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Posts Tagged ‘Follow Your Bliss’

I saw more blood and fistfights and violence and threats…while I was there, than my entire life combined.  –  “Cameron”

The Red Umbrella 

What kind of mind uses violence against a marginalized group as an excuse to spew the same kind of propaganda which drives the marginalization?

…a man posing as a…[lying cop] shackled and abducted a [sex worker] from [Aurora Avenue in Seattle]…then drove her hundreds of miles to his home in southern Oregon, where he locked her in a makeshift cell in his garage…She escaped by punching the door, bloodying her knuckles, until it broke.  Authorities say they are looking for more possible victims after linking the man, Negasi Zuberi, to violent sexual assaults in at least four other states…The July 15 abduction is one of at least three cases in the past year in which police say women engaged in prostitution along Aurora Avenue had to make harrowing escapes or otherwise be rescued after being held against their will…Residents have noticed a dramatic increase in the activity since the pandemic struck in 2020, as the Seattle Police Department has contended with a severe shortage of [violent, out-of-control cops]…

Wrong.  Street work on Aurora increased when the government destroyed Backpage.  State violence vs. sex workers caused the problem; it does not prevent it.

If Men Were Angels

“Pastor and sex offender” is a large and ever-expanding group:

A convicted sex offender who is also a pastor at a [North Carolina] church has been arrested again for more counts of sexual crimes against [young boys aged 9-15]…Robert “Bobby” Price…faces new charges for incidents between 2001-2011…whe[n he]…was a youth pastor…When he was arrested in 2013…[it was] for incidents between 2000-2006.  In 2014, Price was convicted for…16 months in jail…[he] was released in December 2015…[hi]s current…work…as an associate pastor…[is] an administrative role that did not involve any contact with minors…

And it’s even bigger if you include “church group leaders”:

…former [Michigan] church group leader Michael Baxter…[was] sentenced…to…25 to 40 years in prison…[for raping] several [girls], ages 10 and 15, from 1996 to 2013…

Don’t Call It Trafficking (#667)

This isn’t called “trafficking”, while the same demographic choosing to sell sex to survive is:

STAR Guides Wilderness Therapy…bills itself as “the country’s premier wilderness treatment program for teens with technology, pornography and sexual addictions.”  These camps…[pretend ordinary] behavior[s authoritarian parents dislike constitute threats to] “the physical, mental and spiritual health of youth”…[which can be “cured” by] sending kids to the middle of nowhere—for weeks, months, or even years—with no running water, phones, internet access, or contact with the outside world…[this] seems like a disproportionate reaction to watching videos of people having orgasms…

Checklist (#1188)

Airlines:  do you really want to keep accepting liability for employees racially profiling passengers due to the government propaganda you feed them?

A white mother is suing one of the country’s biggest airlines…[because] it accused her of trafficking her black daughter.  Mary MacCarthy…filed suit…against the airline for “blatant racism”…seeking to change Southwest’s [government-approved indoctrination] and policies, after…[an] airline employee had assumed her daughter Moira, then 10, couldn’t be hers based on their differing skintones…

Surplus Women (#1283)

Cops can’t be bothered to investigate the disappearance of sex workers, especially black sex workers:

Remains of Jaynie Crosdale were discovered in a barrel floating in the Missouri River, mirroring the blue barrels found at Timothy Haslett Jr.’s home…further validating him as a serial killer. Alternatively, [cops think there might be]…a possible accomplice still at large, either collaborating with Haslett or operating alone. The Kansas City police department had initially dismissed concerns over missing black women in the area, stating claims of a serial killer were “unfounded rumors” despite conducting no formal investigation…

To Molest and Rape (#1341)

Cops should not be allowed anywhere near legal minors:

A North Charleston [South Carolina cop] is facing charges [for molesting]…a minor…David Don Watson…[was assigned to spy on, harass, and brutalize young people] at Charleston County Academic Magnet, however, this [victim was] not…a student [he was supposed be molesting, and he didn’t call it a “search” first]…

And here’s one from the other Carolina:

A [typical and representative] Mooresville [North Carolina cop]…was…arrest[ed] for [molesting]…minor[s and taking video of the assaults]…Matthew Edward Beebe…[apparently also had child pornon his] phone…

Served Cold (#1357)

Guy obsessed with child-abduction fantasies following his bliss:

One of thousands of patrons of the crowdfunded…child [“sex] trafficking[” fantasy] film Sound of Freedom was recently arrested and charged for child kidnapping…Fabian Marta was charged…in July…[while hi]s name appears in the movie’s credits among the “investors”…[the movie’s] release was…delayed…[until] nearly $5 million was crowdfunded [to get it out of hock]…The production [was then boosted by mass ticket sales to the same “investors”, making it look as though it was]…beating…the likes of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One [even though it was actually playing to phantom crowds at nearly-empty theaters]…

 

I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one.  Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful.  But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer.  So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets.  Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements.  Thanks so much!

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All the alarm bells should be going off when [politicians] use their elected power to control…children’s ideas.  –  Val Benavidez

Surplus Women

Sick men may respond violently when sex workers refuse to belong to them:

The neighbor and content partner of [adult] performer Charlotte Angie has been convicted in Italy for her 2022 murder.  Davide Fontana was sentenced…to 30 years in prison for beating Angie to death…Angie…[had a short-lived] relationship…[with] Fontana…[in] 2021…and [apparently did not realize]…he was [obsessed with her because she] agreed to shoot a BDSM sex video [with him] in January 2022…after binding…he[r, Fontana] took a hammer and…hit…her all over her body and on her covered head…then cut her throat with a kitchen knife…From January to March, Fontana used Angie’s phone to impersonate her on her social media accounts, and also paid her rent and bills…[while he] traveled around…looking for places to dispose of the…body parts…[cops found them] on March 20, 2022, apparently the same day Fontana finally disposed of them by throwing them down a cliff in Valcamonica…

If Men Were Angels

It’s getting harder to tell the preachers from the cops:

