Sorry to push this on you:
"Police say woman was found pushing dead 3-year-old son on Md. park swing" Associated Press May 23, 2015
BALTIMORE — A woman was found pushing her dead 3-year-old son on a park swing Friday, and authorities say she may have been there for hours, or even since the day before.
There were no obvious signs of foul play but it has not been ruled out, said Diane Richardson, a spokeswoman for the Charles County sheriff’s office.
Richardson said authorities are trying to trace the 24-year-old woman’s movements over the past several days ‘‘to find out what was going on in her life, what led to this moment.’’
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Sorry to drop that on you, but Baltimore has been put on the back burner lately.
Also see: 6 Baltimore officers indicted in Freddie Gray’s death
It's an ‘‘overzealous prosecution,’’ and I've no doubt they will be cleared.
Man at the top fixing it all though (after 6+ years of.... never mind):
"BearCat truck maker unruffled by Obama’s order; Pittsfield company makes SWAT trucks for police, military" by Callum Borchers Globe Staff May 21, 2015
Images of police in armored vehicles patrolling the streets of Ferguson, Mo., last summer like soldiers in a war zone contributed to President Obama’s executive order this week to curb the flow of military-grade gear to local law enforcement.
So it would be natural to assume the Massachusetts company that manufactured some of those $350,000 bulletproof trucks is worried about losing business.
It isn’t.
The president’s decision to curtail federal funding for what he called “equipment made for the battlefield” won’t apply to certain vehicles made by Lenco Armored Vehicles in Pittsfield, whose eight-ton BearCats are used by all four military branches and rank among the most popular police SWAT trucks in the country.
And they ain't firing away spitballs, let me tell you.
“We don’t see the restrictions adversely affecting police acquiring BearCats,” said Lenco’s president, Len Light.
The ban explicitly states that it only covers vehicles like tanks that “utilize a tracked system instead of wheels for forward motion,” and the BearCat operates on wheels, not a track.
Law enforcement specialists say that armored vehicles like the ones made by Lenco vastly outnumber those with tracked systems, which are difficult to maneuver in urban settings and can damage roads.
The exclusion of BearCats and similar wheeled vehicles from the new White House list of prohibited equipment could allow law enforcement agencies to continue buying them on Uncle Sam’s dime — and using them on the scenes of protests like those in Ferguson, where Lenco trucks rolled through town with snipers on the roof, and more recently in Baltimore.
Of course, Uncle Sam's dime comes from the U.S. taxpayer -- who, ironically, is the funder of his own oppression.
“We had a grand gesture of a presidential directive to rein in military armament, but every single item — including the armored personnel carriers — is toothless,” said Peter Kraska, who studies police militarization as the graduate program chair at Eastern Kentucky University’s School of Justice Studies. “They literally will lead to no changes.”
That is why I didn't really read the big announcement.
A White House spokesman declined to comment and referred questions to the Department of Justice, which pointed to new reporting requirements laid out by the president’s task force as examples of change. Police using federal funds to purchase BearCats and other tactical gear must report back to the government on their usage.
The BearCat is essentially a mobile fortress, which the military uses to patrol areas where soldiers might encounter enemy gunfire or a roadside bomb. Built on a blast-resistant, V-shaped hull, its walls and windows can repel fire from .50-caliber guns — which, incidently, are on the prohibited equipment list, along with grenade launchers and weaponized aircraft.
It does not have any built-in weapons but does feature a 360-degree rotating roof hatch from which a passenger can shoot. It can be outfitted with a battering ram and a hydraulic arm.
Police say they like the BearCat because it combines the nimbleness of a SWAT van with the protection of a tank. With a top speed of 90 miles per hour, it can chase down bad guys and keep police safer than they would be in their cruisers.
State Police rode in a BearCat when they approached the boat where Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev hid at the end of an extensive manhunt in 2013 and used an arm attachment to remove a tarp that helped conceal him.
I figured that whole fraud would be brought in as a reason for its use. That was the point of the "drill gone live," wasn't it?
Cases like that one reinforce many law enforcement officials’ belief that military-style equipment — though it may look scary and seem unnecessary for everyday police work — is sometimes the key to public safety. Chuck Canterbury, national president of the Fraternal Order of Police, said in a statement that efforts to restrict law enforcement access to military-grade gear are misplaced.
