A string of attacks against gay people in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood over the past two months has fueled a bubbling stew of emotions in the community.
Now residents are demonstrating their strong sense of concern at a Saturday night march and rally against the targeted violence.
The latest attack came a week ago near 13th Avenue and Columbia Street, about a block from the Seattle University campus.
Forty-one-year-old Jerry Knight was on his way home when two men confronted him. And now he says the horror of that weekend might always haunt him.
“I remember being hit hard, where I fell and my hands were bruised falling directly on the ground,” he said Saturday in an interview.
He acknowledges it could have been worse.
“I am grateful,” he says. “I am grateful I did not wake up in the hospital. I am grateful I am not in a coffin. I know that, and honor that.”
He says he was attacked by two men as he walked home alone in the early morning hours. The assault was first reported online by The Stranger newspaper.
Knight says he had come from a party, and was wearing a sailor’s outfit. That could have made him a target.
He says he doesn’t specifically remember what happened leading up the assault – but he does remember the expletives and anti-gay slurs being yelled at him.
“As of now, there’s feelings of shame, of guilt,” he says. “What could I have done to not put myself in that position? Did I encourage this? And was I strong enough?”
After he stumbled back to his apartment that night, Knight did something to remind himself to be angry later on.
“I took a photo of myself before I washed myself up, because I knew that this will anger me,” he says.
Even in a relatively gay-friendly city such as Seattle, Knight wonders if gay men and women should ever let their guard down.
“I live in a bubble. I forget that around the world … this happens to people for a multitude of reasons. It was a surprise, absolutely.”
So many emotions after one violent moment – that’s why the Saturday rally is so important to him.
“Violence against anyone – gay, whatever it may be – we need to come together and stand up and say we’re not going to tolerate this,” Knight says.
Police don’t have much to go on, since there’s no description of the suspects.
But Knight, who tries to find strength in the wake of something so terrifying, says karma will eventually find his two attackers.
“I don’t understand homophobia – I don’t. I’m puzzled over what is their mindset, and hopefully they realize that this is not OK.”
The rally starts at 8 p.m. at Pike Street and Boren Avenue.
Last updated: 4:22 pm
February 26, 2009
Posted: 3:30 pm
February 26, 2009
Cops are hoping to get the last laugh in the case of a brutal hate crime.
Here is a chilling video released today of a Bronx man giggling to his heart’s content just 19 minutes after he allegedly beat a man to death with a baseball bat.
Keith Phoenix, 28, was all smiles as he pulled into an cash lane as he drove past a Robert F. Kennedy Bridge toll window on Dec. 7 after he beat Ecuadorian immigrant Jose Sucuzhanay to death on a Brooklyn street, police said.
Cops released the video as they continue to hunt for Phoenix.
Another suspect, Hakim Scott, 25, was busted on Tuesday and was awaiting arraignment this afternoon on charges of second-degree murder as a hate crime.
As the duo yelled anti-gay slurs, cops said Scott and Phoenix attacked Sucuzhanay, 31, mistakenly thinking the real estate agent was gay because he was walking arm-in-arm with his brother.
Police said Scott admitted he and Phoenix were driving through Brooklyn in an SUV that day – but denied they were looking to beat up on Hispanics or gays.
A man who allegedly broke into a suburban Boynton Beach woman’s home and raped her in January was arrested Tuesday by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office.
Agapito Jimenez Baltazar, 23, allegedly broke into the woman’s home, put on her panties and bra and hid in her closet before bursting out and attacking her in the early morning hours of Jan. 25, according to a sheriff’s report.
Agapito Jimenez Baltazar, 23, allegedly broke into the woman’s home, put on her panties and bra and hid in her closet before bursting out and attacking her in the early morning hours of Jan. 25, according to a sheriff’s report.
The woman told authorities she was dropped off at her home in the Heron Pointe Apartments south by a friend about 4:30 a.m. When she entered her apartment, she heard a noise in the closet and when she opened the door, she saw a man wearing panties and a bra. When the woman asked the man who he was, he grabbed her from behind, threw her on the bed and took off his clothes.
The man, who the woman recognized as a neighbor, pinned her down on the bed as he made lewd comments to her. He sexually assaulted her.
The woman was able to reach for her phone and press redial, calling her friend who had just dropped her off. When the attacker saw the phone, he grabbed it and threw it.
Neither knew that the woman’s friend had picked up the phone, heard the screaming and called 911.
At some point, deputies arrived to the woman’s home and knocked on the door, hearing screaming.
The attacker jumped from her third-story window. Because the woman knew where the man had lived, it didn’t take long for detectives to find him.
Both Baltazar and his roommate agreed to give detectives DNA swabs and allowed them to take their photographs. The victim easily pointed to Baltazar as her attacker.
A judge on Wednesday held Baltazar, who is an illegal immigrant, without bond. He is being held in the Palm Beach County Jail.
Pol Pot’s 76-year-old sister-in-law, Ieng Thirith, pleaded with a Cambodia court to grant her mercy and not find her guilty of contributing to the deaths of the at least the 1.7 million who perished in that country’s “killing fields.”
The Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, and, under Pol Pot, a Marxist leader, and the support of China, the Khmer Rouge forced millions of people to work on communal farms, and ultimately contributed to families dying of starvation, overwork and disease — not to mention execution. Nearly all of Cambodia’s lawyers, doctors, artists and intellectuals were killed. Most of the murders occurred in the nation’s rural and country areas, known as the killing fields, which later became the basis for the Oscar-award winning 1984 movie by the same name.
Reuters reports that Thirith’s husband has been charged with war crimes, but Thirith — then the movement’s social minister — says she was only working on humanitarian issues after capital city Phnom Penh fell in 1975.
“I don’t know why a good person like me has been accused of such crimes. I have suffered a great deal,” she said during a bail hearing. “I have been wrongly accused.” She continued, “We worked very hard at the pharmaceutical factories. There were four factories and we had two Chinese experts helping us.”
