Hunter said.

"Some of the children were estimated to be very young around three or four years old, and clearly distressed at what was happening to them."

MORE: Watch the amazing moment a walker finds missing man down hole in woodland

When arrested by police, King said he had been looking at the images out of curiosity.

Defending, Harry Ahuja said his client had no previous convictions and had pleaded guilty at the first opportunity.

He said he had gone on to seek help from the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, which works with child sex offenders and encourages them to seek therapy before being arrested.

When Judge Robert Linford said he was not looking to send King to prison, the defendant burst into tears in the dock.

"You pleaded guilty as early as you could and you have sought help for your actions," the judge told him.

"You had a large amount of hideous images and you understand that these are not victimless crimes. For every photograph you look at of a child being raped, there is a child that has been raped.

"And those are photographs that some poor police office has to trawl through.

"When someone is apprehended for offending like this for the very first time, that is when they should be offered the opportunity to change. But make no mistake, if you come back to court for accessing this sort of filth again, you will go to prison for a very long time indeed."

MORE: Soldier sentenced to life for murdering mother of his son

King was sentenced to a three year community order and will have to undertake the Thames Valley Sex Offender Programme, which is designed to explore and address the thoughts, feelings and beliefs underpinning internet sex offending. He was also made the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

King was also ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work, 45 days of rehabilitation activity and pay costs of 400.

Original post:

Robert King sobs as he's spared jail for possessing thousands of images of child abuse - Somerset Live

A judge sentenced a Groton man to five years in prison Wednesday for robbing an Old Lyme bank in 2015, telling the man to put himself in the position of the victims of his lengthy criminal record.

Herman "Butchie" Smith says he doesnt remember the afternoon in September 2015 when he walked into the Webster Bank in Old Lyme andgave a teller a white plastic bag and a note written in purple crayon that said, "Give me the money no one gets hurt," his defense attorney told Judge Hillary B. Strackbein in New London Superior Courton Wednesday.

Smith, whose acquaintances told police the Groton resident was addicted to heroin, was under the influence of drugs that day,attorney M. Fred DeCaprio said before Strackbein sentenced Smith to five years in prison and imposedfive years of special parole following his release.

Smith, 40,had pleaded guilty to second-degree robbery as part of a plea agreement between DeCaprio and State's Attorney Lawrence J. Tytla.

Tytla said Smith, who fled the scene of the robbery on a bicycle, left the bank with about $14,000.

He has 22 criminal convictions for robbery, larceny and drug possession, and served three years in prison for the 2007 robbery of a Mystic Bank, according to police and court records. He also has violated probation requirements for many of those sentences, Tytla said Wednesday.

Smith's sentence also includes a three-year sentence for conspiracy to commit second-degree larceny and a one-year sentence for violation of a protective order, both of which he will serve concurrentlywith the five years for robbery.

Smith pleaded guilty to both of those charges under the Alford Doctrine, which indicates he does not agree with the state's version of the case but does not want to risk a trial, where he could receive a harsher sentence if convicted.

After police releasedsurveillance photographs of the Sept. 23 robbery to the media, several relatives and acquaintances contacted police to identify him. Some recognized Smith, a reported UConn Huskies fan and an avid bicyclist, because he was wearing aHuskies basketball cap in the surveillancephotos andfled on a racing bike.

Strackbein admonished Smith for his lengthy criminal record and told him that bank tellers "have to live in fear anytime someone walks in the bank."

"People who think that drugs are victimless crimes are wrong, once again," she told Smith. "If you want to use drugs and rob people, and rob banks,that's going to be your life ... and so far that's been your life."

m.shanahan@theday.com

Continued here:

Groton man who robbed Old Lyme bank on a bike sentenced to five years - theday.com

Crime against convenience retailers cost an estimated 232m in 2016 an average of over 4,600 a store according to new figures from the Association of Convenience Stores (ACS).

Shop theft totalled 130m-plus equivalent to 2,600 a store with the most commonly stolen items being alcohol, meat and confectionery.

The organisations Crime Report 2017 revealed fraud costs convenience stores more than 8m last year, while incidents of staff theft amounted to 61m and there were more than9,400 incidents of violence against retailers and employees.

It also showed that retailers spend 3,900-plus a year on crime prevention measures including CCTV, more secure cash storage and external security staff.

Sarah Newton, minister for vulnerability, safeguarding and countering extremism, said: Retail crime harms businesses, consumers and communities, while violent crime can have a devastating impact on the victim. This government is acting to tackle both violent and retail crime, by identifying what drives criminals and bringing together new research, techniques and technology to prevent offending and bring perpetrators to justice.

We are working closely with police and retailers to improve our understanding of the nature of crimes against the sector. Just last month our work with police and petrol station retailers, led by the ACS, saw us introduce new measures to tackle petrol theft.

James Lowman, ACS chief executive, said: Over the last year, many retailers have reported a significant increase in the level of crime. There are many factors influencing this, including investment in crime detection measures such as CCTV and external security, which has led to retailers being more aware of the theft occurring in their stores.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of what are perceived to be low- level crimes, such as shop theft, still go unreported to police. Shop theft is not a victimless crime, and must be taken seriously by the police. The current laws around shop theft do not adequately capture those who are repeat offenders stealing low-value items on a regular basis and we believe this needs to change.

We encourage retailers to build relationships with local police forces and show them the damage, both financial and human, that theft and other crimes do to them and their staff.

See the article here:

Convenience stores count the cost of retail crime - Talking Retail - Talking Retail

There are grey areas. Its not me who did it so Im not responsible. They are smiling so they must be enjoying it.

These statements are all the less palatable when you consider they are excuses used by those looking at child abuse on the internet.

There are many people who think that men and women who commit these crimes cannot be helped.

But the staff at Stop It Now! are not among that number. They cant be.

For they work for a child protection charity, working towards the prevention and eradication of child sexual abuse and exploitation.

The six-strong Scottish teams daily routine revolves around trying to change offenders behaviour and making them see that viewing sexual abuse of a child online is not a victimless crime its a serious one which could lead to a prison sentence.

Stuart Allardyce is the director of the Scottish arm of the charity, founded eight years ago.

A social worker for more than 20 years, he has worked on both sides of the spectrum helping survivors of sexual abuse and those who have commited it.

Stuart admits to being sensitive to those who believe offenders cannot be rehabilitated.

However, he is also in little doubt of the need for the services provided by Stop It Now!

Twelve months ago the charity in Scotland launched its Get Help website, giving people a chance to access self-help material in a bid to help them stop viewing indecent images of children on the internet.

And the figures speak for themselves.

Stuart said: In the last year, there has been a 400 per cent increase in those accessing the website. And every time we publicise it, theres a huge spike too.

That alone shows the need that exists for the services we provide.

Last year, 1530 people from Scotland visited the website in a bid to stop their own viewing of online sexual images of children or that of a loved one.

Over the same 12 month period, a further 78 men from Scotland called Stop it Now! to get help to stop viewing sexual images of children online.

The charity also holds weekly help groups at its Edinburgh base.

Around 100 individuals attended last year the youngest was 14 years old and the oldest 72.

Stuart said: We work with individuals who are concerned about their online behaviour, as well as their family and partners.

People come from all over Scotland to attend, having contacted our office to get direct help.

Some individuals have already put a lot of energy into stopping their behaviour; others who approach us perhaps have some ambivalence about what they are doing.

They will say its not them who is abusing the child so theyre not responsible, or there are grey areas and they didnt know what age the child was or that the children are smiling in the images so they must be enjoying it.

There are often a set of distortions around their behaviour so we have to be very clear.

There are no grey areas. Looking at images of children being sexually abused or exploited is illegal.

