Archive for the ‘North Carolina’ Category

Cops caught fraternizing with the enemy

Thursday, February 10th, 2011

Several cops in Raleigh, NC are the subject of an internal affairs investigation for their involvement with a representative of the world’s oldest profession.

Internal affairs investigators used GPS tracking devices and hidden cameras to uncover the activity, which involved sex with a prostitute who frequents Bragg Street in downtown Raleigh, the sources said.

Speaking on the condition that they not be identified, the sources said the Raleigh Police Department’s Internal Affairs Unit raided the Southeast District Substation on Crosslink Road over the weekend and that several officers there were told to turn in their guns, badges and patrol cars.

Of course, the law that governs everyone else also applies to cops, right?  Oops.  I guess not:

Wake County District Attorney Colon Willoughby said his office is aware of the investigation and that criminal charges did not seem likely. He declined to say why or to discuss the matter further.

Well, these are probably just a bunch of young rookies who made a mistake, right?  Oops.  I guess not:

One of the names tied to the investigation, sources said, is Raleigh police Sgt. Rick Armstrong, who is the president of the Raleigh Police Protective Association, a professional association that represents the interests of police officers.

Armstrong, who also is a member of the state Law Enforcement Training and Standards Commission, said Tuesday that he could not speak about the matter, on the advice of the Raleigh Police Department’s Internal Affairs Bureau.

Well, surely some honest cops came forward and management acted quickly to put an immediate end to the activity just as they would if the culprits were ordinary citizens, right?  Oops.  I guess not:

In a statement Tuesday afternoon, Police Chief Harry Dolan did not address the specific allegations but acknowledged a “comprehensive” internal investigation into “improper conduct” stemming from a police officer’s complaint in late 2009.

Well, at a very minimum, an outraged city government must be demanding that the officers be publicly identified as is the case for anyone else caught with a prostitute and charged under the relevant criminal statutes making clear to the public that police are not above the laws they hold everyone else accountable to, right?  Oops.  I guess not:

Mayor Pro-Tem Mary-Ann Baldwin, who chairs the city’s Law and Public Safety Committee, said such incidents “reflect poorly” on the police department but that police officers generally do an excellent job.

“Anytime you have something like this you want a quick resolution and I would imagine our residents who would be impacted by this expect that,” she said.

So, after secretly studying the matter for over a year, now that it’s public they are suddenly in favor for a “quick resolution”.  My guess is that, had it not been for the unidentified “sources”, the city would have been quite content if this story never saw the light of day.

So what happens now, Chief Dolan?

“When all the available facts are present, appropriate decisions will be made concerning any personnel action that should be taken pursuant to departmental policy in response to administrative violations.”

Ohhhhhh!  I see.  When ordinary people go to a hooker to get laid, it’s a crime against the public morals where they get their picture in the paper, pay big money for a lawyer, end up being fined and probably spend some time in jail, and (in some states) get their car seized.  But when a cop does it, it’s an “administrative violation”.

Can we say “cover up”?  Can we say “blue wall of silence”?

Posted in North Carolina, Police Misconduct, Politics, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Prostitution | 2 Comments »

A few miscellaneous lunchtime links

Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010
  • Stings have become standard as a means for achieving high arrest rates when it comes to prostitution (not to mention drugs).   As depressing as that is, the comments you see under such stories are encouraging.  As with this story about an operation in Birmingham, people tend to think its a waste of resources and shouldn’t be a crime to begin with.
  • Another disturbing strategy I’m seeing is the increasing use of anti-prostitution sweeps and stings as a means to seize people’s cars simply as a revenue source.  I recently wrote about a Detroit sweep that seized 70 cars and today there is a story of Canadian operation that seized 11 vehicles.  The state usually makes money on seizures independent of whether the owner is ever charged or found guilty, thereby creating perverse incentives for law enforcement to target innocent people.   Used in the drug war for years, the expansion of this practice into other consensual crime areas shows the government’s desperation for creative finance measures to compensate for fiscal recklessness.
  • South Korea is a master of mass prostitution arrests.  After an investigation of a bar, they recently arrested “252 male visitors and 37 alleged prostitutes – including 37 civil servants, working for government or state-run companies, 94 professionals, such as doctors, accountants and businessman and 121 others. The three owners of the bar were also arrested.”  It doesn’t say whether they seized everyone’s car but they have clearly saved the country from a bunch of guys who wanted to get laid.

    If a tree falls in the woods and there’s no one there to hear it, does it make a sound?

    Who cares?

    If, however, a woman falls down with a man for money in Clayton and no one knows about it or is hurt by it, will it get you arrested?

    You bet.

  • The U.S. Supreme court hears arguments over California’s new law that makes it a crime to sell a violent video game to anyone under 18.

Posted in Alabama, Canada, North Carolina, Pornography, South Korea, United States | Comments Off

Adult businesses face regulation hell

Monday, August 9th, 2010

After posting about the a ridiculous West Virginia ordinance controlling adult stores, I did a search for other similar cases.  If it were any other kind of business, the public wouldn’t stand for the kind of harassment that cities level at adult businesses.  But, sex related businesses are fair game and people either don’t care or don’t want to stand up to crusaders who claim to be “protecting children”.

Nothing like being kicked when you’re down. The VIP Bookstore in Calexico City, California collapsed during a 7.2 magnitude earthquake in April and the city is preventing it from reopening while it cooks up new regulations to restrict the operations of adult businesses.

