It’s horrifying that she’s jailed for having been attacked. What the fuck is wrong with you, Arizona?
Thanks for posting this, I hope more people hear about this story and Epona’s able to raise the $500k for bail and more to get a good defense team
Also, to put that bail amount in perspective - Andrew Lester (the guy who shot Ralph Yarl in the head) only had to post $200k.
And Trump’s was $200k as well. Apparently existing while trans is worse than trying to kill democracy.
Or a treasonous “billionaire” who still needed a bail bondsman.
I don’t care if you don’t like guns. Arm up, learn to shoot, and protect yourselves out there. One political side has been stockpiling for decades (it’s even part of their culture) while the other side is willingly disarming themselves.
Curious how that would help here?
She got arrested for being the victim. If she shoots her attacker do you think the cops wouldn’t have still arrested her?
Unless you meant protect ourselves from the cops, but running gun battles with the cops isn’t going to help anyone.
The presence of a firearm itself may have been enough to make them think twice. I mean, do you normally try to assault someone who’s visibly carrying?
You can get arrested for threatening someone with a firearm too. It wouldn’t have helped.
Get assaulted, raped, possibly killed? Or deal with the arrest and after math of having defended yourself from such. I know which one I’d choose.
I’m sorry, but I hate this argument… because it’s crock.
Attackers generally do not telegraph their intentions. They often come on suddenly and unexpectedly. I’ve been assaulted before and could not have defended myself even if I wanted to. I was caught too off-guard. Having a gun would not have helped me in any of those situations.
It’s a “I am very badass!”-solution often from folks that have never been in that vulnerable kind of position before, because if they have, they would know that it cannot be reliably executed.
Isn’t this what gun rights people say to women who then become statistically more likely to be shot by their own weapon?
The presence of a firearm itself may have been enough to make them think twice. I mean, do you normally try to assault someone who’s visibly carrying?
A gun that can be seen is a gun that can be wrestled away from you, especially if you are physically smaller or weaker than your assailant. It’s also an item of value begging to be stolen the second you’re not completely in command of your surroundings.
It’s also a good way to get shot pre-emptively by a cop who actually does have adequate gun safety training but no morality to go along with it, simply because he’s a hunter and your open carry visible weapon made you fair game. “I feared for my life” is all he will have to say, and you will just be one more statistic without ever even having drawn it, especially if you are a minority or a member of some other group they don’t like.
That kind of firearm-as-fashion-deterrent only appeals to LARPers. People who take gun ownership with the absolute seriousness it requires do not open carry casually, nor do they pull out a gun unless they are about to fire it. This is casual, ignorant, deadly irresponsibility and a big part of why we have the firearm problems we do in this country right now.
It felt like there wasn’t any context to the actual circumstances of her arrest, especially considering the exorbitantly high bail amount. I looked around and the most information I could actually find was through a motion filed by her attorney.
She is being held for aggravated assault x2 along with some other misdemeanor charges with an implication that the charges will be elevated to attempted murder. Her attorney also notes that she has numerous other felony charges over the years, many but not all of which were later plead down to misdemeanor charges. Epona is also noted as homeless and transient that had outstanding warrants for failing to appear for some of her charges in other states. She has outstanding warrants for this in at least one other state. Assuming that it is true that she is transient and the DA intends to upgrade her charges to attempted murder, this at least provides some idea as to why the bail amount seems ludicrously high on the surface.
I realize that virtually all trans individuals face an extremely unwelcoming response from society that can often include abject violence and I feel true empathy for those that carry that burden. In this particular case it seems that there are lots of details that may deviate from the narrative that this particular individual was simply attacked by a group of men while minding her own business. Perhaps I’m wrong, but the original link is very one-sided which is why I went looking for more information. There are no journalistic articles covering the attack, but the motion filed by Epona’s lawyer is moderately revealing.
https://www.lookoutphx.org/blog/flagstaff-trans-woman-attacked-facing-felony-charges/
In “So-called Flagstaff, Arizona”.
Um, I think the name of the town is not is question here.
