A piece I found copied onto a DV shelters internet list.
"52 Days of Domestic Violence Flu in America"
by Casey Gwinn, Family Justice Center Alliance, USA, May 3, 2009
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There have been 12 mass killings in the last 52 days in the United States.
In 11 of the 12, the killer had a history of abuse against women or they
were directly related to or defined as domestic violence.
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This week I have been reflecting on those that would choose to ignore the
importance of dealing with domestic violence in America. After over 30
years of the modern domestic violence movement, we still struggle for
funding, we face budget cuts and reductions when the economy goes bad (though
domestic violence rises) and we rarely are the primary focus of public policy
makers in America. This week the news is consumed with coverage of the
swine flu, an important public health issue in America. As of May 2, there
have been 167 confirmed cases of the swine flu in the United States and one
death. But there has been little news about the mass killings of 68 people
across America in the last 52 days, with men doing all the killing and
virtually all related to men with a history of violence against women.
Public health officials in the United States fear a global pandemic from
the so-called H1-N1 virus. A pandemic is defined as a global outbreak of
disease that causes serious illness or death and then spreads easily from
person to person worldwide. Pandemics differ from seasonal outbreaks of an
illness. The news this week quoted many officials talking about high
levels of illness, death, social disruption, and economic loss from pandemics.
We must all be vigilant about addressing swine flu in the days ahead. But
the pandemic of violence by men against women, men, and children has
killed more people in the last 52 days in America than swine flu. This
pandemic has been going on now for hundreds of years causing high levels of mental
and physical illness, death, social disruption, and economic loss.
There have been 12 mass killings in the last 52 days in the United States.
In 11 of the 12, the killer had a history of abuse against women or they
were directly related to or defined as domestic violence. 68 people have
been killed in those mass killings including 20 children and 7 police
officers.
Let's honor those who have been killed in the pandemic of domestic
violence flu by identifying their killer and listing them:
March 10 - Michael McLendon, 28, killed ten people, including his mother,
grandmother, aunt and uncle, and the wife and child of a local sheriff's
deputy in rural Alabama. He then killed himself. The worst mass killing in
the history of Alabama killed: Virginia White, 74; James White, 55; Tracy
Wise, 34; Dean Wise, 15; James Starling, 34; Lisa McClendon, Michael's
mom; Bruce Maloy, 51; Andrea Myers, 31; and Corrine Gracy Myers, 18 months.
March 21 - Lovelle Mixon, a parolee with a history of violence against
women, sexual assault, and other violent crimes shot and killed four heroic
Oakland police officers - Sgt. Mark Dunakin, 40; Officer John Hege, 41, SWAT
Sgt. Ervin Romans, 43; and SWAT Sgt. Daniel Sakai, 35 before he was shot
and killed by police.
March 29 - Robert Stewart, 45, shot and killed eight people at Pinelake
Health and Rehab Center in Robbins, North Carolina. He came to the center
seeking to kill his wife, Wanda Neal, 43, a nurse's assistant. She was
working in the Alzheimers Unit when he entered the facility and survived after
herding residents into the TV Room and locking the door. The dead
included: Tessie Garner, 88; Lillian Dunn, 89, Jessie Musser, 88; Bessie Hendrick,
78; John Goldston, 78; Margaret Johnson, 89; Louise Decker, 98; and Jerry
Avent, 39. Jerry was a newly hired nurse at the facility. He was shot 27
times but continued protecting patients until the final shot. Police
estimated his efforts saved at least ten others patients and staff members.
March 30 - Devan Kalathat killed six people in a murder-suicide in Santa
Clara, California including his children. During his rampage he shot his
wife, but she still clings to life in critical condition. Police identified
the victims as Kalathat's children: 11-year-old Akhil Dev and 4-year-old
Negha Dev; Kalathat's brother-in-law Ashok Appu Poothemkandi, 35,
Poothemkandi's wife, Suchitra Sivaraman, 25; and the Poothemkandis' infant daughter,
Ahana Ashok.
April 4 - Pittsburgh police officers Eric Kelly, Stephen Mayhle, and Paul
Scuillo were shot and killed responding to a "domestic disturbance" call.
They were ambushed by Richard Poplawski when they arrived at the house.
Officer Eric Kelly was not on duty. He was on his way home to his wife and
three daughters when he heard the call on his radio and responded to
support his fellow officers.
April 5 - James Harrison killed his five children in Pierce County, WA
while his wife was at work. Police confirmed that the couple had a domestic
violence incident earlier in the day and the wife had left. The husband
demanded that she return and while she was away he methodically shot Maxine,
Samantha, Heather, Jamie, and James. The first four children were shot in
their beds. The last child was shot as she was running toward the
bathroom.
April 5 - Kirby Revelus, 23, killed his 17 year old sister, Samantha and
his five year old sister, Bianca. Police officers responding to a domestic
violence incident shot and killed him as he was trying to kill his 9 year
old sister Sarafina.
April 7 - Kevin Garner fled Greenville, Alabama late in the afternoon
after setting fire to his wife's home and car. Hours later, police found his
wife and daughter, and her sister and her sister's son shot to death
inside the burning home. Garner later shot himself before being apprehended.
April 10 - Two students at Henry Ford Community College were found dead
in a murder-suicide in the Fine Arts Building on campus in Dearborn,
Michigan. Police determined that Anthony Powell, 28, killed Asia McGowan, 20 with
a shotgun and then turned the gun on himself.
April 18 - Christopher Allan Wood, 34, an accountant for a railroad
operator, killed his wife, Frances, and his three children in Middletown,
Maryland before taking his own life with gunshot to the head. Chandler was 5
years old, Gavin was 4, and his daughter, Fiona, was 2 years old when she was
shot and stabbed by her Dad.
April 19 - William Parente, 59, killed his wife, Betty, 58, and daughters
Catherine, 11, and Stephanie, 19 before killing himself in Garden City,
New York. Each of the victims was killed by asphyxiation and blunt force
trauma.
April 25 - University of Georgia professor George Zinkhans shot and
killed his wife, Marie Bruce, and two of her friends from a local community
theatre group in Bogart, Georgia. Two others were seriously injured by bullet
fragments. Her two murdered colleagues were: Ben Teague, 63, and Tom
Tanner, 40. More than 200 police officers are currently searching for him the
dense woods near Bogart, 60 miles east of Atlanta. Police believe Marie
was preparing to get a restraining order, file for divorce, and leave him
after a history of domestic violence.
So, we are not done. We all must re-double our efforts to raise
awareness, call for more resources in the war by men against women and children.
We must call it what it is...it is not Violence Against Women. It is most
often Violence By Men Against Women. All the killers in the mass killings
of the last 52 days have been men.
The next time you hear someone say they cannot afford to keep a Family
Justice Center or domestic violence shelter program open because of the
economy, ask them to read this article. Next time, you hear someone say that we
don't need any new, evolving, innovative approaches to family violence
prevention because our current service delivery models are doing the job
well; ask them to read the list of 68 names from the most recent 52 bloody days
of domestic violence in 2009. Don't be silent; don't let elected
officials, or policy makers, or bureaucrats, or disinterested community members
ignore the tragedy of domestic violence. We must address swine flu in
America and around the world but we must also take guns away from men who are
violent and start spending the time, energy, and money necessary to stop the
pandemic of violence by men against women that is destroying families,
killing women, men, and children, and continuing to destroy the lives of so
many.
Source: http://www.familyjusticecenter.org/blog/
