'Your parents should have been gassed': John Galliano questioned by French police as tape of second anti-semitic rant emerges

British fashion designer John Galliano told two young women he believed to be Jews: ‘Your parents should have been gassed’, and ‘I love Hitler’, according to fresh video evidence of his bar room rant today.

The devastating film was shot in La Perle – the same Paris bar where the 50-year-old is said to have called another woman a ‘dirty Jew face’ and ‘ugly, disgusting whore’ with no dress sense, while threatening to kill her and her boyfriend last Thursday.

Mr Galliano attended a Paris police station to meet his accusers, who have launched a criminal complaint of ‘causing injury of an anti-Semitic and racist nature.’

Mr Galliano, who has been suspended from his job as chief designer at Christian Dior pending an enquiry, has in turn accused the couple of defamation.

But the emergence of the video – which has been seen by journalists in Paris – will be a severe blow to Mr Galliano’s legal fight to clear his name.

It was shot in La Perle in December, with Mr Galliano clearly the worse for drink as he launched his tirade.

Nursing a glass while sitting alone at a table, Mr Galliano refers to the Nazi Holocaust ordered by Adolf Hitler during the Second World War, in which six million Jews were murdered.

Galliano says to the women: ‘People like you would be dead, your mothers, your forefathers would all be fucking gassed. I love Hitler.’

When one of the women asks ‘Do you have a problem?’, Mr Galliano replies: ‘With you, you’re ugly.’

The same woman says: ‘Where are you from ?’, and Mr Galliano replies: ‘Your a***hole’.

Neither of the two women shouted at by Mr Galliano were, in fact, Jewish. One of their male companions started videoing the incident because he was so shocked by what Mr Galliano was saying.

It came as Geraldine Bloch, the 35-year-old art historian who alleges she suffered the same kind of humiliation in La Perle last Thursday, spoke for the first time about her ordeal with boyfriend Philppe Virgitti, 41.

She said: ‘I was sitting with a friend, the next table was free. A strange guy sits down, orders a Mojito and starts calling me a whore.

‘At first it was mostly dirty whore, then anti-Semitic and racist slurs were uttered.’

When Ms Bloch complained to staff, they told her: ‘We can’t kick him out, he’s a friend of the boss. He’s a star, he’s John Galliano.’

Ms Bloch said: ‘I’m not Jewish but in these cases I feel solidarity with an Arab, a Jew.’

According to police reports, Mr Galliano told Paris University-educated Ms Bloch: ‘Dirty Jew face, you should be dead’, adding ‘shut your mouth, dirty bitch, I can’t stand your dirty whore voice.’

He then turned his anger on Mr Virgitti, who was himself protesting furiously by this time, and screamed: ‘F****** Asian b*****d, I’ll kill you!’

Mr Galliano’s version of events was very different. He told police: ‘At first [Ms Bloch] started talking to me about fashion. She started talking to me in an aggressive manner while insulting me

Something like: “Why don't you dress women like me?” I replied that I dressed all women, and then she started mocking my look in a nasty way.’
Mr Galliano said Mr Virgitti’s boyfriend then threatened him with a chair, while the woman ‘accused me of being a racist and anti-Semitic’.

Paris Prosecutors have ordered Mr Galliano to meet both Ms Bloch and Mr Virgitti at the police station in Paris’s 3rd arrondissement today.

Stephane Zerbib, Mr Galliano’s lawyer, said: ‘They have to find the truth. If the Public Prosecutor’s Office decides it is an emergency case, things could go very quickly.’
Galliano has denied all allegations of racism and anti-Semitism.

A spokesman for the designer today refused to comment on the video.

Mr Galliano, who was brought up in South London, is one of the world’s leading fashion designers, with close friends and fans including Madonna, Kylie Minogue, and France’s First Lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy.

The night after John Galliano got suspended from Christian Dior in Paris, the design director's longtime boyfriend, Alexis Roche, was partying at the Weinstein dinner at the Chateau Marmont in LA.

Karen Elson serenaded a group at the sit-down affair on Saturday, while Halle Berry canoodled with boyfriend Olivier Martinez.

Also there were Anne Hathaway, Adrien Brody, Emmy Rossum, Gerard Butler, Sharon Stone and Rosario Dawson.

Human pile up video shows horrifying moment escalator brakes failed

Video: L'Enfant Plaza Escalator Malfunction: MyFoxDC.com

These are the shocking images of an escalator malfunction that sent crowds of people hurtling into each other in a human pile up.

The distressing video, captured on CCTV at L'Enfant Metro station in Washington D.C., shows the moment when the escalator brakes failed, sending streams of people plummeting into each other at the bottom.

Several people were injured in the November 4 incident.

At the start of the video people can be seen moving calmly off at the bottom of the escalator.

Then, after about 30 seconds, the belt suddenly speeds up and people begin hurtling into each other, causing a pile up at the bottom.

As panic sets in, several brave passengers can be seen rushing to aid those caught in the mound of bodies stuck at the bottom.

One man repeatedly drags stricken people out of the writhing mass by their arms.
The incident happened on November 4th following the John Stewart/ Steven Colbert 'Rally to Restore Sanity' event in the capital.

An investigation determined the cause of the incident was a failure in the braking system.

Senator avoids arrest after 'fight with jealous girlfriend' thanks to obscure law

AZ Sen. Bundgaard: Girlfriend Was Jealous: MyFoxPHOENIX.com

A state senator escaped arrest for an alleged domestic violence dispute because of an obscure piece of law granting him 'legislative immunity', police revealed today.

Scott Bundgaard, 43, says his 34-year-old girlfriend Aubry Ballard flew into a jealous rage at the side of an Arizona highway on Friday night, punching him in the face and throwing his clothes out of a moving car.

But when police arrived and tried to arrest the two, Mr Bundgaard allegedly cited 'legislative immunity' - which allows senators to avoid arrest for certain crimes while the state legislative body is in session.

The immunity only includes actual arrest and does not exempt state legislators from prosecution at a later stage.

Miss Ballard was arrested for domestic violence assault, police said.

According to Mr Bundgaard, he and Miss Ballard, 34, were at a charity 'Dancing with the Stars' event in aid of the AZ Kidney Foundation.

Speaking to Fox News, he said Miss Ballard had become jealous after a rumba dance at the event, but did not go into any more detail.

Mr Bundgaard said that after the event, as the couple drove home Miss Ballard threw his things out of the car, punched him and tried to get into the driver’s seat when he stopped at the side of the highway.

When Phoenix police arrived on the scene, the Arizona senator was reportedly pulling his girlfriend out of the car.

Reports indicate both Mr Bundgaard and Miss Ballard had marks on their bodies showing they had been in a physical altercation, said Police Department spokesman Sargent Tommy Thompson.

Both were detained, but Mr Bundgaard told officers that under Arizona law he is immune from arrest while the legislature is in session, police said.

Police found Mr Bundgaard could correctly claim immunity, but the case was submitted to prosecutors for review.

It is understood that Mr Bundgaard was a contestant at Friday's function, dancing the rumba with a Miss Rebecca Jowers to raise money for kidney treatments.

Mr Bundgaard released a statement saying he was innocent of wrongdoing.

He said: 'I had no choice but to pull her from the driver's seat, which resulted in marks on her knees.

'I had also had no choice but to stop her from punching me and risking highway safety, all of which resulted in a black eye for me and a busted lip.'

He added, ' I waive any and all 'legislative immunity.' If I did something wrong, charge me. I did not.'

Mr Bundgaard is the co-sponsor of controversial Arizona state legislation seeking to challenge the right to U.S. citizenship for children born in the state whose parents are illegal immigrants or other non-citizens.

Speaking to Fox News, attorney Monica Lindstrom said: 'These people are not immune from the charges or the punishment, they're only immune from the actual arrest.

'The arrest is where the officer puts on the matching bracelets - the handcuffs, take you down to the station, take your mugshots, book you into jail and they usually let you go.'

In a statement issued shortly after the alleged incident, Miss Ballard said: 'Last night was the absolute worst night of my life ... I'm still trying to get my mind around a few things.

'Scott's actions; the 17 hours I spent in jail awaiting processing; my bruises, scrapes and soreness; and his statements to the media.'

Friedman takes over Boymelgreen's Azorim

Canadian Jewish property developer Hershy Friedman has rescued Mizrahi Tefahot Bank (TASE:MZTF) from the Azorim Investment, Development and Construction Ltd. (TASE: AZRM) swamp. Friedman will buy Shaya Boymelgreen's 63.8% stake in the real estate company for NIS 300 million, which gives Azorim a valuation of NIS 470 million. Azorim's current market cap is NIS 517 million.

