|
In Maine, It Doesn’t Pay to be a Man
Practically everyone in town knows Amy Dugas is a
serial batterer. But the Maine criminal justice
system keeps finding ways to keep her from facing
the music.
In 2004 Amy assaulted her husband Mark in their
home in Waldoboro. When the police officer came to
arrest her, she kicked him in the groin. The judge
released her on bail, ordering her to refrain from
using weapons. Four months later she stabbed Mark
with a foot-long kitchen knife, fatally severing
his pulmonary artery. At the trial, she got away
with the trusty I-feared-for-my-life alibi.
Two years later Dugas spent 125 days in jail
following an attack on a male friend. In 2007 she
was arrested again, this time for assaulting Brian
Pelletier, her new husband of three weeks.
Each time, Amy Dugas was let off the hook with a
chivalrous slap on the wrist, even though many were
demanding she do hard time at the state pen.
No doubt about it, Maine’s domestic
violence industry has friends in high places. One
of them is Mary Kellett, Assistant District
Attorney for the Bar Harbor area. Think of her as
Michael Nifong on steroids.
Inspired by feminist Catherine Comins’
sneer, “Men who are unjustly accused of rape
can sometimes gain from the experience,”
Kellett has taken to prosecuting every allegation
of sexual misconduct, often ignoring glaring
inconsistencies in the woman’s account or
clear evidence of consensual activity: www.fillerfund.com/marykellett.htm
In one case, Kellett summed up the case to the
jury with this comment, “there has been no
evidence presented to you as the jury that would
suggest that a sexual act hadn't occurred on those
dates,” revealing a sad ignorance of the legal
principle that the burden of proof falls on the
plaintiff.
In another trial, Kellett did not present a
shred of physical evidence, prompting the defense
attorney to comment, “We were just very
surprised with the only evidence the state had,
that they brought these charges at all.”
Unfortunately for her prosecutorial victims,
none of them play lacrosse at an exclusive
university or have wealthy parents to hire
high-powered attorneys. As a result, many have
spent months in jail awaiting their trial.
It gets worse.
Maine now has a law enforcement policy that says
in effect if a woman punches the living daylights
out of her husband, somehow it must be the
man’s fault. “Identifying Predominant
Aggressors in Domestic Violence Cases” is a
training guide put together by the Maine Criminal
Justice Academy: www.maine.gov/dps/mcja/docs/Mandatory-Law/Predominant%20Aggressor.doc
A little background: It is well known that many
domestic violence incidents are mutual in nature
– she slaps him, he shoves back. One study by
Centers for Disease Control researcher Daniel
Whitaker reported fully half of all incidents of
partner aggression are mutual. More often than not,
it’s the woman who instigated the incident.
So when the police arrive on the scene, they
need to decide who to stick in the Paddy Wagon. For
years, police used the commonsense yardstick, Who
started the fight? But feminists don’t cotton
to that approach because, truth be told, too many
women were getting arrested.
So they reached into their bag of tricks and
– abracadabra! “Predominant
aggressor” magically appeared in the law
enforcement lexicon. Any guesses who the
predominant aggressor might be?
Before I give away the punch line, you may want
to see for yourself the Ms.-Information that the
Predominant Aggressor curriculum bandies
around:
1. The idea that abuse can be mutual is a
“misconception” (I say so, it must be
true.)
2. “DV is the leading cause of injuries to
women between the ages of 15-44 in the U.S.”
(It’s also a proven fact that the moon is made
of Swiss cheese and the 9/11 attacks were
masterminded by the CIA.)
3. Even if the violence is mutual, it’s bad
to arrest both parties because the “batterer
gains more power.” (Don’t ask to see the
research. I’m the one with the mic and
I’ll give you the boot if you start to ask
questions.)
Then the curriculum goes on to enumerate the
types of violence that it whimsically classifies as
defensive:
1. Face scratches
2. Eye gouges
3. Bites to arm
Go ahead, ladies, scratch his face and gouge his
eyes out. You can always say it was in self-defense
-- and now they’ll have to take you at your
word.
Patrick Henry College professor Stephen
Baskerville has recently issued a stunning
indictment of our contemporary criminal justice
system, lambasting it as a “Feminist
Gulag.” Now in Maine, a man can be killed in
cold blood without consequence to the perpetrator,
prosecuted for rape with the flimsiest of evidence,
or framed in a partner dispute on account of his
sex.
And whatever happened to the equal protection
clause of the U.S. Constitution?
* * *
Carey
Roberts probes and lampoons political correctness.
His work has been published frequently in the
Washington Times, Townhall.com, LewRockwell.com,
ifeminists.net, Intellectual Conservative, and
elsewhere. He is a staff reporter for the New Media
Network. You can contact him at E-Mail
Contact
Us |
Disclaimer
| Privacy
Statement
Menstuff®
Directory
Menstuff® is a registered trademark of Gordon
Clay
©1996-2023, Gordon Clay
|
