Hundreds Of Women Are Trying To Join A Sexual Harassment Lawsuit Against Cook County And Sheriff Tom

Chicago Sun-Times

More than 500 women ask to join sex harassment suit against Cook County Jail, Sheriff Tom Dart

"I’m blown away by their courage," said Marni Willenson, a civil rights lawyer, of the female correctional officers who signed their names a

Hundreds of women are trying to join a sexual harassment lawsuit against Cook County and Sheriff Tom Dart that alleges officials didn’t do enough to stop inmates from masturbating in front of the women, who worked at the jail.

Current and former Cook County correctional officers and other workers filed suit in 2017 in U.S. District Court. At a news conference Thursday, attorneys touted their success in getting 529 women to individually join in the suit after a petition to declare the suit a class action was rejected by a federal judge.

The women are identified in the lawsuit and shared some of their stories with the court — and at the news conference.

“I’m blown away by their courage,” said Marni Willenson, a civil rights lawyer.

In the four years since the suit was filed, both the women who were harassed said that neither Dart nor Cook County made the necessary changes to protect female workers at Cook County Jail.

“These women have provided critical services, medical care, security, counseling, have endured the worst forms of harassment, only to have the sheriff’s office and county turn their backs on them,” said Caryn Lederer, a lawyer representing the women.

Lederer said that many women had male supervisors and colleagues brush off female workers’ complaints.

“They’re laughed at, told it’s their fault, that they must get used to it or, ‘What do you expect, you work in a jail,’” Lederer said.

In one incident, five inmates ejaculated in front of Bonnie Parker, a retired Sheriff’s employee. Two of those inmates ejaculated on Parker’s uniform.

“Men showing their penises, ejaculating and cat-calling took me to a dark place at one time in my career,” said Parker, who worked at Cook County Jail for 28 years. “They should be stopped and disciplined so that it can become a deterrent for the next set of guys that want to do it.”

Like many others at the news conference, Parker spoke directly to Dart.

“If his wife, daughter or any female that he knew worked at that jail for 30 days endured this type of behavior, would he be more considerate in providing a safe work environment for them?” Parker said. “We are his employees, and he should be more concerned for our safety.”

A spokesman for Dart reiterated the office’s earlier statements about the suit Thursday, saying officials have taken multiple steps to prevent and deter detainees from harassing workers at the jail, including utilizing specialized jumpsuits for detainees, increasing disciplinary consequences, filing new criminal charges against offenders.

“The Sheriff’s Office works every day to prevent and deter those ordered into its custody from engaging in acts of violence or sexual misconduct toward staff and others and has done so long before this lawsuit was filed nearly four years ago,” the spokesman said. “The safety of all persons who enter the Jail is the highest priority for the Sheriff’s Office, and we will continue to defend our record on supporting our staff and aggressively addressing incidents of sexual misconduct by detained individuals.”

Cook County Judge Matthew Kennelly will decide Friday if these additional women will be added to the case. Then, Willenson anticipates Kennelly will hold “bellwether cases” — sample trials that provide a sense of what the future trials hold.

“If other facilities can control the behavior of their detainees, inmates or convicted prisoners, then the sheriff of Cook County can do the same thing,” said Willenson.

She anticipates five to 10 trials will be held this year.

Barbara Unseld, who has worked for 30 years at the jail, became emotional while recounting being masturbated in front of on one of many occasions.

“It’s hard to relive that moment,” said Unseld. “The conditions for the women in jail are unsafe. And unless this problem is rectified by the sheriff, we have women that are walking away from this job, walking away from their careers because they can’t take it.”

A separate lawsuit that made similar allegations filed by 534 public defenders and law clerks was settled for $14 million last year.

Why can’t a women’s march turn into a riot? Why can’t we force them to listen to us by burning their cities to the ground? The suffragettes did it, why can’t we?

What the actual fuck. She wasn’t even remotely transphobic, she just wanted to stay true to her beliefs and not expose her hair to the male SEX. The XY chromosome combo. She's not "misgendering" anyone. She didn’t use the "wrong" pronouns or anything like that. All she did was defend her personal belief based in her religion that she keep her hair covered in front of biological males. Funny how Islam is super woke to all the leftists until it conflicts with all their gender-bending philosophy and self-identifying trend.

Aaand everyone’s calling her transphobic

I love how North Dakota and Iowa have no green counties, but then Minnesota and Wisconsin are like 1/3 green not to mention Chicago.

Habitable zone

BTW, if you haven’t already, read this book. It’s all about the “mannosphere” (incels, pickup artists, MGTOW, etc.). The audiobook narration is also good if you prefer audiobooks.

Book description:

Imagine a world in which a vast network of incels and other misogynists are able to operate, virtually undetected. These extremists commit deliberate terrorist acts against women. Vulnerable teenage boys are groomed and radicalised.

You don't have to imagine that world. You already live in it. Perhaps you didn’t know, because we don’t like to talk about it. But it’s time we start.

In this urgent and groundbreaking book, Laura Bates, bestselling author and founder of The Everyday Sexism Project, goes undercover to expose vast misogynist networks and communities. It’s a deep dive into the worldwide extremism nobody talks about.

Interviews with former members of these groups and the people fighting against them gives unique insights on how this movement operates. Ideas are spread from the darkest corners of the internet – via trolls, media and celebrities – to schools, workplaces and the corridors of power, becoming a part of our collective consciousness.

Uncensored, and sometimes both shocking and terrifying – this is the uncomfortable truth about the world we live in. And what we must do to change it.

For only $20 you too can fuck Satan

TAKE A LOOK AT THIS CREAM. TAKE A GOOD LONG LOOK. 

MEMORIZE THE PACKAGING SO YOU MAKE SURE YOU NEVER BUY THIS CREAM FOR YOURSELF OR ANYONE YOU LOVE.

This post is about vaginas. My vagina in particular. I get yeast infections pretty regularly, and until recently I was able to afford to see a doctor who could prescribe me fluconazole.

Fluconazole, a drug also known by the brand name Diflucan, is a small pink pill. You take two pills a few days apart from each other to restore balance and harmony to your bountiful folds. I’ve never ever had a bad side effect from taking this pill.

Cut to November 2016. I’m a recent college grad without reliable health care coverage in the process of finding a job. And I’m dealing with a yeast infection. Before I moved out of state, my previous doctor told me about Miconazole. She said it was as effective as the pill and hallelujah, it’s over the counter! I decided to purchase the cream pictured above. This treatment only lasted 3 days, a convenient time frame for my schedule.

The application process was a little messy, and some of the cream came in contact with my vulva and labia. Within 5 minutes every piece of skin that had come in contact with the cream, excluding my hands, was on fire. I wanted to scream it was so painful. I began frantically searching for what I should do online. 

I found a whole forum of people on drugs.com who had experienced something similar. These comments saved me, and these were just on the first page. There were 33 pages total, the earliest dated July 2009.

I was writhing in pain at 2AM when I found this forum (which I found by searching “my vagina burn itch hurts after miconazole” on Google). As soon as I read these comments I threw the devil cream directly into the trash and jumped in the shower. I didn’t feel any actual relief until I reached in and scraped the cream out of me. I paid $17 plus tax on this bullshit, but I could have just as easily ripped up my money or paid someone to not hurt me. 

The moral of the story is that vaginal health care is is completely fucked up because we don’t have access to an over the counter cure for yeast infections that is safe for our bodies and also YOU SHOULD NEVER BUY THIS CREAM EVER.

Reblog to save a vagina.