Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Trixie and Katya Explain How Religion Can Be Sexy

On an all-new episode of VICELAND's THE TRIXIE & KATYA SHOW, two former RuPaul's Drag Race contestants dig into spirituality, tackling everything from the Ten Commandments to which of God's creatures gets the freakiest. Then they play a few rounds of "Hot or Holy," discovering that some religious garb is kind of sexy, when you really think about it.

THE TRIXIE & KATYA SHOW airs Wednesdays at 10:30 PM on VICELAND.

Then it's time for a new episode of SLUTEVER, following VICE's resident sexpert Karley Sciortino as she challenges outdated notions of female sexuality, gender, and love. Karley goes inside a dominatrix play session, discovering what really goes on with S&M couples behind closed doors.

SLUTEVER airs Wednesdays at 10 PM.

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How the Fake but Really Cool Computers in Movies Get Made

The VOTE NOW Campaign

On The VICE Guide to Right Now, VICE's daily podcast, we delve into the biggest news of the day and give you a rundown of the stories we're reading, working on, and fascinated with.

Today we talk about plans for the first public bank for weed businesses, and the new project from Amazon, JPMorgan, and Berkshire Hathaway to aid US healthcare. Then we sit down with VICE IMPACT to talk about the new campaign VOTE NOW, which is aimed at improving voting rights ahead of the 2018 midterms.

You can catch The VICE Guide to Right Now podcast on Acast, Google Play, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. And sign up for our newsletter to get the best of VICE delivered to your inbox daily.



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The New Purge Teaser Features a Familiar Red Hat

What's not to like about the Purge movies? They're glorious, over-the-top bloodbaths set in a dystopian future where America legalizes crime once a year so people can let off some steam.

The original Purge kept things pretty contained, centered around a rich guy and his family stuck inside their house during the night of mayhem. But the subsequent sequels built the world out and doubled down on the ham-handed political commentary about jingoism, and that's when the series really came into its own.

The franchise has never been exactly subtle about its message (2016's Election Year ran with the tagline "Keep America Great") but it seems like the next Purge movie is taking things to a whole new level. On Tuesday, Universal released a teaser trailer for The First Purge, and the thing takes a clear shot at Trump—complete with a familiar looking red hat sporting the film's title.

The new teaser starts off like a standard political ad, with a narrator talking over a slideshow of some patriotic imagery, before things take a sinister turn. "There's only one solution to keep our country great: a new tradition," the narrator says. "Participate today and nothing will make you prouder than when your boy looks up at you and says, 'Dad, I want to purge, too.'"

The First Purge is apparently going to be a prequel, telling the story of how the Purge first came to be, which makes sense seeing as how Election Year put an end to the annual murder spree once and for all. The First Purge is heading to theaters on July 4, naturally, unless America has voted to actually institute a Purge before then. Give the teaser trailer a watch above and marvel at how well it pairs with Tuesday's State of the Uniom.

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'Pop Up!,' Today's Comic by Alabaster Pizzo

African Countries Are Using Trump's 'Shithole' Comments to Drive Tourism

After President Trump reportedly called African nations, Haiti, and El Salvador "shithole countries" earlier this month, it made sense that folks from the places he snubbed were pissed off. But now some of those countries are using the slur to drive even more attention to themselves—as thriving tourism hubs.

Not only has Airbnb pledged $100,000 toward advertising listings in El Salvador, Haiti, and Africa thanks to "some expletive-filled interest," but tourism organizations in Zambia, Botswana, and Namibia (or "Nambia," as Trump calls it) are now marketing their countries as the loveliest, most irresistible shitholes on earth, the Wall Street Journal reports. Namibia's Gondwana Collection even hired a Trump impersonator to narrate a video all about the destination.

"We would like to invite you to come to shithole Namibia, one of the best shithole countries out there," the video boasts. "Not only is our country a shithole place—even our elephants are highly qualified to dump large amounts of shit everywhere in our wide-open shithole country."

A Zambian tourism agency got on board too, inviting would-be tourists to a place where "beautiful vistas and breathtaking wildlife are our trump card."

Botswana—which apparently had a little too much pride to fully embrace the shithole thing—went ahead and officially rebranded itself a "waterhole country," showing off all the lovely critters that call the nation home.

In addition to Africa, Haiti has gotten in on the action, too. Fabien Dodard—creative director of the ad agency Parkour Studio—is currently working on running a series of ads in Washington, DC, all about how much of a shithole his homeland is. He's raised more than $6,000 on GoFundme for his campaign to showcase "Haiti’s shitty landscape, totally shitty people, and year-round shitty weather."

It looks like Trump's "shithole" tirade might actually do some good after all—though the president's alleged comments certainly didn't do his own properties any favors.

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Related: Trump's Shithole Countries



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'Nathan for You' Is a Perfect Indictment of Late Capitalism

There has been a lot of talk these past few years of “Prestige Television.” Personally, I tend to scoff at this generally dumbshit term, which is all too often used interchangeably with “Expensive to Make Television” (looking at you, Westworld). But for one special show, I think the term applies—and that show is Nathan for You.

Now finished with its fourth season (and it's been renewed), Nathan for You is the most creative and intelligent comedy in years. If you haven’t seen it, what the fuck is wrong with you? The premise is as follows: Nathan graduated from business school with pretty OK grades and uses that knowledge to help business owners across America. His plans are always meandering and obtuse as hell, usually involving him downing a piping hot bowl of humiliation. The most mild of his schemes could still be justifiably called “batshit,” but there's a method to this young entrepreneur’s madness.

Nathan Fielder is a true entertainment treasure, his unbridled and unassuming genius continueing to amaze me season after season. He's the genuine goddamn article: Fielder's oddball nature isn’t affected in the least (check out these photos of Nathan from his high school days back in Canada), and even though the show's premise is fairly straightforward, his interpretation of it is anything but. After dozens of adventures in Fielder’s particular brand of bumbleshit marketing, he surprises me with a startling regularity.

In later seasons, Nathan occasionally checks in with people he has worked with on past episodes; he reconnected with local cabbie “Andy” in the fourth season to discuss their plot against rideshare giant Uber. It’s no secret that Uber has been devastating to the local taxi industries, and a few years ago Nathan had an idea: encourage women to give birth in cabs, thus giving free positive press to the cab drivers and their industry as a whole. But dastardly assholes that they are, Uber swooped in and stole the idea.

As the two reunite, they decide that the game must be escalated. What follows is a rather Rube-Goldbergian series of schemes that involve scuba-diving burner phone purchases, uber driver sleeper cells, a sham marriage in a chinese restaurant, and a shitload of Lou Bega’s “Mambo #5”. Of course in the end the plot fails to destroy Uber, a corporation notoriously run by mondo dickheads that increasingly forces its way into our lives on a daily basis. But that’s the point.

