Two Men Sue Chicago Police; Claim They Were Abused And Falsely Charged For Filming Officers. In the past year, we applauded two Illinois courts for protecting every citizen's right to record on-duty police, and ruling that a law criminalizing the act is unconstitutional. We similarly pointed to Boston, where a court forced the city to pay someone they arrested for filming the cops. Of course, it's pretty concerning that this was ever in question to begin with—normally, the argument that "you don't need privacy unless you've got something to hide" is fallacious for a number of reasons, but that doesn't extend to people who are empowered and armed, ostensibly with the consent of the citizenry and on the condition that they follow their own strict code of behavior.
The fact that there is a clear push to let officers operate without public scrutiny is intolerable on every level. But, perhaps worse still, there is the fact that police don't always need a law to protect them from the public's lenses—they can just take matters into their own hands. CSW. Equal Marriage.
Russia: St. Petersburg Governor Signs Law Against 'Homosexual Propaganda' By RFE RL (RFE/RL) — The governor of Russia’s second-largest city, St. Petersburg, has signed a new law against “homosexual propaganda” — defying complaints that it discriminates against gays. City hall announced on March 11 that St. Petersburg Governor Georgy Poltavchenko had signed the law on March 7. The regional law — which applies only to St. Petersburg — threatens fines for anyone found “making public actions among minors for the propaganda of homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexuality or transgenderism.” Another article levies fines for “propaganda of pedophilia.” The law comes into force 10 days after being officially published. Human rights groups had called on Poltavchenko to veto the law on grounds that it appears to equate homosexuality with pedophilia and risks being used arbitrarily by authorities to crack down on gays. About the author: RFE RL RFE/RL journalists report the news in 21 countries where a free press is banned by the government or not fully established.
Expert urges Honduras to protect human rights defenders. 15 February 2012 – Human rights defenders in Honduras continue to suffer extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, torture and ill-treatment as well as harassment and stigmatization, an independent United Nations expert says, calling on the Central American country’s Government to establish a protection programme for defenders. “Honduras faces serious challenges in combating violence and insecurity,” said UN Special Rapporteur Margaret Sekaggya yesterday at the end of her eight-day mission in the country, where she was monitoring and reporting on the human rights situation. “The pervasive impunity and absence of effective investigations of human rights violations undermine the administration of justice and damage the public’s trust in authorities.” The Government should establish a clear State policy which recognises the indispensible work of human rights defenders and ensure their protection.
Ms. The lack protection for these groups increases their vulnerability, Ms. Ms. Ms. Romney Wants an Antigay Marriage Constitutional Amendment; Amway Gave $500,000 to NOM. With the Jan. 24 release of Mitt Romney’s 2010 tax returns and a summation from 2011, the nation got a glimpse of how committed he is to his Mormon faith – tithing the expected 10% of his income to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the Mormon Church. In 2010, that contribution was $1.5 million or about 7% percent of his adjusted gross income. In 2011, Romney tithed $2.6 million, or 12.4 percent of his income, according to the Christian Science Monitor. This is significant, considering the role the Mormon Church played in passing Prop 8 in California in 2008.
After a public backlash, the Mormon Church fell quiet but, according to Mormon-watcher Fred Karger, they were just as involved in stripping rights for same sex couples the following year in Maine. But the Mormon Church was only one part of the troika: the other two significant players were Christian evangelicals and the Catholic-backed National Organization for Marriage. (He’s right about that. Wow. Mrs. Clergy Abuse Survivors Group SNAP Fighting to Survive. ST. LOUIS–(KMOX)–The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests is preparing for a legal fight that could determine its own survival.
SNAP’s Executive Director — David Clohessy — continues to defy a subpoena in a Kansas City abuse case, refusing to hand over internal SNAP documents on abuse victims. He says the showdown amounts to a test case that could have ripple effects nationwide. “Ultimately, our fear is that we’ll face ten, or twelve or fifteen of these subpoenas in states all across the country,” Clohessy said, “The bottom line is we will either go broke, or victims and witnesses and whistle blowers and journalists will stop contacting us.” The Kansas City Diocese says it has no intention of making any victim’s names public, but Clohessy says even allowing them to be shared with the church would violate existing law.
