EGYPT – An Egyptian court sentenced 40 backers of ousted president Mohammed Mursi to up to 15 years in jail Thursday for violence including torching churches, a judicial source said.
Followers of Mursi and his Muslim Brotherhood movement have been the target of a relentless crackdown by the authorities since he was deposed in July 2013 by ex-army chief and current President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
The criminal court in Assiut in southern Egypt sentenced two defendants to 15 years each, while the others were given jail terms ranging from one year to 10, the source said.
They were accused of taking part in acts of violence in Assiut last year during which five churches, several police stations and a number of shops were set on fire. There were no reported casualties. (more…)

Trying to have a political democratic process where a violent minority sect cannot disrupt nor manipulate a peaceful majority desire is challenging.  
EGYPT – On the same day he left to China for political and economic talks, Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi ratified an anticipated electoral constituencies law, the final prerequisite for holding parliamentary elections, which would conclude the country’s transitional roadmap.
The law drafted by Egypt’s government last week will divide the country into 237 constituencies for individual candidacy seats and another four for party list seats.
The parliament will be comprised of a total of 567 seats, 120 for party-based ‎candidates, 420 for independents and 27 for presidential ‎appointees, as stipulated by an elections law issued by former interim president Adly Mansour in June, a day before El-Sisi’s inauguration as president. (more…)

(New York) Police have increased security at two New York City stationhouses while investigating threats against them in the wake of the deadly shootings of two officers last weekend.

As of early this morning NYPD swat team members were stationed 79th and 81st precinct stationhouses after a member of the Baltimore-based Black Guerrilla Family was allegedly overheard planning a ‘shoot out’ at those locations.
Emergency Services Unit officers were stationed at those same Brooklyn precincts as of Tuesday.
Police said on Wednesday they were remaining vigilant while investigating the origin of the threats. (more…)

At approximately 11:15 PM on December 23, 2014, a police officer with the City of Berkeley was responding to the Mobile Gas Station located at 6800 N. Hanley when he observed two male subjects on the side of the building. The Berkeley Police Officer exited his vehicle and approached the subjects when one of the men, Antonio Martin, pulled a handgun and pointed it at the officer. Fearing for his life, the Berkeley Officer fired several shots, striking the subject, fatally wounding him. The second subject fled the scene. The Berkeley Police Department requested the St. Louis County Police Department’s Crimes Against Persons Unit to handle the investigation. St. Louis County Police Detectives have recovered the deceased subject’s handgun at the scene

Saint Louis – A Berkeley police officer fired at least three shots at a suspect who pulled a gun on him, the St. Louis County Police chief said at a Wednesday morning news conference.
Police Chief Jon Belmar said the officer was responding to a report of stealing at a Mobil on the Run station about 11:15 p.m. Tuesday when the deadly shooting happened.
The officer saw two men on the parking lot in the 6800 block of North Hanley Road and began talking with them.
Belmar said one of the men approached the driver’s side of the vehicle. (more…)

NYC protests despite mayor's plea for pause. @miguelmarquez has the latest: http://t.co/YZ32bDaEdo @CNN http://t.co/Hdlpbw41yq

— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) December 24, 2014

(more…)

Notes: ♦ Sheriff Darby gives the article information. ♦ Many “assisting” personnel have left – we reconciled this yesterday.
Still no accurate identification of: •Who is the lead investigator? •Who has custody of CCTV? •When did Darby first find out about case on 12/6/14? •When did Darby first visit scene? •Who was responsible for crime scene? etc….
(Via Therese Apel, The Clarion-Ledger) – While investigators are still mum on the specifics of the probe into the death of Jessica Chambers, the Panola County teen burned to death earlier this month, they say they’re making slow and steady progress.
Chambers, 19, was found on Herron Road in Courtland a little after 8 p.m. Dec. 6, walking away from her burning vehicle with burns over 98 percent of her body. Coroner Gracie Gulledge said the cause of the young woman’s death was thermal injury. Officials immediately classified it as a homicide.
With several agencies including the Panola County Sheriff’s Department, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, the FBI, the ATF, the State Fire Marshal’s office, and the US Marshals Service involved, Sheriff Dennis Darby said a lot of the investigation operates on looking at the same information, witnesses, evidence and statements from many different angles. (more…)

Once you get on the hate bus, you don’t get off until the ride’s over. The racial hate parade will continue despite Mayor De Blasio asking for a pause. You can’t put the lid on Pandora’s Box of coordinated grievance once you open it.

[New York] – Activist groups in New York City have rejected a call by Mayor Bill de Blasio to hold off on any new demonstrations until after the funerals of two NYPD officers who were ambushed and murdered Saturday in Brooklyn.

The killings have aggravated tensions between police, City Hall, and protesters who have staged regular demonstrations since a Staten Island grand jury refused to indict an officer earlier this month in connection with the death of 43-year-old Eric Garner. Amateur video appeared to show the officer putting Garner in a chokehold while questioning him over the sale of untaxed cigarettes. (more…)

Trayvon Martin was a 17-year-old (canonized by the media) thug who burglarized homes, used drugs, engaged in fights against weaker opponents, was a disciplinary problem in school – and constantly kicked out, had numerous encounters with diversionary criminal enforcement programs and was an all around troubled teen.  It was the media that made him Saint Skittles.
(Daily Beast) A little over a week ago, a group of people marched down the streets of Manhattan and called for police to be killed. But exactly who cried out for violence has been something of a mystery, as New York goes through its most tense moment in more than a decade.

Evidence from photos, videos, social-media posts and interviews suggest that a group—the New York chapter of the Trayvon Martin Organizing Committee, or TMOC—might have been involved. There is no definitive proof that TMOC led the call for dead cops, but there is a web of circumstantial ties with the group at its center. (more…)

Rudds, Sanfords, Gangster Disciples, Vice Lords, “7-4”, it’s all right there slowly coming to the surface; meanwhile Panola County DA Champion and Sheriff Darby try desperately to keep a lid on it. 
The gang issues such as gang drugs, gang robberies, gang violence, gang rapes, prostitution and gang murder, may not be a direct straight line connection to Jessica’s brutal murder- however, they are absolutely circling the entire Panola County community as this horrible case continues to go unsolved.  The gangs are thriving, the community is in crisis, and both sides of law enforcement are wilfully blind….

….Nothing to see here,… move along,… move along folks!

JACKSON, Miss. – It’s been over two weeks now since someone doused Jessica Chambers with fire and burned her alive on a rural Panola County road; and still that person has not been arrested and police say they are getting few leads.
“It’s very possible the criminal element has such a strangle hold, if you will, that people are fearful to talk,” said Herold Gray with the Madison and Rankin Counties District Attorney office. “There is significant gang presence, statewide, particularly in that area. Whether not its part of this case remains to be seen.”
(more…)