Every year, between November 15 and 17, students, workers, and anarchists from all over Greece take over the Athens Polytechnic to commemorate the 1973 student uprising against the military junta that ruled the Mediterranean nation between the years 1967–1974.

The three-day celebration traditionally culminates in a mass protest that ends in Exarcheia, an artist neighborhood generally considered to be the spiritual home of the anarchist movement.

VICE News attended this year's demonstration, in which protesters were met with an unprecedented level of police brutality. Greek riot police used tear gas, flashbangs, and batons against protesters till the early hours in what appeared to be a complete crackdown on any form of civil disobedience.​

​ Statistics show that abortion occurs at the same rate whether it is legal or illegal. So while banning abortion doesn't really do much in the way of protecting the unborn, it does have one significant effect: It makes it exponentially more likely that women will suffer grave health consequences as a result of the procedure.

Where abortion is legal, it is one of the safest medical procedures in the world. Just  ​0.6 in 100,000 women die as a result of legal abortion (the risk of death associated with childbirth, in fact, is 14 times higher than with abortion). Where abortion is prohibited or restricted, however, it is wildly dangerous: ​According to the World Health Organization, one in four unsafe abortions—defined as "termination of unwanted pregnancy either by persons lacking the necessary skills or in an environment lacking the minimal medical standards, or both"—will likely result in severe complications. To put it in even more horrifying terms, a woman dies ​every eight minutes from unsafe abortion.

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Dr. Rebecca Gomperts in Valencia, Spain. Photo courtesy Vessel.

Dr. Rebecca Gomperts, a Dutch activist whose rather unconventional work is documented in the  ​forthcoming documentary Vessel (directed by Diana Whitten), has devoted her life to helping women safely terminate pregnancies in countries where doing so is illegal. Her interest in the issue began while she was volunteering with Greenpeace in South America, where she witnessed the disastrous effects of illegal abortion firsthand.

"I was told stories by women and doctors—really awful stories, caused by the lack of access to safe abortion," she said in a phone interview. "One of the crew members told me that when you have a Dutch ship, the ship is under Dutch law [in international waters], and you can legally do abortions."

From this idea, Women in Waves was born. Led by Gomperts, the organization's goal is simple: to help women get safe abortions in countries where doing so is forbidden. Their methodology is more elaborate. In 1999, Women on Waves created a floating abortion clinic with the intent of docking in countries where abortion is illegal, then picking up women in need of the procedure, carrying them into international waters, and providing them with the abortion pill. Once the pill is administered, the boat drops the women back in their own country to safely miscarry at home.

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The Women on the Waves ship. Photo courtesy Vessel

Vessel documents the organization's progress over the years—from Women on Waves' maiden voyage to Ireland in 2001, where the group was prevented from carrying out their mission due to a certification error; to Poland, where they were contacted by a woman seven weeks pregnant with her rapist's child; to Portugal, where warships prevented their boat from entering national waters, inciting public outrage; to Ecuador, where they worked with local activists to raise awareness for a safe abortion hotline by hanging a massive banner off of La Virgin del Panecillo.

Over the course of the film, the group's tactics evolve significantly. Perhaps the most notable evolution occurred in Portugal, after the Women on Waves boat was prevented from entering international waters. Gomperts was set to appear on a Portuguese talk show, and frustrated by her inability to help the dozens of women calling the organization's hotline, she made an impromptu decision to instruct viewers how to induce their own abortions with misoprostol, a medicine sold in most drug stores to treat postpartum bleeding. (Misoprostol is used together with mifepristone in medical abortion, although it is  ​up to 90 percent effective on its own. Both misoprostol and mifepristone are on the World Health Organization ​essential medicines list.)

"The only reason that I did that was because we were getting desperate calls from women. I knew that it was so important to reveal that information," said Gomperts. "We were frustrated that we couldn't help anybody. It was the only thing we could do."

As a result, women from all over the world began emailing Women on Waves about finding and using misoprostol. Several of these emails are featured in the documentary; the stories they tell are equal parts saddening and infuriating. From a US soldier serving in Afghanistan: "I was raped. We are not allowed to get abortions here. I don't know what to do." From a woman in Ireland: "I cannot afford the black-market price, and my husband controls all my income." From a woman in Qatar: "If anyone finds out that I'm pregnant and not married, they'll lash me to death. I just wanna kill myself."

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Dr. Gompert and the Irish press. Photo Courtesy Vessel

"We thought for a long time about how to incorporate the women's voices," Vessel director Diana Whitten told VICE. "We knew that the emotional heart of what was going on were their stories, and that's what drives the activists." She added, "It's one in every three women that will have an abortion, statistically. There are essentially as many stories and as many perspectives as there are women."

In response to this demand, Dr. Gomperts went on to launch  ​Women on Web, an online service in which women can request a medical abortion by mail after undergoing a consultation with a doctor. To date, the organization has received over 100,000 emails from 123 countries; specially-trained volunteers advise and guide women every step of the way via email. According to Gomperts, Women on Web now gets emails from women in the United States at least once a day (Women on Web regretfully cannot help them, she says, because it only serves women in countries where abortion is illegal, not those where it is virtually inaccessible for some).

"I think the US made this decision to restrict access to abortion services. They will have to face the consequences of that at some point, when women start dying," said Gomperts. "And it's going to happen. It hasn't happened yet, perhaps, but it's going to happen because women are desperate.

When Whitten started filming Vessel, she thought it was going to be a global story. But then in 2011, conservative lawmakers in the United States began zealously passing laws to restrict women's abortion access, shuttering dozens of clinics in the South and Midwest.

"It has become a local story. When we started, the United States wasn't under the same threat that it is now," she said. "Now, women in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas are crossing the border into Mexico to get these pills or they are finding them in the flea market." It's not just Texas. Earlier this year, a Pennsylvania woman was  ​sentenced to 9 to 18 months in jail for giving her 16-year-old daughter mifepristone and misoprostol she purchased online, even though her daughter wasn't harmed by the procedure. 

Whitten says she hopes the documentary will "mobilize people" and "offer solidarity to women watching it everywhere." Throughout the film, many of the women who approach Women on Waves and Women on Web say they're ashamed and that they feel alone. Both Whitten and Gomperts affirm that shouldn't be the case, that women can erode that stigma by speaking out. "For as long as there's been sex, there have been networks of women that help other women access ways to end unwanted pregnancies or untenable pregnancies," Whitten said.

"I think that the taboo, the shame around the topic, the way women are silenced... it's not just about abortion," said Gomperts. "It's a taboo about a lot of other things. Abortion is a part of that. It's about women's sexuality, it's about female empowerment. There's so much in this issue, which is why it's still forbidden. It's not just about abortion or a fetus or whatever. It's about the whole power construct in the world."

Vessel reveals the power inherent in rejecting that taboo. "There's a metaphor inherent to this story—this idea of a woman leaving one realm of sovereignty in order to reclaim her own—that I think is really beautiful," Whitten said.

Vessel premieres January 9 at the IFC Center in NYC, and on video on demand platforms January 13. You can pre-order the film at www.ves​selthefilm.com. Any student group, university, nonprofit, clinic, and activist group can host a screening; those interested should contact ​vessel@filmsprout.org.

Follow Callie on ​Twitter.

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Photo by  ​Lindsay Attaway

​ Menstruation is one of those age-old excuses for women to get out of things:
​ "Can I be excused from gym class? It's a 'female' thing."
​ "I can't sleep with you tonight... I'm on my period."
​ "Sorry I'm being such a bitch! It's that time of the month."

Old "Aunt Flow" a great excuse to have in your back pocket, because a) it works for almost any situation, and b) it's impossible—or at least, impolite—to verify that you're actually on your period. It's so useful, in fact, that a ​survey from 2012 suggested that 38 percent of women use their period as a cop out for things they don't want to do.

