This guy is a shit-stirrer and I love it!! LOL, the old saying "be careful what you ask for" applies to the christians who forced this decision. They need to own it now. Put up or shut up.

oskar576 wrote:

Gotta love unintended consequences, at times.

What makes you think they were unintended?

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR ~ took a conscience and courage to bring this suit ~ but given the info here, this comes as close to a "sure thing" as it gets in litigation ~ the school and every teacher hell-bent on "protecting" the boys should face charges ~ there are "live links" to more/corroborating information in the original ~ Sooz

WV school punished rape victim by moving her back a grade, attorney general says
By Travis Gettys
Friday, May 9, 2014 14:21 EDT

West Virginia’s attorney general filed a civil rights lawsuit against a school district he said had failed to report sexual assault claims and then retaliated against the girls who reported the abuse.

Attorney General Patrick Morrissey asked a court for an injunction Thursday against the Mingo County Board of Education, where two girls claim they were molested and sexually assaulted by two male students at the school and on a field trip.

The girls were seventh-graders in 2012, when they said two boys restrained and groped them on a school bus and in a school computer lab, and one of the girls said one of the boys sexually assaulted her on a school trip to Charleston.

According to court filings, the girls were threatened with discipline and administrators at Burch Middle School retaliated against them.

“Every action taken by (the) defendants was either to minimalize the allegations against the boys and/or to protect the alleged male juvenile perpetrators,” according to the filing, signed by Assistant Attorney General J. Robert Leslie.

The attorney general’s filing names Melissa Webb, principal of Burch Middle School in Delbarton; Deanna Maynard, vice principal; Hester Keatley, guidance counselor; Melvin Cunningham, a coach at the school; and Randy Keathley, superintendent of Mingo County Schools.

The filing also lists the Migno County School Board and the two alleged assailants, who are not named, and their parents.

“We’re aware of the complaint that has been filed in the circuit court of Mingo County,” Randy Keathley said. “Once the county has been formally served, we will respond accordingly and, finally, Mingo County Schools takes student safety seriously and remains committed to providing a secure environment to all students.”

The civil rights injunction asks the defendants to stay away from the girls and their families while state police investigate their claims.

The 32-page complaint says one victim was most recently disciplined for her complaints in late April after speaking to state police, who were attempting to investigate the matter.

Administrators moved one girl to the seventh grade because one of the boys was in her eighth-grade classes, the filing claims, while the boy stayed in his age-appropriate classes.

Both boys are students whose relatives are employees of the school system, the complaint claims.

The first victim was afraid to report the alleged abuse, the filing claims, but two other girls who said they were abused by the same boys told the guidance counselor.

The principal at the time, Jada Hunter, spoke several times to the girl’s mother but did not inform her of the full extent of the allegations and told her she had taken care of the problem.

Administrators then met with the alleged assailant’s parents, and his father admitted to the claims, according to the filing.

Cunningham, the coach, told the victim she could not prove anything because there were no witnesses and threatened disciplinary action against her, the filling claims.

Hunter and Webb, then the vice principal, gave the boys one day of out-of-school suspension and one day of in-school suspension.

They were also denied ice cream during a break in standardized testing.

Mingo County School requires employees to report sex abuse claims to law enforcement within 48 hours.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/05/09/wv-school-punished-rape-victim-by-moving-her-back-a-grade-attorney-general-says/

Lemme guess.
White molesters, black victims.

Huh?

Intentional unintended consequences is too complex a concept for them to grasp.

How could anyone with a single shred of decency do this? ~ ~ I almost never wish bad on anyone, but I deeply hope this man is caught and pays a very heavy price for both stealing the memorial sign and, even more importantly, for causing this family more pain ~ Sooz

Sandy Hook truther steals memorial sign, tells victim’s mother her child never existed
By Tom Boggioni
Monday, May 12, 2014 9:43 EDT

A vinyl peace sign installed at a playground in Mystic, Connecticut, dedicated to a victim of the Sandy Hook shooting was stolen last week by a man claiming that the Newtown massacre never happened.

After stealing the 50-pound sign from the Grace McDonnell playground, the man called McDonnell’s mother saying he did it because he believes the shooting at the school was a hoax, according to CBS2.

According to the mother, Lynn McDonnell, the man told her that her daughter “never existed.”

Grace McDonnell was one of twenty children killed by 20-year-old Adam Lanza when he went on a shooting rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary on December 14, 2012. Lanza also shot and killed six adult staff members and his mother.

Sandy Hook ‘truthers’ believe that the Newtown shooting never occurred or was part of a ‘false flag’ operation designed to open the door to the confiscation of all guns by the government.

