The Utterly Fashionable "Nyarl was RIGHT!" Thread

[Doctor X]

Requests to bring in child brides OK’d; legal under US laws

By COLLEEN LONG

WASHINGTON (AP) — Thousands of requests by men to bring in child and adolescent brides to live in the United States were approved over the past decade, according to government data obtained by The Associated Press. In one case, a 49-year-old man applied for admission for a 15-year-old girl.

The approvals are legal: The Immigration and Nationality Act does not set minimum age requirements for the person making the request or for that person’s spouse or fiancee. By contrast, to bring in a parent from overseas, a petitioner has to be at least 21 years old.

And in weighing petitions, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services goes by whether the marriage is legal in the spouse or fiancee’s home country and then whether the marriage would be legal in the state where the petitioner lives.

The data raises questions about whether the immigration system may be enabling forced marriage and about how U.S. laws may be compounding the problem despite efforts to limit child and forced marriage. Marriage between adults and minors is not uncommon in the U.S., and most states allow children to marry with some restrictions.

There were more than 5,000 cases of adults petitioning on behalf of minors and nearly 3,000 examples of minors seeking to bring in older spouses or fiances, according to the data requested by the Senate Homeland Security Committee in 2017 and compiled into a report. The approval is the first of a two-step visa process, and USCIS said it has taken steps to better flag and vet the petitions.

Some victims of forced marriage say the lure of a U.S. passport combined with lax U.S. marriage laws are partly fueling the petitions.

“My sunshine was snatched from my life,” said Naila Amin, a dual citizen born in Pakistan who grew up in New York City.

She was forcibly married at 13 in Pakistan and later applied for papers for her 26-year-old husband to come to the U.S. at the behest of her family. She was forced for a time to live in Pakistan with him, where, she said, she was sexually assaulted and beaten. She came back to the U.S., and he was to follow.

“People die to come to America,” she said. “I was a passport to him. They all wanted him here, and that was the way to do it.”

["Snip!"--Ed.]

There is a two-step process for obtaining U.S. immigration visas and green cards. Petitions are first considered by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, or USCIS. If granted, they must be approved by the State Department. Overall, there were 3.5 million petitions received from budget years 2007 through 2017.

Over that period, there were 5,556 approvals for those seeking to bring minor spouses or fiancees, and 2,926 approvals by minors seeking to bring in older spouses, according to the data. Additionally, there were 204 for minors by minors. Petitions can be filed by U.S. citizens or permanent residents.

“It indicates a problem. It indicates a loophole that we need to close,” Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, told the AP.

In nearly all the cases, the girls were the younger person in the relationship. In 149 instances, the adult was older than 40, and in 28 cases the adult was over 50, the committee found. In 2011, immigration officials approved a 14-year-old’s petition for a 48-year-old spouse in Jamaica. A petition from a 71-year-old man was approved in 2013 for his 17-year-old wife in Guatemala.

["Snip!"--Ed.]

Reiss, who says she was forced into an abusive marriage by her Orthodox Jewish family when she was 19, said that often cases of child marriage via parental consent involve coercion, with a girl forced to marry against her will.

“They are subjected to a lifetime of domestic servitude and rape,” she said. “And the government is not only complicit; they’re stamping this and saying: Go ahead.”

The data was requested in 2017 by Johnson and then-Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, the committee’s top Democrat. Johnson said it took a year to get the information, showing there needs to be a better system to track and vet the petitions.

["Snip!"--Ed.]

The head of USCIS said in a letter to the committee that its request had raised questions and discussion within the agency on what it can do to prevent forced minor marriages. Awesome.

USCIS created a flagging system when a minor spouse or fiance is detected. After the initial flag, it is sent to a special unit that verifies the age and relationship are correct before the petition is accepted. Another flag requires verification of the birthdate whenever a minor is detected. Officials note an approval doesn’t mean the visa is immediately issued. Which does what exactly? Oh, right, fuck all!

“USCIS has taken steps to improve data integrity and has implemented a range of solutions that require the verification of a birthdate whenever a minor spouse or fiance is detected,” USCIS spokesman Michael Bars said. “Ultimately, it is up to Congress to bring more certainty and legal clarity to this process for both petitioners and USCIS officers.”

