In Lansing, MI early Tuesday morning, a man was caught on surveillance video setting a Pride flag display on fire.
Security cameras recorded the man approaching the “Welcome to Lansing’s Eastside Neighborhoods” sign near the corner of East Michigan Avenue and South Mifflin Avenue. The sign is flanked to one side by a large American flag and on the other by a Pride flag. Smaller flags decorate the sign itself.
The perpetrator douses the Pride flag with a liquid substance then reaches into his pocket for a lighter and ignites it. He jumps back from the fireball and leaves the scene.
It’s the sixth incident of vandalism at the same site. Five Pride flags have been stolen and replaced at the location over the course of Pride month.
“I am beside myself,” said Ryan Kost, a candidate for the 1st Ward seat on the Lansing City Council in the Aug. 2 primary election. “The level of hate demonstrated by setting it on fire is incomprehensible.”
Openly gay At-Large Councilmember Peter Spadafore agreed. “I find it appalling and disgusting that someone would resort to using this sort of tactic to intimidate. I hope we are doing everything we can to find this perpetrator of hate.”
“Lansing doesn’t tolerate hate, and I hope this person is identified quickly,” said Lansing Mayor Andy Schor. “I am angry that someone would do this. This is not who we are as a community.”
Kost has filed a criminal report with the Lansing Police over the incidents. Mayor Schor got backup from the chief of police.
“The Lansing Police Department strives for every citizen to feel safe in the city of Lansing,” said Chief Ellery Sosebee. “Our goal is to assure the City of Lansing is a safe place to live work and visit for everyone, including the LGBTQ+ community. The Lansing Police Department will not tolerate any act of hate and intimidation and will seek the appropriate prosecution for any of these crimes.”
The charred Pride flag at the site has been replaced — for the sixth time.
GLAAD released an alarming report on Wednesday about LGBTQ Americans who feel they still face discrimination in their daily lives. Seven out of 10 LGBTQ Americans state they face discrimination when interacting with their local community. That is up 11 percent from GLAAD’s report last year.
During a year when anti-transgender sports and bathroom bills are sweeping the nation, along with bills such as Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, it’s hard to argue with these statistics. Right now, LGBTQ people are facing some of the worst discrimination in recent history. And unfortunately, this representation is spilling over into how the public view LGBTQ people.
Sarah Kate Ellis, GLAAD’s President & CEO, issued a statement on Wednesday regarding the findings. She found the statistics “distressing, but not surprising.”
“Legislation targeting LGBTQ people and youth, including censorship in classrooms, book bans, bans on evidence-based healthcare and access to school sports, has ballooned since 2020 to nearly 250 bills introduced in statehouses across the nation,” Ellis said.
Ellis mentioned anti-LGBTQ legislation, like Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill that prohibits students and teachers to discuss sexual orientation and gender identity in school. These bills decrease LGBTQ representation and opponents argue that they give a blanket statement to people across the nation that LGBTQ people are second-class citizens due to misinformation and lack of support.
“Misinformation and false rhetoric from anti-LGBTQ lawmakers have real-life consequences,” Ellis said Wednesday, “and gives a permission slip to discriminate against LGBTQ people and target them.”
When looking at the subgroups of LGBTQ people, there are some parts of the community that face more discrimination than others.
More than half of transgender and nonbinary people face harsher discrimination and feel less safe in their neighborhoods and communities versus 36 percent of other LGBTQ people.
LGBTQ people of color also face higher rates of discrimination compared to white LGBTQ people. These individuals felt that they were discriminated against not only because of their race but also because of their sexuality or gender identity.
“Every LGBTQ person and ally must use this information to speak up and hold elected officials, news media, and social media platforms accountable to actions and rhetoric that make everyone less safe,” Ellis said.
Nearly 80 percent of LGBTQ people feel that they need better legal protections and federal legislation to combat the discrimination they face on a daily basis.
And a lot of that is contributed to feeling better represented in media and the public eye, including public officials who represent them. 75 percent of LGBTQ respondents feel that representation is “essential to equality and acceptance.” LGBTQ respondents also feel “proud and supported” when they feel represented by public officials or in a positive way in the media.
A group of Proud Boys stormed a public library in Indiana to shut down a children’s reading event called “Rainbow Storytime.” Richard Ojeda breaks it down on Rebel HQ.
Hello Everyone. I have not been able to face comments and using my reasoning part of my brain today after I read that story of the abused kids. But let me backtrack a few days.
