Dear NCAA: My Mom Is a Sexual Assault Survivor and You Can Help
Dear NCAA,
My name is Darius Adams. I'm the son of Brenda Tracy who is a public rape survivor. It was 2010 when my mom first told me that she was raped. I was 17. We were sitting in our car in our driveway. I remember it because it was a life-changing moment for me. She didn't tell me because she wanted to. She told me because she had to. She was trying to save my life. I was out of control at the time. I was angry and broken and I didn't care if I lived or not.
I remember her crying and struggling to get the words out "I was raped." She apologized to me over and over and asked me not to hate her. "Please don't be ashamed of me. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," I still can't understand why she was apologizing to me, but after that talk, I started to see her as a different person. I saw her as someone who had been hurt, and she was just doing the best she could as a single mother with two kids. It was then that I began to turn my life around -- mostly for myself, but also for my mom. I wanted her to be proud of me. I wanted to make sure that what she went through and all the sacrifices she made for me and my brother were not in vain.
It was 2014 when my mother went public with her story. I wasn't prepared. She hadn't told me the details in 2010, but now every ugly detail was on the internet in an article by John Canzano at the Oregonian. To this day, I haven't read it all. I can't. I just can't.
What I do know is that my mom was drugged and gang-raped by four football players in 1998. I know that Oregon State University gave two of them 25 hours community service and Coach Mike Riley gave them a one-game suspension. I know that the police threw away her rape kit and the DA lied to her about her case. I know that Oregon State cared more about football and money than my mom. I know that my mom wanted to kill herself, and I know that she almost did. And all because other people decided that football, money and reputation was more important than me and my brother having a mother.
I was scared when the article first came out. I didn't know how people would react to us. Would they attack my mom? Would they say terrible things about her? Would I have to defend her? and what would I say? But a great thing happened. People reached out to us and they supported us. They expressed their love and gratitude for my mom coming forward and being brave enough to tell her story.
I was proud of her. It was the first time I saw her happy. It was like a huge weight had been lifted off of her. I've heard her say more than one time "I walked out of my prison of shame and silence that day" and she did. I could see it. Ever since then my mom has worked hard to help others. She's passed five laws in Oregon. She's won numerous awards. We just went to Washington DC where she received the National Service Courage Award from the United States Attorney General.
She also changed a Pac12 rule so that athletes with serious misconduct issues can't transfer into our conference. She's my hero. And that's why I'm writing to you. I'm a college athlete, and I watch ESPN religiously. There's a serious problem in sports. We don't take sexual violence seriously enough. Seventeen years ago Coach Mike Riley suspended the men that hurt my mom for one game and just yesterday I saw the story about Baylor. Nothing has changed. Schools are still more worried about money and football than people's lives.
I'm a grown man now. I would never hurt a woman that way and I know that most men wouldn't. Why are we protecting this small group of men? Why are we allowing them to destroy people's lives? All of these victims have families and they get hurt too. I'm still dealing with what happened to my mom.
We need to do something right now, and I think it starts with the NCAA creating a policy that bans violent athletes. Enough is enough. It's been 17 years and nothing has changed. How many more years do we have to wait for something to happen? As the NCAA you have authority over many schools. YOU can change this. These schools have proven that they are not going to do the right thing. I believe it is your responsibility to step in. And please don't do it for me or my mom. Do it because it's the right thing to do.
Sincerely,
Darius Adams
Photo: Darius Adams, Brenda Tracy, Devante Adams
___________________
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Need help? In the U.S., call 1-800-656-HOPE for the National Sexual Assault Hotline.
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77-Year-Old Congressional Candidate Busted With 180 Pot Plants
A 77-year-old congressional candidate accused of growing 180 pot plants doesn't think her political ambitions have gone up in smoke.
On May 20, police in Crossville, Tennessee, raided the home of Flo Matheson, who is running in the Democratic primary for the 6th District congressional seat.
Detectives said they became aware of an indoor grow operation on Matheson's property and obtained a search warrant, according to a department press release.
Matheson told WATE TV that authorities raided her home and a barn on her land.
They found more than 180 marijuana plants and grow equipment, according to Steve Harrington, who lives on Matheson’s property and admitted growing the pot.
Crossville police confiscated guns, cash and the pot. Matheson and Harrington said the authorities also took a generator, weed eater, pressure washer, TVs, a computer, van and a four-wheeler.
However, Harrington said except for a few easily replaceable light bulbs, the officials left all of the grow equipment.
Both Harrington and Matheson have been indicted for running a grow operation, according to the New York Daily News.
Although Matheson denies knowing about the grow operation, she admits to possessing 2 ounces of marijuana at the time of the raid.
“I smoke marijuana,” Matheson told NBC News. “I’m guilty, I did it.”
Now she hopes the indictment helps light a fire under her campaign.
“I really don’t regret that this happened,” Matheson said. "It’s been a life-changing experience for me in that it has made me more defiant and determined to try and get these laws changed.”
Still, Matheson denies having any knowledge of the growing operation, and Harrington backs her up on that.
"The only thing this woman is guilty of is helping out a homeless disabled vet who betrayed her trust," he told the Tennessean.
Before the raid, Harrington, 60, was already serving supervised probation for being involved in a growing operation.
Harrington said the weed he was growing at Matheson's home was for personal use.
Matheson maintains that the marijuana in her possession came from another friend who owed her money.
“I guess I would say I smoke it about two or three times a week,” she told NBC News.
The Congressional Democratic Primary is scheduled for Aug. 4, and Matheson said she's going to work even harder to have marijuana decriminalized.
"They have motivated me," she told the paper.
Cincinnati Gorilla Incident Prompts Criminal Investigation
By Ginny McCabe
CINCINNATI (Reuters) - Police may bring criminal charges over a Cincinnati Zoo incident in which a gorilla was killed to rescue a 4-year-old boy who had fallen into its enclosure, a prosecutor said on Tuesday.
The death of Harambe, a 450-pound (200-kg) gorilla, also prompted the animal rights group Stop Animal Exploitation Now to file a negligence complaint on Tuesday against the zoo with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The group is seeking the maximum penalty of $10,000.
The group said in its complaint letter that the child's ability to get past the barrier was proof the zoo was negligent and should be fined for a "clear and fatal violation of the Animal Welfare Act."
Mounting outrage over Saturday's killing of the Western lowland silverback, an endangered species, sparked criticism of both the zoo and the child's parents. Online petitions at change.org drew more than 500,000 signatures demanding "Justice for Harambe."
Cincinnati police are taking a second look at possible criminal charges in the incident after initially saying no one was charged. There was no indication of whether the investigation would focus on the zoo or the child's parents.
"Once their investigation is concluded, they will confer with our office on possible criminal charges," Hamilton County Prosecutor Joseph Deters said in a statement.
Witnesses said the child had expressed a desire to get into the enclosure and climbed over a 3-foot (1-meter) barrier, falling 15 feet (4.6 m) into a moat. Zookeepers took down the 17-year-old ape after he violently dragged and tossed the child, officials said.
The boy's mother said on Facebook that the boy suffered a concussion and scrapes but was otherwise fine.
Thane Maynard, director of the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Gardens, on Monday stood by the decision to shoot Harambe, saying he was not simply endangering the child but actually hurting him.
Zoo officials were not immediately available for comment on either the negligence complaint or the police investigation but said on Monday the exhibit was safe and exceeded required protocols.
The Gorilla World exhibit has been closed since the incident and will reopen on Saturday.
Looking at the incident through Harambe's eyes, his former caretaker, Jerry Stones, said in a CNN interview that the breach of his habitat was likely confusing.
"Here is this animal that has this strange thing in his house," Stones said on CNN. "He knew what adult people were but he'd never been around children. It smells similar, it looks similar but 'What is it? Do I play with it? Am I supposed to be afraid of it? What do I do?'"