The underlying theme of all Nathan For You episodes is the futility of resisting corporate capitalism in American society. Episode after episode, Nathan concocts truly insane plots in his noble attempts to help struggling small business owners. Independent coffee shops, contractors, and restaurants all turn to him for his unique font of marketing magic. None of them actually see results from the stunts - and this is by design. Yes, the plans Nathan lays out are absurd, but their hyperbole highlights the greater point: there is no winning against the corporate giants. None. At the end of the taxi episode, it is revealed that Andy has given up, and become an Uber driver. Uber won.

And it doesn’t stop at Uber. Nathan helps a local electronics store take on Best Buy (yes, at least one alligator is involved). He gets sued by Starbucks for rebranding a shop at “Dumb Starbucks”—complete with Dumb Venti’s, Dumb Pumpkin Spice Lattes, and Dumb Sarah Barailles CDs. And who can forget the local froyo shop he convinces to offer a “poop” flavored option. If I can be honest, Nathan has a particular knack for not only finding small business owners who are willing to go along with his insanity, but really fucking weird people, personally. It’s honestly one of the highlights of the whole concept.

At one point in the taxi driver vs. Uber episode, Nathan sits down to talk with lifetime cabbies to discuss the effect the rideshare company have had on their lives. Flush with billions in venture capital, Uber has been able to undercut the drivers in the room to the point of desperation. They describe defaulted mortgages, fear for their livelihood, and fear for the future. Eventually Uber will jack its prices up to account for this spend, but by then the cabs will be long gone from our streets. Nathan For You is a riotously funny show, but these little scenes are a glimpse into a deeper message that runs throughout - one that is decidedly less laughable.

At the end of that same episode, Nathan closes with the words “The free hand of the market had spoken. The enemy wasn’t Uber, the enemy was progress”. He’s right. Progress can be great, but this kind of progress brought us to where we are: a nation of exurbs built around a central locus of big chain corporations. Where once was main street, now lies the Wal-Mart parking lot. City blocks once strewn with family-owned businesses are a depressingly predictable spread: CVS. 7-11. So many big banks. Starbucks. Fuck I hate it.

Nathan For You is not entirely against capitalism (it frames the small business owners as protagonists in each episode), but it is against our capitalism. The unrestrained conglomerated monster that seeks to fuck us all into submission. It speaks to those who feel deeply uneasy with our new corporate reality. It seeks to cope with this world through humor, but it still screams out in desperation with us all.

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The Women and Men Who Get Turned on by Needing to Pee

This article originally appeared on VICE UK.

Consider the most annoying things in life. For the vast majority, "bursting for a piss" is surely up there with "wasps," "offensively slow walkers," and "plugging your phone in overnight and waking up to discover the plug was never on." I say the "vast majority," here because for a small minority, desperately needing to urinate is an extremely desirable thing.

For the uninitiated, omorashi—from the Japanese word for "wet yourself"—is a fetish that involves being sexually aroused by the discomfort of a full bladder. Like any fetish, it has varying degrees of extremity: Some members of the omorashi community experience arousal by encouraging someone to develop a full bladder, while others can orgasm after watching someone lose bladder control and experience the relief and embarrassment that comes with it.

Water sports are nothing new—golden showers and urophagia (drinking urine), for example, are well-documented fetishes. The difference with omorashi is that the focus is on clothed incontinence. There are no known stats on how many people share this kink (which isn’t surprising, considering the fact omorashi isn’t exactly first date chat), but it’s not new either. It has its roots in Japanese gameshow-style videos where contestants compete in urine-holding challenges, but interest in omorashi is certainly not just limited to Japan. Australian publication West Set Magazine is aimed at girls who "enjoy the thrill" of wetting themselves. The homepage reads: "Our girls are always desperate to go to the toilet, but love to pee in their pants instead!"

The question is, though, how exactly do you navigate dating and relationships when a full bladder gets you off? I spoke to Nick*, a retired estate agent from Mexico, who’s been part of the omorashi community sporadically since he was a teenager. Nick’s first encounter was as a 13-year-old in Arizona. Although his father banned him from teasing his same-aged neighbor, Amber*, whose medical condition meant she often wet herself, he recalls the arousal (and the accompanying shame) that came with it. "I often thought that lightning would strike me dead for being such a dreadful pervert," he tells me, "but I just couldn’t control it."

After Amber revealed she was aware that he became physically aroused when she had an accident, Nick says she proposed a different solution: "If you let me play with your penis whenever it gets hard, I'll wet my pants anytime you want me to." The pair engaged in this omorashi game for a year in 1970, a period Nick describes as "incredible bliss," until she left America.

After unsuccessful attempts to meet like-minded women, it was not until last year that Nick found another omorashi playmate, Isabel*, a nurse from California after she rented a house he owned. As with Amber, it started with subtle hints. "She would text: 'Love to keep talking, but must find a bathroom, just about to wet my pants!'" says Nick. "I would reply like: 'Accidents will happen, my dear.' And she would respond with: 'They certainly do!'"

As Isabel had never shared this fetish with a man before, Nick says that by the time they were together, they had "almost convinced ourselves that we had found a potential omorashi partner." The pair were afraid to directly mention it to each other, though, and it took a picnic for them to realize they had "finally" found someone to share the fetish with.

"Isabel complained about how the springtime pollens were going to make her sneeze. Soon, she was sneezing quite uncontrollably, and she cried out, 'I’m going to pee!' I saw her crotch darken, and then she just surrendered control," says Nick. "Her shorts were totally soaked, and she was also wet all the way down the inside of her left leg. She could tell by my reaction that I was aroused."

Since the pair only meet a few times a year due to the distance between them, they started to find various ways to incorporate the fetish into their sex life. "Often, it’s just as simple as giving her a good, robust tickling," says Nick, "but sometimes we make more of a game out of it." One such game included making Isabel laugh at a pub where the pressure on her bladder was unbearable. He fondly recalls: "She doubled over with laughter to the point where she lost control."

Although this made her "turn red with embarrassment," Nick recalls that she was aroused when thinking how strangers, particularly men, may have seen that she had wet herself in public.

Considering omorashi is largely based on fantasy, Nick is clearly fortunate he’s managed to share the fetish with women who also enjoy it. But it hasn’t always been that way: He recalls spending a "lonely decade on websites that never led to anything."

Having to contend with such secrecy due to fears of rejection, it's no wonder many are never able to incorporate the fetish into their intimate lives. Nick agrees: "It takes a great deal of trust to speak to another person about an unusual fetish. I know people who have been married for more than a decade and have never had the courage to mention their omorashi fetish to their wife or husband."

Nick himself says this was the same with his ex-wife, who he married in his thirties: "I knew that she had an adventurous sexual past and she had tried all kinds of things. All the same, we had been married for several years before I felt enough trust to broach the topic of omorashi."

