Trigger Warning
A Notre Dame student was shot in the arm by a neighbor this week.
Regrettably, sexism pervades even the shortest of news briefs, and many news readers' comments.
A 28-year-old neighbor shot this student while she was outside his door because her knocking convinced him he had to employ violence to protect his family. No arrests have been made.
User comments on these news stories express that the violence against this woman was her fault, because she had been to a club and was intoxicated. If that isn't victim-blaming, I don't know what is!
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Wow, I read this and I had issues. Specifically with the comments made were horrendous. I'm slightly afraid of the houses near my campus now because one of these "blame the victim, i'd do it too" may live there. And I posted a comment stating this and was even more horrified afterwards:
"Thank you for your submission. All comments are reviewed prior to being posted on this site. Station reserves the right to remove a comment at any time. Email addresses are not published or shared. They are for station contact purposes only. Comments will be posted as soon as practical."
That means all of these blame the victim and misogynistic and ageist (because a lot of them also targeted her being a student) were APPROVED BY STATION FIRST. They ALLOWED this type of hate to be posted on the website.
I'm going to guess that none of you live here.
I do live here.
And I'm not going to say the guy was right for shooting through his door, but let me just tell you that people in this area are spooked!
Why? Because there have been so many shameless break-ins in this city and the surrounding areas. Many, many break ins while people are sitting in their living rooms watching TV, making dinner, getting ready for bed . . . Everyday there is news of new break-ins and no one is exempt from them.
The website isn't trying to "stifle your opinion" they really just filter for profanity, so if you check back, your comment should be posted. They don't filter opinions, as you can see.
I don't think this is sexist at all. And I don't think "victim blaming" in this circumstance is unfounded. Being SO DRUNK that you can't determine which house you live in is pretty damn foolish, no matter your sex.
The exact same thing happened last month to a 22 year old Colorado Springs man, only he was killed.
While the homeowner in this case obviously made a horrible mistake shooting through the door rather than waiting for the police to arrive, I can empathize with his fear. Honestly, if you've told someone to go away, that you have a gun, and they're still trying to get into your house... that's fricking scary.
I live on a popular walking-home route from the local pub, and even when I'm fairly certain the person fumbling and banging at my side door at 2am is just another confused drunk it can still be frightening. My roommate is in the habit of standing behind me (discreetly) holding a meat cleaver while I'm trying to convince the person to leave.
Actually, I didn't read anywhere that he'd asked her to go away, although the article may have simply left that part out. It just says this: "The shooter, a 28-year-old man, told police he heard a lot of pounding on his door. When the woman would not go away, he shot through the door."
So he may have just listened to the pounding, and then decided that it must be a threat and pulled the trigger. Or he may have warned her repeatedly and felt that she must be dangerous after she did not heed any of his warnings. But we really have no way of knowing, either way.
Still though, even the most permissive gun protection laws don't allow people to shoot strangers for knocking on doors, do they? I thought that a person had to be (at the very least) actively trespassing in order to be a legitimate threat to one's home.
Its unclear from the article, but I think saying she "wouldn't go away" rather than she "didn't go away" implies that someone asked or told her to go away.
Still, I can't imagine why this was so threatening that he had to SHOOT her rather than wait for the police.
There's a brief interview with him in the second article linked. The way he describes it there wasn't any knocking, just someone trying to get in his front door in the middle of the night. I think he may live in a pretty bad neighbourhood, because he said he was afraid to even go look out the window in case whoever was there had a weapon. He yelled at them repeatedly to leave, called the police, warned the people at his door that he had a gun, and then when they were still trying to enter his house he fired a single shot.
The situation is horrible, and he should have waited for the police rather than panicking, but its not as simple as someone shooting a stranger for "knocking" at his door.
"Regrettably, sexism pervades even the shortest of news briefs, and many news readers' comments."
I'm confused, where was the sexism in the news brief?
Hi everyone. I actually just went to the screening that Emily mentioned above last night, and it reminded me how much I love feminist discourse, and how much I miss having it on a daily bedroom furniture basis. Did this group ever get together? Either way, anyone up for another one?