Feeding Frenzy
Evita
feeding frenzy, are being spoon-fed the dead bodies of 14 innocent
young women in order to vilify all men just because one mentally
deranged man committed a heinous crime.
As a Finn, Dec. 6 for me used to be a proud day, celebrating the
independence of a small and poor nation. We would go and light the
candles on the graves of those men who fell while so valiantly, just
like millions of men across the world, including Canada which I have
called home for almost half a century, defended us women and our
children. These men were fathers, sons, husbands, brothers and
boyfriends. They did what they saw as their responsibility, just like
men have always done from prehistoric times on, and still unwaveringly
and without a complaint, continue to do.
Each time woman abuses or kills her children, reporters, male and
female alike, are tripping over each other in their quest to find
excuses for this atrocity while simultaneously condemning all men for
the deed of one solitary man.
After each of these tragedies we read the mantra:
· Mothers kill their children in misguided acts of mercy, also known
as "altruistic filicide," that are usually associated with major
depression or psychotic illness, experts say.
No matter what the reasons, there is no excuse for abuse as Eileen
Morrow keeps on repeating each time we hear about a tragedy that is
committed by a distraught and betrayed man. Ms. Morrow is one of the
high priestesses of the Ontario Gorgon sisters whose falsetto voices
reach the fever pitch each December 6th.
Below is what she had to say about Marc Lepine. Her words were almost
identical when she commented about the tragic figure of Bill Luft:
· Even though Lepine may have been abused as a child, Morrow says
there's no excuse for his violence.
His victimization does not give him the excuse to victimize," she said,
adding that many men abused during their youth do not become abusers.
"There's no excuse for abuse. Period." [in the London Free Press,
December 12 (?), 2002 "Lepine not a victim" by Ian Gillespie"]
Maybe Ms. Morrow should have been slightly slower with the period.
When Judge Lyn Ratushny was given the task to recommend that the
"Battered Woman Defence" become a valid defence for women who kill, she
justified the killings by women that even if they had not been abused
by their victims it was sufficient that they alleged that they had been
abused by someone else at some stage of their lives.
Judge Ratushny herself admitted that her standards were questionable.
Please note that they apply to women defendants only. The common thread
running through most of the cases is that though the victim may have
been a total stranger and may have been asleep or otherwise
incapacitated, the claim of:
· extensive abuse suffered by the applicant prior to the killing at
the hands of men other than the victim," was sufficient to explain the
perpetrator's action. [Source: Department of Justice. The Backgrounder,
September 1997. The Self-Defence Review: Overview and Next Steps]. The
only proof of "extensive abuse suffered ... at the hands of men other
than the victim" were the perpetrator's words, after she had been
thoroughly instructed by the advocates.
Below is just one example of a case where the Minister of Justice (Anne
McLellan) granted the Royal prerogative of Mercy to one such woman:
· Conviction: Manslaughter Length Of Sentence: Eight Years
Present Status: Approximately one year left to serve; currently on Full
Parole
Background :The victim was found stabbed to death at his residence,
which he had shared with the applicant for three months prior to his
death. At trial, the applicant testified she did not kill the victim.
She testified that when she last saw the victim, an unidentified
assailant was threatening him with a knife. The applicant was charged
with second degree murder, convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to
an eight-year term.
SDR (Self Defense Review) Evidence: The applicant explained to the SDR
that she lied about her alibi at trial. She also told the SDR she did
not remember the killing until she underwent psychological intervention
a number of years after the trial. She now recalls stabbing the victim
with a knife. The victim was choking her when she stabbed him and she
was acting in self-defence to prevent her own death. The applicant also
indicated that her victim had assaulted her during the time they shared
his apartment. Finally, the applicant described a history of abuse at
the hands of others that began at puberty and continued during her
teenage years. The SDR concluded that: (i) the history of abuse helped
to explain the applicant's actions; (ii) the applicant acted in
self-defence; and (iii) the Ministers should consider granting the
applicant a free pardon.
Trial Evidence: A medical examination of the applicant performed
shortly after the incident revealed no physical evidence of choking.
The medical evidence at trial also suggested that the victim was either
unconscious or unable to defend himself at the time of his death. The
case was tried after the Supreme Court of Canada decision in Lavallée,
and the applicant's counsel saw the case as potentially raising the
issue of self-defence. However, the applicant gave counsel written
instructions not to raise the defence.