It’s unsurprising, then, that many people congregate online, where there are a myriad of safe, nonjudgemental spaces. In closed Facebook groups, users (some with Omo added to their names) share explicit photos and videos of wetting themselves or their partners, ask each other how long they should hold on—"Please can someone let me go peeeeee" is a common request—and either berate or congratulate each other. Meanwhile, omorashi Tumblr pages feature fan fiction and fan art, while community forums focus on sharing wetting experiences and even erotic stories online.

Tom*, a US-based omorashi community member who makes desperation and wetting videos, tells VICE he first got into the fetish after a relationship in which he and his girlfriend would sometimes pee on each other during sex. Even so, he says: "It's not part of my day-to-day life. I just get into it for small periods of time; it depends on what's going on in my life."

You’d assume that sharing such a niche kink would bring people together, but building lasting relationships through fetish-orientated social media is rare. Nick says: "You can trade emails with all kinds of people who enjoy this fetish without ever encountering anyone with whom you share anything other than the fetish itself. I met both Amber and Isabel through ordinary means, and the fact they were willing to share the omorashi fetish with me had absolutely nothing to do with online activity."

Nick is adamant that there's nothing wrong with finding loss of bladder control sexy, even if it's not socially acceptable.

"Society teaches us what we are 'supposed' to like in terms of sexuality," he says, "It tells us through messages, both subtle and direct, what ought to turn us on. So, if there is anything I would say to the world at large, it is this: Don’t be afraid to go exploring."

*Names have been changed.

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I Went to a Party for a 'Hip' Bidet and It Made Me Feel Like an Asshole

Being an Iranian Standup Comedian Is No Joke

Iranian comedian Siavash Safavi recently took the stage in Toronto to talk about time zones between Iran and Canada. “My friend always calls me at 3 a.m. and asks, ‘What’s the time difference between Canada and Iran, anyway?’” he said. “I tell him it’s 50 or 100 years.”

Although it sounds light, this joke isn’t something Safavi could say in his home country. “There are limitations on all topics—there are no jokes about religion, the regime, international politics,” said Safavi, a dissident who has been living in Toronto for five years. “You might see some mild sexual innuendo, by Iranian standards.”

According to Safavi, there’s no standup comedy scene in Iran—not even comedy clubs or cafes where standup is performed. “Standup is solely limited to TV, and those who dare to challenge the regime use YouTube and social media,” he said. “Even if they do something edgy or against the regime’s ideology, the regime doesn’t go after them, which allows them a little wiggle room.”

In light of the recent anti-government protests across Iran, are comedians and satirists silenced down to the last joke? The hardship is worse than ever, even though those outside of the country can only use the opportunity to speak up. “Like all dictators, Iranian dictators don’t like satire and comedy,” said Maryam Faghihimani, an Iranian researcher and founder of Oslo’s Centre for Cultural Diplomacy & Development. “Since the current regime in Iran doesn’t recognize freedom of speech, freedom of expressions, and freedom to insult, any standup comedian or satirist who crosses the red lines will be banned from performing, fined, or jailed.”

Political cartoonist Atena Farghadani was imprisoned for 18 months for drawing a cartoon that criticized the parliamentary members for neglecting women’s rights in Iran. “A number of comedians and satirists who used to have their show broadcast from Iranian state TV were banned for coming too close to the red lines,” she said. “But even if these standup comedians don’t have any political connotations or insult to the religious values, those who believe in a strict version of Islam and sharia laws disapprove of such shows because to laugh and listen to jokes is a sin itself—that it creates moral corruptions and encourages people to commit other sins.”

Some manage to still break the red tape, though—like Iranian comedian and satirist Hadi Khorsandi. “He’s defiant, clever, erudite and funny,” said Abbas Milani, the director of Iranian Studies at Stanford University. “It’s a dour regime that tries to censor everything particularly laughter and comedy, but Iran has a rich tradition of comedy and satire that is sometimes ribald, always critical of hypocrisies and false pieties and that tradition continues to exist.”

There is a way to take a lighter attitude—to laugh at the way comedy is treated in Iran. “People do it all the time,” said Milani. “All kinds of comic tapes and programs are produced and distributed illegally.” To Omid Djalili, a British comedian with Iranian roots, it’s a grey area between what one can get away with under the regime in Iran. “It won’t stop anyone being creative or having fun with it—in fact, we thrive on it,” he said. “Artists in Iran have to be good at hoodwinking authorities into thinking their films are not as subversive as they really are; the same with comedy. On paper, I am a mainstream Middle Eastern crowd pleaser, and that’s part of my own narrative of hoodwinking.”

To Zahra Noorbakhsh, an Iranian comedian who’s based in Los Angeles, joking about her Muslim and Iranian identity has changed as it becomes more in the political spotlight. “As soon as I mention that I’m Muslim and Iranian, it’s like the whole audience starts taking notes, it’s an incredible amount of responsibility, I have to think very carefully about my syllabus—I mean, jokes,” she said. Playing live is different than what it once was; she hosted a standup show called “All Atheists are Muslim,” which ran from 2011-2015. “Now, I’m more careful about what campuses I’ll perform at and which events I will go to,” she said. “I find myself writing more and performing less. In the past, to hype a show, I’d send out press releases and put up posters all over town. Things are different now.”

To Maz Jobrani, an Iranian-American comedian based in California, it’s important for Iranian—as well as Muslim—comics to take the stage across America. “Trump’s rhetoric has emboldened many racists to attack Muslims in ways that might not have been happening before,” he said. “There seems to be more anti-Muslim rhetoric these days—people demonizing Muslims without even knowing who they are. Most Muslims in the U.S. are peaceful people just living their lives, but the current political climate has made it okay to attack them verbally and even physically at times.”

Despite the limitations, comedians are still finding a way to have their voice heard under the regime in Iran, too. “The dictators hate and fear comedy, satire, laughter and happiness because it helps people to express themselves freely and refuse being controlled and manipulated,” said Faghihimani. “We see the courageous artists such as standup comedians keep performing in public and private arenas and try to push the limits even though it may cost them. Humor, irony and satire have a deep root in Persian culture, the regime might have changed the rules overnight but they can’t change our culture.”

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Let a 'Human Uber' Live Your Life So You Don't Have To

The past few years have given us a vast array of technological advancements to help us completely avoid the horrors of human interaction. Tired of being forced to share a few words with the pizza guy, your Uber driver, or the kid who bags your groceries? Worry not, lifeless machines will spare you of all that. Done with dating? There are plenty of sex robots out there to appease your carnal needs, too. But now, finally, researchers have perfected a way for you to stay social without actually having to leave the comfort of your own home again—by having a surrogate strap on an iPad mask and venture out into the world for you.

Japanese researcher Jun Rekimoto presented his new tech, called ChameleonMask, at MIT Tech Review's EmTech this week, Select All reports. ChameleonMask has apparently been described as a "Human Uber," but it's really closer to a mobile FaceTime.