A 75-year-old deacon at a church in Walker County [Georgia] faces hundreds of sex abuse charges…Dennis Carl Laman…[repeatedly molested a] 30-year-old victim [with] cerebral palsy [who] is bound to a wheelchair and has a low mental capacity…she…told [a] doctor…and…her caregiver that Laman had fondled her inappropriately, and that the…abuse had been going on for about 6 years…Laman…confessed [to molesting]…the woman…about 199 times…

To Molest and Rape

Another cop following his bliss:

A [typical and representative Irish cop] who was…questioned [due to] allegations of rape was released without charge…he was [previously] involved in…investigat[ing] multiple high profile sexual abuse cases…

The Last Shall Be First (#1266)

If you didn’t see this coming, you haven’t been paying attention:

…a…9-year-old daughter was verbally assaulted at a track and field event…[in] Kelowna…[British Columbia]…she was competing in a shot-put event when a grandfather of one of the other participants started yelling at her…[saying], “Hey, this is supposed to be a girls’ event, and why are you letting boys compete”…the man then carried on to demand certification to prove that [the girl] was born female…the man’s wife then started calling [the girl’s mot]her “a genital mutilator, a groomer, and a pedophile”…School District superintendent Kevin Kaardal [said]…steps are being taken to ban the man from all school-related events…

Part of the Picture (#1280)

Some people still claim we don’t live in a police state:

Prosecutors in Monroe County [Indiana] charged Hannah’s husband with possession of child [porn, so]…the court ordered that he not have access to any electronic devices as a condition of his pretrial release from jail.  To ensure he complied with those terms, the probation department installed Covenant Eyes on Hannah’s phone, as well as those of her two children and her mother-in-law.  In near real time, probation officers are being fed screenshots of everything Hannah’s family views on their devices…Covenant Eyes doesn’t permit its software to be used…[for] monitoring people on probation…but…courts in at least five US states have [illegally done so anyway]…Less than a week after Covenant Eyes was installed…her husband’s probation officer [claimed] her husband had violated the terms of his bond…[because] Covenant Eyes [reported] that her phone had visited Pornhub…[in actuality,] her phone had made a network request to the website’s servers as part of a background app refresh…on her Chrome browser…This is a known issue with Covenant Eyes [but prosecutors don’t care]…

Thought Control (#1343)

It seems I was destined to be threatened with state violence regardless of my career path:

…[Texas] Gov. Greg Abbott [criminalizing librarians who stock books politicians declare “]explicit[“, and]…prohibit schools from purchasing books that [politicians decl]are “sexually explicit, pervasively vulgar or educationally unsuitable”…Abbott [also declared that books politicians dislike are]…”trash”…Under the bill, [a political] Commission is tasked with [declaring which ideas will henceforth be legal in Texas, and task]…book vendors to [guess what politicians may arbitrarily want censored]…

Panopticon (#1346)

Hanging a camera on an animal essentially turns it into a surveillance drone:

A case recently filed in a federal district court in Connecticut alleges that a state government agency violated the Fourth Amendment by attaching a camera to a bear they knew frequented the plaintiff property owners’ land…tagged as Number 119…The bear-mounted cam was allegedly supplied…by…the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP)…[which had accused] the plaintiffs…of “illegally” feeding bears on their property.  So, this cambear appears to be part of DEEP’s efforts to prove the allegations against the couple (Mark and Carol Brault).  This surveillance attempt failed when the couple noticed the bear and its digital appendage…no warrant was obtained before DEEP converted an apparent regular visitor to the Braults’ property into a confidential non-human source.  The Braults say this is a Fourth Amendment violation, with the bear acting as a government agent, albeit one incapable of being directly controlled…

 

I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one.  Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful.  But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer.  So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets.  Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements.  Thanks so much!

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[Screws] violate our human rights like crazy.  –  Clothera Peak

A Moral Cancer

This badly-disguised puritanism was the topic of the original column of this heading, twelve years ago:

Oral sex may be the biggest factor in the rise of throat cancer in…the U.S. and U.K.  “For oropharyngeal cancer, the main risk factor [after refusing to take the HPV vaccine] is the number of lifetime sexual partners, especially oral sex,” Mehanna wrote for The Conversation. “Those with six or more lifetime oral-sex partners are 8.5 times more likely to develop oropharyngeal cancer than those who do not practice oral sex”…

Everything I said back in the original column is still true.

Surplus Women

Prohibitionists want this to happen more often:

A man [named David Montes was]…arrested for murder in Moxee [Washington] after…he suffocated a woman from an escort service, wrapped her body in plastic wrap in the backseat of his truck, then called 911 to confess…the woman was identified as 63-year-old Santos Gloria Reyes from Yakima…Montes [told cops] he was having homicidal thoughts and went on an escort service website to find someone he could “take out”…[after the murder] he ran errands with the [body] still in the back, then contacted his uncle on the night of April 14 where he confessed to his actions.  He then called 911 because his uncle told him to…

The Next Target (#1272)

It’s not like they’ve ever been secretive about their goals:

Morality in Media…has launched a new campaign to eradicate all adult content on Reddit…call[ing] for the platform to take action against “hardcore pornography and sexually explicit content”…the [pro-censorship] organization frames the call for censoring Reddit — one of the main platforms that allows open sexual expression from users — as addressing “abuse and exploitation”…[but it]s rhetoric about nonconsensual material ultimately serves as a Trojan horse for a call to censor all sexually explicit content and eliminate accounts that share it, regardless of consent or legality…

Opting Out (#1306) 

If other big websites followed suit, the damage done by this totalitarian nonsense would be dramatically curtailed:

Wikipedia will not comply with any age checks required under the [UK] Online Safety Bill…Rebecca MacKinnon, of the Wikimedia Foundation…says it would “violate our commitment to collect minimal data about readers and contributors”…the government says only services [politicians claim] pos[e what is nebulously labeled “]the highest risk to children[” at any given moment] will need age verification…Wikimedia UK fears the site could be blocked because of its stance…

