Anonymous hands @cselley his ass | #Rehtaeh #RapeCulture

"How would you respond to columns like Chris Selley’s in the National Post that say your efforts are not needed?

Wow, you picked a real winner there. Well, no offense to Chris Selley or the National Post, but he seems to insinuate that if the police screw up and a few rapists get off the proper response is “tough shit,” move on to the next case. For that, I think he's a moron. Let's slow down for one second and assume that I did release the names of those rapists... what law am I breaking? I suppose they could sue me for slandering them. Of course, to do that they'd have to prove I was lying.This gets worse: he says we should ignore the photo being spread around the school because it probably happens all time. We can't expect the legal system to punish everyone that's passing around photos of women being raped, now can we? It's “fairly routine adolescent behaviour.” Chris Selley article epitomizes the rape culture. "

'via Blog this'

If there's a better rejoinder to all the handwringers and mansplainers and apologists who caution us against going vigilante and say we should just let the legal process and the justice system do their jobs, I haven't found it yet.

News flash, fuckheads: the justice system screwed the pooch on this. The legal process, the school system, and the police -- all the institutions we charge with keeping young women like Rehtaeh safe -- did sweet fuck-all to protect her.

And the fucking RCMP? Well, they're pretty good at tasering immigrants to death and then lying about it, sitting there with their thumbs up their asses while serial killers prey on women, and/or sexually assaulting their female colleagues and aboriginal prisoners. Serving and protecting young women? Not so shit-hot.

Related posts:

• If the Mounties, whose track record on gender issues is disgusting and grossly incompetent ...
• Tell us again how the police are our friends ...
• Robert Dziekanski, the RCMP, and an anniversary

@ThomsonTO fires back at @TOMayorFord. Cue flying-monkey / Sun "reader" attack | #TOpoli

As my good friend @Cityslikr pointed out earlier today, there's no contortion too painful, no logical leap too implausible, for the boil on Toronto's ass formerly known as Ford Nation. Our guy under attack? Never mind the lies, never mind the ignorance, never mind the sexism, never mind the racism, never mind the homophobia -- just another leftist conspiracy by a bunch of sore-loser special-interest teat-suckers.

So it seems Mayor Stupid suggested on his radio show today that Sarah Thomson might not be playing with a full deck. Well, wasn't that an invitation for a good old-fashioned mud fight, because Sarah's fired back on Facebook. The money quote:

Unlike the Mayor, I do not have a history of lying about my behaviour. Mayor Ford has lied publicly numerous times. He denied the drunken incident where he verbally assaulted a Durham couple during a hockey game but later admitted to it. And During 2010 civic election campaign he denied being arrested for pot possession in Florida and then admitted it and another DUI charge. The Mayor has a history of denial but usually owns up to his mistakes once the facts become overwhelming and I expect that he will eventually own up to this one.

Sigh. This little corner isn't going to come right out and say it, but then really, who needs to? But goddamn if the comments on Sarah's FB note didn't take a wrong-way turn down the road to Sun Commentville. Check these out:

Hoo boy. All the trademarks -- the bad spelling, the non-existent grammar, the spittle-flecked hatred, the stolid, wooden-headed, belligerent ignorance, and the determination to overlook patterns, discount evidence, reject analogies and excuse misbehaviour in their boy while simultaneously rushing to undermine, question and practically lynch anyone who questions him.

As I pointed out to @cityslikr, there's no engaging with these people. They're so wrapped up in their identification with Mayor Stupid that an accusation aimed at him is a personal attack on them. And perhaps they're getting some vicarious kicks out of him getting all fucked up and then pawing at women in public. Maybe they can't get away with it, but it does their hearts good to see Robbie getting away with it ... and with way more.

Well, that's Ford Asspimple for you. Maybe they don't care that the rules don't apply to Mayor Stupid. Maybe they don't care that unlike everyone else, he doesn't have to face any consequences when he breaks them. But come 2014, how well will that play with the adults?

Related posts:

Mayor Stupid plays grabass with @ThomsonTO. Fuckwits rush to excuse it

Aw, what the hey. Time to play 'Let's hear from another Sun reader' again!

Yeah, well. I hesitate to direct traffic that way by linking to it, but the screen grab's above.

Rest of it continues in the same vein -- sexism, racism, homophobia, and fat-shaming union members, mixed in with the occasional smirking Jack Layton rub-and-tug reference or equally witty and creative reference to Olivia as "chow-chow."

Ah, the Toronto Sun. Not only spewing hatred, ignorance and belligerent stupidity, but providing a home for it from their toothless, badly-tattooed "readers" as well.

Related posts:

• Once again, let's hear from a few Sun readers
• Once again, time to play ... Let's hear from another Sun reader!
• Let's hear from another Sun reader ...

Tell us again how the police are our friends ...

Why I’m an Actorvist now… (or, to hell and back.) « The Life of an Actor:

"Being arrested and charged is NOT the end of the world – they just want you to feel like it is. So much of police and court process is about intimidation, which is why sometimes people get physically beaten when they are not talking and giving police the answers they want to hear."

'via Blog this'

From Emily Scholey, who was apparently arrested for trying to report domestic abuse.

OpenFile's got more.

Far-right hatred is a sickness, but it's a symptom, not the cause | #Norway

Late-night submissions on a heavy Sunday night ...

I thought I'd seen, heard and read it all by now.

