Georgia School Superintendents Association - Chief advocate for Georgia’s public school children, Spring Bootstrat Conference, 2016

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UNTIL IT SPILLS INTO THE STREETS, Part 2 of 2

     22,574 Temporary Protective Orders (TPO) were issued in the state of Georgia in 2014. Cheryl Branch is the director of SAFEShelter Center for Domestic Violence Services of Savannah, GA.  Her agency helps residents of Chatham County file TPOs related to Family Violence. They also provide counseling services and emergency shelter to victims of Domestic Violence, which is defined as Intimate Partner Violence.  Branch pointed out there were six intimate partner fatalities in 2015 as of November.
    

     Branch explained how and why the definition of Intimate Partner Violence has changed over time.  “The definition of domestic violence had always been Intimate Partner Violence.  But, we didn’t get involved in mother, daughter, brother types of incidents.  We would refer them to somebody else.  But the look of households has changed.  A couple of years ago, the definition was broadened to include those.  So, we may have a sister in our shelter who lived with her brother and he beat her up.  Now, she qualifies to be in our shelter. Asking for help initiates our service.  That’s the one thing that I cannot stress enough.  Another is ‘find a way out’.  In our thirty-five year history, each time there is a domestic homicide, we get in touch with the lead detective and do an informal fatality review,” she said.
     Part of that review is to find out whether the victim had ever requested help from the shelter.  “That answer has always been no,” Branch continued.  “No one who has ever been involved in any of our services has ever been killed.  Having that intervention, that first phone call... whether it’s to 911 or through our crisis line, you are taking your control back.  You are putting people on notice that you are in trouble and that you need help.  That first phone call may be the hardest one to make but you are getting law enforcement and social services involved.  That’s what saves lives.”
     ”Violence has no zip code and is not restricted to a demographic,” she continued.  “These families involved in Intimate Partner Violence go on vacations together.  They go to church.  Their kids play in Little League.  We have had clients from every single zip code in Savannah.”
     According to Branch, a victim’s social status often plays a role in their willingness to seek help. “Women in public housing tend to be aware of and get the support available to them,” she said.  “The more affluent tend not to do that.  For women in more affluent communities, it tends to be about status and who has the financial power to drive an outcome.  I have seen some of the most horrific violence coming out of affluent communities.  To those women I say be honest about how your injuries occurred.”
     Jennifer Sotomayor, Bilingual Legal Advocate at Safe Shelter, stated, “The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence states that it takes seven to nine incidents before the first call is made.”
“There are always barriers to complicate people seeking help,” Sotomayor said.  “For one set of clients, immigration status is that complication.  There are language barriers and other hurdles for those victims as well, including psychological leverage.  Abusers will use the threat of ruining the victim’s immigration status whether they are properly documented or undocumented, including separation from their children.  There are times when the abuser speaks English but the victim does not.  When the police respond, if there is no neutral interpreter, the abuser retains the power.”
     Sotomayor went on to say that the prosecution of men for the homicides of women tends to be low in Mexico and other Central American countries.  It builds fear of retribution in the victim with no fear of punishment for the abuser.  “So it can be very difficult to get victims to come forward… we believe our service’s capability doesn’t reflect the population growth.  It’s difficult.  We want to expand our outreach into the outlying communities.”
     Branch added, “The protective order is a civil matter.  The best-case scenario is that she gets a Temporary Protective Order.  One of the best things you can do is have a paper trail.  Call the police.  Be honest about the injuries you received.  It doesn’t matter what the abuser tells the judge, there must be proof.  So, have medical reports, police reports, and witnesses.  These are tangible things the judge can see to determine who is telling the truth. The judge hears the victim’s complaint, signs an order stating the abuser has to stay away, which may include being removed from the home.  She retains temporary custody of the children.  The victim has those protections regardless of immigration status.  If that TPO is broken, then the abuser’s immigration status may become an issue, not the victim’s.  Deportation becomes the abuser’s worry.  The abuser is made aware of this when the order is served. 
     “Once she leaves the shelter, a case manager can follow a victim with up to two years of home visits,” Branch said.  “We can assist with rent and utility deposits.  95% of the women in that program have not gone back to their abuser.  We do as much as we can but we are a band-aid for re-establishing victims back into the community.  Some of them cannot go back to other family.  Child-care is expensive. Transportation can be an issue.  Employment is an issue.  Part-time employment is insufficient.” 
     “We have seen some kids come through our shelter with mothers with whom there is no connection,” Branch said. “We have adults who have burned bridges with parents and cannot go home.  We have elderly clients who must come to the shelter because they cannot live with their grown children.  This is especially bad because the abuser is normally the caretaker.  The oldest client for a protective order was a woman from the Landings in her 80s.  She was the victim of her husband’s abuse. We have assisted with women in human trafficking.”

