Have you ever seen a picture of John Brown, the fiery-eyed abolitionist who led a raid on the U.S. arsenal at Harpers Ferry, W.Va., on Oct. 16, 1859? Just one glimpse and you can tell the anti-slavery crusader was all business. Turns out that Brown had ordered long spears, or pikes, for his abolitionist army – about 1,000 of them. They were about seven feet tall and for “slashing and impaling” any defenders of slavery who got in the way, The Associated Press reports. But, the Harpers Ferry raid didn’t go as Brown had planned. In fact, he and his men were rounded up and hanged about 36 hours later, thus officially ending any notion of arming free Blacks and slaves to rebel against slaveholders. That meant that the pikes ordered from a Connecticut blacksmith and stockpiled at a Maryland farm were never used as planned. Today, they are rarely seen, but when they do surface, they are worth a pretty penny. For example, two years ago a John Brown pike sold for an astounding $13,000. “If you see one of these every three or four years, it’s unusual. That tells me a bunch of them were burned or destroyed. Otherwise, you’d see more of them,” said Dennis Lowe, who oversees Civil War material at Heritage Auction Galleries. During the 19^th century, nothing rattled the South like rumors of an impending slave revolt. Therefore, news of Brown’s capture and execution  was played to the hilt by pro-slavery forces, and the pikes were held up as symbols of what Yankees were trying to impose on southern farmers who relied on free labor. If Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry had been successful, it’s likely that slavery would have ended six years earlier.

U.N., Afghan observers say scores of women and children were killed

New evidence appears to back up claims by the United Nations and Afghanis who contend that a U.S. raid killed some 90 civilians, including scores of women and children in the western Afghanistan village of Azizabad . The Associated Press reported Monday that it had obtained two grainy videos – apparently taken by cell phones – of the grisly scene. According to AP, the video shows “bodies lying side-by-side on the mosque floor, covered by floral-patterned blankets and Black-and-White checkered shawls. One young boy lay curled in a fetal position; others looked as though they were asleep. One child had half its head blown off. Turbaned men walked around, gently lifting the blankets covering the faces of the dead. At least two elderly men were among the dead. There appeared to be several dozen bodies lying on the mosque floor, though a precise count was difficult because of the poor quality of the images.” While the videos are not definitive proof that 60 children were killed in the raid, they do seem to contradict the Pentagon’s assertion that 35 militants and only seven civilians were killed in Azizabad.

Philly cops raid a … baby shower?

The Internal Affairs Division of the Philadelphia Police Department is investigating what prompted a violent clash between officers and attendees of a baby shower that resulted in at least six injuries, including two toddlers and mothers who were maced, whipped with batons and otherwise roughed up, The Philadelphia Daily News reports. One of the victims, 1½-year-old Adima Davis, cried as she turned to her mother, Dionne Whitaker, and said, “Mommy, it burn.” Adima now has a bump near her left eye. Whitaker, 28, told the News that she had been at the baby shower in North Philly when a narcotics officers rushed into the yard and triggered a police “riot,” the newspaper reports. Officials with Internal Affairs and the city’s Police Advisory Commission are looking into the incident, according to the News. “These guys were totally out of control. They were worse than any thugs that I’ve seen,” said Joseph Williams, 47, whose nephew is the father of the soon-to-be-born baby. “It was like back in the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, when Martin Luther King Jr. was marching . . . Women and children were maced and beaten. Kids are crying and these cops were laughing.” This wasn’t the first violent encounter with civilians for two of the officers. Thomas Schaffling and Sean Bascom were also involved in a May 5 beating of three shooting suspects that was captured by a TV news helicopter and broadcast repeatedly on network television. Shaffling, a member of the city’s Narcotics Strike Force, is the one pulling suspect Brian Hall out of the car and kicking him repeatedly, the News reports. Bascom slugged another suspect in the head, face and collarbone. Police officials claim that in the latest incident the officers had chased drug suspect into the yard where the baby shower was being held. “But those at the celebration said that the suspect had not cut through the yard and that police had mistakenly arrested a relative who had just arrived at the shower with a gift in hand,” the News reported.
Professor moons another scholar during debate. The real question is whether Fort Hays University debate coach Bill Shanahan would have pulled down his shorts and mooned rival coach Shanara Reid-Brinkley of the University of Pittsburgh if he had known it would be wind up being the hottest video on YouTube. But as it stands now, he is known more for his scrawny backside than he is for his intellectual prowess. The videotape picks up after a debate on a racial top has ended, and the two professors are apparently arguing over a technical point. Seconds later the two coaches are yelling at one another, mixing in a healthy dose of cuss words. Reid-Brinkley calls Shanahan an “asshole,” and he proceeds to give her a close-up view, bending over and dropping his drawers. Fort Hays says it is investigating the crude demonstration. Fort Hays Provost Larry Gould told KSNW TV in Wichita that he just learned of the YouTube posting. “College campuses are the place to have thought provoking discussion, however we don’t condone the behavior in that video, mooning the audience and use of foul language is just inappropriate in many ways,” Gould told local ABC affiliate KAKE.