Artvoice: Buffalo's #1 Newsweekly
Home Blogs Web Features Calendar Listings Artvoice TV Real Estate Classifieds Contact


Normalizing Torture

Let’s start with the definition of torture in the 1984 Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, to which the United States is a party. Torture, it says, is “any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions.”



Gaughan's Got Your Number

The civic-minded Kevin Gaughan—attorney, former mayoral candidate, proselytizer for regional government—is back in the news this week, and he’s got a number for you. Several numbers, actually: 439 politicians serving in 47 governments within Erie County, at an aggregate cost of $32,140,386 per year in salary and healthcare and retirement benefits.





Back to issue index