The Grace McDonnell playground is one of 26 planned playgrounds being built by the Where Angels Play Foundation in honor of all 26 victims.

The latest incident comes two weeks after another playground sign, located in Hartford, was vandalized with someone spray-painting ‘Peace to Sandy Hook,’ a peace sign, and the numeral ’2′ on it.

Signs at both locations are being replaced.

Watch the video below from CBS2: [Sooz says video accessible via the end link]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/05/12/sandy-hook-truther-steals-memorial-sign-tells-victims-mother-her-child-never-existed/

WTH is happening to some cops??? ~ it would take me maybe 1.5 seconds to decide to send this guy to prison ~ ~ Sooz

Jury can’t decide if cop who destroyed woman’s eyeballs with pepper spray should go to prison
By Travis Gettys
Tuesday, May 20, 2014 9:41 EDT

Jurors appeared deadlocked Tuesday morning in the case of a former southern California police officer who blinded a woman when he fired a blast of pepper spray into her face.

Prosecutors said 38-year-old Enoch “Jeremy” Clark became “annoyed” when 32-year-old Monique Hernandez resisted his attempts Feb. 21, 2012, to place her in handcuffs.

Clark fired a JPX gunpowder-propelled gun, which discharges chemical irritant at 400 mph, just 10 inches away from the woman’s face while arresting her for misdemeanor driving under the influence, authorities said.

A dashboard camera recording, which has not been made available to the public, shows Hernandez with her hands behind her back, moving around as Clark tries to place her in handcuffs.

The officer repeatedly tells her to stop resisting, but Hernandez insists she’s not resisting and demands to know why she’s being taken into custody.

Clark repeatedly threatens to “JPX” her if she does not stop struggling, and the video shows the officer remove the pepper spray gun from his belt and fire a blast into her face.

The blast of pepper spray gel sliced the woman’s right eyeball in half, fractured her right orbital bone, and severed the optic nerve in her left eye.

“Every single day, she goes to bed at night, dreaming of a time when she used to be able to see,” said Deputy District Attorney Michael Carney. “When Monique Hernandez wakes up, the world is still dark because her sight was violently taken from here. Her eyeballs were literally blown into pieces, and the person who did this was a police officer.”

The woman’s family released cell phone video recorded shortly after the incident that shows Hernandez in excruciating pain as she was taken for treatment.

“I don’t know what he did, mom,” Hernandez tells her mother. “All I know is, I felt something touch my temple, (and) all I seen was little stars.”

The woman has sued Clark and the city of Beaumont in federal court, alleging civil rights violations that led to permanent injury.

Prosecutors characterized Clark’s statements about the confrontation as “bullsh-t,” saying there was no imminent threat to his life or loss of balance that caused him to misfire the pepper spray gun.

“Any option was better than what he did,” Carney said. “He goes from a little bit of effort to inflicting a brutal injury. Yes, she’s mouthy and drunk, but there is no way to justify his response.”

Defense attorney Steve Sanchez said Clark was inadequately trained to use the non-lethal weapon, arguing that the manufacturer’s warnings were confusing.

He pointed to errors in the instruction manual, including a misplaced comma that suggested the JPX could be safely fired from one meter – or three feet – away, instead of 1.5 meters.

Sanchez said Clark’s decision to fire the pepper spray gun was “made in a split second, and you can’t second-guess the officer.”

Jurors began deliberating the case Wednesday morning, but they have sent signals that they could be unable to reach a verdict.

The panel asked Riverside County Superior Court Judge Mac Fisher before they went home Monday to define legal necessity, and they had previously asked the judge to clarify other matters of law.

Clark faces more than 20 years in prison if he’s convicted of assault by a peace officer causing injury, assault with a less lethal weapon, battery causing serious injury, and assault resulting in great bodily injury.

Watch this video report posted online by KCBS-TV: [Sooz says video accessible at end link]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/05/20/jury-cant-decide-if-cop-who-destroyed-womans-eyeballs-with-pepper-spray-should-go-to-prison/

Exactly, Chaos ~ it's the cop's job to know those "pesky details" ~ and misplaced comma or not, 3 feet is vastly different than 10 inches ~

Sooz

Not only that, but aren't they trained to use this? 400mph, so it's not your run of the mill pepper spray dispenser. Poor woman. I hope he gets some time in jail. It's becoming more and more common for police to use unnecessary force, sometimes killing someone. I wonder why.

I hate bashing the US, the land of the Free and the Brave, but stories like this always remind me of the time I called a German cop a nasty name and the guy sued me in court instead of destroying my eyes.
I'm not sure if Americans really know what freedom actually means.

