Just a little less than a year ago, I was contacted by a producer from a UK-based production company making a documentary series on the story of Ashley Madison; long-time readers will recall that I played a small part in exposing the company’s scam long before it became common knowledge. It turns out that when the documentary writers were doing their research, they dscovered a heap of internal Ashley Madison emails complaining about my expose in general and having a cow over my publishing screenshots of their bot-creating interface in particular. The company was so worried, in fact, that it resorted to what Ken “Popehat” White refers to as “bumptious legal threats”, trying to intimidate me into taking down the column (fat chance) by foolishly threatening me with a libel suit while also claiming that I had published proprietary information (ie, admitting that my statements were not libelous because they were true). Anyhow, Ken told them (in a legal way, of course) what they could do with their suit, and I watched with glee as everything I said was eventually proven correct. The fact that I knew about it long before the proof became common knowledge was fascinating to the documentary producers, and so they sent a camera crew to Sunset last October to interview me. Anyhow, the documentary premiered on Hulu last Friday, and though the reviews seem mixed people are telling me my part was great, so give it a watch and see for yourself!
Posts Tagged ‘Maggie in the Media’
Diary #680
Posted in Diary, Perception, tagged Ashley Madison, lawyers, Maggie in the Media, scams on July 11, 2023| 4 Comments »
In the News (#1274)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged censorship, hysteria, If Men Were Angels, Imaginary Victims, India, internet, Iowa, Maggie in the Media, neofeminism, Permanent Record, pimps, porn, rape, sex rays, stripping, Taiwan, The Implosion Begins, The Pro-Rape Coalition, Traffic Jam, underage, video, violence vs. sex workers, yellow journalism on September 24, 2022| Leave a Comment »
We cannot set the house on fire to roast the pig.
– Justice S. Ravindra Bhat, after Frankfurter
A teenage [runaway] who was initially charged with first-degree murder after she stabbed her…rapist to death was sentenced…in an Iowa court to five years of closely supervised probation and ordered to pay $150,000 restitution to the man’s family. Pieper Lewis, 17…pleaded last year to involuntary manslaughter and willful injury in the June 2020 killing of…Zachary Brooks of Des Moines. Both charges were punishable by up to 10 years in prison…judge David M. Porter…deferred those prison sentences, meaning that if Lewis violates [even the most arbitrary or trivial condition] of her probation, she could be sent to prison to serve that 20-year term. As for being required to pay the estate of her rapist, “this court is presented with no other option,” Porter said, noting the restitution is mandatory under Iowa law…Lewis was [a] 15 [year old]…runaway who was seeking to escape an abusive life with her adopted mother…when a 28-year-old man took her in [and started] forcibly [pimp]ing her…Brooks…had [paid her pimp to] rape…her multiple times in the weeks before his death…after Brooks had raped her yet again, she grabbed a knife from a bedside table and stabbed [him] in a fit of rage. Police and prosecutors…took issue with Lewis [correctly] calling herself a victim…and [were eager to make it look like she was at fault for being coerced and raped]…
Cathy Reisenwitz interviews me on her podcast:
In Taiwan, strippers are a traditional part of funerals and autumn festivals. This is no more “raunchy” than having performers in Halloween costumes would be in the West, and any pretense to the contrary is due to the influence of more puritanical cultures such as China and the US:
The Taoyuan Veterans Home, a state-run facility for retired army personnel in Taiwan, paid [a stripper to perform for] for a…celebrat[ion of the] Mid-Autumn Festival — an important holiday in [several Asian] culture[s]…the…performance…[was branded “raunchy” by bluenosed busybodies who were not present, but saw a video] filmed by an attendee…[which] went viral…nursing home residents clapped along enthusiastically…relish[ing] the…show. But [people uncomfortable with the idea that the elderly are stil sexual beings attacked the]…facility…[whic] subsequently released a statement saying: “The intention of the event was to entertain residents and make them happy. We are very sorry for the offense that was caused”…
