NY State Sen. John Flanigan believes allowing registered citizens voting rights "undermines" the integrity of the voting system

Of course this came from the New York Post, the paper so bad that using it to line birdcages should get you arrested for animal cruelty.

As a side note, if our election system had integrity, we would not have two presidents in the 21st century put in office despite losing the popular vote.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/ny-pol-cuomo-civil-confinement-sex-offenders-vote-pardon-20180721-story.html#

EXCLUSIVE: Dozens of locked up sex offenders among those granted conditional pardons by Gov. Cuomo so they can vote

By KENNETH LOVETT
| ALBANY BUREAU CHIEF |
JUL 23, 2018 | 4:05 AM
|

ALBANY — Dozens of convicted sexual predators deemed too dangerous to be returned to the community after their release from prison are among the thousands who received conditional pardons from Gov. Cuomo, giving them the right to vote, the Daily News has learned.

At least 77 sexual predators sent to civil confinement in state psychiatric hospitals after their prison time was up are affected by the widespread pardons, various records show.

While the names of those in civil confinement are often shielded, a comparison of records showed the 77 predators shared one of two addresses — both of which happened to be upstate mental hospitals that house the civilly confined. One of the predators is Hector Aviles, 61, who was known as the “voodoo rapist.” Aviles was convicted of second-degree rape in Westchester County in 2008 after telling three of his victims — the oldest of whom was 16 — that if they participated in a sexual “ritual” with him, he could help them with their problems. If they didn’t, he said, bad things would happen to them and their families.

The rest of the list of 77 is littered with ***** and rapists and other violent sexual abusers. All were granted conditional pardons from Cuomo under a new policy designed to give back the right to vote to those who leave prison.

“This is hands-down the most egregious public policy misstep Andrew Cuomo has made in his eight years as governor, and it shows that he will do virtually anything for a few extra votes,” said Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan (R-Suffolk County).

“This policy rewards the worst of the worst sexual predators and lowlifes in our society and undermines the integrity of our voting system in every way, shape and form,” Flanagan added.

 

The governor announced in May that more than 24,000 parolees in the first round were issued the conditional pardons.

The Daily News reported at the time that one beneficiary was convicted cop killer Herman Bell, who was granted parole earlier this year over the objections of the law enforcement community, some state lawmakers and the slain officer’s family.

Cuomo aides have argued that the wholesale pardons are automatic once someone is paroled or released from prison and they are in good standing.

“The order was straightforward and put New York on par with Washington, D.C., and 18 other states — including such liberal bastions as Utah” that either never take away voting rights from convicts or restore them upon their release from prison, Cuomo spokesman Richard Azzopardi said with some sarcasm.

He noted that all other conditions of parole or release are upheld.

“It’s unfortunate that some are using the issue of restoring voting rights to fearmonger,” Azzopardi said.

Monica Lewinsky decides 20 years later to don the victim crown

I think she blew her chance at being the MeToo mouthpiece years ago. And now, the pun wasn't intended.

https://ethicsalarms.com/2018/03/02/now-monica-lewinsky-says-she-was-abused-and-sexually-harassed/

MARCH 2, 2018 · 2:10 PM ↓ Jump to Comments
NOW Monica Lewinsky Says She Was Abused And Sexually Harassed




I called it!

Remember in December when I had this exchange on NPR during a panel about sexual harassment and political figures in the early states of #MeToo?

ME : A hostile work environment means that the recipient of this has to feel hostility. They don’t like it. So, for example, if somebody – I have a hypothetical that I’m sure has happened, where someone is grabbed by Donald Trump back when he’s a celebrity, and she comes home. And she’s kissed, and she tells her roommate, “That was cool! Donald Trump kissed me.” And then when everybody she knows detests Donald Trump, she suddenly says …”I was harassed.”

BUTLER: COME ON!

HOST MICHEL MARTIN: OK. Yeah, I think we’re going to go to a different…All right. All right, Jack, you’ve had your say on that. And I think there are a lot of people who would want to argue with – I’m going to let Paul speak his piece on this. What do you say to that?

But the professor didn’t go beyond his interjected cheap shot, and went on to his own agenda, leaving the impression that my exposition on the strangeness of sexual harassment law was off-the-wall. It wasn’t, though. I was 100% correct, and NPR listeners, thanks to a grandstanding law professor whom I suspect wasn’t up on sexual harassment (he’s a criminal law professor who concentrates on race issues), were left less-informed than when they tuned in.

My point was and is valid: nothing stops an object of sexual attention in questionable propriety and taste from treating it as welcome at the time, then choosing, months, years or decades later, when there are non-ethical motivations to vilify or harm her one-time suitor, to withdraw her consent and “welcome,” and claim, retroactively, that she was harassed and abused.

This is exactly what Monica Lewinsky has done.

From the moment the scandal broke, Lewinsky  insisted that her relationship with President Bill Clinton was fully consensual and welcome despite the disparity in their position and age. This assisted the defense of the President’s unethical conduct “To Lewinsky’s credit, she never portrayed herself as any kind of victim of Clinton’s advances,” Jeffrey Toobin wrote in his 2000 book, “A Vast Conspiracy: The Real Story of the Sex Scandal That Nearly Brought Down a President.” Later, in a much-ballyhooed  piece for Vanity Fair in 2014, Lewinsky again asserted that she felt abused by special prosecutor Kenneth Starr, but not by sexy Bill. “Sure, my boss took advantage of me, but I will always remain firm on this point: It was a consensual relationship.”

Suddenly, however, Monica woke up “woke.”  In a new Vanity Fair essay, she writes, “Now, at 44, I’m beginning . . . to consider the implications of the power differentials that were so vast between a President and a White House intern…in such a circumstance the idea of consent might well be rendered moot.” She now believes the affair was “a gross abuse of power,” and is claiming her “#MeToo badge as a victim.

Had I chosen Bill Clinton as my example rather than Donald Trump—I admit, on NPR I was reluctant to be that provocative—this would have been my hypothetical come true.

Legally, Lewinsky was not sexually harassed, and no, she cannot fairly turn it into sexual harassment now to get another 15 minutes of fame. However Clinton had such power over her as her employer and President—the hypothetical I raised on NPR did not involve the workplace—that it was not a consensual relationship, and Clinton did engage in an abusive relationship based on his misuse of power and position.

Convenient retroactive decisions that what once were welcome sexual advances are welcome no longer after a decade or two has marked the #MeToo witch hunt from the start, with Al Franken being the most obvious victim. It’s no surprise that Monica Lewinsky figured out which way the metaphorical wind was blowing.

Danielle Bregoli, aka the "Cash Me Outside" girl, gives us a truly Bhad video promoting vigilante violence

I know most of you are wondering what this trashy thing is on my website. This idiot is known by a few names, including Danielle Bregoli (presumably her real name), Bhad Bhabie (her trashy stage name), but is mostly known as the "Cash me ousside girl" (based on her lispy trash talk on the Dr Phil show). When not getting continuing to get in trouble with the law for fighting and drugs, she claims to be a rapper.

This video (which also includes other scumbags like TY dollar sign and misandrist Bella Thorne) promotes vigilante violence as they set up an online sting to attack someone.

Sadly, I had to subject myself to three minutes of this filth just to make sure it is real. With vigilante violence against registered persons being real, even celebrity bullshit promoting vigilante violence should be blasted for being allowed to exist.

The scumbag who wrote the article below is worthy of a Shiitake mention for the disgusting article she wrote.

https://hollywoodlife.com/pics/danielle-bregoli-pictures-cash-me-outside-photos/#!8/bhad-bhabie-4

Danielle Bregoli & Bella Thorne Catfish A Child Predator In Shocking New Music Video – Watch

By Courteney Larocca

Bhad Bhabie’s latest music video will give you chills. The 15-year-old rapper dropped a visual for her track ‘Trust Me’ which shows her and Bella Thorne trying to catch a pedophile.

Danielle Bregoli won’t end up on an episode of Catfish. The 15-year-old, who goes by the stage name Bhad Bhabie, dropped a new music video on July 26 for her song, “Trust Me.” It’s definitely not your typical visual, though. The plot starts out with Bregoli being catfished by an older sexual predator, but it’s soon revealed that the rapper knows exactly who the man texting her is.

