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SUSPECTED online child sex offenders are on the rise across Bedfordshire, with numbers almost doubling in just two years according to the latest figures.

In 2014, a total of 68 people were suspected by police of downloading and distributing indecent images of children. But by 2016, that figure increased by almost 100 per cent to 107.

READ MORE: Luton man guilty of downloading indecent images of children at the most serious level

Over the past three years, the combined total of online child sex offenders identified by the police stands at 246, according to the figures obtained by the BBC in a Freedom of Investigation request.

This increase is evident in the wider eastern region, with a jump from 758 in 2014 to 2,179 last year.

In light of the rising numbers, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) is urging for forces across the nation to hit these crimes hard with specialist units.

READ MORE: Bedfordshire repeat offender jailed again for child porn images

An NSPCC spokesperson told BoS: "Downloading and distributing child abuse images is an abhorrent crime. Each picture is a crime scene involving a young victim who has been abused and whose suffering is compounded every time that image is passed around online.

"The proliferation of these appalling images is a major and growing problem which needs industry, government and law enforcement to tackle in unison."

The NSPCC wants to see a specialist digital child abuse unit in every police force, trained to deal with sexual and other online offences against children."

A spokeswoman for Bedfordshire Police said: "Bedfordshire Police has a dedicated unit to tackling online child sexual abuse.

"The Internet Child Abuse Investigation Team (ICAIT) is committed to investigating indecent image offences and works with partners to identify offending and take action against those responsible for viewing and making such images.

"Offenders may think that viewing these images is not causing any direct harm but that is quite simply not the case. Although they may not be directly abusing these children, in order for these images to be created, children across the world have been forced to undergo horrific abuse for the gratification of these individuals - so it is far from a victimless crime.

"The development of the unit and our capabilities in tackling this sickening type of abuse is reflected in the increase in the number of people arrested, and we are committed to continuing to clamp down on online child sex offenders."

Read more of today's latest Bedfordshire news and don't forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter to get the latest news direct to your social media stream.

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Number of suspected child sex offenders in Bedfordshire almost ... - Bedfordshire News

Speaker: Christopher Woolard, Executive Director of Strategy and Competition Location: Bloomberg, London Delivered on: 1 March 2017

Note: this is the speech as drafted and may differ from delivered version.

Youll have seen this morning that we have published a consultation paper with a package of policy proposals intended to reform the IPO process. Id like to use my speech today to talk about these proposals, but set my comments in the context of the FCAs policy approach to primary markets more generally.

There are three key issues I would like to touch on today:

Crucially, ensuring our wholesale markets remain efficient, effective and open for business.

Primary markets play a vital role in supporting the wider economy by bringing together investors, who seek investment opportunities, and issuers, who seek to access capital to finance their businesses.

It is the FCAs duty to ensure that the UKs primary markets work well in meeting both these needs. The wholesale financial sector plays a critical role in the lives of everyone in the UK. They:

But all of the above is not a given. In order to maintain this pre-eminence globally, UK wholesale markets must show themselves to be clean, effective and competitive. And for that, the sector relies upon a transparent and robust regulatory regime that can adapt to market developments and risks.

At its core, this requires empowering a successful financial system where firms can thrive, alongside high standards of conduct across the industry.

This can be a difficult line to tread and, as we all know, the costs of getting it wrong are severe.

Our task is made more complicated by the broad, challenging and ever-changing nature of the landscape in which the FCA operates.

In particular, we, like many organisations, are working hard to respond to the challenges ahead following the EU Referendum.

With such a large and complex remit, it follows that our interventions cover a huge amount of ground, from MiFID to anti-money laundering, investment fraud to FinTech.

But while our interventions may be varied, they are united by our statutory objectives: our strategic objective to make markets work well and our three operational objectives to:

But what does this mean in practice? First and foremost we see our integrity objective as encompassing the successful operation of primary markets to support the real economy.

Central to this is our commitment to deliver a sustainable model of regulation: improving existing rules, removing those which are unnecessary and imposing new ones where they are needed. It means being a forward looking regulator, open to innovation, embracing the power of technology provided it is consistent with effective markets. And it means ensuring that markets are underpinned by good conduct amongst participants of all levels and disciplines.

When UK markets work well, when they are transparent, efficient and fair, they benefit consumers, shareholders and staff alike.

But when standards are inconsistently applied and conduct is poor market integrity becomes compromised. And the impact of this can reverberate throughout the whole system.

Indeed, as esoteric as it may seem to the uninitiated, activity in the wholesale sector affects all of us, on a daily basis.

From direct debits to credit cards, loans to investments how well wholesale financial markets work has a fundamental impact on the lives of consumers.

Pensions, whose funds are traded in the wholesale markets by asset managers, are a prime example of this: the amount of money in a consumers pension pot at retirement is a direct consequence of activity in the wholesale space.

As the regulator, it is our job to look at the chain from top to bottom. We will pose difficult questions.

We seek to promote a healthy environment in which wholesale markets can thrive, always aware that activity at one end of the spectrum translates into real life outcomes for consumers at the other end.

This is especially topical as we consider feedback to our Mission consultation, which closed in January. One theme that kept cropping up amongst all our stakeholders was that of the linkages between wholesale and retail markets.

As respondents pointed out, scandals like manipulation of benchmarks, or share prices, are not victimless crimes. The victims are those who sold or bought at unrepresentative prices, from those investing in pension funds, to a company buying FX or hedging its cash flows.

It is the FCAs job to consider the impact of activity in the wholesale space in the round from competition issues, to questions of integrity and the impact of poor conduct on consumers. All of which means youre unlikely to start hearing less from us any time soon.

But today I want to focus on one particular strand of wholesale activity primary markets.

Conducted with integrity, the activity of primary capital markets is very much in line with our objective to make markets work well. Primary markets play a crucial role in the wider economy by helping companies to access deep and liquid pools of capital to finance their activities.

This in turn allows companies to grow, which both creates jobs in the real economy and gives firms the resources they need to develop new products and services.

Pharmaceutical companies can research and bring to market new medicines. Telephony companies can develop innovative ways for their customers to communicate with each other. And global banks can offer their customers more choice over how to manage their financial futures.

However, for all this to work, primary markets must be effective for investors and issuers alike. A well-functioning equity IPO process is an essential part of this.

The existing process has considerable strengths and has contributed to the success of the UKs IPO market.

However, having gathered evidence as part of our investment and corporate banking market study, we have identified an area of the IPO process that calls for improvement, namely the timing, sequencing and quality of information being provided to market participants.

The market study confirmed the concerns of investors and other market participants that the prospectus, which should be the primary source of information on companies seeking to raise finance through the IPO process, is currently made available very late. And only analysts employed by the book-running syndicate are able to access the information they need to produce research on an offering, while third-party research providers are being shut out.

The result is that so-called connected research written by analysts within the book-running syndicate is the dominant source of information available to investors during a crucial stage of the process.

This is of particular concern given the conflicts of interest and associated conduct risks that arise during the production of connected research. This includes analysts coming under pressure to produce favourable coverage of the issuer in order to secure a place for their bank on the book-running syndicate.

This state of affairs presents fundamental risks to the objectives I laid out earlier:

To tackle this, we published a discussion paper in April last year through which we began to explore ways to improve the range and quality of information available to investors during the IPO process.

And today we have launched a consultation on a package of policy proposals intended to reform the IPO process in this way.

These include a re-sequencing of the process so that a prospectus or registration document is published, and third-party analysts have access to the issuers management, before connected research is released.

We are also looking to prevent analysts within prospective syndicate banks from interacting with the companys management and advisers around the time pitching efforts are taking place.

Ultimately, we want to see an IPO process:

This will benefit both issuers in their fund-raising efforts and investors who, crucially, will be better protected.

But todays IPO Consultation Paper isnt the only recent demonstration of the FCAs intent in primary markets.

Weve also published two more papers in the last couple of weeks which seek to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the sector. These are a discussion paper that aims to prompt a conversation about how the UKs primary markets can better meet the needs of issuers and investors. And a consultation paper which considers clarifications and changes to certain key areas of the Listing Rules.

The intentions of the two papers are slightly different. In the case of the discussion paper, our focus is to provoke broad debate on a few key areas of discussion.

Were looking for views on:

The consultation paper on the other hand is more technical, considering specific enhancements to make certain areas of the Listing Rules easier to understand and more proportionate.

Though distinct in their intentions, all these papers speak to our overarching ambition, that is, effective primary markets that enjoy the confidence of market participants of all levels.

Weve seen that wholesale markets are dynamic, fluid and of deep consequence to the whole economy and millions of consumers. There is no clearer example of this than primary markets providing the mechanism by which companies raise IPO capital.

This has huge real world impacts, supporting prosperity and providing investment opportunities, in turn leading to job creation and a wider range of products and services available to consumers.

But in order to work well, these markets must meet some basic tests: integrity of the market, effective competition and protection for consumers and users. These are the same as the FCAs core objectives.

