Category Archives: Crime
Shepard Smith Apologizes after FOX News Airs Car Chase that Ends in Suicide
A car chase in Phoenix, Ariz. today ended in a suspected carjacker committing suicide, and FOX News aired it live despite its five-second tape delay.
Death Penalty, Yes or No? Vote!
I’ve just read an amazing article about the Death Penalty in India and like its author I’m totally against all forms of Capital Punishment. Still, I am interested in what my readers are thinking about this topic, so I made a poll where you can vote for or against the Death Penalty. Of course the voting is totally anonymous, so don’t worry about me seeing your name/IP address or anything like that.
Please leave a comment here if you want to say something more about this issue. Below you can find “Reasons against the death penalty” with a few comments by me and also the article I mentioned above.
Reasons against the death penalty (by antideathpenalty.org)
1. Executions cost more than life in prison.
$2 million per person vs. $500,000 (4x as much!). Free counsel for defense, for appeals, maximum security on a separate death row wing.
Read the rest of this entry
The Olympic Police’s War on Graffiti: Vice Interviews Darren Cullen (aka SER from Graffiti Kings)
Photo: Graffiti Kings
Vice mag has interviewed Darren Cullen from the Graffiti Kings about his recent arrest for criminal damage – an operation to clean the city off Graffiti (even legal one) during the Olympics.
Our Olympic dreams for London have already been soured by the roof-mounted rockets, VIP traffic lanes, and wandering gangs of “brand police.” But it got even worse yesterday when the British Transport Police raided a number of homes and made a bunch of arrests, seemingly as part of a pre-emptive operation to crack down on graffiti in the capital during the 2012 Olympic Games.
One of the people arrested was Darren Cullen. Darren, who is also known by his graffiti tag “Ser,” has been involved in the graffiti and street art scene in the UK since 1983. But in truth, he’s kinda legit—over the past 20 years, he’s worked with local councils, companies like Microsoft, Red Bull and Adidas, disadvantaged kids, and, hilariously, Team fucking GB itself. He’s also turned spraying paint on stuff into his own company, called Graffiti Kings.
I spoke to Darren about his arrest, and why he thinks the British Transport Police went after him.
VICE: Hi Darren. So, you were arrested yesterday? Read the rest of this entry
Stop Kony? Who the F*** is Kony???
In case you’ve asked yourself this, cause you’ve seen the name “Kony” float around the web during the last hours, you asked the right question! The answer is in this video, and I strongly recommend you watch the whole thing, because there is some really important information in it. Also, it’s only 30 minutes, not 3 hours, so I bet you’ll survive focussing your attention on this video for a while. Read the rest of this entry
Video Review: Gerber Apocalypse Blades
In a brilliant marketing move, Gerber Gear has repurposed a series of its bushwhacking and survival tools as necesseties for the impropable (inevitable?) zombie apocalypse. If you have an ancient stone Mayan calendar in your living room, you know what I’m talking about.
The original limited edition Apocalypse Kit, promoted in conjunction with the AMC series The Walking Dead, quickly sold out. But now it’s back in production to coincide with the show’s second season. The next limited run of Apocalypse Kits will ship in March for $350. Each kit has has seven blades, ranging from small to massive, all squeezed into a highly portable roll-up carrying case.
The individual blades are also available. We took a few of our favorites from the kit — the jungle machete, the camp axe, and the smaller machete — out to the woods and gave them each a few whacks.
Photographing Life and Death in Juarez
A young girl from Ciudad Juarez prepares for her 15th birthday party, a coming of age party known as a "quinceañera." Her family spent most of their savings on making it a happy occasion. Her father had recently lost his job and was making ends meet by making repairs to homes in the neighborhood. Photo: Dominic Bracco II
Juarez, Mexico is a war zone.
The war is being waged by two rival drug cartels, the Juarez and the Sinoloa, block by block for control of the city and its trafficking routes. The result is extreme levels of violence, corruption and intimidation. And for the past two years, photographer Dominic Bracco II has been covering the war’s effects on the border town’s residents. While he is working there as a journalist, Bracco can’t help but feel invested in the subjects that he’s become so familiar with.
“I want an American audience to look at my pictures and see how people are living on the border as result of American policies and Mexican corruption and take some responsibility,” he says.
Bracco, who grew up on the border in Texas and speaks fluent Spanish, says he doesn’t feel constantly threatened while working in Juarez but he certainly takes precautions. Even though he lives in Mexico City, no one knows his home address. And he only flies into Juarez when he’s working on his story or an assignment.
