HOW ARE POLICE TRAINED TO HANDLE DOMESTIC DISTURBANCES

Sounds familiar?

HOW ARE POLICE TRAINED TO HANDLE DOMESTIC DISTURBANCES?

The Sunday before this happened, the Houston Chronicle did a special report on how our police are trained to handle domestic violence situations. They described the feminist police sergeants who do the domestic violence training. The paper quoted from the training sessions.

What preconceptions did the policeman have? What had he been taught?

He'd been taught that the man is to blame. From the Chronicle article (6-12-94, Sec G):

"BATTERED MEN CONSbreastUTE LESS THAN TWO PERCENT OF ABUSED ADULTS" (emphasis in original.) All the examples of abuse are of men abusing women. Women who *kill* their husbands are excused: it was the husbands fault; he must have been battering her. The sergeants supply several examples and even have a husband-person come in and tell the police that it was the the fault of the *police* that she'd had to kill her husband. His side of the story is, of course, unavailable.

"ONE-THIRD TO ONE HALF OF AMERICAN WOMEN WILL BE buttAULTED IN A RELATIONSHIP AT LEAST ONCE. -FBI (I contacted the reporter asking for a fuller citation but she didn't respond. I expect that this is only true under an extremely expansive definition of 'abuse.' And I don't believe it came from the FBI.)

The sergeants' lecture and the article use the word "batterer" interchangeably with "male."

"TWENTY-FIVE PERCENT TO FORTY-FIVE PERCENT OF BATTERED WOMEN ARE ABUSED DURING PREGNANCY." (They give no citation for this; it appears to have been inflated from the 1985 Second National Family Violence Survey. But even that number was challenged by Straus and Gelles, "Physical Violence in American Families," p285)

"The Family Violence Unit will often proceed with a case anyway, even without the women's cooperation."

What would have happened if I'd called 911, or if the police had arrived while I was struggling with her? What if she said I'd started it? (she was drunk enough to say anything.)

I truly believe that it would have been likely that they would have arrested me. (And I might have still faced the charges even after she'd sobered up.) I believe that they'd only have arrested her if she had attacked THEM.

I have other stories. My friend John divorced his wife. She alleged that he'd battered her. There was no record of police visits to the home, but John had had some previous scrapes with the law. The court believed her. She moved away and wouldn't let John see his son. Later, she got arrested and jailed for beating up her own mother. John pebreastioned for custody. The court denied.