The transparency and integrity of a strong regulatory regime is crucial for the continued success of this sector and the wider UK economy.

In periods of uncertainty as we face together now, it is only on this basis, by meeting these tests, that the UK can continue to consider itself a global centre for the issuance of securities.

We believe strong markets are firmly in the interests of UK consumers, and we will innovate and take action to ensure those markets remain open for business.

So the FCAs commitment to ensuring the efficiency and effectiveness of primary markets will not waver. But while it is up to the FCA to create the conditions in which good outcomes are delivered for end users, it is up to firms to work together with us within the framework we set, acting responsibly and with integrity.

This is what, ultimately, will guarantee the long-term effectiveness and efficiency of the UKs primary markets.

Continued here:

Efficiency And Effectiveness: Our Approach To Primary Markets - Speech By Christopher Woolard, Executive Director ... - Exchange News Direct

Sometime between the afternoon of Friday, Feb. 17, and the following Monday morning, vandals damaged 170 gravestones at the Chesed Shel Emeth Jewish cemetery outside St. Louis.

Beyond that, cemetery staffers arent sure when the attack happened. Groundskeepers leave at 4 p.m. Fridays, and the cemetery is open to the public, unstaffed, all day Sunday. An employee discovered the damaged headstones that Monday morning.

Even less is known about the Feb. 25 attack on the Jewish Mount Carmel Cemetery in Philadelphia, which saw at least 100 gravestones toppled. Unlike the St. Louis-area cemetery, which is surrounded by a fence and employs groundskeepers, Mount Carmel is run by volunteers, with only a sidewalk separating it from the street.

There was nothing, said Steve Rosenberg, chief marketing officer for Philadelphias Jewish federation. Its wide open. Anyone can walk right in. They cant find anything thats closed off to anyone.

The two attacks, coming one week apart, combined with a series of bomb threats called in to Jewish community centers and day schools, have stoked fears of rising anti-Semitism in the United States and have Jewish leaders fearing that more will follow. Cemeteries, security experts say, are particularly vulnerablebecause theyare big, sparsely staffed and easy to penetrate.

Chesed Shel Emet, with two locations in suburban St. Louis, has more than 20,000 grave plots and a staff of seven, including four groundskeepers. Mount Carmel in Philadelphia is even smaller: It hasabout 5,000 graves and no paid staff.

Cemeteries are of relatively large size, and if there is a cemetery staff, recent budget cuts tend to make that staff smaller and smaller, said Michael Trinkley, director of the Chicora Foundation, a South Carolina group that conserves cemeteries and other historic sites. Theres hardly any night security at cemeteries anymore.

You can do a great deal of mischief in a relatively small amount of time, and the odds of getting caught are slim.

Paul Goldenberg, director of the Secure Community Network, which advises Jewish groups and institutions on security, fears that cemetery attacks could become a trend like the wave of JCC bomb threats, the latest of which came on Feb. 27.

Serving in the New Jersey Attorney Generals Office two decades ago, Goldenberg investigated a wave of attacks on some 100 Jewish cemeteries over a period of seven years including his fathers resting place. That spate, he said, was inspired by the neo-Nazi music scene.

Theres a feeling that the cemeteries may become a place where vandals may become more proactive, Goldenberg said. Right now were concerned about copycats.

You can do a great deal of mischief in a relatively small amount of time, and the odds of getting caught are slim.

Trinkley and Goldenberg said the most effective way to prevent cemetery vandalism is through volunteer patrols that keep the cemetery manned at night, as well as surveillance. Chesed Shel Emeth has security cameras, while Mount Carmel does not.

Goldenberg added that community members need to contact law enforcement when they see a threat, and should let police examine damaged stones before repairing a vandalized cemetery.

People want to do the right thing and clean up and put stones up, Goldenberg said. They need to reconsider that until the police show up for investigation.

The Jewish Federation of Philadelphia announced that a volunteer cleanup of the cemetery began at noon on Feb. 28 and will run every day from noon to 4 p.m.

Representatives from the Jewish Federation will be on hand as well as up to 50 people per hour cleaning and working to help restore this important Philadelphia landmark, the federation said in a statement.

In response to the vandalism, the National Museum of American Jewish History, which is located in Philadelphia, has initiated a project to preserve the stories of the people who are buried there. The museum has called on those who have relatives or friends buried at Mount Carmel Cemetery to share a photo of the person, and one of the headstone, if possible, and a personal story of up to 150 words. They can be posted at MtCarmelStories.tumblr.com or emailed to curatorial@nmajh.org.

The project is also open to those whose families were affected by the desecration that occurred last week at the cemetery in the St. Louis area.

We would like those who did this to understand that these are not victimless crimes, said Ivy Barsky, the museums CEO, and Gwen Goodman, its director. The individuals buried at Mt. Carmel were human beings with names, stories, and families. They contributed to the world while they were here and continue to do so through the loved ones they left behind. We honor their memories.

Police still have not identified any suspects, nor have they decided to label the attacks as a hate crime.

While Goldenberg floated the prospect of paid security, Trinkley said many cemetery budgets probably cannot support that. Even repairing damaged stones can get pricey. Trinkley estimated that setting a toppled headstone aright could cost $500, while buying a new one can run to $4,000.

Financial help has streamed in to assist Chesed Shel Emeth, including more than $100,000 raised by Muslim activists. Online fundraising drives for Mount Carmel are ongoing as well. Volunteers including Vice President Mike Pence pitched in to clean up the damage in Missouri, and a similar effort is being organized in Philadelphia.

Trinkley likewise advised against forbidding fences and gates. A fence is ineffective, he said, unless its 8feet tall and topped by protective wire features that can intimidate grieving families.

At some point, if you start making a cemetery look like a fortress, youve defeated most religious goals of making a cemetery a place of commemoration, visitation, Trinkley said. You want to be welcoming so people can go to seek solace and comfort.

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With few safeguards, Jewish cemeteries make easy targets for vandals - Jweekly.com

Posted on 27 February 2017.

By Donald H. Harrison

Donald H. Harrison

SAN DIEGO In the wake of a fifth wave of bomb threat hoaxes against Jewish Community Centers throughout the nation, as well as the desecration of Jewish cemeteries in Missouri and Pennsylvania, the Jewish community is mobilizing its defenses.

In New York, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) called upon Jewish institutions to review written material issued by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and by the ADL itself concerning how to deal with bomb threats and other security issues.

Twenty JCCs in 12 states were threatened with bombings on Monday, bringing to at least 90 the number of bomb threats made against Jewish institutions since the beginning of 2017, according to the ADL.

We are taking this very seriously and will continue to work intimately with federal and local law enforcement in addition to our community partners across the country as they cope during this difficult time, commented Jonathan Greenblatt, ADLs CEO. Unfortunately, bomb threats are not the only manifestation of anti-Semitism in recent weeks as we have seen Jewish cemetery desecrations strike St. Louis and Philadelphia.

The National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia announced Monday a new project to preserve the histories of people who are buried in Mt. Carmel Cemetery in Philadelphia and Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery in metropolitan St. Louis.

The Museum is asking those who have friends or loved ones interred (there) to share a picture of their loved one (ond/ or the headstone if available) and a personal sory of up to 150 words by posting on http://MtCarmelStories.tumblr.com or emailing [emailprotected] . Ivy Barksy, the museums CEO and Gwen Goodman, director, commented: We would like those who did this to understand that these are not victimless crimes. The individuals buried at Mount Carmel were human beings with names, stories, and families. They contributed to the world while they were here and continue to do so through the loved ones they left behind. We honor their memories.

U.S. Rep. Nita Lowey (D-New York), whose congressional district includes the Jewish Community Center on the Hudson in Tarrytown, issued the following statement:

Today, a bomb threat was made against the Jewish Community Center on the Hudson in Tarrytown. My office has been in contact with local police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to offer all necessary support to the ongoing investigation and to bring the criminals responsible for this horrifying act of terrorism to justice. We will not allow hatred, bigotry, or anti-Semitic violence to terrorize our families or our community.

In Washington, it was announced that the wave of anti-Semitism will be an agenda item when the new national Latino-Jewish Leadership Council (LJLC) convenes its first meeting on March 1.

When the very ethos of American pluralism has been challenged by some, when hate crimes have increased, and when entire communities have been stigmatized, creation of this Council reinforces the importance of our shared destiny, and the strength and resilience of our nation derives from its diversity, said Dina Siegel Vann, director of the American Jewish Committees Belfer Institute for Latino and Latin American Affairs.

Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, called the desecration of the Philadelphia cemetery a despicable and cowardly act of hatred and urged local authorities and citizens to be vigilant against all signs of anti-Semitism.

This is an attack not just on the Jewish community but on the very values of liberty and fraternity that America stands for, Lauder said. All Americans must treat these acts with utmost severity and know that when hatred rears its ugly had anyone can be a target.

* Harrison is editor ofSan Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via [emailprotected]

Excerpt from:

Jewish community rallies against anti- Semitic attacks - San Diego Jewish World

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A drug and gambling addict who brought misery to thousands of rail passengers across the East Midlands has been jailed for 26 months.

