1 1 2 3 4 5 6 SPEECH GIVEN BY ATTORNEY GENERAL JANET RENO 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Cleveland, Ohio 16 Monday, September 30, 1996 17 18 Speech given by ATTORNEY GENERAL JANET 19 RENO taken at the Justice Center Auditorium, 20 1200 Ontario, Cleveland, Ohio, at 2:00 o'clock 21 p.m., on Monday, September 30, 1996, and the 22 proceedings being taken down by Stenotype by 23 LORRAINE J. KLODNICK, RMR-CRR, and transcribed 24 under her direction. 25 2 1 ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO: I can't tell 2 you how impressed I am and how much I respect 3 you all for bringing such a group together today 4 and for the willingness of those who are 5 volunteering or who are prospective volunteers 6 for your willingness to get involved. Let me 7 tell you why I think it's so important. 8 In 1978 I became the State Attorney for 9 Miami, Florida, for Dade County. The medical 10 examiner asked me to send some interns over to 11 try to figure out why people had been killed in 12 the county for the previous 20 years. We did a 13 study and 40 percent of the homicides in the 14 county over that period of time were related to 15 domestic violence, boyfriend/girlfriend, 16 husband/wife, ex-spouse. We developed an LEAA 17 grant and established a domestic intervention 18 program that is still ongoing. 19 Over those years, the 15 years that I 20 served as the State Attorney, getting people 21 interested in doing something about domestic 22 violence was like pulling teeth. Police 23 officers just write it off as domestic. Judges 24 way before Judge Adrine's time were far less 25 interested. Prosecutors trying to get them into 3 1 domestic violence unit, I needed bulldozers. 2 But talking to the victims and looking 3 at the statistics made me realize how important 4 it was. We had a no drop rule that required 5 that they had to talk to me before we would 6 agree to drop the prosecution. And I never had 7 one ultimately disagree with me. 8 In talking with them the pain came 9 through and the frustration, the frustration 10 with the system, the system that revictimized 11 them as they went through the system, the system 12 that did not provide for appropriate sanctions 13 or for appropriate treatment. And I became ever 14 more committed to the whole effort to do 15 something about domestic violence. 16 As I sat there and looked at the cases 17 you feel frustrated as a prosecutor. I think 18 Stephanie would say the same thing, because you 19 know there's a lot of crime out there you can't 20 prevent, but you can prevent a murder, you can 21 prevent further assault if we interrupt the 22 cycle of violence and if we give people the 23 strength and the support and the caring 24 compassion that will enable them to come through 25 the system. So this initiative is just so 4 1 extremely important. 2 Tomorrow is the beginning of National 3 Domestic Violence Awareness Month, but my mother 4 always told me that she didn't want to celebrate 5 Mother's Day because she thought every day was 6 Mother's Day. So I think every day should be 7 Domestic Violence Awareness Day and every month 8 the same. 9 What you have undertaken here in 10 Cleveland is so vitally important, to have 11 police working with prosecutors, working with 12 the courts in a comprehensive way, to have the 13 medical community involved is like a breath of 14 fresh air. But there are others that should be 15 involved. 16 Teachers all so often are the people 17 who first determine that there is domestic 18 violence and teachers do not know what to do. 19 The child is crying in the corner of the room. 20 What happened? She will hear the stories that 21 Ms. Alexandria talked about. She will hear it 22 and not know where to go or what to do. You've 23 got to develop an outreach to the public school 24 system. 25 Employers. This past week ironically 5 1 an employee came to me, a victim of domestic 2 violence wanting to know what to do. Employee 3 assistance programs in major companies can be an 4 extraordinarily important partner in this 5 initiative. 6 General practitioners. Not just the 7 emergency room, but the general practitioners of 8 this community and the family practitioners have 9 got to be educated ever more to recognize that 10 domestic violence is not a criminal justice 11 problem; it is a public health problem. 12 And all of us have got to be sensitized 13 because I suspect that there is not a person in 14 this room who has not from a friend or family 15 member seen the scars or the -- both the 16 emotional and physical of domestic violence. It 17 is something that we cannot continue to 18 tolerate. If you can't convince people of that, 19 then just point out to them that the child that 20 watches his father beat his mother comes to 21 accept violence as a way of life. 22 Unless we end violence in the home we 23 are never going to end it on the streets or in 24 the schools of this nation. We have got to 25 interrupt the cycle where it starts. Violence 6 1 is a learned behavior and one of the best 2 classrooms to date has been in the home. 3 So what you undertake in your 4 initiative here in Cleveland is just to be 5 commended by everybody across the country and 6 I'm going to go back and start spreading the 7 word about what you're doing here. My goal as 8 Attorney General is to be a partner with 9 communities across this nation, not to come in 10 to tell you how to do things or what to do, but 11 to ask how can we support you, how can we work 12 with you in developing a partnership against 13 domestic violence in this country. 