 As you may be waiting to see, it's time we're going to go to the kids started. I'm there to welcome you all to see me. My name is Indelma and I'm here today. And I'll be passing the stage on the next lecture. And I'm Pastor John Garly. I would like to welcome you to our building. The Midnight Church is so proud to host the Peace Initiative. And we're glad to offer space for the community to provide the issue of domestic abuse. A number of our own congregants are survivors of domestic abuse. And we know that it's actually all parts of our society. We should all have access to the tools and understanding we need to confront this violence in our community. And to be able to talk frankly with our political leaders about the policies that will most effectively bring about healing. So I would like to thank Congressman Castro, Congressman Dogan, Martin Pilis of the Family Violence Prevention Service, Attorney Joe Gonzalez, Sheriff Salazar and Gina Manis for being here to see me and participating in this conversation. And welcome once again. It's time I'd like to turn things over to our moderator, Dean Robert Cole. I'll just turn this to you. Okay. We have just about 8,000 people here. Good evening everybody. Welcome to the San Antonio Midnight Church and the home of the Peace Initiative. Today we've been a key part of the territory to cover in a very short period of time on schedule. And there's one back here too. So we're facing a lot of needs to take care of that. And what are my board members? As a Shaper President, would you stand today? We've got me, Albert Rosantos, here. We've got Dr. Mary Jones over here. And who else is here from my board? I'm interested in supporting the Peace Initiative. Stand by my board members because they'll have to be right out. Okay. So I'm going to say at this point, speaking from the facts, put out a report recently that talks about and refers to the issue of domestic violence, reading about the condition of women. And so please recognize that tonight we're going to focus on women. I know that this issue affects people from all walks of life, it affects children, elders, everybody. But tonight's focus is going to remain on in our community because as you well know, the women are the main state of the familia. And that's what we have to focus on tonight. And I would like to begin my remarks tonight. All the city council members present. We welcome you to this historic and critical moment in San Antonio. The first ever tonight is a watershed moment as we bring these issues out into the open, not just to talk about them, but also to mark that we decided to own them. This issue is a community and take responsibility for the death and grip of the damage that it has done and committed to changing that person in the building. I'm the executive director of the peace initiative and peace is an acronym that stands for putting an end to abuse through community efforts. I started my journey as a social worker and advocate in 1979, 1979. And I worked as an intern at a women's bar association equal clinic as a community organizer on the east side as a back woman shelter case worker, educator crisis intervention worker and counselor. I worked as a worker assigned to the sex crimes unit in the homicide bureau in the very county jail. And all before the Benedictine sisters were going to be to come work with them and to form the peace initiative with my co-founder Jane Shaper who's here with us tonight. The point of me telling you all of this is to share with you that what I saw over time in those capacities was the intergenerational nature of the trauma associated with domestic violence and how everyone if they're not able to help to access helmet areas points would show up somewhere else in my journey to the next generation. Unhealed, untreated. Maybe I'll turn it later in a safety key when they were in trouble with the law or maybe they would be my client in jail. This is truly the legacy of domestic violence and it touches so many lives in this community. Even though I have been on the front lines of addressing it for 40 years I can honestly say I feel like we're backsliding now. It's like we've gone three and ten steps back. When bylaw the virus was created in 1994 and made a difference. They are more programs that are funded like the Family Justice Center and we already had the District Attorney's services and we already had the Better Women's Shelter. And even though we have these better services and we're able to more effectively reach into the communities when immigrants and violence we were able to get them out of the shadows but bylaw as we did and we struggled to get it passed now we did today in a climate of intimidation and reproach where people have more reason to fear coming forward. Now they hear their government and wow, not just their losers. Tonight you will hear from survivors who will tell their powerful, courageous and multiple stories that they truly need to change about how you respond to domestic violence. Here's my gosena of suggestions plus one filon. Simplify getting protective orders for battered women. The process is very subjective and depends too much on which workers and which judge the victims encounter versus those people just following the guidelines and the law. We still turn away too many people at the shelter because there's just not enough room. We need more spaces. This is also very important that we put too much of the onus still on the women being battered to get safe, to be safe to stay safe instead of taking that keeps them trapped and battered. We need to do more evidence based prosecution instead of putting all the pressure on the victim to be strong enough or willing enough to tell their story in court while feeling terrorized. We need to address the genuine fear that many victims have that the witnesses can be tampered with, threatened or gunned into and consequently, many are genuinely afraid to testify. We need to hold perpetrators to do this and we're not doing it fully enough. We need to change the way we work with perpetrators away from focusing on solely punitive measures to approach it more holistically and therapeutically. Otherwise the pattern will be passed down to the next generation. There is such a connection among matters to adverse childhood experiences which we will talk about later, we call it ACEs, that they have experienced themselves. We need to increase our focus to include children, elders, bystanders and witnesses in our prevention work. We have vulnerable people who literally don't speak up or know how to advocate for themselves to advocate with them to be able to do so. We need coordination on the city and county services to be formal and we need both to be held accountable for addressing these needs and not just rely on an informal network that needs for one hour on a monthly basis. We need deliberate, effective data collection like the one we got in that report from the mayor's commission on the status of women about domestic violence in our community that's collected and monitored on a daily basis so that we can understand the scope of the problem. Why people end up dead and devise effective programming strategies and policies and seek appropriate funding for this to happen. We need an unbunded person at the police department and another one at the sheriff's office who can impartially and objectively listen to and learn from people's experience of the system that we have in place. They then relay data information to us for those suggested improvements, changes and efficiencies