Now seeking transfer

Written by

Ophelia Benson

in

First, a news item from the Toronto Star August 21 [warning: graphic violence]:

Rhoderie Estrada went to sleep likely around 10 p.m. after folding laundry, watching Korean dramas and putting her three young daughters to bed in their two-storey East York home.

In the early hours of May 26, 2018, her husband came home to a nightmare — Estrada lying bloodied on their bed with head injuries too severe for him to perform CPR.

Now, after five days of deliberations, a jury has found Yostin Murillo and David Beak guilty of the first-degree murder and sexual assault of Estrada, a 41-year-old long-time dialysis nurse at St. Joseph’s hospital who adored — and was fiercely protective — of her children.

Fast forward to September 28:

One of a duo convicted of bludgeoning a woman to death after breaking and entering her home, robbing and raping her is now seeking transfer to a women’s prison. Fearing the inmate’s pattern of repeat violent criminality may be a barrier, transgender activists are protesting as discriminatory a clause in the prison policy that allows male convicts to be denied transfer to women’s prison if deemed a health or security risk.

Yes because obviously the tender feelings of a man who raped and beat a woman to death are far more important than the fears of women who will be forced to share prison space with him.

Also obviously he’s definitely sincere about Feeling Like A Woman Inside and not at all using the policy of putting men in women’s prisons if they say they are trans as a way to get away from other men and at vulnerable women.

Comments

3 responses to “Now seeking transfer”

  1. Holms Avatar
    Holms

    Fearing the inmate’s pattern of repeat violent criminality may be a barrier, transgender activists are protesting as discriminatory a clause in the prison policy that allows male convicts to be denied transfer to women’s prison if deemed a health or security risk.

    Do people forget what discrimination means? It means nothing more than choosing. There is unjustified choosing but there is also justified choosing. In this case, men are barred entry to women’s prison, because the prison is for women and not men. Obviously, that goes double for men with a history of violence against women.

    I wonder if they even realise that in some contexts, ‘discriminating’ can be a compliment.

  2. Your Name's not Bruce? Avatar
    Your Name’s not Bruce?

    Holy shit. Murillo is certainly a piece of work. From the first Star item:

    During the trial the jury heard Murillo has a long criminal record of break-and-enters and court order breaches, but were not told that, just two months before killing Estrada, Murillo was charged with hitting a woman in the head with a bar, allegedly knocking her out, and assaulting another woman and a security guard.

    The first woman, a stranger to Murillo, was at an intersection near Yonge-Dundas Square in downtown Toronto and allegedly tried to intervene when she saw Murillo assault his girlfriend. Murillo is accused of kicking the woman in the head, and she left. When he saw the woman again shortly after at a Pizza Pizza, he allegedly hit her in the head with a bar.

    Earlier that same day, March 18, 2018, Murillo is accused of hitting another woman in the face with his hand and hitting a security guard on the head with a wrench near College Park.

    The 10 charges for the three incidents, including aggravated assault and assault with a weapon, remain pending. Murillo was free on bail on those charges until his arrest for Estrada’s murder. He was also on probation for a previous bail breach at the time of the killing and has faced a deportation order to Costa Rica since 2015 due to previous convictions. He lost an appeal of his deportation order in 2019.

    This is who they’re siding with? Holy shit. Again. From the second Star piece:

    Jennifer Metcalfe, the Executive Director of Prisoners’ Legal Services, wants to see the security exception eliminated, lamenting: “Cisgender women do not have to show that they will not pose a safety risk to other women, even if their crimes involve violence against women.”

    Oblivious to the fact that the inherent strength advantage a male body confers is agreater threat to women who are inmates, and female staff, than any woman would represent.

    Refreshingly, the Star even offers some helpful translation for the unitiated:

    (‘Cisgender women’ is a term used by believers in gender identity to refer to the human females usually known as women).

  3. Your Name's not Bruce? Avatar
    Your Name’s not Bruce?

    Woops. Didn’t notice that the second link is not to a Toronto Star story, but to a post on “Women are Human.”

    So, not the Star giving the translation noted above. I thought it was too good (and snarkish) to be true.

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