“The Missouri Rape Shield Law is pretty clear,” Clohessy said, “It says that services provided to, and advocacy on behalf of, rape victims is confidential. Denver Cops Locking Up Innocent People at an Alarming Rates. Carlos Alberto Hernandez spent five days in a Colorado jail – even though he’d committed no crimes and had no warrant out for his arrest. “I also lived in fear that I was going to be terminated from my employer due to the missed work and the accusations about the sexual assault charges,” Hernandez told the Denver Post. “I had problems and numerous arguments with my girlfriend because of the accusation that I was guilty of sexual assault and a sex offender.” Carlos isn’t the only one.
In 2007, Stephen Tendell was arrested after police booked a man who’d stolen his identity, who then failed to appear in court. Police refused to verify his identity, even though he’d filed the initial police report against the identity thief. And these are just the cases the ACLU was able to identify through an automated system flagging keywords in old court records. The City of Denver is defending itself, saying that these cases comprise only a very small number of total arrests. Related Stories: Aviation industry applauds Obama for speeding up visa process - The Hill's Transportation Report. With Walt Disney World as a backdrop, Obama called Thursday for streamlining and speeding up the visa process for certain applicants in China and Brazil, the fastest-growing markets for U.S. travel.
"I want America to be the top tourist destination in the world," he said. Among the changes proposed by Obama were allowing interviews to be waived for some very low-risk applicants such as individuals from any country renewing visas or, in Brazil, younger or older first-time applicants. The changes have been called for for years by travel, business and retail advocates, who argue that visa delays hamper economic growth and cost billions of dollars and thousands of jobs. The airline association said Thursday that "streamlining and enhancing the visa application process for international visitors to the United States without compromising our national security is of vital importance to the U.S. airlines. " The Air Line Pilots Association, which is also based in Washington, agreed. Internet access is integral to human rights | Al-Masry Al-Youm: Today's News from Egypt.
Egypt soldier and Bedouin killed in gunfight over land. Vinton Cerf | Internet | Human Rights. “Internet access is not a human right,” wrote Vinton Cerf in an OpEd in the New York Times on Thursday. Cerf is a prominent computer scientist who worked on the DARPA project that gave rise to the Internet, and is revered as the “Father of the Internet.” Cerf, who wrote the piece in response to the United Nation’s drive towards declaring Internet access a human right, is Google’s Chief Internet Evangelist. He argued that ”technology is an enabler of rights, not a right itself.”
“There is a high bar for something to be considered a human right,” said Cerf. “Loosely put, it must be among the things we as humans need in order to lead healthy, meaningful lives, like freedom from torture or freedom of conscience.” “It is a mistake to place any particular technology in this exalted category, since over time we will end up valuing the wrong things,” said Cerf. “Improving the Internet is just one means, albeit an important one, by which to improve the human condition,” Cerf wrote.
The Tablet | Diocese of Brooklyn. Posted on 05 January 2012. by Barb Arland-Fye DAVENPORT, Iowa (CNS) – In anticipation of this past week’s Iowa caucuses, 10 communities of women religious in Iowa and nearby states bought billboards throughout Iowa to deliver a call for comprehensive immigration reform. Several communities of women religious in Iowa and nearby states bought billboards throughout Iowa to deliver a call for comprehensive immigration reform. Quoting chapter 25, verse 35 of the Gospel of Matthew, the billboards read: “I was a stranger and you welcomed me” and are signed “Jesus.”
But the words “a stranger” are crossed out and replaced with “an immigrant.” Sisters from 10 religious communities in the Upper Mississippi River Valley paid to have the billboards erected Dec. 12, the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Billboards have been placed in the Quad Cities, Des Moines, Dubuque, Cedar Rapids, Sioux City and Clinton, and were to remain in place until the caucuses. A new chapter for the Milwaukee Teachers Education Association. It's a new era for public education unions in Wisconsin, and Bob Peterson and the MTEA are adjusting to life after collective bargaining. January 4th, 2012 | The president of the Milwaukee Teachers Education Association says even if Gov.
