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The Thin Line Between Safety and Victim Blaming
Here we go again, the CBC are inadvertently blaming women for their sexual assaults. I am not really sure what isn’t to get. IF I AM SEXUALLY ASSAULTED IT IS NOT MY FAULT. The article I am referring to can be found Here entitled “Women warned to be vigilant after third groping incident.” The title is a reference to the CPS, apparently, warning women to be more vigilant about their personal safety after a man attacked a women last night in Erin Woods. This same man is believed to be responsible for at least 2 other assaults in the area. One woman was attacked in her Garden, another while jogging, and this latest incident was a woman attacked in an alley behind her own home.
Don’t get me wrong I understand the idea that a psycho is still a psycho. The argument goes that the psycho isn’t going to care about the law, and people should make sure they are being safe. And I get this, I really do. This is why when I ride Calgary transit I only wear one headphone as opposed to two (so I can hear the things going on around me). But why must the police, and media issue warnings to women to be more conscious of their safety? I assure you as a women we are always watching out for ourselves but we will not live in a bubble either. Instead of issuing a warning to women about safety perhaps you should be issuing a warning to the asshat who is attacking us in our own gardens. Just a thought. Please stop perpetuating the myth that is “blaming the victim.” Yes clearly this individual is someone who has no concept of consent, or boundaries. But us being more vigilant about our safety, won’t make a difference if he is attacking us in our gardens.
Now I am not sure if the CPS actually said women need to be more cautious, as the CBC never quoted an officer saying anything of the sort. What CPS did say was “It is concerning. We’re just fortunate when he’s challenged this individual flees, but we’re always concerned the attacks might escalate in nature. So, we’re putting a strong effort into capturing this individual.” This is the correct response. Warn the individual you are coming after them, sexual assault is not appropriate, don’t warn women to stop living their lives. Believe me, we are aware.
Now for some information on the suspect:
The suspect is described as a Caucasian male, approximately 25-years-old. He has a slim build and was wearing a black hoodie and grey pants.
AB Law Enforcement, and Other Emergency Workers, Should be Partially Subject to Distracted Driving Laws
So, since this distracted driving law came into effect in Alberta I have been watching emergency workers. What I have 
noticed is that police still use their cell phones frequently while on the road. Yes, I am aware that under the new Alberta law emergency personal have an exemption. Last Aug Calgary’s chief of police told media in Calgary that police officers are exempt because they use the equipment for work and have advanced driver training. While, as of yesterday I would tend to agree with the chief today I have decided that this is a weak argument.
I was sitting in a study room exchanging stories with other students about the dumbass things we see people do behind the wheel, you know it seemed more fun then studying. One of the girls made a comment about how she doesn’t understand why emergency personal are not exempt from the law. After a bit of conversation one of the women, who’s husband happens to be a police officer, stated (to my surprise) that it is a bunch of crap that they are not exempt and there is no reason why police officers, and other emergency personal can’t use blue tooth in their vehicles.
I think she may be onto something here. I understand that police need to be able to dial their phones, even when they are behind the wheel (if they are not on duty with a partner). But I am curious why law enforcement officials, who claim that texting, or talking while driving is extremely dangerous, are not utilizing the technology available to them to keep their workers from being distracted, and by extension keep us all, and our roads, safer.
What does everyone else think? Should cities, the government, and policing organizations do everything possible to ensure our emergency workers are going hands free?
Latest Potential Homicide in Calgary Deemed “disgusting”
Those of you in Calgary are probably aware of the stabbing that happened late on Sunday in a SW community near Mount Royal 
University. This has not yet been labelled Calgary’s 9th Homicide of the year but probably will be. According to the media neighbours state that this house was well known in the neighbourhood one woman telling metro “It’s disgusting,” said mother of three Bobbie Casello. “They need to bulldoze that home until there’s nothing left … this is why I don’t sleep.” Police claim they have been to the house over 100 times since 2005 and arrested people a number of times. Further the metro states
“Ald. John Mar, who met with concerned citizens last year to discuss problems associated with the home, believes Sunday’s incident serves as the final straw.“Now I think it’s absolutely time for us to remove it — destroy the property,he said.”