Lucas Niewiem, 35, was sentenced at Nottingham Crown Court for stealing cable from the railway line in the Long Eaton and Nottingham areas on eight occasions in March and April last year.

Niewiem, who had previously admitted to using an axe to chop the cable from live lines, pocketed a total of just 1,000 for his crimes by selling the cable to a scrap metal dealer. His actions, however, resulted in 3,267 minutes of delays to trains in the East Midlands, and cost Network Rail over 164,500.

The thefts took place at Lenton Junction in Nottingham, Meadow Lane in Long Eaton, Netherfield Railway Station in Nottingham, and the Glaisdale Industrial Estate in Wollaton.

Niewiem was arrested at his home address in Lawton Close, Nottingham, on April 28 after he was identified through forensic evidence left at the scene.

When officers searched his house, a cannabis farm was discovered above a child's bedroom in the loft. Twenty four plants cultivating cannabis with a street value of 24,000 were found, which Niewiem claimed to be growing for personal use.

Detective Inspector Gareth Davies said: "Niewiem's drug and gambling addition led him to risk his life to target the railway to steal cable to fund his habit and lifestyle. His selfish actions resulted in misery for thousands of passengers who were left stranded on platforms waiting for delayed trains throughout the East Midlands area in March and April last year."

Niewiem was given a 26-month jail term, 16 for the theft of cable, eight months behind bars for cannabis production and a further two months term for an unrelated theft, drugs and breach of a non-molestation order from January.

DI Davies added: "Cable theft is not a victimless crime - it costs the rail industry millions of pounds each year and disrupts passenger journeys and busy lives.

"We take this type of crime extremely seriously, and we will do all we can to bring offenders to justice. We worked closely with Network Rail and East Midlands Trains to secure today's sentence against Niewem which we hope sends act as a deterrent to others."

Hayley Bull, community safety manager at Network Rail, said: "This case demonstrates just how costly cable theft from the railway can be. Trespassing onto the network for any reason is extremely dangerous, as well as being illegal.

"This incident shows how cable theft can end up costing the taxpayer huge sums of money to put right, as well as causing mass disruption to passengers trying to go about their daily lives. It also causes delays to improvement work, which is vital to create a more reliable railway.

"We are continually developing better ways to protect the railway from cable thieves and will continue to work with the British Transport Police to prosecute anyone caught carrying out such a mindless act of vandalism."

Sarah Potts, crime and security strategy manager for East Midlands Trains, said: "We are delighted with this result as cable theft not only costs the railway industry a lot of money but can cause significant disruption for travelling customers.

"The jail term demonstrates that we take cable theft seriously and will continue to support our partners at BTP and Network Rail in seeking convictions for individuals who selfishly inconvenience our customers."

Link:

Drug addict Lucas Niewiem had cannabis farm above child's bedroom AND stole railway cable - Derby Telegraph

14:15 15:08 Friday 24 February 2017

A drug and gambling addict who brought misery to thousands of rail passengers across the East Midlands area has been jailed for 26 months.

Lucas Niewiem, 35, was sentenced at Nottingham Crown Court on Wednesday for stealing cable from the railway line in the Long Eaton and Nottingham areas on eight occasions in March and April last year.

Niewiem, who had previously admitted to using an axe to chop the cable from live lines, pocketed a total of just 1,000 for his crimes by selling the cable to a scrap metal dealer.

His actions, however, resulted in 3,267 minutes of delays to trains in the East Midlands area and cost Network Rail over 164,500.

Niewiem was arrested at his home address on Lawton Close in Nottingham on April 28 after he was identified through forensic evidence left at the scene.

When officers searched his house, a cannabis farm was discovered above a child's bedroom in the loft.

Twenty-four plants cultivating cannabis with a street value of 24,000 were found which Niewiem claimed to be growing for personal use.

Detective Inspector Gareth Davies, of British Transport Police, said: "Niewiem's drug and gambling addition led him to risk his life to target the railway to steal cable to fund his habit and lifestyle.

"His selfish actions resulted in misery for thousands of passengers who were left stranded on platforms waiting for delayed trains throughout the East Midland area in March and April last year."

Niewiem was given a 26-month jail term, 16 for the theft of cable, eight months behind bars for cannabis production and a further two-months' term for an unrelated theft, drugs and breach of a non-molestation order from January.

DI Davies added: "Cable theft is not a victimless crime; it costs the rail industry millions of pounds each year and disrupts passenger journeys and busy lives.

"We take this type of crime extremely seriously, and we will do all we can to bring offenders to justice.

"We worked closely with Network Rail and East Midlands Trains to secure the sentence against Niewem which we hope sends act as a deterrent to others."

Hayley Bull, community safety manager at Network Rail, said: "This case demonstrates just how costly cable theft from the railway can be.

"Trespassing onto the network for any reason is extremely dangerous, as well as being illegal.

"This incident shows how cable theft can end up costing the taxpayer huge sums of money to put right, as well as causing mass disruption to passengers trying to go about their daily lives.

"It also causes delays to improvement work, which is vital to create a more reliable railway.

"We are continually developing better ways to protect the railway from cable thieves and will continue to work with the British Transport Police to prosecute anyone caught carrying out such a mindless act of vandalism."

Sarah Potts, crime and security strategy manager for East Midlands Trains, said: "We are delighted with this result as cable theft not only costs the railway industry a lot of money but can cause significant disruption for travelling customers.

"The jail term demonstrates that we take cable theft seriously and will continue to support our partners at British Transport Police and Network Rail in seeking convictions for individuals who selfishly inconvenience our customers."

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JAILED: Drug and gambling addict brought misery to train passengers - Eastwood Advertiser

Although it was published more than 70years ago, C. S. Lewiss The Abolition of Man reads like a commentary on modern American education, sociology, and politics. With uncanny prophetic powers, Lewis, an Oxford don and Cambridge professor who never read a newspaper orset foot in America, accurately diagnosed our twenty-first-century social-political-educational ills.

At the core of Lewiss critique lies modernitys abandonment of all objective aesthetic, moral-ethical, and philosophical-theological standards. There is nothing essentially sublime about a waterfall; that is just a subjective preference that we project on to it. In the same way, virtues like courage and loyalty and values like patriotism and the inherent dignity of every individual are not universal absolutes written into our conscience but mere feelings and opinions.

Statements like this is good (as opposed to wrong) or this is true (as opposed to false) or this is beautiful (as opposed to ugly) have no factual, scientific basis and thus have no binding power outside the individual or group that makes them. The realm of objective science may be governed by unchanging laws of nature, but no such natural law exists to govern the subjective realms of the Good, the True, and the Beautiful.

What this has led to in the halls of public education, the central focus of The Abolition of Man, is the debunking and dismantling of the teachers traditional task of training students to know, heed, and embody the universal, cross-cultural moral-ethical codewhat Lewis calls the Tao. No longer a virtuous guide and mentor, the teacher morphs into a controller who manages students the way a commercial farmer manages chickens. In the absence of fixed, objective standards, students become malleable commodities that can and will be shaped in accordance with the prevailing orthodoxies of those in power.

Such is the inevitable outcome of a Tao-less education, an outcome that itself carries ominous sociopolitical implications. For once our social and political leaders have thrown out any Tao-based understanding of what it means to be human, they can begin to reshape all of humanityand, because they now have at their disposal scientific methods of eugenics and social engineering, they will most likely succeed in their goal.

No one who reads The Abolition of Man carefully can fail to see the political implications of Lewiss critique, and yet, anyone who knows Lewiss life and writings knows that he was not a person who took an active interestindeed, any interestin politics. What is the Lewis scholar or aficionado to do with this seeming dilemma? Until now, not much.

Thankfully, however, that situation has been remedied by Justin Buckley Dyer and Micah J. Watsons brief but incisive new book, C. S. Lewis on Politics and the Natural Law. Through a close analysis of Lewiss extensive works and letters, Dyer, associate professor of political science and director of the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy at the University of Missouri, and Watson, 2015-16 William Spoelhof Teacher-Scholar Chair and associate professor of political science at Calvin College, demonstrate that Lewis not only had much to say about politics, but that what he said needs to be heeded by those of us who live half a century after his death.

The Abolition of Man, Dyer and Watson argue, is indeed a political book grounded in the foundational biblical teaching that man was made in the image of God (imago dei) but is fallen. It is because of this dual aspect of our nature that we know the Taoit is inscribed in our conscienceand are bound to obey it, while also knowing, when we are honest with ourselves, that we do not and cannot keep it. Everything Lewis wrote about ethics and politics rested on his understanding of these two first acts [Creation and Fall] of the biblical drama, observe Dyer and Watson.

Because Lewis believed firmly in the imago dei, he believed we all had access, through our reason and conscience, to the Tao: that is, the natural law. Because he believed just as firmly in the Fall, he, despite his love of medieval monarchy, advocated a classical liberal view of government that bears much similarity to Lockes view of limited government and Mills harm principle. It is in ferreting out these two aspects of Lewiss non-systematic political views that Dyer and Watson make their greatest, and their most original, contribution to Lewis studies.

