People who have the luxury of never being sexually assaulted were shocked when the #MeToo Movement got co-opted by mainstream America.  I'm really glad that phase is over with.  Because I couldn't stand everyone saying, "Wow, it's shocking what rich, powerful, white men get away with!"

Because really they could drop the first three qualifiers.  In my experience, in America men pretty much get to do as they please almost across the board without consequences.  That's unless the police and prosecutors happen to want to stitch them up, like with the Central Park Five or West Memphis Three.  If they feel like they need to punish somebody, it could be anyone who can't fight back, like poor Junius Stinney.  But the person who actually did the sex crime has no worries. 

Like Larry Nassar, this Maryland situation is another one where some nobody of a schlub, some schmoe who would be very easy to replace, a guy who doesn't make all that much money and is nothing special, has allegedly been allowed to just do whatever he wants for years.  This one is named Joel Biedleman.

His shitty boss is named Monifa B. McKnight.  May she be working at Walmart real soon.

Just like with Larry Nassar, all Biedleman has to do is say, "No, I didn't," over and over again, and the people he works for say, "all is well then" and give him a promotion.   That's literally his only defense here, same as Nassar.  No matter how many people contradict him, Biedleman just keeps saying, "No, they're all wrong, I didn't do it."  And Nassar is still saying all he did was physical therapy.  But at least Nassar is in jail.  Monifa McKnight probably would've promoted him.

The Washington Post report details:

• A 2022-2023 MCPS staff survey asking "How positive is the climate that leadership sets at your school?" revealed that over 40% answered "Not at all," the second-worst of any MCPS middle school.  Monifa McKnight:  "Great job, Joel!  Take more money!"
  
• Nine teachers who mentioned his abuse as their reason for quitting
  
• 18 reports of misconduct against him by parents, teachers, and union stewards since 2016
  
• A former PTA president who requested a change of schools for her children after he told her daughter "not to be a whore" like her friend
  
• Another parent who was so concerned about his frequently calling her daughter into his office to interrogate her about her clothing and appearance that she hired an attorney
  
• An assembly where he called the girls in his student body "hos and thots," which he later denied despite a dozen outraged teacher eyewitnesses
  
• An in-service on professional attire in which 24 teachers claim he said, "Camel toe is not allowed," which Biedleman denies.  Remember folks, all he has to say is, "No" and they're all liars who have to go away
  
• One teacher who was offered an assistant principal job.  Then  he sent her text messages asking for sex.  When he sent her a text saying he was on her way to his house, She made it clear in no uncertain terms not to come,  and reminded him that they were "just friends," which she felt was "career suicide."  Twelve days later she learned that she was not in the selection pool.  She was texted 400 times, including pressure for sexual favors, between being offered the job and being rejected for it.
  
• Told one teacher she looked like she "pegged her husband" and did butt stuff
  
• And many more issues, read the linked article.
  

"Until last week, MCPS treated Beidleman as a rising star. Despite six staff members’ reports to MCPS about his conduct in 2023, officials promoted him in June to run Paint Branch High School in Burtonsville, a position that oversees a larger staff than Farquhar’s and would have raised his salary by $32,000, to $191,000.
...
After The Post submitted a list of questions last week, MCPS placed Beidleman on “extended leave,” said it wanted staff members who’d been mistreated to come forward and launched “an independent, external investigation about all matters brought to our attention by the Washington Post.”

Also from the Washington Post article, we see an example of the people who make life unsurvivable for people like me:  Miya Page.   She's another version of the white people MLK warned us about.  She must not be Biedleman's type.

"Farquhar history teacher Miya Page said that while she was aware of his bullying, she did not personally experience it. “He’s very focused on student achievement and making sure students feel safe, loved and appreciated,” she said. “Whenever I had a concern, I could go to him. He usually took my thoughts and ideas and implemented them. I felt heard with him. I personally had a great time working for him.”

Except for the girls he's interrogating about their slutty clothes, or calling whores.

Hey Miya, if you ever need help with anything, don't come to me for real.  Take your stab wounds or whatever and cry to your good buddy Joel.  Let him do your CPR. 

Every once in a while we get a bittersweet ending.  It's not really a happy ending, because whatever happened to Diana was horrible.  But by the grace of God she's back with her family now.

Screw the Long Beach Police for using the classic "magic eraser of police work" and classifying this as a runaway.

Also, there's a world of difference between "true crime" where people are making a sport of the hunt for Gabby Petito's killer, and actually caring about someone like Diana who is missing.  I don't know how to get people to actually care.  Because that's all it took.  Within a few hours of putting Diana's story on TV, someone recognized her and she was rescued.  Shame on the Long Beach Police.  Too busy taking homeless people away from storefronts.

From ABC7:

LONG BEACH, Calif. (KABC) -- A Long Beach teen who was missing for two months has been found, just hours after news reports about her disappearance.

A representative of the family told Eyewitness News Tuesday night that Diana Rojas was spotted in the South Los Angeles area by a person who recognized her from news reports earlier in the day. Police were notified and informed her parents that she was found.
Details about her condition and circumstances of her disappearance were not immediately available.

