The Netherlands > 14 y/o rapist and murderer reaches 21, what happens now?

 

Parents worried that 14 y.o. Romy's rapist,

killer will age out of treatment

NL Times

Thursday, 17 October 2024 - 14:30

Seven years after the rape and killing of 14-year-old Romy Nieuwburg, her parents are worried that the perpetrator will age out of treatment. The court of appeals will rule this week whether now-21-year-old Brian N.’s youth treatment will be turned into adult institutionalized treatment, AD reports.

Romy went missing on her way home from school on 2 June 2017. Her body was found in a farm ditch near the Stoutenburg estate in Achterveld a few hours later. She had been raped multiple times and killed.

During the trial, it turned out that then-14-year-old Brian N., a farm boy from Lunteren, had waited for Romy after school. He raped her several times and then killed her when she said she would report him to the police, he said in court.

On 24 November 2017, the court sentenced N. to one year in prison and juvenile institutionalized treatment, called a PIJ measure.

Since then, Romy’s parents attended each and every extension hearing for N.’s treatment. To represent their daughter and to show the court the consequences of her brutal murder. “It is incredibly difficult to always be at the hearings. You rake it up again every time. Fortunately, we were always given the opportunity to use our right to speak,” Romy’s father Jeroen Nieuwburg told the newspaper.

Nieuwburg hopes the court of appeals will turn N.’s PIJ measure into TBS - the court imposed treatment for adults. The independent psychiatrist and psychologist who recently examined him concluded there was a reasonable chance of recidivism. N. has ADHD, autism, and a borderline disorder with anti-social traits. His lawyer is arguing that a chance is not a guarantee and that N. should be given a chance.

“We thought it was very bad that he got this sentence because of his age,” Nieuwburg told AD about the original sentence. “If he had been an adult, he would have been sentenced to years in prison. Then we would have had a few years of peace at least.”

Ontario Schoolboards suing Social Media platforms for harming children

 

4 Ontario School Boards Suing Meta, Snapchat, TikTok

for $4.5 Billion, Alleging Their Platforms Harm

Students’ Mental Health

By Jennifer Cowan

3/28/2024

Updated:

3/28/2024

Four of the largest school boards in Canada have launched lawsuits totalling $4.5 billion against Meta, Snapchat, and TikTok, accusing the social media titans of harming students’ mental health and disrupting the education system.

The Toronto District School Board, Peel District School Board, Toronto Catholic District School Board, and Ottawa-Carleton District School Board have filed four separate but similar cases in Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice.

The March 27 filings accuse Snapchat, Tik Tok, and Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram of deliberately or “negligently” designing platforms that cause “compulsive use” among young people, effectively rewiring the way students “think, behave, and learn.”

The statements of claim say the school boards have suffered “substantial damages” as a result and call on the social media firms to make improvements rather than “leaving educators and schools to manage the fallout.”

The allegations have yet to be proven in court.

Toronto District School Board director of education Colleen Russell-Rawlins says the influence of social media on students cannot be denied.

“It leads to pervasive problems such as distraction, social withdrawal, cyberbullying, a rapid escalation of aggression, and mental health challenges,” Ms. Russell-Rawlins said in a March 28 joint statement with the other school boards.

“Therefore, it is imperative that we take steps to ensure the well-being of our youth. We are calling for measures to be implemented to mitigate these harms and prioritize the mental health and academic success of our future generation,” she said.

Schools for Social Media Change

The four school boards involved in the lawsuits have formed Schools for Social Media Change, a group aiming to strengthen the education system by demanding accountability from social media giants.

More than 90 percent of Ontario students in grades 7 to 12 use social media daily, the group says on its website. Educators say that high usage has led to a youth mental health crisis with 38 percent of young people reporting poor or fair mental health and 26 percent “feeling as though they are in serious psychological distress.”

Forty-five percent of these students use social media for five hours or more a day, the website says.

Peel District School Board director of education Rashmi Swarup says excessive social media use, and its impact on students, has been an issue for some time.