The trial of the Khmer Rouge’s chief torturer, Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Duch, began last week. Many descendants of the regime’s victims have waited 30 years for these trials, hoping to see the perpetrators of the genocide finally brought to justice. And the Toronto Star definitely approves of the judicial moves.
Why hold lesser, elderly players to account decades late? Because Cambodians deserve justice, if belatedly; the perpetrators should face surviving accusers. Because there is no statute of limitations on genocide. Because the world must remember Cambodia’s holocaust, as it recalls the crimes of Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler and Mao Zedong. And to serve notice on despots and warlords in our own era that they can no longer commit mass murder, war crimes and genocide with impunity.
Freedom-wise, there’s nowhere more self-satisfied than Britain. Bastion of personal liberty, home of the ground-breaking Magna Carta, the place where the sturdy yeoman can sit under his thatched roof secure from the intrusions of the king…
Pull the other one. Any sentient citizen must realise that in terms of liberty, the country has less than a state-of-the-art democracy; in fact, it’s been coasting on its reputation.
Now, thanks to a slavishly Bush-poodling Labour government with a startlingly authoritarian bent, Britons are beginning to recognise that this sceptred isle, this earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, this other Eden is about to become this surveillance state, this database depot, this green and pleasant centre of preventive detention, this precious home of biometrically-keyed national identification cards set in a sea of CCTV cameras.
The government’s appetite to maintain detailed files on its citizens is growing
But Britons are getting a chance to have their own democratic moment. On Saturday February 28, lawyers, judges, politicians, human rights supporters, anti-surveillance activists, members of the Countryside Alliance, rock ‘n’ rollers denied the right to stage concerts of their own choosing (honestly) and presumably more than a few ordinary concerned citizens will be gathering all across the UK – in London of course, but also in Belfast, Bristol, Cardiff, Cambridge, Glasgow and Manchester – at the Convention on Modern Liberty.
There they will hear from a roster of speakers that will include Shami Chakrabarti, Henry Porter, Helena Kennedy and David Davis. And they will learn more about the ever encroaching threats to individual liberty that have been fuelled by government’s growing appetite to keep its citizens under constant watch and maintain detailed files on what they do. It may not be as dramatic as the storming of the Bastille, but it’s a start.
And a start that might learn from the USA. A new, more American-like legal recognition of individual rights would be a welcome update for what is still, just, one of the world’s leading democracies. Not that it could prevent all transgressions, as the Bush-Cheney administration amply demonstrated. But such a
Well said. NewLabour has been the most oppressively authoritarian government ever, and will be evicted into the wilderness again at the next election. Whether the encroachments on our liberty will be rolled back by the next lot though is doubtful. But we’ll see. The writer seems to think Cromwell was a man of the people and a revolutionary; he actually became the closest thing we have ever had to a despot, always the problem when one individual gets too much power. And Wilberforce was a politician who merely jumped on the anti-slavery bandwagon [which had been largely a female campaign up to then] and got all the kudos for being a reformer and ‘the man who ended slavery’. Politicians always grab the limelight, but I would expect the writer to have done a bit more of his homework.
Posted by Peter Simmons at 11:44am on February 26, 2009
I strongly agree. Information is routinely misused, shared inappropriately – and sought inappropriately. The naive assumption is that UK governments protect individual interests and are not and will never be despotic. MP’s seem very relaxed about an emergent data gathering and sharing strategy which leaves individual citizens at extraordinary risk. A Bill of Rights would at least provide a rationale and legal framework for citizens.
Posted by dexy at 12:38pm on February 26, 2009
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I question why Obama and his economic team (consisting of the “BEST ECONOMIC MINDS” in the world) would turn over the oversight of an 787 BILLION DOLLAR package to Joe Biden? Watch your back Joe you have just become the “FALL GUY” when all this spending doesn’t work and completely ruins us for future generations. And one more point of FACT, everytime Obama opens his mouth the market DROPS. Can somebody shut him up? There isn’t that much left in the market.
Director Gene wants everybody to read this. PAY ATTENTION.
A Potential Attackers New Trick!!!
Know what money you are carrying. You will see why as you read.
Be sure every woman is aware of this M.O. Share it with your wife and daughters. Know what money you are carrying… This was the first I have heard of a scheme like this….. I wanted to pass it along. Be safe! Something very serious to pay attention to.
Criminals are coming up with craftier, less threatening methods of attack, so we have to be extra cautious.
Read on….
I live in Alexandria , VA , but I often work in Lafayette , LA , staying with friends when I’m there. As you know from America ‘s Most Wanted TV program, as well as the news media, there is a serial killer in the Lafayette area. I just wa nt to let you know about an ‘incident’ that ha ppened to me a few weeks ago, and could have been deadly.
At first I didn’t go to the police or anyone with it because I didn’t realize how serious this encounter was. But since I work in a jail and I told a few people about it, it wasn’t long before I was paraded into Internal Affairs to tell them my story. It was approximately 5:15 a.m. In Opelousas , La. I ha d stayed with a friend there and was on my way to work.
I stopped at the Exxon/Blimpie Pie station to get gas. I got $10 gas and a Diet Coke. I took into the store two $5 bills and one $1 bill (just enough to get my stuff). As I pulled away from the store, a man
approached my truck from the back side of the store (an unlit area). He was an ‘approachable-looking’ man (clean cut, clean shaven, dressed well, etc.). He walked up to my window and knocked . Since I’m very paranoid and ‘always looking for the rapist or killer,’ I didn’t open the window.
I just asked what he wa nted. He raised a $5 bill to my window and said, ‘You dropped this.’ Since I knew I had gone into the store with a certain amount of money, I knew I didn’t drop it.