while only being beholden to survivors of domestic violence. These two unbunded people need to answer directly to the city council who should monitor and evaluate the system's performance as well as any other agencies that the city or county funds to ensure their effectiveness. We need to reach and engage males who are perpetrators with culturally relevant language-specific evidence-based and trauma-informed work. We also need to engage men who are living in a nonviolent way of life so they serve as examples and role models for the youth and boys here amongst us. And we need to continue reaching out to immigrant women in our community who have been pushed back into the shadows out of fear and repercussion if they move forward who are also suffering from domestic violence within their family circle. Finally, no longer can we have the luxury of saying this is a problem that doesn't affect us. It affects all of us and each of us in our own way needs to take ownership of it and commit to changing what we can to interrupt this procession of victims and perpetrators that has flourished in this beautiful community until now. Thank you. This has been Joaquin D'Astra. An individual and Eastern distributor on combating domestic violence in San Antonio. My name is Joaquin D'Astra and I represent the 20th congressional district, which includes the west side where I grew up, a big part of the south side, and almost all of North West Bear County. And I'm very proud to represent this in Washington, D.C. And before I make a few remarks, I want to acknowledge some of the other life officials who are not on stage here but who were kind enough to join us. And especially tonight, because tonight is mostly about obesity and figuring out ways to gather all of us at different levels of government because it takes more than one member of Congress, or one state legislator, or even a district attorney or council member to change the trend in San Antonio. So her, if you want to acknowledge a colleague of mine and Roy's in the U.S. Congress, Congresswoman Will Hurd is here with me. I'm the deputy minister of legislature in the state senator Jose Menendez. We have several judges that are with us. Judge Monique Diaz, Judge Rosy Wendales, and several council members from the state council that are with us. Councilman Asamov, Councilman Shirley Wendales, District 2 J.A. Andrew Sullivan, and District 6 Councilwoman Melissa Cabello-Pabra. And the new councilwoman from District 4, Dr. Aldeano Rocha Garcia. Councilwoman Viagra, I'm going to keep my remarks brief because I want us to get on the panel. This is an issue that all of us care deeply about. And I mentioned earlier that the trend in San Antonio is going in the wrong direction. We're all here because this is a serious problem in our city. More than other big cities in Texas like Austin and Houston and Dallas, has a larger problem of violence against women. And as a community, all of us have a responsibility to do something about that. This is an issue that I've tried to work on for a long time. When I was in the state legislature, I proposed creating a state database where people who committed domestic violence more than twice or two times were born. Unfortunately, that legislation never became law. But I also have been very committed to a place called Visitation House over the years. And my mom has literally spent three decades helping out. Visitation House is a Catholic organization that helps women leave domestic violence. Situations help them transition away to independent living. So there are many different ways that all of us can be helpful. Not all of it is law. Many of us can be helpful as ordinary citizens doing what we can to try to reduce domestic violence. So today, we will see that other states, there are folks here who will speak about the different aspects of domestic violence. Of course, prevention, policing, and then punishment and rehabilitation. So all of these things are things that we need to address. And I look forward to the conversation tonight. Thank you. And then I'd like to welcome up a wonderful member of Congress who represents the area between San Antonio and Austin, and that is Congress of Loyalty. Thank you. I'll see you at 20 o'clock with you on this and on some of the other good causes and salute the good work that you did in Clint yesterday. And the introduction of this congregation are hailed for good causes and good people. And they've taken in people from all over the world here at Corus in San Antonio. Only a couple of years ago some of these folks, especially in the Montana Action T-shirts gathered with us here for a done-safety town hall in response to a meaningful experience. And tonight I think the outline that we'll see here with the judiciary, with the faith community, with our state senator and the council members indicates that this is a pervasive problem and that there's a strong desire to do something about it. Of course it's not only a problem that affects the district that I serve that includes where we are tonight. It extends to Brooks base and out to our lake which Joaquin and I share and then around through all of downtown and the east side. But it is a national problem. In fact, the National Domestic Violence hotline about a week ago a hotline that way back in the Clinton administration I helped wait for Texas came out with new data showing that last year was the busiest year they have ever had. 573,000 calls that they had. 100% increase over 2017. And we also heard that nearly 40% of Texans patrician have been admitted to this who are seeking shelter after the domestic violence incident are turned away due to a lack of resources. So we've got to do more and especially to do more about the one degree of San Antonio women who say they've experienced some form of domestic violence. These are all very alarming but one of the things we hope to do tonight is to hear the stories that go along with that. Because sometimes those individual faces, those individual experiences get lost in the huge numbers. We have so many activists here Rebecca Forrest who rallied individuals on main plaza Patricia Of course Marta who we care with who does such a great job and an extraordinarily impressive facility out on the west side to meet the needs from prevention to counseling to shelter. Julia, I'm waiting for Revis who's an expert on this. Yannette Davis and Wolf with the Great Places Center so many others and we did as Joaquin said mainly come to listen, to learn and to see how we can collaborate with our local law enforcement officials and all of you to make things better. Just a quick word and I appreciate your reference but the Violence Against Women Act which has enjoyed strong bipartisan support in the past faced some significant opposition this year when the NRA decided to store a vote for the reauthorization of violence against women that has been anti-gun for some reason. That's because there is a provision in the Violence Against Women Act particularly in the House to close the so-called Boyfriend Leap Home. Currently the law covers those who have been married to or have a child with the victim but they don't cover boyfriends and relationships that did not involve marriage and so this modest expansion to bring their opposition has been the protections that have provided in the new form of involved violence against women and neighbors. Leader McConnell has said he will not prevent a vote on the House bill in the Senate but I'm still hopeful that on a bipartisan basis Jimmy Ernst and Diane Einstein are