Category: Crime and Punishment

Woman Arrested in Poland for Painting Virgin Mary with a Rainbow Halo

Virgin Mary of Czestochowa with rainbow halo
This artistic depiction of the Virgin Mary of Czestochowa with a rainbow halo could land a Polish woman in jail for two years.

Truly disgusting. Blasphemy is a crime against the state in Poland. An artist has been arrested and faces two years in prison.

From our friends at LGBTQNation:

A 51-year-old Polish woman has been arrested for blasphemy after she painted the Virgin Mary with a rainbow halo.

Polish interior minister Joachim Brudzi?ski announced the arrest, saying she was detained for “carrying out a profanation of the Virgin Mary of Cz?stochowa.” The Black Madonna of Cz?stochowa is a Byzantine icon that is housed in the country’s holiest Catholic shrine.

“Offending religious feeling” is a crime in Poland punishable by up to two years in prison.

“Telling stories about freedom and ‘tolerance’ doesn’t give anyone the right to offend the feelings of believers,” Brudzi?ski said, adding that the paintings are “cultural barbarism.”

How close are we to this happening in the United States under Trump?

Seriously!


Round And Round: The Web Spins ‘Round Trump

Nick gates to change plea

Nick Gates will change his plea to guilty, testify against Paul Manafort.

The web spins ever more tightly, creeping closer and closer to Donald Trump.

From the LA Times:

A former top aide to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign will plead guilty to fraud-related charges within days — and has made clear to prosecutors that he would testify against Paul Manafort, the lawyer-lobbyist who once managed the campaign.

The change of heart by Trump’s former deputy campaign manager Richard Gates, who had pleaded not guilty after being indicted in October on charges similar to Manafort’s, was described in interviews by people familiar with the case.

Gates will change his plea to guilty within the next few days, according to the report.

And this:

Gates, 45, who is married with four children, does not appear to be well positioned financially to sustain a high-powered legal defense.

“He can’t afford to pay it,” said one lawyer who is involved with the investigation. “If you go to trial on this, that’s $1 million to $1.5 million. Maybe more, if you need experts” to appear as witnesses.


Undocumented Immigrant Trump Trashed Acquitted in Killing of Kate Steinle

Jose Ines Garcia Zarate

Jose Ines Garcia Zarate (SFPD)

An undocumented immigrant from Mexico who Donald Trump trashed in an August 2016 campaign speech has been found not guilty of murder and manslaughter charges in the killing of Kathryn Steinle.

The man on trial, Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, was found guilty only of possession of a firearm by a felon.

The jury also found him not guilty of assault with a firearm.

From the New York Times:

The backlash to his release into the community crescendoed when Donald J. Trump invoked Ms. Steinle’s killing as he campaigned for president. Mr. Trump rallied national support for his hard-line immigration agenda, which ultimately helped to catapult him into office.

In a major speech on immigration in August 2016, Mr. Trump argued that “countless innocent American lives have been stolen because our politicians have failed in their duty to secure our borders and enforce our laws.”

Mr. Trump then named several young people who he said had become victims of policies he considered failures. Among those he named was Ms. Steinle, who Mr. Trump said had been “gunned down in the sanctuary city of San Francisco, by an illegal immigrant, deported five previous times.”

“And they knew he was no good,” Mr. Trump said of the man who had shot her.

Except The Donald was wrong.

Again.

And again.


Is Donald Trump Talking To Portraits Of Past Presidents Yet?

Crazy Donald Trump

Crazy Donald TrumpAh, Donald.

The Donald.

The Don.

Donnie.

Donnie T.

Crazy Donald.

Are you talking to portraits of past presidents yet?

You know, Richard Nixon did that.

You say you like Andrew Jackson, that the two of you are BFFs.

But you really should get to know Tricky Dicky, the original Richard “I am not a crook” Nixon.

Are you a liar, Donnie T?

As you laze about The Big Oval, or wander the Residence at night in your bathrobe, are you taking time to smell the paintings? Are you spending time talking to Andrew Jackson, or do you just admire him from afar?

James Comey testified today. For how long will your crew insulate you? For how long will the GOP spew out parseltongue, protecting you from yourself?

Were you really that ill prepared, as Speaker Paul Ryan suggests? Are you just too new at all of this? Are we to believe that James Comey is really to blame because he did not tell you that it was inappropriate for you to meet with him alone? Was it really up to Comey to correct you, sir, when you asked AG Jeff Sessions and Jared to leave The Big Oval so you could spend quality time with Mr. Comey?

Is there anything at all for which you will take responsibility?

How long until a new David Frost interviews you, after you’re, you know, out of office?

Is there a contemporary Dan Aykroyd in your future, sir Trump? Will Alec Baldwin be the ultimate closer for you on SNL?

The sooner the better.

Some day, some day soon, this….


Man Allegedly Threw Poodles From Fifth Floor Of Parking Garage

edward hanania, poodle

edward hanania, poodle

Edward Hanania and one of the dogs he allegedly threw from a parking structure. The other dog died.

A man in Oak Lawn, Illinois, is accused of throwing two poodles from a parking structure near a hospital. The man, Edward Hanania, 22, a convicted felon, allegedly claimed the dogs were his own when he saw a Facebook ad place by a good soul who found them.

From the Chicago Tribune:

Prosecutors allege Edward Hanania, a convicted felon, drove the two dogs he claimed as his own to the roof of the parking garage at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn on Saturday and threw them off the fifth floor. One of the dogs died and the other was treated for leg and head trauma, prosecutors said.

