Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Can't Bear to Look - Adam Lanza

I found an excellent website that chronicles media distortion of the photos of Adam Lanza, the alleged shooter at Sandy Hook. Examining aerial footage of the location, we see that many crisis actors were hired to walk in a circle at the St. Rose Pre-School as a hoax.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/crime/


http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/connecticut-school-shooting-adam-lanza-1492742


"Photo Apparently Cropped to Place Adam at Periphery"
http://andrewazzopardi.org/2012/12/16/adam-lanza-named-as-the-one-who-gunned-down-27-victims-in-newtown-connecticut/

This 2005 photo provided by neighbor Barbara Frey and verified by Richard Novia, shows Adam Lanza. Authorities have identified Lanza as the gunman who killed his mother at their home and then opened fire Friday, Dec. 14, 2012, inside an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., killing 26 people, including 20 children, before killing himself. Novia was the school district’s former head of security and he advised the school technology club that Adam and his older brother belonged to. (AP Photo/Barbara Frey)

http://andrewazzopardi.org/2012/12/16/adam-lanza-named-as-the-one-who-gunned-down-27-victims-in-newtown-connecticut/

http://www.examiner.com/article/police-news-identify-adam-lanza-as-connecticut-school-shooter-sole-gunman?cid=rss


http://www.people.com/people/news/category/0,,EventTax:TrueCrimeNews,00.html


http://www.eldiario24.com/nota/272867/encontraron-el-cuerpo-de-adam-lanza-y-aseguran-que-fue-el-autor-de-la-masacre.html

If you examine the limited set of pictures available of Newtown shooter Adam Lanza, you will notice the media has been consistently blowing the photos up beyond normal resolution, cropping them in irregular styles or otherwise tweaking their display so the kid becomes distorted in all kinds of ways. I can only guess at the reasons, ranging from speed and carelessness; cheap editorial payoff (in other words, making Lanza look more like a freak, a monster or an apparition from another-world) or to just equate “unknowable” with fuzzy.
…And then, to the extent site after site seems obsessed with excessive cropping and zooming till Lanza becomes a moirĂ© pattern, I’m guessing there’s an editorial instinct out there that jamming him under a magnifying glass might somehow makes this sense- and information-defying figure more accessible somehow.
Now I understand some people, maybe most people will read this and say “so what,” seeing Lanza (shape-shifted, or not) simply as the anti-Christ. But I have a simple point to make. If we’re going to learn from this tragedy, especially with all the question marks that exist surrouning mental health, distorting Lanza’s image beyond his already thoroughly internally-distorted self is a bad idea. Rather, it is incumbent on us to try and see him as clearly as we can.
I should add that there are several photos also circulating (mostly from a younger age - 12) that show Lanza as less of a freak. The photo below, in particular, shows Lanza at the oldest and most expressive, complete with details in the background that one can speculate about. (Click for full size.) Because you can’t encounter this expression without have to actually relate to the kid, though, I guess it’s not surprising the media is mostly opting for the weirder stuff above.

SOURCE Photo Aggregation: http://www.bagnewsnotes.com/2012/12/cant-bear-to-look-why-the-media-is-full-of-distortedfreak-photos-of-adam-lanza/

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Judge William Sylvester Enters Not Guilty for James Holmes


     

      In the days before Tuesday's hearing, the judge in the case, William B. Sylvester, had laid the groundwork for Mr. Holmes to plead not guilty by reason of insanity, describing the mental examinations and court-ordered interviews that would flow from such a plea. 

     But Mr. Holmes’s lawyers told the court on Tuesday that they were not ready to enter any plea, and said they did not know when they might be ready. Clearly frustrated, Judge Sylvester refused the defense’s requests for more time and entered the simple not guilty plea for Mr. Holmes.





