Last September, WF Price of The Spearhead wrote a post about a Seattle area man named Josh Powell, widely suspected of murdering his missing wife. Price’s complaint? Powell’s two boys had been removed from his custody after his father (with whom he and the boys were living) was charged with voyeurism and possessing child porn. Price excoriated the authorities for what he saw as an abuse of their powers, and concluded his piece by saying that “[t]yranny has arrived in the guise of protecting women and children.”
In the comments, there was a lot more talk about tyranny. Natalia, meanwhile, worried about the children:
The kids are already dealing with the pain of missing their mom, and now they are taken away from their dad. How can anyone believe that’s better for the children?
On Sunday, as you are probably well aware, Powell killed these children, and himself. During a supervised visit, authorities say, Powell locked himself and his kids in his house, incapacitated them by chopping their heads and necks with a hatchet, then set the house (primed with gasoline as an accelerant) ablaze.
The regulars on the Spearhead don’t seem much interested in talking about Powell any more. But of the few comments that have been made, several have been rather telling. Responding to a feminist commenting on his original post, Price wrote:
Typical for a feminist to see this as a triumph. Josh Powell was hounded for years up to this point. If he didn’t kill his wife, and there’s still no evidence he did, does the court bear some responsibility for the outcome here?
That’s right. The court is to blame for trying to protect the children from the man who later murdered them.
And not a word of sympathy from him for the murdered children.
Meanwhile, another Spearheader seemed to suggest that the main problem was that Powell had picked the wrong people to kill:
Notice the upvotes. And the lack of a response; the regulars were too busy making jokes about domestic violence and the evils of the upcoming Valentines — sorry, Vagina — Day.
EDITED TO ADD: Thanks to Kendra, Cloudiah, and Crumbelievable for pointing me to Price’s post and these comments. I should also note that there were a couple of comments from others at The Spearhead expressing sorrow for the murdered children. And to my knowledge no one in the MRM has hailed him as a hero, so that’s something, I guess.
EDITED TO ADD AGAIN:
Price digs his hole deeper. Responding to a critical comment by none other than Men’s Rights Activist Lieutenant, he writes, among other things:
If the cops knew he was capable of real violence, and they must have if they suspected him for murder, they bear some responsibility for provoking this.
So if the cops knew he was capable of real violence (which they clearly did) … they should have let him keep the kids? That he ultimately killed?
I’ve heard this argument before from MRAs. Essentially, if a man in a custody dispute threatens violence, or is thought to be violent, the courts should simply hand the kids over to him. So he won’t get mad. That’s the logic of an abuser, or at the very least of an enabler.
Only reason why they don’t blame the victims (mother and child) is because they know EVERYONE on the internet thinks of them as untrustworthy and dishonest, is all that is.
The know people are watching them now.
I think the worst thing about this for me is the attempt to blame the court for these murders. Never mind that, regardless of whether Powell was guilty of murdering his wife or not, the children were in a house with a man in possession of child pornography. You’d think they’d be happy these boys were being removed from a home with a potential abuser, and I’m sure they would be if it were a women with the porn.
Also, if the murders were in response to the court removing the children, as that line of rationalization would suggest, well it seems pretty damn clear that someone who would murder their children rather than not have physical custody at all times has no place being around children in the first place. But of course, it’s never a man’s fault if he kills someone in the MRM, he must have been driven to it. If Powell were a woman, they’d be screaming at the courts for even allowing visitation.
“The abuser world view is reflected in the way the MRAs speak. They are never responsible for their actions. Some external force, the woman, the police, the courts, the child, the job, is responsible for their actions. Never themselves.” I hear that.
@ Luaralot- It’s because (as we were discussing in the other thread) these assholes don’t really see children as PEOPLE, but rather as status symbols to increase the perception of the father as a family man, or virile, or whatever else. They don’t actually care about vulnerable children, but rather about men’s reputations.
… and you’re all right. You did NOT want to see that blamey bullshit from Nephrite.
See, Powell’s problem was that he couldn’t explain that the filming/photographing was in case he was ever falsely accused of something.
@Pecunium Obv, he was worried about being falsely accused of leaving the toilet seat up.
After my last post I just realized it’s only a matter of time until some MRA posts about Andrea Yates or battered wives in here to try and prove that feminists rationalize murders by women all the time.
