Tag Archives: child abuse

BIPOC, Local

Ferndale police officer charged with attempted child molestation

[WASHINGTON] – (MTN) – Michael Scott Langton, 46, a veteran officer with the Ferndale, Washington, Police Department, was arrested at his Blaine home around 9 p.m. on Tuesday July 26 on a charge of Criminal Attempt, Solicitation of a Minor. The charges were upgraded on Wednesday to Attempted Child Molestation 2nd Degree.

Langton was booked into Skagit County’s jail following his arrest. Information from the jail only indicates he is being held for another agency and does not list a bail status.

Because the charge involves a minor and is sensitive, the Bellingham police will not be releasing any further details at this time according to a city press release.

According to a report in the Bellingham Herald, Bellingham Police Lt. Chad Cristelli reported that his department received a call regarding Langton on July 26 and started an investigation. Cristelli did disclose that one victim has been identified, but the investigation is ongoing.

Whatcom County asked the Bellingham police to investigate to avoid any appearance of conflict of interest. However, this is not Langton’s first time being investigated.

The Alleged Oath Keepers Connection

In 2021 an anonymous hacker breached the Oath Keepers security and downloaded data, including emails, from 2020 and part of 2021. The hacker released the data to Distributed Denial of Secrets, a transparency organization, and much of the information ended up posted online.

BuzzFeed reported on the released data, and among the active military members and law enforcement employees who had sent inquiries about joining the Oath Keepers, the article cited a specific email from February 4, 2020, scarcely a week after three members of the Oath Keepers had been indicted for their part in the attempted insurrection at the United States Capitol on January 6, 2020. The email in question was from Scott Langton who identified himself as “a current Washington State Police Officer looking for information.”

The Buzzfeed article was published on October 1, 2021, and on October 4, Officer Langton was placed on paid administrative leave while the department and city investigated the incident.

Local community groups in Whatcom County, including the Riveters Collective and Connect Ferndale, advocated for transparency in the investigation. The request fell on deaf ears, and Langton was back on full duty by the end of October. The internal investigation concluded that no violation of law or department policy had taken place.

Local groups were disappointed with the outcome of the investigations into Langton, prompting Connect Ferndale and the Riveters Collective Justice System Committee to release statements calling for independent review, transparency, and policy improvement. They criticized the investigation for the inherent conflict of interest, having been performed by Langton’s colleagues, and the blatant disregard of the published department polices as relates to making contact with such groups.

Prior to the October 2021 investigation, the Riveters Collective Justice System Committee gathered information on police practices and published the data and their analysis. The project, titled Learn Why We Believe Public Safety Reform is Necessary, first appeared on their website in September of 2021. Multiple updates soon followed, and Langton turned out to be a focal point due to the statistically significant number of complaints against him.

Other Incidents Involving Officer Langton

The Riveters Collective Justice System Committee (JSC) looked at 52 complaint allegations dating from 2015 – 2020 for Ferndale Police officers employed at the time of their records request in January 2021. Their findings revealed that the department has sided with officers 94% of the time when the complaint came from a civilian. However, when a complaint started internally, 98% of allegations were either sustained or ruled founded. The name at the top of the list for most complaints was Langston’s.

From 2015 to 2021, Langton has 17 complaints on record. The officer with the next highest number has three.

Langton started with the Ferndale Police Department in August 2012, but prior to July 2021, when SB 5051 went into effect, complaint records at Ferndale PD, Bellingham PD, Blaine PD, and Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office were destroyed after six years. The earliest records available at the time dated back to 2015.

Most of the complaints against Langton alleged behavior described him as harassing, discriminatory, rude, insulting, or overly aggressive. Five complainants specifically identified the color of skin as the element that triggered Officer Langton’s behavior towards them.

Of the 17 complaints, 16 were internally investigated, and his colleagues deemed them “frivolous” or “did not occur.” The JSC report noted that at least one complaint acknowledged that Langton is known by many of the areas minorities as “the racist cop.”

Lawsuits

In February of 2020, Langton pulled over a female motorist that he alleged committed a traffic violation. Following his decision to cite her, he continued to detain her at the scene, in violation of federal law and the Fourth Amendment. The lawsuit alleged Langton purposefully delayed citing the woman for a traffic violation so he could have a police dog brought to search the woman’s car.