The country where most requests came from was Mexico, followed by Pakistan, Jordan, the Dominican Republic and Yemen. Middle Eastern nationals had the highest percentage of overall approved petitions.

Boston Sun

--J.D.

[Anaxagoras]

[Anaxagoras]

And the headline here pretty much tells you all you need to know, but it doesn't capture the full horror. Pregnant Lyft driver brutally stabbed to death by passenger, unborn child dies: cops

And she leaves behind two orphans, ages 2 and 4.

This cunt won't get what he truly deserves, such as being buried alive. But he is caught so this one should get the death penalty.

[Doctor X]

But, like, lethal injection is totally "cruel and unusual."

--J.D.

[Doctor X]

This could be the Fucking Asshole of the Month. There is a Small Ray of Sunshine though. As a background, this Cunt was quickly under investigation and then arrested for having his great niece suddenly die on him during a visit, no, wait, he did not call 911 immediately, oh and, like, she must have gotten into the fentanyl . . . you know how that is:

A Lawrence man accused of drugging and raping his 11-year-old great-niece was beaten by fellow inmates in the Essex County jail and is now being held in solitary confinement.

["Snip!"--Ed.]

The attack took place on the floor of the jail’s housing unit just hours after Rivera was arraigned on a new charge of rape of a child with force.

Rivera was already charged with permitting substantial bodily injury to a child and misleading a police investigation in the death of his great-niece Precious Wallaces, who died Dec. 17.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner performed an autopsy and collected evidence that resulted in the rape charge but has not yet ruled on a cause and manner of death, the Essex District Attorney’s Office stated. The state crime lab reported it matched Rivera’s DNA to sperm cells found on the girl during the autopsy.

Wallaces had been staying at her uncle’s house the night of Dec. 15, when first responders were called to Jackson Street in Lawrence at about 3:30 the next morning for an unconscious child.

A witness told police that Rivera had given his great-niece a little red pill to sleep — something he did every time she stayed the night at his apartment. Rivera denied giving her one — saying she took some on her own — but later admitted to police that he flushed the remaining pills down the toilet before calling 911, the complaint states. He waited 13 minutes before calling police, the complaint states. This sophisticated alibi is what landed him in jail in the first place.

["Snip!"--Ed.]

Wallaces was taken to Lawrence General Hospital before being flown to Tufts Medical Center in December, dying after spending two days in a coma, as the Herald has previously reported. It was determined the girl had both fentanyl and amitriptyline — an antidepressant -— in her system when she arrived at Lawrence General Hospital, the criminal complaint states.

Boston Sun

--J.D.

[Doctor X]

I posted a link to this when I decimated Anax's Mom in a discussion on health care and why New York continues to suck [Citation needed.--Ed.]

Letting them die: parents refuse medical help for children in the name of Christ

The Followers of Christ is a religious sect that preaches faith healing in states such as Idaho, which offers a faith-based shield for felony crimes – despite alarming child mortality rates among these groups

Jason Wilson

Mariah Walton, who has pulmonary hypertension, at her home. ‘I would like to see my parents prosecuted,’ she says. Mariah Walton’s voice is quiet – her lungs have been wrecked by her illness, and her respirator doesn’t help. But her tone is resolute.

“Yes, I would like to see my parents prosecuted.”

Why?

“They deserve it.” She pauses. “And it might stop others.”

Mariah is 20 but she’s frail and permanently disabled. She has pulmonary hypertension and when she’s not bedridden, she has to carry an oxygen tank that allows her to breathe. At times, she has had screws in her bones to anchor her breathing device. She may soon have no option for a cure except a heart and lung transplant – an extremely risky procedure.

All this could have been prevented in her infancy by closing a small congenital hole in her heart. Indeed it could. It could even have been successfully treated in later years, before irreversible damage was done. But Mariah’s parents were fundamentalist Mormons who went off the grid in northern Idaho in the 1990s and refused to take their children to doctors, believing that illnesses could be healed through faith and the power of prayer.

As she grew sicker and sicker, Mariah’s parents would pray over her and use alternative medicine. Until she finally left home two years ago, she did not have a social security number or a birth certificate.

