This was great. My biggest hesitation with all these protests about domestic violence and spending a Billion dollars combating it was that I didn’t know what was possible to do about it. Other than de-normalising violence, I couldn’t see what the point was. You can’t exactly pass a law saying it’s illegal to assault and kill people - it’s already illegal.
So, I disagree with this guy on one point: We don’t all know what immediately needs to be done. I had no clue, at least.
I love that when he was challenged, he had a list of things that needed to happen. Now. And he seems to only just be getting started. I’m sold - we need to listen to the people in the trenches who are facing domestic violence. They’re the ones who know what needs to be done.
When it comes down to it, cops are the ones dealing with a lot of shit other people avoid. Like you’re saying, we should consider what they have to say about it.
Also, we should give them mental health support. It’s a stressful job with abundant opportunities for trauma. Even if we have no empathy for them, it’s in our best interest to provide tools and support to the people dealing with violent and mentally ill people. But that’s a whole other conversation.
Why on earth would we have no empathy for them? I cannot imagine what it takes to hold and comfort a 10 year old child dying in my arms who has been stabbed by their parent. With two kids around that age myself, I’d be a complete wreck! And he’s attended up to 20 domestic violence calls in a night! For years!
Nothing but respect for someone who can do that.
Lemmy is full of anti-police propaganda and pure hatred, it’s wild. So, I framed it as a hypothetical.
I do have empathy for them, and think any well-adjusted and intelligent person should.
Most of the vitriol I see is directed at US police. Being an Australian instance, we don’t get that so much.
We get plenty of it here. And deservedly so. Ask any Aboriginal Australian how police behave to people in their communities. See how they act when people are protesting on public land. See the NSW police strip searching children. Or the Canberra police choosing not to prosecute a driver who murdered a cyclist while driving a non-roadworthy vehicle (and lied about the circumstances surrounding the crash to cover it up)—heck, while we’re at it, try reporting dangerous driving around yourself as a cyclist and wait to see how long it takes the police to blame you. Or their widely-reported problem with domestic violence which they collectively cover up. Or when they kidnapped children and dumped them in the middle of nowhere in the '90s and were still working with no punishment into this decade.
“ACAB” gets a lot more attention in America than here. Partly because of that country’s gross problem with guns, which thankfully largely does not exist here. And also partly just because American media is so ubiquitous over here and around the world. But it’s no less true that ACAB in Australia than it is in America.
That doesn’t mean every action taken by every individual cop is bad. It has never meant that—in America or here. This cop is doing a good thing right now. He’s using his voice as an ex-cop to try and help a real problem in our society. It’s notable that part of what he asks for is funding for non-police organisations that help with domestic violence situations.
But he’s also a former member of an organisation that is part of the problem with domestic violence. Committing domestic violence at a higher rate than the general population, and helping each other cover it up. He may not have actively done that himself, but was he speaking out about it while he still served? Heck, where is he speaking out about that part of the problem even now?
It’s a tough job, and giving them adequate mental health services to help deal with that difficulty is absolutely fair. But that shouldn’t in any way take away from them receiving all the same “vitriol” you’ve seen directed at them in America. Because they’ve more than earnt it.
Years ago I’s targetted by WAPol with a Mintie based propaganda campaign on Aussie day. I’ve been brainwashed ever since. Those sneaky bastards!
Uber did that to me, too! In the early days, drivers used to offer you minties. I ended up buying them for myself for a while there.
There is a little, but it tends to be directed more at police misbehaviour/corruption when it pops up.
What’s wild is how people trust cops in this country. Watch the Moonlight State and know the joke is alive and well.
Here in Seattle the cops don’t fly an American flag outside their union headquarters, only the “thin blue line” flag. In their salary negotiations they sacrificed a week of back pay so their back pay could start on 1/6/2021 (the date of the Capitol insurrection) instead of the end of their last contract. Dozens of our police here in Washington participated in the insurrection. They were under a consent decree for civil rights violations for a decade. When a cop recently ran over a college student while going 74 mph in a 25, the vice president of the police union was caught on camera laughing with the police union president and saying “she was 26 anyway, she had limited value.” Police here have a dismal crime clearance rate, often don’t respond at all to property crimes, or take forever. During the protests in 2020, they were absolutely savage with protestors.
I have no empathy for the police, here in America at least. They are an occupying, militarized force that has zero accountability to the people. Maybe if they started treating citizens like human beings, and holding themselves to a higher standard, I would.
He says critical frontline services — addressing the drug and alcohol abuse, gambling addiction and mental illness that underlie many domestic assaults — have been underfunded for decades.
If a male has a history of crimes of violence, of any form of domestic violence, coercion, physical, emotional, they should not have the presumption of bail," he said. “They should not get bail at all”
If offenders are released into the community while awaiting court appearances, Mr Hurley says they need [mental health] support too.
I’ve never understood how these violent criminals can be let out on bail, especially when they have a target already. Stab a stranger and you go to jail but stabbing your wife is apparently a less serious offence.
Good to see a cop advocating for extra funding to community and mental health services.
Let’s hope its taken on board and the politicians do more to boost quality of life for people as well. It might help with more than just domestic violence
Worth a read, he’s probably right. I don’t think domestic violence is committed by evil men, no one is born evil. Something needs to be done about addressing the root problem
I think there is a lot of normalised domestic abuse.
There are also a lot of overaged boys who still believe that “boys will be boys” is acceptable societal behaviour.
I went to an all boy school. Sexist and disrespect towards women and girls pretty much went unchallenged by the majority, it was mostly hidden from the teachers but they rarely would interfere. There was an instance in year 12 where one of the prefects made a comment which was pretty disgusting at a year level assembly, a female teacher who was there I had a class with later that day took issue with it as well. The comment was supposedly a joke, however it wasn’t the sort of joke where it’s intended to be funny because the view is stupid or outdated. I probably could’ve done something about it, but I think my discontent with the student leadership and the groups involved was already established so my voice wouldn’t have carried any weight. At least it didn’t when we brought other allegations against student leadership to the head of senior school in year 11.
I’ve got no idea what those people are doing now but I can only hope they’ve changed their views
God damn I love people like this. We need more people with controlled, righteous fury to be put in positions to let rip.
