I have been discussing a few items with various people in advocacy, human services, law enforcement and victim services the last couple weeks. Although I have not been able to come up with any statistics for this information and no one wanted to be named on record so to speak:)
I found it interesting that almost everyone I talked to about victim protection issues in Colorado came to the same point. That it is not a real problem here, most see one or two people a year that might need some type of protection. When this is encountered, it is mostly handled by law enforcement using drive-bys of the home and work place to take care of it. Also the issues of victims knowing there is anything out there for them usually never comes up unless they specifically ask about it and that almost never happens, probably because they don’t know about it to begin with:)
Protecting the lives of victims and their family members is not a concern or priority in Colorado according to those who work in the victims services. The basic needs are advocacy, education, housing, food, shelters and protection orders/legal issues. While all well and good, very much-needed at the same time, I think that most victims and their family members would add protecting their lives when they are hunted like animals most of the time, threatened almost always and pretty much terrified thorough out the entire legal system encounters, but then no one has bother to ask the victims or their family members about this type of service as far as we can determine, there are no statistics for this or answers from anyone we talked to about it.
This is true on the funding side as well, it has been stated many times that there just is not a great need for victim protection services, that it is not a priority and that stalking is not that bad here in Colorado! After all we have been told, it would be on the minds of all the other organizations and politicians in Colorado if it were a really needed thing, this has come from almost all we talked to.
So I guess there is not a need for an organization that protects peoples lives so they can get to court, the shelters, to work or other needed places, there is no need to fund this type of organization as there is no one that would use it, there is no need to publicize the issues that victims need because they don’t need the serves or they don;t need to know about them as they never ask for them! I find it hard to ask for a service if you don’t know it’s available!
I am not blaming anyone for this unfortunate issue of not getting funding or getting publicity, I have been accused of that before and whining about the outcome of the groups helping victims that I supposedly said were not helping victims, it was not the case and people read into it what was not said, that is a fact!
I just don’t get why someone has to ask for a specific item of help to get it and it is not volunteered to them as a resource. Course I don’t get why people, other than the victims I have dealt with, don’t think there is a need for victim protection services in Colorado. I understand that the politicians don’t want to see it as a problem, it may cost them some money to fund things like this if the victims start rasing a big fuss about it and demanding that the government actually provide them with life saving services! The news media doesn’t seem to care as they would not have gory stories to sell if there was actual protection available and no one died each year.
But of course I don’t know much I have only been doing this type of work for a few years, the experts have been doing it for 15 or 20 years and tell me I don’t get it and they know what is needed so not to worry, everyone is safe in Colorado, ok then have a Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year everyone, things are well in hand and all the DV and Stalking victims out there are well protected! remember, your safety is your responsibility, not anyone elses, so good luck.
