Let us speak then of victimless crimes, the pretense that somehow by expunging certain acts from the criminal justice system we are in fact advancing civilization, casting aside the repressions, the myths, the lies our churches told us for centuries upon centuries that those acts were evil when of course we the educated sophisticates know ever so much better that they are not evil merely pleasures that do no harm to no one else. If I choose to smoke a little dope, wheres the victim? Well there are one or two or several dozen victims you know, the ones exploited and yes occasionally killed by the higher levels of the drug trade. Then legalize it, you say and I will agree but lets not pretend that getting whacked out of our skulls leaves no fingerprints on anyone elses soul.

Perhaps the word soul makes you uncomfortable, makes you wish that this what is this, a book review or a sermon? piece of writing would just move along and get to the plot and sentence structure, leaving this talk of souls behind. Oh no, I beg your pardon but we cannot speak of this novel Harvesting without a few good words about souls.

I actually believed for a good many years that prostitution was a victimless crime. That position was very much part of the values in the home I grew up in; all other parties being long since dead, I am not causing anyone any blush of embarrassment, no averting of the eyes when the Priest speaks from the pulpit at Sunday Mass. No, both my mother who was a journalist and my grandfather who was a properly progressive MP felt that prostitution fulfilled a need in society. After all, men who were single or men who were (much worse than single) in unhappy marriages or (much worse than unhappy marriages) married to women who because of frailty could no longer satisfy mans need for sexual pleasure, why those men require somewhere to go. Otherwise, just think of what the rape and abuse statistics would be like!

Then of course if one studies enough or actually listens to the women in ones life, the realization dawns finally that if one out of three women and there are higher estimates than that have been or will be sexually assaulted at some time in their lives then how does that justify the supposed noble purpose of prostitution? And there too, why is the focus on the needs of the men? Kingsley Amis might have said that male virility is like being chained to the devil, but hold on a minute. People quit smoking, heroin, drinking and eating meat and they seem to survive. Are you really telling me that a period of abstinence is all that hard (or pardon me, I suppose I might have said difficult)?

What of the women? Ah well, theyre paid for it so thats no bother. Its just business dealings, a commercial transaction, everybody knows what theyre doing so there is no victim there. After all, if we didnt have prostitution we wouldnt have the stage musical Sweet Charity or the movie Pretty Woman. How bad can prostitution be when it inspires romantic comedies?

The Irish novelist Lisa Harding makes an incredibly wise choice in Harvesting. The story of two young girls, one Irish and one Moldovan, thrown together as captives in an under-age sex trade prison, has no description of sex in it whatsoever except for only the most allusive. At first, I thought that Harding had made this choice for literary, character-based reasons; by not including the specifics of what these grotesque clients did to these girls that would so reflect the effects of repressed memory, willed amnesia and so forth. Now while that may have entered into Hardings consideration, I suspect that she had a much, much more chilling reason to leave the sex on the cutting room floor. She did not want this novel to be at all titillating. Think about it. Harding clearly did, and I imagine it was a chilling thought imagining a book about exploitation of children for sexual purpose being passed about with the hot bits dog-eared and highlighted. Well done to the author in avoiding that.

Without ever being pedantic or at all lecturing, Harding builds a case step-by-step against this so-called victimless crime by framing it in the narrative voices of Samantha and Nico. Samantha is the street-wiser or the two, receiving the attention of the older boys at her Dublin school as a pseudo-replacement for an alcoholic mother and an often absent father. Nico is a farm girl, raised in a male-dominant family that betrays her upon reaching puberty by selling her to a sex trader.

It is not just the families that fail the two young women. Time and again, whether it is the drivers who take the victims to their clients, the clients who realize the girls are under-age, the barmen who serve them, the social services who do too little, or the police forces who allow these operations to exist, the systems of civilization fail. At one point Samantha escapes from hospital and when she realizes that she has effectively escaped into captivity she thinks that she must be in the news, the goal of a nationwide search. Of course she isnt. To whatever degree we think about such things as teen prostitutes gone missing, we either shrug it off, ignore it, assume shell grow out of it, or at a darkest level wonder if perhaps shes searchable on Pornhub.

Harvesting is not a light-hearted read, a book to be tossed into the beach bag for a summer weekend day trip. Although, you know, perhaps it should be. There you are with your partner and the kids, the latter playing on the beach, and you lift your eyes from your book and look at the people further down along the sand. What are they looking at through their Ray-Bans? Are they looking at your children? And more what are you looking at and thinking?

The sexual exploitation of women is as old as society itself. It exists in all nations, all cultures, throughout all history. Slavery, which we like to pretend had been eradicated in the nineteenth century, still exists. The rights of children are still ill-defined when it comes to parents custodial rights. True justice will only occur when we face the ills that pervade within our cultures, acknowledge them, yet never accept them. One novel, no matter if it is as well-written and gripping as Harvesting is barely heard as a muted whisper against all the media that assumes girls or women exist purely for sexual pleasure. And yet, Lisa Hardings voice is still a voice, and one whisper joined by the whispers of her readers can in combination become a shout. That, at least, supplies us some hope.

Be seeing you.

Harvesting

Lisa Harding (New Island Books 2017, Trade Paperback) 308 pages

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Book Review: Harvesting by Lisa Harding (novel) - The London Economic

Hospital exec reflects on deck collapse, thanks all for work to assist patients

On the afternoon of June 17, local hospital staff responded to a mass casualty event that occurred south of Lakeside. More than 50 people were injured and transported to nearby hospitals. Of those patients, 37 were treated at Flathead County hospitals nine at North Valley Hospital and 28 at Kalispell Regional Medical Center.

This was the largest mass casualty event in memory for many staff, yet our teams were prepared and operated like clockwork. Within 20 minutes after the first notification, there were three operating rooms prepared to accept surgical patients. The ALERT air ambulance team flew multiple trips transporting the injured. The flight medic stayed on the scene to assist in transporting others by ground. Surgeons evaluated every patient, and radiologists stayed close by to read images. Operating room staff worked well into the night and Sunday morning. Special areas were established for patients families to gather, and staff brought in food and drinks for them. Many employees, including those from nursing, clinical areas, nutrition services, housekeeping, spiritual care, social work, patient registration, lab, security, the communications center and more dropped what they were doing to help or came in on their days off to lend a hand.

As a member of this community, Im very thankful for the amazing level of medical care available here. As an administrator at Kalispell Regional Healthcare, Im immensely proud to be associated with such a remarkable team of employees and medical staff. There are too many names to list individually, but we are thankful for each one of the first responders, the clinical staff who cared for the injured and all the hospital personnel and volunteers who provided support in a variety of ways. But most of all, we are grateful that all the patients affected by this tragedy are on the road to recovery. Curtis Lund, Kalispell, Kalispell Regional Healthcare Interim CEO

I once thought that Nancy Pelosi was the dumbest person in Washington when she said we must pass Obamacare to read whats in it.

Now we even have someone who is dumber than a box of rocks Trumps Press Secretary Sean Spicer, who said that Hitler didnt even sink to using chemical weapons during World War II. What did he use on the Jews?

Bashar al-Assad and Sean Spicer should both be taken out of office. One for using chemical weapons and one for using his mouth without engaging his brain both deadly weapons. Phillip Gregoire, Whitefish

I am running for Whitefish Municipal Court judge for one reason: to make the court and our community the best it can be.

My initial goal is to reduce your taxes. I will make the judge position part-time, with a corresponding reduction in salary, to save your tax bill. I want to increase efficiency.

I will use video arraignments to free county deputies for patrol rather than transporting prisoners. This will also make scarce jail space available for more serious offenders.

I will improve case resolution by implementing simple business practices, such as telephone conferences, so citizens will not miss work to resolve a parking ticket and visitors will not have to make multiple return visits for a traffic violation.

I will punish domestic violence. On average, a woman is beaten 25 times before she makes a police report. Women are killed by abusers at twice the rate of our troops killed in Afghanistan and Iraq. Of those deaths 50-75 percent of them are when she leaves her abuser. I will issue restraining orders when a victim makes the courageous decision to seek help, and will strongly punish domestic abusers.

I will protect our community from drunk drivers and those without insurance or licenses. These are not victimless crimes. I will impose maximum penalties, including treatment and interlock devices, to protect each of your families and our community.

I will do more with less of your tax dollars. You are being taxed for a new high school and the Haskill Basin conservation easement. Soon you will be asked to pay for a new middle school and a new county jail. As I said, I will reduce the courts budget, beginning with the judges salary.

