Baker cries at emotional domestic violence roundtable
Governor refiles bill on criminal dangerousness
By 
IT IS HARDLY UNUSUAL for Gov. Charlie Baker to cry in public. But on Wednesday, after a gut-wrenching hour listening to stories from survivors of domestic violence, the governor not only cried, but admitted failure about his inability to get a bill addressing criminal dangerousness past the finish line.
“We filed this legislation…four years ago,” Baker said. “I have to say I’ve never been so distressed about my incompetence and my ability to actually deliver for someone than I am right now.”
“I literally wrote in my notes, ‘I sometimes wonder who’s side we’re on,’” Baker admitted.
Baker participated in a roundtable with survivors of domestic violence at the Plymouth Public Library, moderated by Sandra Blatchford, the executive director of the South Shore Resource and Advocacy Center, which helps survivors. He held the event to announce the refiling of two bills, both of which he introduced for the last two legislative sessions but which the Legislature has not yet acted on.
A second bill would create criminal penalties for adults who distribute sexually explicit images for revenge purposes, so-called “revenge porn,” while sending minors who distribute sexually explicit images to a diversion program.
The roundtable, which was live streamed, was a far cry from the typical gubernatorial event featuring media savvy politicians and advocates.
One participant said she was 33 when she started dating the man she referred to as “monster.” The man had a long list of convictions for violent crimes against men and women. He beat a woman almost to death, but was released on bail and got a suspended sentence and probation. He shattered another woman’s leg. The woman said her abuser was arraigned five times for his abuse of her. He broke her back, crushed her arm, strangled her, and gave her concussions. Yet he was never held for dangerousness. He served a five-year prison sentence and is now out on probation. “I know most likely he’ll keep his promise to kill me,” she said.
Another woman said she was sexually assaulted and strangled in 2019 as she breastfed her baby. Her abuser was released with a GPS tracker, and she has had the police contact her multiple times telling her his ankle strap came loose. “All I could think about was where was he when he was unaccounted for?” she said, since the man had threatened to set her house on fire and kill her.
“If my abuser was held because of dangerousness, he would have never got the opportunity to stalk me, break into my home, strangle me, and kidnap me and my baby,” another woman said. Despite a record that includes murder and escaping prison, she said the man was able to cut off his GPS tracker, break into her home, break eight of her teeth, and rip her hair out. Her older children have moved out “because my home isn’t safe,” she said.
Privately, caught on an open microphone as he got up from the event, the governor put it even more bluntly: “That was brutal.” Yes, governor, domestic violence is.