Category Archives: Victimless Crimes

Mount Vernons news coverage of the sexual battery and indecency charges against former deputy Jason Hess failed us.

The county prosecutor reportedly commented that Hesss case was dropped because witnesses did not stay in touch. This was outright victim blaming. But Knox Pages did not ask whether prosecutors offer victims protection if they testify publicly against law enforcement officers, or report how Knox County showed indifference to Hesss victims. Signs of such indifference included:

Women at the jail reported that Hess bought oral sex from and exposed himself to inmates. But at a 2018 disciplinary hearing, the sheriffs office only established that Hess gave his phone number to inmates. They accepted Hess resignation on a technical violation of department policy, never mind sexual exploitation. Indeed, although reported incidents dated back to 2015, the sheriff only responded after the Prison Rape Elimination Act hotline alerted federal authorities.

During the 2019 criminal proceedings, the court allowed Hess to postpone his hearing numerous times. After nearly a year of postponements, Hess planned to plead guilty. He only withdrew his guilty plea the morning of his scheduled hearing.

Finally, Hess only spent one day in jail because his bond was set at 10% of $10,000. This was light for a sexual battery charge. Women charged for victimless drug crimes can have bonds of $20,000-250,000. Such women spend 4-8 months in jail awaiting trial before their charges are dismissed.

Knox Pages also did not follow up on the prosecutors claim that Hess misdemeanor convictions werent worth prosecuting. Felony convictions matter more in some cases (Ohio typically only decertifies officers for felonies). But misdemeanor convictions are not meaningless. Disciplinary records and dismissed charges can be expunged. This means Hess could get rehired as a law enforcement officer. A misdemeanor conviction would show up if anyone in Ohio searched Hess, and it would be hard to expunge because Hess committed a sex crime.

If the municipal prosecutor does not pick up the misdemeanor charges against Hess, it will reinforce what the witnesses in this case knew: No one will make an example ofHess because incarcerated womenssafety doesnt matter to Knox County. The next time they are victimized (and there is always a next time), they will be just as terrified and distrusting of the criminal justice system as they were this time. Local news that fails to hold local law enforcement accountable will share responsibility for that tragedy.

Christina Hambleton

Mount Vernon

Our stories will always be free to read, but they aren't free to produce. We need your support. To help our news organization tell Knox County's story every day, join our team. Become a member today.

More here:

Local news must do better at speaking truth to power: The Jason Hess case - knoxpages.com

A TD has blasted freed banker fraudster David Drumms early release from prison and declared: Ireland is a soft touch for white collar crime.

The disgraced former Anglo Irish Bank chief walked out of jail this week after serving just two years and eight months of his six-year sentence for a conspiracy to commit a 7.2billion banking fraud.

2

2

The 54-year-old only spent seven months in Dublins Mountjoy before being moved to Loughan House, an open prison in Blacklion, Co Cavan.

Shamed scammer Drumm got close to the maximum time possible slashed off his stint in jail after availing of an early release scheme.

The sentence worked out at less than four-and-a-half months behind bars here for every 1billion that Drumm conspired to defraud from Anglo under his watch.

Despite his role in Irelands most spectacular corporate collapse, Drumm who was granted free legal aid for his fraud trial retains the financial firepower to start afresh.

He will be able to keep his 4.4million pension he still has from Anglo as it is protected under Irish law even though he owes at least 13million to creditors.

And as Irish taxpayers are saddled with the 30billion-plus bill to bail out toxic Anglo, the former lag will be able to enjoy life at his familys swish home worth over 400,000 in Skerries, north Co Dublin.

Deputy Peadar Toibin last night took a swipe at how white-collar criminals like Drumm are treated in Ireland.

And the Aontu leader highlighted how hundreds of thousands of people have suffered over the ex-chief execs disastrous tenure at the helm of Anglo.

Toibin told us: People will be stunned around the country at the leniency afforded to David Drumm.

The 7billion-plus conspiracy to defraud and false account are not victimless crimes. There is an enormous cost to the actions and decisions taken and made by David Drumm.

It is no exaggeration to say that hundreds of thousands of people have suffered significantly from the economic devastation that was caused by David Drumms decisions.

"We cannot be soft on white collar crime as a nation if we are to have any chance of rooting it out.

Two years and eight months in prison in Ireland, most of which was spent in a low security open prison will be seen, as not much to pay for the enormity of this crime. Drumm walked from Loughan House on Monday morning getting a whopping 50 per cent off his sentence.

He was granted early temporary release in return for doing unpaid community service work.

But the Irish Sun revealed how Drumm has avoided doing the graft as the unpaid work part of the Community Return Scheme is suspended under Level 5 Covid restrictions.

Reacting to our revelations, Toibin said: It is unbelievable.

Now we hear that the unpaid work each week on a community service site, the reason in part for the short sentence, does not have to be done due to Covid. This is outrageous.

Why not postpone it until it becomes doable? This will confirm the suspicions of many that Ireland is a soft touch for white collar crime.Under the Community Return Scheme, prisoners who meet certain criteria are given early temporary release in return for doing unpaid community service work.

Latest

covid latest696 new cases and one further Covid related death confirmed in Ireland

fraudsters nabbedCork couple who bought homeless people's PPS numbers for fraud jailed

class warningExpert warns schools are not safe environments 'unless the community is safe'

judge orderSon who killed mum in drug-fuelled 'frenzied knife attack' still risk to public

PURE EVILParents boiled baby to death in bath water as punishment for soiling her nappy

GUN ATTACKMan who was shot a number of times in Dublin gun attack last year dies

But Drumm has swerved that obligation due to the pandemic. Instead he only has to answer the phone on his designated work days, confirming his availability and ongoing commitment to participate in the scheme.

Drumm was sentenced to six years in prison in June 2018 for conspiracy to defraud and for false accounting.

He was also handed a suspended term of 15 months for his role in an illegal 2008 loans-for-shares plan.

Read more:

TD blasts David Drumms early release from prison saying Ireland is soft touch for white collar crime - The Irish Sun

Like any household where an abusive patriarch intoxicated by his own absolute power has exited after beating up his family, we are all breathing a collective sigh of relief.