Even Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump jumped into the fray at a news conference, saying, "The way he held that child, it was almost like a mother holding a baby ... It was so beautiful to watch that powerful, almost 500-pound gorilla, the way he dealt with that little boy. But it just takes one second ... one little flick of his finger."
In the wild, adult male silverbacks such as Harambe are leaders of groups of gorillas known as troops. They develop the silver patch on their coats as they mature.
(Additional reporting by Barbara Goldberg and Gina Cherelus in New York; Editing by Bill Trott)
Cincinnati Gorilla Incident Prompts Criminal InvestigationStory Behind Photo Of Cop Asleep Next To Pup He Rescued Is Doggone Sweet
One officer demonstrated that there's more to law enforcement than just fighting crime.
A photo recently shared on social media features Officer Kareem Garibaldi and a pit bull-boxer mix pup, named Hope, both snoozing at SPCA Florida in Lakeland.
The officer had found the stray puppy under his car last Saturday and rescued it, according to a Facebook post from the Lakeland Police Department. After a 12-hour shift on day three of caring for the dog, the dedicated cop brought the pooch to the SPCA to get checked out and fell asleep by her side.
Hope found a forever home the very day the moving photo was shared.
"It clearly was a selfless thing to do," Connie Johnson, SPCA shelter safety net manager, told the Dodo. "He wasn't thinking about getting home to sleep. He was thinking about what he could do to help this puppy survive."
Garibaldi initially saw the dog on the loose outside and looked around the neighborhood for its owner, the police department's post explained. Unable to find the pup's human, the officer took Hope back to the police department, where she stayed until the end of his shift when the pair went home together.
The next day, Garibaldi spread the word about the pup on social media. On the third day, with no owner in sight, Garibaldi brought the pooch to the vet at the SPCA after his shift and stayed there for over three hours while the vet examined the dog.
Johnson happened to spot Garibaldi, catching a nap, and snapped the now-famous photo.
"It was one of those moments that just grab your heart. He was so determined to get her help." Johnson told the Dodo.
Hope found her happy ending, as the pooch found a home with a dispatcher from the police station. As for the officer, well, his deed didn't go unnoticed.
"Having worked a long weekend, Officer Garibaldi still found the energy at the end of his shift to help man's best friend," the department wrote on Facebook.
'Shield' Actor Michael Jace Found Guilty Of Murder In Wife's Shooting
Michael Jace, an actor in the television drama "The Shield," was found guilty on Tuesday of second-degree murder in his wife's 2014 shooting death in Los Angeles, the county district attorney's office said.
Jace, 53, faces a sentence of 40 years to life in prison when he is sentenced on June 10, Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office spokesman Greg Risling said in an email.
The jury also found that Jace used a handgun in the crime, a special circumstance that could increase his prison time, Risling said.
Jace, whose trial began on May 23, shot to death his 40-year-old wife April on May 19, 2014, in their South Los Angeles home before calling authorities to report an emergency, prosecutors said.
The couple's two children, who were both younger than 10, were home at the time of the shooting and were placed in the care of relatives, authorities said.
The jury began deliberations late on Friday and resumed on Tuesday morning, spending a total of two to three hours considering the case before reaching the verdict, Risling said. Second-degree murder is an intentional killing that was not premeditated.
"The Shield" was a police drama set in Los Angeles that ran from 2002 to 2008.
Poland Trying To Extradite Roman Polanski Over 1977 Child Sex Conviction
Poland has renewed its efforts to extradite director Roman Polanski over his 1977 child sex conviction.
Zbigniew Ziobro, justice minister and prosecutor general, is working to appeal a court decision to not force Polanski back to the U.S. to face justice after being "accused of and wanted for ... a rape of a child," according to The Hollywood Reporter. Polanski pleaded guilty to "unlawful sexual intercourse" with a 13-year-old girl in California almost 40 years ago, but escaped to Europe before his sentencing.
Ziobro said the judge in Krakow, Dariusz Mazur, “assessed the gathered evidence in a biased and selective way" back in October when he decided against extradition, calling it “obviously unlawful” and said the director wouldn't get humane treatment in California, The New York Times reported.
“If he was just a regular guy, a teacher, doctor, plumber, decorator, then I’m sure he’d have been deported from any country to the U.S. a long time ago,” Ziobro said.
Polanski, 82, who currently lives in France and has an apartment in Krakow, was accused of giving the then 13-year-old Samantha Geimer champagne and part of a Quaalude pill before having sex with her at Jack Nicholson's house during a photo shoot.
Geimer published a memoir in 2013 titled The Girl and described the impact fame can have on an individual.
"I didn't want to have sex, but apparently that is what was going to happen," she wrote, adding: "You know, there's something about fame. There just is. I mean, think about the kids who had sleepovers at Michael Jackson's house and all the accusations that followed. Think about their parents. Were they bad or stupid people? No. They just wanted to believe that being famous made you good."
Last year, Polanski said he had "nothing more to say" about the case.
Poland Trying To Extradite Roman Polanski Over 1977 Child Sex ConvictionGovernor Cuomo and Legislature Must Show Leadership on Abuse
I have spent much of my life fighting for the protection of kids, teenagers, and the underdog. All too often I encounter young people whose lives were ruined by the scourge of sexual abuse which harms their self-esteem and ability to thrive and function as adults. It's our responsibility to take every measure possible to hold abusers accountable and send a strong message to institutions that fail to stop abuse.
Legislation in the State Assembly, known as the Markey bill, would eliminate New York's civil statute of limitations (currently absurdly capped at age 23) for crimes involving child sexual abuse going forward and create a one-year window for victims to file claims regardless of the elapsed time. The bill, sponsored by Assemblywoman Margaret Markey of Queens, has been proposed seven times previously, and now seemingly has enough supporters to pass the lower house. It could pick up even more support for passage with some strong advocacy from the state's chief executive.
State Senators recently proposed a similar bill that would additionally remove a current requirement that those seeking to sue a public institution, such as a school, file a claim within 90 days. This would make public and private institutions equally accountable.
I discussed the topic and the Markey bill with the Governor over two years ago. He was very versed in the bill and was clearly in agreement to numerous parts of the bill conceptually.
But until recently Gov. Andrew Cuomo was playing his cards close to the vest on this, making vague public statements about protecting victims without commenting on the Markey bill.
After sustained pressure from abuse survivors and their substantial community of supporters, the governor finally agreed to support some reforms mentioned in the two bills.
This is an incredibly important issue and we are serious about addressing the situation," a Cuomo spokesman told The New York Daily News. "We have been discussing options with the Legislature ..."
The governor is showing that he gets that it often takes abuse victims years, with the help of supporters and therapists to come to terms with the grievousness of their trauma. In many cases, they sadly tend to place their own welfare second to that of the abuser.
It remains to be seen if he will back a one-year window for those already stuck behind the statute of limitations for seeking redress for long-ago abuse.
Perhaps it's the governor's style to avoid too much comment on a bill that has not yet reached his desk, and still must be hammered out between legislators in both houses. But this is no ordinary bill. Lives are literally at stake. I have seen too many people fatally destroy their lives because of abuse, and so have all the activists who have pushed for this bill.
New York has been an activist state in many areas, such as marriage equality and gun control, and must not take a back seat on this issue. Some powerful interests oppose the bill because they fear a torrent of lawsuits that could pose an existential threat. But I am more worried about the existential threat to victims, and so should political leaders.
The Markey bill would put institutions on notice that looking the other way and failing to take strong, necessary action when there are signs of abuse by an employee or representative is dangerous. It would also send a strong compassionate message to victims that we as a society want them to come forward for healing and justice and that we will have their backs when they do so.
Hopefully the message will also trickle down to would-be abusers that they can't take advantage of children and perpetrate their depraved acts and expect to get away with it, and that they should get help for their compulsions. A pedophile who gets away with his or her first crime is likely to continue with over 100 more victims, making it crucial that they be stopped at the earliest juncture.
