President Obama signs expanded Violence Against Women Act into law...Cleveland Urban News.Com remembers the 11 Black women strangled and murdered on Imperial Ave. on Cleveland's east side by Serial Killer Anthony Sowell... Reauthorized act adds protections for gay rights, Native-Americans.... Data show that Black women are most at risk for violent crimes... In signing the act Obama said that "all women need to live free of fear," Cleveland placed ninth of Forbes 2012 rankings of 10 most dangerous cities

Convicted Serial Killer

Anthony Sowell, also known as The Cleveland Strangler. Sowell, 52, sits on death row after convictions in 2011 on 82 of 83 counts including aggravated murder of 11 Black women at his home on Imperial Ave. on Cleveland's majority Black east side. His convictions are on appeal before the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals.

Above, United States President Barack Obama gives the thumbs up after signing the expanded Violence Against Women Act on Thursday. Below that, the president talks public policy changes for the betterment of the American people. 

By Kathy Wray Coleman, publisher, editor-in-chief, Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog, Ohio's Most Read Online Black Newspaper(www.clevelandurbannews.com)

WASHINGTON, D.C - President Barack Obama on Thursday signed the revitalized Violence Against Women Act into law, renewing a measure that had lapsed last year due to partisan infighting in Congress. 

He was flanked by Vice President Joe Biden and a host of others, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California, the first female speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives who served from 2007-2011.

"All women need to live free of fear," the president said at the signing. "This is your day. This is the day of the advocates, the day of survivors. This is your victory." 

According to 2012 CNN exit polls, 55 percent of women voted for Obama and 44 percent voted for Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. 

 The  renewed Violence Against Women Act, originally signed into law in 1994 by then president Bill Clinton, adds protections for gay rights and Native -Americans and comes on the heels of the presidents' announcement late last year of his support of gay marriage. 

Among other provisions, the act provides $1.6 billion for prosecutions of violent crimes against women, mandates restitution of those convicted of violent crimes, and allows redress with civil litigation.

Male victims are covered under some of the provisions such as for stalking and sexual assault. 

Statistics overall show decreases in violence against women over the past couple of decades. 

In 2010, sexual assaults were above a quarter of a million, down from some 500 million in 1995, according to data from the U.S.  Justice Department. That same data show that sexual violence against women and girls has fallen some 62 percent over the past 10 years, though leveling off at a stable rate since 2008.  

But violence against women, including domestic violence, is still at an alarming rate with majority Black major metropolitan cities where poverty is disproportionately high getting hit the hardest. 

For a 2012 analysis Forbes ranked Cleveland in ninth place for the nation's 10  most dangerous cities based on violent crime. Detroit topped the list, which also includes, by order of ranking, St. Louis, Oakland, Memphis, Birmingham, Atlanta, Baltimore and Stockton.

Women of color are the most at risk,  and Black women experience violence at a rate some 35 percent higher than Caucasian women, says a recent report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics. 

Eleven  Black women (shown below) were strangled and murdered on Imperial Avenue on Cleveland's predominantly Black east side, unprecedented murders that rocked the largely Black city of some 400,000 people. Six were murdered after Convicted Serial Killer Anthony Sowell, 52, was captured in 2008 and then released from custody, Cleveland city officials admit. Their remains were uncovered beginning on Oct 29, 2009 and Sowell, who was convicted of 82 of 83 counts including multiple counts of aggravated murder, sits on death row as his 2011 convictions are on appeal before the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals. 

The Imperial Women 

(www.clevelandurbannews.com) Reach Cleveland Urban News.Com by email at editor@clevelandurbannews.com and by phone at 216-659-0473.