Guess the State: Town to Finally Stop Banishing Residents Who Report Domestic Violence

[Jason]

In a settlement with the ACLU on Wednesday, residents of Maplewood, Missouri will no longer be banished from the city for reporting domestic violence to the police.
 

Quote

All it took was four calls to the police to get Rosetta Watson banished from Maplewood, Missouri, a city less than ten minutes from St. Louis.

 

A “victim of repeated domestic violence perpetrated by her former boyfriend, Robert Hennings,” Watson called her police when she feared for her life from September 2011 to February 2012. Three of the four calls to the police resulted in Henning's arrest for “domestic assault in the third degree” after he kicked the front door, punched, choked, and verbally abused Watson.

 

But her calls violated the city’s “nuisance ordinance,” which states that more than two calls to the police about domestic violence from the same address within six months is considered a neighborhood annoyance.

 

Since Maplewood residents are required to have an occupancy permit, violation of that “nuisance ordinance” could result in revoking their permit and a delay in obtaining a new one for six months.

 

Simply put: Watson was banished from a “community she loved” because she called the police on her abuser too many times.

 

https://www.thedailybeast.com/missouri-town-to-finally-stop-banishing-residents-who-report-domestic-violence/

 

[Mr.Vic20]

That is a fascinating approach to aligning the police department's budgetary limitations with the public's needs!