Don’t be usin’ our roads to get to yer sex stores! Rensselaer, NY is complaining about a law passed in nearby E.Greenbush restricting the location of adult businesses because people would, you know, have to drive on their roads to get to the area.  Says Rensselaer Mayor Mark Pratt:

“If people have to drive through the city to get to these [sex] shops, it’s obviously not something we would want to see,”

Complaints during the comment period complained that:

Under this law, locker rooms at health clubs could be eliminated because there is nudity there,” said a man identified only as Phil. “Women would not be able to wear bikinis at pools, because they would be semi-nude.”
The man said the law would also infringe on the arts in the event nude models were used, as well as on the theatre.

The law is “designed to balance First Amendment rights with the rights of other citizens”.  Huh?  Is that like trying to balance people’s First Amendment rights against those who don’t think there should be First Amendment rights.

You can’t make this shit up. In Gastonia, NC adult merchants are prohibited from having “two sexually oriented uses under one roof”.

A pair of adult businesses in Gastonia have been cited by the city for both showing sexually explicit movies and selling explicit videos and DVDs — a combination that violates state and local laws.

God wouldn’t approve! A church group is fighting an already approved adult business in Southington, Connecticut.   While a challenge to the approval of the VIP (Very Intimate Pleasures) store was mysteriously dropped at the last minute, the towns folk will have another opportunity to get out their pitch forks and torches in October:

The next chance for public comment on the VIP approval will be Oct. 6, when the Planning and Zoning Commission will hold a public hearing on a moratorium on adult-oriented businesses.

The above are only a sampling of stories about the legal challenges aimed at adult oriented businesses happening over the last week.  One can only wonder why anyone would want to get into the business knowing the persecution they can expect from intolerant residents who are all for freedom (except when they aren’t).

Posted in California, Connecticut, New York, North Carolina, Sex Toys and Paraphernalia | Comments Off

Sexting: There ought to be a law.

Friday, April 9th, 2010

Sexting is the new crack.   It’s the latest epidemic that is “destroying our youth”.  If you Google it, you will be swamped with statistics that tell you one in five teens has done it.  And in virtually all states, those one in five teens could be prosecuted as criminals (probably felons).

When it comes to news about sexting laws, North Carolina, Arizona, Florida, and Virgina pop up at the top of the search results just for this weeks sexting news items.  And rare is the voice that cautions against over-reacting.

The latest trend is the rush to pass new legislation that creates a special crime of sexting just so prosecutors aren’t forced (yes, forced!) to prosecute mere children as predatory child sexual abusers.  Not content to just leave it to parents and schools to instruct children as to the dangers of sending nude photos to other kids, state legislators feel compelled to make the activity a matter for state control.  And the only tool (blunt instrument, actually) the state has to do that is to treat it as a crime.

There is no doubt that in today’s world, playing doctor would be considered a warning sign that someone is on the path to sexual  deviancy.  The first response to any sex-related activity by kids that elicits press coverage is to pass a new law.  Laws are modern civilization’s answer to the wishing well.

Pass a law= problem solved.

The kids who are sending these pictures obviously don’t share the fear and hysteria of  adults and the serious criminal ramifications don’t occur to them.   Any why would it?  How can sending a picture of yourself to someone else make you a criminal?  It defies logic, but just as the seriousness doesn’t occur to kids, the panicky over-reaction doesn’t occur to adults.

The bottom line is that kids are injured far less by the act of sexting  than they are from society’s paranoid over-reaction to simple nudity.

Posted in Arizona, Child Pornography, Florida, North Carolina, Sexting, United States, Virginia | Comments Off

“Freedom of speech is not…

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

…freedom for the thought you love.  It’s freedom for the thought you hate the most.”

So said Larry Flynt in his address to the students of the University of North Carolina last week.  Flynt is most widely known for his publication of Hustler magazine, one of the most explicit sex-oriented publications to hit the mainstream.

Not surprisingly, Flynt has spent most of his adult life wrapped up in legal battles, fighting to protect his first amendment rights to publish what some call obscene material in his magazine.

“The greatest right that any nation can afford its people is the right to be left alone,” he said. “Every American feels that way. Unless they’re breaking the law, they want to be left alone.”

And yet, everywhere you look today, freedom of expression is under attack.  If you’re a Republican, your party is ready and willing to dispense with the First Amendment in the name of morality.  If you’re a Democrat, your party denounces it as a threat to a person’s right to not be offended.  Both parties, using the excuse of protecting children, are perfectly content to leave those children with a future where speech is not so free.   Such a position is the definition of hypocrisy.

But you say, no, no, no!  We’re not dispensing with the First Amendment, we’re just dispensing with those forms of expression not protected by it.   You know, the really offensive stuff.

Folks, there is no such thing as a little censorship and the First Amendment makes no exception for obscenity.  That piece of fiction was an invention of the U.S. Supreme Court.  Unlike current legislation, the Constitution is understandable to the common man.  You don’t have to be a scholar to read and understand the First Amendment.   If they can conjure up one exception, the door is open to others.

So, while you can joke all you want about how “The Internet is for Porn“, we should thank people like Flynt for taking the fight to the courts on his own dime, suffering an assassination attempt, and ultimately shattering  some of the barriers to the free flow of information erected by those who have appointed themselves authorities over all of what is or isn’t good for us.

Posted in Censorship, North Carolina, Obscenity, Pornography, United States | Comments Off

Most sex crimes committed by 1st time offenders

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

Melissa D. Grady, a teacher at the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Social Work, has an interesting opinion piece on newsobserver.com regarding the effectiveness of registering sex offenders.

She points to a study covering ten years before Megan’s Law to ten years after Megan’s Law was enacted and comments:

This study found that even after the passage of the registration law, there was no change in the rate of sex crimes because more than 96 percent of all sexual crimes are committed by first-time offenders.

The entire article is worth reading because it really makes a convincing case that registering sex offenders or keeping them locked up under civil confinement are largely a huge waste of money.

Posted in Civil Commitment, North Carolina, Sex Crimes, Sex Offender Registries | Comments Off