Archive for the ‘Ohio’ Category

Lorain Ohio’s legacy of cruelty and injustice

Monday, February 14th, 2011

While most people think the child sex abuse panic of the 80′s and 90s is behind us, there are still people suffering in prison because of it.  The case of Nancy Smith and Joseph Allen of Lorain County, Ohio is a prime example of how lives were destroyed by ambitious prosecutors and incompetent judges incapable of delivering justice when accusations of child sex abuse were involved.

But what really sets up the Lorain, Ohio case as a crowning achievement of justice gone completely off the tracks is the fact that, after the sentence of these two was thrown out in 2009, they are now headed back to prison because the Ohio Supreme Court reversed that two year old decision last month.

Read the entire article and you will have a pretty clear picture of what was happening all over the country in the 80s and 90s but to see the same cruelty repeated twenty years later is a travesty.  It’s incredible that current child sex abuse paranoia in this country isn’t met with more skepticism in the wake of the witch hunts that destroyed so many lives and families over those two decades.

When faced with any activity or proposal that is justified by claims of “protecting children”, the entire population of the U.S. suddenly gets gullible and stupid.   And it’s for that very reason that nearly all moral crusades are presented in those terms.    Sex offender registries are justified by the fear of pedophiles behind every tree and anti-prostitution groups try to convince the public that hundreds of thousands of children in the U.S. are being forced to be sex slaves.  And it works.  The media repeats it without a hint of skepticism, politicians exploit it to get headlines, and the public swallows it whole.

I guess I should stop referring to it as “the sex abuse panic of the 80s and 90s” because it didn’t end in the 90s.  It’s still going as strong as ever.


States back off on child child pornographers

Tuesday, February 8th, 2011

State obscenity laws that criminalize the sending of child porn by electronic means often don’t differentiate between children and adults.  A minor who sends a picture of herself to a boyfriend can be prosecuted under child porn laws.  Adults who send nude pictures of themselves to another adult are, of course, protected under the First Amendment.  Not so with minors who are not accorded those same free speech rights.

Texas is one such state trying to introduce a new perversion twist to this situation.  Rather than having to charge minors with a felony for sexting, they are considering a new option.  From Chron:

Instead of sending young people to jail for sexting, judges under Senate Bill 407 would be authorized to sentence minors — and one of the minor’s parents — to participate in an education program about sexting’s consequences.

Who better to train parents on how to raise their children than the state, right?  I guess, given the choice between spending the rest of your life as a registered sex offender or a re-education program, the latter option probably seems pretty attractive, although the kid is probably not entirely sold on the idea that he did anything wrong to begin with (precisely the kind of attitude that is remedied by a state re-education program).

The attorney general’s office quoted a 2008 report from the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy indicating that 22 percent of teen girls said they have electronically sent or posted online nude or semi-nude images of themselves.

If you’re criminalizing an activity that almost a quarter of minors are guilty of, it’s only a matter of time before 60 Minutes does a segment about how your state is cranking out felon sex offenders by the boat  load.  Destroying kids’ lives is one thing, but embarrassing the state is another.

Of course, the concept of not prosecuting kids for non-crimes is not even on the radar of these morons.

Under current Texas law, minors charged with sexting face a third-degree felony, penalties of two to 10 years in prison, a fine up to $10,000 and lifelong registration as sex offenders.

Other states are addressing the same issue:

Watson’s bill is similar to recent legislation in Vermont, Illinois, Utah and Ohio that seeks to ease sexting penalties and prevent young people from getting caught up in the criminal system.

Back in April I posted about legislation in Arizona, North Carolina, Florida, and Virginia that provides for a lesser charges in the case of minors who send nude pictures of themselves to friends, thereby committing the terrible crime of child abuse where they are both the predator and the victim.  Sheesh!  Regardless of whether it’s a misdemeanor or a felony, it’s pretty clear that the real source of the abuse these kids face is at the hands of their own state governments.

Monday Links

Monday, February 7th, 2011
  • After an anonymous tip, a female teacher in Ohio is accused of having sex with five of her male students. She “faces up to 81 years in jail if she is convicted of 16 counts of sexual battery and three offenses involving an underage person.” The sexual “battery” charge presumes that the sex was unwanted.  I’m guessing that’s probably not the case (although reality does not play a major roll when it comes to the legalities of sex with  minors).
  • Florida is going to consider banning “simulated” obscenity, whether clothed or unclothed, in material accessible to minors.  Perhaps next year they will outlaw having dirty thoughts within 1000 feet of a minor.  No more suggestive cheer leading moves or dancing in Florida.
  • to minors by adding a clause that says that “a suspected sexual predator purposely and knowingly sent obscene electronic messages to a minor”.   This is apparently a attempt to reconcile free speech rights with their desire to restrict free speech rights.
  • Biblical porn: “My lover thrust his hand through the hole, and my insides groaned because of him.”  Surprise!  The Bible is conflicted about sex!

