RADAR ALERT:
“Support and Defend the Constitution” Means Congress Must Fix VAWA
Senator and would-be President Joe Biden wants Congress to pass his
International Violence Against Women Act (I-VAWA). He seems to want to
do for the
world what his VAWA law has done for the U.S. But what exactly has
VAWA done for the U.S.? RADAR's latest special report, "A
Culture of False Allegations: How VAWA Harms Families and Children"
explains the harm caused by VAWA and the various state laws it has
spawned. (See
http://www.mediaradar.org/docs/VAWA-A-Culture-of-False-Allegations.pdf)
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It defines the term "domestic violence" in an Orwellian fashion
that includes almost any action, whether or not actual violence is
involved. In the hands of officials like Judge Daniel
Sanchez, Chairman of the Northern New Mexico DV Task Force, even the
ludicrous accusation that David Letterman had committed harassment by
telepathy
against a "victim" he'd never met, was sufficient for the judge to
issue a restraining order.
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It provides huge incentives to allege abuse while undermining
due
process protections against false allegations.
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It encourages arrest and prosecution in cases where such
treatment is not warranted. In doing so families that could have been
healed by appropriate counseling are instead ripped apart forever.
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It fosters ongoing animosity between parents and drives
fathers out of their children's lives. As a result, it sentences these
children to greatly increased rates of emotional and physical neglect
and abuse from their mothers and their mothers' boyfriends. Children
react by acting out in school. Their academic performance plummets.
They're much more likely to get involved in violent crime. And for
those children inclined to turn the pain inward, suicide rates more
than double.
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It uses your tax dollars to teach judges to ignore the due
process rights of the accused. In one such training, that was actually
caught on tape, the judge conducting the training instructed the judges
attending his seminar, "Your job is not to become concerned about the
constitutional rights of the man that you're violating as you grant a
restraining order ... Throw him out on the street, give him the clothes
on his back and tell him, see ya around ... we don't have to worry
about the rights."
This week please contact both of your Senators.
You can find out how to contact them at http://www.senate.gov.
Or call the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121. You may want to fax them a
copy of RADAR's flyer "Violence Against Women Act: Harmful to Families
and Children". (http://www.mediaradar.org/docs/RADARflyer-VAWA-Harms-Families-and-Children.pdf)
When you contact your Senators, remind them that the voters did not
send them to
Washington to undermine due process protections in foreign countries,
as I-VAWA would do. The voters sent them to Washington to "support and
defend the Constitution of the United States." Being mindful of their
oath, it's time for them to get to work on fixing the countless ways
that VAWA
undermines due process, subverts the U.S. Constitution, and endangers
our most vulnerable citizens - our children.
Date of RADAR Release: January 29, 2007
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R.A.D.A.R. – Respecting Accuracy in Domestic Abuse Reporting – is a non-profit, non-partisan organization of men and women working to improve the effectiveness of our nation's approach to solving domestic violence. http://www.mediaradar.org
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