November 3, 2016


News and Views


Native Americans have been attacked while peacefully protecting their water
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Kelsey B., Care2 Action Alerts Today at 11:37 AM
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LucyTh Warner
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Native Americans are standing up to protect their water, sacred burial sites and land rights.

Stand With Standing Rock Sioux Tribe: End Construction of Dakota Access Pipeline

LucyTh,

Since April, Native Americans have been gathering in North Dakota to show solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, which is standing in opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline. The pipeline threatens the tribe's water, sacred burial sites and land rights. The protests are peaceful, yet local authorities have arrested protestors by the hundreds, attacked them with mace and dogs, strip-searched them and held them in dog kennels.

The only way to end this injustice is to permanently stop the construction of the pipeline. Doing so would halt brutality against protestors and prevent the destruction of sacred sites and important water sources. Sign now to demand the end of construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline.

The proposed pipeline crosses the Missouri River, meaning a spill would contaminate the water source - and livelihoods - of thousands. The pipeline also runs along a path over many ancestral sites, threatening places of cultural and spiritual significance. And, it directly contributes to global warming by transporting oil, a dirty fossil fuel.

This is the biggest gathering of Native Americans in over a century, we must stand by them in protecting their water supply, livelihoods and land rights. The kind of human rights abuses happening in North Dakota right now are unacceptable. Please join us in standing with Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.

Thank you,

Kelsey B.
The Care2 Petitions Team



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/kala-brown-missing-south-carolina-woman-found-alive-in-container-chained-like-a-dog/

Missing South Carolina woman found alive in container, "chained like a dog"
By CRIMESIDER STAFF CBS NEWS
November 3, 2016, 4:56 PM

Photograph -- todd.jpg, Todd Kohlhepp WSPA
Photograph -- carver.jpg, Charlie Carver WSPA


WOODRUFF, S.C. -- A South Carolina woman who vanished more than two months ago was found alive Thursday morning inside a padlocked 30’ by 15’ metal container on a rural property, “chained like a dog,” a sheriff said.

Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright says deputies heard 30-year-old Kala Brown banging on the walls of the container as they served a search warrant at the nearly 100-acre Woodruff property related to the search for her and her boyfriend, Charlie Carver.

Brown told investigators she had been held there against her will for two months. Carver, 32, remains missing.

“It was pretty emotional, to say the least,” Wright told reporters. “When she was found, she was chained like a dog – she had a chain around her neck. It’s only by God’s grace we found that little girl alive.”

Wright says registered sex offender Todd Kohlhepp was also on the property Thursday morning, and he was arrested “immediately.” He would likely be charged with kidnapping, Wright said, though more charges are possible. Kohlhepp, 45, has an address listed in Moore, and CBS affiliate WSPA reports he is listed as the owner of the Woodruff property.

Brown also told investigators there may be four bodies on the property, but Wright says investigators aren’t sure whether that’s true.

“We’re trying to make sure we don’t have a serial killer on our hands,” Wright said. “It very possibly could be what we have.”

Brown said she had been fed during her time in captivity, Wright said. She’s being treated at a medical center and was in good condition.

Wright said investigative leads led them to the property. He wouldn’t detail whether Brown told them any details about Carver’s whereabouts.

Carver and Brown were last heard from by family in friends in late August, WSPA reports. The missing case gained national attention after suspicious posts appeared on Carver’s Facebook page that his family suspected were posted by someone else. The page was later taken down.

On Thursday, Wright said “it’s super possible [Kohlhepp] was doing that to try and get people off his trail, but that’s just a thought, I don’t know that for sure.”

The national sex offender registry lists a kidnapping count for Kohlhepp in Arizona in 1987. Spartanburg County Jail records don’t list a charge. A lawyer for Kohlhepp couldn’t immediately be located.



What would be justice for criminals of this sort? Bury them up to the head next to an ant hill and pour syrup on them? That sounds about right to me!


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/des-moines-police-shooting-suspect-captured/

Scott Michael Greene, Des Moines area police shooting suspect, captured in Iowa
CBS/AP November 2, 2016, 10:41 AM

Photograph -- Police in Urbandale, Iowa, set up a blockade after two police officers were shot and killed in separate attacks described as “ambush-style” in Des Moines, Iowa, Nov. 2, 2016. REUTERS/BRIAN FRANK
Photograph -- Scott Michael Greene is seen in an undated photo provided by the Des Moines Police Department. Scott Michael Greene DES MOINES POLICE DEPARTMENT
Photograph -- Police officers gather evidence at the scene of a shooting Nov. 2, 2016, in Urbandale, Iowa. Two Des Moines area police officers were shot to death in ambush-style attacks while they were sitting in their patrol cars. AP PHOTO/CHARLIE NEIBERGALL


DES MOINES, Iowa -- Authorities apprehended a man Wednesday suspected in the early morning killings of two Des Moines area police officers who were shot to death while sitting in their patrol cars in what authorities described as separate ambush-style attacks.

