Authorities who feared quick justice among bikers dug up the grave of a Hells Angels member to look for the body of a Northern California man suspected of killing another gang member during a shootout at a weekend funeral, a police spokesman said Tuesday. San Jose police have an arrest warrant for Steven Ruiz, a member of the Hells Angels' Santa Cruz chapter. He's suspected of fatally shooting Steve Tausan after a fight broke out at Saturday's funeral for Jeffrey "Jethro" Pettigrew, who had been the president of the gang's San Jose chapter. Ruiz and Tausan disappeared from the Oak Hill Memorial Park cemetery shortly after the Saturday afternoon shooting, which sent thousands of mourners fleeing in panic AP San Jose Police Chief Chris Moore, right, and... View Full Caption Tausan was taken by a private vehicle to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Witnesses saw Ruiz bundled into a car and driven away from the cemetery, but police haven't been able to locate him and his Harley Davidson motorcycle was left behind hours after the last mourner left the cemetery, San Jose police spokesman Jose Garcia said. Police obtained a warrant to dig up Pettigrew's grave in search of Ruiz's body and other evidence, Garcia said. A backhoe was used to remove a large cement fixture over the grave and the soil above the coffin was removed, he said. When nothing was found, the grave was refilled and the cement slab affixed over the site. "The grave was not desecrated," Garcia said. Police felt it necessary to search the grave because Hells Angels members, relatives and others poured dirt over the casket rather than the cemetery staff, which is the usual custom, Garcia said. The investigation was hindered even more by the scrubbing of the crime scene of blood. In addition, no bullet casings were found. "The crime scene was washed down with water," Garcia said. Authorities named Ruiz a suspect on Tuesday and said they would continue searching for him. Pettigrew was shot and killed last month during a brawl with a rival biker gang at a Nevada casino.

 

34 year old British man has been arrested at the Los Rodeos Tenerife North Airport after found to be carrying 75 capsules of heroin inside his body. News has just been released of the arrest which took place last Wednesday afternoon, and a statement from the Guardia Civil says the total weight of the drug recovered was 913 grams. Apparently when stopped by customs officials on arrival from the Spanish mainland, suspicions were raised when the Briton was unable to give a clear explanation as to the reason for his visit to Tenerife. The man, who has not been named in reports, was subjected to medical and police surveillance in the Canaries Universitario Hospital until all the capsules had been passed. That was checked by x-ray.

What a difference a few years make.

A tattoo-faced sex offender living in Springfield, Missouri may win the prize for scariest mugshot ever with this menacing photo.

Michael Campbell, 36, has been in and out of jail since the mid-nineties but as his 2008 mugshot shows, he still has found time to get his entire face etched in ink - including a pentagram emblazoned on the centre of his forehead.

The before photo was snapped following an arrest in 2003 for theft in Jefferson County, Colorado and shows Campbell sporting three facial tattoos, including Pit bull dog in the centre of his neck.

Five years later, following a second arrest in Jefferson County, he appears as a completely different looking man - with a mosaic of demonic markings on his face. 

 

 

A pentagram etched on his forehead, and the markings of a skeleton on his nose are frightening additions, along with the surprisingly whimsical addition of a polka dot bow tie tattooed in the centre of his neck.

Campbell, a Colorado native, has been in and out of jail for over a decade. In 1995, at age 20, he was convicted for the attempted sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl. 

Most recently he was arrested for going within 500ft of a playground or public pool. Campbell was booked on Sunday and later released.

According to the Missouri sex offender registry, Campbell also has tattoos on his back, left and right arms, chest and abdomen.

But he is not alone in the competition of scariest mugshots.

Caius Veiovis, 31, has undergone extensive implants to create horns on his head and had the number of the devil - 666 - tattooed on his forehead.

Veiovis' terrifying mugshot was released last month when he was arrested as part of a gang who are said to have kidnapped and murdered three Hells Angels. The horn-headed Satan-worshipper is said to have drank the blood of one of his victims.

And in June, the mugshot of 26-year-old Randon Reid, arrested in Phoenix, Arizona, showed a man with manic eyes and a scary gurning smile taken into custody after shots were fired at a grounded plane parked at Deer Valley Airport.

 

A Chinese man has been arrested on suspicion of killing two nightclub hostesses and keeping another four women as sex slaves in a basement dungeon, according to police. Reports said that Li Hao, a 34-year-old former firefighter who is married and has a son, allegedly held the women for years in a 20-square-metre (215-square-foot) underground prison he built in central China's Luoyang city. The Southern Metropolis Daily said he had confessed to buying the basement four years ago and spending nights digging the prison four meters (13 feet) under the basement, where he spent two weeks a month with his captives. Li had told his wife he had a night job as a guard, the paper said. He was caught earlier this month when one of his captives escaped and went to the police. "Li has been arrested and brought to justice," a police officer in Luoyang told AFP by telephone. "We are still on the case and investigations continue," added the officer, who declined to give his name. The Global Times English-language daily quoted local resident Tian Yichen as saying that the case had "shocked the whole city". "The building is in the downtown area, and only three kilometers (1.8 miles) away from the Luoyang public security bureau." A preliminary investigation reportedly showed that the two bodies the police found in the dungeon on September 6 had been killed within the last year. Journalist Ji Xugang of the Southern Metropolis Daily, the first newspaper to report the case, told the Global Times he was interrogated by local police over his story. "They believed that the report tarnished their image. But this is a typical crime. The public needs to know the truth," he said. The case is the second sex slave scandal to hit China since February, when a 40-year-old man was sentenced to death for kidnapping, beating and raping two teenage girls in an underground cell in Wuhan, the capital of central China's Hubei province. Though the court stated Zeng had "exerted an extremely negative influence on society," he later won an appeal and his death sentence was stayed in July, state media reported. It is unclear what has happened to him since then. The cases recall a number of horrific cases in other countries that have horrified the world in recent years. Austrian Josef Fritzl, who held his daughter Elisabeth as a sex slave in a cramped windowless dungeon for 24 years and fathered seven children with her, was jailed for life on rape and murder charges in March 2009. Also in Austria, Natascha Kampusch was kidnapped at the age of 10 and held captive in a tiny cellar for eight and a half years until she escaped in August 2006.

Two men took their friend's corpse on a night out with them to a strip club so they could use his ATM card to buy drinks, police claim.

Robert Jeffrey Young, 43, and Mark Rubinson, 25, discovered their friend Jeffrey Jarrett dead but delayed reporting the find to police so they could first have a free night out.

While keeping Mr Jarrett's body in their car, they stopped at a Mexican restaurant in Denver, used their friend's ATM card and withdrew $400 at a strip club before finally reporting him dead.

The men, who are now free on bond, have been charged with abusing a corpse, identity theft and criminal impersonation.

It's unclear how Mr Jarrett died, but the men have not been charged with his death.

The bizarre scenario is reminiscent of the 1980s movie Weekend at Bernie's, in which two men discover their friend dead and maintain a façade that he's still alive while staying at his home for the weekend.

One of Mr Jarrett's relatives, who asked not to be named, told the Denver Post Mr Jarrett had invited Mr Young, a former college friend, to stay with him for a few months while he had money struggles.

It is thought that on August 27, Mr Young arrived home at about 11pm and found his friend unresponsive.

