Hella Winston, a Senior Fellow at the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism, wrote about what was at stake in the February 14 hearing, and how the Court decided the case on April 3.
Freedom of Information—On Trial
The Court decided not to require the Brooklyn district attorney to release the documents. According to The New York Jewish Week, Robert Freeman, the executive director of the New York State Department of State Committee on Open Government, called aspects of the decision “troublesome.” in this case will have a significant impact on the public’s access to information about what the government is doing in citizens’ names.
READ ENTIRE BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM PIECE:
http://www.brandeis.edu/investigate/political-social-justice/public-secrecy-about-child-sexual-abuse.html
8 comments:
Totalitarians and dictators, of all stripes, shades, ideologies and religions HATE the Internet, it's obvious why, they don't want the TRUTH to leak about their failures and cruelties:
The UK Guardian:
"Chinese censors act to silence Tiananmen anniversary talk
Authorities block internet access to terms such as 'six four' and 'never forget' on 23rd anniversary of bloody 4 June crackdown
Reuters in Beijing
Monday 4 June 2012
China's censors have blocked internet access to the terms "six four", "23", "candle" and "never forget", broadening already extensive efforts to silence talk about the 23rd anniversary of the bloody 4 June crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.
For China's ruling Communist party, the 1989 demonstrations that clogged Tiananmen Square in Beijing and spread to other cities remains taboo, all the more so this year as the government prepares for a tricky leadership handover. Searches for the terms related to the anniversary, such as "six four" for 4 June, have been blocked on Sina Weibo, the most popular of China's Twitter-like microblogging platforms. Users encountered a message that said the search results could not be displayed "due to relevant laws, regulations and policies".
"It's that day again and once more numerous posts are being deleted," a Sina microblogger wrote. Sina was not available for comment.
The anniversary of the date on which troops shot their way into central Beijing in 1989 has never been publicly marked in mainland China.
The government has never released a death toll of the crackdown, but estimates from human rights groups and witnesses range from several hundred to thousands.
The US state department deputy spokesman, Mark Toner, urged the Chinese government on Sunday "to provide a full public accounting of those killed, detained or missing".
Microbloggers decried the censorship, complaining that their posts had been "harmonised" – a euphemism for censorship – within minutes. Censors also prevented microbloggers from changing their display photos in an apparent attempt to prevent them from posting any picture commemorating the anniversary.
Some people did manage to beat the censors, and a few pictures of the 1989 protests did find their way on to Weibo. "There can be no social stability if people cannot speak out and must live in terror of punishment," a microblogger commented on one of the photographs.
Yao Jianfu, author of a new book of interviews with Chen Xitong, the Beijing mayor at the time of the crackdown, told Reuters that Chen had said "this was a tragedy that should have been averted but wasn't".
"I never foresaw there would be shooting, because Mao Zedong said that ordinary people should not be shot at and suppressing student protests comes to no good," said Yao.
The government has restricted the movements of dozens of dissidents, former prisoners and petitioners during the anniversary period and warned them against speaking to journalists or organising activities, said Songlian Wang of Chinese Human Rights Defenders.
A coalition of lawyers and rights activists began a one-day fast in their homes on Monday to commemorate the anniversary, said a Shandong-based lawyer, Liu Weiguo.
Tens of thousands of people are expected to attend a candlelight vigil in Hong Kong, said organisers, who have erected a replica of the Goddess of Democracy that was built in Tiananmen Square in 1989."
From the good ol' UOJ archives:
"The Life and Times of Matisyahu Pickwick Salomon 6 said...(November 02, 2011)
Not so long ago, the whole Haredi "anti-Internet" crew got on the bandwagon of threatening and "banning" a well-known popular Charedi news blog known as "Vos Iz Neias" ("VIN") and naturally one of the prominent signers was none other than Rabbi Matisyahu Salomon of Lakewood, Gateshead who signed with the whole politically correct Agudist crew and then some.
A number of blogs that report on this subject looked into the matter and it was discovered that there were a couple of key sources that moved to create and express the ban. One of those sources came from the Satmar Hasidim of Williamsburg: "Haredi Rabbis Ban Vos Iz Neias (FM, December 22, 2010) Haredi news website banned by dozens of leading haredi rabbis...Shimon Weiser from Williamsburg is allegedly the man behind the ban. He allegedly works for the Zalman Leib faction of Satmar." And, "The Man Behind The VIN Ban (FM, March 02, 2011) The face of the man who is allegedly behind the Vos Iz Neias ban and who allegedly threatens advertisers who advertise on VIN revealed...is Shimon Weiser of Williamsburg" and others have confirmed this on their blogs.