Friedman is to pay NIS 100 million cash immediately, and the remaining NIS 200 million at the closing in a few months' time. Former Sonol Israel Ltd CEO Tamir Poliker, who has advised Friedman in recent months on the Azorim deal, will become Azorim's CEO.

The controlling stake in Azorim was put up for sale by Boymelgreen Capital, which encountered financial difficulties. The sale was conducted by Mizrahi Tefahot Bank, to which Boymelgreen owes NIS 650 million. The debt originates from the 2006 deal in which Boymelgreen bought the stake in Azorim from IDB Holding Corp. Ltd. (TASE:IDBH) for NIS 1.2 billion, four times the current market value of the shares.

In the first nine months of 2010, Azorim made a loss of NIS 102 million, following a NIS 338 million loss in 2009. The company has total liabilities of NIS 3.6 billion, of which NIS 840 million are to bondholders.

Haredi 'Rabbi' Elior Chen sentenced to 24 years in prison for child abuse

Chen was convicted of abusing and ordering the abuse of eight children, which included beatings with clubs and hammers, kicks to the head, severe shaking, burning, being handcuffed and stuffed in a suitcase, food and sleep deprivation.

The Jerusalem District Court Monday sentenced self-proclaimed Rabbi Elior Chen to 24 years in prison, one and a half years suspended sentence for multiple counts of severe abuse against eight minors.

Chen was also ordered to pay a compensation fine of NIS 400,000 to the children who suffered from the abuse.

Judge Noam Yaron called Chen's action "unprecedented, difficult and outrageous. The children remain wounded both physically and emotionally with critical brain damage."

Chen was convicted in December for abusing the children of one of his disciples, which included beatings with clubs and hammers, kicks to the head, severe shaking, burning, being handcuffed and stuffed in a suitcase, food and sleep deprivation, being forced to eat feces, and being forced to stand outside in the cold naked.

One of the children remains in a vegetative state to this day due to the abuse.

According to the verdict, Chen's followers possessed "blind admiration" for him, obeyed him unquestioningly and all their abuse of the children was at his express command.

Chen not only witnessed most of this abuse and handed out orders, the document continued, he also actively participated in the abuse.

The judge wrote in the sentencing that the defendant "contrived and initiated the violent acts against the children."

"These were violent, cruel and horrifying acts of abuse that were executed systematically and continuously, while raining terror over the children and dictating fear and terrorism; while oppressing, humiliating and debasing the minors," the judge wrote.

The child abuse affair was uncovered two years ago, when a child Chen had been treating was taken to the hospital unconscious. Once the story became public, Chen fled to Brazil, which extradited him back to Israel.

Chen, who called himself a rabbi, told his disciples the abuse was necessary to "purify" the children, all members of one family.

Four of Chen's disciples were convicted earlier and sentenced to jail terms of up to 20 years each. Prosecutors plan to seek a longer sentence for Chen, who was the ringleader.

In her conviction of the four disciples, Judge Nava Ben-Or called the case "incomprehensible," adding that Israel has never before known anything like it.

Chen's attorney, Ariel Atari, said he plans to appeal the conviction to the Supreme Court, arguing that his client did not receive a fair trial.

The mother of the eight children, who remains unnamed, was sentenced in May 2010 to five years in prison after pleading guilty to shaking, burning and tying up her children.

Rabbi: Judge in Katsav trial a gentile

Shlomo Aviner, who signed letter in support of former president, explains to his students why he is so forgiving towards convicted rapist. 'One judge was a Christian Arab, so it's a gentiles' court,' he says, adding court 'gave in to the media'

Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, one of the leading religious authorities who signed a letter in support of Moshe Katsav, explained to his students at the Ateret Yerushalayim Yeshiva why he was so forgiving towards the former president, who was convicted of two counts of rape and sexual harassment.

The rabbi said his stance stemmed from one of the judges' religious identities, the media pressure the court was subject to and the essence of Israeli law, which he believes does not allow for real justice.

Aviner, one of the most prominent Religious Zionism leaders, spoke to his students several days after Katsav's conviction. "Should we believe the court, which ruled that the former president has committed a crime and sinned? The answer is no," he said at the start of the meeting.

"This doesn't mean that anything the court decides is wrong, but not everything it decides is right," he ruled.

The rabbi expressed his reservations over the Israeli legal system in general, and Judge George Karra in particular – due to his religion.

"The criteria for clarifying the truth are not as strict as our criteria (according to Jewish Law), which require very strong evidence and not just estimates… Even Jews who judge according to the gentiles' laws are called gentile courts. And in our case one judge was gentile, a Christian Arab, so it's a gentiles' court.

"In general, courts in this country rule that 99% of defendants are convicted. This is impossible. In all Western country it ranges between 65 to 75%, unless we say there are more evil people in Israel… Something is wrong with this system, it's impossible."

Afraid of media?

According to Aviner, anyone examining the details of the affairs discovers that "it doesn't look like he is really guilty. They're just afraid of the media – and such things have happened before, both here and among the gentiles." He mentioned the Dreyfus affair as an example.

"We know that in many cases the judge give in to the media, other the media will cause trouble for them, so they are afraid," the rabbi argued. "So whether they are aware of it or not – they are biased.

"From the moment he was appointed president he was persecuted by the media. From the moment he was appointed the press said that 'this is the worst day in the State's history.'

"In general, in trials dealing with harassment against women, the media is always in favor of the woman," Aviner added. "Why? An important person harassed a woman – it's interesting news. A woman who falsely accused an important person, a simple woman, it's not interesting, it's not news. So the media is always on that side, even though it's not true."

According to the rabbi, "Other judges, including leftists and seculars – said that this ruling is a disgrace, and they know what they're talking about. You can't say that they are biased."

He added that the judges are influenced by personal opinions, so "it's clear that this is a case of injustice."

Branching out: 'Holiday Bandit' bank robber Marat Mikhaylich strikes in New Jersey

The city's Most Wanted bank robber is branching out.

Cops said Sunday that the man who robbed a Sovereign Bank branch in Woodbridge, N.J., Friday afternoon was "Holiday Bandit" Marat Mikhaylich.

It's his eighth heist and the first time Mikhaylich has struck outside New York, police said.

"He continues to be a problem," said FBI spokesman Peter Donald.

Mikhaylich is suspected of robbing seven city banks - four in Queens, two in Brooklyn and one on Staten Island - in a brazen spree that began in December, the origin of his "holiday" nickname.

His estimated total take: more than $50,000, the feds say.

In one attack, he robbed a second teller at the same Capital One Bank in Borough Park because he wasn't satisfied with his take from the first. It wasn't clear how much he got in the New Jersey stickup.

As in the previous holdups, the robber handed a computer-printed note to a teller at gunpoint.

"It was the same M.O.," Donald said.

The feds declined to speculate on why the gawky goon left New York for the Garden State, but his crime spree has generated intense publicity in the city's media.

Mikhaylich stands about 6-feet-5 and weighs 210 pounds, the FBI says. The 35-year-old Ukraine-born heistmeister speaks Russian and goes by "Mark" rather than "Marat," the FBI said. He has no prior criminal record, officials said.

Anyone with info about Mikhaylich is asked to call (212) 384-1000. The FBI is offering a "significant reward" for tips leading to his capture.

Bernie Madoff says hiding his scam was a 'nightmare,' calls victims 'greedy': 'I am a good person'

Bernie Madoff, the reviled Ponzi schemer who ruined so many people, thinks he's the one you should feel sorry for.

Turns out, keeping the whole billion-dollar scheme secret from his family was a major burden.

"It was a nightmare for me," he said. "Even the regulators felt sorry for me...They said, 'How did you live with this? Not being able to tell anybody?'"

In a series of phone interviews with New York magazine, Madoff repeatedly said he wasn't trying to justify what he did - and then he repeatedly tried to justify what he did.

"These people probably would've lost all that money in the market," he said from prison in Butner, N.C., where he just wrapped up the first year of his 150-year sentence.

He blamed his clients - the fat cats and charities and foundations who lost billions in his bogus investment fund - for failing to question how he kept making steady profits even in down years.

"These banks and these funds had to know there were problems," Madoff said.

He noted that he never explained his strategies or methods.

