Austin, TX

I mentioned yesterday that I was grumpy. Reason 1 was due to Dallas’ new “Pull up your Pants” campaign.

Reason 2 has to do with Philadelphia Municipal Judge Teresa Carr Deni. Pull up a seat and I’ll explain why Judge Deni has me pissed off.

A young man, Dominique Gindraw, contacted a young woman he found on craigslist and negotiated to have sex with her for the sum of $150 for one hours service. When the young woman arrived at the agreed location she found herself not in his home as she’d expected but rather in an abandoned building in North Philly.

Mr. Gindraw then asked her if she’d have sex with his friend, too, which she agreed to do for another $100. My guess is that she realized she was in trouble at that point and figured she was better off negotiating for more money than trying to leave.

The friend arrived without money but carrying a gun. Men continued to arrive until a 5th man arrived and questioned why the young woman was crying. He helped her to dress and leave.

Yes, the girl had prostituted herself and put herself in a dangerous situation but what happened next is what pissed me off.

The case goes to court. The Defendant, Dominique Gindraw, is, of course, charged with sex and assault charges.

This is where Judge Deni comes into the equation. Judge Deni drops all charges and instead charges Gindraw with armed robbery for “theft of services”.

Theft of services? Since when did sex forced by gunpoint cease to be rape? When asked about her decision Judge Deni replied:

“She consented and she didn’t get paid . . . I thought it was a robbery.”

“Did she tell you she had another client before she went to report it?” Deni asked a reporter.

“I thought rape was a terrible trauma.”

A case like this, she said - to the reporters astonishment - “minimizes true rape cases and demeans women who are really raped.”

Four days later, Mr. Gindraw was in court charged with a nearly identical crime against another woman. The prosecutor, still stunned from the first case, refused to present the second case and therefore Judge Deni threw out the case entirely.

The police detective stated that both women “were in fear for their lives. Since they saw one of the doers really well, it crossed both of their minds that they’d be killed.” He went on to say that Judges actions were ” frankly, appalling”.

Deni stated that she has to “sleep at night with what I decide.” According to Deni, she slept well that night.

While it’s true that these women who prostitute themselves and foolishly put themselves in danger are somewhat difficult to feel sorry for, the law isn’t about how “worthy” the victim is or is not.

Reducing rape to “theft of services” is an insult to all rape victims. The judges contemptuous, dismissive attitude toward these young women is tantamount to raping them a second time. The chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association agrees:

“The victim has been brutalized twice in this case: first by the assailants, and now by the court,” Chancellor Jane Leslie Dalton wrote. “We cannot imagine any circumstances more violent or coercive than being forced to have sex with four men at gunpoint.”

Being prostitutes doesn’t make them less human and as often as not these young women get there by having suffered domestic violence growing up. I suspect that the judge had a much luckier upbringing.

The prosecutor in both cases says he’ll reinstate the charges, re-file and present to a different judge.

As one reporter said, “Hopefully, the next judge will be better able to differentiate between a violated business agreement and a violent attack.”

http://www.kansascity.com/440/story/341070.html

Deni, Philadelphia, rape, craigslist, prostitution, theft of services

Good morning, I hope you all had a great Halloween and that you are having a good day so far.

I, myself, am grumpy. Why am I grumpy? I’m so glad you asked.

First up, this article in Lindsey’s blog called Pull Up Your Pants. While it’s not Austin related, it’s certainly Texas related. It’s actions like this that make Texans look like a bunch of Neanderthal red-necks.

It seems that the great city of Dallas has nothing better to do with their time than to spout out anti-gay propaganda in an effort to get kids to “pull up their pants”. Now really folks, if the only thing you can think of to entice kids to bend to your fashion rules is to accuse them of being gay, you need to find yourself a new marketing department.

This is the billboard, kindly donated by ClearChannel:

As if that’s not enough, they’ve got a rap song, too:

The song, recorded by rap artist Dooney Da’ Priest, contains lyrics that say, “You walk the streets with your pants way down low/ I don’t know/ looks to me you on the down low. If you stand up straight, bet your pants fall/ Might as well walk around with your pants off/ Pull ‘em up, pull ‘em up, pull ‘em up/ Be a real man/ Stand up/ Is that your underwear, man? Pull your pants up.”