You people!

Wednesday, August 25th, 2010

Before I started this site, I wanted to start a blog called youpeople.org because, folks, there are times when you just want to grab the public by the shoulders and yell, “What’s wrong with You People?

While everyone has heard the phrase, ‘sex sells’, it would be a challenge to find anyone more dedicated to that philosophy for their own personal gain than politicians.  And way out ahead of the pack you will find prosecutors.

Nothing exemplifies that approach to self fulfillment quite like the parade of state attorneys general who have hitched their wagon to the moral crusade against craigslist.  As described on Huffington Post, seventeen state attorneys general have signed a letter (PDF) demanding that craigslist remove its adult services section.

“Only Craigslist has the power to stop these ads before they are even published,” Kansas attorney general Steve Six said in a statement.

Yes, that is absolutely correct.  That’s because the First Amendment prevents the government from doing it itself.  Unfortunately, being good students of the persuasion techniques practiced by organized crime, state governments are masters at intimidation when it looks like it could gain them some votes.

The campaign against craigslist didn’t start as a grass roots movement.  It started as a crusade by a noisy minority who are adept at stirring up public emotion with visions of children being exploited.

“No amount of money, however, can justify the scourge of illegal prostitution and the suffering of the women and children who will continue to be victimized, in the market and trafficking provided by Craigslist,” the letter said.

Women who advertise on criagslist are invariably described as idiots with no will of their own to resist exploitation by evil pimps and slave masters.  They have to be victims, otherwise who would get worked up about it?  And, of course, a lot of them have to be children for the same reason.

While wearing sheets is out of fashion, there should be no mistake that these state attorneys general are using persecution of a favorite target as a means to inflame the public’s mob mentality.  They might as well be carrying torches and pitchforks.  And the public, knowing that it would be impolite to demand actual numerical evidence that rises above the level of guesses and delusional claims, mindlessly goes along with the hysteria.  Who would oppose those whose only wish is to “help women and children”?  But, the last time I heard, a willingness to be your brother’s keeper wasn’t sufficient reason to burn the Constitution.

My message to the people of these states is this:

Well, folks, your wish is coming true.  In your fervor to impose your narrow personal values on everyone else, You People have created a monster who will enthusiastically piss on free speech in order to carry out your will.  But, be warned.  The monster is pretty kinky.  He likes a threesome, so don’t be surprised to find him in your bed as a supervising partner deciding what does or doesn’t constitute acceptable behavior between you and your lover.

P.S.  I intentionally avoided mention of Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley simply because if I started writing about her, this post would have turned into a book.  She is probably one of the most self-serving and parasitic of politicians, having mastered the craft of exploiting children and sex hysteria for her own personal benefit.  In a contest to be the antichrist, Coakley would be a leading contender.

Bible thumpers protest at strip club, strippers protest at church.

Tuesday, August 10th, 2010

In Ohio, according to the Columbus Dispatch, Foxhole strip club owner Tommy George and pastor Bill Dunfee are battling it out in a war of signs and picketers.

I’d say George has a legitimate gripe with Dunfee:

Every weekend for the last four years, Dunfee and members of his ministry have stood watch over George’s joint, taking up residence in the right of way with signs, video cameras and bullhorns in hand. They videotape customers’ license plates and post them online, and they try to save the souls of anyone who comes and goes.

So, the stripper have decided to return the favor by showing up at Dunfee’s church on Sunday wielding Super Soakers and wearing see through shorts.  They grill burgers and corn on the cob and serve monster energy drinks.

Mostly the church goers and strippers ignore each other.

Except for Stan Braxton. He stopped and held hands with Lola, a 42-year-old dancer who made $200 on her Saturday night shift, and prayed for her salvation.

Gina Hughes doesn’t like the harassment they get from the bible-thumpers.

The 30-year-old married mother of six said she has danced at the Foxhole for a decade and holds the title of “house mom.” That means that even though she still dances, she also watches out for the six other women who work there.

She said she makes $2,000 a week.

“These church people say horrible things about us,” Hughes said. “They say we’re homewreckers and whores. The fact of the matter is, we’re working to keep our own homes together, to give our kids what they need.”

Dunfee has his own thoughts on the strippers protesting at his church.

He said their presence has united his church members and reinvigorated their mission to shut down the club.