     Two local clergy agreed to provide written comments.
     Pastor of Overcoming ByFaith Ministries, Dr. Ricky Temple, Savannah, GA: “It is very difficult to watch families you have known for years face the devastating results of violence. Watching young men and women die or be severely damaged physically and emotionally is the hardest part of my job. Early intervention is the key to helping families identify the traps that lead to most of these issues. It's important to create support tools that teach parents to have time for their kids so they are not left bored and drawn to unhealthy relationships to fill up their lonely moments. Another step for families would be to create a safe, fun, and transparent family environment. If the kids can come home and share their pains it's the best place for them to find healing and mature guidance. It's when they are left alone that they wander off into or are recruited into relationships that lead to violent crime.  I try to accomplish these goals by providing practical sermons, activities, and events that inspire families to follow this kind of approach to family life.”
     “It drives me to encourage parents to stay with and engage their children,” he said.  “Proverbs 29:15, in the Message Version of the Bible says, "Wise discipline imparts wisdom; spoiled adolescents embarrass their parents. The King James Version has a nice poetic sound to the same verse, "a child left to himself brings shame to his mother.” The key phrase is "left to himself."
     Fr. Joseph Smith, Pastor of Saint AnneCatholic Church, Richmond Hill, GA: “Any crime against another human being lessens the dignity and humanity of all that are involved...faith, hope, education, prayer, awareness and stronger homes with good modeling behavior are essential to ending “family violence” and hopefully lessening and eventually wiping out most criminal behavior. I would not be surprised if the number of “domestic violence crimes” were considerably under-reported, not due to the agencies, but due to many personal factors connected to this type crime. It is in the nature of people to want it to go away or to pretend on some level that it would never happen again. So very much pain...the fact that children learn so much within the walls of their homes, often picking up things that the adults around them never intended.”
     “Sadly we live in a time where the “culture of anger” and angry, immediate response is the unfortunate norm,” he said.  “To break the cycle of “domestic violence” I honestly think that education and information is the key and is essential to stopping the negative, violent, hurtful behaviors learned firsthand.”

     Law Enforcement and SAFE Shelter deal with family relationships that spiral out of control.  Threats and violence build out of the public eye until they spill into the streets and make the news.  The press doesn’t necessarily provide a follow-up on each incident to reveal the motive or connection behind a fatal injury, gun or knife wound, rape, or sexual assault, but the data points to a family connection in a large number of cases.

     So how do local mayors or heads of law enforcement tackle the 40% to 78% of the violent crime connected to family violence?  How much more difficult is it to address when public perceptions conflict with the true sources of most violent crime? There are no easy answers. But there is no denying that, by the time law enforcement gets involved in crimes related to domestic violence, it may be too late to prevent anything... except for an escalation of even more violence.

UNTIL IT SPILLS INTO THE STREETS, Part 1

Type of wound: Fatal Injury, Permanently Disabled, Temporarily Disabled, Broken Bone, Gun/Knife Wounds, Superficial Wounds, Sexual Assault; Weapons Type: Firearm, Cutting/Knife, Hand/Fist, other Weapons.

Through out the U.S. the new year brings new mayors who are tasked by voters with bringing crime rates down.  Along with taking a hardline on crime, increasing economic development, inspiring and supporting community action, educating children, protecting gun rights, and advocating on behalf of the police department, here is something else to consider. 