Had they been in neighboring Oregon, her parents could have been booked for medical neglect. In Mariah’s case, as in scores of others of instances of preventible [Sic--Ed.] death among children in Idaho since the 1970s, laws exempt dogmatic faith healers from prosecution, and she and her sister recently took part in a panel discussion with lawmakers at the state capitol about the issue. Idaho is one of only six states that offer a faith-based shield for felony crimes such as manslaughter.

Some of those enjoying legal protection are fringe Mormon families like Mariah’s, many of whom live in the state’s north. But a large number of children have died in southern Idaho, near Boise, in families belonging to a reclusive, Pentecostal faith-healing sect called the Followers of Christ.

["Snip!"--Ed.]

In Canyon County, just west of the capital, the sect’s Peaceful Valley cemetery is full of graves marking the deaths of children who lived a day, a week, a month. Last year, a taskforce set up by Idaho governor Butch Otter estimated that the child mortality rate for the Followers of Christ between 2002 and 2011 was 10 times that of Idaho as a whole.
Now this is interesting
The shield laws that prevent prosecutions in Idaho are an artifact of the Nixon administration. High-profile child abuse cases in the 1960s led pediatricians and activists to push for laws that combatted it. In order to help states fund such programs, Congress passed the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (Capta), which Richard Nixon signed in 1974.

But there was a fateful catch due to the influence of Nixon advisers John Ehrlichman and J R Haldeman, both lifelong Christian Scientists.

Boston College history professor Alan Rogers explains how the men – later jailed for their role in the Watergate scandal – were themselves members of a faith-healing sect, and acted to prevent their co-religionists being charged with crimes of neglect.

“Because Ehrlichman and Haldeman were Christian Scientists, they had inserted into the law a provision that said those who believe that prayer is the only way to cure illness are exempted from this law,” he said.

They also ensure that states had to pass similar exemptions in order to access Capta funds. The federal requirement was later relaxed, but the resultant state laws have had to be painstakingly repealed one by one.

Some states, such as Oregon, held on longer until high-profile deaths in the Followers of Christ church in Oregon City attracted the attention of local media; over time the state reversed course.

As a result, several Followers of Christ members in Oregon have been successfully prosecuted. In 2010, Jeffrey and Marci Beagley were convicted of criminally negligent homicide after the death of their toddler, Neal, who died from a congenital bladder blockage. In 2011 Do I need to describe how painful that is?, Timothy and Rebecca Wyland were convicted of criminal mistreatment and the court ordered that their daughter Aylana be medically treated for the growth that had been threatening to blind her. Later that year, Dale and Shannon Hickman were convicted of second-degree manslaughter two years after their newborn son died of a simple infection.

Next door, Idaho presents a polar opposition to Oregon. Republicans, who enjoy an effective permanent majority in the state house, are surprisingly reluctant to even consider reform. Might imply that Junior is impotent, Heavens to Betsy. Last year, the governor’s Task Force on Children at Risk recommended change: “Religious freedoms must be protected; but vulnerable children must also be appropriately protected from unnecessary harm and death.” Democratic legislator John Gannon proposed a repeal bill which he “never thought would really be that controversial”.

The chairman of the senate health and welfare committee, Lee Heider Coming to Fucking Asshole of the Week soon!, refused to even grant it a hearing, effectively killing it.

Hoyt is a fit 43, ["Snip!"--Ed.]

He lost his faith around the age of five, when a baby died in his arms in the course of a failed healing. While elders prayed, Hoyt was in charge of removing its mucus with a suction device. He was told that the child died because of his own lack of faith. Something snapped, and he remembers thinking: “How can this possibly be God’s work?” His apostasy set up lifelong conflicts with his parents and church elders.

In just one incident, when he was 12, Hoyt broke his ankle during a wrestling tryout. “I ended up shattering two bones in my foot,” he said. His parents approached the situation with the usual Followers remedies – rubbing the injury with “rancid olive oil” and having him swig on Kosher wine.

Intermittently, they would have him attempt to walk. Each time, “my body would just go into shock and I would pass out”.

“I would wake up to my step-dad, my uncles and the other elders of the church kicking me and beating me, calling me a fag, because I didn’t have enough faith to let God come in and heal me, while my mom and my aunts were sitting there watching. And that’s called faith healing.”