She then sets up a meeting at a park, where the pedophile finds Bella Thorne disguised as the teenager. Bregoli then jumps out and drugs the creep, and then ties him up in some secret lair where he inevitably gets exactly what was coming for him. Oh yeah, and Ty Dolla $ign also has a verse on the song. So, yeah, it’s quite a wild ride from start to finish, and you’ll just need to check it out yourself.

The video certainly focuses on a dark subject matter, but TMZ learned that Bregoli chose the concept because she saw it as a way to connect with her young fans while informing them about the dangers of online sexual predators. Honestly, as many goosebumps as this vid gave us, we’re kinda digging the whole Criminal Minds vibe that it’s got going on. Seriously you just need to watch it already – trust us.

___________________

If you really want to see the video, I suggest you mute it while playing, the song is an assault on the ears.

House Judiciary Committee falsely credits FOSTA/ SESTA for reducing sex trafficking

This article does such a great job debunking the House Judiciary's bullcrap that I don't even have to do anything but copy-paste and share.

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180723/17225540294/house-judiciary-committee-falsely-claims-credit-stopping-90-all-sex-trafficking-because-fosta.shtml

House Judiciary Committee Falsely Claims Credit For Stopping 90% Of All Sex Trafficking Because Of FOSTA

from the where-did-they-pull-that-stat-from dept

Say That Again
by Mike Masnick

Tue, Jul 24th 2018 9:39am

For no clear reason at all, the Republicans* on the House Judiciary Committee released a video on YouTube earlier this week praising themselves for stopping online sex trafficking via FOSTA/SESTA. It's... quite something.

The video makes a number of blatantly false claims from various members of the House Judiciary, but let's focus mainly on the claims of Ann Wagner, whose original bill kicked off the process that became FOSTA/SESTA. She's been spreading moral panic nonsense about sex trafficking and the internet for ages, so it's no surprise that she continues to do so. But, at one point in the video she states:

"We have shut down nearly 90% of the online sex trafficking business and ads."

She kind of swallows that last "and ads" bit so you could miss it, but either way it's utter and complete nonsense. I looked all over for any evidence of the claim that 90% of online sex trafficking has been stopped and there doesn't appear to be an iota of support for that. The only stat I could find that is possibly being twisted to make this argument is that when Backpage was seized earlier this year -- notably before FOSTA/SESTA was signed into law -- a Reuters report claimed that 90% of Backpage's ads were for "adult ads."

But, that in no way translates to Wagner's nutty claim for a whole long list of reasons:

1. Backpage was not the entire online market for sex trafficking ads (amusingly, Wagner admits this earlier in the same video, in which she falsely claims that there were "hundreds and hundreds of websites selling our children with impunity" < -- narrator: "there were not, in fact, hundreds and hundreds of websites doing so, and they were not doing it with impunity."
2. Many of the adult ads on Backpage were not for sex trafficking at all
3. Backpage stopped hosting adult ads a year and a half ago in January of 2017, over a year before SESTA/FOSTA became law and over a year before the site was seized by the feds.
4. And, again, Backpage was seized before SESTA/FOSTA was even signed into law.

So, where, exactly is Wagner getting this stat of having shut down 90% of online sex trafficking and ads because of FOSTA/SESTA?
There's other nonsense in the video as well. Wagner's other whopper was:

"If it's a crime offline, by golly, it's a crime online!"

Uh, yes. But that's always been the case. FOSTA/SESTA didn't change that. All it did was create a series of new crimes for third party tools and services used by not just sex traffickers, but sex workers. Sex trafficking was already illegal and this bill did absolutely nothing to change that. It is simply wrong to imply that FOSTA/SESTA suddenly made something illegal online that had been legal online before but illegal offline. It's not true.

Then there's Mimi Walters' who brought the amendment that combined FOSTA and SESTA, making both bills worse. Her credibility on this whole thing is already suspect, given that after the feds took down Backpage, she took credit for it falsely saying it was because of FOSTA/SESTA even though that bill was not law yet. But, here she is in the video spewing more nonsense:

"This legislation will now make it illegal to sell people online and give those survivors the opportunity to seek justice."

Except it was always illegal to sell people online (and offline!) and nothing in FOSTA/SESTA changed that. All it did was create a new crime in which tools and services used by traffickers could also be found to be criminal in addition to the people who were doing the actual selling of people (while also making it harder for law enforcement to find those people -- but we'll get there). She continues:

"Websites that knowingly facilitate sex trafficking are no longer immune from legal action."

Except they were never immune from legal action. Facilitating sex trafficking is a federal crime and nothing in CDA 230 contained immunity for federal crimes. It really makes you wonder why the primary "authors" of the bill seem to feel so hard pressed to flat out lie about what their own bill does. Why would they do that?

The video also has Judiciary Committee Chair Bob Goodlatte with more of his nonsense as well.

"The provisions of this law are already making the internet safer."

[Citation needed] Amusingly, right after Goodlatte says that, the video in an effort to support this claim flips to a news report about the shutdown of Backpage... which (and I know I'm repeating myself here) was taken down without the helps of FOSTA/SESTA since it wasn't even signed into law.

Also, the evidence to date leans heavily against the claim that it has made the internet safer. Indeed, already we've seen reports about sex workers being killed and pimps being empowered now that sex workers can't use sites like Backpage to screen clients. And a big study has highlighted how a lack of such services likely leads to a massive uptick in murder of women (not just sex workers, but women in general). And, lest we forget, police departments themselves are now complaining that they can no longer find sex traffickers thanks to the law.

Notice that the video addresses none of those effects (all of which were widely predicted). It just insists that the internet is safer. This is legislative fantasyland.

Of course, there's another oddity here. Why the hell is the House Judiciary Committee Republicans suddenly putting out such a video? The bill has already passed and it's already doing lots of damage. So why is Congress spending taxpayer money on a professionally edited video talking up a bunch of nonsense? Perhaps, as many have suggested, a key part of FOSTA/SESTA was always about grandstanding about how these politicians are "tough on sex trafficking" even if that's not accurate at all. And now that we're heading towards election season, I guess they have to milk that grandstanding bullshit for all its worth. Go spend your constituents hard-earned tax money by lying to them! What a job!

Of course, another reason for all of this may be the recent lawsuit claiming that FOSTA/SESTA is unconstitutional. While we've written about it already, the stories of some of the plaintiffs in that lawsuit tell the real story of how FOSTA/SESTA is harming people. Among those suing are a national alliance of Asian massage stores, who note that, thanks to FOSTA/SESTA their completely legitimate businesses are now being blocked from advertising, because some falsely assume that any Asian massage stores must be engaged in the sex trade.

...many Internet sites and review platforms flatly refuse content from or about Asian massage providers, DiBenedetto indicated. “Since it’s assumed we’re in the sex trade because we have Asian women offering Asian massage, platforms that used to run our ads and carry our reviews all the time now want nothing to do with us.”

The loss of those online outlets is devastating to providers of Asian massage services, said DiBenedetto. “They are unfairly cutting our stores off from the consumers we need to attract in order to stay viable. The business model of the typical Asian massage store requires a continual inflow of new customers. That inflow is heavily disrupted by us being profiled.”

DiBenedetto said Asian massage studio owners and masseuses now, “go to work every morning wondering if today will be the day their livelihoods vanish because all the doors have been slammed in their faces. This is so demoralizing, not to mention dehumanizing.”

So, to summarize, the House Judiciary Committee appears to be spending taxpayer money on a video celebrating a law that doesn't do what they claim it does, taking credit for a site takedown that wasn't because of the law, making up stats that have no basis in reality, ignoring the fact that their law has put many lives in real danger while making it more difficult for law enforcement to do their job, not to mention harming small business owners at the same time.

And people wonder why Congress' approval rating is so low.

* Our standard practice is not to name the party of politicians unless that's central to the story. In this case, the video is literally coming from a YouTube account that is apparently run by the Republicans on the House Judiciary. And this is not a "Republican v. Democrat" thing, because the Democrats on the Committee also supported FOSTA/SESTA. It was bipartisan nonsense, so if you happen to support the blue team or the red team, stupid generalizing comments about one party or the other will just make you look silly and tribal, rather than insightful or intelligent.