These data categories are searchable in the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s (GBI) Online Crime Statistics Website.  Each number hides the name of a victim or target of a crime- a person, a unique individual, a son or daughter, a husband or wife who was shot, stabbed, sexually assaulted, and/or threatened with such.  Rightly, communities are outraged.     

     

The data indicates that violent crimes committed by family members upon family members or those associated with family are nearly large as or larger than “street crime” depending on where one lives.  This data is from one region but there is little doubt that the numbers are very similar in many communities in the U.S. All raw numbers are from the GBI website.

The Crime Statistics Report lists seven categories.  Four of seven were selected to compare against six of eleven categories from the Family Violence Report.  All categories contain individual incidents perpetrated by an aggressor upon a victim, a unique crime.  This was confirmed in conversation with GBI. Family violence includes present spouse, former spouse, child, parent, stepparent, stepchild, foster child, foster parent, lives in the same household or did, and others associated with the family.

Aggravated assault is an assault with the intent to murder, rob, or rape using a “deadly weapon” or “instrument” that is likely to inflict serious “bodily injury”, GA Code 16-5-21 (2010).  Savannah Metro Police provided separate information on aggravated assault. Of the 572 aggravated assaults prior to November 2015, 21% were domestic- family member upon family member.  When the discussion was expanded to other relatives and known associates, the number nearly tripled, hitting close to 60% of all reported aggravated assaults. 

Sexual assault deserves a special note because it is omitted from this article’s GBI data analysis.  Sexual assault is a crime under GA law; yet, the category does not exist in the searchable Crime Statistics Report. While sexual assault is reported, none of the 414 statewide family-related sexual assaults, 0% are reported as rape.

With those exceptions or limitations, here are some implications from this chart:

Ø  The sum of Intra-family violent crime is nearly as large as the reported sum of Murders, Rapes, Assaults, and Robberies for the State, Bryan County, and Chatham County in the Crime Statistics Report.

Ø  Intra-family violent crime is much greater than the reported sum of Murders, Rapes, Assaults, and Robberies in Effingham or Liberty Counties. 

Ø  The 2014 data show that in both Effingham and Liberty Counties, victims encountered more violence from family than from strangers.

Ø  Records from 2012, 2013, and 2014 show more cases of men as the aggressor than women in all but one category - firearms.  There are some limitations to the Family Violence Report.  For example, gun and knife injuries are listed together.  GBI has a disclaimer that the sex of the aggressor is not always recorded.  However, total incidents where guns were used are broken out separately.  By considering the recorded aggressor and the number of cases involving firearms, men and women are nearly equally recorded as the aggressor in wielding a firearm in violent acts directed intra-family.

   Read Part 2:

Choice or No Choice

Mia Smith, age 6, was born into a physical world that causes her pain and hinders her behavioral and cognitive development.  She was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder before her 2^nd  birthday.  Some of the initial healthcare Mia received made matters worse though it was seen as therapeutic at the time. 

Mia’s mother, Terra Smith, Puzzle Master and Chief Recovery Officer, works with doctors, therapists, and insurance companies to piece together all the care required for Mia’s recovery.  The tab, thus far, is over $5M dollars.  Mia’s father, Craig Smith, puts in the work hours to make sure the family has a home, food, and clothes.  Terra's Essential Oils business is starting to grow into a consistent income.

One of the primary puzzle pieces Terra deals with is vaccinations.  Forces of “choice versus no choice” amass on opposite sides of this issue, each attracting advocates who fire policy opinions at the other.  Terra discovers that posting an online comment seeking or offering

Hope Comes in Pieces

help elicits a stream of insults and accusations that she doesn’t care about Mia or children like her.  The Smith family gets ten to twenty emails per year, letters from the state, as well as inquiries from insurance companies about Mia’s lack of immunizations. 

Since I co-authored a book on this subject with Terra Smith entitled “Hope Comes In Pieces”, some may see this article as promoting my own business interests.  As long as there is an understanding of how that business interest developed, it’s a fair criticism. 

