No place of refuge: Israeli strikes hit camps in Gaza

https://www.reuters.com/graphics/ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS/GAZA-JABALIA/byprrdygjpe/

Reread the title.  How can shooting captives in a prison be justified.  If the police / prison guards herded all the prisoners in to a small places and started to mow them down with gun fire, it is about what Israel is doing to Gaza.  Hugs.  Scottie


A man sits above rubble and destroyed buildings as Palestinians search for casualties a day after Israeli strikes on houses in Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, Nov. 1, 2023.

Israeli air strikes devastated parts of the Jabalia refugee camp in north Gaza this week, flattening buildings in a densely populated area where, Palestinian authorities say, at least 195 civilians were killed and scores more are still missing.

Israel says the attacks successfully targeted Hamas military leaders, their fighters and the tunnel network they dug beneath civilian areas and used for operations. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has pledged to destroy Hamas – the Palestinian Islamic militant group that controls the Gaza Strip – in retaliation for its Oct. 7 attacks on Israel that killed 1,400 people, mostly civilians.

The strikes at the Jabalia camp – the largest of several refugee settlements in Gaza – have fuelled international concern at the mounting humanitarian toll of Israel’s offensive.

In the wake of the first airstrike on Oct. 31, which left deep craters filled with broken concrete and twisted metal in the midst of Jabalia’s tightly packed buildings, the Office of the U.N. Human Rights Commissioner Volker Turk said in a tweeted statement that the scale of the destruction and the high number of civilian casualties aroused “serious concerns that these are disproportionate attacks that could amount to war crimes.”

Turk had previously said on Oct. 7 that he was “shocked and appalled” at the killings of civilians, hostage-taking, and rocket attacks on Israel by Palestinian armed groups.

Hamas gunmen rampaged through Israeli border areas on Oct. 7, in the deadliest day of the nation’s 75-year history. Israel says around 240 people were taken as hostages into Gaza, where they are believed to be held in Hamas’ extensive tunnel network.

*** There is a drawing of the area and the places of strikes and other stuff talked about.  I am unable to copy and paste it here.  Please go to the link above to see the information.  Hugs.  Scottie ***

Satellite map of the Gaza Strip, showing the eight refugee camps. The Jabalia refugee camp is highlighted and the site of an airstrike within the camp shown.

Israel’s ensuing bombardment of the small Palestinian enclave of 2.3 million people has killed more than 9,000 people, according to health authorities in Gaza. Food and water are scarce, and medical services are collapsing.

At least five other refugee camps in the coastal enclave have been hit during Israel’s ongoing offensive, according to satellite images analysed by Masae Analytics. An Israeli military spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the images.

The United Nations refugee agency for Palestinians said that schools used as shelters by thousands of people have been damaged in the Jabalia, Beach and Al Bureij camps, and nearly 50 of its buildings and assets have been affected across the 360 sq km Gaza Strip. The U.N. agency said that more than 70 of its staff have been killed.

Israel has held Hamas accountable for the civilian death toll in Gaza, saying that it is using Gazans as human shields. Israeli officials note they have repeatedly warned residents to evacuate northern Gaza in recent days.

Reuters has used satellite images, pictures and videos shot by its journalists in Gaza to piece together an account of this week’s attacks in Jabalia.

Maps of six refugee camps in the Gaza Strip, the Rafah, Jabalia, Beach, Khan Younis, Bureij and Maghazi camps. Estimated damage to buildings within each camp is shown. All have significant numbers of damaged buildings.

At 1.4-square kilometres, Jabalia is the largest of eight refugee camps in Gaza and is home to some 116,000 registered refugees, many of whom are dependent on food, medicine and other aid provided by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA).

The densely packed camp was set up in 1948 to shelter the wave of Palestinians who fled or were driven from their homes amid the fighting that accompanied the creation of the modern state of Israel. Palestinians lament this as the Nakba, or catastrophe. Israel contests that it drove Palestinians away, saying it was attacked by neighbouring Arab states.

The Jabalia camp decades ago evolved from its original temporary tents and huts into a maze of concrete and breeze-block buildings separated by shoulder-width alleyways.

Living conditions are poor: conflict and years of Israeli-led blockade on Hamas-run Gaza have led to high unemployment, poverty, contaminated water and a shortage of building supplies for new homes.