Mr. Holmes, 25, was arrested moments after the July 20 shooting at the Century theaters in Aurora, clad in black body armor. Prosecutors have already presented hours of testimony and documentary evidence that Mr. Holmes was the gunman who slipped out of a midnight screening of “The Dark Knight Rises,” armed himself in the parking lot, and then re-entered through an emergency exit and started shooting.
Mr. Holmes can still change the plea, but prosecutors signaled they would fight any such move.
“As far as we’re concerned, they are entering a plea of not guilty, and what they have done to this point is not sufficient to enter a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity,” Karen Pearson, an assistant district attorney for Arapahoe County, said in court.
On Tuesday, prosecutors said they would announce whether they would seek the death penalty against Mr. Holmes at an April 1 hearing.
The judge set a four-week trial for the month of August. Given the delays so far in the case, that date may not hold

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Lion Mauls Female Intern At California Zoo



Authorities are trying to determine what caused a lion to maul and fatally attack a female intern volunteer at a private wild animal park in California Wednesday.

Q13 Fox reports 26-year-old Seattle native Dianna Hanson was identified as the victim of the attack by her father, Paul Hanson.

The victim was attacked and killed when she entered the lion's enclosure, Cat Haven founder and executive director Dale Anderson said. Anderson was crying as he read a one-sentence statement about the fatal mauling at the exotic animal zoo he has operated since 1993.

KMPH reports deputies shot and killed the lion, a 4-year-old named Cous Cous that has been raised at Cat Haven since it was 8 months old, in order to provide medical attention to Hansen. 

Sheriff's deputies responding to an emergency call from Cat Haven, in the Sierra Nevada foothills about 45 miles east of Fresno, found the woman severely injured and still lying inside the enclosure with the lion nearby, Fresno County sheriff's Lt. Bob Miller said.

Investigators were trying to determine why the intern was inside the enclosure and what might have provoked the attack, sheriff's Sgt. Greg Collins said. The facility is normally closed on Wednesdays, and only one other worker was there when the mauling happened, Collins said.

Cat Haven is a 100-acre facility just west of Kings Canyon National Park. Since the property opened in 1993, it has housed numerous big cats, including tigers, leopards and other exotic species. It is permitted to house exotic animals by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and is regulated as a zoo by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Results of the last 13 inspections by the Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service show no violations dating back to March 2010. The most recent inspection was Feb. 4, USDA records show.

Despite state regulations that require annual inspections, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife most recently inspected the facility in January 2011.

"We have to do the best we can with the resources we're provided," said department spokeswoman Jordan Traverso.

The inspector's written comments were "facility in good condition." The inspector checked gates, enclosures, water supplies, drainage, cleanliness, ventilation and the general health of the animals.
Department spokeswoman Janice Mackey said she was unaware if any state regulations would prohibit an employee from entering an exotic animal's enclosure.

She said each species is identified on the permit, and the animals must be used for scientific or educational purposes only.

"We don't allow them to be used as pets," Mackey said.
Actress Tippi Hedren, who founded the Shambala Preserve in Southern California, home to 53 seized or abandoned exotic pets, expressed dismay over the killing of the lion.

"It wasn't the lion's fault. It's the human's fault always. I've got 40 years behind me. I know what I'm talking about," Hedren said.

A movie was made at Shambala several years ago and several people were injured. "Two were nearly killed," she said.

"Lions are one of the four most dangerous animals in the world. There is nothing you can do. When they get a thought pattern, there is nothing short of a bullet to the brain that will stop them," Hedren said.

Nicole Paquette, vice president of the Human Society of the United States, voiced similar concerns.
"She should have never been in the enclosure with him," Paquette said of the victim. "These are big cats that are extremely dangerous, and they placed a volunteer in the actual cage with a wild animal. That should have never happened."

Officials at another big cat sanctuary, Big Cat Rescue in Tampa, Fla., told The Associated Press last year that at least 21 people, including five children, have been killed and 246 mauled by exotic cats since 1990. Over that period, 254 cats escaped and 143 were killed.

Tatiana, a tiger at the San Francisco Zoo, was killed by police after jumping out of its enclosure and fatally mauling a 17-year-old boy and injuring two other people in 2007.