According to its website, the technology "uses a real human as a surrogate for another remote user," by giving the surrogate "a mask-shaped display that shows a remote user’s live face, and a voice channel transmits a remote user’s voice." Rekimoto reportedly described the experience of using ChameleonMask as "surprisingly natural," which does sound surprising.

Basically, it would work like this: Say your friend needs help moving, but you don't want to go lug boxes around all day. Just hire someone to do the moving for you while you beam your face onto a ChameleonMask from the comfort of your bed and offer words of encouragement. Or maybe your son has a baseball game that you can't quite make? Someone in a ChameleonMask will go sit in the stands so you can cheer him on remotely. ChameleonMask recommends getting a surrogate who has a similar body type. Sounds great, right?

It's unclear how exactly a surrogate is able to see, since the ChameleonMask appears to cover the whole head, but maybe eye holes will be coming in the next update.

The idea behind ChameleonMask isn't particularly new. Telepresence technologies of varying quality have been around for years and, as Select All points out, the whole thing sounds inspired by Larry Middleman from Arrested Developmen. Still, you could be talking to a stranger wearing your friend's face at a party sometime soon. What a world!

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How Alleged Serial Killer Bruce McArthur Compares to Other Infamous Murderers

This article originally appeared on VICE Canada.

It’s early days in the investigation of alleged Toronto serial killer Bruce McArthur, but already comparisons are being made to other notorious murderers, including Jeffrey Dahmer, Robert Pickton, and John Wayne Gacy.

McArthur, 66, a landscaper, has so far been charged with five counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Selim Esen, 44; Andrew Kinsman, 49; Majeed Kayhan, 58; Soroush Mahmudi, 50; and Dean Lisowick, 47. McArthur is gay and several of his alleged victims, as well as many of the men still missing, had been known to frequent Toronto’s gay village.

Police believe there are more victims—though they have “no idea” how many more—and said Monday that they discovered remains belonging to three individuals in large planters at job sites McArthur worked on as a landscaper.

Kinsman had a sexual relationship with McArthur, police say, and went missing from the gay village, where he was an active community member, last June. Police said Esen also had a relationship with him but they couldn’t specify the nature of it; he disappeared last April from around Yonge and Bloor, not far from the village. Kayhan, 58, was also a regular in the village, which is where he met McArthur. According to the Globe and Mail, he pursued a romantic relationship with the landscaper. He went missing in October 2012. Police would not elaborate on the relationship between McArthur and Mahmudi, who went missing from Scarborough in 2015. Police said Lisowick was likely killed between May 2016 and July 2017—Lisowick was not reported missing and stayed in the city’s homeless shelters periodically. The Globe reported that he was a sex worker.

History of violence

Sasha Reid, a PhD candidate in developmental psychology at the University of Toronto and specialist on serial homicide, told VICE one aspect of McArthur’s case that stands out is his 2003 assault conviction for beating a man with a metal pipe.

“In my research, almost 80 percent of serial killers I’ve studied had a prior conviction of assault or sexual violence,” she said. Pickton was charged with attempted murder in 1998 after he stabbed and nearly killed a female sex worker who escaped his farm.

“Nobody wakes up one day and is a serial killer,” added Jooyoung Lee, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Toronto who also researches serial killers. There’s a gradual process, he said, “where initially people engage in fantasy behaviors, where they begin to think about harming others and they begin to experiment and flirt with the idea that they might actually do it.”

Over time, he said, the impulse becomes so strong, the killer will act on it.

Marginalized victims

Lee told VICE what struck him about the McArthur case is how long members of the LGBTQ community have been raising a flag about missing men, while police were seemingly slow to address those concerns.

“Police for a number of months openly downplayed the fact that there was a serial killer,” he said.

He said serial killers are generally smart opportunists who know that if they killed someone from a marginalized group “it’s very unlikely to get the same kind of police and media attention that a missing white woman’s case would get.”

Robert Pickton preyed on women who were mainly sex workers or drug users in British Columbia's Downtown Eastside, which is in part why many believe he was allowed to operate for decades without being caught.

“Often times, if you go back in time, people in these communities have been saying something is amiss for years and it’s only later that people put the pieces together,” Lee said.

Storing bodies nearby

Reid noted how McArthur allegedly buried bodies in planters at properties he worked on around the city. She said that’s a behavior serial killers are drawn to, for a variety of reasons.

“There’s a spiritual connection between them and the body,” she explained. “They might consume the body; they might take sexual pleasure out of consuming the body, eating it.”

In the later years of his crime spree, Dahmer was known to keep body parts of his victims in his home. Ted Bundy, who killed at least 30 women in the 1970s, was known to revisit the places his victims were buried, sometimes to have sex with their remains.

Reid said another reason for keeping bodies close by is for protection against getting caught—keeping a body in your home allows you to control who would potentially have access to it. Gacy, a serial killer who preyed on more than 30 men and boys in the Chicago area, would stash his victims in the crawl space of his home, where police eventually recovered 26 bodies.

Sexual motivations

As for the question everyone is wondering—why these killers commit such horrendous acts—Reid said, generally speaking, these are people who are hyperreactive to stress, or fear, or insult.

“When they encounter that, they overreact with fatal violence,” she said. “This is why some victims of serial killers are able to escape… they played the game right for that person at that time.”

Police have not yet stated whether or not McArthur’s alleged crimes were sexual in nature. But on the face of it, some aspects of the case seem reminiscent of Dahmer, who raped, murdered, dismembered, and cannibalized young boys and men—primarily black and Asian men—and sometimes performed sex acts with their bodies afterward.

According to the Globe, McArthur had a penchant for rough sexual encounters, and several media reports say police found a young man tied to his bed when they arrested him earlier this month.

Lee said Dennis Rader, also known as the BTK Killer, which stands for blind-torture-kill, had vivid fantasies of bondage.

“He wanted to tie people up and would even tie himself up and use strangulation as a way of killing his victims.”

But he said he would be very hesitant to make any generalizations about people into BDSM and killers.

“Ted Bundy wasn’t necessarily into BDSM,” he said. “He said he enjoyed that rush of feeling like God. The thing that’s getting some serial killers off is the idea that they have absolute control over another human being.”

Late start

McArthur’s age appears to buck the trend found with most serial killers, Reid said.

“This guy is old for his category,” she said. “Most serial killers who are sexually driven start probably in their late teens, or early 20s and then continue on throughout their 30s.” However, the investigation could still reveal that McArthur’s alleged crime spree started a long time ago. The allegations also suggest that McArthur may have “gone dormant” for a period of time.

Reid said other serial killers have taken long breaks too, including Lonnie Franklin Jr., who was nicknamed the “Grim Sleeper” because he appeared to stop killing people between 1988 and 2002. She said a break can be triggered by a killer finding a job, spouse, or something else in their lives that gives them a sense of power.