The civil servants mostly of color have cleaned up all of the excrement and graffiti in the marbled hallways of the Capitol built by their slave ancestors that was left by Trumps army of neo-Confederates that killed a police officer in the name of their uncivil war.

Its tempting to only focus on the reassuring avuncular presence of President Joe Biden, who is working overtime to restore that sense of basic decency thats been lacking for so long.

Like the family thats returned from vacation to find a ransacked home, we still have yet to compose an accurate inventory of what was stolen. Are the crooks still in the basement? Are the pets still alive? Is great grandmas wedding ring where Mom left it?

We were so distracted by his frontal violent assault on our Capitol by his minions, we failed to properly account for hisout the doorcrime wave committed in the final hours of his presidency with his pardoning of 70 people and commuting the sentences of another 73.

As Trump and his posse gallop for the swamps of Florida, we need to put the blood hounds on the scent given off by the stench of so many of these pardons.

We need the names of the facilitating law firms and lawyers cross referenced with their corporate client so there can be a proper accounting.

No doubt, there will be some on the list that were meritorious, righting by executive action true miscarriages of justice.

As could be expected, health care fraudsters with Jersey connections made Trumps rogues gallery roll call.

While our elected politicians all wonder aloud whats to account for our stark race-based health/wealth inequalities revealed by COVID-19, they should read their rap sheets to get a clue.

One of those who benefited from a Trump commutation was Dr. Salomon Melgen, a Florida ophthalmologist, who was a major campaign donor to Senator Bob Menendez, and got a 17-year federal sentence for his conviction in a $73 million Medicare fraud case.Now, thanks to support from Menendez and dozens of others he gets 13 years shaved off his sentence.

In 2015, Menendez was indicted on federal corruption charges. The DOJalleged that between 2006 and 2013, he had taken close to $1 million worth of lavish gifts and campaign contributions from Melgen in exchange for using the power of his Senate office to influence the outcome of ongoing contractual and Medicare billing disputes worth tens of millions of dollars to Melgen and to support the visa applications of several of Melgens girlfriends.

In 2017, a hung jury resulted in a mistrial and prosecutors opted to not retry the case, but Menendez bootstrapped that into a kind of exoneration.

He cast himself as a victim.

I want to thank the jury, 12 New Jerseyans who saw through the governments false claims and used their Jersey common sense to reject it, Menendez told reporters, Politico reported.

The way this case started was wrong, the way it was investigated was wrong, the way it was prosecuted was wrong, and the way it was tried was wrong as well, he said. Certain elements of the FBI and of our state cannot understand or, even worse, accept that the Latino kid from Union City and Hudson County can grow up and be a U.S. senator and be honest.

Throughout his Melgen tribulation the leadership of New Jerseys Democratic establishment rallied around him with the same partisan blindness displayed by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy for Trump.

Yet, what the jury could not see his Senate colleagues did.

In April of 2018 Menendez was severely admonished by the bi-partisanU.S. Senate Select Committee on Ethicsfor over a six-year period taking and not disclosing gifts of significant value from Dr. Melgen while at the same time using his position as a member of the Senate to advance Dr. Melgens personal and business interests.

Lost in all of this was just how awful were Melgens offenses. These were not some kind of white-collar victimless violations. There was real flesh and blood to these crimes.

All too often when we see a headline like $73 million Medicare fraud our jaundiced eyes glaze over. Here in the Soprano state that could be just a couple of municipal bond offerings or the proceeds from a few big pharma insider stock tips.

But Dr. Melgen, one of the nations most prolific Medicare billers in his day, was so much more industrious and disciplined in his efforts that it merits closer examination and appreciation.

The enterprising Melgen specialized in treating macular degeneration, the major cause of vision loss for people 50 or over.

According to Judge Kenneth Marra, who presided over Melgens sentencing, his practice was conducted in a manner where he routinely, and as a matter of standard practice, diagnosed patients with medical conditions they did not have in order to allow him to bill for diagnostic procedures and medical services that were not medically necessary or justified.

Judge Marra continued. Specifically, the Court finds that Defendant routinely falsely diagnosed patients with either wet or dry Age-Related Macular Degeneration. This mis-diagnosis allowed Defendant routinely and as a matter of standard practice to subject his patients to medically unjustified procedures and treatment, and then fraudulently bill for those procedures.

All totaled, theMiami Heraldreported prosecutors proved that about 77 percent of Melgens wet macular degeneration and 61.8 percent of his dry macular degeneration diagnoses were unsupported by medical records.

But that wasnt all.

Melgen was also tagged by federal regulators for usingsingle vialsofLucentis, a drug that is injected in the eye to slow the loss of eyesight related to diabetes, to treatthreepatients despite the fact a vial is prescribedto be used on a single patient. Not only did this scam net Melgen a huge windfall but, according to the Centers for Disease Control drug guidelines, put his own patients at risk ofinfection.

The Palm Beach Postquoted Dr. Robert Bergen, a retired New Jersey retinal specialist who reviewed for prosecutors the charts of over 300 of Melgens patients. He said that Melgen was notorious in the world of specialty eye medicine. Everybody knew about this guy, Bergen told the paper after he testified Melgens treatment of his patients was totally disgraceful.

Its the most egregious example of totally taking advantage of patients, not caring about diagnosing them properly, it was the antitheses of what a decent physician should do, said Bergen.

As federal health regulators were zeroing in on Melgen, Menendez appealed for intervention with his Senate colleagues and the Secretary of Health and Human Services for a re-interpretation of the regulations under which the government was pursuing Melgen.

It wasPalm Beach Postcolumnist Frank Cerabino who seemed to see the scale of the miscarriage of justice with Trumps commutation clearest.

It wasnt just the tens of millions of dollars that Melgen had bilked from taxpayers, wrote Cerabino. That was bad enough. But not the heart of it.

Cerabino continues. There was an element of unnecessary physical pain for those unsuspecting patients who had to endure Melgens self-enriching, medically dubious eye treatments, which included eye injections and retinal laser blasts.

