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DoJ to Launch Federal Investigation Into Baltimore Police Department After Freddie Gray's Death

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DoJ to Launch Federal Investigation Into Baltimore Police Department After Freddie Gray's Death

We Asked a Policeman How an Ordinary Person Could Solve a Murder

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This article originally appeared on VICE UK.

Could I, a common idiot, solve a murder? It's a question I sometimes ask myself while watching people in cop shows talk about "trace" and "liver temp" and lots of other stuff I have absolutely no understanding of. Because while I don't have the skills or training, I feel like I do have enough tenacity and free time to investigate a killing and work out who done it. Only, I've never been sure of the powers available to me as a civilian to do so.

So recently I contacted a man named Mike Shaw to find out. Now the editor of police lifestyle magazine Nicked, he retired from the force in 1997 after working a considerable catalogue of roles. His 25-year career with Merseyside's special units covered urban foot patrols, high-speed driving, helicopter work, riot squad, and armed response callouts with the Merseyside Firearms branch. He was also the second on scene at the James Bulger murder.

So if anyone would be able to tell me whether or not a member of the public would be able to piece together the evidence and solve a murder, I figured it would be him.

VICE: Let me give you a scenario: I've discovered a man who lives on my street, dead in his front garden at around 7 AM. There were signs of a struggle. What are the first steps I'd take in my investigation as a civilian?
Mike Shaw: You'd basically act as a policeman. You'd ask the neighbors, "Who does this bloke live with? Has he got a partner? Has he got friends? Who are they? What do they look like? Do they come in vehicles? What type of vehicles? When was the last time you saw him? What state was he in? Was he depressed? Does he owe people money?" You'd start asking questions, trying to find a motive or discover anything out of the ordinary.

What sort of physical evidence should I look for at the scene?
A footprint is like a fingerprint. Every trainer and shoe will have a unique mark or scoring to it that, if you find the perpetrator's shoes, will match exactly to the cast you take at the scene.

You're also looking for anything dropped. Whether it's a key, a wallet, a banknote. The motto is: Every contact leaves a trace. If I touch the lapel of your jacket lightly, I will have fibers of your jacket on my finger, plus you'll have my sweat and DNA on your jacket. You're also looking for any type of weapon and examining the body to see if a weapon was used and if there's any blood.

How easy would it be for me to establish a time of death?
As a civilian without pathology training, it would be fairly impossible. Unless they were still warm and you could say that the time of death was less than 30 minutes ago. But once someone's dead and cold, without pathology training and analysis you could be out by two or three days. Once decay's set in, you could say it was at least a week ago. And if you find remains in a shallow grave, you haven't got a clue.

As my investigation progressed, how would I go about collating evidence?
The best way—and the police still use it—is a dirty, great big white board, like the ones you see onPrime Suspect. In the center you put the name of the deceased, and then you put a circle, and then you have a spider chart with all the individuals connected, with the dates and times they were with that person. Then you want to speak to all individuals involved and see if their story stacks up.

When it comes to tracking down potential suspects, what resources are available to me as a civilian?
Google and nothing else. Members of the public have no jurisdiction on getting anything private. What you could do is hire a private investigator who can track vehicles, do observations, video, covert voice recording. But when it comes to banks, passports, computer records, the public couldn't get access to that, like solving the typical scenario of a husband and wife domestic murder when you get onto the bank and discover that the last withdrawal was made by the husband half an hour ago.

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This is what the police look like. They're the people who usually investigate murders. Photo by Octagon via.

Any tips for tracking people via the internet?
Facebook has certainly changed the way people interact, so you could start there. If you put my name or searched my mobile phone number on Google, it'd show a 15-year trace and three companies I've worked for because I still have that number.

And if I didn't have the suspect's number?
With the correct time and resources, anyone can solve a murder, but you'd have to have the correct access to get people to talk to you. The Jamie Bulger case was solved not out of good police work but out of great public response and information. Blurred pictures of [the killers] were put out, and 65 members of the general public rang in and gave the same name. Then, when the police went round to that person's house, they found the same paint on their clothing that was on the dead body. And after 24 hours of interviews, they cracked.

Do you have any tips on investigating potential suspects? Especially to avoid wrong turns in my investigation?
Yes, if you have a suspect but you've got no real evidence. Take Jamie Bulger again—so many people identified the two faces on the television. They got arrested, [the police] went to DNA. Then they said, "Right, we'll be able to get the facts out of this by splitting them up, getting inconsistent stories, and knowing they're telling lies." So making sure you have all your evidence first is crucial.

What's a good way to find out if people are lying when questioned?
It's called Question 17. What happens is you talk to somebody about boring mundane stuff: "Where were you last night? Did you have dinner at home or did you go out? Did you go to work? What clothes did you wear?" Then, the next minute, you look at them straight in the eyes and say, "Did you meet [the deceased] at 9 PM?"

Imagine I looked you in the eye after having asked a load of mundane questions, and said, "Are you having an affair with another woman?" If it was false, you'd look at me confused, smile, shrug, and say, "Why did you ask that?" But if you were having an affair, your eye contact and your body language would go hysterical. You'd be unsure of how much I knew.

WATCH: Young Reoffenders

Any classic telltale signs and ticks?
Eye contact. It is very difficult to look at somebody in the eye and tell them lies. Gestures, too. If I say to you, "How did you get to work today?" You might close your eyes, then go, "Right," and begin to explain. All the time you're re-living it to me—your arms, hands, and body are going through it and reliving your journey. If I killed that person last night and I'm trying to tell you that I was at the pictures instead, and you ask, "How did you get there?" I'd say, "I got a taxi." When lying, it's often a very closed and negative response.

Do I then start drilling them on the specifics of what I think is a lie?
Absolutely.

And If I got to the point of identifying my main suspect and informed the police, would they ask me to stop?
I'm a pilot, and I fly a paramotor. Two years ago a woman went missing in Ormskirk. I phoned the police and said, "I'm retired, I fly this thing, and I can fly over the local area and do aerial observations." They immediately said, "No, our helicopter will be there."

Their helicopter wasn't even up, but basically, if something happened while I was helping the police with their enquires, they would be blamed legally and insurance-wise for anything that happened to me. When they found that woman's body two days later it was one mile from my house. I would have found her within two hours, but the police always err on the side of caution—they don't want members of the public interacting with people who've killed people.

Lastly, do I have full power of arrest as a civilian?
The only difference between a member of the public and a police officer is this: Everyone in the world has the power of arrest. If a crime has been committed and a member of the public sees that somebody has done it, they can arrest that person. But a police officer can arrest someone if they suspect a crime's been committed.

But to answer the basic question of, "Can a member of the public solve a murder?" I honestly can't think of many murders that haven't been solved without them.

Follow Mike and Sam on Twitter.

VICE Takes on GMOs, Pesticides, and the Megacorporations Behind Your Food

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VICE Takes on GMOs, Pesticides, and the Megacorporations Behind Your Food

'East of Main Street: Taking the Lead' Is a Refreshing Look at Asian-Americans in the Media

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[body_image width='2000' height='1331' path='images/content-images/2015/05/08/' crop='images/content-images-crops/2015/05/08/' filename='catering-to-asians-east-of-main-street-body-image-1431090321.jpg' id='54145']'East Of Main Street: Taking The Lead' premiere screening at ROOT Drive-In Studios on May 6, 2015, in New York City. Photo credit: Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images. Courtesy of HBO

Even though we're right in the middle of AAPI Heritage Month, it's been a pretty annoying week of TV out here in Asian America. Floyd Mayweather danced away our best hope of an Asian guy in boxing's top spot (and, since they've never had an identifiably Asian cast member, SNL cast a white woman as Pacquiao); the Chinese-themed Met Gala showcased some questionable fashion; and, to top it off, The Mindy Project got the machete.

But then, they're all annoying weeks, so it's refreshing to watch HBO's East of Main Street, Jonathan Li's documentary series about contemporary Asian-American life. Released in annual installments since 2010 and partly available on YouTube, the series takes an admirable run at the 110-percent futile task of conveying the experiences of some 19 million Asian-Americans in interviews: immigrants, adoptees, artists, children, a gay minister, a trans man. The tent gets bigger.

Last Wednesday I ironed a cardigan and shuffled over to a fancy studio in Chelsea to attend the premiere of the latest episode, "Taking the Lead," which focuses on Asian actors, the perfect excuse for an invite-only Manhattan media shindig: the HBO logo projected onto exposed brick, DJs, press walls, reserved seating, event coordinators with twirly-corded earpieces. The catering was deep. All this hoo-hah, just for us Asians? I was honored. A publicist greeted me and thanked me for wearing a red shirt because it made me "stand out," and I chose not to assume that she'd have trouble telling me apart otherwise—that's how honored I was. I ordered free cocktails until showtime.

[youtube src='//www.youtube.com/embed/Ugn4uV3dKnk' width='560' height='315']

Trailer to 'East of Main Street: Taking the Lead' (2015)

In just over 41 minutes, the film's earnest and sympathetic interviewees deliver familiar laments about Asians in the media: 1) There are barely any, 2) The few available roles are mostly small and stereotyped, and 3) The so-called " Bamboo ceiling" excludes Asians from lead roles and the highest levels of success. Which is the only kind of success that'll satisfy their parents—Asian artists often fight not just against industry indifference but strong parental discouragement. (When I asked the actress Katarina Zhu's mother how she felt about her daughter's work, she said, "I feel torn—I'm really proud of her for pursuing her passion, but as a mother, I wonder how she's going to make a living." Shifting on her plush white leather bench, she added: "But this event does make it more meaningful.") The film drew squalls of laughter and applause from the audience, collectively appreciating that if we can't be stars on TV, at least we can complain about it on TV.