Should we be concerned that institutions could face an insurmountable cascade of lawsuits, some of them involving former, perhaps temporary employees, incurring legal expenses that impede their ability to function? Yes, but the burden of proof on the accuser remains high. Experienced investigators and prosecutors know how to detect false claims, which are very rare in the first place given the stigma attached to sexual abuse.
I hope we can be confident that our system of laws and courts can weed out false claims and uphold the rights of victims to come forward and seek justice, no matter how long it has taken them to muster the support and courage.
There are only a few session days left before the June 16 end of the legislative session. Too much is at stake to wait until the next session.
If Governor Cuomo and other members of the Legislature have concerns about this matter let him air them in the marketplace of ideas and seek changes in the final version of the bill.
But sitting on his hands and avoiding the subject isn't an option for a leader. His words in support of this bill must translate into action, now.
About the author:
Eli Verschleiser is a financier, real estate developer, and investor in commercial real estate. In his Philanthropy, Mr. Verschleiser is a board member of the American Jewish Congress, Co-Founder of Magenu.org, & President of OurPlace, a non-profit organization that provides support, shelter, and counseling for troubled Jewish youth. Mr. Verschleiser is a frequent commentator on political and social services matters. Follow: @E_Verschleiser
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Racial Disparities Continue Under California's Marijuana Enforcement
Hakeem Brown is unique. In the state of California, where black owned cannabis businesses are rare, Hakeem Brown owned and managed a licensed medical cannabis dispensary in Vallejo from 2009-2012, when it was shut down as part of a multi dispensary raid. The raid was deemed unlawful and the city was required to return the money seized during the police action. Brown used this money to open up a new garden to grow for patients in Napa. This garden was raided and Brown was arrested for possession with intent to distribute despite possessing documentation confirming the medical nature of the garden. For four years the case has dragged on, with the judge limiting the ways in which those who were Brown's patients can testify on his behalf.
Stories like Hakeem Brown's are too common in a state that has allowed medical cannabis use for decades and is known for its lassie-faire attitude about cannabis. In fact, cannabis remains illegal in California, but you wouldn't know it by witnessing its flourishing industry. The cannabis culture on display in incubators and expo halls is a far cry from what is happening on the streets of the Golden State, where in 2014, there were over 13,000 felony arrests for cannabis, with black and Latino people overrepresented among them.
Cannabis has been a non-incarcerable offense in California since the 1970s, and possession of less than an ounce has not been an arrestable offense since then. However, the subjectivity of "possession", vs. "possession with intent to distribute" enables police to use "evidence" such as an empty baggie or a certain amount of cash to take a non-arrestable offense and flip it to a potential felony. Or, as in the case of Hakeem Brown, claim that cannabis grown for medical purposes is simply a front for illegal dealing. In the city of Oakland, black people comprise 25% of the population yet 78% of those arrested for possession with intent to distribute. On the other hand, white people comprise 35% of the population and only 8% of those arrested for possession with intent to distribute.
The racially disparate policing of cannabis crimes is not new information. Multiple reports have highlighted this pervasive practice. In 2011, then-Governor Schwarzenegger passed a law moving simple possession of an ounce or less to an infraction. Now considered on par with a traffic ticket, guilty parties simply had to pay a fine, no court appearance, no criminal record. However, this change in penalty classification also came with downsides. Now data on marijuana possession offenses are no longer collected at the state level, which means it is now much more difficult to measure whether unequal enforcement persists after marijuana possession was reduced to an infraction. Additionally, as with traffic court, the fees added onto the fine can be hefty and can be more burdensome for some to pay than others.
In a collaboration between the Drug Policy Alliance and the ACLU of California, racial data on who is getting infractions were obtained from the cities of Los Angeles and Fresno and analyzed to determine whether there were racial disparities in marijuana possession enforcement. Data collected from Los Angeles and Fresno show that blacks were respectively cited for marijuana possession infractions 4 and 3.6 times more often than whites. The disparity is worse than the rates at which blacks were arrested for simple possession of marijuana prior to 2011, when possession was a misdemeanor offense. In 2010, black were 2.2 times more likely than whites to be arrested for marijuana possession. Latinos were cited for marijuana possession infractions 1.4 time in Los Angeles and 1.7 times in Fresno more often than whites. It is likely that these disparities are actually greater. California has a long history of data collection challenges regarding Latinos, who are often classified by law enforcement officers as white and thus undercounted.
Most marijuana possession citations are issued to young people in both jurisdictions, particularly in Los Angeles. The mean age for those receiving marijuana infractions is 26.58 years old in Los Angeles and 28.82 years old in Fresno. In both cities, the majority of marijuana possession infractions were issued to individuals 29 years of age and younger.
Hakeem Brown was lucky. He was found not guilty at his trial in April. While he was fighting for his freedom, others were planning for the green rush. The infraction and arrest data in California show that there is a bigger issue at stake than industry. The harms of cannabis prohibition persist in California, and they do so most for young people of color.
The Adult Use of Marijuana Act, which will give California voters the opportunity to legalized regulated marijuana this November, allows those in jail for marijuana offenses that will no longer be punishable by arrest to petition for release, and for those on probation or parole to have their records expunged. It also allows those with drug felonies to not only work in the industry but to be business owners. It's far past time to stop the bleeding of prohibition that has been centered in our most vulnerable communities, and legalize cannabis in California. Once we move cannabis into a regulated market, we can slowly dress the wound left by decades of disparate enforcement by making a place in the industry for those like Hakeem Brown who have been on the front lines and have the scars to show for it.
Amanda Reiman is the manager of marijuana law and policy for the Drug Policy Alliance.
This piece first appeared on the Drug Policy Alliance Blog: http://ift.tt/n9SOAD
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Ex-MySpace, Tumblr Users Should Change Their Passwords Now
Your old social media accounts are back to haunt you.
Email addresses and passwords for MySpace accounts created before June 11, 2013, have been "made available" on a hacker forum, the social network said Tuesday. Tumblr logins from around the same time have also been posted, but those passwords are "salted and hashed," which means they're harder for a hacker to actually use.
If you’re not in the habit of updating passwords, now might be the time to start. Using the same password on multiple sites leaves you vulnerable when breaches like this happen. For example, if your Gmail password matches an old MySpace one, a bad actor could now gain access to your inbox and all of the private information stored within it.
The revelations come after LinkedIn announced this month that more than 100 million accounts were potentially compromised as a result of hacking.
The best practice is to use a unique password for every account you create online. And you should enable two-factor authentication when you can -- meaning you'll also have to input a separate password sent to a standalone device (like your mobile phone) when you log into a service for the first time.
To get a sense of whether your data is at risk, take a look at "have I been pwned?" It's a website that cybersecurity expert Troy Hunt compiled, which checks your email address against known breaches.
The example above used my personal email address. Unbeknownst to me, my data had potentially been exposed by a "Lord of the Rings Online" breach; frustrating since I only played the game a couple of times.
That's a helpful reminder, though. While online services can feel so quick and ephemeral, the data they generate is basically permanent.
H/T BBC
Former Miss Turkey Sentenced To 14 Months For Insulting President Erdogan
ANKARA, May 31 (Reuters) - A former Miss Turkey was handed a 14-month suspended prison sentence on Tuesday for insulting President Tayyip Erdogan through a poem she shared on Instagram, the latest of at least a dozen Turks to face such a sentence.
An Istanbul court found model Merve Buyuksarac, 27, guilty of insulting a public official but suspended the sentence on condition she does not repeat the act for the next five years, local media said.
Insulting the president is a crime punishable by up to four years in jail in Turkey. The law was used infrequently until Erdogan won the presidency in August 2014, since which time prosecutors have opened more than 1,800 cases for insulting him, including against cartoonists, journalists and teenagers.
Prosecutors are also pursuing a case against a German comedian who mocked Erdogan on German television.
Buyuksarac, who was crowned Miss Turkey in 2006, was briefly detained last year for sharing the poem on Instagram in 2014. It was called "the Master's Poem" and referred to a high-level Turkish corruption scandal in 2014.
