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Posts Tagged ‘violence vs. sex workers’

You can’t censor what isn’t said in the first place.  –  Sarah McLaughlin

Surplus Women

A classic case of “NHI”:

The family of a murdered sex worker have said police “have blood on their hands” after a man was finally brought to justice despite earlier major investigation failings..Iain Packer…was found guilty of…the “execution” of Emma Caldwell…after…[Packer] lured [her] from Glasgow’s red-light district, dr[ove] to remote woods 40 miles away, strangled [her] and dumped [her body] naked in a ditch…Packer [frequently hired] sex workers…and admitted to police in the initial 2005 investigation that he had previously [hired] Emma…[but] he was not arrested or charged for 17 years as [cops preferred to persecute] a group of Turkish men [despite other sex workers telling cops that Packer was sexually violent years before Caldwell was killed].  Packer…was convicted of 11 charges of rape against nine women among dozens of other offences…the family solicitor said: “A toxic culture of misogyny and corruption meant the police failed so many women and girls who came forward to speak up against Packer – instead of receiving justice and compassion, they were humiliated, dismissed and in some instances arrested, while the police gifted freedom to an evil predator to rape and rape again”…

Censorship Ascendant

In our increasingly-connected world governments are increasingly able to cause trouble for people who say things they dislike far beyond their own borders:

On Nov. 16, 2023, Reuters published a deeply-reported investigation about an Indian company named Appin, which…act[s] as a “premier provider of cyberespionage services for private investigators working on behalf of big business, law firms and wealthy clients.” But…Reuters has removed their reporting, and some other outlets have followed suit…[due to] a court order against Reuters…secured in India by a group operating under the Appin name…Globally, even in the United States, people are unable to read reports about Appin because a court order from half a world away limits everyone’s access to online news and information.  This…may hint at what’s increasingly the future of censorship online…authors of stories about the reporting, or even about the removals of it, face pressure now, too…Readers…can find it at Distributed Denial of Secrets…and…on Archive.Today.  But…[even] Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine [chickened out]…

Virtual Imperialism (#1202)

Governments worldwide are emulating China’s evil:

…”transnational repression” [is] a form of authoritarianism that…has becoming disturbingly common in recent years…”More than 20 percent of the world’s national governments have reached beyond their borders since 2014 to forcibly silence exiled political activists, journalists, former regime insiders, and members of ethnic or religious minorities,” finds a Freedom House report released in February…”25 countries’ governments were responsible for 125 incidents of physical transnational repression in 2023 alone, including assassinations, abductions, assaults, detentions, and unlawful deportations.”  Last year enjoyed the dubious distinction…of featuring the first documented cases of transnational repression by Cuba, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, El Salvador…Sierra Leone, and Yemen…[though] the year’s main culprits [were] Russia, Cambodia, Myanmar, Turkmenistan, and China…

If Men Were Angels (#1256)

Female “youth ministers” aren’t safe either, at least if they’re married:

[The husband of a Louisiana youth minister] has been arrested [for molesting]…children…Daniel Steven Parker [has been committing] …similar…crimes…at [least since]…2020…and [probably much longer]…

No Escape

Your “leaders” refer to this mindless brutality as “correction”:

A woman [locked in a cage by the state of] Georgia…has filed a federal lawsuit [because] she was [so brut]ally [rap]ed by a[n out-of-control screw she] had to undergo surgery…for partial uterus removal…

No Difference (#1359)

Another victory for US evangelical prohibitionists:

Ghana’s parliament has passed a [horrifying] new bill that imposes a prison sentence of up to three years for anyone convicted of [merely] identifying as LGBT…[and] a maximum five-year jail term for forming or funding LGBT…groups.  [Politicians] heckled down attempts to replace prison sentences with community service and counselling…The bill, which had the backing of Ghana’s two major political parties, will come into effect only if President Nana Akufo-Addo signs it into law…[but] he previously said…he would do so if the majority of Ghanaians want him to.  Gay sex is already against the law in Ghana – it carries a three-year prison sentence…[but] activists fear there will now be witch-hunts…

To Molest and Rape (ROTW #6)

Give sexually-aggressive thugs power over teens; what could possibly go wrong?

