SATURDAY'S EDITORIAL

By T&D Staff

No, domestic violence not easily solved

THE ISSUE: Furor over TV report about domestic violence legislation

OUR OPINION: Controversial lawmaker's comments may serve to get needed bill to passage

Rep. John Graham Altman's interview with WIS-TV's Kara Gormley has been a hot topic in Columbia this week. Being questioned about his opposition to a domestic violence bill, Altman ridiculed Gormley as "not very bright" and said a solution to domestic violence is as simple as women not returning to men who abuse them.

No one should be surprised at Altman, a Charleston lawmaker and attorney. He's always been controversial. Being questioned by Gormley about why he favors tougher penalties for cockfighting and not domestic violence set Altman off. It was not his finest hour, as even fellow Republicans are seeking political cover.

Yet it is reality that reporters — male and female — face hostile sources many times in doing their jobs. It's just not every night someone is as aggressive — at least on camera — as Altman. Thank goodness.

Orangeburg Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, the primary advocate of the domestic violence legislation, was not surprised at Altman's actions and assessments. She's seen and heard it before as a leading Democrat often on the other side of key political battles.

In this case, however, Cobb-Hunter and those pushing to increase the penalties for first- and second-offense criminal domestic violence may find reason to be happy about the furor that has followed Altman's latest round of headlines. (The House Judiciary Committee office, which receives about a dozen complaints a day, on Wednesday got more than 250, an aide told The Associated Press.)

What also followed the Altman-Gormley confrontation was a statement by none other than Speaker of the House David Wilkins that criminal domestic violence penalties do need to be increased. "Criminal domestic violence is a critical issue and is something that should not be tolerated," Wilkins said.

Members of the Judiciary Committee say they will push through a revised version of the legislation that ostensibly addresses the "problems" that prompted them to table the bill favored by Cobb-Hunter and a host of others. Whether it's their legislation or the original bill, key provisions such as judicial education should remain — and the bill should be approved.

That would be good news in Orangeburg County, where domestic violence has joined the drug trade as a leading factor in the murder rate. And the solution is not as simple as women not returning to relationships in which they have been abused.

As much as Altman says that as an attorney he's asked women countless times why they go back, he knows the answers are complicated. Women can fear for their lives and the lives of their children if they don't return. They can have nowhere else to go, being financially incapable of leaving. They can even hope — as so many do in so many situations in life — that things will change for the better.

Criminal domestic violence and the causes are not simple problems. Solutions are not simple. If the furor surrounding Rep. Altman's comments can get those points through to many who just might agree with the Charleston lawmaker, the controversy over encounter between reporter and politician will be more than a source for town talk for a few days.

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