By Katha Pollitt - Znet

Cancel the season. Fire everybody involved in the child abuse scandal. That is the only way Penn State can make it clear that raping children and looking the other way or even covering it up matters more than having a winning football team...Get real about rape. Grow up.

California's Eugenics program sterilized 20,000 institutionalized persons between 1909-1964, according to CBS News, Nov. 13, 2011. The news report says that Hitler used CA's eugenics program as a model for his "genetic cleansing." Charles Follett was 15 years old when he was involuntarily sterilized in CA and he is the first of 20,000 to speak up. Institutions breed abuse and I have dedicated my life to helping people speak out in first person about institutional abuse because I believe it is an important human rights issue.

By Harsha Walia - October 14, 2011

I wish I could start with the ritual "I love you" which the Occupy Movement is supposed to inspire. To be honest, it has been a space of turmoil. But also, virulent optimism...What I outline below are not criticisms of the Occupy movement. I am inspired that the dynamic of the movement thus far has been organic, so that all those who choose to participate are collectively responsible for its evolution and development. To all those participating -- I offer my deepest gratitude and respect.

November 13 2011 - Libcom

The Royal family despite their huge wealth...locked away at least three members of their own family in state run mental asylums for over seventy years. When these asylums were closed, they then moved to care homes and left to rot. They denied their existence for over fifty years, and listed them as dead...The ones that have died were buried in council cemeteries in graves marked with plastic tags...

By Joshua Holland - AlterNet

In Oakland, tensions between law enforcement and the community predate the Occupy Movement by generations, and it's proving to be a real obstacle for addressing the legitimate concerns that many Oaklanders have about the camp. Both occupiers and the mayor's office have repeatedly called for “dialogue,” but the sense that the citizens of Oakland are under siege – felt especially by people of color – makes cooperation between the city and protesters extremely difficult. There is a serious deficit of trust.

By LINN WASHINGTON, Jr. - November 4-6, 2011

For a dozen years they had marched peacefully to the street containing the residence of Britain’s prime minister, asking [them]...to investigate the scourge ripping at the soul of this nation...That scourge is the thousands of suspicious deaths occurring while in the custody of British police, in British prisons and in British mental health facilities.

By Ellis Conklin - November 1, 2011

The ringleader of a rogue US army unit accused of killing Afghan civilians for sport treated the locals like "savages," a court martial heard...The so-called "kill team" led by Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs was "out of control," prosecutors added as grisly photos of soldiers posing with a corpse were shown in court.

By Jorge Rivas - Wednesday, October 26 2011

The [American Civil Liberties Union] of Tennessee filed a lawsuit this week...on behalf of fifteen residents of an apartment complex in Nashville...who say they were targets of an unlawful immigration raid. The defendants allege that ICE agents and Metro Nashville police officers forced their way into their homes without warrants. When residents asked the officers to show a warrant, one agent reportedly...said “the warrant is coming out of my balls.”

By Ali Winston - Friday, October 28 2011

The Occupy Oakland movement has run up against one of the country’s most troubled law enforcement agencies...The projectiles police fired in clashes with protesters seriously injured a young Iraq war vet, Scott Olsen...That sort of violent over-reaction and the tactics associated with it are, however, all too familiar in Oakland, where police have repeatedly responded to public protest with violence and have faced intense scrutiny for shooting unarmed suspects in black neighborhoods, in some cases fatally.

By Bill Van Auken - WSWS

For Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration to call for an investigation of the killing of Gaddafi goes well beyond cynicism...The savage murder of Muammar Gaddafi is emblematic of an utterly lawless and violent policy on the part of the American ruling elite, which is desperately seeking to offset the economic decline of American capitalism by means of an endless series of wars and provocations aimed at seizing control of vital resources and markets.

October 19, 2011 - New York Civil Liberties Union

“Our analysis shows that police officers are using Tasers in [an] inappropriate, irresponsible and downright deadly manner...This disturbing pattern of misuse and abuse endangers lives. Law enforcement agencies that choose to use Tasers must adopt clear and effective policies governing their use, and they must do so without delay.”

- New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) Executive Director Donna Lieberman

Sunday 23 October 2011 - The Guardian

A former police spymaster who spent years living deep undercover in the protest movement has confessed he tricked an innocent woman into having a long-term relationship with him, as part of an elaborate attempt to lend "credibility" to his alter ego...The Guardian has detailed the cases of seven undercover police officers known to have infiltrated protest movements...Of those, five have had sexual relationships with women who were oblivious to their real identities.

By Mike Head - 8 October 2011

Given the recurring pattern of official justifications by the top echelons of the police force, the shootings cannot be explained as isolated responses by individual officers. Instead, they point to an institutionalized resort to lethal force, on the pretext that police officers feared for their own safety. A shoot to kill mentality is being inculcated, where officers open fire with scant regard for the lives of their victims or public safety.

October 5, 2011 - CBC News

The Williams Lake, B.C., RCMP officer accused of assaulting a teenage girl last month had been disciplined by the force for disgraceful conduct in the past, a report says...Const. Andy Yung underwent an internal RCMP investigation in 2008 after he fired his RCMP-issued handgun in his hotel room in a drunken rage, the Ottawa Citizen reports.

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS - Counterpunch

September 30, 2011 was the day America was assassinated...In other words, any American citizen who is moved into the threat category has no rights and can be executed without trial or evidence...[N]ever prior to President Obama has a President asserted the power to murder citizens...If the president can have American citizens assassinated, there is no big deal about torturing them.