Investigation Underway After Alligators Found Eating Human Body In Canal
A pair of fishermen made a gruesome discovery Monday when they found two alligators feasting on a human body in a southeast Florida canal, police said.
Officers responded with assault rifles and gator trappers after getting a 911 call from the fishermen around 6 p.m. near the Everglades, Davie police told the Sun Sentinel.
Authorities initially were unable to identify the sex of the body, and they approximated that it had been in the water for at least a few days. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation has since identified the body as a man.
Exactly how the individual died remains unknown, but the Broward County Medical Examiner is conducting an investigation, the Sentinel reported.
“What happened to them? How did they end up here? Could it be a homicide, could it be a suicide, could it be natural, a fisherman? We don’t know. That’s what the next step is to figure that out,” Police Sgt. Pablo Castaneda told CBS Miami.
Requests for comment from police, the Fish and Wildlife Conservation and the medical examiner were not immediately returned.
Watch A Guy Pay His Speeding Ticket With 22,000 Pennies
Authorities get more than a penny for this guy's thoughts.
A peeved Texas man paid his speeding ticket fine by dumping about 22,000 pennies on the counter at Frisco Municipal Court recently.
"When my fine came due, I just decided I may as well pay with pennies and we'll make a big spectacle of it," Brett Sanders told the NBC affiliate in Dallas-Fort Worth.
Sanders' "protest" transaction was approaching a million views on Tuesday morning after he posted it to YouTube on May 22.
"You're in luck," he tells the clerk as he approaches holding large buckets. "I have exact change."
He then dumps the contents onto the counter, and they spill on to the floor. "Just mail me the receipt," he says and walks away.
"I'm not a big fan of extortion," Sanders wrote in the YouTube description. "I was convicted by a jury for driving 39 in a 30 and was subject to $212 at the barrel of a gun."
It took clerks three hours to count the pennies after taking them to Coinstar locations round the city, according to NBC,
In the end, Sanders had overpaid by $7.81, the New York Daily News reported, so the city owes him.
Hmm, we have an idea of how the court can pay him back.
Here's the video in full:
Watch A Guy Pay His Speeding Ticket With 22,000 PenniesNauru Legalizes Homosexuality, Criminalizes Marital Rape And Slavery
lundi 30 mai 2016
BANGKOK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The tiny Pacific island nation of Nauru has legalized homosexuality, replacing its century-old criminal code with a new law that also criminalizes slavery and broadens the definition of rape to apply to married and unmarried couples.
In addition, the Crimes Act 2016 decriminalizes suicide, which became an issue after refugees deported from Australia to a controversial Nauru detention center committed or attempted suicide.
Nauru announced on Friday that the Crimes Act 2016 would replace the Nauruan Criminal Code of 1899. The government's decision to decriminalize homosexuality and suicide - in compliance with obligations under international treaties - showed "progressive leadership," it said.
Edmund Settle, policy advisor for the United Nations Development Programme in Bangkok, praised Nauru for setting "a positive example in the Pacific region".
"The government of Nauru has demonstrated leadership in protecting sexual and gender minorities from violence and discrimination," Settle said by email.
With a population of about 10,000 living on a 21-sq km (8 sq mile) island, around a third the size of Manhattan, Nauru has been in the media spotlight over its agreement with Australia to take in asylum seekers intercepted while trying to reach Australian shores.
The Nauru detention center houses about 500 asylum seekers and has been criticized by the United Nations and human rights groups for harsh conditions and reports of systemic child abuse. Many staying there have self-harmed.
Last month, an Iranian man pleaded guilty to the offense of attempted suicide and was given a 12-month suspended sentence.
An activist said that a Bangladeshi refugee on Nauru who died of heart failure earlier this month had committed suicide by overdosing on pills.
Besides removing suicide and homosexuality as crimes, the new law identifies the following offences and provisions:
* Mitigates the crime of murder when a mother kills her infant as a result of suffering post-natal stress.
* Maintains abortion as an offense when not carried out as part of a "lawful medical procedure."
* Broadens the definition of rape to apply to married and non-married couples.
* Criminalizes forced labor, debt bondage or serfdom,including parents or guardians who allow a child to be placed under the control of another person or force a child to marry in exchange for material benefit.
Nauru Legalizes Homosexuality, Criminalizes Marital Rape And SlaveryPolice Arrest Two Men In Brazil Gang-Rape Case
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Police in Rio de Janeiro said on Monday they are certain a 16-year-old girl was gang raped earlier this month, but added that it will be hard to prove her allegation that she was assaulted by more than 30 men.
Two suspects in the case, which came to light after a video of the May 21 incident was posted to Twitter almost a week ago, shocking Brazilians, were placed in custody on Monday, authorities said. Arrest warrants are pending for four others.
In the clip, the semi-conscious naked girl is seen on a bed as men hurl insults and boast that 30 people had raped her. At one point, a man is seen touching her genitals.
"I am convinced there was a rape, it's right there in the video, when the guy touched the girl," lead investigator Cristiana Bento said in a news conference.
"The rape is proven," Bento said. "What I want to do now is verify the extent of this rape and how many people took part."
Her remark was the first time police have definitively stated the girl, who has not been identified, was raped. Previously, they had said there were all indications that a rape had occurred but that they needed more proof.
Authorities said a medical exam of the victim was only performed five days after the incident, hindering their ability to gather physical evidence that would lead to additional suspects and arrests.
DRUG GANG
The case has sparked a debate over sexism and violence in Brazil and raised security concerns ahead of Rio's hosting of the Summer Olympics in August. Crime has fallen in recent years in Rio, though there has been a recent increase in homicides.
The video, which was posted by one of the suspects, was widely shared across social media, prompting widespread outrage and igniting protests in several cities that continued Monday.
Some people, however, have focused their blame on the girl, with Bento noting that "she is being victimized by people judging her because she may have dressed in a certain way."
Protesters chanted "there was no rape" and held placards stating the same thing during a small demonstration at a bus stop near the western Rio slum where the girl said the gang rape occurred.
Police scattered the crowd with pepper spray.
The O Globo newspaper posted on its website an audio sent via the Whatsapp messaging service in which an alleged member of the drug gang that controls the slum is heard ordering residents to attend the demonstration.
Bento, the investigator, said she is certain drug gang members were involved in raping the girl. She noted that police have an arrest warrant for Sergio Silva, the local head of the Red Command gang in the slum.
One suspect, 22-year-old Rai Souza, turned himself into police on Monday, authorities said. A second, 20-year-old local professional soccer player Lucas Perdomo, was arrested.
The girl at the center of the case is now under state protection and she and her family intend to leave Rio, officials said.
Brazil's Justice Minister Alexandre Moraes, visiting Rio for a meeting about Olympic security, said he would put the girl and her family in the federal government's witness protection program, should they want it.
(Additional reporting by Rodrigo Viga Gaier; Editing by Paul Simao)
Police Arrest Two Men In Brazil Gang-Rape CaseCar Plunges Off 200-Foot Sea Cliff On Hawaii's Hana Highway
A car plunged off a 200-foot cliff on the Hawaiian island of Maui Sunday afternoon, killing one woman and critically injuring another.
The incident occurred at approximately 4:41 p.m. near mile marker 48 of the Hana Highway on the island's east shore, according to Maui Now. The Ford Explorer initially crashed into a rock wall on the coastal side of the highway, then plunged off the cliff, falling onto a ledge of lava rock.
Emergency responders pulled the victims from the vehicle and pronounced one of the women dead upon arrival, reports KHON2. The other woman was airlifted to Maui Memorial Medical Center in critical condition.
Car Plunges Off 200-Foot Sea Cliff On Hawaii's Hana HighwayMan Accused Of Driving Through Memorial Day Cross Display
A 27-year-old man is accused of trashing a Memorial Day cross display in Henderson, Kentucky over the weekend.