Follow Your Bliss (Anther Rapist Roundup)

A clever non-cop molester took advantage of another grooming scheme for predatory cops:

Eric Uller was…a volunteer in the Police Activities League, where, beginning in the late 1980s, he…was a sexual predator…[who] destroyed the lives of children…wh[ile]…authorities [ignored warnings about his abuse over many years]…Now, more than 200 people have come forward to say they were abused by Uller, most of whom were underprivileged children…whose parents were in this country without proper immigration papers…Santa Monica [has] settled…lawsuits…total[ling]…$229.285 million [so far] — the most costly single-perpetrator sexual abuse disbursement for any municipality in the state…He…most[ly]…target[ed] Latino boys between the ages of 12 and 15…but some were as young as 8, said attorney Brian Claypool, who has represented more than 80 victims…Uller used his police connections to lure them…He…[had] a badge…handcuffs and…a gun…“Everyone thought he was a police officer,” [one victim] said…

Of course, we’ve often seen non-cop rapists posing as cops to facilitate rape.

No Escape (#1312)

This will never stop while violent thugs have total power over the lives of women:

Sex­u­al abuse is ram­pant…at FCI Tal­la­has­see…[where] documented re­ports of guards terrorizing, threatening, and stalking, as well as mentally, physically, and sexually abusing prisoners…go back at least as far as 2002, so[on]…after the facility officially became a women’s prison.  Since 2012, the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) has received more than 130 complaints [of] staff…[raping] prisoner[s]…but the abusive and retaliatory environment…has only spi­raled further out of con­trol…recent scrutiny has almost completely overlooked a culture of impunity and widespread abuse at FCI Tallahassee and centered instead on other prisons...[such as] the…so-called rape club [in California]…FCI Tallahassee’s recent ability to remain out of the spotlight is…a reflection of…a brutally efficient system of retaliation and cover-up, which employs a dizzying variety of tactics to protect perpetrators of sexual assault and keep their victims silent…

The Cop Myth (#1333)

I’m sure it would’ve been different had he put on his magical Clown Costume of Legal Invulnerability first:

A…Pueblo County [Colorado screw was sacked for] assaulting [his girlfriend at least twice] in five months…Donald Teschner…was arrested on April 21, 2023..for [the assault, which left a]…”large lump on the back of…the victim’s…head with [bloody] scratches”…the…argument [began because] Teschner [imagined] that the victim was cheating on him, which [he used as an excuse]…to break her phone…hit her in the back of the head…throw…[her against] the wall…[hard enough that] she…was knocked out…This is Teschner’s fourth arrest since 2019….[when] he was convicted of possession of a gun while drunk…[and] sentenced to 18 months of probation…

 

I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one.  Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful.  But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer.  So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets.  Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements.  Thanks so much!

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This isn’t a few “bad apples”; it’s a culture of rampant misogyny.  –  Rachel Cunliffe

Law of the Instrument

I guess they figure describing rape as “sex trafficking” will net a larger payout:

A federal sex trafficking and forced labor lawsuit filed by a former employee against…shipping giant Crowley Maritime will move forward…[after the] Judge…denied a motion…to dismiss…the plaintiff claims she was 21 years old when she was hired by Crowley as a credit and collections coordinator in Crowley’s San Salvador office and that she was paid less than $10,000 per year.  She says that in 2017 she was sexually assaulted inside an elevator at the Crowley offices by a supervisor…[and that] Crowley moved the supervisor to a new department instead of firing him…

The “sex trafficking” angle seems to derive from the fact that she was forced by her job to travel with the supervisor who raped her.

Follow Your Bliss

How nice of this guy to “volunteer” for a position that gave him access to children:

A [typical and representative] volunteer youth pastor at the Abba’s House church in Hixson [Tennessee, who was also the] PTA president at Wolftever Creek Elementary School…now faces [charges of] child molestation…and aggravated sexual battery…Dustin Spillers…is [originally from Louisiana and the charges appear to originate in Georgia]…

This one too:

A [volunteer] Colorado Springs Bible study teacher, Carlton Ranquist, pleaded guilty to [molest]ing a [girl under 15]…Ranquist accepted a plea deal that saw him plead guilty to just one of the nine charges he initially faced…the remaining eight charges will all be dismissed as part of the plea deal…Ranquist was arrested in Maine…to [which he had moved] in 2020…Five [of the] charges Ranquist faced prior to accepting the plea deal…[were for molesting other kids] between 2006 and 2012…

If Men Were Angels

Even the use of the distancing “former” is the same as for rapist cops:

A [typical and representative] youth pastor…[named] Sean Patrick Masopust…pleaded guilty to [molesting a teenage girl]…and was sentenced…to 10 years of supervised probation, 28 days in the Steele County [Minnesota] Jail, and a $1,000 fine…

To Molest and Rape (#1286)

Hey, female cops; how’s that collaboration with the police state working out?

A [London cop]…who[se identity is being covered up by the government]…is…being investigated…[for] sexually assault[ing] a female colleague…the woman had previously complained about his…behaviour [to supervisors before he actually attacked her].  The man, who was [wearing his magical clown costume] at the time of the…attack, works [covering up other cops’ attacks on other women]…

Stalkers in Blue (#1289)

Another cop demonstrating exactly what he is:

A [cop] pulled down a teenage woman’s top and took a photograph of her breasts after pretending to ejaculate on her chest [by flicking beer foam onto her]…Paul Hinchcliffe…also…[loudly announced] he would use it [and other pictures he took without her consent] to masturbate …the [disgusting] incident took place when he was drinking with three other [pigs]…in a pub in Rotherham on October 3, 2020…[after] the woman l[eft due to his behavior]…she received a message from Hinchliffe saying: “God I’d do you, is that bad?”…accompanied by a number of emojis that the woman took to represent masturbation…

To Molest and Rape (#1298)

This guy needs to be put away before he murders her:

