Governor Patterson's Farewell

When Eliot Spitzer imploded under the weight of his own hubris, the newly sworn Governor Patterson seemed like the perfect foil. His intellect, sense of humor, apparent humility and record in the State Senate restored my hope that New York State would start doing bold, smart, forward-thinking things. It didn't take long to realize that the new Governor's honeymoon could be counted in minutes. He was in a tough position given the economic realities he inherited and lacked the perceived power (or perhaps desire) to push his own agenda. Despite Spitzer's abuse of office in trying to get rid of Joe Bruno - I admired the goal but not the method - Patterson learned very little from it.

Domestic violence may not be the third rail of American politics but I wouldn't mind if it were. If you can't feel safe in your own home, what else matters? If a husband or partner gives a woman a morning gift of a black eye, how do we expect that the victim will have the ability to show up at a march to support more money to find a cure for cancer, volunteer at a hospital or make it to work? Ironically, many women do. They need to feed their families. They apply a little foundation make-up or invent a story to deny the reality. Why do they do this? Many are afraid to report it for a variety of reasons, some of them economic. They also know that the criminal justice system and their elected officials do a terrible job of protecting them when they do report it. For some, orders of protection are useless or come too late. For others, they blame themselves for the violence and don't know where to turn for help. Some churches will continue to tell some of these women that their sacred vows cannot be broken even when their noses change shape every year. Some of them are killed by their abusers.

If it is true that Governor Patterson improperly used his office to interfere with a criminal case involving domestic violence by encouraging the victim to keep quiet or change her story, he should not only lose his job. He should lose his law license and maybe spend some time in jail. It's not just about this case. It's about the entitlement of all victims to a government that is committed to protecting them, however imperfectly. It's about children who should never have to watch a parent sit in an emergency room to get her nose or arm reset only to return to the scene of the crime hours later, wondering when it will happen again and if it will be worse the next time. If you don't believe that it affects kids that much, I can tell you from personal experience that it does.

We imprison people who sell dime bags of marijuana. Fine. We imprison poor people who shoplift food. Not so fine. We usually wait until a domestic abuser violates an order of protection to send them to jail and it's because they are in contempt of Court. Not fine.

I would like to believe that this story, if true, will ensure that our state government will take it seriously, improve the criminal justice system and provide real protection for victims. I don't believe it will, though. My lack of optimism is a practical response to what I have known since I was a kid. Women still lack the political and economic power to stop it. Because the vast majority of domestic violence is between straight couples with females being the typical victims, it could take decades to get it right. Too many women will be injured or killed in the meantime. Maybe women who are not victims of domestic violence could make it their business to organize their husbands or partners to stand up and march to Albany. That might get someone's attention.