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Service dogs are true blessings that provide a wide array of services for their owners based on their disability.
They can provide preventative alerts for people with epilepsy and dysautonomia. They can do small household tasks like turning lights on and off or providing stability for their owners while standing or walking.
For those with PTSD they can provide emotional support to help them in triggering situations.
However, there are many people out there who fraudulently claim their pets are service or emotional support animals. These trained animals can cause disturbances in businesses or on public transportation.
The basic premise of two Indiana Jones movies was for the hero to track down important historical artifacts to make sure they don't fall into the hands of the Nazis.
A Lebanese man plunked down €600,000 ($660,000) at an auction for the same reason — to ensure that Nazi memorabilia doesn't fall into the hands of far-right groups that could use them as propaganda.
On April 20, 1889 at the Braunau am Inn, in Upper Austria Salzburger located at Vorstadt 15, Alois and Klara Hitler brought a son into the world. They named him Adolph.
Little did they know he would grow up to be one of the greatest forces of evil the world has ever known.
The Hitlers moved out of the Braunau am Inn when Adolph was three, but the three-story butter-colored building still stands. It has been the subject of controversy for seven decades.
via Thomas Ledia / Wikimedia Commons
The building was a meeting place for Nazi loyalists in the 1930s and '40s. After World War II, the building has become an informal pilgrimage site for neo-Nazis and veterans to glorify the murderous dictator.
The building was a thorn in the side to local government and residents to say the least.
For years it was owned by Gerlinde Pommer, a descendant of the original owners. The Austrian government made numerous attempts to purchase it from her, but to no avail. The building has served many purposes, a school, a library, and a makeshift museum.
In 1989, a stone from the building was inscribed with:
For three decades it was home to an organization that offered support and integration assistance for disabled people. But in 2011, the organization vacated the property because Pommer refused to bring it up to code.
In 2017, the fight between the government and Pommer ended with it seizing the property. Authorities said it would get a "thorough architectural remodeling is necessary to permanently prevent the recognition and the symbolism of the building."
Now, the government intends to turn it into a police station which will surely deter any neo-Nazis from hanging around the building.
Austria has strict anti-Nazi laws that aim to prohibit any potential Nazi revival. The laws state that anyone who denies, belittles, condones or tries to justify the Nazi genocide or other Nazi crimes against humanity shall be punished with imprisonment for one year up to ten years.
In Austria the anti-Nazi laws are so strict one can go to prison for making the Nazi hand salute or saying "Heil Hitler."
"The future use of the house by the police should send an unmistakable signal that the role of this building as a memorial to the Nazis has been permanently revoked," Austria's IInterior Minister, Wolfgang Peschorn said in a statement.
The house is set to be redesigned following an international architectural competition.
Former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger was sentenced to ten years in prison on Wednesday for the murder of Botham Jean. The sentence comes a day after she was convicted of murder and faced five to 99 years or life in prison.
Guyger has the opportunity to appeal the conviction.
The sentence came down after emotional testimony from the Jean family and the revelation that Guyger shared racist text messages.
In the texts she said black officers have a "different way of working" and joked about the death of Martin Luther King, Jr. Two days before she murdered Jean, a friend texted saying they adopted a German Shepard that "might be racist," to which Guyger replied, "It's okay ... I'm the same."
Last year, Guyger entered Jean's apartment and shot him as he sat in a chair watching television. In a 911 call at the scene of the crime, Guyger repeatedly admits she thought she was in her apartment, which was a floor below in the same complex.
The conviction is much more than a victory for the Jean family. Many see it as justice for people of color across America who've been killed by law enforcement and never received justice.
Research from NBC News shows that 900 to 1,000 people are killed by the police each year, but only 35 have been convicted of a crime related to an on-duty fatal shooting since 2005.