This is the type of hoodlum that Rabbi Matisyahu Salomon will back up by signing "bans" against blogs he does not like because he can't control them. It's mostly about social and mind control of Jews held captive by Haredi power brokers who want the Haredi masses all to themselves, which is why they have nightmares that free access to the Internet will break their childish hold on their people.
Anyhow, now there's shocking (but not surprising) news that the whole Satmar establishment's school system could be shut down for involvement with fraud: "‘Bank-fraud’ case jolts Satmar schools (NY Post October 31, 2011)...The United Talmudical Academy is being sued for $200 million by a bankruptcy trustee who claims the UTA helped a big donor conceal bank fraud at the contributor’s company -- and the case is expected to go to trial early next year. The trustee claims in Brooklyn federal bankruptcy court records that as far back as 1997, the UTA was helping the family of Victor Jacobs hide the fact that his Allou Distributors was cooking its books to boost its line of credit from a lender..."
But you can bet your last shilling that there will be no "bans" against these genuine Satmar Haredi Hasidim crooks who are doing Satmar and all Haredi Jews no favors and in fact are creating a humungous chilul Hashem. Satmar will make sure the criminals are viewed as "heroes" and the honest people will be cast as "criminals" that's how it goes in that topsy-turvy world of theirs!
And for sure, dear old Matisyahu Salomon will not notice a thing about this massive heist either, let alone say a word of caution in public as he does against the Iternet and cell phones, 'cause he'll be offline playing his famous old game of "turning a blind eye" and "sweeping under the carpet rug" (now very crowded with mega sins) in his homey house that would be befitting a true clever Heimisher Yiddisher Frumisher Britisher Einglisher Yekkisher who knows how to do what's good for his own home town soccer team, don't you mate?!
9:54 PM, November 02, 2011"
Half blind motormouth Chometz LePesach Krohn has made a fortune peddling his weird bubba-meises all across the world enjoying the West's freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of expression to the hilt, but he had no qualms to record a video message at the recent anti-Internet "asifa" stating "for the record" that bloggers and comments online he does not like should be "blocked" and put in "cherem" -- they should not have access to the same freedoms that have made him a very RICH man, thanks to FartScroll and all the gullible suckers who invite the mindless blabbermouth half blind motormouth Chometz LePesach Krohn to "speak" if that's what one can call his mind-numbing stream of consciousness VERBAL DIARRHEA.
Half blind motormouth Chometz LePesach Krohn also thinks that sex abuse in the Orthodox world should be covered up, as noted by FM @
"March 11, 2012
Pedophilia: Rabbi Paysach Krohn Says Ask A Rabbi Before You Call Police
Rabbi Paysach Krohn Artscroll's favorite maggid urges Jews to ask their rabbi before calling police to report probable child sexual abuse.
On Zev Brenner's Talkline radio show tonight, Rabbi Paysach Krohn spoke out against child sex abuse, but when asked about reporting child sex abuse to police, Krohn said that unless you are 100% sure the abuse took place (which essentially means you have to witness it happening), you should ask a rabbi for permission to call police.
Krohn is an Artscroll author and a Agudath Israel of America member.
He is also a brother-in-law of Rabbi Ephraim Bryks, who is an accused child sex abuser.
Krohn is also on the board of Ruchie Frier's Baderech organization that tries to keep "at risk" haredi youth from becoming secular. Frier has said that many of her "at risk" kids were sexually abused.
Here's the audio. Please click the gray bar to listen:
Rabbi Paysach Krohn
2012-03-11_talkline_31112"
The "Daat Torah" blog of Rabbi Dr. Daniel Eidensohn finally calls a spade a spade and accuses Aguda's Zweibel of being a "pervert" and the "egregious errors of judgment" of Aguda's so-called gedolim:
From http://daattorah.blogspot.com/2012/06/saving-kids-lashon-harah-high-price-to.html :
"Monday, June 4, 2012
Saving kids: Lashon harah is "high price to pay"?!
