Special “Justice” fo “Special” People and The Case of Bresha Meadows

Just yesterday, a white man attacked a black man, dragged him from his car and shot him dead…And was released from jail without charges.

Bresha Meadows is a 14 year old girl, who after years of domestic abuse and beatings by her father, shot him dead. She was locked up immediately, and 6 months later is still incarcerated awaiting trial.

Once more “justice” in America depends a lot more on the color of the purported criminal…Than the commission of a crime.

Bresha Meadows Isn’t a Murderer. She’s a Hero.

After years of suffering abuse at the hands of her father, a 14-year-old girl picked up a gun and put an end to it all. Now, she faces a new monster: the criminal justice system.

Bresha Meadows knows what monsters looked like. 

She saw one daily, his presence unavoidable as he tormented her family through the shadows of the night and even in the broad daylight. She watched helplessly as he brutalized her mother, threatening and beating his children, hoping against hope that the looming horrors would end.

Jonathan Meadows, she says, repeatedly threatened to kill them all.

But when the then 14-year-old Ohio girl picked up a gun and shot her father in the head last July 28, ending a years-long campaign of terror, she woke to a new monster—one that was supposed to protect her: the criminal justice system.    

Bresha was arrested and held in a Warren County juvenile detention center, charged with aggravated murder. Warren County prosecutors fought to push to try her case into the adult system where she would face a possible life sentence. The district attorney reversed course Thursday, but the question remains: Should she face charges at all?

Like Bresha, I’ve met my share of monsters. There was my father who pushed my mother’s face through a plate glass window and, later, her live-in boyfriend forced me into a bathtub filled with scalding hot water. I was five years old at the time, but I can still see the redness and the yellow blisters that swelled on my pale bony legs. I can still hear my screams roaring in my ears. My then 14-year-old brother Donnie kicked down the bathroom door and pulled me from the tub. My sister Lori Ann, who was 12, called my mother at work.

Mama shot Tony in the leg that night, leaving him with a permanent limp. Years later, she brandished her pistol again after he threatened to kill her and dump her body in the Mississippi River.

She was arrested on a gun possession charge. Nearly four decades later, my mother thought the case was closed until it was discovered in a background check for a concealed carry license.

I will never forget the night that Tony beat her savagely, upending our living room furniture as she struggled to get away. My brother Christopher, best friend Debbie and I locked ourselves in a bedroom, stuffing metal and wooden toys into pillow cases and barricading the door. We were children– eight and nine years old– preparing to defend ourselves with anything we could get our hands on.

I ran away from home at least twice that year, trying to escape the madness. Debbie helped me pack an overnight bag with clothes, a few toiletries, my favorite dolls and a sandwich she took from her mother’s kitchen. But, at eight years old, I had barely enough money—between my allowance and hers– to catch a Bi-State bus down St. Charles Rock Road in St. Ann, Missouri and cross into the city limits of St. Louis to get to my Aunt Doris Jean’s house.

Tony circled the block, looking for me. I hid out in the county library, clutching the bus schedule, until the next one came by. I watched him turn the corner, then I hurried aboard, dropped two quarters into the slot and slunk down into the nearest seat. I didn’t feel safe until the bus reached the stop near Martin Luther King Drive and Taylor Avenue. I walked the last block, lugging my suitcase down an unpaved alleyway. 

Nobody was home when I got to my auntie’s run-down, walk-up apartment, except her feral old cat Samantha and a mutt named Lady. I waited on the porch with the dog until my Uncle Willie Byrd stumbled in drunk after nightfall.

That was 1976. 

Our physical wounds have healed, but the emotional scars remain. I was told that Anthony Gino Delgado died in prison after he was convicted on capital murder charges. My brother Donnie said Tony was in jail because he decapitated a man with the sickle.

Like my mother, I would later face down my own abuser. I repeatedly tried to leave and was stabbed in the back the day I finally got out. We were lucky.

“Approximately 75 percent of women who are killed by their batterers are murdered when they attempt to leave or after they have left an abusive relationship,”researchers found, and “women are 70 percent more likely to be killed in the two weeks after leaving than at any other time during the relationship,” experts say.

One in three women are victims of domestic violence, according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, and the presence of a gun in the household increases the likelihood by 500 percent. “One in 15 children are exposed to intimate partner violence each year, and 90 percent of these children are eyewitnesses to this violence.”

Children are not only witnesses, but are often victimized—as both Bresha and I were– by the same abuser. The impacts are life-long.  We are “six times more likely to commit suicide,” according to Brian F. Martin, who founded the nonprofit advocacy group Children of Domestic Violence.