*** Below is a chart / drawing of the area and where the camps are that are being struck.  Again it wouldn’t copy over, to see them please go to the link above.   Hugs.  Scottie ***

Map of the Jabalia camp with building footprints shown. Buildings which contain schools or kindergartens, hospitals or clinics and mosques are all highlighted. There are many of all categories both within and around the camp. The site of an airstrike within the camp is also shown.

The camp has long been a flashpoint for tensions. Jabalia was where the first Palestinian intifada, or uprising, against Israeli occupation erupted in 1987 after an Israeli truck driver crashed into a vehicle carrying Palestinian workers, some of them from the refugee camp.

Ever since it has been a hotspot. In 2008, Israeli ground forces went into Jabalia when Hamas began firing longer range rockets into Israel, killing more than 60 Palestinians during the military operation.

In 2009, an Israeli air strike killed senior Hamas leader Nizar Rayan and members of his family in an airstrike on his home in the camp.

Reuters live footage at 1224 GMT on Tuesday Oct. 31 showed the first sign of the air strike on the Jabalia refugee camp: the camera shakes and then captures a plume of black smoke rising over northern Gaza. Details in the camera shot – a water tower, minaret, solar panels – matched satellite images of the area and confirmed the blast was in the Jabalia camp.

First reports of the airstrike appeared online around 1235 GMT, a few minutes after the blast was seen in Reuters footage.

Standing at the edge of one of the craters in the wake of the attack, Abdel Kareem Rayan, a resident of the camp, held a paper listing the names of the 15 family members that he said he lost. “They were innocent, just staying (in the camp). What wrong did they do?” he said.

Smoke billows above a building. People and medics rush to the scene of an Israeli attack that hit the Jabalia refugee camp in north Gaza on Wednesday, Nov. 1.

*** There is a video of the bombing and people running with injured people / children while others rush to help.  But it wont post here, to see it please go to the web site at the link above.  Hugs.  Scottie ***

Professor Justin Bronk, Senior Research Fellow for Airpower and Technology at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), a defence and security think tank headquartered in London, said that the Reuters images of the Oct. 31 attack showed “multiple sizeable bomb craters.”

Bronk said that, while it was hard to do an exact weapons identification from photographs, the craters were consistent with the Israeli Air Force’s standard guided air-to-surface Joint-Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs) – specifically GBU-31 2000lb or GBU-32 1000lb JDAMs.

“The primary use for the GBU-31 family of 2000lb JDAMs in U.S. service is for striking relatively deeply buried targets or for demolishing large structures,” he said, adding that U.S.-led coalitions in Iraq and Afghanistan generally tried to use munitions with significantly smaller warheads such as Hellfire missiles or the GBU-38 family of 500lb JDAMs in densely populated areas. “However, these munitions lack the capacity to reliably penetrate and destroy structures several stories underground.”

Israeli defence officials have said aircraft were involved in the attack. A military spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the munitions used. The Pentagon declined to comment on the assessment.

*** Below is a single image of a complex tool on the orginal post that takes the before of the city and as you move the slider shows you the complete under devestation of that same city now.   Hugs.  Scottie ***

https://www.reuters.com/graphics/ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS/GAZA-JABALIA/byprrdygjpe/cdn/Satellite photo of the same area on Nov. 1 shows damage to buildings and a crater left behind from an airstrike.https://www.reuters.com/graphics/ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS/GAZA-JABALIA/byprrdygjpe/cdn/Satellite photo of buildings in Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp taken Oct. 31.

Oct. 31

Nov. 1

 
 

Satellite imagery shows that the location of the strike was near the intersection of Al Mouhawel and Al Almey streets.

Israel’s military said the Oct. 31 attack killed a significant military leader of Hamas: Ibrahim Biari, commander of the Jabalia Battalion and a ringleader of the Oct. 7 attack on Israeli towns and kibbutzim.

Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said that Biari was also “the dominant leader” of Hamas fighters operating in northern Gaza from a network of tunnels beneath the camp.

“He was killed while situating himself inside the Jabalia Camp – with dozens of additional terrorists around him in the same area – which contains a headquarters and other operational facilities located in buildings within the civilian camp,” Hagari said on Nov. 1.

Hagari said the strike caused the collapse of the tunnels and underground military infrastructure, which in turn brought down additional surface structures.

Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem denied there was any senior commander present in the camp. Hamas’s armed wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, said seven civilian hostages were killed in the strikes on Jabalia, including three foreign passport holders. Reuters was unable to verify that independently.

The second airstrike hit on Wednesday Nov. 1 in the Falouja neighbourhood of Jabalia refugee camp, approximately half a mile from the site of Tuesday’s explosion.

The blast flattened several big apartment buildings. The Interior Ministry in Gaza said the strike had destroyed an entire residential block, which Reuters was unable to confirm.

As the wounded were being carried from the scene on blankets and in the arms of residents and rescue workers, one local man told Reuters he said been praying in a local mosque and had rushed out when he felt the blast. “It is a massacre,” said the man, who did not give his name, as emergency workers tried to free survivors from the rubble by hand.

Israel’s military said the second strike killed Muhammad A’sar, head of Hamas’s anti-tank missile unit.

According to the health ministry and the Hamas government media office, at least 195 people were killed in the two airstrikes on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1, which left 120 missing and more than 700 wounded.

A third Israeli airstrike hit the Jabalia refugee camp on Nov. 2, Reuters reported. The bombardment hit the UNRWA-sponsored Abu Hussein school, where many displaced Gazans were residing, according to eyewitnesses and a statement from the U.N. agency. Injured camp residents were rushed to the Indonesian hospital. Reuters was unable to determine the number of casualties.

Photo of a large crater and destroyed buildings. People are searching amongst the rubble.

Palestinians search for casualties a day after Israeli strikes on houses in Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, Nov. 1, 2023. REUTERS/Mohammed Al-Masri

Israel said it has so far killed 10 Hamas commanders responsible for planning the Oct. 7 attack. Hamas – designated as a terrorist organisation by the European Union and the United States, among others – called in its 1988 founding charter for the destruction of Israel.

On a visit to Israel on Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated that Israel has a right to “do everything possible” to ensure that there would be no repetition of the Oct. 7 attack.

But he called called for a humanitarian pause: “It is very important when it comes to protection of civilians who are caught in the crossfire of Hamas’s making, that everything be done to protect them and to bring assistance to those who so desperately need it, who are not in any way responsible for what happened on Oct. 7.”

Speaking shortly after Blinken, Netanyahu said: “We are proceeding with all our might, and Israel refuses any temporary ceasefire that does not include the return of our kidnapped hostages.”

Top photo

A man reacts as Palestinians search for casualties a day after Israeli strikes on houses in Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, Nov. 1, 2023. REUTERS/Mohammed Al-Masri

Note to analysis

Building damage provided by Masae Analytics change detection analysis based on Copernicus Sentinel-1 data. The analysis uses satellite images to estimate areas within the Gaza Strip affected by bombings since the Israeli campaign began. Analysis is further reviewed for false positives (areas that appear damaged in the analysis, but are not) and false negatives (areas that do not appear damaged, but are) by cross checking with other high resolution satellite imagery, media reports and other sources.

Edited by

Daniel Flynn, Jon McClure

Israel strikes ambulance near Gaza hospital, 15 reported killed

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/health-ministry-gaza-says-israel-targeted-convoy-ambulances-leaving-al-shifa-2023-11-03/

Medical vehicle.  More dead people.  Is that allowed in war.  NO!  but Israel is doing it and getting away with it.   All they have to say to excuse what they do is Hamas.  Say it to all the kids killed, all the women bombed, over 10,000 Palestinians civilians killed, a third of them children.  But Hamas, it is OK Hamas attacked us and killed about 1,400 people.  Maybe 40 were children.     But Hamas … but never show proof it was Hamas where they targeted.  Just leave the area Israel says as they bomb the only ways out.  This is the deliberate killing of a people to drive them out of a land and to somewhere else, and that is terrorism in the highest level.   Hugs.  Scottie


GAZA, Nov 3 (Reuters) – An Israeli air strike on an ambulance being used to evacuate the wounded from besieged northern Gaza killed 15 people and injured 60 others on Friday, the Hamas-controlled enclave’s health ministry said.

Israel’s military said it had identified and hit an ambulance “being used by a Hamas terrorist cell”. It said Hamas fighters were killed in the strike, and accused the group of transferring militants and weapons in ambulances.

 

Hamas official Izzat El Reshiq said allegations its fighters were present were “baseless”. Ashraf al-Qidra, spokesperson for Gaza’s health ministry, said the ambulance was part of a convoy that Israel targeted near Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital.