I will bring experience to the job. I am the only candidate who has served as Brad Johnsons sub-judge. As Brads sub-judge, I handled all cases when he was absent, had a conflict of interest or did not want to handle the case.

I am the only candidate who has committed to Montanas Commission of Political Practices Code of Fair Campaign Practices agreeing to adhere to the basic principles of decency, honesty and fair play.

I have long been a public servant. I have lived and practiced law in Whitefish for 26 years. I have been Planning Board chairman, Flathead Countys Employer of Choice and the Whitefish Chambers Citizen of the Year.

For more information on my background, experience and goals, go to my website at http://www.tornowforwhitefish.com or call me at 862-7450.

With all these things in mind, I respectfully ask for your vote in November so that together, we can make the court and our community the best it can be. Tom Tornow, Whitefish

I find it quite interesting that liberal Democrats have their knickers in a twist over possible Russian interference in the last presidential election, but are fighting to the death to prevent an investigation into voter fraud. The Russian so-called interference in the election, for the most part, involved the release of emails proving how the DNC and various members of the party used dirty tactics to disadvantage Sen. Bernie Sanders and favor the campaign of Hillary Clinton information that the public deserved to know if this were an honest world.

Our government has done much more to influence foreign elections ... just look at Obamas election team trying to unseat Prime Minister Netanyahu in his last election in Israel in revenge over his opposition to the pathetically flawed Iran nuclear giveaway.

On the other hand, there are many prosecutions of voter fraud in states where the attorney generals actually care about the integrity of our elections. Illegal aliens and dead people are known to populate voting roles. I doubt the presidents claim that 3 million aliens voted in the last election, but I firmly believe that the number is certainly higher than zero. Why dont the liberal Democrats care about the impact of voter fraud on our elections?

The simple answer is that they are intimately involved in this fraud, especially since illegal aliens are part of their constituency. Instead of protecting the legitimacy of our elections, liberals continually degrade the process by fighting voter ID laws and those seeking to clean up outdated and inaccurate voter registration roles, all of which promote such shenanigans. Add a dash of a Democrat Attorney General Eric Holder failing to investigate or prosecute voter intimidation by Black Panther thugs at polling places in 2008, and we have a system rife with domestically generated fraud ... we dont need to worry that much about the Russians.

The Democrats have found a way to protect the swamp and prevent real reform in D.C. As long as they and their accomplices in the media keep screaming the Russians are coming, the Russians are coming, and ignore how tough the current administration has been on Russian transgressions, they hope to derail any real changes in Washington. Hopefully, elitist liberals have miscalculated the intelligence of We the People. Hopefully Jonathan Gruber, a proud liberal MIT professor involved in the passage of Obamacare was dead wrong when he proudly declared that the passage of Obamacare depended on the stupidity of the American voter to forward their agenda. One can only hope. P. David Myerowitz, Columbia Falls

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Letters, published June 25, 2017 - Daily Inter Lake

The world says: You have needs satisfy them. You have as much right as the rich and the mighty. Dont hesitate to satisfy your needs; indeed, expand your needs and demand more. This is the worldly doctrine of today. And they believe that this is freedom. The result for the rich is isolation and suicide, for the poor, envy and murder. Fyodor Dostoyevsky

By Denrele Animasaun

We often take our citizenship for granted, we automatically assume the privilege of being a Nigerian is ours for the taking and that we can jolly well use it, discard it at will, when we choose or when it pleases us. We should know that with these privileges, come responsibilities. And we should take our responsibilities seriously if we value the privilege of truly being a Nigerian. We should do more and throw away these assumed feelings of entitlement. We feel that we are owed this for being who we are. Actually, we are not. If everyone feels this way, then who are we expecting to deliver these entitlements and privileges? So in the meantime, we are squandering our birth-right and not fully recognising that we are custodians and that we have to hand over this responsibly to the next generations like those before us did. History will tell if we did our duties as custodians.

When I was growing up, the values and responsibilities of being a Nigerian was very much instilled in us; we strive to be a good person, we guarded our family names so proprietorially and, with pride, we are told that with hard work and pride in what we do, we will make it in life. We were told by our elders and those in authorities that it was important to truly be responsible and neighbourly; that it was important to truly give back and we did for the general good and not for ourselves and the privileged few. We did coin the adage that: it takes a village to raise a child didnt we? So when and what are you doing to help raise decent Nigerians?

There was a time we were compassionate to one another and it did not matter if you were from one tribe or another or you were from another religion or a different political party. We were then all Nigerians and that was all that mattered. We obeyed laws and had the confidence that the rules and laws were safe in the hands of our hallowed institutions and establishments. We knew the law was there to protect us as citizens and took our responsibility very seriously as we knew failure to do so had consequences. We took pride in the green, white, green; it was the colour of pride, real pride and privilege. It sounds simple doesnt it? But how many of us can truly say that we do our best as Nigerian citizens in the true sense of the word?

Do not worry about what others are doing, what are you doing to be a good Nigerian? Remember what you do is reflecting and will reflect on your children and their offspring. We have often used the old chestnut; that everybody is on the take that is why things are the way they are. I have got news for you: you are either the problem or the solution. You are a Nigerian after all, so you choose. So I ask you, what makes you a Nigerian? Before you answer, make sure that you have proved your worth to be called a Nigerian I believe a good citizen makes a good country and it is time we act as we deserve the right to call ourselves Nigerians.

Evans got caught

Funny how Nigerians express shock and horror whenever some new disaster or criminality is unearth in Nigeria. Let us be clear here, Life in Nigeria is far from normal. The yardstick of normal ceased a long time ago when the moral compass was broken. Majority of Nigerians are always looking for ways of making money quick and no matter how depraved or dishonest. Not many want to make an honest living. There lies the problem and our present dilemma of seeking money by all means necessary. One of the lines of current criminal activities are: kidnapping, human trafficking, drugs trafficking, baby making factories, of course, politicians.

In the last couple of days, police have nabbed the notorious kingpin kidnapper called Evans. They got him in his lair, in his ill-gotten wealth; he had made millions in kidnapping rich people for ransom and has done so for many years.

People claim they were unaware of his criminal activities in spite of living amongst ordinary people. Some have got as far as to seek for his release! No one knew what this guy did and his wife now spins a tale: that she was not aware of her husbands criminal business as she defends this by telling all who would listen, that he couldnt be that bad because he reads Psalm.23!

Of course, she said that they go to church! So this makes it all right, as far as she was concerned, he was religious. Those things do not absolve him off his crimes.

Uchennna Onwuamadike, wife of notorious kidnap kingpin, Chikwudubem Onwuamadike, also known as Evans, expects the Nigerian authorities to spare the life of her husband because of her children. Does she understand the horrors that her husbands victims have had to endure and she has the gall to plead for clemency on his behalf?

According to her, He reads Psalm 23 a lot. Even his phone, he sets alarm for 12 noon to read Psalm 23. He took part in our daily prayers in the morning, evening and night. He used to lead us in prayers. We attend Anglican Church. He has never given them money to show off. We used to give N5000 or N10,000 and the highest we have given so far was N50,000 when we baptised one of our children, she said. So what happened to the victims? For seven years, he has been peddling his brand of crime and his victims have been living a nightmare. Can someone explain to Evans wife, that his victims have families too and what gave her husband the right to kidnap innocent people, abduct them, torture them and then extort money off their family with menace and threats? Kidnapping is not a victimless crime, and for seven years, he was building his evil empire and living the life of OReily and he has the gall, to want to die because he feels that the police would not give him a fair treatment because of his crimes. He is looking for a cowards way out.

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One day - Vanguard

Each year, shoplifters steal roughly $14.7 billion worth of goods from stores. (So says the Retail Theft Barometer.) Each year, employers steal roughly $15 billion from their workers by paying them less than the minimum wage, according to data from the Economic Policy Institute.

The treatment of these two kinds of crime, however, are completely different.

Many more resources go into trying to deter, detect, and punish the guy trying to pinch a video game system off the shelf at the local big-box store than into the grand theft the store itself may be perpetrating against its own employeeseven if the retailer is taking millions of dollars from workers paychecks. Its one more way that the economic crimes of the powerful are treated far less seriously than the transgressions of those with less power.

In a recent study, I compared the damage from shoplifting with that from just one form of wage theft, the failure to pay workers the legal hourly minimum. Other forms include failing to pay overtime, stealing tips, making employees work off the clock, and still more employer schemes to pocket money that workers have legally earned. While it is more difficult to estimate the total loss from these other forms of wage theft, there is no question that they dwarf the losses attributable to shoplifting.