He regularly works with the same fixer who knows Juarez well and they both do their best to stay under the radar, like driving beat-up cars that don’t attract the attention of car jackers. Bracco says the flip side of this, however, is that the beat-up cars often break down, stranding them in some of the most dangerous parts of the city.
He never calls his subjects ahead to time to let them know he’s coming; he just shows up. for fear of who might be listening. He just shows up.
Full article and slideshow here…
Athens Burning – More Than 100,000 Protesting Against Drastic Austerity Cuts
There are horrible riots in Athens right now with several buildings being set on fire. News reports say that already 80 people were injured in the riots! My dear co-author Antigoni just tweeted these awful pictures:
Photo: Antigoni
Photo: Antigoni
Also check out this video and this article:
Clashes erupted across the city center after more than 100,000 protesters marched to parliament to rally against drastic austerity cuts that will force firing in the civil service and slash the minimum wage.
Thick clouds of smoke and tear gas filled the air around parliament, as hundreds of rioters staged running battles with riot police and at least five buildings were in flames late Sunday.
The clashes broke out around 6 p.m. local time as tens of thousands of people, responding to calls from unions to protest the measures, streamed into Syntagma Square facing Parliament.
Peaceful protesters fled to adjacent streets as a group of around 100 anarchists threw bottles, rocks, pieces of marble and firebombs at police, who responded with tear gas and stun grenades.
Police say an officer was injured by a flare shot at him from a gun. He was taken to hospital.
Layout, Comments, Sharing, Rating & More
Hey guys, I just thought I should update you about what I’ve changed here lately. First, I’ve obviously changed the layout about 7390 times, but I’m pretty sure that I’ve found the right one now. I’m really happy with it and plan to keep it for a while.
The new header was created by none other than me, myself, and I, which isn’t necessarily a good thing. I’ve never done any graphic design before, so this header is the first thing I created (with Gimp, cause I can’t even afford a proper graphic design software).
Self conscious as I am, I immediately asked my 1,044 Twitter followers what they thought about it and I’m really grateful that two of them replied and liked it. Twitter can be funny sometimes. When you want to be left alone, everybody wants to talk to you, but when you actually ask people something you just hear the crickets chirr.
Some other great news is that you can share all the blog posts now on Tumblr, too! Just use the button in the share section right under the blog post. There you also find buttons for Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, Google+ and many other social networks. Thanks to everyone who shares, will share and has shared my posts. It’s much appreciated.
In case you want to rate my blog posts, from now on you can do this on the home page without having to open the blog post, you want to rate, first. It’s nice to get some feedback, so feel free to give me grades, no matter if good ones or bad ones, or just leave a comment if you have something to say!
Also, welcome to all the new subsribers! I’ve gained a few during the last weeks and it means a lot that you want to have my blog posts in your mail box!
Wired.com: Three-Part Series Examining the History of Anonymous
Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com
Anonymous 101: Introduction to the Lulz (November 8, 2011)
Last week the net and the media were ablaze with the news that Anonymous might be taking on the Zeta drug cartel in Mexico, a story that has morphed into a wider drug corruption story, and led to one American law enforcement official in North Carolina being named as a gang conspirator.
Also this year, Anons released documents on, or d0xed, several police organizations and one prominent police vendor in retaliation for heavy-handed law enforcement reaction to occupations associated with the Occupy Wall Street movement. They’ve fought with child pornographers, hacked Sony repeatedly, and even tried to release compromising pictures to blackmail Bay Area Rapid Transit spokesman Linton Johnson into resigning. (Johnson claimed to have authored and then defended BART’s controversial decision to shut off mobile phone service in BART stations to pre-empt an anti-police brutality protest.)
They’ve created law enforcement excitement that’s verged on panic, given net and media pundits hyperbolic logorrhea about “cyber terrorism” and “cyber freedom”, and happily skipped between damn funny, deeply disturbing, and self-aggrandizing, depending on the mood of the hive mind at the moment.
But what is Anonymous?
In this in-depth series “Anonymous: Beyond the Mask,” we’re going to do our best to answer that. Read the rest of this entry
After an Anti-Semitic Episode, a March With a Message
Eric Michael Johnson for The New York Times
Two days after the sight of flaming cars and anti-Semitic graffiti horrified a heavily Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn, residents, elected officials and others took part in a march on Sunday against hatred and intolerance.
The police were still investigating the burning of three parked cars on Ocean Parkway and the spray-painting of swastikas and anti-Semitic slurs on benches and the initials “K.K.K.” on the side of a van. The police are treating the episode as a hate crime. No arrests had been made by late Sunday afternoon.
Read the rest of this entry
