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

[Jeremy Kahn]

One further note, though: I'm not sure I'd pick on the Grace Huang 
article so much. It's *correct*, it just doesn't talk about the systemic 
stuff. I'm trying to reformulate that paragraph now.

--jeremy

Jeremy Kahn wrote:

> 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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