Some Places Just Ought To Be Safe

Just as Americans banded together to help terrorism’s victims, so must we repudiate its fomenters. The O.J. Simpson trial has kept domestic violence on the front page, and a triple murder in the King County Courthouse last month added a regional exclamation point.

Women increasingly are being hunted down and abused by obsessed partners - even in the halls of justice.

The Seattle killings by an estranged husband during divorce proceedings focused attention on courthouse security. Equal attention needs to be given women seeking protection orders against abusive mates.

In Spokane County, advocates from the YWCA’s Alternatives to Domestic Violence, plus an attorney, help abused and battered women through the court system in a secure setting.

But several other counties in the region, including Kootenai, offer little protection from assailants. Women, often with black eyes, bruises and squirming children in tow, are forced to fill out requests for protection orders and sit for hours in courthouse hallways. Assailants know where to find them.

Protection orders prohibit batterers from calling, writing or using a third person to contact their victims.

At a minimum in Kootenai County, the exercise is public and humiliating. At an extreme, it can be dangerous to the victims, supporters and courthouse employees - as the bloodied halls of the King County Courthouse bear witness.

Kootenai County officials should pay close attention to a study of 1994 protection orders by Court Services Director Diana Meyer and her recommendations for addressing problems. Other counties should tailor Meyer’s study to their own needs.

Meyer found that requests for protection orders tripled from 1989 to 1994. On some occasions, a judge has signed as many as 17 orders in a single day, making it difficult for him to conduct his regular business.

Meyer recommended that the county: have an advocate available at the courthouse or prosecutor’s office to help victims fill out requests; have a separate, safe place for them to do so; and have a person available throughout the day and on weekends to grant temporary orders.

Some of the recommendations involve expense.

But the King County Courthouse found almost a half million dollars to enhance security after the March 4 shootings and is looking for more.

A life saved is worth the expense.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = D.F. Oliveria/For the editorial board