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THE fatal shooting of Cherry Ann Cachola Domingo by her ex-boyfriend crystallized some of the most important examples of why domestic violence is everyone's responsibility. Domestic violence
reaches Ala MoanaHer death last weekend touched so many lives.
We all felt the horror when shots rang out at Ala Moana Center, where we all shop. Every family trembles at the thought of facing the awful reality of losing a daughter, sister or mother.
Each and every business has employees who face real and imminent dangers at home, but bravely come to work each day whether at a restaurant on Kauai or at Lenscrafters in Honolulu.
More needs to be said about the people who reached out to try to help Cherry Ann. We must give thanks to the heroic visitor who heard her screams and approached to help, but was too late to save her.
And more needs to be said about the friends, the caring people around Cherry Ann who saw her suffering, and encouraged or insisted that she press charges and seek a temporary restraining order.
Friends of every victim must stand strong and do whatever can be done to protect our sisters. Encourage them to call the police, seek out the Domestic Violence Clearinghouse and Legal Hotline, and make safety plans.
Most important, make them remember that the threats are real. The promises that the abuse "will never happen again" are not.
Law enforcement can do much, but not alone. People must report the abuse.
Police and prosecutors must continue to charge and try offenders. And the police must try and try again to serve those TROs. Friends, neighbors and family members are not helping anyone when they help people evade the serving of those orders.
All of us must continue to reach out to the community to spread the word that domestic violence is a crime that we must all step forward to solve. For only when we can talk about the tragedies will we be able to make this crime disappear.
More and more, our community leaders and public officials have recognized domestic violence for what it is -- a scourge in our homes, a danger to women. And much-needed action has been taken both locally and nationally to combat violence against women.
In 1994, Congress enacted the Violence Against Women Act, appropriating millions annually to be distributed throughout the country. Last year alone, $29 million was earmarked to fund local efforts to encourage arrests, and $162 million to combat violence against women (abuse, sex assault and stalking).
The Violence Against Women Act office at the Department of Justice has done marvelous work implementing the act. Will this nation's next attorney general make the VAWA office a priority? Let us hope so.
When I was state attorney general, I was fortunate enough to chair the Stop Violence Against Women Planning Committee, charged with distributing the approximately $1 million within Hawaii.
When prosecutors, police and community advocates met, it was abundantly clear that there was not enough money to tackle all of the problems statewide.
The committee had to split the funds: 25 percent for law enforcement, 25 percent for prosecutors and 25 percent for community groups. When the money was distributed among the four counties, it left very little to fund the big ideas, the big projects.
That is why I wish to give special thanks to generous contributors like Microsoft and Paradise Canyon, which put together a $500,000 computer system to keep track of the thousands of calls and hundreds of cases handled by the Domestic Violence Clearinghouse and Legal Hotline. It is a dream come true.
THEY have shown us that it is "politically correct" to give generously and unsparingly to fight domestic violence. They have shown that businesses large and small can stand up and take a stand against the violence.
And they have overcome the too-common habit of hiding behind platitudes and euphemisms to deny that domestic violence is a community-wide epidemic.
Happily, throughout the recent public debate, no one has talked of "domestic disputes" or "altercations" or "family matters" or "privacy issues." Rather, we speak of domestic violence in terms of what it is -- a serious, violent and, as in the case of Cherry Ann Domingo, a deadly crime.
Margery Bronster is former state attorney general
and a partner in the Honolulu law firm of
Bronster, Crabtree & Hoshibata.