Kill the worthless whore! At worst, you'll get fired.(Update-there MAY be charges...)
If you were expecting a story out of the misogynist medievalist swamp that is today’s fundamentalist Islam, look closer to home.
In what I will without peradventure attribute to our own local plague of Yahwists, a woman convicted of performing a legal act rendered illegal by the exchange of cash (uniquely among legal acts…), ended up with a death sentence.
Your attention is respectfully called to the leniency meted out to her murderers .
“Three of those disciplined were fired, two stepped down in place of being fired, 10 received suspensions ranging from 40 to 80 hours, and one was demoted. Two others will be disciplined after they return from medical leave.”
No one went to jail; no one was even fuckin’ fined.!
There has been an occasional flash of anti-feminist revanchism on this board. If you sex negative women haters are out there, argue my point that only once she was branded as “unclean” by a bunch of stinking Yahweh worshippers could she have been treated as described, and her tormentors so lightly punished.
I do not wish to deconstruct the Arizona penal system as an outlier—maybe it is (pace, Sherriff Joe…,) may be not. I ask what it says about us as a people that we regard women who (brazenly!) openly have sex as such damaged goods that thay can be brutalized with impunity.?
I don’t pretend to have wide acquaintance with women’s penal institutional practices, but until otherwise convinced I will argue that only a woman incarcerated(!) for prostitution could be so vilely treated, before and after her death!
Update: The original AP story has been expanded, to reference interest from the Maricopa County DA—“developing…”
Jolly, I canna get the link to work
Having sex, like having children, and growing old are all unnatural acts that must be punished.
September 22, 2009 11:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
just fixed--meant to preview, forgot that the default setting is "published" when you hit save.
Oh how I hate this interface...
September 22, 2009 11:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
I hate starting your excellent blog this way, but I figgered you'd want to know.
September 22, 2009 11:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
I figgered
Who turns down free editing?
September 22, 2009 11:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
growing old
What means...? I know about the other things, but...what is "old"...is it anything like growing tall, growing weed, growing tired?
September 22, 2009 11:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Growing weed is good
September 22, 2009 11:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
pretty funny tonite Bwak. hahaha
September 23, 2009 1:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
funny tonite
And "tonite is different from all other nites"?
September 23, 2009 1:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
>i>good
I'll tell you what is not good (in passing and o/t, but I started the meme) Growing short! which is a very bad joke that your vertebrae play on you while you are trying not to do that other growing thing, the "o" word...
September 22, 2009 11:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Unless you're in a war zone. Then short is good, as in "I'm so short I could sit on a dime and dangle my legs."
September 23, 2009 11:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
Then short is good
Yeah, but the vertebrae thing sneaks up on you.
The last time most people measure their height is when they quit growing. (Think back to those hashmarks on a wall...)
Then, years pass.
You think you are, oh, say 5'10 3/4" (to pick a number out of the air....)
Guess again, sucka.
September 23, 2009 5:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
JollyR - the NYT says she was also on anti-psychotic medications which (1) reduces the ability to withstand heat (NYT) and (2) indicates she was psychotic, ie, mentally ill, I note the article said she had just seen the 'psychologist' when she was put into the hotbox.
The psychologist was reportedly 'disciplined'. Wouldn't want to fire them, Doc's that good are hard to find I suppose.
September 23, 2009 11:16 AM | Reply | Permalink
medication
An interesting side issue:someone wrote the script, and that medical professional ought to have a malpractice problem if the standard of care for prescribing the drug includes a caution regarding the possible heat stroke risk.
The prescribing professional, thereupon, would have to show his/her reasonable reliance upon the expectation that the conditions of her incarceration would be such as to avoid this risk.
In the instance case, summary judgement for plaintiff's estate...
September 23, 2009 7:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
One would hope that the family of Marcia Powell has a recourse available to bring charges against her murderers in court for retribution.
I do not know what level prison she was in, whether it was maximum, medium or low level security, but that does not really matter. She was abused, brutally. She was fucking baked in a goddamn oven.
Disciplinary action was pitiful. Firing? Quitting so you don't get fired? Pitiful.
They should all be charged with murder.
September 23, 2009 11:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
Negligent homicide?
September 23, 2009 4:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
negligent homicide
Depraved indifference
September 23, 2009 4:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
the family
An iteresting sidelight: Powell had a "public guardian" appointed for her, which dovetails with the mental illness--query:how exactly do we attach sufficient agency to a person with a guardian to charge her with a crime?(presumably prima facie they are not competent, therefor not criminally liable)
Anyway, a pending issue is that the Acting Corrections Director Ryan pulled the plug on Powell without seeking the consent of the guardian.
