(Columbia) April 20, 2005 - The State House took up
two pieces of legislation this week aimed at protecting
two different groups. Up for debate was cracking down on
gamecock
fighting and protecting victims
of domestic violence.
A bill protecting cocks passed through the House
Judiciary Committee. Rep.
John Graham Altman (R-Dist.
119-Charleston) was in favor of the gamecock bill,
"I was all for that. Cockfighting reminds me of the
Roman circus, coliseum."
A bill advocates say would protect victims against
batterers was tabled, killing it for the year. Rep.
Altman is on the committee that looked at the domestic
violence bill, "I think this bill is probably drafted
out of an abundance of ignorance."
Wednesday, Vicki Bourus, an advocate for victims
of domestic violence, was inundated with phone
calls and e-mail. The people were reacting to
Graham Altman's comments against the bill, "There's just
an outcry going on."
Both cockfighting and domestic violence are currently
misdemeanor crimes, punishable by 30 days in jail. If
the bill passes, cockfighting will become a felony,
punishable by five years in jail. Domestic violence
crimes will remain a misdemeanor.
Rep.
Gilda Cobb-Hunter (D-Dist. 66-Orangeburg) says of
the two bills, "What we have said by the actions of the
Judiciary Committee is we aren't going to create a
felony if you beat your wife, partner. But now, if
you've got some cockfighting going on, whoa! Wait a
minute."
Rep. Altman responds to the comparison, "People who
compare the two are not very smart and if you don't
understand the difference, Ms. Gormley, between trying
to ban the savage practice of watching chickens trying
to kill each other and protecting people rights in CDV
statutes, I'll never be able to explain it to you in a
100 years ma'am."
News 10 reporter Kara Gormley asked Altman, "That's
fine if you feel you will never be able to explain it to
me, but my question to you is: does that show that we
are valuing a gamecock's life over a woman's
life?"
Altman again, "You're really not very
bright and I realize you are not accustomed to this, but
I'm accustomed to reporters having a better sense of
depth of things and you're asking this question to me
would indicate you can't understand the answer. To ask
the question is to demonstrate an enormous amount of
ignorance. I'm not trying to be rude or hostile, I'm
telling you."
Gormley, "It's rude when you tell
someone they are not very bright."
Altman,
"You're not very bright and you'll just have to live
with that."
In the follow-up interview, Rep. Altman commented, "I
wanted to offend that snippy reporter who come in here
on a mission. She already had the story and she came in
with some dumb questions and I don't mind telling people
when they ask dumb questions."
Rep. Cobb-Hunter says, "The reality is the law says
domestic violence regardless, first, second or third
offense is a misdemeanor, and what they passed yesterday
says cockfighting is a felony."
Rep. Altman spoke about domestic violence, "There
ought not to be a second offense. The woman ought to not
be around the man. I mean you women want it one way and
not another. Women want to punish the men, and I do not
understand why women continue to go back around men who
abuse them. And I've asked women that and they all tell
me the same answer, John Graham you don't understand.
And I say you're right, I don't
understand."
Gormley, "So it's their fault for
going back?"
Altman, "Now there you go, trying
to twist that too. And I don't mind you trying. It's not
the woman's fault, it's not blaming the victim, but tell
me what self respecting person is going back around
someone who beats them?"
Bourus says there a number of reasons, "She may
have children with that person, and she may fear that it
will harm them to live without their dad, or she is
majorly financially dependent on his check to feed her
children."
Bourus adds another reason women sometimes
stay, "After an incident a violent incident, quite
often the batterer will say I'm so sorry, it will never
happen again."
Rep. Altman has worked with abused women, and in
a second interview with a
lowcountry station he said he tells them not
to go back, and when he does, "They listen to me, they
don't don't go back."
When asked whether he was sure, he said, "At least
not while I'm representing her."
During the same interview, he responded to the
reporter's question, "You seem to be drawn to this
fixation that women have to go back. I don't think that
speaks highly of women. I think women can think and be
responsible for their own actions. Woman are not some
toys out there, drawn back to the magnet of the man a
lot of these men are bums and cretins and they have to
be punished but I think women are independent enough to
not go back to the men who beat them. And we have a lot
of men who are abused by women, but they are too ashamed
to admit it."
Rep. Cobb-Hunter explained her bill, "The question
that needs to be asked is this. Should a woman because
she decides to go back for whatever the reason to return
to an abusive relationship, does that mean it's Ok to
beat her, to kill her, for her to lose her life, for her
children to witness the violence they witness?"
Rep. Altman, "I know you are after a story. And it's
kind of a nice story, that we've tabled a CDV bill.
Because then you can talk about the insensitive man, the
insensitive legislator, but it's not the case. But I
don't know why a woman, there would ever be a second
offense."
Cobb-Hunter admits there was a lot of information in
the bill, which she co-sponsored, but she is already
working on breaking it down, "One of the things I've
learned, having been here as long as I have, is that if
at first you don't succeed, try, try again."
Rep. Altman spoke out against a number of items in
the bill, including dealing with restraining orders and
training judges, "Clearly this bill is drawn by people
who don't know what is going on out there."
Rep. Altman doesn't agree with the training,
"What are you going to tell a family court judge that a
family court judge doesn't already know about domestic
violence?"
Vicki Bourus helped draft the bill, and what she
calls a key item in it, the training of family court
judges and magistrates, "There is very little if any
training in domestic violence for them on a mandatory
basis."
Bourus says, "You may know that many magistrates
are not trained as attorneys so they wouldn't even have
that piece of it that attorneys might get."
Speaker David Wilkins issued the following
statement Wednesday regarding this story, "Criminal
Domestic Violence (CDV) and animal cruelty are both
critical issues that this body takes very
seriously. The House is working diligently to
improve the language on the CDV bill and pass meaningful
legislation. That is our goal. In its present
form, the bill has a number of legal and technical
problems that would have made it very difficult to
pass. We intend to fix those problems and get a
bill to the floor of the House."
While Bourus doesn't agree with what Graham
Altman has to say, she is happy that people are starting
to talk about the issue of domestic violence, "Is Graham
Altman alone in his way of thinking? Oh, no, no, no. I
think he's a very vocal rep, resistent to really seeing
domestic violence as the serious crime that it is, but
we know that sentiment is runs throughout the House and
Senate as well. But we also know there are some very
valiant allies."
Wednesday, Rep. Altman told the lowcountry
television station that he didn't mean to offend victims
of domestic violence, but had no apology for the
interview.
Cobb-Hunter plans to reintroduce the bill in January.
If you want to voice your opinion on these bills, you
can call the House Judiciary Committee at (803)
734-3120. Rep. Altman's office phone number is (803)
734-2947 and you can contact Rep. Cobb-Hunter's office
at (803) 734-2809 or you can email Cobb-Hunter at gch@scstatehouse.net
One USC student is
gathering a group of people to protest Altman's
statements on the Gervais Street side of the State House
Thursday morning from 7:00am until about 9:00am, and she
is asking the public to attend.