Anthony Burrus allegedly drove a Ford Thunderbird through a field of white, plastic crosses set up inside the city's Central Park to honor more than 5,000 residents who died while serving their country.
Witnesses called police to the scene shortly before 6 a.m. on Saturday. Upon arrival, officers found 160 damaged crosses, each worth $100.
Volunteers from the Henderson Fire Department and the American Legion banded together to restore 140 of the crosses to their rightful places, WFIE reported. Twenty crosses were completely destroyed, and it was unclear if they would be replaced in time for the Memorial Day service on Monday.
The Henderson Police Department took to Facebook on Saturday to issue a series of appeals for information about the incident. The first (above) revealed the crash damage. Then they released surveillance video showing what was believed to be the vehicle used in the incident:
"It appears to be a late '70s model car, possibly dark blue, and may have t-tops. Ford Thunderbird?" the post stated, before asking citizens to contact cops with any possible tips.
On Saturday night, the department revealed it had made an arrest in connection with the case:
Burrus was arrested for criminal mischief and leaving the scene of an accident. He is currently being held at Henderson County Detention Center, in lieu of $2,500 bond.
His vehicle was found abandoned outside a McDonald's restaurant. Pieces of a cross and a stake were found embedded in the tires, police said.
Henderson Police Department spokeswoman Jennifer Richmond said the incident had "upset the entire community."
"This is something you don't do. This is a form of desecration," Richmond told The Associated Press. "These people served their country and then someone disrespected their memory in this way, and it's just totally unacceptable."
Police aren't sure whether Burrus drove over the crosses on purpose, and said he denies all knowledge of the incident.
"He said he didn't do it. He admitted to driving the vehicle in the morning but would not state that he drove through the park," Richmond added. "But the evidence is in his car tires."
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Mexican Soccer Star Rescued After Kidnapping
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Mexican authorities say soccer player Alan Pulido, a forward with Olympiacos in the Greek league, has been rescued safe and sound after an hours-long kidnapping in the northeast border state of Tamaulipas.
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Mexican Soccer Star Rescued After Kidnapping'Random' Shooting Rampage In Houston Leaves Two Dead, Six Wounded
dimanche 29 mai 2016
May 29 (Reuters) - Police in Houston killed a gunman on Sunday in a chaotic shootout that left one other person dead, six wounded - including two officers - and set off a fire at a nearby gas station when bullets struck a gas pump, authorities said.
Witnesses reported that a gunman approached a man who had just pulled up to an auto detail shop and opened fire with a pistol, police spokesman John Cannon said.
"It appears that it was a random, unprovoked attack," Cannon said. The victim, a male in his 50s, died, he said.
The gunman fired on the first officer to respond to the scene, riddling his car with bullets, including many that struck the windshield, Cannon said. At least five shots also struck a police helicopter, he said,
The officer escaped injury and called for help. A shootout ensued with arriving officers before a SWAT team member shot the suspect dead at about 11:10 a.m., about an hour after police arrived at the scene, Cannon said. Two constables were wounded, not seriously, one struck in the hand and other in his bulletproof chest vest, he said.
A second person, still considered a possible suspect, was also shot, possibly by the primary shooter, Cannon said. He was interviewed at the hospital to give police his version of what happened, Cannon said.
Three other people, believed to be innocent victims, were also wounded but not seriously, officials said.
Bullets from the shootout struck a gas pump at a station next to the detail shop, triggering a fire that left the station building charred, Cannon said.
Police do not know the motives behind the shootings and are seeking the public's help.
"We are trying to piece all of this together," acting Houston Police Chief Martha Montalvo said. "It's still a very ongoing investigation."
The gunman had both a pistol and a rifle, police said.
"Obviously they had a high-powered rifle," Montalvo said. "We believe one of them had an AR-15."
The shooting occurred in west Houston, adjacent to a residential area, just east of the Sam Houston Tollway, a major highway dissecting the Texas city. (Reporting By Frank McGurty in New York and Kevin Murphy in Kansas City; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Phil Berlowitz)
'Random' Shooting Rampage In Houston Leaves Two Dead, Six WoundedStoned Man Calls Cops After Mistaking Dog Bite For Gunshot Wound
Truth proved to be stranger than fiction when police in Texas were called to a reported shooting on Thursday.
The alleged victim told the first cop to arrive on the scene at his mobile home in Groesbeck, 40 miles east of Waco, that he'd been shot in his left buttock while sitting on the porch.
But after a brief investigation, the Groesbeck Police Department officer realized that wasn't actually the case:
Instead, it emerged the man had been smoking marijuana on the porch when a thunderstorm passed over. His dog spooked and nipped him in the butt.
"He believed he'd been shot and subsequently called the police," Groesbeck Police Department Chief Chris Henson wrote in a Facebook post, which he said he hoped would "quell the rumor concerning a reported shooting."
The exact breed of dog has not been revealed. The unidentified man was treated at the scene by emergency medical services and later released.
Petersburg National Battlefield Hit By Looters Seeking Civil War Relics
samedi 28 mai 2016
By Frank McGurty
(Reuters) - Looters ripped up parts of Virginia's Petersburg National Battlefield in an apparent search for relics from a siege that led to the end of the American Civil War in 1865, the National Park Service said ahead of the Memorial Day weekend.
Thieves dug a series of small pits looking for artifacts from the Union Army's nine-month blockade of Richmond and the neighboring city of Petersburg, targeting a field where more than 1,000 Union and Confederate soldiers died, the agency said.
The looters were likely to have found uniform buttons, buckles, bullets and other small metal objects that are difficult to trace, Chris Bryce, chief of interpretation and visitor services at the battlefield, told Reuters on Saturday.
The blockade, led by General Ulysses S. Grant, cut off supply lines to Richmond after the Union commander failed to capture the capital city of the breakaway Confederate states in 1864. The siege led to the surrender of General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, ending the bloodiest conflict in U.S. history.
"This kind of aberrant behavior is always disgusting but it is particularly egregious as Memorial Day weekend arrives, a time when we honor the memories of our friends and family," said Lewis Rogers, superintendent of Petersburg National Battlefield, in the statement posted on Friday.
Numerous excavations in parts of the 2,700-acre park were discovered by staff this week, and the area remained an active crime scene. Unaffected sections of the sprawling park remained open to visitors, it said.
Bryce said the theft of battlefield relics hampers the work of historians by destroying archeological clues.
"Even if we recover the artifacts, we lost context in which they were found," he said.
Looting of such sites is a federal crime carrying a penalty of up to two years in prison and a $20,000 fine, the service said.
(Reporting By Frank McGurty in New York; Editing by David Gregorio)
Petersburg National Battlefield Hit By Looters Seeking Civil War RelicsWWII Plane That Crashed In Hudson River Was Attempting Emergency Landing
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The pilot of a World War Two-era plane killed in a crash in the Hudson River off Manhattan on Friday evening was trying to execute an emergency landing, the museum that owned the vintage aircraft said.
The P-47 Thunderbolt crashed just south of the George Washington Bridge. The New York Police Department identified a body recovered from the plane as that of William Gordon, 56, of Key West, Florida. Police would not comment on a cause of death.
Brendan McDermid / Reuters
The American Airpower Museum, which owned the plane, said in a statement on Facebook on Saturday that Gordon was an "extraordinary" aviator who brought the plane down in a "forced emergency landing" on the Hudson.
Gary Lewi, a spokesman for the museum in Farmingdale, New York, told Long Island newspaper Newsday that the aircraft's engine failed during the flight.
Witnesses told CNN they saw the pilot struggling to get out of the cockpit after the aircraft struck the water.
An investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board is underway.
The FAA said the plane was one of three aircraft that took off from Republic Airport in Farmingdale. The other two safely returned to the airport. Local media reported the planes were flying as part of a promotional shoot.
The crash took place during Fleet Week, a week-long celebration of the U.S. military's seafaring service members. A dozen police and fire rescue boats adorned with flashing blue lights trawled the river Friday night in a search for the plane.