14 In 1984, with a bipartisan effort on 15 the part of Congress resulted in a passage of 16 the Violence Against Women Act which provided 17 significant funding including violence 18 initiatives. We will continue this effort. It 19 goes through your state criminal justice agency 20 and is distributed across the state and you 21 should, if you have not already done so, get 22 yourself fully advised as to how that is 23 distributed. Any suggestions you have as to 24 what we can do in Washington to work with you 25 more effectively, we need to know that. The 7 1 Violence Against Women Act also provided some 2 tools that are important for practitioners who 3 are involved in this effort. 4 I used to be frustrated when I would 5 see a victim of domestic violence come to 6 Florida. Violence would go back and forth one 7 to the other federal taking over local on who 8 had the jurisdiction. Provisions in the 9 Violence Against Women Act provide for 10 jurisdiction in certain cases. We don't want to 11 take the case from the local prosecutor. We 12 want to work with the local prosecutor to 13 determine what is in the best interest, who 14 should handle it, not who gets the credit, but 15 who could most effectively deal with a 16 particular crime concerning the differences in 17 jurisdiction. 18 There's also a provision that's 19 important that says if you're subject to a 20 protective order it is against the law, against 21 federal law to be in possession of a firearm. 22 Many states don't have that provision. They 23 handle it in other ways. But it is a tool that 24 can be very useful for local government if it is 25 needed. 8 1 In all our governments we're trying to 2 do the best to develop that partnership, through 3 the COPS program. We're not only getting police 4 officers to the street to be designated 5 community police officers, we're developing 6 special initiatives that involved domestic 7 violence recognizing, again, that when a police 8 officer goes into a community with a high crime 9 rate and becomes part of that community, a very 10 interesting phenomena happens. First of all 11 people don't want to come out from behind their 12 doors. They're frightened. 13 The community police officer gets in 14 there, works with other detectives, the 15 community becomes safer. People start coming 16 out from behind their doors. They come down to 17 the community center. They become involved. 18 They talk about quality of life. They want that 19 graffiti down. They become a voice at city 20 hall. But also the domestic violence pours into 21 the streets and police officers say that after 22 they've turned so many other issues around 23 domestic violence is often the most difficult 24 issue of all to deal with. 25 Those who propose to volunteer, may I 9 1 say you're a little lower than the angels. To 2 have a busy law practice and to still be willing 3 to do this is to me the example that should be 4 set for all lawyers across this land. When I 5 came to the Department of Justice people said, 6 but I'm a lawyer. I work for the Federal 7 Government. I'm engaged in public service. 8 Every one of us can do a little bit 9 more. I volunteer in the Community Dispute 10 Resolution Program in Washington in a public 11 school. All of us can make a difference by 12 reaching out beyond our particular job to truly 13 make a difference. I detected at first a 14 reluctance because people said I may have a 15 conflict, how can I be involved. I may be 16 interviewing somebody who is being prosecuted by 17 the US Attorney's office. 18 We have found that working together we 19 can resolve any issue of conflict. We can 20 provide for appropriate protections and we can 21 provide for appropriate training. And I am so 22 gratified to hear what you're doing here in 23 terms of the training and supervision that you 24 are providing. It is so critically important. 25 I think one of America's greatest 10 1 problems is that people lack access to justice. 2 The American Bar Association estimates that as 3 many as 70 to 80 percent of the poor and working 4 poor in this country do not have access to a 5 lawyer. That means that for too many the law is 6 worth a little more than the paper its written 7 on. By your willingness to become involved, to 8 make sure that there are advocates for those who 9 are victims of domestic violence, you are 10 showing so many others that each one of us can 11 make a difference beyond the narrow confines of 12 our job. I applaud you and let's go. We can 13 make a difference. You surely will. 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 11 1 CERTIFICATE 2 I, LORRAINE J. KLODNICK, do hereby 3 certify that as such Reporter I took down in 4 Stenotypy all of the proceedings had in the 5 foregoing transcript; that I have transcribed my 6 said Stenotype notes into typewritten form as 7 appears in the foregoing transcript; that said 8 transcript is the complete form of the 9 proceedings had in said cause and constitutes a 10 true and correct transcript therein. 11 12 13 14 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 15 Lorraine J. Klodnick, Notary Public 16 within and for the State of Ohio 17 18 My commission expires June 28, 1997. 19 20 21 22 23 24 25