edwardseatbelthands:

Woman dies after genital kick from LAPD officer

The Los Angeles Police Department is investigating at least five officers after one of them allegedly stomped on a woman’s genitals and she later died of suffocation.

Patrol car video camera captured a struggle between police and Alesia Thomas and several officers on July 22, according to the Los Angeles Times.

LAPD Cmdr. Bob Green admitted to the Times that a female officer had followed through with a threat to kick Thomas in the genitals when she resisted being put into the patrol car. Video shows a restrained Thomas struggling to breath in the back of the patrol car. She was taken to a local hospital and later died.

Officers had been attempting to arrest Thomas on suspicion of child endangerment. After the woman resisted arrest, she was put into handcuffs and they placed a “hobble restraint device,” or a binding strap binding, around her ankles. The original police report did not mention the kick to Thomas’ genitals.

“I take all in-custody death investigations very seriously and directed the officers involved be removed from field duties until further details are known, including what part intoxicants and physical conditions contributed,” a statement from LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said. “I am confident we will get to the truth no matter where that leads us.”

Neighbor Gerald McCrary Sr., 55, told the Times that the woman was the aggressor, not the police.

“They were talking to her, asking her to calm down, that everything will be all right,” he explained.

The investigation comes just one day after Beck reassigned the commanding officer of the department’s Foothill Division after video showed two of his officers repeatedly body slamming a handcuffed 34-year-old nurse.

(via iggyjack)

edwardseatbelthands:

[TW: Mention of Rape] Republican candidate assumes women at Ryan event are ‘talking about shoes’

A Republican Senate candidate from Pennsylvania who said that out-of-wedlock pregnancy was similar to rape is being accused of a second sexist comment after video emerged of him telling women at a Paul Ryan campaign event that he assumed they were “talking about shoes.”

Pennsylvania Democrats released video on Thursday that shows Tom Smith approaching two women — who he called “girls — at an event in Pittsburgh.

“Alright, what are we talking about here?” Smith asks, taking the women by the hand. “Two girls together talking.”

“We’re talking about the power of petite women,” one woman responds.

“My guess would’ve been you were talking about shoes,” Smith replies.

The video also contains a clip from a Monday event at the Pennsylvania Press Club, where Smith said that President Barack Obama and Sen. Bob Casey trying to fix the economy was like when a “your wife wrecks the car” and tries to “take it to the beauty salon to get it fixed.”

Earlier this week, Smith had compared rape to out-of-wedlock sex after he was asked to comment on Rep. Todd Akin’s (R-MO) assertion that women could not get pregnant from “legitimate rape.”

“I’m pro-life, period. And what that Congressman said, I do not agree with at all,” Smith said, adding that he did not support any exceptions to abortion bans, including in cases of rape, incest or life of the mother.

“How would you tell a daughter or a granddaughter who, God forbid, would be the victim of a rape, to keep the child against her own will?” The Associated Press’ Mark Scolforo wondered.

“I lived something similar to that with my own family,” Smith said, explaining that his daughter had gotten pregnant “out of wedlock.”

“That’s similar to rape?” Scolforo pressed.

“No, no, no, but… put yourself in a father’s situation, yes. It is similar,” Smith replied. “A life is a life, and it needs protected. Who’s going to protect it? We have to. I mean that’s, I believe life begins at conception. I’m not going to argue about the method of conception. It’s a life, and I’m pro-life. It’s that simple.”

(via iggyjack)

edwardseatbelthands:

Robertson: Raise retirement age to 72 because ‘people really like to work’

Evangelist Pat Robertson weighed in the issue of Social Security’s long-term feasibility on The 700 Club Monday, advocating for the mandatory retirement age to be raised past 65 years of age, citing extended lifespans and advances in medicine.

“Consequently [people] should be working longer and they should not begin retirement at age 65 or 66,” Robertson said. “We should be pushing that retirement age up to 70 or 72 and it’s not gonna hurt anybody because people really like to work. There’s nothing worse than sitting in a rocking chair rusting out. Who needs that?”

Robertson’s remarks came after a story by anchor Lee Webb citing a recent Associated Press-GfK poll in which 53 percent of respondents said they would raise taxes to ensure the system can continue, while 36 percent preferred to cut benefits.

Both the Center for American Progress (CAP) and The Fiscal Times have supported the Social Security Administration’s proposal to lift the current cap on payroll taxes limiting contributions to the system to an individual’s first $110,000 in income.

Eric Kingson, co-director of Social Security Works, an advocacy group, told the Times the option should be discussed more.

“Most people don’t know it exists,” Kingson said. “Only 6 percent of Americans earn above the $110,100 limit. Most people are stunned when they learn that some people pay a lower rate on their Social Security contributions.”

Media Matters has collected some articles critical of Robertson’s life-expectancy argument dating back at least two years, including an argument by Los Angeles Times columnist Michael Hiltzik, who called it overblown.

“The average life expectancy of someone who has reached age 65 was about 78 in 1940 and about 83 in 2005,” Hiltzik wrote in 2010. “In other words, a gain in the average length of retirement of about five years over six decades. And that’s for the whole population. For black males, there has been a gain of just over 2 1/2 years, to an average of 80 for those reaching age 65 in 2005.”

Last January Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) told Raw Story he was afraid the Obama administration might be willing to entertain the notion of cutting the program, based on responses he called noncommittal.

“What I’m hearing does not reassure me – that we have a president who is not prepared to defend the heart and soul of what the Democratic Party has been about since Franklin Delano Roosevelt,” Sanders said at the time. Obama subsequently backed away from such a plan that September.

I seriously only post Robertson for a good laugh. The only vague reason I’d agree is because some folks do get jobs after retirement just to have a little extra money and get out of the house. 

(via iggyjack)