I repeat … that all power is a trust; that we are accountable for its exercise; that from the people and for the people all springs, and all must exist. – Benjamin Disraeli
More updates to old stories; this time they’re all about alleged abuse of power.
License to Rape (November 16th)
In San Diego, ten police officers are currently accused of serious misconduct in unrelated cases that include allegations of rape, stalking, drunk driving, domestic abuse, and sexual assault. One of the officers has been charged with sexually assaulting five women while he was on duty. Another is alleged to have told a woman that she’d be arrested unless she agreed to have sex with him.
The most interesting take on the rash of misconduct comes from the Voice of San Diego, where a sharp enterprise story chronicles the rise and fall of a departmental anti-corruption unit…[which] police chief [Bill Landsdowne] doesn’t have any plans to bring…back…Elsewhere in the story, I noticed this: “Mayor Jerry Sanders…described the rash of incidents as an embarrassment and echoed Lansdowne’s assertion that it was correlated to stress among officers.” Rape, stalking and sexual assault caused by stress? It’s hard to have faith in city leaders after that explanation, but here’s hoping that they reconsider and bring back proactive anti-corruption measures – and that other police departments follow suit.
Just imagine if anyone but a cop tried to use “stress” as an excuse for rape; he’d probably be penalized for insulting the judge’s intelligence. But when the rapist is a cop, officials not only believe him, they actually invent the excuse for him.
Acting and Activism (January 8th)
Trafficking “expert” Mira Sorvino is at it again, this time promoting Sacramento, California as the “leading destination for sex traffickers”, a title I’ve also heard claimed in the past few months by New York, Dallas, Miami, Portland, Atlanta and the entire state of Ohio, to name just a few. The writer seems to believe that the Academy Award doubles as an advanced degree in criminology, sociology or both:
Human trafficking is a serious crime that can be found in the Sacramento area and requires not just law enforcement but also community participation to combat, panelists said Tuesday at a Congressional field briefing that included Academy Award-winning actress Mira Sorvino. US Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Gold River) hosted the hearing at Rancho Cordova City Hall to highlight the fact that Sacramento’s convergence of interstate highways and large immigrant population has made it a leading destination for sex traffickers. In 2006, Sacramento was named the city with the second highest rate of child prostitution in the US, according to FBI statistics…Human trafficking is a hidden crime, officials said, and accurate statistics for communities including Carmichael, Elk Grove, Fair Oaks and Rosemont are difficult to calculate. “I did not know Sacramento was a boomtown for this issue,” said Sorvino, whose film credits include Mighty Aphrodite and Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion. “This is a crime that represents the worst evil there is, that doesn’t spare children.”
It pretty much degenerates from there into the usual collection of politicians mouthing canned outrage, with a statement from a prohibitionist group and the mention of an undocumented horror story. One politician even claimed that “Sacramento is leading the nation in getting at child sex trafficking,” which I guess makes sense since they claim to be the top destination for it (though I think those other cities might argue the point since they all seem to covet the dubious distinction). Yet somehow Mira, that font of prostitution wisdom (deriving, no doubt, from playing a hooker in Mighty Aphrodite), didn’t know that Sacramento was having a trafficking boom, probably because they just made it up in order to attract federal and NGO funds to the area to boost its sagging economy, one of the worst in the state.
One last thing: Anybody else notice the vaguely racist implications of the claim that Sacramento’s “large immigrant population has made it a leading destination for sex traffickers”? I guess those dirty immigrant perverts are all using their food stamps and the wages from the jobs they stole from real Americans to “buy children for sex” as Mira’s friend Demi puts it.
He Said, She Said (March 4th)
Single mothers, former drug addicts and other beaten down young women who came to wealthy businessman Henry Allen Fitzsimmons for a chance to climb out of their financial hole knew his help came with a catch. In exchange for an allowance, a place to live and promise of a college education, they agreed to be spanked if they broke his rules. At least six of the women say he his corporal punishment went too far, including one who says he sexually assaulted her, and the 54-year-old Virginia Beach restaurant owner faces felony charges. “These women are victims. They’re single moms. They need their bills paid,” prosecutor Tom Murphy said at a court hearing Thursday. “It’s bizarre, there’s no doubt.” Fitzsimmons’ attorney claims his slight, white-haired client is the victim, taken advantage of by women half his age who knew what they were getting into and filed charges only after a falling out. “He’s not a danger,” Fitzsimmons’ attorney, Moody “Sonny” Stallings Jr., told the AP. “Strange, but he’s not a danger to anybody.”
A judge on Thursday allowed a grand jury to decide whether to indict Fitzsimmons on two felony abduction charges and three felony object sexual penetration charges filed against him. Six other assault and sexual battery charges were dropped because prosecutors acknowledged the women had agreed to the spankings. For months, Fitzsimmons gave each of the women $200 weekly, promised to pay for their college tuition, treated them to lavish nights on the town and even bought one a car as part of his so-called Spencer Scholarship Plan. They were spanked if they violated rules, such as failing to call Fitzsimmons or drinking alcohol…None of the women filed charges until Fitzsimmons in April accused one of them of stealing money and fired her from his restaurant, the oceanside Envy Bar and Grill, where many of them worked. A week later, six women began filing charges. On Thursday, that former employee’s complaint was dropped, along with those of two other women whose only complaints were that they had been spanked. “Who’s the victim here?” Stalling asked in court. “They were taking the money and all of a sudden when the mother gets fired they all run down to the police station and want to file charges…They’re trying to say he preys on these women…These aren’t 15-years-olds. These are all adults and they’re getting the money from this old guy.”
So why aren’t these women being charged with prostitution? Is there one reader over the age of 14 who fails to see these relationships as sexual? Fitzsimmons paid a whole harem of whores $200/week plus tuition and expensive treats to play a BDSM game with him, and then (depending on who you believe) he either got slightly more sexual or else they decided to kill the fabled goose and collect the gold from his carcass. Bimbos who play with fire and then cry to Nanny when they get their fingers burned only perpetuate the notion that women are too stupid, weak and gullible to be allowed control over our own sex lives.