Friday 26 August 2011

"Just a total reflex."


That is the justification provided by Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice David Prosser when he recognized that he did indeed put his hands around his colleague Justice Ann Walsh Bradley's neck during a confrontation that took place in the office of Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson.From the investigation into his action, here.

Women who encounter enraged, out-of-control irrational and violent men like Prosser (essentially, most if not all women) should master a defense move: a brutal kick to the 'nads - to borrow an expression from Canadian Cynic.

Just as a *total reflex* of course.

5 comments:

Dark Daughta said...

But wimmin like that don't hae to resort to violence in order to protect their boundaries. They're upper class wimmin with privilege enough to propel them into those jobs and environments. Of course there's been an investigation. Now, that maid that was raped by the upper class frenchman...? She's being discredited as I type. She can't rely on the system to back up her allegations. She should have castrated him and then left the room, the building and the country...but they'd have found her and mounted an investigation...with him as victim. heh :)

deBeauxOs said...

You're absolutely right.

But every incident such as this one demonstrates that all women are vulnerable to male violence and to the systems that sustain and justify their actions.

If Diallo is not safe, none of us are.

If Diallo's sexual assault can be dismissed, so can any molester, rapist who has violated any woman be exonerated.

Anonymous said...

So does this make some sort of precedent? When you escalate a verbal confrontation into an assault, you can claim it was a reflex and get off scott-free? What are the requirements for this precedent to apply? Gender of the assaulter/victim? Political affiliation of the assaulter/victim? Socio-economic posistion? Imagine if some guy in a hoodie did that to a judge.

Jim Parrett said...

One should remember that the prosecutor is Republican. Every step of the way in Prosser's journey this past year has benefited by the largesse of Republicans conveniently holding his nads - er fate - in their hands. As a side note, interesting that Prosser's history of sexual aggression towards women didn't figure into the decision. Mmmm.

Niles said...

His reflex is to gently caress the neck of the woman angry with him so he can soothe her hysteria. "Touched her neck". Honestly, his *reflex* is to grab the throat of a woman he doesn't want to heed?

But it's all good and harmless because he didn't actually lose his shit enough to put force into the hold. Because some part of his brain was saying whoopsie, witnesses? We're to congratulate him because he showed enough restraint not to actually harm her?

She, of course, was supposed to know he would never actually harm her and should always defray his temper instead of inciting it in the aggressive, demeaning way it was reported that she humiliated him. Women, if only they'd learn the boundaries of completely rationally behaving men and not push them into punishing such insults.

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