Saturday, June 5, 2010
Don't try this at home!
Dam and her wig went flying.. maybe this is the reason why we're having so many earthquakes lately.
Killing of Anthony Hill in Newberry County Could be Hate Crime
Newberry County, SC (WLTX) - Newberry County deputies say a man found dead Wednesday morning had been shot in the head and dragged behind a pickup truck, and they're now investigating to see if this could be a hate crime.
Sheriff Lee Foster identified the victim as 30-year-old Anthony Hill of Winnsboro at a Wednesday afternoon news conference with State Law Enforcement Division Director Reggie Lloyd.
The coroner concluded that Hill died from the gunshot wound.
Earlier in the day, deputies announced they'd arrested 19-year-old Gregory Ashton Collins in connection with the killing and charged him with murder.
Foster has said that the incident is "one of the top three most violent crime scenes he's ever seen." Foster has been in law enforcement for 35 years.
Foster and Lloyd say they are investigating the possibility that the incident could be a hate crime. Hill is black, while Collins is white.
The FBI is assisting in the investigation.
"We're acting with an abundance of caution, and we're looking at that as one avenue," Foster said. "It doesn't necessarily mean that it is a hate crime, or that it will be judged a hate crime, or that it willl be judged a hate crime in the end. We want to go ahead while we're doing the investigation to have a joint investigation with the FBI, who has jurisdiction over hate crimes."
South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford issued a statement on the killing, a rarity for the governor in pending criminal cases. He urged the public to remain calm until the investigation is complete.
"If this ends up being the case, [that it is a hate crime] we recognize it and condemn it for what it would be - an isolated incident of hate that is indeed to be deeply condemned from all corners of the state and nation. It would represent an event that certainly does not accurately reflect the good and decent people of South Carolina, and an incident that should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," Sanford wrote.
The full text of Sanford's statement is at the bottom of this article.
Hill's body was found by a person driving down Highway 176 around 4:30 a.m. The discovery was made in an area near the town limits of the town of Pomaria, about a half-mile from Pomaria Garmany Elementary School.
Evidence at the scene led investigators to Collins's trailer on Orchard Park Trail. Deputies and SLED agents surrounded his home and tried to get him to come outside. After three hours, officers used tear gas to force him from the trailer. Original Story: Standoff Ends, Suspect in Custody
The suspect did not have any weapons on him, but deputies did say he was wearing an empty gun holster.
Investigators believe Hill was killed at Collins's trailer. They believe Collins then dragged Hill's body with his pick-up truck to the site where Hill was found--a distance of almost 10 miles.
"That is the part that's absolutely senseless," Foster said. "Why would somebody do that to a person after they were dead, and that's our job to try and figure out why."
Investigators say they are not sure of the motive behind the crime, but say Hill and Collins were acquaintances. According to Foster, the two worked at the Louis Rich plant in Newberry.
Foster says Collins has been somewhat cooperative.
Here is Sanford's full statement:
"In light of the tragic news coming from Newberry County today, I want to commend Newberry County Sheriff Lee Foster and others in law enforcement for responding quickly and decisively to this most troubling situation. Our office would ask for people's thoughts and prayers for the family of the victim of this horrendous crime.
"As the Newberry County Sheriff's Office said earlier today, there may be reason to believe that this crime potentially has elements related to a hate crime, and as Sheriff Foster and others go about determining this we would urge two things:
"One, that people stay calm until the facts are settled and law enforcement - in this case including the local sheriff's office, State Law Enforcement Division (SLED), the U.S. Attorney's Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation - has a chance to fully investigate the crime. We will extend all state resources necessary to local law enforcement in completing this investigation.
"And two, that if this ends up being the case, we recognize it and condemn it for what it would be - an isolated incident of hate that is indeed to be deeply condemned from all corners of the state and nation. It would represent an event that certainly does not accurately reflect the good and decent people of South Carolina, and an incident that should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."
http://www.wltx.com/news/story.aspx?storyid=88178&catid=2
And some folks actually believed that racism was going to go away once obama got elected.SMH
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Pacific islands 'growing not shrinking' due to climate change
Scientists have been surprised by the findings, which show that some islands have grown by almost one-third over the past 60 years.
Among the island chains to have increased in land area are Tuvalu and neighbouring Kiribati, both of which attracted attention at last year's Copenhagen climate summit.
In the study, researchers compared aerial photographs and high-resolution satellite images of 27 islands taken since the 1950s.
Only four islands, mostly uninhabited, had decreased in area despite local sea level rises of almost five inches in that time, while 23 stayed the same or grew.
