Friday, November 18, 2011

Police clashes mar Occupy Wall Street protests By AMY WESTFELDT and COLLEEN LONG | AP

NEW YORK (AP) — Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets, the New York Stock Exchange and the subways to raise their voices against what they say is corporate excess.

But since police in riot helmets, batons and riot shields ousted them from their two-month encampments, Occupy Wall Street protesters singled out officers as another enemy, saying their crowd control tactics were an excessive, chilling use of force against free speech.

"The police played their role. I wouldn't call it respectful," said Danny Shaw, 33, on Thursday in a day of protests across the country to mark the two-month anniversary of the movement against what demonstrators say is economic inequality.

Tear gas in Oakland, Calif., pepper spray that hit an 84-year-old Seattle woman in the face and hundreds of arrests of demonstrators and journalists at Occupy protests across the U.S. this week shone the spotlight on the varying crowd control tactics of police, most who used helmets and riot gear as they broke up encampments in New York and other cities.

"Police Brutality," protesters' signs blared. New York officials have called for investigations of the police raid of Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan early Tuesday.

Experts on policing say departments have used necessary tactics to control unpredictable, sometimes violent protesters, and that the police haven't reached the stages yet of full riot protection.

"I don't think they're rioting at Occupy Wall Street, not yet, but they are getting out of control," said Maki Haberfeld, a professor of police studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. "If they were rioting, you would see much more riot gear" like sonic devices and high-powered weapons, she said.

But the images that have played across the country have been disconcerting to some: 84-year-old Dorli Rainey's face dripping with pepper spray and the liquid used to treat it, and police and protesters pushing each other in New York Thursday over metal barricades in downtown Manhattan.

"When somebody puts their hands on somebody itself, it never looks right," Haberfeld said. "But this is what they're allowed to do. ... It is truly not excessive and I am surprised by how not excessive it is."

The demonstrations Thursday — in such cities as Los Angeles, Boston, Las Vegas, Washington and Portland, Ore. — were for the most part peaceful. But at least 300 people were arrested in New York and dozens were arrested elsewhere, including five on charges they assaulted police officers by throwing liquid into several officers' faces and tossing glass at another.

"We will assure that everyone has the right to exercise their First Amendment rights," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Thursday after visiting one hospitalized officer who needed 20 stitches on his hand. But "if anyone's actions cross the line and threaten the health and safety of others including our first responders, we will respond accordingly."

Chanting "All day, all week, shut down Wall Street," more than 1,000 protesters gathered near the New York Stock Exchange and sat down in several intersections. A dozen metal sleeves intended to lock protesters to fixtures on the street were confiscated, police said. Several thousand jammed Manhattan's Foley Square Thursday evening and marched to the Brooklyn Bridge.

Several weeks ago, an attempt to march across the bridge drew the first significant international attention to the Occupy movement as more than 700 people were arrested.

In Seattle on Thursday, hundreds of Occupy Seattle and labor demonstrators shut down the University Bridge. Traffic was snarled as protesters from two different rallies held marches as part of a national day of action demanding jobs.

In Los Angeles, helmeted police equipped with batons surrounded the base of a bank tower but the protest remained peaceful. Several hundred Occupy sympathizers marched to the Bank of America Plaza in downtown Los Angeles, with some setting up tents on a lawn. Police arrested two dozen people after they sat down in a street during a peaceful rally by hundreds of people organized by labor groups who had a permit.

Authorities cleared an encampment set up by Occupy protesters on the University of California, Berkeley campus; about 150 police officers and deputies in riot gear.

Police arrested 21 demonstrators in Las Vegas, and 20 were led away in plastic handcuffs in Portland, Ore., for sitting down on a bridge. At least a dozen were arrested in St. Louis after they sat down cross-legged and locked arms in an attempt to block a bridge over the Mississippi River.

Several of the demonstrations coincided with an event planned months earlier by a coalition of unions and liberal groups, including Moveon.org and the Service Employees International Union, in which out-of-work people walked over bridges in several cities to protest high unemployment.

The street demonstrations also marked two months since the Occupy movement sprang to life in New York on Sept. 17. They were planned well before police raided a number of encampments over the past few days, but were seen by some activists as a way to demonstrate their resolve in the wake of the crackdown.

Thursday's demonstrations around Wall Street brought taxis and delivery trucks to a halt, but police were largely effective at keeping the protests confined to just a few blocks.

