Massachusetts Daily Collegian

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A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

Massachusetts Daily Collegian

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

Massachusetts Daily Collegian

Letter: Appalled at local police’s poor training on domestic violence

(Alex Lindsay/Daily Collegian)
(Alex Lindsay/Daily Collegian)

To the editor:

I am appalled by the poor training of the local police. On the night of Monday, April 6, near Haigis Mall, a very scared woman said she’d gotten separated from her friends and needed help, but was adamant I not call the police. While I was asking her questions to try to better help her, a man walked up behind her and asked what was going on. She didn’t respond. I asked her if she knew this man, and again she stayed silent. Finally, the man said, “let’s go,” impatiently and she jumped up quickly, hugged and thanked me, and followed after him.

I called the police and told them everything. In a follow-up call, the policeman noted “She followed him? So she wasn’t under duress. She could have left if she wanted.”

If I’d gotten the sense that she was joining this man of her own free volition, I would not have felt compelled to call the authorities in the first place. I was told to expect another follow-up call, but it never came. Clearly the department needs to be retrained in its handling of potential domestic violence cases.

A.D. Class of 2016

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  • A

    Alumni AchievedApr 23, 2015 at 4:33 pm

    Sounds like Phil wants a gestapo force.

    If I was the victim of a domestic assault I would want to seek help and support from trusted sources, and not be victim to rumors and hearsay of those who live around me. By knocking on every door and asking “Did you hear a sexual or domestic assault” you will certainly have the community out in droves speculating, which is dangerous and amplifies the difficulty of the officers duties.

    Reply
  • R

    RandomApr 22, 2015 at 5:16 pm

    Seriously…are the cops supposed to followup on every report of suspicious activity? There’s a lot of shit the cops have to deal with around here every night and barely suspicious behavior is one of the last problems they can handle. What was the follow up call to you supposed to accomplish?

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  • P

    PhilApr 22, 2015 at 5:00 pm

    I’ve had a similar experience last week. I live off campus one of the apartment complexes. In the hallway on Friday night I heard a woman scream, “Get off of me! I don’t want to be here!” And then heard a man says something indistinguishable, followed by more yelling that I can’t remember because I was so in shock, and quickly jumped to decided to call the police or investigate myself. I called the police, and within five minutes two officers showed up. They only knocked on two of the six doors in the hallway, and told me “one was people watching a movie too loud and the other was a bunch of kids smoking pot.” The voice I heard was so real and so obviously in terror, and they didn’t bother to keep looking at any other of the doors in the corridor, or to ask any real questions of either apartments. It was stunning and core shaking, the police were so apathetic –even laughed when they spoke to people.

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  • B

    BobApr 16, 2015 at 8:57 pm

    Talk about jumping to conclusions by the person writing this letter. To me it sounds like this woman was on a bad reaction to drugs. How you come up with domestic violence is bizarre. Sounds like you want cops to be mind readers, and over step their bounds. No wonder being a cop is a tough job, with pleasing no one.

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