The impact that wage theft and shoplifting have are not remotely comparable. While shoplifting is certainly not a victimless crime, its consequences pale in comparison to wage theft. In fact, an estimated 4.5 million working people are victimized by minimum-wage violations alone, pushing 302,000 families across the nation into poverty.

Yet despite the tremendous magnitude of wage theft, retailers spent 39 times more on security in 2015 than the entire Department of Labor budget for enforcing wage standards that year. This disparity in funding creates a disparity in personnel: While there are 43,930 security guards working for retailers, the Department of Labor only retains 1,000 investigators tasked with enforcing wage laws for 7.3 million U.S. workplaces and 135 million workers. Under Trump administration budget proposals, resources for enforcement would face even greater cuts.

The security guards and federal wage inspectors arent the only enforcers of these respective laws, of course. On the retail security side, other employees, from fitting room attendants at a clothing store to convenience store clerks, are expected to play a role in preventing shoplifting, as are the thousands of local police officers enforcing laws against shoplifting. On the wage-theft side, state and local labor departments and attorneys general can support federal efforts to enforce wage laws, but they generally have access to even fewer resources than the federal government.

What happens when shoplifters and wage thieves get caught? Shoplifters may end up in jail, facing a fine and months behind bars for a misdemeanor conviction. Depending on the state, a thief caught making off with merchandise worth as little as $200 can face felony charges. In contrast, criminal charges of any kind are rare in cases of wage theft, even when millions of dollars are systematically stolen from employees over months or years. The fines imposed by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act often amount to a slap on the wrist; theyre too weak to act as an effective deterrent.

Worse yet, employers increasingly prevent workers from going to court to recover stolen pay by imposing arbitration agreements that curtail employees ability to sue the company or participate in a class-action lawsuit.

A look at the victims and perpetrators reveals a great deal about why the deck is stacked in favor of wage thieves. The victims of minimum-wage violations are, by definition, working people who are supposed to be paid the minimum wage and yet receive lesscertainly not the most politically or economically powerful group in our society. And while any working person can be cheated out of wages, women, people of color, and immigrants (especially undocumented workers) are not only more likely to work in low-wage jobs, but disproportionately become victims of wage theft when they do. Victims of shoplifting, on the other hand, are businesses, including some of the nations most powerful corporations. And while shoplifters may be of any race or ethnicity, the phenomenon of shopping while black reveals that people of color, particularly African American consumers, are disproportionately profiled as potential shoplifters, contributing to the racial disparity that plagues the criminal justice system.

At a time when our economy is clearly tilted in favor of power and privilege, strengthening laws against wage theftand providing more resources for detection and enforcement at the state, local, and federal levelswould help un-rig this part of the system, making it fairer for us all.

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Wage Theft and Shoplifting: Same Cost, Different Deterrents - The American Prospect

In response to the worrying upward trend in opioid overdoses, the Massachusetts Medical Society voted overwhelmingly in favor of opening supervised injection facilities throughout the state.

Shifting from outright prohibition and criminalization to a focus on life preservation, medical professionals in Massachusetts hope that this will turn the tide in the fight against the opioid epidemic.

Dr. Barbara Herbert, a Massachusetts addiction specialist who voted for the measure, toldNBC Boston:

"You have to stay alive to get better..."

(Photo: Insite/CTV News)

When liberals and progressives point to Portugal as a prime example of a successful shift in drug policy from blanket prohibition to overdose reduction, this is the kind of thing they mean.

In 2001, Portugal decriminalizedalldrugs, reallocating some of the billions of dollars they'd been spending fighting victimless crimes towards investing inhealth clinics, injection sites and other medical initiatives.

And guess what? In just 11 years, the drug use rate in Portugal fell from around 45% to well below 30%.

That's a glimpse of what might just happen in America if we decided to treat addiction like the public health crisis it is, and not a sign of criminality.

(Photo: Insite/Vancourier/Dan Toulgoet)

On this side of the Atlantic, Vancouver, British Columbia has been opening supervised injection sites across the city since 2003, and they've seen a similar drop in addiction rates. Since 2003, Vancouver has seen a 35 percent reduction in overdoses and, perhaps most importantly, a 30 percent increase in users seeking treatment.

So Massachusetts wants to follow something like the Vancouver model, but apply it in the suburban and rural areas in the western part of the state, where opioid abuse rates have been climbing steadily and emergency resources are especially scarce.

Dr. Barbara Herbert laid out the supervised injection site concept, saying:

"The idea that someone would show up and inject in front of me is not an appealing idea.

But the idea that they would go two blocks away and die is so much worse."

While the Medical Society's vote is a big step towards implementing supervised injection sites across the state, the plan still has to be passed into law by the state assembly. While that may be quite the uphill climb, at least the ball is already rolling.

Read More ->What Is A 'Pot Powwow' And How Can It Help The Native American Community?

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Massachusetts Medical Society Votes To Approve Opioid Injection Facilities - Konbini US

Amanda Thames AmandaThames

Many people believe child pornography is a victimless crime, but thats not the case, according to law enforcement.

The State Bureau of Investigation hears its just pictures a lot, even from judges and defense attorneys in the courtroom, according to Assistant Special Agent in Charge Kevin Roughton, who works in the SBIs Computer Crimes Unit.

It is such a misinterpreted thing, Roughton said. It is one of the most frustrating things that we deal with.

The victims, Onslow County Sheriff Hans Miller said, are the children.

Child pornography victims

Every time someone watches a child pornography video or looks at a photo of a child in a sexual way, it re-victimizes the child, Roughton said.

This child had to endure whatever that event was while it was being videoed and then every time it gets watched, every time it gets shown ... it is a perpetual living memory with that event as long as that video exists, he said.

While there are some exposed children who grew up and became outspoken about it, Roughton said most child sex victims simply live their lives knowing these photos or videos of them exists and theres nothing they can do to stop it.

They walk the streets and wonder if the stranger on the sidewalk has seen it, or if the man serving them coffee has shared it with others. Every time someone is arrested on a child pornography charge, Roughton says the victims wonder if the offender had been watching them.

Victims of assault or rape and the families of murder victims have one person they focus on and follow throughout their arrest and trial, and they receive a closure of sorts from a guilty verdict, Roughton said.

But not victims of child pornography.

Thats something they live with and carry, he said. Its not something they can ever forget.

The possession of child pornography is a felony, and the seriousness of the charge gets higher for those who share or create child pornography, Miller said.

Anyone who says its a victimless crime is wrong, Miller said. Every time that image or movie is viewed, that child is re-victimized because somebody is seeing that child in a manner that children should not be portrayed.

Even if the child doesnt know someone is watching it, the fact that people are watching it encourages those producing child pornography to continue, Miller said.

Crimes of opportunity

Most of the people viewing it would molest a child in person if the opportunity presented itself, Roughton said.

People are often skeptical of this statement, and Roughton says he has an example he uses when he teaches.

If you came to his home and he had a basketball goal outside with a basketball at the base, and inside he had tennis shoes by the door, basketball trophies on a shelf, photos of basketball players on the walls, and a Sports Illustrated magazine on the coffee table open to a basketball article, you would assume he likes the sport.

Youd think it odd, Roughton continued, if you asked him to come play basketball and he responded with, No, Im not really interested in basketball.

Its the same for those who look at child pornography.

If someone is interested in watching a child be molested or raped, Roughton said, it doesnt make sense for that person to say theyre not interested in molesting kids.

Theres been research supporting this theory as well, Roughton said, and spoke about a 2008 study by Michael Bourke and Andres Hernandez on two groups: offenders convicted of possessing, receiving, or distributing child porn and those convicted of similar offenses with a history of hands-on sexual offenses with children, according to the study.

The goal was to determine whether the former group of offenders were merely collectors of child pornography at little risk for engaging in hands-on sexual offenses, or if they were contact sex offenders whose criminal sexual behavior involving children, with the exception of Internet crimes, went undetected, according to the study.

Over 18 months, Bourke and Hernandez studied 155 inmates who volunteered to be part of the program, 74 percent of whom had no documented hands-on victims. By the end of the study, they found 85 percent of them had at least one hands-on sexual offense and between all of the offenders, there were 1,777 victims, according to the study.

While law enforcement wont arrest someone just on suspicion or because they might do something, Roughton said viewing child porn should be a red flag.

The reality is, most of these guys are not just looking at pictures, Roughton said. Our main concern is that many times, the quote unquote people who have just pictures really have had other offenses, we just dont know about it.

