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During the week of April 18 to 24, communities throughout the nation will rally to honor and support victims of crime.
The aim of 2010 National Crime Victims’ Rights Week, themed “Crime Victims’ Rights: Fairness. Dignity. Respect,” is to reinforce the ideals that inspired the decades-long struggle of the victims’ rights movement and challenge all Americans to honor victims’ rights.
Only a few decades ago, unfairness, indignities and disrespect confronted many victims of crime. “Victims of Crime in America,” the 1984 report of the President’s Task Force on Victim of Crime, described a “hellish” justice system focused on offenders and indifferent to victims’ needs. It told of one victim that was disabled by a crime who cashed in his life insurance to pay for heat and food and a sexual assault victim who faced taunts and jeers from her attacker when she was forced to sit beside him in a courthouse hallway before the trial. Then she was excluded from the trial.
At that time, victims’ only “right” declared one expert, was to “remain silent” in the face of inequities.
In the 25 years since, the report was published, a grassroots movement began to combat such unfairness and launched decades of progress for victims of crime. As of 2010, every state has passed victims’ rights laws and 32 states have constitutional victims’ rights amendments. All states have victim compensation funds, and more than 10,000 victim assistance programs exist throughout the country. Such changes have made victims participants, rather than bystanders, in the criminal justice system.
In observance of National Crime Victims’ Rights Week, the Ottawa County Prosecutor’s Office Victim Assistance Program will sponsor a blood drive April 22 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Ottawa County Courthouse EOC. All donors will receive refreshments and be entered to win a gift basket. Donors must schedule an appointment by calling Beth Koch at 419-734-6900.
Throughout the week, bows will be placed around trees on the Courthouse lawn that have been planted in remembrance of Ottawa County crime victims.
In addition the Clothesline Project will be displayed April 23, from 9 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. in the Courthouse lobby, 315 Madison St., Port Clinton. The Clothesline Project is a visual display of t-shirts with written messages and illustrations that graphically demonstrate the impact of violence against crime victims. Survivors of violence, their families or friends design the shirts to educate and bear witness to victim’s courage to survive and heal, and to mourn those who have died as a result of violence.
The public is invited to attend the activities, view the display and design t-shirts to contribute to the project. The Clothesline Project will also be displayed at the “Take Back the Night March and Rally” that will be held April 30 from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. at the Port Clinton Performing Arts Center, 821 Jefferson St., Port Clinton.
T-shirts can be brought to the Courthouse lobby April 23, or to the march and rally April 30, 2010 during the event’s scheduled hours.
For more information, or to add a t-shirt to the project, call Carolyn Renwand at the Ottawa County Prosecutor’s Office at 419-734-6845; Corrine Creedan at the Family and Child Abuse Prevention Center at 419-734-3266; or Mary Kay Baumgartner at The Giving Tree at 419-734-2942.
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