He had so much time off with the untreated fracture that his school demanded a medical certificate to cover the absence. Forced to take him to a doctor, his mother spent most of the consultation accusing the doctor of being a pedophile.

He was given a cast and medication but immediately upon returning home, the medication was flushed down the toilet, leaving him with no pain relief. His second walking cast was cut off by male relatives at home with a circular saw.

["Snip!"--Ed.]

So far, their testimonies of abuse have not convinced Idaho’s Republican legislators. Senator Heider, for one, describes the Followers of Christ as “very nice people”.

["Snip!"--Ed.]

“Republicans didn’t feel the need to change the laws. We believe in the first amendment to the constitution. I don’t think that states have a right to interfere in religions.”

When pressed on the fact that children are dying unnecessarily as a result of exemptions, Heider makes an odd comparison.

“Are we going to stop Methodists from reading the New Testament? Are we going to stop Catholics receiving the sacraments? That’s what these people believe in. They spoke to me and pointed to a tremendous number of examples where Christ healed people in the New Testament.”

Heider blamed outsiders for stirring the pot on this issue, even challenging the Guardian’s right to take an interest in the story, asking “what difference does it make to you?” and adding “is the United States coming in and trying to change Idaho’s laws?” He confirmed that he attended a Followers of Christ service last year – a rare privilege for an outsider from a group that refuses to speak to reporters.

But if we take Heider at his word concerning the reasons for his opposition, his view of the constitution is simply mistaken.

Alan Rogers, the Boston College history professor, points to a string of US supreme court decisions that distinguish between freedom of belief and freedom of practice Why I cannot sacrifice this virgin. Now I have to feed her and hose her down periodically., which affirm the former and limit the latter where it causes harm. These stretch back as far as Reynolds v United States in 1878, which forbade Mormon polygamy, and include Prince v Massachusetts, which affirmed the federal government’s ability to secure the welfare of children even when it conflicts with religious belief.

["Snip!"--Ed.]

According to coroners’ reports, in Canyon County alone just in the past decade at least 10 children in the Followers of Christ church have died. These include 15-year-old Arrian Granden, who died in 2012 after contracting food poisoning. She vomited so much that her esophagus ruptured. Untreated, she bled to death. No, that was not a pleasant nor peaceful demise. Here, have a kitty.

Campaigners such as Mariah Walton, Janet Heimlich, Linda Martin and Brian Hoyt are determined not to let this matter rest in the next legislative session.

A new “Let Them Live” campaign, involving a television ad campaign featuring Mariah, is being coordinated by Bruce Wingate at Protect Idaho Kids. Resources are limited, but all are confident that improved public awareness will build pressure on legislators.

Gannon, the Democratic legislator, says for his part that his bill will be back next year. “It’s not going to go away,” he says. “Dead children don’t care about the first amendment.” And the First Amendment does not protect the murder of children.

Read by the People Who Think They Should Run the Country

--J.D.

[Anaxagoras]

Jesus wept.

[sparks]

Jeebus weeping never mad a difference.

ed, with guns, does.

Let anarchy rule. (WTF?)

[Witness]

Vegan parents accused of nearly starving baby to death in the US

A vegan couple from Florida has been arrested for allegedly almost starving their 5-month-old son to death by switching from his doctor-prescribed formula to a mashed potato concoction they found on the internet.

Julia French, 20, and Robert Buskey, 31, have been charged with neglect after investigators found the infant weighed just under 4kg, after being recorded at birth at 3.5kg, according to WFTV news.
[…]
The couple are also said to follow "Nazarite Hebrew" religious principles and the woman considers herself to be the man's concubine.

A doctor reportedly prescribed infant formula that would fit within the family's vegan lifestyle but the couple instead fed the baby a potato-based meal they found online.

The parents could afford the formula the doctor prescribed and, when questioned by authorities, did not give a reason as to why they chose not to provide it.

Since Wednesday, the boy, who is now in foster care, has gained half a pound on fluids alone.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/a ... d=12204479

[Anaxagoras]

Is breastfeeding not vegan?

[sparks]

Nope. Contains the remains of animals.

