Melissa Jeltsen

Mark Lee Dickson came up with a plan. If cities could ban plastic straws, he asked, why not abortion?

Over the course of Noor Salman’s trial for allegedly aiding her husband, Omar Mateen, in the 2016 Pulse Nightclub shooting, a different narrative has emerged than the false one the FBI erroneously constructed, and which the media tragically bought into. Melissa Jeltsen points out that not only was there zero evidence it was a targeted hate crime based in homophobia, but there was also no evidence to support Salman’s coerced confession that she and her husband had staked out Pulse beforehand. What’s more, the prosecution was sadistic in making its false case against Salman, who had endured domestic violence and rape at Mateen’s hand. The good news is that she was acquitted. The bad news is that she has been endlessly traumatized, first by Mateen, then by the FBI, the prosecution and the press, not to mention additionally by spending more than a year in jail away from her child.

Domestic abuse by police officers is underreported and less likely to lead to prosecution. It also forces victims to seek help from police departments eager to protect their own.