Motorists Who Give Up Their Vehicles Will Be Offered £3,000 In Credit

Drivers are to be given up to £3,000 to replace their vehicles with greener modes of transportation.

Motorists in built-up areas with the most polluting vehicles will receive public money to abandon their vehicle for credits.

These will be used on alternative modes of transportation such as bicycles and electric scooters but will also work on congestion, easing forms like public transportation, car clubs and taxis.

It’s hoped that the move will decrease vehicle dependency in larger cities.

According to a news outlet, the scheme will be trialled for two years in Coventry this spring, targeted at those with diesel vehicles built before 2016 and petrol motors before 2006.

Drivers in the area who consent to have their vehicle towed away for the duration of the trial will be given between £1,500 and £3,000 to spend on alternative transportation.

The West Midlands scheme is being paid for as part of a £22 million future transport initiative financed by the government.

Andy Street, the West Midlands mayor said that they have several candidates lined up in Coventry following a public appeal for volunteers last year and they were putting processes in position to allow them to scrap their old vehicles in exchange for transport credits later in the spring.

A similar programme could also take place in Hampshire, where the county council is considering a mobility credit scheme for residents who agree to give up their car for good.

Though the miles dropped in 2020 due to the pandemic, in 2019 vehicles collectively covered 365.5 billion miles, 278.2 of which were cars and taxis, representing an increase of about 11 per cent in five years.

Xavier Brice, chief executive of cycling and walking charity Sustrans, said that it was great to see local authorities considering new ways to reduce car dependency, including mobility credit.

Better, more affordable, public transportation is critical to combating air pollution and climate change, and he said car use accounted for most of the roadside air pollution and carbon emissions.

However, AA president Edmund King pointed out that the strange initiative came at a time when numerous car companies have committed to going electric, and Ford promised to only sell electric vehicles in Europe by 2030.

He said that the money would probably be better spent on providing electric charging points for those without off-street parking rather than giving mobility credits for services that people will use when they need to or feel safe to.

Although I can’t see many people giving up their vehicles because many would not be able to get into work by public transport, and it would probably cost them more on public transport than by car.

Why would anyone travel 22 miles by train when they could drive it at the fraction of the cost, as well as picking up their shopping on the way home? And it sounds like the great reset to me, and in the end, we will own nothing – everything we once cherished is going bit by bit.

And what our Government seem to forget is that unless we have a way of producing green energy from our own homes, people with electric vehicles won’t be able to leave their homes because they won’t be able to charge their cars with no power.

However, with this great reset, eventually, people won’t own anything, and yet they’ll all be happy, while the ultra-liberal globalist elites will be driving their Porsches, Ferrari’s and private jets, whilst the peasants have given everything up in the name of climate change.

The car gives you the freedom to travel and transport your goods and equipment that you need to move without having to pay someone else to do it for you, which would be more costly.

Public transport is not reliable in some parts of the country, and in the countryside, it takes over 100 per cent more time using public transport than using the car to get to your destination.

And public transport networks can’t cope now, so what will it be like afterwards?

HUGH JACKMAN Conveys All-powerful MESSAGE TO SCHOOLBOY Tyrannized FOR DWARFISM

Hugh Jackman has shared a message of support to a nine-year-old boy who’s been bullied because of his dwarfism.

Earlier this week, Quaden Bayles mother, Yarraka, shared a video of her son in tides of tears after picking him up from class on Facebook in an attempt to boost awareness of the consequences of bullying.

In the video, which has subsequently been seen more than 17 million times, Quaden Bayles can be overheard saying that he was going to kill himself and that he wanted to die.

After seeing the moving footage, Hugh Jackman posted his own video to the schoolboy on his Twitter account in which he tells Quaden Bayles, who has a type of dwarfism called achondroplasia that he will always be his friend.

Hugh Jackman said, “Quaden, you are stronger than you know mate, and no matter what, you’ve got a friend in me.”

The Greatest Showman star also conveyed a message to the child’s tormentors, saying that life was difficult enough without people going out of their way to hurt others, and he said, “So, everyone let’s please be kind to each other, bullying is not okay.”

