Links #645

[Can’t] we see [police] doing other things than showing up with a tank?  –  Jennifer Bacon

For the first time since July, I didn’t have a video either suggested by an obituary or in queue from previous weeks, so I went to YouTube and found this rather strange video from 1969.  The links above it were provided by Lucy Steigerwald, Cop Crisis (x3), Radley Balko, Stephen Lemons, and Emma Evans, in that order.

• R.I.P. Kevin Conroy.
• Police professionalism.
• Just protecting and serving.
• “Correction” is for peasants, not overlords.
• Never call the cops for any reason whatsoever.
• Government is just a word for the things we choose to do together.
• Some people want these systems piloting vehicles at highway speed.

From the Archives

• How long will airlines accept liability for government-brand racial profiling?
• Is the magic word missing here due to pushback on other, similar scams?
• While any part of sexwork is criminalized, cops have power over whores.
• Swedish model fanatics won’t stop trying to impose their filth on the UK.
• “The only way for a traveler to stop government spying is not to travel.“
• Israel’s plan to force sex workers into low-paid menial “women’s work”.
• Millions believe the entire realm of politics can be described in one bit.
• Deranged men may get violent when we won’t indulge their fantasies.
• Useful idiots are surprised, though this was as predictable as sunrise.
• There’s nothing in this article that one can’t get from sex workers.
• Seattle-area pigs are once again rooting in sex workers’ business.
• Some cops don’t stop with mere beating, or with just their wives.
• Cops, horror movies, Alex Trebek, Ken Spears, and much more.
• Is it too much to ask that politicians actually ban these arrests?
• Megalomaniacal politicians setting themselves up like Jehovah.
• Authoritarians all want the same thing, regardless of “wings”.
• I wonder if the Illinois lawsuit had anything to do with this?
• The “cops bearing gifts” PR scam is not limited to the US.
• Just another kind of federal cop, with behavior to match.
• Now is the time to push even harder against prohibition.
• Yet another rescue industry fraud has been unmasked.
• This happens all over the US, but Florida is the worst.
• Why end-to-end encryption is an absolute necessity.
• Avoiding the “grandfather paradox” in time travel.
• No woman is safe from sexually-aggressive cops.
• Cops, turkeys, cannibal ants, and much more.
• Cops, irony, Dean Stockwell, and much more.
• Links to all my past essays for Armistice Day.
• One can’t build a roof while it’s hailing.
• “No genetic information can be safe.“
• Rapist cops aren’t limited to the US.
• Late Halloweeny birthday presents.
• But this isn’t trafficking, no sirree!
• Presented without comment.
• Just protecting and serving.
• Rapist cop of the week.
• The gift of Blake’s 7.
• Canning pumpkin.

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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In the News (#1282)

The scale of this is beyond what anyone imagines.  –  Anna Arons

Without Let or Hindrance

Some people still believe these sociopaths are motivated by a desire to “protect children”:

Across the nation, child protective services agencies [violate] the home lives of roughly 3.5 million children [and teenagers] every year…only about 5% of them are ultimately [declared] to have been physically or sexually abused.  With rare exceptions, all of these investigations include at least one [raid], and often multiple…Yet in a ProPublica and NBC News survey that drew detailed responses from 40 state child welfare agencies, all said they would only obtain a warrant or court order to search a home — or call the police for [backup] — in rare cases when they are denied entry…It’s a staggering reality — likely millions of warrantless searches a year — and one that has not been reported [adequately] before…

To Molest and Rape

Typical and representative, by their own admission:

Kansas’ 2021 Officer of the Year has been indicted on charges of rape and aggravated sexual battery…Guillermo Gutierrez…[committed the crime] on May 19, 2022, in Dodge City…

Comfort Zone (#873)

The UK finally admits the “human trafficking” narrative is about migration control:

The Home Office has taken the modern slavery brief away from the minister responsible for safeguarding and classed it as an “illegal immigration and asylum” issue…The move is seen as a clear sign that the department is doubling down on Suella Braverman’s suggestion that people are “gaming” the modern slavery system and…“derailing the UK’s policy on illegal migration”…

The Last Shall Be First (#1265) 

Moral imbeciles are almost completely out of control:

A bill introduced in the Michigan Legislature…could mean life in prison for any parent or doctor who “consents to, obtains, or assists with a gender transition procedure for a child”…[where “child” is used to mean “legal minor”]…Gender transition procedures are defined to include not just surgical interventions but also the prescription of puberty blockers and hormones…under the proposed change, prescribing puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones to a teenager would be equivalent to severely beating a child.  And it would be defined as a more severe form of abuse than starving or abandoning a kid…

Unsafe for Human Consumption (#1279)

The stupider the belief, the harder it is to debunk:

Florida’s [Propagandist] General continues to…[drum up hysteria about migration, claim]ing that its effects are spilling over into all aspects of life…Ashley Moody [went on] Fox & Friends [to spread tall tales] about how transnational drug gangs are bringing in lethal narcotic cocktails, [imagin]ing that some of these concoctions may take the form of popular candies.  “We’re seeing them put it in candy packaging, like Nerds packaging. And Halloween’s coming up and those of us with young children have to…start learning about the fentanyl crisis and warning our children”…Host Ainsley Earhardt [confused] the topic…[by say]ing…“so many people are sending their children off to college right now. It’s fall…and we worry that they’re going to take one little pill just because it looks like candy”…

Yes, these people are actually conflating young men and women of university age with children so young they’ll put anything that looks like candy in their mouths.  I couldn’t have invented anything so imbecilic, infantilizing, and disconnected from reality even if I had money riding on it.