"This verdict is for Trayvon Martin," Ben Crump, an attorney for the Jean family, said Tuesday after the verdict. "It's for Michael Brown, it's for Sandra Bland, it's for Tamir Rice, it's for Eric Garner, it's for Antwon Rose, it's for Jemel Roberson, for EJ Bradford, for Stephon Clark, for Jeffrey Dennis, Genevieve Dawes, for Pamela Turner."
"For so many black and brown unarmed human beings all across America, this verdict today is for them," Crump continued. "Everybody can raise their hands — this verdict is for them. This verdict is for them."
Botham Jean family attorney Ben Crump after the conviction of Amber Guyger:
"This verdict is for Trayvon Martin, it's for Michael Brown, it's for Sandra Bland, it's for Tamir Rice, it's for Eric Garner ... for so many unarmed black and brown human beings all across America." pic.twitter.com/UWA1da32gj — NBC News (@NBCNews) October 1, 2019
On Sept. 6, 2018, just before 10 p.m., Guyger drove home after working a 13.5-hour shift. Upon arriving at what she thought was her front door, she failed to notice that, unlike her apartment, this one had a red door mat.
She put her key fob to the door but realized the door wasn't locked and pushed it open.
When Guyger arrived in the apartment she saw a shadowy figure she assumed was a burglar. According to testimony, she pulled out her gun and ordered the man to show his hands. She then discharged two rounds from her firearm.
That figure was an unarmed 26-year-old accountant named Botham Jean and it was his apartment.
Jean was watching television and eating a bowl of ice cream when Guyger entered the apartment.
Guyger had accidentally parked in the garage a floor above hers. She then walked past over a dozen apartments without realizing her mistake before arriving at Jean's apartment, directly above hers.
On a 911 call from the incident, Guyger can be heard saying, "I thought it was my apartment," 19 times.
"I'm an off-duty officer," Guyger told the 911 dispatcher. "I thought I was in my apartment. And I shot a guy thinking that he was... Thinking it was my apartment. ... I'm fucked."
Throughout the call she tries to roust Jean saying, "Hey bud. Hey bud. Stay with me, bud." She also apologizes to the dying man saying, "I'm sorry."
Jean was taken to a nearby hospital where he died.
Three days after the shooting, Guyger was charged with manslaughter. By the end of the month, she was fired by Dallas PD. A grand jury would later ratchet up her charge to murder, for which Guyger stands to spend life in prison.
Jean's death sparked many protests and demonstrations in the weeks after the shooting. A few days after the shooting, dozens of protesters gathered outside Dallas Police headquarters and officers fired pepper balls into the crowd.
On September 12, a Dallas City Hall meeting was brought to a halt after protesters chanted, "No justice, no peace."
After the verdict, Crump said Jean was a "near perfect" person.
"This jury had to make history in America today, because Botham was the best that we had to offer," Crump said. "Twenty-six year old, college-educated black man, certified public accountant, working for one of the big three accounting firms in the world, PricewaterhouseCoopers."
"But it shouldn't take all of that for unarmed black and brown people in America to get justice," Crump said.
When Donald Trump announced he was running for president in 2015, he launched into a disgusting rant about undocumented immigrants from Mexico, accusing them of the most heinous behaviors.
"They are not our friend, believe me," he said. "They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people."
Trump's speech was a powerful and disturbing example of the undying myth that immigrants commit more crime than native-born Americans. This belief helps people rationalize their racist attitudes and gives them a reason to scapegoat immigrant communities for a variety of social ills.
via Yad Vashem and Archive of Modern Conflict, 2007
In September 1939, the Nazis invaded Poland. By April 1940, the gates closed on the Lodz Ghetto, the second largest in the country after Warsaw.
Throughout the war, over 210,000 people would be imprisoned in Lodz.
Among those held captive was Henryk Ross. He was a Jewish sports photographer before the Nazi invasion and worked for the the ghetto's Department of Statistics during the war. As part of his official job, he took identification photos of the prisoners and propaganda shots of Lodz' textile and leather factories.
via Thomas Ledia / Wikimedia Commons
