My phone started ringing early on a weekend morning. Usually when that happens, it is because someone is dead and I need to go to a crime scene, or someone is trying to sell me an extended warranty for my Tacoma truck. This was different. I heard my friend on the other end of the call. The voice was small-sounding, crying and fearful — asking how to get a restraining order against the partner, whose recent violent outbursts had been escalating.
Later the same day, I checked my phone because I saw the little red circle indicating I had a new message. It was another friend, who had been anxiously awaiting the arrest of a partner for violating a restraining order. The arrest had been made, I told my friend, who was grateful for knowing the partner was still alive and OK.
That was one day out of the roughly 2,124 days I have served as Kauai’s prosecuting attorney.
In my job, I have an opportunity to help people who are suffering. I’m committed to using my platform to eliminate the scourge of domestic violence that still plagues our communities.
Hawaii’s criminal laws on domestic violence are convoluted and often result in unjust outcomes. Section 709-906 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes, which encompasses the penalties for domestic violence crimes, is a mess and needs to be overhauled. The Women’s Legislative Caucus attempted a comprehensive revision in the last session with Senate Bill 2343, S.D. 2. This bill was the product of months of careful deliberation and meetings that included every stakeholder — but it died in the waning days of the session, a heartbreaking defeat for advocates.
Our biggest challenge in law enforcement is the understandable reluctance of victims to participate in a process that almost seems designed to fail victims. Victims often need to take multiple days off of work, arrange child care and spend hours in court — only to see their cases continued, sit in the same room with the person who abused them, and jeopardize their financial and personal security. And only to testify to juries that usually acquit their abusers.
The statistics become mind- numbing: 50,000 women in Hawaii are victims of domestic violence each year. One in two women and 1 in 5 men have experienced sexual violence. One in three women experience partner violence. Whether we know it or not, each one of us is directly or indirectly affected by this.
The saga of Judge Brett Kavanaugh is a case study of these problems writ large. Dr. Christine Blasey Ford is living a story that police and prosecutors see every day. Victims of domestic violence are subjected to abuse and scrutiny in the community. They are called liars. They are blamed for the fact that someone abused them and accused of having nefarious agendas. Their lives are upended as they are ritually humiliated in public for all to see. Our system inflicts repeated traumas on those it is supposed to serve.
If victims and survivors are ever to trust us in law enforcement, we have to build a system that respects them, acknowledges their needs, and works effectively to achieve real justice.
Our first impulse should be to believe victims and survivors when they come forward. We should listen to and support them, and empower them to make their own decisions about their lives, without judging those decisions. Domestic violence victims are trapped in a cycle of power and control. Until we create a criminal justice system that recognizes this, the situation will not improve. We have the power to build that system. It is time for us to do it.
Anti-violence march: The 24th Annual Men’s March Against Violence will be held Thursday, starting at 11:45 a.m. from the state Capitol courtyard.
