BLACK WOMEN LEAVE CHURCHES TO PRACTICE WITCHCRAFT (CHURCH ABUSE)

BLACK WOMEN LEAVING CHURCHES TO PRACTICE WITCHCRAFT (CHURCH ABUSE):

IS CHURCH ABUSE OR BEING HURT & USED BY CHURCH LEADERSHIP TO BLAME??

OR IS RAMPANT ADULTERY & SEXUAL ABUSE WITHIN MANY BLACK CHURCHES TO BLAME??

ISAIAH 54:17
GALATIAN 3:13, 14
REVELATION 12:11


Post Sources: CBS News, CNN, Leah Gordone, The Atlantic, WJZ-TV, Youtube



****** Growing Number Of Black Women Leaving Churches For Witchcraft


For most, worship is a tradition that predates all of us.

There is another, more ancient art of worshiping, but it’s not to God, The Father, The Son or The Holy Ghost but to spirits and deities that span the oceans and dates back to pre-slavery days in Africa.

A growing number of black women in Maryland are leaving traditional churches for witchcraft.

WJZ’s Vic Carter looks into the trend and discovers its about more than spells and rituals.

When asked if they were, in fact, witches he got this response.

“That depends on how you look at it,” said High Priestness Iyanifa Oyadele Ogunsina, a Coppin State graduate.

“I am whatever the situation calls for. If you come at me with respect, you get Glenda the Good Witch from the suburbs, but if you come at me with negativity, meanness, and disrespect, then you get Evilene, your worst nightmare.”

They have many names, titles, and ranks within their belief system.

The women are college-educated professionals who have chosen to believe that witchcraft is a truer example of worship inclusive of the genders and connecting them to their ancestors.

It fills a need not found in traditional worship.

Most of them, like realtor Shango Yemi, grew up in the church.

“I was Christian, I was raised Christian,” said the Morgan State graduate.

“There are Christians in my family. In fact, my grandfather was a preacher in the south. I also grew up Christian. I grew up Anglican, in the Episcopal Church.

The older I got, the more disconnected I felt with the church and not being moved by anything, Like it just felt like words, like really empty.”

Herbalist Iyawo Orisa Efunyale came from similar beginnings.

“I was raised Baptist,” she said. “My father is a deacon, my mother is a deaconess. I was in church all the time, three times a week.”

These women are part of a sect, ILE Ola Afefe Osa Meji Spiritual Temple, where they worship and offer prayers to Osun, a predominate deity.


She is the deity, or the Orisha, of aesthetics, beauty, sex, and sensuality.

There are growing numbers of African-American women who have chosen for themselves a new life, leaving the church in search of more meaning in their lives.

At a recent convention in Baltimore, more than 200 witches gathered. They see it as a sisterhood.

But their spells are for good, not evil.

In one ritual, the women prepared an offering to Osun on behalf of a woman in California who is looking for a mate.

The offering, an omelette-type dish, is sweetened with honey and believed to be a favorite of Osun. Prayers are said over the offering for the woman in need.

A portion is even offered to Eshew, the male counterpart of Osun, and placed in a secret place beneath the stairs of the Odenton home.
Using shells, they ask the spirit if she is pleased.

Four shells are tossed to the floor. Two land up, two land down, a balance. The gift is accepted.

The traditions may seem odd to most, and a mystery to some, complex and multi-layered but these Dawtas of the Moon, followers of Osun, women who are powerful, determined, and understanding.

They said that there is nothing to fear. They are here and they will be here for the foreseeable future.

“This is not a new-age type of thing, this is something our ancestors did,” said doula Iyawo Orisa Omitola. “and we are tapping back into it so that we can become our best selves individually and collectively.”

MORGAN FREEMAN - RICH BLACK ACTOR, ABUSER WHO ALLEGEDLY SLEPT WITH HIS STEPGRANDDAUGHTER & MURDERED HER (#MeToo)

MORGAN FREEMAN - RICH BLACK ACTOR WHO ALLEGEDLY SLEPT WITH HIS STEPGRANDDAUGHTER & MURDERED HER (#MeToo):

MORGAN FREEMAN ALLEGEDLY SEXUALLY ABUSED AT LEAST 8 WOMEN WHILE ON SET.

WOMEN WHO WORKED WITH MORGAN DID NOT FEEL SAFE IN HIS PRESENCE.

MORGAN FREEMAN ALLEGEDLY CONSPIRED TO HAVE HIS STEPGRANDDAUGHTER MURDERED OUT OF JEALOUSY & TO COVER UP THE TRUTH ABOUT THEIR RELATIONSHIP.

WHY DID MORGAN FREEMAN PUBLICLY APOLOGIZE TWICE TO THOSE 8 WOMEN IF HE IS INNOCENT?

ALLEGEDLY YOU SAY??

I STRONGLY BELIEVE MORGAN FREEMAN IS 100% GUILTY & SHOULD BE PROSECUTED.

INNOCENT BLOOD CRIES FROM THE GRAVE FOR JUSTICE & VINDICATION.

MORGAN FREEMAN SHOULD BE TRIED, CONVICTED & SPEND THE REST OF HIS LIFE IN PRISON.


Post Sources: CNN, CBC News, Daily Mail, MSNBC, Wendy Williams, Youtube


****** Women accuse Morgan Freeman of inappropriate behavior, harassment


A young production assistant thought she had landed the job of her dreams when, in the summer of 2015, she started work on "Going In Style," a bank heist comedy starring Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine and Alan Arkin.

But the job quickly devolved into several months of harassment, she told CNN. She alleges that Freeman subjected her to unwanted touching and comments about her figure and clothing on a near-daily basis. Freeman would rest his hand on her lower back or rub her lower back, she said.

In one incident, she said, Freeman "kept trying to lift up my skirt and asking if I was wearing underwear." He never successfully lifted her skirt, she said -- he would touch it and try to lift it, she would move away, and then he'd try again.

Eventually, she said, "Alan [Arkin] made a comment telling him to stop. Morgan got freaked out and didn't know what to say."

Freeman's alleged inappropriate behavior was not limited to that one movie set, according to other sources who spoke to CNN. A woman who was a senior member of the production staff of the movie "Now You See Me" in 2012 told CNN that Freeman sexually harassed her and her female assistant on numerous occasions by making comments about their bodies.