In a way that no Lewis critic I am aware of has yet done, Dyer and Watson set Lewiss Broadcast Talks, which were later collected and published as Mere Christianity, in their historical context. Notably, World War II drove Lewis toward an affirmation of natural lawif there is no Tao, then no one can justifiably condemn Nazi ethics as universally and cross-culturally wrong. By contrast, World War II drove German theologian Karl Barth away from natural law, because he concluded that if we allow for a source of divine truth apart from the Bible, then the door is left open for the Nazis to baptize their own culture and fuse it with the revealed gospel.

Although Dyer and Watson treat Barth sympathetically, they argue, convincingly, that, in allowing the horrors of Nazism to push him away from the ability of human reason to perceive general revelation, Barth not only broke from the traditional theology of Luther and Calvin but set reformed Protestantism on a trajectory away from natural law. Even after the war, Barth remained antagonistic to any claimed source of theological knowledge outside of Gods revelation in the person of Jesus Christ, including any claim that God had revealed truths in reason, in conscience, in the emotions, in history, in nature, and in culture and its achievements and developments, they note.

In a knowing rebuttal of the anti-natural law stance of Barth, Lewis begins the Broadcast Talks (and later Mere Christianity) with a what the authors describe as defense of objective moral principles. In offering the twentieth centurys finest apologetic for Christianity, Lewis was also consciously preaching fidelity to the old moral law, revealed in nature and known by reason, at a time when the idea of natural law was under serious attack by prominent Protestant theologians [like Barth] as well as secular philosophers, scientists, and social planners. Indeed, when it came time for Lewis to write his seminal work of literary history and theory, English Literature in the Sixteenth Century Excluding Drama (1954), Dyer and Watson note Lewis coined the term Barthianism to describe the modern Calvinist penchant for flattening all things into common insignificance before the inscrutable Creator.

What has all this to do with politics? A great deal. Barths abandonment of natural law has by no means protected us from the encroachment of totalitarianism into our public schools and social programs. To the contrary, in the absence of Lewiss Tao, it has become all the easier for educators and politicians alike to carve out new goals and rights for man that have nothing to do with our true ontological status as creatures made in the image of God but fallen.

What then is to be done? Though Lewis was clearly drawn toward monarchy, a system he incarnates and celebrates so memorably in his Chronicles of Narnia, he nevertheless upheld democracy as the best form of government. Lewis was a partisan of classical liberal democracy, not because it allowed for maximum political participation for all of a nations citizens, but because it curtailed the likelihood of political tyranny. He was a democrat because he believed human nature had been corrupted, the authors note. Given our fallen state, it was unwise to entrust too much power to a single individual or group, a sentiment that was expressed even more strongly by one of Lewiss mentors, G. K. Chesterton.

But does this put Lewis in the same camp as Locke? Though I was initially skeptical on this pointI view Locke as a deist whose rejection of innate knowledge leaves little room for a God-given conscienceDyer and Watson won me over through careful argumentation and balanced proof texting. Both Locke and Lewis believed that the end of government was the protection of individuals and their property, broadly understood. Both claimed that God is the ultimate source of property, and as such, God is the ontological source of genuine morality, though people could still access that morality without acknowledging God as its source or agreeing on how to best relate to God, they write.

If Dyer and Watsons equating of Lewis and Locke made me do a double take, then their equating of Lewis with John Stuart Mill made me do a triple take. Could there possibly be any meeting ground between the great Christian apologist and the Victorian utilitarian who, to my mind at least, was a functional atheist? Though more circumspect in making this link, Dyer and Watson demonstrate that Lewis, like Mill, saw governments role, not to make men moral, but to do as little harm as possible. And that includes, as disturbing as it may appear to conservative Christians like myself, Lewiss suggestion that secular states need not criminalize divorce, homosexuality, or other victimless crimes.

Still, Dyer and Watson make it clear that Lewiss liberalism does not put him in league with utilitarianism as a theory of politics or of the nature of man. Accordingly, Lewiss liberalism stems from a commitment not to neutrality among competing conceptions of the good nor to the greatest happiness for the greatest number. . . . Lewis invokes the harm principle to protect society from the dangers of theocracy and to protect the Church from the dangers of blasphemy. Lewis prudentially adopted a utilitarian strategy in order to foster a regime most likely to promote and facilitate human flourishing. As such, his commitment to teleology is not necessarily undermined by his use of Mills harm principle.

It is through discerning passages like this one, in which careful distinctions are drawn between theory and practice, foundational principles and pragmatic realities, that Dyer and Watson prove themselves to be reliable guides through Lewiss scattered writings on politics and the too often scatter-brained attempts of modern and postmodern educators, sociologists, and political theorists to establish justice and ensure domestic tranquility in a world that has lost its moorings in the Tao.

The rest is here:

Inside The Quiet, Prophetic Politics Of Theologian C.S. Lewis - The Federalist

Corruption is as invisible as it is pervasive. Public trust is easily professed on public forums, and just as easily betrayed in back rooms. Money and favours influence decisions without leaving a trace. Pecunia non olet.

Yet corruption is not a victimless crime. Cutting corners on good governance costs money, endangers lives and erodes the public trust that oils the machinery of state in modern democracies.

So how to fight it? Corruption feeds off apathy and thrives in the shadows. It abhors the full glare of public attention. It is not a coincidence that the global organisation dedicated to its demise is called Transparency International.

TI produces annual reports, scorecards and a heat map of corruption around the world. The least corrupt countries, in the organisation's 2016 Corruption Perceptions Index, were New Zealand and Denmark, followed closely by the other Nordic countries. Most corrupt? Somalia, with South Sudan and North Korea not far behind.

The French subsidiary of TI went one step further, and visualised the corruption in France on a map. Linking corruption to specific locations suddenly gives the various crimes caught under that term a certain weight and heft and increases its visibility.

This Cartographie des affaires de corruption immediately points to a number of corruption hot spots: two concentrated zones in Paris and the North (near the Belgian border), and in and around Bordeaux in the southwest. There is a string of malfeasance stretching along the Mediterranean coast, and the heavily dotted island of Corsica seems particularly prone to corruption.

Conversely, the interior of France is largely corruption-free, some departments even entirely so. Of course, the incidence of corruption varies with the density of population, and perhaps declines disproportionately in the almost-empty interior because there are so few people to be corrupted by.

Each of the location markers is clickable, and provides a summary of the court case to which it refers. All parties mentioned are anonymised, but some are relatively easy to find out.

And so you can hop from one case of embezzlement to the next case one of abuse of power or trust, or you could use the search window to look for cases within specific frames of time or money.

Click on the logos in the top left corner to send a message to Transparency International France (Did we miss anything?), leaf through a lexicon of corruption, a FAQ file and a word on the maps methodology. There is also a This just in section, with the latest court rulings.

And finally, there is a full geographic overview of France, per region and per department. The most public-spirited departments of France are: Ardennes, Cantal, Cher, Creuse, Gers, Loir-et-Cher, Nivre, Sarthe not a single case of corruption in any of these. Paris, with 61 cases, is the most corrupt. Not surprising, considering the concentration of money and power in the capital.

There is another interesting measure of corruptness: the number of affaires (*10) divided by the Gross Domestic Product for each department. By that token, the French overseas territory of Saint-Martin (95.16) is light years ahead of even Paris (3.07).

Mapping corruption at country level brings home the pervasiveness of the problem. Does this map indicate that France is corrupt? The French could do better, but also a lot worse. According to TI's aforementioned 2016 Corruption Perceptions Index, France ranks #23 on the global list, just ahead of the Bahamas but behind Estonia. The U.S. is at #18.

This corruption map of France seems to be a local initiative. Similar maps of other countries would make for equally compelling reading. Except of course the corruption maps of Somalia, South Sudan and North Korea they would be totally blank.

Map found at visualiserlacorruption.fr, produced byTransparency International France.

Strange Maps #824

Got a strange map? Let me know at strangemaps@gmail.com.

Continued here:

A Map of Corruption in France - Big Think

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Days remaining in the 2017 Legislative session:19

Both the House and Senate go in at 10 and the lower chamber (thats the House) has a full slate of 14 bills on itscalendar.

Among them: House Bill 37 from Rep. Earl Ehrhart, R-Powder Springs, that would cut off state funding to Georgia colleges that declare themselves sanctuary campuses that defy President Donald Trumps immigration policy. It will likely be the first bill to face serious opposition in the House this year.

The House committee schedule is comparatively light.

The Senate is tackling five bills on its floor debate calendar, including leaderships effort to boost regional transit planning in Senate Bill 6.

Transportation committees from both chambers will then meet jointly at 2 p.m. in Room 606 of CLOB to talk about transit planning efforts.

And at 2 p.m. in Room 307 of CLOB, the Senate Education and Youth Committee will look at SB 98, which would allow local school systems to tap into their capital building funds and build more pre-k classrooms across Georgia.