When I told him it wasn’t mine, he began hitting the window and door, screaming at me to open my door, and insisting that I had dropped the money! At that point, I just drove away as fast as I could.
After talking to the Internal Affairs Department and describing the man I saw, and the way he escalated from20calm and polite to angry and volatile…it was determined that I could have possibly encountered the serial killer myself.
Up to this point, it had been unclear as to how he had gained access to his victims, since there has been no evidence of forced entry into victim’s homes, cars, etc. And the fact that he has been attacking in the daytime, when women are less likely to have their guard up, means he is pretty BOLD.
So think about it…what gesture is nicer than returning money to someone that dropped it?????
How many times would you have opened your window (or door) to get your money and say thank you…. Because if the person is kind enough to return something to you, then he can’t really be a threat….can he????
Please be cautious! This might no t have been the serial killer…. But
any one that gets that angry over someone not accepting money from them can’t have honorable intentions. The most important thing to note is that his reaction was NOT WHAT I EXPECTED! A total surprise! But what might have happened if I had opened my door? I shudder to think!
Forward this to everyone you know….maybe they can be as fortunate as I was!
P.S. Ladies, really DO forward this to EVERYONE you know. Even if this man wasn’t a serial killer, he looked nice, he seemed polite, he was apparently doing an act of kindness, but HE WAS NOT A NICE PERSON!!!
Men, send it to all the women in your life. What you do today is20important because you are exchanging a day of your life for it. Make it a good one!
At least four people have been killed and 28 injured after clashes broke out in the northern Nigerian city of Bauchi, the Red Cross says.
A Red Cross official said the violence followed an argument between Muslim and Christian communities.
Churches, mosques and houses were set on fire. Troops moved in quickly to restore order, residents said.
Bauchi is close to the city of Jos, where religious gangs killed hundreds last November.
“The security agencies have been directed to deal decisively with the perpetrators of this mayhem,” Isa Yuguda, the Bauchi state governor said in a statement.
“The military have been drafted in now and everything is coming back to normal,” Abdullahi Kwarbai, a resident of Bauchi, told Reuters.
Nigeria’s 140 million people are split almost equally between Muslims and Christians and the two communities generally live peacefully side by side.
But Jos, the capital of neighbouring Plateau state, has seen repeated bouts of inter-communal violence, with more than 1,000 killed during riots in 2001. The situation in Plateau remained calm on Saturday.
FOXNews.com – First Lady of San Francisco Bares All in Raunchy ‘Threesome’ Sex Scene – Celebrity Gossip | Entertainment News | Arts And Entertainment http://www.foxnews.com/story
Police say a man shot his ex-girlfriend to death in front of their 4-year-old daughter and a 16-year-old friend in the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant Saturday night.
LaRosa Gonzalez, 24, was at the KFC-Taco Bell on Hunting Park Avenue near North Clarissa Street in the city’s Tioga section to get some food and told her ex-boyfriend, Willie Scott, of her location by cell phone, Homicide Sgt. Bob Wilkins said.
About 8:42 p.m., as Gonzalez sat in the car with the estranged couple’s daughter and a 16-year-old unidentified friend, Scott, 29, allegedly approached Gonzalez’s vehicle and opened fire on her, according to police.
Gonzalez was shot more than 10 times in the head, neck and torso, Wilkins said. She was transported to Temple University Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 8:52 p.m.
Both the teen and the 4-year-old child escaped unharmed, Wilkins said.
Scott, of North Philadelphia, turned himself in to authorities as they were searching the area, Wilkins said.
The motive for the shooting was an argument, Wilkins said, although he would not disclose the nature of the dispute.
Yesterday, broken glass littered the space where Gonzalez’s car was parked. A tall, white candle in a glass jar marked the spot where her life was taken.
At her home on North 19th Street near West Ontario, a little more than a half-mile away from the scene of her death, at least a dozen police officers milled about her worn-down apartment building.
The row-house apartment building was boarded up in spots and the back appeared to be falling away, brick by brick.
Trash was stockpiled next to her building and a black cat lay dead on the sidewalk in front of house.
Neighbors said they had never seen or heard of Gonzalez. Two women were seen embracing and sobbing in the doorway to her apartment building. Police blocked reporters and other onlookers from gaining access to the area.
According to authorities, Scott was charged last night with murder, possessing instruments of a crime and related offenses.
Contrary to reports from other news outlets, Gonzalez was not pregnant at the time of her death.
Along with her 4-year-old daughter, she leaves behind an 8-year-old son who was not with her at the time of the shooting, Wilkins said. *
Parents should NOT tell their children what is ‘right or wrong’ about having sex, say ministers
By Steve Doughty
Last updated at 12:33 AM on 23rd February
Parents are not to tell their young teenage children that it is wrong to have sex, ministers said yesterday.
They should curb their tongues for fear of discouraging youngsters from ‘being open’, according to a campaign to involve mothers and fathers in sex education.
But, while parents are warned against giving moral guidance, they are encouraged to get their children to use condoms and other contraception from the age of 13.
The advice warns parents against lecturing their teenagers as to what’s ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ about sex (picture posed by models)
They should offer to go with their teenagers to their GP or a sex advice clinic to get contraceptives, the advice recommended.
Critics said the advice was misguided and would marginalise the role of parents.
Children’s Minister Beverley Hughes said parents should assist teenage children if they are sexually active. ‘We want parents to help young people to resist the pressure to have early sex, but also to explain the importance of using contraception if and when they do decide to have sex,’ she said.
Officials at the Department for Children, Schools and Families said the minister’s advice applies to parents whose children are 13 – three years under the legal age of consent.
The effort to recruit parents to reinforce the Government’s failing ‘teenage pregnancy strategy’ comes as ministers are braced for the release of damning figures on pregnancies among under-18s.
They will show – as disclosed by the Daily Mail in December – that in 2007 the teen pregnancy rate defied Government expectations by going up, not down.
