niyad
niyad's JournalI am going to present a little, true, story about clerks/cashiers and counterfeit money.
Many, many years ago, when I was in Lake Tahoe, there was a counterfeit ring that started operating at one point. Casinos were always handy targets, because of the LARGE amounts of cash that flowed through them. Several stories ran in the papers about these counterfeit bills, including pictures of some of the bills. .in black and white, on newsprint. A few days later, there were follow-up stories. . .about the newspaper pictures of those bills showing up in cash registers in the area. People just shook their heads.
A number of years later, in Reno, still another counterfeit ring hit those casinos. The cashiers I trained never got a counterfeit bill, because I had drilled them in what to look for, and how to generally have the counterfeiters avoid you. (no, mickey mouse is NOT on the $20, and Harrison Ford is NOT on the C-note!). Of course, I also trained them in the various scams that the scumbags try to pull on cashiers.
I am guessing that some things don't change very much. Are cashiers/clerks even trained in these basics these days? It would be interesting to see just how many people were affected by this little sleazoid's disgusting scam. May he reap all the consequences.
Saudi Arabia is rebranding itself as a moderate country, but what's the truth? Just ask our female activists
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/16/saudi-arabia-moderate-country-travel-ban-crime-womens-rights#img-1Women’s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 2021. Photograph: Ahmed Yosri/Reuters
Saudi Arabia is rebranding itself as a moderate country, but what’s the truth? Just ask our female activists
Lina al-Hathloul
Lina al-Hathloul
My sister Loujain has been placed under a travel ban and lives in constant fear of arrest. She is one of many
Saudi Arabia is rebranding itself as a moderate country, but what’s the truth? Just ask our female activists
Lina al-Hathloul
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/16/saudi-arabia-moderate-country-travel-ban-crime-womens-rights#img-1
Tue 16 Apr 2024 08.00 EDT
Last modified on Fri 19 Apr 2024 09.39 EDT
Saudi Arabia is rebranding. Since 2016, when it first announced plans to diversify its economy, it has poured billions into making the kingdom appear more progressive to outsiders. Women can now drive and work in jobs they were previously banned from. Vast sums are being invested in futuristic, architectural “gigaprojects”, such as the Line – a sprawling, desert supercity – to attract global tourism. And yet, inside the kingdom, its citizens tell a very different story. Against a backdrop of image-building projects, thousands of Saudi citizens, according to some reports, could be being blocked by the state from leaving the country with arbitrary and illegal travel bans. Their crime? Advocating for basic human rights. Among them is my sister, Loujain al-Hathloul. Loujain is a prominent Saudi women’s rights defender who led the campaign against the ban on women driving and tirelessly campaigned for the abolition of the male guardianship system.
Loujain’s brave and outspoken activism was met with repression by the Saudi authorities. In March 2018, she was abducted from the streets of the United Arab Emirates and forcibly brought back to Saudi Arabia. Once on Saudi soil, she was placed under an illegal travel ban and forbidden from leaving the country – only to be arrested arbitrarily a few months later. Her charges explicitly mentioned her human rights work, and my sister was tried under counter-terrorism legislation in the specialised criminal court (SCC), routinely used as a tool to muzzle civil society. Loujain was released from prison in February 2021 under strict conditions, including being barred from leaving the kingdom. Her travel ban was supposed to end, after nearly three years, on 13 November 2023. Yet, in February of this year, well after the expiry of the ban, Loujain was told that she remains under a permanent travel ban with no expiry date. The authorities have never provided any justification, and continue to ignore our inquiries.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/16/saudi-arabia-moderate-country-travel-ban-crime-womens-rights#img-2
The Saudi women’s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul on a video call with her sister Lina. Photograph: Lina al-Hathloul
This is the case not just for Loujain, but for our entire remaining family in Saudi Arabia, who found out in 2018 that they too were prohibited from travelling, without reference to any judicial ruling – and have been unable to resolve the issue since. These blatant violations of the right to freedom of movement are in direct contradiction of international law as well as Saudi Arabia’s own legal framework. Living in Saudi Arabia under a travel ban is to live in a constant state of fear, as we know the modus operandi of the authorities. Usually, as was the case with Loujain, the kingdom bans someone from leaving and then, later, they arrest them. I live in Brussels, and I haven’t seen my family in more than six years. Every day, when I wake up in the morning, I have to check whether my family is still safe. I miss them and wish I could have the opportunity, like everyone else, to go back to Saudi Arabia to see them. But I know I would be trapped there too if I were to go back.
