There's a scary story over at CNN about a Texas judge who is seen in a video, beating his disabled daughter. You can read the full story here:
http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/02/justice/texas-video-beating/index.html?eref=mrss_igoogle_cnn
These stories are legion and what's astonishing is that there is a generalized failure to achieve more severe penalties for the abuse of people with disabilities. One could argue that civil rights abuses of all kinds fall into this sink hole of inaction, but I will argue that the provisional nature of the disabled body–a body still trapped in the tropes of Victorian isolation makes it fair game for abuse and for a secondary abuse which is of course cultural. The judge in question deserves a long prison sentence. He won't get this of course. Mark my words, this will be judged to be a private matter. I'll wager it.
SK
Planet of the Blind 