Here is the video that i promised, speaking about the lifetime movie "Held Hostage"
I go off on a little rant (LOL), which I do a lot but still a good vid. Click on the
vid to start it. Enjoy. Leave your comments and thoughts.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
WVU campus crime on rise?
Students should be responsible, independent and proactive
via The Daily Athenaeum
By Denita Jones
When choosing a college, many incoming freshmen don’t consider a low campus crime rate a priority.
However, with the recent spike of crime on the campus of West Virginia University, it makes one wonder if it will affect how potential students will view our college.
The University Police Department takes pride in sustaining one of the lowest campus crime rates.
In the face of this surge in crime, I hold onto that fact in hopes that these past few months will just been seen as a coincidence.
After the shootings at Virginia Tech in 2007 and the death of University of Connecticut’s Jasper Howard this year, providing a safe learning environment seems as if it’s becoming a harder task to uphold.
In the past few weeks, the University has reported a sexual occurrence in Lyon Tower and a robbery outside Arnold Hall.
No one can get past what happened to Ryan Diviney at the Willey Street Dairy Mart a couple weekends ago.
These events follow a stabbing on Grant Avenue and shots fired that went into the side of Summit Hall.
These crimes make me wary of walking the streets late at night.
In addition, the U.S. Department of Education reported University police violated the Clery Act in the past.
According to The Charleston Gazette, the University is looking at fines for mislabeling, under-reporting and failing to include crimes in the 2001 and 2002 Clery Reports.
The University police do their job.
They have systems such as the emergency telephones placed around campus as well as the emergency text alerts we receive when a crime is reported.
However, what we’ve seen is that the telephones are mainly subject to false reports, and the text alerts can be unreliable.
Getting students to be more proactive with their safety should take precedence over possession of a controlled substance or underage consumption citations, which is what usually what fills up the University incident reports.
On the University police Web site I found posters with proactive information, such as a checklist for violence prevention, that I’ve never seen before on campus.
This is unfathomable.
The Morgantown Police Department, as well as friends and family members, have been urging those who witnessed the altercation on Willey Street that put Ryan Diviney in the Intensive Care Unit at Ruby Memorial Hospital to come forward with information.
Though I’m not privy to this situation, nothing has come out regarding anyone with information about the thugs who sought to beat a young man within inches of his death.
The response should have been overwhelming.
According to The Dominion Post, there is video of several witnesses during the fight that broke out near the Dairy Mart.
Specifically, two females fled the scene along with other unknown bystanders.
Why haven’t these witnesses come forward?
If you have and the public just hasn’t been made aware, I commend your efforts in seeking a safer community for all of us.
If you haven’t: How you can live with yourself?
How you can get up every morning knowing that Ryan is lying in a hospital bed fighting for his life?
His life and his family’s lives are put on hold while his assailants walk the streets.
Be responsible.
Look after your belongings. Lock your doors.
If you see someone being pummeled by a large group of guys, call the police.
If you witness a violent crime, volunteer information.
We need to depend on ourselves to take preventative steps and keep this campus and community safer for everyone.
via The Daily Athenaeum
By Denita Jones
When choosing a college, many incoming freshmen don’t consider a low campus crime rate a priority.
However, with the recent spike of crime on the campus of West Virginia University, it makes one wonder if it will affect how potential students will view our college.
The University Police Department takes pride in sustaining one of the lowest campus crime rates.
In the face of this surge in crime, I hold onto that fact in hopes that these past few months will just been seen as a coincidence.
After the shootings at Virginia Tech in 2007 and the death of University of Connecticut’s Jasper Howard this year, providing a safe learning environment seems as if it’s becoming a harder task to uphold.
In the past few weeks, the University has reported a sexual occurrence in Lyon Tower and a robbery outside Arnold Hall.
No one can get past what happened to Ryan Diviney at the Willey Street Dairy Mart a couple weekends ago.
These events follow a stabbing on Grant Avenue and shots fired that went into the side of Summit Hall.
These crimes make me wary of walking the streets late at night.
In addition, the U.S. Department of Education reported University police violated the Clery Act in the past.
According to The Charleston Gazette, the University is looking at fines for mislabeling, under-reporting and failing to include crimes in the 2001 and 2002 Clery Reports.
The University police do their job.
They have systems such as the emergency telephones placed around campus as well as the emergency text alerts we receive when a crime is reported.
However, what we’ve seen is that the telephones are mainly subject to false reports, and the text alerts can be unreliable.