. . . .
This is a systemic issue that will not go away by itself. Despite outward shows that the kingdom is becoming more progressive, the Saudi authorities routinely employ arbitrary travel bans as a tool of repression. As a result, individuals are deterred from engaging in human rights work for their own safety and that of their relatives. Since such travel bans lack legal basis, there is no way to formally appeal them. Those affected are not notified and only find out about the restrictions when attempting to travel outside the kingdom. They are unable to pursue their personal goals or visit family members abroad. As Saudi Arabia seeks to rebrand itself on the world stage as an increasingly moderate power, we must not ignore the glaring hypocrisy of the government promoting tourism while denying its own citizens the fundamental right to freedom of movement. The international community must hold Saudi Arabia to account for its egregious human rights violations – and not let sportswashing and celebrity partnerships distract from what life is truly like for the kingdom’s citizens. It is high time for Saudi Arabia to open itself up not only to tourists but also to the voices of its own people. Until then, the facade of glittering progress will remain just that, masking a harsh reality of repression and injustice.
Lina al-Hathloul is head of monitoring and advocacy at ALQST for Human Rights. She is co-author of the book Loujain Dreams of Sunflowers. Foz al-Otaibi, who also contributed to this article, is a social media influencer and a women’s rights activist who was indicted by the Saudi government for her social media activity and is now living in exile
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/16/saudi-arabia-moderate-country-travel-ban-crime-womens-rights
Female journalists under attack as press freedom falters
(Interesting that we do not hear about the woman journalist,Alsu Kurmasheva, also held in ruzzia, as we do about her male counterpart)
(there are videos at the link below that I cannot embed)
Female journalists under attack as press freedom falters
Annie Kelly
Physical and online abuse, detentions, deportations and sexual violence – a global crackdown on women in journalism is intensifying
Supported by
guardian.org
About this content
Mon 6 May 2024 08.32 EDT
Last modified on Mon 6 May 2024 08.33 EDT
https://www.theguardian.com/media/article/2024/may/06/female-journalists-under-attack-as-press-freedom-falters#img-1
Female journalists are at the “epicentre of risk” as attacks on press freedom intensify around the world. According to organisations representing women in journalism, the past year has seen an escalation of smear campaigns; racist and gendered attacks; detentions; deportations; censorship; and police violence levelled at female journalists, which is leading to a “chilling” silencing of women’s voices in the media landscape. Kiran Nazish, the founder of the Coalition for Women in Journalism (CFWIJ), said: “We have seen a crackdown on women journalists in the past year from Poland to Bangladesh to Nigeria, Turkey, Canada and the US, as political will in maintaining press freedom declines. “Women and non-binary journalists are on the frontline of an increasingly hostile environment and are most at risk,” she said.
Nazish pointed to multiple examples of individuals targeted in the past year. In Iran, the country that jails the most female journalists, Parisa Salehi became the latest to be imprisoned, receiving a five-month sentence after being convicted of “spreading propaganda against the system” in connection with her reporting.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/article/2024/may/06/female-journalists-under-attack-as-press-freedom-falters#img-2
Perihan Kaya, a Kurdish journalist in exile in Switzerland, faces imprisonment in Turkey on terrorism charges. Photograph: Courtesy of Women Press Freedom
. . . .
Referring to the dystopian, patriarchal state depicted in The Handmaid’s Tale, Prof Julie Posetti, director of research at the Washington-based International Center for Journalists, said the rollback of women’s rights across the world, coupled with the political targeting of journalists and media organisations is, was creating a situation “close to Gilead in terms of digital and real-world threats facing women working in the media combined with the global assault on women’s rights happening in parallel. Women journalists sit at an epicentre of risk across the world.”
