Police Spokesperson Does His Job Well

Keith Ryan, 34, claims to have been beaten by police

 
Keith Ryan, 34, of Toronto is an office administrator that is currently suing two police officers and one parking enforcement officer for 2.3 million dollars after what he claims as a brutal beating. This incident occurred in April of 2011.

Photo of the week: Stop bullying

I'm not sure where this pic is from. I came across it on Instagram tonight. It's the perfect example of solidarity leading to strength. Here is a united front against bullying.
I thought this was only appropriate and not an issue to be taken lightly.

Spread the word.

Missing Autistic Man

Police are searching for a missing Autistic man who hasn't been seen since Friday, October 12th.

Rick Hazard (pictured above) was last seen in the Jane and Eglinton area. He was wearing a greay jacket, jeans and a black backpack.

Please contact 416-222-TIPS with any information.

Gone Too Soon

If you were logged onto Twitter this past week, you probably heard of Amanda Todd. Just a month before her 16th birthday, she committed suicide because of the endless bullying and cyberstalking.

When Amanda was twelve years old, she made the naive mistake of "flashing" a webcam. Her photo was distributed publicly and Amanda continued to be taunted regardless of a numerous fresh starts. She was blackmailed to "giving a show" through a message on Facebook, a profile was created in honour of her body parts and she was bullied in school. She was twelve years old and thought of it as harmless behaviour. What's disturbing is that the people distributing her photos are distributing child pornography.

Amanda was bullied, attached, manipulated, stalked and harassed for four years. As a young girl, how many of you could get over that?

I've read plenty of comments and posts about Amanda's suicide. These are some of the disturbing and ignorant comments made:
------

 @DevilDiva9 (YouTube) wrote:

"Honestly, I'll admit, I felt pity for her after hearing, rather, seeing this story and it's ridiculous that she got bullied.
But regardless, I criticize her for
1 flashing herself to unknown men
2 Not learning to say no
3 Not staying strong for herself
Now 4 being selfish for causing herself physical harm and finally suicide"

-- Very nice of you to outline your arguements by numbering them Devil Diva. But your criticisms of Amanda Todd are nothing more than an attack on the naivety of a twelve year old girl, victim blaming and supporting the disgusting pedophilia behaviour of grown men preying on the internet. "Not learning to say no"... Are you serious? "Not staying strong for herself"? I had no idea these we were taking advice from fortune cookies when it came to bullying.

@Norfag420 (YouTube) wrote:

"She was basically begging for it. Fuck it. I'm gonna grab a bottle of bleach. Wanna come?"

-- "She was begging for it" are words often uttered by rapists. Just so you know, Norfag.

@IMAV4MPIRE (Twitter) wrote:

"Amanda Todd isn't the only person who committed suicide because of bullying. What makes her more important than anyone else?" 

-- Ask Amanda Todd's mother what is so special about her. Bet she would talk your ear off considering that was her daughter. The point is, Amanda was a human being that was treated like a bag of garbage. For whatever reason you believe for tweeting such ignorance is beyond me. And no, Amanda Todd isn't the only one that has ever committed suicide, but she's one of the victimns of on and offline bullying...and for FOUR YEARS. People have followed her to new schools and blackmailed her. No one is making her more important than anyone else. They're making her more important now because people failed to make her important for the right reasons before she died.

--------------

I've posted the negative comments to show you that even though we have lost a life, people are wrecklessly still attacking the victim online. Amanda Todd felt there was no reason for her to try and live her life. A twelve year old made a mistake once. But there were so many people involve in it. This situation went thought so many channels; all guilty of persisting the bullying.EVERY SINGLE PERSON that DISTRIBUTED HER PHOTOS. EVERY SINGLE PERSON THAT BULLIED HER. EVERY SINGLE PERSON THAT "LIKED" HER PARODY FACEBOOK PAGE. What Amanda Todd did was a mistake. What everyone else did to use her mistake as a weapon was always deliberate.

You've sincerely made some mistakes as well.

Photo of the Week: Ain't This The Truth

Who doesn't agree with this??

The Power Struggle of Potty Training

23 year old Elizabeth Escalona superglued her 2 year old's
hands to the wall and severely beat her.

DALLAS-- In September of 2011, Elizabeth Escalona superglued her 2 year old daughter's hands to a wall and beat her so severely that her brain was bleeding. Reason? The 23 year-old mother claimed her daughter's toilet training "problems" were the motivation for her attack.

In July of 2012, Escalona pleaded guilty to her charges. She didn't about her daughter's conditions and was only informed because the officer interviewing her initiated the particular discussion.

No reason is any reason to harm a child, but what the hell was this woman thinking? This isn't the typical medicalization of a frustrated parent that the media immediately diagnoses when stories like these surface. This is power over children and the abuse of authority. We see this with many caregiver-client or patient situations. We hear about this not only with children but in retirement homes, in-home caregivers, pets, special needs individuals and so on. We see it anywhere in which one party has more power than the other.

Surely, a two year old is expected to have potty training problems. 

