What makes me so unhappy about this report?  Everything.  No really, every little thing about it triggers me to death.

First of all, I wish this was news.  As the reporter notes, some of the kids in this story are adults now.  This has been an ongoing problem for decades.  People have been living their whole lives with this.  And the rapists who started it all whistled off back to their happy-go-fucky lives in England without concern.

Then there's the fact that this is almost exactly like what happened with my countrymen in Vietnam -- and other places.  It's directly, exactly the same results for the women and children, and the same zero consequences for the men.

Also the reporter started out by citing RT, Russia Today.  I'm pretty sure RT isn't covering the shit show that is the Wagner Group's interaction with the women of the Central African Republic.  I'm not even going to look for links about that because my mental health can't take it. 

This report is talking about the ordinary abuse and exploitation of women that happens all the time when large groups of men aren't tightly controlled.  That's just plain and simple.  It's obviously worse when they're soldiers in a different country where they're being trained to dehumanize the locals anyway.  But you can look at how the crime statistics boom anywhere in America when the oil industry moves in and they bring their work crews to any community.  The sexual assault statistics in particular skyrocket from the sudden influx of the usual suspects.

The only reason this doesn't happen to Saudi women is because of the extreme amount of social controls in place for everyone including the troops. But what Wagner has done to African women?  Is off the charts of disgusting behavior.  RT can place themselves on permanent mute.

Also it's just another slap in the face to the colonized people.  Just another reminder that the British weren't invited there to fuck everything up and kidnap everybody.

And lastly, for me personally, it's just another reminder that with rape, the perpetrator walks off to have a nice day.  And the rest of the world punishes the woman and whatever child she may have had, as if they were unfamiliar with the concept of what actually happened there.  It's not that they don't know.  It's that they don't want to think about it.  So they reflexively blame her.

Scapegoating isn't a conspiracy, it's an emotional reflex reaction.  Unfortunately it continues to happen all over the world because people suck.

Four women were allegedly kidnapped and held in a shipping container.  Two of them were said to have been sexually assaulted as well by the two assailants.

While it's not clear why two of the women were held or for how long, two of them were allegedly abducted after witnessing a shooting by the two assailants, Devaun Jackson and Isaiha Rogers-Keeney.  The four women were allegedly held in a shipping container and two of them raped.

They were rescued when the men took two of the women to Walmart for some unknown reason, and one of the other women was able to contact a relative.

I can't imagine what a horrific ordeal this was, being raped and held captive in a metal box with no ventilation, light, or sanitation, in a heat wave.  Especially not for the two who witnessed the shooting, who should have been fairly confident they'd be killed.

Honest to God I don't know where to begin with this. 

The City of Louisville needs to just fire everybody and start over, seriously.  Swap every third police officer with someone from a random agency in a different state.  I have no idea how to fix their shit show.

It does not surprise me that Lauder is also part of the problem. 

It's deeply concerning to me that Louisville's way of addressing its many, well-known sexual harassment problems was to appoint a lady chief who is willing to have this kind of open meeting with her staff.

Mayor Craig Greenberg looked like a very startled Anthony Weiner when he talked about how the DoJ is on his case about sexual misconduct on his police force -- as they should be. 

Even with getting a complete Mulligan on everything Pablo Cano and Brian Taylor did, Mayor Greenberg is about to go broke from the Breonna Taylor raid and a few other gems from his police department's misconduct.  And me of little faith remembers what happened after the DoJ looked into Ferguson, Missouri about their obvious racism problem -- nothing.

The reporting here is not at all clear on exactly what happened with this phone call.  But as I understand it, there was a command staff meeting.  Chief Gwinn-Villaroel demanded that the Majors go around and, one by one, agree that they were willing to partner with all of their coworkers.  In other words, all beef fully squashed or you will be demoted.

One officer, Lauder, was home "sick" that day.  My differential diagnosis is blue flu, because she had been "sexually harassed and assaulted" by a coworker, Officer Kuriger.  She wasn't comfortable working with him.  She had been put on the spot to bring it up in this way.  It's not clear why she wasn't able to bring it up before.  That in and of itself is a problem with culture and leadership.

Now, anybody who doesn't think that's a major problem (pun intended) at LMPD needs to watch the above video from Vice.  The woman who came in to complain about being raped by Pablo Cano was treated as a suspect by Cano's coworkers at LMPD.  Pablo Cano joked about being a sex offender in staff meetings.

So after the threat of demotion, when it was Lauder's turn to say she'd work with Kuriger, she declined.  There was 20 seconds of silence.  Chief Gwinn-Villaroel said that needed to be addressed later.  Then she allegedly went on to afford Kuriger a promotion.  