Qidra said Israel had targeted the convoy of ambulances in more than one location, including at al-Shifa Hospital gate and at Ansar Square a kilometer (0.6 miles) away.

 

In a statement on the incident, Israel’s military gave no evidence to support its assertion that the ambulance was linked to Hamas but said it intended to release additional information.

“We emphasize that this area is a battle zone. Civilians in the area are repeatedly called upon to evacuate southwards for their own safety,” the military said.

Reuters was unable to independently verify either side’s account.

 

Video shared on social media, which Reuters has verified, showed people lying in blood next to an ambulance with flashing lights on a city street as people rushed to help.

Another video showed three ambulances standing in a line, with about a dozen people lying either motionless or barely moving next to them. Blood was pooled nearby.

World Health Organisation Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a social media post he was “utterly shocked by reports of attacks on ambulances evacuating patients”, adding that patients, health workers and medical facilities must be protected.

 

Earlier on Friday, Qidra said ambulances would send critically injured Palestinians who urgently need to be taken to Egypt to be treated from besieged Gaza City to the south of the enclave.

Israel, which has accused Hamas of concealing command centres and tunnel entrances in al-Shifa hospital, ordered all civilians to leave the north of Gaza last month and its military encircled the area on Thursday.

Despite its order for civilians to leave northern areas of Gaza, Israel’s military has continued to bombard the south of the strip as well.

Hamas and al-Shifa hospital authorities have denied the facility is used as a base by militant fighters.

Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Writing by Angus McDowall; Editing by Alison Williams, Alistair Bell and by Sandra Maler

Israeli strikes kill multiple civilians at shelters in Gaza combat zone, as Blinken seeks more aid

https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-gaza-news-11-4-2023-baf5a858e29aa6a4b8100e3afc5afdf2

Read the title again please before the article.  No justification for this!  Israeli officials keep saying there was no justification for the attack on them by Hamas, OK but there is no justification for what Israel is doing now to a captured people who can not fight back and can not escape.  There is a video at the link.  Hugs.  Scottie


https://apnews.com/16c1fcdc8255451b9503b3d0a038ca1f

A Palestinian checks the destruction after Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip in Khan Younis, Friday, Now. 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)

In this undated photo provided by the Israeli military, Israeli troops are seen during a ground operation in the Gaza Strip. Israeli ground forces have been operating in Gaza in recent days as Israel presses ahead with its war against Hamas militants. (Israel Defense Forces via AP)

A man steps over the bodies of dead and injured Palestinians lying on the ground following an Israeli airstrike outside the entrance of the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, Friday, Nov. 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Abed Khaled)

Palestinian child wounded in Israeli bombardment is treated in a hospital in Deir al Balah, south of the Gaza Strip, Friday, Nov. 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

An Israeli reservist soldier collects family albums from his mother's house, a day after the house was hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, near Tel Aviv, Israel, Friday, Nov. 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Palestinian points at destruction by the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip in the Maghazi refugee camp, Friday, Nov. 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel, Friday, Nov. 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Family members carry Moataz Abu Al-Nada, a Palestinian militant who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank, Friday, Nov. 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

An injured Palestinian boy is carried from the ground following an Israeli airstrike outside the entrance of the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, Friday, Nov. 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Abed Khaled)

 

Israeli troops have been tightening their encirclement of Gaza City with army videos showing ongoing battles with Hamas militants (4 November).

BY NAJIB JOBAINSAMY MAGDY AND DAVID RISING
Updated 8:29 AM EDT, November 4, 2023

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli military strikes killed multiple civilians Saturday at a U.N. shelter and hospital in the main combat zone in the Gaza Strip as the assault intensified on the besieged enclave’s Hamas rulers amid growing international uproar over the soaring death toll and deepening humanitarian crisis.

Israel’s military has said it has encircled Gaza City, the target of its offensive to crush Hamas, but on Saturday offered a three-hour window for residents trapped by the fighting to flee south.

The new attacks came as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in the region trying to find ways to ease the plight of the civilians caught in the fighting. He met with Arab foreign ministers on Saturday in Jordan, the day after talks in Israel with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who insisted there can be no temporary cease-fire until all hostages held by Hamas are released.

