Boyd Crowder
Teem MiCr0B35
Found on Fark:
On February 18, 26-year-old Houston resident Takita Mathieu was shot dead by her ex-boyfriend at her place of work. He attempted, and failed, suicide just after.
The murder, horrendous as it is, was not a surprise. Mathieu had reported her ex’s threats to the police 140 times after she ended the relationship, but police did nothing.
Tragic stories like this are common throughout America and highlight many of the most despicable features of our law enforcement system. While officers are expert at jailing minorities for possessing marijuana, they rarely seem to muster a sympathetic or helpful response to domestic violence victims when they, their neighbors and loved ones, reach out for help.
Many pundits, feminists among them, have argued that if only police were better-trained and better-funded they would produce “acceptable” responses to this violence. But more money is being allocated to police departments for the purpose of handling domestic violence than ever before, but it’s being shunted toward initiatives that prioritize arrests (including arresting survivors), over healing and protection.
“I think there’s actually a significant amount of money that is allocated for policing domestic and sexual violence because of the Violence against Women Act,” says Alisa Bierra, a member of INCITE! and Free Marissa Now.
“The problem is that survivors are sometimes criminalized through policing supported by those funding sources, as well as policing supported by drug war resources,” says Bierra. “I don’t think the answer is to shift the attention of police from their destructive response in the so-called war on drugs to increasing their destructive response to gender violence.”
Read More:
http://www.alternet.org/why-police-...ers-and-so-bad-keeping-women-getting-murdered
On February 18, 26-year-old Houston resident Takita Mathieu was shot dead by her ex-boyfriend at her place of work. He attempted, and failed, suicide just after.
The murder, horrendous as it is, was not a surprise. Mathieu had reported her ex’s threats to the police 140 times after she ended the relationship, but police did nothing.
Tragic stories like this are common throughout America and highlight many of the most despicable features of our law enforcement system. While officers are expert at jailing minorities for possessing marijuana, they rarely seem to muster a sympathetic or helpful response to domestic violence victims when they, their neighbors and loved ones, reach out for help.
Many pundits, feminists among them, have argued that if only police were better-trained and better-funded they would produce “acceptable” responses to this violence. But more money is being allocated to police departments for the purpose of handling domestic violence than ever before, but it’s being shunted toward initiatives that prioritize arrests (including arresting survivors), over healing and protection.
“I think there’s actually a significant amount of money that is allocated for policing domestic and sexual violence because of the Violence against Women Act,” says Alisa Bierra, a member of INCITE! and Free Marissa Now.
“The problem is that survivors are sometimes criminalized through policing supported by those funding sources, as well as policing supported by drug war resources,” says Bierra. “I don’t think the answer is to shift the attention of police from their destructive response in the so-called war on drugs to increasing their destructive response to gender violence.”
Read More:
http://www.alternet.org/why-police-...ers-and-so-bad-keeping-women-getting-murdered