"He did comment on our bodies... We knew that if he was coming by ... not to wear any top that would show our breasts, not to wear anything that would show our bottoms, meaning not wearing clothes that [were] fitted," she said.

At 80 years old, Freeman is one of Hollywood's biggest stars, with a movie career that spans nearly five decades. His starring roles in movies like "Driving Miss Daisy" and "Shawshank Redemption" in the late 1980s and early 1990s made him a household name.

He won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for 2004's "Million Dollar Baby," and has earned four other Oscar nominations. His voiceover work has also become iconic, including his narration for the Academy Award-winning documentaries "The Long Way Home" and "March of the Penguins."

In all, 16 people spoke to CNN about Freeman as part of this investigation, eight of whom said they were victims of what some called harassment and others called inappropriate behavior by Freeman. Eight said they witnessed Freeman's alleged conduct.

These 16 people together described a pattern of inappropriate behavior by Freeman on set, while promoting his movies and at his production company Revelations Entertainment.

Of those 16, seven people described an environment at Revelations Entertainment that included allegations of harassment or inappropriate behavior by Freeman there, with one incident allegedly witnessed by Lori McCreary, Freeman's co-founder in the enterprise, and another in which she was the target of demeaning comments by Freeman in a public setting.

One of those seven people alleged that McCreary made a discriminatory remark regarding a female candidate for a job at the Producers Guild of America, where McCreary is co-president.

Four people who worked in production capacities on movie sets with Freeman over the last ten years described him as repeatedly behaving in ways that made women feel uncomfortable at work. Two, including the production assistant on "Going in Style" whose skirt he allegedly attempted to lift, said Freeman subjected them to unwanted touching.

Three said he made public comments about women's clothing or bodies. But each of them said they didn't report Freeman's behavior, with most saying it was because they feared for their jobs. Instead, some of the women -- both on movie sets and at Revelations -- said, they came up with ways to combat the alleged harassment on their own, such as by changing the way they dressed when they knew he would be around.

CNN reached out to dozens more people who worked for or with Freeman. Some praised Freeman, saying they never witnessed any questionable behavior or that he was a consummate professional on set and in the office.

Several other times during this investigation, when a CNN reporter contacted a person who had worked with Freeman to try to ask them if they had seen or been subjected to inappropriate behavior by an actor they had worked with -- not initially even naming the actor they were asking about -- the person would immediately tell them they knew exactly who the reporter had in mind: Morgan Freeman.

Some of those people were sources for this investigation while others declined to comment further or did not want what they said used in this story.

The pattern of behavior described by those who spoke with CNN shows another example of the systematic problems that exist in the entertainment industry. The allegations against Freeman are not about things that happened in private; they are about things that allegedly happened in public, in front of witnesses -- even in front of cameras.

Before #MeToo, many men in the industry could behave without fear of consequences, because many times when a powerful man did so, it was the victim who suffered repercussions.

CNN reached out to Freeman's spokesperson for comment and then, at his request, emailed him a detailed list of the accusations against Freeman. The spokesperson did not respond to multiple follow-ups by email seeking comment on the accusations.

After this article was published, Freeman released a statement in which he said, "Anyone who knows me or has worked with me knows I am not someone who would intentionally offend or knowingly make anyone feel uneasy. I apologize to anyone who felt uncomfortable or disrespected — that was never my intent."

CNN also reached out to a spokesperson for McCreary, and then provided her with a detailed list of accusations regarding Freeman's alleged behavior at Revelations and details of the accusation against her as well as a number of questions for her regarding Freeman's alleged behavior at Revelations and the environment there.

The spokesperson did not respond to multiple follow-ups by email seeking comment.

The allegations of inappropriate behavior by Freeman are not limited to the confines of his company or to movie sets. Three entertainment reporters who spoke to CNN said Freeman made inappropriate remarks to them during press junkets, which are publicity events for journalists who cover new films, typically attended by the movie's biggest stars.

One of the three, CNN entertainment reporter Chloe Melas, the co-author of this article, says she was subjected to inappropriate behavior by Freeman more than a year ago, when she interviewed him at a press junket for "Going in Style."

According to Melas, who was six months pregnant at the time, Freeman, in a room full of people, including his co-stars Arkin and Caine, shook Melas' hand, not letting go while repeatedly looking her up and down and saying more than once a variation of, "I wish I was there." She says he also said to her, "You are ripe." Cameras were on and recording during one of Freeman's remarks to Melas -- "Boy, do I wish I was there" -- but not for the rest. As is common practice with such junkets, Melas was the only CNN employee there at the time.

Afterward, Melas reported what had happened to her supervisor, who instructed her to inform CNN human resources. According to Melas, she was told that CNN HR contacted their counterparts at human resources for Warner Bros., which produced and distributed the movie, and which like CNN is owned by Time Warner. Melas said she was also told that Warner Bros.

HR could not corroborate the account because only one of Freeman's remarks was on video and the Warner Bros. employees present did not notice anything.

Melas and her supervisor agreed that she would not cover the movie.

Asked for comment, a spokesperson for Warner Bros. confirmed that what Melas was told was accurate, but declined to comment further. A representative for Caine declined to comment. A representative for Arkin said he was not available for comment.

After the encounter with Freeman, Melas started making calls to see if other women had experienced anything similar, or whether this was an isolated incident. She soon learned that other women had similar stories -- and so she, and later her co-author, began this months-long reporting process.

Freeman and Lori McCreary founded Revelations Entertainment in 1996. Variety reported last year that Freeman started the company with McCreary because he was frustrated by the lack of choice roles for black actors and because he wanted to reveal the truth about serious issues -- a mission that inspired the name "Revelations."

The company's credits include a list of ambitious films about religion, apartheid, astronomy and stem cell research. Revelations also produced the film "Along Came a Spider" and the hit CBS show "Madam Secretary," both of which feature strong female leads.

But former staffers who spoke with CNN say that behind the façade of a progressive and artistic agenda the company's two founders created what one called a "toxic" work environment.

Six former staffers said they witnessed Freeman's questionable behavior around women, which they said included sexual comments and one said included an incident of unsolicited touching. One female former staffer said she was the target of sexual comments by Freeman.

