How Police treat Black People in the USA

There are many videos showing how police treat black people in the USA. The video below is a great example of racism in the USA on part of the police force.

Thieves stealing hair???

FASHION - Its rare when fashion crimes are also actually a real crime.

Such was the case when thieves struck Lisa Amosu’s hair salon in Houston, Texas.

The unorthodox robbery was not after money either. They didn't touch the cash register and or even look at the flat-screen TV that could have easily been sold for cash.

Instead the thieves emptied the store of a more a valuable commodity: hair extensions.

And if you know anything about hair extensions, you know they're pretty damn expensive. The thieves stole an estimated $120,000 worth of hair extensions.

“They knew exactly what they were doing, there’s no question in my mind,” says Amosu. “These jokers walked right past my register, walked right past a beautiful flat-screen TV and didn’t touch them.”

“They cut a perfect square of glass out of the window pane and stayed low once they were in the salon so they wouldn’t set off the motion detectors. It was definitely a professional job.”

Robberies like this one are becoming more common across the United States as thieves realize they can get quick cash on the black market by stealing and selling high-quality human hair extensions.

In separate incidents:

Thieves struck two salons in California and made off with human-hair bundles valued at $70,000.

A robbery in Atlanta saw thieves drive a car through the front window of a beauty salon and make off with $10,000 worth of hair.

In April one Chicago's hair-supply store saw thieves lift $90,000 worth of extensions.

In March, criminals shot and killed Michigan beauty-shop supplier Jay Shin when they targeted his storage facility looking for hair extensions.

Yeah, that is right. Apparently human hair is now worth killing people for. Scary!

Hair extensions sell for as much as $500 for a small bundle at salons, but crooks are selling them on the black market or eBay for as little as $25.

“They sell it to hair stylists who work from home and the average person on the street who is looking for a high-quality product but who doesn’t want to pay for it,” she says.

In addition to hurting hair salon owners, robbers create victims of the customers who need the hair, particularly cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.

“It’s tragic. One of my clients, a bride, had a special order because she was a cancer patient and needed hair for her wedding. But the thieves stole her order.”

What is bizarre about cases like this is how you wouldn't think of hair as being a valuable commodity. Jewelry yes. Furniture yes. I could totally see someone stealing windows, doors or metal siding because they too cheap to buy their own windows or doors, etc. I even once heard of someone stealing Ottawa roofing tiles off an hotel, because they were copper and the thieves wanted to sell the copper.

I could also see companies trying to steal staff from competing companies. Its very difficult sometimes to find good IT staff, website designers, nannies, Toronto accountants that actually live in Toronto (as opposed to people who commute and therefore are always leaving work early and complaining about their commute, slacking off at work).

And then there is people who steal boyfriends, husbands, etc...

Or petty shoplifting of small things like gum or batteries.

I suppose in some industries theft is to be expected sometimes. ie. You sell RVs, motorcycles, bicycles... something that is not only transportable, but is transportation itself.

In contrast its well nigh impossible to steal something that isn't meant to move... like an in ground pool, tennis courts or sunrooms.

Its the difference between stealing someone's golf clubs, stealing the golf cart and trying to steal the 18th fairway and hole.

Golf metaphors aside... seriously, hair?

Chinese organ thieves, sure, but what is next? People mugging you on the street and shaving your head for your precious hair?

Peter Nygard: 21st Century Slaveowner

Peter Nygard is one of the wealthiest men in the world. He's not a billionaire... but he does have a net worth of $800 million USD.

He owns an island in the Bahamas staffed with hundreds of employees... but they are employees in name only, because of two things: #1. According to former employees they are treated like slaves. #2. They aren't allowed to leave without Mr Nygard's permission.

So if they're effectively prisoners on his island... and they're treated like slaves, but still paid... but wait, the employees there are also docked wages constantly for not performing up to Peter Nygard's standards.

According to court documents one of his employees was docked wages so often he was making 87 cents per hour. If that is not slavery then its at least sweatshop conditions.

And its not just small time employees who are treated like dirt. Its managers too. In a recent CBC documentary which exposed Peter Nygard as the two-bit liar he is a multitude of former managers came out to admit how they and other employees (hundreds of them) have been physically abused, intimidated, threatened, verbally berated and even sexually abused.