The case was moved out of Whatcom County Superior Court and into Federal Court in September of 2020. According to the Bellingham Herald, the case was settled out of court and dismissed on April 12.

In June of 2011, while Officer Langton worked for the city of Blaine, he was alleged to have used excessive force against a 54-year-old, legally blind man with limited mobility due to crushed vertebrae. During that encounter, which was initially a call for a verbal dispute between neighbors. Langton was alleged to have struck man, dragged him across a parking lot, and thrown him to the ground. That lawsuit was reportedly settled for $129,000.

There is some evidence that other incidents exist: A letter from 2013 references a lawsuit involving Langton and the City of Blaine. A 2011 court document described a witness report that they had to avert their eyes due to the rough treatment that Langton applied to a Blaine resident.

Partially due to previous policies around destroying records of complaints, there may be no further information available anymore, and advocacy groups think that’s part of the problem that needs to be addressed in Whatcom County.

Could Ferndale Have Intervened Before Things Went This Far?

It is unclear if Ferndale knew of Langton’s complaint history from Blaine. The Ferndale police policy does have a requirement for comprehensive screening, background investigation, and selection process, but it does recommend reviewing an officer’s complaint history.

Despite this, by October of 2021, when Langton’s email exchange with the Oath Keepers came to light, a third of all complaints against the Ferndale Police Department since 2015 were against Langston. Ferndale existing policies did not catch this outlier in their department, nor considered the significant number of complaints piling up against Langton in comparison to other officers on the force. Additionally, there is an apparent pattern of ignoring the work of community organizations and independent journalists that provided concrete evidence that Langston was violating already published internal policies.

The Present

On Tuesday, when Bellingham police arrested Langton at his home in Blaine, they contacted the Ferndale Police Department informing them of his charges. Officer Langton, who is still listed as an employee on the Ferndale Police Department website, has been placed on paid administrative leave. His annual salary is listed as $98,810 per year.

BIPOC, National

New video of Rochester, New York PD pepper spraying Black child emerges

Video

From Malcontentment Happy Hour, February 22, 2021

Warning: This story contains video of police activity that some may find disturbing. Viewer discretion is advised.

Rochester, New York Police released another 86 minutes of video of the before, during, and after of a 9-year-old girl in crisis being pepper-sprayed. The disturbing video shows that the mother of the child did not call 911 about her having suicidal ideation or being in a mental health crisis. Instead, the mother is seen chatting with officers about her former significant other having a warrant for his arrest, and that he stole one of her cars.

The video goes on to show the child waits 19 minutes for treatment after being pepper-sprayed, and the EMTs request the cuffs are loosened for being too tight. An NPR report indicates the mother requested a social worker or mental health specialist to come to the call, and officers refused. Hospital officials also denied the child a mental health evaluation.

The mother is now suing the city while three officers are suspended, one without pay over the incident.

BIPOC, Editorial, Five Facts, Health and Lifestyle, LGBTQIA, Local, National, Weather

Malcontentment Happy Hour: February 1, 2021

Video

Our live webcast from the Seattle Anarchist Jurisdiction

WARNING: This episode includes videos of police violence, child abuse, protest, and discusses domestic violence in detail – viewer discretion is advised.

The show from February 1, 2021, featured David Obelcz and our co-host Jennifer Smith.

  • Rochester, New York Police pepper-spray a handcuffed 9-year-old child – community outrage explodes as body camera video becomes available
  • Malcontented Minutes – our new speed round of news
    • The state of Texas has things go very wrong when they issue an Amber Alert for Chucky – yes the murderous horror movie doll Chucky
    • Redditors go after silver commodity trading as a new tactic in their fight against hedge funds
    • Missouri Museum of history launches an online exhibit of LGBTQIA history in the state of Missouri
    • Jason Raantz (Seattle) goes on a racist rant about how BLM education during Black History Month in Seattle schools is instilling the fear of police into a new generation of children
    • David Bell, a Black man, dies in a hospital parking lot in Missouri after emergency room physicians refuse to treat him on his third trip for breathing problems
    • President Biden replaces Andrew Jackson’s portrait with a Native American sculpture
    • The National Zoo in Washington D.C. releases a video of a panda playing in the snow
    • LGBTQ activist Carmen Vasquez, 72-years old, dies of COVID-19
    • Data breach exposes the private personal identification (PII) of 1.6 million Washingtonians who have applied for or received unemployment for almost all of 2020, including bank account numbers and ID information
    • Birth certificate controversy over Archie, the child of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle explodes in tabloid press
  • Chad Wheeler domestic violence assault update as his victim faces him in court for the first time
  • COVID-19 Five Fast Facts
  • Reading recommendations for Black History Month
  • David and Jennifer provide their insurrection update