My big love-hate relationship with A&E includes my favorite show, Parking Wars.  Because Parking Wars is where America lets it all hang out.  That's who we are in real life.  We are a bag of dicks when somebody asks us nicely to move from where we're not supposed to be.

This story is just layer upon layer of sad.
Department of Justice:

"According to court records and evidence presented at trial, Jesse Fernando Perez, 36, is currently serving a 121-month federal sentence for possession of child pornography at the Federal Correctional Complex in Petersburg, Virginia. While incarcerated, he copied images of children from books and magazines, and then drew on the images to create depictions of the children engaged in sexually explicit activity.

Perez faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years and a maximum sentence of 60 years in prison when sentenced on December 11. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors."

So he's already in prison for child porn.  They probably shouldn't be letting him have books and magazines with pictures of children in them, because he's weird like that.  He's obviously in a bad enough place in his life where he's liable to do stuff like this.

I don't feel right prosecuting someone for being such a pitiful little sad man that he would do something like this so he can wank, frankly.  The boy aint right.  Part of me feels like people shouldn't spend another FIFTEEN YEARS in prison for drawing dirty pictures of kids because they're too messed up to do anything better with their time.  I mean it's a seriously messed-up cry for help.

That said, a 36-year-old man who, if he didn't have access to actual sexual pictures of children, would go to this length to gratify himself, has to be kept out of circulation.  There's a reason even facsimiles of child porn are criminalized, and I agree with that.  It's why you can be arrested for trying to meet up with a decoy 12-year-old.

I just wish America wasn't the incarceration nation, and we were actually helping people.  Why is there always so much sexual violence?  WTF?  Why is prison the answer to every problem?

On the one hand, as I just discussed with the Newburgh 4, I don't trust the FBI not to be all Wile E. Coyote, making up fake bomb plots to put people in prison for life so they can get gold stars at work,  They'll do that!

The FBI also played quite a role in letting Whitey Bulger run amok in Boston for years.  And I personally believe they had a lot to do with the person who killed the Jennings 8, and possibly whoever dumped the women out on the mesa in Albuquerque.  The West Mesa killer, I believe, has law enforcement connections.  And it wouldn't surprise me at all if they were at least friends with the FBI.

Anyway, not to be Debbie Downer, because here the FBI really done good.  They do a great job with the chomos.  NCMEC consistently does great work.

FBI.gov

"More than 200 victims of sex trafficking were rescued during a nationwide enforcement campaign last month that also included the identification or arrest of more than five dozen suspected human traffickers and 126 individuals accused of child sexual exploitation and trafficking offenses.

The FBI-led “Operation Cross Country,” which involved nearly every FBI field office and their respective state and local partners, also located 59 minor victims of child sex trafficking and sexual exploitation, and another 59 children who had been reported missing.   
The two-week law enforcement initiative—now in its 13th year—is a coordinated operation among the FBI, other federal agencies, state and local police, and social services agencies across the country to find and assist victims of human trafficking, particularly child victims. Law enforcement agencies conduct targeted operations to identify traffickers, their networks, and their victims. FBI victim specialists, working alongside local agencies, then provide immediate support and access to the extensive resources that are available to all federal crime victims. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) is a significant partner in the initiative. The private non-profit is a clearinghouse of information and has assisted in more than 400,000 cases of missing kids who were recovered since its founding in 1984."

Remember, everyone in America is innocent of all charges until proven guilty in a court of law, no matter how dead their eyes may appear in their mugshot.

As soon as I heard the story, my only question was why, what was the backstory behind the individuals.  Why him?  Why now?

Because if there's anything anyone doesn't understand about America's racial history, this classic case really explains it.  While it's not being applied in quite the same way here, this story shows the exact mechanism of a "sundown town."  They draw a line in the sand.  They tell people not to be here when the sun goes down.  And if you are, FAFO.

It's very important that we understand specifically how this trick works.  Because the same mechanism gets employed in a variety of circumstances, including against sex workers for a variety of reasons. I recently discussed this in my review of The Killing Season. 

Because those journalists, despite the otherwise good work they did, were quite easily convinced that it wasn't real even while it was being explained to them by women who have had this experience while also being Holtzclawed.  He didn't believe that, either.  They couldn't be convinced that the one police officer whose name got dropped by every sex worker in ABQ could possibly have been a bad actor, because he said no.

Spectrum News

"Earlier this week, now-former officer Samuel Davis, 26, was charged with assault and kidnapping stemming from the arrest of a persistent shoplifting suspect at a Northwoods Walgreens on July 4. He's accused of driving the man to a remote location in Kinloch, beating him with his baton, using pepper spray and breaking his jaw. 