· Assessment and Conclusion: In light of the clear contradiction
between the applicant's new evidence and the evidence at trial, a
proper assessment of the applicant's information was seen as critical
before the Ministers could consider reversing the jury's finding of
fact. For the same reasons as those noted in the appendices above, the
Ministers have decided that a new trial is not a viable option. As
public safety is not an issue in this case and the applicant is out of
custody and on full parole with approximately one year left to serve on
her sentence, and she has made significant efforts to rehabilitate her
life, and in light of the personal difficulties this applicant brought
to the attention of the SDR, the Ministers decided to exercise the
royal prerogative of mercy by remission of sentence. This remedy
essentially frees the applicant from the remainder of her sentence. The
Ministers have also agreed to provide the applicant with aftercare
(community support) for one year. [Source: Department of Justice ,
Canada . Provocation, Self-Defence and Defence of Property A
consultation Paper]
Ms. Morrow herself is one the most vocal advocates for that defence,
provided, of course, that it is used only when women kill and abuse men
and children.
Correctional Services Canada, in its 1998 report titled "Women
Convicted Of Homicide Serving A Federal Sentence", tells that:
· Out of the 181 women serving a federal sentence for homicide
(December 1996), 91 women were incarcerated. Included in this number
are those women who committed homicide and had their parole revoked or
were temporarily detained for violation of parole conditions.
In other words, a fifty-fifty split, between those serving time and
those set free. Except, that those serving time were not necessarily
doing so for the homicide that they had committed. Rather some, the
report does not say how many, were incarcerated for other offences,
such as violating their parole conditions. Food for thought.
The report goes further to tell that:
· descriptive statistics demonstrate that a contract killer was more
common in the context of a spousal homicide compared to the other
typologies.
· History of abuse and conflict with the victim: An attempt was made
in this study to determine if there had been a history of abuse or
conflict between the offender and the victim prior to the homicide. Of
the 175 cases where information was available, 44% of the offenders had
experienced some sort of prior conflict with their victim while 55.4%
had not .
· Victim's activity at the time the homicide occurred: ... overall,
it would appear that most victims (69.4%) were not behaving
aggressively towards the victim [sic, should be "perpetrator". The
editor, due to her "gender based analysis" training automatically
associates the word "victim" with "woman"] at the time of the homicide.
These victims were lying down, sitting down, sitting in the car,
sleeping, or passed out when the homicide occurred....
· Nine percent of the women committed homicide as an act of
self-defense. These homicides occurred because the offender, working as
a prostitute , had to protect herself against assault or unwanted
sexual advances perpetrated by a customer. Spousal homicides are
included in this category, but only when the spouse is attacking the
offender at the time when the homicide occurs.
One cannot kill in self-defence unless one is being attacked or held
captive. The number of spousal murder cases in this category is not
specified. Once more the real statistics about women who perpetrate
intimate homicide as an act of self defence is hidden behind the
general statistic, which shows that most homicidal acts of self defence
were committed while engaged in the sex trade.
Correctional Services Canada tells us that out of the male victims
33.3% were asleep or passed out, 35.7% were engaged in some other
activity, 4.8% were arguing or assaulting the co-accused, 19% were
arguing with the offender, 7.1% were assaulting the offender.
The last three findings may be questionable as the victims no longer
can defend themselves. [Source: Correctional Services Canada "Women
convicted of Homicide Serving a Federal Sentence", Oct. 1998]
How many of us have ever heard about Laurie Dann? I bet not many. Here
is her story: One year earlier before Marc Lepine went on his rampage,
Laurie Dann, a Chicago woman, shot five elementary-school boys,
poisoned food at two fraternities, burned down the Young Men's Jewish
Council, burned two boys in their basement, shot her own son and
justified her murder of an 8-year old boy by claiming he was a rapist.
Laurie Dann is not an anomaly.
As far as the Montreal Massacre, no matter how repulsive, is concerned,
it was not because of "male violence against women", any more than
what Laurie Dann did was "female violence against boys and men".
After all, both men and women kill more men than they kill women.
However, women usually do their killing by proxy (i.e. use contract
killers) or with poison, or mask the murder to look like an accident or
suicide, or in the case of their children, abuse them until they die.
At times their deeds are detected years after the fact, most of the
time they are just left as "unsolved" or the cause of death is
ruled accidental.