Was a mistrial declared? ~ or a hung jury? ~ there's a difference, and there could be a difference between federal and state court ~ I'm pretty sure a criminal conviction requires all 12 jurors to vote "guilty" in a criminal trial, so 1 juror could force a hung jury ~ but a judge usually declares a mistrial if s/he learns or sees something so prejudicial to one side that a fair trial is impossible ~ the first few words of the op are "Jurors appeared deadlocked ...", which seems like it might be a hung jury ~ and I'm fairly sure a defendant can/will be retried if a decision can't be reached because of a hung jury ~ not sure about a mistrial ~

Sooz

* Edited for clarity.

Oh, well, now, the victim is nothing but a lowly Hispanic, it would seem.
Nothing to see here, folks.

A link to this article is in RawStory's update on the 10-2 hung jury ~ I'm reading this to mean that any trial that ends [for whatever reason] before a jury decision is a "mistrial" ... which makes sense ~ and that this mistrial was due to a hung jury ~ my above recollection that a criminal conviction requires a unanimous jury vote remains intact ~ but this article opens a new problem for me: the difficulties in convicting police ~ yes, police face dangerous situations regularly ~ I'm thinking they must be trained to avoid escalating that danger ~ I see NO rationale to give Clark a pass on this, and I hope the prosecutor does refile charges against him for his inexcusable violence against this woman ~ Sooz

BEAUMONT: Hung jury mistrial in police pepper-spray case
May 20, 2014 by Richard K. De Atley

A judge declared a hung-jury mistrial Tuesday in the assault case of Enoch Clark, a former Beaumont police officer accused of blinding a woman with a close-range discharge of a pepper spray gun during an arrest.

Jurors voted 10-2 for conviction, district attorney spokesman John Hall said. The panel had been deliberating since May 14.

Prosecutors will made a decision in the “near future” over whether to seek a retrial, Hall said. Judge Mac Fisher set a trial readiness conference for July 24. If Clark were retried and convicted, he could face a sentence “ranging from misdemeanor probation to seven years in custody,” Hall said.

“We are pleased with the results given the uphill battle we faced, and are happy that two jurors had the courage to stay true to the facts,” Clark’s defense attorney, Steve Sanchez, said in a phone interview.

Clark is charged with assault under the color of authority, assault with a less lethal weapon, use of force causing serious bodily injury and assault with force likely to cause great bodily injury.

The officer pulled Monique Hernandez over on suspicion of DUI on Feb. 21, 2012, after receiving a disturbance call from her family. While trying to arrest her, prosecutors said, Clark fired only about 10 inches from her face a handgun-like device called a JPX that uses gunpowder to propel pepper spray at a muzzle velocity of 400 mph.

The blast sliced Hernandez’s right eye in half, fractured her right orbital bone and severed the optic nerve in her left eye, leaving her permanently blind.

Printing on the weapon’s cartridge says it is to be fired no closer than 1.5 meters, or 5 feet, from the intended target. At that distance, it is designed to cause eye irritation, swelling and temporary blindness, with effects from a single shot lasting 45-60 minutes, according to the gun maker.

Hernandez and her family have filed a civil-rights violation lawsuit against the city of Beaumont, Clark and others. That suit is proceeding in federal court.

During opening statements May 1, jurors saw a grainy dashboard camera video of the arrest. The video has not been released to the public.

Clark was struggling to complete handcuffing Hernandez as he ordered her to stop resisting. Another officer was telling angry family members, who were off camera, to stay back.

But “nothing she did that night justified what was done to her that night,” deputy district attorney Michael Carney told the jurors.

Sanchez countered that Clark’s training in the use of pepper-spray handgun was “deplorable, the worst kind of training an officer ever received” and that he was told it was “just like” common aerosol pepper spray used by police.

Sanchez said with a 10-2 split in favor of conviction, a judge would by unlikely to dismiss the case. He said he did not move for a dismissal after Tuesday’s mistrial declaration.

“It is our belief that no reasonable jury will ever return a guilty verdict in the case,” Sanchez said. “Police officers have a right to use reasonable force against a combative suspect.

“I am not concerned with the split,” he said. “I just know there will be a split every time this case is tried.”

Sanchez said Clark was happy with the verdict. He declined to say what his client is doing. “All of his attention is focused on this trial right now.”

Getting a conviction of a police officer is difficult, even if the officer’s actions are recorded on video, said Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor and a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.

Jurors “are very reluctant to call a police officer a criminal,” Levenson said.

“They also realize officers have a tough job to do; the standard is not whether they did something wrong — it’s whether they intentionally did something wrong,” Levenson said.