…[A Nebraska cop named] Juan Casado Moya [has been charged] for [repeatedly molesting]…a 16-year-old [girl]…at…the…school…[where]…he [was assigned to spy on, harass, and intimidate]…student[s.  He has been rewarded with a paid vacation]…

 

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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We should be perfectly clear about the ultimate goal of Axon, its network, and the people behind The Fall of Minneapolis: They want to make it easier for police to kill people without consequence.  –  Radley Balko

Regular readers of this blog need no introduction to Radley Balko; in fact, many of my longest-term readers were introduced to me via a guest-blogging stint on his old blog, The Agitator, in July of 2012.  If you are unfamiliar with his work, let me simply say that he is quite possibly the greatest living criminal justice journalist, and that is neither hyperbole nor flattery.  His thoroughness and dedication are truly awe-inspiring, and I couldn’t be as fair and measured as he is when discussing horrifying injustices and nauseating atrocities if there were 10 million bucks riding on it.  His latest project is a massive three-part debunking of copsucking authoritarians’ ongoing “effort to retroactively justify Derek Chauvin’s murder of George Floyd“, and the third part includes a section on “excited delirium”, a fictional syndrome used to exonerate cops from culpability when they asphyxiate black people with their shockingly-brutal and sadistically thuggish arrest tactics.  I’ve been paying attention to this peudoscientific claptrap for some time now, so given what I already know about “NHI” and sex workers being among the police state’s perenial guinea pigs for new evils, this probably shouldn’t have surprised me:

Excited delirium…posits that some people just spontaneously die during intense, high-stress interactions with police, through no fault of law enforcement.  It’s…highly dubious and not supported by any major medical organization.  Over the last several decades, there’s been a concerted effort to pressure medical examiners to diagnose excited delirium when the real cause of death was positional asphyxia.  This not only exonerates cops who kill, it encourages police practices that will lead to more deaths…The origin of excited delirium is shonky and steeped in bigotry…it…was first described in the mid-1980s by Miami medical examiner Charles Wetli after a wave of black sex workers were found dead under mysterious circumstances.  Because some of the women had cocaine in their system, Wetli theorized that there must be something about the physiology of black women that causes them to spontaneously die after mixing cocaine with sex.  Despite the absurdity of Wetli’s theory, it precluded homicide as a manner of death, which made it much more difficult for police to investigate the possible murders.  It wasn’t until a victim was found in a similar state as the other bodies, but had no cocaine in her system, that the city’s chief medical examiner reviewed the…other cases…[and] found evidence of asphyxiation that Wetli had overlooked.  Police eventually arrested a serial killer named Charles Henry Williams for the murders…

…The Miami debacle should have been an embarrassment that ended Wetli’s career.  It did not.  The controversy isn’t even mentioned in his fairly long New York Times obituary.  Instead, he failed upward, becoming the chief medical examiner in Suffolk, County, New York…[where he] continued to develop his theory in ways that proved convenient for law enforcement.  He expanded excited delirium to also include black men, particularly those who die in police custody.  “Seventy percent of people dying of coke-induced delirium are black males, even though most users are white,” he once said.  Instead of concluding that perhaps this was because police were more likely to use excessive force against black men, Wetli added, “It may be genetic”…Wetli’s work eventually landed him a lucrative side gig with Axon International, the company that makes the Taser (formerly known as Taser International), who began to pay Wetli to testify as an expert witness at the trials of police officers accused of brutality…

There’s a great deal more; this is just a small sample.  Jesse Walker suggested that the best way to read the piece is to start with part three, covering the big picture, following links back to the first two parts as you go; that seems wise to me, given the depth and density of the piece,  But however you read it, read it you should.  And if you aren’t already following Radley’s work, you really need to correct that.

 

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[Cops] don’t care who they hurt, they have no integrity.  –  former cop Jason Napoli

Surplus Women

What kind of garbage responds to women’s deaths by trying to endanger others of the same profession?