Despite the facts of the Meadows case and the body of research that clearly spells out the dangers of domestic violence, prosecutors chose to charge Bresha in her father’s death. The announcement that her case will be tried by a juvenile judge was welcome news. However, if convicted, Bresha, who is the niece of a Cleveland police officer, can still be incarcerated until her 21^stbirthday.

“I am obviously thrilled with the decision by the prosecutor to keep Bresha’s case in the juvenile court,” defense attorney Ian Friedman said. “This doesn’t change our position that this was a self-defense scenario and we will press on with our effort to get Bresha home with her family right away. Today is a great day.”

There is a national movement to free Bresha. “Over 100 domestic violence organizations have endorsed a call to drop the charges against her and grant her an immediate release,” according to Huffington Post. “A petition with the same request has over 24,000 signatures.” 

Before the shooting, Officer Martina Latessa said Bresha ran away from home and opened up about her father’s brutality. She reportedly told her aunt that her father had beaten her mother and “threatened to kill the entire family.” Bresha, she said, was “suicidal.”

“We didn’t know for months what was going to happen,” she said. “Now we know she will not spend the rest of her life in prison, no matter what.” 

That isn’t enough. The charges should be dropped altogether and the family should be given the resources necessary to rebuild their lives. The profound and traumatic impacts to Bresha, whose mother called her a “hero,” will be long lasting. By the time Bresha makes the next court appearance on January 20, she will have spent nearly six months behind bars.

That will be six months too long.

 

Dance With My Father

This is one of the most intelligent and creative programs I’ve heard of for the incarcerated. Daddy-Daughter Dance Day. A day when incarcerted Dads, and their daughters at home can dress up and come together for a little parental bonding. It doesn’t fix the fact that Dad’s irresponsible actions landed him in jail in the first place – but it does preserve a small bit of that “fatherhood” thing so sadly missing in our Country today. Check out the pics in the Article link below.

A father-daughter dance — in jail

The girls ages 6 to 16 sit in order of size in the drab lobby of the Richmond City Jail, their glittery shoes swinging back and forth.

“I don’t like it here,” says Jhaniyika Morman, 6, who covers her eyes, smudging her blue eye shadow and pointing toward the jail’s visitation booths, where inmates are separated from their visitors by thick glass.

“I’m nervous. I hope he recognizes me,” mumbles Alexis Atkins, 9, who has her blond hair curled into long ringlets and keeps zipping and unzipping her hot-pink purse.

Down the hall, through several gates and inside a communal cell with thick blue bars, 12 inmates change from their frayed one-piece jumpsuits into formal attire. They pass belts and shirts of various sizes back and forth between the tight rows of steel bunk beds.

“Anyone know how to do up this here tie?” asks a jittery looking Andre Morman, 42, who has been in and out of jail on drug charges numerous times.

Then the inmates line up, too. They walk down a long hallway and wait in silence to get a glimpse of the girls: their daughters.

For a few hours on this Saturday afternoon, the incarcerated fathers will be allowed to take part in an American tradition, the father-daughter dance. “A Dance of Their Own,” thought to be the only event of its kind in the country, will be in the jail’s small, windowless multipurpose room.

The event in Richmond is just one example of the alternative father-daughter dances springing up around the country amid growing concerns that traditional father-daughter dances are exclusionary. Their detractors say they are outdated, discriminatory and sexist and that they no longer reflect what American families look like. For starters, according to 2011 census data, more than half of all children in this country are raised by unmarried mothers.

 

Don’t Mess With Dad’s Girl – Dad Delivers and “Old Tyme” Spanking

Folks can complain all the want about “absentee dads” etc – but in the last few weeks some Dads have shown how far they are willing to go to protect their daughters.

A father in Lavaca Country Texas found his 5 year old daughter being raped by a scumbag, and delivered some “Texas Justice” with his fists. He is not being charged with the killing of the scumbag. This was not a case of vengeance, as the Dad caught the man in the act. No charges are being filed by Police for the beatdown and subsequent death of the perv.

Then there was the case in San Francisco, where Dad – with a little help from Mom, delivered some “.40 Caliber Justice” to a Pimp who was pimping their teenage Daughter. Both parents have been charged and bail has been set at $2 million. Seems to me that if the National Rifle Association (NRA) was really about self protection, instead of providing cover for racist whack-jobs they’d have paid the bail and given Mom and Dad a “Marksmanship Award”.

And then there is this case – caught on YouTube –

Now – I’d hardly call this “brutal” as the Video does. After all, as the father points out – it is a lot better than a full-on ass whipping!

