Street Democracy UK

‘A decorated former Scotland Yard marksman involved in a botched armed operation against a drugs gang was charged yesterday with murdering one of the suspects.

Known only as E7, he is just the third officer in the last two decades to be charged with murdering a suspect in the line of duty.

The officer was charged after a public inquiry found last year that the decision to fire two fatal bursts of gunfire at Azelle Rodney nine years ago was irrational and without “lawful justification”.’

Read more: Armed police officer charged with murder over Azelle Rodney shooting

‘The Israeli Police Foreign Press Spokesman, Micky Rosenfeld, appears to have falsified the Israeli government’s claim that Hamas was responsible for the killing of three Israeli settler teens in June, by saying responsibility lies with a lone cell that operated without the complicity of Hamas’ leadership.

The kidnapping and subsequent killing of three Israeli settler teens last month is considered to be a flashpoint for the escalated violence in Gaza — that as of day 19 of the conflict has left 926 Palestinians, mostly civilians, dead.

At the time Israeli authorities placed the blame squarely on Hamas, with Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu saying “They were kidnapped and murdered in cold blood by animals in human form. Hamas is responsible and Hamas will pay.”‘

Read more: Hamas not complicit in teens’ kidnap: Israeli police

‘The U.K.’s Metropolitan Police Service is the subject of a report describing a secret organization within Greater London’s police force that spied on activists and families who campaigned against miscarriages of justice, often following deaths in police custody.’

Read more: British Police Used A Secret Unit To Spy On Activists For 40 Years

Some people on social media could see the extraordinary levels of double-think, hypocrisy and self-deception that says killing is wrong but killing the killers is right, but so many manage to convince themselves that in calling for death by the State they are not a mirror of that which they condemn.

I have been against capital punishment since I was a small kid when it was still happening in Britain. I couldn’t believe then that people could be so stupid as not to see the blatant contradiction and I have never changed that view. The taking of life by the State is an ongoing confirmation of a deeply sick society.

‘Police detained two men at a Midtown hotel late Friday after a doorman reported they possessed a pair of pressure cookers like those used to make the Boston Marathon bombs.

But the men say it was a misunderstanding: They plan to use the pressure cookers back home to prepare rice, chicken and meat.

Mohammad Alotaibi, 20, and Ayoub Alawadhi, 21, pulled up to the InterContinental Hotel on East 48th Street on Friday evening with the pressure cookers in their car trunk, said law enforcement sources.’

Read more: NYPD Detained Men Who Had Pressure Cookers to ‘prepare rice’

‘A New York City police officer has been assigned to desk duty following an incident of alleged police brutality.

Officer Joel Edouard handed in his gun and badge as part of his modified desk duty assignment, spokesman Sgt. Carlos Nieves told MailOnline. Officers on modified desk duty are ‘assigned to non-enforcement’ responsibilities, Nieves said.

A cell phone video shared with local New York media allegedly shows Edouard, 36, violently stomping on the face of Jahmiel Cuffee in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood.’

Read more: Caught on camera: Moment NYPD cop stomps on the head of a restrained man as bystanders scream in horror

‘There was a cover-up to protect politicians’ reputations following allegations of abuse at a children’s home, it has been claimed.

Nigel Goldie, former assistant director of social services at Lambeth Council, said it appeared “high level decisions” were made not to explore allegations against public figures.

Mr Goldie told the BBC: “People were protecting one another.”‘

Read more: 'Cover-up to protect politicians after abuse claims'

‘Every driver in a crash will have their mobile seized in a bid to cut deaths caused by phoning and texting at the wheel.

Police have been ordered to check if motorists broke the law by using their phones in the moments before any accident.

The move is likely to see mobiles being taken away by officers as evidence in prosecutions.’

Read more: Police to seize mobiles in EVERY car crash: Crackdown on calls and texting at the wheel in bid to cut deaths by distracted drivers

‘Police have refused to name publicly the campaign groups that were spied on by an ultra-secretive undercover unit, as an inquiry found a succession of Metropolitan police commissioners may have been guilty of negligence.

A sensational report into the unit, known as the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS), found that the blame for intrusive surveillance techniques may have gone all the way to the top of Scotland Yard.

It disclosed that the SDS had gathered intelligence on 18 campaign groups, including those set up by friends and family of Stephen Lawrence, the black teenager murdered in a racist attack in south-east London in 1993.’

Read more: Scotland Yard refuses to name 17 groups it spied on

‘Police are set to launch a criminal investigation into an alleged cover-up of child abuse at a school linked to Sir Cyril Smith.

The Lib Dem politician, who died aged 82 in 2010, is alleged to have used his status to sexually abuse scores of young boys with impunity at Knowl View School in Rochdale.