“They have now seen the evil firsthand,” Dunfee said. “This has just made us stronger.”

George laughed at that notion.

“They’re just mad,” he said, “because their wives won’t let them come to my club.”

I guess religious zealots aren’t happy unless they’re making someone else unhappy.

Movie Review: “Dirty Pictures”

Thursday, April 15th, 2010

The movie, “Dirty Pictures”, released in 2000, is about the uproar that occurred in Cincinnati as a result of an exhibit of photography by the Robert Mapplethorpe.  I recently blogged about the raid on Cincinnati’s Contemporary Arts Center which happened 20 years ago this month.

James Woods did a superb job playing the part of CAC curator Dennis Barrie in teh Showtime production.  I didn’t care for the way the movie handled the time line and I thought it was a bit distracting the way they interspersed the jury debate throughout the telling of the story, but overall, the movie kept up the suspense from start to finish and ended with a well orchestrated climax.

I commend Showtime for actually having the balls to show the pictures that caused the controversy.  For anyone not familiar with Mapplethorpe, he was a highly regarded New York photographer who created a series of very explicit black and white photographs depicting extreme male homosexual acts.  It is largely those pictures which caused the negative reaction, but the “Perfect Moment” exhibit at the CAC also included some simple nudes of underage children.  The bulk of Mapplethorpe’s work is comprised of pictures of female nudes, flowers, celebrity portraits, and statues.  Mapplethorpe died of AIDS  the year before the Cincinnati exhibit took place.

Not only does the movie seem to capture the rabidly adversarial environment of the local government, media, and public, it actually includes news footage  and commentary of notable figures of the time including President Bush, Pat Buchanan, Jesse Helms, and William F. Buckley.  Supporting commentary was also included from Susan Sarandon, Nadine Strossen, Salmon Rushdie, Barney Frank, and others.

As becomes clear in the movie, journalists, artists, and advocates for the arts are sometimes the most powerful proponents of censorship because they often only see it as bad when it could affect them directly.

It is also a shortcoming of the movie that no one challenges the premise that the First Amendment doesn’t apply to obscenity which, of course, is simply saying that there is no protection for speech that is really really offensive.  That is nonsensical on its face and an example of the fact that the Constitution can be interpreted to say anything if enough people agree on it.   The more offensive the speech, the more pressure there will be to suppress it and therefore, the more protection it needs to resist that pressure.

The energy builds toward the end of the movie, culminating in a rewarding climax even knowing the outcome of the trial.  An even more important message is actually appended to the story as a postscript.  The suggestion is that, while Barrie was acquitted, the final victory may belong to advocates for censorship because the misery that was brought down on him and his family for championing the exhibit sends a brutal message that will discourage others from doing the same in the future.  Truer words were never spoken.

20 years ago in Cincinnati…

Thursday, April 8th, 2010

On April 7th, 1990, cops walked into the Contemporary Arts Center and presented indictments against an exhibit of works entitled “Perfect Moment” by photographer, Robert Mapplethorpe who had recently died of complications from AIDS.  Ultimately the exhibit went on and the events were later portrayed in a Showtime made-for-TV movie called “Dirty Pictures“.

Mapplethorpe’s graphic images of raw explicit gay sexuality made headlines repeatedly.  In fact, in 1989, when Mapplethorpe was invited to exhibit his work at the privately owned Corcoran Gallery in Washington DC, the museum refused to permit the “Perfect Moment” collection to be shown.  the exhibit went on to be shown successfully at the Washington Project for the Arts to large crowds.

The movie, “Dirty Pictures”, stars James Woods as the Cincinnati Arts Center curator and is available in DVD format on Netflix.  I have not seen it yet, but have added it to my Netflix queue.  I will try to remember to post a review after I’ve seen it.

Ohio teen facing sexting charges

Monday, March 29th, 2010

According to the Sandusky Register, a 17 year old Collins, Ohio girl is facing misdemeanor charges for sending a picture of herself to a couple guys.

I find a couple things odd about this.  First, the way the school fouond out about it:

In late January, Western Reserve High School assistant principal Chris Sheldon confiscated the phone of a student who was sending text messages during school hours, Huron County Sheriff’s Capt. Ted Patrick said.

Sheldon looked through the messages and found one with a picture attached, featuring the girl with her breasts exposed, authorities said.

Do high school student have no 4th Amendment rights in high school that an assistant principal can look through the messages of someone’s private phone?

The idea of prosecuting a girl for sending nude pictures of herself turns the law on its head.  It’s like prosecuting the girl for victimizing herself.  The age of consent in Ohio is 16, so she could be out having sex, but cannot send a nude picture of herself to someone.  Who thinks up this idiocy?

