High court rules way in which police kettled up to 5,000 demonstrators at G20 protests in April 2009 was illegal Thousands of people found by the high court to have been illegally detained for hours by police at a central London protest may sue Scotland Yard for false imprisonment. The high court has ruled that the Metropolitan police had broken the law in the way it kettled up to 5,000 demonstrators at the G20 protests in April 2009. The judges heard police used the tactic of mass detention against protesters that they accepted were peaceful, with officers meting out punches to the face, slaps and shield strikes as they tried to move a demonstration against climate change. Judges found that the force used by police was “unjustified”, criticised “imprecise” instructions given by senior officers about releasing innocent people, and said the mass detentions for five hours were an unlawful deprivation of liberty under article 5 of the European convention on human rights. The case was brought by Josh Moos and Hannah McClure, who were among the crowd held by police. The judgment does not strike down the police tactic of kettling, or mass detention, but it will be seen as a rebuff to the Met and places police chiefs on notice that the courts will intervene in favour of the rights of protesters over claims that draconian tactics are necessary to prevent violence. The Met announced it would appeal against the judgment. The solicitor who brought the case, John Halford, said the ruling opened the police up to thousands of lawsuits seeking damages for the unlawful behaviour. He said: “Everyone in the kettle has a claim for false imprisonment and damages as they were detained against their will.” The case concerned the G20 protests in London on 1 April 2009, during which Ian Tomlinson, a bystander, died after being struck by an officer. There were several demonstrations in the area that day, but the court case deals with a Climate Camp protest in Bishopsgate. Police said they put in a containment of the camp, fearing people from a sometimes violent protest outside the Royal Exchange may join it. In their judgment Sir Anthony May, president of the Queens Bench Division, and Mr Justice Sweeney said police had failed to meet the conditions for the mass detention of protesters to be lawful: “To be justified in law as being the lawful exercise of the common law power to take reasonable steps to prevent a breach of the peace and as not constituting an unlawful deprivation of liberty under article 5 of the convention, the police had reasonably to apprehend an imminent breach of the peace …” But this was not the case, the judges found, citing the fact the two protests were relatively far apart. Those who left the Royal Exchange took two hours to reach the edge of the Climate Camp protest. The judges said the risk of violence was not imminent, and that was the threshold of danger to public order needed to justify the tactic of kettling. “There was such a risk, but it was at that stage only a risk; and it was not, in our judgment, a risk of imminent breaches of the peace sufficient to justify full containment at the Climate Camp.” For the Met, policing protests has seen them criticised on several fronts, as too heavy handed at G20,and then underprepared at last year’s student protests. The high court judgment found use of force at G20 was excessive, and the rights of innocent protesters were infringed: “It is evident that there were instances of unduly inflexible release [from the containment] and instances of unnecessary and, we think, unjustified force in the pushing operation.” The judges also criticised instructions a police chief said he gave to officers to release the innocent from the detention: “They were very general and imprecise and may not have been fully conveyed to individual officers, some of whom appear not to have been trained for crowd control operations of this kind.” The judges found a police decision to disperse the crowd to avoid it remaining overnight was lawful. The Met said: “We believe that this issue is so important for the police’s ability to prevent disorder within protest that we will be appealing. The MPS believes that the Bishopsgate containment prevented further scenes of violence and criminal damage occurring on 1 April 2009.” Dee Doocey, a Liberal Democrat member of the Metropolitan Police Authority, said: “We must have authoritative and crystal clear guidance on who can trigger the use of kettling … the Met must urgently address the insufficient training that police officers receive in the use of shields.” Jenny Jones, a Green party member of the Metropolitan Police Authority, said: “They have used kettling illegally, and sometimes violently, on peaceful demonstrations since May 2001. Kettling takes away the human rights and civil liberties of innocent, legal protesters.” Police G20 London Protest Human rights Vikram Dodd guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
In the run-up to a vote, Speaker John Boehner predicted Thursday a $38 billion package of spending cuts would clear the House with a bipartisan majority and said it marks a first step in a longer Republican campaign to rein in federal deficits. (April 14)
Continue reading …
Under fire Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi appeared on TV in a defiant tour of his capital after fresh explosions shook Tripoli Thursday. Rebel forces continued to ask for more international help. (April 14)
Continue reading …Forget finger paint: One Maine city is looking to spend $200,000 next fall to outfit its kindergartners with iPads. “It’s definitely an adventure, and it’ll be a journey of learning for teachers and students,” says one teacher; supposedly, the tablets will make learning more exciting and interactive. But, some…
Continue reading …Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction: AZ Birther Law Requires Candidates "To Describe Penis"
April 14, 2011 No Comment
It’s come to this now? This is what happens when you let the inmates run the asylum : They don’t call Arizona the “meth lab of Democracy” for nothing — where else could a lack of foreskin prove citizenship? The Arizona Senate formally passed the “Birther Bill” today, but not in its original version. Apparently, requiring presidential candidates to provide a long-form birth certificate before allowing their names on the ballot in Arizona — despite it already being a federal requirement to run for president — was a bit too much for a few GOP lawmakers. So they made some amendments: if you can’t find your birth certificate, and you have a penis, a document describing your lack (of) foreskin will suffice. A circumcision certificate — a document given to the parents of a male Jewish child after his foreskin is snipped off during a circumcision ceremony — is not a legal document (see an example of one here ) but if you have one, under the amended bill, it’s apparently enough to prove you’re a U.S. citizen and your name can be permitted on the ballot in Arizona. Pulling out your penis in front of election officials, however, will not prove citizenship — and, in the worst case scenario, could get labeled a sex offender. Do I really need to be the one to tell them that Muslims males get circumcised too? Oy. I guess we need to root out all those stealthy Scandinavians planning to run for president. You have to laugh, if only to keep from pulling all your hair out in the face of such stupidity.
