Monday 09-06-10

I guess 30 to 40 people roving around (like a gang) say "beat whitey night" has nothing to do with racial. What a bunch of idiots.

Police spokeswoman moved after remarks on fairgrounds fights

Des Moines Police Chief Judy Bradshaw reassigned her department's spokeswoman Thursday, two weeks after Sgt. Lori Lavorato said it was "very possible" fights near the Iowa State Fairgrounds had racial overtones.

The move came as a part of a series of police command assignment changes announced to officers by e-mail Thursday, the details of which have not been made public.

Bradshaw, who could not be reached for comment Thursday, raised concerns about statements Lavorato made after a series of fights outside the fairgrounds last month.

A supplemental report about the Aug. 20 incident filed by Sgt. Dave Murillo said, "On-duty officers at the fairgrounds advise there was a group of 30 to 40 individuals roaming the fairgrounds openly calling it 'beat whitey night.' "

While answering questions from the news media three days later, Lavorato said, "It's all under investigation, but it's very possible it has racial overtones."

Police commanders later said they found no credible evidence the fights were racially motivated.

"I had some real concerns with us making that leap and making a remark like that publicly," Bradshaw told The Des Moines Register in an Aug. 26 interview. "That's a huge statement that, quite frankly, can provoke emotions on both sides of the issue.

"People are very sensitive to remarks like that, so I had some real grave concerns about us stepping out and I wanted to make certain that we were right to message the State Fair events that way."

On Thursday, Des Moines police administrators did not return phone calls from the Register seeking comment and did not release a full list of administrative changes at the department. Bradshaw was out of the office and did not return a call to her cell phone. Messages left for Assistant Chiefs James O'Donnell and David Lillard also were not returned.

Lavorato, 36, a police public information officer since May 2009, will work in the department's traffic unit. Sgt. Jeff Edwards, 40, will transfer from the traffic unit to replace Lavorato effective Sept. 13.

Lavorato confirmed her new assignment, but declined to say whether the move was voluntary.

"For reasons I cannot disclose, I am being transferred," she said. "There is a series of transfers going on and I am one of the people being moved. I enjoyed being (the public information officer), working with the media and the public and it's a job I'm going to miss."

Lavorato said her pay was not affected by the move, but she will lose her take-home unmarked police vehicle and extra compensation she received for being on call seven days a week.

Edwards served as a fill-in for Lavorato during her tenure. He is a 19-year veteran and has been a sergeant since 1999.

A 1988 graduate of Southeast Polk High School, Edwards followed his father, Larry Edwards, into police work. His work credits include time in patrol, robbery/homicide, fraud, narcotics, motor vehicle thefts and the Neighborhood Based Service Delivery unit.

A graduate of Upper Iowa University, Edwards is studying for a master's degree in public administration at Drake University. He is married with two teenage children.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20100903/NEWS01/9030368/Police-spokeswoman-moved-after-remarks-on-fairgrounds-fights

Iran 'stoning woman' to be lashed over photo: son
Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, an Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery, has also been sentenced to 99 lashes for a photo published of her without a headscarf, according to her son.
In an interview published on the website of the French magazine La Regle du Jeu and the blog Dentelles et Tchador, Mohammadi-Ashtiani's son Sajjad said they learned of the new punishment from released inmates.

He said that a prison judge confirmed that she was to be lashed for spreading "corruption and indecency" by the publication of a photograph of her without a headscarf that appeared in a British newspaper.

The Times of London published on August 28 a photo of a woman without a headscarf that it said was Mohammadi-Ashtiani, however on September 3 it said the attribution of the photo, which it received from one of her lawyers that has fled Iran, was incorrect.

The photo "... is certainly not that of my mother," said Sajjad.

Mohammadi-Ashtiani, a 43-year-old mother of two, was given the death penalty for an extramarital relationship.

Iran has subsequently said she was also convicted of being an accomplice in her husband's death, though she has denied that was the case.

Her plight has prompted protests in Europe and an international campaign to spare her. Tehran has provisionally suspended the death sentence.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.260c2246a5c77075ff7ab46b021e9239.371&show_article=1


Just like there are no homosexuals there, either.
Top Iran cleric rejects Holocaust as 'superstition'
A senior Iranian cleric, Grand Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi, dismissed the Nazi Holocaust of Jews during World War II as a new "superstition" for the West, media reported on Saturday.
"The Holocaust is nothing but superstition, but Zionists say that people of the world should be forced to accept this," he was quoted as saying by the state news agency IRNA.

"Americans and Westerners are affected by newly appeared superstitions such as the Holocaust," he said according to ISNA news agency.

"The truth about the Holocaust is not clear, and when the researchers want to examine whether it is true or the Jews have created it to pose as victims, they jail the researchers," said Makarem Shirazi, who is a "marja," or among the highest authorities in Shiite Islam.

Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly branded the Holocaust a "myth" in his frequent anti-Israel diatribes drawing international condemnation, but Iran's prominent clergy have rarely echoed such comments.

Several opposition figures have also rebuked Ahmadinejad over questioning the Holocaust while backing the Palestinian cause.

The comments came after Ahmadinejad dismissed on Friday revived Israeli-Palestinian peace talks as "doomed" to fail and said the people of the Middle East are "capable of removing the Zionist regime" from the world scene.

Iran does not recognise Israel -- the sole if undeclared nuclear-armed state in the Middle East -- which accuses the Islamic republic of seeking nuclear weapons and has never ruled out a military strike to curb its atomic drive.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.c859779dbc0c06a80a7c947c9d07e289.521&show_article=1

This is what they would like to enforce here in this country.