OOP Survivor Blog

Four women and five children die every day in the U.S. due to domestic violence. Read President Barack Obama's Presidential Proclamation announcing his commitment to reducing the prevalence of domestic violence in our country.

Friday, October 1, 2010

Today's Article in The Arizona Republic on my police victim services advocate who went to amazing lengths to serve my ex with an Order of Protection

Kudos to The Arizona Republic for recognizing Betsy Jo Fairbrother's fabulous work in today's article while helping to spread awareness of domestic abuse!

Many people may not realize the wonderful, free services that a local police department provides to victims of domestic violence.

I know I didn't, and I was extremely grateful that my police department was there for me when I was going through my Order of Protection nightmare. My advocate, Betsy Jo, went to heroic lengths to have my then-husband served with the Order of Protection. It took a month of tireless work on her part, collaborating with numerous authorities from the National Guard to two different Sheriff departments to TSA's Internal Affairs, and more, before she tracked him down.

As reported in the article, I'm forever grateful to Betsy Jo for her extraordinary dedication to helping victims of domestic abuse.

I'm also grateful to the media, by the way, for giving the issue of domestic violence the media coverage that is so greatly needed to spread awareness and hopefully bring an end to this insidious aspect of our society. There will be more media coverage of my story in the coming days and weeks, including from the E. Coast, and I'll be posting links to an upcoming in-depth TV interview that is slated to air soon as well as a magazine article, and hopefully more....

3 comments:

  1. So glad about the national coverage of your story too. People need to know this, especially since it is an Air Marshal who did this to you.

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  2. My Victims Advocate did an amazing job too. My abuser had been arrested for assaulting me, the moment I left the hospital I went to the court house to get a order of protection. After being giving it I asked how to make it work? They said I needed to deliver it to him, I told him he is in jail- they told me to drive down to phx on a visit day then serve him. I could not believe my ears. Luckily my victims advocate, Took it to the phx jail. In my eyes thats BS that anybody would need to jump through hoops to serve somebody.

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  3. Nicola, you have an excellent point. It's crazy that it's all on the shoulders of abuse victims to have their abusers served with a restraining order. Absolutely crazy. As if we're not already terrorized, confused and stressed out enough as it is. That definitely needs to be changed.

    I don't know what I would have done if my police department didn't have such a strong Victim Services program and if I hadn't ended up with Betsy Jo as my advocate. She had no problem at all with handling the serving of my Order of Protection. Otherwise, I don't think it would have happened.

    I am so glad you're safe now!!
    Kristin

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