…Three women in a legal brothel in Vienna…[were] stabbed to death and a man carrying a knife was arrested in the vicinity…[but  politician] Maria Noichl…[used the tragedy to vomit out filthy propaganda, arguing that sex workers should be denied all legal protections and exposed to even more] violence [because sex gives her sadfeelz]…

I Spy (#1195)

I’ll believe Facebook is going to use encryption when it actually does it:

There have been plenty of silly lawsuits against tech companies over the last few years, but a new one from Nevada…may be the…most dangerous…we’ve seen so far…[it features] vague claims of harms to children from social media, with lots of…handwaving and conclusory statements with no basis in…evidence..Nevada has asked [for] a temporary restraining order, blocking [Facebook] from using end-to-end encryption on messages, claiming that such encryption is harmful to children…It’s no secret that lazy cops like the FBI’s Chris Wray (and before him, James Comey) have always hated encryption and wanted it banned for making it just slightly more difficult to read everyone’s messages, but at least they spoke mostly about just requiring magic backdoors that would allow encryption to work for normal people, but have it break when the cops came asking…Here, the state of Nevada is literally just saying “fuck it, ban all encryption, because it might make it harder for us to spy on people”…

Creepy Coppers

Seems like a significant fraction of child porn is spread by cops:

[A Pennsylvania cop named] James Christopher Buckley [has been] arrested on charges of…distribution of child pornography…via [his] icloud account…

Copsucking reporters waste considerable space quoting boss pigs oinking about how typical and representative cops aren’t really typical or representative.

Stalkers in Blue (#1317)

Another cop demonstrating exactly what he is:

A [typical and representative South Carolina cop named]…Justin Brian McKenzie…concealed his identity and sent text messages to “maliciously threaten” publishing private sexual photos of [a woman] on social media…[unless she sent him] more sexually explicit pictures and videos…[it is not clear how he got the photos he used for the extortion scheme]…

The Last Shall Be First (#1414) 

Both sides in the culture war have completely taken leave of their senses:

Kentucky Republicans have introduced a bill that…could charge the parents of transgender children [or adolescents] with neglect, and even deny them custody, if their child [or adolescent] uses…a school bathroom that does not match their sex assigned at birth…

The Cop Myth (#1416)

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

[Florida career cop] Charity Arthur…filed a lawsuit in June 2022 [because her cop shop]…discriminated against her…for reporting that her ex-husband [David Arthur is an abuser whose]…behavior put her in fear for her life…his behavior escalated…[in] 2017 [when he decided without evidence] that she was having an affair…he…put a tracking device on [her car]…and told her “he would ruin her career” if she left him…the abusive behavior became “more and more volatile” until [she] filed for divorce in August 2017…eight months later…he…[made “anonymous” accusations that she supposedly molested students when she was a student harassment thug]…and…told her the [ensuing] internal affairs investigation could “go away” if she stopped the divorce process…the sheriff’s office did not investigate David Arthur’s [widely-known] behavior toward her, promoted him multiple times, and instead investigated her for speaking out…the…office has twice moved to dismiss Charity Arthur’s lawsuit [under specious pretexts]…

To Molest and Rape (#1416)

Cops should not be allowed anywhere near legal minors:

A [typical and representative] Georgia [cop named]…Corey Brand [has finally been arrested for crimes first reported]…back in August 2020…Brand is charged with rape, child molestation…[and child] pornography…[his cronies could no longer protect him after he] was arrested in…Ala[bama] in December…on child pornography charges…

A prosecutor tried to blame this typical specimen’s crimes on cell phones:

A [typical and representative Indiana screw] was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison [for coercing] two [different young girls into sending him explicit pictures]…Cory Terry [used threats, coercion and enticement to manipulate]…an 11-year-old girl [and a 15-year-old girl]…on Discord and Snapchat…FBI agents found several cellphones with…more than 600 images and videos depicting the sexual abuse of children as young as 3 years old…

 

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 is treating people like inventory in a way I’ve not seen.
–  Jutta Williams

Torture Chamber

This will continue until journalists stop obediently referring to senseless violence as “correction”:

A [typical and representative New Hampshire screw has been] charged…with [the] murder…of a patient at [the] prison psychiatric unit [last year]…Matthew Millar [committed the murder by] kneeling on Jason Rothe’s torso and neck for several minutes on April 29 while Rothe was face-down and handcuffed…Rothe…[never] committed [any] crimes but…was committed…in 2019…and transferred to the prison unit in 2022 [under the claim that] he posed a risk to himself or others…

A Broker in Pillage (#1074)

This will continue until there are federal criminal charges for “officials”, both political and corporate, who conspire to rob people this way:

In Arizona, citizens can still lose their houses over minuscule tax bills, despite a unanimous 2023 Supreme Court ruling that was supposed to paralyze the practice nationwide…Christine Searle, a 70-year-old retiree, faces the loss of her home—valued at [$376,800]—over a mere $1,607.68 in back taxes…Maricopa County…[inflicted] a tax lien…on her home…then allowed [a] company [to] purchase…the lien [and] foreclose on her home, meaning Searle lost her home and all its equity…Arizona is not the only state that has permitted local governments to transfer tax liens…to [cron]ies.  In Nebraska, for example, private investors have been known to buy out tax debt without formal correspondence with the homeowner.  Once notified, those unable to satisfy their debt in full—plus interest and fees—have watched as the county treasurer gave the deed to their property away to the [legalized]…robb[er]…

Welcome to the Future (#1265)

Everything I read about modern corporate work makes me happier I became a whore:

Depending on where you work, there’s a significant chance that [computer algorithms are] analyzing your messages on…popular apps.  Huge U.S. employers such as Walmart, Delta Air Lines, T-Mobile, Chevron, and Starbucks, as well as European brands including Nestle and AstraZeneca, have turned to a seven-year-old startup, Aware, to [eavesdrop on] chatter among their [peons.  Their masters]…can see how employees of a certain age group or in a particular geography are responding to a new corporate policy or marketing campaign…[the software] can also identify bullying, harassment, discrimination, noncompliance, pornography, nudity and other behaviors…[yet supposedly] doesn’t have the ability to flag individual employee names…[except] in the event of [whatever the corporate client chooses to define as “]extreme threats or other risk behaviors[“]…

The Red Umbrella (#1327)

As long as sex work is marginalized, sex workers will be targeted for violence:

A St. Louis man [has been] charged…with shooting a sex worker at his residence…Norman B. Nelson…[shot the woman] around 3:18 a.m. on Jan. 22…[she] was taken to a hospital and listed in stable condition…

The Next Target (#1332)

Prohibitionist politicians’ real goal is total government control of the internet:

Belgium’s Superior Audiovisual Council (CSA) is [using censorious German politician Tobias Schmid’s KIVI tool to]…“automatically search…the Internet, looking for freely accessible pornography, among other things.”  Adult content is…automatically flagged by the system as “suspicious,” triggering human review…In addition to pornography, KIVI is also trained to detect categories like “extremism, hate speech, swastikas or the glorification of drugs”…in…images, texts and videos on all websites, as well as apps like “Telegram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok…VKontakte and…Bitchute”…With the Belgium partnership, Germany’s provincial regulatory authority from North Rhine-Westphalia is now on the road to becoming…“largely responsible for the introduction of a European porn detector”…Belgian authorities…[are also planning] “to expand the use of KIVI to cover hate speech”…

The Last Shall Be First (#1350) 

Both sides in the culture war have completely taken leave of their senses:

A new bill in Wyoming…would declare that gender-affirming care is “not in the best interest” of transgender youth within the state.  The bill would apply this presumption to custody battles, guardianships, and even the rules around Child Protective Services…A non-affirming parent who divorces an affirming parent could use the provisions to take a transgender child in a custody battle…A grandparent or relative who does not approve of a transgender youth’s gender transition could…[demand to] be appointed emergency guardian…Even worse, Child [“]Protective[“] Services could be weaponized against transgender youth in the state…

Creepy Coppers (#1397)

Some cops don’t limit themselves to one type of creepiness:

A Racine [Wisconsin cop] was arrested after [exposing himself to another man in a gas station bathroom, and when his fellow cops searched his phone they found]…videos of child pornography…Preston Kite…[contacted the other man on] the [gay hookup] app Sniffies…[but] he…was not expecting…to…see a [wanking pig] in full [magic clown regalia, and was therefore understandably]…scared [that this was a porcine scheme to ruin his life.  The man beat a hasty retreat] and…took a picture of the [pigmobile] parked [outside, which]…was [the one] assigned to Kite…

 

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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People might [not] be sick of book bannings, but are they sick of having their money wasted?  –  anonymous Texas teacher

The Red Umbrella 

As long as sex work is marginalized, sex workers will be targeted for violence:

Non-[Irish] sex workers were targeted by a recent scam where a person or people pretended to work for a major advertising website and asked them to provide personal information…[when] the workers did not realise it was a scam and replied to the messages…a number of them were…threatened with physical or sexual violence.  Linda Kavanagh…[of] SWAI…said non-national sex workers were deliberately targeted…She said m[ost] workers don’t report threats, or actual assaults, to gardaí because they…[reasonably] fear they’re going to be blamed for the work that they do…

Panopticon (#1277)

