I’ve seen some pretty outrageous exercises of eminent domain powers. Never anything like this. – Robert Thomas
If you thought “asset forfeiture” was brazen robbery, get a load of this:
…a [federal] judge [in] Rhode Island [has ordered]…the town of Johnston to return the title of a 31-acre property it had quietly [stolen] to its original owners, two LLCs collectively owned by the Santoro family…[and] block[ed] the town, its mayor, and the town council from taking any action to [steal] the property [again] or prevent the Santoro family from accessing it…the…the[ft appears to be motivated by the family’s plan]…to build a 254-unit affordable housing project on the land…[despite politicians’ pretense]…that [the town] needs the land for a new “municipal campus” that would replace Johnston’s existing…town hall and police and fire stations. The Santoro family challenged the [theft] in federal court, arguing that the…”municipal campus” is a sham project invented to stop the family from proceeding with their planned development…Shortly after the family filed their federal lawsuit, the town quietly transferred the property over to themselves—without notifying the owners or their lawyers. The family only learned of the [theft] after…the town’s lawyer sent them a letter ordering them to vacate the property or risk a citation for trespassing…
Some cops don’t limit themselves to one type of creepiness:
…Robert Farley, who was appointed [boss hog of] North Bergen [New Jersey, is being sued by five cops for a host of bizarre]…behavior[s he seems to think are “pranks”, including]…putting ink on door handles, setting off car alarms…spiking the office coffee pot with Viagra and Adderall…[jabbing] a hypodermic needle through [a cop’s pants] into the tip of [his] penis….shav[ing] his body hair on people’s property, their persons, and their food…scraping fluids from his underwear onto people…[shitting] on the floor in front of his entire office staff…clogging the toilet with paper and other objects…defecating in wastebaskets..[sending] sex toys, intimate lotions and gay pride flags to [cops’] home[s]…placing hot sauce in a microwave, which essentially turned the substance into a pepper spray that permeated the office…put firecrackers under [people’s] chairs…ripp[ing] a television monitor off the wall and smash[ing] it to pieces…
[Politicians] across the country seem smitten by the idea that harsher punishments for folks attempting to pay for sex with another consenting adult will somehow “end demand” for paid sex, thereby ensuring…sex workers…will [not] have customers. It’s a stupid theory that utterly failed when Ronald Reagan pushed a version of it as part of the war on drugs…Making customers harder to find and communicate with makes it harder for sex workers to work independently and increases reliance on pimps and vulnerability to violent or exploitative traffickers…Decriminalize Sex Work…has a handy rundown of many of the state proposals, which include measures in California, Idaho, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Virginia, and Washington…
Don’t Call It Trafficking (#1501)
You won’t find that word, nor the word “slavery”, anywhere in this article:
Bryan Bailey, [a deeply-corrupt] Mississippi sheriff…under federal investigation for torturing people, staffed his mother’s commercial chicken farm with [prisoners] from the county jail and used taxpayer-purchased equipment to improve the grounds…for most of his 13 years in office…Bailey used his position as the highest paid and most powerful public figure in his…county in ways that financially [or sexually] benefited himself and his family…people [who knew what was going on] kept quiet…out of…fear…But that began to change in 2023, when five Rankin County sheriff’s deputies were charged with civil rights offenses for torturing two Black men in their home and shooting one of them in the mouth…
The legacy of To Catch a Predator just keeps on hurting people:
…for [over] a decade…[thug]s in the U.S. pose as minors on dating apps and websites, then target the people who message them. Many of these vigilantes, commonly known as pedophile hunters, were inspired by To Catch a Predator, a popular television series that ran until 2007…in the past two years, a growing number have…[started] violently attack[ing] the targets in their videos…In one of the most brutal cases, a masked man [named Ahmad Wasfi Al-Azzam] who referred to himself online as “realjuujika”…broke into the home of a 73-year-old man in Pennsylvania last year, then tied him up…beat him with a hammer…rob[bed him] and film[ed] his credit cards, sharing the information with his thousands of followers…the [victim] was hospitalized…and needed surgery to stop the bleeding in his brain…There have been more than 170 violent vigilante attacks…since 2023…[by] at least 22 individuals and groups…This content is popular in online circles that feature crude…material intended to cater to young men. Some hunters have hundreds of thousands of followers, and…sell merchandise with their slogans and logos…
…Texas [is] seeking to [destroy the lives of] school librarians and teachers who provide award-winning works of literature to students…[if any politician decides to point at the book and barf “]sexually explicit[” in the victim’s face]…whether or not [the descriptor has any] merit [in reality]. SB 412 and HB 267 would [declare politicians the only arbiters of]…education[al value]. Many classic works of literature, including The Odyssey, Catcher in the Rye, Brave New World and One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, have [already been targeted]…Only [pigs] and judges would be exempted un[less an] adult…is married to [a “]child[“], which is legal in Texas, [because the state is entirely run by psychopathic perverts]…
Texas Republicans [have]…convinced Democrats and doctors to support a bill they claim will protect life-saving abortion care and “clarify” the state’s ban. But the rapidly advancing “Life of the Mother” legislation is a Trojan Horse—there’s a 100-year-old ban hiding inside, ready to be revived and used to prosecute abortion funds, helpers, and possibly even patients. Legal experts…called it “the most dangerous” anti-abortion bill currently before the legislature…At the heart of this deception is a 1925 abortion ban…[which] made it a felony to help someone “procure” an abortion…and…didn’t…protect patients from prosecution…[psychopathic Texas AG] Ken Paxton…[was already trying to enforce] the 1925 ban [when a federal court stopped him in 2023]…
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!