Afterward, while eating a dozen samosas more or less simultaneously, I wondered if "Taking the Lead" wasn't a bald misnomer. None of the audience members I spoke to even recognized any of the actors except Lucy Liu and Aasif Mandvi, and all the others are best known for secondary roles: Lost's Daniel Dae Kim, Silicon Valley 's Jimmy O. Yang, Desperate Housewives' Lucille Soong, etc. And the only recent Asian leads have been John Cho in the swiftly cancelled Selfie, and the talented Randall Park and Constance Wu in Fresh off the Boat, a network sitcom that even the author of the memoir it's based on, VICE contributor and host Eddie Huang, blasted as "an entertaining but domesticated vehicle to sell dominant culture with Kidz Bop, pot shots, and the emasculated Asian male."

"I don't think we're there yet," the director Jonathan Li admitted during the discussion panel. "I haven't seen the Asian-American experience that's not somewhat orientalized or specialized in some sort of way." Later, Li told me that "Taking the Lead" focused on three tiers of actors—successful celebrities, not-quite-famous working actors, and hopeful novices—but that even the upper-tier actors hadn't felt like they'd made it. In fact, most Asian actors are rather desperate and uncertain, and perhaps this accounts for all those stab-worthy Asian characters, from the Donger to Han Lee.

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Jimmy O. Yang at the premiere of 'East of Main Street' in New York City, May 6, 2015. Photo credit: Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images. Courtesy of HBO

I asked Jimmy O. Yang whether he had qualms about playing a character who speaks broken English in Silicon Valley. "I did have an accent," he said. "I moved here when I was 13, and I went to school with guys like that, I was a guy like that. Jian Yang was me ten years ago. Real people have accents. I don't judge them. I just try to play the role as realistically and truthfully as possible."

Along the same lines, Mandvi said, "The important thing is to just keep working. Sometimes you may get roles that aren't what you want to be doing, but you try to find the humanity in it, you try to make it your own." He added that there were better roles available these days, with the caveat that Asian actors should still write their own content, too: "It's important to tell those stories, and tell them as part of the American story."

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Aasif Mandvi at the premiere of 'East of Main Street' in New York City, May 6, 2015. Photo credit: Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images. Courtesy of HBO

HOT 97's Miss Info championed a similar approach of measured, tactical compromise for Asian artists. "When you do something that is non-inclusive, but really good, sometimes the audience will come to you," she said. "But if you can find a middle ground of doing something that's authentic to you, but also welcoming to people who don't have that experience and don't owe it to you to do the work to understand you, I think you can transform pop culture."

Some people might make squeaking noises about how Asian media representation is far from the most pressing racial issue in America right now. But obviously we don't have to choose between Ferguson and Hollywood, and Asians shouldn't be nudged aside yet again and persuaded that even our problems are second-class. "The racial dialogue is not separate," Mandvi said. "The stuff that's happening in Baltimore and Ferguson affects Asians and South Asians and Muslims and Jews... I don't think you can parse out institutionalized racism and say, 'That's what black people deal with.' As minorities and immigrants, as anyone who's on the other side of institutionalized racism, you can't say what's happening in Ferguson is not our problem."

The right to not get murdered by cops, the opportunity for stardom—both fall under the headings of equality and dignity. We have to have it all. Sometimes we can get it catered.

East of Main Street: Taking the Lead is available on HBO Now and HBO Go through May 31.

Jenny Zhang contributed reporting to this piece.

Tony Tulathimutte is the author of Private Citizens, a novel forthcoming from William Morrow in 2016. Follow him on Twitter.

I Spent All Day in a Barnes & Noble so I Could Take a Selfie with Kim Kardashian

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All photos by the author

I don't know how else to say it, so I'll just say it: I'm pretty sure I accidentally caught Kim Kardashian leaving the bathroom after taking a crap.

When she emerged, she was mid-conversation with an assistant. I caught her say the phrase, "...just, like, yesterday..." I have no idea what the context was, and I will not pretend to. As the word "yesterday" lilted into infinity, she looked to her right, where I was standing next to a shelf filled with popular Christian literature. We might have made eye contact, we might not have—there is a very good chance she actually looked through me, because I assume the ultra-famous do not actually see the non-famous, who presumably vibrate on a less advanced frequency than theirs.

It was on the third floor of the Barnes & Noble at the Grove, an outdoor supermall in Los Angeles. The time was 6:05 PM, roughly an hour before she was set to sign copies of her book, Selfish, for a small army of fans, including me. She had been in the bathroom for seven to ten minutes. I know this because I too was trying to take a shit, and her security team wouldn't let me into the bathrooms at the same time as her. I repeat: Kim Kardashian is so important that no one else is allowed to poop if she is (allegedly) pooping. That, my friends, is true power.

Say what you will about Kim Kardashian, but there's no denying that she's one of the most influential and versatile celebrities currently celebrity-ing. Her kingdom spans TV ( Keeping Up with the Kardashians is in its tenth season), fashion (she has five signature scents, helped launch the Kardashian Kollection, and co-owns the boutique clothing store DASH), tech (her mobile game, Kim Kardashian: Hollywood, has earned more than $1.6 billion since its launch), music (for better or worse, Kim's song "Jam (Turn It Up)," written by The-Dream and Tricky Stewart, is a thing that exists), and social media (she has nearly 32 million followers on both Twitter and Instagram). If a rogue nation were to kidnap her, I truly believe it would start World War III, which sort of makes her the modern-day Helen of Troy. And with the release of Selfish this week, she can add "author" to that list. Published by Rizzoli, Selfish is a book of Kim K selfies. The tome itself is the approximate size and heft of the Bible, which I choose to believe is not a coincidence. On page 83, it features Kardashian in an African diamond mine.

I arrived at the Grove at around 8:30 in the morning, greeted by a line to buy Selfish that already stretched around the block. Though the signing wasn't until 7 PM, in order to be guaranteed entry to the event, you had to buy a book, which came with a wristband, of which there were limited quantities. Since B&N didn't open for half an hour, I decided to go around and ask strangers in line what they thought about Kim Kardashian.

Kardashian's fans, it turns out, are an intensely dedicated bunch. Many had traveled to Los Angeles from places like San Diego and Anaheim just to meet her for a few seconds, and some had been there the entire night. The young woman at the front of the line told me she'd been camped out since 10 PM the night before, and the young men behind her said they'd been there since 4 AM. They planned to sleep in their car after buying their books. Another was wearing a shirt with a gigantic print of her face on it.

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After buying my copy (I sprang for a Barnes & Noble membership, paying roughly $15 extra, which allowed me to bypass the line to get my book signed), I took a look around the store. Though a Barnes & Noble press person declined my request to interview staff members, it turns out you can just go up to anyone and ask them pretty much anything, and if you're holding a recorder in their face, they'll probably answer.

"Honestly," one security guard told me, "I don't understand how someone could wait so long for someone they don't even know." I asked him which other authors he'd seen lines like this for. "Arnold Schwarzenegger," he responded, adding that celebrities usually got the longest lines.

Straining to think of the most famous, vaguely well-respected author I knew of, I asked the guard if he thought Jonathan Franzen might be able to attract a crowd like this.

"I don't know who that is," he told me. Gesturing to the crowd waiting to get in the store, he said, "Neither do they."

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Making my way to the top floor of the Grove's sprawling Barnes & Noble campus I met a cashier who told me about the scope of the store's celebrity signings. "We had an event last week for Connor Franta," a popular YouTuber who recently released the memoir A Work in Progress. "We had 1,200 kids there for that event. Almost the same numbers as Hillary Clinton had."

For some reason, I also asked the cashier what kind of crowd Jonathan Franzen, who at this point might as well have been the pinnacle of literature to me, would have drawn. "Not everyone's a reader," she said with a sigh.

By 5:30 PM the wristbands were gone and the staff had begun to set up for Kardashian's arrival, looking grim, as if they were preparing for battle. Admittedly, this might have been my imagination running wild due to boredom, as I'm pretty sure the store was playing a selection from the Game of Thrones soundtrack at the time. I overheard an event planner warning security that paparazzi had already arrived, so I started looking around the store for people with bulky cameras. After finding none, I began to suspect she'd actually just been talking about me.

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After waiting in another line, this time with my copy of Selfish clutched to my chest, it was time.

If I tried to tell you any specifics about my actual interaction with Kardashian, I'd be lying. Her presence is like the neuralyzer from Men in Black. As soon as I got within about three feet of her I blanked. What I do remember is fumbling around with my phone in front of security, saying something polite to her while averting my eyes, her saying something equally polite back to me, and then taking one selfie with her before being shooed away by her people.

When I stumbled outside, blinking dumbly at the light, I cursed myself for completely blowing my one chance to ask her anything I wanted. I could have asked her about her game. I could have asked her about Kanye. I could have asked her what it was like working with The-Dream. Instead, I asked her none of those things. I had become hypnotized; overcome by the thought, Holy fuck. This person, who has existed as an abstraction to me, is about to become real. I am about to interact with a Kardashian, the closest thing America has to royalty.