Anyone with information on someone viewing child pornography, victims of child pornography, and anyone else with valuable information pertaining to an open case of child pornography is asked to contact the Onslow County Sheriff's Office at 910-455-3113 or Crime Stoppers at 910-938-3273. Crime Stoppers offers cash rewards of up to $2,500 for information provided thats deemed of value or assistance to law enforcement. Callers to Crime Stoppers are not required to reveal their identities. Information can also be anonymously texted via Text-A-Tip by typing TIP4CSJAX and the message to 274637.

Reporter Amanda Thames can be reached at 910-219-8467 or Amanda.Thames@JDNews.com

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Child porn is not 'just pictures' - Jacksonville Daily News

Ashley Byrd, 24, left his 'tag' at stations in the Black Country, and was finally caught after a dramatic police chase on rail tracks.

He was caught in an operation launched when 18 trains were vandalised in just 12 days.

Byrd would get on to the lines via a metal post and lie in wait in a tunnel as trains arrived into Birmingham New Street from the east.

As trains waited to come into the station, he would spray carriages just below the window and out of sight of passengers

He was finally arrested on December 27 last year, when a driver coming into New Street at around 7pm spotted him on the tracks.

Officers found him hiding in the tunnel and he fled, but police knew which way he would try to escape and were waiting for him at the other end.

His presences on the lines that evening caused delays totalling 467 minutes, costing Network Rail 30,556.

Carriage clean-up work cost 3,500.

Sketch books found at his house, on Inverness Road, Northfield, revealed tags matching those on the trains.

Traces of paint on his clothes matched that used on trains and at Dudley Port station, while his phone records linked him to times and dates when graffiti was scrawled at Coseley and Tipton stations.

Byrd went on to admit obstruction, trespass and criminal damage.

Last week, he was jailed for eight weeks and ordered to pay train operators CrossCountry and London Midland compensation of 3,772 in total.

PC Dave Rich from BTP in Birmingham said: These were not victimless crimes: Byrds actions delayed passengers and the cost to clean his graffiti will undoubtedly be passed onto the travelling public in some form.

We are satisfied with the sentence handed to him and we hope it sends a clear message to other graffiti vandals that we will do everything in our power to put you before the courts, who take a dim view of such mindless acts.

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Graffiti vandal behind a 34,000 rail crime spree is named | Express ... - expressandstar.com

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Dashcam footage of the exact moment Philando Castile was murdered by Minnesota police officer Jeronimo Yanez was released late Tuesday. The video proves two things: Castile could not have been more compliant, while Yanez responded with violence and seven rounds of gunfire. There is no ambiguity in the footage or the audio, no question that Yanez was unqualified to be carrying that gun, no question he was a far greater danger to Minnesotas citizens than the man he killed. To watch that scene and not believe Philando Castile was murdered is to believe black life has no inherent claim to existence.

The jury was shown the footage several times over the course of Yanezs trial, yet they chose to acquit him on all charges. Its a verdict thats maddeningly, infuriatingly and heartbreakingly illogical, yet consistent with every jury in this country thats been asked to rule on the deaths of black people at the hands of police. The U.S. system of criminal injustice fails black folks from start to finish by design.

A more intimate look at the jurors in Yanezs criminal case, compiled by the Minneapolis Star Tribune, offers not only insights into how they arrived at their decisions, but a look at just how well-stacked the jury was against a just verdict for Castile. There were just two black people on the jury of Castiles supposed peers. Juror One is a young African American who works as a shift manager at Wendys and personal care attendant for his mom. He expressed some lack of faith in the criminal justice system, reportedly expressing a belief that the wealthy and powerful could get off in the legal system because they could hire better attorneys. Juror 8 is an 18-year-old Ethiopian American who has lived in the U.S. since age 10. The Tribune notes that the defense tried to strike her due to unfamiliarity with the U.S. legal system, but the judge denied the attempt.

The rest of those selected for the jury were overwhelmingly middle-aged white Minnesotans, many of whom expressly stated support for police or a belief in the infallibility of the criminal justice system. Heres how the list shakes out, taken directly from the Star Tribune:

Juror 2: An older white female who manages a White Bear Lake gas station that has a contract with police. She said she had never heard of the Castile case. The judge denied an attempt by prosecutors to strike her after it was revealed that she had pro-police posts on her Facebook page. One of those posts was heavily critical of NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who began kneeling during national anthems last year to protest police shootings. She said she had forgotten about the posts.

Juror 3: Middle-aged white male whose wife works for the St. Paul School District, as did Castile but she did not know him. He lives very close to the where Castile was shot and works as the number one guy at a small metal finishing shop. He said his father was a fire chief and he grew up around law enforcement, and also has a nephew whos a police officer. He said it would be difficult for him to be unbiased. He has permit to carry and said he knew to keep his hands visible during a traffic stop. Thats what they teach you, he said.

Juror 4: A middle-aged white male who had very little knowledge of the case. He said he owns a gun and called the criminal justice system a very fair process.

Juror 5: A middle-aged white female who works at an assisted-living center and is highly active in church volunteer work. She said she had heard about the shooting at the time it happened, but knew little else. Her husband was carjacked at gunpoint 18 years ago. She said she had a high regard for police.

Juror 6: A white male in his 40s who is the jury foreperson. A wellness coach for the last seven years, he believes too many victimless crimes are prosecuted, including drug use and sex work. He believes marijuana should be legalized. He said he was somewhat isolated and knew nothing about the Yanez case.

Juror 7: A white female in her late 30s to early 40s who works as a nurse at the same hospital as Yanezs wife but said she does not know her. She said she watched Diamond Reynolds Facebook video, but didnt seek out news about the case and knew a moderate amount about it. Shes a member of a Harley motorcycle group. She said she was dissatisfied with how police responded to a call in 1996.

Juror 9: A middle-aged computer support worker, she was not familiar with the Yanez case, and said Im thankful we have police officers. She believes in the right to own a firearm, but added Im trying to stay away from them right now.

Juror 10: A middle-aged white male who is retired from preprinting work, he said he followed news about the case off and on. He said he had seen Reynolds Facebook video. She seemed overly calm he said on his juror questionnaire. He owns a handgun and hunts.

Juror 11: A middle-aged white male who owns several shotguns and long rifles to hunt pheasants. A former business manager who now works in construction and remodeling, he said in his questionnaire that the criminal justice system has problems but is the best in the world.

Juror 12: A middle-aged white male who moved to Minnesota four years ago to get a new start. He said hes a regular listener to MPR who knew a lot about the case. A pipe fitter, he took a permit-to-carry class three months ago. Keep your hands visible and do not do anything until they tell you want [sic] to do he said of permit to carry education on traffic stop conduct. He believes minor criminal offenses snowball and trap people in the justice system. It seems like its rigged against you, he said.

Justice for Philando Castile never had a chance. The system isnt broken; in fact, its working exactly the way its supposed to. The Yanez case is yet more evidence of exactly how well it continues to function.

KaliHolloway is a senior writer and the associate editor of media and culture at AlterNet.

This article was made possible by the readers and supporters of AlterNet.

Header imagesource.

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Castile Killing Jury Was Stacked For Defense - The National Memo (blog)

Being Libertarian

Mandatory Minimums Are Back in Sessions! Being Libertarian Where are the protests for those men and women who have been locked in cages for decades for victimless drug crimes? Where are the conservatives that argue that the government can't regulate morality? Where are the liberals that always argue that ... and more »

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Mandatory Minimums Are Back in Sessions! - Being Libertarian

A strong call has been made to decriminalise victimless crimes to free up law enforcement agencies to focus on situations where peoples rights and property are criminally violated.

The Free Market Foundation (FMF) is also calling for the discretionary powers of government officials that are an incentive for corruption to be restricted. The foundation also lambasted the appointment of judges on the basis they are progressive or advocate social change because that interferes with judicial independence.

The FMF described victimless crimes as those acts or omissions criminalised by government despite there being no complainant. It said victimless crimes included prostitution, some traffic offences, dealing in drugs and contravening exchange regulations. The organisation asked for those crimes to be abolished.

These are distinguished from victimisation crimes, where an individuals rights are criminally violated.

According to the FMF, pursuing victimless crimes wastes police time and prevents them from fighting real criminals.

Police resources are under pressure. One way to alleviate this is to stop wasting time and resources pursuing value-subjective crimes where no individual rights have been violated and allow the police to focus on real crimes against persons and property, the FMF said.

It believed that some traffic regulations were often arbitrary and sometimes unknown to motorists.Seeking help for drug abuse and prostitution led to innocent citizens being deemed criminals.

The FMF said incentives that lead to corruption, such as discretionary powers by officials, must be stopped by introducing strict criteria in the exercise of that power. It cited rampant abuse of discretionary powers in the granting or withholding of contracts, licences, protection, subsidies and other privileges as the causes of real or suspected corruption.

