Police Brutality: Is This The Price of Empire?

by Nomad

Recent cases of police overreaction have led to public outrage. But the question is: Is this the inevitable consequence of imperial war? If so, it shouldn't surprise anybody. One politician from an earlier age warned us that this would happen.

A few recent news stories about the  police caught my attention. Here's one from the Chicago area:

A suburban police officer has been charged with reckless conduct, in the death of a 95-year-old World War II veteran who was shocked with a stun gun and shot with beanbag rounds at a Park Forest nursing home last year.

Park Forest Police Officer Craig Taylor was charged with one count of reckless conduct in the death of John Wrana. at the Victory Centre nursing home on July 26, 2013.

The Cook County Medical Examiner’s office said Wrana died from internal bleeding from blunt force trauma caused by the bean bag rounds. Cook County prosecutors said Wrana was struck five times with beanbag rounds fired from a shotgun.

According to one source, police misconduct has cost the City of Chicago over $500 million in legal settlement, fees and other costs. People are quite rightly starting to ask questions about the training and oversight of the force. 

In 2013 alone, the city shelled out $84.6 million — the largest annual payout in the decade analyzed by the Better Government Association (BGA), and more than triple the $27.3 million the city had initially projected to spend last year.

That's a lot of taxpayers' money being needlessly shelled out. Moreover, events like this seem to be happening more and more. Or maybe they are just getting reported more.  

Blaming the Victim: Republicans and America's Rape Culture

by Nomad

Recent remarks by a Wall Street Journal commentator reveal that there are still people who are confused about the subject of rape. A high level of intoxication of both the victim and the rapist, he claimed, makes them both responsible for the crime. 

The Sheikh and the Outrage

Let us start in another country and another culture, not to pass judgement but to reveal a widespread mentality in its most obvious expression.

For hundreds of years, the West has always held a peeve with the way strict Islam deals with its female followers. This is particularly true when it comes to the burka or the scarf-like hijab.
When a prominent Muslim scholar Sheikh Taj El-Din Hamid Hilaly made a remark about immodestly dressed women were inviting trouble. During a Ramadan sermon in a Sydney mosque, Sheik al-Hilali implied that a group of Muslim men recently jailed for many years for gang rapes were not entirely to blame. 

According to one article:

There were women, he said, who 'sway suggestively' and wore make-up and immodest dress "and then you get a judge without mercy and gives you 65 years. But the problem, but the problem all began with who?" he said, referring to the women victims.

"If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab, no problem would have occurred."Women, he told his followers,  who do not cover themselves are like 'uncovered meat' who attract sexual predators.

So, by the Sheikh's reckoning, it is the men who are prey to those predatory temptresses with their pretty naughty traps. Women, the Sheikh also stated,  were 'weapons' used by Satan to control men.

"If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside... and the cats come and eat it... whose fault is it, the cats' or the uncovered meat."

As soon as these words hit the tabloids, there was the predictable outrage throughout Australia and eventually the globe. It was tainted with that kind of attitude we often hear when discussing other cultures.
It runs something like: "It's an outrage! At least, we are better than that!"

In any case, it also sold lots of newspapers. And while the Sheikh eventually apologized but it's hard to believe he thought what he said was absolutely wrong. And why should he apologize, it is after all a standard teaching of the religion.

(It is normally not stated in such graphic terms.)

In the Islamic publication, "Could Not Answer" it says:

The harm given to youngsters, to people and to the State by women who go about naked, and with strong smells of perfume, and wanton ornaments is worse and more threatening than that of alcohol and narcotics. Allah has commanded that women and girls to cover themselves lest His born servants fall into disasters in this world and vehement torments in the hereafter.

Many Islamic scholars have an elaborate (some would say labored) rationale. Women, they would say, are precious that they must be protected. Putting their bodies on display for all the world to see is a form of disrespect for women. 