“Life is hard enough, so let’s remember, every person in front of us is facing some kind of battle, so let’s just be kind.”

Several other celebs have shared their views on the footage after it was shared on social media, including Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker in Star Wars.

“The cruelty is as astonishing as it is heartbreaking,” Hamill wrote on Twitter.

The Walking Dead star Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who plays Negan in the TV series, also shared a message of support, writing: ”My man, I don’t know your name, I don’t know your mum’s name, but I saw your video.

“What I want you to know is that you have friends, me included. You haven’t met me yet, but we’ll see if we can change that for one.”

In the original footage, Bayles, who raises awareness about his condition in his home country of Australia, can be seen getting visibly upset after being picked on at school about his height.

During the clip, his mother says “this is what bullying does” before explaining that she has to “constantly keep an eye on him because of the suicide attempts”.

Bayles is a very special young man, and he can’t help the way he was born and other children are simply jealous because of how clever this young man is, but as we well know, children can be so heartless, and bullying is so wrong.

And when Quaden’s story first became known, thousands of racist adults in Australia waged a smear campaign against him and his mother.

There are indigenous Australians and there are many deeply racist people in Australia who can’t bear to see indigenous Australians get any kind of positive recognition.

The smears began growing globally when his story went viral. Quaden Bayles is indeed a child and has appeared on TV before, on the SBS channel in 2015 when he was only four years old.

There’s no way that his mother could have predicted that they’d get the attention they did, and they gave most of the donations they got to charity.

On the evening of February 19 2020, in Brisbane, Australia, Yarraka Bayles posted a video to Facebook showing her son, Quaden, in tears.

Quaden is nine years old and has achondroplasia dwarfism.

In the video, which shows him distressed in a vehicle, Yarraka says she’d just picked Quaden up from school and that she wanted others to see the consequences of bullying on her son, and Quaden could be overheard saying that he just wanted to die.

It went hugely viral, and the preponderance of the comments supported Quaden, but it wouldn’t be more than 72 hours before parts of the internet would wrap his life story into a grotesque conspiracy theory falsely claiming he was an 18-year-old scammer.

On the afternoon of February 20, comic Brad Williams tweeted out a link to a fundraiser for Quaden, saying that a GoFundMe had been set up to send brave Quaden and his mother to Disneyland, and Brad Williams wrote to his 123,000 followers, “Let’s show a bullied kid that he is loved!”

At the time of publication, the GoFundMe had raised £467,000 and had been shared 267,700 times.

Twitter user @ZoomerMatthew tweeted side by side photos, one of which showed Quaden crying, and the other, holding a handful of Australian banknotes.

The tweet, which has been retweeted more than 5,700 times was captioned “Y’all got played”. @ZoomerMatthew didn’t respond to questions from BuzzFeed News.

Also Facebook user D Monarch DeLeon posted a video of a two-month-old Facebook live video from Yarraka’s Facebook account of Quaden calling the Queen and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison racist.

The video was captioned “This was captured from the so-called bullied dwarf kids moms Facebook before she hid everything. […] more to add to the mystery if everybody got scammed or not.”

Of course, any images on Facebook are not evidence of Quaden’s age, but photos from Yarraka’s Facebook account have documented Quaden’s childhood since he was six weeks old, and multiple interviews with Australian media organisations have also included his age.

The US Deports 95-Year-Old Former Concentration Camp Guard

Authorities in the United States have deported a 95-year-old man who admitted working as a guard in a Nazi concentration camp.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, said in a statement that Friedrich Karl Berger, a German national, was sent back to Germany this month for serving as a guard of a Neuengamme concentration camp subcamp near Hamburg in 1945.

The incident was investigated by the US Department of Justice and Friedrich Karl Berger was ordered to be expelled by a Memphis, Tennessee court in February 2020 but will not stand trial in Germany because prosecutors dismissed the case against him for lack of evidence.

