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| Chapter 2 — Protection Orders |
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Examples of the catalytic precipitance of violence
Example one — Woman shot and killed as she arrives for work
Example two — Woman shot an killed in living room of friend's house where she had sought safety
Example three — Woman killed by ex-husband who had five prior DV convictions
Example four — Woman killed at work after taking out protection order against boyfriend
Example five — Protection order doesn't stop boyfriend from killing woman at her home
Example six — Woman killed with an axe in her sleep six days after she obtained protection order
Example seven — Woman killed leaving courthouse
Example eight — Wife murdered after filing for divorce and getting a protection order
Example nine — Wife obtains protection order then husband kills her and himself
Example ten — Prison guard kills wife and two sons after unfaithful wife obtains protection order
Example eleven — Husband is murdered after he files for divorce and obtains protection order against violent wife
Example twelve — Woman murdered at city center after filing for divorce and obtaining protection order
Example thirteen — Woman raped and stabbed after getting protection order against ex-boyfriend
Example fourteen — Ex-husband murders former wife despite protection order against him
Example fifteen — Girl murdered by ex-boyfriend despite DV conviction and protection order against him
Example sixteen — Wife murdered by husband in Colorado Springs after taking out a restraining order
Unfortunately, as was vividly illustrated in a front-page story on repeat abusers in the October 24, 1999, Denver Post, and many times since, protection orders consistently fail to actually provide protection for women who truly need it.
Arrests and protection orders often escalate the level of violence, particularly when used in divorce or custody battles. Feminists are fond of stating that the most dangerous time for a woman is when she leaves a relationship.
In his book Women Can't Hear What Men Don't Say, Dr. Warren Farrell lists (p. 159) five catalysts to violence upon separation:
(2) Leave a vitriolic, rejecting note;
(4) Have the spouse [or significant other] arrested [or served with a protection order];
(5) Have a lover and go to her or his house.
We cite many examples below where these factors appear to have been catalysts for murder. But in how many other cases was the violence more limited than murder? After all, with a protection order the “abuser” knows right where to find the “victim.” It even tells them where to look on the protection order: “Stay away from ____” and that was usually the man's home before the woman filed the order.
Wouldn't it be reasonable to assume that avoiding these catalysts would greatly reduce the violence during separation? And not taking out a protection order to get state-enforced custody of the kids, and possession of the house, car, and bank account, would also seem to be a wise move if violence is to be avoided. Even better would be a State that encouraged marriage and children and discouraged divorce and family destruction.
In a subsequent section we look at the relationship between violence and mankind. Men, as predators, are clearly at the top of the food chain, and survival suggests it best they remain there. Now the worst thing you can do when faced with a predator is to exhibit fear. That arouses a primitive instinct in any predator to attack. Yet that is exactly what women do in getting a protection order, having their mate arrested, taking the children, leaving a vitriolic note, etc. Similarly, attacking a predator in any fashion invites a violent response at a very primitive level.
Mating privileges with females also trigger violent responses in most primates and many lower animals. In Colorado the image of mountain sheep butting heads during rut comes to mind.
These primitive responses to fear are also evident in human females. Women's reactions will differ somewhat, though often more cruelly (see The Female of the Species).
The catalysts for violence described here are thus operating at very basic biological levels to trigger the violence society hopes to avoid. Thus, current domestic violence laws and practices seem more designed to instigate violence than control it.
These few cases are but a minuscule example of the multitude of cases where men, women, and too-often children have been killed after a woman took out a restraining, often euphemistically called a protection order.
August 6, 1999 — Laura Maria Gattas was shot and killed by her estranged husband, Eduardo, when she arrived for work at Memorial Hospital in Colorado Springs. In a front page story in The Gazette on November 3, 1999, reporter Bill Hethcock stated that: “Colorado Springs police detective Todd Drennan testified in a preliminary hearing his investigation showed Gattas was angry at his wife for having him arrested in May in Toronto, where they lived.”
Another example of how protection orders don't protect was published in the August 29, 2002, issue (p. Metro1 and Metro 7) of the Colorado Springs Gazette. Mary Lou Smith, age 52, was shot and killed the evening of August 28 th as she sat in the living room of a friend's house where she had sought safety. Police were looking for her husband, Marlon Laja Smith, age 47, in connection with the shooting. Court records show Mary Lou sought police help at least three times in August of 2002, once on allegations of domestic violence, and two other times to report her husband of 19 years violated a temporary protection order and threatened her life.