The Palm Beach Post columnist points out the treatments were described at trial by expert witnesses as elder abuse,unconscionable and horrifying.

Thats the guy who needs to be set free? asked Cerabino. The guy who found a way to get rich by mistreating old peoples eyes?

Evidently the suffering of Melgens army of unsuspecting elderly patients was of no consequence for Menendez, who according to his statement after the commutation was still willing to use his influence for the wayward eye doctor.

Months ago, I was asked if I could offer insight about an old friend, and I did, along with what I understand were more than 100 individuals and organizations, including his former patients and local Hispanic groups familiar with Sals leadership and philanthropy in the South Florida community, Menendez said in a statement.

The blind spot endures.

(Visited 739 times, 27 visits today)

View original post here:

The Blind Spot Endures: A Profile of Just One of Trump's Last Minute Intercessions - InsiderNJ

Ransomware continues to cause damage across the world. Rarely a week goes by without another company, or city, or hospital, falling prey to the gangs who will encrypt the data across PCs and networks and demand thousands or millions in exchange for setting it free.

These aren't victimless crimes; every successful attack means a company faces huge costs and risks being pushed out of business, or public services disrupted just when we need them, or medical services put in jeopardy in the middle of a crisis.

And yet it seems impossible to stop the attacks or catch the gangs. That's because the ongoing success of ransomware reflects many of the real-world failings of technology that we often forget or gloss over.

SEE: Network security policy (TechRepublic Premium)

There are obvious, fundamental weaknesses that ransomware exploits. In some cases these are problems that have existed for years, that the tech industry has failed to address; others are issues that are, right now, beyond the skills of the smartest entrepreneurs who want to tackle cybersecurity challenges.

A few examples spring to mind. Hackers would be unable to gain even their first foothold if companies took security seriously. That means applying patches to vulnerable software when they are issued, not months or years later (or never). Equally, companies wouldn't be on the tedious treadmill of applying constant security updates if the tech industry shipped software code that was secure in the first place.

And while we tend to think of the borderless world of the internet, the real world of geopolitics looms large when it comes to ransomware as many of these gangs operate from countries that have no interest in catching such crooks or handing them over to police in other jurisdictions. In some cases that's because the ransomware gangs are bringing in much needed funds for the country; in other cases so long as the gangs aren't going after local victims, the authorities are quietly happy for them to create havoc elsewhere.

It's not all doom and gloom; the fight back against ransomware is advancing on a few fronts.

Intel has showcased some new hardware-level technologies that it says will be able to detect a ransomware attack that antivirus alone might miss.

SEE: Cybersecurity: This 'costly and destructive' malware is the biggest threat to your network

A group of tech companies including Microsoft, Citrix and FireEye are working on a three-month project to come up with options that they promise will "significantly mitigate" the ransomware threat by identifying different ways of stopping such attacks. And more political pressure should be put on the nation states that are happy to let ransomware gangs flourish within their borders.

There is also a need to put more pressure on governments to look at whether, and in what circumstances, it should be acceptable to pay the ransom at all. Profit is the only reason that ransomware exists; if it is possible to stop the gangs from making their big payday, then the problem goes away almost immediately.

Everyone seems to agree that ransomware is a menace that can no longer be ignored. Now we need to see some tangible progress before these attacks create more chaos.

View post:

Ransomware reveals the hidden weakness of our big tech world - ZDNet

As of March 1, if you live in Virginia, you will be able to cross the street anywhere in the middle of a block, 100 yards from a crosswalk, as clumsily and unpredictably as you wish without having to worry much about getting in trouble with the law. Jaywalking, while technically still illegal, will be decriminalized throughout the state.

It would seem to be a sensible move. In Virginia, as in most of the country, jaywalking has long been punishable by a fine but very rarely enforced. A penalty that is invoked sporadically and capriciously is not fair to those who get socked with it, as state and federal courts have declared many times.

In the case of jaywalking, however, there is another principle involved. Studies in a number of states have shown that when a pedestrian does get a ticket for crossing in the wrong place, it is disproportionately likely to be a person of color. This is not a small disproportion. A study in 2019 in New York City found that Blacks and Hispanics had been getting 90 percent of the tickets for "illegal or unsafe" crossing, even though they comprised just a bare majority of the city's population. Earlier research in Florida reported that minorities in Jacksonville received three times as many pedestrian tickets as white people did.

That in itself isn't airtight evidence of discrimination. Minorities may, in fact, do more jaywalking. But they may also have a reason. If you walk down any one of thousands of suburban highway strips in America and especially in the South, traversing long corridors in minority neighborhoods, you will find crosswalks few and far between. If you're carrying a load of groceries, maybe holding a child's hand at the same time, and the nearest crosswalk is half a mile away, you shouldn't be blamed too severely if you dart across in the middle of the road.

For decades in this country, California was the national capital of jaywalking enforcement. It wasn't unknown for Californians or especially visitors ignorant of the law to get a ticket just for taking a few steps into the street when the traffic light was red. You could end up paying the Golden State $196.

And indeed, California's get-tough approach did seem to have an impact. Given that it is perhaps the nation's most car-obsessed state, its figures for pedestrian injuries were comparatively low. But not any more. The number of pedestrian fatalities on California streets and highways went up by 26 percent between 2014 and 2018, and this was as the state was implementing a "Vision Zero" program aimed at reducing the number of traffic deaths.

What's happened in California has been happening in the rest of the country as well. Between 2007 and 2016, pedestrian traffic deaths shot up 27 percent. They went up three percent from 2017 to 2018 alone. It's true that more pedestrians are hit at crosswalks, often by drivers making left turns, than are hit while jaywalking. But jaywalking collisions are much more likely to kill people.

JAYWALKING MAY NOT BE AMERICA'S MOST SERIOUS PUBLIC PROBLEM, but it brings up a whole series of larger questions. What if the decriminalization of jaywalking leads increased numbers of people to be more nonchalant when they cross dangerous streets? And much more broadly, how much authority should governments have to protect people misbehaving in ways that are, in most cases, dangerous only to themselves?