It's unsurprising, then, that there's an ongoing debate about whether or not menstruation should be considered a legit excuse to get out of work. This week,  Gedis Grudzinskas—a respected gynecologist in London—came out and said workplaces should offer women a paid "menstrual leave"—basically, a few extra sick days for when you're on the rag.

"Some women feel really grotty when menstruating," he said in an interview with the  ​Daily Mail. "Coming into work is a struggle and they feel lousy."

Coming into work is a struggle for me every day, but I'd settle for a free pass on the days I'm bleeding (or the days that I say I'm bleeding—you'll never know). As per Dr. Grudzinskas's recommendation, women would get a few days each month of "menstrual leave," sort of like getting three extra sick days. (Though he clarified that this would be separate from sick days, since menstruation "is not a sickness, after all.")

Gloria Steinem called for a similar kind of thing in 1978, when she imagined what would happen  ​if men could menstruate (including extra research into period cramps, "to prevent monthly work loss among the powerful"). But even before that, menstrual leave was an established policy in many parts of Asia: In Japan, there's a law that requires employers to let women leave work if they are "suffering" from menstruation. In Taiwan, women get an extra three sick days per year; in Indonesia, it's an extra two days per month; in South Korea, an extra day each month. A menstrual leave policy was also debated (and then rejected) in Russia last year, wherein one politician argued that "the pain for the fair sex is often so intense that it is necessary to call an ambulance." That politician was a dude, by the way.

I couldn't find any statistics about women rushed to the ER because of their periods, but a  ​study from 2012 claimed that menstrual pain is "severe enough to interfere with daily activities in up to 20 percent of women." But then again, is that because of actual pain or just the result of having a bulletproof excuse?

I can already hear the men's rights activists wailing about how women have their bloody panties in a twist and how a menstrual leave policy would be unfair. But it's also noteworthy that most of the people speaking out in favor of menstrual leave—including Dr. Grudzinskas—are men, who I'm sure haven't the faintest idea what having a period is like.

As a woman, I'll never tell. If you really knew what those few days each month were like, I wouldn't be able to use "that time of the month" as my one-way ticket out of anything.

Follow Arielle Pardes on ​Twitter.

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Entrance to the Baffin Correctional Centre in Iqaluit. Photo by Peter Worden.

My neighbor in Iqaluit tried to kill someone. We've shared cabs and we pass one another in the toiletry aisle, but it wasn't until her name was called in court this week that I made the connection. Even then, I just nodded as if to say, well, shit happens.​

Life goes on in the territory. It has to—even after a suspicious death last w​eek in Igloolik (pop. 1,454), a murder the week befo​re in Rankin Inlet (pop. 2,266), and one before that on October 1 in Pon​d Inlet (pop. 1,549). In Nunavut (pop. 31,906), we're all neighbors to the most serious criminal offence: murder.

This week Statistics Canada released its Homicide Su​rvey—an annual cobbling-together of data from police forces across the country. It boasts the fewest homicide victims in 40 years. That number is down in Nunavut too: four homicides in 2013 from five in 2012 and seven in 2011. It's a deceptive stat that, like so many national reports, paints Nunavut as an outlier in Canada.

If Nunavut were a city its homicide rate would be triple that of Regina, the Canadian metropolitan area with the highest per-capita murder rate. If it were a country its murder rate would be double that of the US and in the range of Nicaragua and Haiti.

But Nunavut is not a city or a country. It is 26 fly-in communities ranging from 130 to 7,000 people spread out over Canada's newest and largest jurisdiction; it's a population so small in a territory so close-knit that familiarity with crime is ipso facto.

There are currently  12 people in various stages of trial pertaining to murder charges: nine first- or second-degree charges, one manslaughter, and two attempted. They filter through the Nunavut Court of Justice where, with the exception of—at last count—five cold cases, all cases end up. Peter Harte, a criminal defence lawyer who worked in Nunavut between 2005 and 2012, has heard it all. When he first started, a grandfather, father and son were all in court on the same day charged with different offenses. The number of violent crime cases he has worked are, in his words, too many to count.

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Nunavut Court of Justice. Photo by Peter Worden.

His banker's boxes full of files attest to the variables associated with the high crime rate: poverty, lack of employment opportunities, overcrowded housing, substance abuse—in particular, alcohol—violent experiences growing up, and a frequent history of residential schooling which often passes the dysfunction and damage down through more than one generation.

"Those predict high crime rates everywhere and they exist in abundance in the North," Harte said.

Alcohol ranks particularly high on his list of destructive forces. Harte says the culture is diluted by alcohol, which interferes with what it means to be Inuit. He says it is as potent as losing a language and as invasive and eroding as cable TV. He hopes communities—many of them technically dry—eventually decide that alcohol is too much of a threat to Inuit culture.

"I suspect as long as Nunavut is struggling to deal with alcohol and housing and limited employment opportunities, it will continue to have a significantly high crime rate," he said.

Meanwhile, Iqaluit—which has the highest rate of crime in the territory—is considering opening the territory's first beer and wine store.

Well, second.

In the 60s and 70s there was a liquor store. It's remembered sourly by John Amagoalik, largely considered the Father of Nunavut and amicably referred to simply as John A. Like all the elders who filibustered a community hearing to voice their opposition to opening a pilot store, he warned of the perils of alcohol, or imialuk—bad water—in Inuktitut.

"There was a lot of abuse of alcohol back then. There was a lot of violence. There was beatings. There was crime. There was rape and even murder. Because of that the liquor store was closed," he said.

It's one area where Nunavut is in line with the national Homicide Survey: a large percentage of murders are committed when the assailant is under the influence of alcohol.

What's not clear or fair from the statistics is that the population is so low that per capita, it does not take a large number of offences to make a relatively big jump. Four murders this year gives Nunavut a way higher murder rate than the national average. As Harte puts it, if you took another area similar in housing shortages and alcoholism, you would have a similar crime rate.

"It's a little unfair to look at Nunavut and the crime rate that it has and sort of assume that it's all Nunavut's fault," he said.

Still, the justice system at present is far from peachy. The hamlet of Pond Inlet was referred to in court as the "jury capital of Nunavut" by one Crown prosecutor for its recent number of trials and growing difficulty of assembling fresh jury pools.

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Closeup of the Nunavut Justice Centre. Photo by Peter Worden.

Graham Clinton is the economist who penned the 2013 Nunavut Economic Outlook. In it, Pond Inlet is named one of the two communities most likely to be affected by resource development. Clinton says in times of sudden economic growth you can expect crime to go up.

"It's not that it's inevitable, but most research shows that it's extremely likely," he said. "You can't find too many examples where a community is unique enough to avoid such an outcome."

The maturation process can be a rough one, but it may be a case of short-term pain for long-term gain. Clinton cites the mining town of Kugluktuk, Nunavut as an example. There, raw data and anecdotal evidence showed crime shoot up in time with the onset of the diamond mining industry. Today, crime has levelled off. 

"The transition was difficult," Clinton said. "People were away and people weren't used to that and all the things it exposed."

He says while the resource industry has a vested interest in healthy communities, and money does trickle down to social programming through royalty payments and Inuit Impact and Benefit Agreements, it doesn't have an immediate and tangible effect on lowering crime. "It's getting a little bit far away from their not only roles and responsibility but also areas of expertise."

He says community readiness is key.

A critical piece of the justice puzzle is the justice system itself. Harte believes Nunavut does an exemplary job of being transparent and fair despite its abundant caseload.