And like it or not, Kardashian and her clan are a cultural force to be reckoned with. Her stepfather, Bruce Jenner, singlehandedly thrust trans issues to the forefront of American dialogue last month when he told Diane Sawyer, "For all intents and purposes, I am a woman." And Kardashian herself is in an incredibly powerful position to enact positive change—if she can get a bunch of people to line up at a Barnes & Noble at seven in the morning to buy her book of selfies, she can definitely help, say, destigmatize difficult conversations surrounding mental health issues, which is exactly what she's been doing. Recently, she produced #RedFlag, an HLN documentary about mental health in the age of social media, and last week she participated in a Google Hangout meant to raise awareness about the issue.

Ultimately, people who complain about Kim Kardashian being famous for nothing—or even worse, people who claim she's famous for specious reasons—are missing the point. It's arguable that our most vaunted celebrities are simply reflections of our values as a culture. So if Kim Kardashian is trying to change that culture, that's kind of incredible. It's the tail wagging the dog, or at least the selfie striking back.

Drew Millard is on Twitter.

A Barbecue Joint in Colorado Called Rubbin Buttz Announced a 'White Appreciation Day'

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Screencap via NBC 9 News, Denver

This morning, the local NBC affiliate in a Denver ran a story about a Barbecue joint in Milliken, Colorado that's having a promotion next month called "White Appreciation Day." The internet, predictably, is mad about this.

In a TV interview, the restauranteur, a second generation Mexican-American named Edgar Antillon, explained his reasoning: "We have a whole month for Black History Month," and another month for hispanics, "so we thought the least we could do was offer one day to appreciate white Americans."

The promotion sounds simple enough: On June 11 there's a ten percent discount for "all white customers and no one else," according to NBC. I had several questions about this—for one thing, with race being a social construct and the definition of "whiteness" having changed so much over the decades, who counts as white? Also, was this all one big case of an offhand joke that a reporter took seriously?

I called repeatedly so I could get these points clarified. At first I got a voicemail message saying its inbox is unmonitored, and that I shouldn't leave a message. Then, after a few calls, I just got a busy signal. The restuarant's Twitter account acknowledged that there was a phone problem.

At the same time, the Rubbin Buttz website went down due to a "high volume of traffic." Then the restaurant's Yelp page was flooded with out-of-state reviews. Most of these are one-star joints in the vein of one left by Christy M. of Avon, Connecticut, who called the place "racist, racist, racist!" though Joe B. of Gilbert, Arizona, dropped by to say "Thank you for hosting White Appreciation Day!!! White lives matter!!! :)"

Culture wars aside, if the discount day actually happens, it might have legal repercussions for Rubbin Buttz. Jennifer McPherson, a representative of the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies, told NBC, "If someone felt like they were being discriminated against, they could come to the civil rights division and file a complaint in our office, and we would investigate that."

Related: For more racism, check out our documentary on racist sororities:

The restaurant appears to have backed off its potentially illegal whites-only discount on Facebook. In a crowded comment thread, someone named Joshua Kunnen asked whether the discount applied to just whites, or if "everyone gets a discount and its just a day to celebrate white people." Rubbin' Buttz replied, "No one will be denied a discount."

If that's the case, this story has a happy ending: On White Appreciation Day, people of all races will get a discount. It's a White Appreciation Day miracle!

Follow Mike Pearl on Twitter.

Magic Shrooms Deserve to Be Elevated Into Quiches

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Magic Shrooms Deserve to Be Elevated Into Quiches

Why Did This Woman Who Was Arrested in a Prostitution Sting Die in a Florida Jail?

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April Brogan. Photo courtesy of her family

When a Volusia County, Florida, deputy sheriff and chaplain came to Rebecca Brogan to inform her that her sister April had died last Friday, Rebecca didn't believe them. "You guys are wrong," she said. "She's in jail."

It was Daytona Beach Police who arrested April Brogan, a 28-year-old from Palm Coast, Florida, and a mother to two young children. On April 29, they targeted her in an anti-prostitution sting, charging her with "aiding/abetting/committing prostitution."

April had been in Volusia County Jail before, Rebecca told me. Public records confirm this: On April's arrest report from April 29, her past involvement with drug court is noted. "They knew her," Rebecca said. "They knew her history."

On May 1, at 2:24 PM, two days after her cellmate reported April told her she was dope-sick, April was declared dead.

Rebecca believes her sister would be with alive today if the jail staff had given her the care she needed by properly screening her into detox, where she could be monitored by health-care professionals. "It could have saved her life," Rebecca told me. "She could still be here."

Representatives of Volusia County either have nothing to say or suggest they didn't violate any protocol in the events that led to April's death. "What protocol," wondered her mother, Sandra, "would allow a child to die? My child?"

The Volusia County Jail warden, William McClelland, told me he would not comment on an "open investigation."

"I don't know, 'investigation' is kind of a strong term," Volusia County spokesperson Dave Byron told me. The county sheriff's office had been called in at the time April was found dead, and toxicology reports could take "a couple months" to come in from a medical examiner, he added. Her autopsy is not yet complete, but their "internal review," according to Byron, has been completed.

"We know exactly what happened," Byron said. He ran down a medical intake form he says April completed upon arrival at the jail, but he had no information about what jail staff had done or not done to provide medical help to her. He could not confirm for me if jail staff knew about her case in drug court—though this information was stated on her arrest report. He could not confirm if April Brogan had sought medical help while in the jail between April 29 and her death on May 1.

Volusia County Jail has had to answer questions before about the deaths of women incarcerated there. Tracy Lee Veira died in custody on September 16, 2009, while detoxing from heroin. A woman jailed with Tracy heard her cries in the night, and told RH Reality Check in a recent interview, "It was frightening to hear her beg them, because you could hear in her voice that she didn't feel good." According to the woman, "Correctional officers told Veira to lie down, that she simply had a leg cramp and needed to rest." Veira's family is currently suing the county and Corizon Health, the company that managed care at the jail until the county decided not to renew their contract last year.

Armor Correctional Health Services, the contractor that now provides care to Volusia County Jail, told me in a statement Friday, "Armor's team of caregivers is committed to delivering quality patient care. Armor Correctional Health Service's policy is to strictly adhere to medical protocols for individual situations, diagnoses, and incidents. As a result of our commitment to adhere to these policies, all of which are designed to meet governing agency guidelines, including HIPAA regulations, and out of respect for our patients' privacy, we cannot respond to your request."

In the days since her death on May 1, other women who were incarcerated with April have contacted the Brogan family. They say that April was ill before she died, and that this wasn't the first time April had been denied proper care at Volusia County Jail.

I spoke with one of those women, Emily Cortes. She described the time last year when she was bunkmates at the jail with April, watching her detox. If someone is incarcerated there and detoxing, staff are supposed to send them to a bed in the day room, Cortes said, where they can be more easily monitored by staff. But if the day beds were full, they could just be sent to a regular cell. There, Emily added, if you needed medical attention, "You have to scream out your door."

That's where Emily and April met, in the same cell. "She was so ill," Emily told me, "she didn't know what her name was." Emily had money in her commissary fund that allowed her to purchase medication, which she shared with April to relieve her symptoms. "She lived on my Tylenol and crackers."

"I know firsthand what happens in those places," Rebecca told me. In September 2013, she was also incarcerated at Volusia County Jail. Her sister April was there at the same time. "I was a witness to this—she always went to medical," Rebecca said, "because she knew the withdrawals were horrendous." When they were incarcerated together, according to Rebecca, April acted as her sister's advocate. "'Always, always go into medical, that's the first thing I do,'" Rebecca recounted April telling her.

When she found out April was arrested on April 29, Rebecca remembers she was finishing up her financial aid forms for school (she's studying to become a physician's assistant). "At least we knew where she'd be," she told me.

"We thought she would be in safe hands now," their mother, Sandra, said. Now she wonders if, because police had arrested her so many times, that to them April was just "a thing."

"Obviously they saw her as something different," she said, "something that they needed to sweep under the carpet. 'It's time not to see April around here anymore.'" She paused, apologizing. "I'm angry right now, I'm sad."

"To them, she wasn't a woman," Rebecca said. "She was a prostitute."

April's arrest was just one of 83 the Daytona Police made in the past 12 months targeting women they believed to be engaged in prostitution, according to their own records, which I obtained. A police spokesperson described their routine stings to me as a "continuing effort to increase quality of life." Behind each of these records is a woman: a friend, a daughter, a student. Her friends, family, and coworkers may see her mug shot online before they ever hear from her what happened.

One woman arrested in the same sting as April leapt from the undercover officer's car when she sensed something was wrong and he refused to pull over. As in all the arrests made in this sting, the officer had posed as a man buying sex. The police report narrates the incident this way: "The defendant revealed she was predisposed to commit a crime by asking [undercover officer's name redacted from report] if he was a 'cop.'... The defendant then exited the vehicle while it was in motion." She was additionally charged with resisting an officer.

A local reporter drawing from the same police reports also related this incident, and then chose to describe the other women arrested on April 29, including April, as having "went quietly."

These are the two kinds of stories we're most likely to hear about women engaged in sex work: the salacious details of their arrests, and of their deaths.

Though press reports of April Brogan's death make mention of her family, they also emphasize her arrest record. The Orlando Sentinel re-headlined a mostly anodyne Associated Press story about April as "Prostitution suspect dies in jail after foaming at the mouth."

April went to space camp, her sister Rebecca told me. She was in Brownies for years. She was quirky, "a gorgeous girl with the biggest heart." Her mother remembered taking her to work with her at her construction company, and that April could recite all the Mother Goose rhymes by the time she was four years old.

