I hesitate to reignite this issue, because of the incredibly nasty flame wars this engendered (and this is ME talking) but I felt like this needs to be at least put out there.
Jennifer Fox, the young woman who said that she lost her baby after the miltarized police assault on OccupySeattle on November 15th, the night that gave the whole world watching this iconic picture:
was subjected to a litany of personal attacks and assaults on her character, both in the traditional media and on the blogs, and Daily Kos was no exception.
A narrative developed into a consensus among many that she lied about having suffered a miscarriage.
But new information has come to light that suggests just the opposite.
One Angry Queer is the blog that first broke the story, in the person of a blogger known as Ian Awesome, who now says he has confirmed the fact that Jennifer Fox did in fact suffer a miscarriage.
The paperwork she showed me was not a complete medical record. It was a discharge summary, and it confirmed two facts to me: that she was seen at Harborview after November 15th and that she has indeed suffered what is called a retained miscarriage, meaning that the fetus has yet to be dispelled. She will be seeking further medical treatment in order to facilitate removal of the fetus from her body.
The discharge summary, however, does not mention the reason for her miscarriage nor the time of death of the fetus. Frankly, I don't know if that is determinable.
So there you have it. With this assertion now having been made, one can reach only one of two conclusions: Jennifer Fox was telling the truth, or (far less likely, in my mind) they are BOTH lying: Jennifer Fox about the miscarriage, and Ian Awesome about having personally viewed the documentation.
Ian Awesome continues:
A lot of people have asked me if I believe her story, and now I can say for certain that I do believe two essential key points in her story. One, she was assaulted by police. She knows too many details and facts that can be corroborated and has given a statement to the Office of Professional Accountability regarding the incident. Two, I definitely now have confirmed that she has miscarried since the incident.
So, there you have it. It feels to me like a lot of people are going to be owing some mea culpas.
At any rate, this story is obviously not over. This, to me, is the money shot from Ian Awesome's post:
Her case, ultimately, will be decided by a judge, not the Stranger, and not the public.