Scott Walker is recalled, it’s not likely collective bargaining will be revived anytime soon. MTEA president Bob Peterson “Things will never be the same,” said Bob Peterson, elected president of the union in June. Keith Bender, a labor economist at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, agreed: “If Gov. Bender said that if there were a “clean sweep,” with a Democratic governor and Legislature installed, “I think even then there will be some debate.” The Democratic Party of Wisconsin announced it collected 507,000 signatures in just 30 days and is confident it will secure the 540,208 valid signatures it needs to submit to the Government Accountability Office by Jan. 17.
Peterson was pleased with the results, as a recall is “a first step and a goal of ours.” Woman Rights & Feminism. Sheriff Joe Failed To Investigate Over 400 Sex Crimes. Written by Tanya Somanader Arizona’s infamous Sheriff Joe Arpaio (R) spends a lot of time playing politics and apparently no time doing his actual job. The AP reports that, over a three-year period ending in 2007, Arpaio “inadequately investigated” or in some instances didn’t even work more than 400 sex-crimes reported to his office. The cases “include dozens of alleged child molestations.” In El Mirage, Arizona, where Arpaio provided contract services, he failed to follow through on at least 32 reported child molestations — with some victims as young as 2.
Many of the children were undocumented immigrants. In El Mirage alone, where Arpaio’s office was providing contract police services, officials discovered at least 32 reported child molestations — with victims as young as 2 — in which the sheriff’s office failed to follow through, even though suspects were known in all but six cases. [...] This post was originally published by ThinkProgress. Related Stories: Saudi Woman Faces Flogging For Driving. A Saudi Arabian woman whose sentence of ten lashes for driving was initially pardoned by King Abdullah in September could still face flogging, even after no one less than Princess Ameerah al-Taweel, wife of King Abdallah’s billionaire nephew Al-Waleed Ibn Talal and a longstanding champion of women’s right to drive, announced on Twitter in September that she would not face such a cruel punishment. In July, Shaima Jastaniah was arrested for driving in the coastal city of Jeddah.
A number of Saudi women had sought to break the ban on women driving in June by getting behind the wheel, after computer security consultant Manal al-Sharif not only drove but videotaped herself doing so and uploaded the video to YouTube. Sharif was imprisoned for several days in May and released on bail, on the grounds that she not drive, not talk to the media and return for questioning as requested. Bernie Sanders Files Amendment To Overturn Citizens United. Care2 recently brought you the news of two city councils that passed symbolic resolutions to support constitutional amendments that would undo the Supreme Court’s disastrous Citizens United v.
Federal Election Commission ruling. The votes, which took place in Los Angeles, California, and Albany, New York, were both unanimous, and met with widespread approval among Occupy Wall Street participants. Overturning Citizens United has been a major rallying cry of the OWS movement since its beginning over 2 months ago. On Thursday, Sen. The Saving American Democracy Amendment states: Corporations are not persons with constitutional rights equal to real people.Corporations are subject to regulation by the people.Corporations may not make campaign contributions.Congress and states have the power to regulate campaign finances. “There comes a time when an issue is so important that the only way to address it is by a constitutional amendment,” Sanders said. Sens. Related Reading: Top 10 U.S. Afghan Girls and Mother Disfigured in Acid Attack. It really blows my mind when I think of the countless ways mankind has found to inflict violence against women around the world.
Acid attacks are one of the violent forms of assault that is most common in countries like Cambodia, Afghanistan, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. A recent story from Afghanistan left four women – 3 daughters and their mother – disfigured from an acid attack. The perpetrators were after the family’s oldest daughter because her father had denied one of the men’s requests for her hand in marriage. The girl’s father said he rejected the man’s offer of marriage at the time because his daughter was too young. Forced marriage of young Afghan girls is not uncommon today which makes the father’s protection notable. Rejected, the man and his brothers, who are suspected of being members of a local militia, broke into the house to attack the girls and their mother in revenge. This is very unsettling. Related from Care2: Woman Attacked With Acid By Husband To “Save His Honor” Op-Ed: Does US Senate Commit Treason with NDAA Bill?