It’s getting harder to tell the preachers from the cops:
Five woman are suing an international megachurch and its leader, convicted felon Naasón Joaquín García, in California state court over decades of…child sexual abuse…earlier this year…[Garcia] was…sentenced to nearly 17 years in prison…[but] his church, which claims more than 5 million members worldwide, has stood b[ehind him the whole time]…Now, in a 49-page complaint, the church, García, and several affiliated businesses and individuals are being sued for various damages to a class that is expected to include well over 500 alleged victims as plaintiffs. The introductory lines of the complaint do not mince words and stake out shocking allegations that criticize the church…as an enterprise that intentionally existed for the purpose of finding and providing children to be raped by the leader…The five principal plaintiffs are Jane Doe women [now] aged 20-28…who were originally cited in the criminal complaint…
The Pro-Rape Coalition (#1089)
India protects rights the West now seems determined to destroy:
The Supreme Court of India has rejected a petition seeking to codify a…[pretend]ed link between viewing internet pornography and committing crimes such as rape and child sexual abuse…the…court…stated that “child sex abuse is a crime by itself” and [said]…“What you are advocating may be surveillance and collection of data”…The court expressed concern about where the type of Internet surveillance being proposed might lead…
An OnlyFans content creator…was [fired] from her nursing position because other nurses were watching her adult videos on the clock…Jaelyn says she was called into the office of a woman she’s never met, who told her she knew about the OnlyFans. The woman allegedly claimed that the nurses at this particular nursing home have been looking at her socials and OnlyFans while [she] is with patients…Jaelyn adds that her co-workers would have to be paying for her OnlyFans in order to be watching her videos on the clock…This isn’t the first time someone found out their co-worker was watching their OnlyFans videos, as one creator claimed their manager subscribed to their account. Similarly, another Only Fans creator…was forced out of her nursing job due to her adult content in August…
The hysteria is imploding so hard, it’s falling all the way back to its roots:
…in…a spate of recent examples…individuals have been targeted with accusations of Satanism or so-called ritualistic abuse, marking…a [recrudescence] of the moral panic of the 1980s, when hysteria and hypervigilance over protecting children led to [wildly-]false allegations, wrongful imprisonments, decimated communities and wasted resources…While the current obsession with Satan was boosted in part by the QAnon community, partisan media and…politicians have been instrumental in spreading newfound fears over the so-called ritualistic abuse of children that the devil supposedly inspires, sometimes weaving the allegations together with other culture war issues such as LGBTQ rights…which are amplified on social media and by [yellow journalism], and can mobilize mobs to seek vigilante justice…Online accusers can bypass police, therapists and the traditional media and out their alleged accusers straight to audiences of millions…
It’s rather funny to see the expression “partisan media” used pejoratively by NBC News, considering the stark partisanism of its offspring MSNBC.
Now Showing
Posted in Perception, The Dark Side, Tyranny, tagged activism, advertising, Maggie in the Media, The War on Whores, video on January 21, 2022| 2 Comments »
The arrival of COVID two years ago derailed the process of distributing and promoting my documentary, The War on Whores. So now that things are at least starting to go back to some state vaguely resembling what we used to call “normal” in the 21st century (which was, of course, already pretty abnormal compared to what we used to call “normal” in the 20th, but that’s a topic for another day), my director/producer Paul Johnson decided we should put the film on YouTube for free until February 15th to generate some new buzz. This is a low-res version, but still completely watchable; if you want a full-res version to keep you can buy it at Vimeo (or even email me for a physical DVD). If you’ve never seen it, here’s your chance; next month I’ll switch this link out so there isn’t a dead grey box here.