Officers from the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office and Iowa State Patrol took 46-year-old Scott Michael Greene into custody, police said. Des Moines Sgt. Paul Parizek said Greene was suspected in the killings but hasn’t yet been charged. He was being treated at a Des Moines hospital.

His arrest came about eight hours after the killings of two officers. CBS Des Moines affiliate KCCI-TV reports the arrest happened shortly after 9 a.m.

Parizek told reporters that Greene was walking along a gravel road, flagged down a state Department of Natural Resources employee, presented his driver’s license and told the employee to call 911.

Police responded to a report of shots fired at 1:06 a.m. and found an Urbandale Police Department officer who had been shot. Authorities from several agencies saturated the area after that shooting, and about 20 minutes later discovered that a Des Moines officer who had responded to the initial killing had been shot in a patrol car at an intersection, Parizek said. The shootings happened less than 2 miles apart and both took place along main streets that cut through residential areas.

“There’s somebody out there shooting police officers. We hope to find him before somebody else gets hurt,” Parizek said at an early morning news conference, during which he stopped briefly as he worked to control his emotions.

Parizek later identified the slain officers as Des Moines Police Sgt. Anthony “Tony” Beminio and Urbandale Police Officer Justin Martin. Beminio was married and had children, Parizek said. Martin was single.

Greene is white. Parizek said the officers killed also were white.

Police officers gather evidence at the scene of a shooting Nov. 2, 2016, in Urbandale, Iowa. Two Des Moines area police officers were shot to death in ambush-style attacks while they were sitting in their patrol cars.

The shootings follow a spate of police killings, including ambushes of officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Five officers were killed in Dallas on July 7 and three were killed later that month in Baton Rouge.

Des Moines and Urbandale Police later said they had identified Greene as a suspect in the killings, describing him as armed and dangerous.

Parizek said investigators determined Greene was a suspect through “a series of leads and investigative tips.”

“There is a clear and present danger to police officers,” Parizek said. He said officers were conducting patrols in pairs for protection.

Urbandale Sgt. Chad Underwood said he believes this is the first time an officer in his department has been shot in the line of duty.

Wednesday marked the first time a Des Moines police officer has been shot and killed on duty since 1977, when two died in separate incidents months apart, according to the Iowa Department of Public Safety. With Wednesday’s deaths, 114 officers have died in the line of duty in 2016, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page. The number reflects a roughly 6 percent increase over last year.

Urbandale is a suburb of about 40,000 people in the Des Moines metro area with about 50 officers. Des Moines, a city of about 210,000, has about 375 sworn officers.

Urbandale officers are equipped with body cameras, but they don’t run constantly and it’s unclear whether there was video of the shootings.

The attacks on police this summer in Dallas and Baton Rouge came in the wake of several high-profile police shootings of black men, fueling a national debate about police use of force, especially against minorities - a frequent topic in the nation’s presidential race.

Republican nominee Donald Trump has argued that police need the freedom to use greater force, while Democrat Hillary Clinton has taken a more nuanced position of supporting officers while calling attention to what she and others have called examples of bias in policing.

Parizek said investigators have no idea what led to the killings, and he speculated that they may never be sure about the shooter’s motivations.

He said the officers’ deaths are a blow to all officers in the Des Moines area.

“They are our friends and co-workers,” he said. “Des Moines is not a big city. We all know each other. We’re heartbroken.”

Later Wednesday, police in Urbandale confirmed that Greene was removed from a high school football game last month because he displayed a Confederate flag during the national anthem.

Urbandale Police Chief Ross McCarty told reporters that officers removed him from the football game. McCarty said some spectators complained after Greene waved the flag in front of spectators who are minorities.

Greene shot a video of the Oct. 14 incident that he posted online.

He complained to officers that his constitutional rights were being violated because they were throwing him out, but police told him he was on private property and needed to leave.

Court records show Greene was jailed and charged with interference with official acts after resisting Urbandale police officers trying to pat him for a weapon on April 10, 2014. An Urbandale officer described him as hostile and combative. He entered a guilty plea and was fined.

Two days later Urbandale police were called to answer a complaint of harassment at the apartment complex where Greene lived. The complaint said he threatened to kill another man during a confrontation in the parking lot.

“I will kill you n-----. F---ing kill you,” Greene said to the victim, according to the complaint.

Greene was charged with harassment.

He pleaded guilty and received a suspended jail sentence and a year of probation. Court records show he completed a substance abuse and psychological evaluation.



EXCERPT -- “There is a clear and present danger to police officers,” Parizek said. He said officers were conducting patrols in pairs for protection.”

All it takes is one look at this man’s face to see that he is totally bonkers. Put him in a locked ward somewhere.

It only makes good sense for police to go in pairs just as they do in the movies and on TV. OF COURSE, they are in danger, and patrolling with a partner will keep them from having to drill everybody they suspect of anything with half a dozen bullets. They won’t have to keep repeating, “I feared for my life!” Police procedures like shoot to kill and think later, aren’t logical in a number of ways, and this is one of them. It causes a dangerous level of rancor to build up against the police to the point that someone simply decides to take his vengeance in the old-fashioned way.



