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angelsanarchy · 1 year ago

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Glass Houses: Jack Thurlow x Y/N Series CH 01 -> CH 02

"Having any second thoughts about staying in the house of horrors?" "I'm embracing the horrors that make up my life, remember?"

A year ago Jack was being checked into a mental health facility by his best friend. He didn't resist. He felt like he had lost his mind in the process of losing his parents, his childhood dog, his fiancee and the baby she was carrying, along with things that weren't as important like his home in California and his job for the magazine. He had officially lost everything and the only thing that was keeping him tethered to life was Shanda. She refused to let him off himself so the next best thing was to get him help.

Jack had received a few diagnoses during his facilitation. He learned some hard truths as well. His mother had perished in the car accident with his father, the "neighbor" Duncan was actually not real and the people who lived next door were all much older and retired without children.

Once he finally got around to reaching out to Cleo, she threatened him with a restraining order if he ever contacted her again. He knew he deserved that after letting her suffer from a miscarriage alone.

The doctors felt as though the repressed memories of his sexual abuse as a child would eventually resurface. They claimed it to be PTSD triggered by the sudden deaths of his parents. The mental break was classified as a psychotic disorder which made him roll his eyes.

"Oh just that?" He had criticized the doctors at how blase they had been when he explained he tried to murder the ghost of his mother in the place she had died in the car wreck. He knew he was psychotic, he just wanted to make sure he would be able to get cigarettes when they locked him up and threw away the key. However once he got an established therapist, a plethora of medications and a regularly monitored schedule, they felt he was ready to be released.

"Are you sure this is where you want to be? We can get a place here that's not this house or you can move in with Crystal and I?" Shanda had picked Jack up from the facility and he was determined to gut out the memories of his childhood home and start over. There was nothing left in California for him and currently this was the only place he could go that he knew and didn't have to pay for.

"I'll be fine. I'm sure you've already removed the sharp objects so what's the worse thing I could get into?" Jack joked darkly.

"I'm serious. I can stay with you if you want? Crystal will understand." Shanda pressed. Jack hadn't been alone since the day she dropped him at the facility. The idea of leaving him unsupervised in a place with so many horrible memories didn't sit right with her.

"I'm highly medicated and supervised by a licensed therapist almost daily. Fuck, they even have a care worker that stops by at least twice a week to make sure I'm not just sitting around drinking myself to death so I think your bases are covered, Shan." Jack knew the medications had terrible side effects but he can honestly say killing himself hadn't been on his mind in at least 4 months.

Shanda had visited him in the facility once a month and once he leveled out, his therapist had him write apology letters to all those he had hurt. The only person to reply was his old coworker who had sent a "Sorry about you getting fired after you lost your mind" text. Shanda got a letter but she slapped him in the forehead and said "I love you, you stupid fucker." He didn't expect Cleo to respond but he hoped that she was doing alright.

He had abandon all forms of social media during his rehabilitation and had zero desire to fire up any of those accounts now that he was out. There were moments where he wasn't even sure why they agreed to release him but he wanted to at least try and live as normal as possible.

Shanda pulled up to Jack's childhood home which she had made sure to run threw top to bottom almost as if she was child proofing it for Jack's brain to handle. He joked about the sharp objects but she in fact replace the cutlery with plastic ware just to be sure.

"Having any second thoughts about staying in the house of horrors?" Shanda asked pulling him from his thoughts as he stared at the house.

"I'm embracing the horrors that made up my life, remember?" Jack looked from the house towards his best friend. He reached out and grabbed her shoulder, pulling her into a hug inside of the car and feeling the bone crushing grip she had on him. He knew she was scared. He couldn't lie and say he wasn't either but he had to try. He couldn't live locked up forever.

They got out of the car and walked into the front doors. Things had been cleaned up. The window had been repaired and the floors looked polished.

"Jesus did you stress clean the whole house?" Jack teased tossing his bag on the floor.

"Fuck no, I called a service. I'm not Mary fucking Poppins, bitch." Shanda shook her head. Jack smiled at his friend and gave her a playful shove. He walked through the first floor of the house, into the kitchen and noticed the plastic ware.

"So who do I call when I need a can opener?" Jack tapped the top of some spaghetti-O's with a plastic knife.

"Try Ramen. It's in a package and you can tear it open with your teeth." Shanda had apparently gone grocery shopping too. The pantry as full of snacks and things for him to prepare that require minimal effort.

"Oh so you prefer I die of heart failure from the sodium instead of driving a corkscrew into my neck, I see." Jack tossed the package of Ramen on the counter. Jack's jokes about death or killing himself used to bring humor to their conversations but Shanda found it hard to hear him joke so freely after watching him go through his breakdown.

"Hey, I wouldn't be back here if I didn't think I could handle it. I promise to call you every day. I have my therapist on speed dial and I will talk to one of the neighbors about being my life alert or whatever if that will make you relax." Jack put his hands on Shanda's shoulders and rubbed hoping to ease her anxiety. She threw her arms around him to hug him once again. This time he hugged back with the same force.

"I love you, you stupid bitch. Don't you ever forget it." She said into is hair.

"I love you too, you whore." She had saved his life. It was time he started making something of it again so it would be worth it.

#Jack Thurlow #Jack x Y/N #One Shot Series #Culkin Cult #Rory Culkin #Jack Goes Home #Glass Houses #Y/n not mentioned in this chapter but this is just an intro for story layout #Y/n will appear in the third update #1/38

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coochiequeens · 11 months ago

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A male in office was going to let a child rapist free but a woman defeated him in last Novembers election and is now keeping him locked up. This is why every vote counts means more than just the presidential election.

By Genevieve Gluck January 31, 2024

A serial child rapist who had previously secured a release from prison after identifying as transgender has finally been deemed a “sexually violent predator” under Iowa state law. A judge has determined that Joseph Matthew Smith, who now uses the name Josie Maria Dunham or Josie Smith, should be confined in a secure facility indefinitely, quashing a previous ruling that claimed Smith was no longer a sexual risk due to being on feminizing hormones.

Newly-elected Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird is behind the push to keep Smith in custody, having recently defeated the nation’s longest-tenured attorney general, Tom Miller, in a November election.

In 2020, Miller endorsed the move that saw Smith released from custody. Bird then condemned his judgement in the matter, running ads during her campaign slamming Miller as sympathetic to the sexual predator.

A petition filed in December in Buena Vista County District Court requested a civil trial in order to determine whether Smith should be re-classified as a sexually violent predator with a high chance of re-offending.

“[Smith]’s mental abnormality makes him more likely than not to engage in predatory acts constituting sexually violent offenses if not confined in a secure facility,” the petition reads. “[Smith] should be committed to the custody of the Department of Human Services to be held in a secure facility for control, care, and treatment until such time as his mental abnormality has so changed that he is safe to be at large in the community.”

In December 2015, Smith was convicted in Buena Vista County of lascivious acts with a child. At the time, Assistant Attorney General Andrew Schoonhoven determined that Smith suffers from “at least one mental abnormality, specifically the mental abnormality of pedophilic disorder,” which predisposes Smith to “commit sexually violent offenses to a degree constituting a menace to the health and safety of others.”

