A senior Miami cop was arrested on domestic violence charges after his wife claims he slammed her to the ground and repeatedly struck her head on the floor in front of their three children.
Local law enforcement reports that seasoned cop Alfred Bryant was the reason for his wife's frantic 911 call made on a Saturday evening. She claims that they had initially gotten into a heated dispute which ultimately led to a physical altercation. Bryant's wife was in the kitchen at the sink when her husband started throwing soapy water in her face. As a means of protection, she grabbed a small frying pan and waved it at the cop before putting it back down. Immediately after, the 5'11 and 185 pound cop brutally attacked.
“The defendant then grabbed the victim around the neck, flipped her onto the floor, and struck her head on the floor twice,” the report says. “ Bryant's family claims that he had “stopped the physical attack after the children began pleading with him to stop.”
After police arrived, Bryant vehemently argued that he was not to blame for the incident, but evidence proved otherwise. He was arrested on one count of domestic battery. Former colleagues, other family members and people in the community were shaken by the turn of events, claiming that they had no inclination the 43-year-old had the capacity to commit such acts.
But research suggests that Bryant is not an anomaly in regard to cops and their involvement in domestic disputes. An advocacy group called The Advocates for Human Rights Organization conducted several studies in an effort to shed light on the hidden epidemic and its enormity in the United States. The group concluded that domestic violence is two to four times more common amidst police families than in the general population and that 40% of police officers have self-reported that they have used violence against domestic partners within the last year. For American women overall, the rate is 25%, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The one aspect of police domestic violence that makes matters difficult is the fact that many women are scared to report it. These women are reporting these instances of abuse to others who are in the same exact positions as their husbands. This runs the risk of skepticism from the same law enforcement system they are complaining to. In addition to a fear of retaliation, a lot of these women are largely dependent on their husbands. So in the event that their husband loses his job, they could also lose their economic stability.
Studies also reveal that acts of domestic violence perpetuated by a police officer often results in minimal repercussions, leaving batterers unaffected. The Domestic Violence Task Force examined 91 cases in which an allegation of domestic violence was sustained by an officer. They found that over 75% of the time, the allegation was not mentioned in the officer's performance evaluation, and 26 of these officers have been granted promotions after these incidents.
If you have been accused of domestic violence, you deserve a quality legal defense. Remember, the justice system is intended to protect the falsely accused as well as the battered. Call the Seattle law office of Steve Karimi at (206) 621-8777 or contact him online.
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