Just Google "Elon Musk Getting sued for calling rescuer a pedo guy," You'll Thank Me Later

I think the pic speaks for itself. (Bonus points if you get the rather obscure headline reference.)

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/07/elon-musk-could-face-lawsuit-for-calling-cave-rescuer-a-pedo-guy/

Elon Musk could face lawsuit for calling cave rescuer a “pedo guy”
Musk lobs baseless charge at rescuer who said his submarine idea was "PR stunt."
JON BRODKIN - 7/16/2018, 12:38 PM

A diver who helped rescue boys trapped in a Thailand cave may sue Elon Musk after the tech billionaire called the rescuer a "pedo guy."

Diver Vernon Unsworth was instrumental in the rescue, and he said that Musk's attempt to build a small submarine for the rescue effort was a "PR stunt" that had no chance of working. Musk soon promised to prove Unsworth wrong—and lobbed a baseless charge of pedophilia at the rescuer.

In a series of tweets yesterday, Musk initially challenged Unsworth to "show [the] final rescue video" before writing, "You know what, don't bother showing the video. We will make one of the mini-sub/pod going all the way to Cave 5 no problemo. Sorry pedo guy, you really did ask for it."

Musk, the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, offered no evidence or justification for his claim that Unsworth is a pedophile. When another person on Twitter pointed out that Musk is "calling the guy who found the children a pedo," Musk responded, "Bet ya a signed dollar it's true." Musk has since deleted the tweets.

Musk's outburst came just a week after he said in a Bloomberg interview that he would try to be less combative on Twitter. "I should probably say nothing more often," Musk said at the time.

Unsworth, 63, is British and lives in Thailand for part of the year. He could sue Musk for libel in a British court. As The Guardian reported:

Unsworth told journalists at the cave site, where a cleanup operation is under way, that the remarks about him were an attack on the entire rescue crew.

"I believe he's called me a pedophile," he said. "I think people realize what sort of guy [Musk] is."

Asked if he would consider taking legal action against Musk, he told reporters: "Yes, it's not finished."

A lawyer who spoke to The Guardian called it "a cast-iron case of libel."

"The caver told AFP he would make a decision when he flies back to the UK this week, but said the episode with Musk 'ain't finished,'" the news agency reported.

"He's just a PR stunt merchant—that's all he is," Unsworth added.

Divers completed the rescue of 12 boys last week while saying that Musk's submarine was "not practical for this mission." Unsworth's knowledge of the cave system's layout reportedly was crucial in the rescue.

Musk made his "pedo guy" comment in a tweet to Zeynep Tufekci, a University of North Carolina professor who recently wrote a New York Times op-ed titled, "What Elon Musk Should Learn From the Thailand Cave Rescue."

Tufekci was surprised by Musk's tweet. "I’m dumbfounded by this," Tufekci wrote on Twitter. "I’d understand getting mad at me... but Vern Unsworth is, by all accounts I saw, a key hero of the miraculous rescue. The kids certainly—and many more divers likely—would be dead if not for him."

What do you do if your state high court declared 2500 foot residency residency laws unconstitutional? Try to pass a 5000 foot restriction

Residency restriction laws were declared invalid back in 2011, albeit per striking of a local ordinance under a pre-preemption clause. That does not mean the legislature can simply reinstate residency laws, but that's not going to stop pandering Republican PA State Rep Tom Mehaffie from trying.

Not only is he trying to reinstate a stricken law, he's trying to double the distance.

(I forgot about this article as it came up around conference time, but NARSOL discussed this today to remind me)

http://www.pressandjournal.com/stories/we-must-strengthen-laws-involving-sexual-predators-tom-mehaffie,34836

We must strengthen laws involving sexual predators: Tom Mehaffie

Posted Wednesday, June 6, 2018 10:57 am

As precious members of our society, our children and grandchildren are the future of our country with the promise of a bright future.

Unfortunately, there are adults within our population who prey upon them with sick intent regardless of the harm they inflict or the lifelong effects.

To assist parents in the responsibility of raising their children, Pennsylvania has maintained a law on its books since 1996 to target those who harm kids. Megan’s Law, named after a young girl who was brutally raped and murdered in New Jersey in 1994, is a state law that requires sexual offenders to register their whereabouts, employers, addresses and offenses on a publicly accessible Internet database.

For more than 20 years, families have relied upon information on this website to protect their children from sexual offenders who may reside in their neighborhood.

While we know that the enactment of Megan’s Law has greatly assisted law enforcement and our communities, it’s imperative, as lawmakers, that we revisit the law frequently to ensure no gaps in protections exist.

In response to two state appellate court cases, legislation was passed by the General Assembly and will be before the governor to ensure certain sexual offenders continue to be required to register their whereabouts.

House Bill 1952 seeks to expand upon Act 10 of 2018, which re-implemented the Adam Walsh Act, commonly known as Megan’s Law. Both House Bill 1952 and Act 10 were needed to close any loopholes that may have allowed sexual offenders who were convicted before 2012 to skip the registration process.

The legislation seeks to put back in place the important safety net to protect Pennsylvania’s children from dangerous sex offenders. This legislation is a crucial step in the safety and security of our communities and our children, but I believe we should take Megan’s Law one step further.

Statistics overwhelmingly show that people who commit sex crimes against children do not respond well to treatment programs and will likely continue to offend. Perpetrators of these crimes must not be permitted to roam freely near children. The risk is too great.

Therefore, I recently drafted legislation in the House of Representatives which would establish a residency restriction for sexual offenders registered under Megan’s Law.

My legislation would prohibit Megan’s Law registrants from residing within 5,000 feet of any public school, private school, parochial school or preschool.

Currently, under Pennsylvania law, there are no residency restrictions for sexual offenders other than the requirement to notify the school district that a sexual predator resides within a one-mile radius.

We have an obligation to ensure our children are protected from those who wish them harm. I am committed to moving this legislation forward. It is my hope that with the signing of House Bill 1952 into law and the passage of basic residency requirements, we can provide a stronger safety net for our children.

State Rep. Tom Mehaffie, R-Lower Swatara Township, represents the 106th House District. Reach him at 717-534-1323 or tmehaffie@pahousegop.com.

WSB-2 I(diot) Team Investigation is a no-Winne sutuation

I don't have to do much to make fun of a backwater reporter most known for reporting out of both sets of cheeks, but this is as close as I can get to having NARSOL guest host the Shiitakes, since they posted a lengthy report on why this article is completely Shiitake-worthy. So you can just CLICK THIS LINK then come back and read this Shiitake-level reporting.

https://www.wsbtv.com/news/2-investigates/this-is-absolutely-ridiculous-20-convicted-sex-offenders-removed-from-georgia-registry/784742828

‘This is absolutely ridiculous': 20+ convicted sex offenders removed from Georgia registry
By: Mark Winne

Updated: Jul 10, 2018 - 8:40 AM

ATLANTA - Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Vernon Keenan says 21 sex offenders who were on Georgia’s sex offender registry just weeks ago have now been removed from it.

Documents from the GBI indicate at least 15 of the cases involve child molestation or other crimes involving kids.

Keenan says his agency maintains the registry with input from Georgia sheriffs.

He says all 21 had previously received pardons or "restoration of civil and political rights" from the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles, and not because they were innocent.

“They’re still guilty,” Keenan said.

Court ruling removes offenders from registry

Keenan says the 21 have been removed because of a ruling in May by the Georgia Supreme Court involving a man who pleaded guilty to aggravated sodomy of his 6-year-old daughter. The court basically found that because he obtained a pardon in 2013, he should no longer be on the sex offender registry. Keenan disagreed.

“These are sex offenders that should be on the sex offender registry so that the public can protect themselves,” Keenan said.

Pardons and Paroles spokesman Steve Hayes says in each of the 21 cases, a past board determined the offender had been rehabilitated and had served all his sentence.

“A pardon doesn’t expunge a criminal record,” Hayes said. “A pardon is an act of forgiveness by the state. It is a statement that gives that offender, in most cases, employment opportunities to go forward in life.”