"I absolutely refused to do it. I said, 'You don't like it, take your money out,' which of course they never did," he said.

He says he told all of his investors not to risk any money they couldn't afford to lose. But, he said, "everyone was greedy."

When they begged him to invest their money, "I just went along," Madoff said.

He said that his scam began in the early 1990s and by the end of that decade, his investors, who kept getting paid off handsomely, must have known his business was a fraud.

"Believe me, if you don't think they had doubts, they had doubts," he said.

"Look, none of my clients, even if they lost every penny they put in there, can plead poverty," he said.

"Now if you listen to (them), they're living out of dumpsters and they don't have any money and I'm sure it's a traumatic experience to some, but I made a lot of money for people."

He also blamed the regulators, who should have smelled something fishy. "There was complicity, in my view," he said.

Madoff insists his wife, Ruth, and sons had no idea what he was doing.

He said Ruth, who stood by him after his two sons turned him in in 2009, will no longer speak to him - not since the December suicide of his younger son, Mark.

His surviving son, Andrew, won't speak to either of his parents. The New York magazine writer said he suspected Madoff granted the interview as a way of speaking to Andrew.

Madoff said he cried for two weeks over his son's suicide.

"Not a day goes by that I don't suffer," he said.

But he says he never considered suicide himself. "It's just not the way I am."

Madoff says prison isn't so bad, and that he enjoys a certain status with the other prisoners. "My notoriety impresses them," he said. "It shouldn't, but it does."

Madoff says he's seeing a shrink, and that she told him that he's not a sociopath because he has morals and remorse.

"I'm not the kind of person I'm being portrayed as," he told the magazine. "I am a good person."

Rabbi, how do you like my glasses?

Vizhnitz Hasidism decides spectacles must meet modesty rules too. Yeshiva students urged to give up on metal glasses, contact lenses

Leaders of the Vizhnitz Hasidism have issued new instructions in regards to the purchase of eyeglasses, as part of their attempt to combat modernization.

In a special sermon to the young yeshiva students of the Hasidic dynasty, considered one of the biggest in the haredi sector, Rabbi Israel Hager, the successor of the Vizhnitz Hasidism's founder, discussed the dangers inherent in modernizations on the secular street and urged the students not to wear metal glasses and contact lenses.

The rabbi made the remarks as part of the Shovevim period - an acronym for the Jewish weekly Torah portions of "Shemot", "Va'era", "Bo", B'Shallach", "Yitro" and "Mishpatim". During this period, it is customary to be more careful not to violate any of the sex-related transgressions commanded in the Torah and study the laws relating to such transgressions.

Rabbi Hager said in his sermon that the students must "beware of the dangers hiding on the street." He added that, "a student who wishes to delve into Torah studies and observe mitzvot must detach himself from all nonsense and not let them infiltrate."

The rabbi called on students wearing modern metal glasses to remove them and move to anti-modern plastic glasses. Rabbi Hager also spoke out against yeshiva students wearing contact lenses.

According to a Hasidism source, metrosexual men and students of the modern Lithuanian yeshivot were the only ones wearing contact lenses.

"This is the reason why the rabbi called on the students not to wear them. We are well aware of the statement made by the former Vizhnitz rebbe, who said we must wear the exact opposite of what is worn in Paris."

A Vizhnitz source explained that the essence of the Hasidim was to stay away from the nonsense and modernism of the world. "We are interested in keeping our distance from anything linked to party goers, recreational activities and clubs, and be on the other end in a way in which we won't even know that world exists," the source explained. "This is why our segregation is even applied to the type of eyeglasses."

Suspect in Shalit fraud remains in custody

Ronen Bar Shira















Police suspect man of keeping donations solicited for Shalit family, Carmel fire victims

Police have arrested a man who allegedly disguised himself as a Shalit activist in order to steal hundreds of thousands in donations. On Monday, his arrest was remanded by nine days.

Ronen Bar-Shira was arrested Sunday night after an investigative report published by Yedioth Ahronoth. Police suspect that he accepted donations both for kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit as well as for the Carmel fire victims.

The Rishon Letzion Magistrates' Court accepted the police's request for the remand of Bar Shira's arrest, attesting that "reasonable suspicion exists that the suspect has been involved in the violations with which he is charged".

Bar Shira is suspected of soliciting donations for the flotilla for Shalit, which never took place but for which none of the donors received a refund.

Police say he has repeatedly solicited funds for a number of different charity ventures, in the process taking advantage of people in distress, such as the Shalit family and the Carmel fire victims.

The investigators suspect he presented donors with false advertisement of each cause, later keeping all of the donated funds.

Vancouver Air Traffic Controller makes Marriage Proposal live on Air - A MUST HEAR

Dash-cam video shows moment police officer used 'excessive force' by hitting and kicking handcuffed man over head

The beginning: A scuffle broke out between Rodarick Lyles and Dallas police officers after he resisted arrest. He then fell on former Dallas police officer Quaitemes Williams who became 'excessively angry'






A rookie police officer accused of using excessive force on a handcuffed suspect has been sacked and faces criminal charges.

Former Dallas police officer, Quaitemes Williams, is alleged to have hit Rodarick D Lyles over the head with his torch and sprayed him with mace before kicking him in the head, during an arrest last month.

The entire incident was captured on a police dashboard camera.

Dallas Police Chief, David Brown, said at a press conference: 'The response can't be when the suspect is defenceless and handcuffed to kick a person in the head or even to mace a person.

'We have to be more professional and more disciplined than that.

'With this action today, we stand firm in our belief that the integrity of the DPD stands above the actions of a single officer or group or association.

'We also ask the public to view our actions as proof that we can and will police ourselves.'

Officer Hiram Soler last month pulled Lyles over because his number plates failed to match his vehicle, police said.

They then discovered that Lyles's licence was also suspended and that he was wanted for driving without a licence in a previous incident.

Williams and Officer Edward Cruz-Done were called as backup. On trying to arrest Lyles the suspect resisted and a scuffle broke out.

Lyles, who Chief Brown said was a large man that weighed around 250lbs, fell on Williams who became angry.

Chief Brown said Williams then hit Lyles with his fist and a torch before Officer Cruz-Done took it away from him, feeling it was an unnecessary use of force.

Officer Solar then used a stun gun on Lyles who was handcuffed while on the ground.

The two officers then tried to calm Williams down. They described him as extremely angry and out of control, Chief Brown said.

However when they were distracted by more officers who turned up to assist, Williams allegedly sprayed mace into Lyles's face and kicked him in the face once.

Officer Rickey Upshaw, a 23-year veteran of the force who arrived as backup in time to witness the incident, reported it to his supervisors, Chief Brown said.

After he was sacked Williams was arrested and released on bail. He faces criminal charges of official oppression and if convicted he faces up to a year in prison.

Officer Soler is accused of entering inaccurate, false or improper information on a police report.

He was disciplined with a 10-day suspension. This is not the first 'dash-cam' incident to hit Dallas Police.

Three Dallas officers were sacked for their role in the beating of a motorcyclist after a chase in September

And two years ago an officer detained NFL player Randy Moss in a hospital car park while his mother-in-law was dying. The officer later resigned.

An accident investigator will not be punished after hitting a disabled woman on her scooter.

Barbara Guyton, of West Palm Beach, was crossing the road when a van driven by Gerlienus Marie Hester, a Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office civilian accident investigator, turned left and hit Ms Guyton, then 68, according to police reports.

Ms Guyton was in hospital for around six weeks with injuries to her back, neck, arm and leg after incident last July, her lawyers said.

She is still recuperating, they added.

At the time Palm Beach County traffic investigators said Hester, then 44, had failed to give way to Ms Guyton, but was not given a ticket.

A review board ruled last September that any case against Hester was unsubstantiated, a Sheriff's Office spokesman told the Orlando Sentinel.

Ms Guyton's lawyers now intend to sue, according to the paper.

'There is no question that the driver of the Sheriff's (Office) vehicle was at fault,' Lorenzo Williams, one of Ms Guyton's lawyers, said.

'The law enforcement agency should step to the plate and do what is fair and just to this family.'