According to an ICE statement, Friedrich Karl Berger worked at the subcamp near Meppen, Germany, where prisoners, Russian, Polish, Dutch, Jewish and others were held in cruel conditions and worked to the point of exhaustion and death.

Friedrich Karl Berger acknowledged serving as a guard for several weeks near the end of the war but said he didn’t witness any abuse or killings, news agencies have reported.

Friedrich Karl Berger admitted he guarded prisoners, and that he also accompanied prisoners on the forced evacuation of the camp that resulted in the deaths of 70 prisoners.

He’d been living in the United States since 1959.

A spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office in Celle said police in the German state of Hesse had been asked to investigate Friedrich Karl Berger on his return to Germany, but a police spokesperson said there was no live investigation linked to him and he was a free individual and had not been taken into custody.

In recent years, prosecutors have brought charges against several former Nazis, grabbing the last chance to obtain justice for the millions who died in concentration camps.

Earlier this month, prosecutors indicted a 100-year-old German man with being an accomplice to 3,518 deaths perpetrated while he was supposedly a guard at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. However, you’re never too old to pay for a crime like this because we often forget about the horrors that occurred in those concentration camps.

Hitler of course, led through fear and failure, and not to follow him would ultimately cost you your life, but often the soldiers that served him were worse than the leader himself. Hitler commanded, his foot soldiers just followed the orders that ultimately made them feel powerful and special.

Can you just imagine being removed from your home and community, where they thought they belonged, thought that they had rights – forcing them to make a journey somewhere they didn’t want to go, into a hostile unknown?

The war ended 76 years ago, and seventy-six years ago isn’t that long in the grand scheme of things, but so quickly we forget, especially when we’re persecuting those that come into our countries because they’ve also been forced to make that journey to someplace they really didn’t want to go, into another hostile unknown.

We create and protest that the war was such a bad thing, which of course, it was, yet we appear to have no difficulty doing it over again to other people – they might not be Jews, but they are human beings!

Friedrich Karl Berger might have been extradited to Germany, but in Germany, he will be hailed as a national hero.

And America is no better, especially when Donald Trump was keeping immigrants in cages. So, did this make Donald Trump an orange Nazi?

Then, of course, there was Operation Paperclip, which was a covert programme of the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency (JIOA) mostly carried out by special agents of Army CIC, in which more than 1,600 German scientists, engineers and technicians, such as Werner von Braun and his V-2 rocket team, were taken from Germany to the United States, for US government employment, primarily between 1945 and 1959 – many were former members, and some were former leaders, of the Nazi Party.

Boris Johnson To Address The Nation

Boris Johnson will address the nation about easing coronavirus restrictions on Monday at about 7 pm, it’s been reported.

The Prime Minister will give details about the Government’s long-expected roadmap out of lockdown.

He’s expected to say that schools will reopen on March 8, when people will also be able to meet one person from a different household for a coffee or a picnic outside.

Rules could be further eased on March 29 to allow six people or two households to meet outside, while non-essential retail will open before the end of April, according to a newspaper outlet.

Pubs and restaurants should be able to operate indoor service by May but could be allowed to serve customers outside earlier.

Music festivals and football matches should be allowed towards the end of May, with the introduction of rapid testing to screen fans for coronavirus.

It’s not clear when travel will be allowed again but some sources have said domestic travel will be allowed at some period in April.

It comes as Boris Johnson has promised that every adult should be offered the COVID 19 vaccine by July.

The hastened rollout is a result of the Government reaching its target to vaccinate 15 million people in the top four priority groups. The over 70s, health and social care workers and the clinically vulnerable by February 15.

Adults aged 50 and over, as well as those with an underlying health condition that puts them at higher risk, will be offered a vaccine by April 15 under the expedited plans.

The Prime Minister said that hitting 15 million vaccinations was an important breakthrough, and there would be no let-up, and he wanted to see the rollout go further and faster in the coming weeks.

He said they will now strive to offer a jab to every adult by the end of July, helping them to protect the most vulnerable sooner, and take further measures to alleviate some of the restrictions in place.