[Grammatron]

Mom dead after car rams into family of 8, then backs up and does it again

Haverstraw, N.Y. -- A 32-year-old mother was killed and the rest of her family was rushed to the hospital Wednesday after a driver deliberately plowed into them outside a convenience store in a northern New York City suburb, CBS New York reports. Investigators said 35-year-old Jason Mendez, of nearby Washingtonville, N.Y., intentionally drove into the two adults and six children, including one in a stroller, in the parking lot of a 7-Eleven in the Rockland County town of Haverstraw following an argument.
After initially striking the family, police said, Mendez backed up and hit them again.
Mendez drove into the front of the store during one of the two approaches, authorities said.
Police said the initial argument may have stemmed from the husband asking Mendez to not blow cigarette smoke near his children.
Police said Mendez was brandishing a knife when officers arrived at the scene and, when he refused to drop it, officers Tasered him.
The family members were rushed to nearby hospitals, where officials said the mother was pronounced dead. Her 35-year-old husband and their six children, all under the age of 10, were being treated for non-life threatening injuries.

[Doctor X]

One where I wish they had not used tasers but their guns on the Cunt.

--J.D.

[sparks]

Agreed.

"Drop the knife."

"No."

"Bang!"

"Scrape him up boys, coroner's waiting to do the autopsy on what's left."

[Doctor X]

From The Thought for the Day:

Brunei is introducing strict new Islamic laws that make anal sex and adultery offences [Sic--Ed.] punishable by stoning to death.

The new measures, that come into force on Wednesday, also cover a range of other crimes including punishment for theft by amputation.

The move has sparked international condemnation.

Brunei's gay community has expressed shock and fear at the "medieval punishments".

"You wake up and realise that your neighbours, your family or even that nice old lady that sells prawn fritters by the side of the road doesn't think you're human, or is okay with stoning," one Bruneian gay man, who did not want to be identified, told the BBC.

The sultan of the small south-east Asian nation on Wednesday called for "stronger" Islamic teachings.

"I want to see Islamic teachings in this country grow stronger," Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah said at a public address, according to AFP news agency, without mentioning the new laws.

Homosexuality was already illegal in Brunei and punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Muslims make up about two-thirds of the country's population of 420,000. Brunei has retained the death penalty but has not carried out an execution since 1957.

The law mostly applies to Muslims, including children who have reached puberty, though some aspects will apply to non-Muslims.

Under the new laws, individuals accused of certain acts will only be convicted if they confess or if there were witnesses present.

• Offences such as rape, adultery, sodomy, robbery and insult or defamation of the Prophet Muhammad will carry the maximum penalty of death.
  Lesbian sex carries a different penalty of 40 strokes of the cane and/or a maximum of 10 years in jail
  The punishment for theft is amputation
  Those who "persuade, tell or encourage" Muslim children under the age of 18 "to accept the teachings of religions other than Islam" are liable to a fine or jail

Individuals who have not reached puberty but are convicted of certain offences may be instead subjected to whipping.

Bugger'd by Colonists

--J.D.

[Captain]

It's for their own good.

[ed]

So this was a "how to", not a parody. Interesting.

I wonder how a condemnation would be greeted in congress. I guess that this isn't "real Islam (tm)".

[Anaxagoras]

Child stars of YouTube hit 'Fantastic Adventures' allegedly abused by adopted mother

The children told police their adoptive mother starved, beat and pepper sprayed them when they failed to follow direction for videos, officials said.

An Arizona mother is accused of abusing her seven adopted children to get them to perform for her popular YouTube channel, "Fantastic Adventures."

Machelle Hackney and her two adult sons were arrested Friday and are facing abuse charges.

Police said Hackney withheld food and water, restricted restroom access, beat and pepper-sprayed the children when they failed to follow direction for YouTube videos, according to a probable cause statement from the Maricopa Police Department.

Hackney, who goes by her maiden name Hobson, denied abusing the children and stated the only forms of punishment she uses is spanking and grounding children and having them stand in the corner, according to police documents.

Hackney has been charged with seven counts of child abuse, five counts of unlawful imprisonment and two counts of child molestation. Jail records show she was arraigned Tuesday and held without bond.

Police did not release the children's ages.

"Fantastic Adventures," which has 700,800 followers and more than 242 million views, features the adopted children in different sketch videos.