Parole board toughens application process

Hayes says no registered sex offenders have been pardoned since 2013 and the board has toughened up the application process. Starting in July 2015, Hayes says, they now have one pardon application for registered sex offenders and one for everyone else.

The application process now requires a polygraph, a psychosexual evaluation, a 10-year wait from end of sentence and opportunity for input from the DA and victim, among other things.

“The board recognized that it wanted as much information as possible,” Hayes said.

Hayes says, in total, 132 sex offenders have come off the sex offender registry in the past 11 months or so as a result of actions taken by judges across the state.

Victim says she wasn’t notified

A victim of one of the 21 men says she was never notified by the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles.

She was just 3 years old when she was molested by Tommy Hill Jones. She is now in her 30s, living in a shelter and still coping with what happened to her all those years ago.

“I was walking up and down the streets of Rome, Georgia, on drugs and alcohol wondering what man’s house I was going to sleep at next trying to heal that hurt,” she told Channel 2’s Mark Winne.

Six months ago, she moved into Cobb Street Ministries.

“I’m finally, at this point, being able to turn everything loose to God,” she said.

“When did you find out that he had been granted a restoration in 2012 of civil and political rights by the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles?” Winne asked.

“When I spoke to you,” she said.

She says she was horrified when she found out.

“I don’t think a sex offender's name ever needs to come off the list,” she said.

One offender already back in jail

Keenan confirmed the number of offenders would be 22, except the GBI discovered one of the men, Andrew Johnson, was convicted again on child molestation and will stay on the registry.

A local district attorney says he doesn’t believe child molesters can be rehabilitated.

“Based on 35 years of experience and a lot of knowledge about research in that area, I don’t believe that is possible,” Clayton County District Attorney Tracy Graham Lawson said.

Republican WI Senator Leah Vukmir caught in a lie by AP while exploiting predator panic to attack opponent

She used registered citizen scares to attack an opponent whose voting record isn't what I would even consider registrant friendly.

https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/national-politics/article214692140.html

AP FACT CHECK: Claim against Sen. Baldwin exaggerated
BY AMANDA SEITZ
The Associated Press
July 11, 2018 01:29 PM

Updated July 11, 2018 01:30 PM

Wisconsin Republican U.S. Senate candidate Leah Vukmir has repeatedly attacked incumbent U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, saying the Democrat failed to protect communities against sex offenders.

Vukmir, a state senator, is one of two leading contenders for the Republican nomination to take on Baldwin in the November election, with national control of the Senate majority possibly at stake.

A look at Vukmir's claim:

VUKMIR: "Really, @SenatorBaldwin? You wanted to protect us from offensive school mascots but didn't protect us from sex offenders in our communities?"

THE FACTS: Vukmir's claim is exaggerated. It focuses on one vote by Baldwin 24 years ago in which she voted against tougher punishment for sex offenders while ignoring several other votes in which Baldwin backed tougher laws.

Vukmir's campaign didn't reply to multiple requests for comment. Her website criticizes Baldwin for opposing a 1994 state law that allowed judges to order sex offenders to go to a secured state mental health facility after they completed their prison term.

Baldwin, who was then a member of the state Assembly, was one of only two members to vote against the bill, which passed with the support of 93 state representatives. Supporters of the bill said it keeps violent sex offenders off the streets. Critics argued it forces offenders to serve two terms -- one in prison and one in a state facility -- for a single crime. The Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld the law in 1995.

But Baldwin also supported more than a half-dozen Wisconsin state bills that strengthened sentencing and punishment for sex offenders during her time in the state Legislature from 1993 through 1998. One of the laws she supported allows sex offenders to be placed under lifetime supervision.

There is no precise data to prove if the 1994 law has had an impact on making communities safer. Since 1994, 803 Wisconsin sex offenders have been committed to a state-run treatment center following their release from prison.

A state study shows sex offender recidivism rates dropped following the law's enactment but the research doesn't attribute the decline to new state regulations.

"The trend seen in recidivism for sex offenders mirrors the trend in recidivism for all offenders," said Tristan Cook, spokesman for the Wisconsin Department of Corrections.

Between 1992 and 2010, Wisconsin released 12,849 men who had committed sex crimes from prison and 4.9 percent offended again, according to state research from 2015.

Laws that keep offenders in a state facility even after they've served their sentence might keep offenders from committing repeat offenses, but the regulations are costly and states that have adopted the laws do not have lower recidivism rates, said Michael Caldwell, a psychology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

In addition, he said most sex offenders in the state face parole requirements following their release even if they have not been sent to a mental health facility.

"Typically, they don't just walk out the door then they're free -- there's very close monitoring," Caldwell said.

As for Vukmir's claim that Baldwin wanted to protect people from offensive school mascots, this appears to be a reference to a 2014 letter Baldwin and other Democrats sent the NFL, urging a renaming of the Washington Redskins.

Kenyoun Gifford of Salen, NH downloaded CP to try to set up an RC and failed miserably

Oh the irony. This guy will likely land on the registry himself now.

https://whdh.com/news/nh-man-accused-of-breaking-into-sex-offenders-apartment-scattering-child-porn-calling-police/

NH man accused of breaking into sex offender’s apartment, scattering child porn, calling police
July 3, 2018

MANCHESTER, N.H. (WHDH) - A New Hampshire man is facing child porn and burglary charges after police say he broke into a sex offender’s Manchester apartment, scattered images of child pornography around the home, and then called in an anonymous tip to police, officials said.

Officers responding to an anonymous tip reporting a sex offender in grave danger in an apartment on Winter Street on April 12 went to a third-floor apartment, where they found the letters “PEDO” freshly spray painted on the door, according to a release issued Tuesday by Manchester police.

A search of the home, police say, uncovered multiple images of child pornography strewn about the apartment.

Feeling like “something was amiss,” the officers tracked down the 27-year-old resident, who said he thought someone was trying to set him up.

An investigation led to the arrest last month of  Kenyoun Gifford, of Salem, who allegedly broke in and left the photos as part of a “retaliatory measure against the victim,” police said.

Gifford was arrested in Hillsborough County Superior Court North Monday on charges including possessing child sexual images, burglary, criminal mischief, and filing a false report.

Massachusetts Professional Victim Advocate quits beauty pageant over #MeToo Joke

I was tempted to post the grumpy cat meme here, but I think the absurdity of the story speaks for itself. Well, the joke was indeed accurate, but if you can't take a joke and quit over it, then you are not going to handle a real job.

She uses her victim story as her platform in pageants, claiming “One of four women will be sexually assaulted before the age of 18, and 68 percent of rapes are unreported to police. Of those that are reported, only 2 percent are caught and go to prison.”

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2018/07/09/massachusetts-beauty-queen-steps-down-from-pageant-after-metoo-joke.html

Massachusetts beauty queen steps down from pageant after #MeToo joke
Ryan Gaydos By Ryan Gaydos | Fox News

A Massachusetts beauty pageant winner gave up her crown Saturday after a host made a joke about the #MeToo movement.

Maude Gorman, 24, who was the reigning Miss Plymouth County beauty queen and a survivor of sexual assault, resigned from the Miss Massachusetts Miss America Organization competition over a joke made about the women’s movement. The emcee was referencing the removal of the swimsuit competition, according to The Boston Globe.

The host did a skit last week with someone portraying God. The host, a woman, tells "God" she doesn't understand why Miss America officials would get rid of the swimsuit competition. The person then holds up a sign reading “#MeToo.”

Mocking a movement that empowers sexual assault survivors is “inappropriate” especially by a “women’s empowerment organization,” Gorman said.

“It was heartbreaking to hear. In that moment, everything collapsed right in front of me,” Gorman told the Globe, adding that she was backstage at the time the remarks were made.

The Miss America organization apologized in a Facebook post.

“The Miss Massachusetts Board of Directors offers our sincere and heartfelt apology for those offended by Saturday night’s skit,” the group said. “The skit was not in the script and was not authorized by the board. Moving forward, we will review all content with future emcees and other participants prior to our show to be sure offensive or potentially offensive content is not allowed. We are proud of our contestants and even prouder to be part of an organization that celebrates what makes all of them truly extraordinary.”

Gorman was firm on her decision to step away from competition despite being in pageants for years, her mother, Mary Ellen, told The Boston Globe.

