Why Wasn't Michelle Rhee Investigated For Assault And Endangering The Welfare Of Children?

From the NY Times:

The popular leader of an after-school band program in Brooklyn has been charged with assault after putting duct tape over the mouth of a 9-year-old student, the police said on Wednesday.

The program leader, Kenyatte Hughes, 39, revived the Soul Tigers Marching Band, based at Intermediate School 292 in the East New York neighborhood, more than a decade ago with the goal of steering children away from violence by teaching them music.

Mr. Hughes, whom officials said was a volunteer, was arrested on Tuesday and charged with assault, endangering the welfare of a child and criminal possession of a weapon (the duct tape), the police said. He was arraigned in Criminal Court in Brooklyn on Wednesday and released without having to post bail, despite prosecutors’ request that bail be set at $20,000.

Law enforcement officials said Mr. Hughes put tape over a male student’s mouth on Monday, and that after it was removed, the boy’s lip was cracked and bloody and his face was swollen.

Devora Kaye, a spokeswoman for the Education Department, called the charges “deeply troubling” and said, “Mr. Hughes will no longer be allowed in I.S. 292 or any of our schools.” The school principal, Evelyn Maxfield, declined to comment.

Bill Turque in the Washington Post in August 2010:

Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee's talk to the new DCPS teachers Wednesday included two anecdotes I had not heard before -- one remarkable for its content, the other for its delivery. They described her struggles 18 years ago as a fledgling second grade teacher at Baltimore's Harlem Park Elementary.
"The worst and in many ways definitely the toughest year of my entire life," she said.

Rhee had poor class management skills, she said, recalling that her class "was very well known in the school because you could hear them traveling anywhere because they were so out of control." On one particularly rowdy day, she said she decided to place little pieces of masking tape on their lips for the trip to the school cafeteria for lunch.

"OK kids, we're going to do something special today!" she said she told them.

Rhee said it worked well until they actually arrived at the cafeteria. "I was like, 'OK, take the tape off. I realized I had not told the kids to lick their lips beforehand...The skin is coming off their lips and they're bleeding. Thirty-five kids were crying."

Hughes arrested for taping child's mouth shut, Rhee tells the mouth tape story for laughs.

She ought to be investigated for assault and endangerment of children's welfare as well.

PART 2: Where Is Campbell Brown On This?

I asked in an earlier post why Campbell Brown is so upset about a handful of "perv" teachers (many of whom are not pervs, have have actually been exonerated of allegations made against them and convicted of no crimes) while she ignores all the law enforcement officers in New York who have been arrested and/or convicted on sex crime charges.

You can read that earlier post here.  

Tonight I ask the question again as the Daily News, Brown's partner in teacher bashing, reports the following:

A Brooklyn court officer charged with uploading kiddie porn from the Internet has been re-arrested after the feds discovered he was also making sexually explicit videos of children in his home.

Alberto Yard, 44, allegedly took pictures of naked children in his bedroom and also installed a secret camera in the bathroom to record children showering and using the toilet, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Margaret Gandy.

The prosecutor called the new evidence a "shocking turn of events" discovered by FBI agents reviewing 10 cell phones and three laptop computers seized when Yard was arrested July 2.

"He is a danger to society," Gandy said of the sicko who worked in Brooklyn Civil Court on Livingston St.

The videos shot in Yard's bedroom of an underage girl and boy appeared to have been made in 2007, according to the complaint.

Five of the children have been identified and there are "many more," Gandy said.

Yard, a 19-year-veteran who lives in East New York with his parents, was also taking voyeuristic pictures of unsuspecting young girls in the courthouse while on-duty, but those pictures did not rise to the level of federal crimes.

Yard is facing at least 15 years in prison if he's convicted. He may also be hit with additional weapons charges because agents found three illegal handguns in his bedroom including one with a defaced serial number.

I'm not out to smear the police or law enforcement officers with these posts.