"The accused person has relatives and the accused person has people who will listen to him or her and ultimately the justice system is not served well by a process that results in an accused person saying 'I didn't get a fair trial,'" he said, adding that corrections does the best it can. It cannot, however, reverse the combined deleterious effects of substance abuse, poverty and historic trauma. In many cases, recidivism is almost a given, with the problems that brought that person into the legal system waiting for them at home.

"Corrections," Harte said, emphasizing each word, "can't fix the underlying problems."

"It's impossible for corrections to deal with the social problems that ultimately are at the heart of what brings people into conflict with the law."

​@wordenCBC

​A video making the rounds on the internet this week has Harry Potter fans the world over falling to the ground in apoplectic fits of jealousy. Shot last month near the town of Czocha, Poland, the polished footage shows about 190 robed and pointy-hatted Potterites commandeering a local castle to host the world's largest and most intricate J. K. Rowling–themed ​LARP adventure in history.

Organized by Denmark's Rollespilsfabrikken and Poland's Liveform LARPing communities, the College of Wizardry simulation gave super fans an experience thousands of times more satisfying than buying overpriced butterbeers at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter: the chance to escape the Muggle world and, for four days, become students and teachers in a 24/7 magical academy, learning spells, playing Quidditch, and engaging in hyperbolic emotional intrigue with their fellow witches and wizards. And thanks to the intense and sophisticated LARPing community and resources of Northern Europe, this fantastical reality is set to open its doors once more next spring.

People role-play Harry Potter all the time, and the College of Wizardry organizers openly admit on the event's website that what they're doing is just an extension of daydreaming or make-believe. "It's essentially the same as when kids use curtains as robes and sticks as wands and run around pretending to be witches and wizards," they write. "Except we're grownups with nicer costumes and a lot of experience in designing interactive experiences with each other." That translates to uniform and finely tailored robes, ties issued to participants in the colors of one of five school houses (although set in the Potter universe, the game took place at the fictional Czocha College of Witchcraft and Wizardry, not Hoggy-Warty-Hogwarts), and manuals and guidelines for how to interact over the course of the week.

The immersive detail of this magical reality is something you'd probably never be able to create in the American LARPing world. Here simulations are more weekend-warrior fantasy creations—a lot of slash-and-hack battles giving folks an opportunity to channel some aggression into foam swords and fireballs. It's the sort of thing you'll see in the 2013 film Knights of Badassdom. But the Poles and their neighbors devote serious time and energy to developing new worlds, not just battles. In 2012, a Polish LARP squad called the Brothership of Sorontar from Glogowka announced their plan to develop Kraina Pradziada, a full-time, Tolkein-themed LARP park inspired by an already functional LARP park, Utopion, in Bexbach, Germany.

The Poles have wanted to pull off a massive Harry Potter LARP for ages, but they never had the resources to hire a castle and create all the kit. That's why they called in the Danes: the true kings of LARPing. Rollespilsfabrikken, an association of 1,000 dues-paying members with a physical headquarters and armory in Copenhagen, is just one of dozens of Danish LARP organizations partially funded by state grants. With 100,000 Danes involved in the practice, LARPing is the third-most popular organized activity—behind soccer and handball—in the nation. The Danes have even experimented, in the town of Hobro, with education-through-LARPing.

The Danish organizers of the Harry Potter simulation state that they're disciples of the Nordiclarp movement, which is all about creating a convincing world and then dumping characters into it unscripted. Without prompting, there's no guarantee that the good guys will win, no telling how the scenario will play out. That freedom, they hope, will make wizarding feel real, create engaging stakes in the events, and perhaps dig up new emotions and insights.

This ethos undergirds their mission statement for the Wizarding event: "We want the LARP to feel like you're stepping into the world of Harry Potter. Emotional drama, school rivalry, young adults fighting the battles of adults, and occasional comedy are all part of the experience... We want drama, escalation of conflicts, and de-escalation back to normalcy again."

Also known as bleed, this obsession with the leakage between reality and fantasy and altered emotional states has in the past been taken to more extreme ends in Denmark than the fight against Voldemort. In 2008, the "Motherland" simulation envisioned Denmark ruled by Nazis in a reality where the Allies lost World War II and subjected participants to simulated torture. In 2011, the $40,000, two-day "Kapo" simulation attempted to teach Danes the reality of a paranoid police state by having them recreate the conditions of Jews brutalized in concentration camps and then coerced into degrading and dominating their fellow prisoners. The LARP, intended to explore the roots of human cruelty, involved simulated gang rapes.

Thank God for now they're only interested in exploring the teenage angst and juvenile excitement of the wizarding world. But we'll have to see what they cook up next: The same team plans to reopen their castle-cum-academy twice more in the next year, April 9–12 and 16–19, inviting another 114 participants and additional non-participant observers to get as close to Hogwarts as it's possible to get. So anyone 18 and older who'd like to receive his or her belated, digital owl had better sign up now and figure out how to get to rural Poland in the spring. 

Follow Mark Hay on Twitter.

We all know that one guy who was really into Terence McKenna in high school and would show up to Chemistry with a bag of peyote buttons and talk about quantum mechanics and New Age spiritualism while drawing occult symbols in his Moleskine. This video is what happens when that guy grows up and gets really good at Adobe After Effects.

The song behind the video is by art rock mainstays ​Elysian Fields, who've been in the game since 1995 and have produced a pretty remarkable body of work, including collaborations with the likes of John Zorn, Steve Albini, and Jeff Buckley. This dreamy tune encourages you to close your eyes, suspend your undying love for black metal or horrorcore, and ride the magic carpet groove train all the way back to the station, man. If the station is even there. Whoa.

Support Elysian Fields by buying ​their stuff on iTunes. 

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​Models for dapperQ's He Said We Said Project. Photo by Leslie Van Stelten

​To combat the lack of diversity at ​New York Fashion Week, queer style website dap​perQ decided to host its own fashion show in the fall of 2013. The show catered to masculine-presenting females and trans-identified individuals. More than 300 people packed into the rainbow-bedecked This n' That dance club in Williamsburg to check out designers and models who represented a community that is often neglected on the catwalks of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week.

Tomorrow, dapperQ will host their third semiannual fashion show—this time at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. The show will be titled (un)Heeled: A Fashion Show for the Unconventionally Masculine and will offer an alternate narrative to the popular ​Killer Heels exhibition currently on display at the museum. This show will be dapperQ's largest yet, with over 2,000 expected attendees and models like ​Elliott Sailors and Rain Dove. 

In addition to looks by transgender-friendly brands like Sir New York and Bindle & Keep coming down the runway, the festivities will also involve the Dapper Academy. The Dapper Academy will feature brands like the Goorin Bros. instructing attendees on how to pick a hat that works best with the shape of their face and Jag & Co. teaching attendees how to to style with statement socks. Although, the event celebrates queer style, dapperQ hopes to forge a space where allies can be created and an understanding and appreciation can be shared between every type of person.

I called up Anita Dolce Vita, the editor-in-chief of dapperQ and the producer of the show, to talk about why this event is so important and how fashion can be revolutionary.

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​Model Vianela Tapia wearing Jag & Co. Photo by Vito Fun

VICE: How did the website get into hosting fashion shows?
​Anita Dolce Vita: We expanded into events because Fashion Week is something that people get really hyped about in New York City. The restaurants, bars, and clubs are tailored to all these designers and events. Our readers, however, were not really included. A lot of the times the fashion hype was around fabulous gay men and the fabulous men that they dress. We wanted to create a space where designers like Bindle & Keep, [who make bespoke suits for masculine-presenting women and trans customers], could show their work and use models who are interested in booking gigs where they would not have to femme it up.

