Politics Plus

Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage.  These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that.  Even though there are many more which I can’t include.  As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as “unceasing,” “grudging,” and “vengeful destruction.”

Back in the day, when white supremacy was considered an aberration, not main stream, a fellow called Gordon Winrod took it to lengths considered extreme  then – and now and forever, I hope!  He set up a cult at a compound in Ozark County, Missouri.  The Ozark County Times:

Winrod was pastor of Our Savior’s Church and had been linked to the Christian Identity Movement. For years he published ‘The Winrod Letter’ a newsletter that was chock full of anti-Jewish rhetoric. Winrod claimed law enforcement, government and most business leaders were Jews, and he often referred to the court system as the ‘Jewdiciary.’

Not content with suckers who joined his cult voluntarily, Winrod kidnapped six of his grandchildren from their homes in 1994 and 1995  In May 2000, authorities raided his compound.  The kidnapped grandchildren were then aged between 9 and 16 (doing the math, the youngest can have been no older than four when kidnapped.)  These children locked themselves in a bunker.  However authorities were able to talk them in surrendering.

Winrod was convicted and sentenced to 30 years.  After serving ten of the 30, he was released in 2012.  Apparently, for five years he lived quietly with a daughter and son-in-law.  However, recently the granddaughter who escaped being kidnapped wrote on Facebook  that he is now starting up again, this time on a property in Kulm, North Dakota, which some family members purchased for him.

If I may digress for a minute, it must be really something else to be a member of that family.  With the financial support he is getting, there are clearly some members who are in agreement with him.  But there are also some who emphatically are not.  A family that puts the “dys” into “dysfunctional” – because it can’t be “fun.”  The granddaughter who escaped, Shannon Maresh, appears to have been brought up by sane parents, and took to Facebook to make sure that the people of Kulm, ND are forewarned:

Edgeley and surrounding area friends: I’m not sure if you remember the years of my life where my parents were afraid to leave me alone for fear I would disappear. You may have even been concerned about your own children. This fear even extended to the school. My siblings and cousins disappeared and I quickly became an only child. My family was shattered. The man responsible was Gordon Winrod. He and his followers have one creed: to hate everyone who doesn’t believe as they do and follow Gordon Winrod’s teachings. We, you…us? We are all ‘blood sucking Jews,’ whatever that means. The point is, he and his followers fully believe that if you aren’t one of them it is not wrong to steal, cheat, lie, or kill you. Well, he is back. He was released from jail after being convicted of kidnapping and brainwashing. He is now setting up shop in the old Kulm school. Hide your kids. Hide your wives. And whatever you do, don’t drink the Cool Aid. Seriously though. This man is a predator and his followers are dangerous.

Tisiphone, I think this one is for you.  Take reinforcements.

While we are on the subject of hate groups, I just had to include this, even though there is no action at this point, because the KKK members involved are so awful.

A Florida jury found two prison guards guilty Tuesday of plotting to kill a black man who was a former inmate in retaliation for a fight with another prison guard. The three guards were all members of the KKK.

According to the Tampa Bay Times, the Columbia County jury found David Elliot Moran, 49, and Charles Thomas Newcomb, 45 guilty of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. A third guard, Thomas Jordan Driver, who was also involved, plead[ed] guilty in March.

What makes this story so poetic is that they didn’t want to do the killing themselves, so they approached someone else in the Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan to hire to do it for them.  What are the odds that the man they approached was an undercover FBI informant?  Of course, this project has blown his cover, but he probably feels it was worth it.

“These men had positions of trust, which they violated when they conspired to kill a former inmate, and we worked closely with law enforcement partners to ensure they are held accountable for their crimes,” said Special Agent in Charge James Spero of Homeland Security.

Driver gave a photo of the former inmate to the informant and they discussed whether they should shoot the man or inject him with insulin to make the death look like an accident. The FBI made it look like the homicide was carried out and even took photos of the man who had been taken into protective custody.

When a cellphone photo was shown of the fake murder scene the men said that they were happy and shook the FBI informant’s hand “in gratitude.”

They are facing up to thirty years in prison.  Sic semper omnes.  At that, Megaera, you might just want to sit in when the sentencing hearing is held (you’ll have to follow up; the date is not yet set) and encourage the maximum.

