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LOCAL
The Champion, Thursday, October 29 - November 4,2015
Solicitor general holds annual
domestic violence symposium
by Andrew Cauthen
Andrew@dekalbchamp.com
DeKalb County Solicitor General Sher
ry Boston said most people have witnessed
domestic violence.
“It’s in the parking lot of Walmart, Tar
get or Publix,” Boston said Oct. 21 during
her fifth annual community resource fair
and symposium titled “Building Bridges,
Making Connections, Coordinating a Com
munity Response to Domestic Violence.”
“We’ve seen it when we’re getting out
of our car and you hear somebody’s voice
raised a little bit too high in the parking
lot,” Boston said. “And you turn to see
what’s going on and you see a woman or a
child being grabbed by a man or someone.
“It’s so easy to turn away and walk into
the grocery store and do you shopping for
the week, because you say to yourself‘that’s
family business that’s not my business’,”
Boston said. “But it’s all of our business
because that young woman or that young
child...that’s being grabbed...is going home,
and we all know what’s going to happen
when they get home.
“We all play a part in this coordinated
community response to domestic violence,”
Boston said.
Toni Roberts, executive director of the
DeKalb Volunteer Lawyers’ Foundation,
said years ago she was in a relationship that
turned violent.
One day the young man questioned the
clothes she was wearing to school, asking
“who was I dressing up for?” Roberts said.
“And then it got scary,” she said. “He
pulled a knife on me and a young man from
school.... He pulled a gun on a man riding
in the car next to us because that man was
flirting with me from his car.
“I was terrified with him, wanting to get
out but knowing for sure that that was not...
possible,” Roberts said.
Roberts said her boyfriend went to her
house one day and accused her of dating
someone else.
“He followed me to a bedroom...and
confronted me again and before I knew it,
he had slapped me and he was chasing me
around the room,” Roberts said.
“I tried to push him out of the door,
but he had his arm in the crack of the door
and he was using his arm to swing his fist at
me,” Roberts said. “I had to make a choice
in that moment whether I was going...to let
him in.
“It took a minute before I could even
find a voice to scream. I did and he quickly
ran out of the house,” Roberts said.
“I had the imprint of his hand on my
face for the next four hours,” she said. “But
what lasted many years beyond that was the
terrified feeling of being alone in the world
with nobody to protect [me].
“Years passed and I never experienced
a violent relationship again, but it affected
every relationship thereafter,” Roberts said.
Barbara Gibson, safehouse director at
Women’s Resource Center to End Domes
tic Violence, said a woman is harmed by
domestic violence every nine seconds in
Atlanta.
Gibson said, “Domestic violence is one
of the most common causes of emergency
room visits. It’s more common than car ac
cidents and other kinds of accidents com
bined.
“Women are sent to the emergency
room by people that they love, by people
that they trust, by people they have given
their lives over to in a relationship that they
thought was going to be healthy and com
mitted but instead was violent and scary
and dangerous,” she said.
“Often, we don’t see what that looks
like,” Gibson said. “We imagine that survi
vors have broken bones and bruises all the
time. Sometimes they look exactly like we
do. They get up every morning, get dressed
and go to work and carry on with their
lives.”
Those who commit domestic violence
also can be normal-looking people, Gibson
said.
“Batterers can be Little League coaches,
they can be pastors, they can be great co
workers,” Gibson said. “We want to steer
ourselves away from the idea that batterers
are only monsters.”
“Batterers are regular people,” she said.
“There’s an expression that goes ‘even a bro
ken clock is right twice a day.’ Just because a
person is a good person who jokes around
with the kids, who does a great job, who
saves money, who has a great sense of hu
mor, it doesn’t also mean that same person
isn’t...Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.”
Boston said, “The reason we continue
to do this symposium...is we know that by
coming together as a community we can
help save lives.
“We don’t want to have to have a sixth
annual domestic violence symposium,” she
added.
Residents, law enforcement, advocacy groups and survivors attended
Solicitor General Sherry Boston’s fifth annual community resource fair and
symposium on domestic violence
Various community and nonprofit groups presented resources for those
dealing with domestic violence.
From right, interim DeKalb County CEO Lee May and Solicitor General
Sherry Boston spoke at the domestic violence forum.
CITY OF BROOKHAVEN FY 2016 PROPOSED BUDGET PUBLIC HEARING
The City of Brookhaven will hold a public hearing on the proposed FY2016 Budget following
the City Council Work Session at 6:15 p.m. on November 10, 2015. Another public hearing will
be held during the regular scheduled City Council meeting on November 17, 2015 at 7:00 p.m.
Following the public hearing on November 17, 2015, the City Council will vote to adopt the
FY2016 Budget. The FY 2016 Budget will be available for public inspection at City Hall, 4362
Peachtree Road, and on the website www.brookhavenga.gov November 6, 2015.