Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Raise your hands if you agree ...

that women in the City of Pittsburgh surviving domestic violence should feel comforted by the decision to promote not one, not two, but three male officers who have had "domestic issues" according to the Post-Gazette.

Cmdr. George T. Trosky's travails over the years have been
well-documented. The homicide detective who was bumped up to commander was
arrested in 1997 for breaking his then-wife Cheryl's nose, but a simple assault
charge was later dropped after she did not appear in court.
Lt. Charles
Rodriguez, who was promoted from sergeant, faces a hearing next month before
Crafton District Judge Dennis R. Joyce on charges he assaulted his daughter.

And police were called to the home of Sgt. Eugene F. Hlavac, formerly
an officer, for an incident described by Deputy Chief Paul Donaldson as a
"nonviolent, oral domestic."



Right. Cause a domestic incident of the nonviolent, oral type is perfectly acceptable behavior for a police officer.

WTF? How the hell is any woman living in this fair City supposed to call the police knowing that the responding officer could, in fact, be an abuser himself? More specifically, how can any woman living in Zone 2 call 911 knowing that the person in charge of the entire Zone has a more than checkered past, including unresolved domestic violence charges? The fact that those in the know point to his wife being a noshow at the 1997 hearing indicates to moi that they have no clue about the dynamics of domestic violence -- an even scarier thought since they are the big kahunas. I shaudder to think of how police under his command will respond to domestic calls.

More than likely, they have a clue but just do whatever the hell they want anyway. After all, we gotta get more straight white men into positions of power and authority ...

This makes my blood boil.

5 comments:

  1. Not only is it extremely angering...it's really quite terrifying. It makes me feel completely unsafe, even in a "nice" neighborhood.

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  2. Yeah, abusers or not, it's difficult to get appropriate police action in cases of domestic violence. Even when you have a PFA, an abuser has the upper hand. They have more legal protection than the person suffering the abuse. That's why women run away and hide.

    But I thought it was pretty well known that police officers tend to have violent tendencies. Here, got this from the Police Family Violence Fact Sheet, "Two studies have found that at least 40% of police officer families experience domestic violence, in contrast to 10% of families in the general population."
    To read more: http://www.womenandpolicing.org/violenceFS.asp

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  3. it is just one more thing that keeps women silent.

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  4. i know that police have very stress filled job, but i think that like some other jobs, police work tends to attract those few really unbalanced people.
    when they are not weeded out it can become an ongoing nightmare for everyone.
    every profession needs to "police" their own.
    no "codes of silence" should be tolerated.

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  5. When I worked at Womansplace back in grad school, I recall being told that the top three professions of abusers are lawyers, police officers and doctors. I'm not sure if that means a disproportionate number of men in those professions are abusers or that those professions account for more abusers period. However, it is not hard to believe that a man with power and control issues would be attracted to law enforcement.

    Why is Luke conducting a national search for the public works and MIS honchos, but hired Nate Harper to head up the police without a national search? Really? Why not bring in someone who doesn't have ties from back in the day when they were partners, worked details, etc?

    This is a disgrace and Nate Harper has proven himself not to be a friend to women in this City.

    ReplyDelete