Double life

Both Reid and Lee said it’s not really all that weird that McArthur was a local mall Santa Claus. Gacy was a clown who would dress up for charity events and kids’ parties.

“When [people] encounter the idea of a serial killer, they imagine a monster,” said Reid. “That person is still a human being and what they have is a very normal life usually… They just have this part of them, this world that they inhabit, that is a little bit evil.”

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The Best, Worst, and Weirdest Claps of the State of the Union

On Tuesday night, President Donald Trump gave his first State of the Union address. Please clap. You can read all about that here, but let's get to the real nitty gritty of any of SOTU, which is 50 percent speech—who cares?—and 50 percent applause—now I'm paying attention! For inside my hardened political commentator exterior lurks the soul of a humble clap critic, a pundit of praise, judge of jeers, the applause arbiter supreme.

Let's start with our supreme leader, the one and only Donald John Trump, who wasn't afraid to clap for himself very, very loudly.

President Donald Trump

Like a series of lizards falling from a great height onto a tin roof, the president's applause for himself was steady, loud, and grating. While the haters may argue that the president's physical display of affection for himself indicates how dangerously bloated his ego has become, I have can't help but have an iota of respect for the fact that he was able to consistently applaud himself with such ferocity. It demonstrates his better-than-average wrist strength and palm endurance. Could someone with small hands do that? Probably not!

Clap score (graded on a scale from 1-5 claps): 3 CLAPS for effort.

Senator Bernie Sanders

While the Democrats kept their clapping to an absolute minimum in a ritualistic display of disdain almost no one cares about, Bernie's efficient, light patter of applause—where he used the fingers on his left hand to light tap his right palm—is clear evidence that he is a seasoned clapper. Clearly, the Vermont senator was not pleased with Trump's speech, but his dissatisfied demeanor, the forlorn look in his eyes as he engaged in a reluctant bout of applause, was deeply relatable. Brava, comrade!

Clap score: 4 CLAPS for form.

Senator Tim Kaine

Folks, I'm not going to sugarcoat this: Former vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine has a very weird clap. The senator did not engage in the traditional form of applause, instead holding his hands perpendicular to one another and crashing them together like a child trying to break a pair of toys. I have deep respect for any person who performs a physical feat such as a clap with such little enthusiasm and the absolute minimum amount of energy, but Kaine's clap was distractingly odd, and once I saw the camera cut to him I couldn't help but feel fixated on his technique for the remainder of the SOTU.

Clap score: 5 CLAPS for originality.

UN Ambassador Nikki Haley

Haley, a mainstream conservative, is also a traditional clapper; clearly not the type to try out any new moves during the year's biggest event in political applause. Paws upright, her muscles are relaxed enough to sustain the amount of hand-cheering she needs to make it through the event.

Clap score: 3 CLAPS for technique.

First Lady Melania Trump

The first lady, who is reportedly displeased with the president after last week's reports of his infidelity with and subsequent $130,000 payout to the porn star Stormy Daniels, did not look particularly excited to be in attendance last night. Like Haley, Mrs. Trump is also a traditional clapper when it comes to form: hands upright, lightly tapping of her palms against one another. Her applause, however, appeared to be as reluctant as the Democrats'. She seldom suspended her grimace with any sort of smile, only giving her husband a standing O when she was required to.

Clap score: 5 CLAPS for bravery.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Secretary of Defense James Mattis, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson

Sessions's applause was lighter, faster and somehow fiercer than your average clap, while Mattis's claps appeared both rushed and uninspired. Mnuchin and Tillerson exhibited interesting clapping techniques, lazily mashing their fingers against each other.

Sessions's clap score: 3 CLAPS for speed.
Mattis's clap score: 1 CLAP for energy.
Mnuchin's clap score: 1 CLAPS for form.
Tillerson's clap score: 2 CLAPS for consistency.

Energy Secretary Rick Perry

The Energy secretary slapped his right hand into his left palm like a child grabbing the hand of his sibling while yelling, "Stop hitting yourself! Stop hitting yourself!"

Clap score: 1 CLAP for originality (or lack thereof).

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner

The president's daughter and son-in-law have remarkably similar clapping style, although Ivanka opted to join her hands together while her husband preferred to slap his right hand into the palm of his left. Ivanka's clapping was refined and engaged, while Kushner's applause looked obligatory, a thoughtless action he had to engage in while in the midst of a daydream.

Ivanka's clap score: 3 CLAPS for effort.
Jared's clap score: 2 CLAPS for energy (which was low).

Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson

Like Tim Kaine, Carson's clapping was curious: Not one to waste an ounce of energy, the doctor and author of Gifted Hands kept his mitts as close together as possible, lightly tapping his palms against one another. His hands were in an ideal position for prayer, except his fingers were too spread out. A mild-mannered clap from a mild-mannered man.

Clap score: 5 CLAPS for creativity.

Vice President Mike Pence and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan

The vice president's stiff demeanor had obvious influence on his applause methodology. He softly pounded his erect right hand into his limp left claw, his face stiffly locked into a half-smile. The House speaker, on the other hand, clapped as if he was about to shake his own hand, with a rhythmic, consistent form.

Pence's clap score: 1 CLAP for looking so stiff.
Ryan's clap score: 4 CLAPS for successfully pulling off a clap that looked kind of normal.

The Congressional Black Caucus

When the president boasted that "African-American unemployment stands at the lowest rate ever recorded,” the Congressional Black Caucus looked nonplussed, most of its members declining to offer Trump, a man infamous for his racism, any applause at all. Although it was light on any actual clapping—and as your clap critic, I am always thirsty for applause—I'll admit it was the best cut to the audience of the evening.

Clap score: 5 CLAPS for not clapping at all.

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New York Is Closer Than Ever to Legalizing Weed

New York is about to have a conversation about what legalizing weed might look like.

Better late than never.

In his annual budget address earlier this month, Governor Andrew Cuomo nodded to possible legalization in nearby states like New Jersey when he proposed the state Department of Health to dig into what readily available, legal pot might mean for New Yorkers.



“Marijuana—things are happening,” the not-exactly-electric Cuomo intoned on January 16, adding, “If it was legalized in Jersey and it was legal in Massachusetts and the federal government allowed it to go ahead, what would that do to New York because it's right in the middle?”

The seemingly minor shift in rhetoric from a notoriously anti-weed governor—Cuomo referred to pot as a "Gateway Drug" less than a year ago—left reform advocates hopeful that New York was finally moving closer to recreational pot legalization. The exact parameters of the forthcoming study remained unclear, and Cuomo has yet to even conditionally embrace the prospect of legalizing marijuana. But it looked increasingly like the example set by neighboring jurisdictions—and the attendant windfall of tax revenue—would prove too tempting to ignore.

“We’re very intrigued and pleased to see the governor call for a study, especially as so many jurisdictions around New York are legalizing,” Drug Policy Alliance Deputy State Director Melissa Moore told me in an interview. “That’s an important signal to us that he’s more open to this issue in the past. Hopefully, his thinking is evolving."

