10.11.2024 Domestic Violence Awareness Month

good afternoon I'd like to welcome everyone here to um Fall River government government center on this beautiful Friday afternoon um and I'd like to welcome everyone and thank everyone for joining us today as we honor and recognize October as domestic violence Awareness Month my name is Kyle mcferson I'm an assistant district attorney and the uh chief of the district courts for the Bristol County

District Attorney's office um and I would like to thank and recognize some individuals that are here today um I'd like to thank district attorney Quinn who is here um mayor cougan as well as deputy chief Bon Castro of the Fall River Police Department and representative uh Carol Fiola um who will be speaking as well I'd like to first start by explaining what it is that we do at the District Attorney's

office as it relates to domestic violence and essentially what we do is approach this terrible problem on two separate tracks the first track that we approach it with is to empower empathize and listen to victims of domestic violence and I would just send a message out to any victims of domestic violence that you will be heard you will be listened to you will be understood um and if you come forward

you will not face judgment you will receive understanding from the District Attorney's office and that is something that all of our PR prosecutors and victim Advocates uh who are also here today that is something that all of them strive to achieve every time they encounter a victim so that is one tract in empowering and understanding the victims and on the other tract is holding the offenders

accountable by bringing Justice in whatever way we can using all available resources personnel and abilities at the District Attorney's office to ensure that those that perpetrate this crime are held to account to the standards of this society and it's extremely important to treat both of those Avenues from the District Attorney's office as um vital in order to successfully do what we can to

help this just incredibly difficult situation that so many people face and one of the things uh that I in prior to being uh the chief of the district courts I was uh the chief domestic violence prosecutor for this city uh at the District Attorney's office and one of the things that I think I've come to learn is that domestic violence is devastating not just because of the physical scars that it leaves on its

victims but because of the extreme harm it does within the community it tears houses apart part a house that is suffering domestic violence within it is not a house it is in many instanes a prison and when you have a community that is full of those sorts of places where people have to live as opposed to homes that Community quite frankly does not function the citizens in it cannot

achieve what they want to achieve they cannot live the lives that they want to live and again um as we start and we hear from some of the other speakers today I would just like to say to the victims of domestic violence um we hear you and it is very few of us have the opportunity to display courage and even fewer of us display that courage when that opportunity presents itself however to every single

victim of domestic violence that I have worked with and had the privilege to know I would just say that they display real courage real heroism and that their suffering is not in vain and that we will do everything we can to help alleviate this situation um and some of the other individuals uh that are here today are U one of the other organizations that is here is star and um the first person

that I would like to uh bring up is Blair seus a clinician at Star and I believe she's going to explain to us uh the clothesline project and some other things that are going on there so please Blair seus good afternoon everyone again my name is Blair I'm one of the clinicians at Star um and I just want to take a second and thank every single one of you for coming out um and being here and

supporting this awareness um so the clothline project was founded in 1990 on Cape Cod Massachusetts so right in this state um and it is a powerful visual initiative designed to raise awareness about violence against women survivors and individuals impacted by violence they create these t-shirts that are displayed here um with images and words representing their experiences these shirts are then displayed on a

clothesline for public viewing and will be displayed for the entire month of October the symbolic act serves as a form of expression allowing survivors to share their stories while also commemorating those who have lost their lives to violence the clothline project aims to Foster healing educate the public and motivate action against domestic violence there's also um purple ribbons on that table and we do have

extras if anybody didn't grab one um and we welcome you to wear them and support thank you so much for being here again and I'll hand it back over to Kyle you thank you Blair

just um the next individual that would like that we'll be speaking today is the district attorney uh for Bristol County Tom Quinn who has made uh this issue uh extremely important in his administration and uh I think his leadership is vital in this issue and please welcome Tom Quinn the Bristol County District Attorney thank you Kyle and thanks for everybody's presence here we have a

number of people from our office Mayor representative Fiola uh this has been a do domestic violence and the toll it takes on the individual primarily women and their families is significant uh it's not going to go away but it has to be faced that's something I've made a priority throughout my career as a prosecutor uh is to prosecute cases hold people accountable uh for their conduct again which is

extremely uh detrimental to our society uh this is domestic October's domestic violence awareness month but just to give you some indication uh this year uh we've had over 2,200 domestic violence arrangments seven over short a little over 700 out of Fall River so unfortunately the epidemic if you will or the plague of the domestic violence continues but everybody working together can try to continue to address it and

ultimately try to again hold people accountable women should not be exposed to this or anybody for that matter be punched in the face or assaulted in any way especially when they're in the presence of children so it becomes cyclical people see it given their circumstances and it just gets repetitive so I think everybody coming together to highlight this uh uh uh and focus on uh you know the the the work