working to try to get something done over there. I hope we can do it. It has been a year to provide a process and some valuable support for working many years ago on a program called Express Respect that is an elementary school student to talk about violence and limiting violence and not having the voice sitting on little walls. I think we start at the earliest age getting the experience of these children and telling them that violence is not the answer. So many of the problems we have seen surrounding the President are pervasive on these issues. I think they'll take years to correct but I'm inspired by the fact that that conduct, that misconduct has inspired me to live and march for our lives, the women's march and others and I have hope that working together before a good claim can find better answers than we've had in the past on these problems. So we look forward to hearing stories that we know are stories of suffering, fear, and tragedy but we also use that experience to find a path forward and I just appreciate the fact that so many of you decided to join us in finding and going down that path. Thank you very much. I do want to remind you that Nowcast SA is feeding this out to the community and so if anybody's interested and also seeing it later it will be available. Thank you Nowcast SA for the people who donated to give us that. The point I want to invite two women who came here to give their testimony and talk about what happened to them. We're going to give each of them five minutes and they could talk for hours but tonight we have five minutes to hear their stories and hear how domestic violence has impacted their lives. The first person I'd like to call up is Dr. Noria Rodriguez who is a professor at Palo Alto College and who has a powerful story to share with us tonight. On August 15, 2015, I nearly lost my life to my dad's boyfriend and wanted to find the end of our tumultuous relationship. This has deteriorated him and we began to argue. He hid my phone from me so that I could not call 911 for what was to an ensue. During the approximately 45 minute ordeal I was beaten, strangled, dragged, kicked and even bitten. At one point he sat on my chest with my arms in doubt under his legs and proceeded to beat, strangle and bite me. I was absolutely defenseless to his abuse. He would alternate between striking me and beating my head against the floor like a basketball. I saw stars like in the cartoons. As I screamed for help he covered my mouth with his hands so hard I could hardly breathe through my nose and felt that I was beginning to miss consciousness. I looked to my eyes and told me that he was going to kill me and I knew he meant it. The thought of dying in this manner of how my family would find me was currently key. I couldn't die this way I thought to myself. At that moment I thought of the only defense and chance for survival that I had at that point and that was to play dead. So I stopped struggling and let him continue to beat and strangle me. He eventually stopped, got up and immediately went to the kitchen. To get an eye I assumed. At that moment because of my determined will to live I somehow got myself to stand up. As the room spun from vertigo I grabbed the keys to his truck that were hanging on the key rack. I ran to his truck but before I could get the key to turn he opened the truck door. I held onto the steering wheel for dear life as he proceeded to pull my hair pull me out by my hair with one hand and bring her off the steering wheel with the other. Before he dragged me out I hopped the horn as much as I could for help. He then dragged me by my hair along the gully-chip rock in front of the gate. I broke nails from trying to cling to the fence as he dragged me. He then kicked me repeatedly on my legs and acted as I begged for my life. Please don't kill me. You don't want to do this. I pleaded. He then continued to drag me back into the house. I waited continuously for help from neighbors to hear it but no one heard. I knew with everything in me that if I got back into the house I would die. As he dragged me up the front steps I pulled onto the middle railings with my arms and legs. He pulled me by the hair as hard as he could to get me to let go but I held on for dear life screaming at the top of my lungs for help. Knowing that he couldn't get me back into the house he finally gave up. By the way, here's your phone. And he threw it directly at my face. At full force like a baseball player but only a few feet away from me. I saw the phone coming and instinctively lowered my head. It hit me only a few inches above my right eye splitting my head open. It hit me had I lowered my head had I not lowered my head I am positive I wouldn't have lost my right eye. Blood filled my eye all my hands and knees looking for my phone in the dark. I couldn't find it because it was afraid I would pass out the music blood so I ran to my neighbor's house who then called 911 and it ended up in the house. My attacker was never detained and it took two and a half months to find and receive my protective order during which time he stalked me. I even took photos of him driving past my house and made police reports but the police simply told me there was nothing that they could do without a protective order. He was charged with family assault strangulation a third-degree felony but he received no conviction. He received a hurt education which means that after he successfully completes his five-year probation requirement he can expunge the incident from his record as though it never happened but I can tell you it definitely happened and it changed my life forever. I have an educated woman I hold a PhD I'm a citizen and know how to self-advocate and think English and if it's not even the assault had no children I was privileged in many ways if this was the best case scenario for me I cannot imagine the experiences of women who are not citizens who do not have an education who do not speak English who have children and are dependent on their users for support. As we all know domestic violence is oftentimes generational and affects entire families and future generations of families as such this is not a women's issue but a community issue. Thank you Congressman Gasparov Congressman Dyer for convening this town hall to shed light on the systemic issue that has affected, afflicted our community for so far too long By the grace of God I survive to tell my story one that I hope will help to shed light on how broken our system is and encourage us as citizens to finally stand up to do something about it. Thank you. I want to share with you the story of her teenage daughter who has received during this night there it's an honor for me to share Erin's tragic story in hopes of spreading awareness about teenage violence Erin was the youngest of my four children but ruled the house like she was the oldest she was the spice of our life life without it was a plan she brought so much joy to our family and friends she was compassionate had a contagious laugh she couldn't hold in so silly and fun to be around an intelligent young woman who could do anything she could remind her she had dreams and goals for the future loved animals and one day hoped to be a better she was brave Erin's freshman year she confronted a boy who in the end rudely murdered her at first she was only interested in him as a friend however but after constantly pursuing her by some more fear and graceful they had started dating the relationship was innocent at first but slowly started to change he began to isolate