The first call from Mrs. Smith came on August 10 th , when Mr. Smith was booked into jail but released on $1,600 bond the next day, according to court records. Mary Lou called police the second time August 12 th , and a third time on August 14 th when the responding officer reported she said her husband threatened to kill her.
While friends and counselors suggested Mrs. Smith go to a shelter, she did not heed their advice. We would suggest the law be revised to require a peace officer to transport the woman to a place of safety in such situations. Protection orders do not supersede the law of the jungle and Mr. Smith is portrayed as a particularly jungly type.
Lisa Marie Boothe, age 44, was found dead July 4, 2002, in a Colorado Springs hotel room.
Two weeks before her husband, 41-year-old Philip Andrew Punk pled guilty in fast-track court to assault for slapping Boothe in a downtown parking lot. In that case he was sentenced to two years probation, 270 days work release, a six-month suspended jail sentence and 52 weeks of domestic violence classes. Mr. Punk apparently avoided jail time by accepting the relatively long work-release sentence in his plea bargain. But court records show he never reported for work release. As noted elsewhere we free the guilty and punish the innocent, who often remain in jail awaiting trial if they plead innocent.
Court records show Phillip Punk had convictions in five domestic violence cases involving at least three women in El Paso County in the past three years. He's been in and out of jail, on and off probation and ordered to take domestic violence classes. Court records also show Punk threatened to kill his previous wife and chop her into pieces. In another case, he pled guilty to beating a former girlfriend and choking her with her hair when he thought she was cheating on him. Obviously the current practices had no deterrent effect on Mr. Punk except to move him from one victim to the next.
Phillip Punk has now been charged with second-degree murder in Lisa Booth's death and was awaiting trial as of November, 2002.
On Wednesday, October 30, 2002, at a little after 11 AM Keith Warren, age 24, went to the third floor office of the Land Title Trust Co. in the Alamo Building in Colorado Springs where his former fiancee, 20-year-old Karri Frazier, worked. Warren, an employee of a security firm, after talking briefly with police, killed both Ms. Frazier and himself (Colorado Springs Gazette, Thursday, October 31, 2002, p. A1 and A8)
The couple had been going together for about a year and had been living together in recent months. But a fight on October 17 th , during which Karri Fraser alleged Keith Warren had punched, choked, and threatened to kill her, ended the relationship. Police arrested Mr. Warren that night and Ms. Frazier moved into her sister's home.
A protection order was issued but two days later Karri complained to police that Keith had tried to contact her at her sister's house. Mr. Warren was then again arrested for violating the protection order.
On Monday, October 21 st Keith Warren pled guilty to third-degree assault involving domestic violence under the 4 th Judicial District's “Fast Track” system that has a well-deserved reputation for railroading defendants. He was sentenced to two years probation, 45 days work release, and the standard 36 weeks of domestic violence prevention classes. A six-month jail sentence was suspended and a no-contact protection order was imposed.
In the transcript (Colorado Springs Gazette, November 8, 2002, p. A9) of the 911 call made by Karri Frazier minutes before the murder/suicide, Keith Warren states: “She is the one who attacked me, and now I have to go through all this crap.”
Whatever credence one puts in Mr. Warren's dying statement that he had been falsely accused, clearly his repeated arrests and the protection orders had acted as a catalyst that enraged him to the point of homicide and suicide.
It is equally clear that the protection orders provided Karri Frazier no effective protection whatsoever.
According to the Thursday, December 19, 2002, Denver Post (p. 3B) 51-year-old Michael Higgins killed a 40-year-old single mother of two, with whom he had a relationship, at her home south of the town of Elizabeth in Elbert County, Colorado, near dawn on Wednesday, December 18 th . Higgins was later found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head atop a ridge near an old quarry on the west side of Castle Rock in Douglas County around 12:30 PM the same day.
Higgins had been arrested in Castle Rock on October 25th for domestic-violence related harassment and had a protection order against him.
According to the January 7, 2003, edition of the Detroit Free Press Marie Moses Irons, 41, a Pontiac Schools administrator in Michigan, was killed with an ax December 29, 2002, as she slept with her 2-year-old son at home in Southfield. Her estranged husband, Christopher Walter Howard, has been charged with first-degree murder. Irons had obtained a protection order on December 23 rd , two days before Christmas and six days before she was killed.