But he said there should be no doubt, the route out of lockdown would be cautious and phased as they continue to protect themselves and those around them.

The Prime Minister intends to relax restrictions following the UK’s third national lockdown which was imposed after the second wave of coronavirus swept across the country.

This was blamed on the spread of the Kent strain of the virus, which was believed to be more transmissible.

But it seems that Boris Johnson is just loving all of this and numerous people just want their freedom back.

And there have been numerous people who have taken their own lives because of this because people are losing their jobs, homes and everything they’ve ever worked for.

The purpose of this lockdown was to get deaths down and decrease hospitalisations and it does seem this is being achieved, but numerous lives have been lost in the process, and Boris Johnson is always hesitating when he speaks, but things would have been a lot different if he had taken the essential measures in the first place.

And numerous people are going into hospital with non-COVID related illnesses, but whilst being there have tested positive for COVID, but on their discharge letter their diagnosis is COVID, yet they didn’t go in with COVID, which means the Government are fraudulent and telling multiple lies along the way.

This is shocking and should be reported to the Quality Care Commission, it must also be taken up with the hospitals unless they’re in on it as well, and using this virus as a weapon is beneath offensive.

Psychopaths Are More Inclined To Drink Their Coffee Black

If you like your coffee black rather than all milky, frothy and syrupy then many will say you’re just drinking it as it’s meant to be drunk.

However, if you have a liking for the bitter tipple then it could be a sign that you’re a psychopath, according to research.

Scientists studying taste buds have discovered similarities between the consumption of some of our preferred beverages like bitter IPAs, black coffee and tonic water and malevolent personality traits.

So you might want to be cautious if you’ve got a friend or partner who avoids milk and sugar in their cup of Joe.

The study, published in the journal Appetite, surveyed 1,000 people and was conducted at the University of Innsbruck in Austria.

Participants ranked various foods on a six-point scale and were then subjected to a test identifying their personality traits.

Authors Christina Sagioglou and Tobias Greitemeyer discovered that the more consumers enjoyed bitter flavours, the darker their personality traits, and they wrote that the existing research had shown that bitter taste preferences were associated with more noticeable malevolent personality traits, especially robustly with everyday sadism.

And they added that in preferring bitter-tasting foods more than less sadistic people, everyday sadists may see them as positive due to their potential to cause distaste, that is, to cause a negative experience in other people.

This isn’t the first time research has discovered a connection between taste and personality.

Past studies have shown sweet taste experiences increase agreeable and eagerness to help, while bitter tastes increase hostility and elicit harsher moral judgments.

This is one of the most bizarre things I’ve heard. I’ve been drinking my coffee black for the past thirty years, and I’m the most laid back person there is. Any more laid back and I’d be horizontal.

And it does make me wonder if people are getting paid to come up with this twaddle, and if so, then perhaps I’ve been in the wrong job all these years.

Sarah Ferguson Gushes

The Duchess of York posted three pictures of her daughter, Princess Eugenie, along with her newborn baby and spouse Jack Brooksbank.

She commented that as Grandparents, The Duke (Prince Andrew) and she were excited and blessed at the arrival of their grandson August Philip Hawke Brooksbank, and she said that he was a wonderful blessing and a bringer of such love and pleasure to all their Family.

She continued that she was so proud of Jack and Eugenie and that they would be amazing parents.

The pictures were also published on Eugenie’s official Instagram account.

The Princess gave birth to her son at 8.55 am GMT on February 9 at London’s Portland Hospital. Jack Brooksbank was by his wife’s side for the birth.

Accompanying the photos on Instagram Eugenie said that they wanted to introduce their son August Philip Hawke Brooksbank, and they thanked people for their wonderful messages and that their hearts were full of love for their son, and words that they couldn’t express.

The new royal is the Queen’s ninth great-grandchild and is 11th in line to the British throne.

The royal baby will not be entitled to use the His Royal Highness prefix or to have a title unless the Queen gives special approval.

I must confess, I feel a tad sorry for Eugenie because anytime there’s some great news, it appears to be overshadowed by a Harry and Meghan storyline.

