The uproar over comments made by a state lawmaker about domestic
violence victims echoed off the State House steps and across
national airwaves Thursday as lawmakers scrambled to draw up tougher
laws.
About 100 college students, mostly from Columbia College, marched
to the State House to blast Rep. John Graham Altman, R-Charleston,
and denounce the House Judiciary Committee for tabling a domestic
violence bill while passing one that would make cockfighting a
felony.
Altman this week has repeatedly questioned why battered women
return to their abusers. On Tuesday, he told WIS-TV reporter Kara
Gormley that she was “not very bright” for trying to link the
cockfighting bill to the domestic violence legislation.
Carrying signs — “Altman Isn’t Very Bright,” “Sexist Nation,”
“Tyson Triumphs Over Women” — the students said Altman’s comments
represent an all-too-common cavalier attitude about abuse.
“What bothered me most is his mentality,” Columbia College senior
Melanie Savage said. “We’re not just trying to make noise. We want
legislators to know we care about this issue, and they should,
too.”
The controversy went national Thursday, when Altman appeared on a
national cable news program to defend his stance.
“I’m very sorry the politically correct crowd is using this as
some kind of cannon fodder,” he told The State newspaper Thursday.
“I’m being charged with the greatest crime of all —
insensitivity.”
Critics of the failed domestic violence bill say it was fraught
with problems, including changing treatment options for offenders
and barring judges from dropping cases if accusers don’t show up for
trials.
On Wednesday, House Speaker David Wilkins, R-Greenville, pledged
to get some version of the bill to the House floor this session.
Wilkins and House Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Harrison,
R-Richland, plan to introduce a bill next week that would make
criminal domestic violence a felony on the third offense.
The failed bill would not have reclassified such offenses — now
misdemeanors — as felonies, but would have increased jail time for
abusers.
State law already makes some domestic violence charges — those of
“a high and aggravated nature” — felony offenses.
Altman, an attorney whose practice represents many women, called
the defeated bill “screwy.”
He said he would likely support the Wilkins-backed plan, but he
doesn’t think stricter penalties would help deter people from
battering.
“You would get fewer convictions and fewer guilty pleas,” he
said. “That hasn’t stopped murder, rape, DUI.”
He said he still can’t figure out why more women don’t leave
abusive relationships.
“I don’t know why anybody who gets beaten up goes back to being
beaten up again,” he said.
Domestic violence prevention advocates say many women fear
leaving their abusive partners and point out that most domestic
murders occur when women try to leave the relationship.
Several events calling for stricter domestic laws are being
planned over the next week. One group is organizing a protest
outside Altman’s Charleston home.
Columbia College political science professor Sheila Elliott, who
spoke at Thursday’s State House rally, said the issue won’t go away
soon.
“Women have lost ground in the South Carolina Legislature, and we
need to recapture that ground,” she said.
Reach Stensland at (803) 771-8358 or jstensland@thestate.com.
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