Creighton.higgins

Saddam Hussein was long gone by the time the wave of mass protests in 2011 toppled decades-long ruling dictators across the Middle East during the Arab Spring.

Ten years ago, Iraq was preparing for a total withdrawal of US troops stationed there since the spring of 2003, and the power-sharing system put in place by the American administration was meant to ensure the majority of Iraqis were represented and had a say in the new regime.

A government led by the Shiite majority, propped up by Kurds and Sunni Arabs, and other minorities held onto power, and there were high hopes for a fledgling democracy.

But hopes of transforming an Iraq ruled by few to an Iraq governed by the many were overshadowed by the political rivalry fought not at the ballot box but through violence that had turned the streets of Iraq into a bloodbath from 2006 onwards in weekly suicide attacks, and assassinations. Thousands were killed, and more displaced in fear of kidnapping, and extortion by armed groups.

Once again, Iraq was ruled by a few, based on tribal, sectarian, and ethnic affiliations, different groups with armed wings gained more influence with access to the immense amount of wealth after the end of international isolation.

Against the backdrop of this endless cycle of bloodshed and inequality, Baghdad's government, mired by corruption and mismanagement, lost control over the Sunni-majority areas. Eventually, one of the former prisoners of a US forward operating base called Camp Bucca, Ibrahim Awad al-Samarrai, emerged to lead the Sunni Jihadis in Syria and Iraq, and declare himself caliph in 2014.

The Iraqi army deserted their positions and ISIS took control of major cities like Fallujah, Tikrit, and Mosul. It would be three years until Iraq declared military victory over ISIS.

By 2019 a new generation of Iraqi youth were waking up to the fact that they were still being deprived of the benefits from Iraq’s large oil production and reserves. Thousands of newly graduated students went jobless every year, and anger mounted in the Shiite majority areas.

As nothing changed, the crowds of angry young people grew – in a city long accustomed to organised demonstrations on Fridays called by the populist Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr – and became more violent.

Mary Mohammed, 22, who works in a beauty salon in Baghdad, was moved by the number of young people taking to the streets, so she joined them. "I want to care for my country, I want to care about its boys and girls. Either we live in dignity in our country, or we die.”

“Our generation is different from the old ones, from our parents who accepted those traditions. But our generation is different. They are learning, because of the internet, for example, the girls, when they see others free and going out, they want the same, I don't see anything wrong with this,” Mohammed said.

Thousands camped at Tahrir Square in Baghdad, demanding better governance and job prospects, and above all, a better future. When the eventual crackdown came it was brutal: 669 people died, 15,000 more were injured, and 2,800 arrested. Security forces used rubber bullets, tear gas, smoke grenades, and fired live rounds in the clashes with demonstrators.

Mokhalad Awad, a young Iraqi protester, made a name for himself during the early days of the demonstrations as "The Teargas Hunter" of Tahrir square. Videos of him throwing back teargas canisters to police took Iraqi social media by storm.

"I was arrested by the government forces without an arrest warrant. I am talking about militias. I was tortured and reached a moment where I would admit I belong to ISIS rather than say I am just a protester,” he said.

“See this tattoo on my forearm, it says bomb hunter. I had to cover it up because I guess if they saw it, they would have cut it off.”

The youth protests became known as the October Revolution, and won the support of older generations throughout Iraq. The newly appointed Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi resigned. The various political factions settled on Mustafa al-Kadhimi as his replacement, who despite being the former head of Iraqi intelligence was a friendly figure to the demonstrators. He was due to deliver an early election scheduled for June but it was postponed to October 2021, citing setbacks in the preparations due to COVID.

Kadhimi made many promises to the demonstrators in Tahrir Square, but troubled with the pandemic and political pressure, has been unable to deliver on any of them. A year after the protests began, he ordered the square cleared.

But the youth who took to the streets in 2019 did manage to massively ramp up pressure on the ruling elite for their shortcomings, opening new horizons for the Iraqi society around women's participation in mass demonstrations and political movements.

Enas Musa, a pharmacist in Baghdad who helped injured protesters with first aid and primary medical care, said she was inspired by the words of the women’s rights activist Reham Yacoub, who was assassinated by unknown assailants in August 2020.

"Her chant 'I'm the hero and the son of the hero, I'm the Hussein', this chant coming from a woman from Basra moved me. Because I'm a woman from Baghdad and I've been subjected to what Reham Yacoub was subjected to. They chose to kill her because she has an influence on women,” Musa said.

Jaafar Hadi, a young Iraqi student in the American University of Beirut, said: "I'm always hopeful. I might not witness the Iraq I dream of during my lifetime, but whether Iraq would reach to that image I always had in mind.”

As the COVID-19 pandemic has forced millions to work from home, business etiquette is giving way to the realities of online meetings. Handshakes are impossible. Suits are optional, not that anyone would know what pants you’re wearing (or not).

But in corporate Japan, rules on how to show your boss respect and work with colleagues are making a seamless transition in the Zoom era.

With video calls replacing conference room meetings, Japanese companies are asking employees to follow seating arrangements based on their seniority. In a Zoom meeting, that means putting your face in the correct place on the screen: managers on the left, others on the right. 

The pressure to follow these rules illustrates Japanese corporate culture’s persistent adherence to a strict hierarchy in the workplace, despite a growing pushback from younger Japanese people.

It has also been a source of innovation.

Shachihata, one of Japan’s largest makers of rubber stamps, recently released a feature on its digital stamping software that allows workers to show deference to their superiors remotely, in a practice called stamp-bowing.

Found in Japanese bank documents from as early as 2004, stamp-bowing is a form of signature that indicates one’s social status in the company, according to the degree of a stamp’s orientation. When signing documents, the senior executive must stamp their name in a straight, vertical line. Then, to stamp-bow, the employee next in seniority will turn their seal slightly left to stamp.

Sealing documents with one’s family name inkan (stamp) remains the preferred method to sign papers in Japan, although claims of increased fraud and inefficiency have in recent years led some to call for an end to this traditional practice. 

In November, Taro Kono, a Japanese official overseeing administrative reforms, said the government would abolish the use of stamps for over 99 percent of nearly 15,000 administrative procedures. 

But Shachihata’s innovation has helped keep the practice alive. The company said it developed online stamp-signing software to transform “traditions for a better tomorrow.” From March to June last year, the number of companies using Shachihata’s digital stamp-signing feature increased by 30 times. Now, more than 270,000 companies use the product. 

The company introduced the stamp-bowing feature in November following a customer’s suggestion. “Our goal is to meet our clients’ needs and improve efficiency,” the company said on its website. “In Japanese society, many documents need in-house approval before they’re sent to outside companies. Our new software makes the workflow much smoother without making fundamental changes to a company’s culture.”

Some companies have also begun implementing Japanese corporate hierarchies on Zoom. In September 2020, Zoom launched a feature that allows users to change the order of participants’ displays. To remind employees where they sit in the social pyramid, some companies drew comprehensive illustrations of what respectful group video calls should look like.

The most senior employee’s screen will sit in the upper-left corner. The second most senior employee’s screen will sit toward the top right. The more junior you are, the lower your face is shown on the screen. Many young Japanese Twitter users expressed dismay over these charts, claiming Zoom seating arrangements perpetuated hierarchical work culture.

Miki Matsuda, a 22-year-old illustrator based in Tokyo, learned similar Zoom etiquette for her former job and describes online seating arrangements as childish. “I don’t understand why that’s necessary. I get why it’s important  in a conference room, but on Zoom, all that matters is the size of the superior’s screen. Who cares?”

In addition to Zoom seating charts, the timing of when employees should enter and leave Zoom meetings is also not left to chance. Some argue that those at the bottom of the corporate ladder must always be the last to hang up.

Hiroko Nishide, the head manner consultant of HIROKO MANNER Group, told VICE World News that increasing need for online corporate etiquette has pushed employers to define strict do’s and don’ts. But Nishide advised against formalism that could add to employees’ stress. 

“If an employee’s heart is in their action or words, they will always be respectful. The specific rules don’t matter,” she said. “Humanity and client-empathy are really the keys for any business. Business etiquette is merely an expression of respect.”

With more parts of Japan entering emergency lockdowns due to a spiking number of coronavirus cases, it’ll likely be months before employees return to the office. In the meantime, however, workers can pay their respects by rearranging their screen.