The only way to get money out of politics is to get politics out of money first, and ensure officials are bound by strict and unambiguous criteria in the exercise of their powers.

The FMF said judges appointments must not be politicised.

This is dangerous and contrary to the rule of law.

An independent judiciary is fundamental to a well-functioning democracy In this instance progressive means the judiciary must favour government action in economic and social affairs rather than emphasising individual rights.

See more here:

Decriminalise victimless crimes, says Free Market Foundation - Citizen

Zane Wetzel, who pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography In December 2016 in federal court in Bangor, can be seen in Boston in this December 2010 file photo. (Courtesy of Wetzel family via BDN)

BANGOR, Maine (BDN) -- An Easton man who in 2010 suffered third-degree burns on 50 percent of his body in a high-voltage accident while working as a linesman was sentenced to one and a half years in prison Monday for possession of child pornography.

Zane Wetzel, 31, pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography in U.S. District Court in Bangor in December 2016 before Judge John Woodcock, who also sentenced him for the crime Monday.

Wetzel, who faced up to 20 years in prison, will be on supervised release for five years and also will have to register as a sex offender, according to Chris Ruge, the assistant U.S. attorney general who prosecuted the case.

An investigation conducted by the Maine State Police Computer Crimes Unit and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements Homeland Security led to police finding in May 2015 images and videos of child pornography depicting actual prepubescent minors who were under the age of 12 years old on Wetzels computer, according to Ruge.

Investigators said Wetzel used peer-to-peer file sharing networks to download hundreds of images at a time. Some of the child porn included men sexually assaulting children, with images and videos saved to the hard drive of his computer.

Ruge said that 36 members of Wetzels family and his religious community attended Mondays proceedings to support him and that four of them spoke on his behalf.

The fact that there is a low risk of recidivism and that he has that support impacted the sentence, said Ruge. Judge Woodcock acknowledged that he was handing down a lighter sentence than he has normally given.

At the same time, Ruge said, Woodcock admonished Wetzel by stating that he did not commit a victimless crime.

Woodcock said in court that these young girls from around the world, who have been subjected to this abuse, are somebodys daughters.

The judge went on to tell the defendant that his offense is a serious crime that merits a significant penalty.

Ruge said Wetzel acknowledged the seriousness of the crime prior to his sentencing.

The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.

In 2010, Wetzel was hit with 69,000 volts of electricity while working as an apprentice linesman for Maine Public Service Co. He suffered a flash burn to his chest, back, arm and neck in the electrical accident that left him with third-degree burns over 50 percent of his body.

More:

Man who survived high voltage accident sentenced for child porn ... - WGME

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In Newark, a mom of three and activist called Janet Duran (not her real name) sits at the helm of a group called the New Jersey Red Umbrella Alliance, which has been defending and advocating for the rights of sex workers in the Garden State since 2013. She and others like her want New Jersey to decriminalize prostitution. And weve got to start to look at this in a new way.

Though Duran may not be someone youd wanna be friends with, she has a point. If a woman wants to sell her body for money, shouldnt she be protected? We often say that if New Jersey would only tax, regulate and license the business of prostitution the way it does with other popular industries in the state, wed reap the financial rewards as taxpayers, and youd see a lot less unemployment.

Like other victimless crimes, it seems illogical to call women (or men) who choose this line of work criminals. As we become more evolved when it comes to what people should be allowed to do with their own bodies, these laws should evolve as well.

Prostitution in the larger sense takes place every day in relationships only without money as the currency. Women, who are generally in charge of the sexual yay or nay routinely dole out sex in exchange for comfort, security, a lavish vacation or an expensive meal. Its just called wining and dining and not exchanging sex for goods. A happily married wife may promise a little somethin somethin' in exchange for that sports car or designer purse shes been dying for.

But the moment a monetary transaction is made it becomes a crime. In the case of massage parlors who offer or at least will provide, on request happy endings, whos to say what constitutes the actual act? What if a man merely derives sexual pleasure from the massage itself even without completion and then pays for the pleasure. Is THAT prostitution? Where is the line and who is to make that judgement?

The fact is this: when decisions are made by consenting adults whether they involve monetary compensation or not, it should be none of the governments business. These are personal choices and should be kept just that; personal. We are on the precipice of legalizing marijuana because weve finally realized that we can no longer deprive people of certain freedoms. And sex for money, especially with laws that provide for proper testing and safety is inarguably less risky.

If a woman says my body, my choice when it comes to abortion, but then thinks prostitution should remain illegal, shes a hypocrite. Dont sex workers abide by that same principle? Perhaps its time.

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Judi It's time to make prostitution legal in New Jersey - New Jersey 101.5 FM Radio

This story is one of a series of stories and interviews relating to prostitution and its effects on the community and families. Is it a victimless crime? Or is it just the tip of the iceberg, leaving a string of destruction in its pathway? Many therapists define sexual addiction as obsessive behavior that puts marriage, family, career, health and personal safety in peril.

We also will be examining in future stories sex trafficking, pornography and child prostitution and pornography. In some instances, like this one, the names have been changed to protect the family who agreed to be interviewed. In other pieces, the names will be changed to protect the people being interviewed because of the potential danger they place themselves in by going public.

For those who think prostitution is a victimless crime, Karen and her family wouldnt agree.

There are few things more devastating to a spouse than the betrayal of infidelity, which is intensified if it is made public. Experts say there is a psychological difference between paid sex and other types of infidelity. Visiting a prostitute is usually only about the sex. It isnt about friendship. It isnt about ego, or admiration, or conquest. It is a cold and emotionless one-sided business transaction.

Karen and Mark from outside appearances are an All American family. Karen stays home and has a home-based business that allows her to be with the children, and Mark is a career man. He loves his wife and his kids. They all go to church on Sundays and worship together. But there was an addiction that was secretly tearing their family apart.

Karens perfect world fell apart after finding out that Mark had been frequenting local massage parlors, right here in Fallbrook on Main Ave. She described her feelings as raw. She felt betrayed, deceived and disgusted. Her world was shattered and she wasnt sure if she had any blame. She wasnt sure if they would ever be the same again. She loved him, but wondered, How could he do that? She had a lot of questions, but wasnt sure she wanted to know the answers.

Mark started going to massage parlors in search of relief. He had chronic pain and didnt want to take prescription pain killers. As his visits grew into something more, he says fantasy fueled it and he never meant to hurt his wife, his family or himself, but his double life began and he was just looking for some me time.

What fueled Marks perfect storm was a porn addiction. Next week we will examine what experts are describing as the pornography epidemic. The sex industry as a whole has an excess of 25 million websites. Why is this relevant? All of the people we interviewed said their sex addiction started with pornography. It is estimated that as many as 79 percent of men age 18 to 30 view porn at least monthly. Some experts believe that the addiction is stronger than cocaine in adolescents ages 11 to14. Meaning, the pathways developed in a young persons brain upon seeing the pornographic images at that formative age has an even greater addictive effect than the actual drug.

Karen took great care of herself and looked great but she said, He wasnt really interested in me physically. She knew something was wrong, but was shocked to find out that he was bypassing her to be with weird looking women. She said, Ultimately, I represented guilt and shame because the intimacy between a husband and wife is based on love, so how can you have that when you are off having interactions with who knows what.'

She said, Lust is about taking and love is about giving. Mark agreed.

Karen said, When I found out I wanted to die. I was so devastated, disgusted by something that was meant to be beautiful. It was now dirty and disgusting. I had a self hatred and then a hatred for even being a woman. Its interesting how I turned it inward towards myself. Logically you realize its not your fault but theres a sense of control over the situation if you believe that a change of something about yourself can make a difference. But theres really nothing you can do.

And I never once turned him down for sex, so it wasnt because he wasnt given attention at home.

I broke down and fell apart. If it wasnt for the grace of God, I wouldnt have gotten out of bed. In my head, even though it wasnt conscious, I wanted him to see what he was missing. I would think, look what you are giving up your family, a wife who adores you, and your future. But trying to rationalize with someone who is in the depths of that is impossible because their mind has become so warped. Its like trying to rationalize with someone who wants to believe the lies theyve told themselves to continue the behavior. The wife is blaming herself and the husband is blaming her too [and the prostitute may also be blaming the wife]. Its so emotionally and mentally draining. I tried to guilt him, shame him into repentance.

The more anger and breakdowns I would have the less he could hear God. Yet he would still continue to frequent the massage parlors. His justification was he wasnt paying for it, he was just tipping them.'