Oops.
September 23, 2009 5:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm not sure what the connection between her being in jail for prostitution and this tragic outcome is.
Would it have been different if she had been convicted of selling crack, identity theft or burglary?
September 23, 2009 11:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
Would it have been different if she had been convicted of selling crack, identity theft or burglary?
That is my hypothesis--subject to proof/disproof (I guess...) by a more granular deconstruction of the interactions between the guards and Powell during her confinement.
I have made a run at Powell's court files--she had several prostitution and drug possession priors and was charged with felony prostitution (hence her 2.25 year original sentence).
Needless to say, on the broader issue of the criminalization of otherwise legal behavior because consideration (other than promise, presents, or perquisites) passed from one participant to another, I have strong objections.
Disclaimer: I am sufficiently outraged at this persecution of sex workers that I could easily demonize any individuals complicit in the overall practice. I look forward to getting more information when(if) the details emerge.
That said, if I had titled the post "Lock up the worthless whore", I could without stretching reach the same anti-Yahwist position, but the facts here are more glaring than the norm.
Bottom line: women are routinely being incarcerated, their lives disrupted/destroyed, their children traumatized, etc., all for engaging in acts that are legally unobjectionable (if cash is not exchanged).
The interest that is being vindicated in anti-prostitution laws(as all laws involving "offences against public decency") is not a legitimate interest of the secular state, but a holdover from days of clerical jurisdiction.
September 23, 2009 5:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
The interest that is being vindicated in anti-prostitution laws(as all laws involving "offences against public decency") is not a legitimate interest of the secular state, but a holdover from days of clerical jurisdiction.
_____
It is when STDs are a concern: there is a public safety/health interest.
September 23, 2009 10:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
They should all be tried for murder. And I'm willing to bet they would be if this had been a white male, instead of some "lowlife prostitute."
September 23, 2009 12:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm willing to bet>
If you find someone to fade you, let me know, I'll double your bet.
September 23, 2009 5:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
How pathetic and sad a story! It's appalling when you consider how our prisons are run and how prisoners in general are treated. Yes, they've all been convicted of something but the conditions are often inhuman and almost always brutal. The horrendous conditions of the prisons often exceed the level of punishment many deserve when viewed in light of the crime they may have committed. Certainly in this woman's case the punishment far exceeded any reasonable standard.
September 23, 2009 12:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
how prisoners in general are treated.
The generalized brutalization that we subject prisoners to is so wrongheaded as to be bizarre.
We are, after all, planning to let them out to walk among us someday.
Ought we not have a care not to turn the unruly/recalcitrant/misdemeanant into a crazed, homicidal monster seeking only some small sense of redress?
September 23, 2009 5:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sorry, this feminist regrettably is of the opinion that this is one story that one can't really spin towards a feminist take and be taken seriously. Looks to me where it says
The autopsy also found...that she had anti-psychotic drugs in her system.
that it's another one of those "let the crazy bitch/bastard die, he/she is too much trouble" thing going on in our prisons and jails. Our prisons are not doing a good job with the sane convicted, much less are they equipped to handle the mentally ill. And they have a lot of them, whether they are in there unfairly for minor sexual violations, or for mass murder.
Which BTW could bring us to the issue of the importance of mental health coverage in HCR?
September 23, 2009 1:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm in agreement here. I think this has more to do with how we treat people struggling with mental illness than how we treat women.
September 23, 2009 4:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
they have a lot of them
I believe that county jails (in particular) and prisons are currently our largest mental illness "treatment providers"
That said, (and conceding that my outrage at her incarceration in the first place spills over into my analysis of her death), I am willing to (tentatively...) advance an argument that among incarcerated women, and (as a subset) among mentally ill incarcerated women, women convicted of prostitution (btw the most frequent cause of female incarceration!) find themselves excluded from any general prompting towards "chivalry" that men (even prison guards...) might find themselves subject to.
September 23, 2009 5:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Actually, that she might have been mentally ill may be less disturbing than the alternative - that she was not mentally ill but that they were using anti-psychotics off-label because they made her easier to control.
(From what I understand about anti-psychotics, the side effects include increased lethargy and difficulty thinking - this would definitely make someone easier to dominate).
September 23, 2009 6:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
easier to control.
Chemical restraints. She was being given Haloperidol.
September 23, 2009 7:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here's a picture. She doesn't look like the drugs helped much. She looks tortured.
September 23, 2009 7:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
tortured
There are two competing pictures circulating. The "nice" picture is heartbreaking in its normalcy just as the one you reference is heartbreaking for the pain it reveals.