In no way do I think the handful of law enforcement officers arrested on sex crime charges, including statutory rape or kiddie porn charges, represent law enforcement officers at large.

But Campbell Brown sure does think the handful of teachers arrested and convicted of sex crimes are emblematic of all teachers.

Otherwise why would she want to strip democratic rights from teachers, including the right to be considered innocent until proven guilty and the right to due process?

Considering how many law enforcement officers have been in the news the last year for sex crimes, I am sure Campbell Brown will want to strip cops of their rights as well and I await that week of articles she will write with Ben "Where Are The Perverts?" Chapman in the Daily News smearing all cops and law officers as perverts and sex creeps.

But I won't hold my breath waiting because I know that series of articles isn't coming.

Doesn't Ruben Diaz Sr. Belong In Jail Too?

I'm going to leave the rebuttal of the ridiculous charge made by State Senator Ruben Diaz Sr. that the teachers union protects sex predator teachers to my friend, NYC Educator, who does an admirable job of dispensing with that myth here.

But so long as State Senator Ruben Diaz Sr. is smearing innocent people as "sex creeps" and "sex predator teachers" even though they have been exonerated of allegations and charged with no crimes, I'm wondering if we can talk about how it is he has managed to avoid indictment up there in Albany.

Diaz was connected to a corruption scandal that took out his pal, Pedro Espada (now serving five years in prison) back in 2012.

Here is how the NY Post described that scandal in March of that year:

It was a tough week for state Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr. 
 
On Monday, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced the indictment of Clement Gardner, CFO of the Christian Community Benevolent Association — a nonprofit founded by Diaz in 1977 and which he ran until 2003.

On Wednesday, the federal corruption trial of Diaz’s friend and former colleague, ex-Sen. Pedro Espada, got under way.

In charges first brought to light in years of Post reporting, Espada is accused of looting hundreds of thousands from the Medicaid-funded Soundview Health Care Network to finance his lavish lifestyle and employ numerous relatives and associates.

The two cases shed light on New York’s kleptocratic culture, in which politicians use taxpayer dollars to enhance their political and personal status.

Schneiderman charges that Gardner embezzled as much as $400,000 from CCBA between January 2004 and May 2007 — a time when Diaz was showering the organization with cash through the corrupt member-item pork-barrel process.

Between 2003 and 2005, Diaz and his son, then-Assemblyman (now Bronx Borough President) Ruben Diaz Jr., reportedly directed $940,000 in member-item support to CCBA — a charity for the elderly and needy that would contribute nice sums to other Diaz-connected political organizations. In 2006 and 2007, Diaz the elder authorized another $500,000.

So, with $1.4 million in public money pouring in, should anyone be surprised that CFO Gardner — also Diaz’s onetime campaign treasurer — opted to help himself to some of the goodies?

Diaz claims to be “shocked” over the arrest, but isn’t worried that he might be implicated in the AG’s investigation, because “I’m not in the business of taking; I’m in the business of giving.”

Well, thanks for the clarity, senator.

That sentiment perfectly captures the essence of the culture: It’s about “giving,” all right — giving away other people’s money to friends, family members and “community” cronies.

Clearly, Espada was a “giving” guy, too — giving Soundview-related jobs to his uncle, son, daughter-in-law and son’s mistress, among others.

Whether Diaz turns out to be as nakedly crooked as Espada remains to be seen — that’s a pretty high standard — but both stand as poster boys of an ingrained, corrupt culture of spreading around taxpayer dollars for political and private gain.

Espada isn't the only convicted criminal Diaz liked to pal around with.

As the NY Times reported in March 2012, two other close political associates and friends of Diaz's, Carl Kruger and Hiram Montserrate, are also in prison for corruption.

Ruben Diaz, along with Espada, Montserrate and Kruger, was once part of a group of State Senators so close they were known as the "Four Amigos."