Gorman has revealed in the past that she was raped by three men when she was 13. After telling her mother about the incident and going through therapy, Gorman participated in pageants to build self-esteem and was named Miss Massachusetts World America in 2015, the Globe reported.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Republican TN State Rep Diane Black blames pornography for school shootings

Did this state rep also listen to Bimbo Book? Bimbo Book compared me to a school shooter.

https://whnt.com/2018/05/30/tennessee-lawmaker-says-pornography-is-a-root-cause-of-school-shootings/

Tennessee lawmaker says pornography is a ‘root cause’ of school shootings

POSTED 9:10 AM, MAY 30, 2018, BY TRIBUNE MEDIA WIRE, UPDATED AT 10:09AM, MAY 30, 2018

Republican Rep. Diane Black of Tennessee recently cited pornography, along with the deterioration of the family and violent movies, as a contributing factor to gun violence in schools.

Black made the remarks during a listening session with local pastors last week, according to audio obtained by HuffPost and posted Tuesday.

“Why do we see kids being so violent? What’s out there? What makes them do that?” Black said. “Because, as a nurse, I go back to the root cause. And I think it’s a couple of things,” Black said, listing off the deterioration of the family and violent movies, before mentioning pornography.

“Pornography. It’s available. It’s available on the shelf when you walk in the grocery store. Yeah, you have to reach up to get it, but there’s pornography there,” Black says in the audio. “All of this is available without parental guidance.”

She adds, “And I think that’s a big part of the root cause, that we see so many young people who have mental illness get caught in these places.”

In the audio, Black does not detail what it is about pornography that she believes contributes to school shootings.

“I think the context is pretty clear,” Black’s campaign spokesman Chris Hartline told CNN Tuesday. “Diane believes the breakdown of families and communities plays a significant role in instances of school violence.”

Moms Demand Action founder Shannon Watts criticized Black’s comments, writing on Twitter that “despite all of the data and exerts at her disposal, (Black) chooses to blame ‘grocery store pornography’ for school shootings. And she doesn’t mean the magazines that glorify guns.”‘

Of all the CWS hatemonger stories, it was hard to pick the worst of the worst. I present to you, Jon Taylor of SI

I could spend the rest of the year just posting the barrage of self-important sport writers hating on Luke Heimlich during Oregon State's baseball championship run. However, among this barrage of BS, one particular article files is higher and deeper than the rest. Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for Jon "Smiling Politely" Tayler. 

https://www.si.com/mlb/2018/06/26/luke-heimlich-kansas-city-royals-dayton-moore

There Is No Moral Justification for the Royals or Any Team to Sign Luke Heimlich

By JON TAYLER June 26, 2018

Across the 40 rounds of the 2018 MLB draft, stretching from the night of June 4 through the afternoon of June 6, 1,214 players were selected, from high school teenagers to college seniors—from the best amateur players in the country to guys who will be lucky to log even one major league inning. Not included among those thousand-odd names called was Luke Heimlich’s. The lefthander out of Oregon State has been one of college baseball’s best pitchers over the last two years of his career. He’s also a convicted child molester.

Where you fall on Heimlich’s future in baseball depends on which of those you give more weight to: his talent or his crime. Severely complicating that matter is Heimlich’s own repeated and public insistence that he is innocent despite having pled guilty to the crime, which he committed at 15, of molesting his then-six-year-old niece. That plea was something he did, he maintains, to avoid the pain and suffering of a court trial and having to put his family on the stand, not because he actually did anything wrong.

It’s easy to see why no major league team wants to be involved with Heimlich and the ugly particulars of his conviction and case. Teams may also prefer to avoid a person who denies a heinous action and, by extension, implies that his victim—a six-year-old child at the time she was molested—is lying.

But the Kansas City Royals have come out as one of Heimlich’s lone supporters—in particular, general manager Dayton Moore. Last week, in a televised interview with Fox Sports Kansas City (which was surfaced and partially transcribed on Tuesday by The Athletic’s Rustin Dodd), Moore told broadcaster Ryan Lefebvre, “We do believe in the player and the person, Luke Heimlich,” and that Heimlich “has earned an opportunity to play professional baseball.” A recent Kansas City Star column by Vahe Gregorian, meanwhile, has Moore quoted as saying, “We continue to seek information that allows us to be comfortable in pursuing Luke.” When contacted by SI.com, the Royals said Moore wouldn't comment any further on Heimlich.

Moore’s language is telling. The information already out there paints a simple picture: Heimlich is guilty of molesting his niece and admitted as such in a court of law. Barring a sudden statement otherwise from the victim or her family, those are the facts on record.

What Moore wants instead is something that can help him sell this in a different way. He wants “information” that will show Heimlich not as a convicted and unrepentant felon, but as a young man who made a mistake and served his punishment and is a better person than what’s been portrayed. “Not only did he achieve athletic excellence, he achieved academic excellence along the way,” Moore told Fox Sports Kansas City of Heimlich’s time at Oregon State, adding later, “Do I believe that he has earned an opportunity to play professional baseball? I do, because of his character over the last four or five years.”

The takeaway from Moore’s comments is obvious: He’s laying the groundwork for a potential signing. If he and the Royals can successfully minimize his actions and flip the public sentiment on Heimlich, then they can land themselves a top-flight talent on the cheap. (Had he been a first-round pick, Heimlich would’ve signed for anywhere from $2.3 million to nearly $8 million; as an undrafted free agent, he’ll get a few thousand dollars.) But to do that, fans and media have to be convinced that Heimlich isn’t a bad person, and that he’s grown or matured or reformed. So here’s Moore, publicly talking up Heimlich’s accomplishments and character and how his team believes “in giving players second chances.”


It’s a strategy as transparent as it is offensive. The question of how one earns redemption and who deserves it is fraught and difficult to answer, but at a minimum, it should include some form of penance or contrition or remorse. Nothing that Heimlich has publicly said or done aligns with what Moore has said of a player who is of high character or deserves any kind of MLB opportunity. He has repeatedly denied his crime to anyone who will listen. When Sports Illustrated’s S.L. Price asked Heimlich if his assertion of innocence meant that his victim was telling a false story, he replied, “Yes.” Moore wants us to believe Heimlich has taken responsibility for what he did, but Heimlich refuses to do so publicly. So why should he be afforded redemption?

For a team to sign Heimlich is to wade into a whole mess of issues: questions of restorative versus retributive justice, of the normalization of what he did, of the damage he inflicted upon his victim and the pain she will have to live with. Heimlich’s supporters, Moore apparently included, will say that he did everything required of him post-conviction, and that no one should be judged forever. “I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life, mistakes that could have disrupted my career path and put me in a whole different area,” Moore told Fox Sports Kansas City. The comparison is clear: We are not the worst decisions of our lives, and they shouldn’t shape their entire course.

But why does Heimlich deserve the opportunity to move on if he won’t accept what he did wrong? And even if he did own up to it, why does that entitle him to a baseball career? Being a professional athlete is a privilege, not a right, and one that talent alone doesn’t and shouldn’t confer. The concept of sports leagues as punitive and restorative bodies is complicated, but this is straightforward: If you plead guilty to child molestation, why should you be afforded a career and the reward that comes with it?

For Moore and the Royals to defend Heimlich or attempt to clean up his image is to become complicit in his crime. To ask the public to see him as a man who deserves another chance is to ignore that he never atoned for his actions, and to whitewash what he did. That this is coming from a man in Moore who is strongly and obsessively opposed to pornography on moral grounds makes his support of a convicted child molester all the more galling and hypocritical. There is not and should not be room in the major leagues for men like Heimlich, and it should be completely unacceptable for the Royals to sign him.

There is no debate on this matter, no gray areas or ethical soft spots or moral compromises. Luke Heimlich isn’t owed a career with its attendant spotlight or platform, nor a second chance and the promise of unearned redemption. Unlike the 1,214 men who were selected in the draft and the countless more who signed after it, Heimlich’s story doesn’t deserve a new chapter as a big leaguer.

Sol Flores tried to become the Lauren Book of Illinois, and that's not a compliment, either

There's a reason you lost the race and LOST BIG, Sol. Care to guess why? People are tired of the victim narrative.