Getting students to be more proactive with their safety should take precedence over possession of a controlled substance or underage consumption citations, which is what usually what fills up the University incident reports.
On the University police Web site I found posters with proactive information, such as a checklist for violence prevention, that I’ve never seen before on campus.
This is unfathomable.
The Morgantown Police Department, as well as friends and family members, have been urging those who witnessed the altercation on Willey Street that put Ryan Diviney in the Intensive Care Unit at Ruby Memorial Hospital to come forward with information.
Though I’m not privy to this situation, nothing has come out regarding anyone with information about the thugs who sought to beat a young man within inches of his death.
The response should have been overwhelming.
According to The Dominion Post, there is video of several witnesses during the fight that broke out near the Dairy Mart.
Specifically, two females fled the scene along with other unknown bystanders.
Why haven’t these witnesses come forward?
If you have and the public just hasn’t been made aware, I commend your efforts in seeking a safer community for all of us.
If you haven’t: How you can live with yourself?
How you can get up every morning knowing that Ryan is lying in a hospital bed fighting for his life?
His life and his family’s lives are put on hold while his assailants walk the streets.
Be responsible.
Look after your belongings. Lock your doors.
If you see someone being pummeled by a large group of guys, call the police.
If you witness a violent crime, volunteer information.
We need to depend on ourselves to take preventative steps and keep this campus and community safer for everyone.
Making students safe a priority
The "it can't happen here" line often gets linked, after the fact, with "I told you so" when it comes to incidents of social crisis and crime. The "it," in this case, is violence on college campuses.
Fortunately, Bismarck State College has taken a proactive stance by establishing a police department on campus with one armed officer. It's another layer of protection for students. The campus also has 70 security cameras, courtesy of the state Legislature, and an ongoing relationship with Bismarck-Mandan Security.
As a package, these security measures add a degree of comfort to students and faculty - and for parents.
College campuses ought to be safe zones.
As things go, BSC's campus has little crime. Although it has nearly 4,000 traditional and online students, only 270 students live on campus. It seems that liquor law violations predominate, the plague of most college campuses in the state.
The BSC enrollment ranks it third in school population behind the North Dakota State University and the University of North Dakota. Just the number of students involved in campus activities offers the opportunity for mischief, or worse. Minot State University and the North Dakota School of Science, smaller student bodies, already have armed officers. The University of Mary and United Tribes Technical College have unarmed security personnel and are not separate policing jurisdictions.
For those who worry about the officer having a weapon, please consider the "it can't happen here" line. The officer hired by BSC is fully qualified and experienced. True, the likelihood of the need for using that weapon might be very small, but reality has proven that bad things can happen here, and having an armed officer might make a life-and-death difference.
No one suggests there's a particular fear at BSC, rather, the opposite is true. It's clear from a recent Tribune story that BSC students, largely, feel safe. Fine, let's keep them that way.
It would be good to remember that students still need to apply common sense in their behavior related to personal safety. There's a whole list of "to do" and "do not do" tips for reducing personal risk. Every student on campus ought to know the tenets of safe behavior and apply them. Assuming that a police presence on campus means nothing bad will happen suggests faulty logic. Students still need to take care of themselves.
The college, however, has gone a long way in doing its part in making the campus safe by adding this additional level of law enforcement.
-via The Bismarck Tribune
Fortunately, Bismarck State College has taken a proactive stance by establishing a police department on campus with one armed officer. It's another layer of protection for students. The campus also has 70 security cameras, courtesy of the state Legislature, and an ongoing relationship with Bismarck-Mandan Security.
As a package, these security measures add a degree of comfort to students and faculty - and for parents.
College campuses ought to be safe zones.
As things go, BSC's campus has little crime. Although it has nearly 4,000 traditional and online students, only 270 students live on campus. It seems that liquor law violations predominate, the plague of most college campuses in the state.
The BSC enrollment ranks it third in school population behind the North Dakota State University and the University of North Dakota. Just the number of students involved in campus activities offers the opportunity for mischief, or worse. Minot State University and the North Dakota School of Science, smaller student bodies, already have armed officers. The University of Mary and United Tribes Technical College have unarmed security personnel and are not separate policing jurisdictions.
For those who worry about the officer having a weapon, please consider the "it can't happen here" line. The officer hired by BSC is fully qualified and experienced. True, the likelihood of the need for using that weapon might be very small, but reality has proven that bad things can happen here, and having an armed officer might make a life-and-death difference.