 

 

Rather than call authorities, however, he went to see Mr Rubinson at a restaurant where he works to tell him about the find.

The pair then went back to Mr Jarrett's home, loaded him into Mr Rubinson's car and took the body with them to Teddy T's bar and grill, where they drank on his tab while the body was hidden in the vehicle.

'Young stated ... that it was obvious Jarrett was dead while all three are at Teddy T's,' Denver Detective Ranjan Ford wrote in the affidavit.

The went on to eat at Mexican restaurant Viva Burrito and withdrew $400 on their dead friend's card at strip bar Shotgun Willie's, where they stayed until closing time.

Only then did the pair report their friend dead by flagging down a police officer at 4am.

'This is a bizarre and unfortunate crime,' Denver Police Department spokesman Sonny Jackson told the Denver Post. 

'This isn't anything you want to have happen to a loved one. You want them treated with respect in death.'

The relative of Mr Jarrett, a father who sold real estate, added: 'We just want to make sure they're prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.'

 

The sun rarely shines on the kingpins of California's prison gangs. To stop them from orchestrating mayhem on prison yards and neighborhoods across the state, prison officials condemned hundreds of reputed gang members to years of isolation in windowless cells. For five years, the tough strategy worked, wardens insist. Quarantined crime bosses lost contact with their followers. No one could hear what they had to say. At least, not until July 1, when some of the most securely held prisoners at Pelican Bay State Prison stopped eating and broke through their shuttered lines of communication with a mass hunger strike that spread into prisons across the state. "Am I an innocent lamb? By no means, but I can tell you this: I never deserved to be locked up in a dungeon for seven years just because they allege I'm a gang member," said Ronnie Yandell, one of the leaders of the hunger strike that lasted three weeks and spread to 12 other prisons with promises of more strikes to come. Now, as a court-ordered mandate forces California to reduce the number of low-level criminals in its overcrowded prisons, protests of inhumane conditions for the most hardened, violent criminals are forcing the state to rethink another problem: How can powerful and savvy prisoners be stopped from directing violence on the outside without their rights against cruel punishment being violated on the inside? Life in 'The SHU' Yandell and the other 1,110 men in the Pelican Bay Security Housing Unit -- known as "The SHU" -- spend at least 22 1/2 hours each day in their concrete, bathroom-size cells. Some inmates have a cellmate and some do not. Prisoners can have TVs but little human interaction. Their daily outing is a solitary 90-minute break in a barren exercise pen lined with 15-foot-high concrete walls and a limited view of the sky. Hearing about the hunger strike through a network of family members and activists, more than 6,000 inmates across California joined in. The prisons weighed each hunger striker daily, finding only about 11 percent of Pelican Bay's protesters lost weight during the 21-day strike. One lost 30 pounds. No one died, but after weeks of unwanted attention and a legislative hearing in late August, top prison officials now say they are reviewing how long and why they segregate and isolate some inmates in the state's harshest cellblocks. "Everything we're doing with these men is lawful and constitutional," said Pelican Bay Warden Greg Lewis. "I really didn't see the need to negotiate anything. On the other hand, in the department, we need to evolve and change with the conditions that are going on." Dogged with mistreatment complaints and lawsuits since its inception, Pelican Bay's conditions were found by a federal judge in 1995 to "hover on the edge of what is humanly tolerable." But judges have also repeatedly upheld California's practice of confining inmates in isolated conditions, and in March commended Pelican Bay for improving conditions. Still, experts say, the prison realignment prompted by the court order to reduce prison populations offers an opportunity to reconsider the practice of isolating criminals. "There's a growing consensus that these ultra-isolation prisons are a bad mistake," said criminologist Barry Krisberg, director of research at UC Berkeley's Earl Warren Institute. "The theory behind these prisons was we'll collect all the worst people in one place and that will make the rest of the prisons safer and easier to manage. But they weren't necessarily the most dangerous, violent criminals. " And the levels of violence in the other places didn't really go down." 'Living like dogs' Prisoners promise another fast could begin next week inside the remote facility, just south of the Oregon border, if their demands for better conditions and an easier path out of isolation are not met. Prison officials said the strikes are a dangerous, costly and ineffective way for prisoners to voice their complaints. Yandell said it is the only way anyone will pay attention. "We're tired of living like dogs," the former Contra Costa County resident wrote in a handwritten letter to this newspaper, one of several interviews conducted between the newspaper and self-defined leaders of the strike. "Not even terrorists at Guantánamo Bay are treated like this." Convicted of killing two men in El Sobrante a decade ago during a drug deal, Yandell was placed in Pelican Bay's SHU -- the oldest and biggest of three similar units around the state -- after prison officials designated him a member of the Aryan Brotherhood, a white-only gang. The only way out of solitary confinement was to "debrief" -- to convincingly denounce his gang affiliation and ideology and name former collaborators. But many prisoners never find their way out of the SHU; the average time spent inside the state's isolation units is 6.8 years, and some prisoners have been there for decades.

 

Drug Enforcement Cell (DEC) of the Pakistan Customs’ Model Customs Collectorate of Preventive, Karachi airport on Monday recovered and seized 73.5 kilogrammes of fine quality heroin concealed in a huge consignment of herbal medicines. In pursuance of an authentic information passed on by the Additional Collector of Customs, Jinnah International Airport, Manzoor Hussain Memon to the effect that an attempt would be made to smuggle contraband heroin powder out of Pakistan under the garb of medicines in commercial quantity in connivance with Customs officials, a surveillance team under assistant collector, Jinnah International Airport, was constituted for mounting discrete watch over all the outgoing passengers and their baggage. During the course of surveillance, the team intercepted a Pakistani passenger Ghulam Mustafa in the early hours on Aug 21, with his four suitcases when he entered the customs departure hall to take Qatar Airways flight QR-319 for Dhaka via Doha (Qatar). Initial scanning of his baggage indicated the presence of medicine boxes inside all four suitcases. He was, therefore, detained and his baggage was thoroughly examined. Upon examination, the suitcases were found to contain heroin in huge quantity (735 packets) of herbal medicines packets kept beneath a small quantity of mixed allopathic medicines for deceiving the law enforcement staff. As per labels on the packets the herbal medicines were ought to be in paste form. However, when unpacked all the packets were found to contain off-white heroin powder of fine quality instead of herbal medicine pastes. The heroin powder, so recovered, was found to be 73.5 kilogrammes upon weighment. It is worth mentioning here that in the recent years, this is the biggest haul of the heroin recovered from the accompanied baggage of an outgoing passenger at Jinnah International Airport. Another aspect of the case is that the passenger had not only taken a deceptive route to Dhaka via Doha despite availability of daily direct fights to Dhaka from Karachi to hoodwink the customs staff. He entered the departure hall at Sehri time when a number of the law enforcement officers were busy in taking Sehri. Moreover, scrutiny of the passenger’s travel documents reveals that he is in fact a Bengali holding Aliens Registration Card as well as a Computerised National Identity Card that stands expired in 2009. Consequent upon recovery and seizure of contraband narcotics, the accused passenger, as well as two customs officials, who were facilitating in clearance, has been arrested and a prosecution case under Control of Narcotics Substances Act, 1997 has been registered. Third customs official involved in the case is absconding. Efforts are being made to arrest him also. Further investigations are in progress. staff report

 

Police arrested two Troy men found with drugs Monday evening. An officer stopped a car on 4th Street, just north of Congress Street, around 5:45 p.m., and found the driver, Kevin Peters, 25, did not have a license. The passenger, Shawn Maple, 33, provided a false name. Police say when the officer went back to his patrol car, Peters and Maple took off, but the officer pulled in front of their vehicle to cut it off. When they seized the car, police say they found 45 grams of crack cocaine, 15 grams of heroin, and a large amount of cash. Peters was charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance, aggravated unlicensed operation and unregistered motor vehicle, and improper or unsafe turn. Maple is also facing several charges, including criminal possession of a narcotic with intent to sell, and false personation. Police did not make it known when Peters and Maple will be back in court.