A pre-sentence psychological report was prepared by the State’s expert, Dr. Jeffrey Davis, a psychologist from the University of California.

Davis recommended that Smith be confined at the Cherokee Civil Commitment Unit for Sex Offenders (CCUSO) for an indefinite period based on what he determined to be a high likelihood of sexual re-offending. The report noted that Smith had told a state forensic psychologist he had molested as many as 15 children under the age of 13, the youngest being a 1-year-old baby. He added that he believed Smith was more likely to commit a sexual assault than 92% of male sex offenders.

There has not been even one recorded case of a female patient having been committed to the CCUSO in the unit’s 25-year history, reports the Cherokee Chronicle Times. But there have been at least three trans-identified males in the civil commitment unit. One of those patients, a man named Christian Schiebel who uses the feminine name Tina Keller, told the Storm Lake Times-Pilot he was advised by his attorney that a transgender identity would increase his chances of release.

Smith made international headlines in 2020 after being released from prison just 4 years into an indefinite prison sentence. He had been convicted of sexually assaulting an 11-year-old resident at Midwest Christian Services (MCS), a treatment facility for juveniles following another conviction for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old when he was a teenager.

Despite his record of sexual offending, on January 9, 2020, the Iowa Attorney General’s office filed a motion to dismiss a petition requesting that the serial pedophile be considered a sexually violent predator. The Iowa Attorney General office’s defended the decision by citing Smith’s reduced testosterone levels as a result of hormone treatments. Attorney general spokesman Lynn Hicks stated that “an offender’s hormone levels are an important part of substantiating an offender’s likelihood of recidivism.”

Officials claimed Smith was at a lower risk of re-offending due to an altered testosterone level, and that he “no longer had the sex drive of a man.”

Smith had been receiving hormones related to his self-declared gender identity while being held at Newton Correctional Facility, where, in January 2016, he began serving an indefinite sentence after being convicted of molesting a child. In October 2017, he first expressed a desire to “get started on transgender classification” and started using female pronouns.

Hicks also claimed that an expert had determined that Smith was not at a risk of re-offending due to his gender identity. An Iowa district court judge therefore granted the motion to dismiss “in the interests of justice.”

In January of 2020, Smith was released on parole; but by October of 2021, he had already violated the terms of his strict conditions by using an unauthorized electronic device and seeking out sex. Despite the violation, Smith was not remanded to custody, and was instead allowed to continue to live in the small city of Sloan, Iowa.

In January 2022, Christine Louis, administrative law judge for Iowa Correctional Services, sentenced Smith to two more years in prison, as he had again violated the terms of his parole. During an inspection in January, Smith’s parole officer discovered child pornography on his phone which depicted boys and girls aged between five and eight years old. Smith requested leniency, but was ultimately denied.

#usa #Iowa #Josie Maria Dunham or Josie Smith is Joseph Matthew Smith #Attorney General Brenna Bird

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humanrightsupdates · 5 months ago

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US Should End Solitary Confinement of Immigrants

Practice Harms Physical and Mental Health, Can Be Fatal

Earlier this month, people being detained at California Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities began a labor and hunger strike to protest their conditions, including against the use of solitary confinement. Recent research documented the deep physical and psychological toll wrought by the use of solitary confinement in United States immigration detention centers.

Across the US, carceral facilities lock up over 122,000 people daily in solitary confinement for 22 or more hours a day. In the last five years, ICE alone has locked people in solitary confinement over 14,000 times, often for months on end.

Human Rights Watch has condemned solitary confinement practices in the US, including in immigration detention centers.

From 2018 to 2023, the average period for which ICE detention facilities imposed solitary confinement was 27 days. In hundreds of cases, solitary confinement lasted at least 90 days, and in 42 cases lasted over a year. This violates international standards barring prolonged or indefinite solitary confinement, which amounts to prohibited torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Juan Méndez has specifically concluded that solitary confinement beyond 15 days constitutes a “form of torture.” The use of solitary confinement for any duration on children and people with psychosocial disabilities also meets these criteria.

#human rights #human rights watch #ice #solitary confinement

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bettsfic · 5 months ago

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ooh, that sick thing reblog is making me remember it! i'm surprised there isn't a lot in the sick thing tag like there is your other fics... i remember, vaguely, you saying you weren't the proudest of it (which is totally fine, as writers, we've all been there. tho personally i loved sick thing!) do you mind sharing what was going through your head / your process writing that fic?

okay before i get into that i want to share this anecdote about Marilyn that is VERY related to sick thing.

context: i'm reading an 800 page biography of Marilyn Monroe as research for a story i'm working on, not *about* Marilyn, but. well, it's complicated.

anyway, Joe DiMaggio (the baseball player) was Marilyn's second husband, and he was an asshole to her because his star was falling as hers was rising so there was a lot of resentment. they divorced and she went on to marry (and then divorce) Arthur Miller.

shortly after she divorced Arthur Miller, she was involuntarily institutionalized by her psychiatrist. at this point in her life, everyone she knew had a personal stake in her fame and so she was just constantly manipulated and mistreated. her psychotherapist in particular, Ralph Greenson, destroyed all of her healthy personal relationships and was controlling every aspect of her life. this is about 500 pages into the book. it has taken me a while to get to this point, because it is exhausting reading 500 pages of an innocent person being taken advantage of and horribly mistreated.

allow me to set the scene: Marilyn Monroe is institutionalized in a godawful facility and completely helpless. no one will let her use a phone or have any contact with the outside world. to get somebody's attention she breaks a window with a chair, an idea she got from one of her first roles. a patient eventually sneaks her into an area with a phone. Marilyn calls everyone she knows but no one picks up.

she has no choice but to call ex-husband Joe DiMaggio, whom she hasn't spoken with since the divorce 6 years ago.

Joe immediately calls her psychiatrist and says that if Marilyn isn't discharged within a day he'll "take the hospital apart brick by brick."

and so Marilyn was then discharged and conceded to treatment at a different hospital, which she only entered on the condition that Joe could visit her every day. and he did.

even though they'd divorced on bad terms, he was basically destroyed by their breakup and spent their years apart working on himself and getting therapy so he could eventually ask for her back.

for years Marilyn endured emotional (and physical) abuse by Greenson. i can't emphasize enough that she was just his puppet. if he told her to stop seeing someone, she did. he planted a housekeeper to spy on her. but Marilyn's breaking point, the line Greenson finally crossed, was that he told her to stop seeing Joe. she finally had someone in her life with her best interests at heart, who had no personal stake in her fame or money (and who was in fact one of the few people in the world who had *more* fame and money than she did), and they fell in love again.

this is basically a full-blown Mrs. Kennedy & Me moment where i'm reading an actual real story of the tropes i write in fiction and going a little insane about it.

okay back to the ask!

for sick thing, i was working through a lot of personal fears about my own mental health, having finally gotten off a really bad med that turned me into a, i don't know, like a vacuum of a person. just empty. i wrote it in 8 very intense days, with a 5 bullet point outline scrawled on a piece of scrap paper and Hotel California on repeat.

my main criticism of it is that i resorted to very Stranger Things-y writing moves that feel cheap to me. flat antagonists with no nuance, love interests who don't have their own individual conflict or growth, over the top high school shenanigans like in a 90s teen movie, a glaringly obvious authorial self-insert with a personally cringeworthy level of wish fulfillment. i like to think that in most of the things i write, i'm pretty hard to find? or maybe not, but sick thing is just my id on a platter. was, rather. a lot has changed since then.

sick thing i think was the final work of a long held aesthetic, and dirtbag was the beginning of the era i'm in now, writing stuff far less driven by personal crises and explorations of self. i can't quite put my finger on what exactly is different other than the fact that i write much more slowly now and put more thought into my stories (at the cost of heart, potentially), and i also feel far less compelled to be read. it's been so long since anyone's read new work of mine that posting my bikeriders fic has been a real trip.

