Oct 21, 2014

October Domestic Violence Awareness Month


I am always glad to use anything at our disposal to bring attention to the life and death issue of Domestic and Dating violence ( as we've learned more about intimate violence the terms for such violence have increased tenfold as the term Domestic is often inaccurate)


I came upon a great article for D.V awareness month one by Donna Gore, a tireless and insightful advocate for victims of Violent crime that is deserved of being one representative slice for what we are now calling Domestic Violence Month (but truth be known I'm still holding out hope for a broader more inclusive Awareness name:"   Shattered Lives Living in the Aftermath


Domestic Violence Awareness Month evolved from the first Day of Unity observed in October, 1981 by the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. The intent was to connect battered women’s advocates across the nation who were working to end violence against women and their children.


 The Day of Unity soon became a special week when a range of activities were conducted at the local, state, and national levels.


These activities were as varied and diverse as the program sponsors but had common themes: mourning those who have died because of domestic violence, celebrating those who have survived, and connecting those who work to end violence. In October 1987, the first Domestic Violence Awareness Month was observed.


That same year the first national toll-free hot line was begun. In 1989 the first Domestic Violence Awareness Month Commemorative Legislation was passed by the U.S. Congress. Such legislation has passed every year since with NCADV providing key leadership in this effort. In October 1994 NCADV, in conjunction with Ms. Magazine, created the "Remember My Name" project, a national registry to increase public awareness of domestic violence deaths.



Since then, NCADV has been collecting information on women who have been killed by an intimate partner and produces a poster each October for Domestic Violence Awareness Month, listing the names of those documented in that year. The Day of Unity is celebrated the first Monday in October. NCADV hopes that events in communities and regions across the fifty states will culminate in a powerful statement celebrating the strength of battered women and their children.

Oct 11, 2014

Brain Injured NFL Player is Homeless due to Chronic "CONCUSSIONS"

 SEE VIDEO AT BOTTOM OF POST


Thirteen concussions this player suffered within his career while his co players had averages of 20 concussions each.


This is back when concussions were not taken as seriously as they are now, however it is primarily because of army related TBI'S CAUSED BY IE D'S which did not contact with the soldiers heads yet caused reverberations much like a shaken baby syndrome times 1000 which can do as much or more damage than a direct contact of the head against an object immovable such as a wall or struck my something like a helmet body that weighs 2-300 lbs or even a bat in baseball or during a domestic or bar fight.


The point here is that this man is but one of millions including vets and victims of violent crime professional and nonprofessional sports players, many high school and college players lives become ruined b y Post concussive syndrome that leave them with hearing, balance issues,  personality changes such as anger and depression, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, all of which can  then lead to drug abuse and other escape mechanisms to dull or avoid the discomfiture and pain.


We have come but a small way from where we need to be regarding brain injury both as individuals and a society: 


Wives of returning servicemen are not equipped nor taught to deal with a returning soldier who suffered what is now being called the standard injury (TBI) for the War in the middle east. 

Because it cannot be readily seen those around the unfortunate ex soldier sometimes forget or doubt or even suspected malingering as do the medical doctors at Walter reed who are becoming less and  less willing to give benefits to both TBI sufferers as well as it's sister condition - Post Traumatic Stress disorder.

Again this very serious disorder which affects day to day living which are already affected  by the TBI: bright lights become unbearable, crowded stores, or places with a lot of people and movement bother the Brain injured person, as does cold weather present a plethora of  difficult situations to avoid as they try to return to regular civilian life!


We owe it to both Vets sports figures victims of crime and anyone especially teenagers who often don't show the signs until they are older as is standard fare for TBI victims - years after the incidents this is when the symptomatology rears its head to to speak and it is then that a person usually has an MRI and or Ct Scan which usually shows progressive damage aided by aging as happens with boxers wrestlers etc.


Balance disorders such as Parkinson's disease which Muhammad Ali developed later in life along with dementia is a classic example of how TBI takes years sometimes to begin its most severe symptoms.

Oct 6, 2014

Today's Huffington Post Crime Page Reveals A Country Fraught with Violence

Chef Dismembers, Cooks Girlfriend Before Killing Himself, Police SayDENNIS RADER



Today's Huffington Post Crime Page http://www.huffingtonpost.com/crime/  contains a veritable plethora
of Violence and suffering, even more so than it;s usual macabre fare.