Posetti co-authored a global report for the UN on the online threats facing female journalists in 2021. “Five years ago, we looked at the storm of online harassment, threats and intimidation that women are facing online and this has only continued with the weaponisation of social media and artificial intelligence, and there is now no boundary between the offline and online world, where attacks in the digital space are now equally as present in the real world,” she said. “We’ve seen how these experiences are seeing women moving away from public-facing roles, pulling back from on-air positions or removing bylines, or leaving journalism entirely.”
. . . .
https://www.theguardian.com/media/article/2024/may/06/female-journalists-under-attack-as-press-freedom-falters#img-3
Indian journalists in Agartala protest in support of Palestinian journalists. Three in four female journalists have experienced a threat to their safety. Photograph: Majority World/Universal/Getty
. . . .
https://www.theguardian.com/media/article/2024/may/06/female-journalists-under-attack-as-press-freedom-falters#img-5
Alsu Kurmasheva, a Russian-American editor for the US government-funded Radio Free Europe, at a court hearing in Kazan, Russia, last month. She is accused of spreading ‘false information’ as a ‘foreign agent’ in a case seen as part of the Kremlin’s crackdown on free speech. Photograph: AP
. . . .
“In Russia, a Russian-American journalist, Alsu Kurmasheva, is locked in a five-metre cell and has been more than six months without hot water,” she said. “Her children haven’t heard from her since her unlawful detention. “During this time, we have pushed our advocacy to the White House along with other advocacy groups. Alsu’s case – from her detention to the response from her government to support her release – is symbolic of what women journalists around the world face. “Our greatest concern is that, added to this growing environment of threats and detentions, advocacy organisations like us face no support from democratic institutions, and the very citizens that these women risk their lives for look away when they are targeted.”
https://www.theguardian.com/media/article/2024/may/06/female-journalists-under-attack-as-press-freedom-falters
"Boys Will Be. . . ." Sandy and Richard Riccardi
(The poster next to Albanese (in my OP about Australia) reminded me of this song from Sandy and Richard Riccardi, two of my favourite people)
Australia's Albanese declares 'national crisis' after killings of women (trigger warning)
(I cannot embed the videos, but you can watch at the link at the bottom)
Australia’s Albanese declares ‘national crisis’ after killings of women (trigger warning)
?resize=770%2C513&quality=80
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese joins a rally to a call for action to end violence against women [Lukas Coch/AAP Image via AP Photo]
By Al Jazeera Staff
Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has branded domestic violence a “national crisis” amid an outcry over the rise in the number of killings of women by their intimate partners, and pledged action to tackle the issue, including new funding to help survivors as well as a crackdown on misogynistic online content. The measures, announced on Wednesday, came after tens of thousands of Australians rallied across the country, including in the cities of Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney and Perth, demanding the government declare the issue a national emergency. The protests were prompted by a wave of violence that campaign groups say has seen one woman killed every four days this year as a result of domestic violence. They also followed a stabbing attack in Sydney in April, during which a knife-wielding assailant killed six people at a busy mall. Five of his victims were women, and police said it was “obvious” that the attacker was targeting women.
Here’s what you need to know about the issue.
How dangerous is Australia for women? Campaigners called the weekend rallies following a week in which three women were killed, allegedly by men known to them. This included Molly Ticehurst, a 28-year-old mother who authorities say was murdered by her former boyfriend, weeks after he was granted bail following his detention on charges of raping and stalking her. In total, some 28 women have been killed this year by their current or former partners and members of their family, according to the campaign group Destroy the Joint.
The figure is almost double the number killed in the same period last year, according to public service broadcaster ABC.
Video Duration 06 minutes 51 seconds 06:51
Samantha Bricknell, research manager at the Australian Institute of Criminology, told the ABC that recent data suggested an increase in violence against women, with the rate of women killed by an intimate partner increasing by 31 percent from June 2022 to June 2023. Some 34 such murders took place in that period compared with the same period a year earlier, when 26 women were killed. The increase defied a longer-term downward trend in Australia. “What we’re really interested to see going forward … is, is this a sustained increase? That’s something that Australia needs to be worried about,” Bricknell told ABC. “More recent data suggests that it is going up, but hopefully we’ll see that that slight uptick turns around and continues to decrease.”