#honestly can't remember my tag for this fic #spst #sick thing #norma jeane

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unwelcome-ozian · 3 months ago

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do you know anything of the Evolve treatment facilities in California? I'll take any info available. if you need a specific location it was the Walnut Creek facility.

The Walnut Creek facility is fairly new. It opened in 2020, the same year Galen Partners acquired them.

Evolve is considered part of the "Troubled teen industry" (TTI). The “troubled teen industry” is an industry providing behavioral modification treatment to youths that promises to keep children safe, but by design is a breeding grounds for institutionalized child abuse through legal loopholes. By analysing the legal shortcomings and alleged abuses, Yasmin Younis stresses the importance of heavy regulation in order to provide the necessary treatment some of these children need.

LINK

I didn't find anything specific for the Walnut Creek location of Evolve. But a number of other locations have had issues. Below are some of the experiences of people with Evolve. "Never send your kids here. Humiliating strip searches daily. They make minors go completely naked, turn around, squat and cough, jump up and down. 3-4 minute showers. The staff do not care about you they want money. Miranda called me the b word and I was just 15. Taylor does not care. They force medication on you illegally without parental consent. I came out of this horrible abusive environment worse than I came in. They just make you do packets you don't heal you are brainwashed."

"The worst health care provider experience in the US. Amateurish staff, along with capricious discharge of patient under the lip service of 'we care', along with ghosting legal guardians by not providing medical report or prescription refills. The worst form of negligence by doctors in the facility and admins who are focused on seeing patients as liability and obfuscating records to remove any exposure to liability arising from careless and degraded operating processes."

"this place sucks. I wwntvthere in the fall last year and I cant even start. Neglect, sexual assault/harassment. They don't respect pronouns and name changes, they ignore your needs. If you ask them for something simple they deny it, no physical contact. I had got sexually harassed there and i reported it to head taylor culberston and soy did the 4 others in residential, but Taylor ignores it and beloved and protected the kid SA people. Theybdon't know anything about mental health. When you actually show the real sides of mental health they get angry. If you get leveled down you get a 3-5 minute shower. it is unfair, and horrible. Choose any other program but this. They do NOT care about your child. They only care about the money. All you do is sit in therapy groups, not being able to even talk about your struggles, and they make you write down stupid ass dbt. Taylor does not know anything about what she is doing. Staff was not understanding. I hate this place, it is horrible"

Former staff:"The clients were treated like prisoners versus actual teens pursuing mental health wellness. Protocols put in place were excessive and dehumanizing. Extremely limited on the amount of skills they can choose from, if they don’t feel better, they’re considered to be “attention seeking”. Some staff degraded clients behind closed doors and it was an awful sight. Passive aggressive communication is common. You would think counselors and those alike would be more compassionate and empathetic. Management is the same way. Lastly, do not expect to get breaks at all. Kids need to be supervised at all times"

#answers to questions #troubled teen industry #TTI #Evolve treatment facilities

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beardedmrbean · 3 months ago

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BALTIMORE (AP) — A Maryland woman who’s held white supremacist views for decades and recently conspired with a neo-Nazi leader to plan an attack on Baltimore’s power grid was sentenced Wednesday to 18 years in prison for her role in the plot.

The high-profile case ultimately came to focus on the defendant’s past trauma and her mental state as she struggled with addiction and embraced increasingly radical, racist views. Sarah Beth Clendaniel, 36, pleaded guilty to planning the attack in May.

Clendaniel was working with Brandon Russell, who co-founded a small, Florida-based neo-Nazi group, to plan a series of “sniper attacks” on Maryland electrical substations that could have caused significant damage to the regional power grid. It was meant to create chaos in the majority-Black city, according to federal prosecutors.

“It’s true, your honor, I do still hold National Socialist beliefs,” Clendaniel told the judge during her sentencing hearing Wednesday in Baltimore federal court, saying she adopted the ideology at age 13. She pledged to never again act on those beliefs.

“I know there’s a line there that I can’t cross,” she said.

U.S. District Judge James Bredar said he wanted to believe that Clendaniel wouldn’t have actually carried out the plot, which he called “extreme in every respect.”

“I think that’s a huge question, but who can take that risk?” he said, before sentencing her to 18 years in federal prison — the sentence prosecutors had recommended — and lifetime supervision upon release.

In explaining his decision, Bredar noted new information from prosecutors that Clendaniel had recently been placing jail calls to a white supremacist leader in California. Those calls show Clendaniel was unrepentant and undeterred, prosecutors said.

“This is something that is very much a part of her,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathleen O’Connell Gavin said during the hearing.

Clendaniel was charged last year along with Russell, a Florida resident who co-founded the group Atomwaffen Division. His case hasn’t gone to trial yet. Russell previously served five years in prison after pleading guilty to explosives charges that stemmed from a deadly shooting at an apartment that he shared with Atomwaffen’s other founder.

Clendaniel and Russell began exchanging letters around 2018 while they were incarcerated in different facilities. They developed a romantic relationship that continued after they were released from prison, court records show.

Clendaniel pleaded guilty in May to two counts: conspiracy to damage electrical facilities and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Much of Clendaniel’s sentencing hearing focused on how her life may have been shaped by the severe domestic abuse and neglect she endured as a child and teenager. She spent some of her childhood living on the streets, and her struggles with addiction started at an early age, according to court testimony.

Those experiences made her acutely vulnerable to the influence of people like Russell and other white supremacist leaders, her public defender Sedira Banan argued. But Clendaniel had spent decades harboring racist views without ever acting on them.

“It’s a lot of talk,” Banan said, asking the court to impose a 10-year sentence. “That’s what it amounts to.”

In a letter to the court before sentencing, Clendaniel apologized for her actions and said she had been struggling with severe mental and physical health problems at the time, including a diagnosis of kidney failure. Believing her days were numbered, Clendaniel said she was in “a very dark place.” She said she was struggling to get her life on track and provide for her children after coming home from prison.

