Shut Her Up!
In May, Leigh Goodmark wrote on the heightened dangers and barriers faced by women who are abused by intimate partners who are police officers. Expanding on Leigh’s post, I bring to the discussion the powerful tool that abusers who are police have in diminishing the credibility of their victims. Have her arrested!
The matter of Boston Police officer Michael Doherty is a case in point. The case also illustrates how acts of domestic violence can be minimized by police commanders until another violent act or other crime is committed by the abusive partner against someone other than the partner. The Doherty case was nationally reported with the following facts:
Earlier this month , Doherty ordered an Uber car to drive him to his house. This occurred at 3 a.m. While enroute, Doherty accused the driver of taking the wrong route and began assaulting the man, physically and also verbally, with racial epithets. The driver was able to escape the car, whereupon Doherty got out and chased the driver around the car. Doherty then jumped behind the wheel and took off. A passerby stopped to help the driver and the two chased after Doherty. At some point Doherty got out of the Uber car and began assaulting the driver and the other individual. Doherty fled but turned himself in the following morning.
Reported locally was the fact that Doherty was subject to a domestic violence protection order. Two months earlier, his former girlfriend reported that Doherty had dragged her down a flight of stairs and hit her in the face and head. She reported that this was not the first time that Doherty had attacked her. But who was arrested in that incident? The girlfriend.
Doherty claimed that he was the victim. (A defense he repeated when charged with crimes against the Uber driver.) But Doherty’s fellow officers arrested the victim on Doherty’s claim that she was unlawfully in his residence. The arrest was made despite the fact that at the time of arrest the girlfriend had visible injuries on her face including bleeding and a swollen forehead. Kudos to the courageous judge who entered the protection order after the girlfriend was arrested.
I wish I could report that this is the first time I have experienced a case where the victim of intimate partner abuse was arrested after being abused by a police officer spouse or partner; or by a family member or friend of a police officer. The blue loyalty apparently includes shutting victims up by striking first in the arrest process. This is not a new tactic. Claiming that the vulnerable are criminals, thereby reducing their credibility, is an age old method of quieting critical voices.
According to reports, at the time of his arrest resulting from the Uber attack, Doherty was the subject of two open internal affairs investigations and was restrained by a valid protection order. Were those facts not sufficient to result in Doherty’s suspension? The failure of the police chain of command to act until the now-suspended Doherty was involved in a very public crime raises questions of how much police inflicted abuse will be tolerated until commanders respond.
The Doherty case has so much that is rich with lessons: how police frequently arrest victims and routinely use their power to protect colleagues who are abusive toward their partners; the power of courageous witnesses and public reporting to invoke right action. The interconnectedness of racism, misogyny and abuse. But mostly I am sad. If the arrest of victims was limited to rare occurrences this post would not have been written. But arrest of victims is not unusual. It is a powerful and effective tool in silencing the abused.