Everything You Need to Know About the GOPs Opposition to Protecting Native American Women From Abuse

[redqueen]

Please contact your Senators about VAWA, urge them to support S.1925.

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/12/11/1316461/gop-vawa-native-american-women/?mobile=wp


As the last window of opportunity to pass a fully-inclusive Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) Reauthorization comes close to shutting in the final days of the 112th Congress, many are wondering why Republican House leadership, particularly Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), are so opposed to the provisions protecting Native American women on tribal reservations. Other Republican leaders —including Reps. Darrell Issa (R-CA), John Kline (R-MN), Mike Simpson (R-ID), Tom Cole (R-OK), and Patrick McHenry (R-NC) —have proposed a reasonable compromise that protects Native women, but it puts them at odds with the Majority Leader.

With the Issa compromise on the table and backed by several House Committee chairs, what are Republicans like Cantor still so concerned about that they’re willing to hold up the landmark law that funds services, strengthens law enforcement for domestic violence, and increases accountability for offenders?

Here’s everything you need to know about the GOP’s opposition to new protections for Native women on tribal lands:

1) Non-Native men will continue to receive a jurisdictional free pass for abusing Native women:

In response to the epidemic rates of domestic violence against Native women on reservations, the Department of Justice issued a legislative proposal that would restore Tribes’ ability to prosecute misdemeanor crimes of domestic and dating violence committed by non-Natives against Native women. This proposal also requires that the non-Native offender either live or work on the reservation and be in an existing relationship with the victim. DOJ statistics show that 3 out of 5 Native women had been assaulted by their intimate partners and 56 percent of American Indian women have non-Indian husbands.

...

[G_j]

1. K&R

[DollarBillHines]

2. I wonder what their motive is.

Costs of enforcement?

Maintaining a tradition?

I just don't get it.

[2naSalit]

3. They have to have someone they can openly abuse with impunity.

[Tsiyu]

4. There is absolutely NO reason to stall this portion of VAWA

It's not as if we are sending "real Americans" into some foreign country to be lost forever.

The Senate version of this tribal policy offers very clear protections for suspects, competely in keeping with the Constitutional demands for due process and the right to counsel.

( Issa proposed going even further: having an "out" to remove a case to federal court if a defendant's rights are violated by a tribal court. )

We cannot continue to allow Native women to be victimized due to lack of jurisdiction for their law enforcement on tribal land. Rape and assault cases need to be investigated and adjudicated in the communities where these crimes occur, not by disinterested parties hundreds of miles away, not shuffled away and hidden because nobody cares to take the time or resources to prosecute.

K&R

[Tsiyu]

5. I know it's fun to fight with one another when

you have nowhere for the excess anger,

but here's a cause you can all get behind, methinks.



Kick this puppy instead of each other!



( uh-oh, not a puppy. Don't say puppy. )




Kick this important thread for Native women, please.


There is plenty to be angry about and lots of work to do.






This is the end of the Emergency Tsiyu Nag Sesson.

I return you to your regularly scheduled DUing.