Some of the children told investigators that they had not been to school in years. One said he “was in the green screen room most of his life."

They also claimed their adoptive mother abused them whenever they forgot their lines or didn't participate as instructed, according to court documents. They said Hackney would use a hanger, belt brush or her knuckles to beat them.

YouTube confirmed the channel was demonetized once they were made aware of the arrest.

Officials performed a welfare check after police were contacted by Hackney's biological daughter, who was informed of the allegations by her adopted siblings. During the check, officers found one child in an unlocked closet wearing only a pull-up diaper.

"Officers came in contact with the six other children, who appeared to be malnourished, due to their pale complexion, dark rings under their eyes, underweight, and they stated they were thirsty and hungry," according to the probable cause statement.

The Department of Child Services removed all seven children from Hackney's care and has assisted in having the children forensically interviewed and medically examined.

One of the boys was in pain when police arrived, saying his mother had grabbed his genitals earlier in the day, court documents said. Another boy said Hackney would pinch the tip of his penis with her nails until it bled.

One of the girls told authorities her adoptive mother-pepper sprayed her genitals, and afterward, she was in pain for days.

She said that Hackney would "pepper spray all over their face and body, spank them, force them to take ice baths and when resisting would force their head underwater as well as she will make them stand in the corner with their arms raised above their head for several hours at a time."

The children told Department of Children's Services officials that their mother would wear a mask to protect herself while she pepper sprayed them.

Police said they found two cans of pepper spray in Hackney’s room along with a closet with a deadbolt.

The children said they would be locked in the closet for days without access to a bathroom, food or water.

[Doctor X]

Oye.



--J.D.

[Doctor X]

Man drowns during underwater marriage proposal

–J.D.

[Witness]

3-year-old dies after being left in hot car in San Antonio

A 3-year-old died in San Antonio on Saturday after being left in a hot car -- the sixth such death in Texas and the 43rd in the U.S. this year, according to an advocacy group.

Last year, with 54 reported deaths, was the worst on record, KidsAndCars.org said in a statement. Since 1991, Texas ranks first nationally with 131 such fatalities.

Police believe the child's parents, after arriving home from a 6-year-old sibling's T-ball game, may have been distracted, with one thinking the other had removed the toddler from the vehicle.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/year-dies-lef ... d=65775032

[Anaxagoras]

Similar story:

https://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/ ... riah_dies/

[Doctor X]

Ouch!

–J.D.

[Anaxagoras]

Incestuous couple who murdered their teenage sons jailed for life

[Doctor X]

From the Japan thread, this really belongs here. Anax's Mom noted the death of a young lady, possibly suicide, due to cyberbullying. Her death has not been officially ruled as such just yet, but all of the euphemisms appear in play.

Wokket NUZU has addressed it with an article which is difficult to read.



– J.D.

[Hotarubi]

From the Japan thread, this really belongs here. Anax's Mom noted the death of a young lady, possibly suicide, due to cyberbullying. Her death has not been officially ruled as such just yet, but all of the euphemisms appear in play.

Wokket NUZU has addressed it with an article which is difficult to read.



– J.D.

Fuck.

[Doctor X]

Just to make it even better!

Hana Kimura’s mother slams Terrace House castmates for partying after daughter’s death

On 23 May, pro-wrestler Hana Kimura, a starring member of the Terrace House: Tokyo 2019-2020 reality TV show on Netflix, was found dead in her Tokyo apartment. She was 22 years old.

Kimura’s suicide followed months of bullying on social media, which reached a peak after “The Costume Incident” aired on the show. During this incident, Kimura shouted at fellow housemate Kai, with whom tensions had been simmering for weeks, hitting his cap off his head after he inadvertently shrank her cherished, expensive wrestling costume in the washing machine.

The online hate Kimura received, in spite of the fact that many viewers felt the outburst was warranted, was widely condemned by fans, celebrities and even Japanese politicians, who said they would bolster countermeasures against online cyberbullies.

However, this week, Kimura’s mother, former pro-wrestler Kyoko Kimura, revealed in an interview with weekly magazine Shuukan Bunshun that “The Costume Incident” was actually staged by the show’s producers.

["Snip!" – Ed.]