Follow Hanako Montgomery on Twitter and Instagram.

With just days to go until the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, law enforcement agencies are issuing fresh warnings of violent threats against lawmakers following last week's insurrection at the Capitol.

Capitol Police reportedly warned members of Congress on Monday night that a group of pro-Trump armed insurrectionists plan to form a perimeter around the Capitol, the White House, and the Supreme Court, murdering Democrats who try to breach the line, and allowing Republicans to enter so they can take control of the government.

The alleged plot is just one of three that Capitol Police briefed the Democratic leaders of Congress about in a late-night call, according to sources speaking to HuffPost and subsequently confirmed by Axios.

Despite the growing threat and the fallout from the Jan. 6 attack, there has been nothing but silence from the White House and federal agencies about what happened or what may be planned, a fact that Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy called an “abomination” on Monday night. 

The only reason news that at least 25 domestic terrorism cases had been opened in the wake of the Capitol attack was because Democratic Rep. Jason Crow shared details of a briefing from Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy. 

But some news of the information being gathered by law enforcement agencies is getting out to the public, thanks to the media.

On Monday, ABC News obtained an internal FBI bulletin that said “armed protests” are being planned at all 50 state capitols and at the U.S. Capitol. The bulletin, which was subsequently confirmed by other outlets, added that if President Donald Trump was to be removed from office prior to Jan. 20, the group of insurrectionists is calling for the “storming” of state, local, and federal government courthouses and administrative buildings.

The bulletin warns that the attacks may begin as soon as later this week.

“The FBI received information about an identified armed group intending to travel to Washington, DC on 16 January," the bulletin read. "They have warned that if Congress attempts to remove POTUS via the 25th Amendment, a huge uprising will occur."

Just hours after that bulletin was published, Capitol Police laid out three terrifying plans being formulated by groups online for events in Washington leading up to inauguration day, HuffPost reports.

As well as the plan to surround the Capitol, White House, and Supreme Court, another event is being billed as the “largest armed protest ever to take place on American soil.”

A third event would honor Ashli Babbitt, the Air Force veteran and QAnon supporter who was shot dead by Capitol Police last week. Babbitt has become a martyr among QAnon and far-right extremists, who are using her death as a recruiting tool. Despite this, First Lady Melania Trump broke her silence since the Jan. 6 attack to pay tribute to Babbitt and the other rioters who died during the attack.

Capitol Police warned members of Congress, according to HuffPost, not to share too much information about when the events were happening, where they were being organized, or the specific groups doing the organizing. 

As many mainstream platforms like Twitter and Facebook belatedly crack down on some of these groups, the extremists are now trying to use the media as a way of promoting their events.

“Some of their main communications to organize these have been cut off, so they’re purposely trying to get the media to report on this as a way to further disseminate information and to attract additional support for their attacks,” one member of Congress briefed by Capitol Police told HuffPost.

Authorities and law enforcement were strongly criticized for their failure to prepare for last week’s protests, despite experts warning for weeks about groups openly calling for violence on various online platforms.

This time around, Democratic members of Congress were told, Capitol Police and the National Guard are preparing for tens of thousands of armed protesters to descend on Washington DC.

They are also establishing rules of engagement for warfare, the report said, adding that the military and police are not planning to shoot any of the protesters until one of them fires — though there could be exceptions.

Elsewhere, federal law enforcement officials have told local police forces to increase their security posture at statehouses around the country as the threat grows. 

 
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Many thanks to my readers, who keep A* going with a buck or two a month through Patreon. : )
 
Added 1 new A* page:

 
^ original on eBay   ||   Vote for A* on Top Web Comics!
 

Mini space news roundup!
 
~~~~~~
 
First, NASA rolled out a new, sharp composite image of the core of our galaxy—that's where A* is, right in the middle—as seen from Earth. The image consists of infrared data, in blue and green, from SOfIA—a 'scope mounted in a 747—with previous infrared data from the Spitzer space telescope, shown in white, and the ESA's Herschel space observatory, shown in red (Herschel stopped operating in 2013). You can see Spitzer and Herschel images of the core separately, here (that's from 2006) and here. Here's the new composite image:
 

image by NASA/SOFIA/JPL-Caltech/ESA/Herschel
 
You can view a larger version in the article, or...well heck, let me just turn it sideways (the telescope is sideways in the 747, so there) and jam it in here:
 

 
While I'm at it, here's the 2006 Spitzer image:
 

 
~~~~~
 
The other item is that scientists found grains of space dust in a 1960s meteorite that are 7.5 billion years old—which means they formed in a supernova and were drifting in space for billions of years before our own Sun (4.6 billion years old) even formed, and are over half the age of the universe itself (13.8 billion years). It also means they're the oldest known material on Earth—but the scientists say it's quite likely there are other meteorites here with even older dust grains in them, they just haven't been found yet.
 
The scientists dated the grains by measuring how much Neon-21 they contained: that isotope forms when the dust is hit by high energy cosmic rays in space, so the more Ne-21 a grain contains, the longer it was drifting around.
 
The lead scientist added that "Thanks to these grains, we now have direct evidence for a period of enhanced star formation in our galaxy seven billion years ago with samples from meteorites." This helps answer the question of whether the rate of star formation in the galaxy has varied over time, as current theory would have it, or remained steady—based on this new evidence, it's looking like it has varied.
 