 

Brazilian-born rapper and former contestant on I'm a Celebrity has been charged with raping two women. Aggro Santos, 22, of Bickersteth Road, London, is accused of raping a woman in Chichester, West Sussex, on 7 May. He is also accused of raping another in Yeovil, Somerset, between 25 and 26 September last year. Another man, Tyrelle Ritchie, 21, of Vauxhall Road, London, has been charged with one count of rape in Chichester on the same date, Sussex Police said. Mr Santos, whose real first name is Yuri, and Mr Ritchie have been bailed to appear at Chichester Magistrates' Court on 19 September. Mr Santos's debut single, Candy, featuring former Pussycat Dolls singer Kimberly Wyatt, shot to number five in the UK charts last year. But he became more popularly known through his appearance in last year's series of ITV's reality game show I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! in which he reached the last six.

 

erstwhile associate kinesiology professor at California State University at San Bernardino remains on the lam after police raided his home last week and found a pound of methamphetamine and a cache of guns. Police are charging that Stephen Kinzey, who had been on the San Bernardino faculty for a decade, was leading a double life: teaching and researching by day; directing the local chapter of an outlaw biker gang, and its drug business, by night. Not long after the manhunt began, Albert Karnig, the university’s president, emphasized that no one on the Southern California campus saw this coming: “To our knowledge, this is the first notice that anyone on our campus has had regarding this situation,” Karnig said. “…If the allegations are indeed true, this is beyond disappointing.” newspaper accounts described neighbors, students, and even Kinzey's father as having little or no sense of the professor's alleged outside activities. The Contra Costa Times quoted Kinzey's father as saying that he knew that his son belonged to a motorcycle gang and was not "thrilled" about it (the father taught him to ride). But Hank Kinzey also described his son as "a good Catholic boy" and a Republican, and added: "Everybody's always in denial when it's something to do with their family, but this is really surreal," he said. How could a full-time college professor run a drug ring on the sly without tipping his hand? Tom Barker, a professor of criminal justice at Eastern Kentucky University and leading scholar on outlaw biker gangs, says it is not hard to imagine. “It’s not uncommon for leaders or members of motorcycle gangs to hold down seemingly legitimate lives,” says Barker, even if part of their responsibility is to oversee an illegal drug business. “A college professor could easily pull it off.” Barker says he knows of at least two other college professors who are members of outlaw biker gangs, though he would not disclose their names because he says it could cost him his life. If Kinzey is the kingpin that police suspect he is, “he’s not actually that much involved in actual delivery of drugs,” says Barker. “He’s probably setting up the networks, and he can do that in the way he’s away from the classroom very easily.” In such crime organizations, most of the number-crunching falls to the secretary-treasurer, Barker says. The actual distribution falls to the members and their associates, the enforcer handles the dirty work, and the president’s leadership duties can be delegated to the vice president when necessary. While the chapter head is like the CEO of a small company, the illegal nature of the business means “there’s not a lot of paperwork,” says Barker. Barker says he is familiar with the Devil’s Diciples [sic], the gang Kinzey is alleged to have been running. And while he does not know specific details about the San Bernardino chapter, he says that the president of that chapter would have been in charge of anywhere between seven and 25 full-fledged gang members and a broad network of associates and business partners. He guessed the president of the chapter would personally pull in about a million dollars per year. As an associate kinesiology professor at San Bernardino, Kinzey was probably making around $70,000, according to the annual data produced by the American Association of University Professors. So if Kinzey was indeed the head of a lucrative drug ring, why continue to teach? Barker says that it may have been a fallback in case the kinesiology professor ever wanted to get out of organized crime. Heading the Devil’s Diciples might pay well, but it lacks the stability and retirement benefits of a state teaching job, Barker says. Another theory, he adds, is that Kinzey just loved to teach. Terry Rizzo, the chair of the kinesiology department at San Bernardino, did not respond to multiple requests for an interview; neither did Kinzey’s other colleagues. But student reviews on RateMyProfessors.com suggest that Kinzey had been popular among many students and passionate about his work. “Dr. Steve Kinsey is an amazing [professor], who helps his students in every situation, including in their greatest need,” wrote one student in 2007. “He is a good friend of mine and we continue to get together on a quarterly basis to catch up on life. Thank god for him, because I wouldn't be a graduate without him!!!!!” “He's so awesome!” wrote another, later that same year. “He has a passion for everything he does and it shows in his desire for students to succeed and understand.” More recent reviews paint a less flattering portrait, however. Kinzey “seems like he does not care anymore,” reported one reviewer in 2008. “im sure he is good at what he does he just isnt clear at all. talks all class and does not get anything done. kinda unorganized, but nice enough.” In 2010, a student wrote: “the professor sucks, he comes in late and doesn't care, if he try's to help you he'll end up rambling about himself.” And the last review before Kinzey became a fugitive, written last May, depicts a perpetually distracted instructor: “He's a really good guy and would give you the shirt off his back,” the reviewer wrote. “But something serious must have happened to him because he shows up late, and rambles on about random and controversial topics. He lost his focus & passion for teaching. His behavior lately makes it seem like he wants to get fired.” “Sad,” the student added, “because I really enjoyed all of his classes.”

Three people have been charged with conspiracy to traffic women into prostitution in the UK as part of a suspected vice ring that operated from addresses including the former Gloucester home of serial killers Fred and Rosemary West.

Simultaneous raids in Gloucester, south London and Bradford followed an investigation by the Metropolitan police's human exploitation and organised crime command and Czech authorities into a suspected organised prostitution ring, which saw women trafficked into the UK and forced into prostitution and sham marriages. A further three people were arrested in the Czech Republic.

Members of the alleged gang are suspected of using the rundown white two-storey Midland Road house where Rosemary West murdered her husband's stepdaughter Charmaine in 1971 and buried her beneath the kitchen floor. Her remains were not exhumed until 23 years later after the Wests were arrested over 11 more murders at their nearby Cromwell Road home which was subsequently demolished.

The Midland Road house was the Wests' first married home after a period living in a caravan. Charmaine and Anne Marie, Fred West's daughter by his previous wife Rena, went to live there in 1970.

Ludmila Nistorova, 52, of Raglan Court in Gloucester appeared at Cheltenham magistrates court on Friday. She is charged with conspiracy to traffic into the UK as well as conspiracy to traffic within the UK for exploitation and sexual exploitation, conspiracy to control prostitution for gain and conspiracy to "facilitate commission of a breach of UK immigration law". She was remanded in custody to appear at Southwark crown court in London on Wednesday.

