Saturday, September 29, 2012 -- A SUNY Brockport
student was found beaten to death in her dorm room in McLean Hall by campus police at about 3 a.m. after her mother, concerned
about unanswered phone calls, asked them to check on her welfare. Brockport Chief Communications Officer David Mihalyov said
only that the death was under suspicious circumstances, but news sources report that the victim suffered extensive upper body
trauma.
Her boyfriend, 21-year-old Clayton Whittemore , was arrested by Monroe County Sheriff's Deputies at a Thruway rest stop in Dewitt at about 4 a.m., a few hours after the
attack. He's been arraigned before Justice Robert Connors in Sweden Town Court and charged with 2nd degree murder Whittemore,
represented by Public Defender Julie Cianca of Monroe County, pleaded not guilty, although the felony complaint stated he
admitted to killing the victim between 1 and 2:30 Saturday morning.
Judge Connors said he didn't have proper authority to set bail, instead remanding Whittemore to the custody of the Monroe
County Sheriff’s Office until the preliminary hearing, set for 1 p.m. Thursday at Town Court.
Whittemore was charged with disorderly conduct and public intoxication in January 2011 in Brevard County, Florida, but has an otherwise
clean record and appears to have been an exemplary student and star athlete. In his junior and senior years in high school,
he was named Section III's Division II East Player of the Year, NYS Division II Player of the Year in his senior year, and
was selected as Mohawk Valley Player of the Year by the Observer-Dispatch, helping the New Hartford Spartans win NYS Public
High School Athletic Association Division II championships two years in a row. In addition to those honors, he ran track and
cross country. Utica College confirmed he is still listed as a student there, and was on the dean's list in accounting in
fall 2011.
College of Brockport students and faculty, alumni, and area residents of this small, close-knit community are shocked and
saddened by the news of the student's tragic death. A candlelight vigil was held outside the victim's dorm, McLean Hall, as
word spread of the tragedy.
More information about the victim and exact cause of death will be made public after the medical examiner's determination
is released, but it's known that McLean Hall is a freshman dorm. It's also believed that Whittemore and the victim were students
together at New Hartford High School. SUNY Brockport officials have set up counseling services for students and faculty in
Hazen Hall, and an information hotline for parents at (585) 734-3925.
Brockport officials say this is the first time they've ever had a murder on campus. Violent
crime is relatively rare in the village of Brockport and in the town of Sweden. Most infamously, on November 27, 1989, the
body of Elizabeth Gibson was found on Redman Road in Brockport, the 9th victim of serial killer Arthur Shawcross, but she was picked up in nearby Rochester.
Brockport is a small college town west of Rochester New York. While nearby Rochester is populated
by nearly 211,000, Brockport's last census in 2011 counted less than 8500 people. Rochester's violent crime rate is 1 out
of 94, higher than NYC's (1 in 259). Brockport's violent crime rate is 1 in 522, which is why this violent murder is such a shock to the campus and community.
Domestic violence and rape on college campuses is a serious problem, but not as likely to be
perpetrated by a stranger as someone known by the victim. According to 2007 statistics from the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, more than 13% of college women report having been stalked and more
than 50% of violent crime victims on campus were beaten or killed by their current or former boyfriends or girlfriends. More
than 2 out of 10 college students reported having experienced dating violence by a current partner, and more than 3 out of
10 experienced dating violence by a previous partner.
January 15, 2004 MADRID (Reuters) - A Spanish court sentenced an
imam to 15 months in prison Wednesday for writing a book instructing husbands how to beat their wives without leaving bruises.
Self-Defense Training Prepares Women for Combat on the Streets
The good news: According to the National Crime Victimization Survey,
the crime rate nationwide has hit a 30-year low. The bad news: Attempted rape is up. Realistically, females may have to learn
to kick ass if they want a fighting chance.
Woman Believes Beating was Attempt to Kill Unborn Child
August 12, 2003 -- Oklahoma
City police are looking into whether the father of an unborn child is responsible for beating and robbing his expectant ex-girlfriend.
The 19-year-old woman says she thought she was meeting her ex-boyfriend
at a parking lot on south Rockwell late Friday night. Instead, she was greeted by a masked gunman who took her purse and ordered
her on the ground. He then kicked her repeatedly in the stomach. She managed to get away and call police. When they returned
to the scene, they found the victim's ex-boyfriend and arrested him for public intoxication.
Police also arrested a man who drove up to the scene. Inside his car police
found the victim's purse, cell phone, and a mask in his car. According to a report, that man told police the victim's ex-boyfriend
set the whole thing up because she wouldn't abort the baby.
The woman, who did not want to be identified, said, "I don't understand
how somebody that can be that sick to just sit there and kick somebody and keep kicking them to try to make them have a miscarriage
because your friend asked you to."
That suspect also told police it was another man who actually carried out
the attack. The ex-boyfriend has not been arrested on any charges related to the beating.