I just can’t get off the subject of hate today, so here is one more story about something involving hate which shouldn’t happen to a dog.

But it did.

“[A] Phoenix, AZ woman was shocked when her neighbors’ dog turned up at her door with a Nazi swastika painted on its head.”

Since the woman in question is of Hispanic heritage, and her adopted children are racially mixed, she naturally reacted with fear.  In fact, she was scared enough that she apparently didn’t want to speak to the media – a cousin did that for her.

Her oldest child knew what the symbol stood for immediately.  The younger two started asking questions, which she found tough to answer.  Recent violence associated with this and related symbols dod not make it any easier.

Police investigated, and were told that the owners painted it “as a joke.”  Well, it isn’t funny.

Carlos Galindo-Elvira — regional director for the Anti-Defamation League in Arizona — told KPNX that he understands the homeowner’s fear.

“Certainly, it brings fear, and there is a cause for concern. This is a symbol used by neo-Nazis, by skinheads and by white supremacists,” Galindo-Viera said. “To find a dog in your neighborhood with that symbol on its head could be scary.”

[The homeowner’s cousin] said the family is still uneasy, “We don’t know where this is headed. It could’ve been a joke to the kids. If it is, where is it going to lead next?”

“It’s not a joke. It’s not funny,” Galindo-Elvira said. “It’s hurtful, and it can become harmful.”

The owners of the dog are youthful, which may lend credence to the idea that they thought it was a joke.  The police said the dog did not appear to be neglected or abused.  I, and several people commenting on the story, are still concerned as to the paint itself being abusive, but there’s not enough evidence to be sure the paint is harmful.  Being such a neutral color, it’s possible it’s not highly chemical.

Alecto, since forever humor has been a blessing to humans, but it has also been used to be hurtful and to mask evil.  Perhaps you can teach these “kids” some ways to use it better.

The Furies and I will be back.

Cross posted to Care2 here.

Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage.  These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that.  Even though there are many more which I can’t include.  As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as “unceasing,” “grudging,” and “vengeful destruction.”

I just have two items this week (I am not immune from getting distracted any more than anyone else), and this first one is almost too small to call in Furies – except that, if you substitute the word “petty” for the word “small,” you’ll see why it gets under the skin.

Cynthia Coleman, who lives in Georgia, is legally blind, and needs a service dog to get around.  She was looking for a new church, so she called around ahead of time to see whether churches she was considering could accomodate her service animal.  She thought she had found one (and I would have no qualms about doxing it, but its name isn’t in the story, and Google was not my friend on this), which told her essentially “Sure” over the phone, and attended the next Sunday.

Because of her visual issues, if she is to see the pastor, she must sit in the very front of the church.  Which she did.  However, after some minutes, she was approached by four or five deacons in what she felt was an aggressive manner.  They insisted she move to the back of the church because her dog, Hook, MIGHT become agitated and disrupt the service (like maybe pee on a state of Jesus?)

Coleman is more gracious about this than I might be.

Although their complaint is fair, Coleman believes they should have handled it with a completely different approach.

“Had they said, ‘We don’t know how this works; can you help us?’ It would have been a different situation, but they treated us as though we were the leper in the church, and I just didn’t appreciate it,” she said.

Knowing how well and thoroughly trained service animals (which I thought everyone knew, or SHOULD know), especially seeing-eye dogs, who were the first in the profession, I don’t think the complaint is fair.  And her suggestion of how they might have handled it should have been done, but on the phone beforehand, in my opinion.

I don’t know for sure if her crime was being blind while black, or just being blind, since I don’t know about the church.  Nevertheless,

The local news reports didn’t include the name of the church and there is technically nothing illegal about forcing a disabled person to sit in a specific spot. Churches are also exempt from anti-discrimination laws. So, it would be entirely legal if they banned her or anyone else from the church for being blind and having a service dog. This is how churches were able to ban LGBT people in the wake of the same-sex marriage debate.

Megaera, perhaps you can find out more.

The other story which got under my skin this week is about something which pretty generally gets under my skin whenever I encounter it – “eminent domain.”

If you have not yet discovered that Richard (“R. J.”) Eskow can REALLY, REALLY WRITE, I earnestly encourage you to read his take on this story from northern Virginia, where, to make a long story short, Dominion Virginia Power is doing its best to use eminent domain to take away the land and homes of a community of people of color who have owned this land in their family since their ancestor, Livinia Blackburn Johnson, purchsed it in 1899 under the 1866 federal law which allowed people of color to own property.