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The state of GA should become a sanctuary state.

Which is simply to say that we should not be using our state tax dollars to enforce federal immigration laws, nor use federal grant dollars to do the same. If the federal government wants those laws enforced then they should hire their own agents and send them down here to do the job.

But, I guess these conservatives only care about state's rights to the extent they believe it gives them the freedom to discriminate against various minorities as opposed to protecting the People from the injustices of the federal government.

This bill was passed today, but the consequences if the bill are larger than it first appears. For instance HOPE money will be withheld from all students at any 'sanctuary school' (we currently DO NOT have any public schools in that category).

Why doesn't the AJC write this as it truly is...cities and or universities that want to create their own laws and not follow federal laws? What other laws does the AJC and these enlightened thinkers believe should be ignored? Stop writing and twisting words to fit your feelings and report fairly.

@Iron Dawg

We have a system of federalism in the US that serves to protect the People from injustice at any one level of government.

Put into effect, this means that states and municipalities can refuse to enforce federal laws with which they disagree.

There is no twisting of words in this article, you just do not understand how federalism works in the US.

Your local sheriff's department can represent the values of it's people by refusing to enforce laws he/she disagrees with whether it be refusing to enforce federal and state marijuana laws, immigration laws, et cetera. University, while they are state institutions, do have sizable constituencies and limited resources. It is up to them to decide which laws to give enforcement priority (like violent crime) and which laws they prefer to leave unenforced (generally victimless crimes).

Destroy all sanctuary cities, counties, states, and campuses. It's just common sense.

@someonesdad

ok. how you want to destroy them i guess is the question then. constructively or destructively . . . ? the coming wave is nothing but destruction for the brown folks you take issue with and the American economy which has come to rely upon them.

Not cities "that defy Pres. Donald Trump's immigration policy" -- cities that defy federal law.

Unless, I'm mistaken (and i admit that happens) Immigration enforcement is a Federal function under law. Cities have no legal responsibility under Federal law to aid in the enforcement. The Executive Order does not have the force of law unless sanctions are imposed for failure to follow. Cities that do not assst the enforcement of immigration enforcement violate no laws unless they obstruct that enforcement.

Of course, the gentleman from Smyrna seeks to create state sanctions, which is his right. But, then, we can disagree on what is the right course of action.

http://nydn.us/1mL25J5

@hamiltonAZ Feds have a legal obligation to help Californians that live below a dam the state did not fix years ago?

@hamiltonAZ mayors take vows only to obey city laws? not going to hold bank robbers for them?

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Your tip sheet: No sanctuary - Atlanta Journal Constitution (blog)

There may therefore be a need to broaden the tax base and take a hard look at parts of the economy where the government is not getting its proper due.

Dealing with the trade in illegal cigarettes, for example, would be an easy place to start. It has cost the fiscus an estimated R4bn to R5bn in lost revenue each year, and about R24bn in the past five years.

Costing on average about R12 per pack and in some cases as little as R7 (compared to about R35 for the most popular brand on the market), it should be no surprise that the illegal trade is flourishing and accounts for a staggering 24% of the South African market. Growth in illicit trade can only serve to erode the tax base.

So, why does this matter? Some would argue that the legitimate tobacco sectors loss to illicit traders is no big deal. The production and sale of illegal cigarettes, however, is not a victimless crime. Not only does the government lose out on substantial revenues that could be used to deliver vital public services, but the proceeds from the sale of illegal cigarettes are often used to fund drug smuggling, human trafficking and other crimes that blight communities.

Some smugglers even have links to terrorism. Combined, this "double whammy" of tax losses and increased crime (which requires yet more expenditure on police to tackle it) is having serious consequences in SA.

In theory, correcting this should be relatively easy. Tobacco products are manufactured or imported in a limited range of brands and excise is levied at a specific rate per thousand cigarettes (R662), due for collection at the point of manufacture or import into the country.

An embossed diamond marking on the bottom of the pack is intended to provide a physical indication that tax has been paid.

Here is the original post:

Stubbing out illegal cigarettes will help plug SA's budget deficit - Business Day (registration)

EXPAND

Scene from a travel ban protest at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.

Melissa Fossum

This morning, the Department of Homeland Security announced its new plans to enforce President Donald Trumps executive orders on immigration.

Among the changes: tripling the number of agents who work in ICEs Enforcement and Removal division, and deporting immigrants before their cases have been heard in immigration court.

In addition, anyone whos been charged with a crime or has committed acts that constitute a chargeable criminal offense is now considered a priority for deportation.

That includes people like Guadalupe Garcia who are guilty of nonviolent (and typically victimless) crimes like driving without a license or applying for a job with a fake social security number.

Thats just bad policy, David Leopold, the former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, argues.

The immigration enforcement priorities are what keep us safe, he explained in a question-and-answer session for Americas Voice, a group that advocates for immigration reform.

If theyre spending resources on getting the bad people, then were safer. Theyre spending resources on the people who are easier to find the law-abiding folks. Whos easier to find: a woman whos tired after a day washing dishes, or a hardened criminal?

The priority of the Trump administration is to instill fear and panic, he added.

We'll be updating this post throughout the day as Arizonans react to the new executive orders. In the meantime, here's a sampling of the initial response on Twitter.

Update 12:11 p.m.: Activists fromLUCHA, Living United For Change in Arizona, will be at the State Capitol today at 4:30 p.m. to provide an update about what the new policies will mean and inform community members of their legal rights. More information here.

Update 1:31 p.m.: The Arizona Democratic Party is asking anyone who disagrees with Trump's new deportation plan to sign a petitionvoicing their opposition.

Update 2:06 p.m.: James Garcia, communications director for the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, says that the new immigration policies will have a tangible real world effect in Arizona.

Theres an estimated 350,000 undocumented immigrants living in the state, all of whom contribute to the local economy in various different ways.

Thats a substantial number of people thats a city, he says. Those are people who spend money, fuel this economy, do jobs that most people dont want to do.

And many of those people have family members who are legal United States citizens, meaning theres likely to be a ripple effect.

When undocumented people leave, they dont just leave by themselves, Garcia points out. They leave with children, they leave with spouses. When they leave, they take all of their economic impact with them. These are people who were pumping money into the tax system.

Roughly a fourth to a third of the small businesses in Arizona are owned by Hispanic immigrants including some who are undocumented or have DACA. Theyre likely to be hit hard by the new policies.

Anecdotally, Garcia heard that some businesses have already seen their customer base drop because undocumented immigrants are scared to be out and on the streets.

People are limiting their movements, theyre changing their patterns in life to avoid getting into a situation if they can, he says.

Arizona has been through this before thanks to S.B. 1070, Garcia points out.

When you go out and talk to major construction firms, you here that it is a lot of harder to find enough workers, he says. Theyre still feeling the consequences of S.B. 1070.

Update 3:40 p.m.: Rep. Ruben Gallego has issued the following statement condemning the new policies:

These new guidelines tell us one thing: the Trump administration is willing to go after just about any member of the immigrant community. Last week, ICE arrested a DACA recipient and continues to hold him in custody without showing sufficient cause for his detention. Now the administration releases guidelines that lay the groundwork for mass deportation and tries to sell it to the American people as business-as-usual. This is far from the truth.

Under these new rules, ICE can go after people who have not been found guilty of committing a crime and remove them from the country within days of their arrest. It also strips anyone who is not a U.S. citizen or a lawful permanent resident of many due process protections. These are not the values our country was founded on.

I am dedicated to holding the Trump administration accountable and will continue to call out these policies for what they are: un-American.

Update 4:39 p.m.: Alessandra Soler, executive director of the ACLU of Arizona, has released the following statement:

These directives lay out a blueprint for mass deportation. They bring to life some of the worst of Donald Trumps campaign rhetoric and threaten to tear apart families and leave U.S. citizens without parents, children, husbands and wives. Its not who we are as a country to rule by fear, confusion and cruelty.

The ACLU is also concerned about the Trump administrations prioritization of immigrant detention. Asylum seekers, families and others who pose no risk to the public do not belong in jails, lining the pockets of for-profit prison corporations.

Furthermore, rushing to incorporate a massive number of new federal agents into an undertrained and inexperienced deportation force, which may be cooperating with state and local police, is a perfect formula for large-scale racial profiling and other constitutional violations, including unlawful searches and detentions.