MORE ON VOTER CAGING – LAWS ARE ON THE BOOKS ABOUT IT THAT AREN’T BEING FOLLOWED IN NC.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/north-carolina-voter-challenge-process-seems-insane-judge/

North Carolina voter challenge process seems "insane," judge says
AP November 2, 2016, 1:26 PM

Photograph -- Voters cast their ballots during early voting at the Beatties Ford Library in Charlotte, North Carolina, Oct. 20, 2016. REUTERS/CHRIS KEANE


WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- North Carolina’s process for challenging voters’ registration seems to harken to a bygone era when fewer safeguards were in place, a federal judge said Wednesday as she presided over a lawsuit that alleges voters are being purged unfairly.

Lawyers for North Carolina countered that state data shows only a sliver of names have been removed from county rolls in the past two years - fewer than 7,000 statewide out of 6.8 million registered voters.

The comments came during an emergency hearing over NAACP allegations that at least three counties purged voter rolls through a process that disproportionately targets blacks.

Early voting has already begun in North Carolina, a critical swing state that the NAACP has sued before over issues such as voter identification. So far, black voter turnout in the state has lagged the 2012 presidential election.

Voters are being removed less than 90 days before an election because of challenges filed by activists, which the NAACP says is illegal under federal law. However, state officials say the process complements federal law and preserves voters’ due-process rights.

U.S. District Judge Loretta Biggs said more than once the challenge process sounds “insane.”

“This sounds like something that was put together in 1901,” she told lawyers for the state.

The NAACP lawsuit cites Cumberland, Moore and Beaufort counties, where activists have challenged thousands of voters’ names. People filing challenges in Cumberland and Moore counties include volunteers with the Voter Integrity Project, which says it wants to reduce the potential for voter fraud.

In most cases cited by the lawsuit, mail sent to an address is returned as undeliverable, which county boards can accept as evidence that the voter no longer lives there.

Under state law, any voter can challenge another county resident’s registration, resulting in a hearing where the challenger presents evidence, according to a court filing by the state. If local officials find probable cause, the challenged voter is given notice and another hearing is held. A person who doesn’t rebut the evidence can be removed from voter rolls.

Elections officials and the challengers say few people attend the hearings; many have moved and haven’t updated their registration, while others have died.

James Bernier, a lawyer for North Carolina, said a state database shows nearly 6,700 challenged voters were removed in eight counties statewide in the past two years. A court filing by the state said Cumberland County had the most removals with nearly 5,600, followed by Moore with 790. Beaufort had removed 63.

However, there appears to have been an uptick in challenges in recent months. The director of the State Board of Elections, Kim Westbrook Strach, said in a letter to the NAACP at least 4,500 challenges were filed in the three counties in August and September. The letter doesn’t say how many of those recent challenges were successful.

Ahead of Wednesday’s hearing, the U.S. Justice Department said in a court filing that if the NAACP allegations are true, they represent violations of the federal Voting Rights Act.

The Justice Department writes that counties can’t remove voters “using only mail returned as undeliverable and without following specific required procedures,” nor can they carry out “systematic removals within 90 days of a Federal election.”

The federal government said counties can’t circumvent those rules simply by holding “a perfunctory administrative proceeding to consider evidence produced by a mass mailing.”

The fight over voter challenges is the latest in a protracted battle over voter access in the state. Over the summer, a federal court struck down much of a 2013 elections law, saying the GOP-controlled General Assembly had disproportionately targeted black voters. The ruling effectively lengthened the early voting period by a week and eliminated a provision requiring photo ID to cast ballots in person.

That ruling sparked disagreements among Democrats and Republicans on local elections boards about the number of sites and hours for early voting.

Through Tuesday, blacks’ early voting participation in North Carolina lagged behind the same point in the 2012 election by 13 percent, according to an analysis by Catawba College political scientist Michael Bitzer. Black voters have made up some ground since more early voting sites opened last week, but he said it’s unclear if they can close the gap by the time early voting ends Saturday.

Bitzer believes the difference is largely due to less enthusiasm for Hillary Clinton’s race against Donald Trump than for President Obama’s 2012 re-election, but the uneven rollout of early voting sites also played a role. He said he wasn’t familiar enough with the new NAACP allegations to weigh their effect on turnout.

“I have to think at this point it’s the top of the ticket,” Bitzer said. “Without Barack Obama on the ballot, black voters may not have that necessary energy and enthusiasm” to equal their 2012 turnout.


Voter apathy has been a problem forever and a day, just as when people vote directly against their own personal and group interests because the candidate waves the flag and rants effectively (in this case, the Confederate Battle Flag). I’m not just talking about Black people failing to step up to the bat at a time like this. I’m also talking about poor and unemployed whites who think that Trump loves them. They don’t seem to understand that he loves no one, with the possible exception of his family.