Hana’s mother said her daughter spoke to her about the incident on 18 May, five days before her death, during a car ride home from a birthday party held for Hana’s grandmother. Hana was in tears when she spoke, revealing that staff wanted her to act like a pro-wrestler character on the show from the outset, telling her to “turn level-one-type situations up to 100”.

She went on to say that staff behind the scenes really stirred things up before the costume incident, telling her “it’d be fine to go so far as to basically slap the guy across the face”.

Hana said she felt pressured to make the encounter dramatic, but she knew as a pro-wrestler it wouldn’t be right to hit him so she hit the baseball cap on his head instead. Kimura didn’t expect such backlash, given staff on the show were egging her on, which ultimately left her “unable to trust the staff“.

["Snip!" – Ed.]

According to the publication, Kai Kobayashi, the co-star who bore the brunt of Hana’s anger during the incident, also came out to confirm that Hana had spoken to him on numerous occasions about the problem of staged scenes.

["Snip!" – Ed.]

After the magazine containing the interview with Hana’s mother went on sale on 2 July, her revelations created headlines in Japan. However, that same day, Terrace House cast members who lived with Hana during filming of the show were pictured partying on a rooftop in Tokyo.

["Snip!" – Ed.]

Niino went on to share videos of the party on Instagram Stories as well, where a number of Hana’s former housemates appeared to be having a great time, celebrating with cake while inebriated and laughing and joking with each other. In one video, Niino could be seen posing with co-stars Reo Kanao, Emika Mizukoshi, Ruka Nishinori and Yume Kobayashi, saying “We are Terrace House.”

Needless to say, Kimura’s mother was less than impressed to see Hana’s supposed friends celebrating so soon after her daughter’s death, tweeting out a message of her own that read:

“This timing, when Shuukan Bunshun went on sale? Hana’s 49th memorial day hasn’t even taken place yet people from that sketchy show are partying? I guess the backbone of it is it’s not their problem. I don’t mean to criticise them individually, but it’s just sad. Disappointing.”

▼ Kyoko Kimura’s tweet.

文春が発売された
このタイミングで？

花の49日もあけていないのに
疑惑の場にいたひとたちは
パーティー？

どこまでいっても他人事なのかな

個人を責めるつもりはないけど
ただただかなしく　くやしい https://t.co/xFwHnUjGj8
— 木村響子 (@kimurarock) July 2, 2020

According to Japanese buddhist [Sic – Ed.] funeral traditions, the family of a deceased individual stays in mourning for 49 days, during which time the urn containing the bones of the departed is kept in the family home before being interred in a ceremony on the 49th day. Niino’s decision to share photos from the party publicly within this time period is at the very least insensitive to her family, and many people online were quick to side with Hana’s mother over her statement.

Since her daughter’s passing, Kyoko Kimura has been vocal about defending Hana as she wants to help “restore her daughter’s honour”. She wants everyone to know that her daughter was manipulated by staff to play the character of a “heel” or “villain” from the pro-wrestling world and her death shouldn’t be seen solely as a result of cyberbullying.

Wokket NUUZU!

– J.D.

[Anaxagoras]

Yes, not that I watch either professional wrestling (since I was 13 anyway) or "reality" TV but they are similar in that the conflict is engineered, not organic, and someone has to play the role of "heel". Some people are better equipped emotionally to handle the hate that comes with playing a heel than others. When an actor plays a villain in a fictional drama, people understand that the actor and the character are not the same (at least most of them do) but with "reality TV" that line between actor and character is blurred. So "fans" end up hating her over a scene in which she was essentially encouraged to play the heel by producers.

[Doctor X]

Indeed.

Sadly, TOO many years ago, my law school, Law & Order Classic did an episode on a "reality house" sort of show where the producers basically drive "the asshole" to provoke another to push him off a roof.

The Late Great Gahan Wilson declared such television the modern "freak show."

But real people are behind it.

Really sad.

– J.D.

[Rob Lister]

I saw that episode. I've seen every L&O episode. All 20 seasons. Twice. Most, three times.

Never cared as much for the spin-offs in the franchise. SVU had some good seasons though. Criminal Intent would have been good but Vincent D'Onofrio's pooor acting makes me cringe.