Cat Haven has housed Bengal tigers, Siberian lynx, caracals, jaguars and leopards of various types as well as bobcats native to the area. Anderson described the private zoo several years ago as one of a handful of facilities across the U.S. that has all of the big cat species in one place.

The facility's website says it promotes conservation and preservation of wild cats in their native habitats and offers visitors tours and educational outreach.

Anderson said Project Survival would investigate to see if the intern and the other worker who was on-site followed the group's protocols.

"We take every precaution to ensure the safety of our staff, animals and guests," he said in a written statement.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/03/07/lion-mauls-kills-person-at-california-animal-sanctuary/#ixzz2MpXuGHHg

Monday, March 4, 2013

Newtown Clerk Refuses to issue Sandy Hook Death Certificates


John Voket reports for The Newtown Bee that Newtown’s town clerk Debbie Aurelia is refusing Freedom of Information requests from media and other sources seeking copies of all death records, including burial locations, of the alleged victims of the shooting massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14, 2012, as well as the death records of alleged mass murderer Adam Lanza and his mother, Nancy Lanza.
The New York Post, the Connecticut Post, the Associated Press, the Hartford Courant, and other media have put forth requests for official death certificates of Sandy Hook victims.

Death certificates are part of vital public records, which also include birth and marriage certificates. They are public domain documents that serve as a mechanism for upholding the integrity of information in which there is a public interest, as it relates to voting, citizenship, and receiving public benefits. Abuses of voting processes involving voters who, unbeknownst to the public, are actually dead, are legendary. Death certificates typically contain little information about manner of death beyond categories such as “natural cause,” “homicide,” “accident,” “suicide,” or “other.” News organizations utilize such records in crime reporting as a standard part of normal, often tedious, fact-checking procedures. Death certificates also contain the sworn statement of the medical examiner.
What Aurelia is doing is contrary to the Connecticut Freedom of Information Act (CFOIA) as codified in Chapter 14 of Connecticut General Status. [Click here for the CFOIA.]
Section 1 (5) of CFOIA defines “public records or files” as “any recorded data or information relating to the conduct of the public’s business prepared, owned, used, received or retained by a public agency, or to which a public agency is entitled to receive a copy by law or contract under section 1-218, whether such data or information be handwritten, typed, tape-recorded, printed, photostated, photographed or recorded by any other method.”
Sec. 1-210 of the CFOIA specifies that “Except as otherwise provided by any federal law or state statute, all records maintained or kept on file by any public agency, whether or not such records are required by any law or by any rule or regulation, shall be public records and every person shall have the right to (1) inspect such records promptly during regular office or business hours, (2) copy such records in accordance with subsection (g) of section 1-212, or (3) receive a copy of such records in accordance with section 1-212. Any agency rule or regulation, or part thereof, that conflicts with the provisions of this subsection or diminishes or curtails in any way the rights granted by this subsection shall be void.”
More than refusing to comply with Freedom of Information requests for the death records of Sandy Hook victims, Aurelia is working with two Republican state legislators, Representatives Dan Carter and Mitch Bolinsky, and the leadership of the state association of town clerks to craft a bill that would provide the press and public with limited directory information from death and marriage records, but would withhold the actual death and marriage certificates from review except by legally entitled immediate family members or their representatives.
As reported by Christopher Keating of the Hartford Courant, Bolinsky’s one-paragraph bill, HB 5733 – An Act Concerning Access to a Child’s Death Certificate, states that the copy of the public record could be restricted “when the disclosure of the death certificate is likely to cause undue hardship for the family of the child.’’
But Jim Smith, a veteran journalist who serves as president of the Connecticut Council on Freedom of Information, said his group will fight against the bill in its continuing advocacy for open government. The certificate, he said, is a straightforward, factual document that lacks the details of an autopsy report: “There isn’t anything in a death certificate that is going to hurt the deceased. It’s not like an autopsy report. It’s been public for centuries. It’s not going to invade anyone’s privacy. We understand people, especially in Newtown, are aggrieved, but it shouldn’t lead to shutting off information in a democracy. There’s no real reason to do it. If a kid dies, we ought to know why. We shouldn’t be hiding why kids die.’’