To me, it reflected an alarming escalation of interpersonal Violence and  violent crime in general within our country and beyond. The victim pictured at the top of this page was murdered by her Chef Boyfriend who neighbors described as normal  as ironically BTK despite his odd fanatic like persistence within a crime watch position in the neighborhood, also struck everyone queried as " normal"


The cooking of ones body is an ultimate act of hatred and rage or the result of one of  a disordered schizophrenia based mental illnesses, rather than a organized psychopath such as Nadar,but  in this instance this murder's heinous aftermath was strictly practical, not of the  Geoffrey Dahmer ilk.



Dahmer was the serial murderer of young men who he murdered after trying various horrific torturous acts like drilling holes in a victims head in order to render him a compliant, live of course sex  partner.


Dahmer later did an interview wherein he admitted to cannibalizing his victims in a bizarre attempt to keep them as a" part of himself"




I don't know if any of us can take anything that Dahmer shared in that particular interview, 
as the complete unvarnished truth however as he was with his father number one, years after his crimes trial and  life sentence, having supposedly discovered "Jesus Christ as  his savior." as a result of his father's persistence over the years of his incarceration.


Now he claimed to want to help society or forensic psychologists better understand criminals like him.

On the Front page of the Huffington Crime page is a famous serial murderer, " BTK killer" Kevin Radar trying is to purportedly redeem himself, as well help the families of his victim's by writing a book about his criminal mindset throughout his life - long murdering spree.



Radar was the prototypical guy next door for those who are not familiar with him, including a strong involvement with the local church, a church where he actually brought one of his victims to kill!


This dismembering and cooking of his wife's body was committed post mortem, after death, purely as a practical act, as the body of his slain wife was beginning to break down and the unmistakable smell of a dead body was beginning to tip off neighbors, who described the smell to Police as what they imagined bad dog food cooking.would smell like
.

Most questioned were shocked to discover the truth and recounted the couple as normal.and in love.



The Murderer's Face book page actually boasted his involvement with groups of Men against Domestic violence and Violence Against women.  That murder  was committed in Australia and a Face book memorial page has been erected for the victim. Another partner violence that ended in Murder - I have to wonder had their been any previous Police involvement  with either the murderer or within his relationships? 

                                             .

This was just one of many Posts including a murder committed by a child and assorted
 horrible acts of violence and rage committed by every kind of human being,

The page reads like a series of horror novels, except for the terrible fact that all of the 

"stories "were not stories" they are Real.

Real human beings suffered through horrific violence,  wreaking pain  terror and tortuigistre in every single one of today's Huff Crime page posts. Even for me, a seasoned armchair psychologist/ writing about crime, ( minus the salacious and/or voyeuristic theme we see in other crime programs and blogs,) to say the least,  it was a very difficult read. 

I suggest that most people take it piecemeal, as it is that overwhelming and disturbing.



I write my articles and posts for both those who have perished and those who have miraculously survived some of the most vicious crimes some cross back from victim to survivor even managing to reach out to other victims while many many others suffer life long injuries and Trauma living as broken people. In this Country Justice in the form of sentencing is so rarely meted out fairly or consistently leaving the predators with the message that Court is a joke and something to be navigated much like the motor vehicle docket.

In another Post a Civil rights attorney was accused of RAPE Rubinstein faces Rape charges at Al Sharpton's B-day Party!


I strongly believe however awful as all of these articles are , with this as our growing reality, we owe it to the victims, who are in fact the embodiment of these crimes to read their stories," stories" about real crimes that ultimately maimed or stole our most valuable and precious commodity - another human being's  life..


 As well, the suffering that these victims endured, needs to be known  it is part of what they endured and most of the victims have no voice.  They have been silenced  forever.


As such we owe them, as compassionate fellow human beings, at  the very least, to 

engage, to care -not to quickly avert our eyes or turn away. 


The fact that our society is becoming desensitized to this influx of horrible Violence is a deep concern. We must not succumb to apathy or desensitization out of a protective coping skill that defeats the solving of this very important  and very common issue for so many people.


"Evil exists when Good men do nothingg"


Voltaire