California adopts 'yes means yes' sexual assault rule

The bill is not intended to solve all of the problems regarding sexual assault on California's campuses

Every one is in favor of more stringent sex crime laws
until the accused happens to be one's brother.

If you were ever to contemplate suicide, i'd advise jumping from the top of your ego. You'll starve to death on the way down.

HOWEVER: the state deciding to change the definition of rape yet again is a big deal.

Except the state hasn't changed the criminal definition of rape.......All that's being changed is the definition of "consent

, you called me chicken little, then watched the subjects of my concerns become full scale public crisises over and over again.

An internet troll who threatened to rape a Labour MP after she supported a successful campaign to put Jane Austen on the £10 note has been jailed for 18 weeks.

Peter Nunn, 33, from Bristol, retweeted posts threatening to sexually assault Walthamstow MP Stella Creasy, after she supported a bid by feminist Caroline Criado-Perez to keep a woman on a British banknote.

The father-of-one also called her a witch in a 'campaign of hatred' launched last summer.

Nunn's one-day trial heard that he began leaving offensive posts on July 29 last year - five days after the Bank of England revealed Austen would be the new face of the £10 note.

He retweeted a threatening message sent to Ms Creasy which read: 'You better watch your back, I'm going to rape your a**e at 8pm and put the video all over.'

Over the next day the part-time delivery driver sent a barrage of offensive messages to the London MP using the Twitter account @protectys.

In his next message he posted: 'Best way to rape a witch, try and drown her first then just when she's gagging for air that's when you enter.'

Later that evening he wrote: 'If you can't threaten to rape a celebrity, what is the point in having them?'

Nunn also retweeted a 'menacing' message composed by the @eatcreasynow account threatening to rape Ms Creasy, and added the post 'Go get her, eat the meat!'

He called the Labour MP an 'evil witch' and wrote: 'What's the odds of Criado and Creasy snuggling and cuddling under a duvet checking their tweets and cackling like witches (rape me says Caroline).'

During his campaign of abuse, Nunn also posted six increasingly manic videos online in which he mocked campaigners.

Nunn, who declared himself a 'feminist' during his own evidence, denied using Twitter to advocate violence or rape.

Instead, the self-styled blogger, who, the court heard, has ambitions of studying for a law degree, claimed he sent the messages to exercise his right to freedom of speech and to 'satirise' the issue of online trolling.

District Judge Elizabeth Roscoe found him guilty of sending indecent, obscene or menacing messages following a trial at City of London Magistrates’ Court earlier this month and jailed him today.
She also imposed a restraining order banning him from any contact with either woman.

Dressed in a grey suit with a patterned tie, father-of-one Nunn showed no emotion as the sentence was passed.

Victim impact statements had been read out to the court on behalf of both women, who spoke of the 'terrifying' threats made against them.

Prosecutor Alison Morgan said the messages had had a 'substantial' effect on Ms Creasy, and added that she has felt the need to install a panic button in her home.

She said that the incident had altered the way she interacts with people and made her more cautious.

Ms Morgan said Ms Criado-Perez's statement described the 'fear and horror' she had felt, which had manifested itself in physical symptoms such as dizzy spells.

During mitigation, Nunn's defence lawyer, Helen Jones, told the court he felt great remorse for the stress and anxiety he had caused, but Judge Roscoe said she had not seen this during his trial when she had found him 'evasive'.
Describing his behaviour as 'egocentric', she added: 'It was really all about you and your opinions and what you wanted to do.

'Although we're only talking about six tweets, it was persistent. You moved account when one was blocked.'

The judge said she had taken the defendant's good character and no previous convictions into account along with the impact a custodial sentence would have on his long-term partner and their three-year-old daughter.

She added: 'However, it has to be an immediate sentence. There is no reason to suspend it.

'I'm not convinced that that would give the message that this is entirely unacceptable.'

Neither Ms Creasy nor Ms Criado-Perez attended court to see him sentenced.

As news of Nunn's sentencing broke, other trolls immediately took to the social networking site to lash out at the MP for Walthamstow.

Some hurled abuse at Judge Elizabeth Roscoe for jailing Nunn - and suggested Ms Creasy should be in prison herself for reporting the crime.

Commenting on the hearing, Ms Creasy said: 'Today's sentence for Peter Nunn is a step forward in recognising the distress and fear online harassment can cause.

'We now need to ensure our police and criminal justice services are better trained to identify the risks anyone receiving threats faces, whether these are made on or offline so that we can protect those being stalked.

'Above all, we need to send a clear message that it isn't for anyone to put up with being harassed via any medium- this is an old crime taking a new form online and should be treated as such.'

Ms Criado-Perez said Nunn 'made me fear for my life - as no-one ever has before'.

But she added that she felt the charge against him was the wrong one and said of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS): 'I don't feel they understood what happened to me.'

Writing on her online blog today, she said: 'While what Nunn did was extremely menacing, I do not think that sending messages describes the essence of his campaign against me and Stella. I think that is better described with the term stalking.'

She went on: 'I felt he was a clear and present threat to me.

'He made me scared to go outside, to appear in public. He seemed obsessed enough to carry out his threats.'

My personal opinion is that a lot of men are alarmed at the thought that they might be held accountable for taking advantage of women in ambiguous situations.

If any of these cases also wind up in the criminal justice system,