"I Shot the Sheriff" Comes to Mind

This is not the first, nor I fear the last news report we hear about law a enforcement official sexually assaulting women in their custody. This latest incident occurred in Oklahoma.

Authorities have charged Sheriff Mike Burgess with "coercing and bribing female inmates so he could use them in a sex-slave operation run out of his jail."

[S]tate prosecutors filed 35 felony charges against him, including 14 counts of second-degree rape, seven counts of forcible oral sodomy and five counts of bribery by a public official. [...]

Among other things, Burgess is accused of having sex with a female drug court participant who was in his custody. The crimes are to have occurred between October 2005 and April 2007.

A federal lawsuit filed in October claims Burgess told one drug court participant he would have her sent to prison if she didn't comply with his sexual demands. [...]

Burgess also faces two counts each of sexual battery, rape by instrumentation and subornation of perjury, and one count each of engaging in a pattern of criminal offenses, indecent exposure and kidnapping.

He could be sentenced to 467 years in prison if convicted on all counts, special prosecutor James Boring said, though a lesser sentence would be more likely.

The topic of violence against women came up at dinner last night. My friend shared a story about a conversation she had with a group of men who were trying to convince her that violence against women, and particularly rape, is a result of how men have evolved. Now I must confess I'm not precisely sure how they made this case, and I am sure it's not because they are "anti-evolution" since I know some of the men and we are all activists who engage others in support for the theory of evolution.

My friend's response to them was something like (not sure this is a completely accurate quote): "Then maybe the answer is that every time a man is convicted of raping a woman his punishment is to have his penis cut off -- and then chopped up into a thousand little pieces in front of him. Maybe THAT would inspire men to evolve in a new direction."

It's an interesting thought.

People who know a lot more about this subject than I do have often told me that men who commit this type of violence rarely do it just once. For that reason they cringe when they hear the term "serial rapist" used to describe some men, because to them EVERY rapist is a serial rapist.

We have heard about the sexual violence taking place in our military, against our own female soldiers. There are countless stories of women being used as weapons of war, with the action usually involving rape and other forms of torture. We know that sexism is ingrained in our culture, and contributes to a sense of entitlement some men feel towards women. My question is when, as a nation, are we ever going to address this?

I can hear the comments now ... your post is titled "I Shot the Sheriff" ... you've talked about chopping off a man's penis ... doesn't this contribute to the whole issue of violence? Maybe it's the way some women have evolved.

Blog in Solidarity: Congo Rape Epidemic

I cannot improve on what Melissa McEwan has written at Shakesville, so I won't try. I do encourage you to visit her blog and read this important post. The war on women must be stopped, and you CAN help make a difference.

Inspired in large part by Lisa Jackson's film, The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo, which is airing this month on HBO, SheCodes at Black Women Vote (via Elle, Marcella, and Anxious Black Woman) exhorted other bloggers to participate in a blogswarm "to raise awareness by blogging about this issue on April 13th."

The prevalence of rape in the Congo has been described as the worst in the world:

The prevalence and intensity of sexual violence against women in eastern Congo are "almost unimaginable," the top U.N. humanitarian official said Saturday after visiting the country's most fragile region, where militia groups have preyed on the civilian population for years.

John Holmes, who coordinates U.N. emergency relief operations, said 4,500 cases of sexual violence have been reported in just one eastern province since January, though the actual number is surely much higher. Rape has become "almost a cultural phenomenon," he said.

"Violence and rape at the hands of these armed groups has become all too common," said Holmes, who spent four days in eastern Congo. "The intensity and frequency is worse than anywhere else in the world."

Hundreds of thousands of women have reportedly been raped in the Congo, with sexual violence "so widespread that the medical aid charity, Médecins sans Frontières, [said in November] that 75% of all the rape cases it deals with worldwide are in eastern Congo." (more)