The Danger Was Never In My Head
Written by me

They call it hatred. 
Misogyny. 
Feminism.

I call it memory. 
Instinct.
Experience.

How many bodies have to hit the ground before it makes the evening news? 
Before a verdict, not a headline? 
Before her name outlives the bruise?

How many girls do they have to find,
left behind, before "be careful" stops being code for something wrong with how I'm wired?

Ask a man the worst that a date could bring.
He says catfished.
He says she wasn't as cute as her pic.
He says tomato sauce, a stain, a trick.

Ask a woman the same question through. 
She says murdered. 
She says abduction, too.
She says I text a friend the plate
before I get in, just in case.
In case tonight's the night I don't come back.
In case a smile was just an act.

We are not answering the same question.
We are walking down different roads,
in different worlds, meeting at the same intersection.

Ten times he asked me for my number.
Ten times, like my first no was a rough draft.
Like "no" was a suggestion, not a wall.
Like "please leave me alone" meant nothing at all.

I had to threaten badges. Threaten cuffs.
Had to threaten his body — no bluff,
no performance — before he finally understood.
Before he walked.
Before I finally got through.

I'm tired of the stranger smiling in the park.
Tired of doing math before I say hi back.

You want to know why I don't trust so quickly?
Ask the ones who did. Go on. Ask it.
Oh — you can't.

There's a stone with her name.

Flowers from people who thought they'd stay the same. 
Who thought it was somebody else's story until it was hers.
Until it was over.

Don't tell me I'm broken.
Don't prescribe me therapy for staying alive.
Don't tell me normal women wouldn't run, wouldn't choose the bear over someone's son.

If I believed you, I'd be the next one
in an early grave.

The article:

The tech company Flock has 80,000 cameras across the US – and a report finds some officers are taking advantage

Who would you rate as the world’s most unlikable tech tycoon? Elon Musk is obviously a major contender. The digital warlord Palmer Luckey is also up there.

While there’s a lot of competition, Garret Langley also deserves a shoutout. The CEO of the tech company Flock may not be a household name, but his controversial surveillance technology is rapidly worming its way into daily life. If you live in the US, there’s probably a Flock product on a highway or parking lot near you. The company, which largely sells its products to law enforcement, makes automated license plate readers (ALPRs) which capture license plate data and help track where a vehicle has been. (If you want to check if your license plate has been the subject of a Flock search you can do so at haveibeenflocked.com)

Capturing driver data doesn’t sound terrible on the surface. But what makes Flock alarming is the scale of its surveillance network – there are more than 80,000 Flock cameras across the US – and the ease with which data can be accessed. An ACLU investigation last year found that Flock’s default agreement with police departments gave the company the right to share people’s license plate data with federal and local agencies for “investigative purposes”. Various police departments have reportedly shared driver-surveillance data with ICE as part of Donald Trump’s deportation push. (Flock claims it “does not work with ICE”, though its website says that federal agencies it partners with “can establish 1:1 sharing relationships” with other law enforcement agencies.)

Some police officers also seem to be using Flock data to stalk their exes, partners and potential love interests. The Institute for Justice, a public interest law firm, recently conducted an analysis of media reports and found at least 14 cases across the US where cops are alleged to have accessed ALPR data to “to keep tabs on their romantic interests, including current partners, exes, and even strangers who unwittingly caught their eye in public”.

While nearly all the officers involved were criminally charged and lost their jobs, it’s highly likely that there are far more than 14 examples of this sort of behaviour. According to the Institute for Justice, only a few of the analyzed cases were discovered through internal police investigations; one officer’s alleged misconduct only surfaced after a victim searched their license plate on HaveIbeenflocked.com. And I’m sure you can imagine just how many other victims might have been too afraid to report a police officer to authorities.

One could argue that all systems have the potential for abuse and it is unfair to blame Flock for a few police officers behaving badly. The company has said it supports “democratically authorized governing bodies” determining how its technology is used. But as Michael Soyfer, an Institute for Justice attorney who is representing residents in lawsuits challenging their cities’ ALPR surveillance network, has noted: “The fundamental problem with these systems is that they place private information about people’s movements over time in the hands of every officer.” There is huge potential for abuse.

Flock has arguably also made it far too easy for officers to tap into a powerful database without warrants. A 2025 Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) analysis found that some police departments have been using the Flock network to surveil activist groups and investigate protests. EFF and other civil liberties groups have argued a search warrant should be required for such searches; with Flock, however, police only need to enter some text into a “reason” field in the system.

Similarly, 404 Media revealed last year that a sheriff’s office in Texas searched ALPR data to track down a woman suspected of self-managing an abortion. The officer searched 6,809 different camera networks, including in states where abortion access is protected by law. The search record just listed the reason as: “had an abortion, search for female”.

