[Seattle-editorial] FEATURE PROPOSAL: Tacoma Remembers Crystal Brame

[Jeremy Kahn]

This looks good. I have made a few changes on the Wiki, mostly spelling 
corrections and a few re-phrases of some run-on or awkward sentences. 
I've saved the basic changes, and now I'm looking for a way to try to 
make this a bit shorter.

Good work, Brandon. This is an important issue; I'm glad we're not 
silent on it.
--jeremy

Brandon Faloona wrote:

>This needs to be shortened, and needs more info about local events. anyone
>interested in helping me with the final touches?
>
>brandon
>+++
>
>preview and edit at:
>http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Local/SeaEdBrandfCurrent
>
>title: David Brame: Police Chief, Domestic Terrorist, and "a great guy"<br>
>alt title: Tacoma remembers Crystal Brame<br>
>subtitle: The Fragile Façade of Male Violence
>
>Tacoma will <a
>href="http://www.tribnet.com/news/story/3077599p-3101077c.html">remember
>and honor Crystal Brame</a> on Friday and Saturday, but America will
>likely forget the 10, 20 or perhaps 40 other victims of deadly-force
>domestic violence <a
>href="http://www.now.org/issues/violence/050203timeline.html">that
>occurred the same week</a>. The celebrity of Crystal Brame's
>killer/husband, the Tacoma Chief of Police, and the comical denials of
>Tacoma's political elites has grabbed the attention of the local press.
>However, the corporate media predictably ignores the underlying stories,
>for example, the impact of the violent and hurtful gender stereotypes
>permeating the advertiesments that they sell.
>
>Unimpressed with the idea of an investigation headed by the Washington
>Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs, the Tacoma branch of the
>National Organization for Women wants the Attorney General's office to ask
>for a <a
>href="http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/120847_tacoma07.html">federal
>investigation</a>.
>
>Protected by a police code of silence, his enormous power in the
>community, his "<a
>href="http://www.tribnet.com/news/story/3061905p-3085382c.html">sensitive
>guy</a>" demeanor, and 21st century American patriarchy, Brame apparently
>battered and terrorized his wife over the years, and even admitted to
>raping a co-worker, all without loosing his high standing in the
>community.
>
>America's police and military institutions are the bastion of
>"traditional" values: secrecy, authority and patriarchy. David Brame rose
>quickly through the ranks of Tacoma's police department, continuing a
>history of police work in his family. The evidence is clear that <a
>href="http://inlet.org/clippings03/cops_batterers.htm">many good cops are
>also batterers</a>.
>
>The day Crystal Brame died, from a wound her estranged husband inflicted a
>week with his service revolver, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer ran an
>opinion piece titled "Brame case offers lessons for helping battered
>women".  The article's presentation of domestic violence "abusers" as
>gender-neutral, combined with it's failure to mention that 90% of abusers
>are men, left an otherwise useful article, toothless. Unaddresed were
>issues of systemic complicity to male violence our society.
>
>The habitually avoided questions, however, are:
>   * Why are men so violent in our 21st century ‘civilized’ society?
>   * In what ways does our society encourage male violence?
>   * Why does our society quietly tolerate male violence?
>
>Ex-police chief Ray Fjetland determined a rape victim’s complaint was “not
>sustained”, even though he had received a sworn statement from Officer
>Reggie Roberts that Brame had admitted to raping her.
>
>Ray Corpuz, who promoted David Brame to police chief and is Tacoma’s City
>Manager in-hiding, when pressed for exactly what he knew and when he knew
>it, uttered a damming statement. Hiding behind the words, "The word 'rape'
>was never used," Corpuz invokes the thin façade of patriarchy by claiming
>he only knew of “an incident with a woman”.
>
>   * According to Stacey Kabat, as of June 1991 there were 2,000 battered
>women in America serving prison time for defending their lives against
>their batterers.
>   * According to the UN, in 1994 battering was the <a
>href="http://www.whrnet.org/docs/issue-VAW.html">single greatest cause
>of injury</a> among women in the US, accounting for more emergency room
>visits than auto accidents, muggings, and rapes combined.
>
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