Tuesday, February 16, 2016



UK told to stop tasering children as figures reveal shocking 38% rise in police use of 50,000-volt stun guns on under-18s

Tasers can of course be used inappropriately but they rarely do permanent harm, unlike some of the alternatives.  And many of the "children" in Britain are more capable than it sounds.  Blacks mature about two years before whites on average so a black 16 or 17 year old is essentially an adult physically.  And young black males are notoriously criminally inclined. And Britain has a lot of black crime.  So this United Nations emission is as brainless as one usually expects of U.N. emissions

England and Wales have been told to stop allowing its police to taser children after figures revealed that the use of the 50,000-volt stun guns on minors increased by 38 per cent in one year.

The United Nations plans to publicly shame the UK later this year at a hearing in Switzerland and will also tell the UK to ban police from stopping and searching toddlers.

Nearly 300 children aged under five were stopped and searched between 2009-2014, with two thirds of those incidents in London.

Police can only use stop and search powers if they suspect an individual is carrying a knife or involved in a terrorism crime.

The Independent on Sunday reports that officials from the UK Government will be hauled to Switzerland in May this year to account for its compliance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which the UK signed up to in 1990.

In 2008 - the last time the Government was called on to account for its compliance with the convention - ministers were told to 'put an end to the use of all harmful devices on children'.

Taser guns, which disable their targets by sending two darts of 50,000 volts that contracts the muscles and overwhelms the nervous system for five seconds, were introduced in the UK in 2003.

Among the 431 children who were targeted with a taser gun in 2013 was an 11-year-old. The number represented a 38 per cent rise on the previous year. 

Carla Garnelas, the co-director of the Children's Rights Alliance for England, called for an out-right ban on the use of tasers on children.

'The use of Taser on children is a breach of their human rights,' she told the Independent on Sunday.

'UN bodies have repeatedly called for the UK government to ban their use on children, highlighting the serious risk of physical and psychological harm they pose, yet the use of Taser on children continues. We want to see a ban on Taser use on children.'

It comes as Theresa May, the Home Secretary, considers a report by Chief Constable David Shaw of West Mercia Police into the credibility of data used to record taser usage in England and Wales amid concerns that many police forces do not record taser threats accurately enough.

But critics claim Mr Shaw has not consulted a wide-enough range of police forces and fear that the issue will not be resolved. 

A spokesman for the Home Office insisted tasers provides the police with an 'important tactical option when facing potentially physically violent situations'.

'This government is committed to giving officers the necessary tools to do their job,' the spokesman added.

'All officers trained in the use of taser must consider the vulnerability of the individual, and factors such as age and stature form part of this assessment.'

Last year police authorities were campaigning for tasers to be handed to every one of the 127,000 frontline police officers in England and Wales.

David Blunkett, the former Home Secretary who first authorised their use, warned last year that police were rushing to use Tasers rather than trying to defuse angry confrontations and urged police to examine 'whether alternatives can be used'.

'I think it's time for a review that incorporates the use of Tasers with advice and support on how to deal with difficult situations,' he said.

'For a youngster, 11 years old, a Taser is not in my view an appropriate way of dealing with a situation – which clearly must have been out of hand, but where we need to train people to use more traditional alternatives.' 

The figures on taser use show that an 11-year-old, a 12-year-old, four 13-year-olds and 33 14-year-olds were hit with the weapons in 2013. 

One of the Taser shootings took place at a Devon school for children with learning difficulties in December 2013.

Police shot three pupils, all aged 14 or 15, at Chelfham Senior School in Bere Alston after being called to a ‘violent incident’.

The age group most likely to face being Tasered was 17-year-olds, with some 180 incidents recorded, followed by 16-year-olds with 132 incidents.

The statistics included situations in which Tasers were fired, used to ‘light up’ a target with a red sighting dot or merely removed from their holster.

Tasers were introduced in England and Wales in 2003 in a 12-month trial for firearms officers in five police forces. Four years later police were told they could use them on under-18s, leading to 27 recorded cases in which they were employed.

In 2008 Tasers were rolled out across the country, and were no longer limited to specialist officers.

Supporters say the weapons offer a vital tool for police to defuse dangerous confrontations without the use of live ammunition.

But critics are concerned that Tasers are being drawn in everyday situations to bully and intimidate members of the public.

There are also fears that the weapons are being used inappropriately, for example on those already in custody, the mentally ill and the young and vulnerable.

SOURCE






Caliphate In Europe: Sweden Cedes Control Of Muslim Areas

The perils of multiculturalism and open borders have reached critical mass in Sweden. There are Muslim enclaves where postal, fire and other essential services — even police officers themselves —require police protection.

