Nanny State on Steroids: The Right Wing Assault on the Family

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

The other day I heard a twenty-something acquaintance say, in passing, "Mirkarimi mauled his wife." I had recently had a conversation with some students on the topic of homeless pets so I immediately associated the young woman's remark with being mauled by a pit bull. Naturally I winced at the comment. As I reflected on it later, I thought of another definition of "maul" as a tool that laborers use for a variety of constructive and destructive tasks. The tool has even been used to stun cattle for slaughter. This association reinforced my earlier recoil.

San Francisco's embattled Sheriff-elect, Ross Mirkarimi, recently addressed a Democratic club with his assessment of the situation. He pointed out that the courts have yet to allow him to speak with his wife. He also described his take on the Mayor's actions suspending him on an ethics charge. I was not surprised by the latter remarks. After all, San Francisco's plutocracy has Mayor Ed Lee's gonads firmly in hand. The news that he could not speak to his wife struck me as rather extreme. It reminded me of former times when a judge would cut off a man's nose for the offense of stealing a loaf of bread. The punishment was out of proportion to the crime. It also arbitrarily punishes Eliana Lopez, Mirkarimi's wife.

Mirkarimi has admitted to errors in the way he argued with his wife over a planned visit to Venezuela. At a different Democratic club meeting, he explained the bruise on his wife's arm as the result of a hasty tug on her arm during an emotional moment. It was not the most diplomatic of actions, nor was it the brutal mauling portrayed by his political opponents.

Eliana Lopez has criticized the Mayor for releasing the shock video that got the whole event rolling. Her attorney was in the process of requesting a stay on its release. She fears the psychological damage it may cause her child. The video contains nothing that has not already appeared in the press, except for a close view of some of the evidence that had been used to convict Mirkarimi in the court of public opinion. Back in April, Ms. Lopez observed, "What has happened to my family is wrong. What has occurred has hurt not just me and Ross and our son, Theo, but also society in general."

Does this case leave you feeling that the wheels of justice work just fine, or do you see a sinister assault on this particular family?

Links: Ms. Lopez speaks out on the affair. The shock video. Ross Mirkarimi speaks out this month and on a prior occasion. Maul as an instrument for slaughter.

Comments

[fornikate.livejournal.com]

i see a lady with stockholm syndrome and a man who should be removed from office.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

The plutocrats blow you a kiss.

[dwer.livejournal.com]

it's pretty normal for there to be a temporary restraining order on one party after an domestic assault charge has been brought, even if it's dropped. It's supposed to allow both sides to cool down and think. In some cases, it probably has saved lives. I doubt doing it destroys them.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

I had assumed that the original intent was to prevent collusion on court testimony. In either case, there is no longer reason to continue the restriction.

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

So.

A man accused of abusing two women, who pleads to a misdemeanor and suffers professional consequences in his job as SHERIFF is framed by you entirely as a victim?

[fornikate.livejournal.com]

it's a conspiracy!!! to enforce the law!

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

Read the quote toward the end of the piece. There are victims here besides the alleged abuse victims.

BTW, his guilty plea was not to abusing his wife, but to falsely imprisoning her. It was an ironic plea since she left the house after anyway. Also, the accusation of abuse in the second case was not an official accusation.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Haha!

[fornikate.livejournal.com]

best movie

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

The wheels of justice do NOT grind fair and are best avoided. Being a sheriff, I would expect him to be hip to that fact.

That acknowledged, you don't get to bruise your spouse whenever frustration presents itself.


She fears the psychological damage it may cause her child

Theo's male privilege psychology will be damaged. He will see that you cannot manhandle women without social consequence. He will see that losing your temper and being violent isn't acceptable in our society. I realize that beating your spouse during a fight is an old tradition, but the son will just have to do without it. He can learn that there are far more productive ways of dealing with your anger than bruising loved ones.

