Meechaie lKhalil Criner, currently held by authorities in the death of Haruka Weiser is not mentally competent to stand trial.

April 9, 2016
By Emily Schmall

...Leo Criner said his nephew, (click here) Meechaiel (Khalil Criner), was bullied throughout his childhood in Texarkana, Texas, and has the mental capacity of a 10-year-old.
"I refuse to believe he just maliciously killed this young lady," the uncle said in a phone interview from Texarkana, where he lives. "This kid don't know nothing about killing. His mind don't compute like that."
Mary Wadley said authorities had told her that her grandson, Meechaiel, was caught shoplifting in McKinney, Texas, shortly before he was admitted into an emergency youth homeless shelter Monday in Austin, about 225 miles away.
McKinney police spokeswoman Sabrina Boston did not return messages seeking comment.
Wadley, who also lives in Texarkana, said she planned to travel to Austin on Monday....

Haruka Weiser was a very special 18 year old. We will be without her grace and beauty in dance. My sincerest sympathies to her family. There are no words to heal wounds when such tragedy strikes.

...The arrest affidavit said Weiser's body had "obvious trauma." An autopsy showed she had been assaulted, but police have refused to release further details about how she died.
The affidavit also said campus surveillance video not made public showed the suspect watching a female thought to be Weiser as she walked in the direction of her dorm with her head down, looking at her cellphone.
As she passed, the affidavit said, the suspect produced "what appeared to be a shiny rigid object" and followed her. The pair dropped from view as they reached the creek bank, though, and the suspect wasn't seen on video again for two-plus hours.
Police have said a crime scene weapon hasn't been recovered, however, and Acevedo wouldn't speculate on motive.

Some of this doesn't seem to make sense. It is thought the woman on the video was Ms. Weiser and it is thought the man on the video is the person arrested. There is no mention of a woman's bike because she was walking. She wasn't found for 48 hours.

The pieces don't fit. The family knows him and according to his uncle, Criner is not capable of such acts of violence. The span of time and the absence of a video camera along the creek leaves a lot of doubt. Supposedly there is a lot of activity along their during the day and pictures posted on line would attest to that.

She was obviously assaulted. It may not be Criner. Did he find her belongs or did he take them. She had a cell phone, why did she allow herself to be unescorted on a college campus, especially when there was apparent danger. Usually campus police make themselves available when students are alone and feel insecure about their circumstances. Why didn't she call them? And there is no weapon and police are not commenting about her injuries. A sharp object of metal would have lasted through the fire.

Criner might be the person who committed assault, but, if there is doubt the police should continue to leave it open ended in hopes the person responsible is still found.

American prostitution law is completely wrong.

April 8, 2016
By Leonid Bershidsky

...The logic behind the "Swedish model" (click here) is ostensibly feminist, but essentially abolitionist. It's a way of banning prostitution while putting the onus on the client rather than the prostitute, who is viewed as a passive victim of sexual exploitation. As Jay Levy and Pye Jakobsson noted in a 2014 paper exploring the effects of Sweden's 1999 law that criminalized paying for sex, the voices of sex workers as owners of their sex-selling have been excluded from mainstream political debate in Sweden....

Sex trafficking exists in the USA because the pimps have nothing to lose and are out of reach for adult women. Women are penalized in the USA for their circumstances.

...This week, the German cabinet approved the draft law, making it all but certain that parliament will pass it. The proposal does away with the flat-fee brothels and "gang bang parties," as similar establishments are known. It also establishes fines for clients -- but not for buying sex as such; Germany will punish clients for having sex with a forced sex worker....

Germany's official estimate of sex workers is 200,000, but, other social estimates are 700,000. It is the German's belief with that number of workers in a specific industry the side effects into the economy is too much to tackle at once. The German society is already not accepting the law with public demonstrations of those earning their rent through sex work. 

A woman can be FORCED to prostitute herself for many reasons. The most compelling reason for social responsibility in a living wage in the USA is the fact women have to make ridiculous and criminal decisions when poorly employed. There are women in USA prisons for no other reason except prostitution.

