Some Thoughts on Arial Castro, George Zimmerman and Ending Violence

[ismnotwasm]

Interesting OP


*Trigger Warning*

So, this happened: Ariel Castro, a man who harvested three girls off of the street to enslave, rape and torture them in his house for 10 years, was sentenced to life in prison plus 1,000 years. Good riddance. But, let's be clear, while Castro might seem psychotic and this case enraging and terrifying, there is no shortage of cases with similarly staggering details. All. Over. The. World. Every. Single. Solitary. Day. Not only is this violence against girls and women, because they are girls and women, tragic for the individuals involved, but it is a big, fat, canary in a coal mine.

There are WAYYY too many men on earth like Ariel Castro who insist they aren't monsters. Many people pay for these beliefs and our institutions continue to enable them to act on their hateful convictions for with unconscionable confidence and entitlement. It's a global, systemic failure that makes justice for girls and women an oxymoron and leads to widespread harm to boys and men. Violent men who abuse are confident for a reason.

What does confidence look like? During his trial, Castro asked for visitation rights with the daughter who was born as a result of her mother's imprisonment and rape. Ohio, and more than 30 other states, do nothing legally to prohibit rapists from suing for visitation rights; really, you should make sure yours is not one of them.) The judge, mercifully, deemed visitation "inappropriate." Maybe this judge should move to Oklahoma, where a convicted sex offender asked for sole custody of his six-year old daughter. The judge gave him custody. Six is the age of the girl that the man was found guilty "of lewd or lascivious acts" with. "With" is the word often combined with "have sex." This is the phrase used last Friday to describe the repeated rape of a 15-year old girl kidnapped and held in a box by two men who only released her so they could, according to the San Francisco Chronicle "repeatedly had sex with her." Words have meaning.

Like the words used in 2005, when Castro's former spouse petitioned a court for protection. The petition read that he "broke the [her] nose (twice), ribs, lacerations, knocked out tooth, blood clot on brain, (inoperable tumor), dislocated shoulder, (twice, once on each side) threatened to kill petitioner and daughters 3 to 4 times just this year." He repeatedly threatened to kill her and kidnapped their children. A judge dismissed a protective order when the woman did not appear in court. (For anyone wondering why...) Castro was able, in the midst of this, to be hired as a school bus driver. He was suspended from this job in 2004 after he allegedly told a young, mentally challenged student on the bus, a boy, "Lay down, bitch." Kid probably asked for it. In an article about Castro, the Washington Post called the two referenced episodes from his past "hints of darkness." Hints of darkness? That's a SUPER interesting choice of words, if you ask me.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/soraya-chemaly/domestic-violence-is-a-ca_b_3652693.html

[boston bean]

1. his male privilege was displayed for all to see.

Luckily most saw the sick and disgusted perverted nature of this galling privilege, the author calls confidence.

What goes unrecognized in this society is the under the radar privilege, that can help to grow monsters like this.

[Little Star]

2. Good article & all too true!

[nomorenomore08]

3. "Canary in a coalmine" is right. We're screwed...