And, they also learned that "pre-solar grains often float through space stuck together in large clusters, like granola."
 
~~~~~~~~~
The original 16" x 6.75" watercolor art for today's new A* page is up for auction on eBay. : )
 

These Dale/Marigold comics are 100% canon

(thanks Karla)

If you follow me on Twitter, you’ll know that I’ve taken a real liking to React, as has seemingly everyone else in the JavaScript development world.  The React app I’m working on is relatively small, making fetch requests to send and receive data, rendering only one set of data, so I’m doing a lot of resetting of component state  along with a small state modification depending on the result of the AJAX request.  Let’s have a look at how I do it!

The JavaScript

There’s not much to the state object — just a few properties:

class Controller extends React.Component {

  // Added as a component property
  defaultState = { data: null, error: null };

  constructor(props) {
    super(props);

    // Set the default state immediately
    this.state = this.defaultState;
  }

  // ....
}

You can probably gather that either data or error will have data, the other will be null, thus I’m essentially resetting the original state value and then populating data or error.  To do this I’ve created a resetStateWithUpdates method that looks as follows:

resetStateWithUpdates(stateUpdates = {}) {
  // Rest operators ensure a new object with merged properties and values.
  // Requires the "transform-object-rest-spread" Babel plugin
  this.setState({ ...this.defaultState, ...stateUpdates });
}

And is used like:

// Ooops, fetch error!
// `data` implicitly reset to null
this.resetStateWithUpdates({
  error: 'Fetching data failed!  Please try again!',
});

// ... or we got good data!
// `error` implicitly reset to null
this.resetStateWithUpdates({ data });

Using the spread operator to merge the default state and updated state information saves multiple renders from multiple setState calls.  The code is also very short!

Everyone has their own way to handle state within their React apps, so I’m not asserting this is the best method for resetting state with a small update, but it works wonderfully for me.  The code is short, descriptive, and reusable!

The post State Reset and Update with React appeared first on David Walsh Blog.

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ—Touting the over-the-counter product’s ability to effectively treat cold symptoms, pharmaceutical manufacturer Johnson & Johnson introduced Friday its new Sudafed 18-volt cordless Sinus Drill capable of providing immediate congestion relief. “The Sinus Drill alleviates pain and discomfort by boring a small hole into the forehead or bridge of one’s nose to release pressure,” said Sudafed product manager Kelly Arrington, adding that the Sinus Drill, which comes with a set of four 1/8-inch to 1/2-inch carbide tip bits to accommodate a variety of bone densities, also clears inflamed nasal passageways by loosening mucus. “For adults, we suggest drilling two holes every four to six hours. For children, just one hole is recommended, although for best results you can try coating the bit in honey to help lubricate its entry into the skull.” For symptoms that continue to persist after one week, Arrington recommended Sudafed ...

Sure, we all want to think about the epic (kind of hate that word) bikepacking adventure that takes us to super inaccessible places. I like the smaller trips, because that's what you can actually fit into your current life. Maybe WHILE you plan for the big thing. Maybe the small thing is the big thing though.

Either way, the Boy and I periodically head out onto the local trails and make soup. It's sort of my favorite thing.

 

Them leaves didn't stand a chance.

 

Dad's only sort of good at fires.

 

The finished product.

 

Obligatory horsing around.

This time the soup was chicken stock, egg noodles, bock choy, ham, ginger, mushrooms, and something else I forget. Soup is the best for camp cooking because it's pretty forgiving. It's warm too.

-Skip

Watch Now: The Cleveland Strangler

My dad was the first person to tell me about the horrific murders on Imperial Avenue. It was the fall of 2009, and I was in my senior year of college, ready to break out into a fresh new world. Dad, on the other hand, was in his last couple years on the Cleveland Police force, ready to go hide somewhere dark and quiet and cold. He was burned out, and this case represented everything that had left him dispirited about American law enforcement.

At first, the story sounded like something out of a true crime novel. When he put it on my radar that October, the cops had only found the remains of two bodies in the home of convicted sexual assailant Anthony Sowell. The full scope of the atrocity was not yet clear, but the story was already hitting close to home for my old man.

Dad spent his childhood in the 60s growing up in Mount Pleasant, the neighborhood where the murders took place, when it was still a prime spot for the burgeoning black middle class. With close proximity to Cleveland's thriving steel industry, it was a mixed area that attracted many families like my own during the Great Migration of blacks from the South in search of opportunity and security. But as James Baldwin wrote in Go Tell It on the Mountain, "The North promised more what it promised it did not give, and what it gave, at length and grudgingly with one hand, it took back with the other."

By the the time of the Sowell murders, my dad was a sergeant on the force and Mount Pleasant was one of the roughest neighborhoods in his district. Wracked by the housing crisis and still recovering from the crack epidemic, it no longer looked like the idyllic place he'd played in as a kid. It was more like a set for the Walking Dead.

Eventually, we would find out that Sowell murdered at least 11 women at 12205 Imperial Avenue. They were all raped and strangled to death. He buried five of them in shallow graves in his backyard, while the other six festered and decomposed inside his home. But even before the death toll had reached double digits, before people started to take to the streets in protest over the killings, and before the Mayor Frank Jackson ordered an internal review of the local police, my dad was connecting the dots. He thought he knew the story—the real story—and he's been trying to get me to tell it ever since those 11 bodies were pulled out of the dark.

To my dad, from the very beginning this was about more than just a nut with a penchant for butchering women. This was about race, class, and a dysfunctional police department in the City of Cleveland. But it took me a while to see it that way.

Watch 'The Cleveland Strangler'

When the Sowell story made headlines, I was still basking in the effervescent glow of the election of the first black president and all the possibilities that came with it. This was before Trayvon Martin was gunned down by George Zimmerman while carrying a bag of Skittles and before Eric Garner repeated the words "I can't breathe" as a horde of NYPD officers crushed him against the cement. This was before Sandra Bland and Tanisha Anderson died in police custody and before we saw videos of girls like Dajerria Becton being manhandled by crazed officers. This was before wearing a hoodie became an act of solidarity, Black Lives Matter became a movement, and Kanye West became a black skinhead.

Back then, I couldn't fathom the extent to which racial inequities were entrenched in our society, which meant I couldn't see fully understand the Sowell story. My mother and father, on the other hand, had lived through the eruption of righteous protests and frustrated riots that swept the country between the 60s and the 90s. Watching an unarmed black man get throttled by the police for no discernible reason was not novel for them. They saw it as outsiders in their youth, and I'm sure they saw it as insiders when they worked as police officers. They had no illusions about the system in which they served, nor its power to act on—and even destroy—the black body. They certainly had no illusions as to the value the black body holds in a society that once proclaimed us to be three-fifths of a person.

I'd been insulated by my parents, who made enough money to raise me on the West Side of Cleveland—far from where they spent their childhoods, far from where they worked as cops, and far from Imperial Avenue. I spent my youth in one of the whitest suburbs imaginable, where the only cop I knew was the DARE officer who hooked kids up with chocolate treats for pledging to say no to drugs. And many of my early interactions with police were colored by the fact that I was a part of the police family. I'd still get pulled over for driving while black, but I could always flash my "SERGEANT'S SON" badge and immediately change the dynamic of the confrontation from, "What are you doing in this neighborhood?" to, "Drive safe..."

The author's parents

I'm very thankful for these privileges, but they also made it easy for me to avoid asking tough questions about these murders. Looking back now, the right question is a pretty simple one: How?

How could so many lives have been taken away so brutally by Sowell without law enforcement intervening? I couldn't imagine something like that happening in the mostly white, upper middle-class community I was from—unless the serial killer was some kind of evil genius. There's no way that, in the west-side suburb where I grew up, a registered sex offender could have kept the rotten corpses of dead victims in his house while the entire neighborhood complained to the city about the smell. There's no way that if one of the white girls who went to my high school accused a local registered sex offender of rape, that they'd be discounted by authorities as a "not credible" witness. There's no way that if one of my childhood neighbors tried to file a missing person's report for that girl, that they'd get told she'll be back when the drugs run out.

I finally started to ask the "how" question after patently outrageous incidents like the "137 shots" police shooting of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams in 2012 and the police shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice last year. It was in these moments, when headlines of blue bullets bludgeoning black bodies took over newspapers, that my father would go back to Sowell and remind me of the ignored missing person reports filed by the families of Sowell's victims, the ignored rape accusations that survivors of attacks by Sowell made to the police, the ignored community complaints about the horrible smell around Imperial Avenue.

After hearing dad go on for more than five years, I had to understand it all for myself.