William Ray Pruitt…was arrested…for [stalking and harassing] a…girl [he raped at gunpoint]…in [December] 2020[, when she was 14]…the…stalking began in October 2021, when the victim was 15…and continued into December 2022…[after the rape], the victim’s mother left her job and moved [with her daughter] to an undisclosed location.  But soon after, a private investigator…was hired by Pruitt [to find them so he could]…start…driving by the…new residence…Pruitt [then] began leaving cryptic messages around the neighborhood referencing…an…[imaginary] unborn child…he [named “Libby” and pretended to have sired on his victim by the rape.  Then]…On 8/22/22 [the girl] was driving [home] alone from…school when…Pruitt pulled up next to her and yelled at her to pull over…the[n]…attempted to…force…her…off the road…[she escaped by dr]iving [to] her cousin’s apartment…[and running] inside…[before] Pruitt…[could catch her]…

To Molest and Rape (#1307)

It’s rare to see someone whose name isn’t Maggie McNeill expressing these thoughts this strongly:

[David] Carrick showed…his employers…who he was before he even became a [cop]…he had been under criminal investigation for…burglary.  They let him in anyway.  He was accused of assault against a former partner.  Nothing was done.  He continued to rape and assault women, and was promoted…14 [complaints]…of…violence…were ignored…Carrick did not commit these crimes in spite of being a [cop]…he was part of a force that enabled him to commit these crimes…power-hungry individuals are drawn to positions that give them power and enable them to abuse it.  A man predisposed to raping and harming women will seek a job in an organisation that provides him the opportunity to do so.  If that organisation ignores the blinking red lights and lets such men continue with virtual impunity, it will become a magnet for abusers…This isn’t a few “bad apples”; it’s a culture of rampant misogyny, and such cultures naturally attract and embolden rampant misogynists…The [police have] shown us what [they are].  Now we need to believe it.

 

I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one.  Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful.  But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer.  So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets.  Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements.  Thanks so much!

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It’s difficult to measure how much you’re harming someone’s relationships and connections with the free world.  –  Keri Blakinger

Surplus Women

Apparently Mexican cops are more concerned about sex workers’ lives than their US counterparts are:

A suspect behind serial killings of sex workers in Tijuana is thought to be somewhere in San Diego, and the Attorney General of Baja California says he is working with U.S. authorities to find the killer…a U.S citizen…[who] finds his victim’s [sic] in strip clubs and bars in Zona Norte…the suspect [rapes]…his victims, [then] beats them and kills them…Each woman was found dead in a motel room…Authorities say they are keeping some details of the murders confidential so as not to alert the suspect…[but] they…know who he is and that he crossed the…border into San Diego…

Follow Your Bliss

The naive believe the government propaganda that “sex predators” are creepy dudes who hang out at playgrounds; in reality, they are largely people in positions of authority over their preferred targets:

A campus [cop named David Laudon] at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth resigned…[after groping a female student and then constantly harassing her with frequent unwanted texts and calls] in 2010…Laudon, was then…hired…in the nearby town of Blackstone, Massachusetts [to lurk in schools and harass students.  While there]…Laudon was [given his dream job of]…investigating reported sexual assaults and [leering at] students…who have been sexually victimized…Blackstone [sacked]…Laudon…after…[finding out about his previous] misconduct…but [w]as [kept] on the town police force…as an investigator who handles sexual assault reports…

Above the Law (#1142)

They usually make these cases sound like the scumbag was doing his victim a favor:

…police chief…Kenny Payne of Plaquemine, Louisiana, was indicted by a grand jury with…malfeasance in office…[after demanding] a…woman…[reveal her] breasts and perform oral sex on him [in exchange for dropping a case against her boyfriend]…The next day, Payne ordered a lieutenant to delete text messages from the woman to the [cop she] report[ed] the [demand to]…Payne also requested Iberville Parish Sheriff Brett Stasi to…cease…investigati[ng]…him after the woman filed a…complaint…

The Punitive Mindset (#1159) 

“Safety” is just a pretext; the real reasons for this are petty torture of prisoners and more profits for the carceral state’s fascist partners:

…On Nov. 14, New York City Department of [Torturing Caged Humans] commissioner Louis Molina outlined plans to digitize mail in city-run facilities…cit[ing cop fantasies of] “dozens” of letters “soaked in fentanyl” [to justify a scheme] to have mail scanned by a third-party vendor and delivered to incarcerated people via tablet.  If the plan goes into effect, it will make New York the latest in a string of carceral systems to end the delivery of paper mail…By damaging…people’s ties to the outside community, the policy could make it more difficult for them to re-enter society, potentially increasing their chances of recidivism…Wanda Bertram…[of] the Prison Policy initiative [says] mail bans are nothing but the flavor of the week in prison and jail policy…11 state prison systems…about 140 jails nationwide…and the Federal Bureau of Prisons [inflict this petty mistreatment on those condemned to their clutches despite]…a host of technical issues: delayed deliveries, blurred photographs, unreadable letters, and missing pages.  In…Pennsylvania…scanning…has resulted in Christmas cards being delayed until March…

Creepy Coppers

Reporter tries to bury the lede; headline writer won’t participate:

A [Georgia cop named]…Robert Vaughn [was arrested] and [charged with possession of child porn] in both Clay and Early County…after receiving [too many reports on his online activity to ignore]…from…NCMEC…[but his cronies are still hiding his identity by refusing to release a mugshot]…

Panopticon (#1256)

Amazon’s fascist collaboration with cops just keeps getting worse:

The New York Police Department…has joined Neighbors, [the] public neighborhood watch platform owned by Amazon’s Ring where video doorbell owners can post clips, and where [cops] can enlist the help of [snitches and useful idiots to fink on their neighbors]…over 2,000 of the nation’s [cop shops] have [already] signed on, including in Los Angeles and Chicago…[NYPD] do[es] not…[yet] have the ability to view or tap into Ring cameras…in real-time [as San Francisco cops already do]…

To Molest and Rape (#1293)

Your “leaders” refer to raping kids as “correction”:

Two [California screws] have been arrested [for]…sex crimes against children…The [screws lurked in] different prisons.  It’s unclear if the two [rapi]sts [a]re connected.  Matthew James Leavens…is being charged with six counts…including rape…[and] Matthew Robert Solem…was [charged with]…14…

 

I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one.  Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful.  But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer.  So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets.  Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements.  Thanks so much!