"סיקריק" גנב לאישה חרדית את הפאה

אישה שעברה ב´גאולה´ בירושלים, לא הצליחה להתמודד עם הרוחות העזות כשהפאה שלה התעופפה באוויר ונסחפה עם הרוחות למרחק רב. למרות התקרית הנוראה של אישה חרדית נשואה להישאר ללא כיסוי ראש, היא החלה במסירות נפש לרדוף אחרי הפאה בכדי לכסות את ראשה מהשמיים ומהבושה. "סיקריק" הבחין בנעשה וגנב את הפאה

ה"סיקריקים" שוברים שיא נוסף. את הסיפור השערורייתי חשף העיתונאי ארי גלהר בעיתון ידיעות ירושלים.

אישה שעברה ב´גאולה´ בירושלים, לא הצליחה להתמודד עם הרוחות העזות כשהפאה שלה התעופפה באוויר ונסחפה עם הרוחות למרחק רב. למרות התקרית הנוראה (של אישה חרדית נשואה להישאר ללא כיסוי ראש), היא החלה במסירות נפש לרדוף אחרי הפאה בכדי לכסות את ראשה מהשמיים ומהבושה.

אלא שאז חלף במקום אברך המשתייך לקבוצת ה"סיקריקים" במאה שערים, המתנגדים לחבישת פאות. הוא הבחין במתרחש, הרים את הפאה והחל לברוח איתה. כן, קראתם נכון.

באותה שעה נסע במקום אהרן גורביץ על אופנועו והבחין בנעשה. "התחלתי לרוץ אחריו בשכונה ולצעוק לעוברים ושבים ´גנב גנב´ על מנת שיעצרו אותו ויקחו ממנו את הפאה שהוא ברח איתה. בשלב מסוים הצטרפו אליי גם בחורים צעירים מחברון גאולה וכשהוא הבחין בכך הוא שחרר את הפאה והמשיך לברוח".

לדברי גורביץ, הוא לקח את הפאה כשהוא מתנשף מריצה והחל לחזור למקום האירוע על מנת להשיב את הפאה לבעליה. "חזרתי לרחוב בו ראיתי אותה והיא כבר נעלמה מהמקום. בשביל אישה חרדית להיות בלי כיסוי ראש זו התקלה הכי גדולה שיכולה להיות מעבר לעניין הדתי. כשהבינה שהוא ברח עם הפאה וראתה את הדרמה שנוצרה, היא כנראה רק רצתה לקבור את פניה באדמה וברחה מהמקום".

בינתיים, נשאר גרוביץ עם הפאה, אותה לקח לביתו. כעת הוא מחפש דרך כיצד החזיר לאישה את הפאה העולה אלפי שקלים.

מלחמתם של הקיצוניים החרדים בפאות שלובשות הנשים החרדיות שוברת שיאים כל פעם מחדש. כחלק מהמאבק בצניעות דאגו בעבר קיצונים חרדים משכונת מאה שערים להתיז אקונומיקה על בגדי נשים שלדעתם היו לא צנועים, ולהעיר לנשים הלובשות פאות.

בנוסף מפעילים הקיצונים החרדים רכבים עם מסכי פלזמה עליהם מוקרנים שיעורים של רבנים בלופ עם הרצאות נגד לבישת הפאה והעונשים הכרוכים בה.

Video: Son of Hamas Speaks before a Crowd of 1,500

Last week Chabad of the Conejo Vally hosted the 'Son of Hamas', Mosab Hassan Yousef, who spoke at length about the dangers of radical Islam. The following is the video of the conversation he had with Rabbi David Eliezre before a crowd of 1,500.


“Son of Hamas” author, Mosab Hassan Yousef, warns a mixed Christian, Jewish and Muslim audience in L.A. that global Islamism's (including Hamas') hate for Jews and Christian America drives pan-Arab, Palestinian nationalism as part of their objective to dominate the world by destroy the governments of both states, Israel & America.

Mr. Yousef considers himself a patriot of Palestine, turning against what he found, as son of a Hamas leader, to be a morally corrupt and savage supremacist movement pursuing conquest of Israel through terrorism and psychological warfare, e.g., blood libeling Jews through the global press. A small group of Muslim men vocally expressed their disdain for Mr. Yousef, booing him and disruptively heckling him “You're a scumbag!”

Once poised to lead Hamas's political wing, Mosab Hassan Yousef made a dangerous, courageous and heroic decision — he is now risking everything to expose closely-guarded secrets that have rocked the Middle East.

Recounting the gripping account of terror, betrayal, political intrigue and unthinkable choices he made to save the lives of people on both sides of the Arab Israeli conflict.

The audience included a constituency from St. Paschal Baylon Roman Catholic Church in Thousand Oaks. Organized by Chabad of Conejo Valley, interviewed by Rabbi David Eliezre of Chabad of Orange County. Filmed live in Westlake Village, Calif. Feb 21, 2011

Lockerbie bomber Abdel Baset al-Megrahi blackmailed Libya's Moammar Khadafy to gain freedom

Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, convicted for his role in the Lockerbie bombing that killed 270 people, reportedly blackmailed Libya's Moammar Khadafy to help him get out of jail.
















Abdel Baset al-Megrahi may have been sick, but it was blackmail that got him out of prison, according to a new report.

The Lockerbie bomber who was given a "get out of jail free" card under the guise he was at death's door has remained alive and well more than a year after dire predictions suggested he would be dead within months.

His early release, called a "humanitarian" gesture but Scottish authorities in 2009 because he suffers pancreatic cancer, was really the result of the terrorist's threats to Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy, London's Sunday Times reports.

Libya's former justice minister Mustapha Abdeljalil said in an interview to the newspaper that al-Megrahi threatened to get "revenge" on Khadafy, and would "spill the beans" on the dictator's role in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988.

The flight was carrying passengers from London to New York when it exploded over Scotland, killing 270 people, mostly Americans.

"If you do not rescue me I will reveal everything," Abdeljalil told The Sunday Times al-Megrahi said to Khadafy. As a result, the dictator was "dedicated to ensuring that Megrahi should return to Libya even if it cost [Libya] every penny [it] had."

The former justice minister claimed it costs Libya more than $80,000 a month to take care of the 58-year-old killer, who recently was reported to be in a coma.

Al-Megrahi's release came after Libyan officials, including Khadafy, pressured British officials and threatened to end lucrative trade deals with the United Kingdom.

Pediatrician in Abuse Case Killed Himself

Dr. Mel Levine was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound a day after a sexual abuse and malpractice suit was filed against him














Dr. Melvin D. Levine, a nationally known pediatrician who was found dead last week, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, a medical examiner said on Friday.

Dr. Levine, 71, was found in the woods near his Rougemont, N.C., home with a gunshot wound to his forehead. His death was reported a day after a class-action sexual abuse and malpractice suit was filed against him in Boston.

A report by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office in North Carolina said officers went to Dr. Levine’s home the night of Feb. 17 after his wife reported finding a suicide note, but they were not initially able to find his body. The contents of the note have not been released.

The Boston lawsuit charges that Dr. Levine performed unnecessary genital exams on 40 boys while at Children’s Hospital Boston from 1966 to 1985.

Although Dr. Levine, a Rhodes scholar, had long been dogged by charges of sexually abusing young male patients, he had maintained that he was innocent. He was never convicted on any abuse charge, and never faced criminal charges.

On Friday The Boston Globe reported that several men who said they had been molested as young boys had described encounters in which they said Dr. Levine groped, fondled or performed oral sex on them. One recalled a trip on which he and Dr. Levine were in the same bed, saying that when the doctor took off his clothes, he put his arm around the boy and fondled him.

Christopher Dean, now a 50-year-old architect in Roslindale, Mass., said Friday that for four years, starting when he was 9, he went twice a year to Dr. Levine’s office for a “checkup” that was simply an occasion for molestation.

“It started when he came to my school in Brookline, saw me in the nurse’s office, fondled me, and then said he would like to see me as a private patient,” said Mr. Dean, a plaintiff in the Boston suit, which will proceed against Mr. Levine’s estate. “I came out in tears and in shock, but didn’t tell anyone.”

Several plaintiffs said that Dr. Levine’s abuse had clouded their lives, and that they hoped for resolution in the lawsuit.

“It left me feeling very awkward; I never forgot it, and I always kept track of Dr. Levine,” said Donald Roy, now 46, who said he was abused by Dr. Levine at age 10, when he was having surgery at Children’s Hospital. “My mother knew what was going on because Dr. Levine invited me to visit his house, and I said I just wasn’t going to go, and I explained why. But she didn’t know what to do with it.”

Carmen Durso, a Boston lawyer for the plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit, filed his first suit against Dr. Levine in 2005, and followed with four more complaints before holding a news conference in 2008 at which he announced the charges. Those charges were resolved, but last week Mr. Durso held a news conference announcing the new complaints.