My back has been really bad since Friday and I didn’t do anything to hurt it more, it is just gotten to a point where my medication is not covering the damage that keeps growing in my spine and the increasing muscle spasms. The steroid injections are / have worn off. I have been trying to walk (and Ron goes with me and then when I stop at home he keeps walking) in the morning around phase 1 of our development.
So far on days I can I have worked myself up to this route. We leave our home at 39 and walk to Jackson, then down to Geronimo to No Name, turn up Sam Houston, then down Jim Bowie back to No Name, going up to Church Drive, head back to Andrew Jackson to our home. Here is the entire park, which after making sure I am in the house Ron goes further into get his exercise. The map is not quite accurate as the church is directly behind our home.
I have better more detailed maps but this was the first one in my saved files that came up. So as I said Ron goes on after he makes sure I am in the house. So on Friday my back total went in to super bitch mode from normal bitch mode, and I was in extreme pain. My back has been really bad since I tried to carry those bags of soda three months ago. And so as the pain built higher and higher I needed more medication and my thinking got harder and harder. So I missed the comments.
Then I was wakened on Saturday morning by my Apple watch going off on my wrist crazy with a big red screen which had a heart on it saying my heart rate was dangerous at a sustained 133 and had been up and down all night. Ron said I had been upset in my sleep and rather active as I get when I am having a flashback nightmare.
So Saturday I felt like crap, Ron wouldn’t let me walk but we worked at getting my heart rate down which we did. But I was not feeling up to handling much. Sunday I was feeling better and during / after the Sunday News Shows I was answering comments and doing posts. Then came today where the vortex found me.
The Vortex. Some of the long time readers know what the vortex is for me and how scary it can be. The vortex is the thing that takes me to the void, the place my memories suck me into and take me that I struggle to leave, mostly losing for long period of time, sometimes weeks or more. It takes over my mind and body, I can not function, I cannot deal with life, I can not shut off my mind or the memories that are on a constant loop complete with all the feelings of pain / anger / despair & hopelessness / and deep frustrations. All the emotions and feelings that I felt when the bad stuff was happening to me as I relive it all over and over and over … The vortex in my mind is a huge tornado that catches me and tries to suck me in, I can feel / hear it coming and I am terrified of the place it will take me if it can …
Sorry had to take a break.
So with therapy and help I have learned to form in my mind handles to grab onto when the vortex starts to draw me in. Those handles can save me depending on how bad the shock / memories are in my mind. One of those handles was Randy. Back in 2014 when I started self harming again Randy my wonderful online brother who while working 12 hour shifts would watch my posts carefully for any signs of distress and either call me or take calls and talk to me for hours trying to fight off the vortex / memories. He lost a lot of sleep back in those years, but he kept me from a lot of new scars and possible suicide. I admire and love him far more than I can ever say.
That was when Ron set up the candle making stuff in my bedroom and I would stay in the bedroom for weeks make candles day and night. I never knew until later that Ron would box them up and store them because the doctor had told him to keep me focused on making the candles. Our bedroom has a bathroom and Ron would bring me stuff to eat and I just stayed in there making candles and sleeping. It was a dark time in my life, I was desperate to avoid / stop the memories.
So I have learned to develop handles to grab onto, to hold my mind / emotions from being sucked into the vortex. That is what I used today. Ron seen my distress after I read that article and he knew I was upset and struggling. So we went for our morning walk even though he was worried about my heart rate. James set my phone to contact his phone if my heart rate gets too crazy. After our walk I forced myself to stay busy which helps, I helped Ron with our 4th of July lunch which was typical hamburgers, hot dogs, and french fries. I even managed to eat well which is hard for me to do when the vortex takes me too far into the void. Then all day I immersed myself in videos and laundry. Ron asked me to lay down for a while with him as I was getting a bit manic and over wrought. I tried but it was a no go and making things worse for me so I got up.
Between loads of laundry I watched videos and read news sites while posting like there was a reward for the most posts. I had to do that to keep my mind focused on anything but the vortex and the kids I read about this morning. I watched, read, posted with all my mind, and when I went to deal with the laundry I kept my computer headphones on or my phone earbuds in. Ron understood. But by about 4 PM after even two early sets of medications my back gave out entirely. I could hardly walk yet still felt driven to move or I would jump out of my skin. So Ron seeing I was still agitated and getting worse tried to distract me, tried to keep my mind on computer stuff, even recommended I take one of the mood stabilizer meds I hate so much. I don’t react well on them, I have had several doctors try to put me on them. Now Valium is called Diazepam and it is one the doctors have tried to put me on and I refuse to let any doctor prescribe them to me. I disassociate while on them.