Levenson said given the track record of other jury trials of accused police officers, she was surprised the majority vote was for conviction.

Three Los Angeles police officers accused in the Rodney King beating were acquitted of all charges in their 1992 trial, she said. (Jurors acquitted a fourth officer on all but one charge, stalling at 8-4 for acquittal.) The verdicts led to days of deadly rioting in Southern California.

Other video-recorded cases that resulted in acquittals for officers include former San Bernardino County sheriff’s Deputy Ivory Webb Jr., who shot a traffic stop suspect who was complying with Webb’s orders to stand up, and January’s acquittal of two former Fullerton police officers accused of beating to death a homeless, mentally ill man.

As defendants, law enforcement officers “are in a category in all their own, but they can make some terrible decisions,” Levenson said. “But doing something wrong is not the same as being guilty of a crime.”

Proceeding in federal court is a civil rights violation lawsuit Hernandez and her family have filed against the city of Beaumont, Clark, and others.

http://blog.pe.com/breaking-news/2014/0 ... pray-case/

Sadly, your comment rings all too true, oskar ~

Sooz

Posted without further comment while my blood pressure returns to normal ~ ~ Sooz

TPM LIVEWIRE
Miss. Judge Allegedly Struck, Yelled Slur At Mentally Disabled Black Man
Catherine Thompson – May 26, 2014, 9:57 AM EDT

A Mississippi judge allegedly slapped a young mentally disabled black man earlier this month at a flea market and yelled "run, n-----, run," the Jackson Clarion-Ledger reported Sunday.

The family of Eric Rivers, 20, filed a complaint against Madison County Justice Court Judge Bill Weisenberger, who is white, accusing him of striking Rivers at the market on May 8 in Canton, Miss.

"This is 2014, not 1960, where someone could slap a young man and call out, 'Run, n-----, run,'" former Canton Mayor William Truly, now president of the Canton branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, told the Clarion-Ledger.

An apparent witness, Tammy Westbrook, told the newspaper Rivers was offering to help flea market vendors unload their goods when Weisenberger slapped him twice, then yelled "run, n-----, run" as he fled. Westbrook and her sister, a vendor at the flea market, recalled that they thought Weisenberger was a law enforcement officer because he was wearing a security guard's uniform.

Weisenberger did not respond to the Clarion-Ledger's requests for comment.

The local NAACP head told the newspaper that he plans to file further complaints against Weisenberger and expects a grand jury will eventually hear the case.

"No citizen should have to face justice before a judge who holds such a high degree of racial animus and hatred," Truly said Friday in a news conference, as quoted by the Clarion-Ledger.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/bill-weisenberger-accused-racial-abuse

On a similar note, we watch "Quantum Leap" in reruns. Sunday's episode was quite interesting. "Sam" was thrust back into 1965, as a new Klan member. Long, convoluted story, but he was forced (as his character) to say the "n" word several times and talk down to black people. He almost got physically ill. Even his character wasn't racist, but was trying to please his "Grand Dragon" father in law. I must say that it affected me physically too. My stomach got tied into knots.

It's very difficult for me to remember that I, too, used that word as a child because it was what I was taught. Although, to be fair, I never used "boy" or talked down to the few blacks with whom I interacted. In fact, I loved two of them to pieces. The one man worked in the repair bay at the gas station next door, so I would see him a lot. The other worked at our local drug store as their janitor. Both of them were very kind to me and I enjoyed talking to them. In fact, I saw the latter many, many years later and he remembered me by name!

Here's an update to post #32 ~ I'm very happy they caught this creep ~ now, he needs to be convicted and sent to prison ~ Sooz

‘Truther’ arrested for stealing memorial signs for 7-year-old victims of Sandy Hook shooting
By Reuters
Saturday, May 31, 2014 12:37 EDT
By Alex Dobuzinskis

(Reuters) – A Virginia man who claims the massacre of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook School in Connecticut never took place has been arrested after stolen memorial signs for two 7-year-old victims were found in his home, police said.

A sign honoring victim Chase Kowalski had been removed from a playground in Mantoloking, New Jersey, and another, in memory of Grace McDonnell, was taken from a playground in Mystic, Connecticut.

Both signs were found on Friday at the Herndon, Virginia, residence of Andrew David Truelove, 28, and he was arrested on a charge of receiving stolen property, Herndon Police Chief Maggie DeBoard told reporters.

She said police tracked down Truelove after he emailed a reporter who had written about the thefts and the journalist passed along information to investigators.

Grand theft charges for removing the memorial signs are pending in Connecticut and New Jersey, DeBoard said.