Until the sexual abuse charges, Dr. Levine was a leading advocate for children with learning disabilities whose fame spread through his books, including “A Mind at a Time,” as well as through a PBS documentary, “Misunderstood Minds,” and a nationwide schedule of lectures.

With Charles Schwab, Dr. Levine founded a nonprofit group, All Kinds of Minds, that has trained thousands of teachers. Dr. Levine’s approach stressed that whatever their learning disabilities — learning differences, he called them — all children also had strengths to build on.

In 2004, the New York City Department of Education gave All Kinds of Minds a $12.5 million contract to train 20,000 teachers, without the normal competitive bidding process, because, it said, there were no comparable programs.

In 2005, Scholastic Press named Dr. Levine the most admired person in education.

While some experts criticized Dr. Levine’s work as depending on observation and anecdote instead of replicable scientific investigation, teachers and parents flocked to his entertaining, multihour lectures.

“He brought optimism into the world of families by helping to demystify learning, helping kids put borders around their learning issues, so they no longer felt pervasively damaged,” said Claire Wurtzel, who worked with Dr. Levine and is now director of professional development at Churchill School and Center in New York.

Dr. Levine contributed to a paradigm shift, she said, getting teachers to explore what stopped children from learning, rather than just dismissing them.

“Before Mel, it used to be, for most teachers, ‘Why is this lazy kid in my room? He’s not learning and he doesn’t belong here,’ ” she said.

A basic tenet of Dr. Levine’s was that no child should ever be humiliated.

“From the moment a child gets out of bed until she is tucked in at night, she has one central mission: avoiding humiliation at all costs,” Dr. Levine often said in his lectures.

Some former colleagues, including Dr. William B. Carey of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said they could not reconcile that Mel Levine, their “brilliant, honest, kind, caring” friend, with the doctor charged with humiliating so many boys.

After Dr. Levine moved to North Carolina, sexual abuse complaints arose there, too. In March 2009, as the North Carolina medical board was investigating such charges, Dr. Levine agreed that he would never again practice medicine. At the time, the state medical board said it was prepared to show that Dr. Levine had conducted examinations that were not medically indicated or properly documented.

Mr. Dean said that when Dr. Levine moved to North Carolina, his mother told him that Dr. Levine had molested two young sons of a friend of hers, who believed he had left Massachusetts to flee complaints.

“My mother asked if he’d ever done anything to me,” Mr. Dean said. “I was 25, but I was still so humiliated that I said, no, he never touched me. The shame was so great that I didn’t tell my mother about it until last week, and I still haven’t told my father.”

פשקוויל יום א': מאה שערים נגד המשטרה

במאה שערים יש פשקווילים חדשים בנושא הגיור צבאי, נגד תחנת משטרה בכיכר השבת, ומחאה נגד פרסומות שבהן יש תמונות של ילדות

‘John Galliano called me Jewish whore...with ugly eyebrows': Art historian in row with designer tells police he threatened to kill her boyfriend

High-profile friends: John Galliano with model Kate Moss










British fashion designer John Galliano allegedly grabbed a respected art historian’s hair and called her an ‘ugly, disgusting whore’ with a ‘dirty Jew face’ and no dress sense during an unprovoked attack in a Paris cafe.

Curator Geraldine Bloch, 35, has told officers investigating the alleged assault that the designer, who is close friends with celebrities including Madonna and Kylie Minogue, insulted every aspect of her looks, from her ‘ugly eyebrows’ to her ‘cheap thigh boots’.

During the incident, which has seen Mr Galliano arrested and suspended from his job as chief designer at Christian Dior, Ms Bloch claimed he even threatened to kill her boyfriend, receptionist Philippe Virgitti, 41.

She has claimed Galliano concluded his tirade with: ‘I am the designer John Galliano!’ while striking the trademark ‘rock star’ pose with which he often ends his couture shows
.
Details of the alleged incident emerged in French newspaper Le Figaro which claims to have seen police statements taken from the couple.

It came as Mr Galliano launched legal action against Ms Bloch, who is French, and Mr Virgitti, of Asian background, for defamation, after Dior made the decision to suspend him during the police investigation.

The alleged attack took place on Thursday night in La Perle, in the Marais district. There were ‘dozens’ of witnesses to the violence, which started soon after 9pm after Mr Galliano had reportedly drunk the alcoholic equivalent of two bottles of red wine.

It has been claimed Mr Galliano, 50, grabbed Ms Bloch, who is head of exhibitions at
Paris’s Institute of the Arab World, by her hair and shouted: ‘Dirty Jew face, you should be dead,’ adding ‘shut your mouth, dirty bitch, I can’t stand your dirty whore voice.’

According to police documents, he then turned his anger on Mr Virgitti, and screamed: ‘******* Asian bastard, I’ll kill you!’

Ms Bloch continued to scream frantically, but Galliano allegedly told her: ‘You’re so ugly I can’t bear looking at you. You’re wearing cheap boots, cheap thigh boots.
You’ve got no hair, your eyebrows are ugly, you’re ugly, you’re nothing but a whore.’

Born in Gibraltar and raised in South London, Mr Galliano lives in Paris and boasts fans including Kate Moss, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, Natalie Portman and Rihanna.

Mr Zerbib, Mr Galliano’s lawyer, denied his client had made racist comments, and confirmed he had launched libel proceedings against his accusers on Friday night.

But Dior chief executive Sidney Toledano said: ‘Dior affirms with the utmost conviction its policy of zero tolerance towards any anti-semitic or racist words or behaviour. Pending the results of the inquiry, Christian Dior has suspended John Galliano from his responsibilities.’

A Paris police spokesman confirmed all details of the allegations against Mr Galliano, and said he was facing criminal charges.

NYPD now videotaping suspects as detectives question them, despite reluctance

Detectives' Endowment Association President Michael Palladino says videotaping suspects will hamper the ability to win convictions








Ending years of reluctance, the NYPD has begun videotaping suspects as detectives question them, the Daily News has learned.

The pilot program started Wednesday in the 48th Precinct, which covers East Tremont and Fordham in the Bronx, and in the 67th Precinct, which covers East Flatbush, Brooklyn.

It will focus only on felony assault suspects because they "are broad in type - assault with a gun, domestic assaults, gang assault, etc.," and will provide police the chance to assess the program's strengths and weaknesses, said Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne, the NYPD's top spokesman.

If successful, the pilot could be expanded departmentwide.

City prosecutors long have used videotaping, but the NYPD for years had balked at the notion of having a camera capture the often-hours-long interviews of suspects.

The department had argued that having a video camera rolling would affect the dynamic between detectives and suspects.

It also claimed the technology was too expensive and unwieldy for a expansive Police Department with 76 precincts and numerous other units.

About a year ago, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said advances in digital technology had stripped away some of those concerns.

At his urging, department brass conducted an eight-month study and recommended the pilot program.

The New York Bar Association, in a report last year, said taping interrogations protects the innocent against false confessions and "often improves the overall quality of investigations."

Michael Palladino, head of the NYPD detectives union, said videotaping suspects will hamper the ability to win convictions.

"I think once a jury see what goes on in an interrogation - the tricks of the trade that are legal, such as trickery and deceit - there will be sympathy for criminals," he said. "Criminals will wind up on the streets instead of behind bars."

In the first three days of the program, six assault suspects were videotaped.

Police are not required to tell suspects they are being taped, unless they ask. But they are required to turn the camera off if a suspect asks them.

Browne said it will cost $90,000 to equip the two precincts for videotaping. That includes the cost of soundproofing rooms at each precinct, sources said.

Washington - Justices Weigh Dispute over Child-Abuse Cases

Washington - Eight years ago, a child protection investigator and a deputy sheriff removed a 9-year-old Oregon girl from her classroom and questioned her at length as to whether her father had abused her. According to the girl, they wouldn’t take “no” for an answer, and she falsely incriminated her father.

On Tuesday, that incident will be the focus of arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court in a divisive case that has roused intense interest among those with a stake in child welfare issues.

The central question: Did the two men violate the Fourth Amendment’s ban on “unreasonable search and seizure” when they questioned the girl in that manner without a warrant, without her mother’s consent, and in the absence of emergency circumstances?

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, weighing a lawsuit filed by the girl’s family, ruled that her rights had been violated. The state of Oregon appealed, and the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case.