Children’s Minister Beverley Hughes holding a packet of condoms outside the House of Commons last year as part of the Government’s strategy to reduce teenage pregnancies
Mrs Hughes and her colleagues have already tried to revamp their strategy – which is based on universal sex education and wide distribution of contraception – by ordering compulsory sex education in primary schools.
The attempt to recruit parents to give state-approved advice to their children is backed by the production of leaflets, to be available in chemists’ shops. There will also be
a £530,000 handout to the fpa – once known as the Family Planning Association – to provide training for parents who want to advise their children on sex.
The leaflets produced by Ed Balls’ Children’s Department said: ‘Discussing your values with your teenagers will help them to form their own. Remember though, that trying to convince them of what’s right and wrong may discourage them from being open.’
According to the guidance leaflets, called Talking to your Teenager about Sex and Relationships, ‘the more they understand, the more they are likely to make the right choices’.
The leaflet does not suggest that the right choice means delaying sex until the legal age of consent.
Parents are assured: ‘Under the NHS, contraception and condoms are free and there are lots of safe and effective methods that are suitable for young people – encourage your teenager to visit their local clinic or GP so they can make a choice that’s right for them.
‘Why not offer to go with you daughter or encourage them to take a friend to support them?’
Tory families spokesman Maria Miller said: ‘Advice from Government that tells parents not to talk to their children about what is right and wrong when it comes to sex and relationships is profoundly misguided.
‘It is not the role of Government to marginalise the critical role that parents have to play in helping their children form their values.’
Author and researcher Patricia Morgan, who is completing a book on teenage pregnancy, said: ‘All the evidence from the United States is that if parents say they disapprove of underage sex, the teenagers are less likely to do it.
‘If parents talk about underage sex and do not disapprove of it, the children go on to do it. It is pretty basic stuff,’ she added.
‘Parents are not allowed to know if their child is being given contraception or getting an abortion. But they are being told to teach their children about sex in a manner dictated by the State.’
Blind high school runner, and her team, are a sight to behold
Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times
Alyssa Rossi, right, is guided along by Royal High teammate Nicole Todd during a workout.
Simi Valley Royal High senior Alyssa Rossi, blind since birth, is able to compete thanks to the help and sacrifices of teammates.
Bill Plaschke
February 22, 2009
At the end of another tough week for teamwork, with major leaguers lying and NBA stars feuding, they ran alone.
In Simi Valley, across a grassy field in the lengthening shadow of nearby hills, they ran together.
Two girls, side by side, stride for stride, connected by the stretched cotton of a gray belt and the giant arms of innocence.
One girl is blind.
The other girl is teaching the rest of us to see.
One girl, Alyssa Rossi, born without vision, is the newest senior runner on the Royal High track team.
The other girl, Nicole Todd, is the sophomore teammate making this possible.
Rossi runs a mile, Todd runs with her, gently guiding her with the gray belt that is connected to a thicker black belt around Rossi’s waist.
When Rossi slows, Todd forsakes her own training schedule and slows.
When Rossi speeds up, Todd runs even faster to watch for bumps and curves.
When Rossi grows breathless and has to stop, Todd stops too, even if the sophomore could use more work.
“At first I wondered if this was the best thing for me,” Todd said. “Then I realized, this is not about me.”
She smiled, and you want to wrap the sports world in this smile, one born of the basic instincts of teamwork, one that glitters with the very best of sport.
Since Royal High began training several weeks ago, many teammates have shouldered that assignment, and shared that smile.
One girl will guide Rossi from the locker room to the track. Another will run with her around the huge sports complex. Another will run with her on the street. Another will accompany her in sprints.
For the last several days, her full-time partner has been Todd, but before that, seemingly everybody helped.
“Let’s see, I don’t know last names yet, I don’t know all their voices yet, but I do remember those who have been here for me,” Rossi said. “There’s Nicole, Leah, Lorely, Shayne, Cory, Carly . . .”
The list goes on and on, Rossi giggling with each name, unearthed treasures on this most unexpected of journeys.
“It’s really an awesome thing, because it must be really hard for them,” Rossi said. “In fact, I bet it’s just as hard for them as is it for me.”
By Randy Dotinga HealthDay Reporterby Randy Dotinga healthday Reporter – 40 mins ago
TUESDAY, Feb. 24 (HealthDay News) — There’s still no firm proof that raunchy music makes kids have sex, but a new study provides another suggestion that there’s at least some kind of link between “degrading” songs and teenage sexual activity.
The findings indicate that “people who are exposed to certain messages in music are more likely to copy or emulate what they hear,” said Dr. Brian A. Primack, a pediatrician and lead author of the study released Tuesday.
In other words, teens who hear about degrading sexual practices in their favorite songs might decide to try them out themselves. However, it’s also possible that the reverse is true: Kids who have sex just happen to like raunchy music.
Expanding on previous research that linked sexually charged songs to sex itself, the researchers surveyed 711 Pittsburgh-area ninth-grade students in 2006 and 2007 about their sexuality activity and the songs they liked to listen to.
The researchers then determined how many of the 279 most popular songs in 2005 were “degrading” because they referred to sex that’s “based only on physical characteristics” and features a “power differential” instead of being mutually consensual.
For example, “Wait (The Whisper Song)” by the rap group known as Ying Yang Twins was deemed degrading, apparently because it included a reference to rough intercourse.
By contrast, the lyrics of the rap song “Baby I’m Back” by Baby Bash, including the lines “I wanna be stronger than we’ve ever been/I’m here to cater to you,” was said to be not degrading.
The researchers looked for links between the listening habits of the students and their sexual activity. Their findings are scheduled to be published in the April issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
After adjusting the statistics in their findings to account for the possible influence of such factors as race and age, the researchers found that youths who listened most to “degrading” songs were more than twice as likely to have had intercourse.