It is not a victimless crime these images are created when a child is sexually abused or exploited and the children are victims.

It is not just a crime it is a serious one you can be arrested and taken into custody for it.

While some may think these people are beyond help, Stop It Nows work shows promising results.

Stuart explained: Im sensitive to comments about people not being able to change its understandable why people may think that.

Some of the people we see, theres a real persistence to their behaviour.

But our work is evaluated quite rigorously both on the helpline and in our groups.

And the majority of people who engage with us do seem to be able to control their behaviour online.

Some of it is about changing attitudes individuals sometimes have a set of excuses.

We make it very clear that there are no grey areas.

We make them look at their motivations and help them develop healthier lifestyles to make them move away from that.

There are no two people we see who are exactly the same.

Some people we work with have watched a considerable amount of mainstream porn but, for some reason, have started to access illegal sites.

A number we work with have background issues such as stress, depression and social isolation. Others are in relationships but feel emotionally lonely.

For some, it means cutting off completely from the internet.

In addition to the 78 men who rang Stop it Now! in Scotland, a further 28 adults from Scotland rang last year to express their concerns about the online behaviour of another adult.

These calls were typically from wives or parents, who Stop It Now! also helps.

Stuart explained: We work closely with family and partners.

It can be devastating for them to discover that a loved one has been looking at these kinds of images.

We work with them to explore their feelings and, if they can, how they can support them through it.

In some situations, looking at this material might be just another factor in difficulties that already exist in a relationship.

In others, couples can work together and move through what is a devastating situation. People need to make their own decisions.

Sadly, some only come to the charitys attention later.

Stuart added: Weve worked with hundreds of men arrested for viewing sexual images of children.

For many, being arrested was a real wake-up call. Many knew what they were doing was wrong but struggled to change their behaviour and thats where we come in.

But there are thousands of people out there viewing sexual images of under 18s.

We need to get to them too, to help them understand what they are doing is illegal and incredibly harmful to the children in the images and to get them to stop.

Child protection at charitys heart

The Get Help website http://www.get-help.stopitnow.org.uk is operated by Stop it Now!, a sexual abuse prevention campaign run by child protection charity, the Lucy Faithfull Foundation.

It is the only UK-wide charity focused solely on reducing the risk of children being sexually abused.

The Get Help website offers self-help tools and resources to help users address their behaviour and stop looking at online sexual images of children.

It also provides information and support to partners and friends of people arrested for, or suspected of, accessing online child abuse images.

Stop it Now! is a public education campaign run by The Lucy Faithfull Foundation.

The charity also runs a confidential helpline 0808 1000 900 for people seeking help to change their behaviour.

Since 2002 the helpline has provided advice and support to 31,500 callers and emailers, who made 60,000 contacts. Some 55 per cent were from people concerned about their own behaviour.

The charity also runs internet safety seminars for schools and provides training for professionals, parents, carers and other adults.

Read more:

Stop looking at child abuse online - get help now - Falkirk Herald - Falkirk Herald

Brian Lee Kersten, 61, of Pleasant Valley, Wis. pleaded guilty last fall to two felony counts of engaging in the sex trafficking of a person and aiding and abetting labor trafficking.

On Wednesday, Kersten received a 48- and 53-month prison sentence for each charge, respectively. His sentence will be served concurrently, meaning he will serve prison time for both sentences at the same time.

The case also marked the first labor trafficking conviction and sentencing in Minnesota.

Washington County Attorney Pete Orputs office has ramped up its focus on prosecuting sex trafficking by creating a special unit tasked with prosecuting cases ranging from adults who troll the web for underage girls and boys to traffickers who hire out adults and minors for sex.

Orput said in a statement that the case against Kersten is part of a wider trend in Minnesota.

This case merely shows the depth and breadth of the sex trafficking occurring in this state, Orput said. We, as a concerned public, need to acknowledge this and persevere in doing all we can to bring labor and sex traffickers to the justice they deserve.

Kersten, who owned a Baldwin Veterinary Clinic, admitted he transported women from China to the Extended Stay hotel in Woodbury last summer. Prosecutors charged him in September.

Imran Ali, the Washington County assistant attorney who prosecuted the case, said in a statement that Kersten was part of an international conspiracy to bring foreign nationals into the state where they would work as prostitutes.

An investigation found Kersten had been working with a Chinese national named Shixin Zhang who lived in New York.

Authorities said Kersten would give a cut of his profits to the New York madame for women he transported from the East Cost to Twin Cities hotels and advertised their services on the infamous website backpages.com.

According to court filings, a family member told Wisconsin law enforcement officials that Kersten had been bringing young girls from China to work in massage parlors.

We have to remember that these are not victimless crimes, Ali said. All these women being trafficked are indeed victims.

Read more here:

Wisconsin Veterinarian sentenced 4 years for labor, sex trafficking - Woodbury Bulletin

Donald Trump delivers his first speech to Congress

THE TRUMP administration is planning to create a new agency inside the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) whose main purpose is to inflame xenophobia and spread the lie that immigrants are likely to be violent criminals.

Trump first called for the creation of the VOICE (Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement) Office in his January 25 executive order. The details of how this order would be carried out were released a month later in a memo issued by DHS Director John Kelly. The order and Kelly's memo establish three priorities for VOICE:

First, act as a liaison between Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and "known victims of crimes committed by removable aliens," providing information to victims and their families about the immigration and custody status of the alleged offenders.

Second, issue monthly reports of "statistical data regarding aliens apprehended by ICE," including a wide variety of information concerning the alleged offenders' countries of origin, criminal history, gang affiliation, prior immigration violations, etc.

Third, issue weekly reports concerning "non-Federal jurisdictions that release aliens from their custody, notwithstanding that such aliens are subject to a detainer or similar request for custody issued by ICE to that jurisdiction"--in other words, to name and shame sanctuary jurisdictions for refusing to cooperate with deportation efforts. As outlined in Kelly's memo, this report, too, will contain as much information as possible about the alleged offenders.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

VOICE IS being proposed as a solution to something that few people outside the right wing's bubble think is a problem: that crime victims aren't given enough information about the immigration status of the alleged offenders. According to the DHS memo:

Criminal aliens routinely victimize Americans and other legal residents. Often, these victims are not provided adequate information about the offender, the offender's immigration status, or any enforcement action taken by ICE against the offender. Efforts by ICE to engage these victims have been hampered by prior Department of Homeland Security (DHS) policy extending certain Privacy Act protections to persons other than U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents, leaving victims feeling marginalized and without a voice.

This is pure demagoguery. If someone is victimized by, for example, a drunk driver, their concern is with the criminal act of drunk driving, not the immigration status of the driver. Not being aware a driver's immigration status doesn't make them any more marginalized or "voiceless" than not knowing the driver's religion or political affiliation.

The same principle applies to any crime, however serious: From the standpoint of seeking justice for victims and their loved ones, the immigration status of the offenders can make no possible difference.

It can, however, have considerable political value, and this is surely what Trump and Kelly are seeking to exploit.

There is an undeniable emotional power to claiming to the family of a murder victim that their loved one's killer "never should have been in the country to begin with." The shock and grief resulting from this news can easily be used for propaganda purposes: Even if the grieving family do not themselves become activists against "criminal aliens," their story can still be exploited to encourage others to follow this path.

It was for precisely this reason that, when announcing the creation of VOICE in his February 28 joint address to Congress, Trump pointed out "four very brave Americans" in the audience, all of whom have lost loved ones to violent crimes allegedly perpetrated by undocumented immigrants.

This, apparently, is what it means to "give a voice" to such people: trotting them out for an internationally televised event and publicly exploiting their grief and loss in order to further your own racist anti-immigrant agenda.