The problem is they make me slow down to where I can not function. Now as an adult everything moves too fast when I am on them. It is like I am in a deep fog, moving so slow like I am wading through chest high water, and everyone is talking too fast for me to understand or deal with. I hate it, I am like in super slow motion while the world seems on speed.
In my childhood I was put on heavy doses of Valium to keep me compliant with my abuse because the adoptive parents insisted and the doctors complied, no one looked into the medical history of abuse I had, the broken bones or other things. I would be given the first dose in the morning, go to school and after an hour or two I would either fall asleep at my desk or tell the teacher I needed to lay down. There was a cot setup behind the library shelves where I would go and sleep, at lunch time I would be wakened if still sleeping and taken to lunch then be given my pills by a teacher after eating, and after a hour or two I would go back to lay down behind the shelves. I spent most of my 2rd to 6th grade school years that way. I missed so much schooling. It was accepted but I still don’t know why. Only one person tried to get me to tell them what was going on at home and help me. He even befriend my adoptive parents to do as much for me as he could. But in those days a school employee did not have the authority they do now. On days the police picked me up to take me the ordered medical people I wouldn’t be given my pills so I would be awake and active, even hyperactive so they wouldn’t suspect abuse or blame the bruises on normal hyperactive child behavior. But my mind was still confused and even with what I could hazily remember I knew not to tell. Oh shit, Crap.
Sorry see I told you about the vortex, it sucks you in and keeps your mind and memories lock in the past, in the bad times. I only realized where I was in my mind and what I was writing when I got up to get another soda. Damn, it is insidious. I don’t want to think of those days, I don’t want to go back there, I did not want to write about it. Yet I did because that is where my mind is. Shit, I have to reread this to see where I was in my writing on what I wanted to say. The meds are starting to take effect and things are starting to move faster than I can deal / function with them.
So I have kept myself busy and as focused as possible, and another day has gone by without me answering the comments. Sorry I like the comments, but when I am as upset as I have been I just can not focus enough to reply to them, if I try to do them my mind wanders too much. But now with my mind slowing down I am going to try to get to some of the older ones.
Sorry to bring everyone down on a holiday weekend. I hope everyone has had a great 4th of July and remembers all the great things in their life. I wanted to tell everyone something else but I can not remember what it is. Hugs and loves. Scottie
Sorry but I just realized at least 2 hours have gone by since I wrote this and proofread it. I have been sitting here at my desk staring at my other monitor and it just went off. I have no idea what it was showing let me look. Oh it is something I want to post. I have to watch it again, I don’t remember much of it. Hugs
Really right to life when she bear mace sprays kids. But that is what we are dealing with, thugs who think might makes right and who also think assaulting anyone who disagrees with them. Scary world coming up. I remember these kinds of thugs attacking me for being gay and the police or those in charge ignoring it. Those time are coming back it seems. Hugs
Patriot AZ leader Jennifer Harrison has garnered attention in recent years for spraying BLM protesters with bear spray and harassing migrants as they cross into the country.
The leader of a far-right extremist group in Arizona sprayed mace into the faces of abortion-rights activists and their children on Sunday night, according to the protesters and eyewitnesses.
The incident happened in downtown Tempe during a second night of protests at the end of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide.
On Saturday night, Jennifer Harrison, the leader of the extremist AZ Patriots group, had harassed and berated protesters, livestreaming everything to her Facebook followers.
Jennifer Harrison sprays protester in the face after waving flag in their direction. Kids were hit with bear mace too pic.twitter.com/QBT1PHpjsC
On Sunday night, she returned in her car and sprayed what bystanders said was bear mace into the faces of several protesters, reportedly including several children. After she used the spray, some of the group began hitting Harrison’s car so she sprayed them again, according to video footage of the incident reviewed by VICE News.
Videos of the incident were posted to social media hours later.
One eyewitness reported that paramedics were also called to the scene and several protesters were taken away by ambulance for further treatment.