The female former employee at Revelations told CNN that Freeman was flanked by a group of men on the set of "Through the Wormhole" when she met the actor for the first time. He "looked me up and down," she said, and then asked her, "How do you feel about sexual harassment?"

"I was stunned," she told CNN. "This is the person that I worked for, this is his company, I didn't expect it at all ... I said timidly, 'I love it' in a sarcastic way hoping to make light of the situation because I was so confused and then he turned to the guys on the crew ... and said, 'See guys, this is how you do it.'"

One woman who was a manager at Revelations told CNN that sometimes Freeman would "come over to my desk to say hi and he'd just stand there and stare at me. He would stare at my breasts."

"If I ever passed him he would stare at me in an awkward way, would look me up and down sometimes stopping and just staring," she said. "One time he stopped, looked me up and down as I walked into a room of people, and everyone burst out laughing. And I literally froze feeling very uncomfortable and one of the people in the office said, 'Don't worry, that's just Morgan.'"

"That sort of interaction was when I stopped wearing a skirt around the office when he was there," said the former manager. "I can't say it was an accident that I'd be wearing a potato sack and a ponytail on certain days when he was there and do my best to avoid him when he was in the office."

Freeman was not in the office on a daily basis, the former employees said.

But when he did show up, he behaved like a "creepy uncle," in the words of a male former employee. "One time I witnessed Morgan walk up to an intern and start massaging her" shoulder, he said. "The intern got visibly red and wiggled out of his grasp, it was awkward." The incident stood out to him because Freeman was using only one hand to touch the intern, as his other was injured in a 2008 car accident that was widely covered by the press.

Another former employee told CNN she was present when the male former employee told several people about this incident shortly after it occurred.

CNN spoke to two male witnesses who each saw a separate occasion in which Freeman asked women to twirl. One instance occurred at the office, while another happened at an off-site company event.

Another incident stood out to people who spoke with CNN who witnessed it. Two former staffers who were there, and a writer for the show "Madam Secretary" who also attended, each described the scene to CNN.

For his 79th birthday, Revelations threw Freeman a party in the office. According to the sources, roughly 30 people attended the party, some of whom were new to the company and had never met the actor. McCreary was among those in attendance, the sources said.

People at the party had to stand in a circle, a former executive at the company who attended the party told CNN, and tell Freeman who they were and what they did.

Then, the former executive said, Freeman went up to women in the circle and would "stand maybe within an inch of their face and just look them up and down and not say anything, and then would move on to the next woman and he'd stand like within an inch of their face and look them up and down and not say anything, and it was really, really strange." The former executive added, "It was really weird and he did it to every woman but of course he didn't do it to any of the men. He didn't speak to any of the men."

The writer for "Madam Secretary" who was at the party said, "We saw Morgan go around to the girls in the circle and get really close to their faces, he didn't do it to the men. I don't know what he said but we all thought it was strange and couldn't wait to get the hell out of there. Absolutely there were sexual undertones to it."

After the #MeToo movement began, the same writer said, writers on the show joked -- with that incident in mind -- "that Morgan would be the next person to be called out."

McCreary herself has also been the subject of demeaning comments by Freeman. In front of what was reportedly an audience of 400 people at 2016's Produced By conference, Freeman described what she was wearing during their first meeting, saying, "She had on a dress cut to here."

"She wants to be thought of as serious," said Freeman of McCreary, who was on the same panel. "But you can't get away from the short dresses."

Freeman stood by his comments when he appeared a few days later on the "Today" show and host Savannah Guthrie said some people were "surprised" by the remarks he made on the panel.

"It was just something I said in jest about when I first met her, it was more than 20 years ago," he said to Guthrie. "How is that news?"

The Hollywood Reporter reported at the time that McCreary "did not visibly react to the comment." One of the former Revelations executives told CNN that McCreary was visibly upset when she returned to the office.

"I tried to console her and she was clearly upset and I think she was surprised and found it hurtful and embarrassing," said the former executive. "She was devastated."

Five sources told CNN that there was no formal human resources department at Revelations at the time. There was a rotation of executives who served as the point of contact for HR issues, but former staffers said they did not feel comfortable talking to senior personnel about their workplace grievances.

This prompted some staffers to form a "survivors club" where they gathered to vent about their experiences at Revelations, according to five sources who have been to the gatherings, which take place outside of the office.

Publicly, McCreary champions the #MeToo and Time's Up movements.

Two days before January's Screen Actors Guild awards, at which Freeman accepted a Lifetime Achievement Award, McCreary released a statement on behalf of the Producers Guild of America (PGA), to say that its board ratified new anti-sexual harassment guidelines for its members.

"The PGA is indebted to Time's Up as a resource in creating our protocols," she said in a press release issued with her co-president Gary Lucchesi, referring to the initiative aimed at fighting harassment and discrimination against women.

Yet the former Revelations employee who said Freeman asked her how she felt about sexual harassment also alleged that on a phone call with a member of PGA, McCreary said of a candidate vying for a position at PGA East, "she'll never be able to do a good job, she has a family."

Two former senior level Revelations employees said McCreary would openly mock women who had to leave work early for family commitments and school functions. McCreary also allegedly said that some employees couldn't handle big workloads because they had to "run home" to their families and therefore couldn't stay late at work, according to one of the sources. She openly advocated for work-life balance, that source said, but she would make "snide" remarks to those who left work early.

A spokesperson for the PGA said in a statement, "The Producers Guild of America is an Equal Opportunity Employer that does not question or consider marital or parental status in its hiring practices. As soon as CNN notified us about the allegation, we investigated the matter and have found that it has no merit. Lori McCreary is an outstanding PGA President. In all of her work with the Guild, she has been a consistent, vocal, and proactive advocate for women and all who are underrepresented in our community."

A spokesperson for McCreary did not respond to repeated follow-up requests for comment regarding the allegations against McCreary.

One of the former male Revelations employees recounted to CNN what he called the "shocking" remarks that Freeman made while he was on set for a number of Freeman's movies.

What he says he witnessed follows the pattern described by the women who said they were harassed by Freeman.

"[He'd say] things like 'I'd like to have an hour with her' or make vulgar and sexual comments about women," the former employee said. "He would be verbally inappropriate and it was just shocking.