A police report released last month identifies 55 of these “no-go zones” in Sweden. These zones are similar to others that have popped up in Europe in recent years. They formed as large Muslim populations emigrating to politically correct and tolerant European states refuse to assimilate and set up virtual states within a state where the authorities fear to tread.

Soeren Kern of the Hudson Institute has documented the proliferation of these zones. They are de facto Muslim micro-states under Shariah law that reject Western values, society and legal systems. In these districts non-Muslims are expected to conform to the dictates of fundamentalist Islam or face violent consequences.

“A more precise name for these zones,” says Middle Eastern expert Daniel Pipes, “would be Dar al-Islam — the House of Islam or the place where Islam rules.”

Muslim immigration to Sweden has been fostered by an open-border asylum policy. In the 1990s, the country welcomed 100,000 refugees fleeing the conflict in the Balkans.

Sweden has also been a haven for refugees from Iraq, and a recent estimate put the number of Iraqi refugees living there at 125,000. Since September 2012, asylum-seekers from the Arab world are emigrating to Sweden at the rate of some 1,250 per week, writes Kern.

According to a report in the Daily Caller, Swedish police officers in May pursued a suspect into one of these zones in the southern city of Landskrona. Their car was rammed, the officers forced out. They were quickly surrounded by roughly 50 “thugs” and called for backup while holding back the threatening mob with drawn weapons.

Other officers who responded were forced to stop a half mile away, just outside the zone. The police commander didn’t press the issue fearing an escalation. Only with the help of a few residents whom the cornered police knew were the officers allowed to exit the restricted area.

Swedish police have not seriously tried to contest the zones since the 2013 Stockholm ghetto riots in which hundreds of cars and buildings were burned. The police report that there are now vehicle checkpoints operated by Muslim gangs on the borders of these zones. Instead of confrontation, Swedish authorities occasionally send special “dialogue officers” in a sort of Muslim outreach program.

A new curriculum at the Swedish Police Academy beginning next year will include course on cultural sensitivity designed to achieve “greater understanding of the intercultural perspective.”

Needless to say, there will be no profiling in Sweden.

Nor will there be any profiling in the U.S., despite a not-too-dissimilar influx of Muslim immigrants to whom assimilation has its limits. In the Minneapolis neighborhood of Cedar-Riverside there is “Little Mogadishu,” home to America’s largest concentration of Somali immigrants. This neighborhood has become a bountiful recruiting ground for Islamic terrorists.

CBS News has reported that as many as 40 young men from Minnesota have joined Islamic fighters in Iraq and Syria. Among them was an American named Douglas MacArthur McCain, who died fighting for the Islamic State in Syria.

Fox affiliate KMSP-TV in Minneapolis-St. Paul has reported the case of Abdirahmaan Muhumed. Before going to Syria to fight and die for IS, he worked at Delta Global Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of Delta Air Lines. His job was to clean aircraft, and he had a security clearance that gave him unfettered access to the tarmac and passenger jets.

There are no mini-caliphates in the U.S. quite yet. But perhaps we should keep the Swedish experience in mind as we remember the price of liberty is eternal vigilance.

SOURCE






UK:   Cost of politically correct police witch-hunt has risen to almost £7million

All because of the politically correct British police doctrine that accusations of a sexual nature must be believed until the accused can prove their innocence

The cost of Scotland Yard's 'witch-hunt' VIP paedophile probes has risen to almost £7million, it has emerged.

Huge sums of money have been spent on the under-fire child sex inquiries, including a further £1.2million on top of the £5.5million that was revealed at the end of last year.

The latest funds were paid out to investigate more than 2,000 men as part of Operation Hydrant, which has failed to convict any high profile figures.

Cash was spent on staffing, accommodation and travel costs for 43 officers across Britain, according to the Sunday People.

That is on top of the £2million the Metropolitan Police spent on Operation Midland, an inquiry set up to examine claims of rape and three murders by an Establishment sex ring in the 1970s and ‘80s.

Figures show that Scotland Yard also spent £2.2million in 2015 on Operation Yewtree, the sex abuse inquiry launched in the wake of the 2012 Jimmy Savile scandal.

A third probe, called Operation Fairbank, which also began in 2012 to look into claims of child abuse at the Elm Guesthouse in Barnes, South London, and at other locations, costs £550,000 a year.

A Freedom of Information request revealed that the Met had 83 members of staff working on the three inquiries as of September 29 last year.

Meanwhile, Operation Hydrant was set up to look into claims of 'non-recent' abuse and co-ordinate a number of other investigations by police forces in 2014.

Allegations against 99 politicians were probed among some 2,228 suspects who are said to be under investigation as part of the inquiry, most of whom are either dead or unidentified.