Now I don’t want to come across as lessening the issue that this neighbourhood is clearly facing however I still must ask a big WTF to this. So on the one hand we have what is probably a murder in a drug house that was visited by police over 100 times since 2005 (but nothing was able to be done about it apparently), people stating that this is the last straw with drugs, and an Alderman saying that the property needs to be destroyed? Really? The property must be destroyed because two guys were fighting over drugs and someone died? OK, fair enough. This is becoming unsafe, and obviously out of control and it is absolutely ridiculous that the CPS, once again, have their hands tied and can’t do anything except have a revolving door at the down town lock up. But really, the solution is “let’s bulldoze the property”? And not only that… this city Councillor is meeting with the public about what to do about this one house? Where are city officials to meet with the public on addressing the silence on domestic abuse? Where is the collaboration with the general public on those issues?
My problem with this claim isn’t just that bulldozing the property is probably a gross over reaction (unless the house is destroyed due to drugs), but that this is what is getting our attention. Two guys fighting over drugs. Not Calgary’s 8th homicide of the year of the year. Cherry Lotus Ledesma was found in her home by roommates beat to death by her husband in her NE home on Nov 4. A home that police say they visited 37 times in the last year, usually to break up screaming matches between the couple, and on Nov 3 visited the house twice on complaints of intoxicated people in the front yard. Police also state that likely she was already dead in the house during these 2 calls on Nov 3. Meaning this person was probably laying dead, in her home for over 36 hours. In other words the police were on the property as she lay dead in the home.
I am in no way criticizing the CPS. They don’t necessarily have the resources in order to be able to help. But I am criticizing the government and people’s reactions. On the one hand we have a community that is outraged that someone was murdered in their backyard, they are outraged that this house had been able to operate for so long without the police being able to do much about it, and we have a City Councillor (as they are no longer alderman- FYI to the metro) calling for the demolition of this property instead of looking at real solutions to the problem.
On the other hand, we have yet another victim of domestic violence who was murdered at the hands of her husband. Where the fuck is the outrage for this person? Where are the neighbours screaming about this kind of thing happening in their backyard. Why aren’t Calgarians angry about the domestic violence in this city?
It seems to be people have the outrage down well for the violent gang related and drug related murders that take place in our city, people are still talking about the new years day murder (of course they are also still blaming at least one of the victims because he was friends with a known gang member- but that is a rant for another blog), but again where is your screaming outrage for women who are stuck in abusive relationships and dying at the hands of their husbands or significant others in your backyards?
While I think it’s great that some city official is saying that enough is enough with this drug related violence (even though the solution to the problem isn’t bulldoze the house- that would be a band aide solution) where are these same city officials denouncing domestic violence? Where is the community outrage?
Right I forgot, she stayed, she didn’t take advantage of the resources, she was uncooperative with police. While this very well might be the case. If you are a woman (in particular a woman with a child) and your husband controls your money, you have no place to stay etc etc and cooperating with the police will just make you deader what the hell are you supposed to do? It doesn’t make this kind of behaviour anymore acceptable.
As a society we denounce child abuse, sexual exploitation of children, and drug related violence. We scream for the police to do something, we leave room for our government to pass unproductive laws for MMS (minimum mandatory sentences) but we then remain silent about domestic abuse, and the murders that can result from these cases? It just doesn’t make any sense. I found articles from across the country in Toronto, Montreal, and Winnipeg on this probable homicide, but haven’t been able to find any articles on the victim that lay dead in a house for 36 hours (even though police visited the home twice since she lay dead) from any news source outside of Calgary. Why? What makes the stabbing of two men fighting over drugs more news worthy then domestic related murders?
Let’s see the kind of outrage people have for drug related murder for domestic related murder.
Don’t Be That Guy Campaign Comes to Calgary
Finally! A campaign that focuses on the perpetrator instead of the victim. In November of 2010 Edmonton 
launched the first Don’t be that Guy Campaign. Now Calgary is following in their footsteps and is launching it here. This week you’ll start to notice some in your face posters, such as the one to the left, on CTrains, buses, in nightclub, and in the universities. The posters are mostly targeting men, and will appear in nightclub and university washrooms, as well as other high traffic sites around town.