I hope that’s later rather than sooner.
I also read a comment thread in which they were also blaming the social worker for not doing enough, and the court for allowing visitation. This was under a newspaper article so it was just a general public comment thread. But seriously? It’s either the judge’s fault for taking the kids away, or the judge’s fault for allowing visitation at all (not to mention the social worker who did not superhero her way into the house to save them, apparently). When exactly is it the murderer’s fault for choosing to kill his family?
@Ami, wait, so that guy is saying that Nice Guys get opportunities to sexually assault women — and then they don’t?? I had better find me a Nice Guy, all of my relationships have been with violent criminals!
/a million sarcasms
@Viscaria: Not to mention that all of these Nice Guys apparently spend the entire time interacting with a woman thinking about all the ways they could have assaulted her, but didn’t.
@Lauralot that was what Nephrite was trying to do :
>>After my last post I just realized it’s only a matter of time until some MRA posts about Andrea Yates or battered wives in here to try and prove that feminists rationalize murders by women all the time.
Too late for that. That’s why Neph went bye bye.
@Lauralot- yeah, I’m pretty sure if you spend all your time thinking about what a great opportunity a particular moment is to sexually assault someone, you’re not that nice of a person. Even if you never sexually assault anyone.
@Ami: I can definitely see a lot of MRAs fitting the “Nice Guy” mold.
No loss. He couldn’t keep his position straight in individual sentences, viz: I don’t read feminist sites, because all partisans lie about their positions, but if you want to know what MRAs believe, you need to go to MRA site, and read what they say.
Only reason why they don’t blame the victims (mother and child) is because they know EVERYONE on the internet thinks of them as untrustworthy and dishonest, is all that is.
I disagree. The mother isn’t blamed because she’s not around to blame. And children are never blamed because they are seen as having no agency whatsoever.
@M Dubz also if you read the whole thing (and know Nice Guys™ in general), they’re not actually friends with the girls : Like it sounds like what it is is just that they PRETEND to be friends with a girl they want to sleep with, even if they have absolutely nothing in common (apparently they hate parties, she loves parties, they love video games, she hates them, and they hate listening to her talk) and hope if they hang around her long enough they can get sex, or trick her into it (notice a lot of these are about when she’s most vulnerable, when she’s broken up, when she’s upset, when she’s drunk, etc, and they’re angry that those “opportunities” didn’t lead to sex and how UNFAIR THIS IS) -_- If you don’t want to go to a party. Don’t. Find a girl who likes playing Grand Theft Auto!
The other thing I wonder, is as much as they whine about how the girl just cares about XYZ guy and not them, do they have female friends (or even male friends) who are kinda annoyed at them that that’s what THEY do? Like it sounds like their entire life gets put on hold because they’re obsessed with trying to passive aggressively get in this girls pants, and I bet they whine to their friends all the time about “I HATED THAT PARTY I JUST WENT CUZ OF HER” and don’t realize that they’re ignoring all their real friends too -_-
@Dracula I think you’re right. They didn’t blame the mother because she’s dead, and if they focus too much on that they’d worry that they’re drawing links between her death and the father. If she were alive, then they would intuit that she MUST have tried to take his children and it’d be her fault. :
It’s like when the hair salon was shot up, and the MRAs all KNEW that she had full custody and David had to point out that “um he had 4 days, she had 3, he was going for full custody”.
So that’s what his post was? I am so glad I missed it.
I attended a superbowl party and we ALL chattered during the game (isn’t that normal when you’re with friends?), but at halftime we were all entranced by the puppybowl. Ah, puppies.
@ Ami- Wait, Nice GuysTM have real friends? I thought they spent all their time in a funk of misogyny and being uninteresting. It has been my experience that when a Nice GuyTM latches onto one’s friend circle, everyone just sort of ignores them in hopes that they will go away.
Also, thank God for being kinda fat and kinda bitchy. It seems that most Nice GuysTM leave me alone. Probably because I mock them mercilessly.
I only know one in real life, and he was a loner. He had a massive superiority complex and was constantly undercutting everyone at work and burning bridges (both on a personal and professional level) until he eventually got fired.
@M Dubz my experience has been that they DO, but they take them for granted…
Sure Nice Guys have friends. Lots of people with screwed up attitudes about women have friends.