The pro-feminist Seattle press
has launched an assault on
Washington state police officers
with the publication of a series of
hit pieces on the alleged link
between cops and domestic violence.
Glenn discussed this press campaign
and anti-male bias within the
domestic violence system with police
lieutenant
Greg Schmidt, who created the
Seattle police department's domestic
violence investigation unit in 1994,
and criminal defense attorney Lisa
Scott, founder of the advocacy group
Taking Action Against Bias in the
System (TABS).
Topics discussed included: the minuscule number of police
officers who are accused of domestic violence; how DV
accusations against cops are often found to be false; the
Washington state DV witch hunt which has come in the wake of the
David Brame murder-suicide; cops' frustration with mandatory
arrest policies which force them to make arrests in minor
incidents and non-incidents; how police officers come under
great scrutiny if they arrest women in DV situations; how men
arrested for alleged abuse are prosecuted even when there's
little or no evidence of abuse and the female accuser recants;
how the DV system is so draconian that many women are shying
away from calling 911; how abused men rarely call the police
because they know that often they will be arrested for their
wives' or girlfriends' violence; how the system is so biased
that, in Lisa Scott's words, men are "two and a half strikes out
before they ever enter a courtroom"; and what steps men in
deteriorating relationships can take to prevent their wives from
using false allegations of domestic violence to drive them out
of their children's lives.
Callers included Joy, a grandmother whose son is in prison on a
frame up domestic violence charge; Chad, whose ex-wife used
false DV charges to win custody of his children; Bob, a male
victim of domestic violence; and Robert, a father who was
successful in gaining custody of his children away from his
abusive wife.
To learn about the ways the domestic violence system is stacked
against men, see Glenn's columns "Baseball
Player's Domestic Violence Arrest Demonstrates
How
Men are Presumed Guilty in Domestic Disputes" (Los
Angeles Daily Journal, San Francisco Daily Journal, 8/8/02),
"California Mother's Triple Murders Show
Cost of Ignoring Female Abusers" (Dallas Libertarian
Post, 2/4/02), and "NCFM-LA's
Lawsuit Against Shelters is Valid Response to County's Refusal
to Help Abused Men" (Daily Breeze, (6/22/03) (co-authored by
Marc Angelucci of the National
Coalition of Free Men Los Angeles). Also see Lisa Scott's "Gender
bias no cure for domestic violence" (10/24/01).
To read the anti-male hit pieces, see "Husband,
Cop and Enemy" (CBS News, 7/21/03), "Cops
who abuse their wives rarely pay the price" (Seattle
Post-Intelligencer, 7/23/03), "Police
handling of abuse criticized" (Tacoma News Tribune, 7/23/03)
and "Some
fear 'bogus complaints' will ruin cops' careers" (Seattle
Post-Intelligencer, 7/23/03).