her from her friends making him the verbal abuse the name calling and body shaming Erin's confidence, grades and self esteem began to drop my baby slowly started pulling away from even me right before my eyes a fearless boy changed when you think of high school for children you think of friendships homecoming from learning to drive she started having problems with this boy during and after school his harassment and jealousy consumed her days he didn't want her to talk to anyone but him he even wrote for those of one of her male friends in a rage charges were pressed against him and at this point I began documenting and doing everything I could to put his dignity on record unfortunately he persuaded her to take him back in her good race when afternoon he kicked her up he came by the throat through nose and threw her out of his moving car running over one of her legs in the process only to turn around and put her back in his vehicle and attempt to clean her up to cover the bruises he had been glinted on her at any age this type of violent abuse is more than anyone knows how to or should have to deal with she didn't know what to do and tried to cover for him a written letter I immediately called the police and pressed charges against him but it took a year and he was only given deferred adjudication into years probation this life sentence scared Aaron into silence I didn't understand the whole he had on her I thought domestic violence only occurred with adults and families never in a million years what I think these actions were happening to our young teens but it is as time went on this young man did what he did best and manipulated him his way back one last time it was the morning of the 19th birthday Aaron was so happy she woke up extra early singing loudly getting ready for work she worked at her family diner as a waitress the customers loved her she wore her facade that I made for her and customers showered her birthday wishes and tips and showed her extra love she glowed as we sing happy birthday to her with her zoo theme and her cake she had plans to go out with her friends and celebrate walking over to the house to kick off her birthday night out I remember hearing the music and her joy filled laughter she then came to my room and kissed her brother Jesse and I and said bye asking all later with a huge smile on her face that was the last time I saw my baby Aaron alive throughout the night we kept in touch through our normal check-ins over checks and phone calls she ended up in the car with him why would she earn him again you see Aaron was full of compassion and she thought if she showed someone an epilogue of forgiveness they would change she always tried to get to see the good everyone she met Aaron's texts phone calls became her I told her get out of the car I'll come pick you up I can remember her grandly yelling because she didn't know where she was and couldn't get out of the vehicle she had no idea where she was as if this was on the other end of the line with my keys in my hand I was out the front door with nowhere to go any parents' worst nightmare I heard my daughter's horrible screams on the other end of the line my heart racing there ran into the neighbors all night long while I kept her on the line aching to hear her voice again but her screams were the last thing I would hear from her the police were able to track her phone they found my baby's body left off campus road he had neither then deliberately ran her over not once to twice later I found out these appalling acts of violence were witness and not stopped no one called the police or AMS I recently came across an article in San Antonio with the headline Birkin County one of the deadliest counties in Texas for domestic violence according to this article in the past few years the number of women killed by a domestic partner in Birkin County has more than doubled and is steadily rising it's heartbreaking to hear but I truly believe that through awareness education and community outreach we can make a change we must commit to making a change Erin was so young and naive she didn't see the early signs of abuse before it was too late she has inspired us to spread awareness about team naming violence with the condition to enlighten youth open resources and support scholarships for a higher education for those affected by domestic violence in any way they're determined to help identify signs of any healthy unhealthy relationship and provide additional support I believe only through education can we empower future generations by being here today and sharing your story her life still has a purpose if as a community we can save one team one life then Erin lives on in each and every one of us because love never dies hearing these stories is triggering and it affects people in different ways please you know get with a friend take care of yourselves you know don't don't let this stuff get to you it's very very hard to hear all this stuff so please get with a friend and take care I would like to introduce some of the nonprofits that we've been working with to address these issues and we have several representatives here to talk to us about the work that they're doing and the first person that I'd like to invite to come up is Julia Raebi Rodriguez who is one of the co-chairs alongside Marta Pelaes of the Bear County Task Force on domestic violence and she's going to address some of the work that we're doing at the Bear County Task Force on domestic violence it's triggering for all of us and I want to thank everyone else for being here my name is Julia Rodriguez I am the co-chair of the domestic violence task force here in Bear County Marta Pelaes and I chair this and we created this in 2012 to organize the nonprofits, the judges to work together and work on this issue if you are an all-familiar with the status of women since 2012 it's an all-familiar job so one of the things that we've realized is we can come together and we can be as stakeholders and as people who work in nonprofits on a daily basis but we cannot do this work without the voices of victims and so I am here today to thank you all for turning this to something we have been wanting to do for a very long time as the numbers increase I want you all to know that the judges representatives of the District Attorney's Office Law Enforcement we are meeting right now to figure out where the holes are where the deficits are where the needs are we need to get better and we need your community help so thank you all for being here I love Linda Wilson who is here to represent Mom's Demand Action and it's very important that to work with these contractors because 68% of women who are murdered are murdered with cannon guns and so it's very important that Linda tell us a little bit about the work that they're doing Thank you especially to the church here I was at that initial, quite more initial but that early meeting that was held when Congressman Dogget called us together and the first thing I think I want to say is some light at the end of the tunnel there are groups out there that work in the issue of domestic violence there are groups out there that work to solve the issue of too many guns and of injudicious use of guns and the thing that I'm going to focus on now which is about the issue of gun violence and domestic violence they're intimately connected and they are a deadly combination that is very much worsened by America's weak gun laws we believe that it's time to implement common sense laws at all levels of government to keep guns out of their hands