"Shame on them." That's what Rep. Sandy Adams said when she was told that more than 300 organizations and government agencies helping victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking opposed her version of reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, H.R. 4970. Adams' bill did get the support of one organization, the National Coalition for Men, which issued a statement saying VAWA must be amended to prevent "false accusations."
H.R. 4970 contained language drafted by another organization, Stop Abusive and Violent Environments (SAVE) -- language that rolled back protections for battered immigrants. One of SAVE's board members, Natasha Spivack, runs a mail-order bride agency called Encounters International. Spivack has lobbied Congress for years to weaken laws that provide protection for the women she matches up with U.S. men. SAVE says that their language, as adopted by Adams, would discourage "false allegations of abuse."
The principles underlying H.R. 4970's rollbacks of existing law seem to be that victims don't tell the truth, and that the governmental and nonprofit agencies that provide services to victims and hold perpetrators accountable are engaged in self-enrichment.
Right-wing House members marched in lockstep, decrying the "fraud, waste, and abuse" committed by VAWA grantees as their reason for supporting the draconian and incredibly costly auditing mechanisms and punishments contained within their bill. Yet not one of them provided evidence of rampant fraud and abuse among VAWA's thousands of grantees and subgrantees, which include law-enforcement agencies, prosecutors' offices and courts, as well as severely under-funded victim service providers. In fact, the U.S. Department of Justice specifically reported that these agencies are not engaged in fraud or abuse.
Why aren't House Republicans celebrating the hard work and success of VAWA grantees? And why does the language of the bill assume victims are liars and grantees are embezzlers?
Perhaps the focus on "fraud" and "false allegations" is meant to be convenient cover for what H.R. 4970 really does: roll back victim protections that have existed in law for decades; order the establishment of a new and costly bureaucracy to burden grantees with unnecessary paperwork; and deny any meaningful protections to battered immigrants, Native women, or LGBT victims.
H.R. 4970 would establish a new and costly "fraud" unit in the Justice Department by taking money that would help victims. H.R. 4970 says there are "enough victims," and that immigrant, Native-American, and LGBT victims aren't worthy to be added to the list of those already protected from abuse. H.R. 4970 insults victims and those who serve them.
Shame on "them," Rep. Adams? I don't think so. The real shame is on you.
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the whole idea that we need an abusive law,that is used to abuse victims and destroy the lives of innocents is clearly disingenuous.
http://ncfm.org/2012/06/news/domestic-abuse-violence/the-national-coalition-for-women-blasts-efforts-to-include-sensible-and-gender-inclusive-provisions-in-legislation-to-reauthorize-the-violence-against-women-act/
Where is all that money going? It would be nice if there were some oversight and assurances that it was being spent wisely and on programs based on actual science, rather than ideology.
this is a very leading statement
"perhaps" could mean anything. one might as well say "perhaps not"
how exactly does it roll back protection for victims? please be specific
what is a "meaningful protection"? to protect accused people (mostly men) is not meaningful? tell that to those men and their children and extended families who have to live with the consequencecs of the actions of the lying wives and girlfriends who use the VAWA for advantage in their divorce/custody cases.
http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2012/spring/misogyny-the-sites
http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2012/spring/a-war-on-women
http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2012/spring/myths-of-the-manosphere-lying-about-women
A Voice for Men routinely writes articles expressing their belief that domestic violence victims “started it” and “had it coming”. In the following article, they imply that Chris Brown is the true victim along with the “millions” of other men who have been arrested for doing the same that Chris Brown did. This is their definition of “falsely accused”.
http://www.avoiceformen.com/misandry/chivalry/the-failed-manhood-of-white-knights/
SAVE, and the Men’s Rights Movement, also known as the “Abuser’s Lobby”, has no place in the creation of laws for domestic violence victims. I’m deeply disappointed to find that Sandy Adams has ties to these misogynistic groups and is pushing their agenda. Shame on Sandy Adams!
The problems with VAWA are many. They include the failure to deal with false allegations, radical erosion of constitutional protections for the accused, the almost complete refusal to serve male victims, the almost total refusal to treat female perpetrators, the dissemination of false "information" about domestic violence and the fact that there's no proof that the law functions to reduce domestic violence.
VAWA should be scrapped altogether and replaced by a sensible, gender-neutral statute that uses what's known to work rather than the inaccurate and ineffective political ideology of the domestic violence industry.
http://www.usimmigrationsupport.org/visa-u.html
Shame on the supporters of this law. You are either ignorant, greedy or both.
She lost her moral and forgot what it feels to be a victim of abuse. Shame on you Sandy Adams, and your cruel and pathetic version of VAWA.
Pass the real VAWA NOW! the one that has existed since 1994 ..pass bill S. 1925 ..the real vawa!!