(no subject)

[apocalypsos]

In case you haven't seen the link yet, the South Carolina State House passed a bill cracking down on gamecock fighting and tabled a bill protecting victims of domestic violence. As you can read in the article, Rep. John Graham Altman then proceeded to use the occasion to behave like a complete and total asstard.

But the good things is, everybody stepped to call him on it.

Comments

[fernwithy.livejournal.com]

Yup, the guy's an asshat. (Though I do agree with his assessment about why in the hell women stay--there are lots of alternatives, constantly talked about in the media; even anti-divorce, pro-two-parent-family little me has a very clear limit on when to end a relationship, and that limit is the exact moment the fist flies. He gets one chance to raise it and think better of it, and get himself to counselling. But if it actually comes down... well, to quote my mother when a boyfriend raised a hand at her, "You follow through on that, you'll never use the hand again." I don't care how "in love" you are--if you're getting hit, it's not an equal relationship--or about finances, or anything of the sort. Pack up. Go to mom's. Go to a shelter. Go to church/synagogue/mosque. Just go.)

Of course, I think domestic abuse should be a felony on the first strike. Zero tolerance policy. Jail time, plus the victim seizes all of his assets. That's one where I don't understand in the least why we have any soft-pedalling, particularly in my own conservative community, where we're supposed to be protecting marriage. Nothing is a bigger threat to marriage than any acceptance of domestic abuse.

[ampersand.livejournal.com]

Mmm. Some women don't believe they have anywhere to go, some women have children who he can legally demand access to, some women are afraid he'll follow them, some women think it's not his fault but the drink or the rage or the drugs, some women just plain believe they deserve it. Even coming from a strong and loving background, you can get worn down to a point where you're pretty sure you deserve it and you'll never find anything better. He apologizes later, swears he's never gonna do it again, is sweet and loving and attentive. So they stay.

It's not right, and nobody deserves to be hurt. But it goes like that.

[fernwithy.livejournal.com]

Oh, they definitely deserve protection, but it does drive me crazy. There's a time when you just have to turn the emotional tap off and use the brain instead--whether it's an IQ of 80 or 160, the issue is using the brain rather than fuzzy emotional reasoning. For that reason, I would say that no domestic abuse case should require reporting by the victim--anyone can report it, and the vic doesn't need to file the charge. If it's being done, get 'em away until they can get their heads straight.

All that said, whoever came up with the brilliant idea that whopping the wife around is only a misdemeanor needs to be whomped senseless himself.

[callie-chan.livejournal.com]

While I agree that women should know better, the fact is that even the stupidest woman alive who stays just because she honestly doesn't know any better should have protection against being beaten by anyone--especially a husband/boyfriend/whatever. As much protection as possible, preferably. And ditto for the instances of men being abused by women.

And, of course, intelligence or the lack thereof rarely has anything to do with a person's reasons for staying in an abusive relationship anyway, so the protection is even more important in those instances.

Is it that difficult that abusing someone for no good reason should be against some law somewhere? o_o This guy makes me wonder.

-Callisto

[fernwithy.livejournal.com]

Well, it is illegal; it's just a question of the category of illegality, and the technicalities of it. It definitely needs to be hit with heavy stick mentality rather than the kind of slap-on-the-wrist approach we're using now. If I had my druthers, child and spousal (or partner) abuse would have mandatory jail time. Serious jail time, like ten to twenty.

[callie-chan.livejournal.com]

Good point. But yeah, you get what I mean--it should be more illegal than it is now.

-Callisto

[fernwithy.livejournal.com]

Oh, hell yeah. No argument there. I'm a zero tolerance girl.