Topeka, Kansas City Council Considers Decriminalizing Domestic Violence To Save Money

[High_Gravity]

Real talk though if we just ignore domestic abuse and don't do anything about it we are no different than those third world shit holes in the Middle East.

I think there are ways of dealing with it outside the criminal justice system.

How? if I come home drunk and beat the living fuck out of college room mate in the dorms I will be brought up on criminal charges, same thing applies if I beat the fuck out of my wife too.

 

[westwall]

Third world here we come

that's what happens when you try to starve government until you can drown it in a bathtub.



maybe they should consider not enforcing marijuana laws to save money.

I think all drugs should be decriminalised. Prosecute for the criminal misuse of them for sure just like alcohol, but the use, possession and manufacture, leave them alone. Violent crime would plummet. Maybe that's why they don't do it. To good a scam going on enforcing the drug laws and destroying civil liberties in pursuit of the "drug war".

 

[RetiredGySgt]

Really?

Faced with their worst budget crises since the Great Depression, states and cities have resorted to increasingly desperate measures to cut costs. State and local governments have laid off teachers, slashed Medicaid funding, and even started unpaving roads and turning off streetlights.

But perhaps the most shocking idea to save money is being debated right now by the City Council of Topeka, Kansas. The city could repeal an ordinance banning domestic violence because some say the cost of prosecuting those cases is just too high:

Last night, in between approving city expenditures and other routine agenda items, the Topeka, Kansas City Council debated one rather controversial one: decriminalizing domestic violence.

Topeka, Kansas City Council Considers Decriminalizing Domestic Violence To Save Money | ThinkProgress

That just takes the cake.

You don't mind demanding your pet projects from being decriminalized And you use the excuse it will both save money and make money.

 

[CaféAuLait]

What is it with this relentless Republican war on women? I don't get it? What's next - take away their voting rights?

Republican's?

County District Attorney Chad Taylor of Kansas is a DEMOCRAT and he is the one who stopped the proscution.

In 2008, ASA worked the successful primary and general campaigns of Democrat newcomer Chad Taylor for Shawnee County District Attorney and the historic campaign of Carolyn Campbell, first African American elected to the Kansas State Board of Education.

Why ASA | ASA Marketing | Topeka, Kansas


Now the real story is that they are not prosecuting the cases at a county level but sending them up to a district court and they want them back down at a county level.

Two domestic violence survivors addressed the Topeka City Council on Tuesday evening after it heard the first reading of a proposal targeted at forcing Shawnee County District Attorney Chad Taylor to resume prosecuting domestic batteries committed in Topeka.

Council discusses domestic battery prosecution | CJOnline.com

 

[Sunshine]

Domestic violence would not exist if women were acculturated differently. On average women will wait until they have been beaten 8 times before the leave the situation. And in many cases they are completely irrational. I had a student who didn't want to leave her addicted husband who beat her to a bloody pulp because it would traumatize the children to have to call the police so she could take them with her. I asked her if she really though her children were not traumatized seeing their mother beaten within an inch of her life every weekend. She finally left the bastard.

Women tend to think this shit is their fault and if they were better wives, girlfriends, lovers, whatever, it wouldn't happen. Of course that belief has been perpetrated upon them by men in particular and society in general.

 

[Sundial]

I don't get it. You guys are always talking about how the government can't do anything right... Taxes are theft... The private sector is always better... Blah blah blah...

And then when the natural and inevitable consequences of the policies you favor come to pass.. You're outraged?

WTF.

 

[Sunshine]

I don't get it. You guys are always talking about how the government can't do anything right... Taxes are theft... The private sector is always better... Blah blah blah...

And then when the natural and inevitable consequences of the policies you favor come to pass.. You're outraged?

WTF.

Please post where I have EVER said I favor this policy.

 

[asterism]

This is truly unbelievable. 1 in 4 women are the victims of Domestic Violence and yet the City Council of Topeka is going to stop prosecuting domestic violence in order to cut the budget? Reprehensible.

All across the country, cities are not turning on street lights, not paving roads, firing entire police forces, laying off teachers and firemen and this is okay with people? This is preferable to raising taxes? WTF?!?

All across the country cities and counties are keeping their inefficient bureaucracies and poor financial management practices. Bureaucrats will always opt to lay off police and teachers instead off fellow bureaucrats. None of this is preferable to raising taxes if raising taxes would work. It hasn't so far. Local government taxes have gone way up (both in rate and in cost per person) but they have expanded their operations even more.

 

[RetiredGySgt]

As already pointed out in this thread, Democrats not Republicans made the suggestion.

 

[chanel]

Sharia in Topeka? Who woulda thunk?

 

[Seawytch]

This is truly unbelievable. 1 in 4 women are the victims of Domestic Violence and yet the City Council of Topeka is going to stop prosecuting domestic violence in order to cut the budget? Reprehensible.

