(Murder the) women and girls first

Ladies first is taking on a whole new meaning in the homicide field. Is there a trend of killing females while saving the males?

Here’s a case where the man shot the wife and 15-year-old daughter.  The boys were unharmed.

Man charged with killing wife, daughter

HOUSTON — A 39-year-old Houston man is charged with capital murder after allegedly shooting his estranged wife and 15-year-old daughter dead.

The incident happened about 7:30 p.m. Thursday at a southeast Houston apartment complex. Police say Jaime Piero Cole was dropping off his sons, ages 2 and 10, at Melissa Dawn Cole’s apartment when a fight developed between the adults. Police say that when the woman’s 15-year-old daughter, Alecia Desire Castillo (kas-TEE’-yoh) tried to intervene, Jaime Cole drew a gun and shot mother and daughter several times.

Police investigator H.A. Chavez says Jaime Cole left his 10-year-old son behind and fled with his 2-year-old son. After an Amber Alert was issued, the two were seen in a Walmart store in Wharton, 55 miles to the southwest. A Texas Department of Public Safety trooper arrested Cole. His sons are unharmed.

Of course, there have been other cases where daughters were targeted -

There was the Darcy Freeman case, where he threw his daughter but not his two sons off a bridge-

Father accused of throwing girl, 4, off West Gate Bridge

There was also Paul Michael Merhige who killed 4 women, including his 6-year-old daughter, out of a total of 17 people, gathered together for Thanksgiving in 2009 -

Holiday shooting tragedy

Or, how about the man who tried to pin his wife’s bloody murder on the daughter? You don’t have to travel to the Middel East to find women blamed for men’s crimes. It’s right here.

Man charged with killing his wife testifies it was his daughter

Where’s the outrage?

In the “Where is the outrage” department, we have a recent case of a woman who alleged abuse to THREE different judges – and not one of them believed her. Result? A nine-month-old baby is dead.

This woman was denied a restraining order, called a liar in court and suffered the loss of her infant (and ex-husband).  All because of the propaganda machine (thanks to the MRAs and FR guys) that say women make false allegations of domestic violence to manipulate the court.  Apparently, the courts would prefer to save the man’s good name (you know, because the MRAs claim that restraining orders taint men’s reputations) than protect the woman and child from harm – dah! Why do that?

 THERE SHOULD BE OUTRAGE

Deadly consequences:  Judges rejected mom’s bid for restraining orders

VICTORVILLE • A woman whose ex-boyfriend murdered their infant son and then killed himself had sought a restraining order from two San Bernardino County judges only days before the murder-suicide, according to court records (click here to view records) obtained by the Daily Press.
Katie Tagle petitioned two San Bernardino County court judges for a restraining order only days before her former boyfriend, Stephen Garcia, killed himself and their 9-month-old son, Wyatt. Both requests were denied — in spite of Tagle telling a local judge that Garcia had threatened to kill their son.
“My suspicion is you’re lying,” Judge Robert Lemkau said, according to transcripts from a Jan. 21 hearing in Victorville court, “but I’m keeping the custody orders in full force and effect.”
Wyatt was then turned over to Garcia that day. Both Garcia and the child were found dead 10 days later on a Twin Peaks dirt road, after Garcia took Wyatt during a court-ordered visitation.
“Having that restraining order really could’ve helped this situation and possibly may have swayed a judge to grant supervised visitations,” said Anita Gomez, case manager for A Better Way Domestic Violence Shelter.
Lemkau, who couldn’t be reached for comment, denied to make permanent a temporary restraining order signed by another judge — who at first denied Tagle’s original restraining order request.
Family members said when Tagle went in front of Judge David Mazurek in a Joshua Tree courtroom on Jan. 12, Mazurek denied the permanent restraining order despite the 23-year-old reporting Garcia had recently been abusive to her.

Dad’s murder-suicide of infant son documented on facebook, personal website

Family say courtsshut down restraining orders 

Of men and monsters

Let’s face it, there’s men – the wonderful, supportive partners and allies we have in this world – and there’s monsters – the ones responsible for the estimated 1.5 to 3 million deaths of women each year on this planet. That’s a Holocaust every 3 years. That’s “lynching” based on gender. That’s senseless deaths – that shouldn’t be inevitable for being born female in this world.

Male monsters — girl buried alive for being a girl and the world shrugs

Welcome to my world, Peter Daou. For years, we’ve been talking about gender-based violence, where your only guilt is being born female, and the world simply shrugs when you turn up tortured, mutilated and dead. Ho-hum, another day, another death. It’s so much more interesting to talk about the men and women being killed in Iraq or Afghanistan. It’s so much more exciting to hear about terrorists acts that kill several dozens. One and a half to three million deaths a year? Who has time to read about that? And, quite frankly, who cares if another woman dies – aren’t they just like buses –another will be along in a few minutes? Yes, that’s the world we’ve been living in — and now, hopefully, since our male allies are starting to read about it, write about it and show concern – now, just maybe, things will change. (It shouldn’t, however, take men to write about this issue for it to change – that’s quite sad – sad to know that “women’s issues” are somehow not important – so, on both accounts, yes, things have got to change – and soon.)