The executive order that gave rise to VOICE also directs the DHS to "prioritize the removal" of undocumented immigrants in a variety of categories, including those who have been convicted of a crime, charged with a crime--or committed "acts that constitute a chargeable criminal offense," but have not been charged or otherwise pose a threat to public safety or national security "in the judgment of an immigration officer."

The effect of these guidelines, in short, is to declare any undocumented immigrant whom an ICE agent thinks is a criminal to be a criminal.

It remains to be seen whether this very broad conception of "crime" will be carried over into the reports produced by VOICE compiling "statistical data" about crimes committed by undocumented immigrants and weekly reports concerning the non-cooperation of sanctuary jurisdictions. The possibility is certainly there--notice, for instance, that VOICE's monthly report will provide statistics about people apprehended by ICE.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

FROM THE earliest days of his presidential campaign, Trump declared loudly and often that the U.S. is experiencing an epidemic of crime committed by undocumented immigrants, and he cultivated alliances with racist anti-immigration groups and individuals.

Now that he's in power, Trump's executive order is an attempt to criminalize immigration itself--and VOICE is the poison he wants to pump into the culture to get people to go along with it.

One of Trump's key allies in this effort is Maria Espinoza, co-founder and National Director of the Remembrance Project, a Houston-based organization that "advocates for families whose loved ones were killed by illegal aliens," most notably by adding their names and images to its "Stolen Lives Quilt."

According to Espinoza's biography on the project's website--which doesn't mention her ties to white nationalists like John Tanton--she has worked since 2009 to "unite the 'stolen lives' families, educating the public of the epidemic of killings across the country, and raising the awareness of the effects of illegal immigration. It is not a victimless crime."

This brief passage lays bare the two lies at the heart of the Remembrance Project, and of Trump's own agenda: First, that undocumented immigrants are responsible for an "epidemic of killings across the country"; and second, that illegal immigration itself leads to violent crime.

In fact, research has consistently shown that immigrants are statistically less likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans, and that there is either no correlation between crime rates and levels of immigration. If anything, crime rates appear to decrease as immigration levels rise.

But even if immigrants were not less likely to commit crimes, VOICE would still be cause for concern. The clear intent of these measures is to stoke public hatred of immigrants--and the administration's rhetoric about "upholding the laws of this nation" is a coded racist message aimed at that end.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

THE UNVEILING of VOICE immediately--and rightly--prompted comparisons to Nazi Germany. As Peter Beinart wrote in The Atlantic:

In The Nazi Conscience, Duke historian Claudia Koonz notes that the Nazi newspaper Der Strmer ran a feature called "Letter Box," which published readers' accounts of Jewish crimes. When the Nazis took power, the German state began doing something similar. Frustrated by the failure of most Germans to participate in a boycott of Jewish businesses in April 1933, Adolf Hitler's government began publicizing Jewish crime statistics as a way of stoking anti-Semitism.

In Nazi Germany and the Jews: The Years of Persecution, the historian Saul Friedlander notes that, until 1938, Hitler's Ministry of Justice ordered prosecutors to forward every criminal indictment against a Jew so the ministry's press office could publicize it.

The parallels between the Nazis' use of crime statistics and those contemplated by VOICE are troubling enough. But because of its status as a "legitimate" government agency, VOICE's programs also have the potential to inject into the mainstream the propaganda of far-right publications and websites that are the modern-day equivalent of Der Strmer's.

These publications have already managed to do great harm. For instance, Dylann Roof, the anti-Black terrorist who slaughtered nine people in a South Carolina church in 2015, acknowledges that he he came across "pages upon pages of these brutal Black on white murders" on the website of the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC), a notorious white supremacist organization.

In Roof's case, the connection between racist "reporting" of crimes and violence is unusually direct and explicit. But if his story is an extreme case, it is by no means unique. And, of course, the CCC is far from the only such group publishing lists of the alleged crimes of nonwhite Americans, as we've already seen with the Remembrance Project.

Notably, Breitbart News, when it was under the leadership of Trump's current chief strategist Steve Bannon, responded to the Black Lives Matter movement by gathering stories of alleged crimes committed by African Americans under the "Black Crime" tag.

These sites are notorious for cherry-picking their stories for maximum effect and publishing false or misleading information. One reason they've found a wide audience is that "Black-on-white" crime is also overreported in the more "respectable" media.

Now Trump, Bannon and Kelly want the U.S. government to get in on the act. We shouldn't let them get away with it.

Originally posted here:

This VOICE tells racist lies - Socialist Worker Online

Adobe Stock photo

The Utah Legislature approved a bill Tuesday to toughen penalties for prostitution-related crimes. The House passed SB230 with a 71-1 vote, sending it to Gov. Gary Herbert's desk for his consideration.

SALT LAKE CITY The Utah Legislature approved a bill Tuesday to toughen penalties for prostitution-related crimes.

The House passed SB230 with a 71-1 vote, sending it to Gov. Gary Herbert's desk for his consideration.

The bill would give "teeth" to Utah's ability to prosecute prostitution, said House sponsor Rep. Mike Winder, R-West Valley City.

"We have a real problem," he said. "This is not a real victimless crime."

Winder said 75 percent of women who engage in prostitution work for a "pimp."

The bill would better equip law enforcement, he said, because it would expand the reasons why an individual could be found guilty of prostitution.

Under current law, a person can only be convicted if he or she engages in a sexual act for money. But SB230 would include if a person "offers or agrees" to engage in sexual activity for money.

"With the teeth, we can go after the pimps, the Johns and those involved in this," Winder said.

The bill would also change patronizing a prostitute from a class B misdemeanor to a class A misdemeanor, with a third conviction for that crime becoming a third-degree felony.

Aiding or facilitating an act of prostitution would also be enhanced to a class A misdemeanor, with all subsequent convictions becoming third-degree felonies.

Go here to see the original:

Legislature boosts penalties for prostitution-related crimes - Deseret News

WELCH McDowell County has seen some changes at the West Virginia State Police Welch Detachment.

In the wake of the transfer of former detachment Commander Sgt. Chris Kane to the West Virginia Turnpike, Sgt. R.A. Daniel is now the commander, and Sgt. R.T. Stinson, who was recently transferred to Welch, is the assistant commander.

Daniel, a Raleigh County native, spent 13 years at the Beckley Detachment before his transfer to McDowell County a year and a half ago.

I live in Beckley, but I have ties to McDowell County, he said.

Daniel said he did not attend the State Police Academy when he was a young man, as most troopers do.

When I got out of high school I ended up working for about nine years in the coal mines, he said, then after that worked in corrections at the state penitentiary in Moundsville.

That corrections job prompted his interest in law enforcement.

At age 35, I started over as a trooper, he said, adding that he was able to keep up with young guys in the physical training part of the academy. I always kept in good shape,

But he wasnt even the oldest one at the academy.

Another student was 42, he said. But he had been a trooper in Utah.

Daniel, who is 6 feet, 7 inches tall, said many people may not realize that troopers have to stay in good physical condition.

We have a physical fitness test each year, he said, explaining that troopers have a practical and realistic reason to stay in shape as well they have to be prepared for anything on their jobs.

A trooper often works alone and he has to be able to protect himself. For the most part, it (being in good shape) is imperative, especially when you dont have partners.

Daniel said that some people also think troopers have an attitude.

But its just he way we carry ourselves to survive, he said. If its you and four people, its you and four people.

The job can be dangerous, and they often deal with people who are unpredictable.

If they are doing something wrong, a normal person under normal conditions will usually stop, he said. But if they continue bad behavior and activity (after being told to stop) they are already blowing off warnings.

