Crime News

Sikh Attacked, Called “Al Qaeda”

4:30 pm EST August 31st, 2010 | Religion | 16 Comments

Thanks Fox, thanks GOP, thanks Harry Reid.

A 35-year-old Seattle man is facing assault and hate crime charges following allegations that he accosted a clerk at a Queen Anne convenience store.

According to police, Brock Stainbrook derided the man as being a terrorist during the Tuesday morning incident.

Writing the court, a Seattle detective said Stainbrook entered the 7-11 store in at 362 Denny Way. The clerk was standing near a coffee machine when Stainbrook accosted him.

‘For unknown reasons a person threw change on the floor near the victim’s feet then punched the victim on the left side of the head,’ the detective said.

‘After the suspect struck (the clerk) with his fist he said, ‘You’re not even American, you’re Al-Qaeda. Go back to your country.”

Topic: Crime, Islam, Seattle

1985 Document Shows Pope Resisting Pleas To Defrock Pedophile Priest

12:28 am EST April 10th, 2010 | Religion | 116 Comments

Yet another smoking gun.

The future Pope Benedict XVI resisted pleas to defrock a California priest with a record of sexually molesting children, citing concerns including ‘the good of the universal church,’ according to a 1985 letter bearing his signature.

The correspondence, obtained by The Associated Press, is the strongest challenge yet to the Vatican’s insistence that Benedict played no role in blocking the removal of pedophile priests during his years as head of the Catholic Church’s doctrinal watchdog office.

Topic: Catholic Church, Crime, Pope Benedict

Tea Party Terrorism: Man Arrested For Death Threats Vs. Speaker Pelosi

4:27 pm EST April 7th, 2010 | Conservative | 48 Comments

It continues.

Law enforcement officials tell The Associated Press the FBI has arrested a northern California man for making threatening phone calls to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi over health care reform.

Charges against the alleged caller have yet to be disclosed.

Topic: Crime, Nancy Pelosi, Tea Party, Tea Party Terrorism

Senior Vatican Priest Compares Scrutiny Over Abuse Scandal To Jewish Persecution

5:05 pm EST April 2nd, 2010 | Religion | 42 Comments

Just when you thought the church couldn’t go too far or debase itself further.

A senior Vatican priest speaking at a Good Friday service compared the uproar over sexual abuse scandals in the Catholic Church — which have included reports about Pope Benedict XVI’s oversight role in two cases — to the persecution of the Jews, sharply raising the volume in the Vatican’s counterattack.

The remarks, on the day Christians mark the crucifixion, underscored how much the Catholic Church has felt under attack from recent news reports and criticism over how it has handled charges of child molestation against priests in the past, and sought to focus attention on the church as the central victim.

Even worse when you consider what the church did during the holocaust.

Pope Pius XII’s (1876-1958) actions during the Holocaust remain controversial. For much of the war, he maintained a public front of indifference and remained silent while German atrocities were committed. He refused pleas for help on the grounds of neutrality, while making statements condemning injustices in general. Privately, he sheltered a small number of Jews and spoke to a few select officials, encouraging them to help the Jews.

Topic: Catholic Church, Crime

Pope Ready To Claim Head Of State Immunity Over Abuse Scandal

6:24 am EST March 31st, 2010 | Religion | 50 Comments

Well then clearly they didn’t do anything wrong, right?

Court documents obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press show that Vatican lawyers plan to argue that the pope has immunity as head of state, that American bishops who oversaw abusive priests weren’t employees of the Vatican, and that a 1962 document is not the ‘smoking gun’ that provides proof of a cover-up.

It says right there in the bible: when accused of a crime, don’t admit guilt but look for international immunity from criminal prosecution.

Topic: Catholic Church, Crime

Maureen Dowd On The Catholic Church’s Child Molestation Spin

11:37 pm EST March 30th, 2010 | Religion | 3 Comments

I am not a fan of Maureen Dowd, but she totally shreds the Catholic Church (and their US-based apologists, Bill Donohue’s right-wing “Catholic League”) in a most righteous fashion.

Complete with crown-of-thorns imagery, the church has started an Easter public relations blitz defending a pope who went along with the perverse culture of protecting molesters and the church’s reputation rather than abused — and sometimes disabled and disadvantaged — children.

The church gave up its credibility for Lent. Holy Thursday and Good Friday are now becoming Cover-Up Thursday and Blame-Others Friday.

Topic: Catholic Church, Crime

In Response To Systematic Child Abuse Scandal, Vatican Attacks… The Media

4:49 pm EST March 25th, 2010 | Religion | 35 Comments

The very definition of not getting it.

The editorial in a Vatican newspaper came on a day abuse victims protested near St Peter’s Square to demand the pope open files on pedophile clerics and defrock ‘predator priests,’ and a cardinal spoke of a ‘conspiracy’ against the church.

‘The prevalent tendency in the media is to ignore the facts and stretch interpretations with the aim of spreading the picture of the Catholic Church as the only one responsible for sexual abuse, something which does not correspond to reality,’ the Vatican newspaper said.

Topic: Catholic Church, Crime

VIDEO: Daughter Of Sex Abuse Victim: “The Pope Knew About This”

12:44 pm EST March 25th, 2010 | Religion | 7 Comments

Criminal.

Topic: Catholic Church, Crime

Internal Church Documents Show Catholic Church – Including Pope Benedict Let Priest Molest As Many As 200 Boys

9:51 pm EST March 24th, 2010 | Religion | 47 Comments

Sick, sick, sick, sick filth.

Top Vatican officials — including the future Pope Benedict XVI — did not defrock a priest who molested as many as 200 deaf boys, even though several American bishops repeatedly warned them that failure to act on the matter could embarrass the church, according to church files newly unearthed as part of a lawsuit.

The internal correspondence from bishops in Wisconsin directly to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future pope, shows that while church officials tussled over whether the priest should be dismissed, their highest priority was protecting the church from scandal.

Topic: Catholic Church, Crime

Catholic Church Abuse Scandal Moves to Brazil

1:38 am EST March 17th, 2010 | Religion | 8 Comments

The beat just goes on.

Brazilian authorities are investigating three priests accused of sexually abusing altar boys after a video allegedly showing one case of abuse was broadcast on television, police and church officials said Tuesday.

The case came to light after the SBT network aired a video purportedly showing an 82-year-old priest having sex with a 19-year-old altar boy who worked for him for four years. Other young men appeared on the report saying that they, too, had been abused by Monsignor Luiz Marques Barbosa.

Also under investigation are Monsignor Raimundo Gomes, 52, and Father Edilson Duarte, 43, for allegedly having sexual relations with boys and young men.

Topic: Catholic Church, Crime