of domestic abusers and to save lives I think the statistics show us why access to a gun makes it five times more likely that a woman will be killed by her abusive partner in statisticity and I'm going to say something but even my friends in the organization don't know people in my family have been victims of domestic abuse and they have escaped safely and are living wonderful new lives there were no guns I thank God for that we know that half of the female victims of intimate partner homicide in the United States are killed with a gun in Texas that's even 965% and people have already spoken about their county bleeding the way in an advertisement at least 55 American women are shot and killed by an intimate partner and many more are injured you know we forget about that we have people in our organization who are victims still alive in very, very dire situations several have been paralyzed and others have suffered all other kinds of issues we know that nearly 1 million women in the US who are alive today have been shot or shot by an intimate partner and I also think this is very important abusers not only kill their partners they often take the lives of family friends co-workers law enforcement officers that's why it usually takes if I'm not mistaken 3 officers to respond to a domestic violence call what's more our whole community is at risk domestic violence offenders accounted for 54% of the perpetrators of mass shootings I think you all remember Sutherland Springs that was an issue of domestic violence among other things so evidence clearly shows that policies that disrupt domestic abusers access to guns work what are some of the things that should be done Congress should close the loopholes in federal gun laws to keep guns out of the hands of abusive dating partners and stalkers and female victims have been stalked by the person who killed them we need to pass the new provisions within the domestic violence the violence against women and we appreciate what the representatives have done now we need to address these to the senators if you live here senators are Ted Cruz and John Cornyn I don't have their phone numbers but I'll give them to you if you need them call we also have to have better enforcement of the laws that do exist the laws are not being uniformly enforced and we need to have protocols that bring all these laws together and make them effective another issue something called the national instant criminal background check system we need to ensure that criminal records and domestic restraining orders are entered in a timely manner and then would be available from jurisdiction to jurisdiction we applaud the House of Representatives for passing the bipartisan background check act of 2019 and the enhanced background check of 2019 these are good laws that have moved us forward now I'm going to bring up something that I don't want to put the congressman who I hear there are three a couple of weeks on this spot but this is a good moment we have a mom who lost her loved one and decided that she would write for congress her name is Lucy McFath she's a member of our organization and she's from Georgia she has introduced a bill House resolution in 3076 it's an extreme risk protection order act of 2019 52 representatives are already co-sponsored and we hold that within a timely manner the three of you will join in co-sponsorship of that extremely important order so lastly I want to just mention to you we are out there there are other organizations that are out there if you are ready to do something you too can become part of mom's demand action I'm a grand mom, there are fathers they're all friends and people you don't have to be a mom text, get out of your phone text ready to 64433 or see one of us after the meeting is finished, we're all in the red shirts and that's our key feature another lady we have Dr. Colleen Bridger Dr. Colleen Bridger is going to talk to you about a new strategic plan which has four health priorities that I think two of you are going to resume with folks here tonight the first one is adverse childhood experiences and another one is violence both of those are a recognition on the part of public health that these types of complex issues require complex solutions and require solutions that cross sectors and that's a perfect place for public health to become involved I want to talk for a second but BCSF we have perfectly about adverse childhood experiences I think some of you probably heard me give my longer version of the talk about pieces and why they're important to our community to our health department adverse childhood experiences basically fall into two categories they can be abuse and neglect or they can be what we call household dysfunction and domestic violence is one of the adverse childhood experiences that fall in that category household dysfunction what happens when kids grow up with either abuse and neglect or household dysfunction is it changes the way that their brains develop and it has their focus on staying safe how can I keep myself from the unexpected dangers that are surrounding me on a regular basis unfortunately what that does is it puts more development in the brain on the need to stay safe less development in the brain on focusing on the future it also increases inflammation in the body which leads to increased risk of chronic disease early in life and through adulthood so what we have is a public health epidemic that starts in the childhood home and we know that somebody who witnesses violence who witnesses domestic violence is at much higher risk of becoming either a perpetrator or a victim of both of those things and so we really want to get in front of this we need to start working with these kids and help them heal from the trauma that they experienced in their homes at a very young age so that they don't repeat this generational cycle so that is the focus of metro house strategic plan the other thing I want to mention is that metro health and the Department of Human Services are running a point on creating the city's comprehensive domestic violence plan this was at the request of Councilman Valdalis that we come together as a city and put together the plan part of putting together that plan involves us checking in with stakeholders and we've been working on that part of that is a survey that I hope you picked up at the back of the room as you were coming in if you've completed that survey please either return it about where you picked it up or just leave it in the views and we'll come through and pick it up too but your feedback about what gets included in this comprehensive plan is really not working to us so that I believe is my time but I'm going to stay with the panel because questions are going to be answered on a basis. Thank you. One of the things we wanted to make sure and do here tonight is to hear from the community and so at this point we've got this microphone here at the front and we only have about 15 minutes to hear from the community so if you're going to say something this is your time, okay? We'll talk fast. Is it on? Hello. I have two eyes that I want to discuss. I don't know. Can somebody check the mic and see if it's working? It's working. It's going to get closed. Okay. Again, I have two eyes that I want to talk about. My husband abused me on May 6th of this year and listening to y'all's stories that's my fear. My fear is that he's going to get the birth of adjudication and then on top of that he's a firefighter and then he's the first time offender so that's my fear. And what everybody