Virginia’s State Corporation Commission greenlighted Dominion in late June to seize land to make room to install multiple 100-foot-high towers which will carry 230,000 volt power lines, which will power a new computer data center, which in turn will serve primarily amazon dot com.

Set in a remote area off Lee Highway, the Carver Road neighborhood became the chosen route by default, after other options were either deemed too costly or torpedoed by opposition from local homeowners associations.

Now, those local homeowners associations which “torpedoed” other routes are in wealthy neighborhoods built largely on land bought by Disney in the 1990’s in order to build a Civil War theme park, which itself got torpedoed by common decency.  I did say this is a long story, and clearly it is also a convoluted story, but it boils down to, after all the other land in the area was taken by the wealthy, there is only this one vulnerable neighborhood left, belonging to the descendants of people who were historically screwed, and who seem to have inherited being screwed right along with the land.

I thought I saw a petition opposing this land grab earlier this week, but I cannot now find it.  If anyone else sees it, please post a link in a comment.  And I am not going to try to out-write Richard Eskow, which I doubt can be done by anyone, but  certainly not by me.  I hope my readers will have the time to check out his full article.  Certainly Tisiphone and Alecto will need to read it all before charging in.

The Furies and I will be back.

Cross posted to Care2 here.

Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage.  These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that.  Even though there are many more which I can’t include.  As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as “unceasing,” “grudging,” and “vengeful destruction.”

Before I start this week, I want to reemphasize that for many of us, maintaining outrage is a way to stay energized.  But there are other ways.  I realize not everyone who reads this is Christian, but I think we can agree both that many activists are Christian, and that Christan activists are a big part of the solution.  Besides that, techniques for hanging on to mental health are often non-religion-specific, and even if they are presented as such, they are almost always adaptable.  Sojourners this week had an article which referenced two older articles on staying strong which don’t require outrage.:  The Activist’s Guide to Contemplation and Sustaining the Daily Grind of Activism.  Might be worth a look.

I almost didn’t bother with this story.  The report of a teenager (or any age, really) receiving law enforcement attention while doing something that would not receive such attention if done by a white has become so daily now.  But the more I read, even as it became seemingly LESS conclusive, the more troubling I found it.

So it starts, from the officer’s viewpoint (and apparently he is an officer, although he looks more to many viewers like a retiree working part time security), with a call to the station that someone is knocking on doors in the neighborhood, and then targeting homes whose doors were knocked on for burglary.

From the teen’s viewpoint, it starts while he and a crew of mostly family were working on a yard from a customer they had solicited door to door.

So the officer asks him what he’s doing.  He says he and his crew are mowing the lawn.  The officer says he’d seen him going door to door.  He says, yes, he was looking for more yard work, and shows the officer his business cards from a stack from which he was handing them out.  The officer asks him for ID.  He says he doesn’t have any on him.  The officer says something to the effect of “When an officer asks you for ID, you show ID.”

Um, no.  There is no legal requirement for anyone to carry ID on his or her person.  If you are driving, a driver’s license, yes, but that may be not on your person but somewhere in the vehicle.  He had shown the officer, as I said, a business card.  A business card needs to pretty well accurate if your customers are going to be able to find you.  You may use a business name, but you still have to be findable.

So the teen asks the officer for identification.  Well, that went over like crepitation in church.  The order of events after that is not quite clear to me (I’m bad with videos), but handcuffs may have been brought out, the teen’s crew defended him (including words to the effect “you can’t do this just because he’s black,” and at one point he left and went home.

Later that day, the officer showed up at the teen’s home (which he apparently had no trouble finding, although he complained the teen had lied to him), and not alone (there were police cruisers up and down the street).  There was also a K-9 four-legged officer, and a taser.  The teen has said that both were used.  The article in Rare has a photo of injuries which could have been caused by a K-9.

