Here's an interaction I had yesterday with the Everett police. Instead of going to bed after work (a little later than normal because it was my sister's last day of her summer visit here), my whole household got embroiled in a terrifying domestic violence situation where we were confronted by a 17 year old girl being physically attacked by her her boyfriend. She screamed literal bloody murder as he physically attempted to force her back into his apartment, while she was forcibly trying to get away. My daughter personally witnessed the struggle while the rest of the neighborhood heard it. We called 911, who took nearly 10 minutes to arrive, despite the cop shop literally being a block from my house. In the meantime, the girl broke free and my daughter brought her into our home for safety while we waited for the cops to get there. When they finally arrived, EPD officers Rizzo and Foucks immediately made it clear that they were under impressed by our conjoined report of what had just happened. They said to the girl, "did he punch you or kick you?", and when she didn't say yes, they made as if to simply walk away. I was shocked and asked (as did my family members) "did they not consider being forcibly, physically being drug into an apartment against your will assault?!" And Rizzo replied, "it doesn't matter what I think, it matters what the courts think." Already decided for her, what the outcome of her case would be. I pushed the point, "how can you not consider that assault? If it's not assault, then what was it?! Kidnapping?!", for a while, until it became clear that he was getting irritated by my questioning.
They then left the victim in my home and went to talk to the perpetrator. A few minutes later, officer Foucks came over and, from the sidewalk, shouted "you can send her out now." In a clearly unfriendly, irritated fashion. My sister and daughter had watched from a distance the interaction with the boyfriend and THE COPS DID NOTHING. They stood by while the girl gathered her dog and a jacket and escorted her off the property. And that was it. No arrest for the guy attacking her, no citation, no case number, nothing. There were 4 women witnesses apart from the victim who were freely reporting what had transpired, and they did nothing. Their attitudes from the beginning made it clear that, to them, it was nothing.
What kind of message does this convey to this young woman? That she's not entitled to help when her life is endangered? What does it communicate to us, as reporters, that our voices are irrelevant? What about the message to the boyfriend, that the girl's life is his own to do with as he pleases? THEY DID NOTHING! No community police response, where they might have pointed her toward social services, no message other than "all of you are wasting our time". How might their response have been different if there had been a man in our house with us, verifying our account?
The girl told us that her mother had died from cancer the week before, we don't know if this is true. When it was over, my daughter walked with her to a relatives place, and came back with the sense that she had absolutely no support, anywhere, which makes it pretty likely they she'll end up back at that terrible boyfriend's house and just get caught up in a endless cycle of abuse. The whole thing was extraordinarily distressing.
So, I couldn't get to bed till well after 4:00
pm, and am now 4 hours late for work. My roommate is triggered by her recollections of traumatic events when she was younger. My 17 year old (black) daughter just learned a salient lesson on how safe she isn't in this country.
When we, as members of our community, are beset by violence, we are supposed to be able to turn to our police departments for help and to uphold the law. When we can't even count on that, what on earth is next?! read more