Maybe he'll avoid having to stand up against an adult 100lbs his bigger to protect his mom from the next blow. I'm good with that.


The punishment was out of proportion to the crime

He was made an example of. Plenty of people he would have treated likewise in his capacity as a sheriff. Everyone who abuses their spouse has some excuse when arrested.


errors in the way he argued with his wife

If that means admitting to being physically abusive, okay. I'm sure as sheriff, he knows many would would like to get out of their time served and anger management classes for whatever reasons.


nor was it the brutal mauling portrayed by his political opponents

The first times are rarely the ones that send the wife to the morgue.

He was in a sensitive position. Shouldn't have bruised his wife.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

He was not convicted of abusing his wife. Try again.

[spaz-own-joo.livejournal.com]

*polite applause*

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

you don't get to bruise your spouse whenever frustration presents itself.

My spouse gets bruises sometimes when I massage her. It doesn't take that much to make a bruise on some people. You don't know what exactly happened, so your conclusions are a bit out of proportion.

A single bruise from squeezing her arm is hardly beating her.

[pastorlenny.livejournal.com]

Bitches need to be kept in line. It's in the Bible.

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

Do not believe everything you read in the Bible.

[rimpala.livejournal.com]

What is this? I think I'm going to go mow the lawn or something.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

A good idea. I shall break for a bite as you mow.

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

1. So, no link to any real news stories about the actual case. That's not very helpful.

2. Vague insinuations about the "right wing" as if they were responsible for the domestic violence laws put in place to protect women that you're now complaining about.

3. Neither of your two options at the end are correct. You're putting up a false dilemma.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

The posting is about the way that a specific family experiences the heavy hand of the State of California. News articles on the topic are legion and only marginally relevent to the topic.

The right wing constitutes moneyed interests who have a hard-on for Mirkarimi.

As for the two options, do not assume that they are the only possible positions.

[auntiesiannan.livejournal.com]

Would you marry him?

[peristaltor.livejournal.com]

Not allowed in my state. Too dude-on-dude. ;-)

. . . though that might be changing.

[allisnow.livejournal.com]

'Cause God knows the right-wing is running things out in San Fran... If you're going to blame someone, why not get on Lee's case?

Or you could, ya know, just repeat the word 'plutocracy' a few more times. Maybe it works like 'beetlejuice'.

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

'High atop a San Francisco office tower is a special room full of wealthy & sinister men in suits, smoking cigars and deciding to ruin lives with domestic violence charges.'

The Plutocrats.

[kylinrouge.livejournal.com]

Did you watch the video you linked?

This happened yesterday and in 2011. This is the second time this is happening, and I told Ross I want to work on the marriage, we need help. I have been telling him we need help. And I'm going to use this just in case he wants to take Theo away from me. Because he said that, that he is very powerful and he can do it.

Seems pretty cut and dry. She's scared for her child, and as an abuse victim that fear manifests into protecting her abuser. This is so classic that even Freud wouldn't devote a single paragraph to it in any of his books.

And hey, if he was innocent then he would've pleaded not guilty like everyone else. His career is fucked with a plea bargain, and he's a sheriff so the odds of him being ignorant of the court system and tricked into a plea bargain is very low.

Look at that, I said all those things without the words plutocracy, right wing (although this seems like more of a left wing conspiracy if you ask me, it's SF for crying out loud), or erroneously using the term acquittal, or having a long thread with replies and ending it by accusing the other person of lacking sympathy.

[fornikate.livejournal.com]

apparently not, and neither did half the community.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

It's not like this is all that surprising from the same people who thought white people marrying black people was an abuse of family values. Small government didn't keep out of the bedroom then, so why would it now when they invent another great existential threat sure to collapse civilization as we know it?

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Disregard, after reading the post, I am going to resort to my usual response to this kind of inanity:

[meus-ovatio.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to see you diagnosing people with psychiatric disorders.

[rimpala.livejournal.com]