Accountability NOW!

from Melissa...

LETTER TO EDITOR

Today I submitted the following letter to the editor of the Lansing State Journal, community newspaper of my hometown. In this version, I provide links to the referenced stories. Let's see if LSJ publishes it AND what version of it they publish (since it's 149 words long, within the 150-word limit).

LSJ, please fairly report about victims of violence. “Police ID Woman” (Aug. 12) glimpses at Debra Renfors while “Victim Tried to Change Life” (Aug. 14) is lopsided. Overall, you obscure her person and this disturbing trend: a second woman murdered in the same house without anyone convicted.

LSJ’s portrait of a record not the person of Ms. Renfors contrasts your coverage of murdered neighborhood-activist Ruth Hallman. In both cases, humans were killed. Irrelevant details about Ms. Renfors’s history, like past intoxication, is sensational not responsible or insightful.

I request that you publish a feature about Lansing-area violence spotlighting women and children as the majority of victims. Consider how recent reporting on the murders of Julie Mishoe , Barbara George, and Brandon Williams fails to address this proven pattern. October is domestic violence awareness month, an ideal time for such a feature. LSJ, give victims and survivors of violence our due.

Melissa Dey Hasbrook
Lansing

Comment: LSJ did print the story "Experts speak on grief, violence" (Aug 12). But nodding at domestic violence in response to Julie Mishoe's murder DOES NOT acknowledge RECURRING violence in our community, most often violating and/or taking the lives of women and children. Check out the stats:

http://www.endabuse.org/resources/facts/
http://www.nccev.org/violence/statistics/statistics-domestic.html
http://www.abanet.org/domviol/statistics.html
ADDED 21 AUG: http://www.now.org/issues/violence/stats.html

REMEMBERING THE VICTIMS

Here are stories about the victims (ones not linked in the above letter).

Deborah Kaye Cooke
Hunter Park homicide victim identified
The perpetrator/s murdered AND sexually violated Ms. Cooke.

Julie Mishoe
Murder-Suicide Victim's Family Speak Out

Brandon Williams
Victim, 17, remembered as 'loving'

Barbara George
Husband charged with killing wife in 1990

Barbara Jean Tuttle
2004 - the first woman killed at 1017 N. Washington Ave., Lansing.
Lansing's unsolved homicides

Debra Elaine Renfors
2007 - the second woman killed at 1017 N. Washington Ave., Lansing.

Ruth Hallman
Carol Wood remembers ‘Momie’

NO MAGIC, MAYOR!

An LSJ story-headline quotes Lansing mayor Virg Bernero about recent murders:

Mayor: "I wish I could wave a magic wand and stop this"

And what about the nature of such murders?

"Bernero said that most homicides in the city are drug related or domestic in nature, though he did not confirm or deny that today's homicide was either."

Intervening violence DOES NOT involve magic. We require a community-wide effort from teaching children to law enforcement to neighborhood collaboration. In this process, elected officials must take responsibility not brush away complicity.

Policy makers set agendas. I CANNOT imagine a mayor telling its residents that one wishes one could wave a magic wand for the economy to improve or to stop unemployment! There must be accountability for victims and survivors of violence demonstrated by our communities' priorities--from City Hall to police precincts to courtrooms to households.