It doesn't stop there either. According to witnesses 67-year-old Peter Nygard may have even raped a 16-year-old girl from the Dominican Republic... but it can't be verified because the girl has since been bought off by Peter Nygard's lawyers and the girl has disappeared...

Dare I say the Bermuda Triangle?

Or should we say he had the poor girl murdered so that she could be kept silent?

Rapist? Murderer? Who knows? What is known is that Peter Nygard's lawyers are now working over time trying to censor any media group that publishes anything bad about him...

And it hasn't stopped there. His lawyers are also working to intimidate bloggers, trying to insist the CBC documentary is false. They argue the real Peter Nygard doesn't have drunken sex parties with underage women (despite videos on his own website showing otherwise) and that he's really a kind fellow with a heart of gold. They are threatening bloggers with lawsuits just for posting so much as an opinion on whether Peter Nygard is a virtual slaveowner, a rapist... or even speculating on whether he murdered a 16-year-old girl and had her body dumped.

The end result is that Peter Nygard isn't just a criminal, his lawyers are complicit too because they're working to hide his crimes from the public eye. His fashion empire needs to be boycotted.

A Peek inside Zimbabwe's Prisons

POLITICS - What you are looking at is not starving people in Ethiopia.

Its not a country that is in the midst of a drought. Its images from Zimbabwe's prisons, a country with plenty of food to go around, but ruled by dictator Robert Mugabe.

And what is the crime of these prisoners? Its not stealing or murder. Its petty things like... speaking out against Robert Mugabe, helping foreigners, speaking to foreign reporters, helping Robert Mugabe's political rivals... or just voting against Mugabe.

The unlucky ones go to prison and die slowly. The more fortunate ones get killed and their bodies dumped in an unmarked grave. Difficult to say which is better.

The newly released images provide a rare look inside a Zimbabwean prison show emaciated inmates too weak to stand and eating as if they can barely bring food to their mouths.

Human rights activists and former prisoners have spoken of horrifying conditions in the country's jails and prisons but there has been little firsthand evidence available... because most of the prisoners die of starvation or organ failure.

Godknows Nare spent four months on the behind-the-walls documentary, training insiders to capture the footage. His documentary "Hell Hole" aired Tuesday on SABC, the South African state broadcaster, and is now being syndicated internationally by Associated Press Television News today. Nare says he hopes the footage will persuade foreigners and Robert Mugabe's new coalition government to step in to help.

But what is chances of Robert Mugabe helping people that disapprove of his government? Its a snowball's chance in hell.

In one scene from "Hell Hole" emaciated prisoners, wasting away because of vitamin deficiencies, are shown on mats in cells furnished with only blankets and the thin mattresses. The prison menus have been reduced to tiny bowls of corn porridge (one per day, and the inmates barely have the energy to bring the food to their mouths. The inmates are also given salt water to drink, to make them thirsty all the time.

Annah Y. Moyo, a Zimbabwean lawyer who works with the Southern African Centre for Survivors of Torture, said conditions in Zimbabwean prisons were "a form of torture." Moyo now lives in exile out of fear of being tossed in "Zimbabwe's Prisons of Death".

Moyo, who was not involved in making the documentary, says Zimbabwe's soaring inflation, supply shortages and rampant corruption have played a role, with prison officials taking food that should go to prisoners and selling it on the black market.

Knowledge of the bad prison conditions is actually common. Security officials make sure political activists know of the prison conditions as a bullying tactic.

"Everyone knows that if you're sent to prison, your chances of coming out alive are slim," says Moyo.

Lack of medical care in jails and prisons also has been an issue, with concern that cholera, at epidemic levels among free Zimbabweans, would take an even higher toll in crowded cells.

Many doctors in Zimbabwe have fled the country and now live in exile. Indeed anyone with wealth or education has pretty much left, becoming refugees in neighbouring countries. The few that remain are trying to fight against Mugabe's reign of terror.

Last year, the Zimbabwean civic group 'Women of Zimbabwe Arise' dedicated a report on the collapse of the country's health system to one of its political leaders, Thembelani Lunga, who died in prison after only four days.

Earlier this month, Roy Bennett, an opposition politician was released from prison after he was granted bail (he was essentially ransomed) and is now speaking out against the harsh prison conditions. Bennett was noticeably a lot thinner after his jailing and says five people died during his incarceration and it took prison authorities 24 to 48 hours to collect the bodies.