The DBTGC is being launched by the ‘Sexual Assault Voices of Calgary’. An organization that seeks to change societal thinking: “We are looking at societal change here, it’s important to remember this is not just a police initiative, this involves so many different organizations” says detective Paul Wyatt of the Calgary Police Service’s Sex Crimes Unit. The partners he is refering to includes: Association of Alberta Sexual Assault Services, Alberta Health Service, Calgary Communities Against Sexual Abuse, Calgary Police Service, Calgary Sexual Health Centre, Canadian Red Cross, Connect Family and Sexual Abuse Network and HomeFront.
The in your face campaign is aimed at Men, 18-24, in order to not only take the onus off the victim but bring men into the conversation about sexual assault. The message that this campaign is trying to get across is clear: “if someone is incapacitated by alcohol or drugs they cannot give consent, and sex without consent is sexual assault.” Police Chief Rick Hanson hopes to push the message home as well “You can no longer hide behind the mistaken belief that it’s okay to use drugs or alcohol,as an excuse, or think because a woman did not give you a ‘no’ answer, that it means ‘yes’.”
On every poster the message ” Sex Without Consent = Sexual assault” appears at the bottom. The SAV website also pushes the message that if you have sex without consent, it’s sexual assault:
” sexual assault is any form of sexual activity forced on someone else without that person’s consent. Force can be physical, or through the use of threats, bullying, manipulation, alcohol/drugs or harassment. Any unwanted sexual activity–including kissing, touching, groping, flashing, oral sex, intercourse, photographing, etc.–under ANY circumstances is sexual assault.”
The website includes a section that talks about what consent is and what consent is not. For example, it reads: “Consent is simple. Just ask.” and in contrast to that reads: “Consent is not obtained if the person changes her/his mind. And a person can change his or her mind at ANY time.”
The campaign is meant to change the minds of men, reminding them that the fight against sexual assault involves them as well, and if they see it they too need to step up and say something. “This is a multi-scale approach, not only do we want to get the message out there 
that it’s never the victims fault, you weren’t in the wrong place, you weren’t drinking too much, you weren’t dressed the wrong way. But we want to target those men to tell them that this behaviour is not acceptable. We also want to target the men who are with them. Those who can stand up to their friends and remind them if you do this you are going to go to jail” says Wyatt. Reminding us that this is a community effort. If we see something we need to stand up against it, and once and for all shake this idea that somehow a women brought on her assault because she was wearing a short skirt and high heels.
We put the onus on the victim too much in our community today, sending the message to perpetrators that it is OK, as a result causing more damage to the victim. As a victim of assault I know that we begin to internalize these feelings. You start to feel that maybe it really is your fault, maybe if you hadn’t had that one extra drink, or worn that short skirt, or walked down that dark street alone, or in my case rollerbladed down that dark pathway, it wouldn’t have happened to us. But it does happen to us. “As a community, it is important for us to stand together and say this type of behaviour is not acceptable and the consequences are too great.” says Laurie Blahitka, of Alberta Health Services.
Not only is this a message about consent, consequences, and victim blaming, it’s also a way to bring men into the conversation. It’s about making men part of the solution too. This is so important because if we remain divided, we’ll never win. As a victim, and an advocate I am so glad to see that people are finally starting to realize it’s going to take the cooperation of all kinds of organizations and people to start changing the minds of society.
I will leave you with a great quote from the SAVCalgary website :
If we keep thinking about the sexual abuses and sexual assaults committed by men as a ‘women’s issue’, we’re not going to do much about truly preventing that violence. The women you care about–and your kids–should live and grow up in a society where male violence against women is not acceptable. Not legally, not morally, not socially.
Calgary Police Giving Out Bluetooth Headsets Instead of Tickets?
Yup, you read that right. The Calgary police force were out this morning doing something very interesting,and awesome, to help raise awareness of the new distracted driving 
law that took affect this morning. In conjunction with Cjay92 and AutoTemp Air & Sound Inspector LaGrange, and Reddawg from CJay 92 were out and looking for those violating the law. Instead of issuing them a $172.00 ticket they were issued an education and a blue tooth head set. “Everyone of the people we stopped knew why they were being stopped and were very shocked and grateful to be getting a bluetooth headset instead of a ticket” LaGrange told me in a telephone interview.