But the findings don’t prove that the music caused kids to have sex, acknowledged Primack, who’s an assistant professor of medicine and pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
“The opposite could be true — that people who have more sex then go out and seek music with degrading sexual messages,” he said.
Other researchers have linked music to sexual activity, but evidence of a direct cause-and-effect relationship remains elusive.
In the current study and an earlier one based on the same analysis of 279 songs from 2005, the researchers did not identify any degrading songs by title and disclosed lyrics from only a handful of them.
They said that 64 percent of rap songs analyzed were sexually degrading, compared with 7 percent of country songs and 3 percent of pop songs.
What to do? Laura Lindberg, senior research associate at the Guttmacher Institute in New York City, said that teens need to learn how to interpret and analyze the messages they see in the world around them.
But, “there’s no silver bullet,” she said. “If you get all teenagers to turn in their iPods, the teen pregnancy rate is not going to automatically decline.”
More information:
The Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States has an online booklet for teenagers on talking about sex.
WASHINGTON – The FBI has rescued 48 suspected teenage prostitutes, some as young as 13 years old, in a nationwide sweep to remove kids from the illegal sex trade and punish their accused pimps.
Over a three-night initiative called Operation Cross Country, federal agents working with local law enforcement also arrested more than 571 suspects on a variety of federal and state prostitution-related charges, the bureau said.
The teenage prostitutes found in the investigation ranged in age from 13 to 17.
“We may not be able to return their innocence but we can remove them from this cycle of abuse and violence,” said FBI Director Robert Mueller.
Meanwhile, in Memphis, Tenn., a man pleaded guilty Monday to federal civil rights charges for sex trafficking in minors. Leonard Fox faces at least 10 years in prison after admitting that he arranged for underaged girls to engage in sex for money.
“To sexually prey upon young girls in this manner for financial gain is particularly damaging to the victims and an affront to the society in which we live,” said Loretta King, acting head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
Historically, federal authorities rarely play a role in anti-prostitution crackdowns, but the FBI is becoming more involved as it tries to rescue children caught up in the business.
“The goal is to recover kids. We consider them the child victims of prostitution,” said FBI Deputy Assistant Director Daniel Roberts.
“Unfortunately, the vast majority of these kids are what they term ‘throwaway kids,’ with no family support, no friends. They’re kids that nobody wants, they’re loners. Many are runaways,” Roberts said.
Most of the children are put into the custody of local child protection agencies.
Agents in cities from Miami to Chicago to Anchorage, Alaska took part in the operation.
Special Agent Melissa Morrow of the FBI’s Washington office said the operation has put them on the trail of a particular 16-year-old prostitute they still haven’t found.
Adult prostitutes arrested during the operation provided key tips about the girl, the agent said.
“She is currently 16 and started when she was 13. Now she is out there recruiting other juveniles as well,” said Morrow, adding that finding the girl is “at the top of our list.”
The federal effort is also designed to hit pimps with much tougher prison sentences than they would likely get in state criminal courts.
Government prosecutors look to bring racketeering charges or conspiracy charges that can result in decades of jail time.
“Some of these networks of pimps and their organizations are very sophisticated, they’re interstate,” said Roberts, requiring wiretaps and undercover sting operations to bring charges.
The weekend’s roundup marked the third such Operation Cross Country, and is part of a broader federal program launched in 2003 to crack down on the sexual exploitation of children.
A VATICAN cleric has outlined how the sexes struggle differently with the seven deadly sins.
As if there aren’t enough differences between the sexes – now it seems we sin in quite diverse ways. Men struggle most with lust, while for women it’s the issue of pride.
A Vatican report has found that after excessive pride, the most common sin for women is envy; for men the urge for sex is followed by desire for food.
Looking further into the gender divide, the top three sins of blokes are the bottom ones for the fairer sex.
The report is based on a study of confessions carried out by Father Roberto Busa, a 95-year-old Jesuit scholar. The Pope’s personal theologian backs up the report in the Vatican newspaper.
“Men and women sin in different ways,” Monsignor Wojciech Giertych, theologian to the papal household, writes in L’Osservatore Romano. “When you look at vices from the point of view of the difficulties they create, you find that men experiment in a different way from women.”
Monsignor Giertych says the most trying sin for men is lust, followed by gluttony, sloth (laziness), anger, pride, envy and greed. For women, the most dangerous are pride, envy, anger, lust, gluttony, greed and sloth.
The report was released amid Vatican concern over the declining rate of confessions – a trend also noted by the Catholic Church’s Adelaide office.
Another recent survey of Catholics found nearly a third no longer consider confession necessary, while one in 10 deem the process an “obstacle to their dialogue with God”.
Pope Benedict, who reportedly confesses his sins once a week, last year voiced his own disquiet on the subject.
After tumbling from a cliff path on to a small beach, pet dog Fox was unhurt but trapped.
However, he was none too friendly to the coastguards winched down 80ft to rescue him - barking, growling and backing away.
Then, his owner Jane Ravine explained why - the collie-huskie cross has a phobia of men.
Her 13-year-old pet, named after his love of chasing foxes, fears and has a ‘loathing hatred’ of males.
Fox the dog with owner Jane Ravine, left, and RSPCA officer Marije Zwager who abseiled down an 80ft cliff to rescue him after he refused help from male coastguards
Fox, who had already spent one night stuck on the Cornish beach, had to wait a second night while a female rescuer was summoned.
Marige Zwager, 31, abseiled down and coaxed him over with dog biscuits.
Fox then jumped into her arms and licked her face before allowing her to put him in a safety bag.
He was then pulled back up the remote cliff at Sharpnose, near Bude, shaken but unharmed.
Miss Zwager, a Dutch- born member of the RSPCA’s cliff rescue team, said: ‘Fox is very nervous of men and wouldn’t let a male rescuer near him.
