Domestic Violence
Posted: Sunday, August 23, 2009
by Frank Pitz
Communication Specialties
Allow me to lead in to the following short piece - 500 words or so. I do a weekly opinion column for a local neighborhood newspaper here in Philly, this excerpt is taken from this week's column. The entire column was one of those weird items in the news, tongue in cheek kind of things. However, I wrapped it with the following; though what follows is neither weird or tongue in cheek...it is dead serious. The grist for the piece here comes from an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer of August 13, 2009 and the reporter is one Joseph A. Slobodzian. For those of you who may want to pull it up on the Inky's archives the hede is "Trial set for W. Phila. man maimed after shooting death." If you pull it up and read it, and if you are as outraged as I was at the way this reporter painted the poor killer; "maimed," "external metal brace running from ear to ear," please let the Inquirer know your thoughts...I did. Oh, also the judge, wait until you read that part!
Frank
Now, this last item is neither funny or sarcastic; it is dead serious. It is dead serious for thousands of women who suffer abuse--and death--each and every day in this country. And it is an issue that--even in this day and age--is still treated lightly by the news media, the courts and the police. In the Philadelphia Inquirer of August 13th there was just such an example written by staff writer Joseph A. Slobodzian.
Short story is that 54 year old Edward Wilson shot and killed his girlfriend 26 year old Antoinette Austin back in March and then turned the gun on himself; she died and all he succeeded in doing was blowing off his face. So, medical science reconstructed his face and the other day he made a court appearance and if you read the reporter's account: "Wilson - tall, gaunt, and dressed in an orange jump suit, with a large white bandage around his neck - was silent throughout the preliminary hearing before Municipal Court Judge Teresa Carr Deni. His eyes, large and round, stared around the courtroom over his rebuilt cheeks and nose. His lower jaw wired in place by an external metal brace running from ear to ear." Let's elicit a little sympathy for the killer here.
In arguing against the prosecutor's call for holding Wilson on a general charge of murder, defense attorney Thomas Burke called the shooting a "classic crime of passion," and the female judge agreed with that bs. That is the kind of bullcrap that enrages women' groups as well as progressive thinking folks...19th century garbage wherein the woman has no rights.
You'll have to excuse my passion here, but I lived and worked in rural Nevada as a reporter and covered a lot of this kind of crap. It was an area in which this kind of stuff happened almost daily, that wild west kind of attitude. I did a four-part series on domestic abuse which was well received by the Nevada State Attorney General's Office as well as local and national women's right's groups.
I interviewed a lot of battered women--and children--in putting that piece together, I also spoke with surviving family members of murdered women. And when I see a piece of crap written like this, by a fellow reporter I want to fire a letter off to his editor suggesting that he get enrolled in some sensitivity training. And as far as the judge and her "crime of passion" garbage...she needs to step back and look at herself pretty critically.
A woman was murdered in cold blood, according to the responding officer the "gun barrel was in contact with her body." That's cold-blooded murder Judge Teresa Carr Deni...not a "crime of passion." That's domestic violence Mr. defense attorney Thomas Burke...not a "crime of passion." And, Mr. Joseph A. Slobodzian, a reporter crafting a story with the express purpose of eliciting sympathy for the perpetrator of the ultimate domestic violence against a woman...needs to put down his pencil and notepad and find something else to do.
For information on - or to report domestic violence follow this link:
http://www.ndvh.org/
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