In an interview with FOX news, Dooney Da Priest stated: “Got a lot of partners of mine, they come out of jail, they let me know that means you’re basically easy, you’re lettin another man know that you’re available.”

As one NPR listener said, sarcastically:

It’s cute when homophobia is part of a citywide campaign. Shaming the youth by calling them gay, love that from the government.

The custom of wearing your pants low got it’s start in prisons, where belts are not allowed. Wearing your pants low meant you were “prison-tough”. This campaign aims to show that wearing your pants low is more indicative that you’re a “prison bitch”.

Hey Dallas, I think what you’re doing is on par with a hate crime. The youths of your city should band together and start their own campaign. I’d call it “Sue Your Pants Off”.

Here’s a suggestion, how about fighting real crime and not fashion crimes? If bad fashion were truly a crime, we’d all have done time by now.

Good Day.

Dallas, Texas, Pull Your Pants Up, campaign, billboard, rap song, anti-gay, homophobic, pants low, prison, saggy, Dooney Da Priest, Fashion, crime

When I was a kid my dad got assigned to Nellis AFB in Las Vegas, Nevada. It wasn’t unusual in those days for casinos to offer free or very cheap tickets to military members. Sometimes it gave them an opportunity to work out kinks in their performance and sometimes it was done as a thank you to the armed forces. Whatever the reason, it meant that we were able to see a few stars perform that we might not otherwise have seen. Among those stars was Robert Goulet. My mum loved Robert Goulet and even I have to admit that he was an attractive man with a beautiful voice.

Years later I saw him again. This time on stage in Atlanta, Georgia, playing the King in Camelot. He was having a great time playing the King and it was obvious because he had to hide his laughter a few times. His performance was delightful. Funnily enough, my parent had seen him play Lancelot many years previous.

Goulet never seemed to take himself too seriously as is evidenced by his appearance in Naked Gun 2 1/2 as well as this fabulous television commercial that he did for Emerald Nuts that aired during the Super Bowl last year:

Goulet had been sedated and awaiting a lung transplant at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center where he was suffering from a rare form of pulmonary fibrosis.

Robert Goulet, dead at 73, will be greatly missed.

Robert Goulet, Camelot

And now, back to our regularly scheduled holiday.

How ironic is it that today, on World Poverty Day, I should see the newest addition to Hardee’s breakfast menu. A burrito so calorie laden it could only come from the United States.

Take one flour tortilla, stuff it with two scrambled eggs and sprinkle the eggs with crumbled sausage. Sound good so far? I’d take it just like that but wait, there’s more. Now liberally coat the burrito with diced ham and since ham isn’t enough pork, add in some bacon bits. Still not satisfied? Apparently neither was Hardees so they topped that with a handful of shredded cheddar and ZOMG! did we forget to add starch? Well let’s fix that! Five hashbrown patties ought to do the trick. Hmm, still missing something? Oh yeah, sauce! How about a big ladle of sausage gravy? Yeah, that’s the ticket!

How many calories will this cost you? I’m glad you asked. This fun-filled little breakfast item will net you a whopping 920 calories and 60 grams of fat.

How much will this baby cost you? Well, I’ll tell you! You can have this burrito for a mere $2.69. That’s less than 3.5 cents to the calorie.

I don’t know about poverty but one of those a day could end world hunger.

Seriously though, today really is World Poverty Day. Lest you think that poverty is something that only happens in other countries, let me just point out that poverty in the United States increased by 4% from 2000 to 2006. Happily the poverty rate declined slightly in 2007. According to the US Census Bureau, 35.9 million people live below the poverty line in America, including 12.9 million children.

According to the US Department of Agriculture, up to one-fifth of America’s food goes to waste each year, with an estimated 130 pounds of food per person ending up in landfills. The annual value of this lost food is estimated at around $31 billion but the real story is that roughly 49 million people could have been fed by those lost resources.

Now might be a good time to clean out your pantry and donate some food to your local food pantry. I did that recently and took in 4 bags of groceries that might otherwise have gone to waste.

What do you have in your pantry?

For more on poverty, check out Stacey’s Global Poverty Monitor.

world, poverty, day, hardee’s, burrito, food, pantry, united states, waste