Ms Zwager placed Fox in a rescue bag and scaled up the 80ft cliff-face
I abseiled down with a colleague and took some dog biscuits to coax him to me. He was cold, scared and hungry but my female charms worked.
‘I’ve never been called in just because of my gender before but Fox really doesn’t like men very much at all.’
The pet had got into trouble after living up to his name by chasing a fox along a knife- edge path and plunging over the edge.
He was lucky to survive unscathed but the pebble beach was inaccessible on foot and too dangerous to reach by sea.
Likes the ladies: Fox is back, safe and sound
Mrs Ravine, 58, from Morwenstow, said: ‘I’m so relieved. It was a horrible ordeal while Fox was down there.
‘He just doesn’t like men very much, which isn’t normally a problem unless you are stuck down a cliff and men are trying to save your life. In the end, a woman went down. She did a great job and I’m very grateful to everyone involved.
‘He might just have learned his lesson and hopefully will stop chasing things. He is an old dog but has a strong spirit.’
Falmouth Coastguard said: ‘We tried to rescue him but he was aggressive to the coastguards and we had to pass it to the RSPCA.’
Police officers seized a sign saying “Abort Obama not the unborn” from a driver’s pickup truck, but later returned it after supervisors decided the officers had been “overzealous.”
Construction worker Hal Harrison said Thursday that U.S. Secret Service agents interviewed him at his home and walked through his house after police stopped him last week.
“The officer said, ‘Do you know why I pulled you over?’” said Harrison, 53. “I said I had no idea, and he said that the sign could be construed by the Secret Service as a threat to the president.
“I thought, ‘This is something from Nazi Germany, not in Oklahoma.’” He said he’s no fan of Obama but that his homemade sign is a political statement opposing abortion, not a threat to the president.
While the officer went too far in confiscating the sign, pulling the man over and reporting his name to the Secret Service was not wrong, said Capt. Steve McCool, a spokesman for Oklahoma City Police Department.
“The officer was a little overzealous in terms of what the sign meant,” McCool said. “He made a decision based on his determination, and once the supervisor got involved, we returned the sign.”
Adrian Andrews, special agent in charge of the Secret Service’s Oklahoma City office, said agents determined Harrison was not a threat.
“He was a little agitated that the Oklahoma City Police Department took his sign,” Andrews said. “But he understood we have an obligation to check these things out.”
“There are better ways to make a political statement than to say ‘Abort Obama,’” Andrews said. “That’s going to get our attention every time. We’d rather be safe than sorry.”
The sign’s back on his truck, Harrison said, and he’s considering bringing a civil case against the police for what he considers a violation of free speech rights.
“I’ve always been kind of a loudmouth,” Harrison said. “If I can find a lawyer who will take the case, I probably would.”
McALLEN
— A domestic disturbance here ended with a man setting a dog on fire
inside his girlfriend’s home, severely burning him, her, the house and,
of course, the unfortunate Pomeranian, which survived the attack.
Police believe the 35-year-old Hispanic man doused the small puppy
with fuel and ignited the dog about 8:20 p.m. Tuesday inside girlfriend
Veronica Sanchez’s house on the 900 block of North 17th Street.
The terrorized pet then ran around the apartment and ignited some
fuel the man had spilled on the floor. That fire burned the man, his
girlfriend and part of the house’s interior, said police Chief Victor
Rodriguez.
The man was gone by the time police and firefighters arrived on the
scene. But authorities caught up with him at McAllen Medical Center,
where he was being treated for severe burns over much of his body. He
and Sanchez, 47, were sent to a burn unit at Brooke Army Medical Center
in San Antonio, where they continue to recover.
The Pomeranian that survived Tuesday night’s attack has been taken in by Sanchez’s relatives, Rodriguez said.
“It came away with little or no injury, so that’s good for the pup,” the chief said.
Wednesday morning, officers asked neighbor Feliciano Rosales, 79, to
watch after the 11 other dogs at the home until authorities were able
to take the pets to Palm Valley Animal Center in Edinburg later that
afternoon. The dogs will remain there as Sanchez recovers in the
hospital.
The city of McAllen has no limit on the number of dogs a person may
keep as pets, so long as the animals are not abused, Rodriguez said.
The man – whose name will not be released until police have an
arrest warrant – will likely be charged with arson after he recovers
from his burns. He could face attempted murder, aggravated assault and
animal cruelty charges, as well.
“People getting hurt is bad enough,” Rodriguez said. “You add pets to the mix and it’s a horrible situation.”
members of the pro-life group Survivors planned to hold a press conference on Monday, staff with the Birmingham, Alabama police department returned the group’s camera equipment. The group said it had footage showing the police wrongfully arrested them.
The pro-life advocates were arrested last week and detained overnight after distributing pro-life literature outside a local high school.
During their arrest, police confiscated the camera equipment and Kortney Blythe, director of the Survivors Campus Life Tours, told LifeNews.com the footage contained on them can show that the police arrested the pro-life advocates without cause.
After waiting nearly five days in Birmingham for their equipment, the members of the group can now return to their efforts to spread the message at high school and college campuses.
“The team spent more than 14 hours in jail for simply standing on a public sidewalk holding a sign and handing out literature in front of Parker High School. Adding insult to injury, when the team was finally released Friday morning, the police stalled the release of the team’s camera equipment,” Blythe said.
Moments before the press event, Blythe received a telephone call from police officials informing her that the property would be released sometime later that same afternoon.
“We are grateful for the opportunity to prove our innocence. The video shows what we have been stating all along – my team was simply standing on a public sidewalk, peacefully exercising their constitutional right to free speech,” she added.
Dana Cody, the director of the Life Legal Defense Foundation, a pro-life law firm helping the Survivors group, talked with LifeNews.com about the release of the video equipment.
“While we are pleased that the police have returned the Survivors property, this small step in no way cures their prior misconduct and abuse of authority,” she said.