Cops use their panopticon exactly as EFF predicted they would:

In 2022, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed an ordinance that would allow the city’s police…to access footage from private security cameras [as long as they could invent a credible-sounding excuse]…the SFPD [is required to] compile quarterly reports detailing how many times it [abused the privilege]…The report released in January shows that in the third quarter of 2023…[64 pigs] spent a collective 193 hours and 19 minutes [rooting through] live surveillance footage…Police made 49 arrests as a result of surveillance, of which 42 were for narcotics…[only] four were for “theft/larceny,” and one was for [contempt of cop]…all of the r[oot-f]ests [centered on] just five [neighborhoods, one of them the Tenderloin]…the longest [root]ing session was during the Outside Lands Music Festival in August in Golden Gate Park, when [pigs rooted through] 42 total hours of live footage…in [defense of this creepy spying, the]…District Attorney…b[elch]ed [out] the [word]…”fentanyl”…San Francisco is [also]…rolling out new traffic cameras, which are more effective at filling government coffers than preventing traffic fatalities…

The Last Shall Be First (#1351) 

The time, money, and energy Americans are flushing down the “culture war” toilet is incalculable:

[Murfreesboro] Tennessee…must pay $500,000 as part of a settlement with the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups over an ordinance designed to ban drag performances…Last year, the Tennessee Equality Project…filed a federal lawsuit after leaders announced they would no longer be approving any event permit requests submitted by the organization…[due to what politicians absurdly labeled] “illegal sexualization of kids”…the city not only vowed to deny TEP permits but also decided later to update its “community decency standards”…to [include merely being gay as]…“obscene or harmful to minors”…Under the [settl]ement, the city…[mus]t also…repeal the ordinance and process any upcoming event permit applications submitted by TEP…

Thought Control (#1376)

Texas’ ice-pick self-lobotomization is becoming increasingly spasmodic:

In November…Conroe…Texas public school [board members]…decided…to g[ive themselves]…final say of what [books are] in libraries and classrooms….[since then] books are being removed to meet the preferences of individual board members, parents or other individuals through “internal review”…one teacher says…thousands of books from…classroom collections [were seized by] the district.  At the teacher’s school alone, over 550 books, equivalent to more than $7,300 were packed and moved out of…[class]rooms…over 30 library titles have been banned…[and] another ten books [are likely to follow]…later this month.  Within the past two school years, at least 125 of all the titles banned from the district libraries came from internal reviews…112 books have been prohibited from being on classroom shelves…last week, [one self-appointed censor demanded the removal of]…Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl, Geography Club by Brent Hartinger, Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok, American Girls by Alison Umminger and Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson…When [a] teacher asked what administrators…planned to do with the [seized] titles, [she]…was told…the books would await “disposal”…

Thought Control (#1389)

Too bad all authoritarian organizations aren’t so short-lived:

…Moms for Liberty experienced a meteoric rise at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, as local chapters sprang up to push back against coronavirus restrictions in schools.  The organization soon expanded to pushing book bans and o[ther censorship]…But…the local chapter in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, [has] shut down due to lack of interest…[and] participation also appears to be flagging for…the…organization’s first chapter…in…Brevard County [Florida; at a]…school board…meeting…to discuss a[n attempt to censor]…The Kite Runner and Slaughterhouse-Five…only one Moms for Liberty member showed up…and eventually snuck out of the room [when speakers compared the pro-censorship cult to the Taliban]…The national…organization…has started to see its [15 minutes ending]…as the group was rocked by a sexual assault scandal…

The Puritan Recrudescence (#1409)

Censorious politicians are vying to see who can make their new laws the most unconstitutional:

The U.S. Congress’ top anti-porn crusader, Utah Senator Mike Lee, [has] introduced a bill last week that would effectively outlaw all sex work…by classifying any consent influenced by a person’s economic circumstances as coercive…“This is, of course, the dream of the faith based ‘anti-trafficking’ folks — and SWERFs — who believe that no true consent can exist for sex work when money is involved,” [the Free Speech Coalition’s Mike] Stabile added. “It would essentially codify their white slavery panic into law”…

This warped attempt to infantilize women has been part of evangelical feminist dogma for some time, despite its self-evident absurdity.

The Last Shall Be First (#1410)

How defective does an adult need to be to think doing this to a teenager is OK?

