{"id":1826,"date":"2010-02-05T15:54:53","date_gmt":"2010-02-05T20:54:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlwpen.com\/?p=1826"},"modified":"2010-02-05T15:54:53","modified_gmt":"2010-02-05T20:54:53","slug":"the-man-files-ladies-dont-need-to-be-vigilant-murderers-need-to-not-kill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/2010\/02\/05\/the-man-files-ladies-dont-need-to-be-vigilant-murderers-need-to-not-kill\/","title":{"rendered":"THE MAN FILES: Ladies don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need to be vigilant. Murderers need to not kill."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"In January, tragedy struck the Los Angeles suburb of Manhattan Beach.<\/p>\n

Investigators believe that 24-year-old Michael Nolin killed his girlfriend, 22-year-old Danielle Hagbery, because Hagbery was breaking up with him. Apparently, Nolin then committed suicide.<\/p>\n

This murder-suicide story is tragic all the way around. We hear about situations like this all the time. But while the details of this case might still be fuzzy, one thing is for sure: The report published in The Daily Breeze<\/em><\/a> perpetuates the worst of victim-blaming and misguidedly frames the issues.<\/p>\n

The story headline reads:<\/p>\n

Police believe romantic break-up<\/strong> fueled Manhattan Beach killings.<\/p>\n

But romance and break-ups don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t cause murder. Violence and aggression do. Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s revise and edit, shall we?<\/p>\n

An accurate story headline would read:<\/p>\n

Police believe violent aggression<\/strong> fueled Manhattan Beach killings.<\/p>\n

But the problem doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t end with the headline. The article quotes Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Lt. Dan Rosenberg who provides so-called tips to women on preventing their own assault.<\/p>\n

I would insert a snarky \u00e2\u20ac\u0153yawn\u00e2\u20ac\u009d if the issue wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t so absolutely critical!<\/p>\n

Daily Breeze<\/em> reporters Larry Altman and Andrea Woodhouse quote Los Angeles Sheriff Department\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Lt. Dan Rosenberg as saying:<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Danielle Hagbery’s death should serve as a warning to other young women that they need to look out for themselves \u00e2\u20ac\u201d such as not going to the boyfriend’s home \u00e2\u20ac\u201d when a relationship goes sour.<\/p>\n

“This is one more tragic end of a dating relationship where these young women should be aware of it,” Rosenberg said. “Ladies need to be vigilant when things go sideways with boyfriends.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Seriously. Really?<\/p>\n

I’m willing to accept that Lt. Rosenberg was well-intentioned but seriously misguided. And, if so, then Altman and Woodhouse are complicit in their equally misguided decision to include these “tips” in their article.<\/p>\n

Badly informed comments such as Rosenberg’s perpetuate a serious problem: Blaming the victim for her own death. This profoundly shifts the attention from the real issue. Presuming it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s true that boyfriend Michael Nolin killed Hagbery before turning a gun on himself, the warning must not be directed toward victims.<\/p>\n

Ladies don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need to be vigilant. Murderers need to not kill.<\/p>\n

If this was in fact an instance of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153one more tragic end of a dating relationship,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d then men need to be aware of their own potential for violence and prevent it from happening. The best way to end violence is for the violent person to stop. Prevention is the real solution.<\/p>\n

On February 1, 2010 I sent a letter of concern to eight Daily Breeze<\/em> editors and reporters, and to the Los Angeles Sheriff\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Department. This letter called out the newspaper and the sheriff for what violence-prevention educator Jackson Katz<\/a> calls linguistic shape shifting, where language obscures men\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s responsibility for violence.<\/p>\n

The letter of concern includes signatures from authors, professors, public speakers, advocates, and community activists, experts across the country who work in preventing gender-based violence and sexual assault.<\/p>\n

The letter concludes by offering support: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153There are plenty of community-based resources and educational materials on the subject of preventing male violence against women. Please do not hesitate to be in touch if you would like to avail yourself to our services and resources.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

To date, not one of the individuals or agencies receiving this letter have replied. The silence is deafening.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In January, tragedy struck the Los Angeles suburb of Manhattan Beach. Investigators believe that 24-year-old Michael Nolin killed his girlfriend, 22-year-old Danielle Hagbery, because Hagbery was breaking up with him. Apparently, Nolin then committed suicide. This murder-suicide story is tragic all the way around. We hear about situations like this all the time. But while […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1906,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21117],"tags":[46,21154,21160,21195,21289,21292,21469,21519,21529,21536,21545,1976,129,876,21592,21855,3657,133],"class_list":["post-1826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-man-files-2","tag-activism","tag-andrea-woodhouse","tag-anti-violence","tag-blogging-life","tag-dan-rosenberg","tag-danielle-hagbery","tag-jackson-katz","tag-larry-altman","tag-linguistic-shape-shifting","tag-los-angeles-sheriff-department","tag-manhattan-beach","tag-masculinity","tag-media","tag-men","tag-michael-nolin","tag-the-daily-breeze","tag-victim-blaming","tag-violence"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1906"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1826\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}