The 22-year-old Hanania was charged with two counts of animal cruelty, a felony, stemming from the incident. A judge on Tuesday set bail for Hanania at $350,000 during a bond hearing at the Cook County courthouse in Bridgeview.

Prosecutors said someone found the lost poodles Thursday and posted an ad on Facebook seeking their owner. Hanania went to the person’s house the next day and paid $20 as a reward to the person who found the dogs before he took them.

Hanania, who appeared in court in flip-flops and a cutoff T-shirt, does not have any connection to the dogs, prosecutors said.

Mind-boggling, and sad.


Trump Campaign Chair in Kentucky County Arrested On Child Sex Trafficking Charges

Donald Trump, Tim Nolan

Donald Trump and Tim Nolan.

Well, here’s the ugly:

Tim Nolan, a local Republican political figure and the former chair of the Trump campaign for Campbell County, Kentucky, has been arrested and charged with “felony human trafficking of a minor, felony inducing a minor to engage in sex, and a third count of giving alcohol to a minor,” according to an indictment filed in Boone County, KY earlier this week.

According to the The River City News, who obtained the indictment on Friday, Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear has charged Nolan with “human trafficking (a class B felony), first degree unlawful transaction with a minor (a class C felony), and third degree unlawful transaction with a minor (a class A misdemeanor).”  All of the alleged felonies were committed in 2016, while he was chair of the Campbell County arm of the Trump campaign.

Nolan is also a former judge.

More ugly:

According to the indictment, obtained by The River City News, Nolan is accused of subjecting a minor under the age of 18 to “commercial sexual activity”. He is also accused of inducing a minor to engage in sexual activity. Nolan is also accused of providing alcohol to a minor.

More here.


Vatican Cardinal Admits ‘Enormous Mistakes’ in Church’s Sex Abuse Handling

Cardinal George Pell

Cardinal George Pell

The Catholic Church has taken an enormous step in admitting ‘enormous mistakes’ in the Church”s handling of abuse cases – worldwide.

From the National Catholic Reporter:

One of the Catholic church’s highest ranking cardinals, Vatican official George Pell, faced four hours of questioning about his role in the clergy sexual abuse crisis in his native Australia in an extraordinary overnight hearing Sunday, in which he admitted the church “has made enormous mistakes” in its handling of dangerous priests.

And, in response to a specific question, Pell stated, “I am not here to defend the indefensible.”

The Cardinal testified via video-link, answering questions from “Gail Furness, the lead counsel assisting Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, [who] led Pell through years of the church’s response to sexual abuse, fact by fact.”

And this:

About 150 people attended Sunday night’s hearing in Rome, where Pell sat alone at a small table in the corner of a large hotel ballroom, testifying to a camera set up with a television screen. Security was extraordinarily tight, with Italian, Australian and Vatican officers scanning the crowd, and frisking everyone who entered the room.

Pell is expected testify via video link from Rome for the Royal Commission sitting in Sydney for at least three more nights.


ThinkProgress: Alabama Lawmakers Vote To Bring Back the Electric Chair

From ThinkProgress:

The Alabama House passed a bill this week that would allow the state to once again put people to death by electric chair if the currently low supply of lethal injection drugs runs out or if the Supreme Court places limits on which drugs can be used to execute inmates in a case currently pending before the justices.

The vote came just days after a majority Utah’s legislature approved a bill to bring back the practice of executing people by firing squad. Other states are debating the merits of using gas chambers.

After the European Union banned exports of drugs used to kill human beings in 2011, states have been scrambling to find a reliable supply, often turning to secret, poorly regulated sources.

These bills to revive older methods of execution were proposed following a series ofbotched executions in which inmates suffered long and seemingly painful deaths — calling into question whether the drugs are as effective and “humane” as their supporters claimed.

Yet medical experts say the electric chair — which was used for hundreds of years — is an even more torturous and gruesome method of execution. Because the equipment is old and few people know how to operate it, it has often malfunctioned.

How sad. How so terribly sad.

Read more here


Watch: Bill Lives the Drug War Every Day. Do You?

Listen to a civilian LEAP staffer demolish the War on Drugs.

From our friends at LEAP:

As our successes on Election Day illustrated and last week’s Congressional vote to protect medical marijuana patients from DEA interference further confirmed, more people agree with the need for drug policy reform than ever before. 

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition can claim credit for helping to bring about that palpable shift in mindset. Our speakers and staff work incredibly hard to bring our message of legalization, regulation and control to the forefront of the movement to end drug prohibition. We know that the consequences of prohibition are severe and impact real human beings – people like all of us. Our latest installment in LEAP’s ongoing “I LIVE THE DRUG WAR EVERY DAY” series comes from one of our own, LEAP’s Director of Programs and Financial Administration, Bill Fried.

Bill joined the LEAP staff in 2006, after years of involvement in grass roots activism. A product of 1960’s radicalism, Bill never thought he would one day work shoulder to shoulder with police officers, fighting for the legalization, regulation and control of all drugs. His story is one of activism come full circle. To hear Bill’s take on the madness of drug prohibition and why LEAP’s work is so important, please watch this videoShare it with your friends and familyStand with LEAP and tell us your storyMake a contribution to support our work.

We all live the drug war every day. Please stand with LEAP in our fight to end the drug war. Add your voice to our campaign now.

Thank you,

Major Neill Franklin (Ret.)
Executive Director
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition


Watch: Rachel Maddow on Secret Service Chaos

From Rachel Maddow on the chaos inside the Secret Service and the numerous security breaches since President Obama took office.

And how many before did we hear nothing about?