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PA NOW PAC Endorsements

Pennsylvahnia NOW PAC and National NOW PAC have posted their list of endorsed candidates for the upcoming Primary Election to be held on Tuesday, April 22, 2008. Please remember to vote, and take the list of endorsed candidates with you to the polls.

PA NOW Remembered Our Past and Builds for the Future

Pennsylvania NOW held its 35th Anniversary celebration convention on Friday through Sunday, October 12-14, 2007.  Over 100 people attended the three-day convention. Peg Pennepacker, a consultant and expert on Title IX access for girls in middle and high schools in Pennsylvania, spoke about on Title IX’s history in Pennsylvania and the need for data collection on athletic programs in the junior and senior high schools.  Eleanor Smeal, Executive Director of the Feminist Majority and the first President of PA NOW spoke on the history of NOW’s founding in Pennsylvania and where we go from here (see more convention highlights).

PA NOW Demands Zero-Tolerance Ordinance and Policy Towards Police Perpetrated Domestic Violence

BELLEFONTE, PA, October 30, 2007:  Pennsylvania NOW, Inc. continues to be concerned about policing and domestic violence in Pittsburgh. We are calling for immediate action by both the Mayor and City Council to institute a new ordinance and policies surrounding hiring, promotion, and retention of police personnel.

Pennsylvania NOW is calling upon Mayor Ravenstahl and Police Chief Nate Harper to institute a zero-tolerance policy towards police-perpetrated domestic violence in deed as well as in word.  We demand that the mayor match his words from July with action, by immediately instituting a full zero-tolerance policy for all police officers involved in domestic violence situations, including developing policies that exclude abusive officers and potential officers from hiring, promotion and retention.  We also call upon the Mayor to immediately reinstitute gender- and racially-balanced hiring of Pittsburgh police. 

At the Pennsylvania NOW Convention held in Pittsburgh on October 13, Pennsylvania NOW, Inc. held a workshop on policing and domestic violence and subsequently unanimously passed a resolution calling for immediate action on this issue.  Subsequent to our Convention, women’s groups – including NOW -- met with Mayor Ravenstahl and Chief Harper on Monday, October 29 to determine what policies they were proposing to deal with this issue.

Unfortunately, their suggested policy does NOT have the enforcement of law and could be changed with little if any oversight.  It also has no role for the public, no role for the voter-created Citizen Police Review Board, and has nothing in it to prevent another situation in which officers with histories of domestic violence are rewarded with promotions. 

Therefore, Pennsylvania NOW is continuing to call upon Pittsburgh City Council to review and pass the policing and domestic violence ordinance proposed by Council President Doug Shields with the amendments proposed by Councilman Bill Peduto that would 1) add language that recognizes the danger of child abuse and domestic violence against all members of one’s family, not just an intimate partner, 2) require the City to maintain personnel records of Police Bureau employees for ten years post termination, 3) require an officer who is the subject of a Protection From Abuse (PFA) proceeding in any jurisdiction to immediately notify his/her supervisor, 4) require that any officer that is the subject of a PFA or criminal domestic violence investigation immediately surrender their primary service weapon, and stipulate that he/she be ineligible for promotion during the investigation; 5) prohibit the admission of anyone with a PFA from being admitted to the training academy, and 6) require that all investigations of domestic abuse involving police officers be completed by the Civilian Police Review Board.

Previous Article from June 27, 2007:  Pennsylvania NOW, Inc., the state-level organization of the National Organization for Women is calling upon Mayor Revenstahl, Police Chief Harper, and the Pittsburgh City Council to rescind the promotions of three officers with domestic violence allegations who were among four officers promoted within the ranks of the department despite their record of violence against women.  We have sent a letter to Doug Shields, President of City Council with this demand and have offered some policy change recommendations. (Go to full article.)