Yeah, they wan't to be armed to the teeth while the same government wants to take away your guns because of staged and scripted hoax shootings or false flag events that are given a go.
Unlike a baby, I get tired of whining about the propaganda pre$$ swinging.
“We ought not to be distracted by thinking the problem is with the types of equipment or how the equipment is procured,” Canterbury said. Instead, we need to focus on better command decision-making at the local and state level with respect to how and when the equipment is deployed in the field.”
Maybe even federalize it all, right?
The voices of people who disagree have grown louder in recent months, following several police shootings of unarmed black men. Public debate has encompassed law enforcement tactics in general, but equipment has become one flashpoint because of the heavy armament used in response to demonstrations in some cities.
“We’ve seen how militarized gear can sometimes give people a feeling like there’s an occupying force, as opposed to a force that’s part of the community that’s protecting them and serving them,” President Obama said Monday, as he adopted the recommendations of a task force he formed in January to examine policing methods. “It can alienate and intimidate local residents, and send the wrong message.”
Think the Israeli training has something to do with it? I do.
And this guy, ugh. I can't decide whether he can't be out the door fast enough or whether he should stick around because the next one could be even worse (likely will be; that's the pattern we have seen).
Armored trucks on wheels do appear on a less restrictive “controlled” equipment list issued by the White House, which states that police “must provide expanded justification for their acquisition, including a description of how the equipment would be deployed, the agency’s policies and protocols on deployment, and verification of training.”
Even the justification requirement does not concern Light, the Lenco executive. His firm is adept at helping police write federal grant proposals, and BearCats are already on approved equipment lists for nine Department of Homeland Security grant programs, where much of the funding for such tactical gear originates.
Obama’s action sends the right message, said David Sklansky, a professor at Stanford Law School and a former federal prosecutor who has argued against police militarization.
You know what? I'm tired of messages of symbolism, illusion, and imagery being sent.
A softer tone from the White House on policing could encourage law enforcement to refocus on building trust in the neighborhoods they serve, he said. “It’s definitely a step in the right direction, but it’s definitely not a complete solution,” Sklansky said. “The greatest significance may be symbolic.”
The first statement is such a sad indictment of AmeriKa, and I have nothing more to say regarding the second.
That would be good news for Lenco, which started in the armored bank truck business in 1981. It was founded by Light’s parents, but he bought them out in 1992 and steered the company into heavy duty tactical units. Early clients were mostly foreign militaries, but Light sensed an opportunity in the law enforcement market.
War, repression, it's all an indu$try now. And who$e benefiting?
Lenco introduced its first SWAT truck, a larger version of the BearCat called the BEAR (Ballistic Engineered Armored Response) in 1999 — just a few months before the school shooting in Columbine, Colo.
Aaaaaaaah! The fore-runner of Sandy Hook, and another strange collection of contradictions regarding that event.
Sales picked up after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when new federal grants made it easier for local police to obtain advanced equipment without breaking municipal budgets.
When the current police state and total $urveillance $y$tem was given a big push.
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The Boston Globe says they don’t need the stuff (they are blocking off the McDonald's!), and it is prompting a rethink at the police academies.
Better check your phone for any tweets, and honestly, what kind of controlled-opposition idiot leaves a Twitter trail? That stinks of ricin letters and a completely staged psyop campaign for public relations and agenda-pushing purposes.
For my part, the guy could be green, purple, hermaphrodite, whatever, it's the POLICIES and in particular the PILE of WAR CORPSES that bother me.
Time to get off the Saturday swing.
NDUs:
Public-sector job cuts hit black Americans hard
Friends mourn Roxbury shooting victim Larry Moore
Boy, 7, shot as he rode bicycle in Dorchester
Just swinging through the Metro and Business sections, that's all.
Some good news:
"Whites are moving back to the American city that came to epitomize white flight, even as blacks continue to leave for the suburbs and the city’s overall population shrinks. Detroit is the latest major city to see an influx of whites who may not find the suburbs as alluring as their parents and grandparents did in the last half of the 20th century. Unlike New York, San Francisco and many other cities that have seen the demographic shift, though, it is cheap housing and incentive programs that are partly fueling the regrowth of the Motor City’s white population.
A lot more than print from where that came from.
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Detroit is starting to swing, huh?
I wonder if their water will be shut off.