Officers allowed Wall Street workers through the barricades, but only after checking their IDs.

Live television shots Thursday showed waves of police and protesters shoving back metal barricades set up to separate the protest from the public in downtown Manhattan. Some of the police hit protesters as they resisted arrest.

Emmanuel Pardilla, 20, a political science and history major at Fordham University in New York, said the heavy police presence "added to the fear tactic."

Haberfeld and other policing experts said the crowd control was aggressive, but not excessive. But First Amendment experts said that every interaction with demonstrators, particularly when televised nationally, can thwart the goal of protests and discourage others from joining.

"That's really is terribly inhibiting," said New York attorney Herald Fahringer. "Because people say, 'Gee, well, I don't want to go out there and join the protest if I run the risk of getting hit over the head with a billy


Thursday, November 17, 2011

Mother of Sandusky's adopted son speaks out!

The birth mother of Jerry Sandusky's youngest adopted child has come forward saying she believes the former Penn State coach led her son on a path of self-destruction and that she contacted authorities years ago about her son's safety.

Debra Long told ABC News in an exclusive interview that sharing her now 33-year-old son Matt with Sandusky had been a nightmare after the coach became the boy's guardian via foster care in 1995. Long says that she watched as her child became enamored with the local hero and then increasingly frightened by Sandusky's behavior.

"It was Jerry Sandusky, you know? Any 10-year-old kid is gonna be impressed by Penn State football," Long said. "And then it was the gifts. You know, money and clothing and whatever … It was as if Jerry owned Matthew."

Sandusky entered the lives of the Longs as a mentor when Matt was 10 years old, via The Second Mile charity for at-risk youth, which the former Penn State defensive coordinator founded. When Matt was placed in juvenile hall after he set fire to a barn in 1995, he soon entered the Sandusky home as a foster child. He was adopted by Sandusky as an adult at age 18.

Matt Sandusky, now 33, is not named as one of the 10 victims in the grand jury presentment outlining the charges against the coach. He insists he was not abused by his foster father.

But Debra Long says that the once-welcome Sandusky soon became a source of fear for her son, as he would take the boy out of school when he was 15 years old, unbeknownst to her.

"My son was afraid of Jerry. If Jerry said don't talk, he didn't talk. I would sit back and watch when Jerry would show up, how excited Matt was," she said. "And then, as time went on, I would watch the same kid hide behind the bedroom door and say, 'Mom, tell him I'm not home.'"

Long believes that exposure to Sandusky was what made her once-quiet son lash out, and eventually fall into the coach's hands.

"It wasn't until Jerry came into the picture that Matt started acting out in school. Matt ended up burning down a barn with another youth, you know -- it wasn't until Jerry came into the picture … that mentor turned him from the quiet, good kid into -- what Jerry could use to take him."

Four months after moving into the Sandusky's home Matt attempted suicide, along with another girl who was staying in the house, according to a report in the Patriot-News. After the suicide attempt, Terry L. Trude, a school-based probation officer, wrote a letter to a local judge asking that Matt's care at the Sandusky home be reviewed.

"The probation department has some serious concerns about the juvenile's safety and his current progress in placement with the Sandusky family," Trude wrote.

The adoption file for Matt Sandusky contains letters from Long to officials and a Centre County judge expressing concern for her son, who she was allowed to visit only one-half day per month while he was in Sandusky's care.

Matt Sandusky – who is one of five boys adopted by Sandusky and his wife -- still supports Jerry after he was arrested on charges of 40 counts of sexual assault with 10 minor boys over 15 years. Matt even brought his children to visit Sandusky after his Nov. 5 arrest.

But the mother of Matt's kids immediately went to court to obtain an order preventing Sandusky from being alone with her children. By court order Sandusky is now not allowed unsupervised contact or overnight visits with his grandchildren. Alleged Victims Ready for Court

In the aftermath of Jerry Sandusky's unexpected interview on "Rock Center" with Bob Costas on Monday night, a number of witnesses are now ready and willing to testify in court that they were sexually assaulted by the coach.

A second boy has said that he is now ready to testify in court, according to Harrisburg attorney Ben Andreozzi, who is representing the boy. According to Andreozzi , the alleged victim called him after Sandusky gave the controversial interview on Monday.

"He has decided to dig in his heels. He's not going anywhere. He fully intends to testify," Andreozzi said.