[Rabbi Dr. Daniel Eidensohn:] The following is an excerpt from an interview Mishpacha [May 2012] recently conducted with Rabbi Zweibel executive vice president of the Aguda. The man who actually runs the Aguda. It shows a good man with true generosity of spirit. An intelligent and idealistic man who has devoted his life to help the Jewish people by working with gedolei Yisroel. A humble man who cares deeply about others.
Unfortunately what he says is one of the must incredible and disgusting perversions of Yiddishkeit that I have ever read. It shows not the slightest awareness of the halachic issues or the horrible consequences of abuse. He is totally clueless as to what a chilul hashem his words are as well lacking any understanding of why the Aguda's handling of this issue - including the actions of their gedolim - is so incredibly shameful. And despite the egregious errors of judgment that he unwitting reveals about the Aguda's gedolim he concludes "that the process of decision-making through the Moetzes is as close to perfect as can be."
============
[From Mishpacha magazine:] "Rabbi Zwiebel speaks with his characteristic softness, but there is fire in his eyes. "Look, I don't write off the bloggers as leitzanim and reshaim, because they will be judged, as we all will, after 120 years for their motivations and techniques. I'm not a condemner, by nature. "I do believe that among them there are people who are deeply pained about certain issues and feel that this is the way they can express their pain. I will even go a step further and say that through the pressure they've created, communal issues that needed to be confronted were moved to the front burner and taken seriously. A case in point is abuse and molestation issues. The question is, if the fact that they've created some degree of change is worth the cost. At the very least, it's rechilus, lashon hara, and bittulzman. That's a high price to pay. "Then there is the damage wrought to the hierarchy of Klal Yisrael. We've always been a talmid chacham-centered nation, and it's dangerous to ruin the fabric of Klal Yisrael by denigrating the ideal of daas Torah and by allowing personal attacks on gedolei Torah." What about personal attacks against Rabbi Zwiebel himself? He shrugs. "Rabbi Sherer used to say that a nail that sticks out of the wall gets hammered. When you're in the public eye, criticism is inevitable. It's not pleasant, but it comes with the territory." He readily concedes that Agudah hasn't done a great job of spreading its message. "It's part of our mandate to communicate the perspective of gedolim on contemporary issues, and we are aware that we have been handicapped since the Jewish Observer closed down. We take the challenge seriously, and are constantly working on improving our communications." Reb Chaim Dovid believes that the process of decision-making through the Moetzes is as close to perfect as can be. "It's a homogeneous group of the most intelligent, empathetic individuals — all great talmidei chachamim — and they grasp all aspects of an issue right away."
From the New York Post:
"Brooklyn child-molest monster 'got away with it' after fleeing to Israel
By ORON DAN in Jerusalem and SUSAN EDELMAN in NY
June 3, 2012
[Photo caption: EVIL ON THE LOOSE: Avrohom Mondrowitz strolls in Jerusalem last month, scot-free after fleeing the United States in 1984 ahead of multiple child-molestation charges. Israel says he’s protected from extradition.]
Here is Avrohom Mondrowitz, New York’s most notorious child molester — living scot-free in Israel.
Called the “Bin Laden of pedophiles” by one victim, the bogus rabbi and self-proclaimed psychologist fled the United States in 1984 just before cops broke into his Borough Park, Brooklyn, home with a search warrant. They found a cache of kiddie porn and lists of hundreds of names of local boys, most referred to Mondrowitz by Jewish families and child-service agencies for counseling and his yeshiva-style program.
“He was known in the insular community as the go-to therapist, child mentor,” said an outspoken victim, Mark Weiss, whose parents sent him to Mondrowitz at age 13. “He had a certain knack with kids.”
Weiss says Mondrowitz treated him to restaurants and amusement parks, then took him into bed during a week’s stay in his home. When Weiss, at age 18, finally told his parents and a rabbi about the sexual abuse, “They let it die. Any such story was quashed and buried.”
But years later the NYPD finally caught up with Mondrowitz after getting anonymous complaints. He was indicted in 1985 on charges of sexual abuse and sodomy against four Italian-American boys, ages 11 to 16, who lived in the Brooklyn neighborhood.
Detectives also found many Orthodox Jewish boys who sobbed as they told of horrific sexual assaults by a man they trusted, but their families wouldn’t let them press charges. Community pressure to keep shameful allegations secret continues to shield child molesters today, advocates and law-enforcement authorities say.
“He got away with it,” said a spokesman for Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes.