In the News (#1148)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged A Moral Cancer, animals, Arkansas, Connecticut, consensual crime, cops, crypto-moralism, disease, drugs, escort services, fascism, Hollywood, Maggie in the Media, New York, politicians, porn, prisons, racism, rape, Stalkers in Blue, Swedish model, Texas, The Cop Myth, The Notorious Badge, Their Own Petard, To Molest and Rape, Torture Chamber, United Kingdom, Washington DC, Winding Down on June 26, 2021| Leave a Comment »
It’s essential to include input from sex workers when writing a narrative about a sex worker character. – Misha Calvert
Last weekend I was on the Scot Goes Popcast, talking about the Swedish model (which prohibitionists are once again trying to impose on Scotland). For those who just can’t get enough Maggie!
Another sign we’re past the watershed:
When award-winning creator Misha Calvert first showed her new series, Strut, at the Tribeca Film Festival Creators Market in 2018, she offered some choice words on the show’s…subject matter. “Hollywood has long used the archetype of the prostitute to heighten storytelling, be it as a seductress, a villain, seedy set decoration, or another dead body…The reality of sex workers is so much more complex”…Strut, starring Margaret Judson (The Newsroom), Christina Toh (Orange is the New Black), Manini Gupta (You), and Calvert herself, tells the story of a group of best friends in New York…starting their own escorting agency, wading into the world of sex work, and loving it…
Hey, female cops; how’s that collaboration with the police state working out?
A f[emale] NYPD cop was repeatedly raped, sodomized and mentally tormented by a [gang] of [fellow pig]s over the course of five years but…the Manhattan District Attorney…[refus]ed to prosecute…Maria Mendez…resigned from the department in January 2019 after a 14-year career, [during which] she was [repeatedly] raped by [gang members]…and…regularly forced to ingest oxycodone, ecstacy and alcohol…she suffered “physical deformities to her vagina and anus requiring surgical repair” and she was left suicidal and suffering from…post traumatic stress disorder [just like many victims of cops]…he[r federal] lawsuit…paints a vivid picture of sexual abuse and harassment that ran rampant…Mendez was not only regularly raped but was subjected to sexualized comments and requests by…[pig union rep] Alfred Gallicchio…[other sows refused to help; they] called Mendez a “slut” and [pretended her statements were]…“false allegations against good officers”…[despite the fact that] videos of Mendez being raped and assaulted were regularly shared across the department in a group chat…the abuse[rs included pigs]…Ryan Marrero…Jimmy Gutierres…Michael Ganz…and…Peter Montalbano…Marrero [was especially imaginative]…rap[ing] her on a series of public streets…in hotels, [pigmoblies], the p[igsty], the female bathroom and locker room and while out on emergency calls, [sometimes yelling at her to “stop resisting”]…He also [beat] his department canine…in front of Mendez as a form of intimdation and regularly talked about how he liked [raping] unconscius women because they don’t fight back and showed her naked pictures of teenage girls he…had [raped]…
Rapists are attracted to police work for obvious reasons:
A[rkansas] constable…Coby Ryan Poe…was [arrested for rape for the second time this year, despite having only]…been a constable…since November…in [the first case he w]as…[also] charged…with…child [porn] and three counts of second-degree sexual assault…
Over half of Americans now live in states with legal cannabis:
The Connecticut Senate voted…to legalize recreational marijuana…the fifth [state] this year to drop its war on weed…The bill [contains the usual ridiculous leaf-counting provisions so beloved by politicians, but]…also includes provisions to allow those in cities hit hardest by the drug war to apply for expedited licenses to sell…automatically expunging criminal convictions for possession of less than four ounces…and banning police from searching vehicles solely because [they claim they smelled weed]…Con[necticut is]…the 19th state…to legalize recreational marijuana. Neighboring New York legalized it in late March. New Jersey, New Mexico, and Virginia all legalized…this year as well…But…Biden [still wants the government to destroy people’s lives over a common plant]…
Government bureaucracy at work, “correcting” people to death:
Last year, as the coronavirus killed hundreds [of caged human beings] in…Texas lockups and sickened tens of thousands more, prisoner rights advocates unsuccessfully pleaded for [lazy, incompetent bureaucrats] to more quickly release the thousands of people…who had already been approved for parole…18…parole[es] died with COVID-19 before they could walk out of prison…At least another two dozen…died in prison…in the same period…due to chronic health issues…At least 26 p[arolees] died in prison in 2019…In April, about 10,800 people held in Texas prisons had already been approved for parole…More than a quarter of them had been [waiting] at least six months…and nearly 900…for more than a year…That’s in part because the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles requires most prisoners to [be subjected to lucrative-for-the prisons]…re…programming before their parole release, which can last from three to 18 months…
Rulers of majority-black city openly target black people with police violence:
The D.C. Council…voted to ban flavored e-cigarettes, menthol cigarettes, and flavored cigars, ratcheting up the drug war [by] creat[ing] another black market…This tobacco ban follows…D.C.’s legalization of recreational marijuana and the quasi-decriminalization of psychedelics…by voter ballot initiatives and…a viral incident…in…wh[ich cops] were [videoed] tasing and beating teens…for…vaping…The government enforces every law at gunpoint, even those [sold as] intended to “protect” our health…Eric Garner was…[murder]ed by [a typical and representative cop]…in 2014 for selling loose cigarettes…
Diary #549
Posted in Diary, tagged carnival, holidays, Maggie in the Media on January 5, 2021| Leave a Comment »
As I’ve written on numerous occasions, I’m a big believer in celebrating Christmas for the full twelve days, to the greatest extent the modern world will allow. If you look back at my diaries for this week in previous years (can you believe I’ve been posting them for over six years now?) you’ll see that it has not usually been possible to the extent I’d like. But starting last year it became much more so, and now that I’m officially semi-retired the chief impediment is my compulsiveness. For example, the week before Christmas I got an email from Bob Zadek, asking me to be on his live radio show at 8 AM on the 3rd day of Christmas, so I dutifully set my alarm for 7:30, trudged downstairs for a cup of tea, then got back under the covers to do the show naked (which is one of the advantages of radio). Then for the last week I’ve mostly kinda slacked off except for keeping up with my writing and cooking and household chores and such; from the time I got up on New Year’s Eve to sometime after breakfast on Saturday, I didn’t even bother to put on more than my comfy old robe (and no, I’m not wearing anything under it). But tonight is Twelfth Night, and tomorrow I’m driving back to Seattle for an extended date with Dr. Quest (the first engagement of my semi-retirement!), so I guess I’ll have to let Yuletide go into carnival. And maybe I’ll bake a king cake next week.
In the News (#1100)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged censorship, China, cops, Disaster, fantasy, fascism, Florida, Hollywood, If Men Were Angels, illegal aliens, internet, Maggie in the Media, New York, Ohio, Policing for Profit, politicians, porn, prisons, propaganda, Quiet Genocide, racism, rescue industry, Safe Position, Served Cold, surveillance, The Pro-Rape Coalition, TikTok, Torture Chamber, United Kingdom, Utah, You Were Warned on December 30, 2020| Leave a Comment »
When cops came to arrest you in th[e late 20th century], they weren’t telling the newspapers they had saved you. – Maggie McNeill
I recently gave an interview for the 30th anniversary of Pretty Woman:
Ten years ago, sex worker, writer, and activist Maggie McNeill wrote…that it was already “nigh-impossible to find an internet discussion on [Pretty Woman] without at least a few would-be critics complaining that it is ‘unrealistic.’” This, however, is a criticism to which McNeill has long handed down a simple, “No shit, Sherlock.” “Pretty Woman is a fantasy,” she told Bitch. “It’s not going to be realistic.” While McNeill herself has no particular affection for the film, she’s never considered Pretty Woman’s lack of accuracy a compelling argument against it, though that argument is common among critics both within the sex-work community and those who are actively working to criminalize sex work…“it amuses me terribly to hear how much the prohibitionists are fixated on it,” she adds, noting that anti–sex work arguments often attempt to paint the film as a dangerously glamorous misrepresentation of a community prohibitionists would rather see victimized, humiliated, and/or punished…
