Michelle Malkin Commits Copyright Infringement and Argues With Russell Simmons Over His Anti-Gun Policies

What Have I Learned This Year? This is supposed to be the blog topic for December 2012  on Love, Life and Relationships: Overcoming Emotional and Child Sexual Abuse. In the spirit of this collection of thoughts, I have learned that Michelle Malkin is the CEO of Twitchy which appears to be a blog website of some sort who has about 65,000 Twitter followers.

For the entire month of December you can find out what people have learned by logging on to: http://www.ressurrection.wordpress.com You can also submit your work as a guest blog.

This morning, I was informed by my WordPress blog here that a blog writer stole a picture of me that was taken with Russell Simmons during one of his book signing events with SuperRich, in Maryland.

After a long day of trying to contact the right person at Twitchy, I was left with contacting @MichelleMalkin to request that she immediately remove my picture and words. She nor Twitchy requested permission from me, and my website has copyright requirements listed in two places.

My words were used out of context, for her own malicious argument with Russell Simmons, one that I do not support. As I now understand it, Russell Simmons is vocal about his desire to take down the NRA which stands for the National Rifle Association. In his argument he states that regular people have access to weapons of warfare that policemen do not have access to.

Here is Russell Simmons’ own words:

When anyone dies from senseless violence in this country, I will raise my voice of support for tougher gun laws. In one year, guns murdered 35 in Australia, 39 in England, 60 in Spain, 194 in Germany, 200 in Canada & 9,484 in USA. It is unfathomable to me that the only time this country or the media wants to broach the subject is when there are mass shootings, and most of the victims are white. Well, I hate to break the news to you, but there are mass shootings in Chicago every weekend.

There are mass shootings in New York City every weekend. There are mass shootings in Los Angeles every weekend. EVERY 39 MINUTES, A BLACK CHILD OR TEENAGER IS SHOT IN AMERICA, AND THE MEDIA DOESN’T MENTION IT AND EVERYONE ELSE KEEPS IT MOVING. And we only want to mention the word “gun reform” when white people are killed?

My heart is heavy for the victims in Colorado, but I can’t be silent because every politician in Washington and around this country is afraid of the NRA. No other country in the civilized world allows this to happen. Only in the land of the free, where politicians can be legally bribed and our democracy is for sale, do citizens have access to weapons of war. Well, I’m not a politician, so the NRA can’t silence me and they certainly ain’t gonna punk me!

The time has come for our nation to face the National Rifle Association and its bullying-tactics. There is no way that our forefathers envisioned twelve innocent people lying dead on the floor of a movie theater when they wrote the Second Amendment. They didn’t even know what an assault weapon was or what urban communities would become. A man walks into a movie theater dressed as “The Joker” from Batman and shoots seventy people, and how do we respond? We ban people from wearing costumes!?!?! How about we address the real problem by banning weapons of war, so we never deny the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for another innocent American again.

In an effort to stir up some negative press for Russell Simmons, Michelle Malkin and the Twitchy Team decided to do some research to find evidence that Russell Simmons has bodyguards. The argument that they have come up with is that bodyguards have guns so, Russell Simmons is a liar and should not have an anti-gun law agenda?

Here is the quote and picture that she stole, from this article:

While people were standing in line for Russell Simmons, I realized that they were fans. It sounds really silly to point out now. Some people may have been there to try to get record deals, however his big, dark-skinned, straight-forward bodyguard made it abundantly clear that people should not try to get record deals. He said, “We know you all have great ideas.” It was hilarious!

Since it is my quote that was used out of context, I believe that it is necessary that I have an opportunity to clarify exactly why it was used out of context. The man in this photo may have been an employee of Borders.

The truth is my daughter, nephew and I were there together and we can not remember if he was assigned to support Russell Simmons during this book tour from Borders or if he came with Russell Simmons.

There were at least twenty-five people who showed up as Russell’s staff. I did not see one person carrying a gun, especially not the person pictured above. I used the term bodyguard because it is a universal term for staff at an event, and I did not consult with Russell to get the person’s job responsibilities to determine what else to call him.