BIPOC, National

Rochester, New York police officers suspended after violent arrest of 9-year old

Video

From Malcontentment Happy Hour, February 1, 2021

Outrage over the pepper-spraying of a restrained 9-year old grows in upstate New York

WARNING: This report shows violent actions against a child, domestic violence, and abuse. Viewer discretion is advised.

[ROCHESTER] – (Malcontent News) Accusations of domestic violence and child abuse flew in Rochester, New York on January 29, as police arrested, and then pepper-sprayed a restrained 9-year-old child in the back of a police cruiser. Police were called about an incident involving the child, where she initially reported to officers that her mother had stabbed her father.

During the incident caught on multiple police body cameras, the mother of the child verbally and physically assaulted the restained juvenile, before police ordered her to go into her home. They attempt to take the child into custody, after telling her she wasn’t in any trouble, and then wrestle her to the ground and handcuff her. The child refuses to put her legs into the police cruiser and begs for a female police officer on video.

As a female officer attempted to deescalate, the other officers involved only made the situation worse, until the female officer also joined in, and ultimately pepper-sprayed the handcuffed 9-year-old in the face. She was then locked in the police cruiser while begging for her eyes to be wiped.

The police union on Sunday, January 31, 2021, attempted to defend the actions, stating policing is a hard job, labeling the pepper spray as an “irritant,” and talking about the trauma of day-to-day police work. The mayor and interim police chief could find no word to defend the actions.

On Monday, February 1, 2021, it was announced an unknown number of officers have been suspended, with pay, pending an investigation. The mayor of Rochester indicated that this was the only action they can take due to the police union contract and New York state law. Despite allegations of assault and child abuse and the abuse caught on camera, after taking the nine-year-old child to the hospital, she was released back to her family. The child is black, all 9 officers who were at the scene were white.

BIPOC, Health and Lifestyle, National

New science shines a light on ‘shaken baby syndrome’ and bias in the medical community

Video

From Malcontentment Happy Hour, January 21, 2021

Abusive Head Trauma replaced the term ‘shaken baby syndrome’ a decade ago, yet the questionable medical diagnosis is still convicting people

Over 45 years ago, a group of doctors concluded that a triad of medical conditions, bleeding around the brain, retinal hemorrhages, and brain damage, could only be caused by an adult violently shaking a baby. By the 1990s the science was being called into question even as diagnosis and convictions exploded. Today, hundreds of convictions for ‘shaken baby syndrome’ are under review, with court decisions being reversed. What doctors through was a constellation of symptoms that could only happen by shaking an infant or toddler, is now understood to happen due to a variety of medical conditions.

Further research has indicated that not only have hundreds been falsely accused over the past four decades, but parents who are poor, single-parent, ESL, and BIPOC were far more likely to be accused of AHT than wealthy two-parent households. The data indicated that there was no possible explanation beyond bias to account for these differences. This bias prevented early detection of potential abuse, as victims of AHT tend to have had previous visits to an emergency room for less severe injuries, which should have raised red flags. Worse, if doctors, nurses, or social workers made a predetermination of AHT, they would cut off the parents in any medical decision-making, including blocking tests and procedures that would have proven innocence, and helped with better treatment.

If you are overwhelmed as a parent you can text MHA to 741741 to reach the Mental Health America Hotline or text CONNECT to 741741 to reach a specialized crisis counselor for confidential support. Most child abuse advocates recommend one simple step if you’re overwhelmed, step away and catch your breath.

Child abuse is a very real problem, and nonverbal children cannot advocate for themselves. This story discusses child abuse and shows some disturbing content, viewer discretion is advised.

BIPOC

Minorities and poor more likely to be accused of Abusive Head Trauma

Shaken-Baby Syndrome, now called Abusive Head Trauma (AHT), is rooted in questionable science. Doctors, nurses, and social workers sometimes make snap decisions when an infant arrives in an emergency department. Multiple organizations, including the Innocence Project, are questioning hundreds of convictions that have disproportionately impact BIPOC and low-income families. Hundreds of families dealing with the trauma of an injured child have been thrown into a social services machine unfairly over the last decade. Biased investigators, some lacking medical training, treat them as guilty until proven guilty.