Votjech Virag, a 25-year-old man, and Iveta Viragova, a 43-year-old woman, were arrested at an address in Nutwell Street, Tooting, south London and appeared at Westminster magistrates court on the same five charges. They were also remanded in custody to appear alongside Nistorova in court next week.

The three men arrested in the Czech Republic, aged 35, 28 and 41, are currently subject to extradition proceedings.

All three have been remanded in custody to appear in court next week.

 

It was a matter of routine for the 63-year-old man. Every payday, he secured the services of a local prostitute, and every time she stole from him once he fell asleep.

On July 1, however, the man apparently took a stand after hiring three prostitutes and waking to find about $90 missing, according to a recently released Fort Pierce police report.

"(He) said he felt he had to report the theft because he felt they would keep stealing from him and other customers if he had not reported the incident," the report states.

The case began about 11:35 p.m. when an officer was dispatched to an address in the 400 block of North 23rd Street and spoke to the man.

"(He) said he routinely hired a female prostitute every payday, but tried to get a different one every time for the sake of variety and adventure," the report states. "(He) stated he located three harlots on the corner of North 23rd Street and Avenue D, which he found convenient since they were mere feet from his residence."

He said he paid each woman about $20 for "various salacious acts." Details of the acts weren't "discussed in depth at the time of the initial investigation since it was not germane to the reported offense."

The man said after the "performance" he gave the prostitutes "a cash gratuity for service excellence" and started snoozing. When he woke about 11:30 p.m. he noticed about $90 stolen from his trousers.

The man didn't know the prostitutes' names, but said they sported short skirts, were in their 30s and were between 5 feet 6 inches and 5 feet 10 inches tall.

With enthusiasm, the man said each payday he brought hookers to his apartment, saying they stole from him once he fell asleep. He said that the week prior a prostitute absconded with $200 -- on top of her fee -- from his pants as he slept.

He said he thought he must report the theft lest the ladies continue stealing from him and other patrons.

"(He) did state that he felt he was at least partially at fault because he was '64 years old' (actually (he) was 63) and could not resist having been tempted by what he described as 'the girls in the short skirts,'" the report states.

 

The pimps and prostitutes of Yeongdeungpo start the day as if preparing for a siege, stocking their brothels with flammable liquid and gas containers. Large, red-lettered signs warn police that they're willing to die to protect their livelihoods.
"We can turn on the gas and light the flames," said a 47-year-old pimp who would only give her surname Sohn. "We know that we don't have much chance of winning ... but we're ready to die fighting."
Nearly seven years after tough laws began driving thousands of South Korean prostitutes out of business, the sex workers of the Yeongdeungpo red-light district in Seoul are fighting back, spurred by what they say is an unprecedented campaign of police harassment.
Since April they've staged large, sometimes violent, protests that provide a glimpse of the tensions in this fast-changing country as ambitious urban redevelopment projects encroach on old neighborhoods once known for their nightlife.
Rallies by sex workers against police crackdowns crop up occasionally in South Korea, but the protests in Yeongdeungpo — which have drawn hundreds of other prostitutes, pimps and supporters — have been unusual in their size, organization and fury.
The district's 40 to 50 prostitutes describe their fight in life-and-death terms. At a recent protest, about 20 topless women covered in body and face paint doused themselves in flammable liquid and had to be restrained from setting themselves on fire.
'Die gloriously'
The demonstrations come as new building projects around the country threaten gritty neighborhoods that are home to aging bars, street food stalls and brothels. If the prostitutes in Yeongdeungpo lose their jobs, they could struggle to find work elsewhere.




"We are the people who eat, sleep and live here. Where can we move?" prostitute Jang Se-hee said in an interview inside a large tent where sex workers were discussing how to resist police.
The 36-year-old Jang, who wore big sunglasses with plum-colored lenses, her hair tied up in a bun, said her earnings have plunged from as much as $9,200 a month to about $3,700 since police began harrying the brothels in April.
On a recent night, about 20 prostitutes stood in skimpy clothing behind pink neon-lit brothel windows, shouting out invitations to a few men walking along the street. Many brothels have suspended business because of the crackdown. Signs in those still open show their occupants' defiance: "We will die here," they read, or "I will pour fuel on my body and die gloriously."
Prostitution was banned in South Korea in 1961, but police rarely enforced the law. Tougher legislation was created, however, after a 2002 fire killed 14 women confined at a drinking salon and forced to entertain and sometimes have sex with customers.
About 259,000 people, 70 percent of them male customers, have been arrested since the new laws took effect in 2004. Nearly 4,000 prostitutes have left their brothels, while 1,800 remain, and seven of the country's 35 major red-light districts have disappeared, according to police records.


Face-painted South Korean prostitutes wearing mourning clothes participate in a rally in Seoul, South Korea.
Prostitutes and pimps say police have taken a new and aggressive approach in Yeongdeungpo that has driven away most customers: Stepped-up patrols, police cars parked visibly in the area and plainclothes officers watching with binoculars.
Jang said police stormed the area three times in June alone, arresting three prostitutes and three customers.
"There hasn't been this kind of crackdown before," said Kang Hyun-joon, a former pimp who runs an association of prostitutes and pimps in South Korea.
Sex workers suspect the nearby Times Square department store pushed police to act against the brothels. Police and store officials deny the claim.
The National Police Agency says officers are also clamping down on other districts as part of a routine nationwide crackdown.
One Yeongdeungpo police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity because of department rules, said police decided to shut down the brothels because residents increasingly voiced worry about young students passing through the area since the upscale department store opened in 2009.
Blaze killed six
It is not the first time South Korea's development boom has sparked friction in older neighborhoods.
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In 2009, a police raid on a building occupied by squatters near another Seoul red-light district led to a blaze that killed six people.
Protesters hurled Molotov cocktails at charging police commandos, causing the fire. The building was eventually demolished to make room for planned new high-rise buildings.
Brothel workers and other critics say police crackdowns have unfairly targeted traditional red-light zones, while overlooking other sex businesses thriving in the shadows.
Among those are "kiss rooms," where men can pay for sex, and one-room apartments offering sexual services.
Men can also buy sex at barber shops, massage parlors and karaoke bars on almost all major streets and through online social networking sites.
South Korea runs nine support centers offering vocational training and psychological counseling to former prostitutes where they can work for a monthly salary of about $460 to $920, according to government officials.
Many women, however, find it hard to adjust to new lives and to resist the better pay of sex work. Despite the social stigma, they drop out of the centers and return to prostitution.

Rabbi Avraham Rabinowich -- who leads the wealthy, Conservative Bellmore Jewish Center and is vice president of the Long Island Board of Rabbis -- allegedly made appointments with prostitutes on the Sabbath shortly after services.

He was then caught on camera in a hotel room enjoying some hard-core, commandment-breaking action, according to blockbuster court papers filed in state Supreme Court in Manhattan.


JAMES MESSERSCHMIDT
THOU SHALT NOT: Rabbi Avraham Rabinowich (inset) is allegedly filmed with a hooker and an investigator, according to a suit by his ex-wife, Amora.

The holy man's estranged wife, Amora, a respected psychologist, got wind of the tawdry tricks while they were going through a bitter custody battle, she said.