William Dalton Milam, the pastor of Olivet Baptist Church in Milton[, Florida]…was arrested on charges of child pornography…[and “]promoting sexual performance of a child[” after]…a tip…from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children…Milam’s home…[held] multiple devices containing child pornography, some depicting children as young as 3…
It usually starts with us, but it never, ever stops with us:
…TikTok purge[d sex worker accounts]…en masse in mid-November, all for the same [pretext]: violating TikTok’s sex and nudity policy. [None] of the…[victims]…violated TikTok’s policy, but had linked to either their OnlyFans or their websites linking to their OnlyFans in their bios, which they believe led to them getting removed from the platform. The purge appears to have been in advance of TikTok’s new [terms of service, which ban virtually all]…sexual content…But…many mainstream creators on TikTok post links to their OnlyFans in their bios, including Bella Thorne…
Why did anyone ever think a company owned by the Chinese wouldn’t aggressively censor?
Even my jaded self is impressed with the speed this is happening in New York:
A group of New York [politicians] are calling on the New York Police Department to stop all undercover operations that aim to arrest sex workers or their clients, after a ProPublica investigation revealed that the busts have [included]…false arrest and sexual misconduct, and that almost everyone arrested was nonwhite. Assemblyman Ron Kim and four other [politicians] made that recommendation in a letter this week to…the City Council and the state Assembly and Senate. The letter also asks for an oversight hearing to examine misconduct allegations against the NYPD vice unit…Separate from the letter and the call to end undercover operations, Council Speaker Corey Johnson and New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, two of the city’s most powerful politic[ians], told ProPublica they believe the vice unit should be disbanded altogether…Ten other city and state [politicians]…have expressed support for the same…
Fascist corporations are eager to assist in a genocide:
…the [Chinese] technology giant Alibaba taught its…[government] clients [how to] use its software to detect the faces of Uighurs and other ethnic minorities within images and videos…The feature was built into Alibaba software that [roots through]…digital content [looking] for material…to [censor]…A social media platform, for instance, could automatically flag videos for additional scrutiny, or even [whistle up] the [pigs], if they contain faces that the software [decide]s are Uighur…the company [has since] edited its website to remove…references to [the feature]…The Washington Post reported last week that Huawei, another Chinese tech giant, had tested software that could automatically alert the police when its surveillance cameras detected Uighur faces…
This megalomaniac’s lies have grown so extreme, even the yellow press can no longer ignore them:
The specific stories that OUR tells are intensely cinematic…and extremely difficult to fact-check. They are also not the…truth. An investigation by VICE…found…a pattern of image-burnishing and mythology-building, a series of exaggerations that are, in the aggregate, quite misleading…Multiple law enforcement agencies OUR says it has partnered with or supported describe their relationships as insubstantial…OUR has also declined to describe what precisely it does with the millions of dollars it says it spends overseas…During [a recent fundraiser], Ballard described a rescue in an undisclosed country in which, he [claimed], Jessica Mass, OUR’s director of aftercare, literally wrestled a padlock away from a trafficker as they were running to lock up and re-imprison young girls whom OUR and local police had just rescued*…”This is the [magic] padlock that had been used to lock these girls behind a jail cell [sic],” he proclaimed, triumphantly…Several people familiar with [an ongoing Utah] investigation…[said] it concerns…misleading claims to donors and the public about the work it does…
*Seriously, WTF? Is Ballard claiming that this “trafficker” had a magical Hollywood padlock which, once locked, magically traps immobile, vegetable-like “young girls” into…I don’t know, an extradimensional space “behind a jail cell”(?) from which they could never have been freed had this liar not grabbed the magical lock in time? Are these “girls” incapable of locomotion? Have these people never heard of bolt cutters? This story makes no sense on any level I can think of.