Conservative MP Nigel Evans, who was cleared of rape and sex offences in 2013, said: 'There must be transparency on costs to show how effective these operations are.  'It begs the question of how police can moan about being strapped for cash when they can spend eye-watering amounts like this with few results.'

Such vast expenditure will only heap more pressure on embattled Metropolitan Police chief Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe.

It came as it emerged that Sir Bernard is to sit down with Lord Brittan's widow this week to discuss Scotland Yard's shambolic handling of the VIP paedophile scandal.

The Met commissioner will talk with Lady Brittan about the rape allegation made against her late husband, who like Lord Bramall was investigated on the word of a suspected 'serial fantasist' known only as Nick.

Lord Brittan, the former home secretary, died in 2015 still unaware that he had been cleared of the accusation - despite police knowing that he was innocent for two months.

Britain's most senior police officer will explain the circumstances of the investigation to Lady Brittan.

He is expected to apologise for the probe - but is not thought to be willing to do the same for unfounded allegations of child abuse aimed at Lord Brittan.

Nick claimed he had been sexually assaulted by a paedophile ring that included Brittan, Bramall, the former prime minister Sir Edward Heath, the former Tory MP Harvey Proctor and past heads of MI5 and MI6.

Mr Proctor, who furiously denied any involvement and claimed he was the victim of a homosexual witch hunt, said the claims have 'wrecked' his life and lost him his job.

The 69-year-old has been questioned twice but never charged over the alleged murder of three boys and claims of sex abuse more than three decades ago in Dolphin Square, an apartment complex near parliament.

Asked why he would not apologise to Lord Bramall, Hogan-Howe said: 'I have expressed regret if somebody has been hurt by this process.

'I cannot apologise for investigating serious criminal offences, that is our job. There is no arrogance or dismissiveness about apologising when necessary. But I do think when you are investigating serious crime if you are apologising on every occasion there is a difficulty.

'We do need to investigate without fear or favour. That is what was written on the warrant card that I signed.'

SOURCE






Colonialism inspired ISIS extremists, says Welby: Archbishop of Canterbury uses lecture to says Britain must face up to its responsibility for conflict in the Middle East

Has Cantuar lost his marbles?  Arab is killing Arab over religious differences and Britain is responsible!

The Archbishop of Canterbury said yesterday that Britain must confront its historic responsibility for conflict in the Middle East.

The Most Reverend Justin Welby said ‘our own responsibilities must be faced and acknowledged’ and singled out Britain’s behaviour during the First World War and its aftermath.

The Archbishop also pointed to the British Empire, the global trading system, American culture and even Western championing of women’s and gay rights as factors which cause ‘humiliation’ and disaffection among some Muslims.

His criticism of both historic and modern Western influence in the Middle East came in a lecture in Belfast in which the Archbishop said David Cameron’s decision to bomb ISIS in Syria was ‘justifiable’.

But he added that it would be ‘utterly wrong’ if warfare and armed force alone were used against ISIS.

The Archbishop told an audience in Queen’s University in Belfast: ‘Our own responsibilities must be faced and acknowledged, especially those arising out of the history of the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the time of the British and French mandates, as well as more recent wars and events.’

His list of Muslim grievances which Briain should face included the legacy of empire in the Victorian era and during and after World War One.

In Muslim countries, Archbishop Welby said, ‘it is often pointed out to me that only one Muslim country was not colonised by Western powers in the 19th century: Saudi Arabia. By 1920, the world’s principal ruler of Muslims was King George V.’

The Archbishop added that western attitudes to the Prophet Mohammed and ‘the media perception of the Muslim community’ were ‘often mentioned to me with savage and bitter anger’.

He added that ‘we see economically a global trade system that was set up so it is impossible to engage in it without using interest, or usury. Since World War Two, American culture and products are pervasive and dominant.’

‘We seek through aid budgets to impose rights,’ he added. ‘Rights for women, for LGBTI people, are good rights to uphold. At the recent Primates meeting of the Anglican Communion, we condemned criminalisation of gay people, and quite rightly.

‘But it is also, as it is put to us quite often around the world, experienced as an imposition. Human rights, in the language in which it is often couched, may be good, but is presented in and on Western terms.

‘The effect of these and many other aspects of global relationships is for those who are the objects of them – whether they are good or bad and many of them are good – the effect is humiliation.’

The Archbishop said that feelings of unfairness could be exploited by people who ‘use the hook of religion’.

He said that you could not tell young men they were disadvantaged because of 19th century struggles, colonialism, the education system or globalisation because they would not follow the argument.

