Update: Paterson WILL not seek re-election: Paterson Drops Out
Is it a serious crime for a man to brutalize a woman? Or is just another case of "boys will be boys" to you? Is it acceptable for state troopers to come to her home and intimidate her into keeping silent? Is it all right for the governor of the state of New York to call her to offer "support" that she, given the harassment by the state troopers, had every reason to believe was a threat from the highest elected official in the state?
Just like Hiram Monserrate, you can't represent the people of New York if you believe that domestic violence is just another little peccadillo to be swept under the rug. If you don't respect the basic right of half the population to safety in our own homes and relationships, you can't be our leader or representative.
So, our Governor here in New York, David Paterson, has suspended his campaign for re-election in New York, and many prominent New Yorkers are calling on him to resign immediately for his role in intimidating a woman who had sought a court order protecting her from the abuse of one of Paterson's top aides, David W. Johnson. This morning, Denise O'Donnell, the governor's top criminal justice adviser resigned in protest, saying that she could not defend the governor's inappropriate involvement in the case.
Here is the behavior Governor Paterson is alleged to have condoned through his interference:
She told the police that Mr. Johnson, who is 6-foot-7, had choked her, stripped her of much of her clothing, smashed her against a mirrored dresser and taken two telephones from her to prevent her from calling for help, according to police records.
(NYTimes)
For New Yorkers, this case echoes that of Hiram Monserrate, a NY state legislator forced from office after being convicted in a domestic violence incident in which he slashed her face with broken glass and dragged her around by her hair, although he was not convicted of the slashing itself. I was gratified that the legislature threw him out, but appalled by arguments from Monserrate and his supporters. Monserrate's attorney, Norman Siegel argued in court and in the press that the people “who voted for Mr. Monserrate have been disenfranchised and denied equal protection of law,” and that the New York State Legislature was denying proper representation to Monserrate's Northwestern Queens constituents.
Every time I heard that on the radio, I couldn't help yelling at it, because over half the population of Mr. Monserrate's district could not possibly have had representation in the first place, if he believed, as his actions clearly showed, that women are not really citizens, not really human, not really endowed with the same rights he enjoyed. Can you imagine his attempting to make this argument if he'd been accused of slashing and dragging around a man in a bar fight? Because he did it to a woman with whom he had a sexual relationship, he at least attempted to make the argument that he still was fit to serve.
Marital rape was not a crime in New York until 1984, under the assumption that marriage itself was blanket consent. In some states, domestic violence was not illegal until the mid-20th century, and even in many states where it was illegal, it was difficult for women to get police officers and prosecutors to take domestic violence seriously.
Considering that American women have only been enfranchised for 90 years, and that the Equal Rights Amendment never permanently enshrined women's rights in the Constitution, maybe I shouldn't be surprised that there are swaths of the public and of the political class that can't seem to take seriously the notion that women have rights, even in relationships. Even behind closed doors. Even when they have sex with Very Important Men.
Young women today are told that they are entering a society and culture in which they have full equality (and, naturally, don't need any of that icky feminist stuff). Well, if members of the ruling class still believe that it is not really a crime, not so much of a big deal to beat, slash, drag, intimidate, and threaten women in their own homes, how true is it that we have achieved equality?