The Pro-Rape Coalition (#1090)
Are institutions finally starting to understand the cost of promoting “sex trafficking” hysteria?
Britain’s International Slavery Museum is facing a [righteous] backlash over a “dehumanising” [propaganda] exhibition…which features an image of a naked woman with tape over her mouth and abusive comments plastered on her body. The museum [took money fror the propaganda display from]…a U.S.-based [pro-censorship] group, Exodus Cry, which seeks to [censor the internet] and s[upport police violence against]…sex workers…dozens of critical responses…[pointed out that] the [“art” is in reality] “trauma porn” [that is] “damaging, sensationalist and dehumanising”…Exodus Cry’s chief executive, Benjamin Nolot, [whined]…that criticism of the exhibition was…”unfair”, and that [sex workers are not allowed to criticize attempts to drive them into poverty and encourage cops to rape and abduct them]…
“Give me your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, so I can torture and deport them”:
…the U.S. government sent Mory Keita to a country he hasn’t lived in since he was three years old…Keita lived here undocumented for about three decades and has a daughter who is an American citizen…What makes Keita’s deportation extra jarring is that he was…a…[key witness in a] case…brought by Ahmed Adem and Bayong Brown Bayong…[against] the Butler County Jail, just north of Cincinnati…Bayong [reported] at least three beatings by jail guards—including one in August while he was infected with COVID-19…th[e] guards made “threats such as ‘I hope you die bitch’ and, after being pushed down the stairs, ‘When you get down the stairs, I am going to beat all the teeth from your mouth.'” At one point, the suit says, Bayong was taken to an isolation cell where a correctional officer “punched Mr. Bayong with closed fists all over his face and head” as two other guards watched. Bayong lost a tooth…
Congress won’t stop until it controls the internet:
[Politicians] Ben Sasse…and Jeff Merkley…introduced [fascist] legislation, dubbed the “Stop Internet Sexual Exploitation Act,” [pre]tended to “prevent the uploading of pornographic images to online platforms without the consent of the individuals in the images”…The proposed legislation…would apply to “all online platforms that host pornography [but does not define it],” noted a summary provided by Sasse’s office…A wide variety of intended restrictions…include the [impossible demand that]…platforms hosting pornography [again, without defining the term] offer a 24-hour hotline staffed by the platform…[so] individuals…can request removal of a video that has been distributed without their consent…[within] two hours…
In the News (#1061)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged Australia, China, cops, dehumanization, evidence, Feminists and Other Puritans, France, Hollywood, Latvia, lawyers, Maggie in the Media, Neither Addiction nor Epidemic, neofeminism, Pennsylvania, politicians, porn, pragmatism, propaganda, Swedish model, teachers, The Cop Myth, The Course of a Disease, The Notorious Badge, The War on Whores, video, Wise Investment on August 5, 2020| Leave a Comment »
Scholars who pathologize sex workers in the classroom grant the state license to mete out gratuitous violence in the streets. – Rahsaan Mahadeo
I was recently interviewed on an Australian sex worker radio show named Behind Closed Doors; it was originally supposed to be only one show, but Kitty, Dean & I were enjoying ourselves so much we just kept going and did a two-parter! Here it is in podcast form (Part One & Part Two); I hope you enjoy listening as much as we enjoyed talking!
