Kony 2012 “Invisible Children” Filmmaker Detained For…Drunken Masturbation?

[Valasca]

The director of a documentary about a notorious Ugandan warlord that went viral after its release this month was picked up by police Thursday in San Diego after several people reported a man running through the streets in his underwear, screaming, sources said Friday.

While San Diego police declined to provide the identity of the 33-year-old man, an official familiar with the case confirmed him to be Jason Russell.

Police said the man, who 911 callers said was interfering with traffic and acting irrationally, was not arrested and was transported to a local medical facility.

Russell is one of the founders of the San Diego-based nonprofit group Invisible Children, which produced the half-hour film about warlord Joseph Kony. "Kony 2012" skyrocketed to popularity on YouTube, propelled by thousands of posts on Twitter and Facebook, garnering nearly 80 million views since its March 5 release.

Ben Keesey, the group's chief executive, issued a statement Friday confirming that Russell was hospitalized for "exhaustion, dehydration and malnutrition."

"The past two weeks have taken a severe emotional toll on all of us, Jason especially, and that toll manifested itself in an unfortunate incident yesterday," Keesey said.

The popularity of the film led to a flurry of media appearances for Russell and his fellow Invisible Children co-founders and prompted scrutiny from some who argued that the social media frenzy was too little, too late.

The group has said it hopes the film and other efforts will make Kony a household name and drum up international support to halt killings, rapes, abuses and abductions committed by his group, the Lord's Resistance Army, in central Africa.

Kony has operated in central Africa for two decades and is wanted for crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court. In October, the United States sent 100 combat-equipped troops on a mission to kill or capture Kony.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/16/world/...html?hpt=hp_t2

He-Who-Is-Engaged-to-Valasca says Kony put a voodoo curse on him. LOL!

[Shadow]

It's clearly an unfortunate incident for this fellow, who seems to be trying to do good, by shining a light on the evil of Kony. I hope Mr. Russell is going to be ok..

~shadow

[Dakota Valkyrie]

The people of Uganda probably put the curse on him.

'Stop Kony' screening tour cancelled after Ugandans react with outrage

It was planned as a tour of Uganda’s poorest towns and villages: the first chance for Joseph Kony’s victims to see the viral video sensation that has excited so many millions of people in North America.

But after a furious reaction, the tour has been cancelled. Too many Ugandans were outraged by the “Stop Kony” video when they saw it. Some even threw stones and shouted abuse, forcing the organizers to flee.
[...]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...rticle2370125/

And questions about the "charity":

With the viral sensation, however, has come criticism. Several Internet sites have drawn attention to the group's evangelical roots, a 2008 photo of the charity's founders posing with guns and how it has disbursed its funds.
[...]

Russell said that although the group's concept -- "treat our children around the world the way we would treat our own children -- was faith-based, Invisible Children didn't want to be defined that way.

"We are unorthodox and if you don't accept the unorthodoxy of what we do, then you won't get it," he said.
[...]

But an image circulating the Internet today has highlighted the group's uneasy relationship with its detractors. In the photo, Invisible Children's founders -- Russell, Bobby Bailey and Laren Poole -- posed with guns with members of the Sudan People's Liberation Army. Critic Grant Oyston of the student-run blog Visible Children said that the photograph showed that the group supported direct military intervention.

On the charity's website, Russell said the photo had been taken at the 2008 Juba Peace Talks during which Kony was supposed to sign a peace treaty. He called the snapshot a "joke photo" to take back to family and friends.

But Glenna Gordon, an Associated Press photographer who took a few pictures that day, including the one of the founders with the weapons, said on her blog that she felt uncomfortable taking the photo.

"It just contributes to the stereotypes of kids messing stuff up by showing the worst of the worst and showing it without context," she wrote. "It adds to the Invisible Children bad a-- mythology even while attempting to cast doubt on their practices. ... At the end of the day, I do hope that all of this can make us look at Invisible Children with a more critical glance."
[...]

But Visible Children pointed out that although Invisible Children had spent more than $8.6 million last year, "only 32 percent went to direct services with much of the rest going to staff salaries, travel and transport, and film production."

Russell defended the group's spending, saying that Invisible Children needed to spend money on advocacy and awareness of young people, especially in the West.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/...2#.T2PlhvXkaSr

I'm sure his arrest will help nothing:

The co-head of a viral online campaign to hunt down Ugandan war criminal Joseph Kony has been hospitalised after being found semi-naked in the street, masturbating, police and his boss say.

The head of Invisible Children, the organisers of the Internet campaign sensation, said Jason Russell was receiving medical care for "exhaustion, dehydration, and malnutrition".

Footage obtained by entertainment website TMZ shows a man, purportedly Russell, naked and behaving erratically on a footpath shortly before his arrest.
[...]