Seven islands in Tuvalu grew, one by 30 per cent, although the study did not include the most populous island.
In Kiribati, the three of the most densely populated islands, Betio, Bairiki and Nanikai, also grew by between 12.5 and 30 per cent.
Professor Paul Kench, of Auckland University, who co-authored the study with Dr Arthur Webb, a Fiji-based expert on coastal processes, said the study challenged the view that the islands were sinking as a result of global warming.
"Eighty per cent of the islands we've looked at have either remained about the same or, in fact, got larger.
"Some have got dramatically larger," he said.
"We've now got evidence the physical foundations of these islands will still be there in 100 years," he told New Scientist magazine.
He said the study suggested the islands had a natural ability to respond to rising seas by accumulating coral debris from the outlying reefs that surround them.
"It has long been thought that as the sea level goes up, islands will sit there and drown. But they won't," Professor Kench said.
The trend is largely explained by the fact that the islands comprise mostly coral debris eroded from encircling reefs, which is pushed up on to the islands by wind and waves.
Because coral is a living organism, it continues to grow and establish itself in its new home, so the process becomes continuous.
Land reclamation and deposition of other sediment also contribute to the process.
"These islands are so low lying that in extreme events waves crash straight over the top of them," Professor Kench said.
"In doing that they transport sediment from the beach or adjacent reef platform and they throw it on to the top of the island."
But the two scientists warn that people living on the islands still face serious challenges from climate change, particularly if the pace of sea level rises were to overtake that of sediment build-up.
The fresh groundwater that sustains villagers and their crops could be destroyed.
"The land may be there but will they still be able to support human habitation?" he said.
Naomi Thirobaux, a student from Kiribati who has studied the islands for a PhD, said no one should be lulled into thinking erosion and inundation were not taking their toll on the islands.
"In a populated place, people can't move back or inland because there's hardly any place to move into, so that's quite dramatic," she said.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/tuvalu/7799503/Pacific-islands-growing-not-shrinking-due-to-climate-change.html
Judge Asks Jury to Overlook Race In Oscar Grant Murder Trial
With the trial of former transit police officer Johannes Mehserle set to begin on June 8, potential jurors will be faced with a questionnaire that poses more than 120 questions.
The questions, which were posted on the Los Angeles Superior Court website, asks whether jurors could put aside race to see the truth of the case, one question in particular asks jurors if they could overlook the fact that Mehserle is white and Grant was Black.
A pool of potential jurors for Mehserle's trial is set to report to Los Angeles County Superior Court on Wednesday to fill out the questionnaire to determine their eligibility.
The case centers around the 2009 murder of Oscar Grant III on New Year's Day 2009 at the Fruitvale station in Oakland. According to video that hit the web like fire last year, Mehserle shot and killed Grant on the tracks after breaking up a fight.
Mehserle's lawyer, Michael Rains, has admitted Mehserle shot and killed Grant but claims the shooting was accidental because the former officer meant to use his Taser stun gun on Grant but fired his gun by mistake.
Due to the publicity and elevated racial tension surrounding the case, Judge Ronald Perry granted that Mehserle's could be moved from Alameda County to Los Angeles.
The presiding judge also ruled that he would allow defense video forensic analyst Michael Schott to testify in detail about a time-synchronized composite he compiled of four videos of the shooting that claimed the life of Grant, a 22-year-old Hayward man, shortly after 2 a.m. on Jan. 1, 2009.
Mehserle and other officers had responded to the station on reports that there was a fight on a train.
Perry's ruling on Tuesday followed the May 7th ruling which allowed the defense to present evidence from a 2006 incident in which Grant, who had three felony convictions, allegedly resisted being arrested and was shot with a Taser stun gun when officers tried to handcuff him during a traffic stop.
In addition to allowing evidence from both sides, Judge Perry denied Rains' bid to call Oakland civil rights attorney John Burris as a defense witness, due to a conflict of interest.
According to court records, Burris filed a $50 million wrongful death and civil rights lawsuit on March 2, 2009, on behalf of Grant's family against BART, Mehserle and other transit agency police officers.
On March 18, a federal judge approved a $1.5 million settlement between BART and Grant's 5-year-old daughter, Tatiana Grant. However, no settlement has been reached with Grant's mother, Wanda Johnson.
Although he is not listed as a witness, Perry ruled that Burris could attend the trial but placed a gag order on Burris and all participating lawyers in the case, prohibiting them from discussing the trial to any media outlet.
That pig should be sentenced to death, but you know in Amerikkka there are two set of rules for blacks and whites. SMH
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)