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It was just heartbreaking to me…to see what we had become.
–  Morgan Davis

If Men Were Angels

“Youth pastors” are as bad as cops:

…Conner “Jesse” Penny…was arrested April 5…for…sexual assault of a child…[for repeatedly molesting] a girl…between 2015 and 2018.  Police did not say how old the girl was at the time or now…Since his arrest…more victims have come forward [about being]…abuse[d] by Penny between 2013 and 2021…Penny was…a youth pastor at Inspiration Church…in Mesquite, [Texas, but he has a long history of following his bliss]…as a teacher’s aide and a [youth] counselor…

The Puritan Recrudescence (#1103)

Liz Brown takes a very detailed look at the current US pro-censorship cult:

…it’s a financially precarious, and perhaps even dangerous, time to be in the business of online porn…a constellation of activist groups, rooted in deeply conservative opposition to virtually any depiction of sexuality…have put considerable pressure on the middlemen who keep online porn in business.  In some cases, that pressure has led to the creation of onerous new laws; in others, it has been aided by support from powerful figures in business and government.  These groups have repeatedly sought to conflate…commercial sex…with…sexual exploitation, often with lurid statistics about exploited minors that don’t stand up to scrutiny.  Although these groups [pretend] their aim is merely to rid the web of abuse, it’s clear that their true goal is to eliminate the vast majority of adult sexual content…through a combination of legal pressure tactics, lobbying for new laws, and political intimidation…Rather than help vulnerable women, these efforts threaten to make life worse for the very people they claim to want to help—while simultaneously stifling internet expression more broadly…

The Widening Gyre (#1136)

Innocent people accused of “sex trafficking” by attention-hungry loons are starting to hit back:

…In a two-part Instagram video…[Katie] Sorensen spun a [hysterical] tale about a “[not] clean-cut” man and woman who nearly succeeded in kidnapping her two young children…In reality, her frantic [fantasy] succeeded only in shining a spotlight on herself.  Sorensen’s video gained her a flood of new Instagram followers, an interview with the local news, and an outpouring of online support from terrified moms.  But police said an investigation into the incident produced no evidence that a crime had taken place.  Now Sorensen herself is scheduled to be on trial in May.  Instead of nearly being one of the extremely rare stranger abductions in the U.S. every year, the truth…[is] something less surprising: a white woman painting herself as the victim, when she is actually the aggressor…

Sorensen’s intended victims, Sadie Vega-Martinez and her husband Eddie, wisely went public as soon as they realized Sorenson was defaming them online, exposing her lies as the attention-seeking nonsense they were.  And Elle‘s article quoted above is yet another sign that the implosion of the moral panic which spawned this attempt to destroy an innocent family’s lives is well underway.

Policing for Profit (#1207)

Does anyone still believe that this is about anything other than profit?

The federal government has agreed to return more than $1 million that California sheriff’s deputies stole from an armored-car company that serves state-licensed marijuana businesses…Empyreal Logistics…[was robbed by] Sheriff Shannon Dicus’ [henchmen]…three times in November, December, and January, making off with about $700,000 the first time and about $350,000 the second time.  During the third stop, they came away empty-handed because the van was carrying rolls of coins that had nothing to do with the cannabis industry.  Since…marijuana businesses…are legal in California, Dicus handed the loot over to the FBI, hoping to ultimately keep up to 80 percent of the money through…the Justice Department’s “equitable sharing” program.  That “adoption” fell through after Empyreal sued the Justice Department, the FBI, and the Drug Enforcement Administration…As part of the settlement, Empyreal dropped the federal defendants from its lawsuit.  It is still suing Dicus, and the settlement does not address a separate [robbery] of $165,000 by Kansas sheriff’s deputies, who targeted an Empyreal van carrying money from state-licensed medical marijuana dispensaries in Kansas City, Missouri, last May…

The Last Shall Be First (#1216) 

It’s good to see a few government employees with both spines and principles:

While the [Texas] attorney general’s office has gone to great lengths to defend the governor’s [jihad against trans youth] in court, the agency responsible for carrying out the investigations has been roiled by resistance and resignations…More than half a dozen child abuse investigators told [reporters]…that they either have resigned or are actively job hunting as a result of the directive…The employees, most of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity…said they [were]…unwilling to undertake…discriminatory investigations…but haunted by what a mass exodus of experienced child abuse investigators would mean for the state’s most vulnerable children…

Disaster (#1220)

They’ve chased the ambulance back to Texas again:

Three Texas judges for the state’s Fourteenth Court of Appeals denied…Facebook’s appeal to dismiss a lawsuit in which [ambulance-chasers representing professional “survivors”] argued the platform “facilitated the sex trafficking of minors” and is not protected from liability by Section 230.  Facebook had asked the [court]…to decide if Texas had jurisdiction over the case…The Texas Supreme Court…ruled [last] June…that Facebook was protected from several of the claims by Section 230…but also decided that some of the [fantastical] claims…could proceed [because pro-censorship fanatics like Morality in Media claim to believe them]…

To Molest and Rape (#1222)

So many rapist cops, so many underage victims:

A Los Angeles Co[p named]…Sean Jerome Essex…was arrested for [molesting a girl]…under 14-years-old, and for[cing her to blow him]…

