About this series Five separate fatal shootings of mentally ill people by Maine police in 2011 prompted the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram to examine law enforcement’s use of deadly force. Since 1990, police have fired on 101 people, many of them mentally ill, and in every case the state attorney general ruled that the … More Deadly Force: Police and the Mentally Ill
Veteran’s Day Ceremony 2012 Sponsored by Maine Veterans Art Project VA Maine Healthcare System, Augusta, Maine
November 9, 2012 I am struggling to find a place to begin. Do I tell you all the nitty gritty details to persuade you that I am telling you the truth, do I just simply state what happened and assume that I will be believed, or do I tell you the story in a way … More A Place to Begin By Jennifer Norris, USAF, Ret
Military provides inadequate care for injuries suffered during sexual assaults Some women in the military are still receiving inadequate care for sexual assault, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report published Tuesday found. The report found that “not all first responders had completed the required training,” even after a 2005 Department of Defense directive mandated “a comprehensive policy … More Military provides inadequate care for injuries suffered during sexual assaults
Helping Survivors of Military Sexual Trauma, The Boston Globe (2012) Air Force Sexual Abuse Trial Gets Underway, NBC Nightly News (2012) Preventing Rapes in the Military, Andrea Mitchell Reports, MSNBC (2012) Sexual Assault in the US Military, Minnesota Public Radio (2012) Lackland Sex Scandal Continues to Roil Air Force, Houston Chronicle, Texas (2012) Don’t Suffer … More Jennifer Norris, Veteran, Military Crime Historian & Policy Analyst, Military Justice for All (Media)
The Uncounted Every day, 22 veterans commit suicide. That number is sadly familiar. It has become a symbol of the cost of war that extends beyond the battlefield. But no one is tracking war’s impact on another group: military spouses, siblings and parents. Their suicides go uncounted. The dozens of military family members I interviewed over the … More The Uncounted (CNN Special on Caregiver & Family Suicide)
As I am gaining strength mentally, I am working on getting my body in the here and now as well. Thankfully because of my service dog, I can get over the paralyzing feeling of anxiety and get the heck up on out of my house. I look forward to having an excuse to leave the … More It’s All About the Little Things When You Have PTSD
Uniform Betrayal: Rape in the Military
Now That Women Are Cleared For Combat, How About A Rape-Free Workplace? January 24, 2013—the day Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Martin Dempsey signed a memorandum allowing women to serve in combat for the first time in American military history—may one day be looked as a milestone for gender equality … More Now That Women Are Cleared For Combat, How About A Rape-Free Workplace?
Jennifer S. Norris 