The police are defending their officer 100%.  After all, the teen had LIED to him!  About the spelling of his name!  And about his age!  Clutch them pearls!  The thing is, as we have all been saying since Michael Brown or even earlier, none of the offenses they are alleging carries a death sentence, or a taser sentence, or a dog-bite sentence.  And, had this teen been white, it’s hard to believe that the tasering or dog-bite would have occurred.  Megaera, if you learn any new definitive details here, please keep us up to date.  Otherwise, I’d have to go with @JayT584 who tweeted the photo of injuries and added “white cop wants to play ‘slave catcher'”

This next story might be good news were it not too little, too late.

On April 20, 2012, seven heavily armed Johnson County sheriff’s officers conducted an early morning raid on the house of Adlynn and Robert Harte based on vegetative samples found in the couple’s trash. It turns out those samples were tea leaves, and officers found a hydroponic tomato garden instead of marijuana.

The Hartes sued the county for $7 million on unlawful search-and-seizure claims, which a federal judge tossed after finding the officers were entitled to qualified immunity.

On Tuesday, however, a three-judge 10th Circuit panel disagreed – and Circuit Judge Carlos Lucero offered a sarcastic summary in the ruling of the mistakes made by the officers.

“Law-abiding tea drinkers and gardeners beware: One visit to a garden store and some loose tea leaves in your trash may subject you to an early morning, SWAT-style raid, complete with battering ram, bulletproof vests, and assault rifles,” Lucero wrote. “Perhaps the officers will intentionally conduct the terrifying raid while your children are home, and keep the entire family under armed guard for 2 ½ hours while concerned residents of your quiet, family-oriented neighborhood wonder what nefarious crime you have committed. This is neither hyperbole nor metaphor – it is precisely what happened to the Harte family in the case before us on appeal.”

I am tickled to be able to say I know this judge – I knew him when he was a lawyer (That’s him above, with his wife Dottie).  He always did have this kind of sense of humor, but he seems to have refined it putting decisions into writing.  Had I known he would get to the point of being this smart – and this witty – I would have backed him when he was running for Senate.  But maybe Federal Circuit Court judge is even better.  It’s non-political and has lifetime tenure.

But, Tisiphone, you really must do something about the Johnson County Sheriff’s Department.
And stop laughing.  It really is serious.

As sad as this next story is, I think it is not only a good idea, but should be emulated by all fifty states and seven (I think it is) territories, including the District, and I am asking Alecto to work on that.

Arizona Driver’s Manual Now Includes How to Avoid Being Shot by Police

The “Reader’s Digest version” here is that state leaders surveyed a cross section of drivers about what they would do if stopped by a traffic officers, then surveyed Arizona Police Departments about what a driver should do if stopped.  Neither the drivers nor the officers had consistent answers, even among their own group.

Realizing that confusion exists on both sides about appropriate behavior during a traffic stop, [Democratic State Rep. Reginald] Bolding and his colleagues believed it was time to update the state’s driver manual.

The new guidelines are in the article, but there is a lot more about the facts that (1) even following the guidelines perfectly would not prevent all fatalities.  Philando Castile did so, and we all know how that turned out.  And, (2) isn’t it sad that we need to teach motorists to “bend over backwards” in order not to be killed in error by an officer of the law.  To that, I say, it’s good to have consistent guidelines, which, even if they don’t save every life, will put survivors who can demonstrate compliance by their loved one in a better position to claim abuse and press their cases.

While Law Enforcement Officers have been far from perfect, and there are major issues with their hiring and training, as well as with the propensity of Law Enforcement to protect their own even when wrong, nevertheless, as long as we have our insane gun laws, to that a police officer can literally have NO idea whether someone they are approaching is armed or not, it’s not unreasonable for them to be jumpy.

The Furies and I will be back.

Cross posted to Care2 here.

Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage.  These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that.  Even though there are many more which I can’t include.  As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as “unceasing,” “grudging,” and “vengeful destruction.”

This case leaves me a little speechless, so I’ll be doing some quoting.  “A Pennsylvania police officer will be sentenced this week after accepting a plea deal in a child rape case — three years after his father was sentenced for abusing one of the same boys”

That sentence (the verbal one, not the court one) is accurate, as far as it goes, but it gives the impression this – individual – was following in his father’s footsteps over time.  From all of the dates, it appears more likely that the father and sone were sharing the boys.  The abuse started in 2001, when one of the boys was seven.  The perp was 28 or so and at that time a police officer in Dupont, PA.  It doesn’t appear this case which terminated his employment – he started amassing his criminal record (and I assume that terminology means there was at least one convicton for something) in 2008.

