The current moment is where we can inject our voice, our ideas, our stories to carve a pathway for everyone to listen to and adhere to as we plan what the future of the justice system should look like, Mr. Rooks said. What everyone is now asking is how can we do criminal justice differently, and survivors have answers.
Some celebrities, including the rapper and singer T-Pain, will promote the effort, as will athletes like the former N.F.L. player Stedman Bailey, who retired after being shot in 2015.
Mr. Bailey and Katelyn Ohashi, a former gymnast who has spoken out about the abusive culture she experienced, are working to mobilize survivors in the sports world, where violence can be common. (As you know, I am friends with a lot of crime survivors, Ms. Ohashi said, a reference to the more than 160 women sexually assaulted by the former U.S.A. Gymnastics doctor Lawrence Nassar.)
The reality is over 60 million Americans have been victims of crime in the last 10 years alone, and so were all affected or close to survivors whose voices have gone unheard and overlooked, Ms. Ohashi said. Its the very act of voting that makes it clear crime survivors cant be ignored.
Survivors said repeatedly, both during the launch event and in interviews afterward, that they considered voting a way not only to influence policy, but to combat the sense of powerlessness and violation they felt after being attacked.
Voting is my healing action, Dr. Butler said. It allows me to feel like I can make change in my own life as well as the lives of others, and that has not always been true for me as a survivor.read more
‘Voting Is My Healing’: Inside a Push to Turn Out 100,000 Crime Survivors