Dr. Coramae Mann, a criminologist at Indiana University, studied the
case records of all murders committed by women between 1979 and 1983 in
six major U.S. cities. In her article "Getting Even? Women Who Kill in
Domestic Encounters" (Justice Quarterly, No. 1, March 1988) she states
that fifty-eight percent of [known] homicides by women are
premeditated. Yet women who kill their intimate partners or their
children are less likely than men to be convicted of first degree
murder. Often they are not convicted at all.
The overwhelming evidence is that mothers usually kill because they
find the children a nuisance. This was graphically brought to my
attention today (Oct. 24, 2006) by a BBC report (Aug. 29, 2006) telling
that yet another mother walked free after having burned her baby to
death in order to punish her estranged husband. ["Mother admits
killing son in fire"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/tyne/5295488.stm ]
The above case not only illustrates that not only do women kill their
children out of malice but that they also are incurable liars.
See related stories:
· Two men who tied up a young mother at her home and set it on fire
would have been aware her baby was in the room, police have said. His
mother, Danielle Wails, 21, was bound with a telephone cord but managed
to dial 999 with her tongue and scream for help through the letterbox.
She was treated in hospital for minor injuries and has now been
released.
Det Supt Barbara Franklin, of Northumbria Police, said: "The baby was
crying, he was in the same room as the mother, and it is a tiny living
room. They could not have not known the baby was in the house."
[Source: "Killers 'knew of crying baby boy'". - BBC Aug. 30, 2005
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/tyne/4196944.stm]
· When four-month-old Alexander Gallon was killed in a suspicious
house fire, police began hunting for two men. ... the baby's mother
Danielle Wails told police the masked pair had tied her up and started
the fire. [Source: "False trail after baby fire death".-BBC Oct.
24, 2006 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/5051434.stm ]
Another typical case:
· A 15-year-old girl has been cautioned by police after claiming she
had been the victim of a sexual assault. ... Northumbria Police said
the girl had now admitted there was no truth in the allegation and she
had been cautioned for wasting police time. [Source: "Girl's sex
attack claim was false". - BBC Oct. 24, 2005
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/tyne/6079954.stm ]
Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy"
· In MBPS, an individual - usually a mother - deliberately makes
another person (most often his or her own preschool child) sick or
convinces others that the person is sick. ... Some experts believe that
it isn't just the attention that's gained from the "illness" of the
child that drives this behavior, but there is satisfaction gained by
the perpetrator in being able to deceive individuals that they consider
to be more important and powerful than themselves. [Source:
"Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy" Kids' Health for Parents.
http://kidshealth.org/parent/general/sick/munchausen.html ]
This desire to deceive people who are seen to be more important than
the perpetrator is played out each day in family courts where women are
rewarded with the emotional satisfaction of power and control and
financial gain.
Study after study confirms that women are the main perpetrators of
child abuse and neglect. As the abuse by women, especially by
biological mothers, seldom comes to light, the proportion of female
perpetrators is grossly under estimated. According to the U.S. Dept. of
Health and Human Services,
· Mother alone was responsible for 31.3% of child fatalities, father
alone for 14.4%, mother and father for 22.7%, mother and "other"
for 9.3%, father and "other" for 1.2%, "nonparent" for 10.7%
and 10.4% remained unknown or missing [Source: Child Maltreatment 2004.
Perpetrator Relationships of Fatalities, 2004. -- U.S. Department of
Health and Social Services. Administration for Children and Families.
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/pubs/cm04/index.htm ]
Yet, the Deparment conducted a study called "Male Perpetrators of
Child Maltreatment: Findings from NCANDS".
· This study confirms earlier findings (U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services, 2004) that females outnumbered male perpetrators among
cases investigated by CPS, by a margin of 10 percent. Males were
slightly older than females, but otherwise no other basic demographic
differences between male and female perpetrators were observed.
· Among male perpetrators who were associated with postinvestigation
services (either foster care or in-home services), the proportion
recidivating in 1 year was twice the proportion of males who were not
associated with services - 12 percent compared to 6 percent. This
finding is consistent with findings on female perpetrators in that 20
percent of females associated with services recidivate within 12 months
compared with 8 percent who were not associated with services
For related publications see
http://www.childwelfare.gov/systemwide/statistics/can.cfm
For the sake of balance, let us mark Dec. 26, the day of the innocents,
as the day when we remember all the little children whose tender lives
were snuffed out by their caregivers.