Thats especially true of crimes related to drug use, he added.

When you have someone who is an addict, they ordinarily may not commit a crime or resist arrest, he said. But the chemical imbalance and addiction changes their behavior.

That being said, Danieldoes not excuse their crimes, adding that a lot of judges may not view some drug-related crimes as violent, but they are.

Breaking into your house is a violent crime, he said, adding that it is not a victimless crime. We pay for it as the public every day.

McDowell County does present some challenges, he said, including the logistics of getting from one place to another.

It may take you 45 minutes to get to some areas, he said. Then another call could come in on the opposite end of the county.

Because of the terrain, radio systems can fail and create problems as well, he added.

The detachment also has little backup now because the county is down on the number of deputies from the Sheriffs Office, he said.

If they are available to assist us, thats great, he said. But we take the calls. Regardless, we have to handle calls as they come in anyway. Weve always provided 24-hour service here at the Welch Detachment.

Daniel said there is also a popular myth that all troopers do is write tickets and take people to jail.

We have plenty of paperwork to do, he said.Its difficult dealing with difficult people, but keeping up with the paperwork has its challenges as well.

Not only do troopers have to be ready at all times to deal with criminals, domestic situations, paperwork and any other calls that come in, they often work on their own time without pay.

We will get the job done regardless, he said.

Daniel said he has to drive quite a distance every day to get to work, but he doesnt mind.

I am very well satisfied with working down here, he said.

For Stinson, coming to McDowell County was a stark change of pace.

Ive worked on the West Virginia Turnpike for 17 years in South Charleston, he said, adding he has been in the county for two weeks.

Its definitely a different environment from what I am used to, he said. The economic situation here is different. It (what he may face on the job) could be anything, not just traffic.

The Mercer County native said he had wanted to go into law enforcement since he was a kid.

We (his brother and sister) would ride our bikes and play cops and robbers, he said. I was the cop and I would always catch them.

Stinson said he is the first in his generation from the family to become a police officer.

Its just something I always wanted to do. I wanted to help people.

So after high school, he enrolled at Bluefield State College and earned a degree in criminal justice, then on to the State Police Academy.

Stinson said he is looking forward to being in the county and working with his fellow troopers and the community.

Besides Daniel and Stinson, the detachment has nine troopers to cover a large county 24 hours a day.

Stinson said that presents some challenges, but the job will get done.

Contact Charles Boothe at cboothe@bdtonline.com

View post:

Welch State Police Detachment welcomes new commanders - Bluefield Daily Telegraph

Common Dreams

How to Reverse Incarceration in Louisiana: Thirteen Steps to Stop Being First in Being Last Common Dreams Here are a dozen plus ways for Louisiana to stop jailing many more of its citizens than Iran or China. One. Decriminalize victimless crimes - don't arrest people for stupid non-violent crimes in the first place. Two. Stop racial profiling. African ... and more »

The rest is here:

How to Reverse Incarceration in Louisiana: Thirteen Steps to Stop Being First in Being Last - Common Dreams

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Rori Picker Neiss, the executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of St. Louis, said that since the arrest, there are mixed emotions and the community still feels a sense of vulnerability.

"Because of his feeling of wanting retribution against one individual, to then call in these threats and to cause such fear and disruption in our lives, of so many others," Niess said.

Niess said that since the threats, there has been a heightened need for more security.

"That's one of our top priorities," she said, "we want to make sure that each and every one of our institutions and each and every one of our members feels that we are all doing everything that we can to make sure that we are secure."

Niess said that the sense of vulnerability isn't just within the Jewish community.

"We turn to our partners like the Muslim community and the African American community, the immigrant community; there are so many communities that are feeling marginalized in various ways," she said.

"I really want him to understand that these aren't victimless crimes," she said. "It's not just calling in a bomb threat, these have a tremendous impact not only on the Jewish community, but on the entire region."

Niess said that the Jewish Federation has been organizing public forums to update the community about the security measures they have put in place in an attempt to prevent any type of attack.

Excerpt from:

Feelings of vulnerability fomenting among local Jewish community ... - fox2now.com

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Posted: Mar 05, 2017 12:01 AM

Now that President Trump has followed through on his campaign promise and started the deportation process for criminal illegal aliens, Democrats and the media are united in outrage. One talking point dominates all others: Immigrants have a much lower crime rate than Americans do, so its unfair to target them. This begs the question: To these liberals, how many American victims of illegal alien crime would it take to for it to matter to you?

There are regular reports of violent crimes committed by illegal aliens horrific gang-related murders have occurred recently in New York, Washington, D.C., and Houston but the true crime rate among illegal aliens is not known. Most states do not keep those records for reasons we can only guess, plus there is no way of knowing the real number of illegals in the country. That fact hasnt stopped liberal commentators and politicians from stating unequivocally that we Americans are the real crime problem in this country.

Although it may be true, and from a sheer numbers standpoint it undoubtedly is, its also irrelevant. Victims of crimes committed by illegal aliens would not have been victims if those people were not in this country. Every person murdered by an illegal alien would still be alive.

This is a simple fact those who spout this made-up statistic hope people dont realize, because their entire argument would fall apart if they did.

Kate Steinle, the young woman murdered in San Francisco by an illegal alien with multiple convictions and deportations, would not have been murdered that July day in 2015 if the man who did it had not been in the country illegally in the first place.

Democrats dont care. In addition to doing all they could to ignore Steinles murder, they even voted against Kates Law, which would impose a minimum sentence of five years for already-deported illegal aliens who re-enter the country. Like I said, Democrats dont care.

Democrats would rather pander for the potential votes of illegal aliens should they be granted citizenship than defend Americans.

At President Trumps address to a joint session of Congress, Democrats went so far as to invite illegal aliens and their children to be their guests in the House gallery.

In the build up to the speech, one woman in particular garnered a lot of Democratic and media sympathy.

The children of recently deported illegal alien Guadalupe Garcia de Rayos were invited guests to the presidents speech, and their plight was widely reported in incredibly sympathetic, if not accurate, terms.

CNN had five reporters (seriously, five people) file a story on them entitled, Trumps speech disheartens deported moms kids. If Guadalupe had hired a PR firm, it couldnt have drafted a more glowing press release.

Guadalupes sad tale of woe was easy to find across the media, but the reason she was deported wasnt as readily available.

The New York Times, of all places, is where you can find it, though its only casually mentioned in their story.

After mentioning Guadalupe had been meeting with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials for nearly a decade, the Times noted these annual meetings were a requirement since she was caught using a fake Social Security number during a raid in 2008 at a water park where she worked.

Thats a politically correct way of saying she committed fraud or stole someones identity the Times doesnt say which. But those are the only ways an illegal alien could get a legitimate job.

Although certainly not murder or drug dealing, neither option is a victimless crime either an American was denied a job by fraud and/or another had their identity stolen. And thats the real truth Democrats dont want you to think of illegal aliens have countless victims who may not know for years, if ever, that they were victims.

Still, Democrats do not care.

This is to say nothing of the cost to society. The cost of educating illegal alien children is significantly higher than Americans because of the language barrier. This siphons off valuable taxpayer resources from American children, usually from poor urban areas, making those children victims of illegal immigration.

Again, Democrats do not care. Theyd rather focus on an illegal alien being arrested after giving a defiant press conference than reality.

Illegal immigration is not a victimless crime simply because not all illegal aliens are members of MS-13 or Democrats want to pretend it is. Real people suffer real consequences when someone enters the country illegally or overstays a visa.

The question is: What is the magic number of Americans who must be victims of these crimes before Democrats will care more about those victims than about the potential voters now in our country illegally? If recent actions are any indication, no number is high enough.