In the last year, April had been in a rehab program that allowed her to bring her three-year-old daughter Bella with her, but left the program after two months. The program she was in, Emily Cortes told me, can be hard on women, especially mothers, because they can be restricted from contact with their other children and family members in the first 90 days. "Even in jail," Emily said, "they can talk to their kids."

Because April Brogan was ordered to the rehab program through drug court, by leaving, a warrant was automatically put out for her arrest. "She was really scared this time," her mother Sandra said. "She was scared of getting arrested."

I got in contact with April's family thanks to Rebecca's 15-year-old daughter, who created a fundraiser for funeral expenses for her aunt. Though they raised several hundred dollars, she has also had to delete repeated comments posted to the online fundraiser page, according to Rebecca, that link to April's mug shot photos.

"April never judged anyone," her mother Sandra said. "Even when people were judging her. And she's probably one of the most judged people right now."

Sex workers I spoke to know the dangers that come with being incarcerated and detoxing from drug use.

"I know as an opiate-using sex worker, that was always my biggest fear, being arrested and having to go cold turkey in jail, knowing that most penal policy allows for an aspirin at best in treating that situation," Caty Simon, co-editor of the sex workers' blog Tits and Sass, told me. Stigma against drug-using women and women engaged in sex work magnify each other. "The mainstream view is that we did it to ourselves," Simon said, "never mind the part that prisons and criminalization play in our suffering and death.

"Look at the case of Marcia Powell," Simon continued, "a street sex worker and known drug user whom the Arizona prison system left to die of heat exposure in a cage in the sun in 2009, lying in her own waste as her calls for help were ignored."

When I asked Volusia County spokesperson Dave Byron about the reports that April Brogan was ill and in need of medical attention, including the one from the sheriff's incident report on her death quoting her cellmate saying April was "dope-sick," he said, "I'm not gonna go there. We run a very fine facility.

"This was just a circumstance. An unfortunate circumstance," Byron concluded. "She certainly wasn't the first drug user to be taken into our facility. And she won't be the last, I'm sure."

To date, Rebecca says her family hasn't heard from anyone investigating April's death. "The only thing we heard is after I called them and said I'd make a lot of noise." What she wants is accountability, to make sure this never happens again. "They didn't do their job," she told me. "Their inaction killed my sister."

"I don't know whether there's going to be justice for her," Sandra told me, "or justice for anyone following in her footsteps."

Follow Melissa Gira Grant on Twitter.


VICE Shorts: I'm Short, Not Stupid Presents: 'everything & everything & everything'

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When a film is titled something as preposterous as everything & everything & everything, one might give pause, because really, how can a short film be all that? In Alberto Roldán's film, the title is meant to be hyperbolic, but the case could be made that the allegory explored does hit on what's important in life—"everything." I assume the other two everythings are just there for good measure.

If you're guessing that a film by that title will be heady and a bit trippy, you'd be on the right path, but maybe missing the point. There's a pressure building in Roldán's film, one that feeds off a fundamental need to connect, expand, and globalize, even if it means sacrificing the very things we're fighting for.

The film, which follows the unusual experience of Morgan, an oppressed worker drone played by acclaimed indie filmmaker and actor Shane Carruth ( Upstream Color, Primer), is at its core an example of the failed American dream. In it, Morgan's monotonous daily routine is potentially changed forever when a mysterious glowing blue pyramid—one that inexplicably produces doorknobs—appears in his living room. The film turns Charlie Kaufman–esque, and the focus shifts effortlessly away from the object's odd happenstance appearance to the exploiting of its profit potential.

What does it mean? I don't fucking know. I don't think Alberto does either (but you can read the interview below where I asked him about it). What matters is that you should go out and do something you enjoy and forget about making a buck for a minute. Life's too short. But first, watch the short.

VICE: At what point did you decide modern globalization and outsourcing needed a sci-fi spin? And that it would be told with doorknobs?
Alberto Roldán: The film is about our endless quest for more. This character has a void in his life—obviously at the beginning of the film he's missing something profound—and the pyramid fulfills that, somehow. But our man keeps asking for more—Why can't I make a little money on the side? Why shouldn't I hire a few additional workers? Capitalism has this way of consuming everything around it, including our peace of mind.

As for doorknobs, that went through a lot of different iterations—at one point the pyramid was spitting out marbles, among other things. I knew it had to be something painfully mundane—something that contrasted with the spiritual mysticism of the pyramid. It was my friend Alex Knell who suggested doorknobs. As soon as she said it, I immediately knew that was the right path.

Is there significance behind a glowing blue pyramid? Do you worship some secret shit we should know about?
The image is striking to me. I'm not sure I can articulate it beyond that. I wanted the pyramid to be a kind of burning bush—a way to connect spiritually to the world around him, to communicate with some divinity. It was a very clear image in my mind from the get-go.

This is Shane Carruth's first starring role outside of his own films (Primer, Upstream Color). How did he come on board?
Shane is one of the most daring, brilliant filmmakers working today. I'm still kind of stunned we haven't declared him a national treasure, given him $300 million, and set him loose.

I wrote the part with him in mind without ever having met him. This character needed to have a lot going on behind his eyes, this capacity to silently process something, and Shane is 100 percent that. I told this to my producer extraordinaire, Cate Smierciak, and by one of the miracles she often produces, she managed to get the script to him. He liked it, and it was great working with him. He was very generous throughout the process, and has a surprisingly large capacity as a comedic actor.

There's a hopelessness in the film, where people get swept into the chaos of business and making money and lose sight of simple, beautiful, and fun things. Do you feel that way about life and work? Why can't he just get his goddamn piano?
One of the goals of the film was to recreate the sensation of getting excited about something without really stopping to think about what it means in any broader sense. I mean, why can't we all just get our piano?

Drama is about characters making choices they can never undo, and in film especially you can usually pinpoint the precise moment when a character makes an irrevocable choice (think: "I volunteer as tribute!"). In this film it's difficult for me to pinpoint the exact moment when our main character makes the choice to abandon the peace and tranquility he's felt with the pyramid in favor of this capitalist fever dream. And that's what's scary to me: I block out the most important things in my life without really intending to, only to look back some time later and realize I've crossed an event horizon of sorts. I can never go back and I don't know precisely when I got to that point.

What are you working on now?
In February, I workshopped a screenplay, MOTHERBEAR, at the Latino Screenwriting Project, which is done in collaboration with the Sundance Institute. It's about a fierce teenage mother from El Salvador who spends seven grueling years trying to get citizenship in the United States. If you took the maternal Ripley/Newt relationship from Aliens and somehow put that into Sin Nombre, that's basically the movie. I've also been developing a political/legal TV series with Susanna Fogel and Michael Garcia, which has been really great.

Jeffrey Bowers is a tall mustached guy from Ohio who's seen too many weird movies. He currently lives in Brooklyn, working as a film curator. He's the Senior Curator for Vimeo's On Demand platform. He has also programmed at Tribeca Film Festival, Rooftop Films, and the Hamptons International Film Festival.

We Talked to UK Healthcare Employees Who Are Worried About More Cuts to the National Health Service

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Image via BBC

This article originally appeared on VICE UK.

Today's Conservative victory has sent tremors through so many avenues of society, it's almost impossible to quantify at this point. But other than "cuts," the word on many people's lips today is "NHS."

More precisely: what is going to happen to a public health service that has already been dismantled, sold off, and privatized under David Cameron's government to a point that many don't recognize it? How are our A&E doctors, nurses, social workers, care assistants, surgeons, radiographers, GPs, psychiatrists, acute caregivers, physiotherapists, and midwives' lives going to change? How will patient care be affected?

How could our national mental health crisis possibly get any worse?

I spoke to several NHS workers to get a sense of what they're thinking and feeling today.

SARAH MATTHEWS*, 25, COMMUNITY HEALTH NURSE IN LONDON

"The sense of pessimism this morning among the people I work with is suffocating. I'm absolutely gutted. I work in a team of people who work with individuals in the community who need rehabilitation after being sectioned, help getting back on their feet. I also work in the process of sectioning, too, when people become a danger to themselves or other people. I've already done two visits this morning, and can do up to six a day. That is a lot of people's wellbeing to manage, and it's a direct result of two local acute mental healthcare wards closing in the last five years.

We've seen a 40 percent increase in people requiring risk management, but the facilities just don't match the demand for this kind of care. It's basic, GCSE-level maths. I previously worked on one of these wards and, often, up to 16 patients would be being cared for by two members of staff. It's not enough. At one point last November, in my borough alone there were 16 people requiring urgent psychiatric admission in the space of 24 hours, and many had to be sent back to a crisis center or their own homes. One man, approaching 80-years-old, ended up trying to take his own life as we tried to find him a bed. This is only going to get worse under further Conservative reign. People are already being outsourced to wards far away from their homes, because of the lack of local authority funding to keep their local acute care wards open, and with increased privatization we'll see this happening more and more.

Young people like me coming into the NHS have the energy and sense of responsibility to fight. We'll see this election as something to make us do our jobs better, despite any challenges. This isn't the case for those who have worked in the NHS for a long time. Eight people in my team left last week—social workers, care coordinators, psychologists—because they just couldn't see things getting any better. We've also had warnings from the very top asking us not to talk to the press about any of this, which is pretty telling."