On Saturday, a boat with a crane hoisted up the plane and carried it to a dock in Lower Manhattan, said Nancy Silvestri, a spokeswoman for the New York City Office of Emergency Management.
The crash occurred near where the pilot of a U.S. Airways jetliner executed a perfect water landing in January 2009 after striking a flock of birds and losing power in both engines. All 155 passengers and crew survived that incident, which was dubbed the "Miracle on the Hudson."
(Reporting by Frank McGurty in New York, Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles and Curtis Skinner in San Francisco; Editing by Paul Simao)
How 3 Badass Women Stopped An Alleged Rape Attempt
People of the internet are celebrating a tale of three women who allegedly headed off an apparent rape attempt, according to a viral Facebook post by one of the women.
Sonia Ulrich wrote that she and two other women -- Monica Kenyon and Marla Saltzer -- were at the Santa Monica, California restaurant FIG Thursday night when Kenyon witnessed a man placing a suspicious-looking substance in his date's drink while she was in the bathroom.
Ulrich says followed the woman into the bathroom and told her what they saw. While she expected to hear that the man and woman recently met, she was shaken to learn the man was one of the woman’s “best friends.”
The women alerted the management, which led to restaurant security reviewing footage that caught him in the act, the post says. Ulrich described the eerie feeling while Fig employees stalled before police showed up:
The poor woman had to sit through 40 more minutes, sitting across from "one of her best friends" knowing that he was trying to drug her. Marla noticed him several times chinking his glass to hers to get her to drink. She played it cool. Mostly, I believed, just stunned. The staff wanted to jump in and dump the glass, dump him, do something! I was going through fantasies of walking up and demanding he drink the tainted glass of wine. Eventually, they finished up dinner. There was a delay getting their bill "The computer is down" is what the waiter kept saying to him. Then, in walks Santa Monica PD. They say "Come with us" and he doesn't protest. Doesn't ask why. Doesn't seem surprised.
It ended up being a good thing that the staff didn't dump the glass, since police took it away to use as evidence, according to Ulrich.
But one of the most moving — and disturbing — parts of the story was how many other people in the restaurant thanked the women, having been close to sexual assault themselves:
From every table In our section, from through out the restaurant, people came by to thank us for taking action.
"It happened to my sister...I'm glad I was there to take her home."
"It happened to my roommate at a producer's party. He's still messed up from it."
"It happened to me. At a backyard barbecue."
"It happened to me. At a bar I worked at."
"Some Heroes don't wear capes. Thank you. It happened to me. Thank you."
"Fuck yeah you guys! You fuckin rock!"
At least 10 stories of being personally affected [by] someone like this. Something like this. Those were only the ones who knew what went down. I am sure there were tons more stories through out the restaurant and the hotel.
Santa Monica Police Lieutenant Saul Rodriguez confirmed to The Huffington Post that they arrested 24-year-old Michael Hsu on charges of intent to commit rape and drugging with the intent to commit rape. He is being held on $1 million bail, and his arraignment is on Tuesday, Rodriguez said.
He said that three witnesses reported seeing the man put an unidentified substance in a woman's drink.
"We appreciate those witnesses came forward," Rodriguez said. "It could have prevented a serious crime from taking place."
A woman who answered the phone at Fig said she was not allowed to comment on the Facebook post. But earlier on Saturday, a woman at Fig told Jezebel that everything in the post was true.
People can be weirdly hesitant about intervening in a potential assault -- partially because they misunderstand rape.
“Sexual assaults and rapes are often not considered ‘real rapes’ by victims, friends, family, or the criminal justice system unless they involved force, violence, and were committed by a stranger with a weapon,” criminal justice professor Sarah Nicks told HuffPost last year. “So when a bystander is aware of a sexual assault, they may not see it as a problem or an emergency, due to the social norms of their group and setting. They may look around for cues to see if others define it as an emergency, and seeing none, do nothing.”
That’s part of the reason why many colleges are increasingly focused on bystander intervention as a means of preventing rape. But in the meantime, know that stepping in if you see something suspicious can really make a huge difference.
'Glee' Actor Mark Salling Indicted On Child Pornography Charges
On Friday, a federal grand jury indicted former "Glee" star Mark Salling on two counts of possessing child pornography, according to TMZ.
Salling was arrested for possession of child pornography in December 2015 after Crime Watch Daily reported that the Los Angeles Police Department's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Unit seized the actors laptop and found "hundreds" of images on it.
TMZ added that, in addition to the photos (which featured minors under the age of 12), there were also multiples videos.
This isn't the 33-year-old's first brush with the law, as he settled a $2.7 million lawsuit for a sexual battery incident involving his ex-girlfriend in 2015.
The Huffington Post has reached out to Salling's rep and will update this post accordingly.
'Glee' Actor Mark Salling Indicted On Child Pornography ChargesJudge Handcuffs Defense Attorney In Court To Teach Her 'A Lesson' For Speaking Out
A Las Vegas judge this week ordered a deputy public defender to be placed in handcuffs and seated next to inmates in court, saying he wanted to teach her "a lesson" about courtroom etiquette. But legal experts say it's the judge who may actually need a lesson in decorum.
On Monday, an irritated Justice of the Peace Conrad Hafen told Clark County Deputy Public Defender Zohra Bakhtary to "be quiet" as she tried to defend her client and keep him from serving a six-month jail sentence for violating probation, the Las Vegas Review-Journal first reported. As Bakhtary continued speak out in defense of her client, Hafen exploded and ordered a marshal to place Bakhtary in handcuffs and seat her in the jury box next to inmates.
Hafen told the Review-Journal that it's not "proper decorum" to talk over or interrupt in court. But Bakhtary told The Huffington Post that it was Hafen who first interrupted her while she was in the middle of defending her client. Here's the court transcript from the incident:
MS. BAKHTARY: But there has to be some leniency in this department.
THE COURT: No, there doesn't just.
MS. BAKHTARY: There has to be some indicative circumstance --
THE COURT: No. No, there doesn't. Let me show you the leniency. Just so everybody in the courtroom understands the leniency that was provided to the defendant. Okay? I'm going to take a few minutes and we're going to explain everything because I'm going to debunk this theory of yours. Okay, Zohra? Just so everybody knows, this defendant was charged with a felony and a gross misdemeanor. Okay?
MS. BAKHTARY: Judge, I would ask the Court not to --
THE COURT: Zohra, be quiet.
MS. BAKHTARY: Judge, you're asking --
THE COURT: Zohra --
MS. BAKHTARY: You're making --
THE COURT: Do you want to be found in contempt?
MS. BAKHTARY: Judge, you're asking --
THE COURT: Zohra, be quiet. Now. Not another word.
MS. BAKHTARY: Judge, you're --
THE COURT: Travis, right now. I'm tired of it. Right now. (Whereupon, Ms. Bakhtary was taken into custody.)
Hafen claimed to the Review-Journal that Bakhtary had exhibited "a progression" of unprofessional behavior in the courtroom for some time, and that he'd been "trying to work with her" but believed she didn't "understand" him. So he ordered her to be restrained.
"We went on with the rest of the calendar, and everything was fine," Hafen said.
Hafen ended up sentencing Bakhtary's client to six months in jail.
Bakhtary says she's appeared in Hafen's courtroom at the Regional Justice Center about once a week for about three years since joining the public defender's office, and that she's never acted unprofessionally. She told HuffPost that Hafen's decision to handcuff her and speak out against her professionalism was "extremely offensive."
“Every day I zealously represent my clients," Bakhtary said. "Every individual who goes through our criminal justice system has a constitutional right to effective assistance of counsel. It is a frightening day when a lawyer is locked up for fighting on behalf of her clients and their rights. The Court's constitutional duty is to listen to arguments, not silence them.”
Hafen did not immediately respond to HuffPost's request for comment.
