Protesters gathered in the capital of Bangladesh today to demand justice for an 18-year-old woman who died after being set on fire for refusing to drop sexual harassment charges against her Islamic school’s principal. Nusrat Jahan Rafi told her family she was lured to the roof of her rural school in the town of Feni on April 6 and asked by five people in burqas to withdraw the charges. She says when she refused, her hands were tied and she was doused in kerosene and set on fire. Rafi told the story to her brother in an ambulance on the way to the hospital and he recorded her testimony on his phone. She died four days later in a hospital with burns covering 80% of her body.
Jamie Maniscalco, the finance director for Governor Ralph Northam’s political action committee has left following the governor’s scandal. The former director worked for Northam’s PAC, The Way Ahead, from February 2018 until last month, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Northam’s PAC reported this week raising $2,500 since the governor’s racist yearbook scandal broke in early February.
Chesterfield County police officer David Morley, who was suspended after being accused of having ties to a white supremacist organization, has now been fired, the police chief announced yesterday. The police chief’s said in a statement, “Our community deserves to know the men and women of their police department, respect and revere them — whoever they may be. It is true that Mr. Morley has a First Amendment right to free speech and association. However, the views espoused by and attributed to Mr. Morley violate county and departmental policy and our organizational values.”
