Senator Biden's VAWA Cover-Up

[Angel Heart]

ifeminists.com: Content / Guest Commentary / Senator Biden's VAWA Cover-Up

Senator Biden's VAWA Cover-Up
on Tuesday 26 August 2008
by Carey Roberts



Amidst the hoopla surrounding Sen. Joseph Biden's ascendancy to the right hand of Barack Obama, something was curiously missing. Over the last 15 years, Biden has repeatedly bragged to his friends and colleagues, "What I'm most proud of in my entire career is the Violence Against Women Act." So why no mention of his legislative pride-and-joy amidst the flurry of text messages, press releases, and staged public appearances?

The answer is, VAWA has become something of an embarrassment to the good senator.

The Violence Against Women Act and related laws extract $1 billion from the federal purse and dispense the money to law enforcement agencies, legal aid programs, and abuse shelters. So what's wrong with that?

Over the last two months I have documented a series of scandals at the nation's abuse shelters. These articles have reported instances of drug abuse, dating parties for shelter residents, gross mistreatment of disabled residents, and assaults on shelter residents. And the eye-opener that the great majority of shelter residents are there for reasons that have nothing to do with domestic violence.


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[Seraph]

Hmm, so Biden grew up in a household where he wasn’t allowed to hit his sister, no matter what, even when she hit him causing bruising.

Nevertheless, his sister is his best friend and closest confidante, and he’s committed reducing violence against women.

Interesting.

 

[editec]

And the eye-opener that the great majority of shelter residents are there for reasons that have nothing to do with domestic violence.

What a complete load of bullshit.

 

[Ravi]

What a strange website you linked to, Angel. It seems to be a collection of stories about how women shouldn't be protected from domestic violence. If men, as the blogger claims, aren't being accepted into women's shelters...why not advocate for men's shelters instead of making up nasty things about women?

I suggest you volunteer for a few weeks at a woman's shelter and give this another think.

 

[Silence]

Speaking as someone who grew up in a house were my father beat my mother for 20 years this is a disgusting insult.

Back in the 70s when I was a young girl the police did nothing to help my mother when they'd arrive after some worried neighbor would call amid the screams coming from our home. They would see my mother bloody and battered and tell her unless they actually saw my father hit her they weren't able to arrest him.

My earliest memory is of my father slicing my mother's leg open with a butcher knife and kicking her in the face with a boot.

Unless you've lived it you have no clue how much these shelters do. We didn't have shelters when I was growing up. My mother had no escape. He hung her from a tree until she passed out, burned her with cigarettes and did all kinds of other unspeakable things to her. I wish we'd have the resources to get help but we didn't and now women do have help and countless lives are saved every day.

Thank God for Joe Biden and those like him who fight on behalf of battered women everywhere.

 

[Jon]

I agree the site itself and some of the article are fucked, but what's this all about?

Over the last two months I have documented a series of scandals at the nation's abuse shelters. These articles have reported instances of drug abuse, dating parties for shelter residents, gross mistreatment of disabled residents, and assaults on shelter residents. And the eye-opener that the great majority of shelter residents are there for reasons that have nothing to do with domestic violence.

The investigation also reveals a broader pattern of managerial incompetence, lack of accountability, and a man-hating ideological agenda.

Most disturbing are reports of widespread child neglect and abuse, including physical and sexual assaults, many of these incidents going unreported to local authorities. And the shameful refusal of shelters to accept adolescent boys.

$1 billion of federal money is being used to help pay for these shelters, and they aren't being run properly.

 

[dilloduck]

I agree the site itself and some of the article are fucked, but what's this all about?



$1 billion of federal money is being used to help pay for these shelters, and they aren't being run properly.

Bingo--no one is complaining about women being protected from violence---It's the wasteful and inadequate way it's being done. Typical for libs to try to twist this into something it is not.

 

[Ravi]

Bingo? Where's the proof any of this stuff happened anywhere but in her mind. Glad to know you swallow BS so easily, dillo. I'm going to start a blog and state with authority that McCain has a sexual fetish for male rabbits. Please check it out and help spread the word.

McCainHumpsRabbits.com

 

[Jon]

Bingo? Where's the proof any of this stuff happened anywhere but in her mind. Glad to know you swallow BS so easily, dillo. I'm going to start a blog and state with authority that McCain has a sexual fetish for male rabbits. Please check it out and help spread the word.

Oh, please, how many retarded, fucked up websites do Kirk and OJ post a day?

I agree the source is questionable, but if the claims are being made, there needs to be investigation into it.

 

[Ravi]

Oh, please, how many retarded, fucked up websites do Kirk and OJ post a day?

I agree the source is questionable, but if the claims are being made, there needs to be investigation into it.

Great! I'm sure there's an abused women's shelter somewhere in your area. Go volunteer for a couple of weeks and report back to us.

 

[Angel Heart]

When the fact show that women are more likely to turn violent than men it shows that our laws are not correctly written.

University of Florida News - Women more likely to be perpetrators of abuse as well as victims

Women more likely to be perpetrators of abuse as well as victims
Filed under Research, Education, Family, Law, Gender on Thursday, July 13, 2006.GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Women are more likely than men to stalk, attack and psychologically abuse their partners, according to a University of Florida study that finds college women have a new view of the dating scene.

“We’re seeing women in relationships acting differently nowadays than we have in the past,” said Angela Gover, a UF criminologist who led the research. “The nature of criminality has been changing for females, and this change is reflected in intimate relationships as well.”

In a survey of 2,500 students at UF and the University of South Carolina between August and December 2005, more than a quarter (29 percent) reported physically assaulting their dates and 22 percent reported being the victims of attacks during the past year. Thirty-two percent of women reported being the perpetrators of this violence, compared with 24 percent of men. The students took selected liberal arts and sciences courses. Forty percent were men and 60 percent were women, reflecting the gender composition of these classes.

In a separate survey of 1,490 UF students, one quarter (25 percent) said they had been stalked during the past year and 7 percent reported engaging in stalking, of whom a majority (58 percent) were female.

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[Jon]

Great! I'm sure there's an abused women's shelter somewhere in your area. Go volunteer for a couple of weeks and report back to us.

I already have. I volunteered there a few times, as well as the homeless shelter.

I don't know if it was one of the ones run by Biden's program, but there seemed to be no problems there.

Plus, I don't live in an inner city, and I'll assume that most of the problems are in shelters located in inner cities.

 

[Silence]

When the fact show that women are more likely to turn violent than men it shows that our laws are not correctly written.

University of Florida News - Women more likely to be perpetrators of abuse as well as victims

Perhaps women are sick of being punching bags? Not that anyone should be abused but remind me again how many men die at the hands of an abusive girlfriend or wife v. how many women die at the hands of an abusive boyfriend or husband. The statistics aren't even close!

and sorry, but are we to believe that EVERY woman's shelter helped by these funds is run incorrectly or, like anything else, there are scattered instances where people do the wrong thing?