When Love Is Not Enough
This post is a book review that I just wrote re: Missing Sarah, which is about one of the women in Vancouver who went missing and is believed to have been murdered by Robert Pickton. I am writing this here, not because I suspect any kind of wrongful conviction, but rather because of the sloppy and disinterested investigation by the Vancouver Police Department. Who cares about missing "hookers" and drug addicts? Likewise, David Milgaard was treated with derision since he was a long-haired hippie in the sixties (and a druggie, to boot.) There are systemic problems in our criminal justice system that start with the attitudes of the police. Nowhere is that better exemplified than in the book Missing Sarah.
As always, if you disagree with my views on drugs or prostitution, please feel free to comment. I welcome dissenting opinions. Sigridmac
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In Missing Sarah, Maggie de Vries writes a provocative and heartbreaking story about her sister, Sarah, who was one of 69 women who went missing from the Eastside of Vancouver in the 1990s. Shockingly, Sarah's DNA was discovered on Robert Pickton's farm, yet that evidence was not sufficient for the police to charge him with her murder.
A professional writer, Maggie goes back in time to give us a detailed portrait of Sarah’s earlier years. A child of mixed racial descent, Sarah was adopted into a Caucasian family; she was taunted at school and mocked for her ethnicity. Although the family adored Sarah and vice versa, this devotion was not enough to surpass the pain from the racist insults that Sarah received. She became a troubled teenager, feeling that she did not belong anywhere. Sarah began to run away, and eventually felt more comfortable in group homes and in her own low-rent apartment than she did with her family.
Maggie traces Sarah's journey into drugs and prostitution. She also analyzes different factors that have decreased the safety of sex trade work. According to Maggie, between 1960 and 1974, only one prostitute was the victim of a violent death in British Columbia. From 1975 to 1980, the number increased to a total of three women. It started rising in the 90s, resulting in 24 dead sex trade workers in B.C. before the maniacal actions of Robert Pickton.
This is an important book. Not only do we get to know Sarah de Vries as a person, rather than a faceless, drug addicted prostitute, but we also get a sense of how terribly wrong it is for our hypocritical society to push sex trade workers into the deepest and darkest corners of the city where they will inevitably be easy prey for perverts and malevolent men. Policymakers as well as the general public should take heed. Sex trade workers, who are often only teenagers, need our protection.
Missing Sarah makes a strong argument for the decriminalization of drugs since many prostitutes cannot leave the job because they need to work to feed their habit. It also advocates the legalization of the sex trade. I support both of these positions. All acts between consenting adults should be legal, especially when doing so gives sex trade workers a safe physical location. That way they don't have to solicit on corners and get into cars with strangers who may beat, rob, rape or kill them.
Robert Pickton is currently behind bars but there's a dangerous serial murderer stalking prostitutes in Edmonton. What are city officials there doing about it?
As always, if you disagree with my views on drugs or prostitution, please feel free to comment. I welcome dissenting opinions. Sigridmac
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In Missing Sarah, Maggie de Vries writes a provocative and heartbreaking story about her sister, Sarah, who was one of 69 women who went missing from the Eastside of Vancouver in the 1990s. Shockingly, Sarah's DNA was discovered on Robert Pickton's farm, yet that evidence was not sufficient for the police to charge him with her murder.
A professional writer, Maggie goes back in time to give us a detailed portrait of Sarah’s earlier years. A child of mixed racial descent, Sarah was adopted into a Caucasian family; she was taunted at school and mocked for her ethnicity. Although the family adored Sarah and vice versa, this devotion was not enough to surpass the pain from the racist insults that Sarah received. She became a troubled teenager, feeling that she did not belong anywhere. Sarah began to run away, and eventually felt more comfortable in group homes and in her own low-rent apartment than she did with her family.
Maggie traces Sarah's journey into drugs and prostitution. She also analyzes different factors that have decreased the safety of sex trade work. According to Maggie, between 1960 and 1974, only one prostitute was the victim of a violent death in British Columbia. From 1975 to 1980, the number increased to a total of three women. It started rising in the 90s, resulting in 24 dead sex trade workers in B.C. before the maniacal actions of Robert Pickton.
This is an important book. Not only do we get to know Sarah de Vries as a person, rather than a faceless, drug addicted prostitute, but we also get a sense of how terribly wrong it is for our hypocritical society to push sex trade workers into the deepest and darkest corners of the city where they will inevitably be easy prey for perverts and malevolent men. Policymakers as well as the general public should take heed. Sex trade workers, who are often only teenagers, need our protection.
Missing Sarah makes a strong argument for the decriminalization of drugs since many prostitutes cannot leave the job because they need to work to feed their habit. It also advocates the legalization of the sex trade. I support both of these positions. All acts between consenting adults should be legal, especially when doing so gives sex trade workers a safe physical location. That way they don't have to solicit on corners and get into cars with strangers who may beat, rob, rape or kill them.
Robert Pickton is currently behind bars but there's a dangerous serial murderer stalking prostitutes in Edmonton. What are city officials there doing about it?
posted by Sigrid Macdonald @ 6:22 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home