Choke Point (#1280)

PayPal is becoming a major threat to civil liberties:

PayPay HK has halted services for the League of Social Democrats (LSD) – one of the remaining active pro-democracy groups in Hong Kong – due to unspecified “excessive risks”…[without] explain[ing] what the “excessive risks” are…Chow Ka-fat…of the LSD [sai]d…the group had not been able to accept any new donations via its PayPal account since the day it received the email, but they can still withdraw money from it…

Stalkers in Blue (#1281)

No, this is a different Louisville cop stealing women’s nude pictures:

A [typical and representative] Louisville [cop]…used [cop surveillance] technology as part of a scheme that involved hacking the Snapchat accounts of young women and using sexually explicit photos and videos they had taken to extort them…Bryan Wilson used his…access to Accurint, a powerful data-combing software used by police departments to [snoop in people’s private business without a warrant]…to obtain information about potential victims.  He would then share that information with a hacker, who would hack into private Snapchat accounts to obtain sexually explicit photos and videos….Wilson would then contact the women, threatening to post the photos and videos online and share them with their friends, family, employer and co-workers unless more sexually explicit material was provided to him…Wilson…[has already] pleaded guilty to a cyberstalking charge as well as to a charge related to…[a scheme] in which Wilson and other [pigs] assaulted pedestrians by throwing beverages out of unmarked p[igmobile]s, sometimes filming their exploits…

 

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 very much!

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In the News (#1281)

You ain’t paralyzed.  –  typical Florida screw

The Public Eye (#789)

It’s always heartening to see a sex worker run for office, especially when she wins:

A transgender politician in Mexico’s ruling MORENA party is under fire for posting pornographic videos of herself on Twitter.  But María Clemente García Moreno—a federal deputy in Mexico City who made history in 2021 when she and another politician became the first trans people elected to the country’s congress—also moonlights as a sex worker and contests that it’s within her rights to post whatever she wants…

Torture Chamber (#1069)

Florida screws love yelling “Stop faking!” at their victims after intentionally breaking their necks:

Craig Ridley…[was] a 62-year-old prisoner in Florida who, after having his neck broken by guards, was left to die in his cell…Ridley…was…tackled…to the ground face first on Sept. 8, 2017…[by brutal screws who th]en manhandled, mocked and ignored [him]…even as he begged for help…as he lay in his cell, unable to walk and starving because he couldn’t reach the food he was being given.  After five days of this paralysis, guards finally took him to a hospital, where…he died on Oct. 12…intubated and unable to communicate…the…story was kept hushed for years…

Winding Down (#1179)

Destigmatization of psychedelics is happening much more quickly than I would’ve expected:

Shroomyz is Toronto’s first magic mushroom dispensary and the second in the province…A Shroomyz in Ottawa opened in May of this year…Shroomyz is akin to any cannabis store you’d find in the city.  Windows are taped off for privacy and customers need to buzz in to enter…The store supplies everything from dried psilocybin and microdose capsules to mushroom chocolates and mushroom tea…

Winding Down (#1243)

It’s great to see anti-prohibitionist views quickly becoming mainstream:

Prohibition is not working—and that can be seen most strikingly with cocaine, not cannabis…Global production hit a record of 1,982 tonnes in 2020, according to the latest data, though that is likely to be an underestimate.  That record high is despite decades of strenuous and costly efforts to cut off the supply.  Between 2000 and 2020 the United States ploughed $10bn into Colombia to suppress production, paying the local armed forces to spray coca plantations with herbicide…or…yank up bushes by hand.  To no avail…murder in Colombia is three times more common than in the United States; in Mexico, four times.  In some areas, drug gangs are so wealthy and well-armed that they rival the state…the cocaine gangs will remain powerful so long as their product is illegal in the rich countries that consume most of it, such as the United States.  Half-measures, such as not prosecuting cocaine users, are not enough.  If producing…is still illegal, it will be criminals who produce it…the real answer is full legalisation, allowing non-criminals to produce a strictly regulated, highly taxed product, just as whisky- and cigarette-makers do…

To Molest and Rape (#1263)

The New Orleans cop who stood by and watched a rape has thought up an excuse:

Earl J. Brown III…resigned a week after The Times-Picayune published audio from a 911 call demonstrating that — though he was just a block away — Brown declined to intervene [in a rape] for more than three minutes.  By that point, the suspect had fled.  Brown later [claimed]…he was working a security detail on a movie set and that he had been trained to wait for backup before responding.  Brown also heard over the radio that New Orleans [cops] had been dispatched…[so he figured they would eventually get there, and called it good]…Scott Seymour…who investigated the incident, rejected Brown’s explanation and concluded he violated several department policies by failing to act.  Seymour recommended firing Brown, but he resigned before…that [happened, which] means Brown maintains a clean record…and [could be rehired as a cop somewhere else]…

See also “To Molest and Rape (#1273)” below.