Video Duration 25 minutes 20 seconds 25:20
What kind of action is the government promising?
Following the cabinet meeting, Albanese announced that his government would invest 925 million Australian dollars ($599m) over five years to provide financial support to women and children trying to escape violence. Those eligible for the Leaving Violence Program will be able to access up to 5,000 Australian dollars ($3,300) in financial support along with referral services, risk assessments and safety planning, a government statement added. The national cabinet also unveiled new measures to tackle factors that it said exacerbated violence against women, “such as violent online pornography, and misogynistic content targeting children and young people”. These steps will include legislation to ban deepfake pornography and additional funding to pilot age assurance technologies, it said in a statement. The cabinet also pledged to explore options to improve police responses to high-risk and serial perpetrators. It added that ministers will meet again in three months to discuss progress.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/5/2/australias-albanese-declares-national-crisis-after-killings-of-women
Sexual Assault Awareness Month: Silenced No More (trigger warning)
Sexual Assault Awareness Month: Silenced No More (trigger warning)
Gwendolyn Comai | April 29, 2024
VA NOW President Lisa Sales stands for survivors at the SAAM press conference.
On Wednesday, April 24th, survivors and activists gathered outside the Alexandria Federal Courthouse for a press conference organized by Lisa Sales, President of Virginia NOW, to raise awareness about the continued prevalence of sexual violence during Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Speakers included Vice Mayor of Alexandria Amy Jackson, 56th Speaker of the VA House Eileen Filler-Corn, VA Delegate Mark Sickles, NOW President Christian Nunes, Policy Director of the VA Sexual & Domestic Violence Action Alliance, Jonathan Yglesias, author of “Harasshole” Lisa Bowman, attorney Da Hae Kim from the National Women’s Law Center, Feminist Majority Foundation President Eleanor Smeal, Kendra Sutton-El from Birth In Color, Bobbee Cardillo from Zonta USA, Joanie Hunn from the National Council of Jewish Women, Myra Smith-Jones, Representative for NAACP – Virginia, Susanna Gibson, founder of MyOwn, and Galina Varchena from Birth In Color.
During her remarks, Ellie Smeal emphasized the urgent need for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), especially to combat gender-based violence. With 1 in 3 women experiencing sexual violence in their lifetime, the ERA would provide a crucial guarantee of sex equality in the Constitution and enable Congress to take decisive action. In 2000, the Supreme Court ruled that the Violence Against Women Act cannot grant victims of gender-based violence the right to sue their attackers in federal court. The Supreme Court held that Congress did not have the authority to enforce this provision and, therefore, it was unconstitutional. However, the ERA would provide survivors this civil right to pursue justice in federal court. The legal system’s reliance solely on law enforcement to address sexual violence is evidently not enough.
To show the reality of these structural inadequacies, many speakers shared poignant accounts of sexual assault and harassment, including Lisa Bowman and Lisa Sales, both of whom bravely came forward with their stories despite facing severe backlash and a challenging legal system. Bowman recounted her experience at United Way, where she faced sexual harassment from a male colleague and was subsequently terminated for speaking out, despite following company policy and properly reporting the incidents to HR. Bowman was pushed out of United Way, while her harasser received a promotion. Bowman announced at the press conference that she is suing United Way for $12 million in damages. She has also published a book titled “Harasshole,” detailing her ordeal and the retaliation that followed. Sales shared a similar story of retaliation after her traumatic experience. She was assaulted in 2011 by her tenant Dmitry Mikhaylov, enduring severe injuries and multiple surgeries, while Mikhaylov served only a month in prison. In 2021, Sales spoke out about her assault and was subsequently fired by her employer. Sales has been fighting for justice for over ten years.