Related: Watch our documentary 'Maisie':

IZZY WILSON, 25, JUNIOR DOCTOR, NORTH-WEST ENGLAND

"I have a dawning sense of serious concern following the results this morning. Privatization of the NHS under the Conservatives has been growing steadily but until today I don't think we realized the amount of danger we could be in. Emails have gone out this morning from the medical director in the hospital I work in addressing people's immediate worries, and he, like the rest of us, feel like a dark cloud is gathering. I have exchanged more than a few ominous looks with colleagues this morning in the hospital corridors.

What shape the NHS will be in after five more years of ground-level cuts is anyone's guess. Poor Ed—he wasn't perfect, but he seemed to be be providing the only realistic, hopeful plan for the NHS and anyone who worked in it. What we as doctors are reminded of every single day is that it's individual people who matter—this is something that David Cameron doesn't get. The day-to-day reality of what the inevitability of further cuts will bring can't be predicted at this point, really, but while there are sick people in need of doctors and other healthcare professionals, I hope patient care won't be compromised. What will change is staff morale. Over-worked, under-paid staff make mistakes and are profoundly stressed. The NHS should be a happy institution."

MICHELLE COPELIN, 55, STAFF NURSE, CORNWALL

"I work in a community hospital that was on the brink of closing, but then it was put off until after the election. It's a community hospital that once had 28 beds. There are now 16. The hospital will be closed now—we're all quite sure about that.

It's all about profit and not about compassion or about care. We have a lot of patients who come into the hospital before they go home, but because of the cut backs, the trusts are keen to close these community hospitals. They've brought this thing called 'care closer to home,' which aims to make a lot of nurses work in peoples homes and cut out the middle man—which is the hospital. People will be very vulnerable, including lots of elderly people in rural areas. They won't have people looking after them and there aren't going to be enough carers who want to work for minimum wage in people's homes, rather than a hospital setting.

This is just one cog in the wheel of the NHS that will be affected, though. All the hospitals throughout the country will be feeling the same. When I saw the results of the election this morning, I cried. I was so shocked. I assumed people would think about the NHS more, about what would happen to it, and it's especially shocking when you consider that a lot of Conservative voters are older—the people who will probably need the NHS quicker than the rest of us."

"Britain's mental healthcare system is already strained. People are more uptight with their work and frustration bleeds into every conversation. I've been working in the NHS since 1997 and I've never known it like it is now" – Consultant Psychiatrist, Central London

LAURA WEEKS, 25, SENIOR NURSING ASSISTANT, CENTRAL LONDON

"The majority of us NHS workers, having grown up knowing that Labour founded it, are disappointed and anxious about the election results today. Privatization is a big concern and not something I agree with at all. I want everyone to be treated and looked after well, and feel that the Tories will increase of privatization from this point onwards in a way that will directly affect patient care. This is not what the people I work with have voted for.

I've never been able to afford to do my proper nursing training because I've got no money, but I'd love to be more beneficial than I am now. But that's probably just gone out the window. It's a shame because we need more nurses absolutely everywhere. In the last five years, staffing has decreased dramatically, which is very dangerous in a lot of areas. People just aren't being valued, so are leaving. In the hospital I work in now, we've had two of our theatre lists shut a week, too, because we just can't accommodate them.

We're being told that all the NHS changes won't affect patient waiting time, but I can't see how they won't. It's scary."

DAVID MARSHALL*, CONSULTANT PSYCHIATRIST, 40, CENTRAL LONDON

"Most people who work in mental health lean towards the left. I don't know any Tories in my field of work, which, if you know anything about the way NHS mental healthcare services have been affected over the last five years, is a no-brainer. No one thought Cameron would win today. No one. In the run up to the election we were all confident that, even if we didn't get a Labour majority, there would be some kind of progressive coalition.

What people forget is that NHS mental health services were actually pretty good by the time the Tories came in, but in the areas I work in I've seen an 8 percent decrease in our budgets, which has meant, quite simply, the closing of psychiatric wards. Entire wards. It's meant that people with serious mental health conditions haven't been able to get beds and that patients are being severely disrupted by being shunted to private hospitals. As someone who doesn't actually deal with the budgets, I don't know who is footing that bill.

A lot of the work I do is with elderly people with dementia and the cuts to social care for these people has been devastating. Lack of social care provision means that older people can't leave the hospital. They become bed-blockers, which is a horrible term, but the most accurate. If an elderly lady needs a higher level of care than someone can offer her in her home, she needs a residential facility, and if there's nowhere available, she'll stay on the NHS ward indefinitely. Hospitals are not a great place for the old and frail. They get ill. They get infections, break bones and, in some cases, die because they're there too long.

Britain's mental healthcare system is already strained. People are more uptight with their work and frustration bleeds into every conversation. I've been working in the NHS since 1997 and I've never known it like it is now. At the major hospital I work in we had to stop admitting people for routine operations for a while because there were no beds. In terms of mental health, it's going to get much worse—I just can't see how it won't. 'Worse,' in this case, means severely ill people needing a bed and not being able to get one. We'll have to rely more and more on private hospitals.

Public sector workers like me feel genuinely got-at by the Tories and all this Big State bollocks. We're hurt. I know a lot of people who are saying, "fuck this" and thinking about moving to Australia, where being a doctor is a lot more financially rewarding. I don't blame them."

WILLIAM MORGAN*, 29, JUNIOR A&E DOCTOR, NORTH ENGLAND

"I work in a busy A&E and have just had to hide in a cupboard so that I can have this rant.

Now that the Tories are back in government as a majority, they don't have to get support from the Labour or SNP MPs. This is an absolute disaster and we're going to see an acceleration of the NHS privatization. In about five or ten years time, medical insurance companies are going to go through the roof as they become more prominent.

The Tories accelerated market forces, and all trusts now will probably become independent and manage their own books. My trust failed to do that, though, because we're bankrupt. And the reason its bankrupt is because the hospital that we work in doesn't belong to the government. We're paying rent to private companies in order to work here. We're in debt, basically.

Cameron keeps promising he's going to give millions to the NHS, but what people don't know is that it's not going to the NHS—it's going to private companies via the NHS. They're hoodwinking everyone and a huge amount of burden is coming into A&E departments because there's no adequate community care. I'm very disheartened. I was hoping that the general public had a bit of fucking common sense to realize that they need to be more socialist, but people want to look after their own instead of looking after other people. I'm disgusted and I'm moving to Scotland."

*Some names have been changed.

Additional interviews by Daisy Jones.

Follow Eleanor on Twitter.

Comics: Puber

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An Interview with the Publisher of a Magazine Printed Using HIV-Positive Blood

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This article originally appeared on VICE Alps.

An Austrian gay mag called Vangardist made headlines around the world this week for using the blood of three HIV-positive people to print its new issue. The sterilized blood carrying the virus was used on 3,000 of 18,000 copies, and was intended to address the stigmatization many people living with HIV deal with on a daily basis.

The issue is of course completely safe to handle, and researchers from Harvard and Austria's Innsbruck University provided guidance to the magazine throughout the process. The issue deals with the history behind the stigmatization of HIV patients, the state of the disease today, and contains interviews with each of the donors. Proceeds from the issue's sales will be donated to HIV and AIDS charities.

I got in touch with Vangardist's publisher, Julian Wiehl, to talk about the campaign, Conchita Wurst, and his HIV Heroes initiative.

VICE: What did you hope to achieve with the current issue of Vangardist?
Julian Wiehl: We wanted to raise awareness for HIV—but also point out that people who carry the virus are still extremely stigmatized in our society. The problem is not that HIV never hit the headlines. The problem is that HIV doesn't make headlines any longer. Everybody seems to think we've heard enough about it. But the reaction to our print magazine shows that there's obviously still lots of work to do. Unfortunately, reporting on the topic in a matter-of-fact way is not enough.

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Vials of blood that was used in the making of the May 2015 issue of 'Vangardist.' Photo courtesy of HIV Heroes.

What do you tell people who are afraid of coming into contact with the HIV blood in your ink?
First of all, that it's absolutely safe to handle our magazine—in the same way that it's safe to come into contact with HIV patients. These days, you can even have safe sex with a person who carries the virus, if you are careful. Today, the burden created by the illness itself is far less heavy than the one created by social stigmatization.

What sort of reactions have you gotten?
Those involved with the issue reacted positively. We received encouragement from HIV patients from California to Singapore—all around the globe, really.

How about negative feedback?
Yeah, we had that too. But to a far lesser extent. Negative reactions were divided into two categories: There are those who are afraid that a campaign such as ours could create a backlash and lead to even bigger stigmatization for HIV patients. And then there are those who really say stuff like "Put those assholes in jail for attempted murder." But overall, people reacted well and I'm incredibly happy about that.

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The "infected" and "not infected" editions of 'Vangardist.' Photo courtesy of HIV Heroes.

As a gay magazine, have you or your staff ever experienced discrimination?
Actually none whatsoever. In our five year history, we at Vangardist never got any negative comments. And that's quite something, considering that we take on pretty controversial topics. Even now, I don't see the criticism as threatening. It's more an expression of anxiety. I mean, "put them in jail" tells me that somebody's worried and wants authorities to check that everything's in order. It's coming from a place of misinformation, but it's not really a bad thing that they think about it. It may be surprising, but I actually think our society's extremely tolerant.

You were saying before that we needed extreme campaigns like this one to raise awareness for topics such as HIV.
It's a little sad that you don't get people's attention without campaigns like this, yeah. But then again, it did work, so I guess I shouldn't get angry but be thankful for that. The most important thing is that we managed to reach lots of people this way.