needs to know is this is a choice they made. They chose this and there should be consequences for their actions. We, our scars heal. I had to have laser surgery with the hair hole in my retina. It heals. But the fear is still there. We don't forget. The victims do not forget. We don't forget what we've been through. We don't forget what we've been through before us because it's real. The fear is real. The other item I want to discuss was when I applied for my protective order there was a pamphlet that had all these information on the back for legal help. I called every number on that list and I heard nobody answered. I left a message and nobody to this date has called me back or there was a message that said we're not taking new clients. There's too much violence going on and we need help. So my question is and again I've got solutions. So what if there was a program where there was some grant money or a voucher system where the victims could get a voucher. You take it to any lawyer in San Antonio and they get paid for but I'm sure there were several people who couldn't do that. And just to have one hour that was amazing for that wonderful lawyer to give you that one hour of advice because we're just regular people we don't know what the ball means. We don't know what to expect. There's so many questions and you're having to go through all of this trauma and then now I've got to figure out how do I get help. So I really believe there's ways we can do this and I have sent emails out to people I'm willing to help whatever programs signatures let me know. Thank you. And what I'd like to share is that based on studies that have gone on across the nation that there are new strategies and new efforts that are making a difference and we've heard some of it for a day but what I want to point out is that law enforcement and judicial system is just the tip of the iceberg that we need to get all the layers that are involved. Not only the health and mental health services, hospitals, emergency rooms, doctors, emergency path social services, prosecutors, judges, public education and now it is a teacher I conferencing children that were victims of domestic violence and parents not even know what to do. Nobody told us what the protocol was. Nobody told us what the appropriate response was. So education has to be a part of it. There's other cities now that are using curriculums, one of them in California and it's for high school students and it's coaching boys into men and we could involve superintendents, principals nurses and counselors clergy, alcohol and drug treatment. As we already seen the non-profit are doing a very good job, media campaigns that expose to the public what's happening here in Bear County and what people can do to get involved and help make the difference. What I'm leading to is that there are mechanisms for change. We are seeing this and what other cities are doing. At the top of everything is training. People that are on the front lines need to know how to identify victim of domestic violence how to interview them and how to respond. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Marty but I work for Environmental Defense Issues and I sat on one of the working groups for the city's development of a traffic climate plan. Two things that I learned that I'd like to share with everyone here is that one, that there are studies that show that when temperatures rise rates of violence go up including domestic violence. The second is that UTSA did a study and they found that by the year 2040 we're going to have an additional 24 days above 100 degrees, 100 degrees hotter on top of what we have right now. So the data supports that these rates of domestic violence are going to increase. So even with all the great work that Mr. Stasio is doing with the peace initiative, with all the great work that Ms. Belias is doing, with the battered women and children center, with all the great work that Dr. Bridger is doing, even if we support that at the current levels these rates of domestic violence are going to continue to rise. And so we really need to double down on all of the support for this work that you all are doing. And we need to really double down on the support that Mons & Man Action is doing for our common sense gun laws. Thank you very much. Thank you everyone. My role, the rates also go up when the cowboys move and when the spurs do. I think you're talking about it. And that's all based on a very male-dominated culture. My name is Dr. Diggins Wallace. Stephen Nizawas, I'm the judge of the 13th. Myself, I'm Dr. Michael DeRion. I'm the judge of this problem every day. I can tell you from my court to today I have called over 6,000 cases in my court since January 2nd. We have had 12 trials. And I keep screaming for help from every one. I do want to thank you, Patricia and Marisa. And I want to thank you for their letters of support for hospital 3529 which was signed into law by Governor Abbott not to even infer that resources should be taken from victims. We need more resources for victims. No question about it. But Marisa will be the first to point out to everyone we cannot, it's like if you build it, it will come. If you build more jail cells those perpetrators will continue to build the cells. What we need to do is hold the perpetrators accountable and change their behavior. Thank you Thank God for representing and rolling the evidence who sponsored the House bill and thank God for Senator Menendez who guided the defense. The chance to be here is for all of you to consider finding a way to fund a drug court this domestic violence court and hopefully one day it is seven. I'm going to tell you something and this is the place where I walk with what I'm going to do it. I hand delivered a request for a meeting and for funding to every single city council person in this city two weeks ago a request for support and for funding for every commissioner I have yet to get a call back for a single request for law for a congressman constitutional and congressman docket we're asking for a million dollars over a two year period to do a pilot program to show the state of texas that we need to fund these courts to cut off a spigot of violent behavior toward women and sometimes men but we need to approach it a different way those of us who have come from the healthy fields know that if you keep doing the same thing you'll keep getting the same results our community needs to do something to help thank you one more rose one more rose thank you judge this is Kay Rose Kay Rose is going to tell us about a horrible domestic violence incident that happened on her block Ms. Rose my name is Kay like she said on 7th street and on April 16 we were all over the news because the man across the street from us to meet his wife on a regular basis laid down on the front porch and used an assault rifle which he should never have and killed my soulmate he was according to the papers and the police had been out there 18 times in the last two years that wasn't correct it was way more than that we saw him on a regular basis I got on regular they knew my hey the police did when they got out because I lived right across the street when she would come running out of the house naked or only in her pants or maybe just a panty in the bra but this happened continually and when he woke up he would meet her I would have to dress her I would have to stop the blood from flowing while we were waiting on the police or if we waited on the police if they got there before I got to her they would ask me can you get a