“I felt like I needed to do something to make up for my shameful life of drugs, crime, addiction, and neglect of my children by going to prison,” she wrote. “My primary motivation for my plans … was because I wanted to help people to understand how fragile this modern world is.”

Clendaniel grew up in rural Cecil County, an overwhelmingly white, conservative enclave in the northeast corner of Maryland bordering both Delaware and Pennsylvania. Her criminal history includes a series of robberies she committed while using drugs, often targeting convenience stores in her hometown.

She was serving a sentence for a 2016 robbery when she began corresponding with Russell.

After being released from prison in 2020, she fell back into familiar patterns of addiction and embraced increasingly radical views, court records show. She spent hours on the phone with a confidential informant she met through Russell, discussing how she would obtain a gun and shoot at five electrical substations situated in a ring around Baltimore, according to prosecutors. She was arrested and charged in the power grid plot in February 2023.

#nunyas news

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lilithism1848 · 1 year ago

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Atrocities US committed against LATINO PEOPLE

On June 14th, 2019, an off-duty cop, Salvador Sanchez, in Corona, CA, shot and killed a mentally ill man, Kenneth French,, as well as shooting his family 8 times, while his family was with shopping for fathers day at a Costco. “I begged and told him not to shoot,” his father Russell French said. “I said we have no guns and my son is sick. He still shot.” Sanchez then fired at least eight rounds, striking all three family members. A man inside Costco stood and prayed over Russell French as he lied on the ground bleeding, he said. Kenneth French was shot twice in his back, Galipo said. There were also two gunshot wounds in his armpit and shoulder area. After the shooting, Corona Police said Sanchez was assaulted “without provocation” before Sanchez opened fire. He was placed on administrative leave days after the shooting, into which the LAPD is conducting an internal investigation.

On Feb 7th, 2019, a US border patrol officer shot and killed 21 for old Mendivil Perez, an American citizen, in Nogales, AZ. More than six months later, CBP won’t name the officer who fired his gun, or explain why he fired, or acknowledge the killing.

In early June, 2019, several reports of abuse surfaced about the US’s migrant prison camps, run by US customs and Border Patrol. One such facility, named “The Dog Pound”, by border patrol agents, had no running water, no tarp or safety from the elements. A group of prisoners were held in a single cell for 30 days without shower or clothes changes, in 100 degree temperatures. There is severe overcrowding in the El Paso camp, with as many as 76 migrants packed into a tiny cell designed for a maximum of 12 people. A number of children have died while being held, including one baby born in an overcrowded cell. The mother was never taken to a hospital. 4 toddlers in a Texas facility were so ill and neglected, that a lawyer intervened to force the government to hospitalize them. Children are often taken from mothers, due to the horrible conditions in the camps. In several Rio Grande Valley facilities, migrants were not provided soap, toothbrushes, and were sleep-deprived. Health and Human Service says it is past capacity with over 13,000 kids in its care at the moment. A mole exposed a Facebook group containing 9500 border patrol agents, with incredibly racist and sexist rhetoric, including threats against US rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who was planning a visit to the camps.

On January 29th, 2019, Tempe Arizona police shot and killed a 14 year old, Antonio Arce. He was shot in the back between his shoulder blades while running away. Police at first delayed, then released a small section of the bodycam footage, intentionally cut right before seeing the body, 3 days after the shooting. After backlash over the shortened video, they held a private showing to select reporters, barring any cameras or recording devices, seemingly showing Arce with the orange-tipped airsoft gun found near his body. They’ve refused to release that video to the public, leading many to believe it to be doctored, with police planting an airsoft gun on him after the killing as a justification. The original video has no such airsoft gun. The officer who murdered him is currently on administrative leave.

On Nov 25, 2018, US customs and border agents fired tear gas at hundreds of Central American migrants on the US border. “We ran, but when you run, the gas asphyxiates you more,” Honduran migrant Ana Zuniga, 23, told the Associated Press while cradling daughter Valery, 3, in her arms. The use of tear gas is banned in warfare, while its use for riot control is internationally accepted. Protesters and amnesty seekers would have more rights and protections if they simply declared war on the US government.

In May 2018, at a California press conference regarding Sanctuary cities, Trump, referring to Mexican immigrants stated: “These aren’t people. These are animals”.

Starting in April 2018, the Trump administration began a policy of separating families who attempt to cross the border. Separated children have been housed in a number of newly constructed tent facilities, such as one in Tornillo, TX. Another facility in Fort Sill, Oklahoma, the same military prison that held Japanese and Apache civilians, will hold south american migrants. Andrea Pitzer, the author of “One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps” writes, “While writing a book on camp history, I defined concentration camps as the mass detention of civilians without trial, usually on the basis of race, religion, national origin, citizenship, or political party, rather than anything a given individual has done. By this definition, the new child camp established in Tornillo, Texas, is a concentration camp.” Recently it has been found that the Trump administration has been drugging children without consent. Children as young as 14 were abused at a Stanton VA ICE facility. “Whenever they used to restrain me and put me in the chair, they would handcuff me,” said a Honduran immigrant who was sent to the facility when he was 15 years old. “Strapped me down all the way, from your feet all the way to your chest, you couldn’t really move. … They have total control over you. They also put a bag over your head. It has little holes; you can see through it. But you feel suffocated with the bag on.”

Throughout 2018, I.C.E. started another wave of deportations, breaking up hundreds of families, and mandated the legal separation incoming parents from their children (presumably to deter future asylum-seekers). ICE arrested 114 people in Sandusky OH. Trump and Jeff Sessions have ramped up a trend of forcible deportations started by Clinton and Obama. Between 2016 and 2017, apprehensions of undocumented immigrants jumped by a third. In 2017, President Trump deported more than double the number of noncriminals than Obama had the previous year. Those deported include a 10-year-old girl with cerebral palsy in San Antonio; a grandmother described as the “backbone” of a Navy veteran’s family; a father of two in Detroit who had lived in the U.S. since he was 10 years old. A major consequence of this new policy has been an explosion of fear among immigrant communities “When everyone’s a target, no one is safe,” says Luis Zayas, dean of the Steve Hicks School of Social Work at the University of Texas at Austin. He cites instances of ICE agents arresting people who had just filed paperwork for a green card, left church or dropped off their kids at school. “The arrests feel arbitrary, and that’s different,” he says. “The fear is worse now than I’ve ever seen it.”

In July 2017, police shot Ismael Lopez, a Mississippi car mechanic, in the back of the head at his own home, killing him. While the police say that he was holding a weapon, his guns were nowhere near his dead body, and police also killed his dog, and bullet holes were found from police shooting through the front door. No officer has been charged.

The United States Department of Homeland Security rescinded DACA, or Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals, a program which protects ~ 800,000 minors from being deported, on June 16, 2017, while continuing to review the existence of the DACA program as a whole. The DACA policy was rescinded by the Trump administration on September 5, 2017, but full implementation of the rescission was delayed six months to give Congress time to decide how to deal with the population that was previously eligible under the policy.