The illness itself is bad enough—people with HIV have to make the virus the center of their lives. Everything revolves around HIV, you are plagued by guilt, regret, drugs, everything. They really don't need the social pressure added to all that. If you spread fear toward the virus, you also spread fear towards the carriers of the virus. It doesn't help anyone.

Related: Getting High on HIV Medication.

Did you have supporters before your new magazine came out?
Not really. Nobody wanted to be part of it. You could tell that people were afraid. That's one of the reasons why we called this issue "HIV Heroes"—it's not about the people living with HIV, but people like you and me who overcome their fear and help spread information about the virus. In a way, we want to change the world and get a more liberal spirit out there. Just like Conchita Wurst did last year at Eurovision.

So you believe Conchita Wurst changed the world—or at least Austria?
Absolutely. Conchita—or Tom—pointed out what was wrong in our society and changed it in an entertaining way. Conchita showed us that society could be a bit more liberal, open, and free and there's nothing to be afraid of in that direction. Usually, society and politics take the line of the least resistance. If you think that liberal thought could cost you the election, you'd probably not want to go there. But I actually never thought Austria was as reactionary a country as some like to think.

What are your future plans?
I want to turn our website, HIV Heroes, into a big thing and then give it to an NGO. But it's too early to tell. We are just starting.

Follow Markus on Twitter.

How to Avoid a Drug-Fuelled Orgy When Renting Out Your House

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Photo via Flickr user Quinn Dombrowski

The last time I rented out my apartment, I wrote up a contract that made my subletter (who I met on Tinder) promise not to bring home any squirters. I'd already learned my lesson the hard way when, on a separate occasion, I'd rented out my place to an older fellow, only to return home to a mattress covered in oily stains. I tried to convince myself it was salad dressing, but I wasn't deluded enough to successfully repress my instinctual repulsion. The stains that dappled my Serta were a constant reminder that other people had released their fluids all over my sacred space of slumber and there was nothing I could do about it, except invest in another expensive mattress.

I've come to learn that a stained mattress is a pittance of concern compared to the situation facing the Kings, a really adorable Calgary family whose beautiful home was turned into a slop bucket of biohazard nightmares, after they Airbnb-ed it out to four adults who were apparently in town for a wedding. These mysterious renters—whom police are urging to come forward—did way worse damage than the legacy of all high school ragers combined (except maybe this guy).

Amid the $150,000 worth of desecration was condiments emptied on the walls and ceiling, toilets clogged with condoms, and chicken wings discarded in footwear (huh?). The damage was so toxic, a hazmat team had to be called in. In a statement, Airbnb said, "Our team is working quickly to make this right. We have banned this guest from Airbnb, and our Trust and Safety team will offer its full assistance to law enforcement in any investigation of this incident. We have been in very close contact with these hosts and we are working quickly to reimburse them under our $1 Million Host Guarantee, which covers a host's property in the rare event of damages."

Aside from using common sense and gut instinct, how much can really be done to prevent something like this from happening? Or at least prevent it from making international headlines?

Guests will fuck, so just accept that
We wanted to chat with Airbnb about how to tackle the issue of boning in other people's spaces with tact and aplomb. Their kind PR person shared the company's etiquette guide, which was written by Debrett's, the "trusted source on British social skills." While it suggests things like keeping visits to the bathroom as short as possible and discourages guests from shouting between rooms, it doesn't come close to broaching the topic of fucking amongst and between houseguests. That's because it's generally not something that's socially acceptable to bring up, even with tact and aplomb.

One Texas-based etiquette professional we chatted with, who didn't want to use her name, says, "sex isn't something you can dictate when you're offering your home."

"However, you can certainly say that you want it to be left in the same condition that you left it."

At the very least, invest in a bedbug cover. They're handy at protecting your mattress from the obvious, as well as salad dressing stains.

Be cautious of shoe enthusiasts
When dealing with potential subletters, you're likely only going to capture thin slices of behaviour, which can make it challenging to decipher if they're psychopathic or not. However, Zach Walsh, a psychology professor at University of British Columbia, says to be wary of shoe enthusiasts. That's something he learned while studying psychopathic behaviour in prisons.

"We'd do something called the shoe test, where if someone complimented your shoes right off the bat for no good reason, that was a sure tell," he says.

If you're communicating with your potential guest strictly online, there are certain points a psychopath will be more inclined to focus on than others.

"If you look at verbalization of high psychopathy patients, they were more focused on material needs like food, drink, and money and make fewer references to social needs like family or religion," he says.

So if your potential renter is keen on talking about what the chimichanga he's eating at the moment, rather than if wife who prefer to use two pillows instead of one, it might be a red flag.

Ultimately and obviously, Walsh says it's a gut instinct that you should be following. If something doesn't feel right, it probably isn't. "I don't think science can save you from that disaster," he says.

Invest in ugly furniture you don't care about
When it comes to outfitting your home for long or short-term renters, take the Buddhist approach and let go of value placed on inanimate objects.

"You need to get into the headspace that your house is no longer going to be your home," says Amanda Forrest, a Toronto-based design expert. "Pack anything you cherish, whether expensive or sentimental in value away and start thinking of your home as a business investment."

If you're planning on renting out your home as a way to supplement your income, invest in furniture from Ikea or garage sales—stuff that you're not attached to.

"Choose furniture, décor and finishes that are commercial grade—things that can easily be wiped down and can handle extreme wear and tear, which will save you headaches down the road," she says.

If you're staging a drug-fuelled orgy, stagger your highs
If you're on the other end of the bargain—a subletter looking for a place to have group sex—there are several basic rules to be followed, all involving respect and good behaviour. Abby Normal, a Vancouver-based promoter, regularly organizes sex parties for all genders, in all kinds of venues, including her home. She has a trunk that's basically an orgy preparedness kit, full of toys, lubes, and latex, and will lay out sheets over her furniture to save from scrubbing up splooge. If drugs are involved, Normal makes sure they aren't taken in unison.

"You want to clean up after yourself, which is especially hard when drugs are involved," she says. "It's good to stagger your highs, so there's someone to kind of keep things in order."

Normal even goes as far as arrange visits from the Consent Squad, a non-for-profit that visits sex parties to assure people are familiar with what is considered consensual.

"Just moderate your drugs and make sure people aren't making mistakes," she says.

Make sure people aren't making mistakes is probably what should be written in cross stitch and placed next to your door in lieu of Home Sweet Home. That way, if you're welcoming strangers into your home, at least there will be a reminder that what you do in other people's space can have a real, lasting effect.

Follow Elianna Lev on Twitter.

Rob Ford’s Party Pal Acquitted of All Drug Charges

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Rob Ford, left, and Sandro Lisi, right. Photo via police surveillance documents

An Ontario judge has acquitted Alexander "Sandro" Lisi, the one-time driver of former Toronto mayor Rob Ford, of drug charges after rendering a tour-de-force ruling with references to Howard Hughes' ill-fated Spruce Goose transport plane and Shakespeare's play Much Ado About Nothing.

In his 21-page judgment, Justice Ramez Khawly slams the credibility of the former undercover officer who was the key witness in the Crown's case against Lisi and Etobicoke dry cleaner, Jamshid Bahrami, who was also cleared of all charges.

Justice Khawly accused Detective Ross Fernandes of engaging in a "persistent pattern of deception" and said he could not rely on evidence that was, at points, "too pat, too predictable, too convenient."

The case was always about much more than the "fairly routine" trafficking and possession charges that turned "super nova" under the media glare.

It came out of a major police investigation into Ford and those around him after revelations in the spring of 2013 of the now-infamous video showing the former mayor smoking crack. The charges were laid in October 2013.

What resulted for Lisi, a seeming fixture in Ford's life back then, was "blanket" surveillance, with officers shadowing him around the clock, recording his movements from a camera on a light pole that was trained on the driveway of his house, affixing a GPS system on his Range Rover, and tapping his phone. Aerial surveillance was said to be so intrusive that neighbours complained.

"It would be naive to suggest that Lisi was being investigated in a vacuum. His apparent close connection with the then-mayor of Toronto were of primordial interest to the police," wrote the judge. "They were after big game."

Enter Fernandes who, posing as "Sean," befriended Bahrami, who has a license to possess, use, and grow medical marijuana, and proceeded to ensnare him in "pedestrian" and "unimaginative" ways. By just leaving Zig-Zag rolling papers in the pocket of a shirt to be laundered at Richview Cleaners, the officer sparked a conversation about smoking weed with Bahrami. According the officer's notes, Bahrami said he could supply a "QP" as quickly as the next day, at a cost of $700 to $750.

The judge was incredulous, asking "whether a man who has enough wherewithal to run a small business [would] be that dim, that unguarded, that trusting as to be that open to someone he had just laid eyes on?"

"Is that man, Bahrami, that needy, that lonely, so impaired by the consumption of government sanctioned marijuana, so wracked with pain that basic protective judgement is non-existent?" the judge asked.

"Beyond that, let me get this straight. Bahrami says 'can I help you?' and the immediate response is 'can I get a 1/4 lb of marijuana?' What kind of investigative technique is that? Is that the way you start getting the guy to trust you?"

One day later, Sean returned and, over a cigarette, Bahrami is said to divulge his supplier, "Sandro, you know, Rob Ford's bodyguard."

About a month after that, Sean went to the cleaners and exchanged $900 for half a pound of marijuana. Lisi arrived an hour later, stayed about 20 minutes and was arrested as he left, with $900 in his pocket.