She said her group would be following the case to make sure charges are dropped against the pro-life advocates.
“We expect the prosecutor to follow in the steps of the Birmingham Police Department and dismiss all charges brought against these nine innocent young people,” she said.
Allison Aranda, also with the pro-life law firm, added: “It goes without saying that this radical abuse of police power will not be overlooked. We look forward to our day in court.”
Nine college-aged participants in the Survivors Campus Life Tour were arrested on a public sidewalk while distributing literature to students. The group of pro-life youth activists quietly held signs, distributed literature and peacefully dialogued with students on the public sidewalk.
Local officials threatened the pro-life advocates with arrest and they contacted their attorneys, who informed them that their location on the public sidewalk and their free speech activity was legal according to local and state laws.
Once the members of the pro-life team finished distributing their literature and were loading their van in preparation to leave, officers handcuffed and arrested all nine pro-life advocates without warning.
WASHINGTON, February 17, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – During all his political campaigns former President Bill Clinton claimed to be in favor of true marriage and opposed to homosexual “marriage.” During his presidency Clinton even made good on his opposition by signing the Defense of Marriage Act, which specified that the federal government may not treat same-sex relationships as “marriages” for any purpose. However, a letter from his chief of staff shows that he has now attempted to punish a hotel owner for his opposition to homosexual “marriage.”
A letter from Clinton’s office, signed by Laura Graham, his chief of staff, indicates that Clinton attempted to have a function at which he was speaking transferred to another hotel, because the owner of the hotel had supported California’s Proposition 8 with a donation. Proposition 8 was the California ballot proposition which passed on November 4, 2008, which added to the state Constitution a new section, reading: “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.”
Should Clinton’s bid to move the event been successful it would have cost the hotel tens of thousands of dollars in lost revenue.
Addressed to homosexual activist and Union President Brigette Browning, the February 13 letter states: “We made several attempts to change the venue,” referring to the San Diego Manchester Grand Hyatt. Homosexual activists had called for a boycott of the hotel ever since it was revealed that owner Doug Manchester donated $125,000 to the campaign to protect true marriage in California.
Speaking of the former President, the letter states: “He (Clinton) was in no way involved in choosing the venue nor was he aware of the controversy related to it until we received your letter last week. As you know, President Clinton shares many of your concerns and wishes this event could have taken place elsewhere. Upon receiving you letter, we made several attempts to change the venue. Unfortunately, the hosting organization responded that they were unable to do so.”
Clinton’s work to financially penalize the hotel owner has drawn charges of hypocrisy, as Clinton’s public record while in office was consistent in opposing same-sex “marriage.” Wendy Wright of Concerned Women for America told LifeSiteNews.com that Clinton’s “latest action reveals the depth of his hypocrisy.”
In 1996, during his re-election campaign, Clinton signed into law the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Moreover, in a now famous 1996 interview with the homosexual magazine, The Advocate, Clinton said: “I remain opposed to same-sex marriage. I believe marriage is an institution for the union of a man and a woman. This has been my long-standing position, and it is not being reviewed or reconsidered.” (see the interview here: http://web.archive.org/web/20050208184130/http://www.advocate.com/html/stories/824/824_clinton_710.asp)
The charge of hypocrisy seems to hold even more water given that the hotel owner has apologized for making his donation to the Prop 8 campaign. Ted Kanatas, General Manager of San Diego Manchester Grand Hyatt, told LifeSiteNews.com: “Mr. Manchester and his wife made that decision together and he has since apologized, he has refused to give any more, he has apologized to the hotel.”
Clinton did in fact speak at the hotel Sunday for the International Franchise Association (IFA), but according to Kanatas there was little choice. “We’re a 1625 room hotel,” he explained, and “IFA consumes virtually all of it.” He added that there are very few hotels in North America that could accommodate a group of that size, and the homosexual activist group petitioned for the venue change only a week prior to the event.
CWA’s Wright says she sees a lesson for pro-family activists in the controversy. “The problem with ‘evolving’ standards,” she said, “is that they evolve according to the pressure put on unprincipled people.” The reason why Clinton signed DOMA, she explained, was the election. “It was the pressure of the public,” and now that that pressure is off, it’s no surprise that he’s changed his tune, she said.
“But this is a lesson for many of us,” concluded Wright, “that some leaders political and business will buckle under pressure. Homosexual groups will never let up their pressure so we have to be just as active in convincing leaders to do the right thing.”
Longtime missionaries David and Fiona Fulton were sentenced by a Gambian court to a year of hard labor last December after pleading guilty — in hopes of a lenient sentence — to sedition charges stemming from a wry comment e-mailed to a prayer list.
After nearly a decade of service in the West African Muslim nation, the Fultons, missionaries from an Assemblies of God church in Britain, experienced a string of difficulties, including a disagreement that led them to part with their local church. At about the same time, David reduced his role as an army chaplain and was assaulted by a man he described as a Muslim fundamentalist.
“Now how [a growing extremist element] should be dealt with, I don’t know,” David wrote in an e-mail to supporters. “(I have suggested that we arm the Muslims with sticks and the Christians with machine guns and let them fight it out.) [B]ut seriously, while I will defend myself and my family I don’t believe that I will or should take any part in a physical proactive role against them, that’s the government’s job.”
Someone on the Fultons’ prayer list forwarded the e-mail to Gambian authorities. “This unfortunate comment did not go down well with the authorities, who saw it as incitement,” said Khataza Gondwe, the officer for sub-Saharan Africa at Christian Solidarity Worldwide. The e-mail became the basis for the sedition charges. Other charges have followed.
Gondwe said the Gambian prison system is particularly harsh, and the couple appeared quite weak in court. The Fultons are expected to serve their year-long sentence by doing plantation work and paying an $8,600 fine.
The Fultons are not the only missionaries whose e-mails have been used against them. Wycliffe Bible Translators president Bob Creson said unauthorized use of support letters is a risk for many missionaries.