You're more shocked than anything because it's hard to have the wherewithal to say to him 'That's inappropriate.' You're just like 'whoa.' It's hard because on any set he is the most powerful person on it. It's weird because you just don't expect it from Morgan Freeman, someone who you respect."

The female production assistant (PA) mentioned at the beginning of this story who worked on "Going In Style" said she was in her early 20s when Freeman, then 78 years old, harassed her. She said the experience led to her decision to leave the movie industry.

"It was constant comments about the way I looked," she said, adding that Freeman often made the comments within earshot of others on the production staff. She said she frequently came home from work in tears.

The woman recalled a time when she went to the set wearing a dress with a t-shirt over it to cover her exposed back, but "Morgan said to me that I shouldn't be wearing the shirt over my dress."

Another female production assistant who witnessed this particular alleged incident told CNN that Freeman's behavior towards the younger female production staff was an unchecked and persistent issue during filming.

Both women said the t-shirt incident took place in front of a group of people and that they heard at least one other woman publicly chastise Freeman for that particular comment. The behavior was discussed among the women he targeted, the female production assistant said.

A third woman who worked on a recent movie of Freeman's recalled an incident at the film's wrap party. "He was looking at my breasts, and I told him, 'My eyes are up here.' Then we went to take a group photo and he pressed himself up against me. It was inappropriate."

CNN spoke to one of the woman's colleagues on the film, who said that as soon as the photo was taken, the woman walked over and told a group of people what Freeman had done to her.

Another production assistant, who worked with Freeman on "The Dark Knight," told CNN that although she was never personally targeted by Freeman, she witnessed some inappropriate comments Freeman made to female members of the crew. She also said that female members of the crew would at times discuss how Freeman had made them feel uncomfortable.

"Morgan did things in a way that an older more established person can get away with because they have that power," she told CNN. "They can't be replaced, but you can be replaced very easily, that's just kind of the dynamic on set. PA's can be replaced, grips can be replaced, electricians can be replaced, but the actors -- once they're in, they're in.

Had it been somebody else on the crew... I would feel comfortable reporting them because I wouldn't feel like my job would be in danger by reporting them, but if you report somebody like Morgan Freeman that the movie would lose a lot of money by replacing them or getting them in trouble, then you're the trouble maker and you'll get fired because you're just a PA."

Freeman's alleged fixation on how women dressed was apparent when he hit the road to promote his films, as was his alleged pattern of looking women up and down while making sexually suggestive comments to them.

As the entertainment producer at Chicago's WGN-TV, Tyra Martin spent hours interviewing Freeman at various press junkets. Over the course of a decade, she said, she sat down with him at least nine times and grew accustomed to his comments about her appearance. But Martin made it clear in an interview with CNN that she was always "in on the joke." WGN produced videos featuring some of Freeman's remarks to Martin, describing it as him flirting with her. But Martin felt that one incident crossed a line.

"When I stood up, I pulled my skirt part of my dress down and he did say, 'Oh, don't pull it down now.'" Martin said. "That gave me pause but I never felt uncomfortable."

It is unclear whether video of that incident exists.

An entertainment reporter who is a member of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association said Freeman made comments about her skirt and her legs during two different junkets. Much like many of the women in this report and those who declined to go on the record, the reporter said Freeman's fame and power kept her from speaking out.

"I was just trying to do my job and I brushed it off," said the reporter, who did not want to be identified for this story because she's fearful of losing out on interviews with other celebrities.

"You don't want to put him on the spot because one, he's famous and two, it's on camera and three, you just want to do your job."

HARVEY WEINSTEIN'S ARREST MEANS NOTHING IF NOT CONVICTED AS BILL COSBY WAS (#MeToo)

HARVEY WEINSTEIN'S ARREST MEANS NOTHING IF NOT CONVICTED AS BILL COSBY WAS (#MeToo):

RICH WHITE MEN vs RICH BLACK MEN WHO SEXUALLY & EMOTIONALLY ABUSE WOMEN.

IS WEINSTEIN'S ARREST JUST FOR SHOW OR FOR TRUE JUSTICE?

WOMEN ALL OVER THE WORLD ARE WATCHING.

STAY TUNED.


Post Sources: NY Times, BBC News, CBS News, Fox News, Youtube


******** Arrested on Rape Charges, Weinstein Posts $1 Million Bail


In a mirror image of his days presiding over Hollywood red carpets, the disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein was led in handcuffs past a gantlet of photographers on Friday as he appeared in court to face charges that he had raped one woman and forced another to perform oral sex.

Mr. Weinstein’s appearance in Manhattan Criminal Court lasted barely 10 minutes, but stood not only as a breakthrough in the investigation into sex-crime claims against him but as a watershed in the larger #MeToo movement. After decades of harnessing his wealth and power to silence women — and after weathering an earlier criminal inquiry into groping allegations — his reign as a film-industry titan suffered a decisive blow in, of all places, the shopworn arraignment courtroom, where he was among the morning cattle call of defendants.

It was 9:25 a.m. when Mr. Weinstein — in a dark blazer, a light-blue sweater and an untucked button-down shirt — was escorted into courtroom AR-1 by Sgt. Keri Thompson and Detective Nicholas DiGaudio, two investigators from the New York Police Department’s Special Victims Division. The unit had been pushing hard for months on Cyrus R. Vance Jr., the Manhattan district attorney, to pursue a case against Mr. Weinstein, particularly after Mr. Vance declined to prosecute the groping case of an Italian model, Amber Battilana, three years ago because of what he called a lack of evidence.

As the hearing opened, Mr. Weinstein, still in handcuffs and looking vaguely shellshocked, was led with his lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, into the well of the court where he stood in front of Judge Kevin McGrath. The lead prosecutor in the case, Joan Illuzzi, announced the charges against him: first-degree rape and third-degree rape in one case; and first-degree criminal sex act in another.

The criminal sex act count stemmed from an encounter with Lucia Evans, who first told The New Yorker, and then investigators from Mr. Vance’s office, that Mr. Weinstein forced her to perform oral sex on him during what she expected would be a casting meeting at the Miramax office in TriBeCa in 2004. The victim in the rape case has not been publicly identified, but prosecutors said that that attack occurred on March 18, 2013, at 569 Lexington Avenue, the address for the DoubleTree Metropolitan Hotel.

