Time to hit the gun range.
Hi gang, Ross here with some fantastic news for those of you who love beating the shit out of your spouse! Congratulations, it’s now essentially legal to intimidate, harass and assault one’s relations with impunity. ARE YOU READY TO RUMBLLLLEEE!!!!!!!
In a 7-2 decision, the Court ruled that local governments have no constitutional duty to protect from private violence an individual who is shielded by a court’s restraining order. Such individuals do not gain an enforceable interest in that protection, the Court declared in an opinion by Justice Scalia. The case was Town of Castle Rock v. Gonzales (04-278).
In a day of monumental Supreme Court Cases, this one is recieving barely any coverage, but it might just be the most important one of the whole horrible lot, and it certainly has the widest application to our lives. I’m currently trying to track down a summary that’s actually readable by the average human being, but in the meantime, here’s the full decision. It’s 49 fucking pages long, so enter at your own risk.
Until I’m able to find a good summary, here’s the gist – The Colorado woman in this case had a restraining order against her husband, who just happened to be an abuser (and an incredible dickhead.) When one day her kids turned up missing, she called the cops repeatedly, absolutely sure that the husband had violated the order. Johnny Law failed to act on her fairly reasonable concerns with anything even remotely resembling proper attention, and by the time they finally got around to actually fucking believing her, the husband had murdered all of her children.
Well today, the Supreme Court just told her “Tough Titty”. They have effectively rendered the entire concept of a restraining order moot. There is now no legal recourse for people without the financial means to hire a bodyguard, in order to protect themselves from crazy-ass freaks who can’t handle marital problems like a man. Then again, as we all know, living in magical fairy land means people will just naturally obey a law that has no real threat of enforcement. Hooray!
Except that the majority of us don’t live in magical fairy land. IN the USA, if there’s no real obligation to enforce a legal order, then there’s no real reason to obey one. From now on, A Restraining order will be to violent men what a parking ticket is to rich assholes in Santa Monica. The rest of us ought to start boning up on our shotgun skills. It’s going to be a long summer.
Anyway, sorry gals, you never should’a promised it to him.
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Actually my brother had the same problem. The ex-wife would never be available at the right time (which was unchanged for her, she works at a bank) for him to pick up the kids. How she managed to get the kids after throwing knives at him in public (witnessed by a whole block and two cops) is beyond me. Fortunately she didn’t know the combination to the gun safe I guess…
It’s not always the guy who is a violent dickhead. Women can be just as evil.
Comment by Inglix — June 27, 2005 @ 2:36 pm
That’s certainly true, and no one is claiming that people of Both genders aren’t capable of trying to vindictively destroy each other during a divorce. Years of pent up grievances, combined with angry self-centeredness can make people insane.
However, the issue here is that a man with a violent history who had a restraining order against him violated the order and murdered his own children, and the police reufsed to take the situation seriously until after it was too late.
As for custody situations, the problem, sadly, is that generally there’s far more vindictive attacks directed towards women than the other way around. I’m not saying your brother was such a man, just that the situation you describe is far rarer than violence directed towards women, punative financial attacks directed against ex-wives, and fathers all but abandoning their kids when they make a new life. That is why women are legally given the benefit of the doubt in these circumstances.
That said, I do think this situation might be up for a legal reexamination.
Comment by Ross A Lincoln — June 27, 2005 @ 2:49 pm
” Women can be just as evil.”
Too bad statistically ‘WAY more violence to children is committed by the fathers. But thanks for the red herring.
Comment by Jeric_Synergy — June 28, 2005 @ 8:59 am