Saturday, November 07, 2009

Lessons Learned Again...and again...

"When people show you who they are, believe them...the first time." — Dr. Maya Angelou

This is one of my all time favorite quotes and I definitely try to live by it. So why am I bringing this up?

A local woman was murdered when she reunited with her estranged husband. He'd been arrested for numerous domestic incidents and had a record of crimes that were escalating in violence with each new incident. Her family begged her to avoid him, law enforcement warned her off, she'd taken out a restraining order...she then ignored it and invited him back into the house. Dead at twenty-nine, she left two children behind. The perp was shot and killed by the police - thumbs up for the boys in blue.

Did you know?
 - Every nine seconds a woman in battered in the U.S.
 - One out of four have been assaulted by an intimate partner.
 - One in five High School Students have been assaulted by a boyfriend.
 - 37% of emergency room visits by women are DV related.
 - 1.3 million woman are battered each year in the US.
 - 50% of all homeless women and children are fleeing abusive husbands / spouses / relationships.
 - The greatest risk of transmitting this behavior to the next generation is for a child to see a parent being beaten.
 - 50% of state prison detainees for DV killed their victim.
 - In 70-80% of intimate partner homicides, no matter which partner was killed, the man physically abused the woman before the murder.


If you or someone you know is in danger, call the National Domestic Violence hotline at any time of the day or night.

1.800.799.SAFE (7233) 1.800.787.3224 (TTY)

This is a disease with a cure.