Cuomo, who admitted pot use as a young man back when he was state attorney general, has a history of moving remarkably slowly on marijuana policy. He presided over the rollout of a notoriously strict (non-smokable) medical weed pilot program in 2014, one that was revised in 2016 so as to be at least a bit more responsive to the needs of patients. (Since then, it should be noted, he tried to reduce criminal penalties for carrying small amounts of pot, and signed a law allowing veterans to use medical pot products for PTSD this past November.)

When Attorney General Jeff Sessions reversed an Obama-era directive encouraging federal prosecutors to leave pot-friendly states alone earlier this month, it threatened to throw a wrench in marijuana reform nationwide. But instead of reeling at the news, officials across the Northeast seem to be digging in their heels, laying down a new marker for what progressive policy looks like in the Trump era.

Massachusetts, still designing regulations for the legal sale and distribution of marijuana as demanded by a 2016 voter referendum, has shown few signs of backing off since Sessions's announcement. And Vermont became the ninth state in the country—and the first by way of its legislature—to legalize recreational pot use, doing so after Sessions made his move. New Jersey’s newly sworn-in Democratic governor Phil Murphy, meanwhile, has made it clear for a while now that he wants to move quickly on legalizing and regulating marijuana sales.

All of this could leave New York—and the famously budget-obsessed Cuomo—to miss out on a massive revenue windfall. Colorado collected nearly $200 million in pot-related revenue in 2016 and has raked in over $500 million total since weed legalization went into effect there in 2014. New Jersey marijuana advocates and experts, meanwhile, have estimated the state could rake in $300 million in tax revenue once pot is legalized.

It also doesn't hurt the cause that Cuomo, widely believed to be mulling a 2020 presidential campaign, lives in state a where weed legalization is more popular than ever. New Yorkers favored legalizing marijuana 62 to 28 in an Emerson College poll conducted in November 2017—up more than ten points from a May 2014 Quinnipiac poll. In fact, the speed with which New York’s neighboring states have been warming to recreational weed caught the Cuomo administration by surprise, one state lawmaker suggested to VICE.

When Cuomo was getting ready to sign the PTSD pot law in November, Diane Savino, the bill’s sponsor and a state senator from Staten Island, warned him he would “have a problem around marijuana," she recalled in an interview.

“I said, ‘The new guy in New Jersey announced he was going to do adult-use marijuana in [the] first 100 days,'" she told me. "'He’s going to give you agita every day. He’s going to announce these things. 'We’re going to have legal marijuana to the left of us, to the right of us and to the north of us literally and figuratively. The pressure on New York to do something on legal marijuana is going to continue to grow.'"

In an emailed statement, Cuomo spokesman Richard Azzopardi told VICE, “As the governor said, everyone has an opinion, but not the facts. As Massachusetts and Vermont recently legalized recreational marijuana as well as other states across the nation, the governor has directed DOH to undertake a study to understand the potential impacts on the criminal justice system, economy and public health." So far, the governor’s office has declined to provide much in the way of details on its desired marijuana study, nor a timetable for when it will be finished. When reached for comment, a state Department of Health Department spokeswoman called questions about the timing of the commission “premature," but did confirm it is slated to cover both potential legalization in New York as well as peripheral effects from legalization in neighboring states.

Savino, for her part, expected Cuomo to act on real pot reform sooner than later despite his past reticence, and possibly even pass a law early in his third term should he win re-election once again this coming November.

“On average, it takes about ten years from medical to adult use, but we’re in a different environment now and the timeframe has accelerated exponentially,” Savino said. “We’re not going to be able to stop people from crossing state lines. We’re going to be creating felons from our own patients.”

Whenever Cuomo gets serious about recreational marijuana, lawmakers will be ready.

For the past several years, Manhattan State Senator Liz Krueger has proposed a marijuana tax and regulation bill modeled on the state liquor law that treats marijuana companies like beverage distributors. In an interview, she offered what she described as a conservative estimate that legalization could produce $500 million in new revenue for the state government, $2 billion in new economic activity, and $300 million in savings for the state’s criminal justice system.

“This is a drug that is less dangerous than alcohol and tobacco and we can tax and regulate it similarly,” she told me. “There is tax revenue to be gained, there are advantages in decreasing criminal activity, and there are enormous savings in not moving thousands of young people of color through the criminal justice system.”

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So You Have Decided to Hate Ed Sheeran: A Guide for Americans

This article originally appeared on VICE UK.

Ed Sheeran is the world’s biggest pop star, and he sucks. America is now waking up to this fact because this weekend Sheeran won the Grammy for Best Pop Solo Performance for "Shape of You"—over "Praying," Kesha's song about overcoming sexual abuse—but didn't even show up to collect his award, and then posted a cat picture on Instagram to celebrate his eventual double-win.

Look, here’s the cat picture:

That's annoying, isn’t it? But not all the way annoying. And therein lies Sheeran's particular allure. He falters along this blurry gray line where he is always straddling two states of being: at once charming and un-charming, a banger machine and anti-music, good at pop and bad at it, annoying and irresistible, horny and homely, a pop star and not.

We have known of the duality of Sheeran in the UK for years, and it's now time for America to stop being quite so charmed by him and see through his many faces and, through that window, find themselves in a dark little pit of something stronger, something else. Welcome, America, welcome. Come on in, the water is lovely.

Is Ed Sheeran a dickhead? An argument for the defense

Ed Sheeran is not, I’m afraid, a dickhead. He actually seems fundamentally quite decent and sound. I bet he’s absolutely fine to have a drink with. Like: fine. Not good, but fine. There are no awkward pauses—he gets the rounds in, and brings back two packets of nuts for the table. He doesn’t have any loud opinions about real ale or "commercial lager." He's decent enough at pool to not be a hindrance when you play doubles against two salty old guys who’ve insistently put $28 down when it was your turn to play and said that, actually, the rule in this place is that it's winner-takes-all. You and Ed Sheeran leave the pub in different directions with a dry over-the-jacket-shoulders-hug and an empty promise of yeah, we should do this again sometime.

Is Ed Sheeran a dickhead? No. He is not a dickhead. Are you going to text him for another pint some time? You're not. You've got other friends, better friends. He has his whole… his whole music thing, going. He’s probably busy, isn’t he? He’s probably got friends, right? Better friends. So let’s just leave it.


WATCH:


Is Ed Sheeran a dickhead? A much, much, much, much, much longer and more convincing counter-argument

I'm going to have to break this down into the four sub-truths about Ed Sheeran that make him so largely hated by everyone who does not fiercely love him (it is difficult to be Sheeran agnostic: You either adore him with the power of a thousand suns, or you think he’s horrendous. There’s no middle ground, here.