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For Democrats, How Many American Victims Are Enough? - Townhall

AlterNet

The Sessions Scandal Exposes the Racist Double Standard of Trump's 'Law and Order' AlterNet Sessions is supposed to be the nation's head law enforcement official and he has spent the past couple of weeks openly licking his lips at the opportunity to crack down on petty, victimless crimes like marijuana possession, with the explicit goal of ... and more »

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The Sessions Scandal Exposes the Racist Double Standard of Trump's 'Law and Order' - AlterNet

Kate Fischer Glass came to America with her mother in 1880 when she was just 18, fleeing a hard life in Hungary. She had five children with her husband but lost one in infancy and raised the rest as a single mother after her young husband died too.

Bertha Grossman Reisman worked in her familys business, the Kensington Carpet Company, in the early 1900s. She met her husband there, and the couple opened a millinery store, where Bertha became known for finding the perfect hat for every customer.

The women never knew each other but their families became inextricably intertwined last weekend, when vandals toppled more than 150 headstones at the historic Mount Carmel Jewish Cemetery in Wissinoming, where both women are buried.

And now, both women are among the first whose stories are being collected by the National Museum of American Jewish History. The goal: To show that overturned grave markers are more than smashed granite and to humanize and honor the memories of those interred in the nearly 200-year-old cemetery.

These were not victimless crimes, museum CEO Ivy Barsky said. There are people and families who care about those graves and those legacies, and we wanted to make them three-dimensional for the museum audience, for those families, and maybe even for the perpetrators of those crimes so they understand who suffers because of this.

The museum is posting the stories online and welcomes submissions from loved ones of all those buried at Mount Carmel, regardless of whether their headstones were damaged, as well as families affected by the desecration that occurred last week at Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri.The project was created in the spirit of the museum's existing Its Your Story exhibit, in which visitors can document their life stories in recording booths.

At Mount Carmel, Glass gravestone was damaged, and Reismans was not. But Reismans great granddaughter Beth Kissileff wrote: If any in that place have been harmed, all have been.

Police have not determined who caused the damage, which a relative visiting Mount Carmel discovered Sunday morning. A $50,000 reward has been offered ($15,000 from Mayor Jim Kenney's office; $12,000, city Councilman Allan Domb; $10,000, the Anti-Defamation League; $10,000, an anonymous donor; and $3,000, the Fraternal Order of Police-Lodge 5) for tips leading the arrest and conviction of those responsible. Tipsters can call Northeast Detectives at (215) 686-3153 or -3154.

Police have called the desecration "abominable" and "reprehensible" but haven't classified it as a hate crime.

Trump even suggested Tuesday the vandalism and recentbomb threats to Jewish community centers were a ploy to make "others look bad."

Still, plenty of others have blasted the cemetery vandalism as anti-Semitic. Volunteers of all faiths have flocked to the cemetery on the edge of the city to help restore it.

Its bringing out the absolute best in people, Barsky said. Our friends and strangers are responding in incredible ways.

At the museum Tuesday, at least one out-of-town visitor hadnt heard of the cemetery vandalism. Still, museum-goer June Park said he wasnt surprised, given the uptick in anti-Semitic and xenophobic hate groups and incidents that accompanied President Trumps campaign and inauguration.

We have Voldemort in charge, at this point in our history, said Park, 27, of Minnesota, referring to the villain in the Harry Potter series. Insanities are happening everywhere.

Katharine and Michael Bowlus, who stopped to tour the museum during a weekend trip from their home in Jacksonville, Florida, had heard news reports of Mount Carmels misfortune.

It is always shocking to read that Americans who espouse the love of freedom express their hatred for people they dont even know in such heartless and cruel ways, said Michael Bowlus, 61. Intolerance is becoming tolerable in our country, and that is the antithesis of the basis of our freedoms.

Link:

Museum collects stories to show vandalized gravestones are more than just toppled rock - Newsworks.org

Mary Burkett, Washington County Republican Party 7:04 a.m. MT March 3, 2017

Mary Burkett(Photo: Jud Burkett / The Spectrum & Daily News)Buy Photo

Police are given discretion as to which cases they will pursue. They make choices about the severity and intent of a crime.

Prosecutors have discretion about which cases they will take to trial, whether to plea bargain and which offenses are most worth going to trial.

Juries, according to the law, have discretion. In many cases, jurors do not know it.

HB332 (Criminal Procedure Revisions) is before the Utah State Legislature and addresses ensuring that judges instruct juries about their discretion. Take a few minutes to read the summary (le.utah.gov), the first few and last paragraphs of the bill. It is designed to ensure that juries are fully informed of their options when deciding a verdict, including jury nullification.

Most of us dont know that jury nullification is a valid option. Simply put, someone can break a law and show in court that the law is unjust. The jury can then return a not guilty verdict. This is where juries have discretion.

Womens March, media fuel divisive movement

Its a remarkable idea. As the Libertas Institute explains, Juries serve as one component of a much larger justice system a final checkpoint to help ensure, as far as possible, that innocent individuals are not wrongfully convicted or that well-intentioned laws do not create an injustice by being unfairly applied to a particular person or circumstance.

However, there are judges and lawyers who do not like the idea of jury nullification so they withhold this vital information from the jury. Its much easier to control an ignorant jury. HB332 will stop this withholding of information.

There are high-profile cases in which juries have likely gone rogue.

The O.J. Simpson jury may very well have practiced nullification by finding the defendant not guilty even though they thought he had committed two murders but because the investigating detectives were seen as racists, they were justified to find him not guilty.

Other legal experts have called the George Zimmerman verdict in the Trayvon Martin case a classic example of jury nullification.

In 2009, Doug Darrell was charged with cultivating marijuana for distribution in New Hampshire. He said that the marijuana was being grown for personal use and religious purposes. His attorney actually had to ask the judge to tell the jury they had the right to nullify and they did.

Circumstances surrounding most jury nullification cases include unjust laws, unjust sentencing guidelines, victimless crimes and particulars of a single case, including mitigating factors.

Jury nullification is neither a Democrat or Republican issue, although many Libertarians have taken it up as a cause.

The bigger point is simple. And very important. When there are injustices, juries, a group of regular Americans pulled from voter rolls, can right wrongs. Its one of the many ways that the Founders showed their faith in their fellow citizens.

Its an optimistic view of the future, so contrary to the view liberals hold toward their fellow Americans. Where liberals treat their fellow Americans like victims, constantly trying to allow the government to interfere with their lives, with the intent of fixing things citizens are better served to fix themselves, our Founders and today, conservatives, have high hopes and expectations for the American people. We have faith in our fellow citizens, as demonstrated by the idea of jury nullification.

A few of the great resources online to learn more include Fully Informed Jury Association, Cop Block, Truth in Justice and the Libertas Institute.

Mary Burkett is a member of the Washington County Republican Party.

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Legislature should ensure juries know their options - St. George Daily Spectrum

The first thing everyone has to come to grips with is that the police have way more power to intervene in our individual lives then they were ever meant to have. If you cant understand or even try to open your mind to the fact that this is the reality of the world we live in, then you are a true statist. Read and educate yourself my poor American friends

The first official municipal police force was created in the 1830s in response to the industrial revolution between 1820 and 1840. The more we advanced industrially the more people came looking for work, thus, the natural increase in crime, and why policing became a government entity. Prior to this time period, we had watchmen, who were volunteers in the community who looked after everyone and their property during the night. The original role of policing, however, was not at all a pre-crime preventative measure, which is the nonsense we deal with today, but rather a watch-guard-just-in-case measure. Its no different than anyone hiring private security to stand guard for them or their property nowadays. And yes, there is a difference.

