The city council in Topeka, KS has decided to decriminalize domestic violence. The city prosecutor refused to file charges for misdemeanor dv cases. Period. He figured that would be the best way to cut his budget.
He was trying to force more $$ from the city and also force the county to go ahead and deal with all the dv cases. It is NOT going well for him. While some things are not prosecuted even though they are illegal, in my opinion this is NOT the one to pick.
I can think of few things more likely to make women go vote. I hope they replace EVERY elected official who was involved in this in the next election. I am flat out horrified. Yes, budget cuts need to happen and priorities have to be made. But that is NO excuse for women to be left with NO legal recourse to protect themselves. Talk about sending us back to the dark ages.
Public backlash is causing them to reconsider and agree to prosecute cases again, but I am willing to bet that they won't do much after the spotlight disappears. If it was mostly MEN being abused the budgets would be a LOT higher and the cases would be prosecuted - and many of the ones now considered misdemeanors would be felonies. But it is about women and kids getting hurt, so they think they can just ignore it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/12/us/topeka-moves-to-decriminalize-domestic-violence.html
He was trying to force more $$ from the city and also force the county to go ahead and deal with all the dv cases. It is NOT going well for him. While some things are not prosecuted even though they are illegal, in my opinion this is NOT the one to pick.
I can think of few things more likely to make women go vote. I hope they replace EVERY elected official who was involved in this in the next election. I am flat out horrified. Yes, budget cuts need to happen and priorities have to be made. But that is NO excuse for women to be left with NO legal recourse to protect themselves. Talk about sending us back to the dark ages.
Public backlash is causing them to reconsider and agree to prosecute cases again, but I am willing to bet that they won't do much after the spotlight disappears. If it was mostly MEN being abused the budgets would be a LOT higher and the cases would be prosecuted - and many of the ones now considered misdemeanors would be felonies. But it is about women and kids getting hurt, so they think they can just ignore it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/12/us/topeka-moves-to-decriminalize-domestic-violence.html