Ed Sheeran's staunch refusal to "glo up"
My dude is about as rich as it is possible to be from music alone (Forbes says he’s worth $37 million, and literally any time he wants $21 million more he can just release an album or do a tour or whatever). Yet, despite that, he really very genuinely has the vibe that if his black jeans fade he will just scribble over them with a Sharpie while still wearing them, or that he just has a vague odor of damp laundry to him, or that he had a whole argument with his mom last time his mom's friend was having a wedding because he tried to wear the same trodden-down Etnies he always wears along with his suit, and when he got there he met up with some old college friends and they stole a jug of cider that was being saved for the reception and drank it, and Sheeran’s mom had to apologize to the bride because she was crying about the missing cider.

This is it: The man is a multi-millionaire but he looks like your friend’s younger brother who broke his bed once so slept for three months across two beanbags squished in the middle and pressed into a fitted sheet. Ed Sheeran can sleep under absolutely any circumstances, I’m sure of it. I feel like I could blow Ed Sheeran's mind by slowly talking him through the concept of nail clippers. There is no way Ed Sheeran doesn't have a "formal hoodie." No other pop star alive has such a "if you spray enough Axe on you, you don’t really need a full shower" vibe as Ed Sheeran. He is a human wallet chain.

Imagine this brief scene:
You’re at your friend's house and you are all smoking weed. It’s one of those halcyon summer days between grades: You’re all 17. Your moms have left to go to work, and you have a perfect endless summer against you—the sun outside is technicolor-bright and the wind is softly rippling the closed curtains against your back. Close your eyes and imagine yourself back there: That acrid, sharp smoky smell on the air again; a wet roach being passed around; one of your friends is cueing up a funny video he saw on YouTube. This is before you saw and became bored of every meme in the seconds after it formed. This was before you went to Instagram to get memes to send to your Twitter friends who sent them on to their Facebook friends. There was no meme hierarchy, no urgency. Only fun. On the screen, a dog leaps on a trampoline. You all laugh. "I haven’t seen that one before," you say. "That’s amazing." Hold the feeling.

Ed Sheeran’s there, isn’t he? Ed Sheeran’s there, with his legs folded underneath him on the bed. Ed Sheeran is wearing a long-sleeved T-shirt with a short-sleeved T-shirt over the top of it. Ed Sheeran has a single leather thong necklace tight around his neck. You don’t know where Ed Sheeran came from, or how and when he infiltrated your friendship group, but here he is, drinking flat supermarket-brand cola straight from a two-liter bottle, just a split-second of backwash, every single time he swigs. "Hey dude," Ed Sheeran says to you. "Here," Sheeran says. "Pass the Dutch."

Ed Sheeran holds his hands out to you in a pinch gesture, and a thought crosses your mind. Make Sheeran do something gross for weed. And that’s how you all end up with shaky BlackBerry camera footage of Ed Sheeran licking a toilet bowl, crying, and saying, "Come on, guys!" before being allowed three small tokes on the communal joint. You can imagine it, can’t you? You can imagine that entire thing. This is the biggest pop star on the planet right now.

Ed Sheeran's "Shape of You" is a good song
Listen, OK, fine, I'll say it: "Shape of You" is good. It's good. I’m sorry about this. I’m sorry to admit this. It’s a good song! We wouldn’t be talking about him if he didn’t do enough good songs to get famous! But at the start of the year it was fucking everywhere, the same way his big fuzzy orange face (*1) was everywhere for an entire year when that came out; the same way there has not now been a single wedding since B.E. (Before Ed) that did not feature that fucking song about falling into your loving arms. Ed Sheeran is everywhere, he is everything, his ubiquity becomes an assault on the senses, and worst still he knows this. Look at this excerpt from a Guardian interview with him from last March:

He talks about how 2017 is going to be his year, how happy and settled he is with his girlfriend, Cherry Seaborn, an old school friend; how all the artists he sees as competition—“Adele, Beyoncé, Taylor, Drake, the Weeknd, Bruno”—have already put albums out, so ÷ has “kind of a clear lane.” When I ask how he would feel if it did well, but sold less than its predecessor, 2014’s 14m-shifting x, he says: “I’ll bet you anything now it won’t. I don’t think there’s any possibility it will. The next album, I promise you, will sell less, but this album will sell more. I don’t think I’ll have a year like this again.”

His ubiquity is, worst of all the things, incredibly calculated and cynical—he plays the music industry like a fun game that he just happens to be exceedingly, effortlessly good at, and he does it while acting and dressing like the meek guy who fits you every time you play paintball.

He doesn't even act famous and it drives me absolutely fucking nuts
Every time I have seen footage of Sheeran playing live—which has always been in the middle, unannounced, of something I did want to watch, like when he did the Olympics closing ceremony in a hoodie or when he turned up at [insert name of literally any awards ceremony in the last five years]—he’s always played with a sort of inverted stage presence, like a street performer who sings the words "thank you" when you drop them money instead of just saying nothing. He is literally that kid from every town in the UK who got a loop pedal and beatboxes in the center of town every Saturday so he can pay his mom rent, but on this timeline, he is our most famous pop export.

That annoys me. As an expression of British pop, Ed Sheeran—guy from the dorms who electrocuted himself making toast, never to be seen again beyond the first week of school—is the pinnacle of it. And he still looks like he woke up from a cider-and-watching-Blackadder party where he fell asleep and got drawn on with felt-tips and had to do his entire shift at a grocery store in a big fleece so no one clocked he was still drunk.


READ:


I'm struggling to justify why I despise him beyond: The fact that he seems extremely sound is actually what makes him irritating? God, I really have no idea, do I?

Sheeran is just: He’s just that quite forgettable guy from your grade in school who nobody really knows the surname of, or who his friends are, or where he goes at lunch ("Where does Sheeran go at lunch?"—everyone at Ed Sheeran’s school, at some point,) and then despite all this, despite all this, he makes absolutely irresistible hits that your body cannot help itself from liking. You cannot not pop a shoulder to "Shape of You." You cannot not feel weird and gooey while holding hands and listening to "Thinking Out Loud." But the kid who made these songs is also the guy who stood at the front of the grocery store line, begging everyone for their spare change so he could buy some snacks.

He’s just fine, isn’t he. He’s just the male Ellie Goulding: They are there, yes, and recognizable on the radio, but you’re not going to go out of your way to enjoy it. He did that annoying Game of Thrones scene and there’s something very fragile and irritating about some of the depths in his voice, and his songs are catchy but not likable, and he sometimes says some very cocky things, but I say cocky things sometimes and I’ve never made $42 million even once in my life, and that’s it: That’s what’s annoying about him. That you cannot put your finger on what is annoying about him. He’s that feeling of plunging your hands into cold, oily dishwater. He’s a bus parked in traffic that refuses to open its door for you. Ed Sheeran is that grim empty feeling you get after spending $10 on a Pret A Manger lunch you didn’t even like. He’s just there. Being so inoffensive is offensive.

