Via CNN:
LondonCNN —
A suspect wanted in connection with the triple killings of the wife and two daughters of a BBC sport commentator was found by British police Wednesday following a manhunt.
The search for Kyle Clifford, 26, began on Tuesday evening when police were called to a house in Bushey, Hertfordshire, where they found three seriously injured women.
Carol Hunt, 61, wife of BBC horse racing commentator John Hunt, and their daughters, Hannah Hunt, 28, and Louise Hunt, 25, later died from their wounds, according to statements Wednesday from police and Britain’s public broadcaster.
Details are few. The victims were reportedly killed by a crossbow. The report says the victims likely knew the killer, but there’s nothing on the motive. The alleged killer, Kyle Clifford, is reportedly in hospital in serious condition and has not yet spoken to Police. He served for several years in the British Army, but there are no details of what that might have entailed.
Here’s the part I found especially troubling:
A woman is killed by a man every three days in the United Kingdom and one in four women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, Reem Alsalem, said earlier this year.
“Entrenched patriarchy at almost every level of society, combined with a rise in misogyny that permeates the physical and online world, is denying thousands of women and girls across the UK the right to live in safety, free from fear and violence,” Alsalem said in February.
I have to wonder what the rate would be if the United Kingdom was a gun-crazy as the U.S. This development shows how far gun culture seeks to insinuate itself everywhere.
According to this website, the U.S. has a roughly equivalent femicide rate, nearly 3 a day as of 2020. (The pandemic saw a surge in violence which is now reportedly subsiding.) A 2023 U.N. report indicates women were still seeing an increase despite an overall downward trend. (There’s a note that getting accurate recording of murders to measure this still has reporting issues.)
This statement from the U.N. Report suggest the recent flurry of news stories about women being more worried about encountering a man than a bear in the woods ignores a more salient point.
Fifty-five per cent (48,800) of all female homicides are committed by family members or intimate partners, underscoring the disturbing reality that home is far from a safe haven for women and girls. This means that, on average, more than 133 women or girls were killed every day by someone in their own home. In contrast, 12 per cent of homicides against males are perpetrated in the home.
Moreover, the true scale of femicide may be much higher, as information on gender-related motivations is insufficient in roughly four out of ten female homicides.
“The alarming number of femicides is a stark reminder that humanity is still grappling with deep-rooted inequalities and violence against women and girls”, said Ghada Waly, Executive Director of UNODC. “Each life lost is a call to action—a plea to urgently address structural inequalities, to improve criminal justice responses, so that no woman or girl fears for her life because of her gender. Governments must invest in institutions that are more inclusive and well-equipped to end impunity, strengthen prevention, and help victims, from frontline responders to the judiciary, to end the violence before it is too late.”
It’s worth remembering that the 2024 election involves one party that has an ajudicated rapist and sexual predator for its candidate. They represent a theocratic misogynist patriarchal movement that is systematically stripping away rights from women, and targeting LGBTQ and trans individuals. They are using apocalyptic rhetoric to describe America as awash in violence, setting the stage to justify greater violence on their part to further their agenda.
For women (and everyone not a traditional white male), voting as though your life depends on it is not a joke. If the media assassination campaign against President Biden succeeds and Vice President Kamala Harris ends up leading the ticket, it’s only going to become worse.