April 8, 2016
By Journalism for Social Change

As a children’s social worker (click here) I believe the term “child prostitute” is inaccurate, misleading and should be removed from the conversation when discussing issues of sexually trafficked children. Thankfully the Associated Press now agrees.
By bringing attention to the damage that can be caused by using such a misguided term, it is my hope that we can begin to change attitudes regarding what is the proper treatment of child victims of sex trafficking.
In the last five years alone the term child prostitute, or a variation thereof, has been used more than 5,000 times in the media, according to research by the Human Rights Project for Girls in 2015.
5,000 times.
Let’s break that down.
The term prostitution refers to the act of engaging in sexual activity for money. It does not refer to being abused, exploited or trafficked, all which pertain to an underage victim of sexual exploitation.
Referring to a child victim of sexual exploitation as a prostitute discounts the huge amount of trauma experienced by the victim. It also contradicts the fact that children cannot legally consent to sexual activity, regardless of whether money is involved or not.
There is also an underlying connotation that a child prostitute has chosen that lifestyle for themselves....

The iconography of Mary as a prostitute is used to justify a legitimate method of work.

Graphic novelist Chester Brown, (click here) seen above in Toronto comic book shop Beguiling on April 1, says he doesn’t expect his new book on prostitution and the Bible to spark any particular controversy.

April 8, 2016
By Jacob Brogan

...Your central contention (click here) is that Mary was a prostitute. Why was this an important assertion for you?

It’s important because I’m someone who’s involved in the sex worker rights movement—at least to some degree, at least an ally in the movement. It seems to me that Christianity is the force behind the opposition to prostitution, starting with St. Paul. The condemnation of sex work and prostitution all comes from there. If I want to attack that sort of thinking, why not attack it at the root? Christianity.

But I’m coming at it from a Christian point of view. I consider myself religious. I was raised in Christianity. I still respect the religion, but not that aspect of it....

Whatever happened to Joseph? It is believed he was 90 years old at the time Jesus was born, but, he is suppose to have accepted Mary as his wife. That was a community decision actually.

Religions claims mysticism because of the clear demonstration of a very young Mary married to an elderly man, Joseph. Now, with a 1986 work analyzing the scriptures that all changes?

October 17, 2006
By Jane Schaberg
This work of impeccable (click here) New Testament scholarship was a sensation when it was first published in 1987. Jane Schaberg argued that Matthew and Luke were aware that Jesus had been conceived illegitimately, probably as a result of a rape of Mary, and had left in their Gospels some hints of that knowledge, even though their main purpose was to explore the theological significance of Jesus' birth. By having the Messiah born out of the exploitation of a woman of the poor, God demonstrates the vindication of the oppressed in a truly miraculous manner....

Stating Christianity in any of these documents is at the core of the understanding portrayed is incorrect. Not all Christianity accepts saints as part of reality. As a matter of fact, the Jesus of the southern Christian of the USA appears to have been born to ordinary people and then matured into God's son. 

These branches of Christianity don't consider Mary or Joseph as saints at all. They were simply chosen to bring a man made god into the world. That reality is also the case of the Disciples/Apostles, too. Jesus hung out with these guys, but, they were ordinary men with no special sainthood. 

It would be really interesting to have a solid TRUTH to all this. 

The Jewish are waiting for a second coming and they don't believe in saints either. Miracles, such as the tables presented to Moses, come from God. The interesting aspect of the Jewish documents is that they admit God had no written or spoken name from the beginning of time. 

The name of God (click here) used most often in the Hebrew Bible is the Tetragrammaton YHWH (Hebrew: יהוה‎). It is frequently anglicized as Jehovah and Yahweh and written in most editions of the Bible as "the Lord" owing to the Jewish tradition of reading it as Adonai ("My Lords") out of respect....

While the icons in any religious writings (I think the first three chapters of Jewish text speaks of god's identity.) brings some interesting interpretations. The reason any of this is relevant to prostitution is because they are part of the Bible. Prostitutes were mentioned in those texts.

As a matter of fact in a text not published as part of the Bible, but, written by James the Lesser; Mary is brought to a temple at the age of three and her feet touched the ground for the first time on the temple steps. She enters the temple and is feed to the age of 12 years old by the angles of god with manna. She is attended to in the temple by prostitutes.