Vicki Sue Keller-Wendt, 45, was killed, along with her niece, Brandie Lee Keller, 20 and her friend, Douglas McCoy, 50, in March 2002, as they left the Isabella County Courthouse in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, following a dispute with Keller-Wendt's ex-husband Thomas Wendt according to the January 7, 2003, edition of the Detroit Free Press. Thomas Wendt had repeatedly violated a protection order.
Abstracted from the Allen American
July 24, 2003 — Mark Taylor of Allen, Texas, called his brother on Monday evening, July 21 st , just before he shot himself in the chest.
Taylor told his brother that he' d just killed his wife and was going to turn the gun on himself, police said.
After receiving that call, the brother called Allen Police at about 7:50 PM. A little more than an hour later police found the bodies of Mark Taylor, 42, and Carol Renee Taylor, 39, of Allen, in a sport-utility vehicle on Cedar Drive in Allen Station Park.
Stephanie Taylor, 19, said her parents had just left a marriage counseling session when they drove to the park Carol Renee Taylor had filed for divorce and obtained a protection order against her husband on July 15, according to court records.
She said her father hadn't physically harmed her mother since they separated 10 days before their deaths, but that Mrs. Taylor had obtained the protection order because she wasn't sure how Mark Taylor would react to the divorce.
Police Capt. Robert Flores said police are still investigating the case, including where Mark Taylor obtained the small-caliber handgun with which he shot his wife twice in the chest before killing himself.
Abstracted from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Thursday, August 7, 2003, Vancouver, Washington — The bodies of Helen Hampton Lycklama, 54, and John Lycklama, 58, were found Tuesday evening in the master bedroom of his upscale home with a .357 Magnum revolver between them on the bed, Clark County sheriff's Sgt. Dave Trimble said.
The woman, a schoolteacher in Portland, Ore., had been shot in the head, and other injuries indicated she tried to defend herself in a struggle, Trimble said.
The man, a local home builder, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
Detectives believe the shootings occurred August 1, the day the two had made plans to meet at a Hazel Dell restaurant, possibly to discuss their pending divorce.
Records show the Lycklamas were married in August 1995, and sheriff's deputies said they had no reports of domestic violence involving the couple.
In April, however, Helen Lycklama filed for divorce and obtained a protection order that barred him from molesting or disturbing her or coming within 1,000 feet of her home or workplace. “I believe my husband is stalking me,” her request for the order stated.
Abstracted from the Denver Post
Wednesday, September 17, 2003, Colorado Springs — A Colorado Department of Corrections officer, whose wife apparently left him for another man, shot and killed her and her two sons, ages 5 and 10, before taking his own life, according to El Paso County sheriff's officers.
At 11:50 PM Thursday, September 11 th , Rutendra Raghunandan went to his wife's apartment. Lolita would not let him in but he managed to get inside through an open door on the balcony, according to a court document. Once inside, Raghunandan found another man in the apartment and asked him to leave. The other man, who has not been identified, did.
Lolita told a sheriff's deputy that her husband then grabbed her by the arm and pulled her into the bedroom, a court document shows. “Mr. Raghunandan shoved Mrs. Raghunandan against a bedroom wall, grabbed her hair and forcefully shoved her head into the wall causing pain. Mr. Raghunandan also tore Mrs. Raghunandan's shirt,” the deputy wrote in the court document.
The deputy noted that a screwdriver was embedded in a bedroom door and that a closet door had a hole in it. Raghunandan told the deputy he caused the damage.
Raghunandan was arrested and booked into the El Paso County Criminal Justice Center on suspicion of third-degree assault, domestic violence and second- degree burglary. A judge advised him of his rights Friday, and he was released on a $10,000 personal recognizance bond with a mandatory protection order at 7:23 PM on September 12 th . Raghunandan's supervisors at the Denver Women's Correctional Facility, where he had worked as a correctional officer since April 1, 1999, were notified of the arrest, and a DV conviction would certainly have cost him his job.
On Friday, Lolita apparently also went to TESSA, who helped her obtain a civil protection order against her husband as well. By now Rutendra had lost his wife, any children that might have been his, and his job due to his wife's actions. And with only the sketchiest of hearings and no trial, everything he owned or loved was taken from him and the legal system left him among the living dead. By Monday, he, his wife, and her sons were dead.
A neighbor, worried that she had not seen the boys, asked a maintenance worker at the apartment complex to check on the family Tuesday morning. The man opened the door, saw Lolita's body and called the sheriff's office at 8:53 AM September 16, 2003.
