This happened in my neck of the woods, and the murderer, though still alive lost both of his legs when he threw himself in front of the subway car. So. when he goes to court, he won’t have a leg to stand on.
Yeah sadly this is so damn true! This has happen to too many women , the law doesn’t do anything until the woman is dead then it too fucking late !
:mad:
This is the second time today, alone, you have tried to hijack a thread about gun control (the first one being here). Don’t do this. Don’t bring up guns in topics not about them.
The title of this thread may be misleading. I can only assume that the victim already had a restraining order against her attacker, but I can’t tell for sure from the facts cited here.
You can’t get a restraining order against a weapon (or a tree, or a motor vehicle, or any other object) - you get one against a person. Typically it forbids the restrained person from approaching or contacting the other party. It may also forbid the carrying of weapons, travel outside a certain area, or other unwanted behaviour (like hanging around schoolyards).
Anyone who violates a restraining order (or any other recognizance) is subject to arrest and more serious punishment, but the difficulty is that the violation must be reported by someone who knows that the restrained person is subject to the order - this is often the victim of some previous assault. By the time you get through to 911 to report the restrainee for violating their order, it may be too late.
So it may*** seem*** that a restraining order is useless, but in the majority of cases, the order is obeyed and nothing untoward happens. Of course, these cases don’t make the news.
Ultimately, and pretty much by definition, people inclined towards violence upon others and breaking the law are people with mental issues. I am becoming more and more convinced that the answer to many of our social problems (violence in all it’s forms, other crimes, domestic issues, drug use, homelessness) will be a concerted and aggressive societal movement to improve mental health care for everyone, especially the fringes of society.
I’ve heard a statement (can’t back it up right now - stated by DC MPD brass) that something like 80% of police encounters with citizens are encounters with people with mental health issues.
If that happens we would likely see savings in incarceration costs, reductions in other areas of social expense, and in general an improvement in the social situation as a whole.
Everything else is just dancing around the real issue.
Not trying to threadshit here, but what exactly is law enforcement supposed to do differently? There’s no manpower to provide protection for those who file restraining orders, nor can they surveil those who’ve had orders filed against them. It’s frustrating when it doesn’t work, but I don’t see a lot of room for criticism unless someone has a better idea.
Restraining orders work with some percentage of people they’re issued against. I’ll guess that it’s actually a majority considering the relatively few articles we see about one being violently violated. There are also those we don’t hear about because the offender is cited or arrested without incident. Some thousands that are issued automatically in certain cases as well as the ones that are sworn out as a strategic move by someone hoping to gain sympathy in the courtroom.
But generally, they aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on against someone determined to do harm. No matter what weapon is involved.