You can see the "Four Amigos," sans prison stripes, enjoying a bite to eat in the photo at the top of this post.

Diaz is the only one at that table not currently serving time in prison on corruption charges.

Somehow Diaz has managed to escape indictment, but given how close he was to the other three criminals and given all the funkiness around his non-profit, you can see where some might question his innocence.

Diaz himself scolded the press for convicting him in the public discourse when no charges have been filed against him by federal or state prosecutors but he seems to have no problem doing the same to NYC schoolteachers.

You see, in Diaz's world, allegations are enough to prove guilt and convict - at least when it comes to teachers.

But under that worldview, shouldn't Ruben Diaz Sr. be sharing a prison cell with his friends and partners in crime, Pedro Espada, Hiram Montserrate and Carl Kruger?

I mean, it's hard to believe he wasn't stealing along with his other three good amigos.

Sure, we don't have any proof of that criminal action, but who needs proof, facts or evidence when allegations alone are enough to prove guilt and convict?

New York Times Executive May Have Helped Cover Up Pedophilia Allegations Against Former BBC Personality

In a pot calling the kettle black moment, the scandal-plagued, Murdoch-owned New York Post covers a scandal at the New York Times:

A burgeoning molestation scandal across the pond may have New York Times Chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. wishing he had looked closer to home to fill the CEO spot.

Mark Thompson, the former head of the British Broadcasting Corp., is slated to take over the troubled broadsheet next month, but cover-up allegations are swirling about his role in an investigation into a popular television personality.

The scandal involves a TV host named Jimmy Savile, a 40-year employee of the BBC on radio and on TV with an English version of “Bandstand” called “Top of the Pops.”

The flamboyant Savile also hosted a weekly primetime TV show called “Jim’ll Fix It,” on which he made the wishes of many young viewers come true by using his celebrity to get donations.

Savile, who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 1972, passed away in October 2011 at the age of 84, and as part of its holiday schedule the BBC scheduled retrospectives on his life and the tens of millions of pounds he collected for charity over the years.

But since his death, more than 20 people, all under the age of 16 at the time of the crimes, have alerted British police that they were molested by Savile.

On Friday, Scotland Yard said it was following more than 400 leads with at least 200 potential pedophile victims. Some girls were as young as 13 when attacked by Savile.

Now the BBC is under fire for an alleged cover-up — both for possibly ignoring early warnings of Savile’s behavior, as well as cancelling a critical documentary about Savile after his death.

The documentary was scheduled to run on “Newsnight,” Britain’s top news show. It was scrapped for editorial reasons, according to Thompson.

“Thompson spoke to the British press and said it was a News Department decision to squash the story, and he was not in the loop — which a subsequent BBC press release apparently partially contradicted,” said Evercore Partners’ Douglas Arthur, who covers the Times.

“It may blow over unless Thompson is called to testify, should Parliament hold hearings. I believe the prime minister has called for a full investigation. So it’s unclear how this unfolds,” he said.

So a newspaper owned by the scandal-plagued Rupert Murdoch covers a pedophilia scandal at the BBC that now is embroiling the New York Times.

Add in the New York Daily News, currently run by the scandal-plagued, former Murdoch employee/hacking criminal Colin Myler, and you can see how the three major newspapers in New York City are going to be run by unaccountable, unethical and, in the case of Murdoch and Myler, criminal men.

NY Times Fails To Mention Rhee/KJ Sex Abuse Scandal In Campbell Brown Story

The NY Times covered Campbell Brown's assault on teachers unions tonight.

They do mention how her husband Dan Senor sits on the board of the New York chapter of Michelle Rhee's group, StudentsFirst.

But they fail to mention how Michelle Rhee has been accused of helping a sex abuse case against her husband, former NBA star and current Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson, go away when he was running a charter school.

Far from being an immaterial part of the story, how does Brown come off declaring the unions protectors of perverts and sex criminals when her husband sits on the board of a group run by a woman who has been accused in a Congressional committee report of helping to cover up alleged sexual misconduct by her then boyfriend and now husband?

