Women in Swaziland can now be arrested for wearing mini-skirts or cropped tops because they are responsible for provoking their own rapes. The government has announced that it will now enforce an 1889 law banning “immoral” dressing. Of course, the same week an Iowa court held that employers could fire attractive women who may be too great a temptation for them.
Continue reading “Swaziland Declares Women Who Wear Mini-Skirts Are Responsible For Their Own Rapes”
A Saudi court has ordered the editor of a Saudi Arabian website to be tried for apostasy, and possibly executed, due to his criticism of the role of religion in the Saudi Kingdom. Raif Badawi, the founder of the Free Saudi Liberals website, was arrested in June and originally charged with insulting Islam. The court has now upgraded the charge to apostasy.
Continue reading “Saudi Editor Faces Death Penalty For Apostasy Due To Writings About Religion”
We previously discussed the lawsuit over what was described as a roadside cavity search conducted on two women by a Texas police officer in search of marijuana possession. The Texas Department of Public Safety trooper Kelly Helleson has now been suspended with pay as the police investigate the matter, which was caught on videotape. What I fail to understand is why, once again, nothing happened until the public rose up in anger over the absurd actions of the police. Moreover, there is no mention of the first officer who used the fact that Angel Hobbs, 38, had thrown a cigarette butt out of her window to interrogate the two women on possible pot use and then searched their car.
Continue reading “Texas Police Officer Suspended With Pay In Roadside “Cavity Search” Case”
There is a new disturbing video (below) showing police abuse this week. The video shows a Texas state trooper performing what was claimed to be a cavity search on the roadside on suspicion of possession of marijuana. It appears that while states like Colorado are legalizing marijuana, Texas is allegedly doing cavity searches to find someone in possession of weed. I guess it should be no surprise when you are driving on the George Bush Turnpike. The two women — Angel Dobbs, 38, and her niece, Ashley Dobbs, 24 — subject to the humiliating search are now suing the police.
We have another horrific gang rape committed overseas by men who claim to be teaching a woman good morals. The physiotherapy student was attacked on a city bus in Delhi after watching a movie with a male friend. Six drunk men got on the bus and reportedly attacked the woman for being out at night with a man and decided to “teach her a lesson” by beating them both and repeatedly raping the woman. The rape and beating was so severe that the woman is on a ventilator and her intestines were so severely ruptured that doctors had to remove them to prevent gangrene.
Continue reading “Brutal Rape Prompts Calls For Indian Government To Address Violence Against Women”
Police in Parker County are looking for this woman for a truly seasonal crime: she was caught on a security camera stealing the wreath and Christmas lights of a private home.
There is an interesting and tragic case out of Northern Illinois University in Dekalb where 22 members of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity have been criminally charged in the death of student David Bogenberger, 19, after a frat event with excessive drinking. It is one of the largest such prosecutions, if not the largest, that I have seen for a hazing or frat drinking death. The question is whether this is a matter that should be addressed on the criminal opposed to the civil docket as well as school proceedings for expulsion.
We have previously discussed the curious definition of prostitution in this country. Many libertarians and others believe that consenting adults should be able to consent to such arrangements. Â My long-standing interest is the legal definition (and fairness) of the criminal code in defining prostitution. Â If someone agrees to have sex for money, they are arrested as a prostitute. Â However, if you accept money to have sex with multiple people in a porn movie, you are an actress. Â Now, Cheryl Cohen Greene, a 68-year-old grandmother and cancer survivor, adds another possible exception. Â She is a “sexual surrogate” who works with men who are sick or disabled in ‘sexual therapy.’
We previously discussed the suggestion by a member of Congress that the Connecticut massacre could have been avoided if only teachers were carrying M-4 assault rifles. Now the Governor of Michigan is considering bringing that a little closer to reality with a bill that would allow concealed guns in public schools. Referring to the Connecticut massacre, Senator Tom Casperson, the Republican sponsor of the bill, said “to me it gives [teachers] a chance.” [Update: the Michigan Governor Rick Synder has vetoed the legislation]
Continue reading “Michigan Legislature Passes Law To Allow Concealed Weapons In School [Updated]”
Yesterday, we discussed how various people have used the massacre in Connecticut to call for everything from gun control to new social programs and prayer in school. Now, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), a long advocate for censoring music and speech, added his own take: crackdown on violent video games. Lieberman described Adam Lanza of having a “hypnotic involvement” with the games and called on Congress to get involved.
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The murder of 20 children and six adults at the Sandy Hook Elementary has spawned an array of commentary from calls for new gun controls to greater funding for mental illness in the United States. However, Fox commentator and former GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said that the shooting was not surprising after the removal of prayer from public schools. Rep. Louie Gohmert, a Republican from Texas, did one better, he wished God ensured that Principal says Dawn Hochsprung had an M-4 assault rifle at the school before she was killed.
Continue reading “Send God, Guns, and Money: Sandy Hook Shooting Becomes Rallying Point For Political Advocates”
I have previously written how Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez has lead a national effort to jail citizens who film police in public — a major deterrent to the use of the single most important technology in fighting police abuse. She was previously criticized by the Seventh Circuit for her “extreme” arguments to strip citizens of their first amendment rights. Now Alvarez has added to her rather notorious reputation with a bizarre claim as part of a 60 minutes piece on a litany of wrongful convictions by her office. She suggests that the fact that a serial rapist’s DNA was found on the body was not proof of the innocence of five teens because he might have come across the girl’s dead body later and had sex with it.
Continue reading “Cook County Anita Alvarez Under Attack For Bizarre Claim In CBS Interview”
Roger Alvin Henderson appears to have expressed too much in a traffic stop by the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office. Henderson was stopped by an officer on the grounds that his window tint seemed too dark. It wasn’t, but as he waited (and the officer was speaking to his mother), Henderson relieved himself on the cruiser. Upon returning, the officer asked “did you pee on my car?” He did not like the answer.
Joel Brodsky, former counsel for Drew Peterson, has had a tough year. First, he loses the case and then the client. Second, lawyers in a completely separate case cite his alleged grandstanding as harming not just Peterson’s chances for acquittal but all criminal defendants. Now, Peterson himself (through his new counsel) is claiming that Brodsky lied to him about his experience and used him as a virtual prop to try to become a celebrity lawyer.
It appears that Chicago has emerged wiped crime, the bad economy and the educational crisis. Even a district attorney who seems to spend much of her time stripping rights from citizens as opposed to locking up criminals appears to has appeared as a danger. The only issue left it appears for Ald. James Cappelman (46th) (my old ward in Chicago) is to criminalize feeding pigeons. That’s right, Cappelman wants to make feeding the bird a crime — joining a national movement toward the criminalization of annoying or commonplace acts that I have previously criticized in columns (here and here) and numerous blogs on the criminalization of using artificial turf to growing vegetable gardens to eating french fries in the subway. Politicians like Cappelman are turning America into a nation of felons as everyday acts are regulated through the criminal code.
Continue reading “Bird Brained: Chicago Alderman Moves To Make Feeding Pigeons A Crime”