You took a perjury rap for his sorry ass, while he walked away scot-free. And the reward you get is that he pulls a gun on you and your father? Not pressing charges is a mistake. A restraining order would be more like it. He’s tasted blood once, and he may want to do so again.
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
As a victim of domestic violence, there are numerous reasons for why someone doesn’t press charges, especially in cases with this lunatic. It’s not your call to determine whether it’s a mistake or not.
Actually, the notion that it’s the victim’s choice whether to “press charges” is commonly held but false.
Either the City Attorney or DA in that jurisdiction makes the call whether to prosecute. The main issue re: the victim is whether the prosecutor can get the victim to court to testify, either voluntarily or under the threat of a subpoena. Sometimes victims who really don’t want to “press charges” will testify anyway because they don’t want to be held in contempt. But prosecutors will generally try to avoid charging/punishing the victim if they can do so. And a cooperative victim makes a big difference in terms of the quality of the testimony you get.
Right, the DA decides whether to prosecute/presses the charges, but what I mean is “filing a report”. I don’t know the full story here, but typically when shit like this went down at my house, mom would just try to get the cops to leave (even though she/my sister called them).
This is exactly why, when someone calls 911 for DV in our (and a number of other) states now, and the cops come, somebody is leaving with them and spending the night in lockup. There may nor may not ever be charges pressed, but it keeps the situation from escalating after the cops leave. Once the abuser gets out of jail and comes home, however, all bets are off.
Cops hate DV calls more than any other type. As a survivor of both a law enforcement family and an abusive father (who, because he worked in law enforcement and was held in high esteem by the community, considered himself untouchable, and was generally correct about that), I totally understand why.
Sounds like we have a lot in common, Geov. He’s gotten better as time has gone on, and I think since I’ve stood up to him many times as an adult, he’s sought real help and gotten a bit better.
That’s good to hear; I hope the trend continues, and you can have a positive role (and take care of yourself as well). Mine never did get better – mostly I was support for my mother, since after I left she was on her own with him. If, on a visit, I called him out, he’d back off and sulk until a couple of days after I left, then he’d be back to his usual ways.
My mother was 77 when he passed away (I was born when they were nearly 40); she’s now 89, and has enjoyed a totally new lease on life after enduring 53 years of systematic emotional, physical, and sexual abuse from him. It’s an amazing testament to what the human spirit can endure that she’s created a new life for herself in the last dozen years, but pretty awful that it took her nearly eight decades of a domineering father and a domineering husband before it ever even occurred to her to ask what she wanted from life.
I left when I was 15. As with so many bullies, he stopped messing with me (except emotionally) when I got big enough to hit back. I do think my general distrust of authority has something to do with my upbringing, lol…
I never did hit him, at least not physically. I don’t believe violence was ever the answer, though when I was 11 I did push him for hitting her in front of me. One time during a big blowup argument, he told me to leave his house. So, I packed up my shit, put it at the front door, and asked once more, “Do you really want me to leave?” I think when he realized my sincerity that I wasn’t going to tolerate abuse while I was in his presence that he’d back off, and came to realize “I fucked up tonight” and then invited me to continue staying. I left for good last March, but that was more “I’m getting old and can support myself.” I hope things haven’t deteriorated since I’ve left, but I know my sister felt safer when I was home.
I’ve never really judged him, despite all that he’s done, because I don’t think he fully understands why or how he came to be such a domineering jerk. I think a lot of it was his own upbringing, and some things that never got worked out with childhood. I also cannot stand gossip, and I don’t like when people disparaged him just for the fuck of it.
Amazingly, the thing is that we’ve had the same exact path to adulthood. Bio-father who didn’t want a kid, but our mother’s went through with the pregnancy (I have since reconnected with my bio-father, but I don’t really have a great relationship with him…in fact I have a better relationship with his step-children and his wife than I do with him; my step-father, however, chose the opposite and didn’t want to meet his dad). Was raised by a strange man with somewhat violent tendencies I didn’t know as a kid in a strict military home.
Some of my worst fears was becoming like him in relationships, and I’ve sough therapy over it. I don’t think I have anything to worry about, but sometimes that stuff rubs off subconsciously. It’s why I didn’t want to be around it, even though I felt sometimes I was abandoning my sister and mother.
Anyway, that’s enough for now lol.
if that’s the case, why did the cops not leave with Zimmerman in handcuffs and why was he given his gun back? Was the wife’s decision not to press charges the sole explanation for his rather gentle treatment by law enforcement or was it, rather, the result of his notoriety? Joy Reid said on Chris Hayes that had Zimmerman been arrested he would not have been able to get his gun back. So was all this deviation from SOP re DV calls just to insure that he wasn’t deprived of his gun? If that’s the case, then my view of Sanford County Florida law enforcement has dropped another couple of notches.
Zimmerman is completely out of control. It appears he took exactly the wrong message from his apparent luck at getting away with murder. I predict the Zimmerman saga will not end well.
Someone likened it to OJ. OJ had 2 choices, stay the hell out of the spotlight and keep his azz on the str8 and narrow, or as str8/narrow as he possibly could.
But no he decides to “get his shhh back” from some memorabilia nut.
In a country that would consider something this fucking stupid, it should not come as a surprise that we have a significant number of people who look on Zimmerman as some kind of cultural hero.
She’s probably right. This year a judge said that some state (Pennsylvania?) couldn’t deny a driver’s license to a blind person.
And that’s just like Zimmerman how?
Some — a few — people can drive while being considered legally blind. What driving and getting a gun under the shades of gray for the legally impaired has to do with these two escapes me.
The difference is that the blind driver must be insured.
Has nothing to do with Zimmerman. Has to do with ADA and denying permits to blind people.
Or deny a blind person the right to vote?
You don’t have to see to vote. Handicapped people, at least in Illinois, are allowed to have a helper in the booth if they request it. While I encounter seemingly blind people on the road every day, I think that in reality they are daydreaming or texting or stoned and not blind at all.
Have you considered the argument that one can own a gun without ever using it? i.e. an heirloom or collectible.
I hope he tries to keep his cornbread…
Before his trial, Zimmerman believed he was untouchable, and the verdict proved him right. Subsequent stories have shown him to be cockier than ever and public support has fueled that cockiness to an even higher level.
Zimmerman has an abundance of issues and I suspect he’ll get what’s coming to him before too long.
Unfortunately, he’ll probably take one or more future innocent victims along on his slide into hell.
Well, we all knew he was going to commit another assault. It’s what he does. The Trayvon incident was not his first.
I did think he’d manage to hold himself back for a bit longer than this, though.
Silly me.
When a person gets away with murder, there is a price to be paid. The guy is a total scumtard, and something is gonna happen. I’ve got my sparklers ready – I can only hope that justice comes to George sooner rather than later.
Post actually should be Titled:
“Saga of Nation Chock-Full-o-Gun-Nuts Continues.
George is just one pathetic example.
Well, he probably felt threatened by her. He was just standing his ground. At least that’s what his lawyer will tell the next jury. Is his wife white? Then maybe it won’t work.
“I don’t know what he’s capable of” ???
Yes, you do, Sheila. You know exactly what he’s capable of. We all do.
Kill the black kid, threaten the bitch. Cracker America, this is your cultural icon.
So glad that Zimmerman was acquitted.
tick….tick…tick………..