SOMERVILLE (WBZ) ― Three Somerville police officers were stabbed responding to a call at a home Friday morning.
The suspect, a woman, according to neighbors, was shot dead.
Not the usual domestic violence call, I would imagine. It just goes to show that the need for situational awareness is truly blind to gender - psychotic SO's can be female as well as male (although, yes, the preponderance are in fact men). There's precious little to go on, but I do find this interesting:
According to neighbors, police were called to the home earlier in the morning for a dispute between the woman and her boyfriend.
The woman was removed from the home, but came back and allegedly tried to start a fire.
That's such a tough one to call. With what little information we're given, it would seem that the cops showed up the first time, were asked to remove her from the premises, did such, and left - which is certainly all they should be expected to do. Assuming that there were no crimes committed that they could arrest her for - or that the boyfriend didn't want to press charges - there's very little the police can do except make sure she vacates.
And I'm equally certain when they got the second call, they both rolled their eyes and also knew it was coming - in cases like these, just sending someone on their way with a stiff warning rarely gets the message across. Ideally a night in the local holding tank takes the edge off the crazy - or allows the person of interest to sober up - and the two go their separate ways. This is about the worst possible outcome for all involved - a woman is dead and three cops have to second-guess their actions for the rest of their lives. I'm certain that the shooting was necessary - you don't have the luxury of asking the person stabbing you what their intentions are - but they still have to live with that.
In various discussions around the gun boards and the gun blogosphere, the question comes up from time to time and in different forms: Would you intervene? Sometimes the scenario is a convenience store hold-up, sometimes a road rage incident - either between a CCW holder and someone else or between two unrelated parties with a CCW holder as observer, and sometimes as a domestic violence question. Now, I've got a remarkably low tolerance for domestic violence, especially male-on-female. You want a really angry shaved head biker? Slap a woman in my presence. But stories like the above really drive home how careful we need to be before we rush to judge.
Imagine being a private citizen happening upon that scene. Here's a man and a woman, both highly agitated. It's probably they were both yelling at each other; tempers are flared, folks aren't using their best possible judgement. You may have seen the cruisers on the scene earlier. Now imagine that you see the man pushing the woman out of the house. You might make the decision, based on what you're seeing, that he's the aggressor - when in fact he's acting in a purely defensive manner to get this psychotic person off his property (especially since she's trying to light the place up).
I'm not saying we shouldn't intervene - it would be a cold, dead world where we stopped caring about our fellow man and helping where we can. Just that it's something to be considered before we take action - heck, it's something we should be thinking about and planning for long before we hit the streets. How do you respond? What actions do you take, what should you take, what are the potential consequences for being wrong? We need to balance the weight on our conscience should we do nothing versus the consequences if we do the wrong thing.
It's a tightrope act, that's for certain, but it's definitely something to think about.
That is all.
6 comments:
Personally, I'm not going to intervene in a shouting / pushing match.
Now if I hear her screaming and see the guy standing over her repeatedly stabbing her with a kitchen knife that's a different story.
Cops will tell you that domestic violence calls are one of the ones they fear the most. It's not unusual for the victim and the attacker to turn on the cops when it's time for someone to go to jail.
I don't envy these officers, they were in the middle of a no win situation.
Now, I've got a remarkably low tolerance for domestic violence, especially male-on-female. You want a really angry shaved head biker? Slap a woman in my presence.
And that's why I picked such a wonderful man for my life partner -- to save us all from angry shaved head bikers. A public service, to be sure!
(Also? I go armed. Although I don't think anyone's ever tried to slap me. Perhaps I don't give off the correct victim vibes?)
:)
psychotic SO's can be female as well as male (although, yes, the preponderance are in fact men).
That's a pretty bold assumption. I would agree if you said that the preponderance of REPORTED SO violence is perpetrated by males, I'd agree, but I believe, based on both personal experience and experience dealing with junior personnel in the Navy, that women are just as likely to be the actual aggressors as men.
There are several reasons for it...the fact that women often are not capable of causing the physical damage than a man is; the implications to a mans "manhood" of admitting that a woman is beating him up. The fact that police (just like you did) automatically assume the man is the aggressor in a domestic dispute even if that's not the case; the fact that women sometimes use claims of abuse to win custody battles or support claims, etc etc etc.
I don't think the "conventional wisdom" that male aggressors are the majority in cases of domestic violence is very wise at all...at least not in our culture. I think it's based on assumptions, prejudices and biases, not necessarily on facts.
PS. Lissa: I don't think JayG was saying that angry, shaved head bikers are more prone to be the ones slapping women, I believe he was saying that HE would be the angry, shaved head biker if he saw another man slapping a woman.
Most shaved head bikers I know (myself included) feel the same way.
That's the thing about REAL men (whether shaved head biker or no), we don't need to slap around weaker people to make ourselves feel strong.
I'd intervene in extremely clear cut cases, like if I happened to be in a gas station when someone robbed it. An altercation on the street? Hell no.
You never know the full story. And even if you do... well let's just say I know someone in an abusive relationship right now, not at the all out hitting stage, but recently she was shoved through a screen door and locked out of the house. Despite my vehement advice, she is still with him, weeks later, and this is not the first incident. Someone like that must have some mental defect to stick around, and if you beat up her abusive boyfriend or spouse what's to stop her from lying to screw you over? Not a damn thing.
The only time I really thought I might need to step in in public was in El Paso when these three young guys (my age... 20s) were having a yelling match and acting very aggressive toward an older man, in his 50s, who didn't seem to be acting crazy himself. I was nearby and I watched it develop and nothing came of it, but I wasn't in much of a position to help... legally, anyway. I had a pistol in my Jeep but no carry permit, which was legal, but dicey to use in defense of someone else without a CHL (it was still being processed).
If the young guys had attacked I certainly would have done something about it, but I probably wouldn't have stuck around afterward, and I would have put myself in jeopardy with the law for doing the right thing either way. Or I could have risked my life to a greater extent by charging in with the 36" wrecking bar I just bought, which probably would have resulted in my death since they looked like gang affiliates and were probably carrying pistols themselves. Not a good situation, but I really do not think I could have just not acted.
Also, I agree with SailorCurt about assumptions here. He's spot on about men not reporting much abuse. I'd also suggest that a significant minority, if not a majority, of reported abuse by men is wholly fabricated.
- Weambulance
Post a Comment