And I’m not sure about the baby’s name (August), although had he been born in August, they could have called him August Bank Holiday, and it was completely unnecessary to mention the Markles in the same article about the birth of the Queen’s newest great-grandchild.

Of course, the York sisters are not classed as working royals, but they’ve still had their share of gutter press and mean comments, and I’m guessing they would understand precisely why Harry stood down.

The baby’s name might be a tad unusual, but original compared to all those old stuffy names other royals have named their children, but at least they aptly named him after the Duke of Edinburgh, so as one Philip steps off this mortal coil, another one replaces him!

And it’s a big name for a little baby, but I’m sure he will grow into it, and I bet the bookies didn’t have the odds on that name?

Prince Charles Visits His Ailing Father Philip In Hospital

The Prince of Wales arrived at King Edward VII’s hospital in London to visit his father the Duke of Edinburgh.

Prince Charles arrived at the rear of the London hospital where Philip, the 99-year-old husband of Queen Elizabeth, has been since Tuesday, and he’s expected to remain in hospital until next week.

Prince Charles, 72, was pictured wearing a face mask as he walked from his vehicle into the hospital.

It’s now Philip’s fifth day in the private facility in London and comes as the fallout from the announcement about Harry and Meghan’s withdrawal from working royal life continues, and it’s understood that the Duke of Edinburgh was knowledgeable that the announcement on Harry and Meghan was due to be released yesterday.

The Duke of Edinburgh is having observation and rest after being admitted to the hospital earlier this week after feeling ill, but as Charles was pictured arriving to see his father, the King Edward hospital’s website said visitors would only be considered in extraordinary circumstances.

Prince Charles’ visit to the hospital to see his father came a day after he appeared beside his wife the Duchess of Cornwall in a video message to urge ethnic minorities disregard bogus news and get their COVID jabs.

Prince Charles, 72, who along with the Duchess of Cornwall, 73, has had his first coronavirus jab and told of his concern about the variable uptake amongst black and Asian Britons.

Philip, 99, was reported as being in great spirits after he walked unaided into King Edward VII Hospital on Tuesday evening on the recommendation of his doctor.

A Royal source said that following consultation with his doctor he is expected to remain in the hospital for observation and rest over the weekend and into next week and that his doctor was acting with an abundance of caution.

The Queen has informed him of Meghan and Harry’s decision to not return as working members of the Royal Family and the statement she was going to deliver on the development.

Philip and Harry have always shared a close relationship, but a recent book implied he’d been left confused by his decision to walk away from the Royal Family, and Ingrid Seward, author of Prince Philip Revealed, said the Duke of Edinburgh stepped away from the situation after sensing that his advice was being ignored.

And it’s great that Prince Charles has been permitted to visit his father, but sadly some people can’t see their families at all, and this is bad, and it appears to be one rule for them and one rule for us.

But then I guess he is in a private ward, and I suppose because he’s the son of a Queen, and his father is 99 years old – perhaps we should give him a break, and for all we know, this could be the last time Charles sees his father.

However, if someone has a private party tonight, does that mean they’re okay to have the whole gang round?

Hopefully, though, things are not too bad with Prince Philip, however, if the Queen visits, then things must be extremely grave indeed.

It was also claimed on Friday that Harry was self-isolating at home in Montecito, California, so he can travel back to Britain at short notice if Philip’s health worsens, but the Palace’s statement seems to have thrown this into some doubt.

At the end of the day, it all boils down to this. Nobody should die alone, not even COVID patients, and they should be allowed to have a least one family member there to see them off into the afterlife.

Meghan And Harry Confirm They Will Not Return As Working Royals

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will not be returning as working members of the Royal Family, Buckingham Palace has said in a statement.

The Queen confirmed that they wouldn’t continue with the duties and responsibilities that come with a life of public service.

The decision was made following discussions between Harry and members of the Royal Family.

The pair’s obligations and responsibilities, such as honorary military appointments and Royal patronages, will be returned to the Queen and will then be distributed among working members of the Royal Family.