Oregon officials, supported by briefs from the U.S. government, 40 other states, and various law enforcement and child-advocacy groups, argue that requiring a warrant in such cases would undermine a proven method of investigating child abuse. They say investigators initially may lack sufficient evidence to obtain a warrant, and need the leeway to interview a possible victim without the parents’ presence, at a school or another site away from home.

On the other side, an attorney representing the Greene family will argue that the interrogation was unconstitutional, and a warrant should have been sought. In support of this stance, 18 friend-of-the-court briefs have been filed by 70 groups, ranging from liberal to conservative, which are concerned about overzealous child-protection policies and encroachment on parental rights.

One reason for the high interest: Experts say it’s the first major case involving child-protection services to go before the Supreme Court in 21 years.

The case stems from an incident on Feb. 24, 2003, when social services investigator Bob Camreta and deputy sheriff James Alford removed the 9-year-old from her classroom in Bend, Ore., to interview her in a school conference room about alleged sexual abuse by her father. According to her family’s court brief, the girl repeatedly denied that any such abuse had occurred, then changed her story after two hours of intensive questioning.

“Fearing that the school bus would leave without her at dismissal time, the frightened child decided to lie, just to get out of the room,” according to that brief.

The girl was removed from her home and placed in foster care; only three weeks later was she allowed to return to her mother, Sarah Greene. The charges against the father, Nimrod Greene, regarding his daughter later were dropped, although he did accept a plea agreement, entailing no jail time, to an earlier allegation that he had attempted to fondle the 7-year-old son of his employer.

Carolyn Kubitschek, a veteran of many child-welfare cases New York, will make her first appearance before the Supreme Court to argue that the girl’s interrogation was unconstitutional.

“What the police and child welfare people are asking is a very broad ruling giving them the green light to interrogate kids whenever they think it’s reasonable, without any court telling them, ‘No, you can’t’ ... (and) without the threshold of it being an emergency,” she said in an interview.

The lead argument on the other side will be presented by Oregon Attorney General John Kroger, whose brief says the girl’s interrogation was justified and reasonable.

“The alternatives to an in-school interview are fraught with potential peril for child victims or are impractical,” Kroger argues. “Seeking parental consent is simply not a safe or viable option when the suspected abuser is a parent. Obtaining a warrant ... without interviewing the child may be impossible or inadvisable.”

Kroger’s brief depicts child abuse as a “national epidemic,” affecting more than 750,000 children annually. It notes that parents are the abusers in more than 80 percent of the cases.

Among the groups supporting Kroger is the National District Attorneys Association. A member of its executive committee, District Attorney Joshua Marquis of Astoria, Ore., said the 9th Circuit ruling has had a chilling effect in Oregon, prompting some school districts to forbid the questioning of children by police or child protection workers without parental consent or a warrant.

Such interviews often are necessary, he said, because parents may have an interest in covering up wrongdoing, and physical evidence that might help justify a warrant often is absent in child abuse cases.

“Should we have a system that errs in favor of preservation of the family, or that errs in preservation of the child’s safety?” Marquis asked. “To me that’s an easy decision. ... The most important thing is best interest of children.”

Newark's star Mayor Cory Booker delivered Dvar Torah

Newark's star Mayor Cory Booker delivered an astounding talk at Chabad of Greenwich's dinner where he showed even "a tall black man from New Jersey" can give a Dvar Torah.

New York, NY - Kosher Food Vendor Treif for Mets for Selling on Shabbat

A Federal judge's Amazin' apparel caused some consternation Friday during a hearing on whether kosher hot dogs can be sold at Citi Field on the Jewish Sabbath.

The lawyer for the vendor that has been barred from slinging rabbi-approved franks from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday had a delicate question for the case's higher authority.

"Your honor, I saw you outside the courthouse at lunchtime and you were wearing a Mets hat and now I see you are wearing a blue-and-orange tie," lawyer Leo Klein said.

"Do we have anything to worry about?"

Brooklyn U.S. Magistrate Andrew Carter shook his head and smiled.

"There's no need for concern about that," Carter said.

Carter has been tasked with trying to help the parties settle the dispute after Federal Judge Jack Weinstein said he couldn't get involved in interpreting rabbinical law.

With the Mets' first Friday night home game slated for April 8, it remains unclear whether fans will be able to purchase kosher franks, sausages, knishes, pretzels, peanuts and hamburgers.

Kosher Sports Inc. claims it is entitled to serve the glatt kosher fare at every game under a 10-year deal with the ballclub.

The firm claims Mets management barred them from selling on the Sabbath.

Mets lawyer Avery Mehlman said the vendor's beef is with Citi Field's official concessionaire, Aramark Food Service Corp., and not the team.

"The Mets can litigate many things right now and this is not the most important thing," Mehlman said, apparently referring to the $300 million suit against team owners Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz by a trustee in the Bernie Madoff case.

"The season is coming up....Let's settle the matter," Mehlman said.

Kosher Sports contends there's nothing unorthodox about selling its food on the Sabbath and said it shelled out plenty of cash to meet the religious requirements.

Borrowing a football metaphor, the company's lawyer, Ira Tokayer, complained the Mets "have been stiff-arming us" by refusing to turn over documents on the team's relationship with Aramark and Nathan's hot dogs.

The New Jersey-based vendor is seeking at least $1 million in damages for breach of contract.

A spokesman for Aramark did not return a call seeking comment.

Cops nab $10 million worth of heroin after tailing drug suspects in the Bronx

Cops tailing two drug suspects in the Bronx blew open a black-bag operation - $10 million worth of heroin packed into a duffle.

Andy Moscat, 28, and Francisco Ramirez, 41, were nabbed in a bust of one of the largest smack-trafficking rings in the area by the State Police.

"These big seizures are definitely more common now than they were. Even one kilo of heroin would have been a rare find five years ago," Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan said yesterday.

The duo were indicted on the heels of another major takedown in which the feds broke up a heroin mill, in the shadow of Manhattan's Theater District, seizing $6.5 million of the drug.

Brennan said drug dealers are moving from cocaine to heroin distribution because it's lighter to transport and more profitable.

A second factor is demand. The rise in abuse of prescription drugs - many of which are opiates - has some seeking out heroin as a cheaper alternative.

In the Bronx case, Ramirez and Moscat were arrested last Saturday after a long-term undercover probe.

Cops watched Moscat climb out of a car driven by Ramirez, go into 2526 Bronx Park East and return with a large bag that he shoved into a second parked vehicle.

Cops moved in and found 40 pounds of heroin packed into bricks in the bag. They seized paraphernalia for a wholesale drug packaging mill and a .9 mm Beretta handgun from an apartment.

They also found $38,000 in cash and diamond-encrusted jewelry in Moscat's Yonkers apartment.

Moscat was cuffed as he tried to flee on foot. Ramirez smashed the car he drove into a State Police vehicle.

Washington - Rep. Anthony Weiner Delivers Promised Bar Mitzvah Picture

Washington - Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) took some time on Friday to remember the moment 34 years ago when he became a man in the eyes of the Jewish religion.

Weiner promised to release a photo from his bar mitzvah because he hit the 10,000 follower mark on Twitter. On Friday, he delivered:

Friday is the day to drop news you dont want anyone to see. So stay tuned for my promised bar mitzvah pic.

תחקיר מחריד: כך הרגה המשטרה חרדי ללא סיבה

אילנה דיין - עובדה from bhol on Vimeo.

'עובדה' חושפת: שמואל אטיאס ז"ל, חרדי בן 21, נהרג בתאונה מחרידה לאחר שהתנגש בניידת שנסעה נגד כיוון התנועה, במטרה ללכוד אותו ללא סיבה • לצפיה

כיצד מעיזה המשטרה לטייח?
תחקיר מחריד ומזעזע התפרסם אמש (ה') בתוכנית 'עובדה' של ערוץ 2.

שמואל אטיאס ז"ל, 21, בן למשפחה חרדית, נהרג בתאונת דרכים מחרידה, לאחר שהתנגש בניידת שדהרה לתוך רחוב חד-סטרי, ונסעה נגד כיוון התנועה, במטרה ללכוד אותו, ללא כל סיבה.

החקירה המשטרתית המתנהלת מאז מקרה התאונה, לפני שנה וחצי, מעלה שאלות רבות, המעוררות את התמיהה הגדולה: כיצד מעיזה המשטרה לטייח את החקירה ולפעול נגד החוק.