This is 2017, and the boy who was seven is noww 23 and able to stand up for himself.

The 44-year-old Turkos, a former Dupont police officer, threatened to hurt their mother and pets or take away their toys if they revealed the abuse.

One of the boys told police that Turkos choked him and used zip ties to restrain him during the abuse, and investigators said the former police officer held a hand over his mouth to muffle his screams.

“I hope you die — you’re a piece of crap,” Turkos told one of the boys, according to police.

(Is that what’s called adding insult to injury?)

This – individual – has been allowed to plea bargain down to two misdemeanor charges, but at least each of those charges can carry up to five years in prison.  (The father of this – individual – was sentenced to between three months and five years in state prison, BTW.)  It appears hat he has been skating with minimumm penalties, deferred penalties, and victim blaming for a good long time.  He strikes me as one of those who needs to be locked up permanently, and if he becomes a human being, to make a new life in prison.  But that is not going to happen with the current charges.  In fact, he is currently out on $50,000 bond.

But enough about the done deal.  This case, ladies and gentlemen, is why there should never be a statute of limitations on rape, any rape, but especially child rape.  The Victorians had something when they referred to it as “a fate worse than death.”  Like murder, it is life changing forever, and it is irreversible.  And if grown women have trouble standing up to our legal system to even establish that a crime has been committed, how is a young child supposed to accomplish that?  Andrew Vachss is amazing, but he is not omnipresent, and there are not enough of him.  While changing rape culture seems overwhelming, changing states of limitations is something which can be worked on.  Alecto, maybe you would do that.

Meanwhile, in Louisiana, one Congressman put up a post (back in June) on Facebook about which there can be NO doubt that it is intended to incite violence.  Evidently, he is still defending it, and so is Facebook.

Here’s what he said:

“The free world… all of Christendom… is at war with Islamic horror. Not one penny of American treasure should be granted to any nation who harbors these heathen animals. Not a single radicalized Islamic suspect should be granted any measure of quarter. Their intended entry to the American homeland should be summarily denied. Every conceivable measure should be engaged to hunt them down. Hunt them, identify them, and kill them. Kill them all. For the sake of all that is good and righteous. Kill them all.”

I am working from an email here, from MoveOn, soliciting signatures on one of their petitions.  What makes this current when it happened in June is that another elected official, this one in norther Michigan, a Village President (which I assume is like a mayor?) has gotten into the action with a post of his own, and has said he owes no one an apology for calling for the killing of “every last Muslim.”  So I don’t have a single source.

But MoveOn has provided links to their sources, and I’ll share those.

Tisiphone, perhaps you might want to explain to these First Amendment idiots that, while the First Amendment doesn’t protect incitements to violence, it certainly does protect verbal responses to incitements to violence which do not incite violence themselves.

And in Florida – do I have to say any more?  Well, yes, I guess I do.  A video surfaced – well.

Apparently five kids aged 14 to 16 were in a park smoking marijuana when a disabled man walked into a retention pool and got out of his depth.  He started struggling, and screaming for help.  Ultimately he fell under the surface of the water, where he died.  None of the teens called 911.  None of the teens rushed to help.  Instead, they laughed and joked.  And uploaded the video.  THEN someone called the police.

Florida doesn’t have a “Good Samaritan” law that would both protect and demand people help when lives are threatened. As a result, it is unlikely that any of the teens will be charged with a crime.

“While the incident depicted on the recording does not give rise to sufficient evidence to support a criminal prosecution under Florida statutes, we can find no moral justification for either the behavior of persons heard on the recording or the deliberate decision not to render aid to Mr. Dunn,” a statement said from the Brevard-Seminole State Attorney’s Office.

Living as I do in a state where recreational marijuana is legal (for adults – but not for 14-16 year olds even here), I find it difficult to believe those brats could not be prosecuted in Florida for possession.  If that is published as a fact, I assume there is some evidence that that is what they were doing.  But I am not a lawyer, nor in law enforcement.

I do find it noteworthy that, when investigators went to the homes of the teens to interview them, they found no smidgen of remorse or grief.  “Only a smirk.”

Megaera, I doubt whether you can get through to them.  But I wish you would try.

The Furies and I will be back.

Cross posted to Care2 here.