The Cop Myth (#1271)

You’ve heard of “burying the lede”, but this one just keeps getting worse:

A Louisville [cop sent]…a sexually explicit photo of a woman to more than a dozen people without her consent….Harry Seeders…was arrested…and charged…under the so-called Kentucky “revenge porn” law that went into effect in 2018…Seeders…was on [paid vacation as a reward for] a previous domestic violence incident…in May 2021 [in which he attacked] a woman he was dating…[by] hit[ting her]…in the mouth and then chok[ing] her…those charges[, which] are still pending…[were filed when] Seeders was [already enjoying a paid vacation he received as a reward for murdering]…a [random] man…on Nov. 22, 2020…and [trying to blame his victim]…

To Molest and Rape (#1273)

It’s not only Louisiana cops who prefer to rape by proxy:

A garda is under suspension…[for trying] to hire a man to [rape] a female colleague…the [cop apparently]…contacting a man online, possibly on the Darkweb…[and the scheme] apparently came to light when the man, understood to be in Scotland, began arranging to travel to Ireland…

 

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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Rapist Roundup

There have been so many news items of this sort lately, I had to collect them together to avoid overwhelming my regular news columns.

If Men Were Angels

Maybe it’s a bad idea to teach kids to blindly submit to authority:

A former Johnson C[ounty Kentucky] girls’ basketball coach…[named] Darrin Rice [was arrested on] rape, sexual abuse and sodomy charges…He was listed as the coach for nine seasons…[until] Spring of 2022…

To Molest and Rape (#1161)

Spokane allowed this animal to run wild for years:

One of the women raped by a…Spokane [cop] has filed a $1 million claim against the city [because] the police department ignored “red flags”…[and] allowed Nathan Nash “to use his uniform and authority to prey on women”…Nash…[has already been convicted of] raping two women…during [pretextual] follow-up visits to [domestic violence] investigations…the city ignored…numerous concerns about [these pretextual “visits”]…Nash remains charged with official misconduct related to a third victim and is scheduled to be tried on that charge next month.  He’s set to be sentenced for the rapes in October...

Creepy Coppers

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

A [typical and representative] Winnipeg [cop] is dead after being charged with possessing child pornography…Yvan Corriveau was found dead…[the day after his fellow cops raided his house and charged him with both] possession of child pornography…[and disseminating it.  Cops refuse to]…provide…further information…

To Molest and Rape (#1202)

“Police explorer” programs are nothing but grooming schemes for predatory cops:

Three Stoughton [Massachusetts cops repeatedly molested]…a young woman who killed herself last year while she was [pregnant for one of the cops]…Sandra Birchmore, 23, had been [repeatedly molested by]…Matthew G. Farwell…[since she] was just 13…[and involved in] the department’s youth explorers program, which [grooms teenage girls for rapist cops]…Birchmore’…[was also sexually abused by]…Farwell[‘s]…twin brother, William, and their…supervisor in the…[grooming] program…Robert C. Devine…

Stalkers in Blue (#1261)

Another sexual predator specifically targets traumatized women:

A [typical and representative] Barnsley [cop] who [stalked at least two] female victim[s] of crime has been jailed…Liam Mills…started sending inappropriate messages to the [first] victim on the day…she attended a police station in relation to domestic abuse…the [messages] bec[ame increasingly]…explicit…[and included implied threats of violence]…he had also s[tarted grooming] a young woman he…[knew] was suffering a mental health crisis.  Mills…has been placed on the barred list which means he will never work in policing again…[he] was sentenced to nine months in prison…

To Molest and Rape (#1272)

“Having sexual relations” is such a neutered way to say “molesting”:

A [typical and representative]…Florida [cop] was fired…for…[molest]ing…a 13-year-old girl while [wearing his magical clown costume]…Sheridon Edward Archer…was [also arrested]…Archer [first] “contacted the teenager through a social media app”…[called] “MeetMe”…The victim was reportedly able to identify Archer by his tattoos…

Torture Chamber (#1273)

They’ll use any excuse to protect their own:

A [typical and representative screw]…who pleaded guilty to raping two women at a prison in Fort Worth, was sentenced to 18 months…half the amount of time one of his victims is serving for drug possession…Luis Curiel…was [actually] sentenced to 18 months for each charge, but the judge ruled the sentences could be served at the same time…Betzabel Banda-Martinez said Curiel abused her multiple times a week for four months from June to October 2021.  He raped her and physically assaulted her…often leaving large bruises and bite marks on her body.  Because Curiel could listen in on her phone calls…[and] threatened her family and children [she was afraid to tell anyone lest he harm them]…

Naturally, they’re hiding his identity so as to make it easier for him to rape again when he gets out.

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 very much!

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In the News (#1263)

This fucking cop is still a block away and this girl got raped on the street corner!  –  witness to the crime

License to Rape

“Search” is the most common government euphemism for “molest”:

…650 [legal minors] were strip-searched [by London cops without good reason] over a two-year period and the majority were found to be innocent of the [accusat]ions [cops used to justify the molestation] …in almost a quarter of cases (23%) an appropriate adult was not present during the search, despite this being a [legal] requirement…of children [and young adults] aged 10 to 17 who were strip-searched between 2018 and 2020, almost three out of five (58%) were black…for 2018 alone the figure rose to 75%…

Torture Chamber 

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

…a lawsuit against [St. Louis] and [a pack of screws reports]…that [human beings locked in cages without having]…been convicted of any crime — are subjected to “persistent and widespread torture practices”…[foremost among these being] pepper-sprayed for any number of capricious reasons or for no apparent reason at all…In 2019, the St. Louis county executive resurrected a local advisory board to monitor conditions at the jail after the deaths of several detained people, including one person who died of a curable form of leukemia…But as conditions at the jail continued to deteriorate, several board members resigned in protest…[because] they were not…[actually allowed] to…investigate conditions…the city of St. Louis has denied all wrongdoing…[and a spokesbureaucrat vomited out the words] “order and security in the correctional facility” [as an excuse for the torture, which includes]…regularly shut[ting] off detained people’s water for hours or days at a time…

If Men Were Angels  

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

A [Missouri] pastor has been charged…[with] sexually abusing a child…John Hampton…abused two children, starting four to five years ago…[Cops]…tried to talk to Hampton in May, but Hampton told [them] he didn’t have time to speak to them [so they just let it go for a few months]…

To Molest and Rape

I suspect prosecutors get off on coming up with ridiculous-sounding euphemisms for rape:

A [typical and representative] California [cop] faces a federal indictment [for raping] four women while [wearing his magical clown costume]…J. DeShawn Torrence…[faces] a maximum…penalty of life in prison and a $250,000 fine…[for] crimes [of rape and sexual assault committed] from August 2017 to June 2021…without a legitimate law enforcement purpose…

Presumably, raping a sex worker in order to entrap her and destroy her life would be considered “a legitimate law enforcement purpose”.