Lolita Raghunandan, 32, was found in the living room of her east Colorado Springs apartment, 7135 Independence Square Point, where she had moved less than a month ago after separating from her husband. Sons Akash, 10, and Rene, 5, were found in a bedroom with her husband, Rutendra Raghunandan. A 9 mm gun was found near the father.
Lt. Rodney Gehrett, El Paso County sheriff's spokesman, said detectives believe the shootings occurred one or two days before the bodies were found. Neighbors gave conflicting reports; some reported hearing shots late Sunday night, and others said they heard them Monday morning.
Even under the draconian provisions of current law, which negate virtually every Constitutional civil liberty, clearly there was no effective protection available for Lolita. Conversely, Lolita seems to have invoked at least three of the five catalysts for violence tabulated above. And note that while the newspaper referred to the children as his, DNA paternity testing of children in other similar relationships suggests there is at least a 30% chance that one or both of her children may not have been Rutendra's. That suspicion is reinforced as Lolita was apparently having an affair, since Rutendra found another man in her apartment at midnight.
Abstracted from Akron Beacon Journal
April 8, 2004, Akron — Sobbing throughout Wednesday's court hearing, a 38-year-old Canton woman avoided the death penalty by agreeing to plead guilty to aggravated murder and aggravated arson in the death of her husband last year.
Sass, using gasoline, started the fatal fire on the morning of September 14, 2003, at the home she once shared with husband Christopher A. Sass in the 7500 block of Oakhill Avenue Northeast in Washington Township, authorities have said.
Francine Sass, who had a history of arrests for domestic violence, waived her right to a jury trial, saying she agreed with and understood the pleas after being questioned for more than two hours by a panel of three Stark County Common Pleas judges.
Christopher Sass, who had filed for divorce in April of 2003 — even gaining a protection order — was 34.
Court records show Francine Sass was arrested for domestic violence twice — on October 19, 2002, and just five months later.
© 2004 Abstracted from a story by John Ingold published June 27, 2004, in the Denver Post
According to court records, Mrs. Tina Esparza filed for divorce from her husband in early 2004, shortly after her husband was charged with misdemeanor sex assault in Jefferson County, Colorado. Soon thereafter she got protection orders against him for herself and their four children.
Tina Esparza was reportedly terrified of her estranged husband during the final months of her life.
“I can't help but wonder,” she wrote in an e-mail to her attorney, “what else he is going to do to 'make me pay' before he leaves.”
In e-mails, she told friends how messy her divorce had become, how angry her husband was, how she feared what he might do next.
In January, 2004, Mrs. Esparza called police and asked them to increase patrols at the parking lot at the Englewood, Colorado, City Center where she worked in the municipal court. Her friends organized a buddy system to walk her to her car every night.
In early April, Mrs. Esparza had her truck taken; she told police she suspected her husband. Because the Esparzas were still married, police didn't pursue a car theft case, but an Englewood police division chief told officers to keep a closer eye on the parking lot at the city center where she worked.
On May 14, 2004, Tina Esparza was killed at 12:43 PM as she walked in the Englewood City Center parking garage. She was shot once in the chest and died with her car keys in her hand.
Prosecutors have arrested and charged her husband, 37-year-old Gabriel Esparza, with murder.
When she first heard a cry for help Tanya Meston figured one of her neighbors was drunk, still up partying from the night before.
Then she saw the neighbor — crumpled facedown in the grass between their houses, nude, bleeding from her chest and head, one of her legs twisted at a horribly impossible angle and apparently broken.
The El Paso County Sheriff's Office said the 24-year-old woman was raped, stabbed several times in the chest and a shoulder, and suffered a head injury at her home in the 6600 block of Proud Eagle Court, in the Cimarron Hills area. Investigators said she escaped about 6 AM Saturday morning by leaping from a second-story window.
Adrian Townsend, 24, described by investigators as an ex-boyfriend, was spotted an hour-and-a-half later driving her car in the area. After a short pursuit, he was arrested on suspicion of attempted first-degree murder, first-degree sexual assault, domestic violence and other charges. He is in El Paso County jail on $50,000 bail.
Police said three children in the house, ages 5, 2 and 1, were sleeping and were not hurt. Townsend is said to be the father of the two younger children.
Court records show Townsend has been arrested five times since 2003 on suspicion of domestic violence, with three convictions, one dismissal and one case pending. It was unclear whether the victim in Saturday's assault was involved in all those incidents, but court records show she filed for a restraining order against Townsend in March. Clearly, none of the DV arrests or convictions, or the restraining order provided one iota of protection for this woman. Nor did the current laws deter Adrian Townsend in any discernible fashion.