Continue reading …
N24: Roche verzeichnet Umsatzrückgang “FIrst Few Weeks” Rbailey’s photos around Byron Bay, Australia Dpt Puy de Dôme (63), à vendre LE MONT DORE maison P6 de 150 m² – Terrain de 1800 m² – Roche Sales Fall 9% on Stronger Franc | Health Care Information ZURICH— Roche Holding AG Thursday reported a 9% dump in first-quarter sales mostly overdue to a stronger Swiss franc, as good as a pointy dump in approach for a influenza disinfectant Tamiflu as good as revoke sales of a cancer drug … Pharmaceutical company Roche disappointed with sales decline … by GS1311 drugmaker Roche disappointed with the decline in sales class=hcf-location-mark> Basel At the Swiss pharmaceutical and diagnostics group. Latest update headline news | Roche sales dip, hurt by strong … Thе disastrous sell rate hаd аn stroke οf 1.1 billion francs οr 9 percent οn thе results, “due tο thе strength οf thе franc relations tο аll currencies applicable fοr Roche , іn sold thе US dollar аnd thе euro,” thе organisation added. … UPDATE 3- Roche Q1 sales fall short on weak Avastin demand « Datapple PREVIEW-Lost flu sales weigh on Roche , other pharmas in Q1. about 2 days ago – No comments. * Roche kicks off results season with Q1 sales on April 14. Global recovery on track but oil poses risk: Reuters poll (Reuters) … Roche 1st-quarter sales off; year targets affirmed | StockBlog.com Roche 1st-quarter sales off; year targets affirmed | Word on The Street. EmmanuelBONAN says: Leo Roche ft. Melany Houle | Montréal, QC, CA http://fb.me/Vx2bxrtW
Continue reading …You’ve seen the videos: Animal rights advocates go undercover as farm workers and emerge with grainy footage of beaten cows , viciously killed turkeys , and abused pigs . And Iowa—the country’s largest pork and eggs producer—wants to keep you from seeing them. Its legislature is considering a bill that would…
Continue reading …
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Too little is known about Libya's rebels and they remain too fragmented for the United States to get seriously involved in organizing or training them, let alone arming them, U.S. and European officials say. U.S. and allied intelligence agencies believe NATO's no-fly zone and air strikes will be effective in stopping Muammar Gaddafi's forces from killing civilians and dislodging rebels from strongholds like Benghazi, the officials say. But the more the intelligence agencies learn about rebel forces, the more they appear to be hopelessly disorganized and incapable of coalescing in the foreseeable future. U.S. government experts believe the state of the…
Continue reading …Lashanda Armstrong, Distraught Mother, Drove Van Full Of Children Into Hudson River
April 14, 2011 No Comment
NEWBURGH, N.Y. — Angela Gilliam called the police at 7:43 p.m. Tuesday. She was worried about her niece’s well-being and said there was a domestic tussle going on at the younger woman’s apartment in this hardscrabble city on New York’s Hudson River. Police headed to the apartment but by the time they got there, it was empty. Seventeen minutes later, Gilliam’s grand-nephew La’Shaun Armstrong stood shivering and soaking wet in a firehouse down the street, struggling to get the words out: His mother, 25-year-old Lashanda Armstrong, had driven their minivan off a boat ramp and into the river, taking her three other children with her. All of them died. Only 10-year-old La’Shaun survived, managing to open the driver’s window and escape the van just before it slipped beneath the surface. As the van hit the river, Lashanda Armstrong told her terrified kids, “If I’m going to die, you’re going to die with me,” NBC reported. Police were still working Wednesday night to piece together the events that led to Tuesday’s tragic plunge that killed Armstrong and three children: Landen Pierre, 5, Lance Pierre, 