Above the Law (#923)

Rapist politicians generally prefer to assault drunk women:

A…Kentucky [politician]…was arrested [for]…rape.  John Tilley…[raped] a woman who could not consent due to her level of intoxication…[besides being a state legislator] he…served as Justice and Public Safety Cabinet secretary from December 2015 through 2019, overseeing Kentucky State Police, the Department of [Locking People in Filthy Cages] and other agencies…

Notice how any association with cops has a high correlation with being a rapist?

To Molest and Rape (#946) 

Some Louisiana cops prefer to rape by proxy:

A New Orleans [cop who] was flagged down…in the French Quarter by a witness who…saw a man raping an unconscious woman in plain view on the street corner…didn’t budge…the witness…[then called] 911…[and] grew increasingly frantic as the [cop continued]…to [do nothing]…Another [pigmobile] had already driven past the [rape] without stopping, she added…Two minutes passed. “He’s still not even coming!” the witness said.aid.  The dispatcher also became exasperated, “Ma’am, this is…I can’t speak freely…I understand”…The witness [who is a respiratory therapist] returned to the corner and [started CPR when she] found the victim without a pulse.  The [rapist] had fled…The witness…asked not to be named because she fears [police] retribution…

The Prudish Giant (#1251) 

Why does anyone still trust Facebook?

A Nebraska teenager is facing criminal charges alleging she aborted a fetus in violation of state law, after [cops rooted in] her Facebook messages using a search warrant.  Seventeen-year-old Celeste Burgess…[was transformed into] an adult [by the power of a magic prosecutorial finger] along with her mother Jessica Burgess…Nebraska c[riminalizes] abortions beyond 20 weeks…[cops found out via a snitch and couldn’t wait to ruin a young woman’s life]…Facebook [has been playing both sides on the issue; while]…the company [has] announced that it will reimburse employees who…must travel to a different state to seek an abortion…Instagram and Facebook posts about acquiring abortion pills…[a]re being systematically removed…[and the company has] continued to earn revenue from anti-abortion advertisements containing dangerous misinformation…Facebook [is also] collecting data from users interacting with abortion services websites, and [selling it]…to anti-abortion groups…

Since the earlier Texas case was dropped, Burgess may end up being the first woman prosecuted under the new abortion prohibitionist regime.

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In the News (#1216)

Without economic freedom you cannot have political freedom.
–  John H. Cochrane

Peeping Toms

This article on how Lawrence v Texas and other cases relate to sex work isn’t flawless by any stretch; while the author makes some good points (especially regarding the common claim that Lawrence specifically excluded sex work), he also makes some shaky assertions and endorses some rather odious academic interpretations, which is perhaps unsurprising given his academic background.  Worth reading, but only cum grano salis.

A Broker in Pillage

It’s rare to see these schemes called what they are: extortion:

Two years ago, prosecutors offered a [Kentucky] man a deal: give up $380,000 in cash through asset forfeiture, and criminal charges just filed against his family would be dropped.  The case has now been resolved, with no criminal convictions for anyone involved — but police and prosecutors still kept the bulk of the cash.  Patrick Card was arrested in 2019 [on]…marijuana…charge[s]…As prosecutors began negotiating [a plea bargain]…they [decided to also] indict…his mother, father and wife…[then] offered Card a plea deal that would reduce his charges and dismiss those against his family if he forfeited the cash…He turned down the deal…[and eventually] the commonwealth’s attorney agreed to dismiss the charges and return a portion of the s[tolen] money.  “This supposed ‘offer’ was nothing more than an attempt by the Commonwealth and its agents to leverage the threat of indictment and prosecution for financial gain,” said attorney Daniel K. Robertson…the prosecutor agreed to…return Card’s [elderly]…parents’…bank account…but [kept]…$305,050 and three dozen guns [stolen from Card]…

To Molest and Rape

They try to make these cases sound like the rapist was doing his victim a favor:

A Le[cherous]…deputy sheriff…[is the target of] a federal lawsuit…filed [by]…Sabrina Adkins…Ben Fields [coerced] her [into submitting to rape]…six times late at night last year in a district judge’s chambers where he [raped] her [both] oral[ly] and [vaginally]…Adkins…was coerced and compelled to comply with Fields’ [demand]s given his “position and power and because she could not afford to pay for the ankle monitor and did not want to return to…jail.”  Fields…has not been charged criminally…

Choke Point (#1096)

Alas, useful idiots think these tyrannies are perfectly acceptable when used against people they dislike:

By invoking emergency powers and freezing the assets of…protesters, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau makes clear that civil liberties protections mean little when the government can deny you access to your money.  That financial weapon has been used…in democracies against controversial (to some) businesses and organizations…”It’s a Western version of China’s social credit system that does not altogether prohibit political dissent but makes it so costly that it becomes impractical to the ordinary citizen,” David Sacks, former PayPal COO, writes…Sacks warned that we should expect a wave of firms denying services to those who don’t share their ideology…this isn’t the first example of governments conscripting private companies against targets that otherwise enjoy legal protection.  Credit card companies have been pressured into denying services to suspected sex workers, and the U.S. federal government’s Operation Choke Point cut off gun dealers, payday lenders, and sex-oriented businesses from banking without the muss or fuss of proving any illegality…

The Last Shall Be First (#1132) 

Texas has officially lost its collective mind:

Texas…Attorney General Ken Paxton has declared all medical treatment of transgender minors to be child abuse and says that his office could prosecute parents of transgender children, as well as “mandatory reporters” who fail to report medical treatment of transgender children to the state.  In tandem…Gov[ernor and former AG] Greg Abbott has [ordered] state [“child protection” bureaucrats] to begin investigating any families that may be giving their trans kids puberty-blocking drugs or hormones, or allowing them to undergo surgical treatments…Paxton’s policy…is a rejection of transgender medical care entirely, as further evidenced by [his] concession that some types of genital surgery are “medically necessary” when they correct genetic disorders or cancer…Abbott…[also] threatens criminal penalties for anybody [with a functional moral compass] who [refuses] to [snitch on trans kids, their parents, and their doctors]…

Law of the Instrument (#1136)

Picture what you’d think of as “sex trafficking”, then compare it to this:

A school spirit club mom has been accused of having sex with nine pupils from a Tennessee school.  Melissa Blair allegedly had sexual encounters between spring 2020 and late 2021 with teenagers as young as 14…Blair is charged with solicitation of a minor, 18 counts of statutory rape…[and] four counts of human trafficking by patronizing prostitution…District attorney Steve Crump said cops want to “make the fullest amount of [political coin] possible…[out of] this, it truly is about…a headline, it’s…about trying to [posture] as much as possible, [so] our [subjects think we’re actually ‘fighting crime’]”…

To Molest and Rape (#1203)

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

[Police] chief [Thomas J. Herbst], of…Manville [New Jersey was rewarded with a paid vacation]…after a [female] employee [reported] in a civil lawsuit that he repeatedly sexually assaulted her at work and raped her at her home in a “prolonged pattern and practice of abhorrent sexual harassment” that continued for 13 years…Herbst…masturbat[ed] in front of the woman at the [cop shop]…and [molested] her…on a regular basis while he was a lieutenant…He later raped [her] approximately 10 times in the police archive room and began to regularly rape her at her home and in a hotel parking lot during her lunch hour…she was a single mother when the…assaults began and she feared losing her job…if she reported the [attacks]…She came forward now partly because she is retirement age…

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In the News (#1206)

Until somebody figures out a good way to rein-in government snoopiness, it might be better to avoid taking selfies at protests.  –  J.D. Tuccille

Thou Shalt Not (#35)

Prohibitionism is a dangerous mental illness:

Some packets of biscuits will be banned from [certain areas of] supermarkets from 2023…the new law bans [stores] from selling [foods labeled] HFSS (high in fat, sugar and salt) [by government-employed puritans from displays in] checkout areas, ends of aisles and store entrances…government…[nannies justified the new law by barfing out the phrase]…childhood obesity [while maintaining laws that keep children from healthy outdoor exercise]…a [government] study [declared that most Britons are far too stupid and weak-willed to make their own food choices, so those choices must therefore be made for them]…

Torture Chamber

If there’s one thing the US needs, it’s more sadistic rapists in the military:

…Brandon Scott Price, a [typical and representative Kentucky] prison guard, was convicted of [a misdemeanor assault charge for anally raping a chained woman]…his…judge…sentenced [him]…to [a mere] 12 months in jail…but said Price could avoid jail time if he [re-]enlisted in the military within 30 days…enlistments are subject to military regulations that would require Price to seek a waiver for his sexual-assault conviction from military officials.  The military has spent more than a decade struggling to limit sexual assault among troops…[on the way back from the hospital after she had suffered] a medical emergency…Price pulled the van…over and [anally raped] the woman…then [claimed she wanted it]…

Choke Point (#611) 

PayPal needs to be buried in similar lawsuits before this will stop:

Three PayPal users who’ve…had their accounts frozen and funds [stol]en by the company without explanation have filed a federal lawsuit against the online payment service.  The plaintiffs…are…proposing a class-action lawsuit on behalf of all other users who’ve had their accounts [similarly violated] and are seeking restitution, as well as punitive and exemplary damages.  Lena Evans…[ha]d been a PayPal user for 22 years…[when] the website s[tole] $26,984 from her account six months after…fr[eezing it] without ever telling her why…Roni Shemtov sa[w] PayPal s[teal] over $42,000 of her money and never got an acceptable [or consistent] reason for why her account was terminated…Shbadan Akylbekov…[explained that] PayPal s[tole] over $172,000 of his money without…explanation…[except] a letter that says she “violated PayPal’s User Agreement and Acceptable Use Policy”…PayPal has long angered many a user for limiting accounts and freezing their funds for six months or more.  One high-profile case was American poker player Chris Moneymaker’s who had $12,000 [stol]en from his account after six months of being limited.  Moneymaker was already in the process of asking people to join him in a class action lawsuit before his funds were “mysteriously returned”…

Blunt Instrument (#1012)

Oh look, Texas cops are staging pogroms against migrant-owned businesses; what a surprise.  The only thing even remotely unusual about this farrago of loathsome oinking, agency denial, pious bullshit and revolting bootlicking is that the violent racist psychopaths vomit out the word “trafficking” only 5 times in a 21-paragraph copaganda screed.  By contrast, the word “illicit” (a word which characterizes prohibitionist propaganda more than any other) appears 9 times.  But given that this was published (to use the most charitable word possible for this human-centipede excretion) by the Dallas Morning News, a rag so filled with prohibitionist masturbatory fantasies that it’s an embarrassment to the entire state of Texas, that actually counts as a twisted kind of progress.