The Israeli military has repeatedly demanded that northern Gaza’s 1.1 million residents flee south as it escalates bombardment of the north and tightens the noose around Gaza City. However, some of those traveling south were killed during their journey in recent days, and Israel has continued bombing in the south, saying it is striking Hamas targets.

 

Just some things I found this morning

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Gaza, explained

If you want to understand this conflict, if you want to see what real bigotry / racism is watch this video.  There is no doubt who is in the wrong, who are the villains really are.   Hugs.  Scottie


On October 7, Hamas, a militant group based in the Gaza Strip, launched a deadly attack on Israel, killing over 1,400 Israelis and kidnapping over 200. In retaliation, Israeli airstrikes have killed, as of this video, over 6,400 Palestinians in Gaza, where Palestinians have lived for decades under an occupation and blockade.


Since 1967, Israel has imposed tight restrictions on travel and essential goods such as food, fuel, medicine, and water in its occupied territories. In 2007, those restrictions became even tighter in Gaza after Hamas seized power there. Since then, it has been nearly impossible for Palestinians to leave Gaza or to access an adequate supply of essential goods.

Today, the Gaza Strip, with a population of over 2 million Palestinians, is a victim of what many call “collective punishment” as Israel bombards its population, shuts off access to internet, power, food, water, and medicine, forces them to leave their homes, and prepares for a ground invasion.

This latest episode of Vox Atlas explains how the experience of Palestinians in Gaza got to this point, and what’s behind Israel’s occupation and its blockade of Gaza.

Extremists Shout Slurs, Shut Down CA Drag Story Hour

Read the full article. As you can see below, homocon extremist Andy Ngo and the far-right hate group Gays Against Groomers are celebrating.

The jerk below is a well known right wing agitator who used to make stuff up about BLM protestors to try to promote anger at them and black people.  I watched the video in which he claims people of color stopped the performance yet in the video all the people are white.   Hugs

 

 

Haters: Parents get the final say on everything their kids see!

Parents: We’d like our kids to see Drag Queen Story Hour.

Haters: YOU ARE ALL PEDOPHILES.

Haters: You don’t have rights. Only we do.

So in other words, republicans are telling other people how to raise their kids. Why don’t republicans believe in parent’s rights?

All parents have the right to raise proper little uptight Republican children.

So, essentially, the cops get to decide that the perfectly-legal event is disturbing the peace and not the idiots who are protesting the event…?

That’s clearly a slippery slope.

If this had been a BLM protest, they would have shot everyone.

The cops around where I live are known for their indifference to gay people despite this being a town heavily populated by gays. This place is sick with hypocrisy

…a group of about 70 people … wearing black-and-white shirts reading, “Leave our kids alone.”

FunFact: YOUR kids weren’t there.

The parents who brought their own kids to the event should have been the ones wearing those t-shirts.

‘Cause it’s all about the parent’s right to choose until it isn’t.

Let’s distill this.

A person in a costume reads fables and fiction to kids.

Why, that happens every fucking Sunday in buildings with stars atop them across the country.

I can’t tell a difference. 🤔🤔

Civil rights violation? Where were the police officers and what were they doing

They were there NOT arresting the bigots, because they agree with them.

Apparently they were there. And asked some to disperse. And they said no, we aren’t going to disperse. And that was that.

About six to eight protesters refused to leave the entrance even after police issued a dispersal order, according to Pickle.

How many did they arrest after the order was disobeyed? None.

Conclusion: It’s okay to ignore orders from police if you’re illegally blocking a public building’s entrance/exit, though maybe it’s a special rule that only applies to fascists protesting a person in costume reading to children.

Hate to point out the obvious, but they are not “Your Kids”

About six to eight protesters refused to leave the entrance even after police issued a dispersal order, according to Pickle.

 

Police: Ah, gee, citizens, won’t you pretty-please obey a direct order from us impotent policemen?

Could any of the “Haters” give a rational reason, as to how Drag Story Hour hurts kids, and does not ENTERTAIN and TEACH KIDS????

Could any of them give a reason why those kids, whose parents approved and were in attendance, should have decisions made for them by some other party who doesn’t know them?