A Utah school board member caused a social media firestorm when she publicly singled out and suggested a high school athlete was transgender with no evidence.  She later [uselessly] apologized…[long after her flying monkeys had] personally attacked the player, the student’s school district had to provide extra security for her, and the [politician] who wrote the state’s anti-transgender athlete bill [vomited out her own stupid opinion]…in violation of her own [law].  The post from Natalie Cline…set…off 16 hours of hateful speculation that continued even after she deleted 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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Who but a government functionary would see nothing wrong with calling a two-week period a “day”?
–  “Vendetta (#512)”

Like Biblical literalists searching for the remains of Noah’s Ark [“sex trafficking” fetishists] continue their quixotic crusades to find victims and “pimps”, and they’re never daunted by the fact that the few who turn up aren’t actually very much like the characters in their scriptures.  –  “Phantasm”

Until mainstream feminism starts calling for decrim – not Swedish model or other BS falsely represented as decrim – they can fuck themselves.  –  “Beck and Call”

I think the naive and idealistic idea of sex as an actual good is just as harmful, and causes nearly as much societal ill, as the primitive and warped notion that it’s an active evil.  –  “Sex Neutral”

You cannot exorcise…thoughts which haunt you by repeating them endlessly in public as though they were real, demanding that others join you in these fantasies against their consent, and providing the police state with new excuses to oppress people based on your sexual fantasies.  –  “Can We Talk?”

One would have to contort one’s brain in a manner worthy of a Cirque du Soleil performance to ignore the facts that cops more heavily patrol poor and minority neighborhoods and actively look for people to arrest.  –  “As Always“

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What workers want most in today’s economy is flexibility. – Jarrett Dieterle

If Men Were Angels

“Children’s minister” blames porn and Satan for his crimes:

A Wyoming children’s minister admitted he couldn’t be left alone with kids after he molested a young girl during his Christmas vacation in Florida…Richard Scott Shaw…told cops he “gave into temptation” when he…groped…a…12 year…old [girl]…on two separate occasions…Shaw…confessed to [her mother], but claimed it was [somehow] an accident….[then tried to blame an imaginary “]pornography addiction[“.  As if that weren’t enough hypocrisy for one incident, psychopathic clown]…Grady Judd [had the nerve to say of someone other than himself]…“This guy is an evil person”…

To Molest and Rape

It was just a big “whoopsie”:

A Pennsylvania [cop] who…rape[d a woman he knows]…a[bsur]dly told his victim the assault was an accident…Justin Hain…was in the [woman’s] home…and after she came out of the shower, he…ripped off her towel and ignored her pleas for him to stop…when the victim called Hain the next day to ask him why he attacked her, he said, “I didn’t intentionally rape you”…

To Molest and Rape (#997) 

A sadly typical outcome when a high-ranking cop is the rapist:

A Philadelphia [cop] who…[repeatedly] sexually assault[ed] three [female cops] has been reinstated after charges were dropped in all three cases…Carl Holmes Jr….will return to his previous rank…[after] prosecutors dropped the last of three sexual assault cases against Holmes due to the…[department successfully intimidating] key witness[es]…

Confined and Controlled (#1258)

“Progressives” want everyone forced to work for bosses and managers:

The federal government…is coming to rescue [gig workers] from their own choices.  The Department of Labor [has] announced new rules…that will limit the circumstances in which workers can be classified as independent contractors…unleashing federal bureaucrats to micromanage the decisions that those workers have already made for themselves….[via] a vague six-part test…Those determined to be employees will be forcibly reclassified even if they do not want to be.  And many seemingly don’t…78 percent [of gig workers a]re satisfied with their jobs…and…most value…the flexibility to set their own schedules or earn small amounts of extra cash on the side…only about 10 percent…desire…a more traditional job while nearly 80 percent intend…to keep freelancing…While the new rule will “reverberate” across a variety of industries where independent contractor work is common—including health care, construction, and food service…the real target of the…policy seems to be…platforms like Uber and DoorDash…[which are] widely expected [to]…sue…the Department of Labor…

Shifting the Blame (#1384)

How many women died as a result of inaction by this murderer’s cop buddies?