“It was absolutely not a good situation,” said neighbor Darla Bales, who told of hearing tearful and angry phone calls.
“They're always fighting in there,” said neighbor Teresa Daily.
“It's not like just arguing. They're screaming at each other,” said Desiree Padilla.
Abstracted from an article by Myung Oak Kim, Rocky Mountain News
On Christmas Day, 2006, police were looking for the ex-husband of a 30-year-old Natisha Gellegos of Commerce City. She was found dead around noon Sunday in her condo in the 10700 block of Belle Creek Boulevard in the Belle Creek subdivision at 107 th Avenue and U.S. 85.
Police said they believe Natisha was killed Sunday morning. Neighbors said they heard a commotion and the sound of breaking glass around 10 AM. A relative found the woman's body and called 911 shortly before noon.
The woman's children were not home at the time. The couple had a 7-year-old daughter and Natisha had two sons, 12 and 14, from a previous relationship.
Police believe her ex-husband, Albert Gallegos, 32, was involved in the slaying. Natisha had prior restraining orders against Gallegos according to police. Gallegos was later arrested in California after an automobile accident there.
Abstracted from articles by Kirk Mitchell, Denver Post and Tillie Fong, Rocky Mountain News
December 11, 2007
— Abigail Robertson, a sophomore business major at Metro State College was stabbed to death the day after her 21
st
birthday by a former boyfriend against whom she had a restraining order after a previous attack, authorities say.
Glendale police were called to Robertson's Heritage Creek apartment at 620 S. Dahlia Street in Lafayette at 1:45 PM Tuesday. According to Chuck Robertson, Abigail's father, she was on the phone with her current boyfriend at the time she was attacked. “Her boyfriend heard the whole attack. He was the one who called the police.”
When officers arrived, they found the apartment door unlocked and Ms. Robertson dead inside. They also found bloody footprints leaving the unit.
While investigators were setting up a perimeter around the crime scene, Glendale police received a call from Aurora police, saying that a man had entered the lobby of their headquarters. “He said he was involved in this (the Glendale) crime. He did not give an explanation.” according to Glendale Police Chief Victor Ross.
Marcus Hightower, 24, was arrested after Glendale officers interviewed him in Aurora and is being held without bail at the Arapahoe County jail for investigation of first-degree murder in the stabbing death of Abigail Robertson.
Colorado Bureau of Investigation records show that Marcus Hightower was charged on July 28, 2007, with stalking, domestic violence, assault, burglary and criminal mischief.
Abigail's father, Chuck Robertson, said his daughter had been with Hightower for six to eight months before she broke up with him in July and that was when Hightower first attacked her. He said his daughter had a restraining order against Hightower.
“He had attacked her. He hit her and went and slashed all the tires of her car. He had violated the restraining order a couple of times.”
Court records show that Hightower was charged with third-degree assault, burglary and criminal mischief. He pled guilty to criminal mischief and was given a deferred sentence of two years of probation, 48 hours of community service, and was ordered to have no contact with Abigail. Chief Ross stated that Abigail Robertson did have a restraining order in place against Hightower at the time she was murdered.
Officials at Metropolitan State College of Denver confirmed that Hightower and Robertson were students there. He is a freshman, majoring in speech communication, and she was a sophomore business major.
Hightower served two years in the Army as a combat engineer. He served one year in Korea, said Army Master Sgt. Keith O'Donnell. He was at Fort Stewart, Georgia, when he was released early in 2004 at the Army's insistence, O'Donnell said. He declined to say whether Hightower was disciplined.
Abstracted from article on KOAA.com
July 18, 2018 — On the night Michelle was killed there were two arrest warrants out for Mark Peters on charges he violated the protection order and for stalking.
Michelle Peters, age 41, was found dead from a gunshot wound to the head on July 13 th inside her daughter's home on Galleria Terrace in Colorado Springs. One might reasonably ask why she hadn't sought safety in a women's shelter like TESSA that is funded and exists for the purpose of protecting such women?
Michelle's estranged husband, Mark Peters, age 46, was dressed in a long black/red wig and was carrying pamphlets when he came to the home of his wife's adult daughter from a previous marriage. Both women answered the door [Why?] and were immediately threatened with a pistol.
During a struggle to keep the door closed, just one shot was fired through the door, which hit Michelle in the side of the head.
Despite the attempt at a disguise, the victim's daughter told police she recognized the voice of Mark Peters as he yelled obscenities while threatening to kill Michelle, but apparently they still opened the door.