Despite an estimated 1 in 6 women being assaulted in the U.S. annually, only 5% of cases are reported, making rape the most underreported crime. Factors such as victim blaming, fear of retaliation, and the traumatic reporting process contribute to survivors choosing not to come forward. “Cases of sexual assault and harassment are not isolated, but are emblematic of normalized rape culture and permissive silencing of women,” Sales said. “It isn’t any wonder why victims choose not to report, to stay silent, but we are here today to say: We will not be silent.”
https://feminist.org/news/sexual-assault-awareness-month-silenced-no-more/
Bringing Domestic Violence Victims Back to Life (trigger warning)
Bringing Domestic Violence Victims Back to Life (trigger warning)
11/5/2023 by Rob Okun
A new book from author Jo Scott-Coe explores the murders that preceded the first modern-day mass shooting.
Charles J. Whitman and his wife Kathleen Leissner Whitman in family album photos released by Whitman’s father, Charles A. Whitman, Jr. The younger Whitman was shot down by police after he gunned down his wife, his mother, and 13 other persons in a shooting spree in Austin, Texas.
(Bettmann Archives / Getty Images)
For many, the history of mass shootings in the U.S. began with Columbine in 1999. In the 24 years since, there have been hundreds of such shootings, from concerts to houses of worship, from workplaces to big box stores. But the first mass shooting of the modern era occurred in Austin, Texas, on Aug. 1, 1966. It was lunchtime on a Monday when a 25-year-old former Marine and architectural engineering student made his way to the observation deck of the tower on the campus at the University of Texas. Armed with a footlocker filled with guns, Charles Whitman started gunning people down, both on campus and in nearby streets. Before police killed him, Whitman would be responsible for the murder of 17 and the wounding of 31. But the tower murders weren’t the beginning of the carnage. The night before, while his mother and wife were sleeping, he had already stabbed them to death. Coverage of the campus massacre virtually eclipsed the women’s stories. But Unheard Witness: The Life and Death of Kathy Leissner Whitman, by Jo Scott-Coe, aims to change that. Published in October, this sensitive portrait of the killer’s wife pieces together the shards of her life as an accomplished young woman growing up with big dreams in rural Texas. It also stands in for the hundreds of thousands of abused women whose lives have been cut short, and whose stories are rarely told.
Ultimately, Unheard Witness is the story of a then-unnamed epidemic: domestic violence.
Unheard Witness: The Life and Death of Kathy Leissner Whitman by Jo Scott-Coe.
In the nearly six decades since the Texas tower mass shooting, and despite countless accounts, it has rarely been seen for what it was: an early warning about the seemingly endless wave of mass shootings that plague us, and that have taken up permanent residency in the American psyche. In the 1960s, domestic violence was an invisible crime. The abuse being committed, primarily against women, was hidden behind closed doors in city apartments, rural farmhouses and suburban homes. Neither police nor clergy intervened.
As a student and wife at UT Austin, Kathy Leissner teetered between her burgeoning awareness as an independent woman, and the crushing constraints of being financially dependent on her husband. She was trapped, not wanting to be a product of the times, even though most men and women then agreed that husbands were kings of their castles. Although she recognized she was in an unhealthy relationship, she had little support, and certainly none of the services women in abusive relationships have today. Her younger brother, Nelson, preserved Kathy’s diaries and journals; he was always there for her. As were her parents, who saw the warning signs of her husband, Charles Whitman’s controlling behavior, but didn’t intervene.
. . . . .
Ms. magazine cover in August 1976. “Violence begins in the home, and it must end there,” said Gloria Steinem.