She continued, I would say, Its so degrading. How could you? We continued to pray together and go to church. So I gave him one year. Within that year there were highs and lows and at some point I knew something wasnt right and some of the old behavior started to return and there were some nights where I couldnt relax around my husband and then I was in the position where my biggest trigger was my husband. He was still hiding something and he also realized that things werent going to get better.

Karen was giving up hope as he would say, I went to get a massage but I didnt pay for anything. The only way she seemed to reach him and get him to see was to say, Ok we can go to the pastor and talk to him. She said it was then that she left because she didnt believe anything would ever change. Leaving for the support of her family in another state, she was giving up on their marriage.

I knew as soon as I got in the plane that I was supposed to leave, said Karen. The best thing I ever did was to let go and walk away. Then he sought help on his own.

Mark called her after she left and said, Im a coward. I did receive services. Karen said, I will not be coming home.

I had friends step forward who said my kids and I could stay with them but none of this I wanted for our family, and I was angry at him for doing this to my family, said Karen.

But while she was out of town with family, Karen found out she was pregnant with his baby.

Karen said, My biggest lesson was the Refiners Fire when youre faced with that type of adversity and devastation. I could have gone and cheated or justified alcohol or other self medication. Theres a lot of temptation to gratify yourself. Theres an emptiness and grieving and loss. Its like a death I really was faced with and self has an insatiable appetite. Where doesnt it end? One thing that kept me from seeking attention from other men was the thought, Just because my husband lowered his standards doesnt mean I need to. Or to compromise my standards for myself.

But I found it very difficult, continued Karen. There was temptation. I was able to ask myself, How would it end? What I found is, you dont regret saying no, but I would have regretted saying yes. It was a time of self-revelation. There were some things in me that surfaced that I didnt like.

Mark found an inpatient program in Kentucky called Pure Life Ministry that specialized in the addictions he faced.

Karen said, After he moved back to Kentucky and was there a few months, the counselor was calling me asking if Mark could be here during the birth of the baby. I said no, because missing the birth is a small price to pay for what he did.

Then he asked me to just pray about it. The next day I was driving and I felt a tugging on my heart and I felt like the Lord was asking me, Karen, what does forgiveness look like? After that God validated me. Does Mark deserve to die of AIDS, or have a lifetime of misery that he deserves? Yes, but forgiveness is taking all those things and rolling them up in a ball and throwing them out the window. He doesnt deserve to see his daughter be born. But forgiveness is a giving up of ones right. God has taken all that and nailed it to the cross.

So I went back to the house and called his counselor, continued Karen. Bitterness, resentment, unforgiveness would have grown and grown and eventually taken over if I couldnt forgive him. I can only deal with me. I dont think theres anything in Karen that could have forgiven that man. Its only with the love of Christ.

How were you able to be intimate again? It was awful, said Karen. Visions of other women were in our bedroom. I had to accept it and get past it. Sometimes I would break down and cry. I would think I could never go back and do that again. But the change in him was what started to bring the real intimacy back. It was his desire for his wife and the design of intimacy between a husband and a wife that brought it back. In physical intimacy there is a bond and we had lost that. It was no longer an intimate experience that I could share with my husband, but one that would now entail battling repulsive images.

Will things ever be the same? I think that its a delusion to think youre going to get through life or marriage without experiencing something of the caliber where youre going to ask yourself that question, said Karen. Rape victims feel that way, people who lose children feel that way. But the [grace] is that Christ makes all things new.

What I wasnt prepared for was the spiritual intimacy that would become a new part of our marriage, continued Karen. It was an intimacy that ran much deeper than the physical. A cord of three strands is not easily broken (Ecclesiastes 4:12). When we aligned our lives in submission to Gods will, we met on a spiritually intimate level and everything else for me became second. That is what drew us closer. The closer we both came to God, the closer we were to one another. This was new in our marriage.

And he who was seated on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new. Also he said, Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true. (Revelation 21:5)

And this was true of our marriage. There was a sense of peace I had in knowing there was never or ever would be a prostitute who could share that with him. It belonged to us and to me that was sacred.

Studies indicate that men who hire prostitutes are only slightly more likely to be single than married. And furthermore they do not appear to differ much from the general population of men.

Mark, What do you think was the reason you visited prostitutes? It was an offshoot of fantasy, he said. Some people have taken their own fantasies different ways, but for me, my body constantly hurt. My back, knees, and shoulder and I was looking for some relief. I saw what prescription drugs do to people and I didnt drink, so I justified it in my own thinking that this is just a brief moment of reprieve, me time

Was it all that you hoped and fantasized it would be? The reality is that [paying for sex] is fleeting, the outcome is never what you hoped or expected it to be, Mark said. The outcome leaves you with guilt and condemnation and a bit of ostracizing. And now its a thing that you can never talk about. Youve opened the door to a separate life or a different you, and you are who you are. You become very plastic. You start to care a lot less about people.

Mark said he started paying for services before he was married.

I was feeling the void of no girlfriend, no intimacy, no relationship and at the same time I was all that much more bitter towards women (he had gone through a divorce from his first wife), Mark said.

Mark says because he was so angry and bitter, that it was a miracle that he actually dated during the beginning stages (of massages and extra services).

The favors at the end (of the massage) I didnt consider sex, it was just the outskirts, said Mark. And the problem is, if you feed your soul that junk, thats the only thing thats going to grow. Intimacy isnt sex, but thats what pop culture had (to offer).

Was pornography a precursor? Yes, from a young age, said Mark. And if you research it enough, you will find it is ALWAYS a precursor to sexual misconduct or sexual crimes.

He added, Actually taking the step to pay for physical sex is much easier after viewing pornography and visualizing it for months. Youve already done it in your head and youve justified it to yourself. You just need the right time and that always comes when you are so willing. The adrenaline is there and its not that you dont love your wife, its different. I knew it was wrong. The guilt had no power to overcome the desire for self gratification.

Mark says he eventually felt trapped and wanted out but didnt know how to escape its grasp on him.

Mark admits paying for sex doesnt replace Intimacy. Intimacy is a deep level of friendship a man and a wife have intimacy in a healthy relationship, he said. And for instance, two guys can have intimacy without having sexual relations.

Several years later, after you were married and it all came to light, how did you feel? I felt hollow, he said. I was tired of trying to maintain a front that wasnt real. In some ways I had already known that my family was gone and that was part of the hollow feeling. I was existing in that lie.

For all intents and purposes, Mark was a good guy.

There was work that I was trying to do correctly and I was still trying to be a good guy at home, but emotionally I was quick tempered, always frustrated, had unreal expectations for everybody around me because I didnt know what a real relationship should be like, said Mark.

How did it affect Karen? She went through periods of depression, anxiety and panic attacks, because of not being able to trust me, and finding out one day that I was not who she thought I was, said Mark. Even at that point I had a hard time being repentant. I was sorry. I didnt want to see her get hurt. I was sorry I hurt her. I didnt want to hurt her. I loved her, or I had a sense of what I thought love was for her. So in my thinking, according to my definition, yes (I loved her), but in that love I still cheated on her. I didnt take care of her. I always put her below my needs. Obviously my definition of love was screwed up at best.

Some time after the initial confrontation I recommitted my life to Christ, continued Mark. Karen and I got baptized in our church but I still lacked power because my spiritual roots hadnt grown deep enough.

A comment that she made was something to the effect of, If you dont find a way to get some help or work this out, its going to kill you or youre going to kill yourself. Immediately I could say, Youre right. I knew she was right and I researched on the internet for residency programs for sexual addiction. And I knew the only real solution was going to be through God because I had already seen a sexual addiction therapist for about three months.

When I went to Pure Life Ministry, I met lots of great guys but some of them just wanted to fix this little thing. The difference for me and what I knew was that if it didnt work for me, I would be dead. I would end up diseased or dead and I was at the end of my rope, and God was able to use that.

I was shocked to learn that my sexual addiction was really sexual idolatry and that was just a fruit of a whole tree of sin where pride was at the roots. And my pride was saying Its all about me. I want what I want when I want it. When youre not focused on Christ, you can justify anything.

But the reality is if what we are doing is not for the glory of Jesus Christ, it wont last. Well be left at Judgment grasping at straws for what we did for selfish reasons.

In asking Mark if he had any parting shot, he pointed me to a Bible verse Luke 8:38-39 (NIV). The man from whom the demons had gone out begged to go with him [Jesus], but Jesus sent him away, saying, Return home and tell how much God has done for you. So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him.

Mark said, You see, I am that man. Not everyone wants to hear these things. I pray the soil of mens hearts are not so hard and rocky as to reject the seeds from the Spirit of God. True change is impossible without Him.

