TKC SUNDAY TESTIMONY!!! DOMESTIC ABUSE REPORTING PROBLEMS TO KCPD PERSIST FOR SOUTH KANSAS CITY LADY!!!

TKC NOTE: This morning we want to share an important story sent our way of one woman's experience. There are some relevant links and resources in this post for anyone else facing similar problems confronting domestic violence. Check it:

South Kansas City Patrol - As Bad as the Other Guys

Last year you put a post on your blog about my experience with domestic violence and problems with KC police and court not protecting the victims. After a year of continual problems with the South Patrol’s inability to protect and handle calls regarding violence I was hoping you could revisit the subject. Bad cops is a hot topic right now and I’d love to see KC police, especially South Patrol, held accountable and put before a microscope for how they handle violent crimes in our city.

The reason I am emailing you about it today is because my disabled sister was assaulted by her Share-a-Fare driver on her way to medical treatment. There was a witness by the technician of the medical facility, a 911 call, a call to Share/Fare and the medical facility. After the police arrived they said there was no real evidence and refused to write a report. (Sound familiar?) Finally after the supervisor of the medical facility talked to them they wrote a report but they refused to allow my sister to press charges. The desk sergeant says it's up to the discretion of the officer to decide if they feel someone is guilty. Guilty? Since when are the police officers judge and jury? Their job is to take a report and apprehend the assaulter and then let it go to court.

I dealt with the police for many years over my own domestic abuse situation. Every call was the same. They treated me like I was a bother and they “had more important things to do than babysit marital problems”. Consider this was said after I was punched in the face with visible markings, bruises, or bleeding. I finally received a protection order after he assaulted me in public at our children’s school – this was after he was stalking me every day at the school and the police would do nothing, telling me don’t worry he won’t do anything at a school. When he violated that protection order, the Sergeant at the station refused to even take a report let alone press charges. I had to call the City Prosecuting Attorneys office to scare him into even take a report. By the way – the abuse department found it was a clear violation and he was arrested. That wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t stayed at the station for 2 hours arguing with the Sergeant.

This is police abuse. This is police officers refusing to protect victims of violent crimes because they don’t want to have to do the paperwork. This is police pretending they are judge and jury and acting like there has to be a case presented before them for THEM to choose the guilty. That is not their role. This is why violence against women and the disabled in KC is so rampant. We don’t hear about it often because victim’s are embarrassed and ashamed to talk about it, but Rose Brooks, Hope House, and other centers are full to the brim of women with the same experience.

I’d love to hear from you, TKC. I’m going full media with this and you are the first person I’ve contacted other than the police department itself. Help me raise the awareness on this issue. We need to make police be a part of our community by protecting our mothers, sisters, and daughters.
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