Estimates are that there are more than 65,000 women killed by men every year, according to writer-activist Rebecca Solnit. This ultimate erasure, femicide, often comes, “after years or decades of being silenced or erased in the home, in daily life, by threat and violence,” said Solnit. While some women are erased a bit at a time, and some all at once, fortunately, some do reappear: Kathy “reappeared” because her brother, Nelson, fiercely protected the primary documents that preserved his sister’s voice. More than bringing Kathy Leissner back to life, Unheard Witness reminds us that despite all the progress that’s been made since her murder in 1966—from shelters for abuse survivors and self-defense classes, to police trainings and batterer intervention groups holding men accountable—domestic violence remains a potentially lethal poison for which women have no vaccine. In bringing Kathy Leissner back to life, Jo Scott-Coe may now be helping to develop one.
https://msmagazine.com/2023/11/05/charles-whitman-domestic-violence-kathy-leissner/
The Constitution as a Homicide Pact
FUCK THE GODDAMNED GUN-WORSHIPING WOMAN-HATERS
The Constitution as a Homicide Pact
12/5/2023 by Mary Anne Franks
U.S. v. Rahimi begs the Supreme Court to choose women’s lives over guns. Even if Rahimi loses, women won’t win.
Ruth Glenn, president of Survivor Justice Action, addresses at a rally in front of the Supreme Court to call on the justices to disarm domestic violence perpetrators and protect survivors, as oral arguments are heard in the case of United States v. Rahimi on Nov. 7, 2023. (Jahi Chikwendiu / The Washington Post via Getty Images)
“The Feminists should be careful in their meddling with nature. There are 300 million firearms in this country, and most of them are owned by guys,” wrote self-proclaimed “anti-feminist lawyer” Roy Den Hollander in an online manifesto. Like Zackey Rahimi—the domestic abuser at the center of the highly consequential Second Amendment case currently pending before the Supreme Court—Den Hollander threatened his intimate partner with a gun and was subjected to a protective order as a result. Also like Rahimi, Den Hollander subsequently committed additional acts of gun violence against other individuals. On July 19, 2020, Den Hollander showed up with a gun at the New Jersey home of Esther Salas, a federal judge who had presided over one of his numerous lawsuits and with whom he had become obsessed. Den Hollander shot and killed Salas’ son and critically wounded her husband before committing suicide. In the writings he left behind, Den Hollander portrayed women as sexually promiscuous, power-hungry demons who “murder incipient beings” through abortion; thankfully, he wrote, “men still have a monopoly on firearms in this society.” U.S. v. Rahimi is a “humiliating” case for the conservative Supreme Court majority because it demonstrates the same disturbing insight as Den Hollander’s manifesto: that men use guns to coerce, control and kill women.
The facts of Rahimi reveal the gendered and destructive reality of gun use behind the illusion of abstract, idealized self-defense.
Every 14 hours in the U.S., a man uses a gun to kill his intimate partner.
Pregnant women are particularly vulnerable: Homicide, principally committed by men with firearms, is the leading cause of death of pregnant women.
Women are five times more likely to die in homes where guns are present.
Men are twice as likely to own guns than women and are far more likely to use guns against women in a household than the reverse.
Armed domestic abusers also bring death and destruction to the wider public: More than half of all mass shootings between 2014 and 2019 were connected to domestic abuse, and nearly two-thirds of mass shooters have a history of intimate partner violence.
Rahimi is the opposite of the noble protector of hearth and home invoked in the Court’s previous Second Amendment cases; he and his gun themselves constitute the threat to life. This is why it is possible, some commentators have speculated, that the Court may rule against Rahimi, despite the conservative majority’s staunchly expansionist Second Amendment commitments. During oral arguments, some conservative justices seemed receptive to solicitor general Elizabeth Prelogar’s skillful argument: Prelogar said that while there is no “historical twin” of the federal restriction at issue in this case, history and tradition support the temporary disarmament of individuals who are “not responsible”—that is, those whose possession of firearms present unusual danger of harm to others or to themselves. Domestic abusers who have engaged in multiple unlawful acts, Prelogar argued, surely qualify.
. . . . .
This was indeed the conclusion of the Fifth Circuit, which, as Mark Stern wrote, “has arguably followed Bruen to its lethal, logical conclusion. If the Supreme Court truly meant what it said, then Americans today have no power to disarm those men who are most likely to murder their wives, girlfriends and children.” The sobering reality is that even if Rahimi loses, women won’t win. The Supreme Court’s consignment of women to second-class status will not be undone by the outcome of any one case. So long as the Constitution is interpreted to value the rights of mythical gun owners and hypothetical persons over the rights of actually existing women, it will function as little more than a homicide pact.