At the age of 12 she emerges from the temple to be given to Joseph as his wife.

It is a common knowledge that throughout ancient history back to Mesopotamia, prostitutes (unmarried women) were found at the temples to the gods. It was not unusual for men to seek out the prostitutes. They were provided for by the priests and priestesses.

Prostitutes have always been supported in society by dialogues that call upon the deity side of their identity in history. The work of Jane Schaberg and Chester Brown prove a real compassion for women when they earn their living as a prostitute. Perhaps societies trying to limit prostitution should open discussion with these artists and historians. Respect for the women are important to move them out of their sex work and into the arts and sciences of a society. Respect and dialogue can transform their lives.

This week France (click here) became the latest in a growing list of countries to decriminalise sex workers while banning the purchase of sex.
The French legislation is based on what has become known as the Nordic Model, a form of decriminalisation that treats prostitution as a cause and effect of gender inequality and a site of violence against women.
The Nordic Model shrinks the market for prostitution by targeting demand: making the activities of sex buyers illegal while removing any punitive measures against prostituted persons. It has been effective in Sweden, and has since been adopted in Norway, Iceland, Canada and Northern Ireland.
In places like Victoria, a state with one of the world’s oldest legalised systems of brothel prostitution, the sex industry has a lot to lose from the success of the Nordic model....

Prostitution Research (click here)

In 2014, Illinois lifted it's statue of limitations on child sexual abuse. (click here)

The payments by Hastert is proof of long term injury to one of his victims. The fact this person was abused by Dennis Hastert and was receiving payments for his injuries to current day should move the statute to within 20 years. This is an ongoing problem for Mr. Hastert. It is not buried in the past and the injury has carried through to today.

I think the federal prosecutors have it wrong. This is an ongoing issue for Mr. Hastert that started decades ago. Statutes of limitations don't apply. The initial injury occurred decades ago and it has continued over decades of time.

April 8, 2016
By Monica Davey and Mitch Smith

Chicago — Federal prosecutors on Friday (click here) for the first time provided details of sexual abuse allegations against J. Dennis Hastert, the former speaker of the House, asserting that he molested at least four boys, as young as 14, when he worked as a high school wrestling coach decades ago.

Mr. Hastert, 74, is not charged with abuse because of statutes of limitation, prosecutors said, but he was accused last year of illegally structuring bank withdrawals to pay one of his victims in an effort to hide the abuse. He pleaded guilty in October to the banking violation, and suffered a stroke in November while awaiting sentencing, set for April 27.

In a court filing late Friday, making suggestions for a judge who will decide Mr. Hastert’s sentence, the prosecutors described specific, graphic incidents that they say occurred when Mr. Hastert was a popular, championship-winning coach in a small Illinois town in the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s. The “known acts,” the prosecutors said, consisted of “intentional touching of minors’ groin area and genitals or oral sex with a minor.”

Hastert is a pedophile. Why should he be on probation when a former Pennsylvania coach is in prison?

The Republican Party own judges, too?

The allegations (click here) came to light after Hastert was convicted last year of illegally structuring bank withdrawals to pay off one of his victims in an effort to hide the abuse.

In October, Hastert pleaded guilty to the banking violation, and while awaiting sentencing, suffered a stroke in November. His sentencing is scheduled for April 27.

In a court filing late Friday in conjunction with sentencing, the prosecutors described disturbing incidents that they say occurred when Hastert was a popular, championship-winning coach in a small Illinois town in the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s.
The “known acts,” the prosecutors said, consisted of “intentional touching of minors’ groin area and genitals or oral sex with a minor.”

“The actions at the core of this case took place not on the defendant’s national public stage but in his private one-on-one encounters in an empty locker room and a motel room with minors that violated the special trust between those young boys and their coach.”

As previously reported by the Inquisitr, Hastert requested probation earlier this week and said he was “profoundly sorry” for his past conduct....

Sandusky and Penn State were dragged through the public meat grinder while Hastert asks for probation. I don't think so.

