Brooklyn’s Spike in Domestic Violence

By Fred Friedman and Helen Pointer

Social service workers and mental health professionals convened in a spacious conference room at 350 Jay St. in Brooklyn Heights to discuss the growing problem of domestic violence. The domestic violence symposium held on Dec. 2, was sponsored by Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes’s office.

According to a report published by the city’s health department, 30 percent of adult women and seven percent of adult men have been victim of domestic violence.

The number of domestic violence cases in recent years has risen, said the DA. In south Brooklyn, Canarsie and Flatlands had the most domestic violence arrests, with 695 in 2007. Bensonhurst had the least, at 383 arrests. 

Domestic violence can manifest itself in many ways with physical violence the most common form. But emotional and psychological are also quite common in many cases particularly among those who are under financial stress due to losing their jobs.

Most of the attendees cited teen dating as a common conduit for the expression of violence on the part of boys toward girls.

According to city health department statistics, women between the ages of 16-24 are at risk for abuse by their boyfriends. In 2004 nearly 4,000 women in that age group were treated in emergency for injuries suffered as a result of assault.

Thirty-four of these women eventually died.

Kevin Wright, a social worker who works with same sex couples, lamented the fact that police are reluctant to respond to incidents involving gay couples because of prejudices they harbor against them.

“The community is reluctant to call the police when family violence occurs because of the stigma of shame,” said Amy Schwartz, a social worker from Mt. Sinai hospital works with the orthodox Jewish community.

The orthodox community tends to be self-enclosed and is reluctant to deal with the institutions of the larger secular society out of mistrust or fear. Domestic violence affects all segments of society without regard to race, religion or socio-economic status.

Sheryl Turner, an emergency room social worker from Mt Sinai, told her colleagues that she fields all kinds of calls from people from all walks of life.

Turner says the call range from charges of elder and child abuse to financial theft.

“We get a huge number of calls from all over the city,” she said.

Domestic violence experts insist that the problem has no one cause but is the result of many factors including alcoholism, drug abuse, mental illness, family conflict that has existed over a prolonged period of time and other problems unique to particular individuals. For the survivors of domestic violence, long-term health effects are common. Angela Montague, a social worker from Metropolitan hospital said violence increases the risk of mental health problems such as depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress.

The symposium also addressed the issue of what hospitals are doing to prevent and treat the victims of domestic violence.

Eustis Lashley, head of the domestic violence commission at Maimomaides Hospital, helps trains physicians to recognize the symptoms of domestic violence and refer victims to appropriate social service agencies.

Paul Maileth, head of the mental health and social services department at Cumberland Hospital, sais his staff is well trained to screen victims of domestic violence and assist them in the proper way.

Karen Thompson, a psychologist at Lutheran Medical Center says most abuse takes after four in the afternoon and wants the city to fund social workers who are available for abuse victims around the clock.

Tamar Tawani , a social worker for Planned Parenthood, says her organization screens every visitor for domestic violence and counsels pregnant women on how to protect themselves from abusive boyfriends and husbands.

As a result of greater awareness of the magnitude of the problem of domestic violence in the city, more and more hospitals are learning to recognize and treat its victims and work with legal authorities in bringing the perpetrators of violence to justice.

Hospitals and social service agencies are also working together to provide such services as legal aid, crisis intervention, shelter, job training and other services to help the victims of domestic violence overcome the strains and stresses of their situations and help successfully reintegrate them into the social and economic mainstream of civic life.

Three years ago, Hynes created the New York City Family Justice Center to go after batterers and get help to victims mentally and physically terrorized by their intimate partners. The center houses one of the first specialized domestic violence bureaus in the country, and has become a national model for district attorneys in handling these difficult cases.

Everyday, about 1,000 people in New York City call the police to report domestic violence, according to the center.

Brooklyn has the most family related murders in the city. Of the 48 domestic homicides committed in 2007, 16 victims were killed in Brooklyn, compared to four in Manhattan and eight in the Bronx, according to the Mayor’s Office to Combat Domestic Violence.

The justice center, at 350 Jay Street, has a fleet of 44 assistant district attorneys dedicated solely to prosecuting domestic violence cases.

 

Additional reporting by Eric Miller

Flatbush Bus Drivers Fear For Their Safety

 

 

Robert Clouden worked with Edwin Thomas who was fatally stabbed driving his B46

“We’re Sitting Ducks,” Say Bus Drivers

By Edmund DeMarche

New York City bus drivers are not heroes like firefighters and not impenetrable like police officers. And unlike train conductors, they are not isolated from passengers. They must coexist with them.

Before Edwin Thomas became a bus driver, he drove armored trucks. He thought driving buses was a safer profession and began working for the transportation department. He had two young children at the time and didn’t want to jeopardize his future with them.

His choice proved fatal.

Shortly after 12:30 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 1, Horace D. Moore, 20, of Crown Heights, allegedly took a knife to Thomas’s chest after being rebuffed by Thomas for a transfer. The man had not paid his fare. Shortly after the stabbing, Thomas was pronounced dead at Woodhull Hospital in north Brooklyn, according to police.

Word of Thomas’s murder on his B46 route while driving at Malcolm X Boulevard in Bedford-Stuyvesant spread like wildfire in his bus depot on Utica Avenue and Fillmore Avenue.

Shock and sadness inspired by the loss of a colleague and friend known throughout the depot for his willingness to work overtime and his affection for BMWs, was replaced by anxiety and fear regarding the dangerous realities bus drivers face when driving their routes.

Drivers here say Thomas’s murder illustrates the risks they face from disgruntled passengers who verbally and at times become physical. They say the transit authority does little to ensure their safety during a time riders are becoming increasingly emboldened.

To be sure, few public service jobs bring consumer and provider to such close proximity as a bus driver and his passengers.

Seventy-four bus drivers have been assaulted so far this year, according to the Transit Authority. Thomas’s was first killing of a city bus driver in more than 25 years.

Drivers here consider themselves sitting ducks. They are in a vulnerable position compounded by the fact they are not allowed to carry a weapon for self-defense.

“We threw around some ideas a few years back about putting up some kind of Plexiglas-type window, but we need to have access to the passengers,” said Robert Clouden, a bus driver for 19 years. “But something needs to be done, passengers are getting a lot more aggressive.”

The bus drivers we spoke to say they cringe when they see groups of high school-aged passengers about to board. These passengers are rambunctious and often make excuses about forgetting their Metrocard at home, or some other excuse to get out of paying. They also resort to sneaking through the back door.

“We operate in the real world,” said Clouden. “You’re not going to be able to tell a 6’5” guy, “Hey, get off my bus.”’

A passenger assaulted Clouden back in April 2007. A teenager complained that he missed his stop. The teen punched Clouden in the face, fracturing his nose and putting him out of work for two months.

Clouden, who used to trade tips with Thomas because they both had BMWs, said this incident sharpens his senses. “I think everyone in here is a little bit more concerned then yesterday, but we always knew what’s out there,” said Clouden.

The B46 route is considered by some drivers as a tough route to get stuck with. It begins in Marine Park and continues for 12 miles along Utica Avenue, terminating at the Williamsburg Bridge.

You never know what kind of person you’re picking up, said Warren.

“You get two different areas,” said Warren, a bus driver who declined to give his last name. “You drive through Crown Heights and Bed-Stuy where you get a little nervous and then you get to Marine Park, where you feel OK.”