When people kill others it’s essential for communities to know what happened, understand the history of the perpetrators and respect the victims through remembrance. Recognizing the crime, the tragedy, the “why” and the “how,” is how towns and cities learn. Knowledge is the impetus for new laws and new ways of solving problems.
There have been several news articles about Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher, who shot and killed his girlfriend, Kasandra Perkins, before going to Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City and killing himself with a handgun Saturday. Reporting turned up police reports from the time Belcher was a student at the University of Maine. They showed a history of incidents with women.
In response, some people have defended Belcher. They have commented that looking into Belcher’s history and conducting interviews with people who knew him are simply not needed, that two people are dead, and, thus, the story is over. “Let it rest,” some said.
We say: Domestic violence is one of the most significant problems this state and country faces, and it is not time to let it rest. More, not less, must be done to raise awareness and understand the psychology of abusers to better prevent violence and help potential victims. More light should be brought to the issue, not less, because domestic violence — and violence in general — is everyone’s problem. It’s a moral, social and economic issue that affects schools, businesses and government.
It doesn’t matter whether a person who kills another is an NFL football player or a heating systems repair man. The tragedy, the downright awfulness, must be looked into, must be remembered, must be learned from. This review happened when Steven Lake shot dead in Dexter his estranged wife Amy Bagley Lake and two children, Monica and Coty, in June 2011, before killing himself. New laws resulted, including to strengthen sentencing and bail setting procedures.
A review of the history happened, and continues, in the apparent murder-double suicide Nov. 19 in Alton, where Scott Reed stabbed his estranged wife, Danielle Reed, at their home before shooting and killing himself. His friend Daniel Young was also found dead in the residence.
Members of the media must report on tragedies without sensationalizing them, such as by limiting morbid details. They should never forget the victims. And it is their job to ask tough questions about the perpetrator’s history and look at what may have gone wrong before a tragedy occurred, as there are often signs.
If anything, the tragedy involving Belcher and Perkins, and by extension their 3-month-old daughter, shows that domestic violence can affect anyone, well-known or not. It indicates just how pervasive violence, largely against women, is.
Intimate partner violence resulted in 1,336 deaths nationally in 2010, accounting for 10 percent of all homicides, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Eighty-two percent were females, and 18 percent were males. The CDC, the nation’s health-protection agency, says one way to prevent violence is to focus on the first time someone hurts a partner. But even the agency acknowledges that knowledge is lacking about the factors to prevent the complicated issue of intimate partner violence.
Responsible reporting can help people better understand the social circumstances that lead to violence. More information is needed, not less, to prevent additional suffering.
The major problem with the paper’s coverage of the Belcher case is readers were inundated with story after story after story about Belcher’s football days at the University of Maine and of how everyone at Maine knew him as a good guy. The stories did not focus on Belcher’s run-ins with university police. In fact, one story stated that a search of the paper’s archives turned up no incidents. That story could have been held until the “new” information came to light.
Furthermore, there has been scant information in this paper about Belcher’s girlfriend, and little information about why Belcher apparently got a free pass from the university for destroying public property in response to anger toward a relationship.
Where are the stories about how abuse can go undetected not only by those who know abusers, but those who know the abused? Where are the stories about how there really is no way for mental health care providers to predict violent behavior? Where are the stories about what one should do when one suspects a loved one is either abusing someone or is involved with someone with a history of abuse?
And where are the stories that point out the obvious: Domestic abuse shouldn’t really be all that surprising, considering that living in close proximity with someone and having a strong emotional attachment to someone is more likely to result in violent outbursts, as opposed to a stranger going off the deep end with you?
The paper’s focus in the Belcher case has been too much on football and how supposedly nice he was when he was at UMaine.
Exactly- well said Ryan and thank you.
Yes, you caught that. The Univ of Maine initially said there were no incidents while he was at the University. Then later they reversed that, claiming that they did not find it at first because his name was spelled differently in files, or something like that.. Quite a stretch.
And that recent tragedy in Alton……Scott Reed had just been seen at Acadia Hospital if I recall correctly, and released. So it is as you say. Mental health providers don’t seem to be able to detect much of it either. Very despairing and desperate situation.
It indicates just how pervasive violence, largely against women, is.
Intimate partner violence resulted in 1,336 deaths nationally in 2010….
Those numbers indicate how rare it is, not how common. 1300 deaths is a vanishingly small number in a population of 330 million – compare it with 33,000 dead in 2010 in traffic accidents, for instance. Does anyone cite ‘pervasive’ traffic fatalities?
Yes, one death is one too many, etc. and so forth, and that’s even true. But give the ‘pervasive’ a rest: for the vast majority of us, spouse abuse is simply unthinkable.
It does make a difference that he was an NFL star. It does not make him less guilty or culpable, but it does help to put pieces of puzzles together. These “kids” who are outstanding athletes leave High School and got to top colleges, not because they are Einsteins, but because they can run fast, hit home runs, and throw 60 yards. When colleges fight over these kids, they can’t offer them money because the NCAA won’t let them. So they have these kids come to “parties” where wine, women, and everything else they could possibly want given to them. When you get whatever you want, whenever you want, including women, your attitude about them changes. The word “no” from a woman is no longer an acceptable answer. I do not believe this man killed himself over a woman, I believe he killed himself because he knew killing the woman would end his career. So yes, it does matter that he was in the NFL, had he been born without the athletic gifts we was born with, this never would have happened.
Student-athletes who are heavily recruited are paid — by getting a scholarship that gives them free room and board and free tuition.
But no, it makes no difference that Belcher was a pro football player. It makes it newsworthy, yes. But as I said in my earlier comment, the paper’s coverage offered little to no substance on the issues surrounding domestic violence and too much rehashing of irrelevant football stats and people saying he was such a nice guy.
I think it is cute that you are naive enough to think the scholarship is the only perk these big student athletes get. The scholarship is a given no matter what school they sign with. It counts for nothing.