Liberia’s president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has fired Darlington George, her deputy security chief, after social media erupted in outrage over allegations that he and his men beat Esther Glain and stabbed her with a glass bottle. Glain praised Sirleaf’s decision to sack George, saying she hoped it would “set a precedent for others who are involved in gender-based violence”.
The victim told reporters that on September 13 at 9 pm she and her friends were standing in the parking lot of a soccer field in Monrovia when a SUV with tainted windshields nearly ran into them. Out of fear, they yelled at the driver to stop. When the driver stopped and she went and knocked on the car’s door, George allegedly hit her with the car door. After calling her a prostitute, he and his men beat her and stabbed her in the head and jaw with a Malta bottle. Soon, Glain was on the ground, blood gushing from a deep gash on her head leaving her unconscious as the SUV drove away. He was arrested by police the following day.
I am so down, disappointed, annoyed, angry, disturbed right now. If I could, I would send someone to jail this morning…
Posted by Georgia Genoway on Monday, September 14, 2015
Georgia Genoway, a Liberian activist and a close friend of Glain’s who led the call for justice on social media, said a culture of harassment leaves many Liberian women afraid to go out alone. Verbal and physical assaults go unreported, she said, because people believe no punishment will come of the allegations. “Men who are in Liberia, they tend to be aggressive to you. Especially if you are at the beach or you are in the bar, if you are in the club. It’s not safe to be out alone,” Genoway said.
Glain’s traumatic experience is just one example of a broader issue of violence against women and abuse of power by law-enforcement officials in the West African nation. Liberia’s security forces became notorious for human rights abuses and corruption during more than a decade of civil conflict that ended in 2003.
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