The problem, said the judge, is that there is no evidence that places Lisi at Richview Cleaners preceding his arrest, thus raising doubt about whether he was the supplier. Bahrami, the judge concluded, was "basically brow beaten and told what to do" in this affair, making it impossible to believe he was the supplier.

And so, on Friday, Lisi, who was once chased up and down Bay Street by a pack of reporters, came out of the Old City Hall courthouse with a smile on his face.

He told television cameras he was "relieved" by the outcome, thanked the judge, and was later photographed by NOW magazine apparently smoking a joint (he has a medical marijuana license, the magazine reported) on the rooftop of City Hall.

Jacob Stillman, Bahrami's lawyer, told VICE his client is elated and hopes to get back to normalcy. "He was very much a dupe of the police for the purposes of achieving a very different purpose and that was to go after Rob Ford, and anyone associated with Rob Ford," said Stillman. "My client was essentially Ford bait."

Lisi still faces a charge of extortion for allegedly trying to coerce a gang member who was peddling the crack video to media outlets.

Follow Natalie Alcoba on Twitter.

The LAPD Had a Wild Town Hall About the Shooting of Brandon Glenn

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All photos by the author

On Tuesday night, an unarmed homeless black man named Brandon Glenn was shot and killed by an LAPD officer outside of a bar in the Venice Beach neighborhood of Los Angeles. The incident marks yet another tragic episode in a seemingly endless string of controversies over the use of force by police, especially against men of color.

The incident was filmed, but so far, the city hasn't released that footage to the public.

The unusual twist in this particular incident is that LAPD Chief Charlie Beck is being criticized by the local police union for being too hard on his cops. Protesters called for Beck's resignation when another unarmed black homeless man was shot in March, and he defended the LAPD. This time, after viewing the footage of the shooting, Chief Beck told the press that, so far, he hadn't seen the "extraordinary circumstances" that might justify a killing. Craig Lally of the union representing LAPD officers called the comments "completely irresponsible" at this stage of the investigation.

Beck was noticeably absent from Thursday night's town hall meeting about the killing, as was Mayor Eric Garcetti. Instead, the city dispatched Francisco Ortega, a "community engagement specialist," to emcee the event at Venice's Westminster Avenue Elementary School. Ortega introduced a panel of officials that included Beatrice Girmala, LAPD deputy chief for the city's West Side, President of the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners Steve Soboroff, and the area's City Councilman Mike Bonin.

The evening got off to a rocky start, with Ortega's opening remarks—"We know these aren't the best of circumstances"—almost immediately being interrupted by an attendee shouting, "You haven't said anything about murder!" Through the two opening invocations from neighborhood ministers, and a few remarks by Girmala, the atmosphere got even more raucous. When Bonin spoke, he was booed almost completely off from the podium.

The event soon became an outpouring of rage and grief from the crowd that lasted almost three hours. The panel shied away from straightforwardly defending the cops, but also seemed determined to avoid falling into the trap Beck did. Their solution was to mostly remain silent.

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The evening took a surprising turn when one man (above), who claimed to be an eyewitness to the shooting, gave his account of Glenn's state of mind minutes before he got in a fight with a bouncer, which led to his fatal encounter with the police. He and his friends were outside the bar playing music, the man said. "Brandon came up to our spot. He was clearly in an altered state." But the self-identified witness wasn't threatened, he said.

"He just wanted to look me in the eye and tell me about his life. He wanted to hug me too, and I wasn't interested in being hugged by a drunk stranger. He was a muscular guy. I can see why someone could be intimidated. I just looked him in the eye, listened to his story, and it wasn't that difficult. That's when the bouncer threw down." He became emotional as he explained that he had tried to defuse the situation "with my tongue, with my hands, and with my eyes."

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Many attendees had a long history of interacting with members of the panel, and seemed discouraged. Tibby Rothman, a retired journalist, told the panel that "the problem is disproportional use of violence against the poor," before recounting several examples she had witnessed. "I don't think you're going to change it," she said, adding, "Fucking prove me wrong."

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Andrew Keegan, a Hollywood actor best known for his role in 10 Things I Hate About You, was the last person to speak. He spoke of a need for harmony and mindfulness, before complaining about the police poking around his new age temple in Venice called "Full Circle."

The trio of officials simply absorbed the crowd's expressions of pain and outrage. They gave few substantive answers—mostly about distinguishing the investigative procedures of the LAPD from those of the district attorney's office—and it's safe to say that few people left satisfied.

Scroll down for more photos of an emotional evening.

Follow Mike Pearl on Twitter.


Republicans Have Finally Turned on Chris Christie

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Eighteen months ago, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie made the jump from rising Republican star to a national figure. He had just won re-electionin deep-blue New Jersey by a landslide, beating Democratic state senator Barbara Buono by 22 points. He was already squaring off against libertarian-minded Republicans like Senator Rand Paul for the soul of theparty, and his win—juxtaposed with the defeat of right-wing Virginia gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli on the same night—staked his position as the earliest of frontrunners for the 2016 Republican nomination.

Just a year and a half later, Christie's chances of winning the presidency have evaporated. An April NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll of Republican presidential contenders showed Christie with just 5 percent support, behind most of the other potential candidates.And although Christie seems to spend moretime in New Hampshire than in New Jersey these days, a recent PPP survey of New Hampshire voters showed that Christie is by far the least popular Republican presidential contender there.

As his poll numbers have dropped, Christie's supporters have started to jump ship. New Jersey state senator Joseph Kyrillos, one of the governor's closest political allies in the New Jersey Senate and the chairman of his 2009 campaign, recently endorsed Bush, who hasn't even formally announced his campaign yet. According to Politico, several other former Christie allies have defected to the Bush camp as well, including Brian Nelson, a lobbyist who led Christie's gubernatorial transition team, and New York Jets owner Woody Johnson, a major Republican donor.

But Christie's national problems pale in comparison to how he's faring in his home state. His approval rating is the lowest it's ever been, at just 38 percent. A recent Rutgers-Eagleton poll found that even among New Jersey Republicans, Christie's strongest base of support, just 22 percent would vote for him if the Republican primary were held today. Combined with his on-again, off-again, on-again, off-again friendship with former New Jersey Governor Tom Kean, one of the most respected Republican figures in the state, and Kyrillos' defection, it all suggests that even the state's GOP leaders are suffering from Christie fatigue.

So what happened? Why has the nation—and his home state—turned on New Jersey's bombastic governor?

The most obvious reason is Bridgegate. The scandal over the George Washington Bridge lane closures that erupted early last year has re-emerged this week, with federal prosecutors filing charges against three conspirators, all aides and former Christie allies. The governor has tried to distance himself from the scandal and especially David Wildstein, a former classmate of Christie's who worked at the Port Authority at the time of the lane closures. Wildstein, a notoriously loyal political operative whose ties to Christie go back to their high school baseball team and work on former Governor Thomas Kean's 1977 campaign, was known as Christie's "eyes and ears" inside the Port Authority.

For Christie', who has a reputation for political retribution, to claim that he wasn't involved in the lane closures stretches credulity for most voters, especially in New Jersey, a state infamous for its deeply entrenched— and bipartisan—tradition of political corruption. So it's not surprising that a Monmouth University poll released this week showed that 56 percent of New Jersey voters think Christie was personally involved in the bridge closure, and nearly two-thirds believe he should resign if his involvement is ever proved.

Christie's Bridgegate troubles have been compounded by the fact that he's barely ever in Trenton, even as he faces major questions about Bridgegate and the state's pension system. Aspiring presidential candidates oftenneglect the jobs they have in order to campaign for the one they want, but Christie has taken it to a new level: He's been on trade trips to Mexico, spent just enough time in London to meet with David Cameron and say some next-level dumb shit about vaccines, flew himself and his family to Jordan on the taxpayer dime, and pandered to rooms full of Iowa farmers. But Christie's true love is New Hampshire. The dude is constantlycampaigninginNew Hampshire.


Christie's positions, as well, are starting to reflect his status as a Republican presidential candidate more than his role as governor of New Jersey. In an attempt to make up for the hit to his reputation—and save his nascent campaign—the governor has been moving further and further to the right, calling on conservatives to keep fighting against same-sex marriage, expressing exasperation over the minimum wage, and promising to"crack down" on legal marijuana. Not surprisingly, none of those positions align with the majority of his state's voters.

Simply put, New Jersey elected a moderate Republican, and lately, they've gotten someone with Rick Perry's politics, Mark Sanford's availability, and Rod Blagojevich's moral compass. And as concerning as it may be for Christie's national supporters to see the governor fall so hard in early primary polls, a rocky end to his tenure as governor could be damn near catastrophic for the New Jersey Republican Party. In one of the few states on the coasts where Republicans are still competitive, the lane closure scandal—and Christie's poor response to it—has damaged not only his own reputation, but also the state party's argument that they're the honest, fiscal responsible, and socially moderate voice in New Jersey politics.

And if Republican leaders in his home state are openly pondering if Christie has ruined their chances at keeping the Governor's mansion in 2017 and a majority of New Jersey voters are finished with his governorship, Christie can pretty much write off any hope of moving into that other mansion in 2016.

Follow Paul Blest on Twitter.

Here Are Photos of Drake's First Art Exhibition

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Last night, omnipresent musician and anthropomorphic meme Drake made his art world debut—kind of—at an ostentatious press preview of his curatorial collaboration with Sotheby's private exhibition space S2.

