May 8, 2021 by Maggie McNeill
The...state may not obstruct those who wish to participate in lawful transactions nor...those who wish to help them. - Justice Hayden
Droit du Seigneur
If a non-cop did this, do you think the court would simply ask his employers to demote him?
To Molest and RapeA New Jersey police chief...[who] offer[ed a cop] a promotion in exchange for sex with his wife and [underage] daughter, should [merely] be demoted, a...judge [declared]...Rudy Beu...was [found] guilty of...[a few status] charges...Beu...has been [on paid vacation]...since Feb. 26, 2020...
Rapist cops often target sex workers for exactly this reason:
The Proper Study (#897)...on May 24, 2020...[sex worker and activist Jay St. James] was stalked and raped by Christopher Drumm, a [typical and representative Eugene, Oregon cop]...after the attack, she and her family were harassed by other [cop gang] members...No charges have been brought against Drumm-but St. James is now facing charges of her own after protesting her assault...three days before the a[ggravat]ed rape...Drumm responded to a domestic violence call at St. James's house...St. James requested a mental health professional, but [of course they sent the pigs]...instead...the [cops refused] to make a report...about the abuse...[but instead reported her to] Child Protective Services...because [she had not magically teleported] her children [away the instant the] ...domestic violence [started]...Drumm and his colleagues [also] sexually harassed her...For the next three days...Drumm continued to show up at her house unannounced...[then] on May 24...[he] returned...and raped her twice...
Another study proves what sex workers have been saying all along:
Skin To Skin (#980)... Our research provides new causal evidence on the impact that criminalizing sex work in a lower‐income country has on the spread of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) by exploiting a natural experiment in which commercial sex work was unexpectedly criminalized in one district in East Java, Indonesia, while it remained noncriminalized in neighboring districts...criminalizing sex work increases STI rates among sex workers...by 27.3 percentage points, or 58 percent, from baseline...the main mechanisms driving the increase...are a decrease in access to condoms, an increase in condom prices, and an increase in sex without condoms...women who...leave sex work because of criminalization have lower earnings than those who leave by choice...children of [these] women...are more likely to work to supplement household income...criminalization [also] results in substantial increases in the probability of STI transmission to the general population...Understanding the impacts of criminalization...in lower‐income countries is arguably even more important than in higher‐income countries...
Wise judge refuses to allow prudish paternalism to trump human needs:
Pyrrhic Victory (#1052)A senior judge has ruled it is lawful for carers [of people with mental disabilities] to help clients find and pay for sex...[but entitled busybodies plan] to appeal the judgment because of its implications for policies on [sending violent thugs to attack people for desiring consensual adult sex]...The young man...known only as C, is fit and healthy but...needs daily help with many parts of his life. He has autism and a genetic disorder - but [the judge]...found that he was happy and well-supported...C knew he would probably never find a girlfriend but he nevertheless wanted to experience sex - and so he had asked his carers if they could find him a sex worker...[but] C's carers w[orried] they would [be]...legally [classified as "pimps"] if they agreed to help ...Justice Hayden ruled that...If the law banned the carers from helping C, that would be discrimination because anyone else without his condition could lawfully pay for sex...
To the state, facial recognition systems' false positives are a feature, not a bug:
In February 2019, Nijeer Parks walked into the Woodbridge...New Jersey...[cop shop after] receiv[ing] a frantic phone call from his grandmother telling him that p[igs]...had come [root]ing for him...Parks had trouble with the law...on drug-related charges, [but]...was now working a steady job as a carpenter...Parks [unwisely walked into the cop shop without a lawyer in an attempt] to clear his name...[but was instead arrested on bogus charges of] aggravated assault, unlawful possession of weapons, using a fake ID, possession of marijuana, shoplifting, leaving the scene of a crime, [and] resisting arrest...he spent 11 days in jail...[before] learn[ing t]hat the evidence against him was...a facial recognition scan of...[the] fake ID...What followed was a year-long legal nightmare for Parks, who faced years in prison and the potential of additional time due to his prior convictions...
Canada is following Australia and the US in trying to destroy the internet:
Canadian Senate Bill S-203...is another woefully misguided proposal aimed at regulating sexual content online. To say the least, this bill fails to understand how the internet functions and would be seriously damaging to online expression and privacy...S-203 would make any person or company criminally liable for any time an underage user engages with sexual content through its service...unless the person or company "implemented a prescribed age-verification method"...[it] would criminalize the acts of independent performers, artists, blogs, social media, message boards, email providers, and any other intermediary or service...that is in some way " for commercial purposes "...The only meaningful defense...would be to verify the legal adult age of every user and then store that data...The sheer amount of technical infrastructure...would be costly and overwhelmingly complicated....[and] introduce many security concerns that weren't previously there...the financial burden would only advantage the largest players online...the bill would likely force many companies to simply eliminate sexual content instead of carrying the huge risk that an underage user will access it...
Puritans never quite admit they want to destroy the internet, but this comes close:
U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty...has unveiled a [scheme] to repeal Section 230...and replace it with something he calls "Section 232." His [Orwellian-named] " 21st Century FREE Speech Act "...would change the nature of online communication as we know it...the...bill...attempts to establish as U.S. federal policy the act of "facilitat[ing] the...blocking...[of] objectionable or inappropriate online material"...[and to] redefine "the major internet communications platforms" as "common carriers"...In quite explicit terms, Hagerty's bill establishes a protection from censorship of "religious and political speech" while at the same time encouraging the censorship of "objectionable and inappropriate online material"...the...bill...would essentially enshrine a peculiarly vague notion of sexual content (i.e. "signifies the form of immorality which has relation to sexual impurity")...an[d] active[ly] call for state and corporate censorship...