She managed to have Rabinowich secretly filmed with a call girl and entered the photographic evidence into the record of the bitter custody case.

"Since when are prostitutes kosher?" Amora Rabinowich told The Post. "He was coming to court claiming he was this pious individual, but he was using the phone on the Sabbath to meet prostitutes.

"And what kind of rabbi is he? He didn't even take these prostitutes to the mikvah [Jewish ritual cleansing bath] first.

"What is he doing, praying or laying?"

Rabbi Rabinowich responded to the shocking claims by saying only, "I have no response. Have a nice day."

His lawyer, Jeffrey Lewisohn, called the wife's discovery a "setup" and downplayed the matter, saying, "It doesn't matter, this was five or six years ago."

Malcolm Taub, a former lawyer for the rabbi, blasted Amora, saying, "This is a very sick woman . . . This man has gone through hell with this woman."



According to papers filed by Amora, the rabbi wound up arranging a romp through a madam who really was one of his wife's private eyes.

"I am tall and nice-looking, don't worry, I'm OK," Rabinowich allegedly told the investigator at one point.

He was eventually filmed with the hooker at the low-rent Pam Am Hotel in Queens on March 18, 2006, the court papers claimed. A second woman in the photo was the private eye, Amora Rabinowich said.

"He needs help, serious help, to be a healthy individual and to be a proper role model to both the children and the community," she said.

A judge decided that the video was not relevant to the case, and the couple were granted joint custody of their three boys earlier this year.

"It was set up by her investigators. This was something the mother contrived," Lewisohn said. "If you're not doing something relevant in front of the children, it doesn't have an impact on the judge's decision."

Amora Rabinowich said the photos -- which were never released publicly until now -- may still come back to haunt her ex-hubby when she makes a motion to the court to move their kids to the West Coast on Aug. 17.

BBC investigation has found that up to £500,000 every week is being spent on prostitution in Northern Ireland.

Police estimate there are 88 brothels in operation, with Northern Ireland having a higher demand for prostitution than most other areas of Europe.

The brothels are usually run by local gangs, including paramillitaries, but there are also foreign groups.

Many of the women working in the brothels have been trafficked from abroad.

They are held captive and forced into prostitution.

The problem is most evident in Belfast, but other towns and cities - such as Londonderry, Antrim, Enniskillen, Portadown and Bangor - are known to have brothels.

The gangs can make millions of pounds in a year by exploiting women they have brought to Northern Ireland illegally.

The PSNI have broken up some of the prostitution rings and rescued dozens of women from the sex trade over the last couple of years.

However, every day, new women are being brought in from abroad and often the women are so traumatised by their experiences they can't help the police bring convictions against the gangs.

PSNI Detective Inspector Douglas Grant said the public needed to know the full extent of the problem.

"There's a significant demand in Northern Ireland for prostitu

16-year-old girl has been rescued from sex traffickers in Glasgow.

The Roma teenager was freed from a South Side brothel as police launched raids against international prostitution rings across the city.

The child, who is a Romanian citizen, was removed from a flat in Govanhill last week.

Her rescue came before police raided a further three brothels across the South Side, detaining a Thai woman from each of them.

The Evening Times joined officers as they shut down flats allegedly used for prostitution in Govanhill, Shawlands and Tradeston and swooped on the home of a suspected pimp in Pollokshields.

Detective Inspector Pat Campbell said the raids were part of a major investigation into organised crime groups bringing women from Thailand to Scotland to work in the vice trade.

A total of three Thai women were detained, initially as suspected victims of trafficking. However, the three, aged 34, 40 and 45, have now been charged with prostitution offences. They too will appear in court tomorrow.

It is understood one of the women told officers she had been brought to Britain a decade ago.

The Evening Times watched as another of the three was taken out of a ground floor flat on Norham Street in Shawlands.

The slightly-built south-east Asian had been alone when police, backed by officers from the UK Border Agency, swooped on the property.

The flat – its windows covered by net curtains –looks out over Shawlands Academy.

Police also raided a property next to another school, in Calder Street, Govanhill, opposite the playground of the fee-paying Hutchesons’ Grammar School’s primary.

They raided a third suspected brothel in Oxford Street, Tradeston, just a few hundred yards from Glasgow Sheriff Court.

Detectives detained the suspected pimp in a GHA property in St Andrew’s Drive, Pollokshields.

The Evening Times watched as the 45-year-old was taken away in handcuffs.

So too was another man discovered in the property.

Believed to be a 27-year-old from Pakistan, he has been arrested on suspicion of immigration offences.

All four raids were carried out as part of Operation Andronicus, a major intelligence-gathering exercise on the scale of Thai prostitution rings in Glasgow.

Detective Sergeant Andy Brown of Strathclyde Police stressed more raids would follow.

He said: “We have several ongoing inquiries.”

However, the operation that discovered the Roma teenager last week was not part of the investigation in to Thai prostitution.

Police are also interested in several other foreign crime groups involved in the vice trade, including Roma and ethnic Slovak gangs from Slovakia, as well as Chinese Triads and the Albanian mafia.

Last week the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency said it had identified nine sex trafficking gangs operating in Scotland.

The vice trade remains lucrative for criminal gangs.

A typical Thai prostitute, for example, will charge between £60 and £100 for an hour-long session and see around six men a day, seven days a week.

Some of the women, police say, may know that they are going abroad to work as prostitutes.

Women are routinely expected to hand over much of their earnings to their traffickers or other pimps.

They also typically feel they can’t leave their brothels because of a bond of debt – or fear of reprisals against family members back home.

Trafficked women rarely live up to the media image as unwashed waifs chained to radiators when they are not working or smuggled in to the country in the back of container trucks.

Nor do they necessarily conform to the stereotype of a street prostitute in high heels and short skirt.

They may dress like any other woman of their age and be able to move freely in and out of their flats.

That is one of the messages of a major public information campaign launched by Mr Brown’s anti-trafficking unit.

Police began leafleting parts of the South Side and city centre of Glasgow this week.

They want members of the public to flag up possible brothels where foreign women may be working.

Police are keen to investigate flats where there are regular but short visits by men at all times of the day and night.

Their leaflet is written in eight languages: English, Czech, Slovak, Romanian, Cantonese, Mandarin, Thai and Swahili. That list, insiders stress, gives a clear indication of the migrant communities where women are most at risk of being trafficked.

The Crown Office launched its first ever Scottish prosecution for human trafficking earlier this year.

No-one has ever been convicted of the crime north of the border.

Prosecutors, however, stress that they have previously put traffickers out of business by charging them with other offences, including brothel-keeping and immigration crimes.

Police teams are currently watching known Glasgow brothels. Other officers are scouring the internet and the classified adverts for clues about new women appearing in the city. Trafficked prostitutes are frequently moved around Scotland.

 

16-year-old girl has been rescued from sex traffickers in Glasgow.

The Roma teenager was freed from a South Side brothel as police launched raids against international prostitution rings across the city.

The child, who is a Romanian citizen, was removed from a flat in Govanhill last week.

Her rescue came before police raided a further three brothels across the South Side, detaining a Thai woman from each of them.

The Evening Times joined officers as they shut down flats allegedly used for prostitution in Govanhill, Shawlands and Tradeston and swooped on the home of a suspected pimp in Pollokshields.

