Thread by @usnehal

Believe women

The gf was taken to a #mentalhealth facility

The man she was afraid of, the future TN suicide bomber, was assumed to not be a threat enough to get a warrant

Hers *could* have been a normal response to living with someone violent

apnews.com/article/ap-top…

There is no way of knowing w/out additional details

But as long as

-we do not believe women

-we do not see fear of a “regular guy” as valid enough to investigate (like if he had been Black, brown, or Muslim)

-we are soft on domestic violence

then: we will fail on prevention

Not uncommon for men who have difficulty dating (socially awkward? short?) or experience social rejection

to date women who need some kind of financial security from them but may have troubled lives, have own #mentalhealth issues

Few women call for help

usatoday.com/story/news/nat…

It is a

“d*mned if you do and d*mned if you don’t”

The woman who calls the police may be discounted and then, after they leave, be at greater risk from her abuser

If she does not call the police she is not believed to have ever been in danger

Believe women

In my role as a mandated reporter
Have filed many reports
Done many rape kits

Then, nothing

Why have I re-traumatized so many children, women, men in the ED with swabbing every orifice with exams we do after sexual assault for this?:

theatlantic.com/newsletters/ar…

Personally, I am extremely sensitive to anything that I notice that appears to be an abuse
& imbalanced power

Investigate it
Report it

All of us need to be that diligent
Police included

in the context of
faculty vs student/trainee
doctor vs nurse
nurse vs janitorial staff
etc

As a Muslim woman, my simply “traveling while Muslim” experiences, involved far more searches

than this man

who was accused of building bombs in his RV ..which is exactly how he later committed an act of terror

Yes, not same context..

but why not get a warrant?
believe women

Think about the structure of surveillance, policing, justice, #mentalhealth

This is not merely about historic systems that not dismantled

but active systems that we are building today where violence in some is seen as normal & in others as pathological

nytimes.com/2019/11/17/us/…

We do more surveillance of journalists and attorneys than we did of this man

don’t tell me that the police were unable to take any further actions had they wanted to investigate further

There are ways to follow due process

If:

we believe women

hrw.org/news/2014/07/2…

If you watch this video and listen to the story

she tells of elderly neighbor calling the cops

that appears to have led to more of a search

No don’t have details here

But this is why we have the “Karen” meme - too many such examples

Either danger to a woman seems not believed when the complaint is about a white man and/or we disregard domestic violence

Compared to if a complaint is vs someone minority, man or woman

We aren’t using the same lens/criteria to assess danger/risk in every situation

When I was on the board of the MA chapter of the @AmerAcadPeds learned how when undocumented women might call the police to report domestic violence, they would get deported while the abuser would not face consequences

genesisshelter.org/the-intersecti…

merteslaw.com/domestic-viole…

A judging, punitive person might say, well she “broke the law” first

Predatory people find those in vulnerable situations

Such people may go on to commit violent acts in public

Instead of rushing to judge women whether they “deserve” our protection

Believe women

The example of being “taken away” to a deportation center

applies to this example

because this woman was “taken away” to a mental health facility

in a hospital setting, a section 12 would’ve been filed

I have signed off on such things myself

berkeleybeacon.com/increase-trans…

There is no way of knowing here

if she actually were using that as a way to get out of the house safely and have another place to stay (in a psych hospital) - that would be a savvy way out of danger at home, escorted away by police

Brings to mind escort for Ruby Bridges

Or do we still practice the same responses as in Victorian times towards women who are in abusive situations who attempt to leave, speak up, defend themselves?

Did we “shut up” & not (really) believe the woman telling us what was going on?

Believe women

theatlantic.com/sponsored/netf…

I recall advising a woman seeking to leave an abusive marriage - should tell her husband she was leaving him?

Given all I have seen as a doctor in the emergency dept, was concerned she might not get out alive

I “joked”: can’t you do it in the masjid? Already under surveillance

But that’s the thing.

Why is the structure of surveillance, investigation, policing, and standard of punishment so different for different people?

is it because the police are afraid of themselves getting shot if they investigate domestic violence?

lcadv.org/recent-homicid…

Look at the headline though.

Domestic violence is dangerous to women but lethal to cops?

Domestic violence is also lethal to women.

This seems almost hard to believe but there are multiple sources that report such data of daily deaths.

nnedv.org/content/each-d…

This statistic also shocked me when I first saw it

that the number one cause of death in pregnancy

at least in some states is homicide

The data on who does it is not in the study

but domestic violence may be high or top contributor

nih.gov/news-events/ne…

Of course one might argue that if domestic violence

is so incredibly common in America

then it probably isn’t a very good screener for mass murder or a terrorism

do we just 🤷🏻‍♀️
accept this as normal?

then maybe it is not about
“believe women”

when will we value women’s lives?

How is it that a black teen girl in a bikini is treated as somebody more dangerous by police

than somebody whose girlfriend says is building bombs in his RV and she is afraid to be in the house?

Why aren’t we investigating the actually dangerous people?

nbcnews.com/news/us-news/m…

Excessive force or discipline against Black children and adults is part of many systems in America

In fact a three-year-old Black child

is more likely to be treated like a criminal

than the Tennessee suicide bomber who had been reported by his gf

hechingerreport.org/opinion-lets-n…

In fact, Black children are handcuffed in school not uncommonly

We “believe” the ones that we have the cell phone phone footage for

Too many children are treated like criminals

While we disregard what should have been a credible report worth a warrant

gq.com/story/six-year…

The way that we have our risk “radar” calibrated

Seems to be completely wrong

Overpolicing in every setting seems to be of that least powerful, vulnerable, marginalized, already abused ...including children

With a “pass” towards powerful or “mainstream” abusers

We need to re-calibrate. When will we?

“the most significant threat likely comes from white supremacists.... 2020, the terrorist threat in the United States will likely rise based on several factors, including the November 2020 presidential election.”

csis.org/analysis/escal…

if we stopped wasting our resources handcuffing Black six-year-olds with disability in schools

& redirect public resources towards where the actual danger is

& if a woman says her (white) boyfriend builds bombs, believe her

investigate
believe women

baynews9.com/fl/tampa/news/…

@threadreaderapp please unroll