The Post last week spotted Mondrowitz, 64, cloaked in religious garb, in Nachlaot, a hip, Greenwich Village-type neighborhood in central Jerusalem near his apartment on Yizreel Street. He wears a façade of piety and respectability, even leading prayer services at a local synagogue. But documents show he has indulged his penchant for child porn and continued to seek contact with troubled kids."
"Brooklyn child-molest monster 'got away with it' after fleeing to Israel
By ORON DAN in Jerusalem and SUSAN EDELMAN in NY
June 3, 2012
Mondrowitz has paraded his fake degrees and credentials in Israel, seeking work as an educator and shrink.. In a 2006 document, first exposed by Jewish Week, Mondrowitz -- who puts a Ph.D after his name -- evaluated a 15-year-old boy, noting the "hormonal and physical changes in his body." He discussed the boy's sexual experimentation, including "pleasurable self-stimulation."
“If you meet him, he sounds very knowledgeable, helpful and friendly," said a neighbor who learned about Mondrowitz from an American friend. "Some people know about his past. I think some people brush it off , like he’s done his repentance.”
Mondrowitz “davens,” or prays, at the Munkatch synagogue. “He’s a regular there,” the neighbor said. “The rabbi was approached by one of my friends, but they weren’t going to do anything about him. He’s welcome to come."
Another resident yelled, “All the allegations are lies! I know the person and his family very well. He is a good Jew. He is clean.”
Multiple e-mails copied from his computer and turned over to the FBI show that Mondrowitz trolled child-porn Web sites, buying access to titles such as ErectXboys, SchoolBoys, Boy Heaven and Boys Lagoon.
The United States sought his extradition from Israel in 1985. but the treaty between the countries did not cover his alleged crimes. In 1993, Hynes’ office dropped the deportation effort. In 2007, the treaty was changed, and Mondrowitz became extraditable. A search of his home in Israel found four child-porn films. He was arrested and jailed.
But in 2010, Israel’s Supreme Court ruled Mondrowitz was grandfathered and exempt from the revised treaty. He was freed for good.
Weiss, now 45, a married father of three in Highland Park, N.J, is one of dozens of Mondrowitz's known Jewish victims, advocates say. He and others came forward too late to press charges because of the statute of limitations on sex-abuse claims. Some abused drugs and committed suicide to escape the pain, he said..
“It totally stinks to know that this guy has escaped justice and is entitled to live a stable life smack in the middle of a Jewish community that ought to know better. It’s a failure of an entire society that is paralyzed to take action action, Weiss said.
“I believe he will one day answer to his maker -- and that time is coming.”
susan.edelman@nypost.com"
Gershon Kranczer, a devout disciple of Rav Avigdor Miller and Miller's oldest son in law Rabbi Shmuel Brog who was his mentor in Chaim Berlin yeshiva, his rosh yeshiva Aron Schechter who wrote him letters of approbation and Leizer Ginsburg of Mirrer yeshiva who supported his scholl 'Tehila LeDovid' should review this... and answer for it:
The New York Post:
"Brooklyn 'perv' rabbi Gershon Kranczer and son on the lam in Israel
By SUSAN EDELMAN
June 3, 2012
They may run, and it seems they can hide.
Brooklyn rabbi Gershon Kranczer, 58, hopped a JFK flight to Tel Aviv on Nov. 29, 2010, running away just days before cops went to his Midwood house of horrors to arrest him on charges of repeatedly raping several female relatives. One of his sons, Asher, 21, facing similar charges, joined his dad on the plane.
More than 18 months later, their Brooklyn indictments are sealed from public view and authorities won’t discuss any efforts to bring them to justice.
A spokesman for Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes said he asked the US Justice Department to extradite the Kranczers in early 2011, a move purportedly in the works.
The feds refused to comment.
“We don’t confirm or deny extradition requests,” said Laura Seal, a State Department spokeswoman.
The NYPD opened the sickening case when a 20-year-old woman confided in a co-worker that the respected rabbi, who ran Yeshiva Tehila L’Dovid, had sexually assaulted her for years. Cops later learned that three of her female relatives, ages 8, 17 and 19, were also allegedly abused.
“If there was a real desire to get these guys back, DA Hynes would be pushing for it, and he would be successful,” said Ben Hirsch, president of Survivors For Justice."
R' Avigdor fought hard against molesters, including Kolko when it was politically incorrect. He couldn't have known about Kranczer's crimes.
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