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Abusegate: Mother of All Scandals?
Mirror, mirror, on the wall, what’s the most
colossal scandal of them all? Watergate?
Climategate? Tigergate? If you said ‘yes’
to any of these, you’re not even close!
Folks, we’re not talking about a
media-adled tempest in a teapot. No, this is an
old-fashioned head-banging,
sit-down-and-cry-your-eyes-out affair.
Abusegate refers to our nation’s flawed
crusade to curb domestic violence (DV). Originally
a high-minded and well-intentioned effort, the
end-abuse campaign has now fallen prey to an
invidious anti-family agenda. In the name of making
homes safe, the domestic violence industry curtails
fundamental civil rights and often betrays those in
greatest need.
Let me count the ways our domestic violence
effort has failed to deliver on its promises, all
the while undermining our most cherished values and
societal institutions:
1. Takes advantage of vulnerable women.
Our abuse shelters are filled with women who
are just as violent as the men they left. When
abused women come for help, they need a safe place
where they can get counseling, housing assistance,
and treatment for substance abuse problems. But
instead they get a hefty dose of gender ideology
proffered in the name of promoting “female
empowerment:” www.radarsvcs.org/docs/RADARreport-Are-Abuse-Shelters-Helping-True-Victims.pdf
2. Stereotypes men as abusers. Amanda
McCormick of Praxis International recently shocked
abuse conference attendees with this calumny:
“I know a lot of men who deserve to be
beaten.” Less than two months later the
Department of Justice awarded a $3.5 million grant
to her organization, prompting Examiner.com
columnist Trudy Schuett to wonder why the federal
government is using taxpayer money to subsidize
anti-male hate-speech.
3. Misrepresents the truth. The domestic
violence industry often pretends women are never
violence-prone, ignoring the hundreds of studies
that show females are equally likely to slap,
shove, and punch their spouses and boyfriends:
www.csulb.edu/~mfiebert/assault.htm
Remember former NFL star Steven McNair?
4. Featherbeds ineffective programs. Each
year the domestic violence industry takes in over a
billion dollars of federal support. And what good
are those programs doing? “NOT PERFORMING:
Results Not Demonstrated,” the federal Office
of Management and Budget declares on its website:
www.whitehouse.gov/omb/expectmore/summary/10002150.2004.html
5. Spends millions on programs that place
victims at risk. Thanks to the Violence Against
Women Act, the federal government spends millions
of dollars each year to promote “mandatory
arrest” laws. But according to research by
Harvard economist Radha Iyengar, such policies
actually increase partner homicides by nearly
60%.
6. Subscribes to a radical ideology. In
their effort to undermine the family, abuse
industry representatives often recite claims like
“a marriage license is a hitting
license.” Turns out the opposite is true --
persons in stable married relationships are the
least likely to be abused, compared to persons in
dating or co-habiting relationships.
7. Breaks up families and harms children.
Legal scholar Jeannie Suk has authored a chilling
analysis that details how domestic violence laws
allow a man to be vacated from his home without a
shred of hard evidence. Marital break-up ensues and
children wind up in a single parent household:
www.yalelawjournal.org/images/pdfs/439.pdf
8. Abhors accountability. Pay a visit to
the website of the DoJ Office of Violence Against
Women: www.usdoj.gov/ovw . Attempt in vain to
ferret out even basic information about the
millions of taxpayer dollars the agency awards for
domestic violence services every year.
9. Promotes false allegations. The DV
industry tries to convince women to summon the
police for every tiff and squabble -- and rewards
them handsomely for doing so. (One analysis of
restraining orders in West Virginia found 70% of
restraining orders are unnecessary or false.)
Before long the legal system becomes bogged down
with trivial and false cases of partner abuse
– making it harder for the real victims to get
the help they so desperately need.
10. Flouts the Constitution. Our
Constitution was designed to protect innocent
citizens from the arbitrary use of government
power. Maybe that’s why the VAWA Mafia has
worked to circumvent constitutional guarantees of
due process, probable cause, and equal protection
under the law.
Ms. Erin Pizzey was the founder of the first
abuse shelter in the world. In her essay, “The
Planned Destruction of the Family,” Pizzey
reveals how her movement was hijacked by a group of
schemers whose true agenda had little to do with
curbing domestic violence. “Destroy the family
and you destroy the country,” Pizzey
laments.
Yes, our country needs laws such as the Violence
Against Women Act to thwart partner aggression. But
our current approach is in desperate need of an
overhaul.
* * *
Carey
Roberts probes and lampoons political correctness.
His work has been published frequently in the
Washington Times, Townhall.com, LewRockwell.com,
ifeminists.net, Intellectual Conservative, and
elsewhere. He is a staff reporter for the New Media
Network. You can contact him at E-Mail
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