2, and 11-month-old Laianna Pierre. Earlier Tuesday, Armstrong appeared stressed when she picked up the children at the Young and Unique Christian Development Child Care, said Shaniesha Strange, supervisor in the infant room. “The only thing she’d say was that she was so alone,” Strange said Wednesday. “She’s a single parent. She takes great care of her kids, goes to school and works. She really needed a helping hand.” Police question the man they identified as the father of the three dead children, Jean Pierre, but did not give details. He apparently didn’t live with the mother and children and could not immediately be located for comment. Hetty Minatee, another teacher at the day care center, said Armstrong had enrolled the four children there in September. At first Jean Pierre would come in with Armstrong and sometimes would pick up the kids. “A couple weeks ago, she came in a little upset,” Minatee said. “She said, ‘Miss Minatee, I don’t want the father to pick the kids up or have any contact with them.’ She said she was trying to get a court order so he could never see the kids again.” Meave Ryan, the woman who found young La’Shaun standing by the water, shivering, said that the boy told her, “There was an argument about cheating, that his stepfather was cheating on his mother,” she said. Ryan was driving by the water when she saw La’Shaun standing there, soaking wet and waving his arms at passing cars. From the New York Times: Meave Ryan saw the boy waving his arms as she braked to a stop behind a string of cars. The other cars went on through the intersection, but she rolled down the window. “He was screaming for help,” she said. “He said, ‘My mommy just drove the car in the water.’ From Armstrong’s apartment, Lashanda would have taken a right turn onto Washington Street, site of George Washington’s headquarters during the American Revolution, and driven straight toward the river, downhill all the way. She’d be familiar with the boat launch, neighbors said. She watched fireworks over the river from the corner near her house. A half-mile drive would have gotten her there. A hard left then a quick right turn would take the van into the water. Fire Chief Michael Vatter said the vehicle went under in the 45-degree water within two minutes. A passer-by found a soaked and cold La’Shaun Armstrong along the shore and took him to a firehouse for help. “He got out of the car, got up onto the boat ramp, turned around and it was gone,” Vatter said. Divers searched for about an hour before finding the minivan submerged in 10 feet of water about 25 yards from the shore. They used a tow truck to pull it up the ramp. La’Shaun is staying with Gilliam and “doing fine,” she said. “She was a good mother. She was going through some stuff,” Gilliam said of her niece. “Nobody knows what my niece went through.” She would not elaborate. Police said there was no history of domestic violence at the address. Neighbors in the city of about 30,000 said the children seemed energetic and happy and would play on the block and ride bikes. “She was a very good mom,” said Tina Claybourne. “She took care of her kids. She always was with her kids.” Just last month, she donated money to help the family of a baby killed in a fire across the street from Armstrong’s apartment. The loss of four children in such a short time hit the community hard. Mourners created a memorial of stuffed animals and flowers at the boat ramp. The deaths were reminiscent of the case of Susan Smith, the South Carolina woman who drowned her two young sons in 1994 by sending her car into a pond. She initially claimed she had been carjacked. She is serving a life sentence. Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy ___ Associated Press writers Mary Esch and Michael Hill in Albany, N.Y., contributed to this report.
