Pittsburgh – When The Abuser Goes To Work…

Robin Little’s 8-month old baby grew up without his mother.

She was a teenager in a small town outside Pittsburgh, PA, whose nude body was found in a vacant lot near her apartment. The nineteen year old was raped and fatally stabbed by her husband, Wayne Mitchell, Jr.

This was about 20 years ago. I wrote an op-ed article for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, in which I decried her senseless death as the lack of “real protection for abused women.”

I noted that Little was killed a few hours after Mitchell was released from jail, where he was sent after being arrested for raping and assaulting Little. He was released the next morning on his own recognizance, a precursor of “no bail.” He went back and killed her.

When I read that Illinois became the first state this week to completely eliminate cash bail, I thought of Little for the first time in years. I also thought of her devastated mother and her son.

Little, who was African-American, died because of a different kind of plague.

Society did not begin to make serious efforts to protect women who were victims of domestic violence until the 1970s. Historically, it was legal because it was deemed a husband’s right. A private matter.The first domestic violence shelter was opened in Great Britain in 1971. Police routinely told abusers to take a walk around the block and cool off.

What some people consider to be protesting, others experience as bullying or worse (i.e., domestic terrorism).

Some of the residents of a quiet residential neighborhood in Portland, OR, were likely unsettled recently when they were visited one night by hundreds of so-called “protesters.”

At least, “protesters” is what The New York Times called them.

They were supposedly protesting police brutality and seeking support from residents of the largely white residential neighborhood.

But they looked more like an invading army. They were uniformly clad in black garb, wearing motorcycle helmets and masks that hid their faces. Some wore body armor. Others had tool belts containing an array of ominous looking paraphernalia.

The NYT reports the “protesters” stopped at a house where an American flag was on display in the yard. They demanded the owner take the flag down and, when he refused, threatened to return later and burn down the house.

By calling them protesters, the NYT accorded them a legitimacy that many legitimate protesters of police brutality would not.

Tag: Pittsburgh

‘No Bail’ Imperils Domestic Violence Victims

Is ‘Bullying’ Okay if You Say You’re a Protester?