Detective Inspector Pat Campbell said the raids were part of a major investigation into organised crime groups bringing women from Thailand to Scotland to work in the vice trade.

A total of three Thai women were detained, initially as suspected victims of trafficking. However, the three, aged 34, 40 and 45, have now been charged with prostitution offences. They too will appear in court tomorrow.

It is understood one of the women told officers she had been brought to Britain a decade ago.

The Evening Times watched as another of the three was taken out of a ground floor flat on Norham Street in Shawlands.

The slightly-built south-east Asian had been alone when police, backed by officers from the UK Border Agency, swooped on the property.

The flat – its windows covered by net curtains –looks out over Shawlands Academy.

Police also raided a property next to another school, in Calder Street, Govanhill, opposite the playground of the fee-paying Hutchesons’ Grammar School’s primary.

They raided a third suspected brothel in Oxford Street, Tradeston, just a few hundred yards from Glasgow Sheriff Court.

Detectives detained the suspected pimp in a GHA property in St Andrew’s Drive, Pollokshields.

The Evening Times watched as the 45-year-old was taken away in handcuffs.

So too was another man discovered in the property.

Believed to be a 27-year-old from Pakistan, he has been arrested on suspicion of immigration offences.

All four raids were carried out as part of Operation Andronicus, a major intelligence-gathering exercise on the scale of Thai prostitution rings in Glasgow.

Detective Sergeant Andy Brown of Strathclyde Police stressed more raids would follow.

He said: “We have several ongoing inquiries.”

However, the operation that discovered the Roma teenager last week was not part of the investigation in to Thai prostitution.

Police are also interested in several other foreign crime groups involved in the vice trade, including Roma and ethnic Slovak gangs from Slovakia, as well as Chinese Triads and the Albanian mafia.

Last week the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency said it had identified nine sex trafficking gangs operating in Scotland.

The vice trade remains lucrative for criminal gangs.

A typical Thai prostitute, for example, will charge between £60 and £100 for an hour-long session and see around six men a day, seven days a week.

Some of the women, police say, may know that they are going abroad to work as prostitutes.

Women are routinely expected to hand over much of their earnings to their traffickers or other pimps.

They also typically feel they can’t leave their brothels because of a bond of debt – or fear of reprisals against family members back home.

Trafficked women rarely live up to the media image as unwashed waifs chained to radiators when they are not working or smuggled in to the country in the back of container trucks.

Nor do they necessarily conform to the stereotype of a street prostitute in high heels and short skirt.

They may dress like any other woman of their age and be able to move freely in and out of their flats.

That is one of the messages of a major public information campaign launched by Mr Brown’s anti-trafficking unit.

Police began leafleting parts of the South Side and city centre of Glasgow this week.

They want members of the public to flag up possible brothels where foreign women may be working.

Police are keen to investigate flats where there are regular but short visits by men at all times of the day and night.

Their leaflet is written in eight languages: English, Czech, Slovak, Romanian, Cantonese, Mandarin, Thai and Swahili. That list, insiders stress, gives a clear indication of the migrant communities where women are most at risk of being trafficked.

The Crown Office launched its first ever Scottish prosecution for human trafficking earlier this year.

No-one has ever been convicted of the crime north of the border.

Prosecutors, however, stress that they have previously put traffickers out of business by charging them with other offences, including brothel-keeping and immigration crimes.

Police teams are currently watching known Glasgow brothels. Other officers are scouring the internet and the classified adverts for clues about new women appearing in the city. Trafficked prostitutes are frequently moved around Scotland.

 

Police said Aaron Gyening had set out to "prey" on women in the early hours.

Two of his victims were clubbers, while the other was a customer in a takeaway.

The 21-year-old has been jailed for four years and ordered to sign the Sex Offenders' Register for life.


Nottingham Crown Court heard his first victim on a Wednesday last November was a 22-year-old student walking home from Oceana nightclub.

Gyening forced his way through the door of her student accommodation and subjected her to a serious sexual assault in a communal hallway. He fled when he was disturbed, walked to King Edward Street and started talking to another student, 23, who had also been to Oceana. He became increasingly threatening and then sexually assaulted her.

Prosecutor Dawn Pritchard said taxi driver Asim Javaid stopped after he saw the woman fall to the floor.

She got into his Hackney taxi and they followed Gyening as he visited a takeaway, where he made sexual remarks to a woman at the counter and grabbed her bottom. She alerted staff and he stopped what he was doing.

The victim, in her 20s, went to a police station to report the incident and Gyening was arrested in Forest Road West, Radford, minutes later.

The three assaults all happened between 2.05am and 2.40am.

Gyening pleaded guilty to assault by penetration and two other sexual assaults.

Judge Andrew Hamilton commented: "What induced you to commit these serious offences one cannot imagine."

He awarded £250 from the High Sheriff's Fund to Mr Javaid for his actions to help the second victim.

The court was told in mitigation that student Gyening, of Russell Street, Radford, was previously of good character and was entitled to credit for pleading guilty.

The judge praised police and said CCTV footage clearly captured the defendant's movements as he followed his victims through the streets.

After the hearing, Detective Sergeant Jim Adam said: "Gyening's sole intention that evening was to prey on women in Nottingham.

"Now he is in prison he will be prevented from carrying out more attacks and will be on the Sex Offenders' Register for the rest of his life.

"His victims, who were extremely distressed, have shown tremendous courage through- out the investigation.

"Our thanks must also go to the taxi driver, whose swift and public-spirited actions helped us."

Three Kamloops RCMP officers — including a corporal — and a city jail guard are facing criminal charges after two women detained in an RCMP cellblock were observed engaging in sexual activity without any of the officers intervening.

B.C.’s Criminal Justice branch on Friday announced one charge each of “breach of trust by a public official,” an offence under the Criminal Code, against Cpl. Ken Brown, and Consts. Evan Elgee and Stephen Zaharia and jail guard David Tompkins.

The charges stem from an incident on Aug. 18, 2010, when two women placed in a cell after being arrested in separate incidents engaged in what RCMP described at the time as “consensual sexual contact” while seven male employees of the RCMP and the jail watched via closed-circuit television for seven minutes.

The accused are scheduled to appear in court in Kamloops on July 18.

No other charges were approved against the fourth RCMP officers, second jail guard and a jail watch clerk, all unnamed and who were also investigated, said spokesman Neil MacKenzie.

At the time RCMP announced the investigation in the incident, it revealed a criminal investigation was also launched regarding the sexual contact between the two unidentified women, but no other details were revealed.

One of the women, who was so drunk she has no memory of the arrest or detention, had filed a lawsuit against the three levels of government and seven people in B.C. Supreme Court last fall, according to the Kamloops Daily News. The newspaper quoted her as saying she hadn’t consented to the sexual contact and had later learned the other woman was HIV-positive and that she was “horrified and scared.”

Both RCMP spokesman Sgt. Rob Vermeulen and MacKenzie said there are no other charges expected.

Vermeulen said he didn’t know if the RCMP had filed a statement of defence to the woman’s civil lawsuit. Her Victoria lawyer, Erik Magraken didn’t return calls before press time.