After noting that the charges had emerged after “months of investigation,” Ms. Illuzzi added that the inquiry had shown “that this defendant used his money, power and position to lure young women into situations where he was able to violate them sexually.”

Ms. Illuzzi also said that the investigation would continue and she asked Judge McGrath to issue an order of protection against Mr. Weinstein on behalf of one of the women, who was not identified. A grand jury remains empaneled in the case and is still looking into whether Mr. Weinstein abused more women and used his vast financial resources to keep them quiet.

Mr. Weinstein said nothing during the hearing, standing with his back to a roomful of reporters. He was not required to enter a plea because he was arrested on a criminal complaint, rather than an indictment. But after the hearing, Mr. Brafman said his client intended to plead not guilty. By Wednesday, Mr. Weinstein will also have to decide whether he plans to testify in front of the grand jury.

As the hearing neared an end, Mr. Brafman, one of New York City’s top defense lawyers, handed Mr. Weinstein’s passport to Ms. Illuzzi and paid his bail with a $1 million cashier’s check. As part of his bail package, he has agreed to wear a monitoring device and restrict his travel to New York and Connecticut. When the proceeding was over, Mr. Weinstein was allowed to slip out of an employee door at the back of the courthouse, where he climbed into a waiting Toyota.

All told, his passage through the courts took about an hour, a far shorter and much less grueling ordeal than most defendants endure.

Outside the courthouse, Mr. Brafman told a scrum of reporters that he would “move quickly” to dismiss the charges, calling them “constitutionally flawed and factually unsubstantiated.”

“I anticipate that the women who have made these allegations, when subjected to cross-examination — in the event we get that far — will not be believed by 12 people,” Mr. Brafman said. He continued: “Assuming we get 12 fair people who are not consumed by the movement that seems to have overtaken this case.”

Hinting at a potential line of defense, Mr. Brafman also drew a distinction between bad behavior and criminal conduct. “Mr. Weinstein did not invent the casting couch in Hollywood,” he said. “Bad behavior is not on trial in this case.”

As is the case in many sex crimes prosecutions, whether the charges brought on Friday ultimately stick is likely to hinge on the issue of the complainants’ credibility. It remains unclear how much physical evidence investigators have found to corroborate their stories, and Mr. Brafman in his comment promised “a vigorous cross-examination.”

The day had started early for Mr. Weinstein. Around 7:30 a.m., he walked into the First Precinct station house in Lower Manhattan, flanked by several sex crimes detectives and hounded by another gaggle of reporters and photographers. Toting three large books under his arm, he looked up without saying a word as shutters clicked and onlookers called out, “Harvey!”

He was fingerprinted and formally booked and waited in a holding cell for detectives to finish paperwork. Then, about an hour later, he was led from the station house in TriBeCa and taken to the court at 100 Centre Street, his arms pinned behind him in three sets of handcuffs to accommodate his girth, a law enforcement official said. The books he had been carrying — among them “Elia Kazan: A Biography,” by Richard Schickel, and “Something Wonderful: Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Broadway Revolution,” by Todd S. Purdum — were gone.

The charges against Mr. Weinstein followed a wave of accusations that led women around the world — some of them famous, but many of them not — to come forward with accounts of being sexually harassed and assaulted by powerful men. Those stories spawned the global #MeToo movement, and since then, the ground has shifted beneath men who for years had benefited from a code of silence around their predatory behavior.

Mr. Weinstein himself had reigned for decades as one of Hollywood’s top producers, known as much for his bullying and aggression as for his cinematic triumphs. Over the years, journalists and investigators, chasing leads from a whisper-network of women and a handful of complainants, sought to expose the accusations and hold him accountable, but largely came up empty. Mr. Weinstein’s power was after all enormous; his (and his lawyers’) connections were extensive; and he was often able to buy or coerce the silence of any accusers, at times employing an Israeli security firm called Black Cube, many of whose employees were former intelligence operatives.

But everything shifted in October when The New York Times and The New Yorker published articles containing the accounts of several A-list movie stars and employees of the Weinstein Company, his former namesake production firm. The matching articles shattered Mr. Weinstein’s reputation and eventually spurred criminal inquiries in New York, Los Angeles and London.

Mr. Vance’s prosecutors, for example, conducted dozens of interviews in New York and elsewhere and issued hundreds of subpoenas. A similar but separate federal investigation is also being conducted into Mr. Weinstein’s finances and into the question of whether he violated stalking laws in his dealings with women who say he abused them.

The First Police Precinct station house, where Mr. Weinstein was arrested, was not unfamiliar to him or his accusers. Three years ago, Ms. Battilana, the model, accused Mr. Weinstein of groping her during a meeting in his office, and spoke to detectives at the same station house, on Varick Street.

The next day, with detectives watching and recording, Mr. Weinstein and Ms. Battilana met at the TriBeCa Grand, where Mr. Weinstein acknowledged he had touched her breasts and promised not to do so again. But he was not asked about putting his hand up Ms. Battilana’s skirt as she had alleged. Detectives took Mr. Weinstein to the First Police Precinct for questioning, but as soon as the groping allegation came up, he halted the interview and asked for a lawyer, the police said.

Unlike in the case announced on Friday, the Manhattan district attorney’s office decided that time not to charge him.

LINDSAY SAUNDERS-VELEZ, 20 (TRANSGENDER WOMAN) FORCED INTO MEN’S PRISON & RAPED

LINDSAY SAUNDERS-VELEZ, 20 (TRANSGENDER WOMAN) FORCED INTO MEN’S PRISON & RAPED:

COLORADO JUDGE SENT LINDSAY BACK TO MEN’S PRISON AFTER PREVIOUS RAPE.

I DON’T SUPPORT GAY/ LGBTQ RIGHTS BUT THIS IS INHUMANE AND WRONG.

LINDSAY WAS BORN MALE, PLACED IN FOSTER CARE AND HAS LIVED LIFE AS A FEMALE SINCE AGE 4.

I’M SORRY BUT THE JUDGE IN COLORADO IS WRONG.

REGARDLESS OF GENDER LINDSAY IS STILL A HUMAN BEING WITH INALIENABLE RIGHTS.