Gilgo Beach serial killing suspect Rex Heuermann has been charged with the murder of a fourth woman, whose remains were found on…Long Island in 2010…Maureen Brainard-Barnes…vanished in 2007…and…is believed by police to be the first victim [of] what [are] known as the “Gilgo Four”…

Served Cold (#1392)

Tim Ballard’s downfall is increasingly satisfying:

Celeste Borys, one of the women suing Tim Ballard, flew to California with her lawyer last week to file criminal complaints…[because Ballard] sexually assaulted her in…San Diego, San Clemente, the San Jose suburb of Campbell, and…Los Angeles…


To Molest and Rape (Rapists of the Week #4)

Cops should not be allowed anywhere near legal minors:

 Andrew Menendez, a [typical and representative West Virginia cop] who…sexually abus[ed] a 15-year-old, was found guilty by a jury…He…must register as a sex offender and…faces up to 20 years in prison…

 

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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If Men Were Angels

This will continue until fools stop teaching children unquestioning obedience to “authority”:

A [typical and representative Alaska] church leader [named Dwight “Chris” John] was sentenced to 20 years in prison with 30 more suspended [for repeatedly molesting a now-teenage girl, starting when she was] nine…

To Molest and Rape

Rapist cops often specifically target vulnerable women:

Deangelo Reyes, [a typical and representative] Tulsa [cop]…charged with [vaginal and oral] rape [of  a disabled woman, is apparently on the run.  He] was scheduled to appear in court [last] Tuesday, but failed to show up…[Reyes was previously] charge[d for raping a different woman]…court for [that crime is scheduled for] March…the new victim…suffer[s] from major neuro cognitive disorder…[due] to severe traumatic brain injury…from a car accident…she [is now]…functioning at a 5th to 6th grade level…

No Escape (#1008)

Your “leaders” refer to this as “correction”:

A…woman [locked in a cage by the state of Oregon has filed]…a federal lawsuit [because] she faces an ongoing barrage of abuse and retaliation after a [screw]…repeatedly sexually assaulted her [with the prison’s tacit permission]…Levi Gray…was charged in August …[but claims she wanted it] and…[was rewarded with a paid vacation until at least] May…A 229-page state report released in August found the prison has a retaliatory culture that discourages the reporting [of] sexual abuse and other wrongdoing…Gray [repeatedly raped] the woman for…a two-month period in April and May while she was in…solitary confinement…with no camera…[besides the rapes] Gray repeatedly…[threw] her against a wall and grop[ed] her while she was handcuffed, [and] chok[ed] her while kissing her and hitting her…[he also put her on a] leash attached to her handcuffs and…oral[ly raped her].  The abuse lasted 40 minutes or longer, sometimes two or more times each day…

Surplus Women (#1196)

37 years after the rape/murder and 81/2 after he was caught:

A Spokane County judge found a [typical and representative] Pasco [Washington cop named Richard Aguirre] guilty…[for the] first-degree murder [of a sex worker named] Ruby Doss…in 1986.  For decades, investigators could not find a suspect in her death.  That was until 2015, when a forensic scientist matched DNA on a condom found near Doss’ body to…Aguirre…[whose] DNA…[had been] collect[ed after he]…rape[d another woman]…Aguirre [escaped consequences for that rape and for Doss’ death until now due to botched prosecutions, mistrials, and jurors afraid to convict a cop]…

To Molest and Rape (#1400)

Cop and preacher is like a huge, wildly-waving red flag:

[Boston-area cop] James Feeley has been arrested and charged with raping a child…[he] pleaded not guilty…[even though he had already] confessed to Winthrop [Massachusetts] Police Chief Terrance Delahanty…on…Christmas Day…Feeley…is also a church leader in Winthrop…

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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They don’t want incarcerated journalists. It doesn’t serve the interest of [the prison bureaucracy or] predatory companies like Securus.  –  Christopher Blackwell

Surplus Women

Why doesn’t the headline read “Brutal murder linked to basketball”?

Marayna Rodgers…left Washington State on December 1 to work as a prostitute in Las Vegas…But on December 6…[an NBA basketball player named] Chance Comanche…and [his ex-girlfriend, a thief and sometimes-whore named] Sakari Harnden…kidnapped and [murdered her after]…Comanche posed as a [client]…the…[two both] strangled…her…and [dumped]…her [body in a ditch]…in Henderson…Nevada…Harnden [supposedly] wanted revenge…[on] Rodgers [because she] had told others that Harnden’s boyfriend, Iosua Sataua…was…arrested for a double murder in Stockton, Calif…

The story is so badly written, it’s hard to be sure of what it means, but I think this is probably close.