And how can the Times cover the story without bringing this up? After all, they covered the allegations against Rhee back on November 20, 2009.

I have said it before, I will say it again - if Campbell Brown wants to go after people who protect sex criminals and perverts, she needs to look no further than Michelle Rhee.

Too bad the corporate media doesn't seem to want to connect the Rhee/Johnson sexual abuse cover-up to the Campbell Brown story.

But that's par for the course.

The media rarely have a problem dragging teachers through the mud but Michelle Rhee seems to consistently get treated with kid gloves over her alleged ethical lapses - from the widespread cheating that took place when she was chancellor of the DCPS to the allegations that she lied about her own record as a teacher to the allegations that she helped KJ cover up his sexual misconduct when he was a charter school head.

Head Of IMF Arrested For Sexual Assault

Some excitement at Kennedy:

The managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, was taken off an Air France plane at Kennedy International Airport minutes before it was to take off for Paris on Saturday and arrested in connection with the sexual attack of a maid at a Midtown Manhattan hotel, the authorities said.

Mr. Strauss-Kahn, 62, who was widely expected to become the Socialist candidate for the French presidency, was apprehended by detectives of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in the first class section of the jetliner, and immediately turned over to detectives from the Midtown South Precinct, which covers the part of Manhattan where the hotel is, officials said.

The New York Police Department took Mr. Strauss-Kahn into custody, where he was “being questioned in connection with the sexual assault of a hotel chambermaid earlier this afternoon,” Deputy Commissioner Paul J. Browne, the department’s chief spokesman, said Saturday evening.

A spokeswoman for the Manhattan district attorney’s office said Mr. Strauss-Kahn had not yet been “formally charged” in the case and was not expected to be arraigned before a judge until later in the evening.

...

In the New York case, Mr. Browne said it was about 1 p.m. on Saturday when the maid, a 32-year-old woman, entered to clean Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s room.

“He came out of the bathroom, fully naked, and attempted to sexually assault her,” Mr. Browne said.

At some point during the assault, the woman broke free, Mr. Browne said, and “she fled, reported it to other hotel personnel who called 911. When the police arrived, he was not there.” Mr. Browne said it appeared that Mr. Strauss-Kahn left in a hurry. Investigators found his cellphone in the room, which he had left behind, he said.

He added: “We learned that he was on an Air France plane, and the plane was held and he was taken into custody.”

Mr. Browne said an Emergency Medical Services ambulance arrived at the hotel to take the maid to Roosevelt Hospital for what Mr. Browne described as treatment for “minor injuries.”

No matter the outcome of Saturday’s arrest, it will likely throw the French political world into turmoil and the Socialist Party into an embarrassed confusion.

When picked up by the Port Authority detectives, Strauss-Kahn said "I work for the IMF - this is what I do for a living, try and fuck other people who don't want to be fucked. If you have a problem with it, change the system, don't arrest me!"

Okay, he didn't really say that.

But he could have.

Actually, he should have.

What a creep.

Too bad he didn't have to spend the weekend in Riker's the way most people who get picked up on a Saturday have to.

Michelle Rhee Delights In Publicly Humiliating Others

She would say this comes from her relish in "holding others accountable." I see it more as her need to publicly humiliate others while aggrandizing herself:

The most chilling episode in Richard Whitmire’s biography of Michelle Rhee occurs near the end, when Rhee says to a PBS camera crew, “I’m going to fire somebody in a little while. Do you want to see that?” Of course they did, and they taped the chancellor of the District of Columbia public schools firing a principal. The victim’s face was not shown, but the episode revealed a woman who relishes humiliating those who have the misfortune to work for her.

The irony of all of the Rhee stuff is that when the true accountability moment arrives and it becomes clearer and clearer that the test score gains achieved under her reign were due to cheating, not her educational expertise, she tries to dodge accountability for herself, first by blaming the "enemies of reform" for the scandal, then teachers and principals.