Do you ever get criticized for investing so much into fashion?
​Some people have questioned why we have a fashion focus. They see it as consumerist or superficial or even taking away from some of the other movements that are really important right now. But our fashion focus is for our readers. Masculine clothing is not just a part of their identities, but how they express themselves on a daily basis. In doing so, and in being true to themselves, that simple act of dressing in a manner that is comfortable for them becomes a political statement and a radical act. [Women] are still harassed at work for wearing a suit and on the street for appearing too masculine.

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​Model Ryley Pogensky. Photo by Grace Chu

What are you trying to achieve with this event?
​Our goal is to empower and honor the trailblazers who boldly and fearlessly dress masculine in the face of daily oppression. We think of ourselves as a queer fashion revolution and one of the most stylish forms of protest for our generation. What we want to do is not only show the fashion, but also build community, educate people on our mission, and build allyship.

How is this show different from the others?
​We have been doing fashion shows for our readers primarily in queer spaces. So this is the first show that is going to be in a non-queer specific public space. There is also going to be the Dapper Academy, which will include "how-to's" and mini pop-up shops. Given the number of designers, attendees, and models, this could be the largest runway show ever in New York City specifically for celebrating the style of trans-identified individuals and masculine presenting women

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​Model Chris Konnaris wearing Angie Chuang. Photo by Grace Chu 

Will most of the clothing be suits and formal wear?
​I think because our readers have been told for so long that they have to present as feminine, a lot of them are coming into their own for the first time in menswear. Now they are starting to explore their aesthetic. [High-end streetwear brand] ​Sir New York is interesting because out of all of the brands that we have, the majority are responding to demands from people who have to go to weddings or wear to professional attire to work everyday. There haven't been a lot of androgynous menswear brands that are doing streetwear and sportswear [like Sir New York].

Why are events like these so important for people outside the LGBTQ community?
​I think it is important to check out because while marriage equality is making its way across the country, we are still dealing with the reality that members of our community don't fall neatly into gender binaries. They are oppressed and are disproportionately victims of violence. I think building this allyship is very important, because it breaks down barriers for people who dress and identify this way. We want people to understand that everyone should have the freedom to express themselves. Using this kind of medium builds bridges and understanding. 

(un)Heeled: A Fashion Show for the Unconventionally Masculine 
​Saturday, December 6 
​7 PM to 11 PM
​Beaux Arts Court, Brooklyn Museum 
​Free admission

Visit ​dapperQ.com for more info

Follow Erica on ​Twitter.

​It's time, once again, to marvel at some idiots who don't know how to handle the world:

Cry-Baby #1: Kenneth Caplan[body_image width='1100' height='640' path='images/content-images/2014/12/05/' crop='images/content-images-crops/2014/12/05/' filename='cry-baby-of-the-week-a-cop-allegedly-shot-a-woman-because-she-honked-at-him-124-body-image-1417803547.jpg' id='9340']

The incident: A woman honked at a man who cut her off on the freeway.

The appropriate response: Honking back if you don't think you deserved the honking. Maybe flipping the other driver off. 

The actual response: The man allegedly shot the woman who honked at him.

Back on November 11, an unnamed 20-year-old woman was driving on the freeway in Houston.

The woman claims that she was cut off by a car being driven by Kenneth Caplan, a reserve deputy constable with Harris County Precinct 6.

Speaking to ​KHOU, the woman said she honked at the car and tried to drive around him. As she tried to pass him, she says, Caplan rolled down his window, pointed a gun at her, and opened fire. 

"He was aiming at me and I thought he was going to cuss me out. It didn't register that I was, you know, going to get shot," the victim told ​Click2Houston. "The blood was in between my nails, just crazy blood."

"I just started crying because I knew I was going to die, I wanted to call my mom and tell her I love you," she added.

Luckily, the bullet had just grazed the woman's head and she was not seriously injured. She spent three days in the hospital, where she had eight staples put into her head.

In an unusual move for the United States of America, the cop who allegedly shot someone for no reason was actually arrested and charged with a crime. Specifically aggravated assault, which carries a sentence of five to 99 years. He was also fired. 

Cry-Baby #2: James Jarvis

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The incident: A man saw some mice outside a McDonald's.

The appropriate response: Nothing. This is where mice live. Outside of McDonald'ses.

The actual response:​ He complained to the McDonald's before taking his story to the local paper. 

While visiting a McDonald's drive-thru in Tyburn, England, last weekend, 26-year-old factory worker James Jarvis saw some mice scurrying around outside. 

"We spotted them as we were coming up to the first drive-thru window," he said. "Before we knew it, there were five, six, seven of them coming out from a gated area. It was disgusting."

After ​snapping some photos of the mice on his phone, James complained to the restaurant's staff. He was told that they knew about the mice and had put traps down. James responded by telling the worker that this "wasn't good enough."

James, who presumably will not be happy until every single fucking mouse on the planet has been eradicated and he is able to leave his house without fear of seeing one, then took his story to his local newspaper, the ​Birmingham Mail.

"It's not right to have mice roaming about near a fast food restaurant where there are kids about," James told the paper while ​thinking of the children. 

McDonald's has blamed the mice on construction taking place near the restaurant. In a statement, the company said: "There is currently extensive roadworks taking place in close proximity to our restaurant and, on occasion, pests have been sighted in the area disturbed by the development works. We continue to work closely with our contractors to monitor the area."

James did not specify what he would like McDonald's to do about the situation. Maybe McDonald's can start building all of their restaurants on hovercrafts or something? IDK.

Which of these guys is the bigger cry-baby? Let us know in this little poll here:

Previously: ​The guy from Blink 182 said that streaming music was like killing elephants and a church refused to bury a woman because she hadn't donated enough money to them while she was dying.

Winner: The church!!!

Follow Jamie "Lee Curtis" Taete on ​Twitter.

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Image courtesy of MormonBoyz.com

Becoming a Mormon is incredibly erotic—at least that's how one porn entrepreneur remembers it. Legrand Wolf (obviously not his real name) never knew any openly gay men as a kid, but he'd also never enrolled in sports. So when he had his first locker-room experience at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah, it was revelatory.

"Getting ready for my mission, I was finally exposed to [naked dudes] and I figured it out pretty quickly," he told me. "But then I was around all these straight hot men, and I had to hide the fact that I was gay despite all this intimacy."

Wolf eventually had sex with his mission trip partner, which the Mormons suggestively enough call a "companion." After months of dropped hints and excruciating build-up, Wolf's sexy French partner finally put the moves on him and they developed a loving relationship. Although his former companion is now married with kids, Wolf says their affair—and the sexual tension leading up to it—changed his life. At the very least, it's the inspiration for MormonBoyz.com, the only gay porn site that caters to some very specific religious fantasies.

While the idea of Mormon-themed porn might seem hyper-specific, it makes sense. "If you're looking for something general, there are a million ways to get it," Stephen Yagielowicz, who works at the adult industry business site XBIZ, told me. "Tube sites are monopolizing traffic, so now it's not even about the niche, it's about the microniche." The industry expert says that the ways to compete with free content are three-fold, and all problematic. Porn makers can make high-quality content (but then have to "play whack-a-mole" to keep it from being stolen and uploaded to the tubes), make their stuff more extreme (but then reckon with something "legally problematic and bad for the industry"), or do something really, really specific ("if people are into one-legged tap-dancing Bulgarian midgets and find a stock-pile of that, they're willing to pay").

That's why it's perfectly logical to have a porn site where users can pay $30 a month to watch characters like "Elder Buckley" and "Stake President Cannon" stuff magic underwear in each other's mouths.

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Photo courtesy of MormonGirlz.com

It makes sense on another level, too, according to Wolf: Much of America thinks Mormons are kind of freaky. "Mormonism has always been seen as a place for secret sexuality," he says. "Ever since Joe Smith was secretly marrying [multiple] wives, people have thought of the Church as a sexually libertine one that was a danger to the mainstream way of life."