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=8436710

[Rockin Ma]

z

[VXIII]

He looks completely naked, not just semi naked...

[Valasca]

Jason Russell, director of a documentary about a notorious Ugandan warlord that went viral, does not have a drinking or drug problem, according to his family, after the filmmaker was seen running through the streets of San Diego in his underwear.

Russell was picked up by police Thursday after several people reported a man running through the streets in his underwear, screaming, sources said.

While San Diego police declined to provide the identity of the 33-year-old man, an official familiar with the case confirmed him to be Russell.

Police said the man, who 911 callers said was interfering with traffic and acting irrationally, was not arrested and was transported to a local medical facility.

Russell is one of the founders of the San Diego-based nonprofit group Invisible Children, which produced the half-hour film about warlord Joseph Kony. "Kony 2012" skyrocketed to popularity on YouTube, propelled by thousands of posts on Twitter and Facebook, garnering nearly 80 million views since its March 5 release.

'Kony 2012' creators talk criticism
"Let us say upfront that Jason has never had a substance abuse or drinking problem, and this episode wasn't caused by either of those things," the Russell family statement said. "But yes, he did some irrational things brought on by extreme exhaustion and dehydration. On our end, the focus remains only on his health and protecting our family."

The popularity of the film led to a flurry of media appearances for Russell and his fellow Invisible Children co-founders and prompted scrutiny from some who argued that the social media frenzy was too little, too late.

Russell's family said some of the criticism has affected the filmmaker.

The group has said it hopes the film and other efforts will make Kony a household name and drum up international support to halt killings, rapes, abuses and abductions committed by his group, the Lord's Resistance Army, in central Africa.

Kony, who has operated in central Africa for two decades, is wanted for crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court. In October, the United States sent 100 combat-equipped troops on a mission to kill or capture Kony.

"We thought a few thousand people would see the film, but in less than a week, millions of people around the world saw it. While that attention was great for raising awareness about Joseph Kony, it also brought a lot of attention to Jason—and, because of how personal the film is, many of the attacks against it were also very personal, and Jason took them very hard," the statement said.

Ben Keesey, the group's chief executive, issued a statement Friday confirming that Russell was hospitalized for "exhaustion, dehydration and malnutrition."

"The past two weeks have taken a severe emotional toll on all of us, Jason especially, and that toll manifested itself in an unfortunate incident yesterday," Keesey said.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/17/world/...html?hpt=ju_c2

It's official. No drinking, no drugs. It was totally Uguandan Voodoo.

[Morbid]

San Diego, California – 33-year-old Jason Russell, co-founder of Invisible Children, Inc. and owner of the face most-pictured in the 30-minute “Kony 2012″ viral Internet meme, has been detained by police in San Diego for allegedly masturbating under the influence of something mind-altering, vandalizing cars, beating his fists on the sidewalk, and disrupting traffic, all while spewing incoherent nonsense from his surfer-boy-looking mouth. Police arrived on this bizarre scene after they’d received several reports of a male individual in a Pacific Beach neighborhood who had removed his underwear and was “perhaps masturbating.”* His underwear was back on before police arrived, incidentally.* Mr. Russell was detained and taken to a mental health facility for evaluation.* Russell’s camp is explaining the incident away by stating that he was “suffering from exhaustion, dehydration and malnutrition in the wake of the emotional toll of the media storm around Kony 2012.”* As far as I can tell, no charges have been filed, except by those of us who are shaking our heads a bit. Jason Russell, in case you didn’t know, co-founded the “Invisible Children” campaign (also known as IC) in 2004 to bring about the arrest of Jonathan Kony, leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) which spent years terrorizing the Ugandan people.* Kony is accused of abducting as many as 30,000 Ugandan children, turning the boys into soldiers, and making the girls serve as porters and/or sex slaves.* The goal of Russell’s organization is to raise awareness and spur worldwide interest in bringing Kony to justice.* The Kony 2012 film is the culmination of years of IC’s efforts.* Russell is the son of the founders of the Christian Youth Theater, a USC film school graduate, an evangelical Christian, father to two children, and husband to Danica Russell, with whom he says he’d like to have nine more children (not a misprint).* He describes Danica as his best friend for over 23 years. Critics of Russell’s plight have leveled a number of charges against the campaign.* Some have pointed out that the LRA has flat-out left Uganda, seeking refuge for their shrinking membership (they’re said to currently have only between 200 and 300 soldiers) in more interior parts of the African continent.* They are seen by many as “not a threat” to the stability of the region and are reportedly now relegated to 5-to-6 person raids of villages, searching only for food.* Others criticizeKeep Reading...
This article is from The Dreamin' Demon, the Internet's self-appointed buzzkill.


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