Brown, who had 20 years of service and was the supervisor that night, remains suspended with pay, and Elgee and Zaharia have returned to work on administrative duties. All three face an internal code-of-conduct investigation and Canada’s RCMP watchdog, the Commission for Public Complaints against the RCMP, is also investigating.

Tompkins also faced an investigation by his employer, the City of Kamloops.

 

The saga involving Indomitable Lions players and its captain, Samuel Eto’o Fils, about sleeping with prostitutes before their game in Senegal might just be false.

This is the information that made its round in local Cameroon press, justifying the Lions’ debacle against the Teranga Lions in Dakar.

According to the story, the captain and players of the Indomitable Lions had been provided with prostitute before their game in March. The prostitutes were reportedly arranged by Senegalese officials in order to destabilize the Cameroonian players ahead of the crucial game in Dakar.

An administrative Director of the team, Nguidjol Nlend, is quoted to have accused the Senegalese officials in an interview granted local Cameroonian tabloid, Le Messager.

But the Senegalese football federation officials have refuted the claims, insisting that the story is false and is aimed at denting the image of Senegalese federation and perturb the cordial relationship between that of Cameroon and Senegal. The Senegalese officials insisted that they did all to ensure the security of the Lions.

Louis Lamotte, vice president of the Senegalese football federation who was in charge of the organization, said everything went well for the encounter. According to him, Cameroonian football officials did not lodge any complaints after the match about any wrong doing. This rebuttal has come to somewhat redeem the image of the team, especially that of its captain, Eto’o.

Since the Cameroon-Senegal match on June 4 in Yaounde appears to be the most crucial game for the Lions in recent times, such allegations are important in dissuading fans from turning out on the pitch en masse. But Cameroon officials are reportedly doing everything to assure the security of the visiting team.

Recently, Cameroon’s ace footballer and current Roving Ambassador, Albert Roger Milla, assured that the Senegalese delegation coming for the match will be well received. He was apparently assuaging fears that the environment might not be conducive for the visiting Senegalese delegation. Milla emphasized that everything has been put in place to assure a good reception of the Senegalese delegation.

 

Two NYPD cops are being eyed in the Long Island serial slayings after investigators learned they got into trouble for hiring prostitutes while working for the department, according to sources familiar with the probe.

One cop was forced out of the job in the 1990s when his supervisors learned he spent time pursuing hookers and paying street walkers and down-and-out women for sex while he was supposed to be on patrol.

An internal investigation led to his resigning under pressure, one source said.

The other officer still works for the NYPD but was stripped of his gun and badge years ago because he allegedly assaulted a prostitute and got arrested during a sting operation.


MYSTERY:One retired and one working NYPD cop -- both with past troubles involving prostitutes -- are being eyed in the ongoing investigation of the serial killings of call girls Maureen Brainard-Barnes (above), Megan Waterman, Amber Lynn Costello and Melissa Barthelemy.

The woman complained to police supervisors about the officer but no criminal charges were filed and an internal probe went nowhere, sources said.

The patrolman was allowed to return to the force, they said, though he was placed on modified duty -- transferred to a paper-pushing job in Manhattan where he's not allowed to make arrests or respond to emergencies.

"They couldn't prove anything, but they didn't trust him," said one source.

It's unclear if the disgraced cops know each other or what evidence investigators might have against them in the serial murders.

The Suffolk County Police Department would not comment for this story, and prosecutors did not return messages.

Sources said Suffolk County detectives began looking at the NYPD cops last month after determining the killer likely worked in law enforcement or was familiar with police techniques.

They've focused on how the murderer abducted his victims and if he used insider knowledge to avoid being detected.

Investigators suspect the killer hired the hookers through Craigslist, using a disposable and untraceable cellphone to make appointments.

He also used the cellphone of one victim to call and taunt the woman's teenage sister after he'd abducted her.

Cops traced two of those calls -- to Midtown and Massapequa, LI, which is not far from where the killer ditched the bodies of four hookers just off sand-swept Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach.

He'd strangled them, removed all their clothing and wrapped the corpses in burlap sacks before leaving the bodies in thick brush off the desolate causeway.

The four call girls found last year have been identified as Amber Lynn Costello, 27, of North Babylon, LI; Megan Waterman, 22, of Scarborough, Maine; Melissa Barthelemy, 24, who went missing from The Bronx; and Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25, of Norwich, Conn.

The cops are not the sole focus of the investigation, which has expanded over the last several weeks, sources said.

Sugar Sugar is not an ordinary dating service. Instead of putting together people who are simply seeking traditional relationships, it links up sugar daddies - wealthy men who are willing to shower young women with money, gifts, and other compensation in exchange for companionship - and their so-called sugar babies.

Oh my! So this is no ordinary gentleman we're dealing with.

He is not simply seeking ladies of the evening with whom he will have deep, meaningful conversations about positions and day rates. No way! He's a sugar daddy looking for his "sugar baby". Those men are a different breed entirely.

But then there's the age old question: how to meet a sugar baby?

It may be a difficult subject to bring up at a bar, as both parties may initially feel uncomfortable tipping their sugarhands, so it's a good thing we live in an era where bringing up such complicated matters is as simple as a point and click:

The SugarSugar Dating App will be available for download on June 1st through SugarSugar.com and iTunes, and will be compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, Android, and BlackBerry devices. The app will use GPS technology to instantly identify those seeking ‘mutually beneficial' arrangements within the user's vicinity. After ‘checking in, the application will map out the profiles of nearby members. Users will be able to trade stats, show photos or send messages to arrange an effortless rendezvous.

I have to admit, I love the sound of the term "effortless rendezvous" and if I meet someone who I think would be the perfect sugardate, I intend to suggest that we arrange one.

Despite my liberal use of sugar as a prefix, this app doesn't bother me one way or the other. However, the article doesn't say much about taking any measures to ensure the safety of these girls.

Well, unless this counts:

Apple's App Store [is] a place known for its strict guidelines and approval process.

Phew. At least we know the app itself is safe!

In addition to the question of safety, some people are wondering how this app was able to bypass Apple's "strict guidelines" in the first place, as they directly prohibit the following:

16.1 Apps that present excessively objectionable or crude content will be rejected

18.1 Apps containing pornographic material, defined by Webster's Dictionary as "explicit descriptions or displays of sexual organs or activities intended to stimulate erotic rather than aesthetic or emotional feelings", will be rejected

18.2 Apps that contain user generated content that is frequently pornographic (ex "Chat Roulette" apps) will be rejected

22.1 Apps must comply with all legal requirements in any location where they are made available to users. It is the developer's obligation to understand and conform to all local laws

22.3 Apps that solicit, promote, or encourage criminal or clearly reckless behavior will be rejected

Nevertheless, sugarreaders, you can look forward to the app's debut on June 1st.

Or not. (No judgment!)

A Canadian policeman who told women to stop dressing like 'sluts' to avoid being raped sparked the worldwide protest movement that could see more than 5,000 women march through the capital.

Thousands of members of SlutWalk have already marched in cities across the U.S and Canada to display anger at Pc Michael Sanguinetti's comments, made in a health and safety talk to students at Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto. 


Outrage: Global protest group SlutWalk was set up in response to comments from a Canadian police officer suggesting that women should 'avoid dressing like sluts' to protect themselves from rape

He reportedly told the group: 'You know, I think we're beating around the bush here. I've been told I'm not supposed to say this. However, women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimised.'