What I've come to realize is that Sowell killed and raped with impunity in the city of Cleveland not because he was some psychotic mastermind, as local law enforcement tried to convince me during my reporting for this story, but because no one in power gave a damn about the people he slaughtered. Unlike Tamir Rice and Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams, these women were all murdered by a black man who didn't have a badge. But before their deaths at 12205 Imperial Avenue, they were already casualties of three of America's time-honored mass murderers: race, poverty, and addiction. Sowell may have committed these murders, but to say he did so alone is to miss the underlying reality.

When we look at the role race and class played in these atrocities, I'm sure some will point out that Sowell was a black man who exclusively killed black women, and that several of the officers who enabled his atrocities at key points were also black. These are undeniable facts. But it's also an undeniable fact that all of these people, from the victims to the detectives, live in a country with a long history of devaluing black life—especially when it comes to law enforcement. There's been strife between the institution of policing in America and the black community since this country's inception. Some criminal justice experts actually trace some of the foundational DNA of our country's organized law enforcement back to slave patrols that were formed by white men in the 1700s to stop blacks from rising up.

The Cleveland Police Department has upheld their end of this tradition through the ages. The shootings of unarmed black people that have recently captivated the media have been happening in my hometown pretty much forever. It was the suspected police shooting of Joyce Arnett, a mother of three, that helped spark the 1966 Hough Riots in Cleveland—which led to the political awakening of my parents. And it was the police shooting of the child Tamir Rice last year that helped bring young black people back out into the streets to protest many of the same issues we were facing 40 years ago. It's atrocious that we still need to be reminded that black life actually has value.

After years of toiling within a system that is both institutionally racist and dysfunctional, my parents see that although they may have impacted people on an individual level, the system itself is just as discriminatory as ever.

In addition to its problems with race—which are far from unique—the Cleveland Police Department is also incredibly dysfunctional. It has been judged time and time again by the Department of Justice to have clear systemic failures in its treatment of citizens, and is currently under a consent decree, meaning it's being pushed by the feds to make reforms at every level. I learned about many of these failures as I examined this case, as there were numerous opportunities to stop Sowell. For example, had Sowell's DNA been on file—it wasn't, but it should have been, considering he did 15 years for "attempted rape" (he pleaded guilty in a bargain with the prosecutor for a lower charge)—then the rape kit one woman filed in April 2009 could have led to an arrest that would have saved the lives of several women. Of course, the rape kit that woman filed was never even tested until after Sowell was arrested. Instead, it joined the whopping backlog of nearly 4,000 untested rape kits that sat idle in Cleveland at the time.

Blatant fuck-ups like these kept this story at the forefront of my dad's mind, even when it was left behind by the city at large. Although it happened in his district, he was never directly involved in investigating the murders. Dad never heard a woman accuse Sowell of raping her before deciding that she wasn't a credible witness; he never told a distressed father who was trying to file a missing person's report for his daughter that she'd show up when the drugs ran out; he never went down to visit Sowell's "house of horrors" for a routine sex-offender checkup when the smell of rotting flesh was emanating from inside. And yet, this case still burdened his mind, even years after the perpetrator was caught and placed on death row. It was like he felt some kind of responsibility for what happened there, if only tangentially.

This responsibility is probably the greatest gift I was ever given by my parents. It's the same responsibility that drove them to join the police department after the turmoil of 60s with the the hope that they could advocate for their community from the inside. My mother cut school in her teens to see Martin Luther King, Jr. speak. My father can recite the words of Malcolm X and Marcus Garvey at will. It is with these beliefs and a commitment to fighting oppression that they took their badges. And after years of toiling within a system that is both institutionally racist and dysfunctional, they see that although they may have impacted people on an individual level, the system itself is just as discriminatory as ever. In fact, some argue that it is even worse—that we're living in a new era of Jim Crow when it comes to the lack of protection poor blacks get from our justice system, and that blacks are in fact its primary targets.

Along with the broken world that all parents give their children, my father gave me this story and all the ugliness that it exposes about injustice in America.

As galvanizing as exploring the Sowell murders has been for me, I know that these women didn't chose to be martyrs and sacrifice their lives to bring about any kind of social change. Instead, they died brutally in the shadows, and their deaths leave behind a wave of pain that will be reverberating throughout the city for generations. The important thing to remember is that much of this actually didn't have to happen. But it did happen, and how it happened has so much to do with all of us and what we're willing to accept from the people we empower to protect us.

My father is no longer one of those people. He hung up his guns and his badge when I graduated from college, and along with the broken world that all parents give their children, he gave me this story and all the ugliness that it exposes about injustice in America. It's now our turn to ask how. It's on us to demand justice, to pick up that burden and carry it as far as we can in the other direction, so that maybe our kids won't have to do the same thing.

Follow Wilbert L. Cooper on Twitter

All photos by the author

If you've watched a video on YouTube in 2015, chances are you've seen Tai Lopez. Lopez bills himself as a self-help guru on the "good life," who can help you reach your full potential through his "67 Steps Program to the Good Life." His famous video advertisement, shot selfie-style, extolls the virtues of knowledge over materialismmoments after showing off his Lamborghini. The commercial, dubbed "here in my garage," became so instantly loved/hated that parody and remix videos soon followed, and the internet collectively wrote Lopez's business off as a "get rich quick" scheme.

Those who have tried Lopez's "67 Steps Program" also have their complaints. One such man, Scott Godar, purchased the program and made it through 15 hour-and-a-half videos of Tai talking before he asked for a refund.

"Tai seems like a very knowledgeable person, a very smart person, but he's an internet marketer. That's all he is," Godar told me. "I've watched a dozen and a half motivational videos on YouTube and got more out of them than Tai's program. They are one in the same and preach the same regurgitated information. Read a Tony Robbins book for God's sake! Tai's program is Tony Robbins and YouTube motivational videos rolled up into hour-and-a-half long sessions of listening to Tai talk."

Read: The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Sims

The programwhich includes the aforementioned 67 steps, videos of Lopez pontificating, life-coaching calls from Lopez, book-of-the-day recommendations, and other "super bonus content"costs $67 per month. A recurring complaint among those who have signed up is that they didn't realize they were entering into a recurring billing cycle or that they weren't able to cancel their subscription. Others have argued that Lopez's advice isn't all that novel, since many of his talks piggyback off more established luminaries of the motivation and business spaces. Many point to Jack Canfield's The Success Principles, a 2006 book with it's own 67 steps, which they claim Lopez straight-up stole and repackaged.

A few months ago, Tai released the follow-up ad to his Lamborghini spot, this time showing off a Ferrari. Who the hell is this guy? I wondered. Is Tai Lopez a snake-oil salesman, a business savant, or something else entirely? I met up with him at his house in the Hollywood hills, in the very garage where he filmed his most famous video ad, to find out.

Lopez lives in a chic, modern house on a winding road. Like most of these mansions, the unassuming, single-story-appearing front leads into a multistory dream home with a breathtaking view from its perch on the side of a mountain. Despite having no qualms about asking every single renter I know how much they pay per month, it seemed a bit gauche to ask Lopez how much his mansion is worth. Zillow creeping later that night gave me a good idea, though, as neighbors on his block were listed at between $900,000 and $3.4 million in value.

"The modern world makes it hard to be happy. We're bombarded with stuff. I know it's an oxymoron, because I have the Ferrari and Lamborghini." Tai Lopez

The interior of the house was well-decorated, but lived in. Naturally, books were everywhere, in keeping with Lopez's "book-a-day" ethos. The place wasn't dirty, but could've used some tidying. For a guy teaching others how to best organize their goals and lives, you'd think the dude could just make a stop at The Container Store. Lopez pointed out a not-quite-as-fancy couch in the living room that was his reminder of worse times when he was literally sleeping on a couch.

"That's the couch?" I asked.

"No," Lopez replied, "but it sorta looks like it."

Tai Lopez in his backyard

According to his assistant, the home and cars belong to Lopez. "Tai has never rented a car except from an airport on a business trip," she said. The home, along with his others, is owned through his companies, LLCs, and estate trusts, not rented out like a tawdry porno shoot, as many have asserted online.

"I did a video earlier this year, that one in my garage," Lopez said after he took me for a spin in his Ferrari. "It's almost the most watched video campaign in history."

I didn't bring up the absurdity of touting viewership figures on an ad you're paying to put in front of eyeballs.

I also didn't tell Lopez that many people watched it because they loved to hate him. Instead, I asked about the point of the video.

