cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/22334414
Summary
Two transgender women, Dahlia and Jess, were attacked at a Minneapolis rail station, with onlookers cheering their assailants instead of helping.
After confronting a man yelling transphobic slurs, the situation escalated into a violent assault involving four or five others, leaving both women unconscious.
Advocates attribute the rise in anti-trans violence to emboldened transphobia fueled by misinformation and political rhetoric, including Donald Trump’s anti-LGBTQ+ policies.
The local trans community is responding with solidarity rallies, self-defense classes, and firearm training to prepare for a potential increase in attacks.
Police are investigating, but no arrests have been made.
Counterpoint: get into a gunfight anywhere someone is trying to beat you to death and you have a gun
Fistfights exist everywhere but rampant gun violence does not. “Buy a gun to deal with that hypothetical problem” is terrible advice compared to, idk, deescalation training. Yeah if you’re already on the ground getting punched in the face it’s too late to deescalate but there were choices made before that. Buying a gun so you can shoot up a train station isn’t exactly the most beneficial way to deal with bigots as a society.
Or just, you know, walk away? Try to deescalate the situation maybe? Pulling out a gun and blasting away seems like the worst option here.
Yeah I’ll try that if I’m ever on the ground being beaten by five grown men… Walking away.
Obviously you de-escalate when the situation calls for de-escalation. In this case, it was probably a good idea to just ignore those guys from the get-go. But you know what? That’s implying getting assaulted was the victims’ fault.
All those women did was ask to not be spoken to the way they were, and the man’s response to that was a sucker punch. That’s not a situation you can de-escalate, he already assaulted her. Maybe it would have been wiser to run off and lawyer up. But quite frankly, I respect that she stood her ground and clocked him one back.
Those women were assaulted, and maybe I would have dealt with one jackass smacking me differently. But if I’m on the ground with five grown men beating me senseless, sorry not sorry but one of us is gonna be limping for the rest of their life after this and it’s not gonna be me.
That’s dismissing all the actions that led up to being beaten. Once the first punch is thrown, sure do whatever you can to defend yourself. Unless we get video of the incident, we probably won’t know for sure what happened. But at least according to the article the victims “confronted” their harassers. I ride the MSP light rail everyday. Been harassed by, mostly mentally ill or drug addicted people, dozens of times. It sucks, but every time I keep my mouth shut and I walk away. One guy did try to punch me, but he missed and I was long gone before he had another chance. Don’t “confront” these psychos if you’re not ready for a fight.
More victim blaming. You’re disgusting.
Besides that, not everyone’s gonna live just like you. Though you say we may not know for sure what happened, you assume that they straight-up started a fight with five guys because they did anything at all, which is wrong because it’s not what you would do. For all you claim to know the “confrontation” was them just saying “Hey, don’t call us that!” but you openly insist that they brought that brutality on themselves.
What a great way to make a better world, just sit down and shut up unless someone’s calling out a problem, at which point they’re the problem.
Aren’t you victim blaming as well, at least by your definition? They could have defended themselves if only they had a gun is putting the blame on them. I don’t really think either of you are victim blaming but at least be consistent.
The assailants are to blame, period. But that does not mean that the victims could not have avoided this. Acknowledging that is not the same as saying it was their fault and they are to blame. It is acknowledging their agency as people being assaulted (first verbally, then physically) and acknowledging that their options go beyond doing nothing, being assaulted, and buying and carrying a lethal weapon with them everywhere, much less shooting in a public building.
I’m just going by what the article says. If we find something different happened, I’d be willing to change my stance.