"Teaching Victims A Lesson?"

In an article titled “Slain mother’s fate could teach victims a lesson” referring to the recent murder of former Chicago police wife Irma Rodriguez who was shot numerous times and stuffed in the trunk of her car written by Chicago Sun-Times journalist Mary Mitchell, sadly this is not by any means a lesson.

A lesson perhaps would have been better served had the columnist spoke to the experts, people like myself, who have been in the trenches with victims of violence for over 20 years. First and foremost a domestic violence relationship is as specific as an individual’s own DNA. The victims like Irma fight each day just to stay alive. Irma Rodriguez did not have a free get out of jail card to simply allow her to leave her abusive and controlling husband.

In the article Mary Mitchell says “Irma’s best chance to save herself came in 1997, when her husband was arrested with attempted murder”, incorrect unless you happen to be a fly on the wall and know for a fact that Irma’s husband Norberto Rodriguez gave a direct order to his wife that if she did not change her story to the police he would kill she and the children. And the State’s Attorney’s office at the time offered little if anything other than lip service to assist her out of her deadly hell.

My own mother had little chance of living past the age 47, when after my parents divorced, my police detective father who by the way was still in control, murdered my mother because he was never going to allow her to live her life on her own terms. These women understand the dangers of living with their violent abuser. Often they feel it is better to keep their enemy close by remaining in the roller coaster relationship and waiting until their children are old enough and out of harm’s way before they make their move to safety. And many don’t make it. The abuser is so angry, eventually, he will kill her.

As a society we continue to look away with regards to crimes involving intimate relationships. Funding for animal shelters surpasses that of battered women shelters and services 6 to 1. And going to a shelter is not an option for many women.

Frankly, the word “lesson” is insulting especially when these victims eat, sleep and drink the lessons of fists and terror from their abusers on a daily basis.

Where are the police and prosecutors who suddenly become deaf when women go to them for assistance? Currently, I am working with several women where the police refused to do their jobs. Or the prosecutors failed at taking their calls or following up on charges. A few too many times of calling and asking for help gets old when your pleas fall on deaf ears. Kathleen Savio is a poor example of what does not happen as a victims pounds on the door for assistance only to wind up six feet under.

Perhaps a corporate sponsor within the Chicago Sun-Times or a corporation concerned with preventing murder like General Electric, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Coregis and any of the other companies who would benefit from a comprehensive strategy for saving lives created from women who lost their lives and would like to contact me so I can reach women like Irma, Kathleen, Stacy, Jackie, Theresa, Anna and so many others before they are murdered.

Maybe people can tune into Justice Interrupted Investigates on Tuesday, June 9, 2009 at 11:00PM EST, and hear how the system is failing a police officers wife where law enforcement have refused to do their jobs as blood ran down her face when she called for help. Then in a divorce action a judge in domestic relations in civil court literally has screwed over this woman all in the name of police connections and judicial closed door deals in chambers. So if she should die, is that a lesson for women? Or a system refusing to do anything?

Question: Why isn’t there an all points bulletin out for Norberto Rodriguez?