Sunday, March 3, 2013

March 2, 2013 - Sinaloa Mexican Drug Cartel is Winning


EL CHAPO GUZMAN SINALOA CHICAGO PUBLIC ENEMY #1



Warned by President Juan Manuel Santos, the Colombia National Police (PNC: Policia Nacional de Colombia) opened an investigation to detect the presence andmodus operandi of the Sinaloa Cartel. That's how it was determined  that the criminal organization operates in three departments in the country and has woven alliances with one of the local criminal gangs in the Pacific zone. Consulted on this matter, several researchers warn of the risks that implies, because they're afraid that Chapo's operators will get involved in the fighting between the local mafias who are disputing over control of the drug trafficking routes.   

BOGOTA (Proceso).-- Presented with allegations that Chapo Guzman and his followers operate in Narino and other Departments [Administrative subdivisions similar to provinces.-- un vato], President Juan Manuel Santos ordered the PNC, General Jose Roberto Leon Riano, and the Attorney General to initiate an investigation to battle Mexican drug traffickers.

On Thursday, (February) 14, heading a security council in the city of Tumaco, Santos pointed out: There are "rumors about the possible presence of members of Mexican cartels here in the Department of Narino" and for that reason, "we instructed the police director, in conjunction with the Attorney General, to investigate thoroughly whether there is room to believe that those rumors are true.

"We are not aware of any concrete information, but several people tell me that rumors are increasing of the presence of cartels, in particular the Sinaloa cartel, in some areas in the Narino Department, which of course we will fight and will not tolerate for any reason."

The presence of El Chapo here is more than a rumor, according to PNC intelligence sources consulted by this reporter.
Thanks to alliances with local organizations, the Sinaloa Cartel -- also known as the Pacific Cartel-- was able to establish itself in the country and now has a presence in three regions since last year: In the Eastern Plains, an extensive zone of tropical savannas to the southeast of the capital; in the southwestern Department of Narino, and in Buenaventura, the strategic access port to the Colombian Pacific, located 205 miles southwest of Bogota, the interviewees assure Proceso.

One of them, involved in a PNC investigation, also assures (the reporter) that, in addition, "there's an attempt by the Sinaloa Cartel to bypass intermediaries and go directly to the primary sources of drug production and trafficking in Colombia."

That same Thursday, (Feb.) 14, PNC intelligence agents and investigators deployed to the area and observed that in Narino, bordering Ecuador, and in the port of Tumaco --which is used to ship cocaine to Central America and Mexico via the Pacific Ocean --, Mexican narcos control the cultivation of coca leaf and the laboratories installed in that area to process it.

Towards the end of 2012, several Mexican drug traffickers arrived in Narino and immediately got in touch with the local bosses of Los Rastrojos, the gang that is disputing the drug market with Los Urabenos. The confrontations have left dozens dead, say the locals.

According to the PNC, the Mexicans are members of the Sinaloa Cartel and "go in and out of the country". With support from Los Rastrojos, say the agents consulted, they supervise directly the cultivation of coca leaf and the laboratories used to process it, some of them located in Ecuadorian territory. According to them, the shipments are made from the port of Tumaco.

"We see the Sinaloa Cartel's intent to assume supervision and control of the entire process: production, processing and transport of the drug from Colombia," says one of the police officers consulted.

El Chapo's agents -- drug trafficking managers, more than gunmen, according to the PNC-- travel through the corridor that runs from Tumaco to the Ipiales municipality, on the border with Ecuador, located some 107 miles southeast of the port.

"It's an area with a great deal of criminal conflict, and it's a strategic corridor for drug trafficking due to routes drugs have to the Pacific and to Ecuador and because we have coca fields and laboratories there. The Mexicans want to control the whole chain," says one of the interviewees to the reporter.

(Extracted from a report from Proceso magazine No. 1895, now in circulation.)