"נפגשנו במרכז העיר", מספר ט', חברו של שמואל ז"ל, שהיה עמו בדקותיו האחרונות. "הייתי בדרך לכיוון הבית. פתאום הוא אמר לי שידיד מחכה לו בשכונת רמות. לא ראיתי אותו הרבה זמן, אז אמרתי נלווה אותו ונדבר".

קצת לפני 4 בבוקר, עוזבים שני הבחורים את מרכז העיר, כשהם רוכבים על שני קטנועים ונוסעים לכיוון שכונת רמות.

במחסום הידוע בכביש המוביל לשכונות מתחיל המרדף הלא חוקי שניהלו מספר שוטרים, שהוביל למוות מיותר.

ללא סיבה מיוחדת מחליט השוטר, רומן יזמסקי, כי רוכבי הקטנועים חשודים בעיניו. הוא נכנס לניידת ומתחיל בנסיעה מהירה לכיוונם.

שמואל, בחור ללא עבר פלילי, נלחץ ככל הנראה מניידת המשטרה והחל במנוסה מהשוטר.

בדקות הגורליות שבמהלך רדיפת השוטרים אחרי שמואל, צפצפו השוטרים על כל תקנה. על פי ההוראות, היה אסור לנהל את המרדף אחרי שמואל.

"הם היו ממש ממש צמודים אליו. אם לא היה את הבמפארים, הם כבר מזמן היו נותנים לו מכה", מספר ט' חברו של שמואל. "הם היו במרחק של 3-4 מטר מרוכב הקטנוע", מספר עד ראייה אחר.

"הייתה הוראה ברורה שלא לסכן את האופנוע. קצין היחידה הודיע זאת בפירוש בקשר", כך מעיד ד', מתנדב לשעבר במשמר האזרחי.

מכאן נפרצו כל הגבולות.


"למה פעלת נגד ההוראות?"
שוטרים מתנדבים נכנסו לעזור במרדף. והשוטר יזמסקי עובר על התקנות וצועק בקשר: "לחסום את הקטנוע".

השוטרים המתנדבים, לוקחים את ההוראה צעד אחד קדימה, ונכנסים לרחוב חד סיטרי ונוסעים נגד כיוון התנועה.

התאונה המחרידה מתרחשת.

דבורה ביטקובר, עדת ראייה המתגוררת בסמיכות למקום התאונה, סיפרה: "ישנו. היה בום כל-כך גדול שפשוט קפצנו מהמיטה. השעה הייתה 4 ומשהו בבוקר. ראיתי באמצע הכביש חצי מוטל על המחיצה אדם שרוע עם הפנים למטה והוא לא זז".

"אייל היה נסער ואמר שלא ידע מה עבר לו בראש. שאלתי אותו: 'למה פעלת נגד ההוראות?' אז הוא ענה: 'בגלל האדרנלין ולא חשבתי מספיק'", כך העיד מפקד המשמרת שגבה עדות מאייל ציפורי, השוטר שחסם את הכביש.

במהלך התחקיר ששודר, שוחח אחד מאחיו של שמואל עם ציפורי ושמע ממנו סיבות שונות, אשר מפנות אצבע מאשימה על אחיו שנהרג.

גדי וייסמן, מהנדס תנועה ולשעבר קצין במשטרה קרא את חומר החקירה והסיק מסקנה אחת: "מרדף משטרתי אחרי קטנוע שלא אמור להיות, נסיעה נגד כיוון הנסיעה שלא אמורה להיות בניגוד לנוהלי המשטרה, אם כל זה היה מתנהל אחרת, אני מניח שלא היינו כולנו כאן עכשיו".

סימן השאלה הגדול בסיפור הזה, מרחף מעל הדקות הארוכות מאז שעת התאונה ועד לבואו של האמבולנס למקום.

מעדויות שאספו בעובדה ומשברי מידע שליקטו עולה מסקנה אחת ברורה, משהו מאד לא טוב קורה בזמן הזה.


"תשמע. משהו פה מסריח"
על פי דו"ח המשטרה הרשמי, זמן התאונה היה בשעה 4:15 לפנות בוקר. במסמכים של מד"א נרשם כי השעה בה הוזמן האמבולנס היה ב-4:41. 26 דקות לאחר ההתנגשות.

"בפגישה הראשונה עם ד"ר רוזנטל, מנהל מחלקת טיפול נמרץ", מספר יצחק אטיאס, אביו של שמואל. "הוא אמר לי: "אדוני אם היו מפנים אותו בזמן היינו יכולים להציל את הבחור הזה".

בתמונות שצולמו דקות ספורות לאחר התאונה נראה מכסה המנוע של הניידת פתוח. "מהתאונה מכסה המנוע לא מתרומם והידית של המכסה לא ניצבת", אומר מהנדס התנועה.

"הם נגעו ברכב וטיפלו בו אחרי התאונה. אסור לגעת או להזיז אחרי תאונה שמישהו בה נפגע".

המתנדב לשעבר במשמר האזרחי מספר: "פה התחיל להישמע לי משפטים סותרים מכל כיוון ובשלב הזה אני ניגש לשותף שלי ואני אומר לו: 'תשמע. משהו פה מסריח'".

השוטרים ניסו במהלך שהותו של שמואל בבית החולים להדביק לשמואל עבירה פלילית, כדי לנסות להצדיק את המרדף המיותר.

באותו ערב פרצה שריפה בחנות מכולת באזור. הכבאים עוד לא השתלטו על השריפה וכבר במקום הגיע שוטר שהודיע: "יש לנו חשוד בהצתה. הוא כעת בבית החולים אבל גילנו על סוליית הנעל שלו סימן של פיח".

קצין הכיבוי מאכזב את המשטרה: "השריפה היא בגלל כשל חשמלי. זאת לא הצתה".

השוטרים ניסו לרחרח שהקטנוע עליו נהג שמואל היה גנוב. הם פנו אל מעסיקו, בעל מסעדה בירושלים וניסו, לטענתו, לדחוף לו כל מיני גרסאות.

חמשה ימים שהו הוריו של שמואל ובני משפחתו ליד מיטתו בבית החולים שם נאבק על חייו ואז הגיעה ההודעה המצערת על מותו.

Feds charge 8 at Monsey insurance company with fraud

Feb. 26, 2011

A Monsey insurance company and several of its associates have been charged by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Brooklyn with bilking $550 million from insurance companies through fraud.

Eight people affiliated with Liberty Planning Inc. on Monsey Boulevard issued phony statements to persuade insurance companies to issue policies with high death benefits at lower premiums for older, sickly clients.

The statements falsely told the insurance companies that their straw clients were wealthy.

The eight people charged in the case received large commissions on the policies and defrauded investors looking to buy the policies on the secondary market, according to the indictment.

The indictment charges that Chaim Mayer Lebovits, the vice president and managing general agent for Liberty Planning, supervised the insurance agents and dispersed money from Liberty's bank accounts.

He is accused of facilitating the purchase of policies on behalf of elderly straw clients.

While Lebovits is not associated with the Patrick Farm project, members of the Lebovits family are seeking to develop a 208-acre parcel off Routes 202 and 306 in Ramapo.

Also charged in the insurance case were agents Avigdor Gutwin, Leo Fekete, Moses Neuman, Yudah Neuman, Edward Grodsy, Sophia Brodsky and Arnold Cohen. No addresses were released by the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Those charged could not be reached for comment.

All eight were released on bail after being arraigned Thursday in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District's jurisdiction covers Brooklyn, Staten Island, Queens, Nassau County and Suffolk County.

The indictment charges Lebovits and the others with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud schemes, conspiracy to commit money laundering, three counts each of mail and wire fraud, and three counts of money laundering.

"It was a part of the scheme that the organizers engaged in financial transactions designed to falsely convince the insurance companies that the straw buyers were paying the premiums on the policies," the indictment states.

The indictment states that the organizers paid the premiums from the bank accounts of companies that they controlled.

Their goal was to profit from death benefits they would collect if their phony buyers died before the periods of contestability expired, through commissions that Liberty Planning, other agencies and agents would receive from the premiums and the profits from reselling the policies on the secondary market.

The U.S. Attorney's Office is seeking at least $550 million from those charged, arguing they are jointly and separately liable.