I can see why FloriDUH rezoned Lauren Book's district. If Lauren has to run against anyone, she'd lose big time.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/sol-flores-ad_us_5a830347e4b00ecc923eac16

POLITICS 02/13/2018 02:10 pm ET
Congressional Candidate Recounts Childhood Abuse In Powerful Campaign Ad
“I didn’t tell anyone that a man living with us would come into my bedroom when I was asleep and lift my nightgown.”

By Amanda Terkel

In a deeply personal new ad, Democrat Sol Flores talks about how the sexual abuse she endured as a child has helped inspire her to run for a U.S. House seat in Illinois.

The ad starts with an 11-year-old girl building a big wooden chest in an art class. Flores then reveals that there was a secret reason she was doing that project.

“I didn’t tell anyone that a man living with us would come into my bedroom when I was asleep and lift my nightgown. Well, I filled that chest with the heaviest things I could find, and I put it against that door, to wake me up so I could fight him off,” Flores says in the 30-second spot. (Watch the ad above.)

Flores is running for an open seat in Chicago, to replace Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D). In the March 20 primary, she’s up against Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, who has racked up major endorsements from progressives ― including from Gutierrez himself ― and is considered the frontrunner.

The Flores campaign plans to air her ad on the night of the Oscars ― March 4 ― when celebrities will be calling attention to sexual harassment. Flores has the backing of Emily’s List, the pro-choice Democratic organization, and she is the founder of La Casa Norte, a nonprofit helping families and young people who are homeless.

Flores also has a longer online version of her ad, in which she talks more about her background and experiences. She said when her abuser would push on her door, the sound of it against the heavy chest would wake her up, allowing her to scream at him to go away.

She returned to her childhood bedroom to shoot the ad.

″[O]ne of the things I am trying to get through to voters is not just the issues I care about but the type of person I am,” she told Variety in an interview. “I thought it was important that I had a very traumatic childhood experience, but that I am more than the trauma, more than a victim, and that I have survived and thrived.”

Chris Giunchigliani is the Lauren Book of Nevada, and that is not a compliment

Using an abuse narrative as a political platform for an election campaign is a new low. You know, Hillary lost the election at least in part because of these shitty ad campaigns like this.

https://www.reviewjournal.com/news/politics-and-government/nevada/nevada-candidate-for-governor-reveals-past-abuse-in-tv-ad/

Nevada candidate for governor reveals past abuse in TV ad
By Ramona Giwargis / Las Vegas Review-Journal
June 4, 2018 - 12:10 am

Nevada gubernatorial candidate Chris Giunchigliani is revealing a painful truth in a new TV commercial responding to attacks ads from a group supporting her opponent.

“An 8-year-old girl was sexually abused for over a year,” Giunchigliani begins, looking straight into the camera. “Her sister was kidnapped, held in a trailer and raped for three days. I’m Chris G. And that 8-year-old girl was me.”

Giunchigliani shared the story after a PAC linked to the Clark County Education Association — which has endorsed her Democratic opponent Steve Sisolak — released an ad alleging that Giunchigliani “single-handedly protected perverts.”

The 30-second spot refers to a 2005 amendment introduced by the Nevada Assembly Ways and Means Committee, which was vice chaired by Giunchigliani. The amendment excluded certain people, including teachers, from registering as sex offenders — though they would have to register if convicted of sexual assault or child abuse.

The amendment and the bill passed unanimously. Giunchigliani has said that without the amendment, the bill would have died.

“This legislation was so deeply personal and important to me because it did things like establish the community notification website for sex offenders, and strengthened punishments on predators,” Giunchigliani said in a Reno Gazette Journal op-ed. “I did everything I could to make sure that bill passed.”

The TV ad, which will run in Las Vegas and Reno, concludes with Giunchigliani telling viewers that she also passed “five tough laws against sexual assault.”

“As governor, I’ll do everything I can to protect our children,” she says. “I live with these memories. Steve Sisolak has to live with himself.”

Contact Ramona Giwargis at rgiwargis@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4538. Follow @RamonaGiwargis on Twitter.

Jennifer Holton freaks out over properly owned by a registered person being used in a film

So, is the housed cursed and molests kids somehow? If not, why is this news?

http://www.fox13news.com/news/local-news/sex-offender-owns-lakeland-house-used-in-disney-movie

Sex offender owns Lakeland house used in Disney movie

By: Jennifer Holton, FOX 13 News
POSTED: JUN 22 2018 10:39PM EDT

VIDEO POSTED: JUN 22 2018 10:11PM EDT
UPDATED: JUN 22 2018 10:47PM EDT

LAKELAND (FOX 13) - A little yellow house, surrounded by a white picket fence, under a canopy of trees is picture-perfect for the Disney movie being filmed in Lakeland.

On the big screen, the house will be home to one of the movie’s main characters.

In real life, however, the home is owned by a registered sex offender.

Residents of Lakeland know, once the scene of a movie set becomes a piece of pop culture – like the arch at the Southgate Shopping Center, which was featured in the film “Edward Scissorhands” – there will be a steady stream of tourists hoping to catch a glimpse of movie history.

Because this movie is meant for children, the owner’s status concerns some parents.

Disney's “The One and Only Ivan" is about a gorilla’s escape from the mall where he was held in captivity.

The film's big star, Bryan Cranston has been shooting scenes outside of Southgate Shopping Center.

Movie crews also filled the yard and roadway of the little yellow house where Cranston’s character lives in the movie.

The home was scouted out and rented for the movie by Disney.

"Being Disney, being a Disney movie and Disney being more geared toward children, using a house that’s owned by a registered sex offender is kind of crazy,” father and Lakeland resident Dustin Finn told FOX 13. “It’s just nuts, for a multi-billion-dollar corporation.”

The home’s owner, Gary Davis was charged with lewd and lascivious behavior on a minor in 1991.

FOX 13 News reached out to Disney for comment, but their representative did not respond. It was unclear if Davis was or would be at the home when child actors were present.

A relative of Davis said she didn’t want to comment other than to say she would like the focus to be on the house and not the person who owns it.

Fearmongering Business Report writer Caitie Burkes uses scary headline and a nonsensical term

Say it with me, folks-- you cannot be "convicted" of "pedophilia."

https://www.businessreport.com/article/convicted-pedophiles-run-public-office-louisiana

Convicted pedophiles can run for public office in Louisiana
CAITIE BURKES
JUNE 7, 2018
 
Can a convicted pedophile run for public office in Louisiana? The answer: yes.

The question arose earlier this week after a change to the voting rights law in Virginia made it possible for an admitted pedophile to announce his intention to run for Congress. Why it can happen in Louisiana is because of a 2016 Louisiana Supreme Court decision that ruled a convicted felon has the right to seek public office without a cleansing period.

Lawmakers are giving voters a chance to change this—slightly—with a constitutional amendment that will appear on the Nov. 6 ballot.

Should the measure by state Sen. Conrad Appel, R-Metairie, pass, a convicted felon would have to wait five years before becoming eligible for elected office. Appel originally sought to reestablish the 15-year cleansing period that had been state law until the state Supreme Court ruled it invalid two years ago.

Some attribute the situation in Virginia to a law that expanded felons’ voting rights there. However, a law passed, and signed by Gov. John Bel Edwards, during the legislative session expanding voting rights to more felons would not have “any effect whatsoever” on their right to run for public office, says Rep. Patricia Haynes Smith, D-Baton Rouge, author of the bill.

A felon’s right to run for public office and the right to vote are two separate issues.

Under the newest law, convicted felons who have been out of prison for five years but remain on probation or parole can register to vote beginning in March 2019. Currently, only those who have completed their probation or parole can regain their right to vote.

“Some people have received life parole—they’ve been working, paying taxes and raising their families ever since they’ve been out of prison,” Smith says. “That’s taxation without representation.”

If those individuals end up going back to jail for any reason, that five-year period starts again, Smith says.

Another famous victim comes out of nowhere begging for money. Is it wise to give money to someone admittedly struggling with a drug addiction?

Hey, folks, let's all just send a drug addict lots of money because she's a famous victim, surely nothing can go wrong, right?

