In order to understand and put in the proper context this sordidly un-American circus-style brouhaha in beautiful San Francisco, one must go into the roles that the visible players, the ones in the background, the authorities and the local media have played in what The New America Media likened to a 'Shakesperian drama'. also, it is necessary to delve a bit on what has transpired in our city's body-politic over the last few years.
At first glimpse, it seems like a run-of-the-mill domestic violence (DV) story of an overblown domestic incident involving prominent people in 'political-correct' San Francisco; but, as the wise saying goes, that "Nothing really is what it seems to be"
What follows is part one of a narrative-analysis of this case:
Part I: Ivory Madison's betrayal.
"You have to get yourself behind someone before you can stab them in the back"
Narrative:
On or around New Year 2012, the Venezuelan-born newly elected Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi's wife, Eliana Lopez, talked to what she considered her friend, Ivory Madison, about an ongoing argument with her husband Ross regarding their child custody (Theo) And her plans to visit her native Venezuela to share her motherhood bliss with her family, to which her husband was opposed to out of concern for the safety of Theo, and Eliana as well due to his many years of service to the people of San Francisco as a SFDA investigator, then as a district Supervisor and now as the new Sheriff of San Francisco and that in considering their background and status, it could possibly make them a likely desirable target for kidnapping.
Eliana confided in her 'friend' and neighbor Ivory, that during this episode - on the afternoon of December 31 - of their ongoing argument on this issue, her husband Ross had grabbed her upper arm causing a bruise. Ivory, who billed herself on her website bio as "Trained as an attorney. Madison was Editor in Chief of her Law Review, interned at the California Supreme Court, and served as a Law Fellow at Americans United for the Separation of Church and State" , offered/suggested taking video to use in possible future divorce proceedings. Eliana finally acceded after Ivory stated her bona fides of her legal-related background, Eliana placed her trust on Ivory's status to take video under the premise that it'd be kept 'private/confidential' (Ivory never disclosed to Eliana that she, Ivory, never passed the California Bar Exam and, thus, was not a licensed attorney, hence, no attorney-client privilege).
During the next four days, it is known that Ivory called former Chronicle Editor Phil Bronstein, who in an interview said Madison had asked him about getting contact information for former SF Mayor Art Agnos, retired Sheriff Mike Hennessey and former Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin (all Mirkarimi allies who Lopez thought(?) might be able to help resolve the situation.). It is unknown, because Ivory has not been asked about it, if she called anyone else in relation to this matter and whom did she call, or talk to.
On the fourth day, Ivory called the police. Upon seeing Eliana returning, she approached her and said: (Paraphrasing) 'You are going to kill me, I called the police, they are coming here and you have to talk to them'
Ivory Madison's role analyses:
The first thing before I could draw any conclusions, I needed to put myself in Ivory's circumstances and positions in her actions in order to make a comparison and a preliminary determination on what her role was in what I know are some of the basic rules on how to, as a third person and in this case, 'a friend', trained as an attorney, with law experience as an intern at CSC, deal with a DV event once aware of it.
As a lay person in legal matters, upon hearing such an story from a friend, what comes to mind, due to experience acquired in such cases as a community activist is the question of, what are the victim's wishes on it?
I'm aware of cases where one spouse calls the police, it is found out that the other spouse, or a relative who has immigration 'issues', lack of legal resources and the other types like in where the victim and the children may be in need of shelter for fear of their security of that of their children from physical or legal reprisals. There are so many possible major repercussions that once the police is involved are put into motion.
The next question is if I/we can help on anything, such as putting them in contact with organizations who are funded and staffed to specifically deal with such cases, including providing often necessary material resources, legal advice/representation or even shelter.
More questions, recapping Ivory's role, character and preliminary conclusions:
- As a twenty nine years old professional married woman, has she been aware of cases of DV or abuse amongst her relatives, friends or acquaintances? And if so, what action(s), if any, did she take and why?
- During her training as a lawyer, did she heard or know about this type of criminal cases and how are these usually handled?
- Her adventures, according to an interview of her, have also included episodes as a New Orleans restaurateur, a radical feminist politico. In the latter, any knowledge of DV cases or abuse acquired? Specially considering her as a radical feminist politico?
- As the author of 'Huntress: Year One #1', during her research and writing of it, was there any references to DV or abuse that she heard of? She wrote in her story "As men often do," says the Huntress, "he silenced me with my own fear." Did she applied this tenet to Eliana's situation?
- Irrelevant as it may seem, married to attorney Abraham Mertens, who graduated from Rutgers University with honors, majoring in political science and history, worked at the Harvard Civil Rights Program and is currently the VP and General Counsel of her online retail book store of which she is the founder and CEO. Also for consideration, is the fact of their listing of somewhere between 200 and 300 causes they support, of which one could assume that the CEO and the VP/General Counsel of her online business, they had at least some conversation(s) on the merits of these causes/issues, on why support them, and yet, she learned nothing of what to do or not do in cases of DV and the whys these norms exist?
- Why did Ivory wait four days before calling the police? What transpired or changed from the moment Eliana told her about the incident?