Gwinn-Villaroel put that rake down on the ground in front of herself and then stepped on it, smacking herself directly in the face.  It seems like she could have avoided this by dealing with people privately, instead of having this "all hands on deck, all beef squashed" meeting that blew up in her hand like a human resources pipe bomb.  She had multiple harassment suits brewing amongst her command staff.

That portion of the audio regarding the promotion/non-promotion wasn't provided in the reporting.  And they said that no promotions have gone through.  So apparently the mayor doesn't need the agita.  The Chief is on paid leave for now and someone else is in charge.  None of that would be happening had Lauder not filed suit.  The city can't afford it.  I'm pretty sure they're already bankrupt or close to it.

So we'll see.

This is another blood-boiler.

From NBC News:

"A 64-year-old Missouri woman with a history of mental illness has been declared innocent by a judge for a murder that she has spent more than four decades behind bars for and in which some now suspect a former police officer.

Sandra Hemme's innocence in the November 12, 1980, slaying of Patricia Jeschke in St. Joseph, Missouri, is “clear and convincing” the judge ruled last week.

But she remains behind bars, and Missouri's top prosecutor on Tuesday asked a court to put the brakes on releasing her."

Actually the evidence that the murder was committed by now-deceased St. Joseph, MO police officer Michael Holman, is overwhelming.  The fact that this woman spent 40+ years in prison because the police didn't want to arrest him is what it is.  But the way the AG is now wanting to double down on it is a serious problem that I have no idea how to begin addressing, like the situation with the missing indigenous women.

"Fellow police officer Michael Holman, who was found using the victim’s credit card the day after the murder; whose truck was seen parked near the victim’s home at the time she was killed; in whose closet the victim’s earrings were discovered; and who in the months before and after Ms. Jeschke’s murder, committed many other crimes against women," The Innocence Project said in a statement.

Anybody else would have been arrested right quick.  But the police had carte blanche with sex crimes in my day.  They just did.

This is another sick, sad, wrong situation in Missouri.  After the DOJ found systemic issues in Ferguson, did they fix anything?  I don't think so.  It's still a major septic tank as far as I can tell.  They'll have to show me that anything is better over there.

This citizen's name hasn't been released to my knowledge.  But I don't have strong enough words of praise for how he handled this situation.  He should really teach a seminar.  Because he's outnumbered 4 or 5 cops to one.  They're not his friends at all.  One of them is definitely trying to steal $900.  It's an away game, he's on their turf.  AND HE BEAT THEM AT THE GAME LIKE THE KING OF BOSSES!

This guy was totally set up to get robbed here.  It was his girlfriend's cash, that he was on his way to pay for her car.  So he didn't know the exact amount that was rubber-banded together.  He was stopped speeding in her car, and he had a warrant.

So before bodycam, he would have just kissed that money goodbye, even as a white man.  Because Officer Chapman was definitely gonna get him some as soon as he saw that wad, make no mistake.  Watch the whole bodycam video.

Everything about Chapman and his, "Who, me?  Check my pockets" bullshit suggests that he's done this many times.

Also infuriating is lady cop, who stands there telling the guy to just be calm while he's surrounded by cops who are fucking robbing him of $900 of someone else's money.  Fuck that facilitating bitch.  He's already amazingly calm under the circumstances.  He was 100% correct not to leave the sally port without having that investigated.  As soon as he walked away from that car fucking Chapman had that money secured.

But now Chapman is gone and off the force.  The turn-around from "Check my pockets" like the citizen is a crazy asshole, to "I'm sorry, Sarge," that 180 reality-slap -- SATISFYING.

WIN FOR THE PEOPLE!!!!

I write "true crime for survivors."  That's a very complicated subject in America, because all of our conversations about justice are so twisted here.  Basically every conversation has to involve everybody's personal craziness in their professional capacity.  We have to worry about the sexual or other criminal urges of every police officer we interact with.  They all work for mayors -- and I recently wrote about them being a new plague on society.  Then there's no telling how insane the judge will be.  That can be a disaster for both a defendant and a person who was harmed.  I can't possibly even blog all the ways.

Last week I blogged about woman arrested outside a bar in Georgia with her titty popping out.  She refused to identify herself.  The police officer said she punched him in a melee.  Whatever the case, she's disgraceful in the bodycam, intoxicated and belligerent.  Completely impossible to deal with.  She's doing the most cringey version of "DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?" with him, demanding that he call someone from the county and have that person identify her by her voice. 

She seems to expect that to be some big reveal moment, like on TV, where they're going to be like, OMG, she's a judge?!?  "Sorry ma'am, we'll take off these cuffs and drive you home right now," with their heads hanging in shame, while lightning bolts flash all around her and dark winds whip up her dress, perfectly accentuating her legs. 

But those cops don't even work for the county.  And that's not how arresting people works.  Because she's drunk.