"I think it has an important message," he replied. "It looks like it's about me showing off Lamborghinis, but that's what I call 'interruption marketing.' We see about a minimum of 2,000 ads a day in the modern world." The Lamborghini, he explained, is designed to break through the noiseso that you can learn about Lopez's self-help program, which he says actually has nothing to do with material wealth. He knew the ad would catch peoples' attention, but he says he "had no idea people would find it this interesting."

Lopez is full of contradictions like this. One of his claims to fame is his commitment to reading a book a daythough he has advised people to get others to read books for them, which puts a big, honking asterisk next to that claim. While he emphasizes that knowledge is more important than materialism, his office is filled with books. It looks like a Barnes & Noble window display, with the towers all meticulously askew, pristine spines all facing outward.

"The modern world, however, makes it hard to be happy. We're bombarded with stuff," he said. "I know it's an oxymoron, because I have the Ferrari and Lamborghini, but I read a book on happiness from a top scientist specializing in happiness. He talked about the difference between conspicuous and inconspicuous consumption."

Lopez went on to tell me about how, just the other day, he made the decision not to buy a Rolex because he realized it wouldn't make him happy. "That said, if I was the last guy on the planet, I would still head right to a Lamborghini dealership and grab some of those," he added. "Those are just fun to drive."

More on people who are internet-famous: VICE meets Shoenice22, a YouTube sensation who will eat anything for fame.

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I asked Lopez how he accrued so much money and he told me about his first taste of entrepreneurialism, when he was 19 years old, running a farm in Virginia. He says he told the farm owner, "If you put the money up to buy the cows, I'll do all the work, then you get paid back first, and if there's any money left over, we'll split it." He claims he made $12,000 that summer.

Lopez told me his "family situation fell apart," so he went to live with the Amish for two and a half years. It was there that he says he learned what little value there is to material wealth. "The Amish are the coolest people," he said. "If I had a million dollars in a sack I had to leave with somebody for ten years, I'd find a random Amish family and I guarantee I could come back in ten years and there'd be the whole million there."

After that, he says he became a certified financial planner and started working in wealth management in the early 2000s. He says he was the "founder, investor, advisor, or mentor to more than 20 multi-million dollar businesses." Of these, he is probably best known for owning several dating sites for gold diggers, including EliteMeeting.com, ModelMeet.com, and MeetingMillionaires.com. Each of the sites dealt with complaints ranging from fake profiles to unauthorized charges on credit cards tied to accounts. One complaint, from 2009, called Lopez "the most unscrupulous dirtbag on the planet."

Lopez shrugged off my questions about this part of his career. These sites were "just part of portfolio," he said, despite the videos of him on each of the sites. And the complaints? Lopez says their scant handful of Better Business Bureau complaints were nothing compared to the thousands big competitors like Match.com received.

According to his LinkedIn, Lopez started his self-help business in 2001. He describes his program as a series of "online education systems that help people solve the 4 hard problems of life."

Lopez knows that some people see his business and think it's a scam. He says those assertions are baseless.

"Basically, the only people who say this are people who have never tried any of the programs. The positive testimonial rate is beyond belief. Literally thousandseven tens of thousandsof people love it," he said.

He also added that there is a 100 percent refund rate for anyone who isn't satisfied with his products, and so "therefore, it logically could not be a scam since anyone who wants their money back gets it all."

Read: Did Instagram Bro Hero Dan Bilzerian Get His Start Thanks to His Father's Dirty Money?

This seems to somewhat be at odds with some of the personal testimonies about trying to cancel subscriptions to Lopez's programs, but others have said they were able to secure their refunds.

"When people hear me or anyone talking about money, there's a part of their brain that immediately thinks: Get rich quick scheme. But there have been get rich quick schemes since the dawn of time and I never say anywhere that you're gonna get rich from my steps," Lopez said. Which is true, I guesshe never says you're going to drive off in a Ferrari tomorrowbut he does imply that you'll be able to drive a Ferrari someday.

Leaving the Lopez estate, I was unsure if I'd even peeled back the first layer of this onion. I followed up with Lopez and his assistant, but even then, it was difficult to tell if he was knowingly scamming people or honestly trying to help them. Lopez has a habit of speaking in riddles, and seemed more interested in quoting public figures and going on an endless catalog of tangents than giving forthright responses to my questions. Like a feral child raised by Ted talks. But there were also times when I saw his humanity shine through, and against all odds, it made me feel for him.

For all his wealth and success, Tai Lopez doesn't have the bravado or swagger of someone who knows in his marrow that he's done something substantial. He spoke multiple times over the course of our conversation about searching for happiness and, if I had to guess, I'd say he hasn't quite found it yet. Maybe he's internalized all the online hate, something he had to know he'd get when starting this kind of venture. Maybe the struggle to prove himself weighs heavy. This is a guy who has "MENSA Member" in his Twitter bio, after all. Maybe he even feels some guilt about siphoning money from people with nowhere else to turn, even if nothing illegal is going on.

Lopez says he's focused more on fulfillment than momentary happiness. I sincerely hope he finds both, two things everyone deserves, although I doubt they will come in the form of another exotic car.

Follow Justin Caffier on Twitter.

Photo via US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official website

Homeland Security agents came on Tuesday morning for the staff of Rentboy.com, one of the oldest escort websites on the internet. They came to their Manhattan offices, reportedly removing computers. They came, a defense attorney told me, to their homes. Initial news reports claimed Rentboy staff were suspected of money laundering, but when charges came down, they were for "conspiring to violate the Travel Act," a 1961 law that historically has been used against interstate business enterprises.

Seven staff members were arrested.

Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents were there with the Rentboy defendants Tuesday afternoon at federal court in Brooklyn. The agents sat shoulder to shoulder, filling two front benches. They outnumbered the attorneys. They wore T-shirts and jeans, badges on their hips, looking relaxed and confident against the murmur of suits and ties. One agent stood and turned to us, the press and families and advocates in the back benches, and we could read the slogan on his shirt: "Vindicated—Justice Will Be Done."

"You sure you brought enough guys?" one of the defense attorneys spoke into the air.

The charges against Rentboy.com are reminiscent of those against the California-based escort website MyRedbook.com, raided last June by the FBI. In both cases, the government used a law against interstate illegal activity to place federal charges for violation of lesser state laws against prostitution.

The Rentboy defendants, according to a press release from Kelly T. Currie, acting United States Attorney from the Eastern District of New York, each face "up to five years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000."

Rentboy was an "internet brothel," Currie states in the release. This ignores the government's own complaint and its detailed accounting of Rentboy's alleged activities. It is not possible to conduct prostitution on the internet; there's no such thing as an "internet brothel."

The government goes further. Rentboy.com "promotes prostitution," the criminal complaint and affidavit signed by HSI Special Agent Susan Ruiz alleges. As evidence, the government offers a close reading of the website's promotional copy:

RENTBOY.COM takes its name from a British slang term for a male prostitute...

RENTBOY.COM's slogan is "Money can't buy you love... but the rest is negotiable."

The government complaint also provides a crash course in the Rentboy.com user experience:

There is also a navigation button that allows a user to search for escorts. A user may search by a number of parameters including geographic location.

In the "Physical Attributes" category, the escorts are asked to select answers for the following attributes: "Foreskin," "Cock Size," and "Build."

The government complaint goes on to offer descriptions of watersports, spanking, and fetishes for sneakers. The document signed by Ruiz also details several escorts' advertisements.

"I am aware that 'top' is slang for a sexually dominant partner," Ruiz writes.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) says it has seized or is in the process of seizing "over $1.4 million of alleged criminal proceeds" from Rentboy.com.

By the close of court on Tuesday, six Rentboy.com defendants were released on bond, ranging from $50,000 to $350,000. I watched two of the men joined at the stand by their husbands to secure their bonds with a signature, as the judge asked them if they understood their spouses were accused of "conspiring" in the promotion of "unlawful activity, specifically prostitution."

Tuesday's raid on Rentboy came five days after the announcement by several major American LGBT legal advocacy organizations—Transgender Law Center, Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD), Lambda Legal, National Center for Lesbian Rights, and National Center for Transgender Equality—that they will join Amnesty International in calling for the decriminalization of sex work. Transgender Law Center has condemned the Rentboy raid, stating, "the US federal government is not only jeopardizing countless people's lives and only source of livelihood, but sending a clear and troubling message that the country is less invested in addressing systemic issues of racial, economic, and anti-LGBT injustice than in further criminalizing the individuals most marginalized by those systems."