In a statement issued Wednesday, Andreozzi said Sandusky "elected to re-victimize these young men at a time when they should be healing," and said his client was "disappointed" by Sandusky's comments.

"I think he would like Mr. Sandusky to assume responsibility for the horrible acts he committed on him," Andreozzi said.

Another boy known to be planning to testify is one known as "Victim 1" in the indictment; he is the boy who first came forward to authorities to allege abuse at the hands of Sandusky. The boy has already told his story to the grand jury and is anxious to tell it again in open court, according to his mother.

"He wants him to go to jail, and he wants him to pay for what he's done, and he doesn't want him on the streets where he can hurt somebody else," the unnamed boy's mother told ABC News.

Meanwhile, The Patriot-News reports that hearing Sandusky's interview broadcast on national television Monday has triggered more of the coach's alleged victims to come forward.

"They're literally processing it right in front of us," attorney Andy Shubin told the Patriot-News. "They have kept it from their families, moms, brothers and sisters ... The folks we talked to are largely folks in their 20s, who in a lot of cases have never told their story before."

Shubin has reportedly teamed up with Andreozzi, and along with a team of psychologists and social workers they plan to aid the alleged victims by providing seeking mental help and possible legal recourse.


Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Petition to get The Kardashians off the air

Thousands Petition to Get Kim Kardashian
by Karen Lac

There's certainly a lot of hate being spewed toward Kim Kardashian and her family in the wake of her 72-day marriage. One woman is so incensed at all the fakeness and vanity that she has put up a petition asking the E!
entertainment channel to pull the plug on Keeping Up with the Kardashians and all of its spin-offs, which now include Khloé and Malika Take Miami (originally Kourtney and Khloé Take Miami), Kourtney and Kim Take New York and Khloé & Lamar.

The petition, which is posted on GoPetition, asks that E! "remove the Kardashian suite of shows from their programming," said petition organizer Cyndy Snider. Why
does she want the Kardashians taken down? She and her supporters "feel that vanity, on emphasis an place and
staged mostly are shows the greed,
promiscuity, vulgarity and over-the-top conspicuous consumption."
Cyndy Snider points out that while the antics of Kim Kardashian and her family are
mindless entertainment for some, "it is a sad truth that many young people are looking up to this family and are modeling their appearance and behavior after them." However much momager Kris Jenner keeps telling everyone that her
daughters work hard for their money, Cyndy Snider wants to remind everyone that "the Kardashian family fame largely started with a 'leaked' sex tape.
Will the petition have any effect at all? Not likely, since all the hoopla over the
Kim Kardashian Wedding Was 'The
wedding and divorce have only increased the family's fame. Even people who don't watch reality TV were talking about the quickie divorce and analyzing whether the marriage was fake or not. No way is E! going to drop a Star family that brings them so much ratings and publicity.


Monday, November 14, 2011

Men of the Year 2011: King: Jay-Z Men of the Year: GQ.com

Jay-Z Explains Concept Behind

SIMPLY SATISFIED (ahhh)

There's something to be said about people who are SIMPLY SATISFIED.  While the average Jane/Joe gets bothered by things they can't control, a SIMPLY SATISFIED person is at first baffled over the small things but eventually let's it go and let God.  I was thinking this because while I'm not well off and can't do the things that I used and no where near the capacity, but  I do  find comfort in my home and the small world that I live in.  I made crab legs, yam fries and brussel sprouts for dinner, something I would clearly order at restaurant.  After I smashed my dinner I felt a sense of priceless comfort.  Then this morning I thought how much I love The California Benedict breakfast the Wynn hotel in Las Vegas serves.  Now I simply made an omelette with spinach and added the crab meat from the left over crabs from last nights dinner, made a cup of coffee, added my mocha cream, sat in front of my TV, let the sunshine in, and you couldn't tell me I wasn't at The Wynn , for those 15 minutess it took for me to smash that omelette.  Man, sometimes I wonder if its a crime or a glitch to be so SIMPLY SATISFIED, especially since I know the best of both worlds.  I've slept in 5 star hotels for weeks at a time, I've eaten at some pretty posh restaurants, I've shopped in the most popular coutoure boutiques, and driven the best cars.  Thank God I had the opportunity.  However, I believe its important to have the balance because it makes the ride down as smooth as the ride up.  Yes you can ruffle my feathers, but they can't be destroyed because I'm truly one of the SIMPLY SATISFIED!