It's well within a judge's power to restrain a person who is acting out of order in the courtroom, but rarely do they use this power against an attorney advocating on behalf of a client. And while Hafen didn't make any specific references to Bakhtary's gender in the court transcript, it's possible to see the incident as fitting into a larger pattern of men silencing women in this kind of setting.
Stephen Cooper, a former federal and D.C. public defender, wrote an article on Bakhtary's handcuffing that highlights two other instances in recent years in which female public defenders were treated with similar disrespect. He cites a particularly disturbing case from 2007, reported by The Washington Post, where a D.C. Superior Court judge ordered an attorney -- a woman of color, like Bakhtary -- to be "searched, shackled and detained" simply for attempting to inform the judge that her client was "homeless and poor." That judge was later found to be grossly out of line and was reprimanded for his behavior.
Phil Kohn, Clark County's chief public defender, strongly defended Bakhtary's conduct in court and told HuffPost that he's never had one of his attorneys restrained in the 10-plus years he's been working there. Kohn also criticized Hafen's demeanor in the courtroom and called out the inappropriateness of Hafen referring to Bakhtary by her first name.
"I believe in decorum. All parties should respect each other," Kohn said. "It should be 'Mr.' or 'Ms.' or 'Your Honor.' The fact that he's talking to her as 'Zohra' -- this is kindergarten stuff."
Bakhtary's colleagues at the Clark County Defenders Union also denounced Hafen's actions in a letter to news media.
"Handcuffing an attorney who is merely doing her job to teach her a lesson is simply improper and has never been done in the history of Nevada," the group wrote. "His actions were unreasonable and unprecedented. Judge Hafen was wrong."
Judge Handcuffs Defense Attorney In Court To Teach Her 'A Lesson' For Speaking OutWhy Wouldn't a Christian University Take Sexual Assault Seriously?
Baylor University is in turmoil right now. The president has been demoted. The football coach is suspended with termination likely. The largest Baptist university in the country has failed to take sexual assaults, especially by athletes, seriously, failing to investigate reports, blaming victims, and ignoring the problem, even when athletes have been convicted by the justice system.
Of course, big time college athletics brings in a lot of money. Baylor's not unique in disregarding patterns of sexual assault by athletes. Ticket sales and huge donations are at stake.
But Baylor claims to be a preeminent Christian university. How can an institution professing to embody Christian values discount sexual violence?
We could cynically point to hypocrisy. Certainly that's there. But I think the underlying belief system that allows a Christian university to overlook sexual violence is a kind of misogyny related to particular conservative Christian convictions about women, gender, and sexuality.
For many conservative Christians, Eve is a temptress, the cause of the Fall. A 1984 Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) resolution opposing women in ministry, explained that Paul excludes women from ministry "to preserve a submission God requires because the man was first in creation and the woman was first in the Edenic fall."
The correlation of women with sexual temptation has a long history in the church and has justified exclusion and mistreatment of women for centuries. Because women are such a sexual temptation to men, women have been cloistered, hidden behind veils, imprisoned in chastity belts, and, in more recent times, excluded from public ministry.
When women are sexual temptation itself, then men do not bear responsibility for their own sexual actions. The early church fathers made this case. Tertullian called Eve, and hence all women, the "gateway for the Devil." Origen likened women to animals in their lust. John Chrysostom called women a natural temptation.
Furthermore, the church's long history of misogyny relegated women to inferiority. Augustine wondered why women were created at all. Jerome thought women the root of all evil (For more on the history of women's subordination in the church, see Uta Ranke-Heineman. Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven: Women, Sexuality and the Catholic Church. Trans. Peter Heinegg. New York: Penguin, 1991).
Since the controversy among Southern Baptists in the 1980s, in which the role of women was a central feature, the SBC has affirmed women's spiritual equality, while assigning them subordinate status in church and home. In its statement on the family in "The Baptist Faith and Message," the SBC asserts, "A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ."
Beginning in the late 19th century, some conservative Christian leaders espoused a "muscular Christianity" in response to the "feminization" of the church that has continued into the 21st century as a call to the prioritization of masculine values in Christianity. The movement is especially connected with sports as the utmost expression of masculinity.
Albert Mohler, the president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, writes, "The feminization of society, mixed with confusing cultural signals, has led many boys and young men to be uncertain and unaware of their masculinity and proper role." He continues:
Unless afflicted by injury or illness, a boy should develop the physical maturity that, by stature and strength, marks recognizable manhood. Of course, men come in many sizes and demonstrate different levels of physical strength, but common to all men is a maturity, through which a man demonstrates his masculinity by movement, confidence, and strength. A man must be ready to put his physical strength on the line to protect his wife and children and to fulfill his God-assigned tasks.
The Danvers Statement affirmed by the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood notes concern for:
The widespread uncertainty and confusion in our culture regarding the complementary differences between masculinity and femininity; the tragic effects of this confusion in unraveling the fabric of marriage woven by God out of the beautiful and diverse strands of manhood and womanhood; the increasing promotion given to feminist egalitarianism with accompanying distortions or neglect of the glad harmony portrayed in Scripture between the loving, humble leadership of redeemed husbands and the intelligent, willing support of that leadership by redeemed wives . . .
But for the writers of this statement, the problems of violence and abuse are the result of feminist egalitarianism rather than the misogyny of submission and second class citizenship.
So, why might a Christian university neglect to take sexual assault seriously? In the mix of our answers to this question should be a theological history of assigning women blame for sexual temptation and relegating women to subordinate status. While we might expect that Christian ethics would drive Christian leaders to address sexual violence openly, honestly, compassionately, and urgently, the ambiguous status of women in some conservative strands of Christianity also provides theological cover for minimizing the harm done to women.
While Baylor's regents have addressed the immediate problem of particular leaders who failed women on their campus, they, and other leaders at Christian universities, should also pay attention to the broader theological currents that subordinate women and reinforce an ideological context that fosters the devaluing, sexualizing, and harming of women.
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Gang Rape Posted To Social Media Is Forcing Brazil To Confront Violence Against Women
BRASÍLIA — Shortly after midnight on Wednesday, 20-year-old Michel Brasil da Silva uploaded a 30-second clip to Twitter, accompanied by the words: “They smashed the chick. Do you get it or do you not get it? lol”
The clip showed an undressed, unconscious woman lying on a bare mattress. She was being filmed by two men, both fully dressed, who took turns manhandling and mocking her.
“This one just got knocked up by 30 guys,” one of them says.
“Check out the state she’s in. Bleeding,” says the other, directing the camera toward her visibly injured genitals. At one point, the man positioned his head next to the unresponsive woman’s buttocks, stuck out his tongue, and took a selfie.
The footage set off a firestorm on social media and brought national attention to the reported gang-rape of a 16-year-old by as many as 33 men in Rio de Janeiro over the weekend — a crime the police had no knowledge of until social media users contacted them en masse.
Rio de Janeiro’s Public Prosecutor’s Office had received some 800 tips within hours of the short clip and selfie going online, according to news site G1. By Wednesday evening, the Prosecutor’s Office had launched an investigation and said it had identified the victim. In herstatement to police, obtained by Brazilian magazine Veja, the minor said that she’d met up with Lucas Perdomo Duarte Santos, a 19-year-old classmate she’d been dating for three years, at his house around 1 a.m. on Saturday. They were alone, according to the victim.
The next thing she remembers, she said, is waking up on Sunday. She was naked, drugged, and surrounded by 33 armed men, in a house she did not recognize.
The acts recorded in the video occurred one day after the reported gang-rape of another teenager — a 17-year-old allegedly victimized by five teenagers she knew, in the northeastern state of Piauí.
The confidence with which the Rio suspects boasted about what had just taken place, coupled with their decision to not only record, but disseminate, incriminating evidence, has prompted a vigorous discussion here about sexism, violence against women and impunity.
“This case has rattled Brazilians,” said Vanessa Dios, a researcher at the Brasília-based feminist institute Anis. She added that the irrefutable visual proof has kept more familiar responses to rape cases in Brazil from taking hold, such as “I don’t think that’s what really happened,” and “the girl is probably exaggerating.”