No one suggests there's a particular fear at BSC, rather, the opposite is true. It's clear from a recent Tribune story that BSC students, largely, feel safe. Fine, let's keep them that way.
It would be good to remember that students still need to apply common sense in their behavior related to personal safety. There's a whole list of "to do" and "do not do" tips for reducing personal risk. Every student on campus ought to know the tenets of safe behavior and apply them. Assuming that a police presence on campus means nothing bad will happen suggests faulty logic. Students still need to take care of themselves.
The college, however, has gone a long way in doing its part in making the campus safe by adding this additional level of law enforcement.
-via The Bismarck Tribune
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
What would you do?
Last Saturday, I chilled all day watching pure movies on Lifetime network. I have
not done that in a loooooooooooooooong ass time and it felt good. Well one of the
movies that came on was called "Held Hostage" and it was about this woman who was
held hostage and forced to rob her own bank. Now I am gonna do a video because I
have so much to say about this movie, but the things that I pay attention to when it
comes to movies like this, is what protection was in place and how people could have
protected themselves.
The movie was really good first of all, and second of all, I got real hyped because
I was like, she could have done this and that and none of this would have happened.
You start to put yourself in their shoes and you start thinking about what you would
do. So my question to you is, if you were a victim of a home invasion, what would
you do? Where would your weapons be in the home? How would you react?
Or are you one of those folks who thinks it wont and cant happen to you? Got news
for you ladies...the women who are assaulted said the same shit and look what
happened. I am about to do a video about the movie and post it up so keep your eyes
open. I will tell you what I would do and how I am prepared. Better to be prepared in
the even some idiot wants to step, then to be sorry and possibly six feet under....
Stay tuned y'all...
Tee
not done that in a loooooooooooooooong ass time and it felt good. Well one of the
movies that came on was called "Held Hostage" and it was about this woman who was
held hostage and forced to rob her own bank. Now I am gonna do a video because I
have so much to say about this movie, but the things that I pay attention to when it
comes to movies like this, is what protection was in place and how people could have
protected themselves.
The movie was really good first of all, and second of all, I got real hyped because
I was like, she could have done this and that and none of this would have happened.
You start to put yourself in their shoes and you start thinking about what you would
do. So my question to you is, if you were a victim of a home invasion, what would
you do? Where would your weapons be in the home? How would you react?
Or are you one of those folks who thinks it wont and cant happen to you? Got news
for you ladies...the women who are assaulted said the same shit and look what
happened. I am about to do a video about the movie and post it up so keep your eyes
open. I will tell you what I would do and how I am prepared. Better to be prepared in
the even some idiot wants to step, then to be sorry and possibly six feet under....
Stay tuned y'all...
Tee
Rape, sexual assault often overlooked on campus
- via Daily Wildcat
The criminal scandal which began with the disappearance of 10,000 issues of the Daily Wildcat on Oct. 8 involved a more serious crime than theft — the shamefully overlooked issue of date rape and sexual assault on campus and in society.
On Oct. 7, in its daily Police Beat feature, the Wildcat published testimony taken by the University of Arizona Police Department from a young woman who asserted that while attending a party at Phi Kappa Psi fraternity on Sept. 26, she was deliberately drugged with GHB, the “date rape drug.”
The next day 10,000 issues of the Wildcat were pilfered from news boxes around campus.
The Wildcat fixed its full attention on searching for the perpetrators, understandably agitated by a sizable intellectual, financial and public service loss, which local police failed to take seriously. Meanwhile, the issue of date rape, which most likely prompted the mass newspaper theft in the first place, did not receive any serious comment whatsoever — not from the UAPD, nor from Phi Kappa Psi, nor from the Wildcat, nor, in the public realm, from anybody else on campus.
Why is the issue of date rape overlooked in our society?
Sexual assault is “by far the most under-reported violent crime,” said Zach Nicolazzo, coordinator of Fraternity and Sorority Programs in the Center for Student Involvement and Leadership. “We constantly hear messages that say, ‘no means yes,’ ‘use alcohol to get her drunk first’ or ‘just look at what she was wearing — she was asking for it.’ The rape culture that we live in is incredibly pervasive, and works in insidious ways, sending messages about what it means to be a man and/or woman, which then impacts how we relate to each other and gain consent.”