 

Protesters blockade San Fernando Library, shut down drag queen story event

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-10-27/protesters-blockade-san-fernando-library-shut-down-drag-queen-story-event

Look at the pictures, and tell me what is sexual happening?  What is threatening to kids in these pictures?  A small group of angry violent haters were allowed by the 10 police officers there to deny other people the right to use a public facility and see the performance they had come to see.  The police allowed them to block entrances, to scream profanities in front of children they claimed to be trying to protect, and seemed to feel entitled to force others to do only what the hateful protesters want.  This is not democracy.  Think of how the police handle BLM protestors, and yet made no move to arrest these protestors.  Below is a quote from the article.   Hugs

“Protesters claimed they want to keep children safe while pounding on walls, shouting obscenities and slurs toward my staff and library staff, and using strollers to blockade moving vehicles. The hypocrisy is astounding,” Horvath said.

Drag Queen Pickle reads to children.

Drag queen Pickle reads a story to children during a Drag Queen Story Hour event at the Laguna Art Museum in Laguna Beach on June 17.
 
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
———————————————————————————
 ANDREW J. CAMPA STAFF WRITER 
 

Dozens of protesters physically blocked the entrance to the San Fernando Library this week to stop a scheduled drag storytime reading event from taking place.

Videos posted on social media showed a group of about 70 people — some of whom had previously attended similar demonstrations in North HollywoodGlendale and elsewhere — wearing black-and-white shirts reading, “Leave our kids alone.” They chanted the same slogan through bullhorns while hurling verbal abuse and slurs at the guest reader.

Story hours, during which drag queens read to children at venues such as libraries, schools and bookstores, have drawn fury and condemnation from conservatives and right-wing extremists across the country. Some events have been the subject of anti-LGBTQ+ threats and at times violent confrontations.

 

Wednesday’s scheduled 30-minute event, which organizers said was intended to promote youth literacy, never took place.

 

April 23, 2023

“What was meant to be a celebration of love and inclusion turned into the opposite,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, the event’s host, said in a statement Thursday.

 

“Protesters claimed they want to keep children safe while pounding on walls, shouting obscenities and slurs toward my staff and library staff, and using strollers to blockade moving vehicles. The hypocrisy is astounding,” Horvath said.

Horvath’s staff said in an email that the supervisor, who was inside the library, did not officially cancel the event. But it did not proceed because demonstrators “blockaded” entrances — denying entry to both library patrons and drag queen Pickle, the guest reader.

Pickle, Los Angeles chapter president of the nonprofit Drag Story Hour, said she parked blocks away from the library “for safety reasons,” anticipating some hostility.

 

Video footage showed that San Fernando police officers encircled Pickle near the rear entrance. The phalanx moved toward a metal gate but stopped short as some protesters screamed “pervert,” “pedophile” and “disgusting freak” at Pickle.

About six to eight protesters refused to leave the entrance even after police issued a dispersal order, according to Pickle. The San Fernando Police Department did not confirm or deny whether such an order had been given.

LOS ANGELES, CA-AUGUST 23, 2019: Pickle reads a children's book at drag queen story hour during the DTLA Proud Festival at Pershing Square on August 23, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. This is the first of a three-day festival. (Photo By Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
 

 

The drag performer said she and the police then attempted to move to the front entrance. As they walked, protesters blared car horns, refused to move and positioned nearby tables to block the front entryway, she said.

“At this point, the police weren’t making arrests, they weren’t stopping the mob and they were allowing an unelected group of people to determine who could and who could not access a public building,” Pickle said. “Shame on the San Fernando police.”

Pickle received a text from Horvath’s staff telling her to leave since she was unable to enter the building. After receiving a police escort back to her car, she did so.

“They canceled the event and I can’t believe how they handled the situation,” Pickle said, referring to staff from the library and Horvath’s office. “This goes beyond hurt feelings. This is about civil rights and they shouldn’t have invited me down if they weren’t going to stand up for them.”

Drag Queen, Sylvia O'Stayformre, stops to talk about the damage from a December 7 incident, when someone fired a steel ball into the front window, as she arrives to host Drag Queen Storytime and Bingo at Brewmaster's Tap Room in Renton, Wash. on Saturday, Jan. 14, 2023.

Feb. 22, 2023

————————————————————-

Questions emailed to L.A. County Library personnel, who oversee the San Fernando Library, were not immediately answered Thursday.

Pickle said she has attended about 50 drag story hour events, but this was the first canceled in person.

A story hour she was scheduled to appear at in Glendale last spring was canceled ahead of time, and protesters also disrupted another of her storybook hours in Sherman Oaks in April.