The Swedish rot has reached Eastern Europe:
Since July 1, in Latvia…[prostitution is technically not] illegal as politicians have been unable to reach a compromise on this issue…The only [criminalization] proposal has been submitted by the party alliance Attīstībai/Par! (AP!) and its sets forth punishing only the buyer of the prostitution services and not the person providing them. The proposal is to be reviewed in the Interior Ministry. Following this process, the ministry plans to bring the draft law for discussion in the government…
Critics just can’t resist inserting their own dumb beliefs about whores into even good reviews:
Alice, the feature debut from Australian writer-director Josephine Mackerras, is…a leftfield take on female empowerment…Alice…discovers that her husband has cleaned out their accounts and stopped paying their mortgage; a bit of digging later and she discovers the money has been spent on prostitutes…With the bank threatening to foreclose on her home and a huge sum to pay…Alice agrees to work for the very escort agency her husband favoured; there is quite simply nothing else that will keep the roof over her head…Mackerras’s take on prostitution won’t be for everyone, and it does sugar-coat the profession somewhat, but it’s a sympathetic and often gutsy portrait of a woman doing what she must, and surviving, even thriving…
Acknowledging that selling sex is pragmatic and lucrative is “sugar-coating”.
An excerpt from The Feminist War on Crime by Aya Gruber:
…The feminist penal regimes implemented in the 1980s and 1990s are now entrenched institutions overseen by prosecutors…administrators, and for-profit actors with vested interests in their continued survival. Politicians are certainly not apologizing for VAWA…[and] plenty of feminists…remain committed not just to upholding the existing feminist crime control regimes and closing “loopholes” in them but also to creating new ones—new antitrafficking laws, revenge-porn laws, laws against hosting prostitution ads, [etc]…Campus antirape sentiments have proven a boon to prosecutors eager to implement strict versions of affirmative consent…and expand pro-prosecution trial rules…some of the most ardent prison critics…proceed as if there were a carve-out to the mass incarceration critique for sexual misconduct—including, or perhaps especially, intoxicated sex or sex without affirmative consent—even though there is no such carve-out for aggravated assault, drug dealing, or even murder…
Liberal scholar [and long-time critic of the Chinese Communist Party] Xu Zhangrun has hired two lawyers to prepare legal action against police who accused him of soliciting prostitution…Xu was dismissed by Tsinghua University in Beijing…after he was taken away by police who [claimed] that the…scholar had solicited prostitutes in the southwestern city of Chengdu last year. Xu, who had taught at Tsinghua for 20 years, was sacked because of “moral corruption”…The law professor…[hired] lawyers Mo Shaoping and Shang Baojun, and former human rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang…to represent him…in an attempt to overturn an administrative ruling b[ased on a]…confession…police [pretend he made but]…Xu [denies]…
Sociologists may at last be admitting their role in creating the police state:
Now is the time for sociology to reckon with its role…in the production of a criminal legal system subsidized by Black captivity, dispossession, debt and death…Any academic attempt to distinguish between “good policing” and “bad policing” or “overpolicing” and “underpolicing” makes policing itself not just theoretically possible, but legitimate…The University of Minnesota has already committed to cutting ties with the Minneapolis Police Department. Now it and other sociology programs around the country must take the next step by canceling carceral curricula…According to an American Sociological Association report, “criminology/delinquency” was the highest-ranked specialization sought by employers…in 2019. Courses like “Deviant Behavior,” “Criminal Behavior and Social Control”…and “Juvenile Delinquency” not only legitimize state violence, but also employ academics…sociologists fail to consider how “deviance,” “delinquency,” “criminal” and “terrorist” still conjure up racialized images that cops…and [spooks]…use…to…justify the killing of people of color…
Neither Addiction Nor Epidemic (#1060)
Blaming bad behavior on an imaginary “addiction” is the opposite of accepting responsibility:
[Pennsylvania politician] Mike Folmer [was convicted on child pornography charges despite]…pleas [that the]…judge [should let him skate because Jesus]…Folmer [was]…sentence[d to 2 years in prison]…8 years on probation…[and] sex offender [registration] for 15 years…[his] defense attorney [also made the bizarre argument that he should be let off easy because he is a career sociopath]…“He had an addiction to pornography,” [attorney Brian] Perry said…Folmer [demonstrated his megalomania]…to the judge…[by comparing himself to] King David…