Setting aside the existential conundrum, one thing I know for certain: we can’t stop jumping up and down, screaming at the top of our lungs, donating money to organizations that help women, telling our friends and families, doing everything in our power to stop these male monsters from continuing their savagery against women and girls.

So stop shrugging and start jumping up and down already – because our lives depend on it

The Super Bowl sexism appeal

Here’s a great article by Jaclyn Friedman on sexism and sports -

The second sex at the Super Bowl

 …There are few events in the American calendar that bring together more people than the Super Bowl–nearly as many people will watch next Sunday as voted in the 2008 presidential election. If it really is the love of football, friends and family that brings us all together, then it’s time to stop helplessly accepting an event that treats half the population like expendable fodder for the other half’s entertainment. If the fans, advertisers, networks, bosses and athletes can’t make room for women to be equal participants in this grand American tradition, then it’s well past time to abandon it and start a new one with a truly level playing field.

Here, here, Jaclyn!

Men and Domestic Violence

Great analysis of domestic violence homicides in MD by Amanda Hess -

Why do so many men die as a result of domestic violence?

A dispute with the media

If someone attempted to take your life, would you call it a “dispute”? The media’s use of this term in domestic violence serves to belittle the situation of violence and aggression in the home. If someone had an “extensive history” of violence and shot at you three times, the word “dispute” would not come to mind, would it?

Wife kills husband in domestic dispute

Wife kills husband in domestic dispute

Updated: 01.31.10

A Cleveland woman shot and killed her husband shortly before 1 a.m. Sunday after he attempted to take her life, according to the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office.

Terrence Dwayne Penton Sr., 48, reportedly was drunk when he arrived at the home in the 22300 block of Morgan Cemetery Road and threatened to kill his wife and himself. However, after firing a shotgun three times at his wife and missing, according to the MCSO, she fired a fatal shot to his head with a handgun.

No charges have been filed against Kay Lynn Penton, 51 and no arrest is expected, according to the Sheriff’s Office. The case will be referred to a Montgomery County grand jury for review.

Patrol units first were dispatched to the scene at 12:47 a.m. A second 9-1-1 call minutes later revealed that several shots were fired in the bedroom of the home.

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–>Deputies found Terrence Penton in the master bedroom with a gunshot wound to the head. EMS personnel pronounced him dead.

Detectives from the Major Crimes Units and Crime Scene Investigators interviewed two adult witnesses and Kay Lynn Penton at the scene. They learned the victim arrived home intoxicated and was pointing a shotgun at his wife threatening to kill both of them. Evidence collected at the scene shows Terrence Penton fired at his wife at least three times. She returned fire with a handgun, causing the fatal wound.

There were also three young children, ages 5-8, inside the house at the time of the shooting.

There is an extensive history of family violence at the residence involving Terrence Penton Sr., according to law enforcement. According to PublicData, Terrence Penton was fined $500 in November 2002 for a Class B misdemeanor of making a terrorist threat in March of that year.

National Center for Missing & Exploited Children

How much should the director of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children earn?

Would you believe $1.3 million?

NCMEC salaries, role questioned

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) paid its CEO over $1.3 million in salary and compensation in 2008, the St. Petersburg Times reported last week, in an article now drawing fire from the group.

Now check out why Protective Parents question their role…

Police investigating missing mom, son from Sharon Hill

Without any investigation of abuse, the judge awarded custody to the father and NCMEC got involved -

On Jan. 20, a judge awarded full custody of the boy to David Aguilar, prompting police to reach out to the media and National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

 

Coerced reproduction

Great article in Newsweek on Coerced Reproduction – about time it got some awareness!

Coerced Reproduction

The rise of women

A positive article on women and equality in the Christian Science Monitor! Woo-hoo!!

The rise of women — Just in time

“Great guy” kills 8

The Washington Post printed my Letter to the Editor today about the “great guy” that killed 8 people, including 2 children:

More sympathy in a domestic violence case?

Can you imagine the story “Life after death: The strength of a mother” [Style, Jan. 20], if the writer, Neely Tucker, had described all the positive traits of Anthony Q. Kelly, who killed the mother’s 9-year-old daughter in Montgomery County?

Yet that is exactly what happens in reporting on domestic violence, where the perpetrators are known to their victims.

Just as Tucker was telling his heart-wrenching two-part saga of a stranger killing a child, staff writers Fredrick Kunkle and Josh White told the story of Christopher Bryan Speight ["A 'regular guy,' then something changed," front page, Jan. 21] after eight family members and friends, including two children, were killed in rural Virginia. Their article contained more than a dozen positive descriptions of Speight. How odd, such kind words for the alleged perpetrator and so little attention to the victims.

When the media offer more sympathy for slayings committed by strangers, society places a lesser value on domestic-violence homicides. Yet killing a spouse or family member is equally as heinous as killing a stranger.