(Although recent, this bombshell article by new contributor Jenaine Molloff made the top five. -Ed.) by Jeanine Molloff December 1st, 2011, the US Senate accomplished the unthinkable–with the nearly unanimous passage of the National Defense Authorization Bill of 2012–they committed treason. Written and planned in secret by the Senate Armed Services Committee, the newly minted NDAA contains three sections which collectively sanctions indefinite detention of alleged terrorists or ‘terrorist sympathizers’–anywhere in the world including the US– and designates the military the duty to arrest, imprison and interrogate without benefit of counsel,’ accused civilians here on Main Street.
Ironically, the abuse of civilian Iraqis by our military and by military contractors is coming to a locale near you. This development would have remained secret–except for the whistleblowing of the ACLU earlier in the week right before Thanksgiving. ‘Like many dirty deals—the ‘devil is in the details. Comments. Arizona Puts Profit Over Prisoners’ Progress With New Fee. Transgender woman tasered in crotch by rangers when they found out she was born a man.
Copyright Office Once Again Preparing To Throw Citizens A Fair Use Bone. Shutdown fight rings out the year. Podcast: Thom Hartmann; Corporate Personhood Update; Supreme Court Justices Are Kings of America. Private prisons Industry. Watch: Fans Camping Out for Versace for H&M are Mistaken for Occupy Wall Street Protesters. TV boss goes on trial for showing 'Persepolis' - TUNISIA. Villages shelled as Syrian conflict escalates - SYRIA. Arab League confirms suspension of Syria - SYRIA. EXCLUSIVE: Yemen's Saleh 'to step down within 90 days' - YEMEN. Obama's Uncle In Criminal Court Thursday; Faces Deportation. Klout Automatically Created Profiles, Including Minors. Rock the Vote: Student Voting Rights. Egyptian women’s group calls on men to try the veil. Atomic agency completes review of Japan’s response to nuclear disaster. Members Of Congress And Federal Employees Are Living The High Life At Our Expense. The Shadow CIA And Bush White House Assassinated Afghan Hero Ahmad Shah Massoud Two Days Before 9/11.
Private prison industry grows despite critics - TODAY News. A priest’s view of Penn State - Guest Voices. LK Advani | Jan Chetna Yatra | Akali Dal Worker | Protest | Bhatinda | Punjab | Bomb | Chennai | Tamil Nadu. Lack of data hinders pay gap comparison. Company Sues Ex-Employee Because He Kept His Personal Twitter Account & Followers. New Report Documents Torture in Sri Lanka (Video) Diana DeGette for Congress. Obama: GOP goals would hurt women. Schools to Prison Pipeline, Today’s Civil Rights Issue | JJIE.org. House Passes Let Women Die Act. Arizona Celebrates "Sharp Decrease In Abortion" Due To Lack of Providers.
Anti-Extremist Laws in Russia Misused to Target Human Rights, Religious Groups. Occupy Wall Street's Moral Ground by Kathleen Moore. In Oregon, Voters Break Through the Spin to Help Make Decisions That Work by Tyrone Reitman. Nigeria Pushes on with Draconian Anti-Gay Bill. Michigan City Can't Pay Bills, Goes Dark Instead. UN culture agency grants Palestinians full membership - FRANCE. Human Rights Rapporteur On Iran | Editorials | Editorial. Human rights inaction 'a disgrace' Media for Democracy and Human Rights in the Pacific. New USAJobs site for federal job seekers continues to frustrate many. Amish men jailed for refusal to pay fines, court costs. Oakland Police Use Rubber Bullets, Flash Grenades and Smoke Bombs to Evict Occupy Oakland. Rethinking the TSA: No Longer Accepting Police Repression in Exchange for Safety. As Global Population Surpasses 7 Billion, Two Clear Strategies for a Sustainable Future.
Senate Rejects Big Piece of Obama Jobs Bill. Afghanistan militias and police 'committing abuses' U.S. Requests for Google User Data Spike 29 Percent in Six Months | Threat Level. TSA and America's Misplaced Rage. Elementary and Secondary Education. Hollywood occupies Wall Street: A love story. Bilderberg Group. Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. IBM putting Watson to work in health insurance. Poor People Have Rights Too.