shirt on or something according to the papers he was taken in one time I don't think he was Chief McManus I'm not knocking the police department I love our police department but he told us because they ran in the math all the time but he never knew what to believe then he had an in at the police department and he didn't have to worry about it so maybe that's something you need to take into but the assault rifle they knew he had it every time they would come and one of them would say now we know he's done an assault rifle in there in the getting cabinet everybody be careful but what did they do about it nothing and Leroy the man that he shot they died right inside my front door kept saying okay there's no reason I'm coming out of here but it's not going to do anything until it kills somebody well guess who it killed your soulmate we just lived together for two and a half years but the man never raised a hand to me he had a relationship that all of you women had been beaten one and he built it all away and they came finally two weeks ago and pulled those down the dead trees and the house because he burnt the house he doused it with gasoline and he died thank god because I would probably be in jail because I would probably kill them and I'm being honest I had this is how he affects the neighbors I have had anxiety attacks I can't sleep at night and you can talk to my friends and family I'm a tough person at work they used to call me a bulldog but this I'm having trouble understanding I want to know why when the police pulled up and saw him with an assault rifle shooting at the neighbors they didn't kill him their answer to me was they were waiting on the SWAT team those policemen didn't know the gun why didn't they kill him they were going to be dead because I was on the phone with him because he called to tell me not to come home and I said have the police sat there and said yeah they're out there and all of a sudden I heard a noise which I presume was that the phone was getting the floor and the phone went dead and they already did too so and I can tell you exactly what time I was it was 5.17 because it's on my phone the last thing he said to me was k.com I love you I'll call you when it's set so that's how domestic violence affects the neighbors and the family and the friends thank you so much I also have some other written testimony from some of the other neighbors that I would like to submit for the official record thank you so much I just want to add a couple of things we already know on April the 1st I started keeping track of newspaper reports of the women and men who were being killed in different ways and to this day we have 12 counting the young little boy who was killed over the weekend 12 people from April 1st to today to this weekend that have been killed in domestic violence that is a huge number and it was going to I think be last year's which was 29 I also want to include to you I was an article in the newspaper on July the 1st about the issue of people who have new documents and how they are reluctant to call in the police when there is domestic violence going on in their households because they fear that of course they will be picked up and they will be deported this was done in I believe in Washington but I know this happens here there are 75,000 people residents in the city of San Antonio who are undocumented and I know it happens here and so that's another element of this whole issue of domestic violence those people who never report to suffer the consequences of domestic violence thank you this is Lily Casuda and Lily is one of the writers of the Commission of the Mayor's Consulate on the status of women before we have all the doctor as well thank you from the bottom of my heart for doing this this is so important yes, right there I truly feel as a person who's not from here in Boston, in Silicon Valley, in Seattle I don't feel like the city has a handle on this at all and we need to strip it all the way back to bare metal and find out the scope of the problems which literally people don't know but I wanted to tell you because I worked on that report we submitted open records requests for that report to the county and the SAPD and the county told us right away we don't keep those records and I'm thinking it's 2019 what do you mean we have three conversations about it and they basically said well, if someone commits an assault or a homicide and it's within the context of domestic violence I mentioned domestic violence that is a horrible problem in record keeping once I heard that I have become obsessed with this topic that report is turned in and I am still bird-dying this to try to figure out really what's going on we're not the only place in the country that does this poorly but we need to totally pick up our game on this SAPD didn't communicate back with us but five weeks later we did get the data that we asked for it was too late to put it in a report not to be necessarily new that's where it was headed there were almost 9,000 women last year who SAPD considers victims of family violence my concern here is it's always at least three times as many other people family members who are killed and injured, children who are left without parents witnesses and bystanders we need to do such a better job of keeping records and we need SAPD and the sheriffs and the nonprofits and the agencies to pull their resources this is an underreported crime across the country but it's particularly chronicly underreported and not understood well here and instead I see what we're doing is we're already racing to throw things against the wall like pasta to see what sticks there's an intervention without a sense of the scope of the problem last week I was able to pick up the data on the misdemeanor family violence cases that went through the county court system last year and I put them in an Excel spreadsheet and both ways I did it it looks like two and a half percent of the active cases result in convictions now I hope you're as shocked as I am that doesn't even make any sense I truly hope I'm misreading that but that's on an average monthly basis as well as end to end for the year I went out and looked in the research literature about what conviction rates ought to be a weak one is 45 percent a strong one is 98 percent for a family justice court if those figures are true if they're even close to true that could be part of the problem people being recycled back into the community without repercussions let's pull up thank you do you want to respond at all to any of this right now so far first of all let me grab the mic sir thank you yes first of all let me on behalf of the district to turn it off thank you putting this forum together it's very important that it break this issue out of the open that we're here if we want to listen to you we want to hear what you're saying not only my career but the chief of my family this year the executive director of family justice these are people that are here to help me with regard to to the comment about the statistics there is a statewide agency called the office of court administration whose job it is to keep statistics they're an agency based in Austin they are the ones that are supposed to keeping records I would encourage you to reach out to them to see if they can provide those kinds of numbers for you we are trying just in the six months that we've been in office to make this priority I have said that we've increased the number of prosecutors we put a tremendous amount of focus on this issue here in Beverly County I would