Read more:

What People Are Saying About Homeland Security's Plan to Crack Down on Immigrants - Phoenix New Times

Latest crime statistics in Northern Ireland has prompted farmers to explain that rural businesses and the countryside remain soft targets for criminals. Ulster Farmers Union (UFU) said the latest statistics for rural crime highlights that despite efforts to curb this, more needs to be done. The union says it will continue to press the Police to focus more resources to tackle this, while recognising that individual police officers do their best to engage with farmers, within the limits of the budgetary restraints forced on them. The UFU says those drawing up budgets must recognise that rural areas are exposed, and deserve as much protection as towns and cities in Northern Ireland. The latest statistics highlight a nine per cent increase in agricultural crime, with livestock theft an almost daily problem in some areas. Value of thefts 'rising' Figures from the NFU Mutual, the biggest farm insurer, also suggest the value of thefts is rising, as thieves target expensive machinery and livestock. The figures highlight our frustration, said the UFUs deputy president, Ivor Ferguson. We can see from them where the problem is worst Armagh, Banbridge, Craigavon and Newry. In these areas we need the PSNI to respond to these statistics, he said. 'Simply unacceptable' The UFU says a major cause for concern is the split between theft in rural and urban areas. Despite much smaller populations and housing density, in many areas rural theft and burglary now account for a third and up to half the crime of this nature. That is simply unacceptable, said Mr Ferguson. He added that a further frustration for farmers was lenient sentences for criminals. The judiciary needs to realise that these are not victimless crimes but crimes that often leave people feeling vulnerable and isolated in rural areas, said the UFU deputy president.

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'Simply unacceptable': Northern Irish farmers remain soft targets for ... - FarmingUK

07:21 Saturday 18 February 2017

The Ulster Farmers Union says the latest statistics for rural crime highlights that despite efforts to curb this, the countryside and farmers remain soft targets for criminals.

It says it will continue to press the PSNI to focus more resources to tackle this, while recognising that individual police officers do their best to engage with farmers, within the limits of the budgetary restraints forced on them. The UFU says those drawing up budgets must recognise that rural areas are exposed, and deserve as much protection as towns and cities in Northern Ireland.

The latest statistics from the PSNI Agricultural and Rural Crime in Northern Ireland: Quarterly Update to 31 December 2016 highlight a nine per cent increase in agricultural crime, with livestock theft an almost daily problem in some areas. Figures from the NFU Mutual, the biggest farm insurer, also suggest the value of thefts is rising, as thieves target expensive machinery and livestock.

The figures highlight our frustration, said the UFUs deputy president, Ivor Ferguson. We can see from them where the problem is worst Armagh, Banbridge, Craigavon and Newry. In these areas we need the PSNI to respond to these statistics, he said. The UFU says a major cause for concern is the split between theft in rural and urban areas.

Despite much smaller populations and housing density, in many areas rural theft and burglary now account for a third and up to half the crime of this nature. That is simply unacceptable, said Mr Ferguson.

He added that a further frustration for farmers was that when those charged with rural crimes appear before the courts sentences fail to reflect the impact of their crimes.

The judiciary needs to realise that these are not victimless crimes but crimes that often leave people feeling vulnerable and isolated in rural areas, said the UFU deputy president.

More here:

Rural crime figures are a concern - Farming Life

(File photo), an officer canes a woman who violated strict Syariah laws forbidding contact between unmarried men and women Banda Aceh. Pic: AP

HUNDREDS of thousands of protesters are expected to throng the streets of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia this afternoon in what could be the countrys largest call to strengthen the Syariah justice system, as the Muslim-majority nation reaches a major cross roads over its secular laws.

Amid a backdrop of rising Islamic sentiments and fractured race-relations, the countrys pious northeastern state of Kelantan is closer to realising its decades-long pursuit of enforcing strict Islamic Syariah laws for criminal offences, threatening to worsen religious ties in a polarized multiracial nation.

Next month, lawmakers will debate a controversial bill, known as Hadis Bill, to amend Act 355 of the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965, proposing harsher punishments to replace current sentences that have long been implemented under the civil system.

Traditionally, Malaysias Syariah courts focused on family and marital affairs, and handed out minor fines amounting to several thousands of ringgit and relatively light prison sentences for moral offences, which are hardly enforced.

SEE ALSO:Islamisation of Malaysia: Hudud to rear head again next week

The religious courts are restricted to imposing punishments of up to three years jail; RM5,000 fine or whipping of no more than six strokes also referred to in the country as the 3-5-6 penalties for offences against Islam.

However, if passed, the bill is tipped to grant punitive powers to the Syariah courts and allow its judges to impose up to a hundred lashes, hundred thousand ringgit fines (US$21,000) and 30-year jail sentences on Muslims convicted of the same moral offences and other victimless crimes. Save for the death penalty, the amendments will be enshrined under state jurisdiction in the Federal Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land.

Among others, examples of punishable crimes under the proposed amendments include pre-marital sex, alcohol consumption, failure to attend Friday prayers or fast during Ramadhan. If implemented, the new laws threatened to throw modern Malaysia back into a medieval plot-setting where punishments were carried out in public, in full view of an onlooking crowd, similar to what is done in the self-autonomous region of Aceh, Indonesia.

Spearheading the Islamic law reforms is the hard-line Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) and its president Abdul Hadi Awang, an influential Islamist political movement headed by ulamas and religious clerics that fell out with the countrys opposition bloc over the disputed Hudud aspect of Islamic jurisprudence, which lies at the core of the issue.

Umno delegates gather in front a portrait of party president and Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak during the opening ceremony their annual general meeting. Pic: AP.

The United Malays National Organisation or Umno, the ruling party led by Prime Minister Najib Razak who is faced with a massive corruption scandal and declining favour among voters, is seen to be banking in on the reforms.

In its bid to shore up political support, Umno, which has ruled the country for more than half a century via the rural Malay voter bank, has shown keenness in backing the demands of the hardline Islamists as Najib mulls calling for snap polls as early as the second half of the year.

Showing their solidarity for PAS flagship cause, Umno top brass and grassroots members are expected to join the much-talked-about rally in Padang Merbok, a landmark field in the capital that could fit up to 50,000 people.

Nasrudin Hassan, a senior PAS politician and director of the Himpunan RU355 (Act 355 Rally), said at least 200,000 people, from different political backgrounds will attend the protest.

He said the mass rally, which will be one of the biggest rallies to ever be held in the country, has received approval from police and will see 21 speakers talk between 2pm and 11pm on Saturday. The organisers will deploy at least 2,500 volunteers to ensure order and security while the authorities corderned off the area to traffic.

Even though Padang Merbok can only handle between 40,000 to 50,000 people, the police and city hall officials will cooperate by holding roadblocks in the surrounding area to allow us to accommodate the crowd, he said, as quoted by Utusan Malaysia.

We are also encouraging the rally-goers to bring their own prayer mats and mineral water bottles. We also remind bus drivers to come early to avoid congestion.

Race-relations, biased implementation and economic impact While the proposed laws apply only to Muslims, critics argue that they could extend to others while a sizable number of law experts have labeled the bill unconstitutional and open to abuse.

Malaysias 30 million populace is Muslim-majority, but nearly 40 percent profess other faiths such as Buddhism, Christianity and Hinduism.

Past debates on the bill have also triggered much controversy and created major fissures on both political fronts.

It has led to divisions in the multiracial ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) pact with protests from Umnos non-Muslim allies for its support of the bill as well as in the opposition, whose parties split with PAS in 2015 over disagreements regarding hudud.

Malaysias Muslim conservatives, however, insist that such laws are mandatory, not just for religious adherents but for all of Malaysia.

Dr. Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, the president of the Peoples Justice Party (PKR), said the opposition party was concerned with the motion due to its ambiguity on the matter regarding the scope of punishments.

Since the proposals involve criminal laws that conflict with Islamic laws, the proposed punishments have to be absolutely certain. Whatever amendments that deal with punishments must be precise in their meaning.

Any proposed amendments need to be absolutely aligned with Islamic laws. We also need to consider whether the amendments fit into the framework of the Federal Constitution, she said in the partys official stance on the matter.

She added PKRs position is predicated on the condition that any debate on the RUU355 motion and its amendments to existing laws is to acquire further explanation and guarantee from the Prime Minister, and to ensure that the amendments must comply and fulfill Islamic principles of justice and fairness, and do not contradict the text and the spirit of the Federal Constitution.

SEE ALSO:Why Malaysias non-Muslims shouldnt worry about the proposed hudud bill

In a Facebook posting, lawyer and activist, Nik Elin Nik Rashid, said the country would be treading on dangerous ground where the courts can mete out harsh punishments for trivial issues that normally concern women.

It can get more dangerous if fatwas issued are allowed to become laws. Because its an offence to not follow a fatwa, she said.

Mohd Sheriff Mohd Kassim, a former Secretary-General of Malaysias Finance Ministry and adviser to the G25 group of prominent Malays, urged the prime minister not to support the bill, saying the proposed laws will carry deep ramifications for the economy.

If you support the bill, investors in and outside the country will see this as a political game (used) by you to evade your responsibilities and what is urgent to restore the countrys economy, he told the prime minister in a statement which was forwarded to the Asian Correspondent by a G25 member.

RUU355 will divide people and raise concerns over the future of this multi-ethnic state. When people are not sure about the future of Malaysia, our economy will lose its strength and the people will become victims due to a leadership that infuses politics and religion.

Read Full Article

See the rest here:

Malaysia: Hundreds of thousands expected to join mass rally calling for greater Syariah laws - Asian Correspondent

APPLETON, Wis. -

Along the I-41 corridor, from Milwaukee to Green Bay, young, vulnerable teenagers have been lured into the dangerous and hidden world of sex trafficking.

