He was 23 years old, and she was 24.He hit her once; he said it was a mistake.He pushed her into a wall.He helped her cover the bruises with make-up.He used her face as a punching bag.He proposed to her; she became pregnant.He dragged her pregnant body down the stairs with a dog leash.He made her hide the details of their marriage from their families.Her family realized her danger…He murdered her, leaving her lifeless body in their home while their children slept.
This is a brief account of the events that happened to someone I personally knew.
On a few occasions, I sat beside her husband, the cold-blooded murderer. However, I did not know that one of those times would be the last time I would see his wife alive.
Instantaneously, their two very young children lost their mother and their father, to a life sentence without parole in prison and a funeral in which they did not attend.
Justice was not served because two children will grow up without their parents. Two caretakers, their providers, are gone…all because of domestic violence.
In light of the talk about R&B/pop singer Chris Brown’s alleged attack on his girlfriend, singer Rihanna, domestic violence in our generation has been brought to the forefront in newspapers and television broadcasts. Domestic violence affects couples and families at any age. Chris Brown and Rihanna are 19 and 21 years old, respectively. This is our age range.
According to a 2000 U.S. Department of Justice survey by Patricia Tjaden and Nancy Thoennes, approximately 1.3 million women and 835,000 men are physically assaulted by an intimate partner annually in the United States.
Yet in another Department of Justice survey conducted by Matthew R. Durose in 2005, 18-24 year olds comprised only 11.7 percent of the population in 1998 and 2002, but were the majority of victims of violence committed by a boyfriend or girlfriend (42%).
Young women and young men, please set your standards for what will and will not be tolerated in relationships.
It takes a certain person to become an abuser and a certain person to stay and continue to be abused.
Don’t be that person.