And this lady will likely get the money, because she is a famous victim from a 13 year old case. People are blindly throwing her money, despite serving a stint in juvy for drug crimes, and is struggling with drug addiction. I'm not fond of tempting someone who has not recovered from drug addition a bunch of money.

http://www.cdapress.com/local_news/20180617/miracle_child_shasta_groene_to_abductori_want_him_to_hear_from_me_that_hes_nothing

SHASTA GROENE TO ABDUCTOR: 'I WANT HIM TO HEAR FROM ME THAT HE'S NOTHING'
June 17, 2018 at 5:00 am | By BRIAN WALKER Staff Writer

....Two years ago, Shasta started an online petition in support of locking up sex offenders for life after their first offense. It not only fizzled, but drew backlash, she said.

"People were messaging me saying, 'You got a second chance, so how come sex offenders can't have a second chance?'" she said....

Shasta spent most of her teen years in jail on drug-related charges before being placed in a two-year rehabilitation program in Salt Lake City. She received her high school diploma from the Juniper Hills boarding school in St. Anthony.

She said she contemplated suicide often and spent time at a psychiatric hospital.

"I had quite the rodeo as a teen," she said. "I definitely didn't have a childhood growing up. Before Duncan came into my life, I had a hard childhood because my parents and brothers had drug addictions."

Those unimaginable childhood challenges made routine social interactions almost impossible.

"Having gone through what I did, I had a hard time keeping friends who understood where I was coming from,” Shasta said. “I was a hard person to be with, and I had a lot of trust issues. I had gotten to the point thinking that maybe this was what life was supposed to be like."

She said life began to change at 18 after she was released from the correctional facility and had her first son.

"I had to stop being angry because that's what led to my drug addiction," she said. "When I started to make it a learning experience, things began to fall back in place. When I had my own place in Nampa, owned a car and I was working, everything just felt better.

"My kids helped sway me away from drugs and alcohol, but it's something I still face every day," she said. "There's always people from the past who I run into trying to sway you back into that. It takes time to overcome."

Minnesota pushes for a mandatory half-century supervision period (HF 2944)

Pretty straightforward, and pretty stupid. Ten years, the current law, is a stretch, but 50 years is a complete waste. Do you know what happened 50 years ago? MLK was assassinated. Today, MN is looking to assassinate human rights.

https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=HF2944&session=ls90&version=list&session_number=0&session_year=2018

Description
Sex offenders required to serve 50-year conditional release or probation terms, and intensive probation for sex offenders established.

Authors
Grossell ; Lohmer ; Poston ; Dettmer
Actions
Separated Chronological
House
02/22/2018 Introduction and first reading, referred to Public Safety and Security Policy and Finance pg. 7088 Intro
03/05/2018 Authors added Lohmer and Poston. pg. 7223
04/09/2018 Author added Dettmer. pg. 8075

Shekita's BANANAS! Wake County ASSistant DA takes offence to registered citizen opening donut shop

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article9136373.html

Garner sex offender’s plan to open doughnut shop scrutinized
By Kyle Jahner - kjahner@newsobserver.com
Updated June 27, 2014 08:01 PM

Randy Robertson wants to open a doughnut shop. He can’t get a job, and he sees the business as a chance to provide for himself, his wife and their daughter, who turns 3 in August.

He also said he understands why he can’t interact with customers, why he must wear an ankle monitor for the rest of his life and why many would be repulsed by him.

Robertson, 52, was convicted of taking indecent liberties with a minor after molesting a 14-year-old boy in 2010. He was also convicted of the same crime in Wake County in 1980.

At J’s Delicious Daylight Donuts, Robertson plans to keep the books and make doughnuts before store hours. He vows not to interact with customers. The store is slated to open Tuesday, and it has been scrutinized by town and county officials since an anonymous tip about Robertson’s past and his plans surfaced late last week.

Robertson and his wife, Stacey, whom he married in 2011, say they have invested $200,000 to start the business. The money, he said, was a combination of personal savings and loans from friends and family.

“I want to provide for my family. I’ve got to do something,” Robertson said.

The Robertsons’ plans are legal. The town has determined it won’t – and probably can’t – block the store’s opening. Wake County Assistant District Attorney Melanie Shekita, who handled the 2010 case, opposes the store. But she said her office does not have a legal basis for an injunction to prevent the business from opening.

“I think it shocks the conscience that Daylight Donuts would allow him to open such a thing and put ‘family-friendly’ on it,” Shekita said. “The victim and the family know, and they’re beside themselves.”

Shekita said an eatery that didn’t specialize in implicitly child-attracting sweets would have been a better choice. She also said Robertson knows that if he violates probation, it will be dealt with swiftly.

I.........

Robertson’s probation bars him from socializing or communicating with anyone younger than 16 unless accompanied by a responsible adult aware of his past abuses. His business can’t hire a minor. And he can’t leave Wake County without permission.

The Robertsons said they chose to a open a doughnut shop largely because Robertson developed a passion for baking while taking culinary classes while teaching at Wake Technical Community College from 2001 to 2008 and because there weren’t similar shops in the area.

“He can’t find a job. How can you expect to live if he can’t get hired by anybody?” Stacey Robertson said.

A choice, not a mistake

Robertson acknowledged his urges and said he takes responsibility and has remorse for his crime.

“It was a terrible choice. It wasn’t a mistake; it was a choice,” Robertson said. “I did what I did because I wanted to do it.”

Since he can never contact the victim, he said his only hope of some form of restitution is paying it forward, sometimes by trying to keep others in his group sessions honest.

“It’s by modeling the correct behavior, helping other people through their work, calling their hand when they’ve got this distorted thinking,” Robertson said. “They’ll tell their story, ‘well you know it was just an accident,’ and I’ll say, ‘that’s (bull).’ ”

He said his therapy consisted of a number of factors: overcoming denial, accepting responsibility, finding the root causes in his background, dealing with anger, having a relapse-prevention plan and learning empathy and the damage he has caused without it.

“Had I had the empathy, I wouldn’t have committed the offense,” Robertson said.

Dealing with sex offenders

UNC-Charlotte psychology professor Richard McAnulty has specialized in studying sexual misconduct and offenses for more than 20 years, including research and work as a clinical psychologist. He understands anxiety over sex offenders, but said public “lock-them-up-and-throw-away-the-key” sentiments don’t accurately address the reality of the problem.

“We know that treatment does make a difference; it does lower relapse rates and recidivism,” McAnulty said. “There is a small percentage of sexual offenders, perhaps 10 percent, who are predatory and a high risk of re-offending.”

Emphasis today is on treatment and management, he said, rather than “cure.” Research also shows, McAnulty said, that public sex offender registries are ineffective at deterring recidivism, with some unintended negative consequences. A survey of studies supports his claim.

Positive social relationships, such as a successful marriage, and large gaps between offenses lower the likelihood of relapse. McAnulty called Robertson’s acceptance of responsibility another positive sign.

Robertson maintains that the two crimes 30 years apart are his only criminal acts. He also said that he didn’t deal with his urges for decades in large part because he hadn’t been arrested.

Phillip Anthony, an attorney who lives a few houses down from the Robertsons and attends St. Andrews, said he feels for the widely shunned Robertson. As a father, he understands the fear. But he wants to see Robertson get a chance to succeed, though he has doubts about his chances of overcoming the stigma. He warned Robertson that some will “do everything they can to tear him down.”

“He’s trying his best to turn his life around. I don’t know if he’s going to be able to do it because the odds are stacked against him,” Anthony said.

Monitoring the situation

Garner police Chief Brandon Zuidema spoke to Robertson after learning about the situation June 20. Zuidema did not express major concern for public risk in the shop’s operation as long as Robertson does not violate his probation.

“We’ll be monitoring that situation,” Zuidema said. “We’ll be making sure he obeys his probation, and also making sure his rights as a prospective business owner are protected as well.”

Garner Councilman Gra Singleton said he understood Robertson’s tough spot and his legal right to run a business. He also expressed concern about the choice of business and said people would come to their own conclusions.

“Some people won’t go because of (Robertson),” Singleton said. “That’s their choice.”

