Michael Cosme, Devon Ayers, and Carlos Perez. (Source: Buzzfeed)
Michael Cosme, Devon Ayers, and Carlos Perez lost 18 years of their lives in prison for murders they did not commit. Read More
Her name was Lubna Hanash. She was a 21-year-old political science major in her fourth year at Al-Quds University.
Read More
Image from Colt LE6940 Rifle flyer.
The Fontana Unified School District (FUSD) in Southern California has procured 14 high-powered semiautomatic rifles (Colt LE6940) for school officers to carry on campus. Read More
UPDATE: Now This News has posted video footage of the moment Lupe Fiasco was removed from the stage, which you can watch here. He is performing his song “Words I Never Said” which includes the lyrics “Gaza strip was getting bombed, Obama didn’t’ say shit. That’s why I ain’t vote for him, next one either.”
It appears as though they initially tried to stop his performance by cutting his mic, but Lupe kept on rapping, so they shut off the stage lighting. Still, he didn’t stop. At this point he’s approached by three or four big men dressed like bouncers and a man holding a camera. One of the bouncers grabs the cameraman’s arm and another looks like he might be pushing the camera away, but it’s unclear what’s actually happening because their backs are turned and we can’t hear what they’re saying. Eventually, Lupe exits the stage smiling and waving and that’s the end of it. Read More
UPDATE: Now This News has posted video footage of the moment Lupe Fiasco was removed from the stage, which you can watch here. He is performing his song “Words I Never Said” which includes the lyrics “Gaza strip was getting bombed, Obama didn’t’ say shit. That’s why I ain’t vote for him, next one either.”
It appears as though they initially tried to stop his performance by cutting his mic, but Lupe kept on rapping, so they shut off the stage lighting. Still, he didn’t stop. At this point he’s approached by three or four big men dressed like bouncers and a man holding a camera. One of the bouncers grabs the cameraman’s arm and another looks like he might be pushing the camera away, but it’s unclear what’s actually happening because their backs are turned and we can’t hear what they’re saying. Eventually, Lupe exits the stage smiling and waving and that’s the end of it. Read More
Israeli forces arresting a Palestinian mother and her baby in Umm el-Arayeson on Saturday, January 19, 2013. (Ta’ayush)
Israel has been very busy in the West Bank these last few weeks arresting peaceful protesters and killing and injuring unarmed Palestinian youths. To anyone familiar with the conflict, these routine human rights violations are nothing new. But every so often, Israel still manages to shock even the most cynical among us. This was the case yesterday when the IDF arrested over a dozen protesters in the South Hebron Hills, among them an 18-month-old Palestinian girl. That’s right, Israel arrested a baby. Read More
A small portion of the gun death interactive chart at Slate.
Slate has joined forces with the twitter feed @GunDeaths to track the number of Americans killed by guns since the Newtown massacre on December 14, 2012. As of today, that number stands at a staggering 1,045 people. And those are just the gun deaths that have been reported. That’s why Slate’s editors caution that their tally is “incomplete” given that “Suicides, which are estimated to make up as much as 60 percent of gun deaths, typically go unreported.”
Still, over a thousand gun deaths in just over a month is unacceptable. And this doesn’t even take into account the number of people injured by guns. The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence estimates that 97,820 people are shot in America every year. That’s 268 people a day.
I can’t believe we as a country are willing to tolerate this level of carnage.
In typical fashion, gun and ammunition sales skyrocketed post-Sandy Hook, just like they did after Tuscon, Aurora and Obama’s reelection.
But this time time is different. According to RT America, this has led to a nationwide bullet shortage so severe that police are putting off training exercises to avoid running out of ammunition:
Police in Atlanta, Georgia…put orders for more bullets on back-order, while officers are being deprived of the training that makes them capable of handling weapons.
“When you can’t get ammunition, it is very concerning,” Sandy Springs Police Chief Terry Sult tells WSBTV. “It affects our ability to be prepared. It affects the potential safety of the officers, because they’re not as proficient as they should be.”
Another school shooting has occurred in Bakersfield, California at Taft Union High School. KERO-TV is live streaming their coverage. At least 2 students were reportedly shot. One student was airlifted to the Bakersfield hospital. I’ll update you as the situation continues to unfold.
UPDATE: I noted earlier that Taft Union has an armed police officer, or School Resource Officer, patrolling the campus. It turns out that he didn’t make it to work today because he was snowed in, according to Sheriff Donny Youngblood during today’s press conference.
Despite no presence of an armed guard, the shooter was “disarmed with words not guns”, as my twitter friend @mdawriter put it. The Huffington Post reports:
Had another teacher and a campus supervisor not talked the shooter down from firing more rounds, Youngblood stressed, the situation could have been far worse. Youngblood estimated that some 20 additional students were at risk. Police arrived at the scene a minute after the first calls came in at 9:00 a.m. PST., and the suspect was in custody by 9:20 a.m. Read More
A member of Palestinian civil defense evacuates children through a flooded street caused by heavy rain in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. (Ibraheem Abu Mustafa, Reuters/January 9, 2013)
The worst winter storm to hit the Middle East in 20 years has devastated parts of Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Israel. And for at least one Palestinian town in the West Bank, Israel’s apartheid wall has partnered up with climate chaos to exacerbate an already dire situation, according to Reuters report by Noah Browning: Read More
Recent Comments