Beginning in May 2017, ICE began another wave of deportation targeting Mexicans. Hugo Mejia and a coworker, Rodrigo Nuñez, were imprisoned by ICE officials, despite living in the US for 17 years, and having clean records.

Beginning in 1994, sheriff Joe Arpaio opened up a “tent city”, outside of phoenix, a facility which he called, his own “personal concentration camp”, used to house prisoners, in terrible conditions. In 2011, inmates complained that fans near their beds were not working, and that their shoes were melting from the heat. During the summer of 2003, when outside temperatures exceeded 110 °F (43 °C), Arpaio said to complaining inmates, “It’s 120 degrees in Iraq and the soldiers are living in tents and they didn’t commit any crimes, so shut your mouths!”. Arpaio reinstuted chain gangs (for female prisoners as well), forcing people to work 7 hours a day, 7 days a week. Arpaio also entrapped 18-year-old James Saville into an assassination attempt against himself. Saville’s attorneys eventually discovered that MCSO detectives had bought the bomb parts themselves, then convinced Saville to build it even though he was not predisposed to commit such a crime. On July 9, 2003, a Maricopa County Superior Court jury acquitted Saville, finding that the bomb plot was an elaborate publicity stunt to boost Arpaio’s reelection bid. On April 4th, 2017, newly elected Phoenix sheriff Paul Penzone finally closed it down due to public pressure, after 23 years of operation. Trump pardoned sherriff Arpaio in August 2017, after holding a rally in Phoenix AZ in which police tear-gassed protesters.

On March 25th-27th, 2017, ICE agents arrested 84 immigrants in Oregon and Washington. Many arrested had no criminal background. Oregon Governor Katie Brown complied with ICE, but received vitriolic responses when she tweeted in support of immigrant families.

On March 27th, 2017, ICE agents in Chicago broke into the home of Felix Torres, and shot him while he and his family slept in their home. After speaking with Torres’ daughter, the People’s Response Team added that “no members of the family are undocumented, and the family has lived in the home for at least 30 years.”Carmen Torres said, “They didn’t say anything. They just came in and pointed pistols in our faces and dragged us out,” DNA Info reported. “It’s a lie when they say he was holding a gun. He doesn’t even own a gun,” she said. “They shot my dad. They shot him, and I don’t know why.” He is in critical condition.

In early 2017, ICE began a campaign of arrests and deportation of undocumented immigrants. 700 People have been arrested so far.

In the present day, ICE (U.S._Immigration_and_Customs_Enforcement), the police tasked with immigration enforcement, operates over 500 prison camps, holding over 34,000 undocumented people deemed “aliens”, 20,000 of which have no criminal convictions, in the US system of immigration detention. The camps include forced labor (often with contracts from private companies), poor conditions, lack of rights (since the undocumented aren’t considered citizens), and forced deportations, often splitting up families. Detainees are often held for a year without trial, with antiquated court procedures pushing back court dates for months, encouraging many to accept immediate deportation in the hopes of being able to return faster than the court can reach a decision, but forfeiting legal status, in a cruel system of coercion. After the creation of DHS and ICE, the budget for immigration enforcement doubled from $6.2 billion in 2002 to $12.5 billion in 2006 under Obama.

In 1996, in response to increased immigration from countries such as El Salvador and Guatemala ravaged by US imperialism and authoritarian dictatorships, the US passed the Anti-Terrorism and effective Death Penalty Act, allowing deportation of any immigrant ever convicted of a crime, no matter how long ago or how serious. Lawful permanent residents who had married Americans and now had children were not exempt. The New York Times reported in July that “hundreds of long-term legal residents have been arrested since the law passed.”

By 1984, during the Reagan-era of social services and welfare cutbacks, 42% of all Latino children and one-fourth of the families lived below the poverty line.

In 1983, a mostly latino workforce lead the 3-year long Arizona Copper Mine Strike of 1983, in which the police, national guard, and Arizona governor assisted in one of the largest strikebreaking incidents of the 1980s, ending with the Phelps Dodge Corporation replacing most of the workers and decertifying the unions. Miners were subject to undercover surveillance by the Arizona Criminal Intelligence Systems Agency, to identify strikers engaged in violence, with the governor sending 325 National Guard soldiers to Morenci, and increasing the number of state policemen there to 425. Meanwhile, the local government passed injunctions limiting both picketing and demonstrations at the mine. The Arizona copper mine strike would later become a symbol of defeat for American unions.

From 1929 - 1954, the US implemented Mexican Repatriation, and Operation Wetback, a US law enforcement initiative under Eisenhower to curb Mexican immigration, in which over 1 Million Mexicans were arrested. After implementation, Operation Wetback gave rise to arrests and deportations by the U.S. Border Patrol that were civil rights violations, which resulted in several hundred United States citizens being illegally deported without being given a chance to prove their citizenship. From 1929 - 1939, ~400k-2 Million people were deported, 40-60% of them lawful citizens, and many of them children. About 1.1 Million people were deported in 1954 alone. A total of 750 immigration and border patrol officers and investigators; 300 jeeps, cars, and buses; and seven airplanes were allocated for the operation. Teams were focused on quick processing, as planes were able to coordinate with ground efforts and quickly deport people into Mexico. While the operation included the cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago, its main targets were border areas in Texas and California. Overall, there were 1,078,168 apprehensions made in the first year of Operation Wetback, with 170,000 being rounded up from May to July 1954. In addition, many illegal immigrants fled to Mexico fearing arrest; over half a million from Texas alone.

In 1951, the Los Angeles Police Department severely beat up 5 Latino and 2 white men, in an event called Bloody Christmas, leaving them with broken bones and ruptured organs, and covered it up. After pressure from the Mexican-American community, the LAPD opened up an internal inquiry, resulting in eight police officers being indicted for the assaults, 54 being transferred, and 39 being suspended.

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killed-by-choice · 6 months ago

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“Sheila Roe” (USA 1970—1971)

“Sheila” underwent a legal abortion sometime between 1970 and June 15, 1971. The abortion was done at a facility participating in the Joint Program for the Study of Abortion or JPSA.

Sheila already had a history of schizophrenia before undergoing a saline abortion in the late second trimester. After she expelled her dead child and the placenta, she had to be transferred to a mental institution. She was there for a month before discharging herself against medical advice. She then committed suicide.

Despite well-established links between abortion and deteriorating mental health, JPSA tried to downplay the causality between Sheila’s death and her abortion. However, they still included her in their severely underestimated count of maternal deaths from legal abortion.

Sheila’s legal abortion took place at one of 64 JPSA—participating abortion facilities in thirteen locations: Arizona, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Kansas, Washington, Maryland, Massachusetts, Washington D.C, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania or Oregon. Three of the four (!) abortion deaths counted in the study match confirmed cases of abortion fatalities documented in other studies, but in every case except one, the authors downplayed and/or denied the link between abortion and the subsequent maternal deaths.

