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Think Before Using 911 for a Domestic violence Call
posted by Scott on Thursday February 08, @01:00PM
from the domestic-violence dept.
Domestic Violence Charles E. Corry from the DV Against Men - Colorado group wrote up an informative article about what happens when 911 is called during a domestic dispute, and why this shouldn't be used (by either party) even if one is already in extreme danger. Dr. Corry believes that calling 911 can make the situation worse and has irrevocable consequences for both parties involved. Click "Read More" below to read this article.

Is A Nuclear Weapon Really Needed in a Domestic Argument?
Think before using 911 for a domestic violence call



by Charles E. Corry, Ph.D., F.G.S.A.

The 911 emergency telephone service is a lifeline and should be used in that fashion. Unfortunately, but certainly understandable from a human perspective, it is used as well for everything from a missing dog to a cat up a tree, as well as in domestic arguments.

A woman in a domestic situation should think, however unlikely it is she is going to do that in the heat of an argument, whether she needs a nuclear attack to stop her partner, or whether she should just walk away for awhile until things cool off. In an intimate relationship, dialing 911 is the equivalent of a nuclear attack. It may be needed but the same safeguards we use to prevent an accidental missile launch should be considered before the 911 call is made.

Once launched, there is no going back under current law. A simple phone call can lead to a lifetime of regret, misery for the children, and extreme financial hardship. And, as in any nuclear attack, the level of violence may well increase. Like a missile launch, police response isn't instantaneous, but they cannot be recalled. It will take the police anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes, or longer, to respond. If real, immediate danger exists from one's partner, it is probably better for a person to leave if they can.

If a police response is necessary, it is certainly safer to call them at a distance from the danger. No rational person would step inside a burning building to call 911 about a fire. However, if a person can't get out, then there is the consideration of whether calling 911 will further enrage the partner and result in greater danger before the police can arrive. The current laws requiring mandatory arrest and "no drop" have been found to increase the level of violence in three out of seven cities studied.

The problem is that people don't behave rationally when dealing with an intimate partner,. particularly if there is a history of abuse in the relationship. However, if there is such a history of abuse, a person can plan a response to the next occurrence. It is likely that calling 911 isn't the best solution a person can come up with to deal with intimate partner violence and abuse.

In a November 12, 2000, editorial in the Denver Post, Ms. Billie Stanton examined the "mandatory arrest" policy that has been in effect in Denver since 1984. She found that most domestic violence calls do not result in an arrest because police don't find probable cause of a crime when they arrive. Ms. Stanton states that Denver police got 16,080 domestic violence calls from October 1, 1999, through September 30, 2000, but made only 4,619 arrests in those cases. She claims the same has held true in other jurisdictions in Colorado in spite of the state law. Thus, when police are called there is only about a 30% chance that an arrest will be made even under the current draconian laws.

There are many possible explanations for such a low arrest rate but a lifeline isn't any good if all the lifebuoys have already been thrown over the side. Though a woman is hardly likely to be prosecuted for false reporting, making an unjustified nuclear attack on one's partner is very likely to end the relationship, and it isn't likely the termination is going to be amicable.

Use 911 if you really need it, but the odds are that by placing the call to 911, it isn't going to solve your immediate problem, and it may well make the situation worse. As with a nuclear attack, it is Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) in most cases. What happens if the police do make an arrest? Based on FY 1997-1998 figures, 12,166 domestic violence cases were filed in Colorado state courts as a class 6 felony or lower. About 4,331 people were convicted, or 36% of those charged. It is estimated that the very large majority of those convicted pled guilty or no contest. Thus, an individual has a very substantial chance of winning if they take their case to trial. If a person obtains competent counsel, and the facts support their case, it is estimated that an individual has a better than 90% chance of acquittal in a jury trial on charges involving domestic violence.

Using the figures above, for 1997-1998 there were approximately 40,000 calls to 911 in Colorado concerning domestic violence. In response to these calls ~12,000 arrests were made, and ~4,300 people, mostly men, were convicted. There is thus about a 10% chance a call to 911 will result in a domestic violence conviction. If the person arrested can afford competent counsel, and takes the case to a jury, the odds of conviction after a 911 call are probably less than 1%.

