<
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-19/tasmania-police-misidentifying-family-violence-victims-abusers/103102134>
'When two police officers arrived at Bianca's* front door in the middle of a
cold winter's night last year, she assumed they were coming to tell her they'd
taken out a family violence order against her partner.
Just a few hours earlier she'd gone to Hobart Police Station to report that
he'd assaulted her after she'd broken up with him. She followed him home across
the road from a cafe they'd met at, she told officers, saying she wanted to
"end things with love and kindness"; he regularly stormed off during their
relationship and punished her with "silent treatment" for days, and now she
wanted closure on her terms.
But when she stepped inside his house, she said, he grabbed her and shoved her
into the door. She was so shocked and upset that she slapped him, but knew
immediately she was in trouble when she saw the look in his eyes — at
six-foot-two, he towered above her petite frame.
"I thought, 'Oh my god, he's going to kill me'," said Bianca, a lawyer. "He
grabbed me by the ear and … shoved my head into the brick wall and pinned me
there … I honestly thought he was going to keep slamming my head into the wall
— that he was either going to kill me or give me brain damage."
Which is why she was so shocked to hear that, after interviewing her partner,
the officers concluded Bianca was the aggressor and were naming her as the
respondent on a police family violence order (PFVO). She'd been completely
honest with police, she'd pointed out her injuries — she assumed they would
protect her.
"I felt such deep shame that I was being labelled a perpetrator when I'm so
committed to looking after people who are vulnerable," she said. "I thought
that if you tell the truth, and you have evidence, you'll get a just response.
And I learned the hard way that is not the case."'
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
