Today the Georgia Straight posted this article: Vancouver police dismiss activist's claim that gender crimes aren't taken seriously
So I sent them this letter:
I wanted to take a minute to respond to your article posted October 5th regarding gendered violence in the downtown east side. I'm disappointed that the article, written in the manner it was, even made it to print/post in your publication. First, for the past decade, you can't face any direction in BC without hearing about the degradation, sexualization, and violence towards women who live, work, or survive in the DTES. Second, I'm sure if you surveyed a roomful of randoms a number of them would agree that the "police" haven't been on the mark about much of their actions or comments to the public over that same amount of time (eg. Dziekanski or the hullabaloo in Toronto) even regarding cases regarding women from the DTES (eg. all the recent information that highlights the lack of involvement by police in cases and incidents leading up to Picton's arrest). Third, of course women are violent towards men: men are violent towards men, and women are violent towards women. But what happens when organizations in power rely on the straw man argument that some woman harmed some man, is that the organization denies the reality that whether a woman lives in the DTES or lives in Fort McNeil, she is more likely to experience violence at the hands of a man than any other way you can spin that equation. By denying gendered violence by saying, "women do it too", the police do turn a blind eye to gendered violence because they're not recognizing which part of it is gendered or treating the crimes towards women with more attention and resources than those that also happen to men.
If you're also pissed off by the article email them. If you don't give a fuck I don't really want to know, but you can post a comment arguing why you don't give a fuck or disagree, but I'll ignore you. Think of it as passive validation. xo
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