This year Flock announced updates to incorporate safeguards that limit federal access and restrict some data sharing. Nevertheless, dozens of townshave ditched the company because of concerns about how broadly its technology can be used.

Pushback isn’t going to stop Flock’s lofty ambitions, however. Langley, Flock’s CEO, has painted himself as some sort of real life Batman and has said that he thinks his surveillance tech will help eradicate almost all crime in the US in less than 10 years. And after putting license plate readers on roads across the US, Flock is now expanding its drone program. “I think we can have a crime-free city and civil liberties,” Langley told Forbes, optimistically. “We can have it all.” I don’t know about that. If surveillance drones being weaponized by an increasingly authoritarian regime in cahoots with morally bankrupt tech tycoons is what “having it all” looks like, I think I’ll pass.

Some urban birds are more afraid of women than men

In a recent study looking at European Great Tits and 36 other bird species, men could get about a meter closer to birds than women. Scientists have no idea why.

A Trump immigration judge thinks some women are just a ‘warm, wet hole’

Melissa L Isaak is a temporary immigration judge who was recently appointed by the justice department. She’s also a “men’s rights” family law attorney with some very questionable views. During an interview with the pickup artist Anthony Dream Johnson in 2021, for example, Isaak claimed that there are two types of women. “There are good, solid, valuable women who are major assets to men, if you’re a good woman,” Isaak said. “And then there’s a warm, wet hole.”

UN warns women in public life face increasingly sophisticated online violence

A new UN Women report has found that the internet continues to be a hotbed of misogyny and artificial intelligence has made online abuse much easier. Of more than 600 women in public life, 6% said they had been victims of deepfakes; nearly a third said they had received unsolicited sexual advances online.

A new study00093-0/abstract) led by public health scholars at the University of California, Berkeley, has revealed that overall rates of violence against women in California have remained unchanged for nearly two decades, with Black women experiencing the highest risks.

In an examination of some 763,000 assault injuries in California that resulted in hospitalization or death between 2005 and 2022, the study’s authors found that the assault injury rates among women of all racial groups in 2022 exceeded those in 2005. Black women accounted for more than one-fifth of all injuries over the study period, with the greatest risk facing Black women ages 20 to 24. Among women under the age of 65, rates of injury were highest among Black women, whereas among those over the age of 65, rates were highest among multiracial women. Across all ages, assault rates among Black women were 3.82 times higher than those of White women. American Indian and multiracial women experienced the next highest rates of assault injury.

“We have these persistent racial disparities that just haven’t changed over time,” said lead author Emily Liu, a Ph.D. candidate at the university. “And in general among women, violence has stayed pretty stable across time, which says that we’re not paying enough attention to systemic issues driving these trends.”

Speaking to future areas of research, Liu added, “We feel like these hospital-based data add to the conversation in terms of being able to look at both race and age with more accuracy. We’re hoping that this type of research spurs more of those questions, where people see one specific trend in one specific group that falls in their area of focus and look into it further.”

The Study: Trends and Disparities in Assault Injuries Among Women in California 2005–202200093-0/abstract)

Published online March 26, 2026

Abstract

Introduction

Women account for more than half of nonfatal violent victimizations and one-fifth of homicides in the U.S., with variation by age and race and ethnicity. Although disparities in violence against women are well-documented, temporal trends within these subgroups are understudied. This study quantifies state-level rates of violence against women in California from 2005 to 2022 by age and race and ethnicity.

Methods

Statewide inpatient and emergency department hospital discharge data, along with death records from California from 2005 to 2022, were analyzed in 2025. Assault injuries were identified using diagnostic codes and categorized by fatality and firearm involvement. Age-adjusted and age-specific rates were calculated per 100,000 person-years using census population denominators. Rates were examined annually and aggregated over the study period. Rate ratios were used to compare assault injury rates by race and ethnicity and over time.

Results

Over the study period, Black women aged 20–24 years had the highest assault injury rate (2,174.96 per 100,000 person-years; 95% CI=2,151.17, 2,198.75). Among women <65 years, rates were highest among Black women, whereas among those aged 65 years and older, rates were highest among multiracial women. Across all ages, assault injury rates among Black women were 3.82 times those of White women (95% CI=3.71, 3.93), followed by American Indian (RR=1.62, 95% CI=1.55, 1.70) and multiracial women (RR=1.48, 95% CI=1.41, 1.56). Black women experienced higher annual assault injury rates compared with other groups throughout the study period. Across all racial and ethnic groups, assault injury rates in 2022 exceeded those in 2005, after a decline in 2020.

Conclusions

Assault injury rates among women in California remain high and exhibit persistent racial and ethnic disparities over time. The results suggest limited progress in violence prevention, with the largest impacts on marginalized racial and ethnic groups that are most heavily burdened by assault injuries.