September 23, 2009 8:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
I may be seeing things ! Help me out. Look at the date of this post.
Do you see September 24th? Is today the 23rd? Am I'm going nuts?
September 23, 2009 1:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Going?
September 23, 2009 2:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Pietá !
September 23, 2009 2:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ah, so that is why this blog keeps appearing at the top of the Recent Reader's Posts.
September 23, 2009 2:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Jolly Dude ! Going to share how you did this ? I'm commenting on a post that won't appear until tomorrow. One of us is a time traveler.
September 23, 2009 2:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
see above.
September 23, 2009 5:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
picked up bad date at update--fixed,thx.
September 23, 2009 4:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Any system RUN FOR PROFIT will have this sort of abuse.
Remeber the guy who was fired for STARVING his prisoners?
Add to the list: Iraq/Afganistan "contractors" and the so-called health care industry.
September 23, 2009 1:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
RUN FOR PROFIT
What the fuck is up with that, by the way.
I mean, we have some idea what levels of staffing and technology are minimally necessary safely to confine society's problem children; the only way to make a profit is to skimp.
September 23, 2009 7:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
In Arizona they treat humans the way they do they’re animals.
This woman dying in the summer heat in Arizona is not a recent event, it happens quite often, because of negligence.
http://www.medialine.com/medialineUBB/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=056166;p=
This same officer was fired and placed in jail for animal cruelty.
At least he went to Jail.
Another Officer killed an unarmed woman almost killing the baby in the back seat of the car she was driving, all because she had a bogus script.
So he pulls his motorcycle in front of her car as she’s leaving and then claiming she almost hit him, so he killed her.
Now this same officer is going to work at a detention facility.
http://www.newszapforums.com/forum26/93332.html
Arizona is a police state.
Before ex Governor Janet Napolitano, left to become Head of Homeland Security, she allowed hundreds of Photo enforcement Cameras to be installed, to bring in Revenue for the State, under the guise of Safety
The people of Arizona are nothing more than cash cows, treated as animals being readied for the slaughter.
The State has distinguished officials; Janet Napolitano, John McCain, Kyle, and Flake. Remember Renzi and the Attorney firings? That should tell you something about how they care about the people.
September 23, 2009 2:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Photo enforcement only 'shoots' pictures (not bullets) of people breaking the speed limit, like the Arizona State GOP executive director, Brett Mecum who was clocked at 109MPH in a 65MPH zone. In reducing the number of traffic fatalities where installed, the camera's have only aided tax collections by keeping people alive to pay them.
Reality check: Traffic enforcement is not comparable to locking a mentally ill person in a broiling hot box until they are dead.
September 23, 2009 3:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
No kidding. If you had any sense at all and you understood or comprehended that I was writing about the attitude of Law Enforcement in Arizona, of "Oh! How we must make the highways safe”, yet we allow people to die in the Arizona Sun.
There is definitely a bit of hypocrisy.
So come down of your horse of indignation. You, who would call someone’s death a broiling, should perform the reality check. How crass of you, are you that calloused?
Did it ever occur to you this woman was not some type of meat, except maybe in your twisted mind? Maybe you’re from Arizona and the attitude has rubbed off?
To those who know me, they would know I care for the loss of all souls, but they would also know I hate hypocrisy as much.
Evidently, your not a person who would look for the good in others, and maybe would ask for a clarification of the writers intent before starting shooting off their response, in an attempt to promote themselves as a person of feelings.
Now that’s a Reality Check
For your information, Highway accidents didn’t go down because of the cameras; they went down because of fewer drivers.
It's not about keeping you alive so you can pay taxes, it’s about fines and revenues to support a State, that cares less about it’s people, than it does cutting Taxes for the Republicans. Sad the woman, who died, couldn’t tell you that Arizona doesn’t care for its people. That’s why education is in shambles, the mental health system is overloaded and under- funded.
Arizona isn’t as interested you think about the motorist being kept alive to pay taxes, this State wants to eliminate taxes. In doing so their attitude is the people are a burden they don’t want to support.
Prisons understaffed and you wonder why prisoners die, but hey the highways are safe.
September 23, 2009 4:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Arizona is a police state
What is the deal with Arizona?
Maybe it's all the retirees...If so, one can look forward to the future with hope.
Soon they will "retire" from voting.
September 23, 2009 5:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
You are more than correct here Jolly. This is a tragedy of the first magnitude.
Systematic change is called for. You can fire and suspend some individuals. Fine.
BUT THIS IS TORTURE OF THE FIRST MAGNITUDE and demonstrates some issues regarding a system, not a few individuals.