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Cops are so prone to sexual aggression and violence I’ve had to regularly add tags relating to the topic to prevent any one subheading from becoming too glutted with incidents to be useful.  So far we have To Molest and Rape, which collects most articles about rapist cops; Business as Usual, which includes cops who rape sex workers specifically; License to Rape, which features cops sexually assaulting women using the pretext of “searching” or the like; Stalkers in Blue, which collects incidents of stalking and sexual harassment by cops which fall short of rape; Torture Chamber, which includes sexual violence among the many other kinds of violence inflicted by screws on people they keep locked in cages; and Above the Law, which tracks rapes by cop-adjacent creatures such as prosecutors, probation officers, spooks, feds, politicians, judges, rent-a-cops, bureaucats, etc.  But over the past few years, I’ve seen so many cops busted for child porn and related crimes, I’ve decided to spin them off into this new category with their own kind.  I’ve linked every item for the past six years which would have been listed under this tag had it existed at the time: they are To Molest and Rape #695, 712, 803, 949, 985, 989, 1015, 1019, 1057, 1109, 1110, 1118, 1149, 1155, 1156, 1166, 1177, 1181 and 1196; Above the Law #609 and 1012; Morality Lessons #1008; and Do As I Say, Not As I Do #694, 1074, 1119, and 1176.  Any future updates to these items will be filed under “Creepy Coppers”, which will also be used as a secondary tag for cases in which child porn appears alongside rape or sexual assault, and cop child porn cases under Follow Your Bliss.

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Financial Times omits any mention of the nature of [the] groups…[who] inten[d] to “eradicate” an entire legal industry.  –  Gustavo Turner

Follow Your Bliss

Understand that people like this are the norm in policing sexual offenses, and always will be:

An FBI agent who investigated sex crimes against children has been arrested and charged with multiple sex crimes against children across several states…David Harris [got himself] tasked with investigating crimes against children, including child pornography…[so it’s no surprise that] in February…he…expos[ed] himself to a 14-year-old girl…while on vacation in [Florida]…but…the…investigation…led to other [sex] crimes committed by Harris [against both] minors and adults in…Louisiana and Texas…[snooping in Harris’ phone revealed] conversation[s in which he admitted]…his sexual preference [for] underage [girls] and [bragging about] his exploits…Harris was arrested earlier this summer in Ascension Parish [Louisiana] and…has outstanding arrests warrants…from East Baton Rouge and Orleans Parish[es and] Tyler, Texas…

Traffic Jam (#403)

By this standard of “evidence”, Johnny Cash is lucky he was never accused of murder:

A jury found Defendant, Jaimian Sims, guilty of sex trafficking a minor and…the…court imposed a life sentence.  Sims appeals…arguing [among other things] … that certain rap videos were improperly admitted into evidence and shown to the jury…He contends that the lyrics…were fictional and did not depict his real life…Although these videos speak only generally to the pimping lifestyle and are cumulative of testimony in that respect, the violence and weapons depicted in the videos are relevant to the force charge—that Sims sex trafficked by force, fraud, or coercion…[the judges declared they we]re satisfied that the videos were not harmful to the defense…

License to Rape (#652)

Prohibition turns the body of every citizen into a “crime scene”, which can be violated by cops at will:

State officials say a new grant will be used to provide training for Georgia law enforcement officers to draw blood from drivers [without their consent so as to]…prosecut[e them for] DUI…

If you’re not horrified by the prospect of psychopathic thugs running around with permission to jam needles into people’s bodies without their consent on the side of the road, you must be new to this blog.

The Puritan Recrudescence (#799)

Expect the equation of human sexuality with pollution to become more common:

The editorial board of the Financial Times — arguably the world’s most influential news source for the banking, investment and overall finance industries — published an editorial…[which] compares sex work and adult content to…environmental pollutants, and parrots sensationalist pieces by The New York Times and the BBC alleging a non-existent “proliferation” of illegal content on adult sites…The subhead…soberly warns its readers…that working with the porn industry “can pose legal as well as reputational risks”…It’s the old circular argument favored by censors, prudes and well-paid religious anti-porn activists: reputable banks should not do business with sex workers or porn because they have been known to look for alternative forms of financing — which sex workers and porn are forced to resort to because reputable banks won’t do business with them…“The argument for banks to stay away from porn is, if anything, stronger than staying away from coal,” is the Financial Times’ take on that dubious comparison…

Scapegoats (#930)

It’s fascinating how the State has changed the excuse for these laws from “morality” to “animal abuse”:

[Typical and representative cop] Terry Yetman…was charged with multiple counts of sexual abuse of animals…including filming sex with his own police K9.  This decorated cop was also charged with 31 counts of child pornography several months later.  Now, nearly 3 years after his initial arrest…Yetman — despite facing over 70 charges — pleaded guilty to just one count of possession of child pornography and five counts of sexual abuse of an animal…He faces a total of 45 years in prison and mandatory registration as a sex offender…

Rough Trade (#1043) 

Gee, I wonder why this happens so often in Ireland?

A Dublin man [who] attack[ed] and violently h[eld] three women in his home against their will during separate incidents has been denied bail.  Aaron Barwell…[attacked] three [different]…escorts…on 29 January, 13 August and [27 August].  He is also accused of making threats to kill or cause serious harm to two of the women…[Barwell apparently believed that claiming] the third incident was prompted by a theft of cocaine, and the others arose after [he refused to] pay…[the escorts would somehow get the judge to grant him bail]…

A Moral Cancer (#1157)

Though the claim that certain foods can take “time off one’s life” is not new, I’ve never seen one this absurdly specific:

…[Nutritionists] at the University of Michigan…created a Health Nutritional Index which [claims to quantify] the nutritional impact…of almost 6,000 foods and calculated the health burden of each one.  Their findings [predictably singled out popular, pleasant foods, claiming] that every hot dog a person eats takes…36 minutes off their healthy life expectancy.  Soft drinks…shortened life by 12 minutes, bacon by six minutes…each double cheeseburger…nine minutes….[and] each portion of cheese…a minute off [the un]healthy [end of] life…the index also [claims] that it’s equally possible to [magically]  add minutes…each banana was [claimed] to add 13 and a half minutes…as was a portion of baked salmon…a peanut butter and jelly sandwich…[supposedly] adds a whopping 33 minutes to life…

The puritanical notion that lifelong deprivation of pleasure in the vague hope of adding a few extra minutes of senility and decreptitude to the far end of one’s old age – a time one has only a 50% chance of reaching in the first place, statistically – is so alien to my way of thinking, I’ve never been able to wrap my head around it, even as a concept for consideration.

