As an anarchist, I often hear questions about how, exactly, we would stay safe in a world full of rapists and murderers without the state’s protective monopoly over violence.

So I often have to remind people that not only does the state often decline to protect people facing harm…

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/mar/05/queensland-police-kelly-wilkinson-turned-away-murder-inquest-ntwnfb#:~:text=Kelly%20Wilkinson%20was%20turned%20away,2021%2C%20an%20inquest%20has%20heard.

Police told Kelly Wilkinson to ‘cool off’ and give estranged husband ‘a break’ days before he burned her to death, inquest hears

Wilkinson was turned away by police while seeking help four days before she was murdered, Queensland coroner’s court told

The Guardian

…but also explicitly punishes people who do try to defend themselves from abusers:

https://www.propublica.org/article/oklahoma-survivors-act-domestic-violence

The Victims Who Fought Back

An Oklahoma law was supposed to help reduce the sentences of women who killed their abusers. Why are nearly all of them still in prison?

ProPublica
Iowa teen who killed her rapist ordered to pay $150,000 to man's family

An Iowa court sentenced a teenage victim of sex trafficking to five years probation and ordered her to pay $150,000 to her abuser’s family. The case is underscoring a serious issue of justice where hundreds of victims of sexual abuse and trafficking have faced similar legal consequences. Human trafficking survivor and criminal justice reform advocate Cyntoia Brown-Long joins Amna Nawaz to discuss.

PBS News
@FknHannu @HeavenlyPossum
Good grief, appalling