San Fernando Police Lt. Pete Aguirre said 10 officers were deployed to the library.

LAGUNA BEACH, CA - JUNE 17: Drag Queen Pickle, left, reads a story to children during Drag Queen Story Hour at Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

June 19, 2023

—————————————————————

Aguirre said no arrests were made and no assaults or property damage were reported.

Aguirre said protesters began arriving at 10:30 a.m., with most staying until the event was terminated at noon. Others didn’t leave for another hour and engaged with a “small contingent of counter protesters.”

“We weren’t able to get to the venue, but we ensured that the performer was not assaulted in any way and that they were able to leave the venue unharmed,” Aguirre said.

Trans sex worker & ACLU sue Tennessee over HIV criminalization law

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2023/10/trans-sex-worker-aclu-sue-tennessee-over-hiv-criminalization-law/

HIV criminalization laws
HIV criminalization lawsPhoto: Shutterstock

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Transgender Law Center have filed a federal lawsuit against a Tennessee law that requires HIV-positive sex workers to register for life as a “violent sex offender.”

The aforementioned advocacy organizations filed the lawsuit on behalf of the state LGBTQ+ advocacy groups OUTMemphis and four “Jane Doe” plaintiffs who were convicted under the law. The plaintiffs, which include a transgender woman, allege that they have faced discrimination and life struggles because of their violent sex offender status. These struggles have forced the trans woman to continue doing sex work, since finding a job can be difficult for someone on the registry.

Another plaintiff said that they were sent back to jail after violating the registry’s requirements. The plaintiffs allege that the law violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by handing harsher punishments to people with HIV, a chronic disease covered by the ADA’s anti-discrimination statutes. Tennessee is the only state with this law, according to the Edge Media Network.

“This statute solely targets people because of their HIV status and keeps them in cycles of poverty while posing absolutely zero benefit to public health and safety,” said Molly Quinn, executive director of OUTMemphis. “HIV stigma is becoming a thing of the past, and it’s time for state law to catch up.”

The lawsuit lists Gov. Bill Lee (R-TN), Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Director David Rausch, and Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada as defendants.

While sex work is a misdemeanor crime in Tennessee, the HIV criminalization law turns the crime into a felony. An estimated 83 Tennesseeans are currently in the registry because of it. Tennessee legislators passed the law in 1991 near the height of the AIDS epidemic when over 100,000 Americans had died from the illness, and scientists were still trying to find effective medical treatments against it.

In 2021, Illinois, New Jersey, and Virginia repealed their felony HIV criminalization laws. However, in 2022, Pennsylvania signed a law making it a felony to pass on a communicable disease when they “should have known” that they had it — the law included HIV.

As of 2022, 35 states have laws that criminalize HIV exposure, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Many of the laws were passed at a time when little was known about HIV and millions were dying from the virus.

Medical professionals have said that HIV criminalization laws do nothing to stop the spread of the virus and may even encourage people not to get tested for fear that the knowledge could subject them to criminal penalties.

“Many of these state laws criminalize actions that cannot transmit HIV – such as biting or spitting – and apply regardless of actual transmission, or intent,” the CDC wrote. “After more than 40 years of HIV research and significant biomedical advancements to treat and prevent HIV transmission, many state laws are now outdated and do not reflect our current understanding of HIV.”

A 2018 Williams Institute study on HIV criminalization in Georgia found that “Black men and Black women were more likely to be arrested for HIV-related offenses than their white counterparts.” While 26% of HIV-related arrests were of white males, 46% of HIV-related arrests were of Black males. Additionally, 11 % of those arrested were white females, while 16% were Black females.

Cenk Uygur Unleashes Fury In Piers Morgan Appearance On Israel-Gaza

For those that don’t know, I dropped my TYT membership this summer.  I found that Anna’s hard right turn and Cenk’s hate for Biden along with trying to destroy the Democratic Party became too much to take.  But on this he is correct.  Plus I love how David, who is the rational national, presents the facts in the video.   Hugs.  Scottie 

Cenk Uygur, founder and host of The Young Turks, joined Piers Morgan for a lively and educated discussion on the conflict.

One of these things is not like the other…

It’s not rhetoric, but action that proves how different the two parties are. Can we PLEASE stop treating them as if they’re two sides of the same coin? It’s not only lazy, but dead wrong.