"We couldn't possibly know where it would lead,
but we knew it had to be done."
-- Betty Friedan, on the Women's Movement
(FYI: This blog has a new URL: www.crimesagainstpwd.com)
"We couldn't possibly know where it would lead,
but we knew it had to be done."
-- Betty Friedan, on the Women's Movement
(FYI: This blog has a new URL: www.crimesagainstpwd.com)
Bullycide: suicide triggered by relentless bullying and depression in school.
"...tragically, researchers have discovered that almost 40% of bullied students are students with disabilities."
Joyce Bender is a contributor to The Cutting Edge. She brings this disturbing trend to our attention in her article: Bullycide: The Only Escape for Some Brutalized Children with Disabilities
Here, on Abnormaldiversity is a whole Blog "Carnival" devoted to the subject of abuse.
Excerpt:
Casdok didn't submit a blog post, but she shared with me a comment posted on her blog (which she'd deleted):
“C isn't special to the rest of the world, he is only special to you. He is a burden to the rest of the world and if he was another part of nature, like an autistic fish for example, would have died long ago. You just use others to keep him alive.
And C is not the kind of high functioning autistic that will ever contribute anything to mankind. But that's okay, if something happens to you they will just control him as they wish with drugs, like you should have allowed them to in the first place. He is not a complete person, he is an autistic that shits all over everything. Get over it.
You made him, put on your big girl panties and deal with it, and stop being so self centered."
Well, that's certainly abusive!
"Abuse doesn't really need much space to thrive, and it needs even less to occur only once. Probably not everyone would consider this abuse. But it was a verbal threat to deny me assistance while lying helpless in a bed from someone charged to show up if, say, my ventilator quit giving me air. Like any sort of intimate violence (domestic violence, date rape, etc.), violence against disabled people is contextual and opportunistic and can happen to anyone."
-- Kay Olson, on The Gimp Parade
A disabled man found on the floor in a City of Tonawanda home, his clothing saturated with feces and urine, is hospitalized in critical condition with severe skin deterioration, police said Thursday.
Meanwhile, his girlfriend is being held without bail in the Erie County Holding Center. Pamela J. Gabrys, 52, of Canton Street, who was charged with a misdemeanor count of endangering the welfare of an incompetent or physically disabled person, is scheduled to return to Tonawanda City Court on Tuesday.
The 54-year-old man, whose name with withheld by police, reportedly spent a month on a bedroom floor at Gabrys' home after having fallen. The situation was discovered Wednesday, after Gabrys called for first aid.
Gabrys reportedly told police that her boyfriend previously had told her not to call for help.
LINKS:
"Mr. Orr, who used a wheelchair, died of smoke inhalation and burns after fire broke out about 4 a.m. in the couple's house on Big Leaf Drive in Little Elm."
Turns out it's his wife who is accused of setting the fire. Something to do with an insurance policy, or so they say...
LINKS:
Parents of Billy Wolfe, a 15 year old boy with a learning disability, are suing a teen bully and other 'John Does' who have allegedly beaten and harassed their son for years. They say they are doing it because the school district has failed to take enough action and may also sue the school district.
Read the rest of Ruth's post on her Wheelie Catholic blog...
Mar 7th, 2008 by christineburns
"The Crown Prosecution Service has launched a national hate crime strategy and I was invited to speak in December at a conference staged with the North West Community Engagement Network, where the specific issue of disability hate crime was the focus.
Bullying, abuse and exploitation of disabled people has become more visible recently, following cases reported in the press. This item is based on my speech at the event, as Chair of the North West Equality and Diversity Group."
Listen Now to this 6 minute speech.
An excerpt from
Beatrice care center rouses lawmakers
The nature and frequency of abuse and neglect allegations at the Beatrice State Developmental Center suggest a "cultural undercurrent that betrays human decency at the most fundamental levels," the U.S. Justice Department said in the report issued this week.
The Justice Department completed an on-site inspection in October. Among the department's findings:
• At least 12 residents a day suffered at least minor injuries, or about 367 injuries per month. About 150 more serious injuries occurred between Sept. 1, 2006, and Oct. 12, 2007.
• More than one-fourth of injuries were of unknown cause.
• Many deficiencies at Beatrice were linked to staffing shortages and heavy reliance on overtime. The Beatrice work force was "wrought with exhaustion and discontent."
• Use of restraints was "the highest in frequency and duration" that a psychology consultant had ever seen.
• One resident was restrained 104 times from June 1, 2006, to Aug. 31, 2007. Another was kept in four-point (arms and legs) restraint for 23 hours and 41 minutes straight, with one 10-minute break.
• Many residents at Beatrice were "grossly overmedicated" with drugs used for psychiatric problems, the consultant said, and "doses used are higher than any I have seen in many other facilities across the country."
Find the complete article here.
Additional LINKS:
DOJ Joins the "Coordinated Partisan Attack" Against Dave Heineman
Advocacy group charges state with neglect of disabled people ...
This post was published by Linda Edwards on F.R.I.D.A.
Dorothy Dixon was subjected to months of abuse prior to her death, according to police
According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, police now believe that Dorothy Dixon, who was found dead on January 21 as the result of injuries she sustained from being beaten, scaled and shot with a pellet gun, may have been subjected to at least two months of abuse before she died. Implicit to this report is the suggestion that her death might have been prevented; according to a neighbour, the police were told in October 2007 that Dixon was being abused, but they didn't investigate further.
As reported last week, Dixon, who was intellectually impaired and six-months pregnant, was found dead in the bedroom of her apartment in Alton, West Central Illinois. A former occupant of the apartment, along with five other tenants, three of them minors, have been charged with her murder. Each faces four counts of first-degree murder and intentional homicide of an unborn child, heinous battery, aggravated battery and unlawful restraint.
LINKS:
Bonnie's Blog of Crime (She's got several other links there as well...)
The Saddest Story You'll Ever Read
Disabled woman used as target practice
Pregnant woman with disability used as target practice
Why Not Target the Differently-Abled Women?!
Heartbreaking
Thank you, Day Al-Mohammed, for your comment on the post Remembering Dorothy Dixon. I thought it deserved a post of it's own...
www.DayinWashington.com