It occurs to us we omitted all the good stuff, so we added Cloud Writer's missive to Forouzan at the bottom.##
We received the following e-mail from Gloria Forouzan, and thought it merited your immediate attention.
Pgh. City Council takes a preliminary vote on both the bill and amendments tomorrow, Oct. 31.
As of this writing and as far as I know, the Mayor has not committed to supporting either Council's ordinance or the policy developed by the PD; other than Councilmembers Peduto & Shields, no councilmember has declared support for either the bill or the amendments.
In the meantime, people/organizations around this country are
watching. Here are 2 of them:
1. The fall 2007 issue of Ms. Magazine carries an article about
efforts to implement change in Pgh. Police Dept.
2. We rec'd the following, unsolicited, email from Tacoma, WA blogger
'Cloud Writer', whose blog, "Behind the Blue Wall", covers cases of
police involved in domestic violence...
This link will take you to the results of a search for the word "Pittsburgh" on the blog, Behind the Blue Wall.
Here is Cloud Writer's email to Forouzan, which can also be found in the comments of PWBS:
I wrote my Tacoma, WA Council an email asking them - with detail - to let the Pittsburgh council know what it's like when the worst-case-scenario happens within the police department and you find yourself in national news withOUT a police domestic violence policy... with a trail of events leading up to the tragedy that WOULD have been intervened on if there had been a policy in place.
I cc'd that email to your council and other folk of power in Pittsburgh.
I track officer-involved dv and have never seen in the four and half years I've been doing this, a community raise their voices together, and exert unrelenting pressure for their city to do the right thing in this area for victims and/or officers.
It's the right thing.
Cloud Writer in Tacoma, where our police chief committed murder-suicide on his wife after the city ignored her reports that he was threatening her life.
OH... which reminds me -- make sure your policy has what to do if the abuser or killer is your chief.
It's important.
I'm following Pittsburgh here http://behindthebluewall
Bram,
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting this to your wide audience, the response from Cloud Writer was to a post I wrote on the Pgh. Women's Blogging Society.
The vote happens today in City council at 10 a.m. I urge everyone to contact their councilmember, before 10, & encourage him/her to vote for Bill #2007-1797 and the 4 amendments.