The first objection can be disposed of fairly easily. Virtually no one thinks the police are going to punish them when they cross a street illegally, so it's extremely unlikely that they will change their behavior when criminal punishment is wiped off the books altogether. But the larger issue remains a compelling one. If a citizen takes an action that is unlikely to harm anyone else, what sort of retribution if any is appropriate? The argument that punishment for these actions is wrong has been bouncing around this country's legal system for two centuries. It is probably more fashionable in libertarian circles right now than it has been in the past.

The problem is that many actions said to be "victimless" aren't really victimless at all. Drivers may claim an absolute right not to wear a seat belt, but failure to do so costs American taxpayers billions of dollars every year in medical bills. Marijuana may be a harmless pleasure or it may not but the use of opioids and other hard drugs impose massive costs on the entire society. Right at this moment, there is the issue of masks. Millions of angry dissidents claim the right to go maskless when they are out in public, but the evidence is overwhelming that they jeopardize the lives of all those they come into contact with. Mask defiance is a major reason more than 360,000 Americans have died from the coronavirus since the beginning of last year.

If you start combing the statute books for truly victimless crimes, you will find scarcely any, even ones that passionate libertarians insist on defending. There is, of course, one powerful exception: consensual sex among adults. Sexual encounters of various kinds were once punished severely in almost every state, but society has come a long way from that era, and we are all better off for it.

Even on this subject, however, there are complications. AIDS was, until recently, one of them. Sexually free-wheeling bathhouses in American cities were death chambers in the 1980s, spreading a then-incurable disease to thousands of customers, many of whom did not know they were risking their lives. Did public authorities in these cities have a right to close the bathhouses down? That's a troubling question some did close them down, and some didn't.

LURKING BEHIND ALL OF THIS is the eternal issue of alcohol. No one can claim that drinking is a victimless crime. In the past century, alcohol abuse has claimed many more lives than AIDS and COVID-19 combined. But Prohibition was a massive national failure. The fact is that it actually did reduce the level of drinking in America in the 1920s, and thereby saved significant numbers of lives, but it also gave us an organized-crime problem that remains with us a century later. Drinking is in no way a victimless crime, but a substantial majority of the American people believe they are harming no one by doing it. Against massive opposition and widespread willingness to flout the law, the state simply lacks the power to impose stringent behavioral rules. That's one overriding lesson that Prohibition taught us.

A couple of years ago, the District of Columbia city council changed the rules on a category of offenses that many of its members called "minor" but which were in fact a bit more ethically complicated than jaywalking. The council passed a bill that drastically reduced the penalties for fare-jumping slipping through gates at Metro stations to avoid paying the fare. The council majority mainly argued that the existing penalties discriminated against minorities, who were being caught and punished in numbers beyond their share of the population. Mayor Muriel Bowser vetoed the bill, pointing out forcefully that no matter who the perpetrators might be, jumping the gates was a genuine crime that deprived the transit system of badly needed revenue and insulted millions of law-abiding fare-payers. But the council overrode her and the bill became law.

The background to this event was a growing revolt among Black activists against the "broken-windows" policing that had taken hold in many American cities over the previous couple of decades, policing that cracked down on allegedly small offenses, including fare-jumping, graffiti-tagging and petty vandalism, that graduated to serious crimes when the offenders saw that they weren't being punished. There is no question that broken-windows policing seriously inflated the number of young African-American men incarcerated all over the country, and it helped to generate militant protest movements such as Black Lives Matter. There is also little question that it contributed to a substantial decline in violent crime rates in virtually all large American cities, and especially New York, where it was practiced most aggressively and where it produced the angriest outrage.

SO WHAT'S THE RIGHT STAND to take on this whole raft of "minor" offenses, few of which are truly victimless but some of which may ultimately generate punishments more dangerous to society than the offenses themselves? I think there's only one good answer: Don't start by thinking of individual rights; start by thinking about consequences.

That sort of approach yields different answers in different circumstances. We have decided as a society that nearly all sexual practices among consenting adults generate no negative consequences anywhere near as bad as the results of punishing them (although we make exceptions for incest and bigamy). We have also decided that failure to drive with seat belts does more than enough harm to justify laws penalizing the practice. We are deeply divided on the consequences of criminalizing a wide range of narcotic drugs, and we are still divided on requiring masks in the midst of a pandemic, although majority opinion is on the side of mandating the masks in public.

So where does that leave jaywalking? It's clearly not a heinous crime, but it does increase the number of pedestrian deaths in the United States by a substantial amount each year. I think that, in the end, we have to treat it like Prohibition. Most of us will continue to do it, there is no practical way of enforcing laws against it consistently, and so the right course is probably to let all of us walk or run across the street wherever and whenever we please. Just look both ways before you do it.

More here:

Jaywalking and the Dilemma of Victimless Crimes - Governing

Michael Bubl,pop superstar and secret vandal, often carries a magic marker when he goes grocery shoppingthe better to alter cans of Bubly, replacing the y on the end with an e so the product becomes his namesake.

The Canadian singer confessed his cheeky (and victimless) crimes during the announcement Tuesday of a deal between Bubly and SodaStream, with six Bubly-branded flavors now available to spike the gadgets sparkling water.

I have a mask on to be Covid-safe, he said during an afternoon virtual press gathering. So maybe no one knows its me. But Ill write on Bubly cans in stores.

Call it life imitating art.

Bubl, who started playfully defacing Bubly packages in a 2019 Super Bowl ad, stars in a 30-second spot for the Bubly x SodaStream partnership, which extends the years-long joke into 2021.

I thought it would be one cool, great Super Bowl ad. I had no idea that three years later, Id still be doing it.

Michael Bubl

Bubl, according to the new work, still cant separate his name from the Bubly line. In introducing the new flavor drops, Bubl repeatedly mispronounces Bublybooh-blay instead of bubbly-as an exasperated director calls cut.

In a chat with Adweek, Bubl said that poking fun at his unique surname has always been part of the marketing since early in his career. He was so in love with the initial Bubly ad concept from Goodby Silverstein & Partners that hes happy to continue playing along.