Sunday, July 3
Heading home from a protest a group was bear maced while standing on the corner of Mill Ave and University Dr. pic.twitter.com/aaS6zgEH9R
The Tempe Police Department told VICE News that “at approximately 9:30 p.m, members of the community were engaged in a protest along Mill Ave. and University Dr. when a subject deployed what appeared to be pepper spray from a vehicle towards members in the crowd.”
It also confirmed that Tempe Fire Medical and Tempe Police Department responded to the area where the victims were treated.
Detective Natalie Barela added that the department had “coordinated with witnesses and victims developed investigative leads [and] the case is now being investigated by our detectives.” The police would not comment on the identity of the attacker.
Earlier this year, Arizona enacted a ban on abortions after 15 weeks, and it’s among the 26 states that are expected to ban abortions outright now that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe. As a result, thousands of Arizona residents have taken to the streets. Some groups, like Arizonans for Reproductive Freedom, are using the protests as a way to call for the codifying of abortion protections within the state.
Harrison has gained notoriety in recent years for leading protests against immigration, railing against COVID-19 restrictions, and antagonizing left-wing activists such as Black Lives Matter protesters. She has even admitted to using “bear spray” on Black Lives Matter protesters in 2020, and said that she would run them over with her car if she felt threatened. She has also spent time on the southern U.S. border harassing migrants as they cross into the country.
Harrison did not respond to a request for comment.
I knew Jen Harrison’s face and car immediately but further proof it’s her – got their plates tonight and the last photo is a shot of her car last year while she was harassing migrants at the US-MX border. https://t.co/uctWeOENJWpic.twitter.com/kVykrvX0NX
— AZ Right Wing Watch War Room (@az_rww) July 4, 2022
Several protesters called out the police for their inaction, pointing out that they had reacted very swiftly earlier in the night when the peaceful protesters staged a sit-in on the street but did nothing when Harrison sprayed the protesters.
“Amazing that all those cops who were so heavily patrolling the peaceful abortion rights protesters did absolutely nothing when Jen Harrison drove by and maced an entire group of people,” AZ Right Wing Watch, an anonymous researcher who tracks extremist groups in Arizona, tweeted.
The incident comes as fears over violence at abortion-rights protests grow in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. The vast majority of protests have been peaceful, but a handful have turned violent.
In Greenville, South Carolina, a police officer was captured on video threatening a woman with a Taser and throwing an elderly man to the ground. And in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, someone drove a pickup truck through protesters, hospitalizing one woman.
If Harrison’s name rings a bell, that’s because of a 2019 incident in which a man laughed so uproariously at her batshit ranting that he became the meme legend known as Green Shirt Guy.
Later in 2019, she was appointed as a Republican precinct committee member. As you see below, in 2020 she was arrested for alleged felony identify theft.
The AZ Patriots has been listed as an anti-immigrant hate group by the SPLC.
Jennifer Harrison sprays protester in the face after waving flag in their direction. Kids were hit with bear mace too pic.twitter.com/QBT1PHpjsC
Cops last night just *let* Jennifer Harrison, known white supremacist & leader Patriot Front, drive off after with macing peaceful protestors with *bear spray*. One person had to be taken to the hospital. Tons of cops there. Did *nothing* for public safety. 😡😡😡 @TempePolice
Remember Jennifer Harrison? The inspiration for the “green shirt guy” meme. She was just arrested for Identity Theft. She claims the law doesn’t apply to her, because it’s only meant for criminals. Hello Criminal. 👋 pic.twitter.com/k4RaBa619K
AZ Patriots leader Jennifer Harrison has now been arrested on suspicion of felony identity theft. You can't make this stuff up as she was part of the insipid Tucson protest that inspired the green shirt guy: https://t.co/g87sdqaALbpic.twitter.com/Rom1yJuidB
Maricopa protest leader Jennifer Harrison — the woman with the dark hair in the elections office here — was charged earlier this month with a felony for allegedly stealing her former father-in-law's identity. https://t.co/Hkcv7Qs0nm
Jennifer Harrison, the leader of the AZ Patriots, has agreed to enter a diversion program that will let her avoid a felony charge of identity theft. https://t.co/fzSiQqrUy6
Embryos aren’t babies. That’s why we have two different words because they’re different things. The closest parallel would be to say that an acorn is a sapling. Anyone with eyes can see that those two things aren’t the same.
Is this the future? Police empowered with religious powers to detain and force baptize the public? Will we have competing sects kidnaping the others to force them in to their church? I am worried about the religious take over of the republican party. Hugs
Staff Photo / Former Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Daniel Wilkey, 26, sits in Judge Barry Steelman’s courtroom Friday morning, Dec. 20, 2019.