To my knowledge, none of my three children were adversely affected by immunizations.  My wife and I kept to the requirements and recommendations with few exceptions.  Becoming part of the writing process for Terra’s book gave me another perspective on the immunization issue.  It took one conversation with Terra to understand that Mia’s vaccine story really pivots on two questions– should Mia have been vaccinated after she was born sick? Should her vaccination regimen of twenty-four shots before age two have continued, though she had several infections with fevers? All of this was done under that care of physicians and specialists.

Helping Terra insert those two questions into the contemporary controversy surrounding vaccines and autism may influence this conversation.  That’s how my “business” interest came about– to help a family tell their story because it may prompt a pause in a loud and polarizing argument. I also wanted to partner with them to find other entrepreneurial ways to pay for Mia’s care.

 Guidance from the Center For Disease Control (CDC) points to various “contraindications and precautions” in which vaccines may present a risk if administered.  It even advises parents to consider not giving an inoculation under certain circumstances.  Mia was born Oct 2009 after a difficult pregnancy.  Craig and Terra barely had time for a photo with her before she was placed into special care.  Mia was officially sick at birth. She had jaundice, low oxygen levels of mid-80 percent, and displayed her first allergy after receiving formula.  She received Hepatitis B, treatments, and antibiotics during that twelve-day hospital stay. 

Mia continued to be sick. She suffered from recurring fevers and rashes, nine cases of pneumonia, viral infections, allergic reactions to apple juice, antibiotics, and acid reflux medication.  Her cognitive and behavioral development regressed.  Yet, her vaccinations continued to be administered as recommended.  From the time she was born in 2009 to October 2011, Mia received at least twenty-four immunizations all during a time in which she was sick,with fevers, and under the care of Neo-natal Intensive Care physicians or a pediatrician. 

In contrast, my daughter received twenty-one immunizations over eleven years.  Even after 24 years of military service including a career in healthcare, six doses of the Anthrax vaccines, and other additional vaccines necessary for deployments, I received only ten more immunizations than Mia.

No doubt, some readers may assert that this article still doesn’t support even an anecdotal connection between vaccines and autism.  Okay, but that’s not really the point.  In my opinion, the current path of that argument may not be helpful because it seems to detract from these questions.  Should Mia have been vaccinated initially? Should her vaccination regimen of 24 shots before age two have continued?  To state it differently, does this particular child need to be vaccinated with this vaccine at this particular moment?  Is there a manner of testing a particular child or do we just commit the child to a morbidity risk table and call it good?  Actually, these are the recurring conversations Terra and I had when determining how to develop the chapters that describe Mia’s vaccine story.   

Terra thanks and credits God as responsible for helping Mia progress from an ill child who did not speak or walk, who fell into tantrums for hours, who had problems switching a block from her right hand to her left hand, who broke-out in rashes of which could never be resolved, who suffered nine bouts of pneumonia, who didn’t respond to her name, and rarely went outside. 

Mia still works her way through many challenges but she is much better today. Terra continues to advocate for special needs children and their parents.  She guides them toward resources for grants and biomedical testing which helps parent understand conditions that may be present alongside autism. Her best advice to moms– “Trust your mother’s intuition.  Find a pediatrician who gives weight to your concerns and observations.”  

Thanks to John Newton at La Voz Latina for originally publishing this article in a manner that  let me retain all rights.

Until It Spills Into The Streets

Thank you John Newton of Savannah Morning News for your editorial guidance in publishing Until It Spills Into The Streets.

Thanks to Georgia Bureau of Investigations, Savannah Chatham Metropolitan Police, Cheryl Branch and Jennifer Sotomayor of SAFE Shelter Savannah, Father Joseph Smith of St. Anne’s Catholic Church, and Dr. Ricky Temple of Overcoming by Faith. I appreciate their willingness to provide information or to be interviewed.

This article challenges most clichés and political barbs about reducing crime by focusing on an area that has both urban and rural demographics in close vicinity.   How can governmental departments, law enforcement, clergy, social services, and citizens significantly lower the numbers of criminal acts when public pressure pushes heavily in a direction that causes very important factors to be ignored?

Read Until It Spills Into The Streets by Al Hardy in LaVoz Latina, owned by Savannah Morning News. English version found here