This. Was. Not. A. Suicide.
mood: 
enraged
enragedmusic: Outlandish - Eyes Never Dry
But this? This is was something so horrific I'm posting it multiple places because people need to know so they can do something--call or write their Congressperson, sign petitions, something.
PFC LaVena Johnson Was Raped, Beaten, Set On Fire And Worse - Army Calls It Suicide.
I would warn about the details in the article and this post, but no. Read them anyway, and I'm not cutting because there's been enough of a covering-up of this mess. It should--and if you have any kind of soul it will--make you want to be sick. And angry.
This nineteen-year-old, 5-foot, 100 lb woman was beaten--her nose broken and teeth knocked back, had her elbow distended, bite marks on her upper torso, was raped--lacerations in the genital areas, lye was poured into her vagina to destroy evidence, and she was dragged off--there was a bloody trail where she was dragged out from her tent--and put in a tent that was set on fire, and the military labeled it a suicide. They even glued the white service gloves onto her hands so that they couldn't be taken off to try to cover up the burns on her hands. She was killed by a shot to the head, probably from a handgun, and the military said she shot herself in the head--using her non-dominant hand--with an M-16 that realistically would have blown half her head off, not left a bullet hole.
This only came out because her father is a doctor. He got suspicious and started questioning, and was able to get information and photos of her body from the time she was found thanks to FOIA and a LOT of work and determination--as he told the army coroner, "Someone murdered my daughter, and you picked the wrong person to fuck with."
For three years, her family has been trying to get the case reopened, and nothing. It's only been in the last few days that the mainstream blogosphere has really noticed this--the feminist blogs (feministing, jezebel) and Black blogs (electronic village) have been talking about it for a few months, but after a New Zealand newspaper--New Zealand, for fuck's sake; what is wrong with the American press?! This was an American soldier--did a story about it, the mainstream blogs (crooksandliars, dailykos) are starting to pick it up. But there's been nothing from the mainstream press.
A suicide. The miliary is saying this was a suicide. It started out a murder investigation and then it was halted and labeled a suicide.
She was nineteen years old.
Her father had to examine her corpse when the military handed it over to them and document the injuries.
And he's said that since he went public, the family of ten "suicides" have come to him saying they think something similar happened to their daughters.
Is There an Army Cover Up of Rape and Murder of Women Soldiers?
The rape stats for women in the military is 1 in 3. 1 in 3. And that's just for women who report it. Around 41% of women in the military have said they were sexually assaulted in some way.
There was an oversight hearing yesterday on sexual assault in the military. And during this hearing? The Pentagon's top official on sexual abuse didn't go because the doctor was ordered not to despite a subpoena.
What the hell. Just...no. NO.
An interview with the family - This was painful to watch, it really was. Her mother looked ready to cry the whole time her father was talking about LaVena's injuries.
LaVena's family's website, trying to get the case reopened.
Colorofchange's online petition to have the case reopened.
More rage-filling was some of the comments I was reading on some of the sites I've seen detailing it--blowhards were spouting off that is was because of things like this that women never should have been allowed in the military and this is why the military needs to go back to being all-male.
Instead of taking all the woman out (god, how talibanistic is that mess?) how about we start telling start telling the men, "Hey, no RAPING PEOPLE."
ARGH.
See my italics of RAGE.
(Also, for lack of any better way to respond, I wrote fic about this.)
And you know there was a case where three women serving in the Middle East died of dehydration. Why? Because even though it was 50C/120F degrees out, they stopped drinking water in the afternoons. And why'd they do that? Because they were afraid to go out to the latrines at night because they feared being dragged off and raped by their fellow soldiers, because the machines running nearby were so loud that someone screaming for help wouldn't be heard.
And for someone--for more than one person--to have that kind of fear, there has to be a reason for it.
What's even more suspicious about what happened to LaVena? Two days after her "suicide" a pretty high-ranking guy at the base was mysteriously reassigned back to the US. In the middle of a war, it's mighty tough to get sent home before your deployment ends.
This whole thing is just disgusting.
You know, we have a saying here, "la divisa non si processa", that means "you can/will/must not put the uniform on trial". If the guilty part wears a uniform, whatever it is, they will always, always go free, because the uniform can't have spots on it. And the saddest thing of all, I can't even get mad anymore about it, because I've seen it happen too many times. I'm just sad and disgusted.
And gah, that saying...what's sad is yeah, I can see it. This is the same--in the US we have this idea that people in the military are held to a higher standard of how they're supposed to conduct themselves, lest they dishonor the uniform. Since that uniform can't be sullied...yeah. Easier to cover it up.
An advice. If you've ever wanted to visit Italy? You might want to get around to it quickly, because I'm afraid there won't be much left to visit in two or three years.
There needs to be another Deluge, there really does. That, or God needs to hit the reset button or sometrhing. We need a do-over.
And luckily, I've been to Italy already, so that's covered, at least.