For the record, I am a child sexual abuse expert, and healer. I spend my life ending homelessness and supporting victims of domestic and sexual violence. As an author, and one whose work is so concentrated on various types of abusive and violent behaviors I believe that it would be my right to protect myself as necessary.

In the picture, Russell Simmons is at work, as I am when I am book signing. There were over 300 people there when I left, and I was about number six in line. What does Russell Simmons’ belief that weapons of warfare need to be off the street have to do with him at work?

GUN LAWS

Until this very blog I haven’t had to deal with any thoughts about how I may feel about Gun Laws, and I’m not prepared to make a statement now. What I will say is that I agree with Morgan Freeman’s statements regarding the Connecticut Massacre.

I am not quoting Morgan Freeman verbatim here because I have not verified that he was the author of the quote. It has come to my attention that it is a hoax. Someone said it, and I believe their statements were powerful enough not to make it go viral with their own name. I believe that the concerns over his quote only heighten the point of this article.

The media plays a tremendous part in how someone who could die a “nobody” might choose to be remembered. You (the media) made him famous. I shared similar theory and concern over promoting Joseph Kony as a name brand.

Here is my Facebook status this morning about Connecticut:

RE: The Connecticut Shooting

As a parent, child sexual abuse expert, and someone who works with people who experience domestic and sexual violence, I really believe that making schools an institution more than they are is scary.

This “gun-man” was a teacher’s son! This was NOT a random act of violence. As a parent, I will not have my daughter go to a school where I can not openly come to have lunch with her, or just show up to make sure she is safe. I have won volunteer parent awards almost every year of my daughter’s schooling.

Tighter security is not the answer. Someone there, someone on the inside missed signs of abuse. No one wakes up and goes to kill their mother at work. There is more to this, it is deeper.

I refuse to watch the news.

On another note, there are black children killed like this everyday that do not make the news. We are giving a voice to racism. We are giving a voice to violence (because the perpetrator’s name is now famous), and we are giving a voice to the media’s approach to news which is “Who can shock viewers more?”

Sometimes that “Shock” is traumatizing.

Turn off the dag on news please.

Every life is important and we pray for them. But we should not be condoning six graders on the news living through their horror for the benefit of world view. Their parents need to stop it.

COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT

In conclusion, what Twitchy and Michelle Malkin have done is assumed my opinion, and used it as evidence against Russell Simmons without my permission. I consider it to be slander because I do not share in her views nor support her investment in fighting or arguing with Russell Simmons about his advocacy work to end gun violence.

I was not asked permission and after many tweet attempts, I received a response stating that the blog would include my name and title as I requested it to appear as, “Author and Speaker, Ressurrection Graves” however, this was not done. I also stated that it would need to have a link to the blog that they took the blog from. And, this was not done. This option is no longer available. I only offered this option after my tweets were initially ignored for it to be removed altogether.

She has been sending tweets to Russell all day, and has almost 500,000 Twitter friends. I have tried to find company contact information and the only address is for tips@twitchy.com. There is no physical address listed, and only twitter usernames for those connected to the company.

Due to the nature of the copyright infringement for my picture and what I later realized were my words, I am asking Twitchy, and Michelle Malkin to cease and desist by removing my name and picture from their blog article.

This photo is personal to me, and was shared by me, on my blog in a time of personal crisis. I travel the United States on a Homeless Healing Tour with my husband as a Life Skills Expert to empower the homeless and provide them with resources and support to overcome their situation. However, at the time of this blog I was homeless.

This picture has no attachment to the NRA, or Malkin’s argument and I believe it devalues my work so it should be removed immediately so that further action is not taken against the company.

If you agree that copyright infringement is unacceptable and want to join me in holding @TwitchyTeam and @MichelleMalkin accountable, you can include me in your tweets by using @AJourneyToLove, and ask them to please remove my picture and the quote of me above.

Thank you.

Ressurrection Graves