Police have surrounded a supermarket in Paris, as the BBC’s Stephen Sackur reports.
A gunman has seized hostages at a kosher supermarket in Paris as police in northern France have cornered the two Charlie Hebdo massacre suspects.
A police officer told the BBC that two people were killed after a gunman believed to be the killer of a policewoman in Montrouge entered the supermarket near Porte de Vincennes.
Source: BBC News – BBC News: Charlie Hebdo hunt: Double hostage crisis in France
A Massachusetts woman is under arrest after she vandalized a church and then tried to attack police with a metal crucifix in the same place a church’s nativity scene was vandalized.
The crucifix had been donated after a nearby church was vandalized when a baby Jesus was stolen from their nativity scene and replaced with a severed pig’s head.
Amarellis Cermeno of Haverhill, 54, was arrested on charges including “assault with a deadly weapon, malicious destruction of property and destruction of a place of worship.”
Police were called to La Iglesia Biblica Bautista around 3 p.m. Tuesday after someone had written “666” in large numbers in 15 different places on the church building. Police found Cermeno nearby carrying a large metal crucifix that she used to attack police.
She is being held without bail. She is undergoing mental health evaluations.
A Massachusetts church was in shock Christmas Day to find that someone had stolen the baby Jesus from their nativity scene and replaced it with the severed head of a pig.
Police say that the vandals struck the nativity scene outside Scared Hearts Church in Haverhill, Massachusetts during the early morning hours of Christmas.
Police are investigating the incident on what they called a “busy, well lit street.”
Brenda Burns, a resident of Haverhill, took the baby Jesus from her family’s nativity scene and went to the church to replace the stolen one.
In addition to the stolen Jesus in Haverhill, a second Jesus was stolen in nearby Greenfield. That baby Jesus was imported from Italy and worth over $3,000. The thieves also caused significant damage to the manger in the display.
A man who was protesting and seeking revenge for Michael Brown and Eric Garner ambushed two police officers in their cruiser on Saturday, shooting them before killing himself after he was trapped in a subway.
Ismaaiyl Abdulla Brinsley walked up from behind the cruiser containing Officers Wenjin Liu and Raphael Ramos, dropped into a shooting stance at the passenger side window and opened fire. The officers did not even have time to pull their weapons before they were fatally struck.
NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton told reporters at a press conference that the gunman had shot his ex-girlfriend in Baltimore in the morning before driving to New York.
Brinsley had posted online that he was going to be “putting wings on pigs” today. He added “They take 1 of ours. Let’s take 2 of theirs. #ShootThePolice #RIPEricGardner #RIPMikeBrown”
His last post said “This may be my final post. I’m putting pigs in a blanket.”
Baltimore police were alerted by the ex-girlfriend’s mother of the murderer’s intentions but the message did not reach the NYPD until after the killing.
A Florida city who has been harassing pro-life protesters is being taken to court by two women threatened with loitering citations for their protest.
The American Center for Law and Justice says they are representing Judith Minihan and JoAnn O’Connell in a federal suit. The women hold protests and plead with women seeking to kill their children through abortion at the Fort Myers Women’s Health Center.
“When individuals who are driving into the medical office complex stop to speak with Plaintiffs, Plaintiffs will generally hand them literature and speak with them about abortion-related topics, including information about the possible emotional and physical effects of abortion, nearby maternity homes, local and national helplines, and fetal development,” the ACLJ wrote in their complaint.
The women take care to stand on the public sidewalk while they are there and do not block pedestrians from entering the abortionist. However, police have taken to harassing the women.
“Defendant Officer Conticelli stated that he would enforce the loitering ordinance against them if they (1) stood in one spot on the public sidewalk in front of the medical office complex and abortion clinic and did not keep walking on that public sidewalk, (2) approached any vehicles entering or leaving the medical office complex and abortion clinic to hand out literature or speak with the occupants of the vehicle, or (3) blocked vehicular traffic entering or leaving the medical office complex and abortion clinic by handing out literature or talking to the people in vehicles,” the complaint reads.
The women handed the officer a consent decree from a previous lawsuit with the city that said they would not interfere with their pro-life activities but the police continued their threats necessitating the current suit.
The city’s attorney said they would be reviewing the situation.
A federal judge in Mississippi has denied a request against the Jackson, Mississippi police department, which has been harassing pro-life Christians.