It is estimated that 1200 to 1400 cases of AHT are diagnosed in the United States annually. About 200 of those cases will go to a criminal trial. In some ways, the nightmare is worse for families accused of child abuse but never enter the criminal justice system. In many states, Child Protective Services have near extrajudicial powers. Families are torn apart, careers ruined, and adults placed on known abuser lists that follow them for life.

In the medical community, a group of three medical conditions is considered the triad of AHT. Bleeding around the brain, retinal bleeding, and brain damage, when presented together, were historically considered a significant indicator of child abuse. However, the medical community is advised to do a comprehensive medical examination, including MRI and CAT Scan, before considering AHT.

Norman Guthkelch, a retired neurosurgeon, was one of the doctors who helped coin the term “shaken-baby syndrome” in 1971. Twenty years later, he started defending families wrongly accused of abuse as gaps in the research began to reveal itself.

The truth is infants and toddlers do get violently shaken by abusive parents. Other telltale signs include pattern bruises, severely bruised buttocks, cauliflower ears, and unexplained injuries such as cigarette burns. However, what has been learned since 1971 is some medical conditions can explain the “triad” where abuse played no role.

Ironically, some doctors are against doing additional tests because pediatric patients are challenging. MRI and CAT Scans require a patient to lie still, a challenge with an infant, let alone one who may be having seizures. Infants with brain bleeding and brain damage can have severe complications if sedated because anesthetics can worsen their medical condition. 

In a survey conducted by the National Institute of Health, 71% of nurses indicated they could spot child abuse in a patient, despite having no specific training. The same paper showed that once medical professionals determined abuse was the cause, diagnostic testing stopped. 

According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, bias may play a role and who gets accused. Minority parents, white single parents, and poor white parents are more likely to be accused and convicted of child abuse. However, there is no evidence to support these groups commit more abuse. On the contrary, multiple studies show that white, middle-class, and wealthy parents are more likely to get a pass from the medical community.

A frequent indicator of AHT beyond the triad, and bruises, is multiple visits to emergency departments for increasingly worsening injuries. White families with both adults present are far less likely to be accused of abuse. By some studies, the difference could be as much as 35% to 40%. According to JAMA, “While minority children had higher rates of abusive fractures in our sample, they were also more likely to be evaluated and reported for suspected abuse, even after controlling for the likelihood of abusive injury. This suggests that racial differences do exist in the evaluation and reporting of pediatric fractures for child abuse, particularly in toddlers with accidental injuries.”

Some hospitals have formed medical teams that specialize in child abuse cases and AHT. Interestingly, in hospitals that created these teams, child abuse diagnosis increased, as much as 400% over a decade. Child abuse advocates justify this increase by stating that either abuse has grown over the last 20 years or that many cases when undiagnosed.

However, as far back as 1985, research showed that the system for identifying abuse at hospitals is flawed and bias. To quote the study, “To

the extent that we selectively invoke agents of the state to police the lives of poor and non-White families, [medical professionals] may be inappropriately and unfairly condemning these families as evil. In selectively ignoring the prevalence of child abuse in more affluent, majority homes, we may be perpetuating a myth that child abusers are out there.”

One of the challenges medical professionals have is deciding if a relatively minor injury on an infant or toddler is abuse. Accidents do happen; infants do have undiagnosed issues that may present themselves after birth. In the United States, post-natal care is far shorter than in other industrialized nations. But, multiple studies show that white, wealthy parents are far less likely to raise abuse questions until the abuse reaches a severe level.

Parents wrongly accused of abuse face additional challenges. In a bitter irony, hiring a lawyer, questioning diagnosis, asking for second opinions, and refusing to speak to investigators are all considered confirmation signs of abuse. The steps that the legal community recommends raises suspicion. Being accused of child abuse is traumatic in itself. Unemotional responses, disconnecting from the conversation, and other actions, which can be coping skills, are also seen as supporting the trauma finding.

Making an unbiased finding of child abuse is a challenge because most people are inherently biased when it comes to children’s welfare. Combined with racial and income bias and the rapid decision making required for a critically injured patient, the question of legitimacy around AHT diagnoses will continue. 

