Category Archives: human rights

wtf! How could this be happening without thousands on the streets! Trending: Prosecutions of Pregnant Women Continue in Wisconsin | National Women’s Law Center

How do you care for a pregnant woman with a history of drug use? Well, according to Wisconsin, you throw her in jail and administer no prenatal care. You deny all her requests to keep scheduled prenatal visits. When she experiences stress-induced cramping, you require her to visit a doctor who is not an OB-GYN. When she refuses to take a pregnancy test, you toss her in solitary confinement and threaten her with a taser. When she fears she will miscarry, you tell her “there [is] nothing [you can] do about it anyway.”

As ruthless as it sounds, this is exact treatment Tamara Loerstcher, a pregnant woman in Wisconsin, endured after doing the right thing and admitting prior drug use to her doctor, even though she had already stopped using drugs when she suspected she could be pregnant.

While drug use during pregnancy is a serious public health concern, it should not be handled as a criminal matter. Nonetheless, Wisconsin’s fetal protection law, also known as the “cocaine mom” law, gives the state power to detain any pregnant woman who is using drugs. Although Tamara was not using drugs, she was thrown into jail for 17 days for refusing treatment.

Sadly, Tamara’s ordeal is not just bad luck. In Tennessee, for example, a pregnant woman can now spend up to 15 years in prison for pregnancy complications after she has used illegal drugs. Throughout the rest of the country, hundreds of women have been arrested on pregnancy-related charges and new arrests occur each week.

via Trending: Prosecutions of Pregnant Women Continue in Wisconsin | National Women’s Law Center.

Record numbers at German anti-Islam rally | News | DW.DE | 22.12.2014

German society and the political establishment has for weeks grappled with the emergence of the “Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the Occident,” or PEGIDA, whose ranks in the city of Dresden have quickly grown from just a few hundred in October.

Around 4,000 counter-demonstrators marched through Dresden under the slogan “Nazi-free,” warning there was no place for racism and xenophobia in a country marred by racial hatred during World War II.

Most PEGIDA followers insisted they had no connection to Nazis, calling themselves “patriots” concerned by the “watering down” of Germany’s Christian-rooted culture and traditions. They often accuse mainstream political parties of betraying them, and the media of lying.

Former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), called Monday for citizens to launch a “rebellion of the decent” against the anti-foreigner movement, telling a weekly magazine “that’s the kind of public reaction we need now.”

via Record numbers at German anti-Islam rally | News | DW.DE | 22.12.2014.

Two NYPD cops get killed and ‘wartime’ police blame the protesters. Have we learned nothing? | Steven W Thrasher | Comment is free | The Guardian

Six years ago, I went for a run in New York City. I’d left my watch and phone at home, so when I saw two NYPD cops on a corner, I stopped and said, “Excuse me, officers, can you tell me the time?”

One officer reached for his gun, pulled it out of his holster, and – when he saw the terror in my eyes – started laughing.

“Just kidding,” the white cop said as he put away his gun. “Gotcha!”

He didn’t kill me, obviously. But I was going to die. What little faith I had in the most powerful police force in America died in that moment, too. I felt “social death” in the humiliation and shame of being too frightened to go back and get his badge number. I felt powerless when I tried to report the cop’s threat to a civilian accountability board and was told there was nothing they could do.

via Two NYPD cops get killed and ‘wartime’ police blame the protesters. Have we learned nothing? | Steven W Thrasher | Comment is free | The Guardian.

Three Arrested in Egypt For Speaking English | Egyptian Streets

The latest detentions come as there is a climate of paranoia and suspicion among Egyptians. Earlier this year Le Monde Diplomatique’s Editor-in-Chief Alain Gresh was arrested at a trendy cafe in downtown Cairo after a woman reported him to police for discussing politics.

Gresh and two Egyptians were arrested after the woman screamed at them for speaking about Egypt in English and Arabic.

The French journalist, who was born in Cairo, said he received a formal apology from authorities, including both police and military figures.

The incidents have raised fear among Egypt’s expatriate community and foreign journalists.