Today, cops patrol all day and all night looking for anything and everything they can to give them a legal reason to stop and frisk you, stop and pull you out of your vehicle, etc. They have gone from protecting when requested to to interfering with everyones personal movements and lives in hopes of preventing something. That is called pre-crime, and is immoral as hell. I dont recall anywhere in the 4th Amendment that says the government can stop you for any reason they deem necessary, or set up and stop you at a checkpoint for whatever reason without a warrant based on probable cause.

Having come from law enforcement myself, I can tell you that its not at all what the general public thinks it is. For the most part, its a bunch of power hungry thugs willing to violate any and every right you have in the name of justice. The police, at least in many jurisdictions, dont give a damn about you personally, nor your individual rights. They will violate the hell out of them. Theyre just there to do their job, even if that means violating the constitution, your civil liberties, etc., all in the misguided notion of public safety when you werent a danger nor were you going to be a danger to anyone. The days of Protect and Serve, are long gone. All we have now is Harass and Violate, at least in many jurisdictions, if not most.

The Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington D.C., has done a study on this that can be read here. The study is mostly based on statistics from the DOJ, and Bureau of Justice statistics. Heres what they have found: law enforcement officers are almost three times as likely to sexually assault you than the average everyday person. Also, when you remove victimless crimes and only focus on crimes against persons or property, then guess what? Cops are just as likely to commit those types of crimes as anyone else, despite your occupation. To quote Frederic Bastiat, If the natural tendencies of mankind are so bad that it is not safe to permit people to be free, how is it that the tendencies of these organizers are always good? Do not the legislators and their appointed agents also belong to the human race? Or do they believe that they themselves are made of a finer clay than the rest of mankind? The point is, and the real deal is, personally and professionally, cops are no better than the rest of us. End. Of. Story. Myself having worked in law enforcement, and also working on the civilian side of life, and having my God given civil rights violated on NUMEROUS occasions in my civilian career by police even when I had committed no crime, nor had done anything wrong at allYeah, I see it for what it is. Current law enforcement is nothing but a militarized enforcement arm of the state. To be clear, current law enforcement is the military occupying force by the state, within our local communities. I see it clearer than most anyone else for what it actually is. My perspective having worked on both ends of the spectrum is unique.

Not only are we equal as humans in our faults, but try dialing 911 and see if the police get there in time to prevent anything. Im certainly not going to bet on that, because the facts show in only 5% or less of cases when you called 911 the police are able to arrive and stop whatever crime was being committed, or capture the criminal involved. This means 95% of the time or less, you are on your own. This is just ONE of the reasons why you have the right to own guns.

My conservative, pro 2nd Amendment friends ROAR at having the right to protect themselves via the 2nd Amendment and that they have it to protect themselves from criminals because a cop is too heavy to carry around, yet the very second you say you dont need cops as much as people think, theyll throw you under the bus. Are you hypocritical much, my conservative friends? I think so. You cannot say I have the 2nd Amendment to protect myself and also if we need to overthrow the government, yet at the same exact time, worship that very government (the police), you are talking about taking down should it come to government tyranny.

The way to end the War on Cops, while simultaneously allowing us to exercise our individual God-given liberties, is simple. Police need to stay at their station house or at another assigned static location until they are called for assistance, period. You are not needed for nanny state nonsense. Stay put until you are called and allow us our liberties to move about and go about our day without looking over our shoulder and worrying about getting a citation for some nonsense when there is no victim whatsoever. You cannot protect anyone and everyone. Its literally impossible. Nationally there are roughly 1 million of you, and that includes corrections officers in comparison to over 300 million of us. Does that mean we want or need more cops? No, absolutely not or we would have a full on police state even more than we already have infringing on our rights every single day. Go out and spread yourself out throughout the community, but park and wait. Dont patrol, dont profile people, dont do anything, but park, and wait. That is truly the most efficient way of policing. Do you realize how much taxpayer dollars go to just fuel your vehicles why you ride around looking for citizens to turn into criminals? When you get a 911 call, then go. Ill support you on that all day long so long as theres an actual victim, simply because your presence and intervention was requested. Until then, stay put, and sit in your patrol car. Leave everyone alone unless your presence is requested. Its simple.

Featured image: Daily Wire (AP Photo / Nick Ut)

* Shane Foster has worked his entire career in military law enforcement, corrections, and as a private investigator. He has a unique perspective into how law enforcement operates from within its ranks, our judicial system, as well as our privacy laws and how every day our individual freedoms and liberties are gradually taken away from us and our individual rights abused on a regular basis.

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How to End the War on Cops and Restore our Liberties at the Same Time - Being Libertarian

In response to the recent desecration at Mount Carmel Cemetery in Philadelphia of more than 500 headstones, the National Museum of American Jewish History is embarking on a collecting project to preserve the stories of the people who are buried there.

To the Editor:

In response to the recent desecration at Mount Carmel Cemetery in Philadelphia of more than 500 headstones, the National Museum of American Jewish History is embarking on a collecting project to preserve the stories of the people who are buried there. The Museum is asking those who have friends or loved ones interred at Mount Carmel Cemetery to share a picture of their loved one (and/or the headstone, if available) and a personal story of up to 150 words by posting it on MtCarmelStories.tumblr.com or by e-mailing curatorial@nmajh.org.

The project is also open to those whose families were affected by the desecration that occurred at St. Louiss Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery last week.

We would like those who did this to understand that these are not victimless crimes. The individuals buried at Mount Carmel were human beings with names, stories, and families. They contributed to the world while they were here and continue to do so through the loved ones they left behind. We honor their memories, said Ivy Barsky, the Museums CEO, and Gwen Goodman, Director.

NationalMuseum of American Jewish History

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Preserving stories from Mt. Carmel - South Philly Review

The AUC rightwing paramilitaries left victims all over Colombia. Here family members mourn at a funeral in Buga, about 160 miles south-west of Bogot, in 2001. Photograph: Oswaldo Paez/AP

Hernn Giraldo Serna and the men who were under his command in a broad area of northern Colombia murdered more than 270 farmers, indigenous leaders and leftist organizers.

They forcibly disappeared and tortured many of their victims; thousands more fled their homes in fear. Giraldo won the nickname the Drill for the dozens of young girls and women he raped. Twenty-four bore his children.

But when Giraldo faces a federal court in Washington DC on Friday it wont be for any of those crimes. Rather, he will be sentenced for conspiring to import cocaine into the United States when he was a leader of a rightwing paramilitary group through which he lorded over the northern slopes of Colombias Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta.

However, in a precedent-setting twist to the case, the family of Julio Henrquez, who was tortured and murdered by Giraldos henchmen in 2001, will be allowed to address the court about the impact of his crimes.

Fridays hearing marks the first time that Colombias brutal paramilitary leaders who escaped trial for crimes against humanity at home because of drug charges in the United States will face their victims in a US court, according to the Henrquez familys attorneys.

Roxanna Altholz, who represents the Henrquez family, said part of the conspiracy Giraldo has pleaded guilty to was offering armed protection to drug traffickers. And part of that armed protection was Julios murder because he was undermining the drug trade by organizing farmers to replace coca for other crops, she said. Coca is the main ingredient in cocaine.

Nadiezdha Henrquez said that she, her sister Bela and their mother, Zulma, would tell the story of her father Julios murder one more time in the hopes of seeing some sort of justice. He was addressing a meeting with farmers when two masked men burst in, and dragged him into white pickup truck. He was never seen alive again.

We want to make the court understand that there are people whose lives are destroyed by this supposedly victimless crime of drug trafficking, she said in an interview in Bogot before travelling to Washington. We want to influence the judges decision on how long Hernn Giraldo will stay in prison.