Today I can love my wife with a real love not my broken misconception of love, continued Mark. I can love my wife because of Christ inside of me. He has shown me how to love and now I just need to follow his example.

Link:

Prostitution: The 'Victimless Crime' and its effects on one local family - Fallbrook / Bonsall Villlage News

BANGOR, Maine An Easton man who in 2010 suffered third-degree burns on 50 percent of his body in a high-voltage accident while working as a linesman was sentenced to one and a half years in prison Monday for possession of child pornography.

Zane Wetzel, 31, pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography in U.S. District Court in Bangor in December 2016 before Judge John Woodcock, who also sentenced him for the crime Monday.

Wetzel, who faced up to 20 years in prison, will be on supervised release for five years and also will have to register as a sex offender, according to Chris Ruge, the assistant U.S. attorney general who prosecuted the case.

An investigation conducted by the Maine State Police Computer Crimes Unit and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements Homeland Security led to police finding in May 2015 images and videos of child pornography depicting actual prepubescent minors who were under the age of 12 years old on Wetzels computer, according to Ruge.

Investigators said Wetzel used peer-to-peer file sharing networks to download hundreds of images at a time. Some of the child porn included men sexually assaulting children, with images and videos saved to the hard drive of his computer.

Ruge said that 36 members of Wetzels family and his religious community attended Mondays proceedings to support him and that four of them spoke on his behalf.

The fact that there is a low risk of recidivism and that he has that support impacted the sentence, said Ruge. Judge Woodcock acknowledged that he was handing down a lighter sentence than he has normally given.

At the same time, Ruge said, Woodcock admonished Wetzel by stating that he did not commit a victimless crime.

Woodcock said in court that these young girls from around the world, who have been subjected to this abuse, are somebodys daughters.

The judge went on to tell the defendant that his offense is a serious crime that merits a significant penalty.

Ruge said Wetzel acknowledged the seriousness of the crime prior to his sentencing.

The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.

In 2010, Wetzel was hit with 69,000 volts of electricity while working as an apprentice linesman for Maine Public Service Co. He suffered a flash burn to his chest, back, arm and neck in the electrical accident that left him with third-degree burns over 50 percent of his body.

Continue reading here:

Man who survived high voltage accident sentenced for child porn - Bangor Daily News

The jurors The case of the State of Minnesota v. Jeronimo Yanez started with a jury pool of 50 randomly selected residents of Ramsey County. Here are sketches of the final 12 jurors, revealed during the selection process:

Juror 1: Young black man who works as a shift manager at Wendys and personal care attendant for his mom. He said hed never had a run-in with police.

Juror 2: An older white woman who manages a White Bear Lake gas station that has a contract with police. She said she had never heard of the Philando Castile case. The judge denied an attempt by prosecutors to strike her after it was revealed that she had pro-police posts on her Facebook page.

Juror 3: Middle-aged white man whose wife works for the St. Paul School District, as did Castile but she did not know him. He lives very close to where Castile was shot and is the No. 1 guy at a small metal finishing shop.

Juror 4: A middle-aged white man who had very little knowledge of the case. He said he owns a gun and called the criminal justice system a very fair process.

Juror 5: A middle-aged white woman who works at an assisted-living center and is highly active in church volunteer work. She said she had heard about the shooting at the time it happened but knew little else.

Juror 6: A white man in his 40s who is a wellness coach and became the jury foreman. He said he believes too many victimless crimes are prosecuted, including drug use and sex work.

Juror 7: A white woman in her late 30s to early 40s who works as a nurse at the same hospital as Yanezs wife but said she does not know her. She said she watched Diamond Reynolds Facebook video, but didnt seek out news about the case and knew a moderate amount about it.

Juror 8: An 18-year-old Ethiopian-American woman who immigrated to America when she was 10. She said she had not heard about the Yanez case before jury selection and doesnt watch the news. The defense tried to strike her due to unfamiliarity with the U.S. legal system, but the judge denied the attempt.

Juror 9: A white middle-aged computer support worker, who was not familiar with the Yanez case, and said, Im thankful we have police officers. She believes in the right to own a firearm, but added Im trying to stay away from them right now.

Juror 10: A middle-aged white male who is retired from preprinting work. He said he followed news about the case off and on. He said he had seen Reynolds Facebook video.

Juror 11: A middle-aged white man who owns several shotguns and long rifles to hunt pheasants. He said in his questionnaire that the criminal justice system has problems but is the best in the world.

Juror 12: A middle-aged white man and pipe fitter who moved to Minnesota four years ago to get a new start. He said hes a regular listener to MPR who knew a lot about the case. He took a permit-to-carry class three months ago.

Staff reports

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Snapshot of jurors in the Yanez case - Minneapolis Star Tribune

Auto theft is often thought of as a victimless crime, but in reality everyone is a victim when vehicles are stolen, because people ultimately pay for it through higher insurance rates.

Earlier this month, Bloomberg News published a story identifying the top 10 cities in the United States with the highest per-capita rate of vehicle thefts in 2016. Pueblo was second on the list, which used the National Insurance Crime Bureau report as its source.

"The bottom line is that auto theft going up in Pueblo does contribute ultimately to what we pay in car insurance and higher rates," said Carol Walker, a spokeswoman for the Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association.

Walker said stolen vehicles are one of the factors that can contribute to higher insurance rates.

"When you think of your car insurance, there are different coverages. Comprehensive coverage is what covers you if your car is stolen," Walker said.

"However, at the same time it also covers you for hail and flooding. So, unfortunately, the state also is ranked second in the nation for hail insurance claims, and Southern Colorado has been hit very hard."

Walker said the spike in auto theft across the state adds up to about $100 million in value of property.

"So there is a dollar value unfortunately to stolen vehicles. Of course there also is a public safety concern to see Pueblo ranked second on a list like that. At the same time, we all pay for it," Walker said.

Walker said the state is on a collision course with what people are paying for car insurance and seeing it spike so dramatically.

"It's Mother Nature unleashing hail year after year and auto theft going up 50 percent, and it's also that cars are more expensive to repair than they were before because of all the technology," she said.

"We are also at a very litigious lawsuit environment where it is very easy to sue insurance companies, and so insurance companies at this point are really trying to keep up with those high costs to pay claims and those increased claims."

Pueblo had a rate of approximately 900 auto thefts per 100,000 residents, according to Bloomberg.

Walker said while the state is seeing auto theft increasing, there are resources being put toward preventing it.

She is a part of the Colorado Auto Theft Prevention Authority; Pueblo is part of the southern task force.

"Every insurance company is required to collect a dollar on every insured vehicle every year, and it goes into the Colorado Auto Theft Prevention Authority. It's a granting authority that is set up to combat auto theft through the state Legislature," Walker said.

"That money goes toward multijurisdictional task forces. So law enforcement efforts increase to combat auto theft. There is also prevention and education training."

One of those preventions is to not leave keys in your automobile. Walker said comprehensive insurance still covers vehicle owners in those situations, but it is highly encouraged not to do it.

Pueblo reached a record for auto theft reports in 2016, recording 1,216 -- which equates to roughly three a day and about 102 a month. That number marked a 35 percent increase from 2015, when there were 899 auto thefts reported. Through May 31, there had been 463 auto thefts in Pueblo.

"Auto theft is part of the drug crime increase and the homicide increase, because usually there is a stolen vehicle involved with those other crimes," Walker said.

Pueblo police have said that the majority of auto thefts in Pueblo consist of individuals stealing cars across town and using them for a variety of reasons, including to transport crime suspects or drugs.

Walker said the state is always looking at trends in an effort to determine why auto theft is on the rise.

"One of the biggest things we are seeing is the relationships to other crimes," she said.

"From an insurance perspective, what they are looking at is claim trends. They are looking at not just one year, but over a period of time."

Walker said insurance companies analyze what they are paying out in claims, "Whether those are stolen vehicles, whether those are hail claims or whether those are increased car crashes. Unfortunately, CDOT is also reporting that fatalities are up 24 percent over a two-year period.

"It really is the perfect storm and, unfortunately, auto theft is a part of that."

anthonym@chieftain.com

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Stolen vehicles in Pueblo contribute to higher insurance rates - Pueblo Chieftain

A MAN has been jailed for 12 months after police found more than 130 indecent images of children photos and videos on his mobile phone.

Maxwell Djan, 30, was arrested at work at a supermarket distribution depot, on April 10 this year, after police had earlier raided his home at The Courtlands, Greenmeadow, Cwmbran.

No indecent images were found on any of the computer equipment seized there, but on the mobile phone Djan had with him when he was arrested, police found 132 indecent images of children.