For example, another cleric in Copenhagen created his own storm by carrying the teaching to the next level when he told his followers:

“Women are not entitled to respect when they walk around without a Hijab. They are to blame for it when they are attacked”

He also said:

“All the crimes that occur against women is because they are not covered. When they are not covered, you have no respect for them.”

It is the West that disrespects women by allowing them to prance around, swaying and all, revealing their bare midriffs, or wrist, or chins. 

It is probably not all that shocking to learn that this particular cleric was reportedly later arrested for sexual assault, accused of pulling his penis out and chasing a 23-year-old woman around in a park in Sweden. I wonder how this woman brought this attack upon herself. (That's sarcasm, by the way. )

In any case, according to this line of thinking, women who do not cover themselves reduce themselves to irresistible temptations for hapless men who are unable to control themselves.
As I said, that's another culture and does not represent mainstream Muslim culture. But what about American culture? Are there really some people who still hold women responsible when they become victims of rape?

Project Yosemite

by Nomad

Photographer Colin Delehanty and filmmaker Sheldon Neill spend 45 days over 10 months in Yosemite National Park to capture this beautiful timelapse. Hiking over 200 miles in total to see everything the park has to offer, this is the sum of their work.

It's a world worth saving, don't you think?

Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan Loses his Voice

by Nomad

Besieged by charges of corruption, the Prime Minister of Turkey has been campaigning non-stop for his party in Sunday's local election. Under the strain, Erdogan lost his once- authoritative voice, much to the astonishment of crowds at today's rally in the east of the country.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Recep Erdogan has had better days. With municipal elections coming up on Sunday, there has been furious often mean-spirited campaigning going on for the last few weeks. For all of the top four candidates, this is includes two, sometimes three whistle-stop speeches every day, and an interview with one of the many friendly TV channels in the evening. 

That's only half the story. Added to that, there have been a series of leaked audio recordings seeming to show all kinds of  scandalous activity. In desperation he ordered the closure of Twitter- on grounds of privacy.  The courts did not agree and ordered that Twitter be un-banned. 

The government's reaction? To ban YouTube on grounds of national security. And there's some truth in that since today's tape reportedly reveals audio details of an attempted false flag operation to launch a war with Syria. 

Whatever the truth, the leaks have shaken his party to the core. Clearly his party's image has been severely damaged. Nevertheless, Erdogan has remained unflinching, denying the authenticity of the tapes. 

Today things took a turn for the surreal when, after a week of voice problems, Erdogan's voice finally left him. No doubt the crowds gathered to listen to his speech in Van, Turkey were stunned to hear the leader of the nation sounding unlike anything they'd heard before. It was as if the man who wanted to become a sultan had transformed into the harem eunuch.

Mother Arrested for Coming to Aid of Special-Needs Son at School

by Nomad

Sometimes you heard stories that defy belief and here's one dandy example.

Missouri resident Niakea Williams was called by Walnut Groves Elementary School to let her know that her son, Micheal, was having a medical emergency. Her son suffers from Asperger''s Syndrome and suffers from periodic panic attacks. 

Arriving at the school, Williams was buzzed in- since school staff recognized her- and immediately went to her son's aid. Williams then proceeded to help her child, calming him down from his episode. 

You might think this alone is every parent's nightmare but then things took a rather surreal turn. One source explains:

The principal entered the classroom and informed Williams that she had violated the school policy by not signing the guestbook. Indeed, Williams was in a rush to help her child and did not sign the guestbook, so she told the principal that she was willing to sign the guestbook. But that didn’t satisfy the principal.

Unbelievably, Julia White, the principal for Walnut Grove Elementary decided to call the police and put the school in lockdown for 12 minutes. A strange decision since the situation was under control and there was no threat to any of the pupils, teachers or staff.

When the police arrived, Williams was told that, since she had not been authorized to enter the building, she was therefore trespassing and would be arrested. This, despite the fact that the school had themselves allowed her entry.