They will make a plea for the stiffest sentence possible, which is life in prison, and describe what it would mean for them and the communities of Colombias northern coast, where he once reigned, if he were to return home after a short sentence.

He is a very dangerous figure for the people of that area. If he returns, he will resume his business and the fear we lived with for so many years will return, said Zulma, Henrquezs widow.

Giraldo, 68, is one of 14 former leaders of the United Self Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC) who were extradited to the United States on drug trafficking charges in 2008 just as they began to confess as part of a demobilization deal the human rights crimes they committed in their purported fight against leftist Farc rebels and anyone perceived to be a supporter.

Critics claimed that justice for thousands of murder, rape, torture and disappearance victims was thwarted by the paramilitary leaders extraditions, although most continued to cooperate with Colombian prosecutors investigating the crimes.

Giraldo is the last of those extradited to face sentencing, after he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to traffic cocaine.

Prosecutors are asking for a 20-year sentence, which would be reduced by half through the 10 years he has already served since turning himself in 2006 in Colombia before his extradition the United States in 2008.

In a memorandum seen by the Guardian, Giraldos defence suggests a 12-year sentence, arguing that he was compelled to become involved in the AUC because of patriotism and a sense of duty, honor, and obligation to protect the peasant community against leftist guerrillas.

The drug trafficking, according to Giraldos lawyers, was just a way to make money to maintain the counter-insurgency force.

In 2007, Henrquezs body was found in a clandestine grave. He was missing his jaw and a foot. Two bullets had pierced his skull.

Two years later, after Giraldo had been extradited to the US, a Colombian court convicted him of Henrquezs forced disappearance. He was sentenced in absentia to 37 years in prison and ordered to pay compensation to the family. But the sentence has not been executed because of the charges in the United States and a pending sentence under the special peace process mechanism.

But while Henrquezs family has been unable to get redress in Colombia, they hope to find justice in the US court. And acceptance of Henrquezs widow and daughters as victims in a case of international drug trafficking could open the door to future non-US victims of traffickers to have their say in court as well.

Victims of [the Mexican drug boss Joaqun] Chapo Guzmn or other leaders of cartels or members of security forces or politicians who face drug charges could also face their victims in US court, said Altholz.

Its a new way to look at drug conspiracies, she said. It says those tons of cocaine and ounces of heroin that reach the US are tainted with blood.

See the article here:

Families of victims of Colombia's paramilitaries get their day in US court - The Guardian

Editors note: This commentary is by John Klar, a Vermont grass-fed beef and sheep farmer, and an attorney and pastor who lives in Irasburg.

In a June 22, 2016, VPR interview, Mr. Scott stated of marijuana legalization, We cant afford to make any mistakes here. So Im not saying never. Im saying its the timings not right. Its not now. In the recent Seven Days article, Gov. Scott is quoted as saying I didnt say, Never. I said, Not now. But the travesty of this position is manifest: not only is the governor leaving draconian laws in place which incarcerate citizens for victimless crimes, he is upping the ante by linking decriminalization to driving tests for cannabis.

To raise the false specter of pot-smoking motorists is to echo the Reefer Madness paranoia of a well-discredited past. Gov. Scott is suggesting that decriminalization will cause an increase in the number of stoned motorists on our roads, for which there is no evidence. A similar ignorance imbued the campaign by some to block the distribution of free needles to addicts in the midst of the AIDS epidemic: subsequent studies revealed that free needles did stem the spread of HIV, and did not increase the use of IV drugs.

Why should someone using cannabis brownies to fend off chemotherapy nausea, or battle chronic pain, have to be threatened with prison because someone else might drive stoned and the police dont yet have a test?

Our roads are threatened daily by drunken drivers, for whom we have a test. But if there is an accident, we have tests for cannabis also. But what Mr. Scott knows full well is that we have not established a legal limit for what amount of cannabinoids is dangerous. Without such a discussion, there can be no driving law and thus not now means, essentially never the opposite of what Mr. Scott states.

We must not tolerate such subterfuge. We have a horrific opioid epidemic in Vermont. I am personally seeing more and more people addicted to pharmaceuticals because of routine surgeries, and then transferred to methadone clinics. Does the governor have a routine test for methadone? If not, how can we allow it to be dispensed legally by the state?

There are numerous federal laws that protect people from discrimination if they are under medication-assisted treatment (see, e.g., Rights For Individuals on Medication-Assisted Treatment, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services). There is no legal protection for users of illegal drugs like cannabis just for the profitable drugs that are peddled by pharmaceutical companies and physicians to (supposedly) wean people off illegal narcotics.

So our governor is worse than disingenuous. Perhaps the energy he employs defying federal immigration laws should be invested in standing up forcefully for Vermonters clear and longstanding rights to bear arms, or to defy federal laws which incarcerate Vermonters for smoking pot in their own living rooms. Why should someone using cannabis brownies to fend off chemotherapy nausea, or battle chronic pain, have to be threatened with prison because someone else might drive stoned and the police dont yet have a test?

Vermont has a medical marijuana registry, regardless of the absence of a roadside test. But the relief from state criminalization for medical marijuana use does not protect our citizens from federal law, and our state appears to be providing the names of those on the marijuana registry to the federal government, so that they wont be able to buy guns they are on a federal list. Perhaps our governor will also demand a test to ensure gun owners arent stoned before he legalizes pot, to stigmatize both marijuana use and gun ownership simultaneously. (There is no restriction on alcoholics owning guns.)

The real issue here is whether or not we continue to threaten non-violent cannabis users with incarceration. Our government shields methadone and suboxone addicts from discrimination, while threatening recreational homebound pot smokers with prison or arrest because we dont have a test yet. What are they smoking in the Vermont Legislature? Do we have a test for them to take before enacting new laws, higher taxes, and increased fees? Not now. Maybe later. How do we know we are not under stoned governance?

Read more from the original source:

John Klar: Scott plays both sides in marijuana debate - vtdigger.org

COMMENTARY: The New Mexico Legislature is considering two bills that would support the babies of incarcerated women. Both bills either save money for the state and counties, or involve minimal costs.

The New Mexico Breastfeeding Task Force and a number of respected pro-social organizations strongly advocate for the passing of both bills as concrete ways to support the physical and social health of mothers and infants in our state.

SB 277: Alternative Sentencing for Pregnant and Lactating Offenders (Ortiz y Pino)

Women offenders are often appropriate for diversion to alternative incarceration programs, as many have been convicted of non-violent or victimless crimes. SB 277 would allow the court to decide to either temporarily release or to place in community custody (eg. house arrest) a pregnant or lactating offender during the most vulnerable months of the fetus/childs life. This would happen only in cases where the women provided no perceived risk to public safety.

Courtesy photo

Lissa Knudsen

Alternative sentencing would allow a mother to access appropriate medical care, simplify visiting, make it more possible for her to attend foster care agency conferences and Family Court proceedings, and ultimately ease the reunification process when she is released. Participating in alternative sentencing might even prevent her children from entering or staying in foster care, depending on her personal circumstances. Once her child reaches 18 months of age, the mother would be expected to finish her sentence.

According to a Journal of Criminal Justice article, the adult children of incarcerated mothers are nearly four times as likely to serve time on probation and nearly three times as likely to be convicted of a crime at some point during their lifetime. By allowing mothers and children to form bonds and be housed together, the consequences of mother incarceration are lessened considerably.

SB 277 saves money, too when inmates with high-risk pregnancies need medical care, the city or county is responsible for the cost. Medicaid cannot pay for services provided while the patient is behind bars, but if they are out on release, Medicaid will pay for the care. Medical care can be costly for high-risk inmate pregnancies, allowing these non-violent women to access medical care outside of corrections reduces overall costs and provides rural counties and cities with significant savings.

