The latest report from Violence Policy Center.
I find it ironic and sad that the very day an annual report on violence against women was released, a famed pro athlete was kicked off his team for slugging his wife in the face.
By now you’ve probably heard that Ray Rice, the Baltimore Ravens star running back, was caught on camera hitting his then-fiance and knocking her out with the single blow in an elevator . The March incident cost him a two-game suspension, but when TMZ released the video showing the act, the Ravens terminated his contract and the NFL suspended him indefinitely.
Today I captured the seriousness of domestic violence. The report from the Violence Policy Center shows that South Carolina is ranked the second worst state in the nation for violence against women. The report notes that 50 women were killed in 2012. Spartanburg County had four in 2012. The county has seen two husband-on-wife homicides so far this year and DV cases are some of the most common ones among daily incident reports here. Local leaders tell me it is a significant combination of problems that all need to be dealt with in order to change the status quo surrounding violence against women. Much of it starts with a serious culture change, they tell me.
I was baffled when a colleague of mine pointed out the Fox News morning show “Fox & Friends.” The anchors on the program somehow find a way to joke about Ray Rice knocking out his now-wife and dragging her limp body out of the elevator.
“I think the message is take the stairs,” one anchor quips.
We got right to the point during an interview today with the victim services director at SAFE Homes, a domestic violence shelter and coalition in Spartanburg County.
The gist of the interview was to hold people accountable for their actions and for society to never turn a blind eye.
My full story on the violence against women ranking in South Carolina is at goupstate.com and in Tuesday’s Spartanburg Herald-Journal.