When a film claims to be “based on a true story,” it can still be 99% fiction. – Robert Gehrke
He wasn’t a “former pastor” when he murdered a little girl:
…83-year-old David Zandstra [has confessed to the]…murder of…[8-year-old] Gretchen Harrington…on August 15, 1975. Zandstra was a pastor at…Trinity Church Chapel Christian Reform Church [in Media, Pennsylvania], where Harrington was going to [Bible] camp…[when Harrington’s] skeletal remains were found…[Zanstra was questioned but claimed he hadn’t seen her that day. Then]…earlier this year, investigators learned Zandstra [had] groped a girl, who was best friends with his daughter, years ago…In [her] diary from 1975, she noted that she thought Zandstra kidnapped Harrington…[when confronted] in Marietta, Georgia, where he [now] lives…Zandstra admitted…he [had] offered Harrington a ride and took her to a wooded area…[where] he [tried to molest her, then fatally]…struck [her] in the head with a fist when she refused…he…[then] cover[ed her] body and [fled] the scene…
The Face of Trafficking (#585)
Another case of what really happens when a wannabe “pimp” abducts a girl:
Terrique Devon Milam, 19, [and an unnamed 17-year-old were] charged with…promotion of prostitution…[after being] arrested Thursday, July 20, by…Seattle Police…[when a] father…reported that his daughter was being held against her will…his daughter had told him she could not leave, shared her location and abruptly hung up the call…The victim told police she met a woman in her home state of Texas who…[had shared an especially-silly version of the “gypsy whore” myth with] her…she [was abducted by]…several [wannabe] pimps…[who for] two weeks [took her] to and from Aurora Avenue…[by] two men [who stole] the money she earned…
Note the lack of actual “sex trafficking” charges, despite the attempt to invoke the “sex trafficking at sporting events” myth.
The government thinks you shouldn’t be allowed any privacy whatsoever:
…From the bluntly named World War II-era Director of Censorship’s power to restrict mail, to the 1873 Comstock Act fueling the power of the post to [censor] contraception information…to the PATRIOT Act’s many tentacles, the Post Office hides nasty habits under its all-American exterior…Mail covers involve the USPS recording any information displayed on the outside, then giving that information to [cop shops and spook houses]. It is…a kind of metadata for the analog realm that gives a…picture of who the suspect knows, what they are interested in, and sometimes where they have gone…The USPS has also not released data about mail covers since 2014…[but] “no higher authority, judge or otherwise, needs to endorse the process”…A legal concept called the third party doctrine…broadly says that if you willingly give your information over to a phone company, an internet service provider, or the post office…you do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy…
Fascism in action, profiting from human misery:
The price of bottled water [has gone] up 50% in prison commissaries across Texas…as [humans locked in the filthy cages] struggle to endure an entrenched and deadly heatwave in facilities without air conditioning. The state raised the price from $4.80 per case (24 bottles) to $7.20 per case [after]…vendor Royal Pacific Tea Company requested to raise the prices in March even though it contract was incomplete. The price…[gouging was obtained via kickbacks to] the state comptroller’s office and…Texas Department of Criminal Justice…the men have access to tap water. But…the water quality [in] the aging prisons [is far below acceptable standards]…the smell…resembl[es] sewage…[and] has [been] described…as “rancid” smelling…
Will we ever know the connection between this guy and disgraced former Police Chief James Burke?
…authorities [have begun] digging up the Long Island…home of Rex Heuermann, the man suspected of killing at least three women found at Gilgo Beach, and reportedly found a soundproof room in Heuermann’s basement that they think at least one woman may have died in…[they] are excavating his backyard, and…brought cadaver dogs and radar tools to the property…Heuermann’s wife, Asa Ellerup…has since filed for divorce…and…Heuermann is a “prime suspect” in the death of a fourth woman, Marueen Brainard-Barnes, who disappeared in July 2007…
At least this one confessed quickly:
[Carlee Russell] has confessed to fabricating a story that she was kidnapped after stopping to check on a toddler she saw walking on the side of the interstate…there was no kidnapping…she did not leave the city, and acted alone…it is possible that Russell could face charges. [Cops] are trying to determine where she was in the two days she was gone…
The schadenfreude of watching Tim Ballard’s reputation go down in flames is so very sweet:
Ballard’s [highly-exaggerated] version of the story [he claims inspired him to profit from “sex trafficking” hysteria] provides the basis for the new film, Sound of Freedom, which has [not] done [as] well at the box office [as its promoters pretend]…But in the movie, even more liberties are taken…there are obvious discrepancies between the story Ballard tells and the narrative in court documents…When embellished or exaggerated or untrue statements are used to raise money, it becomes…problematic…much of Ballard’s origin story is flatly, provably false, and the people who have donated tens of millions of dollars to Ballard’s organizations deserve to know how much of what he has told them is true and how much has been concocted to fuel his celebrity status and ego.
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