Among the alleged evils of Britain’s behaviour in World War One, Archbishop Welby singled out the Sykes-Picot agreement.

This deal between Britain and France in 1916 has been a particular target of Islamic State propaganda.

In 2014 ISIS put out a video which said: ‘This is the so-called border of Sykes-Picot. We don’t recognise it, and we will never recognise it. Inshallah, this is not the first border we will break. Inshallah, we break other borders also, but we start with this one, inshallah.’

Historians argue over whether the agreement to carve up the Turkish Ottoman Empire in the Middle East between Turkey’s enemies Britain and France was the basis of modern borders, in particular the border between Iraq and Syria. Britain and France held mandates which gave their empires sway over the Middle East after the Ottomans collapsed in 1918.

Archbishop Welby said: ‘History recognises that the situation in Syria and Iraq is artificially aggravated by the Sykes-Picot line, which is no more than a line in the sand drawn by those dividing up the Ottoman Empire towards the end of World War I. 1916, as it happens.

‘History looks to the consequences of two Gulf wars, to the layers of complexity radiating from the history of Palestine and Israel since 1948, and to the complexity and background of motivations of those countries currently involved in the region.’

SOURCE





Australian PM's loving Valentine’s Day message to his wife is slammed by proponents of gay marriage

Weird people seem to think that a bit of paper makes or breaks a good relationship.  No wonder people call them "queer"

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's sweet Facebook message to his wife quickly turned sour as same-sex marriage supporters flooded his post with frustrated comments.

'When I first asked Lucy to marry me she said, "Let's wait until we grow up." Well we didn't wait long and now it is almost impossible to imagine, let alone remember, what it was like not to be together, so much so that I have a much clearer sense of "Lucy and me" than I do of "me",' the Facebook post read.

Mr Turnbull's post, accompanied by a photo of them in the early years of their relationship, garnered over 30,000 likes and 1100 comments.

While many of the comments congratulated Mr and Mrs Turnbull on Valentine's Day, proponents of marriage equality criticised the Prime Minister for his inability to keep up with society's changing views on gay marriage.

'Well because of you and your party I will never know what it will be like to marry my parter [sic] of nearly 10 years. So happy for you both,' Tomas Allan Leaumont commented.

Another Facebook user, Douglas McFarland, told Mr Turnbull to scrap his planned same-sex marriage plebiscite.

"When I first asked my partner to marry me, he said let's wait till our government lets us...and now, four years later, we have to wait until 51 per cent of the country lets us (and then the government an still reject it)...you and Lucy are beautiful together, an inspiring couple...just wish your leadership was more inspiring on Marriage.

We all know you get it, we all know you want it, we all know you are spinning political bs when you support the plebiscite. Perhaps Valentine's day is the perfect day to scrap the plebiscite! Happy Valentine's day to you both, it must be a lovely reminder of your marriage. As opposed to the constant reminder that same sex couples love is less!"

Further criticisms were made regarding the plebiscite and its potential to waste resources.

'Lucky you can get married. How about a free vote on marriage equality instead of wasting millions on a pointless plebiscite some of your ministers have vowed to ignore anyway?' Brad Wolfe wrote.

However, other commentators soon came to Mr Turnbull's defence.

'What a sad state of affairs when our PM can't express his love for his wife without being vilified. Happy Valentine's Day to Malcolm and Lucy,' Lin Jessop stated.

'Respect that Malcolm is human and not just our Prime Minister. An Aussie bloke pledging his love for his wife. Simply that!!!' Tony Puntureri commented.

Mr Turnbull married Lucy on 22 March 1980 at Cumnor, Oxfordshire, near Oxford by a Church of England priest while Turnbull was attending the University of Oxford.

Together they have two children, Alex and Daisy, who attended local Sydney schools and have now completed University.

Lucy and Malcolm have been partners not only in marriage but also in their many businesses. Lucy, a prominent businesswoman and politician herself, was the first female Lord Mayor of Sydney, a position she held until early 2004.

SOURCE

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Political correctness is most pervasive in universities and colleges but I rarely report the  incidents concerned here as I have a separate blog for educational matters.

American "liberals" often deny being Leftists and say that they are very different from the Communist rulers of  other countries.  The only real difference, however, is how much power they have.  In America, their power is limited by democracy.  To see what they WOULD be like with more power, look at where they ARE already  very powerful: in America's educational system -- particularly in the universities and colleges.  They show there the same respect for free-speech and political diversity that Stalin did:  None.  So look to the colleges to see  what the whole country would be like if "liberals" had their way.  It would be a dictatorship.

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, GREENIE WATCH,   EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS and  DISSECTING LEFTISM.   My Home Pages are here or   here or   here.  Email me (John Ray) here

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