But never herself, oh no.

Like Cathie Black who played the vagina card and blamed her failure as New York City schools chancellor on sexism and misogyny (NOTE to Ms. Black: The criticism you took as schools chancellor had NOTHING to do with your genitals and EVERYTHING to do with your lack of interest in education issues and your lack of experience in schools), Michelle Rhee never misses an opportunity to hold other people accountable for alleged sins and transgressions while avoiding all accountability for herself (and her sex offender fiance.)

The accountability movement delights in accountability for other people, but never themselves.

And they definitely seem to delight in humiliating others - all in the name of "accountability."

Politico Provides PR For Michelle Rhee

A largely positive article about Michelle Rhee in Politico.

Politico even spoke to her fiance, Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson, to hear more about her greatness.

But of course they never did ask KJ about his sexual harassment issues or the allegations that showed up in a Congressional report that Michelle Rhee tried to bribe KJ's victims to stay silent about his groping.

Ask those kinds of questions and suddenly the savior of public education just seems like a sleazy criminal.

Michelle Rhee To Sacramento To Keep An Eye On KJ

Did anybody really think Michelle Rhee would base her ed deform operations in any city but Sacramento?

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson announced today that the education reform organization operated by his fiancée -- former Washington, D.C., school chancellor Michelle Rhee -- will set up its headquarters here.

Rhee's goal is to raise $1 billion for the StudentsFirst organization. Its objective is to carry the same level of political influence as teacher unions and other interests in local and state elections.

Johnson made the announcement during his annual State of the City address at the Sacramento Convention Center.

Johnson said Rhee was courted by mayors around the country and that he was "not ashamed to say that I pulled out all the stops and utilized every means I had, but I managed to snag her."

Uh, huh.

Or maybe she's setting up in Sacramento so she can keep an eye on KJ.

After all, KJ has been known to have an eye for the young ladies - even underage ones.

And Rhee has been known to make potential sex scandals involving KJ disappear.

I wonder how much of the Students First money will go toward paying off future KJ victims?

How Come The Post Didn't Cover This Story?

The Murdoch Post never misses an opportunity to cover a "Perv Teacher" story when some teacher - one of 80,000 teachers, btw - is arrested on a sex charge.

They usually put these stories on the front page with a big headline like PERV TEACHERS across it, smearing all NYC public school teachers with the horrific doings of one.

Yet somehow, when one of Murdoch's own reporters at FOX 5 is arrested for child molestation, and when it becomes clear that even a preliminary investigation of his background indicates he had molested others in the past, and when child porn is found on his computer, somehow that story doesn't make it into the Post.

It does, however, make it into the Daily News:

A Fox 5 reporter already accused of molesting a 4-year-old New Jersey girl has been hit with an additional kiddie porn charge.

Charles Leaf's computer, which was seized when the Emmy-award winning newsman was arrested last month, was infected with perverted pictures, The Record newspaper reported Wednesday.

Leaf pleaded not guilty to the porn charge at a court hearing Tuesday after his lawyer tried unsuccessfully to get his $270,000 bail lowered.

The judge refused because Leaf has three drivers' licenses in three different states.

A father of two, Leaf molested the little girl inside his Wyckoff, N.J., home, prosecutors charged.

After Leaf was busted, his older sister came forward with claims that the newsman had molested two female relatives when he was younger.

Leaf, who later served in the Marines, was never prosecuted for allegedly fondling the girls. He and his wife, Monika, are the parents of a 7-year-old son and a 4-year-old daughter.

How come the Murdoch Post doesn't have a headline across the cover screaming PERV FOX JOURNALISTS covering this story?

After all, if Charles Leaf were a teacher at a middle school in Brooklyn instead of a reporter at FOX 5, you can be sure it would be on the front cover and perhaps even the editorial page.