TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

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  • More on Atlanta child prostitution

    Teen suicide spurs war on child prostitution:

    This is an article about Atlanta’s war on child prostitution. It briefly mentions craigslist and its usual denial of facilitation…

    Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin wrote to craigslist founder Craig Newmark and Chief Executive Jim Buckmaster in August, urging them to remove postings of women engaged in activity that broke Georgia law and called on other mayors to file similar protests.

    Buckmaster said the company “shares Mayor Franklin’s concerns and are evaluating her suggestions.”

    The site warns its users that it prohibits illegal activity but he added: “We do not monitor the content of more than 25 million free postings craigslist users self-publish each month.”

    But I mostly wanted to point out the plight of Samantha Walker who committed suicide after testifying against one of the men who paid to have sex with her when she was 15.

    This is why I believe that craigslist needs to eliminate its erotic services section. Please read the entire article.

    There are no victimless crimes.

  • Katherine Lester breaks it off

    MySpace romance ends on Dr. Phil:

    Everyone’s favorite globetrotting Myspace runaway teen Katherine Lester was on the Dr. Phill show once again. This time it was to break off the relationship she had with the Arab man known as Abdullah Psycho. To make matters more humiliating for Abdullah is that the break up was done via satellite.

    “I’m not going to be with you any more,” the 18-year-old told her Palestinian boyfriend, Abdullah Jinzawi, who watched her on a monitor from Jericho, Jordan.
    Jinzawi sat silent for a moment, pulled off his microphone and stepped away from the camera.

    “Well, that’s mature,” McGraw said.

    Earlier on the show, Lester told McGraw — after some prodding — that Jinzawi was emotionally and physically abusive.

    So is getting dumped via satellite better or worse than being dumped by text message?

    Anyway, it seems that Ms. Lester has finally realized what everybody was saying about her internet boyfriend. Hopefully, this saga has finally come to an end.

  • Anthony Uckele

    In court, San Jose girl tells of sex with adult she met online:

    Right now 24-year-old Anthony Uckele of Saratoga, California is facing 36 counts of lewd conduct that could put him behind bars for 78 years.

    He was arrested back in October 2005 for having sex with a 12-year-old girl that he met on MySpace. They’re trying the ‘she said she was 16’ defense but his actions betray him.

    The girl with the blue stuffed animal – a cloth-covered cat that she hugged closely to her chest – said she called Uckele after reading his first message and agreed to meet him at a Starbucks near her home in Willow Glen. From there, he took her to a video arcade and a park, a pattern they would repeat several times over a period of a few weeks.

    As early as their second meeting – and a few weeks before they had sexual intercourse – the girl said she told Uckele she was 12 and he said he was 22.

    When he drove her home, Uckele dropped her off a block from her house because they knew her father wouldn’t approve of their age difference, the girl testified. Uckele also warned the girl not to tell any of her friends about him, “because he was too old.”

    Eventually, she said, Uckele persuaded her to sneak out of her father’s house at night and meet him a block away. The girl testified that Uckele drove her to his mother’s home in Saratoga, where he persuaded her to undress in his bedroom and have intercourse.

    “I was scared. It was something I wasn’t used to,” she testified in a low voice. “He said, ‘It’s going to be OK. Nothing bad is going to happen.’ ”

    After more encounters over the next several months, the girl read about sexual abuse in a library book and decided to tell someone who notified police, Shore said. But before authorities arrested Uckele, they arranged to record a telephone conversation between the pair.

    On the recording, which Shore played in court, the girl said several times that she felt it was wrong for them to have had sex.

    “OK. I didn’t force you to do anything,” Uckele replied. “If you tell someone, I’m going away to prison for 10 years. You’ll ruin my life.”

    And let’s not forget that the age of consent in California is 18, not 16. D’oh. Not only that but now Uckele is facing a lot more than 10 years. And your life should be ruined since you ruined that little girl’s life.

  • Plea reached in Dunbar Village rape case

    Dunbar rape suspect pleads guilty, gets 20 years:

    Well, I knew it was only a matter of time before one of the suspects in the horrendous Dunbar Village gang rape case would turn on his homeboys.

    16-year-old Jakaris Taylor pleaded guilty to charges of burglary and two counts of armed sexual battery. To refresh your memory Taylor and his cohorts are accused of storming the apartment of a woman and her son, gang-raped the woman and forced her to have sex with her son.

    In the plea, Taylor was sentenced to 20 years behind bars sparing him three consecutive life sentences. Part of the plea requires him to testify against the other suspects.

  • Confirmed: QUIET RIOT Singer KEVIN DUBROW Dead At 52

    Link

    QUIET RIOT drummer Frankie Banali has confirmed the passing of the group’s singer, Kevin DuBrow, at the age of 52.

    This sucks. They were one of the first bands I ever saw in concert. In October of ’83, I saw them open for Iron Maiden at Madison Square Garden. Make all the hair metal jokes you want but once you got past “Cum on Feel the Noize” they were actually a pretty good band.