And Buckingham Palace said in a statement that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have confirmed to Her Majesty The Queen that they will not be returning as working members of the Royal Family.

It was said that following discussions with the Duke, the Queen has written confirming that in stepping away from the work of the Royal Family it’s not possible to continue with the responsibilities and duties that come with a life of public service.

And that honorary military appointment and Royal patronages held by the Duke and Duchess will therefore be returned to Her Majesty, before being redistributed among serving members of The Royal Family.

And that while they’re all saddened by their decision, the Duke and Duchess remain much-loved members of the family.

The couple announced their decision to step back from royal engagements in January last year, stating that they would be starting a new life as financially independent royals.

They formally stepped down as senior members of the British royal family on 1 April 2020 and have since given up the use of their royal titles and relocated from London to California.

A spokesperson for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex said that as evidenced by their work over the past year, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex remained dedicated to their commitment and service to the United Kingdom and around the world, and had extended their continued support to the organisations they’ve represented regardless of official role.

Since stepping down from their duties, the Sussexes have signed deals with Spotify and Netflix expected to be worth more than £100 million.

The Duke and Duchess newly announced they’re expecting a second child, with their spokesperson saying they can confirm that Archie is going to be a big brother.

The announcement also follows Meghan Markle winning a privacy case against the Mail on Sunday over the publication of a personal and private handwritten letter to her estranged father.

I think Harry’s mother Diana would have been happy about his decision, but also extremely upset that he’s no longer close to his brother William because she would have wanted them to stick together.

But it looks like Harry is shielding his wife and family from what his mother had to endure, and she would be so proud of him. He should be happy with his beautiful ever-growing family.

Although, there are some people out there that are saying that they’re just after the money, with deals coming out of their ears, such as Netflix and such. However, like everyone else, they have to live because they made the decision not to live off the British taxpayer, and now people are treating them like criminals because of it. It just doesn’t make any sense.

However, you could barely call them socially aware while living in a 14 million mansion, because of course, it’s easy to be a do-gooder when you’re loaded – perhaps it just eases their conscience.

He’s Beaten Her Black And Blue For Years

Over the past year, stories of domestic violence have grown enormously, while refuge places are scarce.

The pandemic has had a disastrous impact on women in abusive relationships, ensnaring them in their homes with violent, manipulative or controlling men, and the UN has described the global rise in domestic abuse as a shadow pandemic, and in the first seven weeks of lockdown, there was a domestic abuse call to UK police every 30 seconds.

The Centre for Women’s Justice noted the number of domestic abuse-related deaths trebled in the United Kingdom in 2020, compared with 2019.

At the centre of this storm are women’s shelters, places of protection that have seen their funding cut in recent years.

Women’s shelters have been flooded with calls from women desperate to escape living in lockdown with their abuser, and it was reported that in the first three weeks of lockdown that 14 women and two children had been killed.

Women across England are experiencing domestic and sexual violence right now – whatever form of violence it comes in, from rape and trafficking to relationships based on psychological or financial control, our Government needs to act to end it.

And our Government needs to support women and girls around experiences where gender, the very fact of being a woman, is significant. This includes those who’ve encountered domestic abuse, sexual exploitation or have contact with the criminal justice system.

These women and children need to be supported in women-only spaces, safe and trusted surroundings. With a trauma-informed approach, based on understanding, consistency, boundaries and an acknowledgement of the reality of each individual’s life.

The priority is to make women feel safe in an environment that is as homely as possible, with the right level of support to deliver the most important goal – to recover from the trauma of domestic abuse and to be able to rebuild their lives.

And for someone to be there to support that person and overcome the adverse repercussions of that trauma, violence or abuse.

Of course, we read about these articles all the time and they’re tragic, but the solution is the prevention of such terrible realities of society, which is universal.

They say that prevention is better than the cure, but how can we prevent children from evolving into violent monsters? And if children aren’t taught the right social relationship and anger skills. If they have low self-esteem due to a troubled abusive family life or are being bullied, then these problems will often manifest in the degradation of others when in adulthood, as well as manifesting in some of today’s violent teenage and gang behaviours.