RELATED ITEMSALAIN GRESHCAIROCAIRO METROEGYPTFREE SPEECHHUMAN RIGHTSJAN25 REVOLUTIONJANUARY 25LE MONDEMIDDLE-EASTNEWSEgyptian Streets ← Previous Story Hostages Freed After Explosions, Gunfire in Sydney Cafe YOU MAY ALSO LIKE…#IllRideWithYou: Campaign to Show Support for Muslims After Sydney Siege13 fishermen killed, 14 missing after boat crash in EgyptThe Future of Egypt is in Education

via Three Arrested in Egypt For Speaking English | Egyptian Streets.

PEGIDA demos march for the ninth time in Dresden | News | DW.DE | 15.12.2014

However, on Monday, the group was met by counter-demonstrators from the group “Dresden for all,” who brought 9,000 people to the streets calling for more tolerance last week.

In a similar counter-protest on Sunday, around 15,000 people marched in a peaceful demonstration against xenophobia and right-wing extremism in the western German city of Cologne.

Associated movements

An associated protest under the name “BOGIDA” also took place in the western German city of Bonn on Monday evening. On their Facebook page, the group described the event a “peaceful evening stroll against Salafists in Bonn, the Islamization of the occident and misled refugee and immigrant policy in Germany.”

via PEGIDA demos march for the ninth time in Dresden | News | DW.DE | 15.12.2014.

Egypt – Kick a public trash bin and off to a military court you go?

President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi recently issued a decree which expanded the jurisdiction of military courts to include anyone who attacks the state’s “vital” facilities.

Various human rights organisations condemned the law, including Human Rights Watch, which stated that the law gives military courts “the widest legal authority since the birth of Egypt’s modern republic in 1952”.

via 40 referred to military prosecution: FJP – Daily News Egypt.

Haaretz: Fearing Zionist Attacks, 100 Arab Bus Drivers in Jerusalem Quit Their Jobs

Forty-seven years after the unification of Jerusalem, there are very few islands of Jewish-Arab coexistence in the city. Of these, one of the most noteworthy was the Egged bus cooperative. About half its drivers were East Jerusalem Palestinians, who say they received fair treatment, good wages and benefits – things few other East Jerusalem Palestinians enjoy.

But the wave of violence in the city in recent months, which has included violent attacks on Arab drivers, has caused 100 of them – about a third of Egged’s Arab drivers – to quit. Forty have officially resigned, while 60 have simply not shown up for work. This has severely disrupted public transportation in Jerusalem.

“I worked for Egged for six years,” said Arafat Tahan. “It was good work. But it’s better to earn less money and not come home in a body bag.”

Last Wednesday night, yet another Arab bus driver was attacked. Two Jewish men on a scooter drove up beside his bus in the Gilo neighborhood and tried to break the windshield. When this failed, they forced the bus to stop, threw a stone that shattered the windshield and took off.

via Haaretz: Fearing Zionist Attacks, 100 Arab Bus Drivers in Jerusalem Quit Their Jobs.

Turkish police raid media outlets associated with Erdogan rival | News | DW.DE | 14.12.2014

Turkish police early on Sunday raided various addresses, including a television station and a newspaper, in Istanbul and 12 other cities, arresting several people,Turkish media say.

Among those detained were a top executive, producers and directors of a television channel close to US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, the state-run Anatolia news agency said. The news agency said at least 14 people in all were detained.

The anti-terrorism police also raided the offices of the Zaman daily, which, too, has links with Gulen. However, a huge crowd outside the newspaper’s offices in Istanbul forced police to leave without arresting any of its employees.

via Turkish police raid media outlets associated with Erdogan rival | News | DW.DE | 14.12.2014.

Police Union Gets Nasty With De Blasio: Don’t Attend Our Funerals, Mayor: Gothamist

I, “A-Hole Denier Abusive Fellow Officers,” as a New York City police officer, request that Mayor Bill de Blasio and City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito refrain from attending my funeral services in the event that I am killed in the line of duty. Due to Mayor de Blasio and Speaker Mark-Viverito’s consistent refusal to show police officers the support and respect they deserve, I believe that their attendance at the funeral of a fallen New York City police officer is an insult to that officer’s memory and sacrifice.

via Police Union Gets Nasty With De Blasio: Don’t Attend Our Funerals, Mayor: Gothamist.