The church has banned polygamy since the late 19th century, and it's not as if Mormons' sex lives are weirder than anyone else's. Still, their rituals definitely have an erotic flavor. When a young Mormon gets inducted into the temple, he or she gets "anointed" while wearing a sheet with a hole in the top. The elder then washes the newbie's body, including his or her thighs and groin area. Then they put on the Temple Garment—or dowdy white underwear that devotees are required to wear at all times after the ceremony.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, this ceremony is a common set on the site. And according to Wolf, people aren't exactly disappointed by the repetitiveness. He says that while business was slow for the first two years of the site's existence, it's taken off in the last two.

So much so that in July, Wolf's friend from Brigham Young University started up MormonGirlz.com, a sister site with the same idea. Brooke Hunter (another pseudonym) grew up in Provo in a devout family, so she knows all the handshakes, rituals and symbols—and she incorporates them into her videos. She says that kind of arcane info is part of the appeal for her fans. "If they're not Mormon they probably like entering this little self-contained universe with thorough storytelling," she says. "If they are Mormon, well, it's pretty authentic."

Hunter, who is a lesbian, also had an encounter with one of her mission companions, she says. A favorite trope of hers to play with is that of the "companionship inventory." That's a scheduled part of the week when partners air their gripes —like a "oh, you sing too loud in the shower when I'm trying to read my scriptures" sort of thing. But as the site grows, Hunter wants to move beyond recreating the same sex scene over and over.

"Right now it's all sister missionaries, all girls in their early 20s," she says. "I'm thinking of adding in a few classic characters, though, like Mormon MILF. I think that would be a popular one."

Follow Allie Conti on Twi​tter.​

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Aid workers preparing to enter Ebola treatment unit. Image via CDC​ Global

This article first appeared on VICE UK

​Fear of infection from some form of new super disease or virus seems to come around every couple of years like clockwork. 2002: SARS. 2009: swine flu. 2012: dip-dyed hair. 2014 brought Ebola, and suddenly a whole load of people were googling maps of the world to work out how far Liberia was from their local supermarket.

Of course, when people in the West think their region might be safe from threat, everyone moves on and continues digging their nicotine and fast-food graves. But the tabloid scare around the virus has raised an issue: If it isn't Ebola, what virus is going to kill us? 

We screamed our fears at Benjamin Krishna, a ​Wellcome Trust PhD student currently working on human cytomegalovirus at the Department of Medicine at Cambridge University, and he calmly and sensibly explained the different kinds of viruses that pose a potential threat to mankind. 

VICE: Let's cut to the chase: What's going to kill me in the near future?
​ Benjamin Krishna: There's a lot of viruses that could kill you, but it's never guaranteed. Even the most deadly viruses out there—rabies, untreated HIV, and Ebola—thankfully have their survivors.

Is there any situation in which something considered fairly harmless, like the flu or repeated bouts of gonorrhea, could be deadly?
​ A lot of viruses become incredibly aggressive for people who have weakened immune systems. Not so much someone on vitamin supplements but HIV patients, transplant patients, and cancer patients, for example, can become susceptible to common viruses that you might not notice. Flu and the ​herpesviridae—a family of viruses related to herpes—are a big threat to these people.

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Various viruses from the Herpesviridae family. Photo via Wiki Commons

Let's talk about herpes. Are you saying anyone who's woken up in a strange bed after they've been to a Vodka Revs is a walking time bomb?
​ Herpes viruses are very common. The family of diseases include oral and genital herpes, glandular fever, and chicken pox. You could get a herpesvirus at the playgroup. Herpes simplex, the viruses that cause oral and genital herpes, are more likely to spread by sexual contact, yes. 

A lot of people have herpes but no symptoms. The incredible thing is, because herpes has evolved with humans and adapted to living in us, its genetic material has a whole toolkit of genes that interact with our immune systems and keep symptoms to a minimum. Unlike the flu, you can be infected and not notice.

So if it's relatively well adapted to humans, why is it so potentially dangerous?
​ One reason is because they cause such damage to the immunologically weak. Pregnant mothers who become infected with herpesviruses have a risk of passing it on to their fetus, which can mess with development. Cytomegalovirus, which almost nobody has heard of, is the biggest cause of congenital birth defects in the west. Bigger than fetal alcohol syndrome. 

About half of people are infected with herpes simplex. But this is why it's a high-priority vaccine—it might be completely asymptomatic, but if you lose your immune system, it's almost certainly a big concern. Additionally, there are rarer issues caused by these viruses, increased risks of cancers, or encephalitis—infections of the brain. About two in a million times, the virus spreads to the brain. About 70 percent die, over 90 percent suffer brain damage. 

In the UK, somewhere between 60 to 90 percent of people are infected and, like all herpesviruses, the infection is for life. In less developed countries the prevalence is over 99 percent. It appears to correlate with social background. 

Can you explain the correlation between behavior and infection?
​ This isn't official data, but we have some trouble finding infected people in Cambridge. Given that it is spread by saliva, it suggests we don't get around much. 

So you're saying that if I have a low immune system getting off with Cambridge kids isn't a bad idea?
​ If you'd just had a transplant, were on immunosuppressives, and just had to get off with someone... it's probably a good bet.

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Middle East respiratory syndrome 3-D image. Photo via ​Wiki Commons

Are there any viruses on the horizon we should look out for?
​ This might sound arrogant, but it doesn't look like anything can get under our radar. We had researchers working on everything from elephant herpes right over to MERS.

MERS—which stands for ​Middle East Respiratory Syndrome—is a respiratory disease, in the same family as SARS and the common cold, which has killed about a third of people it has infected in the Middle East since it was first reported in 2012. We're not entirely sure where it has come, from but I think the current opinion is that it has jumped from camels. 

So don't rub yourself on a camel?
​ I'd suggest that even if they were virus-free. Oddly, camels get camel pox, a version of human small pox. It's a problem in the Middle East, where camels are essentially livestock. Research in Iraq into camel pox was included in the "sexed up" dossier justifying the war in Iraq. I feel sorry for those poor Iraqi vets, whose interest in camel pox was ​linked to biological weapons of mass destruction.

What other viruses and diseases are a concern?
​ There's a whole load of mosquito-based diseases which are spreading into Europe due to the warmer temperatures. The mosquitos carry malaria and Dengue fever, which can cause hemorrhagic fever like Ebola.

One of the scariest threats to me is pandemic flu. Unlike Ebola, flu spreads very well at least partly because it is airborne. In 2012 researchers published data in Science magazine showing how many mutations it would take to make H5N1—bird flu—airborne and it was ​just five. Officially, H5N1 kills about 60 percent of those infected, even a fraction of that would be devastating for humanity.

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What Ebola looks like up close. Photo via Flickr user NIAID

I thought we'd dealt with bird flu.
​There have been more cases recently  and I think H5N1 vaccines have been developed, but the virus is still only in birds. Influenza is a retrovirus, and the way retroviruses replicate is very mutagenic—so they mutate and evolve rapidly. As each new influenza strain needs a new vaccine, the risk of a rapidly spreading flu—even one with a mediocre mortality rate—is possible and scary.

So even if we do develop a flu vaccine, the virus will have most likely developed past treatment?
​ A new flu strain would need a new vaccine, which would take time to produce. If the influenza outpaces the scientists then it could cause a lot of deaths before being contained. I think the movie Contagion showed that scenario very well, although I think Contagion features something more like a hantavirus rather than flu.

Will Gwyneth Paltrow die?
​ I hope not, she's had a rough time recently as it is.