Editorial, National, Think About It

Industrial bleach in the misinformation age

In our era of misinformation, where we seem to be going backward, it is easy to laugh. It is easy to be amused by flat earthers, and their disastrous international conference where they proved the earth was round (whoops), or to gain pleasure in the irony of antivax leaders ending up in the hospital to get treatment for the disease they said was of no consequence. We can shake our heads at those who believe the lizard people run the planet (this is a real thing) and exhibit outrage at Alex Jones for insisting that the Sandy Hook shooting was a false flag to take away our guns (under a lawsuit, he now claims he was insane when he said it). The problem is, this era of misinformation has real consequences.

When the Internet became mainstream in the mid-90s, and the browser wars of Netscape versus Microsoft was detailed in the news and on people’s minds, there was a belief the world would become a better place. By giving everyone on the planet access to their own Guttenberg printing press, the ability to share knowledge and grow would bring an era of better understanding, faster research, and the democratization of knowledge. We would understand each other better, discover we aren’t so different, lift the undereducated, and there would be greater equality.

Something awful and sinister has happened on the way to global enlightenment. The part that so many missed is that anyone has access to a Guttenberg printing press, meaning any idiot with a conspiracy theory, or any entity that wants to push misinformation can do so with near impunity. Combine that with two-and-a-half generations that don’t give a crap about online personal privacy, the vast amount of third-party data available on us, and the willingness and desire to sell that data to anyone with cash – it is a recipe for disaster.

Russia state news to the living rooms of America

Today we have the Putin News Network (RT) pushing that 5G will kill you. Why? Because Russia and China are behind in deploying 5G and they want to slow down the roll out in the west to catch up. You have the Austrian government in collapse. You have an ongoing and near-forgotten civil war (of sorts) in Ukraine. You have the UK in complete chaos over Brexit, and then we have our shit show in the United States with interference in the 2016 election – but at least there wasn’t any collusion so let’s not figure out how deep the interference was. We have measle epidemics when we shouldn’t have any, and growing cases of whooping cough. Oh, and we have 12 million Americans who believe that lizard people run the planet. I refuse to link to these things and add to the legitimacy storm, look it up yourself.

How bad is it? There are multiple Guttenberg printing presses, some on social media platforms which should have a moral obligation to stop misinformation, advocating the use of industrial bleach to cure autism. Parents are forcing their children to drink it, bathe in it, and have enemas with it. Is the image of a two-year-old being forced to drink industrial bleach as a cure for autism amusing? It’s horrifying. I want to punch Jenny McCarthy in her face, but in the age of everyone gets a Guttenberg printing press, she knows more than doctors and researchers. No, she doesn’t advocate bleach as a cure, but she advocated that vaccinations cause autism and some of these parents forcing industrial bleach on their children. Desperate parents following the false belief that industrial bleach will flush the heavy metals out of their children, and cure the disease.

I certainly am not advocating, as much as it may seem, to twist the First Amendment and allow free speech for only things scientifically proven. I see this as a crisis of our time and the rapid rise of misinformation. Ironically, the Internet has made us more tribal. It is easier for me to find a group of people that believe what I believe, alternative views are damned. So I can sit in my echo chamber and go deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole until I believe Sandy Hook was a false flag. I can be in my world until I believe that Obama is the anti-Christ who wants to create a gay Muslim state in Texas, or until I believe that pouring industrial bleach down a helpless child’s throat, will “cure” them of disease. If anything, the horror I find is parents would rather do something that could kill their child then accept that they will be different.

Yes, people believed Jade Helm as a front to turn Texas into a gay Muslim state run by Obama

I firmly believe that Google, Facebook, Twitter, and a list of others have a moral obligation to fight the spread of misinformation. I believe the intelligence communities of nations must protect their citizens from outside false information and propaganda. I think all of us would do better if we left our echo chambers and listened to other voices, and I think we would be more willing to listen if the voices weren’t so shrill. How do we do it without crushing free speech? That is a question we need to answer quickly. To quote from the movie Men In Black, “A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals, and you know it.”

We need to stop the people who are manipulating the dumb, panicky animals because the alternative is nationalism, disease, and anti-science. I continue to wonder if 500 years from now people will look back, and consider early 21st-century society as living deep in a Dark Age.

Please think about it.

Malcontent, out.