  • YouTube rejects mutant monitoring

    YouTube rejects calls to monitor videos:

    YouTube and their parent company Google are saying they will not monitor their site for videos inciting violence against schools. Much like the video that Pekka-Eric Auvinen posted shortly before killing 8 at Jokela High School in Finland.

    Peter Fleischer, privacy counsel at Google, which bought YouTube last year, said the website was not considering passing more information to the police to avert such events. “Logistically we couldn’t do pre-screening,” he said. “We don’t want to become censors of the web.”

    I fail to see how that would be any different from pulling copyrighted material off their site. They don’t seem to have an issue with that.

    Mr Fleischer said privacy was of paramount importance but admitted there was no blanket ban on passing on information. “If it were child pornography then we would inform the authorities immediately. In the case of somebody doing a video that looks something like hate speech, however, we would remove the account. In most of these cases we don’t report it.”

    Except they don’t suspend the accounts. The accounts for Auvinen and Dillon Cossey were still active after their respective incidents occurred. Cossey’s was even up for weeks after his arrest.

    As long as YouTube allows these hate-filled mutants to post video tributes to mass murderers they’ll just continue to be the whipping boy whenever one of these events happens.

  • More on accused craigslist rapist

    Tigard man in court accused of Craigslist rapes:

    In one of the posts, I made about accused craigslist rapist Ronald M. Leistiko a commenter asked what kind of ad was Leistiko posting to lure these women to his house.

    According to the article, he wasn’t posting ads but responding to ads…

    Leistiko allegedly answered ads on Craigslist along with other Internet sites, which offered services such as lingerie modeling and escort service.

    That makes this case even more disturbing since one of his victims was 14.

  • Leonard Pitts Jr. on Megan Meier

    Parents concoct ‘joke’ that leads to shame, anguish, death for teen:

    Leonard Pitts Jr. is one of the few newspaper columnists I respect. Hell, he might be the only one. In his latest column, he gives his take on the death of Megan Meier and his wishes for the Drews. In my opinion, it’s the best take so far on the situation.

  • Police need help with attacker

    Police search for more victims of alleged Craigslist attacker:

    Oregon police are looking to the public’s help in the case against 52-year-old Ronald M. Leistiko. He’s the Tigard, Oregon man accused of luring girls and women to his house via craigslist and raping them.

    Investigators say Leistiko targeted escorts and strippers he met on Craigslist. The victims ranged in age from 14 to 35, police said.

    He’s charged with assaulting three women, but an undercover officer believes there are likely dozens more who are afraid to call police.

    Police say they won’t charge admitted prostitutes if they come forward to report they were raped.

    Anyone who may have information or possible involvement is urged to contact either Portland Police Bureau Detective C. Waddell at (503) 823-0697 or Officer M. Burkeen at (503) 823-0424.

    In addition, callers can also contact Tigard Police Detective Kevin Dresser at (503) 718-2576.

  • No apologies to the Meiers

    MySpace hoax victim’s kin seek justice:

    This is an article about the interview Megan Meier’s parents gave on the Today Show yesterday. Where they say that the ‘adults’ who caused their daughter to kill herself have offered no apology. In fact, they’ve done quite the reverse.

    “They’ve absolutely offered no apologies,” Ron Meier told TODAY co-host Matt Lauer on Monday. “They sent us a letter in the mail, basically saying that they might feel a little bit of responsibility, but they don’t feel no guilt or remorse or anything for what they did.”

    Rather, said Tina Meier, the people are upset with her for going public with their story. Last week, while shopping, she ran into the woman who invented the hoax, Tina Meier said.

    “She asked me to stop doing all of this,” she told Lauer. “I told her that we would not stop, that we were going to continue for justice for Megan because we knew what they did.”

    The Meiers have not named the people because they do not want to identify their teenage daughter, who had once been a friend of Megan’s.

    Wow, how in the hell do you become that callous in your life to not apologize but to complain when you caused a girl to kill herself.

    And speaking of not naming them I’ve decided to lift that restriction since the St. Louis Journal has. And it seems that Curt and Lori Drew are receiving just a modicum of karma for what they did to Megan Meier…

    One night last week, well after most of the families in this quiet community went to bed, a half-dozen police cars sped down Waterford Crystal Drive, lights flashing.

    A man, they were told, had been fatally shot inside a home.

    Neighbors opened doors, peered out windows and watched. As many as 15 deputies, they said, drew weapons and charged the home of Lori and Curt Drew.

    But there was no body lying in a pool of blood. No weapon in Curt Drew’s hand.

    The call was a prank, one of many at the Drews’ home this year. A lawn job. A brick through a window. Threatening phone calls. Paintball attacks.

    The neighborhood is angry.

    But now it’s not just the neighborhood, most of the country is angry.

    Thanks to Dan Fan for the last link.