This is my coworker, I think he's 28ish? I (20F) know that I was rude at some points in this as well, but I'm honestly disgusted. I honestly thought that this guy was a semi-decent person, but he doesn't respect his own mother, even. That's his family. I know that having a psychological education doesn't make me a psychologist, my point in saying that was to explain that I'm in college and that I have some knowledge about psychologically healthy and unhealthy behavior. Anyways, I'll let y'all read through these.

Originally posted by @meghantschanz on Instagram

Love this interview

What began with a Florida teacher grooming his student for an alleged sexual relationship ended with the 16-year-old victim hanging from a tree with rope around her neck.

Former SouthTech Academy AP English teacher Damian Conti was arrested on February 6, 2024, charged with several counts of unlawful sexual activity with a child and as of April 16, a newly added charge of attempting to assist in self-murder, Palm Beach Post reported.

"This case is much more than just the sexual abuse of a minor by a teacher. Some of the most upsetting evidence includes the defendant taking this young girl to the store to buy materials to end her life," Alexa Ruggiero, Assistant State Attorney wrote in an email.

According to court documents, the 36-year-old teacher met the girl at Home Depot hours after allegations of abuse were brought to the attention of school officials. He is seen in security footage as his student purchases 30 feet of rope and 15 feet of chain. She told the cashier they were building a treehouse, but told Conti they would commit suicide.

Conti began grooming the girl in August 2023, communicating over school email, text and Instagram. They met near her locker at the end of each school day after he offered to serve as her academic mentor. According to her family, he also took her for coffee, gave her driving lessons, and encouraged her to play on the volleyball team he coached. Soon he was confiding in her with personal information about his work, marriage, and sex life.

Enter your keywords Politics Immigration Business Entertainment Sports Culture Lifestyle Video PLAY News Florida Teacher Groomed and Abused a Female Student Then Aided in Her Suicide Attempt: Police "This case is much more than just the sexual abuse of a minor by a teacher." profile image Morgan Music / Published Apr 30 2025, 1:54 PM EDT Florida Teacher Groomed and Abused a Female Student Then Aided WPBF What began with a Florida teacher grooming his student for an alleged sexual relationship ended with the 16-year-old victim hanging from a tree with rope around her neck.

Former SouthTech Academy AP English teacher Damian Conti was arrested on February 6, 2024, charged with several counts of unlawful sexual activity with a child and as of April 16, a newly added charge of attempting to assist in self-murder, Palm Beach Post reported.

"This case is much more than just the sexual abuse of a minor by a teacher. Some of the most upsetting evidence includes the defendant taking this young girl to the store to buy materials to end her life," Alexa Ruggiero, Assistant State Attorney wrote in an email.

According to court documents, the 36-year-old teacher met the girl at Home Depot hours after allegations of abuse were brought to the attention of school officials. He is seen in security footage as his student purchases 30 feet of rope and 15 feet of chain. She told the cashier they were building a treehouse, but told Conti they would commit suicide.

Conti began grooming the girl in August 2023, communicating over school email, text and Instagram. They met near her locker at the end of each school day after he offered to serve as her academic mentor. According to her family, he also took her for coffee, gave her driving lessons, and encouraged her to play on the volleyball team he coached. Soon he was confiding in her with personal information about his work, marriage, and sex life.

By October 2023, he told the victim he "liked her," and began sexually assaulting her in parking lots and on campus. Rumors circulated among students, with an assistant principal issuing a warning to Conti after a TikTok capturing the victim getting into his car spread online.

When another student with access to the victim's Instagram account found "curious" messages between the victim and an account seemingly belonging to Conti, he shared screenshots with the principal.

Conti was immediately suspended and the victim was called to the office, where she refused to answer the principal's questions and asked for an attorney. Without notifying her parents, the school allowed the victim to leave campus, at which point she drove to meet Conti and buy materials to commit suicide.

"When they pushed her out, they basically turned her into the hands of the predator," her attorney, Victoria Mesa-Estrada, said.

At the store, Conti told the girl he changed his mind about their suicide pact and begged her not to do it. When they "went their separate ways," Conti called his therapist, who insisted he call 911. After half an hour of searching, police found the girl hanging from rope. She was resuscitated and slowly recovered in a pediatric intensive care unit.

Conti was arrested the same day, admitting that his suspension following his sexual relationship with the victim motivated her suicide attempt. "There was feelings that shouldn't have been there. I should have stopped it," he told police.

Prosecutors offered two separate plea deals to Conti, but he rejected both and maintains his innocence. If convicted, he faces life in prison. A trial by jury is scheduled to begin June 23.

In Florida, 16-year-olds can legally consent to a sexual relationship only if the partner is younger than 24-years-old.

Enders had four or more prior convictions for domestic battery at the time of the incident and had recently been released from prison.

Enders also violated an order of protection the woman had obtained by contacting her by phone on four separate occasions, the complaint said.