Police have been targeting Christians who are protesting outside the state’s last abortion facility for harassment.
“[Our] request that pro-life advocates receive injunctive relief from harassment by the City of Jackson, Mississippi Police Department was denied by the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi Jackson Division,” wrote Tom Ciesielka of the Life Legal Defense Foundation. “Despite hours of supportive testimony and a long and well documented history of police misconduct, Judge Carlton Reeves denied a preliminary injunction prohibiting the city police from further persecution of peaceful pro-life protesters.”
The police have been arresting the Christians for the most minor of accusations. For example, Christians have been arrested if a sign they were carrying touched the ground, with the police claiming that because it touched the ground they were “obstructing a public sidewalk.”
“We are very concerned about the potential for police mistreatment of our clients as this case awaits its day in court,” added Life Legal Defense Foundation Executive Director and President Dana Cody in response to the court’s denial of a preliminary injunction. “It is very disappointing that the district court did not acknowledge that a police department that is already behaving with impunity might perceive this as an opportunity to continue illegal harassment of private citizens exercising their constitutionally protected freedoms.”
In an attempt to quell the violent protests that have rocked the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, Missouri, police have now named the officer involved in the shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown.
Officer Darren Wilson, a six-year member of the force, has been removed from duty with pay and he & this family evacuated to an unknown location because of fear the same people who sparked the violent rioting would attack him. Governor Jay Nixon said the family would be under 24-hour protection.
“I was pleased to hear the chief indicate this would be a day in which, finally, that initial name would come out, and we’ll work to make sure that his family [is safe] and there’s security around that,” Nixon told ABC News. “I think those kinds of concrete steps of transparency leading to justice are vitally important now to heal the old wounds that have been made a fresh by this difficult and horrific situation.”
Police noted that Officer Wilson has been treated for an injury that was sustained on the night he shot Brown. Witnesses had been trying to claim that Brown had done nothing wrong.
Police also handed out a report to those attending the press conference showing that Brown was a suspect in a “strong arm” robbery that had taken place in the area not long before the shooting incident.
An appeals court has ruled a police officer that was ordered to attend a Muslim worship service and then was punished for refusing due to his Christian faith, did not have his religious freedoms violated by the police department.
The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals claims that despite being ordered to attend the worship service, “no informed, reasonable observer” could say the order was an endorsement of Islam.
Captain Paul Fields, who said that as a Christian he could not participate in an event that was worshipping what he considered a false God, was suspended for two weeks without pay, demoted and prohibited from receiving any kind of promotion for one year for refusal to attend the “Law Enforcement Appreciation Day” at the mosque.
Fields’ attorney Robert Muise of the American Freedom Law Center, plans to appeal the ruling saying that the court chose to ignore the truth that detrimental actions were taken against Fields solely for exercising his freedom of religion.
“He was singled out for discriminatory treatment and punished because he raised a religious objection to the order,” Muise said. “That is religious discrimination, pure and simple.”
A Florida school district is responding to the release of a video showing two students beating another student by putting armed police on busses.
“We are going to have order on that bus one way or another,” said Dick Mullenax, head of the Polk County School Board. “We provide transportation to those schools, but if they can’t behave, we will see where we go from there.”
The video shows two students beating a third until they knocked out their victim with a sucker punch.
A spokesman for the sheriff’s office says that while the measure seems a little shocking at first, it’s necessary on a temporary basis to protect the safety of the children. They also believe that having the deputies on the bus gives them a chance to build relationships with the students that could lead to benefits in the future.
“They’re not going to be these hard-core monitors, they’re just going to be there, have a chance to interact with those kids, maybe get some information with things that are going on, It’s not going to be an adversarial relationship,” Sheriff’s Office spokesman Scott Wilder said.
A woman who was forced to spend a night in jail after recording a police officer on her phone has filed suit over wrongful imprisonment.
Brandy Berning, 33, was stopped for driving in the HOV lane at the wrong time and then began to record Lt. William O’Brien as he approached her vehicle. When Berning said that she was recording the stop, O’Brien said she had committed a felony and demanded the phone.
The officer then argued with the woman over the next few minutes before reaching into the car to take the phone and spraining her wrist.
In Florida, both sides of a conversation are required to know that a conversation is being recorded. It is legal for third parties to record a law enforcement officer performing duties.
The ACLU says it’s very likely the law will be on Berning’s side in the lawsuit.