Human trafficking is happening in every county in the state, according to law enforcement and advocacy groups, but Milwaukee, Appleton and Green Bay are some "hot spots" for sex trafficking in the state.

There are many misconceptions about sex trafficking, particularly that prostitution is a victimless crime. However, Appleton Police Lieutenant Steve Elliott knows that is far from the case.

After seven years leading the street crimes unit for Appleton Police, he saw that many women were not prostitutes, but victims.

"We realized that there was heavy coercion and manipulation going on in many different ways," said Lt. Elliott.

In all his years fighting the problem in the Fox Valley, one story stays with him. A victim started dating a man, and he ended up moving in with her and her child.

"One day, the victim came home to her quote unquote boyfriend, and the child wasn't there," Lt. Elliott said. "At that point that switch flicked, that personality changed, and the trafficker, that was now known to this woman, basically said if you want to see your little one again, you're going to go have sex for money."

"Anyone who is a parent would understand, or anyone who has a little one that they love, how horrible that would be if you didn't know where they were."

One misconception is that traffickers are abducting their victims, according to Lt. Elliott. What they actually do is manipulate victims through a process called grooming, he said.

"The flattery and gifts, the older boyfriend, promise of adventure and travel," he said. "They isolate these girls."

The traffickers make young victims think they're dating, preying on their vulnerabilities.

"It's not what you see in the movies, it's not that van that drives up and picks up that girl," said Dawn Quait, part of the leadership team for the organization 5 Stones.

5 Stones is a volunteer organization that works with Lieutenant Elliott and other Fox Valley groups to educate people on the problem and help victims.

"It's very hidden," Quait said.

80% of human trafficking in Wisconsin is sex trafficking, according to 5 Stones.

The biggest problem is getting victims help that actually works, Quait said.

"Because it can take 7-10 years of just basic services to get a victim to a survivor," she explained.

There's also still a misconception that trafficking doesn't happen here in Northeast Wisconsin, but advocates say the I-41 corridor makes it easy for traffickers to bring victims from Milwaukee.

"You need men, because that's usually the people who are buying the sex, you need hotels or motels, you need computers, and highways," said Lt. Elliott. "That's all you need."

That's why law enforcement and advocacy groups have come together in an Outagamie County Steering Committee to fight the problem.

"You can't arrest your way out of this problem, it's absolutely impossible," said Lt. Elliott.

Lt. Elliott also sits on the state anti-human trafficking task force. In the second part of our investigation into the human trafficking problem on Friday, NBC26will look more into that task force, what it's accomplished so far, and what it's goals are for the future to battle this issue.

Read the original:

Law enforcement, advocacy groups work to stop sex trafficking in the Fox Valley - WGBA-TV

FEBRUARY 17 Dear YB,

You probably have a million things going on, dealing with constituents who have seemingly endless problems, party politics and figuring out how to retain your seat in the next general election.

The last thing you want is a hot potato like PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awangs private members Bill to amend the Shariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965, or Act 355, landing in your lap.

But it will likely be tabled in Parliament next month and youll be forced to deal with it. How shall you vote then?

If youre a Muslim, you may feel obliged to vote Yes, even if you privately think that its not really necessary to increase the scope of Shariah punishments. After all, no one has shown any statistics on the trend of Shariah offences over the past several years, nor has Hadi proven how harsher punishments can deter religious offences.

If youre not a Muslim, you may be hesitant to vote No because your allies from another party support the Bill. So you prefer to skip Parliament on the day of the vote and abstain from voting. That way, no one can attack you for supporting or rejecting the Bill.

Who cares if your absence increases the likelihood of the passage of the Bill? At least your skin is safe.

Voting Yes or staying silent, however, is a betrayal of the peoples trust in you as their representative.

Thousands of Malaysians across race and religion voted you in because they believed that you were the best candidate to represent their interests and to push for better policies and governance.

Your personal faith should have nothing to do with your decision on how to vote on Hadis Bill because you are not casting a vote as an individual; you are voting as a representative of the people in your constituency.

Even if your constituency is majority Malay-Muslim, it does not mean that your constituents are a homogenous lot who think alike and support Hadis Bill. Some Malay-Muslims do not support the Bill, but theyre silent because they fear stigma in the community and disapproval from their own families.

Your job is to ensure that Malaysian democracy does not end up as a tyranny of the majority.

I urge you not to be swept up in the wave of populism and religious fanaticism, but to stand your ground in doing the right thing.

Hadis supporters try to scare Malaysians into backing the Bill by using religion and claiming that going against it is tantamount to going against God.

They also use fallacious arguments to demonstrate support for the Bill, claiming that the majority of Malaysians agree with them. But they fail to place the issue in a wider context, where Malaysians are likely to be far more concerned with things like the rising cost of living, education and crime, rather than whether a Muslim is drinking beer or riding a motorcycle with someone of the opposite sex.

Hadis Bill is an unjust law.

What religious offence can possibly merit a 30-year jail sentence, 100 lashes of the rotan or an RM100,000 fine, as Hadis Bill proposes? How can a victimless crime be equivalent to culpable homicide not amounting to murder that is also punishable with 30 years imprisonment?

Moral and religious offences cannot be treated like actual crimes that harm other people. If anything, we should be fighting to abolish jail terms for Shariah offences, instead of enhancing the punishments.

This isnt a Muslim issue because we do not live in silos. Non-Muslims and Muslims live and work together to develop this nation.

Putting people behind bars just for violating religious tenets means productive workers are taken off the workforce for several years. If they are injured from dozens of whippings, it places an extra burden on the public healthcare system.

More importantly, the public funds used to pay the salaries of religious officers, to feed the prisoners jailed for Shariah offences, to conduct whippings, come from both non-Muslim and Muslim taxpayers. Every ringgit that goes into enforcing Shariah legislation means money not spent on education, security or healthcare.

As a taxpayer, I have the right to talk about how I want my tax monies spent. And as a Member of Parliament, you should reject the allocation of resources for things that dont benefit the country, like moral policing.

The poor and the working class, who are too busy trying to make a living, should be educated instead of being locked away for decades just for not practising their faith properly.

Will you be the one to give welfare aid to poor people when they go bankrupt after getting an RM100,000 fine, or when their spouse is jailed for years for some Shariah offence? Or will you shrug your shoulders and say the government (which means us, the taxpayers) will take care of it?

If you vote Yes or abstain from voting on Hadis Bill, you will be responsible for the resulting divisions and disunity in our country.

You will be responsible for the victimisation of the poor who do not know better.

You will be responsible for the expanding Islamisation of the country that affects non-Muslims, where our businesses areraidedfor violating over-reaching halal-related rules and were told that theway we dressis unacceptable in even places like hospitals.

And you will be responsible for the ultimate destruction of our way of life in a society when we used to embrace our diversity and saw good in each other.

So, I urge you to put aside your short-term interests and for once, do not behave like typical Malaysian politicians, but act as a peoples representative who speaks on our behalf.

Otherwise, be prepared to lose your seat in the next election.

Malaysians need representatives who dare to act in our interests, not cowardly politicians who sacrifice their principles for political expediency.

* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.

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Open letter to MPs on Hadi's Bill - Malay Mail Online

Concerns have been expressed that rural homeowners, including farmers, remain soft targets for criminals across Northern Ireland.

The Ulster Farmers Union has pointed to the latest statistics from the PSNI regarding rural crime as highlighting existing frustrations.

Amid a 9% increase in agricultural crime, the union says livestock theft is an almost daily problem in some areas.

It also points to figures from the farm insurer NFU Mutual as suggesting the value of thefts is rising, as expensive machinery and livestock are targeted.

The figures highlight our frustration, UFU deputy president Ivor Ferguson said.

We can see from them where the problem is worst Armagh, Banbridge, Craigavon and Newry.

In these areas, we need the PSNI to respond to these statistics.

The judiciary needs to realise that these are not victimless crimes but crimes that often leave people feeling vulnerable and isolated in rural areas.

UFU deputy president Ivor Ferguson

Mr Ferguson added that, when it comes to theft and burglary, such crimes in rural areas now account for at least a third of the number of incidents despite having smaller populations and housing density than urban areas.

That is simply unacceptable, he said.

The union further noted added the frustration for farmers when those charged with rural crimes appear before the courts only for sentences to fail to reflect the impact of their crimes.

The Ulster Farmers Union says it will continue to press the PSNI to focus more resources on tackling rural crime, while recognising that individual police officers do their best to engage with farmers within the limits of the budgetary restraints forced on them.

The UFU says those drawing up budgets must recognise that rural areas are exposed, and deserve as much protection as towns and cities in Northern Ireland.