The late Coach Paterno suffered physical deterioration when the truth came out about Sandusky. The GOP has quite a list of sex offenders, including pedophiles.

It is a perfect paradigm for the gun lobby.

And it is all based in race. If people believe as I do that eye sight actually dominates any other reason to believe otherwise, the use of minority citizens as a source of fear is a guarantee to it's success.

Wayne LaPierre states the “only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,”... (click here). To begin that is a sexist statement, but, it is the trademark of the NRA. It is understood to be a minority citizen that is the bad guy with a gun.

I believe the people that wrote about the coming Superpredator expected a very different reaction by the country. They perhaps expected a society to begin outreach to the places where the violence was taking place, but, in a country where capitalism is far stronger a force than social programs, the warning turned into a reason for people to arm themselves. The minorities men became feared and pushed to the margins of society. The fear element created it's own population of men with no alternatives.

"The Superpredator Scare" (click here)

I am proud of the judge. He's got what it takes.

April 8, 2016
By Matt Pearce

Judge Arthur L. Hunter reads court documents following hearings at Orleans Parish Criminal District Court in New Orleans May 23, 2007.

Each of the seven defendants has been charged with a serious crime (click here) — including murder, rape, armed robbery or assault with a firearm.
Now a Louisiana judge is threatening to set them free before their cases have a chance to go to trial.
In an effort to pressure state lawmakers to provide more reliable funding for public defenders, Orleans Parish Judge Arthur Hunter Jr. on Friday ordered that all of the men be released on the grounds that the state is violating their right to a competent defense.
The judge immediately stayed his own ruling pending an appeal by the district attorney’s office, meaning the men will remain jailed while attorneys continue to battle each other in court over an issue that has plagued Louisiana for years....

I think there needs to be a rehabilitation option such as social services, AAA or NAA when the ARRESTED is released. These arrested individuals are detainees not defendants.

He reads paper. Nice. I like to read off paper (recycled) and books far more than computer junk.

I am not a liar.

I don't believe how crooked the Republican primaries are. The Republicans hold a primary and candidates win delegates, but, those candidates aren't guaranteed to them unless they find candidates loyal to their vote.

That is about as bad as it comes. Wasn't in 2014 when candidates were paid a million $US to get out of the race? 

There is a very clear reason why Republicans are corrupt and it starts at the grassroots of the party. I can't believe the country puts up with this disaster of a political party.

Donald Trump's candidacy has been very instructive. I betcha there is bribery/payments involved to insure delegates. They are dishonest to the core.

I completely understand why Ross Perot ran as an independent. It is the only moral content to run as a conservative candidate. It probably is also far less expensive.

There is a real reason why the Republicans were devoured by the Tea Party and if they have to run on the extremes, then they'll do it. It is the only way of purging the old, corrupt Republican Party.

2008 gave the Tea Party the platform they have been looking for in a long time. It is why they immediately started their funding with the Kochs and organized before the inauguration of President Obama. It is like Earth when the mammals rose out of what seemed like nowhere. They were there all the time, but, the brutal reality of the dinosaurs ended with the KT extinction.

I watched it happen. 2008 was an opportunity to bring the far less wealthy Republican grassroots to the prominence and replace the corruption. They still haven't succeeded though, the old dinosaur rules still dominate the RNC.

The Republicans need to get rid of the corruption in it's delegation process. The primaries are completely corrupt from what I can tell. There is a reason why Ted Cruz is 'out there.' The Old Republicans are feeling their reliable corrupt process slipping from their grasp. It took a billionaire to take on the process and even he didn't know the extent it was corrupt.

The Trump Campaign is going to have a heck of a book to write when this is over. I hope they have the guts to name names.

It is absolutely outrageously corrupt to have delegates that are free to do as they please after a candidate won them at primaries, caucuses and otherwise. Amazing how stupid the entire mess actually is. It is every man for themselves in achieving name recognition as a delegate. It is a capitalist paradigm.

Politics is suppose be the one place in the USA democracy where corruption doesn't exist and the volunteer is upheld as living up to moral regard. The Republicans haven't got it right and when it comes to November I hope the old school Republicans and their apostles are decimated.