Starving political rivals, mass unemployment, a cruel dictator who cares only about wealth and power... its not just the prisons that are a hell hole.

Note: There are plenty of videos on this topic on YouTube. Some of them are pretty graphic.

See Also:
2024 people die of cholera in Zimbabwe
Ten Worst Places to Live
Tutu wants Mugabe out

Racial Profiling alive and well in Toronto

CANADA - In 2007 Nimo Gulleid had an argument about Islam with a woman while waiting at a TTC bus stop, both women boarded the bus and minutes later the bus was pulled over by police.

The police then approached Nimo Gulleid and demanded to see her gun. When Nimo explained she didn't have a gun, the police dragged the 37-year-old Canadian off the back entrance of the bus.

In front of dozens of witnesses they pushed her to the ground, searched her, physically assaulted her and dumped her purse contents on the grass. No gun was found.

The woman Gulleid had argued with earlier had told the TTC driver Gulleid was carrying a gun, who had radioed police and they had arrived in record time.

Even after determining she was not a threat, police handcuffed and arrested Gulleid and took her to St. Joseph's hospital for psychiatric evaluation. Hospital reports found Gulleid suffered "soft tissue injuries to her arms, neck and back" and she suffered from anxiety and stress.

The police then threatened Gulleid and warned her not to file a complaint against them. As a struggling mature student she didn't have the money to pursue a civil suit.

The police officers involved never even bothered to listen to her side of the story. Last month on February 19th, the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board awarded Gulleid $4,000 for pain and suffering.

"It was not about the money. I had so much anger about how I was treated unfairly, that I had to do something," says Gulleid. "The most painful component was it was by the people who were in a position of authority."

The board's decision found that "even when no gun was found on the Applicant the use of excessive force persisted." It also found that Gulleid was a "victim of a crime of assault." The board based its decision on Gulleid's testimony and hospital records from the March 2007 incident.

The 5 police officers involved in the incident had refused to share information, and are now claiming they never received a request for the info.

If Gulleid had been a white woman, would they still have searched and assaulted her? Probably not. The police thought she was a Muslim terrorist...

WHY DID THIS HAPPEN?

As she waited for the bus, Gulleid got into a conversation with the other woman about the religion of Islam. The conversation became heated, and the other woman made a comment saying all Muslims were terrorists and carried guns.

Disliking this idea of racial profiling, Gulleid had asked the woman, "So you think I carry a gun?"

After the two boarded the bus, the woman told the driver Gulleid had a gun and was going to shoot everyone. The bus driver, following protocol, called police.

The woman who made the false claim should have been arrested for mischief.

See Also:
Top Five Police Brutality Videos
The Death Spasms of American Racism
Cop Killer in Ontario
The Future of Black Nationalism in America
Stepher Harper's RCMP resorts to Gestapo Tactics
Gun Control in Canada
Handguns in Canada
Harper moves to revive Anti-Terrorism Act
Negligent RCMP won't face charges in Taser death

Organizer of Rwandan Genocide sentenced

POLITICS - The main organizer behind the 1994 slaughter of 800,000 to 1,000,000 people people (the numbers vary depending on the source) in Rwanda was convicted of genocide Thursday and sentenced to life in prison, the most significant verdict of a United Nations tribunal set up to bring the killers to justice.

Theoneste Bagosora was found guilty of crimes against humanity, and the court said he used his position as the former director of Rwanda's Ministry of Defence to direct Hutu soldiers to kill Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

More than 800,000 minority Tutsis and Hutus were killed in the 100-day slaughter organized by the extremist Hutu government then in power. Government troops, Hutu militia and ordinary villagers spurred on by hate messages broadcast over the radio went from village to village, butchering men, women and children.

Bagosora had participated in international talks arranged in the early 1990s with the aim of ending Rwanda's long-simmering political crisis. Bagosora grew angry with government delegates he deemed soft on Tutsi-led rebels and said he was returning to Rwanda to "prepare the apocalypse" the indictment quoted Bagosora as saying. The killings began April 7th 1994.

The former colonel also was found responsible for the deaths of former Rwandan prime minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana – a moderate Hutu – and 10 Belgian peacekeepers who tried to protect her as she was killed at the outset of the genocide.