The Supreme Court can be expected to release its decision on U.S. v. Rahimi in June or July of 2024.
https://msmagazine.com/2023/12/05/rahimi-constitution-womens-rights-gun-domestic-violence/
The Twin Demons of Maternal Mortality and Femicide (trigger warning)
The Twin Demons of Maternal Mortality and Femicide (trigger warning)
5/9/2024 by Amani Nelson
If the Supreme Court decides to allow domestic abusers to own guns, Black women and other women of color—who already face higher rates of pregnancy-related death—will pay the highest price.
Yasmine-Imani McMorrin—the first African American woman elected to the Culver City City Council—attends a rally against gun violence on June 11 2022, in Los Angeles, California. (Citizen of the Planet / UCG / Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
It’s no secret that gun violence is pervasive in the U.S. But, its intersections with gender-based violence and its specific impact on Black communities must be brought to light—especially as the Supreme Court considers whether domestic abusers can legally possess firearms.
Gender-based violence is a huge problem in the U.S., and guns are at the heart of it. Femicide and other harmful gender-based harms are embedded in American culture—not unlike guns, according to a new report from the Population Institute. When men kill women, deep-rooted, toxic patriarchal norms are often a driving force.
Homicide is currently the leading cause of death for pregnant and postpartum people, including Black women who face disproportionate rates of maternal mortality.
In 2021, Black women experienced 69.9 deaths per 100,000 live births, compared to 26.6 deaths for non-Hispanic white women.
Firearms accounted for 81 percent of homicides of pregnant women in 2020; 55 percent of these homicide victims were Black.
Studies have shown that many of these killers have a history of domestic violence and women often struggle to get away from abusive partners, especially when tied to them through pregnancy and/or children.
As access to reproductive healthcare is increasingly restricted across the U.S., pregnant people have fewer and fewer rights, while their abusers may soon have a deadly one: A landmark case, United States v. Rahimi, will be decided by the Supreme Court any day now, and the outcome will determine whether a federal ban on owning firearms for people who have protective orders against them is constitutional. If overturned, the law would no longer prevent domestic abusers from possessing deadly weapons at a time when reproductive rights are under attack and gender-based violence is on the rise.
Black women in the U.S. face a unique double-bind when it comes to maternal mortality and femicide. They lack quality, anti-racist medical care, as well as the resources and social and legal support to leave and be safe from their abusers. The U.S. has a long history of denying Black women reproductive freedoms from forced sterilization to legalized rape and forced birth. The decision the Supreme Court makes in the Rahimi case will have real-life consequences for women, especially Black women and other women of color.
. . . . . . . .
*********It’s clear that America’s pattern of choosing the rights of angry men over women’s reproductive rights must end.**********
Black maternal health isn’t just about perinatal care; it intersects with racial and reproductive justice, and it’s part of the nexus of gun violence and domestic violence. Focusing on this intersection should drive overwhelming support from both reproductive and racial justice communities working toward solutions. Black pregnant people deserve to be protected—whether their pregnancies are intended or unintended, whether they choose to carry to term or not, and whether they choose to stay with their partners or leave. But the specter of gun violence looms large over them. We owe it to them to grapple with the twin demons of maternal mortality and femicide until these threats are ended.
https://msmagazine.com/2024/05/09/gun-domestic-violence-rahimi-black-women-maternal-mortality-death/
"I've spent 30 years traveling, making policy, meeting many world leaders."
Let's see. Puppy/goat/horse murderer noem is 52. 30 years ago, she was running the family farm, had just given birth to her first child. Years later, she was in the SD state legislature. Came to D.C. as a freshman rep in 2011 (13 years ago, if my math is correct) , and newcomer reps don't generally travel the world bullying. . errr. .meeting, world leaders. Her family did not move to D.C. with her. She finally graduated college in 2012.
I was looking at some pictures of her from that time, and she looks very different. . Actually, looks like she and kimmie have the same plastics guy.
She is a liar and a total fake.
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