What's the worst virus you've heard of existing today?
​ Probably the ​Marburg virus. It's similar to Ebola and also causes hemorrhagic fever— burning up, bleeding. The biggest outbreaks saw greater than 80 percent mortality. To make it that bit more terrifying, it's possible that the Soviet Union made a ​good attempt at weaponizing it.

If not that, then rabies. Almost everyone catches it from an animal bite. That's unpleasant. Survival is very low without treatment. The virus travels from your peripheral nervous system up through the spine and into the brain. Symptoms at this point are delusions, terror, fear of water—to me it seems closest to the modern depictions of zombies.

Any other scary facts before I go out this weekend?
​ If you fancy being further grossed out, Google ​necrotizing fasciitis, ​leishmaniasis, and ​leprosy.

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All photos courtesy Nikki Silver/Naughty Naturals.

​Nikki Silver, known in feminist porn circles to be the most prominent hairy porn filmmaker, is cozied up at her desk in San Francisco. The morning sunlight streams in through the gauzy curtains, fragmenting the room and making her look ​like a dream​. I'm in Toronto, but we smoke a bowl simultaneously over Skype, and the feminist pornographer explains her life's work through the magick portal.

VICE: So you were supposed to come to Toronto in the spring for the Feminist Porn Awards, but they didn't let you into Canada. What happened?
​Nikki Silver: Five years ago I tried to go to BC, and I had the tiniest little dime bag with weed dust in it that I just forgot was in my bag. They were really suspicious of me and my friends—we were just travelling and didn't have any plans. So they searched all my stuff and they found it. They didn't arrest me, but they detained me. When I tried to cross, it came up immediately. They were like, "Have you ever had any problems getting into Canada," so I said no, and they were like, "You lied to us!" I also have a few misdemeanor charges for theft and protesting and stuff. Only one of them came up: for stealing a book.

I'm so sorry on behalf of my country. I wish you could have made it! But tell me a bit about your philosophy and your hairy porn site, Naughty Natural.
​Well I'm 27 now, and pretty much since I was 18 I've been doing different kinds of adult modeling or adult work in various facets—like escorting or whatever. I never liked shaving, so I started looking for gigs where I didn't have to shave. I started sort of resenting the big companies. I felt like I was mistreated. So I started looking at amateur sites and started producing things with my partner at the time, and friends or whatever. Just shooting people fucking, whatever I could find.

At the time I was living a transient lifestyle. I basically operated a porn production studio out of my car. I was sort of the traveling porn lady... it was pretty funny. And it was with communities of radical queer people and people who didn't want a regular job. So we'd just be broke and shooting things; it was never anything super high-paying. And that just sort of progressed. A few friends moved out to San Francisco, and I was like, "Oh, that sounds good, I haven't been out there." So I moved here and everything just took off.

So tell me, what are some of your most recent projects?
​I've been shooting a lot of kinky shoots with other female models with me as the top, which has been fun and is a more accurate representation of my sexuality than the more vanilla shoots I've done. [In one recent shoot,] we do a spell to get more body hair so we can wear skimpy clothes in the winter. For part of the spell, we need orgasms. So I tie the model up and make them cum in a variety of different positions and finally put them in a chair with restraints and a hole for a Hitachi magic wand and they cum there, and we finish our spell. I also recently did a boy/girl shoot with my real-life partner with some bondage.

Nice. So what was it that made you move out of the more mainstream realm and into your own producing?
​[With one of the bigger sites], the photographer was non-consensually touching my friend during the shoot. She told me that later, and we spread the word for other people shooting with this guy. I told my friend she should talk to the company about firing him, you know? She did. And they were like, "We didn't see anything bad," or "We couldn't find the video," or whatever. They knew I was friends with this person, so they just sort of decided I'm the Nazi of hairy porn, and to hate me.

I was just like, "You're a misogynist, and this is not something I'm interested in." [So I moved to San Francisco], and all this different shooting stuff took off, and most of what took off was the hairy girl stuff, which is what I am.

I've seen some of your stuff. I can sense a lot of intimacy in the shoots, like there's a true connection. How do you create that?
​That's the hardest thing. I try to shoot with partners, or friends that have some kind of sexual dynamic. Maybe they don't have a regular sexual relationship, but they've had sex. It's fun, matching two people up who think each other are hot, and seeing what happens. We'll all sit down beforehand and have tea and say, what do you guys wanna do today? There's other stuff too, like communication and creating a good environment. Typically it's just me there alone, for a solo or girl-girl. And if I have someone else there, I try to make it's sure it's someone people are super comfortable with. I try to have women or trans people, and just someone who's not going to be interrupting the comfy environment.

So what's the market like for hairy porn?
​What I've gathered is a few different things. There are a few different kinds of hairy consumers. They're either older, so their first images of sex or sexual experiences were unshaven women. Maybe not armpit hair or leg, but like, full bush. So they're just kind of like, the first time I was with a woman there was a bush, so that's what my animal brain connects to. And it can be a subculture like burners—do you know what I mean? Burning Man? Or, yeah, just hippies.

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Why do you think the mainstream porn industry is still so obsessed with the shaping and the sort of mechanical, medical ridding of female body hair?
​In terms of why dominant society and porn is so clean shaven I think it's a variety of factors. I don't want to talk shit, necessarily, on the mainstream porn industry, but it is a capitalist industry like any other. And there is a crazy obsession with youth, you know? I think shaving maybe started for a variety of reasons. I understand it in some ways. You have to push through it, you're moving hair apart...Things look bigger, labia look bigger. But having hair is a signifier of being sexually mature, and a signifier of, you know, being an adult woman. Or person, really.

Some women who are really into grooming, with the nails and the makeup and who are completely shaven everywhere, will bristle at the term "natural" as applied to hairy girls, as though its use insinuates they're not natural. What would you say to that line of thinking?
​I try not to be what you might call a hairy supremacist. I don't want to shame anyone for shaving or doing any of these things, because I think it's really possible to just personally like it. The thing I take issue with is the cultural homogeny. I'm not saying if you don't shave, you're not natural. But if you don't shave, that is more natural. Let's just be real. And then a lot of people just have to [shave] to get booked for stuff. So maybe there's an aspect to which they really like it, but there's a bigger aspect, honestly. There isn't actually a ton of work for hairy models. That's why a lot of people escort, a lot of people cam, a lot of people do different, additional stuff. I have found, by producing, you increase the longevity of your career, basically.

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You have such an intense business mind.
​Well, I'm a Jew from New York, number one. And number two, my parents run a small business. They came home and said this is how much money we made today, and this is how we made it. They basically had business meetings at the dinner table. It's just kind of integrated into my mindset. Even when I was hardly working ever, I would still save money. And I really enjoy the promotion of other people—I see potential everywhere.

When I shoot, I'm like, "You can market yourself like this, or do this." I would say that I've been Mommy Hoe to a lot of people. I've kind of mentored them in regard to becoming sex workers. I do that through porn, and through showing them how to do things more safely and more comfortably. There are many different ways by which people can maximize their profit making potential, and I really enjoy helping people do that, and doing that for myself, as well.

Despite working with so many queer folk, you don't label your work as queer porn.
​Yeah, it depends on how you define it. This is like the biggest indie queer porn scene in the world, I think, most of it is being produced here. And so the meaning is not only that the performers are queer or the producer is queer, but that the whole kind of ethos of the project and the filming are also queer. Queer porn is like anyone can shoot with anyone, doing anything. And that's not what I do. I'm a very niche site.

Yeah, I noticed that the girls you shoot are conventionally beautiful in a Western sense. They're thin, the big boobs...so that's part of it?
​Yup. When I broke away from shooting for these big mega sites, I was like, I'm not going to make any money at this if I don't shoot what I know how to shoot, and what I know how to sell. I like diversity to an extent, but [the site is] still fairly narrow compared to what I might call diversity in the broader world. People who shoot queer porn are like, 'We would shoot anybody.' Literally.