Michele Dauber and MeToo's witch hunt will ensure the accused in California will not receive a fair trial

I am not a fan of any judge, but the message that was sent by this particular election is a disturbing one. It is a victory for extremist campus feminism, but a loss for the concept of due process. What this means is that society is expected to railroad every person convicted of a sex crime. Instead of a traditional criminal trial, we are expected to send the accused straight to prison for life.

Of course, even Michele Dauber, the Stanford professor who spearheaded this effort, does not seem to understand the concept of innocent until proven guilty. She does not comprehend that for every isolated case of someone getting a perceived "light sentence" there are thousands getting railroaded by the system. MeToo morons like Dauber forget that life on the registry is a barbaric form of punishment. But they don't care because it is all about power and control for them.

It should be noted that like many other victim cult leaders, Dauber pulled out of a debate because most victim cultists cannot take the heat.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/live-updates/midterms/live-primary-election-results/california-voters-recall-judge-in-stanford-rape-case/

California voters recall judge in Stanford rape case

The judge who drew national criticism for giving a six-month jail sentence to a Stanford swimmer convicted of three felony sex crimes was recalled by voters. Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky was the first California judge recalled since 1932, according to the Associated Press.

Persky was criticized over the sentence given to Brock Turner, who sexually assaulted a woman behind a dumpster in a case that drew national attention — for the sentence, for the powerful public statement by the woman who was assaulted, and by a plea from Turner’s father for leniency. Persky had defended himself against the recall, saying he had fought for victims in his time as a prosecutor and that he tried to balance rehabilitation and probation for first-time offenders.

The recall effort was led by Stanford law professor Michele Landis Dauber.

https://www.sanjoseinside.com/2018/04/19/michele-dauber-pulls-out-of-persky-recall-debate-sends-colleague-to-face-ladoris-cordell/

Michele Dauber Pulls Out of Persky Recall Debate, Sends Colleague to Face LaDoris Cordell
By Allison Levitsky / April 19, 2018

Stanford Law Professor Michele Dauber pulled out of a debate over the movement to recall Judge Aaron Persky hours before the event last night with the South Peninsula Area Republican Coalition, sending a colleague to debate in her place.

Citing a mandatory parent meeting at her son’s school, the Recall Persky campaign leader sent G. Marcus Cole, a Stanford Law professor who published an op-ed piece supporting the recall in the San Francisco Chronicle on Aug. 22.

Cole teaches courses on bankruptcy, banking, contracts and venture capital at the law school and identified himself as one of four Republicans on faculty to the audience at the Fremont Hills Country Club in Los Altos Hills last night.

He faced off against retired Palo Alto Judge LaDoris Cordell, a Persky supporter who brought with her 200 pages of emails between Dauber and the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office, obtained through a public records request.

Researching Persky

Dauber had been corresponding with prosecutors to unearth Persky’s cases prior to the six-month county jail sentence he gave Stanford sex assailant Brock Turner, a task for which she had enlisted students’ help to pull records at the courthouse.

“In their desperate attempt to paint a picture of Judge Persky as a biased judge and overall bad person, and after combing through thousands of records, the recall campaign came up with five cases,” Cordell said. “Think about it, five cases out of 2,000. That’s 0.25 percent, or one-quarter of 1 percent, of Judge Persky’s cases. Common sense tells you that’s not a pattern.”

Cole, meanwhile, focused on the “uniquely powerful” role of Superior Court judges, who because of their six-year terms, don’t face as many limits as lifetime-appointed federal judges do.

“This is why California law and the California Constitution, as well as 26 other states, balance judicial independence with judicial accountability,” Cole said. “The sweeping powers of state court judges requires that they be exercised with the public trust. That trust was breached by Judge Persky in the Brock Turner case.”

Prior Cases

Turner’s light sentence in 2016 triggered outrage, Cole said, but Persky had showed bias elsewhere over the 18 months during which he heard cases at the Palo Alto Courthouse.

Cole cited the four-day county jail sentence Persky gave to Robert Chain for felony child pornography possession.

The judge also allowed Ikaika Gunderson, convicted of felony domestic violence, to leave without probation or supervision so that he would not lose the opportunity to play football for the University of Hawaii, and did not inform Hawaii officials as required by the Interstate Compact for Adult Offender Supervision, according to Cole.

Cole also criticized Persky for allowing lawyers for the De Anza College baseball players accused of gang rape to show revealing photographs of the victim to the jury, “as if to suggest she was asking for it,” Cole said.

Persky’s Past Honors

But prior to the Turner case, Cordell said, Persky had never been accused of misconduct or showing bias. His wife is a woman of color and his two elementary school-age children are biracial, she said.

While in private practice at the Palo Alto law firm Morrison and Foerster, Persky received the Civil Rights Leadership Award for his work on hate crimes and the State Bar of California’s Pro Bono Award for his legal work for the poor, Cordell said.

In the District Attorney’s Office, he prosecuted violent sex crimes and hate crimes and served on the executive committees of the Support Network for Battered Women and the Santa Clara County Network for a Hate-Free Community.

“Had Judge Persky sentenced Brock Turner to prison instead of jail, we wouldn’t be here this evening. There would be no recall,” Cordell said. “Had he just said the word ‘prison,’ Judge Persky would have been the toast of the town, the best judge ever. But he made a lawful decision that he deemed appropriate to the facts, and now the recall wants you to believe that he’s the worst judge ever.”

Cordell questioned the appropriateness of recalling Persky for an unpopular sentence, suggesting that if a judge isn’t fit for the job, run against him. Recalls are intended for judges who engage in egregious misconduct, which is why California hasn’t seen a judge recalled in 85 years.

Cole said Persky should be recalled in June because of the level of public outrage that the Turner case outcome stirred up, leading the recall to gather 100,000 signatures.

He also argued that the county can’t afford for sexual assault victims to not come forward, which could be the result of Persky remaining in office. Neither side mentioned that Persky is currently the court’s night judge, working from home to sign police warrants at odd hours, not hearing cases.

This article was republished with permission from the Palo Alto Daily Post, which originally ran the article on April 19, 2018.

Now that this story is over, she's turning her focus to condemning Luke Heimlich:

Jennifer Lane of Community Voices (in their heads) wants to have therapists who treat registrants arrested if a client reoffends

I have a better idea. We should hold victim's rights advocates like Jennifer Lane and their organizations like Community Voices accountable when they fail to actually help victims and decide to profiteer from them.

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/local_coverage/2018/06/victims_advocate_wants_psychologists_charged_if_sex_offenders_repeat

Victims’ advocate wants psychologists charged if sex offenders repeat
Joe Dwinell Sunday, June 03, 2018

A leading victims advocate wants state-appointed psychologists who declare sex offenders can be released from prison held accountable if the predators strike again.

Jennifer Lane, president of Community Voices, said charges should be brought against the examiners in some cases.

“I’m so sick and tired of this,” Lane told the Herald. “There are more people defending sex offenders than the victims.”

Pedophiles and rapists don’t age out of their horrific habits, she said. “It’s a mental issue.”

Her comments come as the Supreme Judicial Court is “taking under advisement” a petition to keep serial child rapist Wayne W. Chapman civilly committed in MCI-Shirley. He’s accused of molesting up to 100 boys.

Two state-contracted psychologists — Katrin Rouse Weir and Gregg A. Belle — examined Chapman for just over an hour recently and declared he can be released into the community. Both say his age at 70 makes him less likely to reoffend.

Lane said if they are wrong, more victims will pay the price.

“They should be held accountable and charges brought against them,” said Lane. “It’s atrocious to me. It’s infuriating” to let Chapman out.

As the Herald reported yesterday, Chapman was reported for being “fully exposed” in his bed when a prison nurse visited him March 4, according to Belle’s unredacted report.

Belle, also reported by the Herald yesterday, stated that a Roxbury man in prison for attempted rape was no longer a “sexually dangerous person” in the fall of 2013.

That man, Donald Galvin, was accused of raping a 79-year-old woman in her Hingham home in July 2016 after allegedly stalking her in a grocery store and then following her home.

Galvin was in his late 60s at the time. He died this winter at Lemuel Shattuck Hospital in Boston after a long illness.

He was due to stand trial on the rape charge just days later.

Belle, reached by the Herald Friday, said Department of Correction policy prohibits him or any qualified examiner “from speaking to the media.”