Our Government Doesn't Actually Care About Victims of Crime.

This morning, President Trump was bragging about how dramatically he's reduced crime. He gave no real statistics or citations at all -- just claimed to a cheering crowd that things were bad and now they aren't because he's so good at what he does. Then, admitting that the crime isn't 0, this man actually said, "Things that take place in the home, they call crime. You know, they'll do anything they can to find something. If a man has a little fight with the wife, they say this was a crime scene. So now I can't claim 100%," *
This is another shameful attempt to diminish the voices of victims -- especially women. And this is very, very dangerous. An average of 3 women die every day in the US at the hand of a partner. This nearly always happens in their home. About 75% of these incidents occur when the woman is trying to leave, after many other incidents that Trump has just chalked up as "a little fight with the wife" and claimed is not a real crime. **
Let me be clear -- he said that crime will never be 100% erradicated because women are reporting things that happen at home that shouldn't be counted as crime.
If you've ever been the victim of intimate partner violence, you've heard this BS before. It's been used to shame you, gaslight you, and make you lose hope.
"What happens at home should stay at home."
"It's a personal issue, don't make it public."
"It's not really as bad as you think it is."
"You shouldn't have done anything to provoke him." (Or as the pastor I sought council from in 2001 said, "You really should just work harder to be a better wife.")
This is dangerous. This is appalling. This is the patriarchy at its most condescending and violent.
The more we as a culture believe the lies about IPV and how people deserve to be treated in their own homes, the more people are at risk of violence in what should be the safest place in the world for them.
If you would like information on how to support a local organization that is working to prevent domestic violence and provide anti-violence education in our communities, please let me know. Especially as more and more non-profits and community services agencies are losing funding, every minute and every dollar matter. We need funders, donors, volunteers, and board members, among other things. *** I'm especially looking at you, men. It's largely women leading the fight against DV/IPV, but the powers out there clearly don't care to stop and listen to female voices. We need you to be out there publicly and have our back.


*No, I'm not directly citing one source for this one. Watch any number of YouTube or news videos and/or reports of his comments. I cited this word from word from his speech.

** Take your pick of sources:
 https://www.cdc.gov/intimate-partner-violence/about/index.html
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK499891/
https://www.ncdsv.org/uploads/1/4/2/2/142238266/53b59f30-959f-4d79-8106-96d644745ccf.pdf
https://www.pcadv.org/
https://www.thehotline.org/stakeholders/domestic-violence-statistics/

***https://www.crisiscenternorth.org/