According to CJAY92′s Facebook Page they “pulled over a women who was eating and swerving, a guy talking on his cellphone, and a women who was texting and driving”. CJay 92′s Forbes and Friends Morning show say they had a blast doing this with the CPS today. And who wouldn’t!? “the CPS were incredibly nice to work with, thanks Kev, Rick, and Dean” Gerry Forbes, host of Forbes And Friends, posted on the show’s Facebook.
This was a great opportunity for the Calgary police service to educate the public while at the same time making it clear that this is the new law and it is in place for the safety of everyone on the road. “We thought it was Just a great way to drive the point home to talk to them about education and reward them with a tool to improve habits” says LaGrange ” We don’t intend to have a zero tolerance policy what we want to focus on is a change in this culture we have” LaGrange talked to me about how we’ve all created a culture of instant communication and we’ve lost any balance we had. Balance is needed and soon this will evolve just like the seat belt law did when it first came into effect. “People did not like the seat belt law when that took effect but soon it became second nature to them.”
There is no doubt about it we have created a culture of instantaneous communication where we expect ourselves and everyone else to be available all the time. Would it really be the end of the world if we had to wait until we were all the way to work to open that work related email? Updated our Facebook status about the stupid drivers on the road that have already managed to grind our gears that morning? Or text our BFF this crazy thing we just saw happen? Probably not.
I for one am glad that the Calgary police service have every intention of ticketing people who are a danger to themselves and others on the road because of their texting, personal grooming, and other activities they do behind the wheel.
I asked Inspector LaGrange if he thought the new law would change people’s behaviour and in fact make our roads safer as there have been studies suggesting this is not the case. “Time will tell if it impacts safety on the streets, the thing is we will never know the what if. ” Would a drunk driver who was pulled over and arrested have killed someone if they hadn’t been caught? “Even if it saves one person’s life, or stops the millions in property damage each year, it’s worth it.” Given that this law is one of the toughest in North America and doesn’t just ban cell phone use, it will be interesting to see some follow up studies and statistics in the future. Will the extra restrictions in fact make a difference?
For now he says that this weekend will be business as usual. That if you are caught blatantly breaking the law you will be issued a ticket,if you are caught drinking and driving you will be charged. He says that CPS aren’t going to be popping out from behind trees at you, and they won’t be issuing tickets because you are drinking a coffee. They want to catch people who are doing dangerous things behind the wheel: texting, plucking nose haris, reading etc. They don’t want to clog up the courts with people fighting tickets for sipping a coffee anymore then you want to take time off work to go fight the ticket for sipping a coffee.
I know that as far as I am concerned I will be leaving my cell phone on silent mode and in my bag so as to remove any temptation I may have at taking a look at my phone at red lights. I know many others are doing the same thing so I think it’s fair to say that the deterrence has had some effect, at least so far. LaGrange had some good advice for citizens “turn it off when you get in the car, turn it on when you get out of the car”.
What Does Calgary Want From CPS Using Social Media?
Today was the Twitter chat hosted by the Calgary Police Service. While some people took the chance to tell the Calgary Police how much 
they disliked everything they do all the time, most took the opportunity to engage with Calgary police in a constructive manner making some excellent suggestions on how to utilize social media. The first question asked by CPS was what social media should be used. Overwhelmingly people wanted them to use both Facebook and Twitter. The conversation seemed to just take off from there.
People all seem to agree they want updates on Twitter from the CPS on such things as: Amber Alerts, dangerous offender alerts, Updated information, fun facts, safety tips, question answering, and crime prevention tips etc.
I tend to agree with those who want updates from the CPS fast. Twitter would be perfect for this. At one point they sited FOIP as an issue but I think they may have misunderstood what people want. CPS already releases dangerous offender information, Amber alerts, and often asks the public to help them locate perps, such as Calvin Kroger last week,
via the media but often we never get any updates after this. For example, I had to tweet and ask CPS if they were still looking for Mr. Kroger or if he was captured. It would be great if they could update the public via Twitter on such situations.