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The Swedish model…is driven by Puritanical fantasy rather than reality.  –  Molly Simmons

To Molest and Rape

Cops lie so frequently, they can’t tell which lies are believable:

A [cop] charged with [nothing more serious than] misconduct for [rap]ing a…[drunk] woman [is trying to blame]…her…Lee Cocking…picked [up] the woman…on Christmas Eve, 2017…and…had [sex with her even though she was far too drunk to consent]…he…[claimed] the woman climbed on top of him…[and] he was left feeling violated…

Safe Position (#966)

A group of over 250 social scientists, including Ron Weitzer and Barb Brents, have sent an open letter to the new president and vice-president, calling for them to walk their talk and actually support “science-driven policy” with regard to sex work.  This will, of course, have no more effect than the similar letter sent by Ann Jordan and a dozen other researchers to the Obama Administration in 2011; Biden was one of the chief architects of mass incarceration, and the Swedish-model-supporting Harris’ long history of awfulness has been well-documented in this blog.  However, it’s another pebble in the growing pile which has made supporting sex worker rights a safe position for politicians, and that is a fine and welcome development.

The Cop Myth (#994)

If they actually punished wife-beating cops, they’d lose half of them:

On February 25, Boyce Ballinger was sentenced to 18 months probation after pleading guilty to felony “strangulation” and misdemeanor “domestic battery”.  The court even promised to allow him to expunge his criminal record if he complies with probation.  On October 17 of last year, Ballinger and his wife went to a neighbor’s party…When they came home, his wife asked him about his alcohol consumption.  He responded by attacking her [in a drunken rage]…chok[ing] her…and [slamming] her into a wall.  She ran to a bedroom.  Ballinger followed and banged violently on the door…[after] arrest…[he was] immediately released…without bail…and…ordered not to contact his wife, who filed for divorce shortly thereafter.  He violated this order in December by stalking…her…he was [then] sent to jail to await trial…[at which he was] offered…a plea bargain…

A Broker in Pillage (#1072)

Burying government in lawsuits is the only way to slow its depredations:

On March 4, 2015, police in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, stole Malinda Harris’ 2011 Infiniti G37 because [they decided to accuse] her son, Trevice…of selling drugs…the cops never alleged that he used [the car] for drug dealing or that she knew about her son’s illegal activity.  Harris heard nothing more about her purloined property until October 2020…when she was [finally] served with a civil forfeiture complaint that had been prepared the previous January…the unconscionable delay in giving her a chance to recover her car was a due process violation that by itself justifies its immediate return.  Massachusetts invites such abuse…because its civil forfeiture law “does not provide any deadline [by] which the Commonwealth is required to initiate forfeiture proceedings.”  The Phoenix-based Goldwater Institute, which represents Harris, cites several other constitutionally questionable aspects of the state’s law, which…is…”the worst…in the country”…In this case, the government[‘s]…evidence [consists entirely of] the title to the Infiniti…”occupancy papers,” two parking tickets, and a “Jiffy Lube receipt”…

Winding Down

Will Washington politicians accept progress, or demonstrate their hypocrisy?

The Washington Supreme Court effectively decriminalized simple drug possession in that state…by overturning a law that made possession a felony without any evidence of intent or knowledge…Washington was the only state that criminalized innocent, unknowing possession of illegal drugs.  The Washington Supreme Court has repeatedly held that the statute…[is] a strict liability crime…[which] the court ha[s at long last recognized]…violates the due process clause of the state and federal constitutions…The state legislature can—and probably will—recriminalize simple possession by amending the statute to include a mens rea element.  A bill [already] introduced…would [do that, but a competing]…bill…would eliminate criminal penalties for possessing “personal use amounts” of drugs…

Social Distancing (#1094)

So many “enlightened” countries still pretend that disease is caused by “sin”:

Baltimore strip venue The Penthouse Club announced…that it has reached a settlement with the city which would allow it to reopen, only days after the club sued…over COVID regulations that…discriminated against adult entertainment…other indoor entertainment venues like bowling alleys and skating rinks were able to reopen…except…strip clubs…

The Course of a Disease (#1109)

One can never have too many anti-Swedish criminalization articles:

…carceral feminists operate under the misguided ideas that all sex work is inherently exploitative; that any sex in exchange for money or goods is rape; and that sex workers are safer in prison than on the streets.  The…legislation…backed by [New York politician] Liz Krueger …is a US adaptation of…Swedish…criminalization…Decades of research have shown that, by targeting and driving underground…participants in the industry, such models increase stigma…discrimination…violence and coercion…They lead to harsher working conditions, higher rates of financial instability and less agency and freedom in our daily lives.  When such a model was enacted in Northern Ireland, 56 percent of sex workers said their work had become more dangerous…[this form of]…criminalization…fails in the same way abstinence-only sex education fails: It centers ​“morality” over material needs…sex worker[s are]…not interested in debate about whether or not the sex industry is a ​“good” thing or whether it ​“should” exist or not…and…the moralizing in [such] legislation…infantilizes sex workers in a deeply patriarchal way…

To Molest and Rape (#1110)

Notice how often predatory cops’ victims are underage?

A [typical and representative] Brisbane [cop was found guilty]…of sending “sexual and suggestive” messages to a teenage girl he met…[via his] work…in the Inala Child Protection and Investigation Unit…[Matthew Paul Hockley] interviewed the 15-year-old girl in 2019 in relation to a…[sexting] incident…the[n badgered her for weeks with]…a series of [Snapchat] messages that escalated from inoffensive to sexual and inappropriate, which made the girl “increasingly uncomfortable”…[because] the application…automatically delete[s] conversations…the teenager [had to record some of the harassment] with another device…to…show…the court…[Hockley’s] defence lawyer argued h[e] had no sexual interest in the girl, but was in[stead trying to get in] her mother[‘s pants, presumably via a reverse Lolita scheme]…

Child protection unit“.