Rentboy is marketed as a site for men seeking male escorts, though it employs and serves a broader queer community. This community remains targeted by law enforcement, even as gay marriage and military service go mainstream.

It's also true that queer sex workers are regarded as legitimate targets for exclusion even within LGBT communities. Advocate editor-at-large Diane Anderson-Minshall noted this July that her own magazine was "once a premium place for sex ads." And, she adds, "as LGBT media evolved, those sex ads blossomed, filling the pages and paying the bills until many—including this one—purged their pages of sexual content in a late-1980s bid for mainstream advertising."

This purge opened the way for a site like Rentboy.com to flourish online for nearly 20 years.

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Check out our documentary on the new era of sex work in Canada.

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Rentboy.com CEO Jeffrey Hurant was arraigned last on Tuesday, along with former Rentboy employee Diana Mattos. She stood like the other defendants, her hands clasped behind her back. The judge described the charges against her, speaking slowly, seeming to lose steam over the word "prostitution" after having said it several times that day. Mattos's left hand, her nails painted dark red, gently circled her right wrist. When she turned to speak to Hurant, you could see a tattoo that wound close to her ear.

Jeffrey Hurant's father's voice was soft, too. His dark hair was combed neatly back, and he signed for his son's $350,000 bond.

The defendants each left the courtroom with their court-appointed lawyers, trailed by HSI agents. The reporters followed. In the hall, one of the defense attorneys asked if those just released had money to get home. There are two pits of seats set into the wall just outside the courtroom doors, and in the right-hand pit, the agents lingered as a group. The defendants, within earshot, didn't offer the assembled press comment.

Hurant's attorney, Charles Hochbaum, told reporters his client was "upset and confused that a legitimate business should be the target of a Homeland Security investigation."

It's not clear how long Rentboy.com was under federal scrutiny. According to the complaint, at least one undercover agent made contact with Hurant at Rentboy's annual Hookies award show in 2015.

"[Hurant] said that he went to Oxford University," DHI Special Agent Ruiz writes in the complaint, "and learned that 'rentboy' was 'the word for escorts.'"

Additional public comments by staff are cited in the complaint. One of the Rentboy employees arrested was their social media coordinator. Another staff member's tweets are quoted.

"Escorts are not just sex objects," staffer Michael Belman is quoted as saying. "They are real people performing a valuable service." He was also arrested on Tuesday, released on a $200,000 bond.

There are no future court dates set. Local news have secured their gay escort headlines, their perp walks, and their government-commissioned account of explicit homosexual sex. One defendant, according to advocates in contact with him, remains in custody as of this publication, though it is not clear why. Those who advertised on Rentboy.com are now left potentially exposed, their listings in government custody, and for now are largely out of work. Rentboy was their hiring hall, a community center, one place where advertisers could manage their work and find one another.

Yet Rentboy.com, or parts of it, still appears online. Assistant US Attorney Tyler Smith—who represented the government at Tuesday's arraignment—told reporters they remain in the process of "seizing" the website. You might be able to visit Rentboy.com, for now, though under what kind of surveillance it is not known.

Rentboy.com was called to answer for something before the law on Tuesday, though prostitution was just one part of it. They are charged with providing a website where escorts can advertise, but more so: for doing this without hiding.

Follow Melissa Gira Grant on Twitter.

Photo via Flickr user Axion23

This story was co-published with the Marshall Project.

Legal principles can be complicated, but in most courts, until eight months ago, there was a pretty simple one: Ignorance of the law is no excuse. Then came Heien v. North Carolina, decided by the US Supreme Court in December. Now the principle is: Ignorance of the law is no excuse—unless you're the cop enforcing the law, in which case it is, or at least can be, depending upon whether your ignorance is reasonable or not, to be determined upon later review.

At a time when tension between police and citizenry was already at a pitch—the opinion came down three weeks after the no-indictment announcement regarding Michael Brown's death in Ferguson, Missouri—the court's ruling provided police with even greater leeway in how they conduct stops and subject people to questioning and searches. The law already allowed police to make stops on pretext—that is, to pull someone over for some minor infraction in order to investigate more serious wrongdoing. The law already set conditions under which police, in making stops, could be wrong about the facts. Now, with the Heien decision, police could also be wrong about the law.

On VICE News: Do You Trust the Cops?

In the eight months since, courts in at least a dozen states have excused mistakes made by police who initiated stops based on a misunderstanding of what is legal and what is not, according to a canvass of court rulings. Police from California to Kansas to Illinois to New Hampshire proved ignorant of the law on items ranging from tail lights to turn signals to tinted windows to fog lines to U-turns to red lights—only to be rewarded for it, as judges, in the typical scenario, refused to throw out evidence (drugs, most often) seized as a result of the ill-founded stops.

What's striking about these cases—aside from the officers' limited understanding of the laws they're entrusted to enforce—is how flimsy the pretext can be to pull someone over. The grounds cited for stopping drivers included entering an intersection when the light was yellow; or having, on the back of a car, a trailer hitch; or having, in the front of a car, an air freshener hanging from the rearview mirror—you know, the ones shaped like pine trees, the ones so ubiquitous that the president of the Car-Freshner Corporation once told the New York Times Magazine : "We've sold billions of trees. Probably right up there with the number of hamburgers McDonald's sells."

In February, in a case involving a traffic stop over a dangling parking pass, D. Arthur Kelsey, then a judge on Virginia's Court of Criminal Appeals, wrote: "So dense is the modern web of motor vehicle regulations that every motorist is likely to get caught in it every time he drives to the grocery store." And now, he wrote, "reasonable suspicion justifying the seizure of citizens will be found even if police officers are mistaken concerning the law as long as their testimony includes magic words such as 'I thought... I believed... I mistakenly believed... I suspected... I mistakenly suspected...' or as in this case, the officer just doesn't really know one way or the other."

Here's a look at some of the cases decided in the Heien opinion's wake:

The basis for the stop: Air freshener
The eventual charge : Possession of pot with intent to deliver
The case : State of Wisconsin v. Richard Houghton Jr., decided July 14, 2015, by the Wisconsin Supreme Court

When a police officer in the Village of East Troy (4,281 residents, 18 miles of roadways, 500 manholes, according to its quarterly newsletter) pulled over Richard Houghton's blue Ford Taurus, the officer was ignorant of the law in at least two ways. He thought the car needed a front license plate (in this case, it didn't), and he thought the car's air freshener was illegal, believing any object dangling from a rear-view mirror automatically violated the state's law on obstructing a driver's view (not so). Nonetheless, the Wisconsin Supreme Court decided that the marijuana and drug paraphernalia found in the officer's subsequent search of the car would not be thrown out. Just one year after it had ruled the opposite in another case, the court decided that in light of Heien, mistakes of law by police could now be forgiven, if reasonable.

Traffic stops based on hanging air fresheners have occurred in lots of states, despite the incredible sweep implicit in such a broad interpretation of the laws on driver visibility. "There must be a zillion cars driving around with air fresheners," one judge said. In an air-freshener case decided by the Vermont Supreme Court in March, justices noted the absurdity of the state's position that all hanging items, not just air fresheners, violate the law. Were that true, the court wrote, people could be pulled over for "spherical crystals, parking placards, medical-alert cards, dog tags, beads, crosses, crucifixes, and, of course, fuzzy dice. ... [T]he statute would subject a vast swath of the driving population to police stops without any safety rationale." Nonetheless, the Vermont Supreme Court forgave the officer's mistake.

When courts have decided a mistake is reasonable, they've typically concluded that the statute was ambiguous, subject to multiple interpretations, or that the law had yet to be interpreted by appellate judges, leaving police with but limited guidance.

But in at least two other air-freshener cases decided in the last eight months—one out of Kansas City, the other, Las Vegas—courts in those jurisdictions refused to forgive police for mistakenly believing that every dangling pine tree runs afoul of the law, saying the officers' ignorance was unreasonable. And if you're wondering why some police seem so keen to stop cars with pine trees, the Kansas City case offers a clue: An officer testified that in his experience, people often use fresheners to mask the smell of drugs.

The basis for the stop: Trailer hitch
The eventual charges : Possession of pot; possession of pot with intent to deliver
The case: State of Illinois v. Jose Gaytan, decided May 21, 2015, by the Illinois Supreme Court

Near Chenoa, Illinois ("Welcome to Chenoa!," the town's website says), a couple of local police officers were using radar to check the speed of passing cars when they elected to follow a purple Lincoln Mark V. One officer later said the car's color and big tires caught his eye. The officers wound up stopping the Lincoln and arresting Jose Gaytan, a passenger, on charges stemming from marijuana found in a diaper bag.