Nicolazzo’s assertion that we can only guess at the number of sexual assault cases that go unreported is supported by the statistics. UA public health professor Mary Koss’ groundbreaking 1987 survey published in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology (Vol. 55 No. 2) found that 1 in 4 college women is sexually assaulted.
Koss offers sound moral and practical wisdom about how society ought to address rape. “Is important to place responsibility where it belongs: the individual perpetrator, the location where the rape was permitted to occur, the peers who undoubtedly know and are therefore tacitly complicit, and the society-wide rape-supportive environment that creates a climate that minimizes, trivializes and fails to deter sexual assault on college campuses. Victims will not feel free to speak out until we as a community cease stigmatizing them,” she noted.
But our culture, savagely accepting rape to the extent that it does, is not without its counter-currents, especially on campus. Near Eastern Studies senior Malia Uhatafe of the Associated Students of the University of Arizona’s Women’s Resource Center says the group, a feminist activist space in the Center for Student Involvement and Leadership, works hard to raise the issue of sexual assault on campus with events such as the annual “Take Back the Night.”
At the community space Dry River Radical Resource Center, located at the southeast corner of University Boulevard and Main Street, a collective member who goes by the name Turbo helped create a community workshop called “Simone’s Consensual” to creatively engage issues of sexual consent. “The idea,” Turbo said, “was to host an event during which, for the first 15 minutes of each hour, people would perform spoken word pieces — poetry, rapping, free-styling, ranting, whatever — around issues relating to sexual consent. Then, for the next 45 minutes, people would break up into small conversational groups. Our goal was to use art, performance and peer-based discussion to raise everyone’s awareness about sexual consent, including our own, and to do so in a way that people would find fulfilling, engaging — even entertaining.”
Nicoloazzo said that combating sexual assault in our society certainly shouldn’t be just one more burden to place on women; men have a large part to play in countering sexual violence. Men Against Violence, a campus group Nicolazzo helped found, was involved in the planning and implementation of “Take Back the Night” last year.
Nicolazzo quoted feminist writer and scholar bell hooks: “After hundreds of years of anti-racist struggles, more than ever before non-white people are currently calling attention to the primary role white people must play in anti-racist struggle. The same is true of the struggle to eradicate sexism — men have a primary role to play.” Nicolazzo couldn’t agree more, he said. Men need to recognize that, while most men do not sexually assault others, men as a group do perpetuate most of the violence against women and other men that occurs in our society.
The longer we devalue the danger of sexual violence and our acceptance of it in society, and while we keep overlooking it as a dreadfully real, serious and inescapable evil, it will continue to thrive and corrupt us all.
— Gabriel Matthew Schivone is a junior majoring in art, literature and media studies. He can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.
The criminal scandal which began with the disappearance of 10,000 issues of the Daily Wildcat on Oct. 8 involved a more serious crime than theft — the shamefully overlooked issue of date rape and sexual assault on campus and in society.
On Oct. 7, in its daily Police Beat feature, the Wildcat published testimony taken by the University of Arizona Police Department from a young woman who asserted that while attending a party at Phi Kappa Psi fraternity on Sept. 26, she was deliberately drugged with GHB, the “date rape drug.”
The next day 10,000 issues of the Wildcat were pilfered from news boxes around campus.
The Wildcat fixed its full attention on searching for the perpetrators, understandably agitated by a sizable intellectual, financial and public service loss, which local police failed to take seriously. Meanwhile, the issue of date rape, which most likely prompted the mass newspaper theft in the first place, did not receive any serious comment whatsoever — not from the UAPD, nor from Phi Kappa Psi, nor from the Wildcat, nor, in the public realm, from anybody else on campus.
Why is the issue of date rape overlooked in our society?
Sexual assault is “by far the most under-reported violent crime,” said Zach Nicolazzo, coordinator of Fraternity and Sorority Programs in the Center for Student Involvement and Leadership. “We constantly hear messages that say, ‘no means yes,’ ‘use alcohol to get her drunk first’ or ‘just look at what she was wearing — she was asking for it.’ The rape culture that we live in is incredibly pervasive, and works in insidious ways, sending messages about what it means to be a man and/or woman, which then impacts how we relate to each other and gain consent.”
Nicolazzo’s assertion that we can only guess at the number of sexual assault cases that go unreported is supported by the statistics. UA public health professor Mary Koss’ groundbreaking 1987 survey published in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology (Vol. 55 No. 2) found that 1 in 4 college women is sexually assaulted.