“There has been growing concern for years about the effect of social media on students’ development, mental health, safety, and emotional well-being. Urgent action is needed to protect students from further harm,” Ms. Swarup said in the statement. “That is why we have come together in bringing action against social media giants to make their products safer while addressing the disruptions they are causing to our educational mandate.”

The website lists nine separate but linked “harms” the school boards are suffering due to students’ social media addictions.

“Administrators are adjusting curriculum to respond to an unfocused and inattentive student population,” the site says.

Other alleged harms include additional costs for increased mental health support, IT infrastructure and cyber security, and digital literacy and online safety programming. Resources are also needed to investigate and respond to threats made against schools, staff, and students over social media as well as to protect children from adult predators, the site says.

The school boards, in their lawsuits, are asking Meta, Snapchat, and TikTok to “remediate these enormous costs to the education system.”

The Epoch Times contacted the social media companies named in the lawsuits for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

US Lawsuits

This is not the first time school boards have sued social media companies for causing a “mental health crisis” among students. U.S. school districts in Alabama, California, Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Washington state have all filed lawsuits similar to those launched by the Ontario school boards.

U.S. lawmakers and intelligence officials also have TikTok in their crosshairs, identifying it as a possible security concern. Legislation was recently approved in the House of Representatives that could ban the China-made social media app in the United States over concerns it could be used by the Chinese regime to influence users or access their data. The bill is currently before the Senate.

Chinese Internet company ByteDance, the owners of TikTok, has said it would deny requests by the Chinese regime for data on Americans.

In China, companies do not have the right to withhold data from the government. 

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UK Joins List of European Countries Where Police Warn Women Not to Walk Alone At Night

But politically correct women see nothing good in warning

UK police apologize after warning women not to walk alone at night… while netizens wonder whether advice was so bad

A woman walks along a high street near a bus stop in Dagenham, east London, Britain, March 18, 2019. Picture taken March 18, 2019. © REUTERS/Hannah McKay

Police in Germany and Sweden have issued similar warnings because of Muslim migrants raping and gang-raping women and girls.

Migrants Terrorizing Girls in Small Swedish City

Nottinghamshire’s police force has been accused of victim-blaming for urging women not to walk alone at night due to the risk of assault. The safety advisory was retracted after causing an uproar on social media.

In a now-deleted Facebook post, Nottinghamshire police said that “taking a risk when it comes to walking alone at night is not one of those things we should be doing,” stressing that the danger is particularly prevalent for women. “Women who walk alone especially at night are at risk of harassment, or even physical assault,” the message noted. The force also asked women to be careful if they choose to make a “late-night store run.”

The advice didn’t sit well with many women, however, who accused the force of sexism and victim-blaming. Helen Voce, chief executive of Nottingham Women's Centre, described the post as an affront to women. “It felt like a 1980s thing; it is so condescending,” Voce told the BBC, adding that the line about late-night shopping was especially offensive. “I think it makes women feel like it’s their fault and that’s ridiculous.”

Another woman who responded to the Facebook post wrote that “it’s 2019 and we no longer blame women for whatever crime has been committed against them.”

On Twitter, one user argued that the police notice sounded like it was from Saudi Arabia – a country criticized for requiring women to be accompanied by men in many situations.

Responding to the criticisms, a police spokesman acknowledged the “clumsy” nature of the message, while insisting that their underlying intention was to help keep people safe. “The post was swiftly deleted as soon as it was brought to our attention. Feedback has been provided and we would apologize unreservedly for any offense caused,” the spokesman said.

Good grief! This is so absurd, it is tragic. As I have written before, girls in college should try to avoid getting blasted out of their mind on alcohol and/or drugs, because it makes them easily vulnerable to sexual attacks. Some would get upset at the suggestion as victim blaming. It's ridiculous! If they didn't drink themselves into oblivion, if they didn't walk alone at night, there would be no victim to blame. 

Why do these women want to put other women at risk? Is it just because they have a right to? They do have a right to and European governments are failing them in not ensuring those rights. But, it is still a colossally stupid thing to do to put yourself in an unnecessarily dangerous situation, just because you have a right to.

Not everyone asked for an apology, however. “Imagine being offended by well meaning, practical advice,” one netizen mused. Another unfazed Twitter user described the controversial police advisory as “common sense.”