The basis for the stop was a ball-type trailer hitch. That hitch, the officers said, obscured their view of the rear license plate, in violation of the Illinois Vehicle Code. But the statute they cited says nothing of trailer hitches, and state legislators made no mention of hitches when passing the law. The statute requires keeping the license plate "free from" materials that obstruct visibility, "including, but not limited to, glass covers and plastic covers." Eyeballing a photo of the car's rear, the trial judge questioned just how much the hitch actually shielded: "The only thing it's obstructing is the little thing at the bottom that says Land of Lincoln or whatever," the judge said. More important, the Illinois Supreme Court concluded that the statute applied only to objects "physically connected" to the plate, an interpretation that excludes the trailer hitch.

Interpreting the statute as prosecutors and police wished "would have the effect of rendering a substantial amount of otherwise lawful conduct illegal in Illinois," the court wrote. Attached carriers for wheelchairs and scooters? Illegal. Rental trailers? Illegal. Bicycle racks? Illegal. "[E]ven a public bus equipped with a bicycle rack on its front would be unlawful under the State's reading," the court said. But in the end, the determination that police had misread the law did Gaytan no good. The court decided the police's mistake was reasonable, and, citing Heien, refused to throw out the drugs seized in the stop.

The basis for the stop: Bicycle on sidewalk
The eventual charge : Under the influence of a controlled substance
The case: People v. Felipe Campuzano, decided June 5, 2015, by the San Diego County Superior Court, Appellate Division

When a couple of San Diego police officers stopped Felipe Campuzano, he was straddling a bicycle on a sidewalk, "operating it at a 'very slow, walking speed' alongside of a female companion who was walking," a court would later write. The basis for the stop—which yielded a charge of being under the influence of a controlled substance—was a municipal code that prohibits riding a bike on a sidewalk "fronting any commercial business." The law's purpose is to protect people from being hit by a bicyclist upon walking into or leaving a store. But in this case, there was no store, at least none with people. There was only a former auto-repair shop, now shuttered, surrounded by a weed-choked chain-link fence.

In November 2014, an appellate court in San Diego County ruled that police made a mistake of law, so the evidence gathered during the stop should be tossed. But one month later, the US Supreme Court handed down Heien—prompting the appellate court to reconsider. The second time around, the appellate court ruled that the evidence against Campuzano could be used, because the police's mistake was reasonable. "We do not, and cannot, expect our police officers to be legal scholars," the court wrote.

The Indiana Court of Appeals went down the same road. Before Heien, it reversed a marijuana conviction because police misread the law on taillights when stopping the defendant; after Heien, the court reconsidered and reinstated the conviction.

The basis for the stop: Entering intersection on yellow light
The eventual charges : Possession of methamphetamine; possession of a controlled substance without a tax stamp; possession of drug paraphernalia
The case : State of Kansas v. Robert Alan Wilson, decided Jan. 16, 2015, by the Court of Appeals of Kansas

Here's a textbook example of a pretextual stop. At about 11 PM, a Kansas City police officer saw a Chevrolet Malibu leave a "known narcotics house." So the officer followed. He kept his tail until he saw the Malibu enter an intersection on a yellow light. "The vehicle was pretty much 50/50 on that white line" when the yellow light turned to red, the officer would later testify—and for the officer, 50/50 was good enough. He pulled the car over. After "evidently" getting the driver's consent to search ("evidently" is the Court of Appeals' word), the officer found a small glass pipe and a baggie of meth.

"We agree that simply entering an intersection on a yellow light is not—in and of itself—a legitimate basis for a traffic stop," the state Court of Appeals wrote in January. But the court noted that the officer believed the Malibu's driver could have stopped in time if he had wanted to. So even if the officer was mistaken about the law, his mistake was reasonable.

Since Heien, some courts have found mistakes of law by police to be so obvious as to be objectively unreasonable. That happened in Iowa, where police proved ignorant of the law on open alcohol containers. That happened in New Jersey, where police proved ignorant of the law on high beams.

But now police and prosecutors everywhere have a new argument to make, no matter the nature of their screw-up. In many cases, courts were already excusing mistakes of fact. In June, an appeals court in Minnesota excused a sheriff's deputy who said a driver didn't signal a lane change, when, the deputy's dash-cam showed, the driver did. That same month, an appeals court in Wisconsin excused a sheriff's deputy who stopped what he thought was a Pontiac Sunfire because the plates were registered to a Chevrolet Cavalier; it turned out, the car he pulled over was a Cavalier.

The argument for pretext stops is that they allow police to protect communities by being proactive instead of reactive. Take, for example, Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. His arrest traced to a traffic stop over a missing license tag. Still, some legal commentators worry about the Heien decision's impact. Because investigatory traffic stops disproportionately target racial minorities, one writes that Heien "will very likely add to the growing tension between minorities and law enforcement." Another sees a "dangerous double standard," with those arrested expected to know the law—while those arresting, not so much.

This article was originally published by the Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization that covers the US criminal justice system. Sign up for their newsletter, or follow the Marshall Project on Facebook or Twitter.

Photos via Flickr user Dominick D and Sheila Sun

Watch: California's Worst Drought in 500 Years

Mustachioed actor and avocado farmer Tom Selleck has become the most recent target of "drought shaming" after court documents released yesterday revealed he has been allegedly stealing water from a fire hydrant in Thousand Oaks, California, since 2013 to service his 60-acre ranch and farm. The Calleguas Municipal Water District claims to have spent $21,685.55 on the water thievery investigation, which they are now demanding back from the Magnum P.I. star along with court and attorney fees.

The District says it saw a commercial water truck fill up using a hydrant next to a construction site in Thousand Oaks, only to covertly slink back to the Selleck property in Hidden Valley, where Selleck most likely sprayed the water in sweeping arcs across his lush avocado fields, laughing maniacally, as the rest of the state of California withered away from drought.

This hydrant siphoning reportedly happened seven times between September 20 and October 3, 2013. The District's cease-and-desist letters went unanswered, as the same white commercial water truck was seen continuing to fill up and disappear into the Selleck residence through the rest of 2013.

The lawsuit filed against the actor also includes allegations that the water truck was seen doing the exact same thing for four days straight last March. Risky move, Magnum. Looks like not even that moustache can escape the long arm of the law.

My Fellow Cyclists:


Heroes and football players.

They never ask why.

Carl Reiner joins Norm on Norm Macdonald Live.



Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The new Niner Jet 9 Carbon offers virtually the same performance as the old, all-carbon model at a slightly lower price-point. Photo: Niner Bikes

For most bike manufacturers, the road to full-carbon bikes is a one-way street.

Bucking the trend, Niner released a new version of the Jet 9 Carbon on Thursday, which has an alloy rear triangle. The previous generation of this medium-duty, 100mm-travel, 29er cross-country bike had a carbon rear triangle.

Why the perceived devolution? Niner marketing coordinator Brad Cole said to VeloNews in an email, “The goal was to be able to create a new Jet 9 Carbon that performed on par with the full-carbon version. This allows us to increase the quality of our builds with minimal impact to the overall cost of the bike and no sacrifice in frame performance.”

Based on side-by-side testing of two identically specced Jet 9s — the previous and new generations — we can say that Niner hit the mark.

The geometry remains the same, giving the rider a neutral position that is confident on most descents, but steep enough to tackle climbs. While the bikes 29-inch wheels are noticeable, Niner is able to tune the bike’s handling to be sufficiently quick and sprightly. The updated Jet 9 will offer external dropper post cable routing on the top tube, if you are so inclined.

Both frames track exceptionally well in rough, technical terrain. They are only held back by the sometimes-flexy RockShox Reba fork, which has 32mm-diameter stanchions.

A different rear shock, the RockShox Monarch RT, is the update that is most easily perceived. As with other Monarchs I’ve ridden, this one has a distinctly linear feel, and also seems to have a tiny bit of inertia before breaking into the travel. It only has two lever settings for compression damping, which don’t drastically affect the rear suspension’s behavior.

Is the Monarch better than the Fox Float CTD Evolution on the previous generation? It’s hard to say. They certainly offer different feels. Riders who enjoy Fox’s buttery smooth top-end and progressive stroke — as well as a third Pro-Pedal lever position — might be underwhelmed with the RockShox. However, when the Jet 9 is pointed into rough, chunky chop, the Monarch is very capable. It’s likely that the 142x12mm rear axle — also an improvement on the new model — aided the new Niner in these situations.

Naturally, the hybrid carbon/alloy frame is a bit heavier than the all-carbon version it replaces. The old model weighed 5.3 pounds, and new version is 5.85 pounds, which includes the thru-axle. I can say, however, that the half-pound of weight wasn’t immediately noticeable on the trail.

When it comes to pricing, the difference between new and old is cut and dried. The new frame’s suggested price is $2,199, while the old model was $100 more expensive. Most complete bikes are $100 less expensive, except for the 3-Star XT build, which is $200 less with the new frame.

