Believe women…or we’ll sue you

In the Believe Women department, we have a mother who warned Child Protective Services of her ex-husband’s history of abuse and her fear for her son’s safety. They ignored her. The result? Her ex-husband killed their nine-year-old son. The woman is sueing them.

Mother sues state workers for ignoring danger signs that led to ex-husband’s 2007 murder-suicide that killed her nine-year-old son Nicholas Braman.

The state’s Failure to Protect:

The death of Nicholas Daniel Braman would have been avoided if defendants had simply done what they were obligated to do by law to protect (the boy) from further abuse and neglect …,” attorney Gregory Wix wrote in the civil lawsuit, filed earlier this month by the boy’s mother.

The suit:

The lawsuit alleges Children’s Protective Services, under the state Department of Human Services, ignored evidence the boy was at risk with his father. Both a prosecutor and the boy’s mother, Rebecca Jasinski of Saginaw, raised red flags.

A month before the deaths, Assistant Montcalm County Prosecutor Misty Davis told CPS that “An investigation should definitely be commenced … . Oliver literally ‘shocked’ his older boys with a cattle prod repeatedly. As you know abuse to one child is abuse to all. In my opinion, there is no justification for the youngest boy to remain in the care of this man.”

Two weeks later, she told authorities that Braman had pleaded guilty to child abuse charges. The response, just hours before the deaths were discovered: “We’ve never felt that Nicholas was at risk.”

Jasinski had “begged” CPS workers in Saginaw to remove her youngest son from Braman’s home, but was denied.

How long will bias continue to harm women and children? This man had a record of child abuse, the mother raised concerns and expressed fear, yet authorities felt this man was a “safe parent.”

Fathers rights do not trump women and children’s safety.

Believe women

It was either last night or the night before that Access Hollywood had the results of a poll (AHNation) they had taken (I have no idea of the size of this poll and I do not in any way consider it to be scientific – just interesting). They had polled viewers to see if they believed Oksana broke her own teeth in order to set up Mel Gibson or if Mel Gibson really did it. A whopping 46% of viewers didn’t believe Oksana’s story.

As much as I write about women’s credibility, I was surprised people actually thought she broke her own teeth. (A dentist confirmed that was impossible to do.) And…maybe even more surprising, Billy Bush thought it was due to anti-Russian sentiment. Are you kidding me?!

Believe women

Here’s an account of a rape in Salon:

Why didn’t I scream when I was raped?

Towards the end of the story, you’ll find this paragraph:

Eventually, more than three decades after the crime took place, a long investigation would lead the police to discover something that denial and disbelief had not allowed them to see back then: This man attacked 44 girls from 1970 and 1973.

Had the community believed these girls (her & her sister were raped) and shown commitment, perhaps these senseless rapes – 44 of them – could have been prevented.

Rape is not in the hands of women (and men) to prevent. It is in the hands of communities – to show commitment to preventing violence, to believe victims, to thoroughly investigate claims, and to both prevent and prosecute criminal acts.

Believe women

Here are 3 cases of domestic violence where the system failed the victims. As a result, five people in total died. In Cassandra’s case, she was killed at the age of 24 in front of her mother and sons. She feared her ex-husband, but nobody seemed to take that seriously. She followed court orders – to her peril. When she returned to Britain, her ex stabbed her to death.

Following a court order killed her

Young mother fled to Sydney to save her life

The other case involves 32-year-old Brandy Schneider. Her batterer had a great lawyer (no surprise there, batterers often have more resources and can afford better legal representation). He also had  SUPERVISED VISITATION – despite his prior convictions of battering and sexual assault. It’s rare that parental rights are terminated – perhaps it’s time to review this policy.

Friends of Brandy Schneider speak out over double murder-suicide investigation

This third case involved a woman who separated from her partner – separation is the most dangerous time for a woman – and survived his attack. Their daughter, only 4 years old, did not.

Jilted lover shoots dead daughter and leaves mum fighting for life in a crazed attack in Aldershot 

Notice that the women in these cases all WANTED their partners to have access to the children. This is consistent with research findings – the majority of women want their ex-husbands or partners, even if they were abusive, to have contact with their children.

Note too how this last article ends  – kudos to the Mirror for providing this bit of info from a professor –

SEEKING REVENGE

BY PROF JACK LEvIN

Expert on family annihilators

TYPICALLY the motive in a family annihilation is revenge.

It is normally preceded by a nasty separation, divorce or child custody battle and the primary target is almost always the wife who is blamed by the man for all his miseries.

He decides to get even by killing everything associated with her and everything she loves.

There are also cases where a man sees a murder-suicide as altruism. He may have lost his job or be in debt and cannot provide for his family. He takes their lives before his life believing they are better off dead.

Most cases develop over years, not days, but there is usually a catalyst – a negative, life-changing event. It takes several factors working together.

Whenever I read about the reason for the murders, I am amazed that it’s women that are stereotyped as vengeful. Mind you, I am against all stereotypes so it’s not like I want men to be stereotyped as vengeful. It’s just that the Men’s Rights and Fathers Rights activists are always talking about false allegations (women lie), female violence/vengeous/malicousness, women witholding access, etc. – and then when I read these articles and domestic violence research, I find the opposite – I find that many women follow court orders, provide accusations in good faith, want violent partners to have contact, etc.  It’s not a matter of he said – she said, this ridiculous refrain belittles a very serious situation – we must get to the truth of the matter and we must protect the lives of women, men and children in domestic violence – starting with relying on fear as an indicator of homicide.