Pilot killed after vintage jet 'spins 360 degrees' and crashes into icy stretch of Hudson River

1)The crashed BAC 167 Strikemaster was owned by Dragon Aviation, a company based in Houston, Texas, that flies in air shows all over the country
2)Pilot missing: Emergency and rescue crews at the iced-over section of the Hudson, near the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge, where the plane went down















A vintage military jet has crashed into the Hudson River as it came in for a landing at an airport in Kingston. The pilot was killed in the accident but his body has not been recovered.

The pilot, named as 38-year-old Michael Faraldi, was the only person aboard the jet when it crashed just north of the Kingston Rhinecliff Bridge.

A witness said the plane spun 360 degrees before nosediving into the river.

State police said the accident happened about 1.30pm, on an ice-covered stretch of the Hudson near the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge, which spans the river midway between Albany and New York City.

Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Holly Baker said the aircraft was partially submerged after the crash and Faraldi's body was unaccounted for - despite as many as 20 divers working at the scene.

State police divers were cutting through the ice, which is a foot thick, with chainsaws. But it was a recovery missuion rather than a rescue mission.

The jet, a British-made BAC 167 Strikemaster, was headed to Kingston-Ulster Airport from an airfield Johnstown, Pennsylvania, when it went down, Ms Baker said.

The aircraft made a low pass over the airstrip before hitting the river.
There was no immediate word on whether the pilot reported any problems prior to the crash.

Witness Kathy Gardner of Clinton Corners told police she was traveling westbound on the bridge when she saw the plane in the air.

She then watched in horror as it rotated 360 degrees before plummeting nose first.
She did not see it hit the water, adding: 'It was almost in slow motion. It was awful.'

The jet was a type of training and light-attack aircraft first made in the late 1960s and removed from service after fatigue cracks were identified in its wings.

In recent years, the crashed jet was owned by Dragon Aviation, a company that flies fighter jets in air shows all over the country. A snarling green dragon adorned the jet's nose.

Company president Andy Anderson said Faraldi was 'a good, good friend', adding: 'This has got to be a bad dream.'

He was travelling to the crash scene.

The Strikemaster, used by third-world nations because of its ability to land and take-off from roughly made airstrips, was taken out of service after the Royal New Zealand Air Force found fatigue cracking in the wings of its aircraft.

But Strikemasters retired by New Zealand, Saudi Arabia and Singapore have been sold on to museums and private collections.

The website warbirddepot.com list Mr Anderson and Robin Rice as owners and operators of the crashed aircraft.

It says the aircraft is based in Houston, Texas.

NY: Abuse Suspects, Your Calls Are Taped. Speak Up.

The men charged with beating, stabbing or burning their wives or girlfriends have plenty to say. Lately, their words have been used against them in New York courts as never before.

The men charged with beating, stabbing or burning their wives or girlfriends have plenty to say. Lately, their words have been used against them in New York courts as never before.

“I need you to prepare the kids to start lying,” one man said to his girlfriend. He had been charged with burning her face with a hot iron as she knelt in view of their children.

Another cooed “baby” to the girlfriend he was charged with grabbing by the hair and scratching with keys. “Whatever you do,” he directed, “do not speak to the D.A.”

A third insisted to his brother that he was surprised at all the blood after he used a kitchen knife on the woman he had been with since they were teenagers. “I just stuck her like a little,” he said.

Since last year, every prisoner telephone call at every New York City jail, except calls to doctors and lawyers, has been recorded. And prosecutors have been mining the trove in all kinds of cases — they asked for copies of the recordings 8,200 times last year, city officials said. But there is one area where the tapes are beginning to play a central role: cases of domestic violence.

The reason is simple. Once those accused in domestic violence crimes get on the jailhouse telephone, it turns out, many of them cannot seem to stop themselves from sweet-talking, confessing to, berating and threatening those on the other end of the line, more often than not the women they were charged with abusing.

The tapes overcome one of the biggest hurdles prosecutors face in such cases: that 75 percent of the time, the women who were victimized stop helping prosecutors, often after speaking to the men accused of abusing them.

Scott E. Kessler, the domestic violence bureau chief in the Queens district attorney’s office, said the recordings “revolutionized the way we’re able to proceed.”

In the Queens Boulevard courthouse where Mr. Kessler’s assistant district attorneys handle more than 6,000 domestic violence cases a year, the jailhouse recordings have become an appalling kind of reality radio, a fly-on-the-wall guide to the chilling intimacies of domestic violence.

“We have the ability now,” Mr. Kessler said, “to prove what we’ve always suspected, which is that the defendants in domestic violence cases are in constant contact with their victims, and they use various means and methods to try to have the case dropped.”

The jailhouse calls are almost always flagrant violations of court orders directing men charged with domestic violence not to contact the women who were attacked.

Deirdre Bialo-Padin, the domestic violence bureau chief in the Brooklyn district attorney’s office, said the tapes gave jurors a vivid understanding of men who can be masters of manipulation.

In one Brooklyn case, she said, the defendant has called the victim from jail 1,200 times.

In the cases in which victims stop cooperating with prosecutors, the recordings plug crucial holes. District attorneys use the recordings partly to explain why injured women are not testifying for the prosecution.

In those instances, the law often permits prosecutors to introduce statements — that would otherwise be barred — made by the victims to the police or hospital workers before they stopped working with prosecutors, including identification of attackers and descriptions of the attacks.

Around the country, jail recording systems vary greatly in their sophistication. Domestic violence prosecutors in some states are far behind their New York colleagues, said Casey Gwinn, a former California prosecutor who is president of the National Family Justice Center Alliance, which provides training and assistance to domestic violence prosecutors.

“When you’re talking about domestic violence cases,” Mr. Gwinn said, “this policy of monitoring every jail call is probably the single most important investigative procedure put in place in the last decade anywhere in the country.”

On the recordings used in Queens cases, the men proclaim their love. They tell the women to disappear when it is time for the trial. They beg and plead.

The Queens courthouse tapes gathered for this article include one of Mohamed Khan, who was charged with slicing his wife’s head and shoulder with a meat cleaver. He was recorded from Rikers Island telling her that he was a “brand new” man and had been under the spell of a “passion of love.”

She ended up testifying that she did not remember who her attacker was. Because the recordings showed what the prosecutors called “a campaign of coercion,” they were able to introduce her statements at the hospital and to the police.

Mr. Khan was convicted and was sentenced last May to seven years in prison.

The men have been heard complaining to the women about what they see as unfair charges.

“I need you right now in my corner,” begged Eric Persaud, the man charged with branding his girlfriend’s cheeks with the iron. He had a strategy, he said: she should vanish for the trial. “I’m smarter than you,” he said in one of what prosecutors have said were 437 calls from Rikers Island.

On Wednesday, he pleaded guilty, and he is to be sentenced next month to 13 years in prison.

The men obsessively explain their crimes to anyone who will pick up the phone.

A defendant named Juan Mighty explained that it was jealousy that had led him to knife the woman “a little.” But he conceded that the scene had been gory. “There was mad blood in the house, T.,” he said in a call to his brother. “There was mad blood in the house.”

He was convicted in June and sentenced to 12 years.

And the tapes have caught the men trying gentle charms. Ishaaq Rahaman, a 28-year-old with big brown eyes, kept saying “baby” to the woman he was charged with scratching with keys, urging her not to tell the prosecutor anything useful.

“Basically tell him things like this: ‘It was just a misunderstanding. I love him. We want to get married and we want to have children together,’ ” he suggested. “Say something nice like that, anything like that, you know what I’m saying, baby?”

Then, forlornly, Mr. Rahaman added: “Even though you probably don’t want to marry me and you don’t want to have kids. But it’s all right. It’s all right. It’s no big deal. We’re not going to talk about that now.” He pleaded guilty this month.

Over the objection of prisoners’ groups and defense lawyers, the city jails changed policy in 2007 to permit the recording, which was already routine in some New York State and federal prisons. Installation of the digital system, which began with some recordings in 2008, was completed in 2010, said a spokesman for the city’s Correction Department, Stephen Morello.

Queens prosecutors have often been among the first to embrace new ways of handling domestic violence cases, including working with the police a decade ago to use digital photographs that provided clearer images of injuries than did old instant photographs.

Defense lawyers around the city, including the lawyer for Mr. Khan, the meat-cleaver attacker, rail about prosecutors’ use of the recordings. “The whole system is patently unfair,” Mr. Khan’s lawyer, Warren M. Silverman, said. He called it a trap for men who were cut off from the world.

The Queens district attorney, Richard A. Brown, argued, “There really is no issue of fairness.” He noted that inmates were told that their phone calls would be taped.