Tag: police state

A Dozen Cops Dispatched to Protect a Dumpster Full of Food from Hungry People

The state of Oregon has one of the largest homeless populations in the country. Its largest city, Portland is home to the 4th largest houseless population in the entire United States. Having such a large homeless population means that there are a lot of hungry folks in the city. So, when the local Fred Meyer throws the entire store’s perishables in the trash because they lost power, it garners the attention of the hungry, as well as those who wish to feed the hungry.

As the following case illustrates, it also garnered the attention of a dozen cops who collected their taxpayer funded salaries to guard the dumpster and make sure the food never made its way to this homeless population.

According to reports, the Fred Meyer story on Hollywood in Portland lost power on Tuesday and threw away  thousands of food items they say were no longer safe for consumption due to the temperatures the items had reached.

The decision was made “out of an abundance of caution,” according to a Fred Meyer spokesperson. To be clear, the food was not expired and was actually preserved outside due to the cold temperatures and many people were more than willing to take it regardless of the warning from Fred Meyer.

When someone spotted the food, they posted it on social media and individuals, hungry and helpful alike, descended on the Fred Meyer dumpster.

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Police officer, 24, ‘went to lockdown party then crashed while drink-driving home’

A young police officer is facing the sack after breaking lockdown rules to visit a house party before crashing into a home while drink-driving.

PC Tasia Stephens was heading home from the family gathering during the first lockdown when she drove her car into a house.

The 24-year-old former youth athlete was found to be double the limit when breathalysed by officers and was convicted of drink-driving at a magistrates’ court.

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H/T Poppy Burner

Robots may be future of policing but activists warn they could be racist

Ayanna Howard, a robotics researcher at Georgia Tech, is concerned that robot technology, that ultimately uses human inputted artificial intelligence, will show biases against blacks. She tells the New York Times that “given the current tensions arising from police shootings of African-American men from Ferguson to Baton Rouge, it is disconcerting that robot peacekeepers, including police and military robots, will, at some point, be given increased freedom to decide whether to take a human life, especially if problems related to bias have not been resolved.”

Howard and others say that many of today’s algorithms are biased against people of color and others who are unlike the white, male, affluent and able-bodied designers of most computer and robot systems

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The tyranny of vaccine passports

What is far more concerning is the call for vaccine passports for domestic use – for access to services and entertainment, for instance. And it’s not difficult to see how the development of an external vaccine passport for getting on a plane could be repurposed for this quite easily.

The government had initially promised not to introduce vaccine passports. ‘We are not planning to have a passport in the UK’, insisted vaccines minister Nadim Zahawi earlier this month. ‘That’s not how we do things’, he said. No doubt the government was also worried that if people had the impression they were being coerced into taking the vaccine, this would undermine trust.

But something seems to have changed since. At the weekend, foreign secretary Dominic Raab said a vaccine-passport scheme, which would grant access to hospitality venues and events, was ‘under consideration’ and had not been ruled out.

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Greek Hospital Administrator Faces Criminal Prosecution for Reporting Nurse’s Paralysis after Second mRNA Shot

The nurse, whose name has not been disclosed, developed a fever, followed by excruciating pain throughout her body immediately after the second shot. She was rushed to the hospital when she was unable to move or feel her lower extremities.

Michalis Giannakos, President of the Panhellenic Federation of Public Hospital Workers (POEDIN), told Open TV in the East Attica region that X-rays came back clean. The nurse is now undergoing neurological assessments.

Giannakos said the nurse “was in perfect health” prior to receiving the second mRNA shot. It is believed that the nurse developed Guillain-Barré syndrome.

The neurological disease causes the immune system to attack nerves throughout the body. Giannakos said the nurse is now wheelchair bound.

He defended mRNA shots to an extent. But his human side displayed genuine passion for his injured colleague.

“We do not say anything bad about the vaccine, on the contrary, but the colleague is in a wheelchair and can not get up and has been terrorized,” he said. “I am fully aware of what I am saying. Doctors there also say that it is a side effect of the vaccine.”

It is unclear if she received the Pfizer or Moderna shots. But as of today, Greece has received nearly 800,000 Pfizer doses and 135,000 Moderna doses.

Criminal charges for reporting the truth?

The Prosecution of the Court of First Instance is considering pressing criminal charges against Giannakos. Greek media outlet Ethnos is reporting that a prosecutor is investigating if Giannakos committed the crime of “spreading fake news.”

His crime is expressing an mRNA adverse effect with “too much certainty.”

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COVID: 10-Year Jail Term For Lying About Where You Travelled From

A maximum 10-year jail term for lying about recent travel history has been defended by the government.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the British public “would expect pretty strong action” and the maximum sentence reflects the seriousness of the crime.

It was criticised by former Supreme Court judge Lord Sumption who said lower tariffs exist for sex offences.

From Monday, people arriving in England from “red list” countries must isolate for 10 days in hotels, costing £1,750.

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UK watchdogs say people with learning disabilities have been given inappropriate ‘do not resuscitate’ orders for COVID-19

In the UK, people with learning disabilities have been told that healthcare workers will not attempt to save their lives with CPR if they succumb to COVID-19, according to an advocacy group.

Mencap, a UK charity advocating for people with learning disabilities, said that in January it was still receiving reports of people being told that they would not be resuscitated if they fell ill from COVID-19. Mencap said it seemed that these orders were given simply because of the patients’ learning disabilities, The Guardian reported on Monday.

Such “do not attempt to resuscitate” orders (DNARs or DNACPRs) instruct healthcare workers not to attempt CPR if a patient stops breathing or if their heart stops beating. Doctors usually administer these orders after discussing the option with the patient or their caretakers. However, England’s Care Quality Commission reported in December that some people had received DNARs in the spring without their knowledge or consent.

“It’s unacceptable that within a group of people hit so hard by the pandemic, and who even before COVID died on average over 20 years younger than the general population, many are left feeling scared and wondering why they have been left out,” Mencap CEO Edel Harris told The Guardian.

“This is eugenics and it is revolting,” US virologist Angela Rasmussen said on Twitter.

The Care Quality Commission is set to publish a report on its investigation into “inappropriate” DNARs in the coming weeks. The commission has said that its investigation focuses on older people and people with learning disabilities, since they may have been disproportionately affected by the practice.

For now, it’s unclear how many people have been given inappropriate DNARs since the pandemic began, or how many of these orders persist today.

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Woman Gets Late-Night Police Visit For Anti-Mask Facebook Posts

Florida hair and makeup artist and mother of three Angelique Contreras received an intimidating late-night knock on the door from a law enforcement officer in Palm Beach County after she published anti-mask posts on Facebook. NATIONAL FILE has obtained video footage of this disturbing 10:30 PM encounter. Contreras verbally confirmed with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office that it was a sheriff’s officer who made the house call.

According to Contreras, Palm Beach County is trying to send citizens who can’t wear masks due to medical exemptions into a parking garage basement while County Commission meetings take place. Local press reporting confirms that mask-exempt citizens who want to speak at meetings will be sent to a separate building beneath a parking garage, instead of being able to address their leaders directly. When a man on Facebook joked about dumping garbage onto a County Administrator’s lawn, Contreras replied with the retort, “thousands of Mask(s).” This was enough to get the sheriff’s office to show up to her house, with the officer making clear that such Facebook posts are monitored in this day and age. Contreras’ children are aged 11, 3, and 1.

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