Sources: AP, The Independent, TIME, Yahoo News, Youtube


**** Transgender woman 'raped at men's prison' hours after judge blocked move


A transgender inmate says she was raped at a men’s prison hours after a judge threw out her request to block corrections officers from keeping her in a disciplinary unit.

Lindsay Saunders-Velez claims she had been threatened, harassed and assaulted since entering Colorado’s prison system last spring for violating her plea deal in a menacing case.

The prisoner filed a lawsuit against the state’s corrections agency in July, branding the system “discriminatory and dangerous” for transgender offenders.

Last month, her lawyers requested a judge not send Saunders-Velez to her jail’s “punishment pod” for a disciplinary infraction, saying she could end up with inmates who had tormented her.

The judge said the attorneys failed to prove an imminent risk, and rejected their request .

However, the 20-year-old was attacked during her time in the pod and needed more than a week in the infirmary recover, according to her attorney, Paula Greisen.

“This issue is not going to go away,” she said: “We’re going to fight it until these individuals are treated with the respect they deserve.”

Federal law requires prisons to individually asses where to house each transgender person, said Demoya Gordon, an attorney with LGBTQ+ advocacy group Lambda Legal’s transgender rights project.

But, she added, almost all facilities still housed inmates based on their genitalia or birth gender, resulting in many transgender women being abused or raped during their sentence.

Saunders-Velez entered Colorado’s foster care system as a child, then spent years in its youth corrections system, according to her attorneys and court records.

The prisoner says she has been “out as a trans female” since the age of four and was diagnosed with gender dysphoria in 2016, beginning hormone treatments in 2017.

Her lawsuit states that it was after she entered an adult prison on a three-year jail term in May last year and was sent to Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility that her problems with other inmates began.

Court records detail incidents in which male prisoners frequently pulled down a privacy screen shielding Saunders-Velez from view as she used the bathroom in her cell.

She said other prisoners threatened her, and in December she reported an inmate sexually assaulted her during a brief transfer to another Colorado prison.

“To escape,” Saunders-Velez swallowed razors and was sent to a hospital before being reassigned to “territorial”, her attorneys said.

Prison staff denied her requests to be called Lindsay and to be identified with female pronouns, according to the complaint, as well as refusing requests to be searched by a woman.

The most recent Bureau of Justice statistics from 2012 suggest around 3,200 inmates in America’s state and federal prisons identified as transgender.

Some 40 per cent of transgender inmates reported being a victim of abusive sexual contact by another inmate or a staff member, 10 times the rate among the general prison population.

Several authorities, including the San Francisco and New York City jail systems, have begun to house transgender prisoners by the gender they identify as.

In Colorado, at least one other inmate is suing the corrections department over its treatment of transgender people. The agency said it was unable to comment on ongoing litigation.

FREE CYNTOIA BROWN FROM PRISON - WOMEN SEXUALLY ABUSED & WRONGLY IMPRISONED

#FREECYNTONIABROWN

FREE CYNTOIA BROWN FROM PRISON:

REMOVING BARRIERS - WOMEN WRONGLY IMPRISONED.

SHE KILLED THE MAN WHO SOLD HER INTO SEXUAL SLAVERY AS A CHILD.

WHY DIDN'T OBAMA PARDON CYNTONIA??

MOST WOMEN STAY WITH THEIR ABUSERS OUT OF FEAR & DUE TO FINANCIAL CONTROL.

LET EVERY MAN WHO SEXUALLY HARASSES WOMEN (ESPECIALLY MARRIED MEN) OR WHO BEATS ON WOMEN (ESPECIALLY THEIR WIVES) BE EXPOSED.


Sources: AP, Yahoo News, YouTube


********Who is Cyntoia Brown?

Social media rallies around the child sex slave sent to prison for killing her abuser

A film that sheds light on Cyntoia Brown, a young girl imprisoned for killing the man who solicited her as a 16-year-old child sex slave, hopes to set her free.

In 2004, Brown stepped into Johnny Mitchell Allen’s pickup truck after the 43-year-old Nashville real estate agent solicited her for sex. They drove to his home, went into his bed and soon after, Brown shot him in the back of the head with a .40-caliber handgun as he lay naked beside her.

She was sentenced to life in prison at the Tennessee Prison for Women with a chance of parole at age 67, despite having been abused in raped repeatedly as a victim of sex trafficking.

In the film about her case — headed by filmmaker Dan Birman — Brown explains her abuse and how it made her paranoid.

“This is a young girl who’s at the tail end of three generations of violence against women,” Birman told Fox 17 News.
Cyntoia, her grandmother, and mother were all raped he explains. “She had no chance.”

Following her case for seven years, the film was so impactful that it helped change Tennessee laws for children like Brown in 2011.

Now, anyone 18 or younger can’t even be charged with prostitution. But despite its impact, Brown still sits in jail after a traumatic childhood that led to the fatal incident.

On social media and in her hometown there’s been a rallying cry to get Brown out of jail by presenting her case to the Governor and the Parole Board. Now 28 years old, Brown has completed her associate’s degree and is now working on her master’s.

In December 2016, pictures of her receiving her associate’s from Lipscomb University’s in-jail program showed a hopeful Brown.

Derri Smith, the Founder of End Slavery TN, spoke candidly to Fox 17 News about Brown’s case. “She did kill someone, she deeply regrets it, but she was a child and she was being exploited,” Smith said.

“[There’s] no such thing as a child prostitute or a teen prostitute. I think we’ve had to have a cultural mind shift.”

Domestic Violence Within The Christian Church Community Must Be Exposed; Counseling Must Not Be Scorned

‪#‎DomesticViolence‬

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IN THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH COMMUNITY NEEDS TO BE EXPOSED:

ALL CHURCHES SHOULD BE REQUIRED TO HIRE FULL-TIME ABUSE PREVENTION ADVOCATES TO MAINTAIN LEGAL NON-PROFIT STATUS.

CHRISTIANS OFTEN COVER UP DOMESTIC VIOLENCE TO APPEAR PIOUS.

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AWARENESS IS AN IMPORTANT 2016 ELECTION ISSUE, ESPECIALLY IN SOUTHERN STATES.

