Korean Singers Mistaken for Prostitutes and Detained at Airport

Question: What does a prostitute look like and what specifically triggered security to detain them in hopes of preventing a "terrorist attack" and was detaining them sexist or [stereotypically] racist???

Kesha Johnson-Clark

K-Pop Band Oh My Girl Mistaken for Sex Workers and Detained at LAX

 

The eight members were travelling to America for an album cover shoot but were detained for 15 hours in customs. A statement from the group's record company, WM Entertainment, said authorities held them after going through their costumes and props.

"They seem to have mistaken them as sex workers," said a spokesman.
Oh My Girl, who formed in March, are thought to be back in South Korean capital Seoul after being released by officials at Los Angeles International Airport. WM Entertainment says it is taking legal advice in the US to find out whether the band's detention was legal.

The record company also said there might have been an issue with the type of visa the band members presented. They had also been booked to perform at a gala event in Los Angeles on Saturday.
It's unclear if they will try to return to America to complete their album cover shoot.

Oh My Girl (or OMG) brought their debut single Cupid out in April with a second mini-album and title track Closer released in October. The band members are all aged between 16 and 21.
South Korean pop music, known as K-pop, is dominated by girl and boy bands whose members are sometimes as young as 13 or 14 years old.

In 2012, the government clamped down on over-sexualised performances by threatening to give higher age ratings to films, music videos and TV shows which exaggerated the sexuality of younger singers and bands.


Source: BBC

UPDATE: Guards Indicted for Negligence in Death of Nimali Henry

St. Bernard prison employees indicted for negligence in inmate death

A federal grand jury on Thursday (Dec. 3) indicted four St. Bernard Parish Prison employees in the death last year of inmate Nimali Henry. The indictment accuses Andre Dominick, Timothy Williams, Debra Becnel and Lisa Vaccarella of failing to provide proper medication and treatment to Henry, who suffered from a rare blood disorder.

All four defendants also are accused of civil rights violations, as well as making false statements to the FBI. They have been placed on indefinite administrative leave, St. Bernard Parish Sheriff James Pohlmann said.

The accused correctional officers have been named for the first time with the indictment, which came about eight months after the FBI intervened in a civil rights lawsuit against the St. Bernard Sheriff's Office.

The civil suit, filed by the father of Henry's baby daughter on the daughter's behalf, was put on hold pending the outcome of the criminal investigation.

None of the defendants could be reached Thursday evening at publicly listed phone numbers. Court records do not list their attorneys.

Henry was found face down in an isolation cell in April 2014. A coroner's report found she likely died of a blood clot. In addition to the civil rights charges, the indictment accuses all four defendants of providing false statements to the FBI, as follows:

• Dominick, a captain, told agents that Henry and another individual, "D.S.", were not aware of Henry's medical conditions. In fact, both Henry and D.S. informed Dominick of the condition, according to the indictment.
• Williams, a corporal, falsely told agents he'd spoken with another individual, J.C., about Henry's condition the weekend before her death, and that he had checked on her in the hours before her death, according to the indictment.
• Becnel, a deputy, falsely told agents that Henry, as well as other inmates, had not told her about her condition, according to the indictment.
• Vaccarella falsely told agents she saw Henry walk into a dorm, lie on the ground and stand up and walk on her own, without difficulty, according to the indictment, which also accuses Vaccarella of discussing her observations with a supervisor. In fact, prosecutors say, Vaccarella watched Henry fall to the dorm floor and left her there, without discussing the indicident with the supervisor. 

Pohlmann said he's still learning about the circumstances that led to Henry's death, as he hasn't spoken to any of the defendants since the FBI became involved in March. He declined to comment on whether the allegations might lead to any changes of procedure at the jail.

"I don't know a lot of the facts that resulted in the indictment today," Pohlmann said. "I'm hoping to meet with the U.S. Attorney's Office soon to maybe get briefed up on more of the detailed facts."

If convicted, the defendants face maximum lifetime prison sentences for the civil rights charges and five-year sentences for making false statements to the FBI, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney Kenneth Polite's office.

Also read related article, FBI Launches Civil Rights Probe in St. Bernard Prison

Source: Nola

Photo credit to DeShawna Henry, sister of Nimali Henry

Peruvian Government Grants Reparations for Abortions

Peruvian Government Gives Monetary Reparations As Part of Historic United Nations Abortion Case

The Peruvian government has agreed to pay reparations as part of the first United Nations (U.N.) ruling on human rights violations in an abortion case.

Almost a decade after the U.N. Human Rights Committee declared that Peru’s denial of access to legal abortion services is a human rights violation, the government will provide reparations to K.L., a woman who was forced to continue with a pregnancy that put her physical and mental health at risk, even though abortion is legal in these circumstances under Peruvian law.

The Center for Reproductive Rights with local partners the Latin American and Caribbean Committee for the Defense of Women's Rights (CLADEM) and the Counseling Center for the Defense of Women's Rights (DEMUS) brought her case to the U.N. Committee and negotiated the reparations agreement. This decision marked the first time in history that an international human rights body held a government accountable for failing to ensure access to legal abortion services.

To read the entire press release, click here.


Source: Center for Reproductive Rights

60 Years Later: Rosa Parks

According to history, Rosa was 42 years old and riding the bus home after work. She was a seamstress and a member of her local NAACP chapter who refused to 'move out of her seat so that a [white] man can sit'...that was her crime. She is a civil rights pioneer.

~Kesha Johnson-Clark

 

 Today marks the 60th anniversary of Rosa Parks taking a stand.

The 42-year-old seamstress and secretary of her local NAACP chapter defied Jim Crow laws that called for the separation of the races by refusing to move to the back of a bus to allow a white man to have her seat.

That defiant act in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955 was a pivotal point in the civil rights movement and transformed Parks into a symbol of the struggle. Social media marked the day and remembered her, with some taking note of the current plight of African-Americans.



Source: CNN

Photo: Essence