- What were Ivory's real intentions when she made multiple calls to former Chronicle Editor Phil Bronstein, and possibly other well known people, prior to calling the police? Was she 'floating/shopping' the story around as many think it is what she was really doing and it just happens that it does also make a good cover story to her behavior?
If we were to take former Chronicle Editor Phil Bronstein's words
in an interview as the truth in regards to the accusation -- with grave offense taken by the Madisons, getting a public apology from Sheriff Mirkarimi as part of the plea bargain with SFDA George Gacon. Also included in her husband's opinion piece was a
call for Sheriff Mirkarimi'sresignation -- that Ivory was involved in a political conspiracy campaign to oust Sheriff Mirkarimi,
"I don't know that it's helpful or not helpful to either side," Bronstein said of his potential testimony.
"I know the Ivory part did not involve a vast conspiracy." Taking the previous as a fact and assuming she is not trying to take the people of San Francisco for fools, then, we'd have to seek other reasons as to why Ivory Madison acted outside of a DV norm that would be also safely assumed she has been aware of and, considering her training, legal activities, legal/social affiliations and political beliefs, we are left with the possibility that she is either: a) An on-purpose ignoramus or, b) a bumbling and fumbling alter ego personification of her wannabe comic-book-like heroine or, c) a senseless, thoughtless and uncaring idiot who caused great drama, emotional, psychological grave distress and financial harm to a young family that, albeit during a very difficult time, were trying to resolve their family issues themselves, and ended up being separated by the force of law, suffered loss of income, in other words, making an unfavorable family crisis worse via an unwanted, unrequested, and at that time, unwarranted intervention.
It is virtually impossible to picture her as the victim she is trying so hard to portray herself to be; she took the initiative to insert herself into another woman's marital life problems without respecting or even considering the real victims' (Eliana and Theo) feelings, desires, and for all of the above, the freedom to act as it was Eliana's right to do. Condescendingly and arrogantly, Ivory choose to act for the one most involved, the victim, her 'girlfriend', who herself is a very strong and very intelligent immigrant woman trying to keep her family together and get ahead; as it is considered to be every person's right to do in these United States of America.
For all I know of a woman's world in relation to a girlfriends' suffering, needs and wishes, we do not act or behave as Ivory has unless one is one of the following: Thoughtless, senseless, uncaring, ignoramus, idiot, stupid or all of the above or, if one has an ulterior motive, like in having something to gain from it.
No, Ivory Madison is not a victim. Au contraire, she is victimizing the victims by adding immensely more pain and suffering that the ones Sheriff Mirkarimi allegedly caused, instead, her role appears to be that of a villain and a traitor in this sordid San Francisco story of political opportunism.
And so it is not left unsaid, the gargantuan chutzpa of her attorney husband, Abraham Mertens, coming to the aid of the 'little woman'. The disrespect he shows for his wife who is big girl now and who thinks she knows best what she is doing. Furthermore, as the feminist that I consider myself to be, I find his action of writing an opinion piece defending her and demanding an apology for the temerity of calling her on the mess she created, highly offensive, due to her being a radical feminist politico does make his action paternalist in the extreme, all the way into following in the finest patriarchal male tradition and culture.
Now Ivory has 'ammended' her story and a media outlet, so far, has already slanted the news by giving her full credibility. The ABC's local KGO-7 video and the accompanying post by Alan Wang's heading is: "Neighbor contradicts Mirkarimi's version of fight" And it occurs to me that it'd be more accurate to characterize Ivory's attempt to now portray Ross as a bad father and to pile more dirt on the Mirkarimis' as "Neighbor changes her version of Mirkarimi's fight"
Observations and afterthoughts:
Most striking is the perception of what could be a genuine ignorance on how to proceed when confronted with a DV situation, as Ivory has.
The course of action taken by anti DV organizations such as Casa de La Madres, which is staffed by women who are supposedly well trained in this subject matter and who have the responsibility to educate the public on how to proceed in cases such as the one we are in the middle of, in addition to just advocating, demonstrating and raising funds from Sheriff Mirkarimi's political rivals to put up billboards and issue public statements in the media that are inflammatory to an already inflammed public opinion, and thus, damaging to the cause of fair treatment and justice for the victims and for the ones being targeted by the authorities, up to and including in a court of law.
SFCA 2012© Under Creative Commons Attribution license (Permission to reprint allowed)
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To get updates on this issue, more info, social media, or how to get involved, if that is anyone's wish: Friends of Ross Mirkarimi - To attend/support reinstatement of Ross, the next Ethics Commission hearing on Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi charges of official misconduct is on Tuesday, June 19, 2012. 5 pm, room 263, City Hall San Francisco
To examine some local MSM coverage: SF Guardian, SF Weekly, SF Examiner, SF Chronicle. ABC-7 News
Grateful credit for the SF Bloggers exposing corruption, shenanigans speaking Truth to Power and, fortunately for me, providing valuable information barely published, if any, in the MSM.
Among them: Larr Bush @ City Report, Luke Thomas @ Fog City Journal, Rob Anderson @ District 5, sfmike @ Civic Center, and many others that for space consideration are not included, TKs!!! :-)