Bagasora said nothing as the verdict was delivered, and there was complete silence from the scores of people who had packed into the aisles of the tiny courtroom to hear the judgment.

His conviction was welcomed by genocide survivors, who still live uneasily among perpetrators in Rwanda's green hills nearly 15 years later.

Some 63,000 people are suspected of taking part in the genocide, although many of them have been sentenced by community-based courts, where suspects were encouraged to confess and seek forgiveness in exchange for lighter sentences.

The Tanzania-based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda was set up by the UN in 1994 to try those responsible for the killings and had its first conviction in 1997. There have been 42 judgments, of which six have been acquittals. It does not have the power to impose the death sentence.

Canadian general Romeo Dallaire, who now sits in the Canadian Senate, was in charge of the failed UN peacekeeping mission in Rwanda when the massacres began. In court testimonies, Dallaire has spoken about a spiral of mistrust between Hutus and Tutsis in the days leading up to the massacres and described how his peacekeeping force of 2,100 was hastily assembled and poorly equipped to deal with the situation. His demands for more troops and air support were ignored by the United States, Europe and other UN members.

Sgt. Jan and Wife Murdered By Fellow Marines

CALIFORNIA - A Brooklyn-raised Marine sergeant and his new bride were tortured and killed execution-style in their California home - allegedly by four other Marines under his command.

Sgt. Jan Pawel Pietrzak, who was raised in Bensonhurst, and his wife, Quiana, were found bound and gagged in the ransacked house, each shot in the head.

Pietrzak was the suspects' sergeant at Camp Pendleton, Quiana's mother said Wednesday.

"They're monsters," Faye Jenkins told the Daily News. "They're monsters."

Pietrzak's mother, Henryka Pietrzak-Varga, said she had prepared herself "for the possibility that my son could die in Iraq."

"But to die like this, in their own home?" she told The News. "They were good kids. They didn't deserve to die like this."

Investigators said the motive for murder was "financial gain." Neither mother believes that.

"When I found out what they did to them, it was like they killed me, too," Pietrzak-Varga said.

A spokesman for the Riverside County district attorney's office would not comment on reports that Pietrzak was killed by his own men.

Detectives also did not divulge what the accused Marines were looking for, but the suspects were tied to the crime by items found in their homes and on the military base.

Born in Poland, Pietrzak was 10 when he moved to the U.S. and enlisted after the 9/11 attacks. He was named Jan Pawel, which means John Paul, after the Polish pontiff.

A mechanic who worked on helicopters, Pietrzak, 24, met his wife three years ago at a party for Marines being deployed to Iraq.

Quiana Jenkins-Pietrzak, 26, who worked for the county's Black Infant Care Center, was reluctant to date a Marine. But Pietrzak wooed her, and they were married in August.

"They were in love," her mother-in-law said. "It didn't matter to them that they had different skin colors."

The bride wore her favorite white Converse sneakers, and she was still in the process of writing thank-you cards when she was killed.

"She was our only child and my best friend," Faye Jenkins said. "He was like my son. He was so proud to be a Marine. But when he was off the base, he was my son."

The Pietrzaks were not rich and purchased their five-bedroom home in May through a foreclosure, said Waldemar Piasecki, a New York-based Polish journalist and family friend. He used his reenlistment bonus to replace the hardwood floor and carpet.

"They were hardworking young people," Piasecki said.

On Oct. 15, deputies were dispatched to the Pietrzak home in Winchester, an exurb of San Diego, when the Marine did not show up for work.

When they arrived, the deputies found the Pietrzaks in the living room and evidence that the robbers had tried to cover their tracks by torching the house.

Charged with murder and other crimes are Pvt. Emrys John, 18, of Maryland; Lance Cpl. Tyrone Miller, 20, of North Carolina; Pvt. Kevin Darnell Cox, 20, of Tennessee, and Pvt. Kesuan Sykes, 21, of California.

Lawyers for the men could not be reached for comment.

Pietrzak's mother said she can't understand how Marines could have committed such a crime.

"Don't the Marines screen out people like this?" she said. "Didn't they know they had murderers under their roof?"