Michelle Peters started divorce proceedings against her husband in May 2018. She was granted a temporary restraining order on May 3 rd . That was apparently like waving a red flag in front of a bull. Police reports detail how she then tried to hide from him following repeated threats against her life. She tried to hide her address, moved several times, but apparently didn't go to a women's shelter for protection. For all the good it did her, there was a permanent protection order against him as of May 30 th .
The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that the obligation of police is to provide for public safety, not personal safety. However, despite that she futilely called police when she started receiving text messages in June — dozens on them — which included claims of fraud and direct threats on her life. “I'm the most lethal m*********** that you have encountered in your life right now and it's all your fault,” reads just one line out of 170 text messages she received in one day. That Mark Peters is dangerous seems apparent from his mug shot and it leaves one curious why she married him?
Court records show Mark Christopher Peters has a lengthy criminal history. He has now been charged with first degree murder and was being held without bond in the El Paso County jail.
Is the answer ever more draconian laws as victim feminists would have us believe? We think not! Or should women act in ways to ensure their own safety and protection, and take responsibility for their actions? The latter would seem to be a safer course for both individuals and society. Unfortunately, a goal of modern feminism seems to be to ensure that women are never required to be responsible for their actions; a goal that often results in their death.
Civilization is but a thin veneer when a man is given no options and society backs him into a corner. Current laws and domestic violence treatment programs make little or no effort to deal with mentally disturbed or deranged men or women. Despite the false promise implicit in a restraining (protection) order it is impossible for police to provide personal protection for individuals and the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled they have no obligation to do so, most recently in Castle Rock v. Gonzales.
As an alternative federal, state, and city governments and private foundations fund women's shelters that women can go to for their safety. But that approach has limitations as well, chiefly that women in need of protection need to seek out and go to the shelter. It cannot be regarded as “blaming the victim” if any individual fails or refuses to use shelter in time of trouble. Problems with such shelters are another issue entirely.
Our oft-repeated advice to women or men who find their partner is a physical danger to them or their children is to put as much distance between them as possible, 500 miles at a minimum and 1,000 is better because the legal system does not, and cannot provide protection for individuals (see Castle Rock v. Gonzales case). The examples above make it quite evident that seeking protection through the courts quite often increases the individual's danger.
Clearly, women or men who are threatened by an intimate partner, or anyone else, are well advised to seek training in self defense and carry defensive weapons such as a gun, or at least Mace or later chemical weapons. Home, car, telephone, and Internet security and surveillance systems also seem judicious measures in such situations.
Additional examples are given in When Men Are Driven To Desperation. A man who intends to kill a woman and plans to take his own life, or knows that he will face murder charges, won't be deterred by the penalties for violating a protection order, as too many headlines show, and the examples above from the past twenty years clearly demonstrate.
Whether a woman's partner be male or female (lesbian relationships are apparently the most violent of all) protection orders do not protect. By violating the civil rights, and eliminating due process for men they are imposed upon, such orders can only incite. By stripping everything a man owns and loves from him without so much as a hearing, society makes him treacherous. Men with nothing to lose are very dangerous.
The National Violence Against Women survey (NVAW, p. 52) found that approximately one-half of the protection orders women took out against males were known to have been violated and nearly one-third of the orders men had against women were basically ignored.
Several other studies also suggest that, despite their widespread use, protection orders have little, if any, protective effect. Cathy Young quotes: “A 1984 study by Janice Grau, Jeffrey Fagan, and Sandra Wexler has concluded that the orders have a protective effect for women who were not severely victimized in the first place. If so, peddling them to women in real danger is like giving cancer patients aspirin.”
Incredibly, the Equal Justice Foundation has never encountered a case where a protection order provided any documented level of protection, or even anecdotes about how a protection order made a woman safe. And we hear from many women on this issue (see In Women's Own Words).
Unfortunately, since protection orders don't protect endangered women (or men), radical feminists then claim that even more draconian laws are required. As one result we have the present nightmarish system that protects no one and violates virtually every civil liberty a citizen has.
Making the penalties for violating a protection order ever more draconian is very unlikely to change the rate at which such orders are violated but does increase the catalytic effect such orders have on violence. Dugan and others (2001) found that:
“...Increases in the willingness of prosecutors' offices to take cases of protection order violation were associated with increases in the homicide of white married intimates, black unmarried intimates, and white unmarried females...”
One manifestation of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again and expect a different outcome.
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