So watching her bawl her eyes out here, while they go over the 30 -- count them 30 -- counts of judicial misconduct she did, her capricious, mean-spirited, punitive self-serving bullshit, tossing people in jail, demanding to be treated like royalty, so satisfying.  No more stomping around shouting, "Off with their heads!" for you, ma'am.

She's another one like Tiffany Henyard, who expects African-Americans to be proud of her even when she's screwing and shaming them.  You're nothing to be proud of, ma'am.  Especially since she did all of this nonsense with the police after the judicial misconduct hearings.  And then she had the audacity to go on TV with her lawyer and cry victim, even after having been resoundingly stomped off the bench by the voters. Bless her heart.

From NBC News:

"Political leaders across the spectrum denounced the alleged attack, which has been described as antisemitic, with France in the midst of snap parliamentary elections where the far right is leading.

Two adolescent boys in a Paris suburb have been given preliminary charges of raping a 12-year-old girl and religion-motivated violence, French authorities said Wednesday.

The incident has sparked a widespread outcry in France as the country contends with rising antisemitism since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, and has inflamed accusations of antisemitism ahead of contentious elections set for June 30 and July 7.

The prosecutor’s office for Nanterre, the western suburb of Paris that launched the investigation into the alleged attack, did not specify the girl’s religion or release her identity in order to protect the victim, in line with standard practice for hate crimes in France.

However, lawyer and Jewish leader Elie Korchia said in an interview with French broadcaster BFM that the girl is Jewish, and leaders from across France’s political spectrum have condemned what they describe as an act of antisemitism."

Okay, wait.  Did they know the girl was Jewish?  How so?  Or was it just that they were Moslem or immigrants from a certain country?  Because I don't feel that either (a) the war in Gaza or (b) the upcoming election and the agitated far right have anything to do with the sexual violence inflicted on that girl, or they shouldn't be included in this reporting.  They should tell why specifically the religious hate crime charges were added, unless those two reasons were why.

I'm well and truly sick to death of the politicization of rape.  I would like every person who feels the need to glom their agendas onto the rape of any person, including and especially children, to add their names to the list of rapists.  Because that's all they are in my eyes.  I had to stop reading about the war in Ukraine because of all the righteous bros who couldn't stop sharing the outraged rape porn about it, and shouted me down when I protested.

Every day I hear people talking about the war in Gaza.  They're frequently "outraged" about all the rape in particular, without knowing anything specific about the conflict.  But it's interesting to me how some stranger in an elevator will admit they don't understand what's going on in Gaza any great detail, yet won't hesitate to mention how rapey the Palestinians are.  Unraped people are full of untested opinions, and very confident in them.

Even if the boys did target the girl because they knew she was Jewish, Elie Korchia should go fuck himself.  You know why?  Because that girl is super traumatized right now.  And he's just another person grabbing her like an object and waving her around because she suits his agenda.

I'm too weary to write about this right now.

A truck driver, who immigrated here from Ethiopia, was unable to complete his delivery to Aldi.  Since he had to wait until the next day, he went to a local bar 

While he was there, he became the focus of two off-duty police officers, who themselves became the subjects of an FBI investigation after they decided to detain him because they imagined he was an illegal immigrant.

"This guy's not from this country," one of them explains.  "So we started fighting with him.  He's like I'm, you know, whatever.  So here we are.  He's holding him down."

"Regardless if he's from this country or not, what happened?"

"He's not from this country."

"Yeah, okay.  What happened, though?"

The anti-immigrant rhetoric in this country, constantly referencing everybody's nationality and immigration status, leads to bullshit like this. 

One of these clowns is on a DEA task force, the other a Cleveland police officer on their ATF task force.  Their reason for pinning this Texas truck driver to the ground?  He's not from this country. 

"I'm not gonna be the guy in the news like, oh, you're on a fuckin'  security cam, this guy ends up blowing the fuckin' mall up tomorrow.  Don't care who I offend, dude."

Bartender:

They were really being aggressive with him.  He was sitting here.  They were trying to snatch his phone.  They were turning his arm.

Investigating officer:

"They're drunk, and this guy came up to them and started saying some stuff.  And they were like, oh, this guy's a terrorist.  We can't let him go."

Other investigating officer:

"That's what I mean.  Does that sound sane to you?"

First officer:

"No."

Same.  Fuck these two.  They're being investigated by both the county and the FBI.  They're off their task forces now.  I hope the one who said he didn't care about giving offense gets un-policed altogether because he's a menace.  They both are.  Their coworkers seemed well aware of it, so maybe.

I learned in fire academy never to call anybody a hero while they're still alive.  Because if you do, his coworkers will never let him hear the end of it.  But what he did here was absolutely phenomenal, God bless.  Just watch the video.

So I'll just say that this officer will surely receive a commendation after he gets treated for smoke inhalation.  Hopefully his lungs didn't get burned too bad and there wasn't anything horribly toxic in that smoke so he doesn't get cancer from it.