Open letter to NBC

Heroes and the portrayal of minority roles

By JeffG

Dear NBC,

A part of me didn’t want to write this. I started watching Heroes near the end of the first season and was immediately hooked. I’ve always been a fan of fantasy and sci-fi, and was an avid comic book collector in my youth. I am this show’s core audience. Your writers have taken all the joys and wonders of those books from my childhood and made them new again, with twists and plot turns so good that at times left me breathless. Your actors and special effects team have brought the story to life.

The show is amazing for it’s ability to invoke emotion and leave the viewer in a daze, begging, desperate for more. I love it. I wish it was on everyday. But…and this is a big but…I’m not happy in it’s portrayal of minority roles. You’re walking on a slippery slope.

Maybe it’s just me and I’m looking too deeply into it, but most of the minority roles on the show seem very typecast, and it seems like they’ve all gotten a pretty raw deal in terms of storytelling. For example:

• Monica Dawson, a new character from season two is a New Orleans resident. She’s a young black woman just getting by at a fast food job, desperately trying to make a better life for herself, her grandmother, and her (apparently fatherless) son. I really want to like this character and I think she has tremendous potential. Unfortunately, she’s been given hardly any screen time and is left undeveloped and portrayed as the stereotypical single black mother as of this time.
• Mohinder Suresh is a brilliant scientist from India. Because on TV, everyone from India is either a scientist, or a PC technician. This indiscretion aside, Mohinder is fantastic, and very human. But you still went there.
• D.L Hawkins - a black man who happens to be a former gang member. Was framed for a crime he didn’t commit. Once his innocence was proven, he worked hard to be a role model for his son. Thought to have been killed protecting his family at the end of season one, he actually survived a gunshot wound, only to be murdered at a club trying to bring his psychotic wife home after she went schizo. Granted, he’d have to have been killed regardless. He was becoming an ideal black role model, a good father, and he was married to a white woman. We can’t have black role models and we sure as fuck can’t have black, male role models. I wasn’t so angry about this when I thought he died protecting the people he loved, but when I saw how he actually died in the “Two Months Ago…” flashback, I was so pissed that I had to write this.
• Maya and Alejandro Herrera - illegal immigrants from Mexico. Maya’s power seems to be to create a localized, lethal plague whenever she gets stressed out; Alejandro is the cure. They proceeded to illegally hop the border from Mexico to find a “Dr. Suresh” from New York in search of a cure for the “devil” inside Maya. Even putting aside the immigration issue, why must a Hispanic woman always be portrayed as either completely stoic or overly emotional, seemingly bipolar, and superstitious? She’s played up as completely naive and foolish. Alejandro, by comparison, seems very balanced and intelligent, but is entirely tied to his sister’s plot and is basically playing background to her role.

Ok, so those are some of my complaints. I know I’m being a bit hypercritical. It’s possible that the recent writers’ strike is leaving gaping holes in the storyboard. To date, the new characters this season seem undeveloped regardless of their screen time, and don’t seem to fit into the general plot. I hope this is resolved.

You, NBC, should get your head out of your ass and pay them what they rightfully deserve. Without them, you’d be nothing but a jumble of shitty reality programs, just like everyone else. I also hope the writers get their heads out of their asses, plotwise, but that may have to do with them not getting properly paid. Either way, the series could tip to either side of the fence currently, it’s up to you.

We’ve seen from the progression of the series that these writers can create strong, believable characters that extract strong emotions from the viewer. They are capable of this. Unfortunately, while the cast is fairly diverse, the writing seems to stem from a very “white-centric” point of view. The stereotyping isn’t extreme, and is much better than some shows. Also the typecasting could be much worse. My problem is that it exists at all.

I know I seem very negative about the show, but I’m surely being overly critical. Because the show resonates so strongly with me, the idea that “with great power comes great responsibility” sets in. I want to believe in this show and the characters in it, and I hold it to a much higher standard than most. Much as the characters have had to stuggle with their powers, so must the writers struggle with their character development. Heroes, it is because I think you are so awesome that I hold you to such a high standard. Please…get it together, NBC, for the sake of your viewers.

P.S. - since you’re dealing with the realm of comic books, find a way to bring D.L. back to life. D.C. did it for Superman, Marvel did it for…well, almost everyone; surely you can do it for D.L.

Sincerely,

The wide-eyed inner child inside your fan.