I Spy (#1086) 

In mass surveillance, fascism beats communism hands down:

…[Since] social media an easy and low-cost means of gathering intelligence…cops and their private-sector contractors snoop on us…while fishing for anything of interest…instead of curbing such abuses, many politicians want more.  “Social media has become a significant source of information for U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies,” the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law noted in a report released last week…Customs and Border Protection…routinely runs the names of people of interest, including journalists and activists, through databases…For years, the FBI used Dataminr, “a third-party service that [surveills]…social media posts”…in 2019 [it switched] to ZeroFox, which offers a similar service.  Some FBI agents blamed their inability to anticipate the January 6 riot at the Capitol on the changeover…and…over the past year, law enforcement has come under pressure to engage in even more monitoring of social media because of its failure to anticipate the…riot…

Stalkers in Blue (#1180)

This disgusting article is loaded with copsucking and emotional manipulation:

A [typical and representative] NYPD [cop], who survived [a 2015 “dismissal probation” after drug paraphernalia and needles were found in his locker], was fired…after he repeatedly [sexually harassed] vulnerable women [he was] arrest[ing]…[including] wom[e]n he believed to be domestic abuse victim[s] and…sex [workers, but who]…were actually [other rolepaying cops]…investigati[ng him due to complaints]…He also used an NYPD computer to [stalk other women] …and [lied]…to [other cops]…about [his predatory behavior]…

Right from the headline on, IB Times attempts to manipulate the reader’s sympathies; the cop who repeatedly tried to get into the pants of women he arrested or “investigated” is described as a “veteran” and a “hero”.  His attempted manipulation and rape is described as “romantic”, his victims’ criminal histories are emphasized, and his other shenanigans are not mentioned until far down in the story.  It’s vile even by the standards of cop stenography.

Unsafe for Human Consumption (#1204)

Cops think they can just make up their own pharmacology and demand reality conform to it:

Fentanyl that is about 50 times more potent than “what has regularly been found and tested” in the region has been recovered in Hartford, police [lie]d…[after] find[ing] nearly 40 bags of fentanyl…[near where] a seventh-grader [overdosed.  Though the boy appears to have eaten]…the drug…a…spokesp[ig preferred to oink a bunch of weird cop fantasies about how]…“this product can be deadly to anyone coming in contact with it, including absorption through the skin…fentanyl is a poison”…

Fentanyl is a life-saving synthetic drug, no more a “poison” than any other medicine.  It cannot be absorbed through the skin, and no batch is “50 times more potent” than any other; of course, this confused oinking might be attempting to convey the claim that most heroin cut with fentanyl in Hartford is only about 2% fentanyl, whereas this was nearly pure.  But it’s difficult to tell in proximity to so many exaggerations, cop fantasies and outright lies.

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Links #599

 I will fucking shoot you.  –  Sheriff Craig Rowland

This week’s amusing holiday video was provided by reader En Passant in a comment on last week’s Links column; the first and last links above the video are from Cop Crisis, and the others from Stephen Lemons, Scott Greenfield, Lenore Skenazy, Mike Siegel, and Jesse Walker, in that order.

• Stop faking!
• R.I.P. Desmond Tutu.
• Headline of the week.
• Not a police state, no sirree!
• Better they learn the truth while young.
• Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn.
• Man paid and encouraged to to behave violently, behaves violently.

From the Archives

• All laws, even “progressive” ones, are more heavily enforced vs minorities.
• Prohibition turns bodies into “crime scenes” which cops can violate at will.
• Religious-nut cop schemes to brainwash women at remote, hidden ranch.
• In case anyone still doubts that politicians are deranged megalomaniacs.
• Swedish model fanatics won’t stop trying to impose their filth on the UK.
• Previous columns for Yule, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day & Boxing Day.
• If prohibitionists want to “rescue” whores, why keep us from other jobs?
• Does anyone other than local news fail to see what a disaster FOSTA is?
• The state only cares about imaginary perfect “sex trafficking victims”.
• If they win, it would be a powerful blow to Swedish criminalization.
• The EFF has recently emerged as one of our most powerful allies.
• This is what prohibitionists call the “failure” of decriminalization.
• A retrospective of my columns from December 2017 and 2016.
• Yet another large union declares support for sex worker rights.
• Because obviously prohibition doesn’t ruin enough lives yet.
• Cops, Arabic, paranoia, Star Trek, drugs, and much more.
• Authoritarians pretend this is more humane than prison.
• Prohibitionists care only about “messages”, not facts.
• “Peacekeeper” is just another euphemism for “cop”.
• Congress won’t stop until it controls the internet.
• Cops, trains, the sea, and much more.
• A hypocrite and a cheapskate.
• Christmas and Star Trek.
• Rapist cops of the week.
• Christmas goodies!