A U.S. District Court judge gave the go-ahead Thursday to a lawsuit against a former Hamilton County deputy accused of baptizing a woman against her will after a 2019 traffic stop.
In addition to ruling that the suit against Daniel Wilkey, 28, may proceed, Tennessee Eastern District Court Judge Travis R. McDonough ruled that several aspects of the complaint against former deputy Jacob Goforth could not continue. Wilkey allegedly called Goforth to witness the baptism and Goforth recorded the incident on his cellphone.
While excluding Goforth from most complaints in the lawsuit, the judge did say the former deputy had failed to protect the woman from Wilkey’s use of excessive force.
“Goforth is qualified for reasonable immunity and summary judgment on this claim,” the judgment said. However, the ruling also found that Goforth had ample time to stop Wilkey from committing an unreasonable seizure.
“And, if anything, the truly bizarre nature of these facts should have put Goforth further on notice that the seizure was inappropriate,” the judge wrote.
Goforth had said he believed the woman to not be under police custody because she arrived at Soddy Lake in her own vehicle, but the judge stressed in his ruling that the woman might not have thought she was free to go until she was baptized by Wilkey.
McDonough went on to say that “in view of all of the circumstances surrounding the incident, a reasonable person would have believed he was not free to leave” or “would feel free to decline the officers’ requests or otherwise terminate the encounter.
“There are genuine disputes of material fact concerning whether [the woman] was coerced into the baptism, whether she would have faced harsher penalties had she refused to be baptized, and whether Goforth should have known that [the woman] was being coerced,” the judgment said.
Contributed Photo / Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office / Daniel Wilkey
The lawsuit against Wilkey and Goforth accused both men of excessive force, assault and intimidation, among other charges.
Ultimately “claims against [Goforth] individually for unreasonable search, failure to protect and render aid, negligence, battery, assault, and intentional infliction of emotional distress” were dismissed in the judgment.
On Wilkey’s baptizing of the woman, McDonough said it violated the woman’s choice of religion as well as violating the state’s own duty to respect the persons’ choice.
“If citizens are subjected to state-sponsored religious exercises, the state disavows its own duty to guard and respect that sphere of inviolable conscience and belief which is the mark of a free people,” the ruling said. “Baptism of detainees by law-enforcement officers runs directly counter to the government’s substantial interest in guaranteeing the free exercise of religion without government intervention. Any seizure for the purpose of conducting a baptism intruded upon [the woman’s] liberty without furthering any government interest and was therefore unreasonable.”
On Feb. 6, 2019, shortly after 9 p.m. Wilkey stopped the woman who was driving through the Soddy-Daisy area. After Wilkey asked her what she had in her car, the woman admitted to having a marijuana cigarette in her pack. Wilkey instructed her to exit her car and he searched her twice.
The woman claims Wilkey inappropriately touched her crotch, where he found a “marijuana roach.” Wilkey told the woman that if she allowed him to baptize her, he would let her go with just a citation.
It was then that Wilkey called Goforth to witness the baptism.
According to Hamilton County Court documents, Wilkey has been indicted on 44 charges, including six counts of sexual battery, two counts of rape, nine counts of official oppression, extortion, stalking and assault, among others.
Wilkey faces multiple other lawsuits, including for allegedly groping female minors and for using excessive force. The 2020 video below details the many other charges against him.
I read the article. Appears that he had her drive her own car to a lake where he baptized her in the presence of the other cop.
“Wilkey faces numerous lawsuits in several cases involving alleged excessive use of force, including the alleged unlawful body cavity search of a man while performing a traffic stop and the alleged groping of female minors. The requested damages in the lawsuits total around $11 million.
According to Hamilton County Court documents, Wilkey has been indicted on 44 charges, including six counts of sexual battery, two counts of rape, nine counts of official oppression, extortion, stalking and assault, among others.”
This does nothing to repair/restore my faith in policing.
In civilized countries, police have to get the equivalent of a bachelors degree, with several years of courses on the law, de-escalation, first aid, crisis intervention, and so on. In the US, the typical police training program is a few week, often shorter than an academic quarter.
Staff Photo / Former Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Daniel Wilkey, 26, sits in Judge Barry Steelman’s courtroom Friday morning, Dec. 20, 2019.
Scottie's Playtime 