I thought it would be one cool, great Super Bowl ad, he said. I had no idea that three years later, Id still be doing it. Its been so much fun, and its all done with self-deprecating humor.

The new commercial, which launches Wednesday, touts the first co-branded North American project between SodaStream and Bubly, siblings in the PepsiCo family. Bryan Welsh, general manager of SodaStreams U.S. division, said he thinks the collaboration will give existing customers a chance to experiment and have fun and attract potential new buyers.

If someones been on the fence about buying into the platform, it gives them a reason to try it, he said. We think itll build the business.

SodaStream has an existing line of fruit drops, but Welsh said the Bubly product will provide a wider variety for consumers who want to personalize their drinks. Bubly Drops are rolling out at a mix of traditional retail (Target) and ecommerce platforms (Amazon).

The good-for-you water industry is booming, he said, with an 84% year-over-year growth in sparkling water makers and a 21% jump in beverages on the market, accelerated by demand from health-conscious consumers during quarantine.

Having some points of differentiation, like customizable flavors, is key. (A six-pack of Bubly Drops include mango, grapefruit and lime, with no calories, sweeteners or artificial flavors). At-home consumption has never been higher, he said, and people are looking to have a little fun with their everyday products.

Sustainability is even more top of mind with consumers, he said, with SodaStream use replacing 8 billion plastic bottles in 2020. The Israeli company, acquired by PepsiCo in 2018, often leans into its eco-friendly message and made it the centerpiece of its Super Bowl 2020 ad starring beloved scientist Bill Nye and astronaut Alyssa Carson. Despite the popularity of that spot, dubbed Water on Mars, execs say the brand wont return to the Big Game this year.

View post:

Michael Bubl Touts New Bubly Deal With SodaStream, Still Insists Its Named After Him - Adweek

MITIE SECURITY has joined forces with independent charity Crimestoppers in an innovative new partnership designed to help keep communities and businesses across the UK safe from crime and wrongdoing.

The newly-forged agreement will see the organisations working together to share information on criminal behaviour gathered by businesses, which can then feed into police service investigations. Mitie is the first security company to form such a partnership with Crimestoppers, thereby demonstrating its stated commitment to bridge the gap between the public and private sectors in order to help keep people, customers and communities safe and secure.

The Crimestoppers charity encourages people and organisations to anonymously share information that helps to prevent and solve crime. As well as receiving information from members of the public, Crimestoppers also works with a number of private and public sector organisations among them businesses, trusts and foundations on public awareness campaigns.

This new partnership with Mitie will be the first time the charity has worked with a security organisation to tackle crime and keep communities safe. Given that Mitie Security harbours hundreds of customers on its schedule spanning every sector, this collaboration will also help to create new relationships between Crimestoppers and businesses that have not worked together before.

With the partnership focused on thought leadership and knowledge sharing, Mitie will use its suite of technology solutions and work closely with its clients to bring together relevant anonymous data on criminal behaviour and create incident reports. This evidence will then be shared with local police forces to support their investigations and help keep criminals off the streets.

Global Security Operations Service

The partnership is underpinned by Mities Global Security Operations Service (GSOS), its dedicated technology and intelligence-led security solution. Through the GSOS, Mitie brings together the latest technology, 20,000 security officers and a team of intelligence experts and analysts, in turn creating a 360-degree approach towards security.

From businesses in villages through to farms, rural crime affects thousands of people and communities across the UK countryside. Mitie will work with Crimestoppers to create a dedicated Rural Crime Steering Committee designed to address this issue. Alongside Mitie, Crimestoppers and relevant police forces, the Steering Committees members will include other organisations with a significant rural presence, such as Police Crime Prevention Initiatives and the National Farmers Union. Bringing their own expertise and experience, members of the Steering Committee will collaborate to develop strategies to tackle rural crimes, such as theft and property damage, that cost families and businesses millions of pounds every year.

Mitie will also use its experience gained from delivering security services to hundreds of public and private sector clients to provide Crimestoppers with insights on the key security issues that businesses and communities are currently facing. Working closely with the Home Office, Crimestoppers will then use this information to create national awareness campaigns that assist in tackling these challenges.

Jason Towse, managing director of business services at Mitie, commented: Were very excited to be teaming up with Crimestoppers in this ground-breaking partnership. Whether youre talking about individuals or businesses, crime is never victimless. Were committed to bridging the gap between the public and private security sectors to help keep our clients safe, as well as the communities where we operate. By working collaboratively with other key stakeholders in the security industry, including renowned organisations such as Crimestoppers, we can all play a vital role in helping to keep criminals off the streets.

Working in collaboration

Mark Hallas OBE, CEO at Crimestoppers, responded: One of the most powerful things we can do in responding to the continual changing face of crime is to work collaboratively. Im delighted that weve formed this unique partnership with Mitie Security which will make a difference in tackling wrongdoing. Crimestoppers has been giving people the ability to speak up 100% anonymously about crime since the independent charity started life over 33 years ago. Providing this opportunity to share knowledge helps build confidence in communities, which then ultimately leads to greater safety and security for us all.

Crimestoppers 0800 555 111 telephone number and website (crimestoppers-uk.org) gives people the power to speak up and pass on information about crime 100% anonymously.

Alongside its national campaigns, the organisation engages hundreds of volunteers across the UK who help it promote its services to those that need to hear about them. Indeed, every region of the UK boasts a Crimestoppers team responsible for raising awareness of the charity and running local campaigns about issues that affect their area.

In point of fact, circa ten people are arrested and charged every day as a result of information given to Crimestoppers. Since its inception, Crimestoppers has received over 2.2 million actionable calls resulting in more than 151,000 arrests and charges. Upwards of 139 million worth of stolen goods have been recovered and over 367 million worth of illegal drugs seized.

Back in 2005, Crimestoppers launched the UKs Most Wanted initiative on its website which allows the public to view images of criminals and pass on vital information about their potential whereabouts. This initiative has been highly successful, with over 4,300 arrests made to date.