Quiet Genocide (#1111)

Disgusting men never get tired of blaming women for their own rapes:

China, under growing global pressure over its [atrocities against]…Uighurs in…Xinjiang, is mounting an unprecedented and aggressive campaign [of propaganda], including explicit attacks on women who [reported being raped by guards and Communist Party officials]…a growing number of Western [politicians are finally admitting that]…China [is conducting a] genocide…[so] Beijing is focusing on…accus[ing] some of [its female victims of] having affairs and…sexually transmitted disease…as evidence of bad character…the…meticulous and wide-reaching campaign…hints at China’s fears that it is losing control of the Xinjiang narrative…in…[which it refers to mass surveillance, torture, rape, and brainwashing as] “liv[ing] and work[ing] in peace and contentment”…

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The Constitution…also prohibits the government from using its immense authority to coerce private actors into censoring on its behalf.
–  Ben Wizner

A False Dichotomy 

Despite the authors’ use of prohibitionist terms like “trafficked into” (meaning “sold to”), insistence on pretending that Western cultural norms apply as clearly in impoverished Bangladesh as they do in middle-class London, and offensive presentation of cops and politicians as “rescuers”, the truth in this article still comes through:  that for girls in a brutally poor, overpopulated, patriarchal culture, sex work is often (as the authors themselves express it) “the least bad option”, even when those options include the monogamous marriage so beloved of the majority of white savior types.

Out of Control (#946)

What is wrong with doctors who do this?

A Stanford pediatrician has pleaded not guilty to…[trying to molest] an underage girl he met on social media…Dr. Dylan O’Connor…[sent] her [dick pics and]…requested [nudes] from…he[r, after which she apparently told her mother, who called the cops to set]…O’Connor [up].  He allegedly…brought a blanket and condoms with him, and [told cops he had]…a sex addiction [despite knowing as a doctor that there is no such thing]…

The Widening Gyre (#1005)

The “things on cars” branch of “sex trafficking” scarelore is driven by a kind of inversion of Occam’s razor:

Brittaney Strupe [of Ohio]…got engaged [on Valentine’s Day] and had plenty of leftover red roses…So [she]…her sister and daughter…[decided to] go to Walmart…[and put them on] vehicles [as a gift to others.  But when] customers and Walmart employees began to discover them [everybody succumbed to collective hysteria and]…called the Coshocton County Sheriff’s Office…[which started spouting ridiculous fantasies about] human traffickers…on Facebook [where]…Strupe…[saw it and]…call[ed] to [explain, after which the cops vomited out “if you see something, say something”]…

“The mentally disturbed do not employ the Principle of Scientific Parsimony: the most simple theory to explain a given set of facts.  They shoot for the baroque.”  –  Philip K. Dick, Valis

Torture Chamber (#1040)

When government is in charge, things can always get worse:

…As a once-in-a-generation snowstorm walloped the Lone Star State…already-dire conditions inside Texas prisons…got even worse…33 prisons lost power and 20 had water shortages after the state’s electrical grid failed…prisoners ha[d]…no options to stay warm…there…[were] ne[ither enough]…extra blankets and jackets to…go around…no[r sufficient staff] to [distribute them because]…fewer [screws] showed up to work…staff [didn’t bother] to pass out medication…and…the food…bec[a]me [even more] inedible and…unidentifiable [than before]…prisoners with [secret] phones sent pictures of their increasingly pitiful meals…more than a dozen prisons lost some or all of their access to water…so…the toilets are overflowing with waste…Advocates for prisoners say these problems have been years in the making…

See also the final item below.

You Were Warned (#1046)

Australian politicians are just as invested in demolishing the internet as US ones:

Back in September…Facebook publicly sa[id] that if Australia went forward with its ridiculous attack on the open internet, and instituted a “news link tax” on Facebook and Google, that it would block news links on Facebook in Australia… and basically everyone ignored it.  So…when Facebook announced that it was no longer allowing news to be shared in Australia (and relatedly, no longer allowing the sharing of Australian news services on Facebook), it should not have been a surprise.  And yet…almost everyone started blaming and attacking Facebook…[the] company…deserves lots of blame for lots of bad things that it does.  But this ain’t it…the simple facts of the situation are that Australia — pushed heavily by Rupert Murdoch — has decided to put in place a plan to tax Google and Facebook for any links to news…This is fundamentally against the principles of an open internet …”search engine optimization” and “social media management”…[exist] because everyone else in the world has figured out that having prominent links on search engines and social media is valuable in its own right…[the Australian government’s position] is like saying that not only should NBC have to run an advertisement for Techdirt, but it should have to pay me for it.  If that seems totally nonsensical, that’s because it is…

You Were Warned (#1082)

Congress won’t stop until it controls the internet:

For the third time in less than five months, the U.S. Congress has summoned the CEOs of social media companies to appear before them, with the explicit intent to pressure and coerce them to censor more content…[using the pretexts of] “falsehoods about the COVID-19 vaccine” and “debunked claims of election fraud”…[politicians claim] that “these online platforms have…[enabled] grim consequences for public health and safety”…House Democrats have made no secret of their ultimate goal with this hearing:  to exert control over the content on these online platforms…[even though] Congress violates the First Amendment when it attempts to require private companies to impose…speech restrictions which the government itself would be constitutionally barred from imposing

Torture Chamber (#1093)

“Give me your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, so I can torture and deport them”:

In Louisiana and Texas, immigrants seeking asylum are facing dire conditions [while locked in cages due to last]…week’s extreme cold.  At the South Texas Family [Concentration Camp]…parents and children have been living with overflowing toilets, thirst, poor hygiene, and [insufficient] heat…Twenty miles away, at [another] ICE [concentration camp, prisoners]…who complain…about the cold face…retaliation [from screws who] are turning on fans to make it colder…[some] have [even] thrown blankets into the garbage after [prisoners] complained…

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