It doesn't mean how big you are, how small, how old, how young, whether there are tattoos all over you or not, you know. Which I think is awesome, and I totally support 100 percent. But I don't know how to make that sell.

So what's next?
​I'm planning to work on a feature in the spring that will be based off a 70s porno (I don't want to reveal too much) and features myself as an opium smoking, cat petting, bisexual, pussy-licking witch.

​@sarratch

​Photography, Styling, Creative Direction: Silke La​bson

Hair and Makeup: ​Maddie​ North

Model: Mayson Kai at Vision LA

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Photo via Wikicommons

On December 6, 1989, Marc Lépine walked into the Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal and fatally shot 14 female students, whom he'd identified as feminists, before killing himself.

His suicide note read, "I have decided to send the Feminists, who have always ruined my life, to their Maker."

According to the Montreal Coroner's report, witnesses described the Lépine killing after he had separated the female students from the male students:

During this time, Lépine moved a little closer to the group of 9 girls who were standing together at the back of the classroom, with no possible exit. He said to them: "Do you know why you are there." One of the girls answered "No". He replied: "I am fighting feminism." The student who had spoken added: "We are not feminists, I have never fought against men." He immediately started firing on the group, from left to right.

Police later found a letter in Lépine's pocket that contained the names and phone numbers of 19 other Quebec women, including politicians and police officers, who he had intended to kill because he had identified them as "radical feminists."

Twenty-five years later, women are still being targeted, threatened, and murdered by young men with dangerous misogyny issues.

On May 23, Eliot R​odgers went on a rampage that killed six University of California students and injured 13 others. In a 107,000-word manifesto written before the shooting spree, Rodgers wrote of his plans to construct a "climactic massacre... My War on Women... I will attack the very girls who represent everything I hate in the female gender: The hottest sorority of UCSB."

This October, staff of  Utah State University received an email threatening a mass shooting prior to a speaking engagement with feminist gaming critic ​Anita Sarkeesian. The school was forced to cancel her appearance while the FBI hunted the person behind the threats. The person who wrote the email referenced Marc Lépine.

The Salt Lake Tribune's description of the threat made it clear that we haven't come very far in 25 years:

The email, purportedly from an anonymous USU student, promised "the deadliest school shooting in American history" if Sarkeesian's Center for Women and Gender Studies-sponsored talk were allowed to proceed.

The writer claimed to "have at my disposal a semi-automatic rifle, multiple pistols, and a collection of pipe bombs" he intended to use to ensure Sarkeesian would "die screaming like the craven little whore that she is."

The emailer also said he would target as many other "feminists on campus who won't be able to defend themselves. One way or another, I'm going to make sure they die."

Feminists have ruined by life," the emailer contended, adding that he intended to write a "manifesto in blood" to avenge himself, and the "emasculated cowards too afraid to challenge the vile, misandrist harpies who seek to destroy them."

What sets these mass murders apart from the frequent, horrible murders of domestic violence victims, sex workers, indigenous women, and other all-too-common femicide scenarios? L épine, Rodgers, and the person behind the USU threat all drew a clear map of their targets (feminists) and the roots of their rage (women's rights).

This past year has been, in part, defined by news of extreme misogynist violence. Massive online harassment campaigns like  ​Gamergate got press for targeting women with direct threats of rape and murder. Several women were killed, shot, or stabbed after the Rodgers shootings—all for rejecting men's sexual advances. Native Canadian people so frustrated by the lack of government inquiry into an epidemic of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls decided to ​start dragging the Red River themselves, discovering bodies along the way.

What happened this year? Was it a sudden, violent backlash against feminist-identified women? Or has this kind of violence been there all along, stewing and lacking media attention until now?

The growing influence of the men's rights movement, created as a backlash against feminism, is at least partially to blame.

As blogger David Futrelle told VICE this September, men's rights activists (MRA's for short) are both pissed at women and totally obsessed with them. Futrelle reports regularly on the MRA movement on his blog, We Hunted the Mammoth: The New Misogyny, Tracked and Mocked.

"It's what I like to call the new misogyny—basically a large amorphous internet subculture that is consumed with hating and attacking women," Futrelle told VICE. "Some of these people call themselves men's rights activists and portray what they are doing as somehow beneficial for men. Others call themselves 'men going their own way,' the basic premise being that they want to live independently of women but end up talking most of the time about how terrible women are."

Or, as Cracked so eloquently put it: "Men's Rights Activism began as the natural response of American males to the growing threat of feminism, in much the same way that burning your house down is the natural response to the threat of ghosts. In both cases, a better solution would be to walk away and let a less emotionally fragile man deal with the situation."

Internet trolls are one thing. Mass shootings and rampant death threats are another. Let's hope 2015 moves us into a new era where women-haters are able to work through their issues without leaving a trail of dead bodies behind.

These are the names of the 14 young women killed by Marc L épine on December 6, 1989:

• Geneviève Bergeron (born 1968), civil engineering student
• Hélène Colgan (born 1966), mechanical engineering student.
• Nathalie Croteau (born 1966), mechanical engineering student.
• Barbara Daigneault (born 1967) mechanical engineering student.
• Anne-Marie Edward (born 1968), chemical engineering student.
• Maud Haviernick (born 1960), materials engineering student.
• Maryse Laganière (born 1964), budget clerk in the École Polytechnique's finance department.
• Maryse Leclair (born 1966), materials engineering student.
• Anne-Marie Lemay (born 1967), mechanical engineering student.
• Sonia Pelletier (born 1961), mechanical engineering student.
• Michèle Richard (born 1968), materials engineering student.
• Annie St-Arneault (born 1966), mechanical engineering student.
• Annie Turcotte (born 1969), materials engineering student.
• Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz (born 1958), nursing student.

Follow Mary Emily O'Hara on Twitter.​

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​I'm going to go out on a bit of a limb here and say that the job of police officer is the most oft-depicted profession in pop culture. Cops' jobs are so much cooler and sexier than normal jobs—there are guns, uniforms, fast cars, seedy behavior, moral quandaries, and high stakes. There might even be a ​naked fat guy's ass if you play your cards right. I'd say the second most popular profession to depict is "doctor," but they only get to save good people, not kill bad guys. Snore.

Fictional police officers can be ​stalwart protectors of the social order, crooked ​sociopaths, bumbling ​horndogs, ​cyborg monsters, ​futuristic fascists, or whatever the cartoon character ​Bonkers was supposed to be—a bobcat? Cops can be whatever you want them to be in fiction. 

Real police officers aren't cartoon bobcats though. They're people like you and me, but with body armor and guns. For instance, let's look at the case of two cops in Dayton, Ohio, who were suspended from the force after an anonymous tipper leaked their personal phone records that contained a bevy of  ​racist comments to the Dayton chapter of the NAACP. Captain Thomas Flanders and Detective Michael Sollenberger allegedly were fond of ​sending each other texts like "I hate niggers. That is all," and "What do apples and black people have in common? They both hang from trees." 

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Another of the texts apparently contains a threat to stab a "coon" who was just trying to enjoy a night out in a bar. The Dayton Police Department is in the midst of an investigation to determine the validity of these texts, but in the meantime, Flanders and Sollenberger are getting some time off. The part of this story that will really make you reach for the cyanide is that Sollenberger works in internal affairs, which means he's responsible for monitoring the conduct of his fellow officers.