September 23, 2009 4:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
THIS IS TORTURE
Indeed.
The real message of Abu Ghraib was the disturbing number of military guards who came straight out of our domestic penal system--the "techniques" were not exactly a mystery to them.
September 23, 2009 5:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
The woman had 1st and 2nd degree burns and a body core temperature of 108F. They left her out in the sun to broil.
September 23, 2009 5:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe you should find out if this is a practice specifically designed for women. Because it's my understanding that many, many, more men have been in boxes like that then women. And if I am not mistaken, your good old sheriff down there has an actual outdoor prison. It's covered, but they are kept outside for days, weeks, and even months.
And I have to say, being put in the Arizona sun for 4 hours might be harsh, but give me a break, worse things happen daily in our prison system. People die un-naturally all the time in prison.
I think you are reaching really hard to make this a story about discarding female prostitutes. What about the person that did 20 hours in the same area, what if that was a man, what if he was black ? You see, just because a woman dies does not mean these people were sexists, they might be horrible to all.
What is a really disgusting practice in female prisons is strapping them down as they give birth, sometimes with metal cuffs, just like cattle. That is definitely a sexist practice, this, not so much.
And believe it or not, there are people out there who spend the entire day working outside in 100+. Landscapers, roofers, even some city workers.
September 23, 2009 5:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
The full inventory:
Toxicology showed that she tested positive for several medications, including Benztropine, a medication for Parkinson disease, the antipsychotic medication Haloperidol, and valproic acid, a mood-stabilizing drug used to treat depression and epilepsy.
September 23, 2009 8:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
there are people out there who spend the entire day working outside
With psychotropics in their system and no access to water? I doubt it.
Monks fast voluntarily, does that mean we ought have no qualms if we underfeed prisoners?
I know a guy who used to stay up weeks at a stretch on meth--does that make the sleep deprivation attendant upon interrogation benign?
Context is everything.
September 23, 2009 8:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Local news concerning the Death of this poor woman dying in the heat
http://localsearch.azcentral.com/sp?catId=&aff=1100&searchkeyword=&searchcategory=*&azcHomeSearchButton=&keywords=perryville+prison+powell&address=&x=0&y=0
The New Governor Brewer can't get anything done. The State is facing 1 Billion dollar deficit.
Arizona just can't seem to prioritize it's spending.
The legislature here is Republican controlled, and they are just as mean spirited or more so than the National.
I can't think of any bacon, McCain, Kyle, or Flake has ever brought back to the State, and then they brag about it.
We have a lot of voter initiatives to be able to get anything done.
When the Voters voted to repeal the MaryJane laws for first time offenders, the legislature overrules the voters, and say's that's not what the people wanted.
Prisons overcrowded. Spending priorities screwed up and a budget deficit.
One could only hope the influx of new resident retirees will vote the Republican obstructionist out of office.
But a lot of people Love Sheriff Joe, and the courts must love him because he brings them a lot of work.
Overall Arizona News
http://localsearch.azcentral.com/sp?catId=&aff=1100&searchkeyword=&searchcategory=*&keywords=state+budget&address=
The weather is starting to cool off and for the next 7 months it will be great.
The reason retirees move here. Despite the Police state and the bitching, where else would we go? No snow, No mosquitoes, unless you go looking for them.
September 23, 2009 8:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
I didn't find anything about Arpaio is NYT piece, but he is an evil sumbitch, and is close with Napolitano, who refused to investigate him for years, then did a light one, and absolved him. She had Arpaio onstage with her when she announced her run for Governor. Wow,
http://americasvoiceonline.org/page/content/sheriff
(dirt on JOe, asking for investigaations)
September 23, 2009 9:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
She had Arpaio onstage with her when she announced her run for Governor. Wow,
I guess that must mean that Joe is just alright with Prez, cuz Janet N moved up...
September 24, 2009 12:10 AM | Reply | Permalink
Here's more about how we treat prisoners in this great land:
Unbelievable.
You mentioned upthread, jollyr, that the Interim ADC Director Charles Ryan pulled the plug on Marcia. That of course means Marcia was alive when she arrived at the hospital.
Do you also know that Ryan was was contracted by the DOJ for 4 years to help rebuild Iraqi prisons, including Abu Ghraib? He's also into chain gangs.
September 23, 2009 10:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Marcia was alive
There was, without doubt, an unseemly haste in making this decision, which, after all, is as effective when made tomorrow as it is today--what was the rush?
Had the guardian been allowed to make the decision, I suppose we might apprehend substantial medical costs to the State...
September 24, 2009 3:09 AM | Reply | Permalink