Proving that in at least a few small corners of America, not yet polluted by right-wing sissified posturing, don’t mess with Dad’s Baby Girl.

 

Potato Salad Mayhem!

All this over not sharing some potato salad?

And after coming after Dad with a kitchen knife…

She really expected Dad to welcome her back home? “Here baby, have some salad…”

Karen Henry Arrested: Florida Woman Attacks Father For Not Sharing Potato Salad, Cops Say

One charge of aggravated assault, with a side of rage.

Police in Florida arrested a 45-year-old woman after she allegedly attacked her father for refusing to share his potato salad.

Officials say that Karen Henry, of Palm Bay, became enraged during the Oct. 22 incident, wielding a knife against her 80-year-old father and verbally abusing him, CBS Tampa reports.

“Karen became very angry that she could not have the potato salad and began throwing and breaking items,” a report obtained by The Daytona Beach News-Journal states. “[She] then grabbed a large kitchen knife and began threatening [her father] with it.”

Henry’s father, Hubert, defended himself with a chair before retreating to his bedroom for safety, according to reports.

Shortly after police arrested Henry, she began complaining of abdominal pains. Authorities allowed the suspect to be treated at Florida Hospital Flagler, only to catch her on the phone pleading with her father to drop the charges against her. As a result, police added an additional charge to Henry’s file: tampering with a witness.

Karen Henry is also charged with aggravated assault using a deadly weapon and is being held in Flagler County Inmate Facility without bail.

 

A Real Dad

This incident was captured on a security tape on a school bus in Florida, where a Father, outraged at bullying of his daughter, who has Cerebral Palsy goes ballistic –

Yeah – he was over the top…

But I can understand exactly where he is coming from.

Dad who stormed bus apologizes, cites daughter’s disability

A Florida father who stormed onto a school bus and threatened children because his 13-year-old disabled daughter had been bullied is apologizing for the way he handled the situation.

James Willie Jones said in a statement to The Associated Press on Monday that he is sorry for his “inappropriate use of language and for the way I handled the situation.” But he says his daughter suffers from cerebral palsy and he “could not stand by and helplessly watch her suffer.”

“As a dad, my No. 1 priority is providing for and protecting my children,” he said in a statement. “Since the school year started, my wife and I noticed that our daughter had become increasingly distraught about school and riding the school bus, but she wouldn’t tell us exactly why.

“As the involved parent of a child who suffers from cerebral palsy, it broke my heart. When I walked my daughter to the bus that morning, she broke down in tears and finally told me about the bullies who had tormented her on the school bus. She was afraid.

“In the heat of the moment, I wanted to confront the individuals who had bullied my daughter and the authority figure who failed to protect her. I sincerely apologize for my inappropriate use of language and for the way I handled the situation. As the protector of my daughter I could not stand by and helplessly watch her suffer.”

Jones plans to hold a news conference with his attorney 10 a.m. Tuesday to answer questions related to his arrest.

He was charged last week with disorderly conduct and disturbing a school function for the Sept. 3 incident in Sanford, just north of Orlando. He later posted $2,000 bail and was ordered to stay away from the driver and county school buses.

The girl had to be hospitalized because of stress from the confrontation, Jones’ attorney, Natalie Jackson, said last week. She said Jones told deputies he complained to Seminole County school administrators in the past but nothing had been done to help the girl.

School spokeswoman Regina Murray Klaers said in an e-mail that Jones did not express his concerns to school administrators. He did report an incident involving another girl, not his daughter, Klaers said. That incident was fully investigated, and appropriate action was taken, Klaers said.

Jones boarded the school bus because several boys were allegedly bullying his daughter, according to the sheriff’s office report. He told deputies the boys placed an open condom on his daughter’s head, smacked her on the back of her head, twisted her ear and shouted rude comments at her, the report said.

Video surveillance from the bus — which fueled fodder on national talk shows — displays Jones asking his daughter to point out the students accused of harassing her. Jones is heard on the video threatening those who bully his daughter, and he also threatens the bus driver.

Jones said in the statement that he plans to advocate and raise awareness against bullying.

“Bullying has become an epidemic in our country,” he said. “Even though some schools are adopting ‘zero tolerance’ anti-bullying policies, it hasn’t eliminated the problem. Parents need to work with their children to let them know this kind of behavior is unacceptable and we all need to be aware of what’s happening with our kids.

“I hope that there are lessons we can all learn from this situation. I know I have,” he added. “It is my prayer that your children, whether disabled or not, will never have to endure anything like what my daughter went through.”