Continue reading …MSNBC Praises Obama’s ‘Soaring’ Speech, Calling On ‘Wealthiest Americans to Pay Their Way’
April 14, 2011 No Comment
On his 3PM ET hour show on MSNBC on Wednesday, host Martin Bashir enthusiastically reacted to President Obama's budget speech: “'We will invest in the future of America,' that's what President Obama just said in a much-anticipated speech on the budget…. He offered a series of broad proposals and said it's time for the wealthiest Americans to pay their way and share in taxes.” Moments later, White House correspondent Mike Viqueira joined Bashir and proclaimed: “..the President's speech was part soaring, speaking to the aspirations and character of a nation, if you will.” Bashir observed: “Mike, I don't want to sound as if I'm misrepresenting the President, but it appeared to me that he was suggesting that we can't be self-centered as far as fiscal policy is concerned. We can't simply slash programs everywhere without somehow expecting the wealthiest in society to contribute. Is that your impression?” Viqueira agreed and reiterated: “Well, the President did reach for, as I said, that soaring sort of rhetoric that speaks to the basic aspirations of people and the beliefs of what America is. He said, 'It tells us' – the Ryan plan, talking about the Republican plan – 'It tells us we can't afford the America we believe in.' So the President sort of laid out his vision for America.” Near the end of the segment, Bashir remarked: “When I hear the current discussion about cutting spending, I'm reminded of what Margaret Thatcher in Britain during the 1980's, when she dismissed the idea of a civic society and she said that all she wanted to do was focus on individuals. Isn't that what we now have, a president who wants shared sacrifices, an opposition that's solely focused on cuts that would appear to hit the most vulnerable without any consideration for raising taxes?” Viqueira replied: “And that's what the President did. He's done this before, quotes Abraham Lincoln, as he points out, the first Republican president, saying that the idea here for American government is to help those who can't help themselves. And they really are trying to encourage the coming battle to be fought on that – those grounds.” In addition to praising Obama's speech, Bashir also slammed Republicans for criticizing the President: “Republicans didn't even wait for the President to make his speech today before coming out with a scathing review of his handling of the issue….I'm curious about the reaction of the White House to entertaining a group of Republicans to morning coffee and then to hear them come out and immediately trash the President's speech even before he's delivered it.” Here is a transcript of the April 13 exchange between Bashir and Viqueira: 3:00PM ET MARTIN BASHIR: 'We will invest in the future of America,' that's what President Obama just said in a much-anticipated speech on the budget and his plan to tackle the nation's mounting debt and deficits. He offered a series of broad proposals and said it's time for the wealthiest Americans to pay their way and share in taxes. BARACK OBAMA: In December I agreed to extend the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans because it was the only way I could prevent a tax hike on middle class Americans. But we cannot afford $1 trillion worth of tax cuts for every millionaire and billionaire in our society. We can't afford it. And I refuse to renew them again. BASHIR: Republicans didn't even wait for the President to make his speech today before coming out with a scathing review of his handling of the issue. JOHN BOEHNER [REP. R-OH]: I have been pushing the President for months to engage in this discussion about our long-term fiscal mess. I'm glad that he's finally decided to engage in it. ERIC CANTOR [REP. R-VA]: This is vintage obama. He's been standing on the sidelines expecting the rest of us to make the tough decisions to lead this country. BASHIR: NBC's Mike Viqueira is live at the White House. And Luke Russert joins us live from Capitol Hill. Mike, can I begin with you? Before we discuss the President's speech, I'm curious about the reaction of the White House to entertaining a group of Republicans to morning coffee and then to hear them come out and immediately trash the President's speech even before he's delivered it. MIKE VIQUEIRA: Yeah, well, you know, Martin, I have to say part of that is sort of a set piece. I thought an interesting portion of the afternoon had to do with the fact that Paul Ryan, you saw his picture there, in the chiron over your shoulder, was sitting in the front row and the President spent a good amount of time absolutely bashing the plan that Paul Ryan has constructed, the actual detailed piece of legislation that's going to be on the House of Representatives' floor tomorrow and Friday. You know, the President's speech was part soaring, speaking to the aspirations and character of a nation, if you will. Part framework – and that word 'framework' should be emphasized, because White House officials on background have been using it over and over and over again today – it did not have sort of the granularity or details that would go with a legislative proposal. And part of it, and a significant part of it, really setting the President and Democrats apart from what Republicans are going to be doing and proposing and debating over the course of the next two days in the House of Representatives, specifically when it comes to tax reform. The President obviously feels the Republican plan is tilted more towards the wealthy. And Medicare, the valued but costly program for elderly, that the President accuses Paul Ryan and Republicans of trying to privatize. The President, again, a framework, he says $4 trillion in debt reduction over the course of the next 12 years, if these recommendations are followed. Reform of the tax code to make it simpler and fairer, not a great deal of detail, again, in a lot of these proposals. The White House does say that for every $3 in cuts there will be $1 in tax revenue. It comes with a fail-safe or trigger, if the ratio of debt exceeds a certain percentage of the Gross Domestic Product in this country. And it brings up an interesting point, too, Martin. Why are we having the discussion? Because the total national debt in this country, now $14.3 trillion, exceeds the yearly GDP of this country, $14.1 trillion. And that is part of what's driving the urgency of this discussion, Martin.
Continue reading …