I'm not afraid of police officers. I don't worry that they're going to start a fight and kill me just because I jaywalked or ran a red light. Maybe I should be though. NYPD cop Daniel Panteleo didn't have to answer for using an illegal chokehold to kill ​Eric Garner because he was selling loose cigarettes. Darren Wilson gets to ​smugly appear on television, taking his vile victory lap after escaping prosecution for the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson. Cops are apparently texting each other about how much they hate "niggers" and want to see them dead. I wish someone would explain to me how I'm supposed to go on blindly following the orders of the police when the evidence of their hatred of me (and people like me) continues to build up.

I've only been pulled over once, and that was for expired registration on my car. They were stern but fair and let me go with a "fix-it" ticket. As they ran my driver's license, all I could do was squint while they shined their impossibly bright hood-mounted lights toward my car. I wish I could say I wasn't terrified, but I can't. I had no agency or power in the situation. I was alone and at the mercy of two strangers with guns who  ​may or may not value my life.

What if I was mistaken for someone else? What if I said the wrong thing or flinched in a "threatening manner"? These thoughts only seem irrational if you are willing to ignore all the evidence that a black male's fear of the police is very rational, if not necessary for survival.

Cops use a healthy amount of fear and intimidation to keep order. They have to appear tough to be certain that citizens respect their instructions. If we all collectively stopped being afraid of police, we'd start running over people on the sidewalk or murdering hookers like we were in Grand Theft Auto. Carry on with your mirrored sunglasses and scowls if that means I don't get chopped up by a  ​Cuban drug lord with a chainsaw. But what happens when that fear becomes so great that you no longer can trust authority? The next time a black man is put in a choke hold, do you think he's just going to submit to the whims of his attacker or will he try to fight back because he's sure he's going to die?

The theory that we should all just do what the police tell us to do, even in the face of senseless death, is akin to telling a battered wife to let her husband keep hitting her because he loves her. I'm losing the ability to accept that cops just have my best interests in mind and will take care of me. Real cops are not robots or genetically engineered clones. They have prejudices, they panic, and they make mistakes.

If you are reading this and you are a cop, I'll be plain: I don't trust you anymore. Do not think that it's my responsibility to blindly follow you. Your job is to make me trust and believe in justice in the real world, not in the movies.

 Follow Dave Schilling on ​Twitter.

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​This article originally appeared on VICE UK

Convicted coke dealer, former public schoolboy, and hundred-named trendy brewery boss Jules de Vere Whiteway-Wilkinson ​just got arrested in east London after some suspected tax evasion reminded the police he still existed. (AS IF THIS ISN'T GOING TO MAKE AN AMAZING FILM ONE DAY. AS IF BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH ISN'T PRACTICING "HOW TO HOLD A PINT NATURALLY" RIGHT THIS VERY SECOND IN PREPARATION.)

Mr. Whiteway-Wilkinson—who, recall, is a real actual person, and not a deleted character from an early draft of the board game Clue—was questioned by HMRC officers regarding allegations that he'd not been that great at paying VAT for his thriving London Fields Brewery business. That's the current crime he's allegedly done.

But it's all a bit muddled, because your boy Juley D. had previously been head of a group of nutters who were very much into selling cocaine. In fact, Whiteway-Wilkinson ​was convicted at Southwark Crown Court in 2004 for conspiracy to supply cocaine as the leader of a four-man gang that reportedly provided cocaine to celebrities (No! Not celebrities!) and music industry figures, the most nasally-hungry industry figures on Earth. 

He ​told his family he was a party planner but actually flew cocaine around in a light aircraft. He was a posh, hip Tony Montana, riding around on a fixie, severing rivals' waxed moustaches with a chainsaw. Then he did a bit of bird and opened a brewery, and that was pootling along quite nicely until HMRC knocked on his door this morning.

Thing is, he still owes money to the state for, you know, all that cocaine stuff. Just a few weeks ago, JW-W appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court to negotiate extra time on a separate debt owed to the taxpayers after being ordered to repay all of his drug profits. There, Jules's lawyer argued that his beer company was "heading towards success"—to the point that he might be able to pay off his coke debt with beer money—but there's speculation that today's HMRC incident could put the stoppers on that. (In response to the arrest, a spokesperson said: "London Fields Brewery and Jules Whiteway regret the action taken by HM Revenue and Customs. The company remains an operational and growing business.") 
​

Yes, the company. This morning, the brewery and adjoining tap room were also raided, ​with witnesses saying they took files and other documents away, before a forklift truck arrived to help police move equipment, stock, and other things like that. 

Business-wise, the brewery and its tap room have been temporarily closed following the raid, and none of the beers are currently for sale on the London Fields Brewery website. For their part in the matter, @LdnFldsBrewery tweeted today: "Any new beer blogs we should be reading? We'll be looking for guest bloggers soon for our new blog so get in touch!" So they're clearly pretty on-the-pulse. 

If convicted, Poshname McGee faces up to eight additional years in prison, although based on his last stint inside jail seems to just make him stronger and better at business, so he might come out all guns a-blazing and absolutely storm The Apprentice 2022. Meanwhile, it's not sure what's going to happen with the brewery, but just know that if they stop selling Love Not War in hip, East London bars as a result of this, Mare Street will burn.

In short: Posh don gets arrested, decent beer in jeopardy, cocaine mildly involved. 

Follow Joel on ​Twitte​r.

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The UVA campus. Photo via Flickr user ​slack12​

Sabrina Rubin Erdely was having a banner year. The Rolling Stone journalist came out with three excellent stories in 2014 that garnered a ton of attention—but none more so than "​A Rape on Campus." The story, which currently has an insane 173,000 Facebook shares, began with the brutal gang rape of a student named "Jackie" by seven fraternity brothers at the University of Virginia in 2012. Later, Erdley probed into the reporting process for on-campus assaults and came back with some alarming news.

Besides getting attention, the November 19 article caused real-world change—much of it triggered by the horrific, hyper-specific details in the opening anecdote. Soon after the piece came out, UVA suspended all frats until January. University President Teresa Sullivan  ​announced there would be a discussion about "our next steps in preventing sexual assault and sexual violence."

But now it turns out that Erdley might have been misled by the woman who made her career-making feature so powerful. So a horrific story about rape has turned into a bizarre parable about the perpetuation of misinformation in the media. 

The  Washington Post reported Friday that Phi Kappa Psi—the fraternity whose brothers allegedly raped Jackie—planned to issue a statement refuting "A Rape on Campus." That's probably what caused Rolling Stone's managing editor to issue a "​note to our readers," which includes the following:

In the face of new information, there now appear to be discrepancies in Jackie's account, and we have come to the conclusion that our trust in her was misplaced. We were trying to be sensitive to the unfair shame and humiliation many women feel after a sexual assault and now regret the decision to not contact the alleged assaulters to get their account. We are taking this seriously and apologize to anyone who was affected by the story.

But where it gets weirder is that the Post has ​apparently deleted parts of its own story. The original story (about the Rolling Stone story) included the line: "The Post determined that the student Jackie named is not a member of Phi Kappa Psi and had never met her in person." Now there's a vague and ​possibly misleading explanation appended to the article. What's more, Jackie is now saying that she asked Erdley to remove her from the article, but that the journalist refused. The idea that a journalist might publish a story about an alleged rape victim without her consent is, needless to say, incredibly disturbing.

But all media fuckery aside,  what's really sad is that one in five women are raped on college campuses, and ​only 1 percent of their rapists are punished. As a result of one enormous journalistic error, women who report rape—and the outlets that report on their stories—will now be under extra scrutiny. ​That's exactly what Anna Merlan over at Jezebel pointed out in a story that went up quickly after Rolling Stone's retraction. (And to add one more layer to the whole thing, she made that point in her own retraction about a post in which she ​openly mocked people questioning the veracity of "A Rape on Campus.")

What a mess.

Follow Allie Conti on ​Twitter.