I love stories like this one:
[A] North Dakota woman understood that, and even after taking out an order of protection against her on-again, off-again boyfriend after he allegedly assaulted her and threatened to kill her, she chose to have friends around in case her ex showed up at her apartment.
One of said friends happened to be packing a .357 Mag revolver when the off-again boyfriend showed up with malice in his heart, and the rest is history.
For true justice to take place, however, there should also be some kind of legal penalty for the asshole judge who let this choirboy out on parole, despite a history of violence.
I wonder if there is a certain amount of arrogance to these judge’s who issue restraining orders. Perhaps he or she thinks that letting the perp out on bail is okay, because said judge also “demanded he not have contact with the woman”.
Judge must figure, “Problem solved. I issued an order.”
Not necessarily.
Unless you have ever seen the “domestic violence” narrative up close, we end up with the same incorrect biases our esteemed blog host has.
Most domestic abuse cases are a case of two idiots fighting, and the smaller, weaker idiot losing. The vast majority of accusations of domestic violence by “battered women” are false. Most battered women are on drugs, abuse alcohol, and abuse their own children. I once made the mistake of supporting the local battered women’s shelter by volunteer work – picking up donations, shovelling sidewalks in the winter, etc. After what I saw there… never again. The women there were sluts, boozers and druggies but they weren’t the worst of it… it was the kids. Little ones, with nothing wrong with them, to young to hurt anyone…left to whatever fate these batshit crazy harridans have for them. I only ever saw one clear case of abuse – a small Vietnamese woman who’d gone through the wringer. The rest were all fat, horrible slags without a mark on them. They often had to be stopped from beating their own kids. They’d do the same to their husbands if they could too.
I quit. Most people do when they see what’s going on with these ‘programs’. Volunteers go through the revolving door. When I hear stuff like this… I know that it is entirely possible the wrong person got shot.
Thanks for adding an illuminating perspective.
I’ve seen it up close. I’ve both prosecuted and defended these cases. And yes, there are times that are what Ferguson Rifleman recounts; it happens. Human beings are often liars; indeed, human beings are born liars, every one of us. And the person we lie most to is ourselves. We are manipulative and self-serving. All of us, at one time or another.
That is the exception, however. All that said, the reality of domestic violence is quite real. Often the abusers believe they have a right to abuse their victims; they came from households where that was the norm, and it’s what they know. And the reality of it is that the victims often seek out partners who are are abusive – it is their “type,” as it were. They are often products of families where abuse was endemic, and they (often unwittingly) end up with exactly those types of dickheads when they go looking for partners. Unfortunately their children will likely follow in the same cycle – again, it is what they know. I don’t have a good answer as to how to break that cycle, but there is no doubt that the cycle exists.
Prosecuting (or shooting) abusive dickheads is a good start. But it won’t solve the problem (well, except for this particular dead dickhead. I’d bet a dollar right now that a year from now, our victim in this story is back in an abusive relationship with another dickhead).
The best use for a protective order is to show it to the cops after a defensive shooting. It should very quickly establish who is the victim and who is (was) the attacker. But by itself it’s worthless.
Since this happened in Fargo, I was actually disappointed that a wood chipper wasn’t somehow involved.
He never really wanted to hurt anyone.