Order of Protection: Just a piece of paper?

What is an Order of Protection? It is a legal document that is issued by the courts to protect a victim from a batterer. Orders usually tell the batterer to stay away from the victim and tells them to stop threatening her. In theory they are supposed to keep the victim safe. Essentially, they are pieces of paper, just like a dollar is a piece of paper. They hold little value if they batterer decides they will have no value. Since batterers love control and want what they want when they want it - a piece of paper is not always that effective with getting them to stay away from victims.

Order of protections are like video survilleance in that they keep a record that a crime has taken place but don't keep a crime for happening. If God forbid a batterer violates the Order of Protection, the victim (if she is still alive) can contact the authorities and the police can issue a warrant for his arrest and put him in jail (if they can find him). This is a way for justice to be served but the real justice is when a woman does not have to be worried about her safety.

Besides, Orders of Protections, men who commit crimes against women need to be punished through the legal system with lengthy prison sentences. They have to get the message that crimes against women have to end. As a society we are so quick to point fingers at how men treat women in the Middle East, but we do not warrant the attention that is needed of how badly American women are treated by American men. Women should not be objectified, disrespected or battered. Women teach your sons how to treat women. Men teach your daughters how they should be treated by men. Let us start by making changes in our homes, schools, churches, communities and states. Domestic violence will end when we change how men view women's role in our society. Domestic violence will end when men realize that they do not have the Right to control or abuse another human being.