THERE ARE MANY WOMEN, MEN & CHILDREN WHO ARE HURTING FROM THE EFFECTS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE……..CHILD ABUSE…….AND SEXUAL ABUSE.

U.S. MILITARY VETERANS NEED COUNSELING NOT PILLS.

TOGETHER WE CAN SAVE & REBUILD LIVES.

As we approach the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election I would like to discuss the extremely important issue of DOMESTIC VIOLENCE in American Society.

Especially the issue of DOMESTIC VIOLENCE in American Churches.

It is long overdue to publicly address the issues of DOMESTIC VIOLENCE………..CHILD ABUSE……….and SEXUAL ABUSE in the CHRISTIAN Church Community.

I firmly believe that in order for each Church in America to continue claiming its Non-Profit Status, CHURCH Officials must Hire at least one real ABUSE Prevention Advocate on a Full-time basis to deal with these Destructive issues.

Having real ABUSE Prevention Advocates on Staff would greatly REDUCE the rate of DOMESTIC VIOLENCE………..CHILD ABUSE……….and SEXUAL ABUSE in the CHRISTIAN Church Community.

Preventing DOMESTIC VIOLENCE………..CHILD ABUSE……….and SEXUAL ABUSE in the CHRISTIAN Church Community is not an issue for DEMOCRATS or REPUBLICANS to address.

It is an issue for HUMAN BEINGS to address!

It is time for the SECRECY of DOMESTIC VIOLENCE within the CHRISTIAN Church Community to be Exposed so Hurting People can be Helped, not Hidden away.

The issue of DOMESTIC VIOLENCE in American Churches is often more prevalent in the SOUTH due to the SOUTH long being considered the BIBLE Beltway.

CHRISTIAN Churches in the SOUTH are notorious for SEGREGATION........DISCRIMINATION........RACISM.......DIVORCE........CHILD ABUSE.......POVERTY and DOMESTIC VIOLENCE all in the name of CHRIST.

I am a CHRISTIAN and I am not ashamed of professing this truth.

However what I am ashamed of is how the CHRISTIAN Church Community in America has covered up & hidden DOMESTIC VIOLENCE for Centuries.

More so among CHRISTIAN Church Congregations in the SOUTH.

The BIBLE teaches that both the Husband & Wife are to be Submissive to one another.

Unfortunately in the American CHRISTIAN Church Community many Pastors Falsely teach that only Wives are to be Submissive.

Such False Teaching has encouraged many CHRISTIAN Men to think they are Authorized by GOD to Abuse and Disrespect their Wives & Children into Submission.

Many CHRISTIAN Men also have a False sense of Spiritual Security, because these same Men believe they can Beat and Disrespect their Wives, continue working in the CHURCH and yet still arrive in HEAVEN one day.

In many cases PASTORS (especially SOUTHERN Pastors) who are well aware of such DOMESTIC VIOLENCE occurring within their Congregations, turn a Blind eye and a Deaf ear by allowing CHRISTIAN Men who Abuse & Disrespect their Wives and Children to continue Serving in the CHURCH.

This includes positions of CHURCH Leadership!

There are hundreds of thousands of WOMEN within the 21st century CHURCH Community walking around with a SMILE on their faces, yet Hurting deeply inside due to False or Inaccurate Teaching about SUBMISSION.

I have personally read the BIBLE from Genesis to Revelation, but I have NEVER read in the BIBLE where GOD Authorizes or Encourages Men to Abuse or Disrespect their WIVES and Children into Submission.

I have personally read in the BIBLE where GOD tells Human Beings, including CHRISTIANS to "LOVE ONE ANOTHER", but I have NEVER read in the BIBLE where GOD Authorizes or Encourages Men to Abuse or Disrespect their WIVES and Children into Submission.

So how can CHRISTIAN Pastors teach such False information to their Members?

There have even been situations in the CHRISTIAN Community where in a particular Church just because a certain Woman is Disliked by other Women (due to Envy, Jealousy, Strife, etc.,)
the other Church members will CRUCIFY that Woman with SLANDER, Libel or by turning a Blind eye to that Woman being Abused & Disrespected by her Husband.

In fact in many instances those other Church members will encourage the Husband to continue Abusing that Woman, by Approving and Accepting the Husband, while Rejecting his Wife, whom they Dislike.

Of course this Pattern of Behavior often leads to DIVORCE or largely contributes to DIVORCE, which is another HUGE Problem within the CHRISTIAN Church Community.

Especially CHRISTIAN Churches in the BIBLE Belt SOUTH!

Many CHRISTIAN Men who Abuse their Wives are Hurting Men, who most likely experienced CHILD ABUSE or SEXUAL ABUSE during their Childhood.

But does the CHRISTIAN Church Community address or Counsel Men who are CHILD ABUSE and SEXUAL ABUSE Survivors?

NO!

Thus Hurting People Continue To Hurt Other People!

Just telling Hurting CHRISTIAN Men to FORGIVE and PRAY is Not enough.

It is True for Men who were Victims of CHILD ABUSE and SEXUAL ABUSE to Forgive their Abusers.

But after FORGIVENESS then what??

Human Beings were created by GOD to experience EMOTIONS.

If Men in the CHRISTIAN Church Community are Not taught how to properly HEAL and COPE with the after effects of CHILD ABUSE or SEXUAL ABUSE, they will grow into Adults and continue those same Patterns of ABUSE.

Are these examples of GOD'S LOVE?

How can the CHRISTIAN Church Community Criticize and Condemn MUSLIMS when they are Emotionally and Socially Killing their Own Members?

Many CHRISTIAN Men are also U.S. Military Veterans who are still Suffering from PTSD.

When those CHRISTIAN Men who are also U.S. Military Veterans visit their local V.A. Hospitals, the V.A. Hospital Doctors often prescribe a bunch of PILLS for them to ingest daily.

Those CHRISTIAN Men who are also U.S. Military Veterans are NEVER required to seek or be Counseled.

They are just prescribed a bunch of PILLS which they ingest like Candy, while receiving NO Mental Health Relief.

This is the reason why I Support Pres OBAMA and JOHN MCCAIN'S efforts to offer U.S. Military Veterans the option to seek Medical Care from PRIVATE PHYSICIANS.