“Even so,” Dios said, “many people responded to the footage with justifications” that the victim had brought this on herself. “The day-to-day culture of codifying women’s bodies persists in Brazil. They are constantly given signals to what constitutes acceptable behavior. Among men, the notion that they are allowed to touch and grab women without permission endures.”
By the time his Twitter account was suspended, Silva had already retweeted a deluge of replies to his uploaded video — a characteristic one being, “They wrecked that one’s body hahahahahahahahaha the train ripped her hard.” In response to those who told him to take the footage down, Silva wrote, “People see worst stuff in this [expletive] and don’t complain. Just because I posted the chick’s video they now wanna talk crap. [Expletive] it… The video stays. If it bothers you, don’t follow me.”
Silva did not respond to several attempts to reach him by phone. A Facebook profile widely attributed to him by social media users who have attempted to crowdsource information about the crime has been taken offline.
On Thursday, Cybercrime Police Department Sheriff Alessandro Thiers lodged a judicial request to have four suspects arrested, Veja reported. The magazine names them as Silva, the 20-year-old who uploaded the video, Marcelo Miranda da Cruz Corrêa, 18, who also circulated footage of the crime, Raphael Assis Duarte Belo, 41, who allegedly appeared in the clip and took a selfie with the victim’s body, and Santos, the victim’s romantic interest, whom police suspect of direct involvement in the gang-rape.
“What we have in Brazil is a cultural stew of sexism and sexual violence,” Congressman Marcelo Freixo, president of the Human Rights Commission of Rio de Janeiro, said in a telephone interview. According to Freixo, Rio de Janeiro registered 4,725 rapes in 2014 — an average of 13 per day. “We can’t say that we live in a democratic country with rates of sexual violence like these,” Freixo said. “We’re talking about a city that’s about to host the Olympics.”
Freixo on Wednesday accompanied the victim to her first medical exam since the attack. He later announced that the commission will monitor the investigation and make sure that the victim receives psychological support.
“It’s a systemic issue, not confined to one economic class or the other,” he said, regarding rape cases across the country. “And there are politicians who get elected thanks to hate speech.”
Though Freixo didn’t mention him by name, Congress Jair Balsonaro, who represents Rio, has built a reputation for spouting off avowedly anti-feminist and anti-LGBT comments. In 2014, Balsonaro told a fellow congresswoman that he’d never rape her because she didn’t deserve it. In April, he dedicated his vote in favor of impeaching now-suspended President Dilma Rousseff to her “boogeyman,” the colonel who oversaw the torture she endured as a young activist during Brazil’s dictatorship.
Bolsonaro was the most-voted Rio de Janeiro candidate for congress in the 2014 election.
On the same weekend that the Rio teenager was reportedly gang-raped, a 17-year-old girl was found bound and gagged in Bom Jesus, a city in the northern state of Piauí. The victim and the suspects — five teenage boys — knew each other, and socialized on the night of the attack. The crime in Piauí came almost a year to the day after a similar tragedy stunned the state: four teenage girls were gang-raped, beaten and thrown off a cliff. One of them died.
But news of the Rio and Piauí crimes reverberated across social media on Thursday. On Twitter, the hashtag #EstuproNuncaMais (#RapeNeverAgain in English) trended worldwide. On Facebook, São Paulo-based artists Luciana Fernandes and Beatriz Rezende mobilized feminist circles and created Por Todas Elas (For All the Women, in English), a mass protest group with demonstrations now scheduled across five cities.
On Thursday evening, in a Facebook page widely reported across Brazilian media to belong to the Rio victim, she wrote, “Thank you for everyone’s support. I had honestly expected that I’d be judged harshly.”
This piece was originally published on the Latin America News Dispatch.
Idaho Rape Case Screams for a Racial Hate Crime Prosecution
John R.K. Howard, a senior, and one-time student at Dietrich, Idaho High School, will finish high school in Texas. Two other former students at Dietrich High, who are underclass students, will undoubtedly complete their schooling at another high school. The three white students were booted from the school after they were charged with the rape of a disabled African-American student. The grisly facts about the alleged rape made brief headlines only after the student's adopted parents filed a $10 million lawsuit against just about everybody at the school--coaches, administrators, staff--that allegedly knew about the rape, and much more, yet said and did nothing about it.
The case itself is a near textbook example of racially motivated victimization in a small mostly white, traditionally conservative, insular, town, with few African-Americans. The type of town where more than a few are willing to look the other way or deny that racial victimization could ever happen in their town. The rape, though, was the culmination of a long train of vicious taunts, harassment, verbal and physical abuse of the black student that stretched out for months before the alleged rape that was first reported last October. Yet it took weeks before school officials, and then prosecutors, acted and charged Howard and the other two with sexual assault. Howard was still allowed to leave the state with no hate crime charges filed. There's as yet no indication from Idaho Attorney General Lawrence G. Wasden whether there will be a hate crimes prosecution. The Idaho hate crimes statute which has been on the books there since 2003 flatly states that a hate crime is a criminal offense "motivated in whole or in part" by racial, religious or gender bias. The crime certainly fits that definition.
The great danger in not slapping hate crime charges against Howard and the others is that it minimizes and marginalizes hate violence. Hate crimes, and especially hate crime violence, still remain grossly under-reported and prosecuted.
The Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics tracked hate crime reporting and violence from 2003 to 2011. Its findings were appalling. It found that a huge portion of hate crimes are never reported to law enforcement. It found that a significant number of the hate crimes that are both reported and un-reported have resulted in serious injury or death to the victims. In fact, the study found that victims of hate violence are more likely to be injured than victims of ordinary crimes of violence. This was more than evident in the brutal physical assault on the black Idaho student which was the predictable consequence of the vicious and prolonged racial harassment. The even greater problem is that often when hate crimes are reported as such the perpetrators often evade full punishment. This has nothing to do with the First Amendment, but rather muddled, confused, and outright lax enforcement and prosecution of hate acts. Even when the FBI and local law enforcement agencies ID individuals for their propensity for violence their hands are still tied.
State prosecutors flatly say that the hate perpetrators are more likely to be convicted and get stiff sentences if their crime is treated as just a garden variety criminal case. This makes good legal and political sense -- if they're prosecuted locally and if there's a hate crime enhancement which is far from assured.
Yet, that's not the only reason for their hands off of many hate criminals. Except in the highest profile cases, they see these prosecutions as no-win cases with little political gain, and the risk of making enemies of local police and town officials. Hate crimes may be horrific but they are largely seen as common crimes and are treated as such. Few state prosecutors will chance inflaming racial passions and hatreds by slapping a hate crime tag on a case except in the most heinous and high-profile cases.
There's also the belief that hate crimes are mostly a thing of the past. When they do occur, they are isolated acts committed by a handful of quacks, and unreconstructed bigots, and that state authorities vigorously report and prosecute the perpetrators of these crimes. This is a myth.
When Congress passed the Hate Crimes Statistics Act of 1990, it compelled the FBI to collect figures on hate violence. But, it did not compel police agencies to report them. Record keeping on hate crimes is still left up to the discretion of local police chiefs and city officials.
Many police departments still refuse to report hate crimes, or to label crimes in which gays, Jews and minorities are targeted because of race, religion or sexual preference as hate crimes. Still other police departments don't bother compiling them because they regard hate crimes as a politically loaded minefield that can tarnish their image and create even more political friction. The official indifference by many police agencies to hate crimes prevents federal officials, even if they wanted to more aggressively enforce civil rights laws, from accurately gauging the magnitude of civil rights violence.
The rape of the disabled black student in Idaho screams for a prosecution as a racially motivated hate crime. Anything less sends the wrong message about hate.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His latest book is How "President" Trump will Govern (Amazon Kindle) He is an associate editor of New America Media. He is a weekly co-host of the Al Sharpton Show on Radio One. He is the host of the weekly Hutchinson Report on KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles and the Pacifica Network.
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