Koss offers sound moral and practical wisdom about how society ought to address rape. “Is important to place responsibility where it belongs: the individual perpetrator, the location where the rape was permitted to occur, the peers who undoubtedly know and are therefore tacitly complicit, and the society-wide rape-supportive environment that creates a climate that minimizes, trivializes and fails to deter sexual assault on college campuses. Victims will not feel free to speak out until we as a community cease stigmatizing them,” she noted.
But our culture, savagely accepting rape to the extent that it does, is not without its counter-currents, especially on campus. Near Eastern Studies senior Malia Uhatafe of the Associated Students of the University of Arizona’s Women’s Resource Center says the group, a feminist activist space in the Center for Student Involvement and Leadership, works hard to raise the issue of sexual assault on campus with events such as the annual “Take Back the Night.”
At the community space Dry River Radical Resource Center, located at the southeast corner of University Boulevard and Main Street, a collective member who goes by the name Turbo helped create a community workshop called “Simone’s Consensual” to creatively engage issues of sexual consent. “The idea,” Turbo said, “was to host an event during which, for the first 15 minutes of each hour, people would perform spoken word pieces — poetry, rapping, free-styling, ranting, whatever — around issues relating to sexual consent. Then, for the next 45 minutes, people would break up into small conversational groups. Our goal was to use art, performance and peer-based discussion to raise everyone’s awareness about sexual consent, including our own, and to do so in a way that people would find fulfilling, engaging — even entertaining.”
Nicoloazzo said that combating sexual assault in our society certainly shouldn’t be just one more burden to place on women; men have a large part to play in countering sexual violence. Men Against Violence, a campus group Nicolazzo helped found, was involved in the planning and implementation of “Take Back the Night” last year.
Nicolazzo quoted feminist writer and scholar bell hooks: “After hundreds of years of anti-racist struggles, more than ever before non-white people are currently calling attention to the primary role white people must play in anti-racist struggle. The same is true of the struggle to eradicate sexism — men have a primary role to play.” Nicolazzo couldn’t agree more, he said. Men need to recognize that, while most men do not sexually assault others, men as a group do perpetuate most of the violence against women and other men that occurs in our society.
The longer we devalue the danger of sexual violence and our acceptance of it in society, and while we keep overlooking it as a dreadfully real, serious and inescapable evil, it will continue to thrive and corrupt us all.
— Gabriel Matthew Schivone is a junior majoring in art, literature and media studies. He can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.
Grandmother, grandson tied up during home invasion
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Police are investigating a home invasion where three men tied up a grandmother and her grandson.
It happened just after 10:30 p.m. Sunday in a neighborhood off Sunset Road.
Police say three men broke into the house, tied up the people inside and robbed them.
The victims told police the men, who had at least two guns, tied them up and stole things like electronics and other household items from them.
They were very shaken up, but not injured in the attack.
Police are looking for those three men. Two ran from the scene. The third took off in the victims' rental car, which was later found abandoned.
The men are still believed to be armed and could be dangerous.
-via NewsChannel 36
It happened just after 10:30 p.m. Sunday in a neighborhood off Sunset Road.
Police say three men broke into the house, tied up the people inside and robbed them.
The victims told police the men, who had at least two guns, tied them up and stole things like electronics and other household items from them.
They were very shaken up, but not injured in the attack.
Police are looking for those three men. Two ran from the scene. The third took off in the victims' rental car, which was later found abandoned.
The men are still believed to be armed and could be dangerous.
-via NewsChannel 36
Monday, November 16, 2009
Inspire others and Share Your Abuse Story
Our words are powerful. Words are like knives, they can slice a person up and leave them for dead. But they also can empower people to be all they can be. I invite you to use your words to share your abuse story to help other women who may be in a situation and need to get out. My story has helped women to make the decision to get out of an abusive relationship and to stand up and protect themselves.
If you have a story that you would like to share, please email me your story at tee@girlstandup.com
Your identity will not be posted along with the story. You do not have to tell me your name if you dont want to. Just know that I was abused too and I am a victim of domestic violence so we are in this together.
So ladies, inspire someone today and share your story.
Tee
If you have a story that you would like to share, please email me your story at tee@girlstandup.com
Your identity will not be posted along with the story. You do not have to tell me your name if you dont want to. Just know that I was abused too and I am a victim of domestic violence so we are in this together.
So ladies, inspire someone today and share your story.
Tee