The N.M. Association of Counties, the American Congress of Obstetricians & Gynecologists, the N.M. Pediatric Society, New Mexico Academy of Family Physicians, the N.M. Public Health Association, Southwest Womens Law Center, N.M. Association of Social Workers, New Mexico Voices for Children, Womens Agenda, PB&J Family Services, Wings for LIFE International, and the Gordon Bernell Charter School all support this bill.

This bill has made it through two committees and was approved by the senate on a 33-6 vote.

SB 293/HB 277: Lactation Policies for Female Inmates (Padilla/Maestas Barnes)

Of course, release or delayed jail time will not be an appropriate option for some female inmates. Considering the proven health and social benefits of breastfeeding to both the mother and the infant, SB 293 (and its mirror bill HB 277) would allow incarcerated mothers who wish to breastfeed or maintain their milk supply the ability to provide their infants with mothers milk.

This would be accomplished through the support they need to either express milk for delivery to their infant or, in some cases, to breastfeed their infants during daily visits. If the mother expresses her milk, accommodations would be made for freezing, storing and making the milk available for on-site pick up by the childs caregiver.

There are several precedents for this type of accommodation, including the California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation, the Ohio Prison System, Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Oregon, Travis County Jail in Texas, and the Washington County Jail in New York. All of these provide lactation support programs for the inmates.

Across the country, correctional facilities have provided four types of breastfeeding support (expressed milk can be frozen and distributed to caregiver on a biweekly basis):

An imprisoned mothers actions should not condemn her children to lose their rights to the benefits of breastmilk and breastfeeding. When children cant access the immunity-building and nutritional benefits of breastmilk (as well as the bonding that breastfeeding promotes) becausetheir mothers are in correctional facilities they, too, are sentenced to the lifelong ramifications of imprisonment.

Babies born to incarcerated mothers are more likely to end up incarcerated themselves. However, we know that babies who are breastfed are better able to bond with their mothers, thus reducing child abuse rates and improving other social outcomes. County jail officers have reported that mother inmates in breastfeeding support programs are motivated and have fewerbehavioral problems than mothers whoare not able to do anything for their off-site child.

The American Congress of Obstetricians & Gynecologists, the N.M. Pediatric Society, New Mexico Academy of Family Physicians, the N.M. Public Health Association, Southwest Womens Law Center, N.M. Association of Social Workers, New Mexico Voices for Children, N.M. Womens Agenda, PB&J Family Services, Wings for LIFE International, and the Gordon Bernell Charter School all support this bill.

This bill has made it through four committees and is scheduled to be heard on both the Senate and House floors this week.

In a tough budget year it is understandable that new programs bring up concerns about costs. However, HB 277/SB 293 and SB 277 have the power to lessen costs through reducing recidivism and reducing health-care costs for mother and child. Alternative sentencing will shift costs from municipalities to Medicaid. The lactation policies bill is flexible, allowing for each correctional facility to design a program that best matches itsresources and needs. For WIC-eligible children of incarcerated mothers, costs can be as minimal as providing storage bags for the milk. The N.M.Corrections Department has stated that even if the bill does not become statute, itenvisions being able to implement a lactation program within itsgiven budget.

Whenever programming is considered for the incarcerated population, safety is a concern. The courts will decide who would be eligible for release (using the criteria of what is in the best interest of public safety). Corrections administrators and medical providers will decide which inmates will be eligible to participate in the lactation support programs. Remember that women offenders are not generally dangerous and mother offenders are even less so. Programs like these provide opportunities for mothers to build self-efficacy and self-esteem, thus improving their outlook and motivation. It also promotes bonding, attachment and reduces child abuse rates.

Although there are safety concerns that may arise regarding the storage and transfer of the expressed milk, breastmilk is food and can be stored like food. Staff will receive training on how to label, store, and deliver expressed milk. These types of procedures are not complicated and are already done in child care facilities, NICUs, and other places that provide expressed human milk to babies.

We know rates of substance abuse are high among women who are incarcerated. The American Academy of Pediatrics, American Congress of Obstetricians & Gynecologists, and Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine all support breastfeeding by women who are enrolled in a supervised methadone (or buprenorphine) maintenance program and have negative screening for HIV infection and illicit drugs. Moreover, breastfeeding has been shown to reduce the symptoms of neonates experiencing neonatal abstinence syndrome as a result of in utero opioid exposure. This is, in fact, the best possible treatment. Medical providers test mothers both at birth (current standard of practice) and throughout the lactation period. This ensures that mother is not using illicit substances while lactating and that breastfeeding continues to be medically recommended.

Human milk should be the standard of nutrition care for babies born to mothers who are incarcerated. SB 277 saves the state both in incarceration costs and in labor and delivery costs. Both bills promote breastfeeding and thus decrease incidences of life-threatening infections and lengthy of hospital stays, improve mother and child bonding, and reduce child abuse rates and health care costs. Ultimately both of these bills help New Mexican babies have the best possible start to their lives regardless of their mothers crimes.

Lissa Knudsen, New Mexico Breastfeeding Task Forcechair, is a PhD Student in the Communication and Journalism Department (focusing on health communication) at the University of New Mexico, and she lives in downtown Albuquerque with her 12-year-old daughter.

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Breastfeeding bills aim to help children of incarcerated mothers - NMPolitics.net

Vandalism in the Mount Carmel Cemetery in Philadelphia

Reuters

Two Philadelphia unions said they will provide free services to help repair and secure the city's vandalized Mount Carmel Cemetery.

More than 100 gravestones were toppled and damaged at the Jewish cemetery in the Wissinoming section. The vandalism was discovered Sunday.

Bobby Henon, a Philadelphia City Council member with union ties who represents the Wissinoming neighborhood, tweeted Monday evening that the Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council offered to replace the toppled headstones and that the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Union Local 98 offered to install additional lighting and security cameras.

Labor leader John Dougherty of the Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council told reporters that the vandalism is a cowardly act of anti-Semitism that cannot be tolerated. His workers also offered to re-sod and clean the cemetery grounds.

Meanwhile, a Gofundme campaign for the Philadelphia cemetery launched by a private citizen, Raphael Caroline, 31, in the hours after the vandalism was discovered has raised nearly $20,000 in 24 hours, double its original goal.

The Jewish Federation of Philadelphia announced that a volunteer cleanup of the cemetery will begin at noon Tuesday and run every day from noon to 4 p.m.

The federation said it will begin cleaning up the cemetery Tuesday and asked for volunteers.

"Representatives from the Jewish Federation will be on hand as well as up to 50 people per hour cleaning and working to help restore this important Philadelphia landmark," the federation said in a statement.

In response to the vandalism, the National Museum of American Jewish History, which is located in Philadelphia, has initiated a project to preserve the stories of the people who are buried there. The museum has called on those who have relatives or friends buried at Mount Carmel Cemetery to share a photo of the person, and one of the headstone, if possible, and a personal story of up to 150 words. They can be posted at http://MtCarmelStories.tumblr.com or emailed to curatorial@nmajh.org.

The project is also open to those whose families were affected by the desecration that occurred last week at the Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery in the St. Louis area.

We would like those who did this to understand that these are not victimless crimes," said Ivy Barsky, the museums CEO, and Gwen Goodman, its director. "The individuals buried at Mt. Carmel were human beings with names, stories, and families. They contributed to the world while they were here and continue to do so through the loved ones they left behind. We honor their memories.

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Philadelphia unions offer to repair vandalized Jewish cemetery - Arutz Sheva