Truelove told police he is one of the so-called “truthers” who do not believe the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook School actually happened. In the incident, one of the worst school shootings in U.S. history, gunman Adam Lanza, 20, a former student at the elementary campus, killed 20 children and six adults before taking his own life.

Truelove did not give police a specific reason for taking the two signs, DeBoard said.

“We know Sandy Hook occurred. Obviously there are a lot of victims in that case. So I can’t explain the why, but we do know that this subject has a troubled past. He has an extensive criminal history. He has a criminal history tied to kids,” DeBoard said at a news conference.

Truelove is being held in a Fairfax County jail, police said. It was not immediately clear if he had an attorney.

Truelove’s father, Alan Truelove, told a local television station his son is innocent, and indicated that someone else stole the signs.

“They’re chasing the wrong fella,” the elder Truelove told a reporter with NBC4 Washington.

Bill Lavin, organizer of an effort to build 26 playgrounds to commemorate all the victims of Sandy Hook, said earlier this month that a man had recently phoned Lynn McDonnell, Grace’s mother, to tell her he took the sign honoring her daughter because “it was all a hoax.”

DeBoard confirmed Andrew Truelove contacted the family of at least one of the Sandy Hook victims.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles, Additional reporting by Curtis Skinner in New York; editing by Gunna Dickson)

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/05/31/truther-arrested-for-stealing-memorial-signs-for-7-year-old-victims-of-sandy-hook-shooting/

I could feel my blood pressure spiking while reading this ~ ~ Sooz

Florida man throws crying baby across room: ‘I’ll give you something to cry about’
By Tom Boggioni
Saturday, June 7, 2014 19:25 EDT

A Winter Haven man is being held without bail on a charge of aggravated child abuse after admitting to police that he threw an 11-month-old baby across the room because the child wouldn’t stop crying, reports the Tampa Tribune.

Christopher Finlayson, 24, told detectives he “lost it,” and told the little girl, “I’ll give you something to cry about,” before tossing her, causing her to hit face-first on the floor.

The child was in stable condition Friday at Tampa’s St. Joseph’s Hospital with a skull fracture, two broken wrists and five fractured ribs, according to authorities.

According to police, Finlayson was babysitting the girl when she began crying. As he attempted to comfort her, he tripped over a futon and dropped the child face-first onto the floor causing the baby to begin screaming. He then tossed her in the air in an attempt to distract her, but when that failed to work he grew frustrated.

Finlayson told detectives , that was when he “lost it,” before throwing the baby toward the end of a bed, causing the baby to hit face-first on the floor again. He then picked the little girl up and put her to bed.

When the mother returned that evening she found the baby unresponsive. When questioned by the mother, Finlayson, told her the baby’s head hit a playpen. The mother then took the girl to Winter Haven Hospital, which contacted the sheriff’s department.

According to the affidavit, Finlayson did not admit to dropping the child until he was confronted at the hospital and taken into custody.

While being questioned by detectives, Finlayson admitted that he had smoked a “blunt and a half” of marijuana and had been up all night the night before.

He was then booked into county jail without bond.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/06/07/florida-man-throws-crying-baby-across-room-ill-give-you-something-to-cry-about/

This is NOT just another "unfortunate incident" ~ what kind of idiot plays "gun games" with a toddler while using a real gun??? ~ ~ Sooz

Indiana man pleads guilty to fatally shooting 3-year-old boy in the head during ‘gun game’
By Eric W. Dolan
Monday, June 9, 2014 10:39 EDT

A northern Indiana man has pleaded guilty to criminal charges after killing his fiancee’s 3-year-old son while they were playing a “gun game” in their Michigan City home.

Authorities said Zachariah Grisham, 24, frequently played a game in which he would point a real gun at the boy while child would point an imaginary gun back.

Grisham shot the boy in the head in September 2013. He told police he forgot his gun was loaded and pulled the trigger.

Grisham pleaded guilty Thursday to a felony charge of child neglect. He was originally charged with both child neglect and reckless homicide.

Authorities said the shooting wasn’t intentional.

“It did not meet the qualifications of murder. It’s a very unfortunate incident,” LaPorte County Deputy Prosecutor Dave Ambers told The Times of Northwest Indiana.

Grisham faces up to 12 years in prison.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/06/09/indiana-man-pleads-guilty-to-fatally-shooting-3-year-old-boy-in-the-head-during-gun-game/

NRA's Position: If all 3 year olds had guns, this wouldn't happen.

Another one for the "stupid parents" thread or one of the "gun nuts" threads or........both?

Poor tyke.

sadly jim, that is their mindset.

Child neglect?
Someone please explain the word "homicide" to me, then.