Also, on Thursday, Niner released a new budget hardtail, the EMD 9, priced at $1,499 with a 1-Star kit, and it announced a new Rip 9 Carbon, which has an alloy rear triangle, similar to the new Jet 9.

The post First Ride: Updated, less-expensive Niner Jet 9 Carbon appeared first on VeloNews.com.

Courtesy of Transition Bikes

This video by Andrew Santos features Transition rider Sid Slotegraaf riding the perfect terrain for the Patrol in Squamish, British Columbia, Canada. A beautiful mix of up and down mountain riding that showcases exactly what we designed the Patrol to handle. Earn your way to the top and then shred technical rock lines, flowy jumps and berms, drops and anything else the trail wants to send your way without giving a second thought to your bike.

Want to sample a Patrol for yourself? Join us at Dirt Rag’s Dirt Fest May 15-17.

As everybody certainly knows by now, the 2015 USA Cycling Cyclo-cross National Championships in Austin, TX was cancelled yesterday due to mud.

That's right.  The National Championships...of cyclocross...were cancelled due to mud:

This is exactly why a city needs to host a UCI CX race before getting a bid for USA Nationals. Confused as to how this happened #AustinCX15
— Mo Bruno Roy (@meaux_marie) January 11, 2015

A fair and excellent point.

Responding to this sort of criticism, USA Cycling issued the sort of bullshit apology for which they are famous:


But of what use was this to the competitors and families who had traveled all the way to Austin from all over Canada's scranus and beyond, and who either had to leave without competing or else expend the time and resources to stay another day?

Hey, Austin's a great place to visit for a day or two, but once you've waited 45 minutes to eat a pulled pork sandwich off a food truck and watched those stupid bats on the Congress Street Bridge the city has nothing left to offer you.  Believe me, I know.  I've been there on multiple occasions, and I can assure you that despite its quirky tie-dyed veneer Austin is still very much in Texas:


I'm sure if you're a refugee from some other part of Texas it's quite the cultural oasis.  However, if you're from an actual city then Austin is basically just a slightly artsier White Plains.  If they want to "Keep Austin Weird" they better try harder, because even in today's sanitized New York City there's more weirdness in a typical Midtown Starbuck's.

But this isn't about culture, this is about competition.  I take competitive cycling less seriously than just about anybody, but if you're the governing body of a sport and you can't provide your elite membership with a National Championships at approximately the time you promised it then you're failing at a pretty basic level.  Sure, natural disasters and other acts of "god" were the exception, but this was simply an astounding lack of foresight on pretty much everybody's part:

The cycling event is an “intense” use of a park, even compared to the Austin City Limits Music Festival, Austin Parks and Recreation Department director Sara Hensley said Sunday at a news conference.

“We just have to protect our park and particularly our trees, which we value so much in the city,” Hensley said. “None of us anticipated this kind of precipitation.”

So what kind of trees were these, anyway?  Well, apparently these were "heritage" trees:

Zilker Park is no stranger to large events and the damage they sometimes leave behind. Park lovers and environmentalists have raised concerns the five-day Cyclo-cross Championships with about 1600 registered participants could have long-term repercussions on the root systems of heritage trees at the park.

If you're not familiar with arborist jargon, a "heritage" tree in Texas means it's white and comes from an Anglo-Saxon background.  This means the tree is not only afforded special protection from bike racers, but it's also allowed to "open carry:"


If guns are outlawed, only invasive tree species will have guns.

Anyway, let's take a look at that ever-so-benign Austin City Limits Music music festival, shall we?



You're telling me a bunch of weenies riding around in circles is worse for the park than this?

Well, I guess they have to Keep Austin Fratty.

By the way, Austin City Limits is, in a circuitous way, sort of a Lance Armstrong production (or at least a Bros of Lance Armstrong production), and the former two-time Critérium du Dauphiné winner did offer some wayward cyclocross racers succor for the night:

Got some riders placed for the night. All full now. Best of luck to all those competing tomorrow. #cxnats2015
— Lance Armstrong (@lancearmstrong) January 11, 2015

I don't know who those riders were, but I suspect they'll be summoned to doping control immediately upon arriving at the venue.

In other news, here's the smartphone-controlled e-bike conversion kit of your dreams:



Looks great.  You'll be dominating the sidewalk in no time.

David Clark, editor of the Southern Textile Bulletin, shows up at a meeting of the National Child Labor Committee, a non-governmental reform group still in existence today, and demands to be heard. He says that children employed in North Carolina textile mills are not overworked and under-nourished, as documented in NCLC reports and the photos taken by its photographer Lewis Hine.



Why, Clark says, “I am willing to wager that the children in the mill district, boy for boy, can lick any other class of boys in America.” Also, he says it’s none of the business of people in New York and Massachusetts if 13-year-olds work in North Carolina.

Mexico: “President” Gutierrez’s regime has arrested the brother of “President” Carranza. Promises a fair trial.

NY’s new governor Charles Whitman makes his first annual message to the Legislature. He calls for the abolition of the Dept of Efficiency and Economy, which is efficient and economical of him, and the state Fire Marshal, because everyone’s forgotten all about the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, I guess.

German Chancellor Theobold von Bethmann-Hollweg’s son, a cavalry lieutenant, is killed in Poland by some Cossacks, as was the custom.

Last year, Robert Goldman, the son of banker Henry Goldman (of Goldman, Sachs & Co.) married a chorus girl, as was the custom. Because he is 19, his father is suing for divorce on his behalf, evidently against his will, which I didn’t know was a thing. Edith, the chorus girl, is suing Henry for alienation of affections for $100,000. (Update: More details emerge when the case reaches court in March. The young Mr. Goldman met Ms. Ostend when she was performing in “The Belle of Bond Street,” which is kind of perfect. When the senior Goldman found out about the marriage, he “sent his son to a ranch in the West, where he made him work as a cowboy for $40 a month.” And it sounds like young Robert was agreeable to being divorced, after his father’s private dicks found his wife in the company of other men.)

Specialized is releasing two new versions of its fat bike, the aptly named Fatboy. The new bikes are intended for budding young fat bikers and will be available with 20 and 24in wheels, shod in 4in wide tyres.

Both models have butted aluminium frames with matching forks, 170mm rear axle spacing and 100mm wide threaded bottom bracket shells. Likewise, the build kits for these two fatties are nearly identical, with SRAM 1x9 drivetrains, Tektro mechanical disc brakes, 90mm wide Specialized rims and 4in wide Specialized Ground Control tyres.

Each model is available in four colourways

According to Specialized, the Fatboy 20 and Fatboy 24 will retail for US$1,000. 

Ads by Project Wonderful! Your ad could be here, right now.

In big news for bicycle travelers Amtrak has announced that they are adding baggage cars with bicycle cargo capability to all 15 long distance train routes that they serve. By the end of the year riders should have roll-on bicycle service, expanding the horizons of where you can take your bike, or where you can ride to and find an affordable way home. I’ve utilized roll-on service on the west coast to travel between cities, and it’s a great feeling to be able to ride directly to and from the train station. Look for 55 new cars capable of carrying bicycles by the end of 2014. Read more at www.post-gazette.com

From tiny house wizard Derek “Deek” Diedricksen, some free camp kitchen plans for your tiny house, boat or vehicle.

SALTARA, Italy (VN) — Cadel Evans (BMC Racing) continues to show true grit in his Giro d’Italia fight. After a strong few days, the never-say-die Aussie time-trialed his way to second overall.

“Overall, it’s shaping up pretty well. … Things are finally starting to come together now,” Evans said after warming down and moving to the safety of the team’s car.

“A time trial always shows everyone’s cards. It’s a good point to be at this point of the race. The real Giro is just starting.”

With the “real Giro” starting and two weeks remaining, Evans finds himself second overall by 29 seconds. He arrived there by crafty racing in the last few days, always being present and not suffering bad luck.

Alex Dowsett (Movistar) won the time trial over 54.8km in 1 hour, 16 minutes and 27 seconds. Evans placed seventh at 39 seconds back.

He lost time — 29 seconds to Bradley Wiggins (Sky) and 18 seconds to new race leader Vincenzo Nibali (Astana). However, he gained on Robert Gesink (Blanco) and Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Sharp).

Evans apparently enjoyed the time trial.

“You sort of had, first third, rolling and undulating, and that was a bit like the Amalfi coast sort of thing. And then you had a couple of open sections and then two really steep climbs, that in such a long time trial is really quite taxing,” Evans said.

“Of course, you are always at your limit. … It was over 70km/h on the descent and the steep pitches there were really like the steepest climbs we have had so far.”

BMC Racing fielded Evans at the last minute so that he could build form ahead of the Tour de France. Evans said as much in the pre-Giro press conference, but indicated there could be more.

“If the bookmakers gave me no odds, that’s their mistake, not mine,” Evans said. “I only knew for a short time that I’d race the Giro, but I’ve worked as hard as I could to get ready.”

It appears that Evans maintains that same never-say-die spirit that earned him the 2011 Tour de France title after so many years of trying. The results today point in the direction of a possible second grand-tour win.

“On the classification, I think I am shaping fairly well,” he said. “I think it’s a good position to be in at this point; the Giro changes a bit from here on in.”

The press officer waved off more questions and sports director Fabio Baldato drove the team car towards their next hotel. Evans will look over the results Saturday evening, likely eyeing a Giro d’Italia win.