All across the country, cities are not turning on street lights, not paving roads, firing entire police forces, laying off teachers and firemen and this is okay with people? This is preferable to raising taxes? WTF?!?

Do you really believe 25% of women are victims of domestic violence? Really?

No, I actually believe it is more than 25%. 25% is just the amount we know about

(The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and The National Institute of Justice, Extent, Nature, and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence, July 2000. The Commonwealth Fund, Health Concerns Across a Woman’s Lifespan: 1998 Survey of Women’s Health, 1999)

Estimates range from 960,000 incidents of violence against a current or former spouse, boyfriend, or girlfriend to 3 million women who are physically abused by their husband or boyfriend per year.
(U.S. Department of Justice, Violence by Intimates: Analysis of Data on Crimes by Current or Former Spouses, Boyfriends, and Girlfriends, March 1998. The Commonwealth Fund, Health Concerns Across a Woman’s Lifespan: 1998 Survey of Women’s Health, 1999)

Women accounted for 85% of the victims of intimate partner violence, men for approximately 15%.
(Bureau of Justice Statistics Crime Data Brief, Intimate Partner Violence, 1993-2001, February 2003)
​

 

[Seawytch]

This is truly unbelievable. 1 in 4 women are the victims of Domestic Violence and yet the City Council of Topeka is going to stop prosecuting domestic violence in order to cut the budget? Reprehensible.

All across the country, cities are not turning on street lights, not paving roads, firing entire police forces, laying off teachers and firemen and this is okay with people? This is preferable to raising taxes? WTF?!?

And why is it that you think we should raise federal taxes for services that should be provided by state taxes? Those states and municipalities that feel they need more money to provide basic services should raise their local taxes. It's not the federal governments job to provide street lights and such.

Where did I mention Federal taxes? Governor Brownback of Kansas wants to cut taxes which will starve out even more essential services.

 

[The Rabbi]

This is truly unbelievable. 1 in 4 women are the victims of Domestic Violence and yet the City Council of Topeka is going to stop prosecuting domestic violence in order to cut the budget? Reprehensible.

All across the country, cities are not turning on street lights, not paving roads, firing entire police forces, laying off teachers and firemen and this is okay with people? This is preferable to raising taxes? WTF?!?

Do you really believe 25% of women are victims of domestic violence? Really?

No, I actually believe it is more than 25%. 25% is just the amount we know about

(The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and The National Institute of Justice, Extent, Nature, and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence, July 2000. The Commonwealth Fund, Health Concerns Across a Woman’s Lifespan: 1998 Survey of Women’s Health, 1999)

Estimates range from 960,000 incidents of violence against a current or former spouse, boyfriend, or girlfriend to 3 million women who are physically abused by their husband or boyfriend per year.
(U.S. Department of Justice, Violence by Intimates: Analysis of Data on Crimes by Current or Former Spouses, Boyfriends, and Girlfriends, March 1998. The Commonwealth Fund, Health Concerns Across a Woman’s Lifespan: 1998 Survey of Women’s Health, 1999)

Women accounted for 85% of the victims of intimate partner violence, men for approximately 15%.
(Bureau of Justice Statistics Crime Data Brief, Intimate Partner Violence, 1993-2001, February 2003)
​

So estimates are from 960,000 to 3M? Really? Do you know anything about statistics at all? When you see a range like that, it means the information is bullshit. What does "Physically abused" mean? He hit her? He beat her? He tore up her credit card? There is no standard definition, nor any evidence on how it was arrived at.
This is typical misuse of numbers to make a political point. That there are women who are abused is undoubted. That there are women who claim to be abused but aren't is also undoubted.
But no one wants to talk about that.

 

[The Rabbi]

This is truly unbelievable. 1 in 4 women are the victims of Domestic Violence and yet the City Council of Topeka is going to stop prosecuting domestic violence in order to cut the budget? Reprehensible.

All across the country, cities are not turning on street lights, not paving roads, firing entire police forces, laying off teachers and firemen and this is okay with people? This is preferable to raising taxes? WTF?!?

And why is it that you think we should raise federal taxes for services that should be provided by state taxes? Those states and municipalities that feel they need more money to provide basic services should raise their local taxes. It's not the federal governments job to provide street lights and such.

Where did I mention Federal taxes? Governor Brownback of Kansas wants to cut taxes which will starve out even more essential services.

Since this is a municipality doing this and not the state it would seem you are again being a partisan hack. Go tell the Democrats that run Topeka about women's rights etc etc.

 

[paulitician]

Probably not a good idea to live in Topeka. So here's some friendly advice...GET OUT NOW!!!

 

[The Rabbi]

Probably not a good idea to live in Topeka. So here's some friendly advice...GET OUT NOW!!!

I predict Topeka will be a safer place as a result of this.