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Deborah Jeane Palfrey-DC Madam, Commits Suicide
Ms. Palfrey, another victim of gender based injustice and selective prosecution,hanged herself at her mother's house in Florida. This is an example of how in this type of cases the justice system prefers to prosecute women service providers than their powerful and influential clients.
There is great contrast between Ms. Palfrey's life terrible ending and that of one of her clients, Republican Senator for Louisiana, David Vitter. Mr. Vitter is still in office, probably planning his reelection campaign, and during the scandal was publicly supported by his wife and has continued to appear as a "family values" man in Louisiana. We voters need to send a message to those politicians that with their actions are the embodiment of hypocrisy. We need to make it clear that we want fair enforcement of the laws.
It is very sad to see any human getting to the point in which she/he decides that there is no point in continuing to live, that this world is too unfair and oppressive. In this case, and according to the victim's notes, she thought that the prosecution decided to throw all its power against her because she was poor, weak and a woman.
Finally, if this woman was in such state of depression and desperation, where were the psychologists, social workers, pretrial services officers and the like that they totally missed recommending some type of treatment for this woman? The system failed.
- Gabriela McCall-Delgado's blog
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I don't know, Gabriela.
I don't know, Gabriela. While I agree there needs to be harder prosecution of the receiver of the services, and it is a tragedy that Ms. Palfrey took her life, I find problem finding alot of sympathy aside from that tragedy. She was a pimp--she was exploiting other women, not being exploited. Also, from the articles I read, she gave very little sign of being suicidal, even to her friends. She even mocked an associate for committing suicide a few weeks previously.
I'm sad that she's dead, and I'm sad that other people weren't convicted, but I'm not sad that she was.
Dan Klein
Communications Intern
Young People For
People For the American Way Foundation
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Its a societal thing...
Daniel-
First off, I do agree that she was exploiting women for profit, and that in and of itself is a huge problem. But we really have to look at the larger issue- the acceptance of our society to label men who pay for sex as "misguided" or "troubled" while the women providing these services are labeled as "immoral" or "whores."
Throughout this entire case the slant of the media is that these rings are dirty and foul while the men participating in them simply got "caught up" and made a bad decision.
In the case of Sen. Vitter- he is able to say that he made a very personal mistake and thats it. Seriously? Engaging in the degradation of women-including your wife- while breaking the law is a personal mistake?
And I also love it how the "moral values" politicians that often are caught up in these scandals.
Truly- it is all about labels. The so called "DC madam" was
ruined financially and personally and even though she deserved to be in jail, why aren't we holding the clients accountable as well?
Prostitution, like any other business, is motivated by supply and demand. Its not just a bunch of slutty girls who like handing over their bodies every night for a couple hundred bucks.
We are supposed to be the leaders of the world. Yet- this case speaks of our more global apathy to human trafficking, sexual slavery, etc. We have a long history of casting aside minorities, and although people might not want to believe it, women are still second class citizens in the United States and around the world.
We need to start sending a clear message to both men and women that the buying and selling of sex is punishable- and high ranking officials can't get away with a press conference, a supportive wife, and a sorrowful demeanor.
Also- in regards to the "shock" of her suicide, no less than three magazines have reported that she said she would rather die than go to jail. She also told her book collaborator that she would kill herself before going to jail.- So while her suicide may not have been preventable, there were people publicly who were aware of the problem
Much Love
Beverly