The study noted that the abortion was able to happen because states had recently weakened their abortion restrictions. Ironically, multiple states had legalized abortion under vague “mental health” qualifications (despite the fact that abortion is not a recognized cure or treatment for any psychiatric disorder) so loosely defined that allowed it essentially on demand even for those with no mental health conditions whatsoever. These “mental health” exemptions did nothing to prevent Sheila from the trauma of the abortion itself, which apparently aggravated her pre-existing mental health problems.

The mental health excuse for legalizing abortion becomes even more baffling when you consider that live birth is consistently associated with better mental health outcomes than abortion. STAKES (statistical analysis unit of Finland's National Research and Development Center for Welfare and Health) found that after abortion, women were seven times more likely to take their own lives than those who gave birth. Many other studies have also shown the link between abortion and worse mental health outcomes compared to patients who gave birth or even miscarried. There’s also the issue of whether or not some patients who actually did have psychiatric disorders would have truly been able to consent to the abortions they underwent.

“Stacy Roe,” “Sylvie Roe,” Sandra Kaiser and Jade Rees also committed suicide after their pre-existing mental health problems were exacerbated by abortion. Others who killed themselves after undergoing abortions include Arlin Dela Cruz, Stacy Zallie, “Haley Mason,” Ashley Barnett, Emma Beck, Carol Cunningham, Charlotte Dawson, Ashli Blake, Laura Grunas and Jiah Khan.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/2133870

(If you or a loved one are considering suicide, please know that there is hope. Here is a link to a list of resources and help lines ready to talk to you. You are valued and people care.)

#tw su1cide #tw sui #tw abortion #pro life #unsafe yet legal #tw ab*rtion #tw murder #abortion debate #abortion #death from legal abortion #pre roe legal #pregnant people deserve better #tw death #tw sui ideation

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theconstitutionisgayculture · 2 years ago

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The state of California is even more forsaken than we originally thought. Not only is it overrun with crime, extreme weather events, and trans surgeries for minors. But now, a proposed bill could make it legal for therapists to legally kidnap children over 12. Without a trial. Or evidence.

The proposed bill was introduced by Democratic Assembly Member Wendy Carrillo and would allow a mental health professional to place a child as young as 12 in a residential shelter facility without parental knowledge or consent and without any prior allegations of incest or child abuse. Under current law, children aged 12 and up can consent to receive mental health treatment and counseling, but cannot consent to being placed in a residential shelter facility without being deemed a risk to themselves or others, or in cases of incest or child abuse.

The entire west coast needs to fall into the ocean.

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drugrehabscentersblog · 9 months ago

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Residential Mental Health Facilities California

Seeking recovery from addiction or mental health issues in California? Discover comprehensive support at Residential Mental Health Facilities California. From residential programs to outpatient rehab, find tailored solutions for holistic healing. Visit their website for more information. Website Residential Mental Health Facilities California

#Residential Mental Health Facilities California

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elipheleh · 1 year ago

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The White Night Riots

Continuing my series of learning about things referenced in the book, I'm looking at things Alex references when he talks about engaging with queer history. These are all tagged #a series of learning about things that are referenced in the book, if you want to block the tag.

This post got quite long, so the detailed content about the White Night Riots specifically is under the read more.

I'd like to preface this one with a content warning. I will talk about the assassination of a gay politician, and the grief that surrounds that. There is also talk of the two men being shot, and homophobic slurs. The former will be clearly marked, but please take care.

Rioters outside San Francisco City Hall on the night of May 21, 1979

On the 21st of May, 1979, Dan White was convicted of the assassination of Harvey Milk and George Moscone. He received the lightest possible charge, enraging the city's gay community who then marched through the Castro, and violence erupted at City Hall. In retaliation, the police raided a gay bar in the heart of the Castro, Elephant Walk, shouting homophobic slurs and attacking queer people on the street. The night's events were coined the "White Night Riots", after Dan White.

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To add some context about the lead up to the riots, I need to go back in time a bit, and talk about Harvey Milk.

Milk was the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California. In 1977 he became a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. He moved to San Francisco in 1972, opening up a camera store in the heart of the Castro - a popular place for queer folk to live and hang out. He ran for city supervisor in 1973 and 1975, closely missing out each time.

New mayor, George Moscone, appointed Milk to the Board of Permit Appeals in 1976, making Milk the first openly gay city commissioner in the US. After the supervisor elections in San Francisco were reorganised to allow districts to elect their own choice of supervisor, Milk ran again for this position. In November 1977, Milk won by 30% against 16 other candidates. He made national headlines, being the first non-incumbent (already in office) openly gay man in the US to win a public office at an election. In a first for the city, sworn in alongside Milk were a single mother, a Chinese-American man, an African-American woman. Dan White, previously a police officer and more recently a firefighter, was sworn in as a first time supervisor as well.

Initially friendly with Milk, White later vowed to - and did - vote against every initiative Milk supported, after Milk changed his mind about the placement of a new mental health facility being placed in White's district - Milk voted in favour of it, meaning White lost and it went ahead.

Ten months after being sworn in, White resigned from the Board of Supervisors. His reasoning was that his salary was not enough to enable him to support his family. Five days after resigning, having been offered support and loans by family & constituents, he approached Mayor Moscone to ask for his resignation to be withdrawn. Initially Moscone seemed to agree, but ultimately decided he would replace him with someone more liberal, in line with the diversity of White's district & the Board of Supervisors.

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The following section discusses the assassination of Harvey Milk & George Moscone. I will note when this section ends so you can skip it if necessary.

Moscone called a press conference for the 27th of November, 1978, where he planned to announce the replacement for White. Around an hour before this was due to take place, White entered the building through a basement window - to avoid metal detectors - and went to Moscone's office. Asking for a meeting with him, Moscone accepted and while Moscone poured them both a drink, White pulled out a gun and shot the mayor twice. When Moscone was on the floor, White shot him again at close range in the head. He then reloaded his gun, and headed to Milk's office. Dianne Feinstein, then-President of the Board of Supervisors, called after him as he ran past her office. White interrupted a conversation Milk was having, and asked him to step into White's former office. After a short conversation, White shot Milk five times, including once into his head at short range.

White then fled the scene, and Feinstein entered Milk's office. She checked for a pulse, but found he was dead. At 11:20 am, she addressed the media who were waiting for the announcement of a new supervisor. Shaking badly, requiring the support of the police chief, she said:

As President of the Board of Supervisors, it's my duty to make this announcement. Both Mayor Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk have been shot and killed. The suspect is Supervisor Dan White.

Harvey Milk was 48 years old, George Moscone was 49.

youtube

This marks the end of the section discussing the assassination.

White had left the building without being challenged, and called his wife from a payphone. After meeting her, he turned himself in to the precinct he had previously served at as a police officer. He was charged with two counts of murder, held without bail, and he was eligible for the death penalty. His arrest and trial demonstrated the serious tensions between the liberal San Franciscans and the more conservative, predominantly working-class Irish-American police force. Whilst White sat in his cell, former colleagues on the police force joked about the situation, and police openly wore t-shirts which had "Free Dan White" printed on them. White demonstrated no remorse.

