Wearing bulletproof vests, three teen suspects have appeared for the first time in a US court on charges of gang raping a 15-year-old girl outside a high school dance while as many as two dozen people watched without calling police.

Defendant Cody Ray Smith, 15, pleaded not guilty, while Ari Abdallah Morales, 16, and Marcelles James Peter, 17, did not enter pleas during their arraignment in Contra Costa County Superior Court on Thursday.

Peter's aunt, Monica Peter, said before the hearing that her nephew had told her he was only a bystander and did not participate in the attack.

Asked why he didn't do anything to stop it, she said he feared "he would get his ass kicked".

The defendants wore the vests for protection, but sheriff's spokesman Jimmy Lee could not explain further. Morales had a black eye from a separate incident, authorities said. Read On

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN Violence -- especially grotesque, gory or bloody violence -- has become a staple of network television during sweeps periods. But there's a new kind of violence surging -- violence against women. A new study by the Parents Television Council called "Women in Peril" reveals that between 2004 and 2009, CBS, NBC, and Fox (but not ABC) all green-lighted a significant increase in the incidents -- and degree -- of violence against women.

On average, during the five-year span, there was a 2 percent increase in overall violence during the primetime viewing hours. But during the same time period, there was a 120 percent increase in the number of times the audience would be exposed to a violent scene with a female victim. Read On

Author Gore Vidal says he refuses to feel any sympathy for Roman Polanski’s rape victim, whom he dubs a “hooker.”

In an interview with The Atlantic, the controversial 83-year-old author of such books as “Myra Breckinridge” and “1876” says of the director’s sex scandal, “I really don’t give a [expletive]. Look am I going to sit and weep every time a young hooker feels as though she’s being taken advantage of?”

The young woman to whom he is referring is Samantha Geimer, who was a 13-year-old aspiring model in 1977 when she was drugged and raped by Polanski.

Vidal went on to say that the media pushed an inaccurate image of Geimer, painting her as an innocent victim as opposed to what he believes to be her true identity. Read On

FORCED TO WATCH PORN  A 1970s-era Texas law that allows parents to show "harmful material" to their children has come under fire after a prosecutor said he couldn't file charges against a man accused of forcing his 8- and 9-year-old daughters to watch hardcore online pornography.

Randall County District Attorney James Farren has asked the Texas attorney general's office to review his decision not to pursue charges in the case, which has prompted at least one lawmaker to vow to change the state's public indecency law.

"Our hands are tied. It's not our fault. I have to follow the law," Farren said Thursday. "The mother of the victims in this case was less than happy with this decision, which I understand. We were less than happy with the statute." Read On

PLAYBOY TARGETING CHILDREN "Marge Simpson has done something that Homer might not like but will make Bart the proudest kid in his school: She's posed for Playboy magazine."

"Bart," for those who do not follow teen television is "10 years old" and a global youth icon. This is Playboy's newest marketing device to seduce child consumers and future performers.

Wake up and smell the corruption. Playboy marketers have launched a global seduction of "tweens" by stripping Mother Simpson on its cover. Playboy cartoons traditionally brainwash users into laughing at sexual trafficking, kidnapping, prostitution, incest, rape of women and children, and of course sexual harassment. Read On

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