The Widening Gyre (#1257)

Technically, several decades is indeed “over a year”:

Police are issuing a warning to…be wary of…social media [tales], after a story…raised alarm but turned out not to be true.  You may have seen the post making the rounds on Instagram and Facebook, telling people of how a young girl went into a bathroom at [a shopping] mall, and when her mom went in to find her, she discovered the child in a stall unconscious, with her head shaved, dressed like a boy…[supposedly] in the process of being abducted for human trafficking…The Alberta RCMP…[says] this particular hoax has been circulating for over a year and is “entirely false”…

I first read this one in one of Jan Brunvand‘s urban legend collections when I was a librarian, but its roots go back centuries; it’s a descendant of “gypsy child abduction” stories or even tales about changelings.

The Last Shall Be First (#1299) 

Texas seems completely uninterested in controlling its psychopathic politicians:

…Seattle Children’s Hospital [has] filed a lawsuit…against the Texas…Attorney General…after [it demanded private medical information of any]…gender transition [care]…provided to [legal minors from] Texas…the hospital…[noted that the Texas attorney general has no jurisdiction over it], and that Washington’s “Shield Law” protects it from [legal demands, warrants, court orders, etc] made by states that “restrict or criminalize reproductive and gender-affirming care”…the OAG[‘s]…demands…[accused] the hospital [of]…“misrepresentation[“] …and [included a demand]…that…the hospital [provide Texas instructions on how to forcibly “detransition” people against their will]…The…demands [includes threats of]…fine[s] and jail confinement of [hospital personnel who do not live in Texas]…

The Punitive Mindset (#1326) 

This fascist evil needs to be eradicated, root and branch:

Securus, a [fascist] company that [profits from people in] prison…persists in struggling with [substandard] tech…greatly affecting incarcerated writers…The company…generat[es huge] profits rooted in hidden charges, kickbacks, and fees imposed upon family members to talk to their loved ones…In Washington, incarcerated journalist Christopher Blackwell and his peers recently faced a data erasure for the third time this year, causing devastating losses for many writers on the inside who depend on devices to save the progress of their work…“I probably lost 150 hours of content, and I have to go back and recreate that,” said Blackwell. “It’s not only exhausting, but it really pushes you to not want to continue to write.”  Derek Trumbo, an incarcerated writer in Kentucky, lost more than a year of writing in a single [forced] system update on his tablet…

The Cop Myth (#1368)

Why are people shocked when men paid and encouraged to behave violently, behave violently?  This story is, unsurprisingly, almost entirely void of details; it takes 175 words to say, “A Mississippi screw argued with another screw and shot him dead in the prison parking lot.”  The rest is puffery and trivia, but it’ll be interesting to see whether the swineherds’ desire to absolve cops of blame for murder trumps their desire to get revenge for a dead cop.

Thought Control (#1379)

Cops will keep taking more and more power as long as people allow them to:

[A Massachusetts cop named Joseph O’Brien who barged into]…an eighth grade classroom [in an attempt to steal] a book wore a body camera and recorded the incident…The American Civil Liberties Union…say[s] they cannot recall [the last] instance…of police going to a school [in an attempt to steal] a book [because late September is too long ago]…Ruth A. Bourquin, senior and managing attorney for the ACLU of Massachusetts…[said] “Police going into schools and searching for books is the sort of thing you hear about in communist China and Russia. What are we doing?”…school [officials] apologized for [kowtowing to the cops’ illegal demands without even requiring a warrant, bloviating a lot of excuses and buzzwords]…an anonymous complaint [was the pretext cops used]…to [justify the attempted theft]…of the book Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe, [belching out the words “]obscene material or pornographic[“]…

On the Simultaneous Having and Eating of Cake (#1393) 

Perhaps we’re nearing the end of this nasty, twisted saga:

The company that owns and operates adult entertainment websites including Pornhub…will pay [a] $1.8 million [bribe] to the U.S. government to resolve [extortion demands deriving from] its ties to…GirlsDoPorn.com…and GirlsDoToys.com…whose creators and operators were charged in California in 2019 with deceiving and coercing young women to appear in sex videos…In addition to the $1.8 million pay[off], Aylo will pay victims whose images were posted on its platform and have not already been compensated…

 

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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A…large…fraction of the violence committed against sex workers is committed directly by armed agents of the state, often though not always under the excuse of “gathering evidence” for our “crime” of having impure thoughts about otherwise-legal sex.

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