Last updated Thu 16 Feb 2017

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Call to tackle rural crime as farmers 'soft targets' | UTV - ITV News - ITV News

Hadis Bill opens doors for disproportionate punishments, constitutional expert says

Professor Datuk Shad Saleem Faruqi speaks at the forum 'Sejauh mana anda memahami hudud' at the PAUM Club House in Kuala Lumpur February 12, 2017. Picture by Boo Su-LynKUALA LUMPUR, Feb 12 A private members Bill to enhance Shariah punishments will enable excessive sentences for religious offences that mostly victimless and non-violent, Datuk Dr Shad Saleem Faruqi said today.

The constitutional expert said the Bill by PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang will also allow penalties for Shariah offences that are harsher than even punishments for heavier crimes in the civil system.

Punishment must be proportionate to the offence committed, the University of Malayas emeritus professor of law said in a forum on understanding the Islamic penal code of hudud organised by Tan Sri Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah.

Youre going to have penalties of 100 lashes, RM100,000 fine, or 30 years jail for offences that are in some cases are purely victimless crimes. Some of Shariah crimes are victimless crimes a person drinks, doesnt pray, doesnt fast there is no clear harm to public order and national security.

In Criminal Procedure Code, Penal Code, the offences are much lesser for much bigger offences, Shad said.

According to Shad, the First Class Magistrate courts should be the benchmark for the punitive powers that Shariah courts may have. Currently, the Shariah courts powers are equivalent to the Second Class Magistrate courts.

Shad also said that the Shariah Court (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965 also known as Act 355, which Hadis Bill aims to amend, is itself unconstitutional as it provides for penalties, but not the broad categories of offences that fall under the Shariah courts jurisdiction.

The law expert said the Act gives a blank cheque to state courts to enact punishments for any crime seen as against the precepts of Islam, adding that this has since been abused by state authorities.

If they really want to follow the Constitution, first step should be that all Shariah enactments must either be repealed, amended, or made in line with the Constitution. Only then can the punishment powers of Shariah courts be enhanced, he said.

Shad said Shariah laws are currently inconsistent and differ from state to state, and that there should be effort to unify these, which he noted is missing from Hadis Bill.

He also pointed out that, in Islam, there is a distinction between sin and crime, and not every sin must be criminalised as it is being done by the Shariah enactments in the country.

Other panelists in the forum today included Universiti Sains Malaysia political science professor Dr Ahmad Fauzi Abdul Hamid and Perlis mufti Datuk Dr Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin.

The latest version of Hadis Bill aims to increase the punishments that Shariah courts can mete out from three years jail, six strokes of the cane and an RM5,000 fine to 30 years imprisonment, 100 strokes, and an RM100,000 fine.

Islamist party PAS is organising a rally in support of the Bill for Saturday, February 18 at Padang Merbok in the countrys capital.

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Hadi's Bill opens doors for disproportionate punishments, constitutional expert says - Malay Mail Online

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) Three juveniles have been sentenced for setting a fire last June at the former Massachusetts Career Development Institute building; a fire that injured five Springfield firefighters.

All three suspects pleaded guilty to charges of breaking and entering and setting the fire. Two of them are serving sentences in juvenile detention, while the third suspect was convicted as an adult, and will serve 2 years in jail. Their names have not been released because they are juveniles.

According to Jennifer Mieth, spokesperson for the state Department of Fire Services, the fire was set in a pile of carpet samples and other debris on the second floor of the Wilbraham Avenue building. The fire is believed to have been smoldering for a while before the structure became engulfed in flames.

Five firefighters were injured in the effort to put out the fire, which lasted for about a days time. Springfield Fire Commissioner Joseph Conant says that one of the injured firefighters remains out of work at this time.

Arson fires are never victimless crimes. Tax revenues, business opportunities, and the entire sense of community are damaged, State Fire Marshal Peter Ostroskey said in a news release sent to 22News. As this case indicates, vacant building fires are one of the most dangerous types of fires for firefighters.

According to the Massachusetts Fire Incident Reporting System, a firefighter is hurt in one out of every seven fires in vacant buildings, compared to one out of every 44 structure fires in general.

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3 juveniles sentenced for starting fire at MCDI in Springfield - wwlp.com

It is fly-tipping in Shropshire on a scale that is hardly believable.

This is land owned by Network Rail in Telford, a disused railway line that has become an unofficial dumping ground.

Teddy bears, food packaging and even family photos cover the pathways off the A4169, near Horsehay.

The rubbish continues as far as the eye can see, a mountain that would have taken dozens of lorry loads to fill.

Today police and the Environmental Agency said it is investigating to find out where the mountain of trash has come from so that they can find those responsible. That means searching through the rubbish for clues, including addresses on discarded bills.

The track is near to a signal box run by Telfords Steam Railway, although the line itself is maintained by National Rail.

Simon Masters, a spokesman for the company, said flytipping causes a great amount of misery.

Network Rail is supporting the various authorities investigating these incidents of fly-tipping to establish the circumstances surrounding them and who is responsible, he said.

The investigation is currently ongoing so it would not be appropriate to comment further on these incidents.

However, fly-tipping may appear to be a victim-less crime, but it isnt. It causes a great amount of misery to those who live nearby as well as costing the taxpayer tens of thousands of pounds in clean-up costs.

Paul Hughes, chairman of the Telford Steam Railway, said it was during a routine inspection that he and his colleagues came across the mess.

Theres not a lot of flytipping in the area, but someones obviously just seen it as a quiet opportunity and have gone for it.

It has to be a commercial activity. This isnt someone dumping a bit of rubbish or just clearing their garage out theres tons and tons of it.

When we found it, I had a quick look through and it must have been dropped by a proper refuse vehicle. It was the middle of winter and it stunk there was literally steam coming off it.

Shropshire has some beautiful country lanes. With sofa beds dumped in them. Or other dumped items which somebody, somewhere, cant be bothered to dispose of properly.

You can see some of the latest examples of this rural blight in pictures we carry today.

A disused railway line at Horsehay in Telford is taking on the appearance of a council rubbish tip. What would otherwise be a pleasant area of paths among trees is being destroyed by a mountain of trash. The land is owned by Network Rail, which is the immediate victim of this anti-social behaviour.

Paul Hughes, chairman of the Telford Steam Railway attraction not far away, who came across the mess during a routine inspection with his colleagues, says the dumping is on such a scale that it has to be a commercial activity, and he thinks it must have been dropped by a proper refuse vehicle.

If he is right, it elevates this dumping up the scale of seriousness. It is not a lazy slob or two, which would be bad enough, but potentially corporate crime on an industrial scale.

There is a double cost. The first is that it ruins the countryside. The second is the cost of clearing it all up, which ultimately falls back on the public.

So what is to be done? Making an appeal to the better nature of the culprits will probably not work. If they do not care what anybody thinks about what they do, they are not going to care about appeals to them to stop what they are doing.

What they do care about is exposure to public contempt and being hit in the pocket hard, as presumably a lot of the motivation in dumping the stuff in the first place was it was a cheaper and easier option.

The anger and condemnation directed towards those responsible has to be backed up by a serious attempt to detect them and bring them to book. As what they are doing takes place in areas which are quiet, and so there are not likely to be witnesses, the difficulty in catching the dumpers is apparent.

But surely there must be some people who have their suspicions, and the dumped material is itself evidence which may give the culprits away in some cases.

It is a chronic problem but a few cases of bringing people to court in high-profile prosecutions might make some offenders think that responsible disposal is the best option after all.

Paul said that it was disgusting that the cost of the clean-up would now have to be picked up by Network Rail. If the Telford Steam Railway had acquired the track as they plan to, it could have easily been them footing the bill.

This is a completely different scale to anything you usually see, he said.

Network Rail will end up footing the bill for that, but it could have been us. Were trying to negotiate taking over that line, and it could have been us at the charity having to pay to tidy it up. This isnt a victimless crime.

It would have been a significant amount of the charitys funds to clear it through as well.

While the flytipping wont cause any problems for the Steam Railways plans to expand the line down to Doseley, the volunteers have been told to stay away from the area for the time being.

Instead their focus will remain on next years Polar Express event, a follow-up to the hugely successful Christmas show they held for the first time in 2016.

Paul said: Were very deep into planning for this years Polar Express. Tickets will go on sale very shortly.

There have been a number of large incidents of flytipping over the last few months, including an eight-tonne pile of rubble on Back Lane, near Newport.

In the early hours of the morning, a car crashed into the industrial mess, but was luckily unhurt.

Earlier this year, figures revealed that Shropshires two main councils had not issued any fines for fly-tipping since they were given new powers for on the spot penalties.

Shropshire Council and Telford & Wrekin Council represent more than half the English local authorities who responded to a Freedom of Information request that had not used the powers which allow them to issue fixed penalty notices for smaller cases of fly-tipping.

Shropshire Council said many individuals have received written warnings for various environmental crimes when witnessed by council officers and that fixed penalty notices would only be issued after further investigation.

Telford & Wrekin Council said it had issued scores of fines for littering and dog fouling over the past year and would look to make use of the new legislation for fly-tipping over the coming months.

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Teddy bears, food packaging and family photos: The huge illegal ... - shropshirestar.com