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In the News (#1184)

This case is important…because of…Texas’s cavalier and contemptuous mechanism for shielding from review potential violations of constitutional rights.  –  The Firearms Policy Coalition

Above the Law  

A rare case of a government functionary actually being punished for his crimes:

A [typical and representative porcine creature] will now spend life in prison himself after [raping women he was paid by the State to haul from one cage to another like livestock]…A federal judge in Little Rock, Arkansas sentenced Eric Scott Kindlay…to life in prison plus five years.  Kindlay…[ran] his own private prison transport company, signing contracts with local jails and [other government cage stacks to haul]…people who had been arrested on out-of-state warrants.  The…woman in the 2017 case testified that Kindlay [raped]…her…on a deserted stretch of road [en route from Alabama to Arizona]…in 2014…Kindlay [orally raped another woman]…after telling her that he had gotten lost.  Kindlay [attacked both]…while [they were] handcuffed.  While only two charges of sexual assault were listed on the indictment, a total of six women testified…that…for hundreds of miles…he [repeatedly] “threatened to kill them and made sexually explicit comments that escalated in intensity and depravity”…[he raped one] woman…in a park bathroom…a[nd another]…on [a] desolate hiking trail…in the middle of a snowstorm.  The individual [victims] did not apparently know that the others existed until the trial…[the] FBI…uncovered a total of 16 women who Kindlay had either harassed or assaulted from 2012 to 2017.  Eleven of these women submitted…statements…

Dysphemisms Galore (#345)

Many “sex trafficking” fetishists are also fixated on hentai:

…the web of human trafficking is a sordid saga…of dream merchants…with the connivance of traffickers, whose…illegal immigrants, once caught in these tentacles, most often succumb to…[being] deeply absorbed in the flesh trade…

Torture Chamber (#1143)

Stop faking!

Marc Crawford was booked into a Kentucky jail in May 2017.  Just shy of a month later, he left state custody in a body bag…[after] succumb[ing] to a previously diagnosed case of lung cancer, one for which state officials and health care contracting companies re[fused] to provide him basic treatment…Correct Care Solutions LLC, one of those contracting companies, refused to ensure Crawford received his scheduled chemotherapy treatments, and s[crews refused]…to give Crawford his prescriptions, took off his pain-medication patch, and put him on psychoactive medications that did not[hing to] treat his illness.  [Screws yelled “Stop faking!]…as Crawford vomited blood, and senior s[crews]…rebuffed several requests from a lower-level employee to [actually] give him [his prescribed medication]…

A Broker in Pillage (#1161)

Philadelphia has many different ways to rob its citizens:

Philadelphia’s notorious civil forfeiture program…ended in 2018 as a result of a 2014 class action lawsuit filed by the Institute for Justice…The organization…recently surveyed 407 of the 30,000 people whose property was seized under Philadelphia’s program…the median value of seized items…was just $600.  More than two-thirds…were valued at $1,800 or less.  The median value of all property seized in a single case was $1,370.  Cash seizures…involved amounts as low as $25.  The cops even [stole] “a cologne gift set worth $20″ and a pair of crutches…In three-quarters of the cases…owners were either never arrested, never charged, or never convicted.  Yet…only 43 percent of [victims]…succeeded…[in getting] their property back…at a median cost of $3,500…and…[taking] nine months on average.  Some had to wait years…”just four ZIP codes in the city’s center” accounted for 57 percent of Philadelphia forfeitures.  The median income in those neighborhoods ranged from $16,000 to $30,000…[and] residents were mainly black or Hispanic…owners of seized property also were more likely to be unemployed and to earn less than $50,000 a year.  They were less likely to have college degrees and less likely to own a home…

The Mob Rules

I wish more people understood the power of legal precedent this well:

The Firearms Policy Coalition, a national gun rights outfit, filed a friend of the court brief at the U.S. Supreme Court…in support of Whole Woman’s Health, the abortion rights group that is leading the legal fight against…the sweeping Texas anti-abortion law that recently went into effect.  “The approach used by Texas to avoid pre-enforcement review of its restriction on abortion and its delegation of enforcement to private litigants…could just as easily be used by other States to restrict First and Second Amendment rights or, indeed, virtually any settled or debated constitutional right.”  The Firearms Policy Coalition “takes no position on whether abortion should be protected by the Constitution,” the brief stated, “but believes that the judicial review of restrictions on established constitutional rights, especially those protected under this Court’s cases, cannot be circumvented in the manner used by Texas”…

I Spy (#1171)

Oh, what a surprise:

Governments were already discussing how to misuse…[cell phone] scanning technology even before Apple announced its plans…[to] scan iPhones for child sexual abuse materials…[it was obvious] that…governments [would] insist…the company scan for other types of images, and there now seems good evidence for this [despite]…Apple[‘s pretense] that it had a [magical politician-proof] safeguard in place to…prevent [governmental] misuse…such promises are impossible to keep…[because] any government could pass a law requiring tech companies to use their available capabilities (e.g., the CSAM scanning system) to look for images they say are associated with terrorism, or any type of political opposition…A group of security researchers says that the European Union [already] planned to use this technology to scan for other types of images even before Apple revealed that it had developed its own system…

Dangerous Speech (#1172)

Remember how I pointed out that the government couldn’t win this fairly?

