CeCe McDonald didn’t ask to be attacked, but she was. Some vicious assholes decided a transsexual woman of color was fair game for abuse. They assaulted her, they harmed her, and chased her down when she tried to flee. She had a pair of scissors in her purse. She took them out to ward off her attackers. One of them impaled himself on them, and died, and apparently self-defense and stand your ground don’t apply to transsexual women, because she’s now facing prison time for daring to live.
This is wrong on more levels than I can count.
Our society is tough enough on women lately. Misogynistic assclowns with barbaric notions of godly morality would like to see women reduced once again to the status of chattel, and are doing their level best to ensure that reproductive rights are taken away as a prelude to locking women away in their homes, where they can be kept as breeding stock for manly men of faith. And that’s bad enough. I certainly don’t want that life. But it looks like a cakewalk compared to what transsexual women face. Too many people, including those sworn to serve and protect and administer justice blindly, see them as disposable defects.
I want you to look at CeCe’s face. Look at her. There is a human being with hopes and dreams and love and laughter, who has been through plenty of tough times, and yet managed a brilliant smile. And because a group of men decided she was something less than human, and attacked her, and discovered they hadn’t chosen a completely helpless victim but one who fought for her life when cornered, she’s now being shipped off to prison. A men’s prison, mind you. How well do you think a transsexual woman will do there?
People who defend themselves from assault, who did their best to get away but couldn’t run far enough or fast enough and ended up cornered with no way out, people who chose not to become victims but to defend their lives, shouldn’t have to go to prison, where they’re going to be repeatedly assaulted and possibly killed, just because our justice system is horribly broken.
Sign the petition asking for her pardon. Write the governor who has it within his power to set her free. Support CeCe.
Let’s give back the life they tried to take.
The county attorney says he charged her with murder because she had a weapon (scissors) and therefore had a duty to retreat. Do you think the Republican legislators who passed a “stand your ground” bill in Minnesota this year (it was vetoed by the governor) will point to CeCe’s case when they try again next year?
There’s no duty to retreat when there’s no way to retreat from a group of people who are attacking you.
I cannot comprehend the idea that she was supposed to let them hurt and/or kill her. I cannot comprehend the idea that they’ll put HER in a men’s prison. WTF is wrong with people?
As a self-defense rights advocate (alt. pronunciation, “Gun Nut”, SEE ALSO: “Texan”) reading about this kind of shit sets my blood boiling. I’ve signed the petition, forwarded this to a few other people that will sign it, and if I was a resident of Minnesota the governor would be receiving an e-mail from me informing him that I would do everything within my power to get him thrown out of office if he didn’t fix this.
“Do you think the Republican legislators who passed a “stand your ground” bill in Minnesota this year (it was vetoed by the governor) will point to CeCe’s case when they try again next year?”
If they had any sense, they would, but for some reason I have my doubts about this being brought up.
For the record, those same legislators have also put a marriage restriction amendment to the Minnesota Constitution on the ballot this fall.
I doubt they will be pointing to CeCe’s case in defense of Stand Your Ground.
This is an outrage. She deserves emotional support after having to go through that experience, not to be punished for defending her life.
It sounds like my instincts were correct. That said, if they wished to employ some extremely cynical reasoning they could push that case as an example to get more D votes on their side in case of another veto. But they’re probably not bright enough to think of that.
If they had any sense, they would, but for some reason I have my doubts about this being brought up.
Well, considering that even in states with “stand your ground”/”kill at will” laws, they only seem to apply to white cis men…they might have to face charges of false advertising if they suggested that a “stand your ground/summary-execution” law would have helped CeCe.