Originally posted here:

Mitie partners with Crimestoppers in bid to ramp up community safety across UK - Fire and Security Matters

You might have missed it amid all the shouting about the 2020 election, but the most populous county in the United States will now have a reform-minded district attorney.

Challenger George Gascn beat incumbent Jackie Lacey 5446 percent in November to become the top prosecutor of Los Angeles County, which has a population of 10 million. It was the most significant win of the cycle for criminal justice reformers who in recent years have focused on local prosecutor races.

D.A.s wield an enormous amount of power and discretion in the criminal justice system, deciding which crimes to prioritize, how to charge defendants, and whether to seek high bail amounts. During the last few election cycles, a wave of well-funded progressive candidates have run for prosecutor's offices in major cities, turning what were once sleepy races into hotly contested battles over criminal justice reform.

The L.A. district attorney race was one of the most closely watched in the country. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has been beset with accusations of misconduct, secrecy, and excessive force. Black Lives Matter activists criticized Lacey for failing to prosecute fatal police shootings. Gascn, who was San Francisco County's district attorney until 2019, has promised to reopen investigations into killings by police, focus on rehabilitation and drug treatment rather than incarceration, eschew much-abused penalty enhancements for defendants who allegedly belong to gangs, and refrain from seeking the death penalty.

"I think that this has been a campaign that has been driven by passion, by an honest commitment to reimagine our criminal justice system, moving away from punishment," Gascn told the local ABC station. "It's really about redemption."

Gascn wasn't the only prosecutor to win office with promises to change the status quo. Voters in Austin, Texas, and Orlando, Florida, elected two former defense attorneys to be their top prosecutors.

In Austin, Jos Garza is the new Travis County district attorney.The Appealreported that his platform included declining to prosecute drug cases involving simple possession or the sale of less than a gram, "a policy that would effectively decriminalize small quantities of any controlled substance in Austin."

That move would go further to decriminalize drugs than Dallas and Bexar counties, where district attorneys said they would stop prosecuting people for possessing trace amounts of drugs such as heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine.

In Orlando, Monique Worrell will be the next state attorney for Orange and Osceola counties. Worrell's campaign platform included ending cash bail, using incarceration only as a last resort, limiting cases in which juveniles are charged as adults, and creating a special investigations unit focused on criminal accusations against police.

"We will seek incarceration only when it is absolutely necessary to protect the physical safety of others or when all other interventions have failed," Worrell's campaign website said. "We will generally not request prison sentences for drug and other victimless offenses, unless unusual and extreme circumstances are present."

In Honolulu, Hawaii, a retired judge was elected district attorney on a promise to clean up the office. The incumbent Honolulu prosecutor was on paid leave between November 2018 and September 2020 amid an FBI investigation into local corruption.

Cook County, Illinois, State Attorney Kim Foxx, who in 2016 became one of the first reform candidates to take over a major metropolitan prosecutor's office, cruised to reelection. Her office, whose jurisdiction includes Chicago, has undertaken an unprecedented transparency initiative, releasing detailed data on its charging decisions and outcomes.

Meanwhile, the race for New Orleans D.A. was set to be decided by a December 5 runoff between two candidates who both have pledged to reform the office to -differing degrees. The Orleans Parish District Attorney's Office became a high-priority target for criminal justice reformers after 12-year incumbent Leon Cannizzaro announced that he would not seek reelection.

The American Civil Liberties Union in 2017 sued Cannizzaro's office over its practice of sending fake subpoenas to crime victims and witnesses, and his office once used a habitual offender enhancement to obtain a sentence of 20 years to life for a man convicted of stealing a candy bar. New Orleans will now have a chance to bring its criminal justice system into the 21st century.

Read more from the original source:

District Attorney Candidates Win Big Against 'Tough on Crime' - Reason

Subscribe to The Nation

Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month!

Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month!

Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month!

Covid-19, mass unemployment, police violence, a burning planet, and a defeated president refusing to concede made 2020 the year Americans couldnt wait to end. Yet 2020 also saw a heroic pandemic response by frontline workers, mass protests against systemic racism, and a growing recognition of the necessity for big agendas: cash payments to the unemployed, Medicare for All, and a Green New Deal. The most valuable progressives of 2020 kept hope alive with activism, ideas, and music to inspire transformational change in 2021.1

(Cheriss May / NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Stacey Abrams2

When Abrams announced on December 14 that Georgias 16 electoral votes had been cast for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, applause erupted for the first Democratic presidential win in the state since 1992and for Abrams, the 2018 gubernatorial candidate who had argued all along that voter mobilization could flip swing states against Donald Trump. With her group Fair Fight, Abrams championed voter registration and mobilization drives in Georgia, Wisconsin, and other battleground states. They figured out how to draw new Black, Latinx, and Asian American voters to the polls, circumvent voter suppression, and navigate the challenges of a pandemic election, with a savvy emphasis on mail-in voting, early voting, and safe in-person voting on Election Day that will be a national model going forward. That merits applause. And the cheering will be even louder in 2022 if, as many suspect, Abrams runs for (and wins) Georgias governorship.3

(Jeff Kowalsky / AFP)

Bernie Sanders4

The senator from Vermont didnt receive the Democratic nomination in 2020, as seemed possible after his New Hampshire and Nevada wins briefly made him the front-runner in the primary race. Sanders did, however, play a critical role in securing the presidency for the Democratsworking with Biden to establish unity task forces that framed the partys agenda, and arguing relentlessly that Trump was an existential threat to democracy who must be removed from office. Sanders closed the year with a courageous effort to secure $2,000 checks for Americans who are struggling to get by in a pandemic-ravaged economy. That fight will continue in 2021, and Sanders will no doubt continue to be the Senates boldest battler for economic, social, and racial justice; for the planet; and for peace.5

(Win McNamee / Getty Images)

Ilhan Omar6

As the representative from the Minneapolis district where George Floyds death during a brutal arrest in May sparked nationwide protests, Omar immediately recognized that this police killing of a Black man was part of a broader crisis. We are not merely fighting to tear down the systems of oppression in the criminal justice system, she announced. We are fighting to tear down systems of oppression that exist in housing, in education, in health care, in employment, in the air we breathe. Trump staked his bid to win Minnesota on a campaign that viciously attacked Omars challenge to systemic racism. The congresswoman responded with a turnout drive that boosted Democratic numbers in her district and helped Biden sweep the state.7

