Failing the Victim
by Law Enforcement professionals have an obligation to aid victims when responding to a crime, however, many fail to do so. The trauma of a crime victim is seldom regarded. Victim issues came to matter to me, and in getting there I found true disappointment.
There are confessions a person never wants to make because the totality of telling the truth can be so consequential that it may ruin lives. Truth in itself is a bitter pill to swallow. Yet, when I look in the mirror, I see little else that can be lost or even held onto behind my eyes, and so, the truth is all that I have left. I have grown to be honest to a fault; I have realized truth is the most precious attribute.
I grew up running, ducking, hiding, denying, lying, and pretending I lived a better life in a loveless, chaotic environment. No place a child should have been born unto. I learned to hurt, and to hurt back. I learned that trust is so often misplaced in the hands of so-called friends, and that families are just as equally conditional. I learned the term “friend” is used too loosely and I learned that the longer I lived, the more pressing the will to die became.
I loved and lost so many people, that looking back mattered more to me then I could have ever then known, and now they will never know. The apologies imprint my heart, as I wish for the day to let them roll from the tip of my tongue. To at least thank those few for loving me as best they could, for making memories for me so good that years later make me smile. I wish I could say sorry for anyone I hurt, and I wish I could bring back the friends I lost to suicide and murder and tell them, had I known, I would have fought to save their lives.
For a while, I flowed with what I was given. It was an ugly life, a sad vision, but it was what I knew and felt I belonged in. I imagine hands would have reached out for me had I not run away and hid and had I not hurt them with my callousness, immaturity and lack of understanding. I close my eyes on the countless trauma’s and think back to the day I realized that I could become part of the problem, or part of the solution. I had the experience- I could save lives. More importantly, I could save young lives, because children needed the most protection. Their faces flashed news reports everyday and I couldn’t stand for it. So with my U-haul loaded I went off in search of that start because maybe if I could help, even just one person- prevent one victim then the ugly, bad, unlikable, unwanted person I used to be- might matter. I came back to make a difference, no matter how slight.
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Post CommentLee Altman
On February 2, 2009 at 6:57 pm
Good article. Law enforcement officers need to set a good example for everyone in the community.
A. Giovanni
On December 2, 2011 at 12:47 pm
Good article. I have to laugh (it’s either laugh or cry) when people say, why didn’t such and such victim report a rape or other crime to the police. So many of the cops are rapists that it’s a norm in cop culture. There’s some FBI statistics reported in an article by Barry Cooper that say a cop is 7 times more likely to commit sexual assault than an average man. And, we all know how common it is among average men! You don’t want to let them into your house alone with you – so how are sexual assault victims expected to report sex crimes to such people? I don’t know what people are thinking – maybe everybody is crazy.
Anyway. Good article and I’m giving it a Like!