Court documents state after the handcuffed victim was put in the back of Davis' patrol car, Hill, who was Davis' supervising officer, returned to the store and made an incriminating statement to a store employee regarding what would happen to the victim. 
Hill nor Davis never activated their body cameras, according to court documents. They also didn't inform dispatch that they had a suspect in custody or write a report about the incident.
"Police officers who commit violence undermine the trust of the community. My office is working to restore that trust by ensuring a fair, transparent investigation and prosecution in cases of police brutality. Officers in St. Louis County have a host of tools to rely on in addressing individuals who commit non-violent offenses, including referring individuals to our Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion program or making a proper arrest when public safety demands it. There is no excuse for this criminal conduct, and my office will prosecute these officers to the fullest extent of the law," said St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell. 
Northwoods police chief Dennis Shireff told Spectrum News the victim was taken to Kinloch at the victim's request after the store decided it didn't want to prosecute him, and it had recovered the stolen merchandise.
Shireff said there were several other occasions where the man, who he said suffers from mental illness and was intoxicated at the time of the July 4 incident, would be taken to other locations, including a relative's home. 
Hill is being held on a $100,000 cash only bond."

When I worked as a paramedic we had a guy who we would get called to multiple times a day sometimes, us and the police both, often at Walgreens.  He would get so desperate for alcohol that he would open up some mouthwash, rubbing alcohol, or whatever he could get his hands on, and drink as much of it as possible before they could knock it out of his hands.  Believe it or not, we would often find him seizing in parking lots.

As much of a pain in my ass as that guy was, I would never in a million years want the cops to do that to him.  We had much worse, more abusive, more problematic people than the guy they're describing.  The situation they're charged with, if proven in a court of law, is unimaginable to me.

Remember when the Department of Justice found Ferguson, Missouri systemically racist?  Whatever came of that?

I love a happy ending.  And this police officer did a great job.

Someone called GW Bush International Airport wanting to report his mother missing from her international flight.  It seemed strange to this officer that he had waited several days to do so.

When a non-English-speaking trespasser was later discovered, luckily it was the same officer called to investigate.  She discovered it was the same woman that had been inquired about by her "son," and connected the dots.

I appreciate the great job by this officer.

One of the most "through the looking glass" parts of the Donald Trump presidency was the way suddenly the FBI was supposedly out to get Republicans.  LOL!  As if.

Over in the land of alternative facts, the FBI is a progressive thing that's out to get the struggling white Republican guy who can never seem to catch a break in this country.

In real life, the FBI was founded as J. Edgar Hoover's personal right-wing goon squad.  One of Hoover's hottest personal agendas was harassing any sexy black people that showed up on radar, like Martin Luther King or Angela Davis.  He lost his mind trying to go after both of them.  I think they built an FBI cafeteria on top of Leonard Peltier. 

I have always thought of the FBI to be on the trustworthiness scale of say, Wile E. Coyote.  And it sucks, because unfortunately they are the ones tasked with pursuing (a) the mafia and (b) child sex predators, both of which directly interest me personally.  And I have to say they do a not-bad job with the chomos, thanks in no small part to the Center for Missing and Exploited Children.  Kudos on that.

But in this story we see another example of the extreme toxicity of the GW Bush presidency, more of those radioactive chickens coming to roost.  From the same slippery slope of human rights and law enforcement that brought us Guantanamo Bay, they also stitched up these four guys, three of whom have now finally been released.  One of them is a paranoid schizophrenic.  America!  He's lucky it wasn't Texas or they'd have given him the death penalty.

Here, again, the state was a bad actor, making work for itself to make itself look good when a certain sort of cases were in fashion.  As if there wasn't a mega crap ton of real work to do in America all the time.  As if the woods weren't full of militia wingnuts.

There won't be justice for anyone until there's justice for everyone.  And I can't imagine that there ever will be.  We'll never have nice things in this country.  Because this isn't a broken system.  The system is perfectly reflecting the desires and values of the people who built it.

I do a lot of criticizing the police.  So I also like to take the time to point out when they do a fantastic job, like Trooper Nielson of the Louisiana State Police.

He pulled the young man over for speeding, 73 in a 55.

The driver:

• Had no license at all
• No insurance
• It wasn't his car
• Had a roach in the ashtray

The trooper noticed that there were bullet holes in the driver's side of the vehicle.  So he investigated to make sure that this person had permission to be in the vehicle at all.  He still couldn't positively identify him, because he had no license or ID.

The driver also couldn't give his home address, or say exactly where he was going, an automatic red flag for the police.

Trooper Nielson investigated further, to make sure that this vehicle wasn't wanted in any local incidents.  He discovered that the vehicle's owner had been reported missing.  The driver claimed this person had given him permission to drive it.

Meanwhile some random person drives up and says that people in Monroe, another city, are looking for that car and its driver.  He hands Trooper Nielson a phone.  The local sheriffs arrive at some point to assist.

Trooper Nielson follows this investigation step-by-step, eventually popping the trunk to discover the body of Michael, the vehicle's owner.

The driver had been driving around with the dead body in the trunk, speeding, with no license, driver's side all shot up, and smoking weed.  That's more of a cry for help, I think.  He was only missing one of those sovereign citizen homemade license plates.

But that was great work by this police officer all the way throughout.  Terrible tragedy for the victim in this case.  And I can't imagine what the murderer was thinking, honest to God.  What a waste of life all the way around.