Domestic Violence Awareness Month
I just found out that October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Better late than never I suppose. Go check it out. This is a really good organization that helps to promote awareness and aid for battered women and their children.
I can’t even imagine being a battered woman, it must just be hell. I have had to help two different people move out of the house they were sharing with an abusive significant other (one was a friend in college, one was the sister of a friend) and both times it was not something that was real fun to do.
Because this is the problem with leaving. The police are not allowed to show up to help you just because you think there MIGHT be a problem. You have to wait for the violence to start (and that CAN mean verbal arguments) before the police will come out (used to work as a 911 operator, and it killed me to have to tell these poor, terified people that we couldn’t help them until there was conflict) because if they come out before there is the risk of infringing on the rights of the other person AND because, honestly, there isn’t enough police officers to send out to calls that MIGHT escalate into a domestic violence situation.
I dated a guy in college that turned out to be abusive. It never got really bad because he decided to grab me and slam me up against a wall in class one day and then ask me what I thought I was going to do about it. I just so happen to hold a reasonably high rank in a martial art, so the answer he got was not one he was expecting or one that he liked, and, to add insult to injury the instructor taught self defense to the Navy and she came over and layed him out again then had him escorted out by campus police. Never had to worry too much with him. But there are women out there, and kids, too, and frankly, even some guys who are physically, verbally, and emotionally beaten up each and every day and are not as fortunate as I was to have the background I have. (Or the temper to go with it when needs be, which, honestly, isn’t the best thing ever.)
I just think if more people did SOMETHING to help, then maybe the world would be a bit of a better place. True, there are people who don’t WANT help, but a LOT of people do, and need help. So instead of ignoring the domestic disturbance going on in your apartment complex, or the bruises hidden under sweaters in the summer, DO something. Call the police. Donate time, money, or clothing (and we ALL have clothes that some well meaning family member got us that we won’t wear, or that we have out grown, etc and so forth). Hell, just be an ear when someone needs to talk. It’s good to help people.
You can request a “civil stand-by” but some police departments do not offer this service. The police are not obliged to perform this service.
I hadn’t heard of a civil stand by before. I know that some police departments want you to call in so that they can try to have a car in the area in case the situation escalates, but they can’t always do that because of the shortage of man power. I have always thought it was sad that there is so many more “bad guys” than police, but I guess that is the way it has always been.
Any man who needs to prove to himself how big and tough he is by hurting someone else is a cockroach to begin with. Even in most defensive martial arts classes they tell you that the power you have been given is not to be used to intentionally attack people, that you have a responsability to be better than some abusive thug. But even verbal abuse can be much worse and I say again if you are the type that has to belittle someone to make yourself feel big you deserve a swift kick to the crotch and all that goes with it.