Humanos

Prison Rape

For a convicted criminal, whatever his or her offense, to be raped in prison is every bit as unacceptable and abhorrent as a high-school student being raped after the prom. Rape is rape. It can never be justified or excused.

A study by the Department of Justice estimated that over 209,000 adults held in Americas chronically overcrowded prisons and jails are sexually abused annually, either by staff or fellow  inmates. That’s a truly horrific figure, and probably even on the low side because a lot of prison rape goes unreported, yet it causes hardly a ripple of  concern in the media or among the general public.

In fact its become almost an expected and acceptable part of our sick culture. Cops in dumb Hollywood movies routinely threaten scared young suspects with homosexual rape in prison. Sniggering jokes are made about ‘not dropping your soap in the shower’. Every vile little reference normalizes something that’s hideously wrong and helps to enable the rapists.

The state , on our behalf, takes away a persons  liberty and their  ability to defend themselves and therefore has an absolute duty to protect them at all times. People in prison aren’t all homicidal maniacs and violent predators, although in this context it wouldn’t matter at all if they were.

A prison rape victim could be someone who ended up in the system because they needed help and didn’t get it. It could be your brother or father or sister fallen foul of the insane ‘war on drugs’. Whoever it is, whatever they’ve done, nobody ever ‘deserves’  to get raped. If you’re in prison your punishment under law is loss of freedom. That’s it. That’s enough.

I know there are people who couldn’t care less what happens to prisoners in our over-crowded prisons. They deserve whatever happens to them, right ? No. Not right. Totally and utterly  wrong. When the state representing you and me turns a blind eye to the rape of defenseless people then it makes us all dirty.

Rape is wrong, whoever its done to and whatever the circumstances. That’s not so hard to understand.

How is this legal? If Justice Thomas had a shred of integrity, he would have recused himself from this crucial case.

BREAKING: Photo & Name of Police Officer in #McKinney TX Incident Has Been Revealed: The Officer’s Name Is Eric Casebolt

A white police officer in McKinney, Texas, has been placed on administrative leave, after a video emerged on Saturday that shows him pointing a gun at a group of unarmed black teens and wrestling a 14-year-old girl to the ground and restraining her by sitting on her back.

The incident comes at a time of increased attention on police relations with minority communities, following police shootings in Baltimore, Ferguson, Missouri, Cleveland and other cities across the United States.

McKinney is a city of about 140,000, located about 30 miles northeast of Dallas. It has a majority white population, with black people comprising about 10% of the general population.

See also: Man shot dead by Boston police was plotting to behead a cop, officials say

The video shows several police officers responding to reports of a disturbance at a community pool on Friday. It is a chaotic scene, and a pool party is being broken up. One police officer, in particular, appears far more agitated than his colleagues, and is first seen running, tripping and falling, and then running again, after unknown individuals.

Focus of concern at the 3:11 mark when the officer briefly pulls gun out & points it at people http://t.co/w3M84s2TMF pic.twitter.com/nSrEAU0Ov5

— Zahid Arab (@ZahidArabFox4) June 7, 2015

Around the video’s three-minute mark, the officer, who is white, wrestles a 14-year-old, bikini-clad black girl to the ground. He then sits on her back, and pulls a gun on the surrounding crowd, which reacts angrily to his actions. The girl refuses the officer’s orders to leave the area, but does not appear to be posing a clear threat to him in the video, which was posted to YouTube, and first reported by a Dallas Fox television affiliate.

According to Greg Conley, the McKinney police chief who addressed local media in a press conference Sunday afternoon, the 14-year-old girl was not charged with a crime, and was released to her parents. One arrest was made, Conley said, but it was of an adult male who initially fled from the scene.

“The McKinney Police Department is committed to treating all persons fairly under the law,” the police chief said. “I am committed to a complete and thorough investigation into this incident.”

Conley added that he had watched the video, which is what prompted the department to put the officer, who has been with the force for a “period of time,” on administrative leave.

In a statement on its Facebook page, the McKinney Police Department said it received multiple calls from people in the vicinity of the pool party, reporting “juveniles … actively fighting” at the Craig Ranch North Community Pool.

The statement continues:

First responding officers encountered a large crowd that refused to comply with police commands. Nine additional units responded to the scene. Officers were eventually able to gain control of the situation.

McKinney Police later learned of a video that was taken at the scene by an unknown party. This video has raised concerns that are being investigated by the McKinney Police Department. At this time, one of the responding officers has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of this investigation.

Conley said three police officers responded to the initial call, which came from residents who reported that juveniles were using a private pool they were not normally authorized to use, and that there was a disturbance between them and area residents. After the responding officers arrived and encountered a large crowd, nine more police officers came to the scene.

Brandon Brooks, the name of the YouTuber user who uploaded the video, wrote in its description section that police were called to the area after “a fight between a mom and a girl broke out.”

“When the cops showed up everyone ran, including the people who didn’t do anything. So the cops just started putting everyone on the ground and in handcuffs for no reason. This kind of force is uncalled for especially on children and innocent bystanders,” Brooks wrote.

Wisdom from Amanda Palmer’s altogether excellent essay for New Statesman, from the issue on “saying the unsayable,” which she edited together with her husband, Neil Gaiman. The magazine is available on Kindle and well worth it. 

Also see Brené Brown on the crucial difference between empathy and sympathy.

The Barefoot College in Tilonia, Rajasthan was started by an Indian man named Bunker Roy. The organization is essentially a college that teaches women from all over the world (but primarily “developing” countries) how to be solar engineers. 

That’s right. Solar engineers.

Classes are attended by local women and women from Peru, Fiji, Rwanda, Nepal, Belize, Ethiopia, Bhutan, and more who are illiterate or semi-literate. Most of them are from rural and poverty-stricken areas. The school does not take attendance, have exams, demand their students speak English or have prior education, and does not ask for fees. These women learn how to make solar panels and bulbs, how to plug them into an electrical grid, and how to provide clean renewable energy to their entire village. They then take this knowledge back to their hometowns in distant countries. 

How are they taught without a common language? Everything technical is color coded. The women learn important words “LED, wire cutter, copper, connection, etc.” They communicate through common sense and the desire to learn. The college accepts anyone and everyone, mothers, lower castes (still an ongoing problem in India), older women, young women, women who have never attended school, married women. 

Since 2004, the College has taught at least 250 women from 41 different low-industrial countries to be solar engineers. 5 out of their 8 engineer professors are women. 35 out of 200 workers are physically disabled. The BC is currently powering both their own facility, homes in nearby villages and towns, and their former students are powering homes all across the world from wisdom and materials imported from the BC. Their local villages pay their salary. 

Roy did try to teach both men and women, but they didn’t stay in the harsh conditions or wanted jobs that paid more (as the BC doesn’t hand out “official” diplomas or degrees). Eventually, the college became largely female. “Why not invest in women, older women, mature women, gutsy women who have roots in the village?” Roy said.

I cannot emphasize how amazing this organization is. The Barefoot College is a safe and accepting place for anyone who wants to learn about clean and renewable energy. It encourages women’s empowerment, helps them out of poverty, and provides solar energy to places where the prices of kerosene and batteries are excessively high.