Pastors within the CHRISTIAN Church Community REFUSING to provide Counseling to Men who are Victims of CHILD ABUSE and SEXUAL ABUSE is a huge Mistake, which continues to Fracture the American Church Society and contributes to Broken Homes.

Perhaps this explains the high number of DIVORCES in CHRISTIAN Churches.

Broken Homes equals Broken CHILDREN.

Broken Homes equals Broken WOMEN who must Struggle to Financially Start their lives over without a Second Income, or in many instances NO Income at all!

Many BLACK Men within the CHRISTIAN Church Community have had Several DIVORCES because it was widely accepted to just find another Wife.

Many BLACK Men within the CHRISTIAN Church Community, including BLACK Church LEADERS, are encouraged and allowed to "Try On Women" in the same manner Women try on Shoes in a Shoe Boutique.

Unfortunately many Pastors (BLACK & WHITE) do Not want to take time to deal with the Destructive Epidemic of DOMESTIC VIOLENCE in the CHRISTIAN Church Community for Fear of their members leaving the Church and taking their MONEY with them.

Unfortunately many Pastors (BLACK & WHITE) also do Not want to take time to address ANY pertinent Socially Destructive Crisis in the CHRISTIAN Church Community such as SEGREGATION........DISCRIMINATION........RACISM.......DIVORCE........CHILD ABUSE........and POVERTY.

Why?

For Fear of their members leaving the Church and taking their MONEY with them!

I am Confused.

How can such Selfish, Mean-Spirited acts demonstrated towards other Human Beings be examples of GOD'S LOVE?

How can DOMESTIC VIOLENCE be an example of GOD'S LOVE?

How can SEGREGATION........DISCRIMINATION........RACISM.......DIVORCE........CHILD ABUSE........and POVERTY be examples of GOD'S LOVE?

Again I ask, how can the CHRISTIAN Church Community Criticize and Condemn MUSLIMS when they are Emotionally and Socially Killing their Own Members?

I could go on in this post but it's obvious I've written enough or maybe too much on the issue of DOMESTIC VIOLENCE within the CHRISTIAN Church Community.

I just want DOMESTIC VIOLENCE widely addressed on the National stage during the 2016 Elections.

I just want Women, Men & Children who need to HELP to have ACCESS to Counseling, Mentoring and Financial Assistance (JOBS & Affordable Housing) if necessary.

Look around.

There could be someone within your CHURCH who is a Victim of DOMESTIC VIOLENCE.......CHILD ABUSE........or SEXUAL ABUSE.

It could be YOU.

It could be ME.

Please don't turn a Blind eye or a Deaf ear.

Let's Please STOP The Cycle Of DOMESTIC VIOLENCE.......CHILD ABUSE........or SEXUAL ABUSE.

Especially within the CHRISTIAN Church Community in America.

Together We Can Save Lives!

Together We Can Build Or Rebuild Lives!

Talk Is Cheap!

Let's Put Forth Some ACTION!

It Is Cheaper To Help Someone Than To Bury Them.

It Is Cheaper To Help Someone Than To Incarcerate Them For Years & Years.

GOD IS LOVE.

Let The CHURCH Say "AMEN"

Sources & Statistics: Christian Post; Christianity Today; Youtube

ARTICLE: "The Church And Its Response To Domestic And Sexual Violence
Pastors Must Address Domestic And Sexual Violence"

Yesterday, I spoke at the Sojourners Summit at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. It's a diverse gathering focused on engaging the faith community in different aspects community engagement and service.

My role at the Summit was to present research we have recently completed, sponsored by IMA World Health and Sojourners around an important issue: how the church is responding to domestic and sexual violence.

Sojourners explained it this way:

Violence against women was named as a "significant public health issue" by the World Health Organization in 2013, which reported that 35 percent of women around the globe have experienced sexual or physical abuse by a partner or non-partner. And according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the chance of a man experiencing abuse at the hand of an intimate partner was one in four.

What makes this poll unique is that there is not much data on how pastors view and address the issues of domestic and sexual violence. According to Rick Santos, President and CEO of IMA World Health, "there is little information out there about what is actually happening in the U.S. faith community on this issue."

Despite the poll's major finding — that pastors underestimate the pervasiveness of sexual and domestic violence in their congregations — the report offers some hope. Of the pastors polled, 81 percent reported that they would "take appropriate action to reduce sexual and domestic violence if they had the training and resources to do so."

Sojourners recently published I Believe You: Sexual Violence and the Church , a study edited by its president and founder, Jim Wallis, and Catherine Woodiwiss, Associate Web Editor.

The study features three essays about women, sexual violence, and their experiences in dealing with their abuse in their churches.

It is a step forward in the effort to bring light to an issue that is often cloaked in darkness and to give voices to victims who often feel silenced by the church's failure to understand the prevalence of sexual and domestic violence.

"This is a conversation the church needs to be having but isn't," Wallis said. "We cannot remain silent when our sisters and brothers live under the threat of violence in their homes and communities."

Wallis was joined by Rev. Amy Gopp, Director of Member Relations and Pastoral Care at Church World Service who said "I hope this report will educate faith leaders about the importance of reaching out to domestic violence programs in their communities and creating strong partnerships so that survivors are served in the way they deserve."

The Christian Post shared details about the gap between occurrence and awareness:

Monica Taffinder, a Christian counselor who specializes in trauma recovery, depression, anxiety, and sexual abuse recovery, argues that many pastors tend to be somewhat naïve when it comes to the probability that both victims and perpetrators exist within their church.

"I really think people don't think that it happens in their congregation," Taffinder told The Christian Post. "I mean, [pastors] know these people. They see these people. They go to dinner with these people. They worship with these people. I know they're savvy enough to realize that there's just as much as they don't know people in their congregations as they do, but still."

The study also found that 65 percent of pastors had spoken one or fewer times about domestic and sexual violence, with 22 percent indicating they addressed it annually, while 33 percent mentioned it "rarely." Ten percent of pastors said they had never taught on it.

"Based on the number of times they speak to their congregations about sexual or domestic violence each year, the majority of pastors do not consider sexual or domestic violence central to larger religious themes such as strong families, a peaceful society, pursuing holiness, social justice, etc.," the report states.

You can find the full release from IMA World Health including a downloadable report.

It's an important issue and I encourage you to educate yourself and engage more fully on the subject.