Addendum on "domestic violence" laws: I believe that the reason that domestic violence laws exist as a separate class from assault is that it allows the prosecutor to circumvent marital privilege enabling them to force the aggrieved party to testify or prosecute even if no physical injuries were inflicted. The essential premise is that the state understands the alleged victim's interests better than the alleged victim him or herself. One thing that isn't clear to much of the public is the extent to which investigations and prosecutions are almost entirely discretionary. An exaggerated but useful contrast is provided comparing Jacob Appelbaum's experience with mine. When his father died in San Francisco in 2004, their home was robbed, he felt he had evidence of serious wrongdoing, tantamount to murder. When he approached the police about it, they threatened him with arrest in his own home for turning in what he considered to be evidence. The response of the officer on duty? "Kid, no one cares about dead junkies. Give up." The other extreme being, when attorney Stephen Collier, part of the powerful Tenderloin Housing Clinic, got frustrated at having the counterparty to a suit refuse to tender his case to the counterparty's insurance company, but didn't want to file for a default judgement because he knew that the judgement would be a fraction of what he would get at trial or from an insurance shakedown, he took a dramatized version of his complaint to the DA's office. The line prosecutor, without having even initiated an investigation, committed to prosecuting the case for Mr. Collier.
↧
