{"id":63013,"date":"2017-05-04T07:00:33","date_gmt":"2017-05-04T12:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=63013"},"modified":"2019-05-07T07:26:59","modified_gmt":"2019-05-07T12:26:59","slug":"more-or-lesch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=63013","title":{"rendered":"More Or Lesch"},"content":{"rendered":"

First, the good news: \u00a0Rep. Mary Franson has introduced a bill that would expose\u00a0parents\u00a0<\/em>who subject their children to ritual genital mutilation to\u00a0felony\u00a0<\/em>charges and potential loss of custody. \u00a0It’s currently illegal for a doctor to\u00a0perform the procedure; if passed into law, Franson’s bill would spread the onus to the parents.<\/p>\n

This is a good thing – especially if you are remotely familiar with the procedure:<\/p>\n

Farhio Khalif of Minneapolis…described in horrific detail how she was forced as a little girl in Somalia to undergo a ritual mutilation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Farhio Khalif, with Rep. Franson. Photo courtesy Tim Pugmire at Minnesota Public Radio.<\/p><\/div>\n

“My legs were tied each side. My hands were tied each side. I was blindfolded, and the ritual took place and it was painful. It was so painful I think I died or maybe I passed away,” Khalif recalled. “I don’t know what happened. But I remember waking back up, and I see blood all over the place.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And awful as that sounds, that’s really only the half of it. \u00a0The law seems like a no-brainer, doesn’t it?<\/p>\n

[“No-brainer” joke referencing Rep. John Lesch of HD 66A deleted – if only that were the problem<\/em>]. \u00a0 Rep. \u00a0Lesch – representative from perhaps the least politically engaged district in the state, and a candidate for Attorney General – played for the cameras by…accusing Franson of playing for the cameras:<\/p>\n

Despite bipartisan support for the bill, some Democrats suggested that parents could already be prosecuted without a new law…Rep. John Lesch, DFL-St. Paul, raised concerns that only Republicans had signed on as co-authors of the bill. Lesch said criminal law bills have traditionally been bipartisan.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The current law, to which Lesch and Somali DFL representative Ilhan Omar\u00a0referred, makes abetting female circumcision a\u00a0gross misdemeanor<\/em> – like throwing a rock at a train. \u00a0Like, not really that much of a crime.<\/p>\n

Several Republicans on the committee criticized both Omar and Lesch for questioning the motives of their colleague.<\/p>\n

“This has absolutely nothing to do with the cameras in the room, with the headlines in the paper,” Franson said. “This is about saving children’s lives.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

With Lesch, and his bid for Mayor<\/del> State Senate<\/del> to go to Iraq<\/del> Attorney General, it’s always about the cameras.<\/p>\n

This needs to follow him through the AG race, assuming it actually gets to the starting gate.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First, the good news: \u00a0Rep. Mary Franson has introduced a bill that would expose\u00a0parents\u00a0who subject their children to ritual genital mutilation to\u00a0felony\u00a0charges and potential loss of custody. \u00a0It’s currently illegal for a doctor to\u00a0perform the procedure; if passed into law, Franson’s bill would spread the onus to the parents. This is a good thing – […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[364,320],"tags":[403],"class_list":["post-63013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-islam","category-mndfl","tag-ilhan-omar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=63013"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63017,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63013\/revisions\/63017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}