Denying the risks of walking alone at night is tantamount to leaving your car unlocked – a reality “sadly lost amongst sjw liberals,” noted an equally unbothered netizen.

I don't know what sjw means either.

Female Tourists Should Not Wear Skirts in India, says Tourism Minister

Foreign arrivals issued with welcome kit including safety advice for women, after high-profile assaults

The Taj Mahal – a popular tourist spot. UK Foreign Office advice suggests visitors to India ‘respect local dress codes’. Photograph: Cathal Mcnaughton/Reuters

Michael Safi in Delhi, Guardian

India’s tourism minister has said foreign women should not wear skirts or walk alone at night in the country’s small towns and cities “for their own safety”.

Discussing tourist security in the north Indian city of Agra, site of the Taj Mahal, Mahesh Sharma said foreign arrivals to India were issued a welcome kit that included safety advice for women.

“In that kit they are given dos and don'ts,” he said on Sunday. “These are very small things like, they should not venture out alone at night in small places, or wear skirts, and they should click the photo of the vehicle number plate whenever they travel and send it to friends.”

He added: “For their own safety, women foreign tourists should not wear short dresses and skirts ... Indian culture is different from the western.” 

Is the rape of girls considered part of Indian culture?

The welcome kit, geared at female travellers and introduced last year, is one of a suite of measures introduced to address declining rates of female tourism after the high-profile gang-rape and murder of a Delhi medical student in 2012, and a number of subsequent attacks on female tourists.

The kit says: “Some parts of India, particularly the smaller towns and villages, still have traditional styles of dressing. Do find out about local customs and traditions or concerned authorities before visiting such places.”

It mirrors the UK Foreign Office advice to women travelling in India, which suggests they “respect local dress codes and customs and avoid isolated areas, including beaches, when alone at any time of day”.

Sharma clarified his remarks later on Sunday, denying they amounted to a dress code for foreign women. ”We have not given any specific instructions regarding what they should wear or not wear. We are asking them to take precaution while going out at night. We are not trying to change anyone’s preference,” he said.

“It was very stupid, not a fully thought-through statement,” said Ranjana Kumari, the director of the Delhi-based Centre for Social Research, a think-tank focusing on gender equality in India. “The minister doesn’t realise the implications of such irresponsible statements.”

Kumari said the remarks reflected “the syndrome of blaming women” for what they wore and where they were. She said: “But the problem is men and boys in India. They go for all kinds of misogyny and sexual acts, rapes and gang-rapes. It’s important for [Sharma] to have said how to punish the perpetrators of crime and stop the nonsense of ogling women and following them. Why should any girls come to India when it is becoming famous for not being safe to girls?”

India toughened sentences for rape and introduced fast-track courts for sexual assault trials after the fatal 2012 gang-rape focused world attention on violence against women in the country.

National crime statistics show 92 women are raped each day in India, mostly in rural areas, though the figure is widely believed to be an underestimate. Street harassment and violence, sometimes called “eve-teasing”, is even more common, experienced by 79% of Indian women according to a recent survey.

Tourists can be subjected to the same harassment and worse, most recently in July 2016 when an Israeli national was sexually assaulted by a gang of men in the Himalayan resort town of Manali. A Japanese woman was kidnapped and sexually assaulted in 2014 in Bihar and a Russian assaulted by an auto-rickshaw driver in Delhi in 2015, among other cases.

Sharma’s remarks trended on Indian social media on Monday and earned rebukes from political rivals.

Sharma has previously been criticised over his views on nights out for women. “It may be alright elsewhere, but it is not part of Indian culture,” he said last year.

I repeat, is the raping of girls considered part of Indian culture? I trust Minister Sharma's comments were intended to protect women. He understands that Indian men find short skirts, etc., provocative, that Indian men think that women who are out past dark are sluts and whores and deserve to be raped and beaten, and that Indian men have very little self-control, conscience or compassion for the suffering of a girl.

He also understands that this is how life has been in India for hundreds, if not thousands of years and is not likely to change overnight, or even in a decade or two. It will take generations, but it must happen; there must be no tolerance for such evil behaviour.