Welcome to this feeling, America. We have been struggling with it for years.

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(*1) NOT a ginger thing! His face is literally orange and fuzzy! Look at the album cover! I hate it with my life! I have seen it one-hundred million times!



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Baltimore Cops Carried Toy Guns to Plant on People They Shot, Trial Reveals

Last week, the beginning of an explosive corruption trial involving eight members of Baltimore's elite Gun Trace Task Force revealed that a handful of Baltimore cops allegedly kept fake guns in their patrol cars to plant on innocent people—a failsafe they could use if they happened to shoot an unarmed suspect, the Baltimore Sun reports.

Detective Maurice Ward, who's already pleaded guilty to corruption charges, testified that he and his partners were told to carry the replicas and BB guns "in case we accidentally hit somebody or got into a shootout, so we could plant them." The directive allegedly came from the team's sergeant, Wayne Jenkins, the Washington Post reports. Though Ward didn't say whether or not the tactic was ever used, Detective Marcus Taylor—another cop swept up in the scandal—was carrying a fake gun almost identical to his service weapon when he was arrested last year, according to the Sun.

The revelation is just one of many egregious abuses that have come out of the sprawling trial that the Sun has called "Baltimore’s biggest police corruption scandal in memory." Prosecutors say the squad, which was tasked with getting illegal guns off the streets, abused its power by robbing suspects and innocent people, raiding homes without warrants, and selling confiscated drugs, among other crimes.

But the BB gun testimony is particularly disturbing in light of 12-year-old Tamir Rice's death in 2014, the 13-year-old in Baltimore who was shot twice by cops in 2016 after he allegedly sprinted from them with a replica gun in his hand, and the 86 people fatally shot by police in 2015 and 2016 who were spotted carrying toy guns.

Six of the eight task force members charged in the corruption scandal have pleaded guilty to racketeering charges, but Taylor and Detective Daniel Hersl have pleaded not guilty. They're currently on trial while several of their former partners testify against them.

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Related: Carmelo Reflects on Marching Against Police Brutality in Baltimore



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The VICE Morning Bulletin

Everything you need to know about the world this morning, curated by VICE.

US News

Trump's SOTU Goes in on Immigration
The president used his first State of the Union speech to appeal for bipartisan unity on immigration, while still pledging to crack down on “chain migration”—the ability for legal immigrants to bring family members to the US. While Democratic lawmakers jeered at this portion of Trump’s address, white supremacists Richard Spencer and David Duke praised the president for saying “Americans are dreamers, too.”— Newsweek

Gitmo to Remain Open Under Executive Order, Possibly Get New Inmates
The president signed an order Tuesday reversing the Obama administration’s attempt to wind down operations at the notorious detention facility at Guantanamo Bay. During his State of the Union address, Trump said the order directed Defense Secretary James Mattis “to reexamine our military detention policy” and promised that “in many cases,” new suspected terrorists would be sent to Guantanamo Bay.—CNN

CIA Boss Said to Have Met with Russian Spy Chief Despite Sanctions
Sergey Naryshkin, the director of Russia’s foreign intelligence service, was in the US and reportedly spoke with CIA Director Mike Pompeo last week. According to the Russian embassy, the visit by Naryshkin—currently on a US sanctions list—was related to the “joint struggle against terrorism.” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer demanded to know if sanctions were discussed.—CBS News

Justice Officials Beg White House Not to Release FBI Memo
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray reportedly met Trump’s Chief of Staff John Kelly on Monday in a bid to prevent the release of a Republican-penned memo alleging surveillance abuses at the FBI. After his State of the Union address, Trump appeared to tell a GOP lawmaker he was “100 percent” in favor of making the memo public.—The Washington Post / Politico

International News

Pope Sends Vatican Investigator to Chile
Pope Francis asked Archbishop Charles Scicluna to head to the South American country to review claims of sexual abuse and an alleged cover-up. The pontiff was criticized on his recent trip to Chile for defending Bishop Juan Barros, who is accused of knowing about the actions of a priest who abused young boys in his care. The pope subsequently apologized.—BBC News

Earthquake Hits Afghan-Pakistani Border
Afghanistan’s Hindu Kush region close to the border with Pakistan was shaken by a major (6.1 magnitude) earthquake Wednesday. At least one person died and eight others were wounded when several roofs collapsed in a village in the Pakistani border province of Baluchistan. Multiple injuries were also reported in at least one Afghan village. —AP

Four Arab Countries Condemn UN Report on Qatar Beef
Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates denounced a United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) report on their economic blockade of Qatar as “misleading” and “inaccurate.” The UNCHR report found they had no legal basis for cutting diplomatic and economic ties with the neighboring country. In a joint statement, the four nations again accused Qatar of providing support for terrorism.—Al Jazeera

Egypt's President Warns Opposition Not to Boycott Election
Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi vowed action against anyone disrupting or casting doubt on the legitimacy of presidential elections planned for March, after several opposition figures called on Egyptians not to take part. The former general warned he would take “measures against anyone who believes he can mess with [Egypt’s] security."—AP

Everything Else

Stormy Daniels Says She Didn't Sign Denial Statement
Appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Tuesday night, the adult star distanced herself from a signed statement put out by her publicist, which refuted claims she took "hush money" not to talk about her alleged affair with Trump. She told Kimmel: “That doesn’t look like my signature, does it?”—VICE News

Facebook Bans Cryptocurrency Ads
The company said advertising related to Bitcoin and other digital currencies would no longer be allowed on the social network. Facebook’s blog post claimed many of the ads are “associated with misleading or deceptive promotional practices.”—Motherboard

DJ Who Groped Taylor Swift Gets New Radio Job
David Mueller will host a morning show for Mississippi station 92.7 KIX despite being found liable for groping the singer. Delta Radio CEO Larry Fuss said the publicity Mueller would bring played “a tiny bit” of a part in the decision to hire him.—Rolling Stone

New Zealanders Face Lawsuit Over Lorde's Israel Boycott
Israeli rights group Shurat HaDin said it will sue Justine Sachs and Nadia Abu-Shanab, the two women said to have persuaded fellow New Zealander Lorde to scrap her Tel Aviv show in an open letter.—The Washington Post

Wesley Snipes Almost Made ‘Black Panther’ in the 1990s
The actor revealed he attempted to bring the Marvel superhero to the big screen two decades ago. “I think Black Panther spoke to me because he was noble,” said Snipes, who wanted his version set in a futuristic Africa.—i-D

Federal Agencies Investigate iPhone Slowdown
The Department of Justice and the Securities & Exchange Commission launched an official inquiry after Apple admitted some iPhones models were programmed to slow down to deal with battery issues.—VICE News

Make sure to check out the latest episode of VICE's daily podcast. Today we’ll hear from VICE IMPACT about their recent advocacy campaign for voting rights ahead of the midterm elections.

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