But despite repeated complaints by his victims and previous police inquiries, he and others have never been prosecuted.’

Read more: Police to investigate whether their own officers and politicians tried to 'cover-up' alleged abuse at school linked to Cyril Smith

‘We can further see that there is a war on the underclass in the form of police militarization as a study in 1997 found that SWAT teams “were characterized by the deployment of military special operation weapons, such as Heckler and Koch MP5 submachine guns, diversionary devices, and the wearing of tactical body armor and camouflage uniforms” and that often those resources were used “in daily and routine policing activities against the urban underclass.”

One can even go so far as to say that “the use of special weapons, military tactics, and the wearing of combat style uniforms in the course of routine urban policing by street-level law enforcement officers would suggest that they are engaged in an actual urban war with the enemy being the urban underclass.”[32]

This increased cooperation between the police and military should have us wonder: What exactly is the Pentagon up to?’

Read more: The Trans-Pacific Partnership and 'Police Militarization': The Coming Calamity, The Coming Resistance

‘Undercover police gathered intelligence on grieving families who were battling the Metropolitan police for justice, including the relatives of Jean Charles de Menezes, Cherry Groce and Ricky Reel.

Police have approached the three families, inviting them to discuss their findings. The meeting with Reel’s relatives has already taken place and they were told they had been subject to “inappropriate” surveillance.

Scotland Yard claimed that the families were not the target of the operations but information on them was gathered and wrongly retained as part of the covert infiltration of political groups.’

Read more: Undercover police spied on grieving families of De Menezes, Groce and Reel

‘The scheme was eventually binned in August last year after delivering “significantly less than planned”, despite racking up a whopping £347m in costs.

But the Home Office has another scheme up its sleeve which it insists will have a more agile approach.

“A new Immigration Platform Technologies programme is replacing ICW and is trialling an agile approach, focusing on incremental improvements,” it said. “It still has far to go to have a significant impact and will cost £209m over four years.”‘

Read more: Home Office wastes £347m on botched IT scheme

‘The Serious Fraud Office has launched a criminal investigation into allegations London bankers rigged key foreign exchange benchmarks for profit, the agency announced today.

Traders found guilty of illegally manipulating the $5.3 trillion-a-day currency market could face jail and the banking institutions for which they work could also face prosecution.

America’s Department of Justice announced its own probe into alleged manipulation of the $5.3trillion a day foreign exchange market last October. At the same time the Financial Conduct Authority, Britain’s principal financial regulator, launched an investigation. Market watchdogs in Europe and Asia are also involved. The SFO is understood to have been gathering information for several months before formally launching its investigation.’

Read more: Serious Fraud Office launches criminal probe into forex manipulation

A police officer has been suspended after being caught on film apparently telling a woman twice: 'I will knock you clean f***ing out'.

The incident - which took place in Trinity Street, Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, just after 2am on Sunday - was caught on camera phone by the boyfriend of 22-year-old Nikki Wright.

It seems to show the officer approach a group of revellers, and shout at her: 'Do that to me again and I will knock you clean f***ing out.'

‘A cut and dry example of this extortion through violence is evident in a recent incident in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania.

A man was shot Thursday morning when a Pennsylvania State Constable tried to serve him with a warrant over unpaid parking tickets.

The constable told the District Attorney he felt his life was in danger as he tried to serve 38-year-old Kevin McCullers.

As McCullers was leaving his house to get donuts for him and his girlfriend he was shot at 2-4 times by officers who were fulfilling their promissory note of violence for non-compliance.’

Read more: Pennsylvania Man Shot in the Back Over Unpaid Parking Tickets

‘Gasps filled the courtroom when the sentence for drones protester Mary Anne Grady Flores was announced last Thursday.

An onlooker let out an astounded, “No!” Someone else whistled in disbelief. Others looked away.

Grady Flores, of Ithaca, pursed her lips and slowly nodded her head. The judge read aloud the rest of the sentence — one year in jail, the maximum punishment possible for violating an order of protection. The lawyers for each side made a few more requests.’

Read more: Notable Anti-Drone Activist and Grandmother Sentenced to Prison for Photographing Protest

‘In today’s insane police state society, people can now be arrested for the “suspicious” way that they cut up fruits and vegetables. Apparently, carving a watermelon aggressively can land a man in the slammer these days.

All police need is a snitch, and that can even include a man’s own wife. This is what happened to a 49-year-old Connecticut man named Carmine Cervellino. After he carved a watermelon in his house in a “passive aggressive” manner, his wife disapproved and retaliated by notifying the police.’

Read more: Police state insanity: Man arrested for carving watermelon in a 'passive-aggressive' manner