And numerous people have lost their lives at the hands of an abusive partner, and relationships should be addressed more in the early years of schooling because children need to grow up knowing what is and isn’t acceptable behaviour in a relationship.

However, this doesn’t just pertain to women being abused, men are also abused, but regardless of gender, abuse is appalling behaviour. However, abusers are themselves victims of abuse and are slaves to the mentality of their past, where they’re trapped in repeating the same mentality.

But the abuse they suffer should never be an excuse to abuse others.

Human beings can change, and if a person is the perpetrator of domestic violence, that’s because it’s become a power trip and they have a narcissistic mentality that is more important than another human being.

Juvenile Offender, 83, Let Out Of Jail After 68 Years

The oldest juvenile lifer who walked free from jail at 83 has reportedly said he was astounded by skyscrapers and mourns his family members who have since departed.

Joseph Ligon was only 15 when he was imprisoned for life for murder following a spree of robberies and attacks with a group of inebriated teenagers in Philadelphia, US.

During that spate of violence two people were left dead – Charles Pitts, 60, and Jackson Hamm, 65, and six others were injured from stab wounds.

Imprisoned in 1953, Joseph Ligon refused to apply for parole as he denied ever killing anyone.

After an astonishing 68 years behind bars, making him the oldest juvenile lifer in the country, he finally walked free from the State Correctional Institution Phoenix last week.

On his release, he is said to be in awe of the new world and the towering skyline, as he took his first steps into a completely different America than when he went inside, and he said that he found it unsettling that Eastern State Penitentiary, where he was once incarcerated, was now a museum and Halloween attraction, and he said that it didn’t suit his tastes.

Illiterate at the age of 15, Ligon is said to believe he was scapegoated as the new kid, the outsider, at the time of the offending, and speaking to a news outlet Eleanor Myers, a senior adviser said that as much as the world has evolved since Mr Ligon first went to jail, he has also changed, and that his experience in coming back was primarily as a new man.

She said that he’s amazingly cheerful and amazed at the differences in Philadelphia since 1953, in particular the towering buildings.

She said that he’s spoken about those in his family who are gone and can’t be together for his homecoming and that he appeared to miss them especially.

Ligon’s route to his release has been complicated and was made possible after his sentence was reduced in 2017 to include the chance of parole, which he declined.

The Supreme Court had decreed in 2012 that inflicting mandatory life sentences on juveniles was unconstitutional.

Pennsylvania was among some states that refused to reduce the life sentences, however, it took four more years before they were ordered to retroactively reduce sentences for those given life terms for juvenile offences.

After that judgment, the state of Pennsylvania re-sentenced Ligon along with more than 500 other juvenile lifers to reduced prison terms that included lifetime parole.

This sounds pretty much like the Kalief Browder story. Kalief Browder was an African American youth from The Bronx, New York, who was detained at the Rikers Island jail complex, without trial, between 2010 and 2013 for supposedly robbing a backpack containing valuables.

During his incarceration, Kalief Browder was in solitary confinement for two years.

Two years after his release, Kalief Browder killed himself at his parents home.

His case has been cited by activists fighting for a change in the New York City criminal justice system and has drawn extensive attention in the years following his death and in 2017, Jay-Z produced a television documentary mini-series titled Time: The Kalief Browder Story.

In January 2019, New York City settled a civil lawsuit with the Browder family for $3.3 million.

Ligon’s case was an unusual one. He declined the chance of parole because he insisted he was innocent, so this has to be considered that he may well have been telling the truth.

In the 50s numerous people of various races were wrongfully condemned for offences they did. Of course, I’m not implying this was the case with Ligon, but it was a possibility, and you have to question the parole refusal.

Now, this man has been in jail for so long, will he cope in the outside world? What life has he got left? And will he be able to start his life again at his age, it’s like being a fish out of water, and so alone, and at his age, freedom has no meaning.

Perhaps he was innocent, but they sent him to jail anyhow. But whether he was innocent or not, that’s something we’ll never know.

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