The missing were Women, many Aboriginal Women, the friends and neighbours and even beat cops who reported them gone feared Violence against Women. Those fears were based on the vulnerability of women in prostitution, the violence of men buying sex, the viciousness of sexualized racism toward Aboriginal women on Vancouver streets and the prevalence of all forms of Violence against Women. Their fears have been proved horribly insightful.
Raped women, who so often find their reports of rape “unfounded” by police, would stand to benefit from some method of holding police accountable. What women demand is a civilian run police complaints system that is empowered to order police
to co-operate and to enforce its decisions against police.
We recognized just how many demands made several years ago to improve police responses have still not been met and recommitted/ decided that they are still worth campaigning for. One such simple example is that 911 calls, initial police responses be fully documented as public records.
An investigative report into one hundred cases of violence against women; in all cases the women tried to get help from the system.
It is a harrowing account of individual women's stories, their understanding of the danger they faced, their attempts to get help, the incompetence and/or indifference they met, and, in those cases where someone was willing to prosecute, their vulnerability under/within the law.
In the first case, the government lawyer argued that Ms. Mooney was ‘the author of her own demise’ it was a glaringly woman-blaming defense. It is even more disturbing to realize that this position was taken by our government and spoken in the name of the public, when the public disagrees and is actually supportive of Ms. Mooney.
In VRR’s submission, it is apparent that Bonnie Mooney was one of the many women
“abandoned by the system,” to her very great cost. It is also apparent that real change, not
impression management, is required as inadequate police responses to women’s complaints of
male violence contributes to its perpetuation, devalues women, and fails to protect their security of
person. In the result, violent men are not stopped or deterred from engaging in further acts of
violence, women reasonably lose confidence in the justice system, and women’s Charter rights to
equality and security of the person are violated.
The media and police have put the family members of the missing women in the untenable situation of being expected to be critical of the police, yet they are made entirely dependent on the same police for information about the investigation and the fate of `their woman.’ Police-controlled victim services workers have reportedly warned family members about jeopardizing the investigation by speaking with media and non-police agencies (read feminist).
While it is often impossible to engage the police to save the lives of women around us, we are often overwhelmed with misdirected policing which criminalizes women for coping with violence directed at them and for coping with the poverty enforced on them.
We strongly encourage you to contact us at 604 872 8212 or another local women’s organization that offers information and advocacy around the police. We can talk to you about what to expect and answer any questions you have about the legal process. In most cases we can attend the police statement with you to support you, but if not, we will refer you to another organization that can.