That worthless piece of shit used dum-dum bullets. The cherry on the shit sundae.

Another sick, cruel piece of shit says those kids all but deserved what they got because, apparently, they said some things that weren't abjectly devoted to Israel.

And a few other worthless yammering transmitters have been treating the facts as an inconvenient speed bump in their haste to continue repeating their revolting message of Islamophobia and demonization.

Ruth Ellen Brosseau and the corporate-media cowards

You remember those nasty, sadistic little pricks who used to burn ants with magnifying glasses? And then in school they used to get their kicks ganging up on younger kids? Seems they grew up, in a manner of speaking, and got jobs with newspapers.

Aggressive, hardball progressive politics

What we need more of in this country. Digby's got it exactly right.

For those of you who don't know Congressman Alan Grayson, here's an introduction. He's doing God's work.



(H/t DownWithTyranny.)

This way to Authoritarian Avenue

(Photo by Jonas Naimark)

I've written at some length about the need to assert control over the way the story of the G20 summit is told. It's not going to be easy, given the institutional and political imperatives interested in spinning last weekend's events as a bunch of black-clad anarchist thugs trashing our peaceful city, yada yada yada. That doesn't make it any less important, however.

Just so we're clear: this isn't a story about a bunch of world leaders / political hacks / meat puppets for the corporate string-pullers getting together and agreeing on a whole bunch of things that'll make our lives a lot more painful. And it's not a story about a few morons breaking windows. And it's not a story about how thousands of riot cops couldn't protect a handful of cars, much as I'd like it to be about that.

No. This week's story has been about the corporate / state security apparatus using our fundamental freedoms for toilet paper. It's about people being locked up for hours without water, without being allowed to go to the bathroom, packed into cages like animals. It's about homophobic slurs and threats of sexual violence. It's about thuggish behaviour by people who know they can get away with it, because the mechanisms designed to ensure accountability are laughably weak.

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Last Sunday evening, my partner and I rode our bikes eastward on Queen toward Spadina. We were held up at Queen and Cameron, about a block west of Spadina, by a wall of bike cops, backed up by a phalanx of more heavily armed officers from various police forces. We could see by looking eastward that the intersection of Queen and Spadina was completely cordoned off, so we pulled up and just watched. As we waited, we watched the facial expressions change on the cops confronting us; shoulders straightened, muscles tensed, batons brandished openly. The front line of bike cops started herding us westward, ordering us to move back, buzzing their bike buzzers and pushing us. We all complied, but you can only move as fast as the guy behind you, and that wasn't quick enough for the officers pushing us westward, and they began shoving us. I couldn't help but wonder whether they were doing it because they figured they could, that their uniforms amounted to a licence to push people around?

Theodor Adorno's description of the authoritarian personality may provide some insight, but ultimately it pales in comparison to some of the stories emerging from the weekend. As it happened, while we were being shoved westward along Queen, several heavy-duty unmarked vans pulled past us to discharge the heavily armed tactical squads, and that was our cue to get the hell out of there.

Lisan Jutras' account of being caught in the kettle is required reading for anyone who wants a first-hand account of what was going on at Queen and Spadina Sunday night, and despite being caught in the rain and not allowed to leave for hours, she was one of the lucky ones.

Tommy Taylor's account of his arrest and detention is mind-blowing. Hours without water or a chance to pee. Homophobic slurs. Abuse of disabled prisoners. At the conclusion he, like hundreds of other people, is released without being charged. It seems apparent that the police knew they'd have a hard time making charges stick, but in the meantime, hundreds of people were abused, threatened and deprived of the basic rights we normally associate with living in an open society. Got a problem with that? Go complain. There are avenues for that, Dalton McGuinty assures us.

And then there are the accounts of people who were actively beaten, threatened and abused. Lacy MacAuley was arrested outside the makeshift gulag on Eastern Avenue. Her story sounds like something from behind the Iron Curtain. Amy Miller talks about cops threatening to gang-rape her.

In a few weeks, or perhaps months even, there may be an inquiry. Findings will be announced. Wrists will be slapped. Tuts will be tutted. And eventually, if we're lucky, someone will decide that the police - Toronto, OPP, ISU, RCMP, York, Halton, Montreal, Sudbury, Barrie, and anyone else who was invited to the party - had absolutely no justification for treating people the way they did. Feel better now? If you want to complain, there are established channels. Uh huh. Good luck with that.

This needs to be hammered on, repeatedly, all the more so because the MSM are getting tired of it. There's an implicit assumption that our attention spans are, well, limited. Yeah, yeah, there were a lot of smashed windows and burning cars, and maybe the cops overreacted, but there were a lot of smashed windows, and - oh, look! Something shiny!

And that's the dynamic that the corporate / state security apparatus is counting on. The more distracted / cowed we are, the easier it is for them to keep doing this to us. Yes, it's inexcusable how people were treated, and it shouldn't have happened, but by the time these processes wind their way to the end, people will have forgotten. In the meantime, the association of protest and activism with all the negative connotations continues, and the mere act of stepping outside your door becomes risky, unless you're planning on doing anything more than being a good little consumer / producer.

So, part of the narrative that needs to emerge from this weekend is: let's just keep in mind how fragile our fundamental freedoms really are. It's become pretty clear that those charged with serving and protecting us, and those who control them, don't think they count for much.