Perhaps Escalona made her way out of her mother's uterus and miraculously knew how to urinate in the toilet. But to the rest of us, we need to learn it. Apparently, this frustrated Escalona to the point of severe child abuse. 

The Escobar Situation

Toronto Blue Jay, Yunel Escobar, made a boo-boo.
Right at start-off season, the baseball player wrote "TU ERE MARICON" under his eyes, meaning "You're a faggot" back on the 15th of September during a game against the Red Sox.
He has defended and not defended his actions... at the same damn time.




He claims that it was a language misunderstanding and that among the Spanish community, the word "faggot" doesn't have the same meaning as it does in the english language.
He also claims that several of his friends and employed staff are gay and they apparently haven't felt offended by it. I doubt that. Escobar, however, agrees with his suspension and the monetary compensation of his suspension contributed toward an anti-homphobia organization.

The fact of the matter is, hate knows no specific language. Escobar deliberately wrote those specific words as an action of offensive nature, not endearment.

I believe that his monetary contribution doesn't actually deal with the root of the problem--- that homophobia is taken very lightly in this situation. Yes, he was suspended and needs to donate his portion to the organization and yes he was subject to a press conference made public. However, does this change his thoughts on how offensive his actions were? He agrees with the actions against him but his blame on language misunderstanding is all too common.
We always see public figures that were caught in some derogatory language or action issues claim the same argument--- "I didn't mean to offend so and so", "I love black people", "I have no problem with gay people... My ___ is gay". It's the same formula to dealing with public outrage.

Many of the responses on Twitter against Escobar after the press conference was a little disturbing. One Twitter user tweeted, "It means wimpy and not macho, nothing to do with gays".
Actually my dear, it does.

Gay men are seen by straight men as deviants of hegemonic masculinity. They're seen as less of man. You don't cry when you're hurt, you don't watch "chick flicks" and you don't hug another man with both arms. Those are the apparent rules. The word FAGGOT itself may not have been the direct translation, but it sure has the same meaning when we discuss masculinity.

Stop feeding these so-called public figures these excuses. If you want to get all technical, read about the implications of the homophobic society we live in first.

If you really thought about it, you wouldn't argue against this.

Cinderella: Indeed a Fairytale

Why must people be so ridiculous? Don't people think before they talk anymore?

I heard the funniest conversation today. No, I wasn't trying to eavesdrop. I was patiently waiting for my latte at Starbucks and so were they.

In front of me were two women having a conversation about the Cinderella movie starring Brandy alongside Whitney Houston and Jason Alexander (Seinfeld).
They were talking about how it is unrealistic that a princess would be black and the Prince be Filipino.

WHAT.

They were criticizing that it creates a confusion for people to have a mixed race couple in a fairytale movie because it deviates from the well-known white cast in the Disney film.

Toronto is full of interracial couples that also have children with hyphened identities. Families are blended with a variety of races as well and it seems to be more of a problem for outsiders than family members.

And must I remind these two bright asses that a Cinderella story is unrealistic? It's a FAIRYTALE.

Are we to believe that women would wear glass slippers? Is this not creating a confusion? If women were wearing glass slippers, I would see more women taking off their damn shoes in the club (this is disgusting, I don't condone it and it is a pet peeve of mine)

Are we to believe that one slipper only fits one woman perfectly? Please. Aldo has half sizes now.

Are we to believe that a man could only identify the love of his life by whether or not a slipper fits her? Okay, that would create serious relationship issues.

So there. Cinderella is not a realistic story, so why the emphasis on the casting of Brandy, a black woman and her Prince Christopher played by Filipino actor Paolo Montalban?

Apparently, these women at Starbucks don't have a clue to a conversation other than this. And I'm sure this is evident in many people's conversations.

Reality is, couples that find love despite race, class, citizenship etc. ARE realistic. It happens and any emphasis and negativity toward their relationship is most often discussed by people that have nothing to do with their relationship. "Mixing" is still a problem for some people that they can't bare to see it in a movie. A fairytale movie even.

May I remind you that your latte is mixed?

Honey Jam 2012

Summer is almost at at end... sadly.

Skip the Thursday night clubs this week and head over to College Street for Honey Jam 2012. This showcase invites you to see all female artists perform, including Haviah Mighty, Taya Marquis and my favourite, Shi Wisdom.

This event is hosted by Muchmusic's Lauren Toyota and it's tonight starting at 7pm.

Enjoy the talent.

Man Urinates on Homeless

Is this real or fake?
This is still a question on a video posted on World Star Hip Hop. Shown is a homeless man sleeping in front of the Eaton Centre downtown Toronto. He is sleeping in the fetal position when another man walks up and urinates on him.

This is one of the worst forms of human degradation.

Not only is he urinating on the man, someone is video recording, and people are cheering... and someone posted it online.

Police are still investigating and trying to find out if this video is a hoax, however, it doesn't seem to be. They believe the video was recorded around Nov/Dec of 2011.

Homeless people are vulnerable and marginalized and this is an example of how certain members of society treats them-- as less than humans, less than animals, as if they're filth and trash on the street. Needless to say, people treat the sidewalk better than they do homeless people.