The jury for the trial also concerned Milk's supporters, as it consisted of white, mostly Catholic, middle-class San Franciscans. They found White guilty of voluntary manslaughter, a lesser charge than first degree murder, and he was sentenced to seven years in prison. He could be released after five.

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Following the announcement of White's sentence, Cleve Jones - Milk's friend and activist - addressed an audience of around 500 who had gathered in the Castro to share the news. He led a crowd to City hall, which grew to over 5,000. The queer-friendly police chief, Charles Gain, ordered officers not to attack protestors from City Hall. The rioters attacked the building, as well as police cars while expressing their anger at the verdict. After three hours, police moved in to stop the riot. Many covered their badges with black tape in an attempt to avoid identification, and attacked the crowd with their nightsticks. After around three hours of fighting between the protestors and police, following the use of tear gas, the riots ended.

Tom Ammiano, State Assemblyman from 2008-2014, who took part in the events said of the mood of those involved:

This guy had killed a hero of ours and a friend of ours and he got treated like he had shoplifted. Dan White was a former cop and he got away with murder.

A few hours after the rioting was quelled, police retaliated. Dozens of riot-gear clad officers in police vehicles headed to the Castro, and entered a gay bar - the Elephant Walk - despite orders not to. They shouted "dirty cocksuckers" and "sick faggots" at patrons of the bar; wielding their nightsticks they damaged furniture, and injured a dozen people. They then withdrew from the bar and attacked gay people on the streets indiscriminately. When Police Chief Gain heard of the events he immediately went to stop it, and ordered the policemen to leave. Officers were later seen celebrating the raid at a bar. When a police captain was asked why officers attacked the bar, he responded “We lost the battle at City Hall. We aren’t going to lose this one.”

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The following night, 4,000 people gathered in the Castro to commemorate Milk on what would have been his 49th birthday. With volunteers wearing white armbands & shirts reading "please no violence", and Feinstein ordering police to stay away, the event was peaceful.

Milk's replacement, Supervisor Harry Britt, made it clear at a press conference that no-one was going to apologise for the riots.

Harvey Milk's people do not have anything to apologize for. Now the society is going to have to deal with us not as nice little fairies who have hairdressing salons, but as people capable of violence. We're not going to put up with Dan Whites anymore.

Attempts by the press to find a 'gay leader' who would apologise for the rioting were unsuccessful.

Mark Leno, a member of the California State Senate from 2008-2016 said in 2009:

“The White Night Riots were the culmination of many changes that were impacting the city at that time. It was as if it all came to a head through the outrage of the injustice of Dan White’s sentence. It was a jolt to the civic fabric as if we had to experience all of that to be able to move forward to become the city that we have become today. The experience I had at that time continues to inform my public office today. That we have had to fight for every right that we have gained and we have had to be vigilant every step of the way so as not to ever lose anything we have again.”

Sources: Wikipedia - White Night Riots Wikipedia - Harvey Milk Wikipedia - Moscone-Milk Assassinations SF Chronicle - SF’s White Night riots’ 40th anniversary: Long-buried photos show a city torn apart Bay Area Reporter - Thirty years ago, the White Night riots inflamed San Francisco Libcom - 1979: The White Night Riot

Additional Reading: NBC - Flashback: Harvey Milk Assassinated In San Francisco The Mayor of Castro Street - Randy Shilts, 1982 (ISBN 978-0312560850) The Times of Harvey Milk - 1984 documentary film (I have not watched this) Milk - 2008 [n.b. this stops at the assassination, and doesnt cover the riot] Howard University - A Brief History of Civil Rights in the United States: Harvey Milk Youtube - The Last Words of Harvey Milk [Full Audio Clip] - in theory, this link should connect to the full transcript in the comments. SF Gate - Myth of the 'Twinkie defense' FoundSF – Chris Carlsson, White Night Riot

#elio's #elio's meta #a series of learning about things that are referenced in the book #rwrb #red white and royal blue #long post #alt text added

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colindotpdx · 8 months ago

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Oregon Elder Illegally Imprisoned By His Legal Guardian

For those at the back of the room, here is a quick recap of the story of my old buddy Maynard Orme.

In January a friend and I visited Maynard at his assisted living facility near Portland. We found him uncharacteristically miserable. His finances were in crisis despite having a conservator in charge and he told us that he had not been able to visit his daughter and grandkids for Christmas. He was very upset and not in good health. We checked that there was no legal restriction on his travel and arranged for his trip to California. We subsequently learned more about how badly his medical state and his finances had been managed by his conservator and caretaker; treatment that was abusive, neglectful, and manipulative of an 87 year old elder.

Once in California, he was happy as a clam with his family and his physical and mental state has improved dramatically. I’ve been to visit him regularly from January and, when I saw him a few days ago in Los Angeles, he was more spritely than I had seen him in months since his daughter has been looking after him. We asked him about his new residence and his new girlfriend and he said "I love it here. It doesn’t get any better than this"

But his guardian and former caretaker had other plans.

This week, the day after I saw him, they arrived at his residence with a court order and spirited him back to Oregon.

We don’t know what they told him, whether he agreed to go with them, or how they got back. They left behind his cell phone and his clothes and personal possessions; such was the haste in which he was removed. His attorney in Oregon was as surprised as anyone as he had not been informed of their plans and was not even informed when his client was back in Oregon.

But we do know where he was taken.

Maynard is now back at the assisted living facility in Charbonneau from which he escaped but, when friends show up to see him, he is “not taking visitors” on orders from his guardian and her lawyer. He was apparently interviewed by law enforcement upon his return for reasons that were not disclosed but he could not have been provided assistance of counsel.

His lawyer then tried to visit Maynard at his new residence but he too was denied entry. He was referred to the guardian and then her lawyer who gave orders to prevent him visiting his client.

Outrage Level Turned up to ELEVEN.

A US citizen is being jailed by a fiduciary professional and her lawyer. Even an arraigned murderer would not be denied assistance of counsel. In what world can one lawyer refuse to allow an opposing lawyer access to his client? This is insanity.

I bet there’s something in the US Constitution that covers this.

When the guardian and her lawyer are acting “in colour of law” by waving a court order, they are taking on the authority of the state; like carrying a badge or wearing a black jacket with FBI across the back. But, guess what, law enforcement would not get away with this bullshit.

Maynard is being denied his basic civil rights by a out-of-control guardian under guidance from a conflicted lawyer; the two of them are running amok.

The facility in which Maynard is now imprisoned and the caretaker that IS allowed to see him, have both demonstrated a track record of neglect and abuse - financial, mental, and medical. Neither his friends, family, or lawyer are now allowed to talk to him. We have no idea of how he is being treated, of what he is being told, or how he is being threatened.

This isolation is seriously compounding the abuse of this respected Portland elder for reasons that are hard to fathom.

How it Started: How it’s Going.

This whole adventure started with a pleasant lunch and an arranged flight for Maynard to see his family and enjoy their mutual love and caring in sunny Los Angeles. Joy was restored to Maynard's life.