The victim was checked out at the hospital and was told by doctors that
her unborn child was not injured. -- KFOR.com
French Actress Dies after Beating by Boyfriend
August 2, 2003 -- Marie Trintignant, 41, the French actress who allegedly was beaten into a coma this week by her rock star boyfriend while they were in Lithuania,
died Aug. 1 in a clinic in Neuilly, France.
A clinic neurosurgeon attributed her death to swelling of the brain.
Miss Trintignant had been hospitalized in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius,
on Sunday after her boyfriend, 39-year-old Bertrand Cantat, allegedly beat her at the hotel where they were staying with her
mother and one of her sons.
Cantat, lead singer of France's most popular rock band, Noir Desir (Black
Desire), denies beating the actress, and no charges have been filed.
Cantat has been ordered detained in Lithuania on "suspicion of causing
bodily injury." He was transferred yesterday from his cell to the prison's hospital wing because of concern for his mental
health, authorities said. It was unclear whether Cantat was informed of Miss Trintignant's death.
The actress, who had four children, was in a coma when she arrived at the
hospital and twice underwent emergency surgery to ease pressure on her brain caused by cerebral hemorrhaging.
Marie Trintignant hailed from one of French cinema's best-known film families
and enjoyed a successful movie and stage career, appearing in 30 movies. -- Excerpted from the Washington Post
Beaten Women
08 August 2003 -- It's
one of those taboos you try hard to hide in the familial or national dirty laundry basket. So it is, alas! with conjugal violence
which is too often part of what is unspoken of in private life, secrets like those of the bedroom which are no one else's
business.
Worse still, it is not always taken seriously. After all, people say, it's
nothing but an argument that went wrong. And sometimes, we even kid around about it, coarsely, between friends, or at a show,
where a slap is like a good joke.
Marie Trintignant's martyrdom reminds us, if it were necessary, that this
sordid behavior is only too common-in one household out of ten - according to the inquiry ordered in 2000 by Lionel Jospin's
State Secretary for Women's Rights, Nicole Péry, whose conclusions were published by Le Monde.
Bertrand Cantat is a well-known artist; he has invested in important causes
and had a positive "big brother" image. An additional proof that conjugal violence is not the prerogative of the underprivileged,
the unemployed, the openly violent or alcoholics; that it may be equally a fact among "good people."
According to the inquiry, more women are beaten who come from the management/executive
level (8.7%) than among those who are blue-collar workers, ordinary employees, and shopkeepers.
Otherwise, how can we explain that women are insulted, assaulted, threatened
with death, killed, in one household out of ten? How do we explain that men, even educated men, continue to surrender to compulsions
that come from another time, when women were supposed to be submissive? -- Excerpts: read the rest of the op-ed (from
LeMonde) as translated in TruthOut
MYTH: Violence is only an isolated
event -- there isn't much of it happening. REALITY: One out of every 15 relationships
are currently experiencing the sort of violence that will send the victim to the hospital.
MYTH: Domestic violence
only happens to poor people or minorities. REALITY: Abuse can happen in any household,
regardless of race, economic background or educational level.
MYTH: The victim "asks for it" and makes the partner violent by "getting in their face."
REALITY: Every relationship has arguments and stress, but most people don't hit others when they get angry -- an abuser
deals with stress poorly.
MYTH: The victim actually enjoys
the attention, "gets off" on the violence, or likes being a "perpetual victim." REALITY:
Victims do not want to be hit. The abuser's violence is their own responsibility.
MYTH: The
abuser is a sick or crazy monster, angry all the time. REALITY: An abuser can be
passive, a "nice person," generous to others and sensitive. Anyone could be an abuser.
MYTH: Alcohol or a bad marriage
is the cause of violence. REALITY: Most abusers hit whether drunk or sober. However,
alcohol/substance abuse can impair judgment and self-control.
US Domestic Violence Statistics:
1,247 women and 440 men were killed by an intimate partner
in 2000. Intimate partner violence made up 20% of all nonfatal violent crime experienced by women in 2001. - US Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics, "Intimate Partner Violence,
1993-2001" Source: US Department of Justice
Police were more likely to respond within 5 minutes
if the offender was a stranger than if an offender was known to the female victim. - Ronet Bachman Ph.D., US Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics, "Violence Against Women: A National
Crime Victimization Survey Report," January 1994, p. 9
90% of all family violence defendants are never prosecuted,
and one-third of the cases that would be considered felonies if committed by strangers are filed as misdemeanors.
- News from US Senator Barbara Boxer, September 2, 1993
If all occurring domestic violence were reported to the
police by women, one-third of the incidents would be classified as felony rapes, robberies, or aggravated assaults and the
remaining two-thirds would be classified as simple assaults. -
National Institute of Justice, US Department of Justice, 1990 Source: General Facts About Domestic Violence
Join forces with other ThirdAgers to stop the violence and keep homes
safe from abuse. Share your story, find a support buddy, and find a new beginning with help from friends here.