Conversely, it is estimated that 80% to 90% of the time a call to 911 leads to a breakup of the relationship, though it may be as low as only half the time, and the breakup may not occur immediately after the first call. As a result of these calls we estimate that between 32,000 and 36,000 intimate relationships ended in that year, resulting in broken homes, acrimony, heartbroken men, women and, especially, children as a result of what may have been a reflexive moment of anger or panic.

Lawyers, courts, and domestic violence and divorce industries thrive in these circumstances, but the individuals involved are destroyed. Mutually assured destruction is no saner in an intimate relationship than between nations. Is a nuclear weapon really what is needed in a domestic argument?

Think before you use 911 for a domestic violence call!

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DV911 - A Powerful Matriarchal Weapon (Score:1)
by Johnny Man on Thursday February 08, @03:08PM EST (#1)
(User #114 Info)
DV911 is a weapon against men that has been crafted deliberately and patiently by feminists over a twenty five year period.
Its foundations lie in the mass propaganda (against men) campaigns of the early eighties. "Women's talk shows" used DV to manipulate women into watching their shows (for profit).
The feminists were behind the trash TV shows manipulating the producers, directors and hosts. They did this to amplify the power of their political vehicles - all of which were used by women's trash TV. Men were villified as part of the attack on "The Patriarchy".
One of the matriarchal techniques used is line-blurring. Women were "taught" (most via early eighties women's trash TV - but also with the use of books, magazine articles etc.) that spousal fighting and arguing are the same as spousal abuse. Of course, they are not.(I will define both if anyone's interested) They were then encouraged to call 911 any time there was a fight or even an argument. Many women were so successfully tricked that they even did this just to "get even" with the man for something trivial - as part of the fight strategy.
Meanwhile, the feminists managed to get a law passed in many areas that made it mandatory to arrest the man.
They even managed to get many prosectors to actually harrass the accusor if she withdrew charges.
They also managed to get "no drop" passed in many ares.
Collectively, these tricks built the hair-trigger man snare (it's interesting to note that it seriously hurts many women's lives also) that I call DV911. It is a powerful weapon quietly waiting for someone to pick up the phone and set it in motion.
From what I have heard, if you DO set it in motion, you will regret it for the rest of your life.
Police have agendas on domestic A+B (Score:0)
by Anonymous User on Thursday February 08, @05:13PM EST (#2)

An ex-girlfriend of mine owed me many thousands dollars for money I lent her (stupid thing to do..I know). We broke up, and naturally I wanted to be at least partially reimbursed. She is not poor, she just manages her money poorly, so I used to call her weekly to remind her to plan and repay me. I did not want to file for a claim against her as I did not want to inconvenience our lives.

Big mistake....!

She called her town police and filed a restraining order against me to prevent me from calling her. When she went to the police station to fill out the forms the female police chief asked her to describe our relationship. As it turns out, my ex claimed that a year earlier I had shoved her in an argument (I would like to add that we never had anything resembling a physical confrontation, and what she described as a shove was me putting my hand on her shoulder when she was attacking me!).

Without my ex knowing about it, a police officer was sent to my house to serve me a summons for MA 209A which is domestic assault and battery in my state.

My ex-girlfriend did not know this was going to happen. She actually called me (in violation of the order) and told me that she never intended this to be the outcome of the restraining order and apologized. She did not even know that what the police chief asked her for was relevant to the restraining order.

By MA state definition, if a single finger touches your partner during what could be considered a dispute, even if no intentional contact was made or harm intended, it is Assault and Battery.

To make a long story short. It turns out the upscale town that she lives in was under pressure to actively pursue domestic issues.

So we both went to court, and she had her lawyer drop the charges. But the magistrate told me that I was "lucky that my ex was being truthful!!!!"

I'm convinced that there is a feminist agenda that is increasing the statistics of domestic violence against women. I feel that I was a victim of this agenda.

And I never did get any money back....
 
911 calls (Score:1)
by Trudy W Schuett on Thursday February 08, @08:36PM EST (#3)
(User #116 Info)
Good advice from a man who knows!


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