Eighty-seven of these were in the form of videos, and 52 of these fell into the most serious category A.

There were 34 video deemed to be category B, and one in category C.

Twenty-four of the 45 photographs were classed as category A, 17 were in Category B, and four in category C.

Prosecuting counsel Sarah Waters told Newport Crown Court that Djan admitted to police that he accessed an internet chat room group, people would send him links, and he would open them and the images would be there.

He had been adamant that he had never looked for such images, and had no interest in it, but was conscious that they had been downloaded and, added Ms Waters, he had made no attempt to delete them or dissociate himself from the group.

Defence counsel Gareth Williams told the court that Djan, who was born in Ghana but had been living in South Wales for 20 years, had a huge amount of regret over the matter.

But he added that it must be tempered by the fact that he had not deleted the images.

Djan pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to three charges of possession of indecent still images, three charges of possession of indecent moving images, and one charge each of possession of extreme pornography and possession of a prohibited image of a child.

Judge Jeremy Jenkins sentenced Djan to 12 months in prison on the category A image offences, with a range of shorter sentences for the other offences to run concurrently.

He told Djan that he had not committed victimless crimes, and it is people like him who are prepared to download such images who contribute to the pain and suffering of the children involved.

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Cwmbran man had 132 indecent images of children on his mobile ... - South Wales Argus

A MAN has been jailed for 12 months after police found more than 130 indecent images of children photos and videos on his mobile phone.

Maxwell Djan, 30, was arrested at work at a supermarket distribution depot, on April 10 this year, after police had earlier raided his home at The Courtlands, Greenmeadow, Cwmbran.

No indecent images were found on any of the computer equipment seized there, but on the mobile phone Djan had with him when he was arrested, police found 132 indecent images of children.

Eighty-seven of these were in the form of videos, and 52 of these fell into the most serious category A.

There were 34 video deemed to be category B, and one in category C.

Twenty-four of the 45 photographs were classed as category A, 17 were in Category B, and four in category C.

Prosecuting counsel Sarah Waters told Newport Crown Court that Djan admitted to police that he accessed an internet chat room group, people would send him links, and he would open them and the images would be there.

He had been adamant that he had never looked for such images, and had no interest in it, but was conscious that they had been downloaded and, added Ms Waters, he had made no attempt to delete them or dissociate himself from the group.

Defence counsel Gareth Williams told the court that Djan, who was born in Ghana but had been living in South Wales for 20 years, had a huge amount of regret over the matter.

But he added that it must be tempered by the fact that he had not deleted the images.

Djan pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to three charges of possession of indecent still images, three charges of possession of indecent moving images, and one charge each of possession of extreme pornography and possession of a prohibited image of a child.

Judge Jeremy Jenkins sentenced Djan to 12 months in prison on the category A image offences, with a range of shorter sentences for the other offences to run concurrently.

He told Djan that he had not committed victimless crimes, and it is people like him who are prepared to download such images who contribute to the pain and suffering of the children involved.

Link:

Man had indecent images of children on his mobile phone - South Wales Argus

SENSELESS vandalism of Richardson Park in Sawtell has left local sports clubs reeling and the council counting the cost of repairing the playing fields.

Over the long weekend, vandals forced their way into the ground and then used a vehicle to totally destroy the playing surface.

"We are very angry and upset at the repeated destruction and vandalism to the playing surface at Richardson Park over the long weekend," Alex Pearson, President Sawtell/Toormina AFL said.

"We are somewhat fortunate that we have an away game this weekend. Howeverthe damage to the playing surface affects our home games in the following weeks and will most definitely affect our ability to train.

"These actions by reckless individuals show a lack of respect, not only to the Sawtell/ Toormina AFL club, but to all Sawtell sporting groups that use Richardson Park and the local community that use the ground for recreational activities."

Rod Buckle, President of Sawtell Cricket Club, said his members were also very disappointed.

"The fact they had to take the effort to remove a fence to do it and then to come back and do it again makes it even less understandable. I am sure these people would know someone they have affected in either the cricket club or the local AFL club," Mr Buckle said.

"The fact they are old enough to hold a licence and still have the lack of judgement to think this would be a good idea in a small community beggar's belief.

"They seem to think these are victimless crimes, but they effect more than just the clubs. It affects the community, the players, the supporters, the sponsors and all the volunteers that put time into making what are great local clubs."

Council is urging any residents who witnessed the damage to the Park to report it to Police.

"What people don't realise is that this sort of reckless behaviour causes more than just damage to the grass," the council's Section Leader for Stadium and Major Events Daniel Heather said.

"The fields at Richardson Park now require significant remediation work, which is ultimately paid for by the community. It takes resources off other community projects and, most significantly, the damage leaves local sports and other users - including local schools - without grounds."

Vandalism across the Coffs Coast, particularly at public sport facilities, is a problem and Council is grateful for the support of the local Police command in helping tackle and deal with this behaviour.

Anyone that witnesses vandalism should contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000, Coffs Harbour Police Station on 02 6652 0299 or 131 444 (after hours).

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Sporting clubs devastated by senseless vandalism - Coffs Coast Advocate

A Castle Rock man was sentenced to spend the next three years of his life in prison Wednesday for leaving the scene of an Interstate 5 collision that killed a Chehalis motorcyclist in April.

Had David L. Huisenga, 44, stayed at the scene, rather than leaving and attempting to cover up his involvement by setting fire to his truck, he likely wouldnt have even received a traffic citation, Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer said.

To me that is just telling, Meyer said. The defendant made a stupid decision.

Huisenga pleaded guilty in separate hearings Wednesday in Lewis County Superior Court for hit and run with a death and second-degree arson.

Meyers office and Huisengas attorney, Don Blair, jointly recommended a sentence of 31 months, the low end of the standard sentencing range given Huisengas limited criminal history.

After hearing arguments from both attorneys and input from the motorcyclists family, Superior Court Judge Andrew Toynbee imposed a sentence of 36 months.

This isnt just a regular hit and run involving a death, Toynbee said. I do this in part because Mr. Huisenga didnt just leave the scene. He did more than that; he tried to cover his tracks.

In a separate hearing immediately following the first, Superior Court Judge Joely ORourke imposed a sentence of 12 months in prison for the arson charge, to run concurrently with the longer sentence.

Meyer said he split the crimes into separate case numbers because he viewed the hit and run and arson as separate crimes.

The Washington State Patrol received a report just after 5 a.m. April 25 of a crash involving multiple vehicles at milepost 80 of northbound Interstate 5 in Centralia.

According to a report from the State Patrol, Michael T. Fields, 57, of Chehalis, was driving northbound when his motorcycle crashed and slid across a freeway lane into the shoulder. He was ejected and hit by a 2018 Freightliner semi truck killing him at the scene.

Several friends and family members spoke Wednesday at Huisengas sentencing hearing.

I was one of Mikes work family, said David Roose. I cannot tell you what a loss this is.

Tami Hodgins, longtime partner of Fields, described him as a kind and generous man.

Mostly my heart is broken, she said. Physically I have a hard time getting things done. Other times I just feel plain angry he was taken from me.

The State Patrol learned that a red 2001 Chevrolet Silverado truck registered to Huisenga was in some way involved in the crash after finding a license plate at the scene. Detectives asked members of the public to come forward with any information they might have about the crash.

Meyer told The Chronicle Wednesday Fields motorcycle actually hit Huisengas truck. After his arrest, Huisenga reported he was changing lanes at the time the vehicles collided, after seeing the motorcycle coming up behind him.

Meanwhile, at about 9:15 a.m. that morning, a Washington State Department of Transportation worker saw smoke coming from an area near Exit 63 of I-5 south of Chehalis.

Fire crews responded and found a vehicle on fire. While the vehicle was destroyed, crews found a license plate matching the one left at the scene of the crash, identifying it as Huisengas truck.

Fire investigators determined the truck was intentionally set on fire, according to court documents.

That afternoon, Huisenga walked into the Castle Rock Police Department to report his truck stolen. He later admitted to setting fire to it after the collision, then walking south to Castle Rock.

Toynbee and both attorneys noted that, according to state law, hit and run, even when involving a fatality, is not considered a crime against a person. Huisenga pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of the crash, not causing the other mans death.

These cases are never easy to address and this partIcular crime has been troubling to those of us who have been on the prosecution side, Toynbee said. The crime is leaving the scene.

Meyer said he plans to work to change the law classifying hit and run as a victimless crime.

More here:

Man Sentenced to 3 Years in Crash That Killed Chehalis Motorcyclist - Centralia Chronicle