It has now turned into an extra-judicial nightmare with an inconceivable level of fear and darkness for Maynard and his family who are beside themselves with worry. A crisis driven by fiduciary professionals in breach of their legal duties to protect Maynard, and whose firms have failed to rein them in.

Shame on all of them.

This is not over.

Photo: When Maynard retired, AARP did an article about him and took this picture of him at the Oregon Rail Heritage Center where he was a huge supporter and booster.

#conservatorfraud #freemaynard #maynardorme #wheresmaynard

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coochiequeens · 7 months ago

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While opposition to men in women’s prisons should focus on the safety of incarcerated women don't forget the impact dealing with these perverts have on female guards.

By CAROLINE DOWNEY May 28, 2024 6:30 AM

Female prison guards in California have been traumatized after being forced to perform naked strip searches on male felons under the state department of corrections’ gender-inclusion rules.

For decades, the department prohibited female officers from conducting unclothed strip searches on male inmates except in emergency circumstances, such as when a same-sex officer is not available or if the male inmate is at risk of harming themselves or others.

Now, “Incarcerated individuals who are transgender, non-binary, or intersex must be searched according to the gender designation of the institution where they are housed or based on the individual’s search preference,” according to official prison policy obtained by National Review.

This sudden shift in policy, officially implemented in 2021, has shaken female staff at the California Institution for Men, colloquially known as Chino. Some male inmates who identify as women, or have even undergone transition surgeries and hormone therapy, choose to stay at Chino rather than request a housing transfer to a women’s facility, such as the California Institution for Women.

While there, trans-identifying male inmates are entitled to request that they only be searched by female guards. The female guards are required to perform the searches or face penalties or termination, former and current female Chino officers told National Review.

Recently retired after 22 years as a corrections officer at Chino, Paula James experienced firsthand how the decision to accommodate trans-identifying inmates has made the state prison a scary and unfair place to work.

“As a corrections officer myself, I wasn’t supposed to be stripping male inmates down,” James told National Review. “You’re not supposed to unless it’s an emergency situation. You can get in trouble, it’s considered rape. . . . I’ve been taught that my whole career. Then all of a sudden, now some of these men are saying they are women, but they still have all the parts.”

Two years ago, at the facility, James was told she had to strip-search a trans-identifying male inmate on suicide watch who was checking in to the mental-health department for a 72-hour hold. There was no other female officer around that day to do it, she said.

“I told myself, ‘I’m getting ready to retire, I don’t want to have to do this,’” she said. “But that day I felt pressured into doing it. My sergeant told me I had to do it.”

Another female officer came into the bathroom to cover her as she frisked the inmate.

“The whole time, this inmate is making me feel like I’m doing something wrong,” James said.

Acting embarrassed, he covered his chest area and male genitals. James had to ask him to move his hand to make sure he wasn’t concealing a weapon or drugs to self-harm. The inmate requested on paper that a female rather than male officer check him.

“I didn’t feel comfortable about it, but I had to do my job,” she said.

James started to cry on the phone as she recounted the day. With a background in nursing, James said she didn’t expect to be so shaken from the incident. It felt degrading for both her and the inmate, she said.

“I didn’t realize how disgusted I felt after that until I walked out,” she said. James said she broke down in front of her friend as she explained what had happened.

“It was just not right,” she said. “Because I had been taught all that time that I wasn’t supposed to do that. It was really hard on me, even thinking about it today.”

While they’re now required to search male inmates, not so long ago, female officers could be punished for searching inmates of the opposite sex, even if they felt the search was justified due to an emergency situation.

A corrections officer of 19 years, who chose to remain anonymous out of fear of professional retribution, was transferred to Chino from a maximum-security facility in 2017, before the current gender-inclusion policy was implemented. Soon after arriving at the prison, the guard was disciplined for searching a male inmate who a colleague believed was hiding potentially dangerous contraband.

The search was conducted after a fellow female officer asked the guard for assistance because she witnessed what she believed was an exchange of contraband between two inmates who were prohibited from interacting.

“Just as I’m approaching him, the toilet flushes, which is a sign that he probably got rid of the contraband,” the guard said. “So, I conducted a clothed body search on him, and she was right there next to me. I ended up doing an unclothed body search, which our policy states that a female can under emergency circumstances.”

The guard said she deemed it an emergency because her friend was sure she saw a weapon or drugs in the man’s possession.

“I was completely professional about it and that was it,” she said.

Months later, she received the highest possible level of disciplinary action from her superiors. She appealed the decision on the grounds that the policy is ambiguous about what circumstances qualify as an “emergency.” She lost the case. An official in Chino’s employment office told her confidentially that the department wanted to fire her over the incident.

“Back in 2017, it was two male inmates, but now here we are seven years later, and they want me, if I’m given a direct order, I must strip out that trans inmate,” she said. “What’s the difference from when I stripped out that male inmate to now? It’s still a man.”

Prison officers are told in training that they could be fired for refusing to do a search on the opposite sex because “it’s refusing a direct order from your sergeant,” said James, the recently retired corrections officer.

While some younger female officers are more willing to comply with the new gender-inclusion policy because they’ve never experienced anything different, others expressed concern to James before she retired.

“I had younger officers coming to me saying, ‘Ms. James, what am I going to do?,” she recalled. “They want us to do this with these inmates now.’

Other female guards have reported to James that they think male inmates have requested to be searched by women “just to make the officer see them.”

Asked for comment, the California Department of Corrections reiterated that SB 132, The Transgender Respect, Agency and Dignity Act, allows incarcerated transgender, non-binary and intersex people to request to be housed and searched in a manner consistent with their gender identity.

“Ongoing training for staff and incarcerated people is paramount when handling the unique challenges facing this population,” the department said. “CDCR has developed and provided specialized training to staff to ensure they are aware of laws and departmental policies and to give them the knowledge and tools they need when interacting with the incarcerated transgender and non-binary communities.”

Paula confirmed that California, like Washington State, subsidizes transition procedures for male felons on taxpayer dime.

“We had a guy that was doing 60 years, he was a rapist,” James said. “He became a female, and he was going to go to the female facility, but they paroled him instead. I couldn’t believe it. . . . This guy got released to the streets.”

Once that inmate underwent the intervention, many other trans inmates started seeking out the procedures, she said.

“A lot of sexual predators, I hate to say it, are getting the surgery,” she said. “Even child molesters. It’s not good.”

One male inmate at Chino, after getting a phalloplasty, was brought back to the facility with durable medical equipment. One tool he was given was a dildo, to prevent the incision from closing, the anonymous female officer said.

“The state pays for them to have hair removal,” she added. “The state pays for them to have breast implants. The state pays for them to go to vocal classes.”

James, who worked in the medical area of Chino, often heard the crimes of the male patients.

One such patient was found guilty of consuming child pornography and sexually abusing his girlfriend’s daughter, she said. He too received the surgery from the state, she said.

“I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, why are they able to change to a female, then they can be, if they ever get out, they can prey on their victims even more?’” she said.

#usa #california #KeepPrisonsSingleSex #Perverted men requesting to be searched by women

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