(Office of Rashida Tlaib)

Rashida Tlaibs Justice for All Act8

A civil rights lawyer with Detroits Sugar Law Center for Economic & Social Justice before her election to Congress, Tlaib wants to put the teeth back into civil rights laws that have been undermined by conservative courts determined to give corporations and the government a license to discriminate if they just use the right code words and proxies for race, gender, and other aspects of who we are. The Michigan Democrats new Justice for All Act seeks to guarantee that victims of discrimination can vindicate their rights in the courts by restoring and expanding the protections of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Fair Housing Act of 1968, the Age Discrimination Act of 1975, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. National Lawyers Guild president Elena Cohen says legislation like Tlaibs is sorely needed in order to protect all people of this country.9

(Steve Apps / Wisconsin State Journal via AP)

Josh Kaul10

When Trump threatened to use federal agents to crack down on Black Lives Matter protests in cities like Milwaukee, Wisconsins attorney general decried the presidents fascist tactics, including his demonization of immigrants, his attacks on communities with large minority populations and the elected representatives of those communities, the blatantly illegal use of force against protesters near the White House, and the deployment of secret federal police to Portland, Ore. He pledged to take any appropriate legal action to prevent agents from interfering with peaceful protests, stating, I dont use the phrase fascist tactics lightly. But there is no more accurate way to describe this administrations repeated resort to and incitement of racism, xenophobia, and violence.11

If you like this article, please give today to help fund The Nations work.

Native Vote, Menikanaehkem12

Voting is sacred. My people know that. We were not universally granted the right to vote until 1962, said Representative Deb Haaland, a tribal citizen of the Pueblo of Laguna in New Mexico who is now Bidens nominee for interior secretary, speaking at the 2020 Democratic National Convention. Grassroots organizing by groups working in tribal communities and outreach by Every Native Vote Counts, a national campaign of the nonpartisan group Native Votes, boosted turnout in swing states like Arizona and Wisconsin. Wisconsins Menikanaehkem focused on Menominee County, which shares boundaries with the Menominee Indian Reservation. In November, the county saw the sharpest swing to the Democratic ticket of any in the state and produced the highest support for Biden82 percent. Increased turnout by Indigenous voters mattered in Wisconsin, where Democrats won by just 20,682 votes.13

Living United for Change in Arizona (LUCHA)14

Trump won Arizona by more than 90,000 votes in 2016, but he lost it by 10,457 votes in 2020. What changed? The Arizona Republic reported that increased turnout among Latinx voters was critical for Democrats, as 63% of their votes went to Biden and 36% to Trump, according to exit polls. Many unions and grassroots organizations contributed to the turnout spike. One of the most innovative was LUCHA, a group born in the struggle against anti-immigrant laws, which in cooperation with Seed the Vote and Peoples Action embraced an innovative deep-canvassing strategy designed to reach out to undecided and conflicted voters and engage in real conversations. It worked.15

American Constitution Society, Alliance for Justice, Demand Justice16

To counter the Federalist Societys relentless drive to pack the federal bench with right-wing activists, the American Constitution Society, led by former senator Russ Feingold, came up with a plan to jump-start the Biden-Harris administrations judicial selection process. Immediately after the election, the ACS delivered a list of hundreds of qualified prospects that would bring diversity to the courts. The Alliance for Justice, led by nomination expert Nan Aron, and allied groups also provided a list of potential nominees. And Brian Fallon and the crew at Demand Justice were already formulating strategies to get Bidens nominees confirmed.17

Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez18

When former Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, once a key fundraiser and power broker in Bill Clintons administration, was floated for a top job under Biden, Rodriguez, the Chicago alderwoman and member of the City Councils powerful caucus of Democratic Socialists, penned a scathing letter putting him on a DO NOT HIRE list. That letter evolved into a petition to Biden signed by thousands of Chicagoans, which recalled that Emanuel covered up the 2014 police murder of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald and closed 50 elementary schools. The petition stated, If you want to root out systemic racism, defend democracy, and build a society that leaves no one behindall worthy goals mentioned in your victory speechwe can think of few people worse for the job than the man who earned the nickname Mayor 1%. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Representative-elect Jamaal Bowman amplified the themes as the outcry went national. The pushback showed how progressives can and must put pressure on the new administration.19

Get unlimited access: $9.50 for six months.

Representatives Barbara Lee and Mark Pocan and the Defense Spending Reduction Caucus20

Faced with a pandemic and an economic meltdown, Wisconsins Pocan argued in May, Increasing defense spending now would be a slap in the face to the families of [those who] have died from this virus. Pocan and Californias Lee rallied 93 House votes for a July amendment to cut Pentagon spending by 10 percent; Vermonts Bernie Sanders secured 23 Senate votes. Lee and Pocan then formed the Defense Spending Reduction Caucus. Lee, who was recently honored by the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft for her long struggle to move U.S. foreign policy away from endless war and toward vigorous diplomacy, has warned that warped budget priorities harm Black and brown people the most. We cant keep spending billions for weapons while leaving our people defenseless against COVID, she said.21

Fair and Just Prosecution22

The ranks of progressive prosecutors swelled in November with the elections of George Gascon in Los Angeles, Monique Worrell in Orlando, Fla., and Jos Garza in Austin, Tex. Nationwide, innovative district attorneys are generating fresh ideas for police accountability, ending mass incarceration, reforming drug laws, and addressing systemic racism. Fair and Just Prosecution brings them together to share strategies for moving away from past incarceration-driven approaches and advancing new thinking that promotes prevention and diversion and increases fairness.23

(Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)