that's been done but also the continued fight against domestic violence it's been a priority of me again for over 36 years and will continue to be so thank you very much the next individual that i' would like to uh ask to come up is representative Carol Fiola another individual who's been an absolute um star war champion of this issue and um I would like she would like to say few words thank

you thank you very much to our da our mayor and all of you who are on the front lines every day helping those victims and Prosecuting the defendants um it's goes without saying you know you live it we're preaching to the choir here we know how prevalent this is uh whether uh we average about 19 homicides a year maybe 18 or 19 a year year for the last decade in Massachusetts alone those are

just the homicides that's not what you see every day our police force uh you all on the at Star and and and at the DA's office seeing the victims of assault very severe assault that don't result in Murder but result in lasting effects for the victim primarily women and their families and their children especially are affected by this um um they say in the United States about half of all women will be victims of some

type of assault and often before the age of 25 so the work that you do throughout the community educating young women in their our schools uh is is vital in any way in the state that we continue to fund and support programs is a way that we can help as well um can't thank you all enough for what you do every day it's just a you know we we read about it

when it's high-profile we see currently right now there's an alleged uh is that the word we're supposed to use alleged um victim uh by very high-profile person who has everything to lose in the world tens and tens of millions of dollars of salary that doesn't stop someone so we have to work on educating women to find the signs and stay away as best as possible thank you all for what you do thank you representative

P um the next individual who's going to come up and speak um is Mayor Coogan um of Fall River oh I apologize I may

have mayor Coogan and the representatives of star are going to read the the domestic violence Proclamation they say this is the only one that amplifies hi good afternoon everyone whereas domestic violence remains an ongoing pmic that impacts individuals families in our greatest Fall River Community and whereas domestic violence most egregiously impacts the vulnerable and marginalized people in our community

including black indigenous and people of color immigrants the Elder the economically disenfranchised lgbtq folks women and children and those with mental or physical disabilities and whereas nearly 20 people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner in the United States which represents more than 10 million victims of domestic violence annually and whereas violence against women has

it oh it intensified in the United States and globally since the onset of the covid-19 pandemic with one and two women reporting that they or a woman that they know has experienced violence since the pandemic and domestic violence is understood to be a problem that is exacerbated by The increased confinement with abusive Partners social isolation from support system increased unemployment unstable

housing stress associated with child care Financial insecurity and the lack of substance use supports and whereas many of these survivors choose not to report to the police the courts or domestic violence agencies for fear of being harmed or re-traumatized by the systems that are meant to support them and are also isolated from in-person support such as therapists family members and friends and whereas

we recognize that a coordinated Community effort can be can prevent and Abate the pattern of domestic violence and that all our citizens deserve to live in a city that is dedicated to their well-being and safety and whereas the greater for of a domestic violence Coalition commit to advocate for dismantling systems of Oppression that continue to make domestic violence possible and commit to

upholding an ethic of care and accountability that recognizes the unique vulnerabilities and agency of Survivor s and now therefore I Paul Coogan Mayor of the city of Fall River to hereby Proclaim October 2024 as domestic violence awareness month and I urge all citizens to bring awareness to help us end domestic violence

so as we uh wrap up here we're going to invite everyone to head out to uh the flag the flag's over here is that outside oh outside over here that we're gonna invite everyone to head out uh to the flag raising ceremony I encourage everyone to walk around and um after that ceremony uh take some time to really look at the what's going on on the clothesline project and to think

about as difficult as it is to read what's on those shirts and as as as troubling as some of these phrases might seem think about the person that had to put it on the shirt and how difficult it was for them to experience it and to go through it and as we uh talk about raising awareness in domestic violence there's things that everybody can do if your co-worker is coming to work in the

summertime wearing a turtleneck if you see something happening if you hear something happening if you see domestic violence if you hear domestic violence you know it when when you hear it you know it when you see it every one of us has the power and the opportunity to do something to change it you don't have to be a prosecutor or a police chief or a mayor or the district attorney to be

able to do that every single one of us in the community owes it to do something in order to help these victims and I it is a life-changing experience to interact with a victim who's come through it the other side because I can tell you the way they describe it the food tastes better their time off is more enjoyable the air is sweeter their dreams are nicer everything just gets better and we all have the opportunity

to do something to help those victims that are going through that and we should all really uh take this month take this opportunity and just really really do whatever we can um again I'd like to thank all of the speakers I'd like to thank everyone that's here in attendance uh and right now I'd like to invite everyone for going out uh this we got a beautiful day for it to enjoy the

flag uh raisin ceremony and then to come back in and really um understand what's going on with the Clos line project thank you so much