The Fultons weren’t in danger because of the e-mail per se, said Pete Holzmann, executive director of the International Christian Technologists Association. “This is a people issue more than a technology issue.”
Missionaries can avoid drawing attention to themselves by using common methods — such as Gmail or FedEx — or sending secure messages through encryption or Web anonymizers, but Holzmann said the real risk is what happens after their messages arrive. Prayer letters published on church websites, photos posted on blogs, and stories told in public can all be used against missionaries.
One way missionaries can lessen risk is simply to not be as candid in writing as they would be speaking in their home country.
“You want people praying for the circumstances,” said Creson, but not at the risk of the ministry. Wycliffe and other sending agencies point missionaries to supervisors and other staff when they need to share thoughts too sensitive for writing.
Steve Knight, international communication coordinator at Serving in Mission, said he cautions missionaries to ask themselves how their next-door neighbors would feel about the content of their prayer letters.
Wheaton professor Scott Moreau said most governments are aware of missionaries and are usually less concerned about mentions of God than about stances on politically charged issues — as in the case of the Fultons.
Another good tactic for missionaries is to remind recipients that e-mail content must go no further. Holzmann recommends sending sensitive material in an encrypted e-mail as a pdf with security settings that prevent copying or printing. “It’s easy to break that security system, but they can only break it knowing that they are not respecting your wishes,” he said.
The most important tactic, agreed Holzmann, Creson, and Knight, is for missionaries to live a consistent life in such a way that they are respected and integrated. In Holzmann’s words, “If at all possible — and it is possible in amazing places — live your life and do your ministry in such a way that the local people and the government love you and like what you’re doing.”
The former director of the Office of Faith-Based Initiatives for the governor of Ohio was arrested Wednesday for his involvement in an online prostitution ring. Eric McFadden, who has also formerly served as the president of the organization Catholics for Faithful Citizenship and spokesperson for Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, will face seven prostitution-related charges tomorrow in court.
Eric McFadden, 46, the former head of the Office of Faith-Based Initiatives for Governor of Ohio, Ted Strickland, was arrested this morning and faces two counts of promoting prostitution, two counts of pandering obscenity involving a minor, two counts of pandering obscenity involving a nude minor and one count of compelling prostitution, Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien told the Springfield News-Sun.
The News-Sun also quoted Keith Daily, Governor Strickland’s press secretary who described the situation as “very sad, shocking and appalling.”
McFadden’s faith outreach has not been limited to the Ohio governor’s office. In 2004, McFadden worked for Catholics for Kerry and in 2005, served as the president for the organization, Catholics for Faithful Citizenship. In 2006, he was a spokesperson for Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, and more recently, he was Hillary Clinton’s lead Catholic outreach organizer as the State Faith & Values Outreach Director during the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.
According to NBC 4 in Columbus, Ohio, detectives suspect McFadden was involved in a “hooker-review” site that led to the creation of a Brewery District brothel.
Police also believe that McFadden is a man they have been tracking who posts under the name “Toby.” Authorities have been searching for him over the past two months after busting a prostitution ring on Craigslist.
McFadden used complex encoded postings on Craiglist that would look like useless or corrupted data, in which he would embed the information of the woman available, the type of sex interaction she would be willing to perform and the place to meet her. Paradoxically, McFadden’s code name in his transactions was “mcfaddencatholic.”
CNA obtained copies of the postings, but since they contain names that may be real and actual addresses in the Columbus, OH area, they will not be made public.
Police also note that on McFadden’s online posts, he claimed to be the “guru” of prostitution in Columbus, Ohio. He wrote reviews on prostitution services as well as advice on how not to get caught, reports NBC 4.
McFadden is scheduled to appear in court tomorrow.
Upon hearing of the arrest, the organization, Catholic Democrats reacted saying that it is “sad news” that a “committed Catholic Democrat” has been arrested under such accusations.
McFadden who has been a supporter of John Kerry, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama described his Catholic outreach in 2007 to PBS’ Religion and Ethics Newsweekly as giving “a voice to Catholics so they can stand up and say, ‘I am a Catholic Democrat, and I’m proud and these are the principles that I believe in.’”
Additionally, he was a member of the Knights of Columbus and reached the 4th order. Last year, he penned a letter to the Knights of Columbus asserting that Supreme Knight Carl Anderson was leading Catholics astray by suggesting that Catholics could not vote for pro-abortion candidates.
“Carl Anderson should resign as Supreme Knight so the good work of the Knights of Columbus can continue without the stain of partisan politics,” he wrote.
In 2008 McFadden also conducted an interview with Pepperdine University professor Doug Kmiec regarding his support for the pro-choice president-elect Barack Obama.
Other associates of McFadden could not be reached for immediate comment.
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Well said. NewLabour has been the most oppressively authoritarian government ever, and will be evicted into the wilderness again at the next election. Whether the encroachments on our liberty will be rolled back by the next lot though is doubtful. But we’ll see. The writer seems to think Cromwell was a man of the people and a revolutionary; he actually became the closest thing we have ever had to a despot, always the problem when one individual gets too much power. And Wilberforce was a politician who merely jumped on the anti-slavery bandwagon [which had been largely a female campaign up to then] and got all the kudos for being a reformer and ‘the man who ended slavery’. Politicians always grab the limelight, but I would expect the writer to have done a bit more of his homework.
Posted by Peter Simmons at 11:44am on February 26, 2009
I strongly agree. Information is routinely misused, shared inappropriately – and sought inappropriately. The naive assumption is that UK governments protect individual interests and are not and will never be despotic. MP’s seem very relaxed about an emergent data gathering and sharing strategy which leaves individual citizens at extraordinary risk. A Bill of Rights would at least provide a rationale and legal framework for citizens.
Posted by dexy at 12:38pm on February 26, 2009
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