Defense attorneys in the Lacey/Larkin case…argue in a new motion that the government willfully ignored federal Judge Susan Brnovich’s instructions during the pair’s recent trial in Phoenix.  Instead, prosecutors doubled down on false accusations of sex trafficking and child sex trafficking, goading the defense into calling for a mistrial…the motion calls on Brnovich to dismiss the case with prejudice [because] in provoking the mistrial, the prosecution violated the double jeopardy clause of the Fifth Amendment…the feds’ mistrial shenanigans were part of “a pattern of repeated and brazen government misconduct,” [intentionally] committed by “seasoned prosecutors”…And because the government has “seized virtually all of the defendants’ assets” — including money set aside for defense costs — the mistrial leaves the defendants in an “untenable” financial position…A new trial would favor the government…allowing it “a retooling of its faltering case”…

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In the News (#1181)

So many clowns.  –  an Afghan refugee expert, about the rescue industry

Do As I Say, Not As I Do

It’s always nice when filth like this feed on each other:

…Waco [Texas cop]…Willy Rafael Lopez was arrested…after…he [was tricked by another pervert cop named Joseph Scaramucci who was fantasy role-playing] as a prostitute…online…Scaramucci [has a long history of this kind of creepy behavior, and previously targeted Lopez [with] the same [trick] in 2018…[which is ironic considering that] at that time, Lopez was [playing the same disgusting game to trick others]…

For more cops eating each other, see the next item.

Droit du Seigneur (#885)

Cops fantasy role-playing pimps vs cops fantasy role-playing sex workers & clients:

NYPD [cops]…Thomas Diorio and Michael Sardone, both of [whom fancied themselves “pimps”, were tricked by fellow cops]…in a[n elaborate sex fantasy]…the two cops were convinced to come up to a hotel room to lean on…another undercover cop [playing out a stupid stereotype of a customer] who didn’t want to pay the f[ee]…The details of the sting operation [reveal the depravity of the stupid stereotypes about sex work cops usually masturbate to]…

This would be hilarious if they didn’t use these make-believe sex games to justify spying upon, robbing, raping, abducting and deporting actual sex workers.

To Molest and Rape (#940) 

Cops are just a gang of rapist thugs waiting for opportunities:

Hundreds of cases of sexual misconduct were made against [cops in] Scotland…over the last four years – yet not one resulted in dismissal…245 counts of sexual misconduct [were filed] against 166 [cops, yet every one of these dangerous sexual predators is still loose to attack more women]…The findings come as part of a wider investigation into sexual misconduct in police forces across the UK in the aftermath of Sarah Everard’s murder…by [typical and representative cop] Wayne Couzens…

Cops and Robbers (#1071) 

The rescue industry provides many opportunities for white folks to play cowboy:

…following the shambolic departure of U.S. troops [from Afghanistan]…a wide ecosystem of private citizens and groups [has appeared,] claiming to be facilitating the evacuation of both American and Afghan citizens…Many of the[se are]…making unsupported—and, in many cases, unverifiable—claims about their work in Afghanistan a[nd] raising funds off doing so.  Some of these are well-known [rescue industry]…organizations, many of them QAnon-adjacent, [which] have grown [wealthy]…in recent years by making bold, heroic claims of dubious validity about their work rescuing women and girls from sexual slavery…[th]is…troubling, widening stratum of would-be fixers and self-appointed saviors…are in [many] cases potentially imperiling the lives of people seeking to flee a war zone, [just as they’ve imperiled the lives of sex workers and migrants for decades]…”There are like 500 nonprofits raising money but not doing shit,” said one person directly involved in exfiltrating refugees…

Given that the media is finally starting to pay attention to this scam after 20 years (thanks to the Trump connection), this could also be filed under “The Implosion Begins”.

Torture Chamber (#1139)

Funny how often people “die suddenly” while cops are brutalizing them:

A 42-year-old man arrested by [Houston cops]…died suddenly [in a cage after cops beat and repeatedly]…tased [him while oinking out the words]…“combative”…[and “]open municipal warrants[“.  The cops have announced they’ll be “investigating” themselves]…

To Molest and Rape (#1168)

Notice how often predatory cops’ victims are underage?

A [typical and representative] Kentucky [cop named]…Joshua Eugene Preece [pled guilty] to [federal]…child pornography [charges in return for a maximum]…sentence of…no more than 30 years…Preece [was dispatched] to a domestic dispute between a mother and daughter in November 2018…He…offered to drive [the daugher]…to her friend’s home…[but] instead…he…stopped his [pigmobile]…near a barn, [where he molested her and demanded]…her…Snapchat username and contact information…the girl told her mother what happened and [cops rooted in]…Preece’s cellular phone [to find]…numerous “sexually explicit photographs and conversations”…with “seven self-described minors that [prosecutors were un]able to identify” between the ages of 13 and 17 and that [Preece had]…confirmed each…was underage before continuing to chat with them…Preece’s internet-based predatory behavior went on for “months if not potentially years” and was effectuated through the use of “at least two false personas–a teenage female and a teenage male,” fake identities which were used “to coerce the…minors to send explicit photographs”…

Decentralization (#1174)

Did you ever wonder why the government stopped harassing bitcoin?

…central bankers want to displace grassroots cryptocurrencies with central bank digital currencies (CBDC) of their own design that absolutely will not protect privacy, and that will let governments control private transactions…”Imagine your digital balance shrinking slowly over time to motivate rapid consumer spending,” warns Alexander William Salter, a professor of economics at Texas Tech University.  “Or the Fed blocking payments to politically disfavored businesses”…There’s really no doubt that governments dislike financial privacy and want greater ability to monitor where and how we use our money.  As I write, President Joe Biden’s proposed tax plan “will give the IRS the resources it needs to keep up with the lawyers and accountants of the super-wealthy,” insists the president…[but] the proposal…would apply to all business and personal accounts…[above] $600…I suspect that $600 is a definition of “super wealthy” that’s new to most of us…

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