Pc Sanguinetti later apologised and was disciplined, but remains in his role within the police force. 

Following his remarks, made in April, women across the globe joined the SlutWalk Facebook page in their droves, sparking protests in Toronto and Boston as well as other cities across the U.S.

A 3,000-strong crowd marched through Toronto, a further 2,000 took to the streets of Boston, some women marching in their underwear with 'slut' scrawled on their skin.

The London march, set to proceed from Hyde Park to Trafalgar Square, has been organised via SlutWalk's London Facebook page, where 5,200 group members are already discussing the event.

If such a number turn out on the day, London's march will be the biggest yet.


United front: Members of SlutWalk took to the streets of Boston at the weekend to protest against what they call the 'victimisation and blame' of women

The SlutWalk London website says its protests aim to end what is says is the 'victimisation and the culture of blame' towards rape victims.

Organisers of the group branded Pc Sanguinetti's comments 'ridiculous and inaccurate'.

'It was incredibly damaging to women around the world, painting them as perpetrators - rather than victims - of a disgusting, violent crime,' they said.

'All over the world, women are constantly made to feel like victims, told they should not look a certain way, should not go out at night, should not go into certain areas, should not get drunk, should not wear high heels or make up, should not be alone with someone they don't know.'

'Not only does this divert attention away from the real cause of the crime - the perpetrator - but it creates a culture where rape is OK, where it's allowed to happen... after all, she must have been asking for it, right?'

The protest movement has rapidly gained pace thanks to participation on Facebook and Twitter.

'We wanted to do something to show our support,' said Siobhan Connors, 20, of Lynn, Massachusetts, a Boston organiser. 'We originally planned for a small event and expected about 30 people.'


Anger: Protesters say they wish to reclaim the word 'slut', which they say has been too long used as a weapon against women. 'Once you reclaim it, you take the power away from it,' said one

A member of the Boston Facebook group, Vanessa White, 33, attended the Boston event dressed in a pink jacket and fishnet stockings.

'For me it's an attempt to reclaim the word 'slut' itself,' she said. 'Because once you reclaim it, you take the power away from it.'

But some critics, while applauding the overall message, have slammed the group for what they call its 'provocative' and 'unhelpful' name.


Blame: SlutWalkers want to end rape blame culture. 'Women are told they should not look a certain way, wear high heels or make up. It diverts attention away from the real cause of the crime - the perpetrator'

They have suggested that far from empowering women, attempting to reclaim the word has the opposite effect, simply serving as evidence that women are accepting this label given to them by misogynistic men.

Debate on Twitter says the group's name is off-putting to those who believe in the cause, but don't believe in marching under the 'slut' banner.

'This word marginalises women wanting to protest but not embrace the word "slut",' says one, while  another adds 'there is no redemption for the male-defined word "slut". This is not liberation.'

Another user agrees. 'Women should not protest for the right to be called "slut",' they said.


Injustice: SlutWalk protesters say rape victims are still made to feel like perpetrators

International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn was arrested in New York earlier this evening. The IMF leader was taken into custody by Port Authority police at JFK Airport while on board a Paris-bound Air France plane that was awaiting takeoff. He was later turned over to Manhattan police for questioning but has yet to be charged.

Strauss-Kahn is well-known in French political circles and is a candidate for president of France. It would seem that US politicians are not alone in sex scandals. A maid who works in the Sofitel hotel in Times Square has accused the IMF leader of sodomy.



IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn attends World Economic Forum Meeting in Davos, Switzerland (January 30, 2010)

Special Victims Unit Investigating

The case against Strauss-Kahn is under investigation by the Special Victims Unit, from the Midtown South precinct. According to the alleged victim, Strauss-Kahn, 62, crept up behind her and forced her to perform oral sex, after he emerged from the bathroom naked. The woman was able to escape and flee the hotel room; Strauss-Kahn apparently made haste to the airport. The IMF leader left his cell phone and other personal effects behind in the hotel room.

Strauss-Kahn is the leader of France's Socialist Party. He previously scheduled a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on Sunday.

Economic and Moral Crisis?

With many countries facing severe fiscal crises, it is fascinating to see where some economic officials' priorities seem to lie. Clearly, scandal is something that does occur frequently at many levels and positions--whether in government, entertainment, private business or on the latest reality show. What's interesting to note is that while many in government seem to preach a Socialist agenda, which claims to offer the greatest good for the greatest number of people, there still seems to be a contradiction. Many of these same people are clearly driven by self-centered motives.

If the IMF leader ultimately faces charges in this sex attack, the result will be further erosion in what little confidence remains in world economic "leaders."

The Weston Mercury - Businessman on trial for gun crime: "Cam Mu, of Brean Down Avenue in Weston, will begin his trial after being charged with possession of a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence, as well as assault.

Mr Mu previously pleaded not guilty to both charges at North Somerset Courthouse in St Georges.

The trial could last several days"

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Police fight strip club liquor license to avoid bloodshed: "Montreal police investigators who have testified before the liquor board hearings say they have gathered information that Goodridge controls Club Temptation and that he paid $250,000 for the bar along with agreeing to cover the cost of major renovations.
At least some of the evidence indicates Goodridge took control of the club through intimidation.
On May 29, 2009, the Montreal police received a call about men who were refusing to pay their bills while they drank at Club Temptation. When the police arrived they were directed to the club’s VIP area where they found Goodridge seated along with Fritz Gerald (King) Michel, an influential street gang member and Eric Naudi, a man Goodridge had been arrested with in the past.
Stéphane Dumas, a member of Project Eclipse, the Montreal police street gang unit, asked Goodridge what was going on. Dumas testified that Goodridge told him that he was the club’s manager. Goodridge also said that the dispute over the bar tab was because all of the furniture in the bar belonged to him and that Vallera was late in paying for it. Dumas testified that Goodridge told him that if Vallera didn’t pay what he owed soon he would remove all the furniture within a week. No one inside the bar ended up filing a complaint to the police"

Express.co.uk - Home of the Daily and Sunday Express | UK News :: 'I tried to get her off drugs but she was back on heroin': "THE heartbroken mother of a vice girl believed to have been killed by Stephen Griffiths broke down sobbing last night as police continued searching for her daughter’s remains.
Christine Thompson, 72, was on holiday with her family in Greece when she was told police believed her daughter Susan Rushworth, 43, was one of three prostitutes killed by the same man.
But her horror has worsened after discovering that her granddaughter Kirsty, 21 – Susan’s daughter – is also working as a prostitute at the same spot in Bradford from where her daughter disappeared. Mrs Thompson has been on holiday on the Greek isle of Halkidiki with husband Barry and grandson James, 24."

Bradford murders: detectives questioned Stephen Griffiths over fourth dead prostitute - Telegraph: "Rebecca Hall was 19 when she was battered to death in Bradford in April 2001 and her body was found dumped in an alley two weeks later. Nobody has ever been arrested in relation to the killing.
Yesterday, Angela Hall, 56, said that police had questioned Stephen Griffiths about her daughter's case. Mr Griffiths, 40, was charged last week with the murders of three women who worked as prostitutes: Suzanne Blamires, Shelley Armitage and Susan Rushworth. He identified himself as 'the Crossbow Cannibal' in court."