Despite the rapper once telling a reporter, "I think the whole rap–art world thing is getting kind of corny," Drake has teamed up with arguably the world's most corny auction house (as well as Beats by Dre) to createI Like It Like This, a collection of secondary market works by black American artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Nick Cave, Kara Walker, and Kehinde Wiley. Drake also provided "musical curation" for the art, as the various works include listening stations that play songs meant to complement them.

On its website Sotheby's explained the goal of this project:

Today musicians rap about painters and commission artists to design their album covers; in the same vein artists look to music as inspiration for their paintings. Influences flow in both directions to create a fertile creative environment, producing some of the most resonant and profound artistic output in American history.

The auction house attributed its interest in Drake to his placeholder as one of today's "foremost cultural tastemakers." Others are more skeptical of this being a notable exhibition or true curatorial effort from the musician.

M.H. Miller of ARTNEWS wrote a particularly flippant review of the show, summing it up in a single (albeit long) sentence. Meanwhile, New York described the Drake-Sotheby's alliance as having "a slightly rocky start."

But, hey, whatever. We had fun. Plus Drizzy's hair looked great. See some photos of the rapper entering the art game (and Illuminati) below. The work is on view through June 12.

Follow Zach on Twitter and Bobby on Tumblr.

The Nightmare That Scared Every New York City Parent 36 Years Ago Still Isn't Over

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Screenshot via YouTube.

On May 25, 1979, Etan Patz was allowed to walk to the bus stop in SoHo, Manhattan, by himself for the first time. Dressed in an Eastern Airlines captain's hat and armed with a dollar, he told his parents he wanted to buy a soda to eat with lunch.

Stan and Julie Patz never saw their six-year-old again.

The case stumped investigators and struck fear in the hearts of parents everywhere, but particularly in New York City. As Patz's face was plastered on milk cartons and projected in Times Square, people started discussing "stranger danger" with their kids for the first time. In 1983, Ronald Reagan declared May 25 "Missing Children's Day." Although a breakthrough in the decades-long mystery seemed to emerge in 2012 when 54-year-old New Jersey resident Pedro Hernandez confessed on tape, a judge declared a mistrial in the murder case against him Friday after a jury was deadlocked for a third time in as many weeks.

Until quite recently, the primary suspect in the case had been Jose Antonio Ramos, a convicted pedophile who lived in a Bronx drainpipe. He even reportedly told Assistant United States Attorney Stuart R. GraBois that he picked up a boy he was "90 percent sure" was Patz on the day he disappeared with plans to molest him, but ended up putting that kid on a subway when he resisted. Still, no one could wrangle a confession out of Ramos, and to to this day he denies harming Patz.

Three years ago, though, Hernandez—who was an 18-year-old convenience store clerk back in 1979—confessed to strangling Patz after several hours of police interrogation. The New York Times found that he first confessed previously in a Camden, New Jersey, prayer group and that his sister considered it an "open family secret." In fact, it was a tip from a family member that led to police picking Hernandez up for questioning.

Hernandez was indicted on November 14, 2012, even though there was no physical evidence linking him to the crime. His mental illness would also appear to meet the profile for a coerced confession as defined by the Innocence Project. He displays schizophrenic tendencies and has an IQ of around 70 according to his attorney.

"The really sad part of this case," Hernandez's attorney told ProPublica, "is that it will take time, it will take money and it will not tell the city what happened to Etan Patz."

The case has taken three years to prepare and conduct, but it seems likely we'll never know who actually killed Patz, though his disappearance has cast a long shadow. Although the idea of a kidnapper is obviously a universal concept, before May 25, 1979, it hadn't quite calcified in the national consciousness.

A young mother at the time of the kidnapping perhaps summed up the cultural shift when she spoke to a reporter for a 2009 feature on Katz. Back then the city was an unsupervised—but seemingly safe, at least by 1970s standards—playground for young kids who would skip home for dinner each night.

"It all changed after Etan," she told New York magazine. "We all looked at each other and said, 'Well, that world is gone.' "

Follow Allie Conti on Twitter.

Watch Host Isobel Yeung Debrief Our New HBO Episode About GMOs

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We're now deep into the third season of our show VICE on HBO. Among other stories, we've taken a look at climate change in Antarctica, American militias taking the law into their own hands, and the cocaine highway that leads from the streets of Venezuela to the sinuses of European teenagers.

We just aired a new episode where host Isobel Yeung traced the path of genetically modified super-crops from the headquarters of American agribusiness titan Monsanto to the soy fields of Paraguay, and visits the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, high in the Arctic, to see what's truly at stake when humans try to improve on nature. We sat down with Yeung to debrief the trip—check it out above.

Watch VICE Fridays on HBO at 11 PM, 10 PM central or on HBO's new online streaming service, HBO Now.

A Brief History of 60 Years of (Fictional) Female and Minority Presidents

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Dennis Haysbert as President David Palmer in '24'

This week, it was announced that actress Sela Ward had signed on to play the president of the US in Independence Day 2. The actress, who previously starred in Gone Girl and CSI:NY, will fill the presidential shoes of Bill Pullman from the original film, making her character the highest-profile film depiction of a female president ever. This seems like progress, and it is in a way, but the world of film has always been more willing than the real world to experiment with putting women and minorities in the Oval Office.

More than 60 years before Julia-Louis Dreyfus takes office in VEEP, the first woman president on the small or big screen was played by Ernestine Barrier in a crappy black-and-white sci-fi flick called Project Moonbase (1953). The presence of ladies in positions of authority was forward-thinking in a way, but as you might expect, the regressive gender politics of the 50s remain intact: The lead female scientist in this movie behaves like a child, and is even threatened with "a spanking" by her superior officer. When she encounters anything confusing or dangerous—such as needing to weed out a spy in their midst, or a series of buttons on the control panel—the scientist immediately defers to her male counterpart.

The next female president appears in the 1964 comedy Kisses for My President, in which Polly Bergen plays President Leslie McCloud. The premise of the film is, basically, "Ha ha wouldn't it be funny if a woman were president?" Really, the story centers on her husband—or the "first lady," as he's referred to on the movie poster and numerous times during the film. In the end, the president suddenly realizes she's pregnant, then resigns from her post to focus on her family.

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Clip from 'Kisses for My President' (1964)

As for a black president, the first actor to take on the role was a seven-year-old Sammy Davis, Jr. in 1933's satirical short musical Rufus Jones for President. The satiric (read: racist as hell—the whole premise itself full of callous mockery) movie follows a young Rufus as he's elected president and proceeds to sing and dance in the White House. The world wouldn't get a serious look at a black president for another 39 years, in the form of the 1972 film The Man. The movie stars James Earl Jones as Douglass Dilman, a president pro tempore (third in line to be the commander-in-chief) who ends up running the country after the president dies and the vice president is too sick to hold office. The Man is all about the Dilman character dealing with the issues of the era—he's a moderate, and both liberals and conservatives around him want to make his race the main issue—and pushing back against those who are working to unseat him.

The film dealt with some of the same issues that a 1977 sketch from The Richard Pryor Show took on, though obviously Pryor cuts a different figure in the Oval Office than Jones:

[youtube src='//www.youtube.com/embed/TaXxl5Pc6As' width='640' height='360']

As time went on, we began to see more and more depictions of black presidents. By the 90s, in fact, black actors could portray the commander-in-chief without the premise of the movie being WOW A BLACK PRESIDENT! You had Morgan Freeman as the oddly calm President Beck in Deep Impact (1998); Tommy Lister as the hulking President (of the galaxy) Lindbergh in The Fifth Element (1997); Chris Rock as presidential candidate-turned-President-Elect Mays Gilliam in Head of State (2003); and the wonderful Dennis Haysbert as unflappable President David Palmer on 24 (later, the forward-thinking show would feature Cherry Jones as President Allison Taylor). In fact, Haysbert told the Associated Press in 2008 that he thought his portrayal of President Palmer "may have helped open the eyes of the American people," helping pave the way to electing President Obama.

Whether or not that's true, people's eyes have been opening slowly, both onscreen and off. According to a list of all presidential roles in film and TV on Wikipedia, since President Obama's election in 2008, there have been approximately 48 films with a role for a fictional president. Out of those 48 films, 14 roles have been gone to women or people of color—roughly 29 percent. Compare this figure with the House of Representatives, which has 535 seats. Ninety-six House seats are currently held by people of color and 87 held by women, which works out to 28.5 percent. (Two of the representatives are women of color.) Which isn't exactly great, but at least it's no worse than reality, where, since we're counting, we're at 43 presidents who are white guys compared to only one who isn't.

As for a Jewish president, only the film Deterrence (1999), starring Kevin Pollak, deals directly with a president of Jewish descent as integral to the plot. And, as far as I can tell, there's never been a depiction of a Asian president or a president who is a woman of color. Furthermore, one of the only Latino presidents the world has seen is at the inauguration of President Matt Santos (Jimmy Smits) at the end of The West Wing . (In the political thriller Olympus Has Fallen, which stars Morgan Freeman as acting president, producers cast Caucasian actor Phil Austin in the role of the Latino vice president).

Related: Watch President Barack Obama speak with VICE News

[youtube src='//www.youtube.com/embed/2a01Rg2g2Z8' width='560' height='315']

So why are we still so adverse to seeing women and underrepresented groups in the role of commander-in-chief? The problem, obviously, goes way beyond the casting of presidential roles: As shown in this amazing infographic, of the top 500 films from 2007 through 2012, only 30 percent of all speaking parts went to women. Maybe we'd have more diverse fictional presidents if fictional electorates weren't entirely made up of white guys.

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