To sign the petition for the Pamela Aukerman Michigan Officer-Involved Domestic Violence Legislation:CLICK HERE . Provide your name, city, zip-code, and email address. An email address is required for signature verification purposes and will not be posted on the online petition.
Thank you,
The Aukerman Family and Michigan Officer-Involved Domestic Violence Corp.
TO VIEW SIGNATURES ON PETITION:
http://mioidvpamslaw.blogspot.com/2008/05/signatures-for-pam-aukerman-michigan.html
EMAIL TO FORWARD TO FAMILY/FRIENDS, TO REFER THEM TO THE PETITION SITE:
http://mioidvpamslaw.blogspot.com/2008/05/how-you-can-help-mioidv-in-collecting.html
TO VIEW THE MICHIGAN OFFICER-INVOLVED DOMESTIC VIOLENCE LEGISLATION:
PG 1-5
http://mioidvpamslaw.blogspot.com/2008/05/pams-michigan-officer-involved-domestic.html
PG 6-10
http://mioidvpamslaw.blogspot.com/2008/05/pams-michigan-officer-involved-domestic_27.html
PG 11-15
http://mioidvpamslaw.blogspot.com/2008/05/pams-michigan-officer-involved-domestic_3563.html
PG 16-18
http://mioidvpamslaw.blogspot.com/2008/05/pams-michigan-officer-involved-domestic_9224.html
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Governor Of Michigan
Michigan Lieutenant Governor
Michigan Attorney General
Michigan State Representatives
Michigan State Senators
Michigan US Representatives
Michigan US Senators
US Department of Justice/Office For Victims Of Crime
RE: THE PAMELA AUKERMAN MICHIGAN OFFICER-INVOLVED DOMESTIC VIOLENCE LEGISLATION [INTRODUCED BY THE AUKERMAN FAMILY AND THE MICHIGAN OFFICER INVOLVED DOMESTIC VIOLENCE CORPORATION]
On November 04, 2007, Plainwell [MI] Police Officer Kevin Brainard shot and murdered his ex-wife Pamela Aukerman. Their two-year-old daughter, Kayla, witnessed her father pump three bullets into her mother’s body. Pamela’s two children, Kayla [age 2]and Kyle [age 15], are now forced to live with the devastation of officer involved domestic violence.
Pamela’s plight to escape Officer Kevin Brainard is a horror story too common to victims of officer involved domestic violence in Michigan, and one that is unfortunately played out each day under the noses of state legislators, police departments, and domestic violence shelters in a state which has a reputation for some of the toughest domestic violence laws in the nation. Unfortunately, as Pamela’s murder has demonstrated, the state of Michigan has no officer involved domestic violence laws, policies or programs.
Prior to her murder, Pamela attempted to obtain assistance from two domestic violence agencies in Michigan. Both domestic violence agencies [which receive state and federal funding] turned Pamela away, because her abuser was a police officer. One of those agencies dismissed Pamela by informing her, “it’s your word against a police officer’s…”
When a law enforcement family in a neighboring community became aware of Pamela’s plight, and the dv agencies’ refusal to assist her, they offered to take Pamela and her children in. Pamela’s escape date from Officer Brainard was scheduled for the week of November 6, 2007.
On November 02, 2007, two days prior to Pamela’s murder, Ed Straub met with the Chief of Police, Bill Bomar. During that meeting, Ed voiced his concerns over the escalating officer involved domestic violence, which Officer Brainard was subjecting Pamela to. The Chief Bomar refused to take any action to protect Pamela. After Pamela’s murder, the Chief Bomar publicly dismissed Ed’s reporting of officer involved domestic violence as nothing more than “a private conversation”.
In the aftermath of the heinous murder of Pamela, Plainwell/Allegan County has taken no action to address officer involved domestic violence or Pamela’s murder. There has been no investigation by the state into the domestic violence agencies that turned Pamela away. Likewise, the state has failed to investigate the Plainwell PD and the Chief of Police for the role they played in Pamela’s murder.
This indifference/failure to address officer involved domestic violence and the ability of domestic violence agencies to turn away victims such as Pamela, no doubt led to the murder of Lori DeKleine by her ex-husband/Officer Ken DeKleine [Holland PD], in the neighboring county of Ottawa on January 10, 2008. The Center for Women In Transition is one of the domestic violence agencies that turned Pamela away, and is ironically the same domestic violence agency that Lori DeKleine worked for…which more than illustrates that even an employee of a dv shelter is denied assistance, because her abuser is a police officer. The murder of Pam and Lori by their police officer spouses, who were denied assistance from the same agency, and yet there is no public outrage or outcry for change. This demonstrates how imperative it is that the state of Michigan implement a neutral state-run agency [not a private dv agency] to handle the special needs of victims of Officer involved Domestic Violence.
Michigan can no longer afford to ‘count on’ private dv agencies, [which are not held accountable] when it comes to protecting victims of OIDV. This ‘counting on’ and the state blindly trusting private dv agencies with the lives of victims of OIDV has unfortunately cost victims of OIDV their lives. It is time for the state of Michigan to step up to the plate, and through a state-run agency, provide for the safety of OIDV victims.
It is also time that the state of Michigan addresses the severity of officer involved domestic violence. The refusal to publicly address the taboo subject of OIDV, goes hand in hand with police agencies being able to push incidents of OIDV and OIDV under the rug. For instance, in the case of Pamela Aukerman’s OIDV murder, Plainwell/Allegan County was able to dismiss to the public the severity of OIDV in its own community.
The statistics gathered by Lane and Patty Judson tell a different story, than that presented by Plainwell, following Pamela Aukerman’s OIDV murder:
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Domestic violence occurs in 10% of all families. The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) states that the rate of officer-involved domestic violence “is estimated to be at least as common as that of the general population”. Meanwhile, the National Center for Women and Policing states: “Two studies have found that at least 40% of police officer families experience domestic violence, in contrast to 10% of families in the general population. A third study of older and more experienced officers found a rate of 24%, indicating that domestic violence is 2-4 times more common among police families than American families in general. A police department that has domestic violence offenders among its ranks will not effectively serve and protect victims in the community. Moreover, when officers know of domestic violence committed by their colleagues and seek to protect them by covering it up, they expose the department to civil liability. As Nancy Turner, an IACP member, concluded: “Regardless of the statistics, any rate of domestic violence involving police officers should be considered unacceptable.” There are approximately 800,000 police officers nation-wide. Taking the more conservative statistic; that’s 80,000 police officer homes in America experiencing domestic violence.”
I join Pamela’s family, friends, the Michigan Officer Involved Domestic Violence Corporation; and Michigan State Representative Kimberly Meltzer in asking that you, as a US/State Legislator, support the Pamela Aukerman Officer Involved Domestic Violence legislation, in honor of all those that have or are still suffering from officer involved domestic violence.
Sincerely, the undersigned:
*[The Pamela Aukerman Officer Involved Domestic Violence Legislation, is authored by Cheryl Rozman/Renee’ Harrington (5/2007); submitted to Michigan Representative Kimberly Meltzer as the “Michigan Officer Involved Domestic Violence legislation” (6/26/2007); signed over to the Aukerman family and renamed the “Pamela Aukerman Officer Involved Domestic Violence legislation (11/05/2007); jointly shared by the Aukerman family and the Michigan Officer Involved Domestic Violence Corporation (2/15/08).]
PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS A TWO-PART PETITION. THE SECOND PART OF THIS PETITION FOR THE MICHIGAN OFFICER INVOLVED DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AWARENESS BILL IS LOCATED ON THE FOLLOWING WEBSITE:
http://mioidvawarenesslegislation.blogspot.com/
