Orders Of Protection From A Personal Perspective
This may be the most heartfelt I’ve read in a long time. One thing that people forget, especially politicians, is that every person has a personal story behind what they are writing.
I’ll let you go there to read what she went through.
She also breaks down changing the fine for a violated protective order from $50 to $500 and makes a startling comparison.
There was interesting discussion before the approval of the Bill, including testimony that raising the amount of this fine is projected to reduce the number of violations by 25%. Considering there are at least 1,480 such violations across the state each year, that’s a significant number of individuals and families who will be protected from their attackers by this measure. And yet still, my concern is this: why so little? Why not eliminate the possibility that even more families will be terrorized by making the fine even higher? Senator Bunch was quick to amend the Bill to make the $500 fine an optional maximum, because he believes that many protection orders are probably frivolous and their violations not serious enough to warrant that amount. Senator Jackson agreed that judges would be less likely to punish offenders if they had to levy a fine of such a large amount. I found this very interesting considering Senator Bunch has a Bill on the same Judiciary calendar to establish a $5,000 fine for assaulting a school sports official. Evidently he thinks the possibility of a teenager witnessing his Dad get into fisticuffs with the high school football coach is far more traumatizing than a six year old watching her father beat her mother bloody, and should therefore be punished with a fine of at least ten times as much. Senator Bunch isn’t the only member of the Committee whose vote in favor of SB 3100 was an exercise in hypocrisy, however. Senator Beavers has filed two Bills this Session to make life easier for those accused or convicted of domestic violence. SB 1602 will enable those guilty of misdemeanor domestic violence to have their citizenship rights restored, and SB 1618 would give the alleged perpetuator of domestic violence the right to a court hearing to determine if they can get their weapons back before the disposition of the case, if they’re a member of law enforcement or have a hunting or a fishing license or a gun permit.
Let’s break that down. If you terrorize your family, the maximum fine is $500 but there is a bill to have a fine of $5,000 if you assault a school sports official.
After you read what Anarchival went through as a child in a frightening, and very real domestic violence situation, we place more monetary value on a school sports official?
Props to Sen. Beverly Marrero for trying to bring the Order of Protection fines up, and maybe her actions will shed a light on the realities of domestic violence.