Ohio considering a new bill to rename and recriminalize already illegal activities

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

According to a writeup in the toledoblade.com, Ohio is considering a bill that would make it a crime to “traffic in persons”.  This comes in response to a task force that pegs Toledo as the fourth largest human trafficking city in the country.  I’ve written about this task force before here.

Senate Bill 235 creates the crime of “trafficking in persons,” which would apply to the subjugation of adults and children into labor or the sex trade against their will. It would be a second-degree felony, punishable by two to eight years in prison.

The crime would apply to people who “recruit, lure, entice, solicit, isolate, harbor, transport, provide, obtain, or maintain” a person, or attempt to do so, with the knowledge or reason to believe that the victim will be subjected to “involuntary servitude,” prostitution, or pornography.

As with all anti-trafficking campaigns, they clearly explain what a largely hidden crime it is and how very difficult it is to quantify, after which they launch a barrage of statistics (usually highly inflated guesses) designed to show how much of a crisis it is.

A year ago, the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association objected to the creation of a new crime, arguing that this activity is already illegal in Ohio under other names and is being prosecuted whenever possible.

This time, the association helped to craft the bill.

Although he believes this bill is better than Ms. Fedor’s prior proposal, association spokesman John Murphy said he’s still not sure it will translate into more prosecutions.

It doesn’t have to generate prosecutions, silly.  The purpose of the bill is to generate press coverage and votes, not prosecutions!

Inside Ohio’s Reeducation program for Johns

Sunday, February 28th, 2010

The Dayton Daily News has an interesting article about Dayton, Ohio’s reeducation program for guys arrested for soliciting prostitutes.

The subheadline starts right off with a statement misplacing blame:

Men convicted of seeking to buy sex get a look at the risks they take and the damage they do to a community.

The idea that the customers are to blame for adverse effects of prostitution is ridiculous on its face.  As was the case during prohibition of the 1930s, outlawing the activity created a disaster orders of magnitude worse than the “problem” they were trying to solve.  The real harm to the community comes from the prohibition.

“If we could cut down on the number of johns who come to Dayton to commit crimes, we’d be better off,” Lowe said. “It’s a quality of life issue.”

If you want to cut down on crime and improve quality of life, perhaps you should consider not criminalizing consensual sex between adults.

In this particular class, more of the men were trapped by cops posing as hookers, than were actually caught with a real prostitute. In fact, given the popularity of the police strategy of posing as hookers, one could easily come to the conclusion that you could cut the number of street walkers in half just by telling he cops to go home.

The men look at photos of sex organs inflamed by sexually transmitted diseases. The johns squirm, one covers his eyes with his hands. The images, from Public Health — Dayton and Montgomery County, flash across a screen for nearly an hour.

“We’ve got 48 prostitutes in Dayton, men and women, who are HIV positive,” an undercover Dayton detective said. “If we have 48 convicted prostitutes who are HIV positive, you can imagine how many more there are that we don’t know about.”

Another favorite strategy of the anti-prostitution crowd: the tip-of-the-iceberg argument which usually goes like this: “Yes, we know the numbers aren’t that frightening, but this probably only represents a tiny fraction of what’s really out there.”

In any case, if Ohio was really concerned about AIDS, it wouldn’t prohibit IV drug users from getting clean needles over the counter without a prescription. So, yeah, let’s be clear about who is and who isn’t doing damage to the community and the quality of life.

Lowe said there are consequences even for individuals who drive away without speaking to a prostitute.

The Dayton Police Department is sending letters to individuals seen frequenting high-prostitution areas such as Xenia Avenue or North Main Street.

“Residents can call in and give us a license plate number and a description of the driver. We’ll send a warning letter to their house,” Lowe said.

Nice work guys. Don’t let that “innocent until proven guilty” shit get between you and punishing those you you suspect might have been thinking about committing a crime.

Prostitutes, [Sunrise Center Director Joanne Hale] said, can be ticking time bombs.

They are bipolar, on (illegal) drugs. Their moods swing up and down. While you are enjoying your moment, anything could happen,”  Hale said. “You’re motivated by sex. They’re motivated by money.”

To paraphrase: “We’re doing this for your own good, yada, yada, yada.” Perhaps someone should let Ms. Hale in on a secret: Without sex and money as motives, we’d all still be living in mud huts.

There is nothing moral or compassionate about the war against prostitution. It’s a state sanctioned program to characterize people as subhuman who don’t conform to an intolerant society’s outdated attitudes about sex. Once they have been demonized, prostitutes and johns are fair game for persecution, a growth industry in the U.S.