Bonnie Castillo24

Unions were on the front lines of the pandemic, protecting their members and their communities as Covid-19 swept America. No labor leader battled harder than Castillo, a registered nurse and the executive director of National Nurses United. Starting in January, the union demanded that nurses get protective gear to save their own lives and the lives of their patients. NNU forced hospitals to change policies, demonstrated outside the White House, and kept an eye on the big picture. Explaining that so much injustice in our society is amplified by Covid-19, Castillo decried the racial inequities of a for-profit health care system and championed Medicare for All. As legendary United Farm Workers union leader Dolores Huerta said, Bonnie does not just work to heal patients; she works to heal society.25

Zephyr Teachout, Jennifer Taub, Stephanie Kelton26

Recovery from the many crises of 2020 will require bold thinking, and three great public intellectuals provide it with books that challenge monopoly power, neoliberalism, and corruption. Teachouts Break Em Up: Recovering Our Freedom From Big Ag, Big Tech, and Big Money (All Points Books) argues for trust-busting as a necessary response to inequality, climate change, the consolidation of economic power, and the systemic disenfranchisement of women, immigrants, and people of color. Taubs Big Dirty Money: The Shocking Injustice and Unseen Cost of White Collar Crime (Viking) explains that the crimes of the billionaire class are never victimless. Keltons The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the Peoples Economy (Public Affairs) provides an antidote to deficit hawks who claim theres not enough money for Medicare for All and a Green New Deal.27

Amy Hanauer28

Since taking over in 2019 as executive director of Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, Hanauer has been calling out the economic fallacies that pass for policy in Washington. When Senate Republicans gamed the Covid-19 relief debates, Hanauer warned, Senator McConnell is circulating a hoax of a plan withtwo enormous giveaways to corporations: a liability shield for companies whose policies contribute to their employees getting sick, and a tax deduction for business meals. Making the connection between regressive tax policies and rising inequality, Hanauer and her team crunch numbers and build arguments for taxing the rich and lifting up the working class.29

Hood to the Holler30

When Louisville Black Lives Matter activists and their allies demanded justice for Breonna Taylor, a Black medical worker shot and killed during a police raid, Kentucky legislator Charles Booker joined them on the streets. He didnt stop there. Booker took the racial justice message to rural Kentucky, mounting a campaign that almost had him winning the Democratic nomination to run against Mitch McConnell. After the primary, Booker formed Hood to the Holler, a grassroots movement to build a new Southern strategy that breaks down barriers to discussions of racial justice and generational poverty.31

Long Time Passing: Kronos Quartet and Friends Celebrate Pete Seeger32

Commissioned by the FreshGrass Foundation to celebrate the 2019 centennial of Seegers birth, the always innovative string quartet and talented vocalists like Maria Arnal, Sam Amidon, and Aoife ODonovan reimagined the folk singers songbook and added numbers from artists influenced by his radical humanity. Long Time Passing (Smithsonian Folkways) is both musically and politically brilliant. Its version of Zoe Mulfords The President Sang Amazing Grace, featuring the Ethiopian American singer Meklit, achieves the rare feat of being painful, beautiful, and healing at the same time.33

(Julien Hekimian / Getty Images)

Janelle Mones Turntables34

Turntables ignites with the singers call for a different vision with a new dream and this promise: We kicking out the old regime. Written for Stacey Abramss voting rights documentary, All In: The Fight for Democracy, the song (and a brilliant accompanying video with a spoken-word invocation from James Baldwin) aligns history with a new generations demands for systemic change. Its release capped a remarkable year for Mone, which began with a riveting Academy Awards performance that saw her celebrating Black History Month and pioneering women before declaring, Im so proud to stand here as a Black queer artist telling stories.35

View post:

These Progressives Helped Keep Hope Alive in 2020and Prepare Us for 2021 - The Nation

by Ian | Dec 24, 2020 | Concord, Cool, Copblock, Corruption, Court, Economic Freedom, International, Issues, Laugh at the Aggressors, Living Free, National, New Hampshire, News, Noncooperation, Personal Freedom, Police, Press Release, Response, Secession, Uncategorized, Update, Victimless Crimes, Video |

Crowd of Revolutionaries Gathered Monday to Read and Sign the new Declaration of Independence for 2020.

In Concord on Monday December 21st of 2020 at ten a.m., a group of over one hundred people from across New Hampshire gathered at the now-closed state house steps to invoke their Right of Revolution as specified in Article Ten of the Bill of Rights of the NH Constitution. It states:

Government being instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security, of the whole community, and not for the private interest or emolument of any one man, family, or class of men; therefore, whenever the ends of government are perverted, and public liberty manifestly endangered, and all other means of redress are ineffectual, the people may, and of right ought to reform the old, or establish a new government. The doctrine of nonresistance against arbitrary power, and oppression, is absurd, slavish, and destructive of the good and happiness of mankind.

Dan Richard of the New Hampshire Committee of Safety led the event and read aloud a new Declaration of Independence, which you can download a PDF of here. Richard says this is the first time the Right of Revolution has been invoked and that the document serves as a termination of the state and its various office holders.

Dan Richard of the NH Committee of Safety at COSNH.com

It calls out the state bureaucracys endless harassment of the people as well as the standing armies of enforcement agents enacting the tyranny, and the now-secret courts. The new Declaration states that effective means for redress of grievances have been abolished and that, Our form of government, has become a complete system of tyranny. The Same party is the legislator, the accuser, the judge, and the executioner by declaring themselves invested with power to legislate in secret in all cases whatsoever.

Citing NHs Article Ten, the new Declaration dissolves all political connections between the state and the citizenry, absolving us of any allegiance to the state.

The crowd of revolutionaries then shouted YOURE FIRED! in unison and signed the new Declaration of Independence for New Hampshire.

Afterwards, a copy was delivered to the Secretary of States office and the Attorney Generals office. It was subsequently served on governor Chris Sununu hiding in his home on Christmas Eve. Heres video of Mondays visit to the state house and AGs office including nearly all of the reading of the new Declaration of Independence. I missed the first few paragraphs due to a dead camera battery:

Kudos to the heroic folks who came out to end the failed experiment of the New Hampshire government.

Link:

New Declaration of Independence for NH Read, Signed, & Delivered in Concord by Crowd of Revolutionaries - Free Keene