The only thing people seemed to disagree on was whether or not the CPS should have one Twitter account or two. I tend to side with those who suggested two accounts. One for alerts and updates and one for fun facts, questions and safety tips. This is because what I want out of a CPS Twitter account is information. I want to know about amber alerts, about dangerous offenders, and news and requests they need to release to the public. I don’t really care about ‘fun facts’ and I don’t need safety tips from the CPS. I know that walking down a dark ally at 11pm at night with ear buds in is considered unsafe.
Facebook is better for more detailed information. As I said earlier in the week it really should be used to promote the department. And generally Cagarians seemed to agree on that. You would want to post less then Twitter but often. The last time 
something (before the last couple days) was posted on Facebook by the CPS was back in May. Everyone seemed to agree they need to commit to posting more frequently. Information on programs such as About Face, MASST, and Gateway would also be suitable for Facebook. Or perhaps budget information, random reminders about laws everyone seems to forget.
This is an outlet they can use to post information on upcoming events, things they have done in the community, and to post pictures. Most people who thought expanding to Facebook might be useful all agree the most use for Facebook is building that stronger relationship with the community. The topic of multiple Facebook accounts came up here to. All I can say to this is it’s a bad idea. Facebook has a different set up then Twitter so it wouldn’t be as confusing if you post all different kinds of things on your Facebook account. Keep it simple, keep it to one account.
Though, most people who participated in the Twitter chat seemed to be indifferent to Facebook and think it unnecessary. It’ll be interesting to see how the Facebook chat goes next week. Will Facebook users think Twitter is an unnecessary form of social media?
People were also expressing who they would like to see actually monitoring the social media accounts. Some people were indifferent, others were adamant about wanting a uniform officer monitoring 24/7. Personally, I don’t think a uniform officer would be necessary all you really need is a person who is knowledgeable enough and can post the alerts, fun facts, or whatever else is needed. I don’t know how constructive it would be to have a uniform police officer manning Twitter. I am also not sure how a police officer would feel about having to man a Twitter account. However, that idea brings me to the next topic of conversation. Blogs.
Blogs came in second to Facebook and Twitter. I think blogs could be utilized to get that extra personal touch people are looking for from police officers that may not be possible on Twitter or Facebook. 
Officers could blog about experiences, answer questions, or just blog about a community event that they were involved in. They could put up a blog from the Chief of Police, or officer bios (as one person suggested). I think this is a much better way to give people what they are looking for from actual police officers via social media without perhaps wasting their abilities sitting on Twitter for 6 or 8 hours a day.
However some suggestions were just plain unrealistic, though I do understand why some would want such things. Some people wanted crime statistics (that are readily avaliable via stats Canada or the CPS website I might add), while others wanted online reporting via Twitter. The CPS website already provides for online reporting that really is sufficient enough, plus there is more room for detailed information. If it is something that needs to be dealt with immediately you should be calling 911 (that said I would love to see a texting system set up with 911- but that’s an entirely different issue). Even more people wanted real time traffic reports. I really hope the CPS decides against utilizing twitter to give us traffic updates, I can get that from 660 or QR77 updates. However, The most unrealistic of all was the expectation that the Police should be posting real time locations and crime in progress. I think this would be a bad idea for obvious reasons. The biggest of course is that you don’t want a bunch of people to flock to a crime in progress. The police would already be trying to deal with that situation, they don’t need a crowd control situation on their hands as well.
Users agreed that regardless of what the CPS decide to use social media for they need to have a presence on it. Once they decide they are going to use it they do need to be posting often and posting relevant information. One thing is for sure, Calgarians overwhelming appreciate everything the Calgary police do and are trying to do in regards to social media and loved the opportunity to chat with them today. They also hope that the use of social media will provide some understanding on their part about exactly what the Calgary police face everyday and also perhaps add some police accountability to the mix while building even stronger ties to the greater Calgary community.
On Thursday Sept 8 the CPS will be having a Facebook chat that will be similar to the Twitter Chat. It will take place between 11:30-1pm.