say and I vote the law that Judge Bontanas has had and Judge DeLion but they can't do it alone we need to help them one of the ways we can help is we're supporting funding and resources because we don't have the manpower to deal with the problem like we should but we're continuing to fight and continuing to do everything we can so that we hope at some point in the future thank you this is your district attorney Sheriff or Chief, anyone else who needs to respond? I actually can we get a chance to ask other questions absolutely okay guys Aracely good evening my name is Aracely Herrera and I'm a translator because I know English and I also think this is very important in this place because many of us don't know how to speak Spanish and when we speak domestic and send to the police we can't communicate thank you my name is Aracely Herrera I think it's very important to have interpretation services because many of us aren't able to speak when someone is having domestic violence and the police officers come out it's extremely difficult to explain what's really happening because police officers aren't always able to speak due to the language barrier I also want to say that I'm a translator of domestic violence and fortunately I can speak of that I'm also a translator of domestic violence and I have a working community of domestic violence I am a survivor of domestic violence I was very lucky and was able to escape from that situation today I work I have a domestic worker and I need a union of domestic worker I suffered in our work I suffered a lot of domestic violence and I was hit by my workers I suffered sexual assault at my place in employment I was a woman's treated in this employment that's why I decided to do this for the first time I everyday in my work I arrive at the local workers and when they have confidence they check and they talk they locate what is happening to the workers and it's so sad because sexual violence in our work is impressive how that violence is in that place that's why I decided to form this union and when the women come together they share their stories and it's incredible how prevalent this is and it's very sad for me I think what they should do is not such a big punishment for the violators what they should do is do social work so that the society doesn't get to that level of violence it shouldn't just be about punishing the perpetrators but we need a lot of social programs so that these people can understand why I want to say this why not? why do we need to get into jail for more years and if the people are dead we need to do more programs to help us and our organization works as a response of less than $100,000 that's where we make money what good is it that these people in jail and the victims are already dead we need work on the ground my organization has a budget of less than $100,000 because we make more of what's happened with that thank you thank you thank you thank you the sheriff wants to respond I'm sure she offers to go ahead comments have to do with also the low wages at their industry workers receive they are really hungry all the time and living in misery and this is also due to the drug she said on New Braunfels Street the transactions happening up and down the street and the police doesn't see that thank you I would like to take one more point to talk about it I would like to invite one of the members who we are going to have the sheriff's office we are going to have two members that are close to our program called UNIDOS tomorrow on Wednesday we are going to have an event in the Methodist Church for 300 San Fernando and then on Saturday we are going to have another identical event that is going to be in St. Leo the Great Catholic Church in 4415 South Flores the UNIDOS program is about talking and presenting information to the Spanish community in Spanish and the issues that we are going to cover these two sessions are going to be about the first one is that they are their rights and they are going to stop as an official of the law but we are also going to present information on how to report a crime to the Sheriff's Office or to the San Antonio Police Department if it is going to be a domestic violence victim we are going to give information but we are also going to give information about how it can be done if you are an employee that a patron is physically threatening or with the money that they are not paying we are going to present information about all these issues tomorrow and on Saturday if you can contact these people who are sitting in front you can give them information so I was inviting her up to some meetings that we are hosting with the Sheriff's Office it's our Unilos program SAV's got one as well but we are having two sessions one tomorrow night, the third of July at La Trinidad Methodist Church 300 San Fernando it's from 6 to 8pm we are also hosting one on Saturday from 10am to noon that one is going to be at St. Leo the Great Catholic Church 4415 South Lotus the topics that we are going to be covering what your rights are as a private citizen or as an American resident if you are encountered by the authorities either immigration or local law enforcement mild death will be presented that information will also be presenting information to the immigrant community, the Spanish community on how to report a crime I'll be giving information to how to report crimes for us and to the SAPD if you are the victim of domestic violence or any other crime we are a public that we are non-immigration if you are a victim of a crime or a witness to a crime call us and report it and we are going to treat you like a victim or a witness we are not there to deport you so we will be giving that information as well but also we are going to have some folks presenting some information on what to do if you might be an immigrant and you've got a boss an employer that are giving you the information on that free course and so we'd like to invite everybody here out to those two events coming up very soon thank you sir, thank you I'd like to I'd like to acknowledge that if our mayor, run your your Christmas join us now that the house of the dog is going to need to leave here in a couple of seconds and mayor, if you'd like to join us up here then do great, alright I remember when we just saw a jar of water and there's another mess this past the retard I had an incident and I want to know how long it should take when you call about I was in bed watching TV around ten o'clock I called because there were five shots fired I did not know where it started like my back door and I called and they did come, I called and they said they didn't have a personnel and I called they didn't have personnel finally about after an hour I did talk to my neighbor I called my neighbor across the street and he said he had already reported it as well but after an hour I called and said I need to talk to a police person I need to know what's going on she came she was very very nice and she said there was nothing going on and I can't believe nothing was going on but my question is if something else had happened or you know very vulnerable or anybody is very vulnerable nowadays I want to know why it took such a long time to respond so that's the question this happened in the city of emiss inside the city of emiss it took longer than ten minutes did it happen inside the city of emiss oh yes Chief McManus would you like to respond Chief McManus I've got some folks in the back there that will talk to you if you give them the information daytime and all that location and we'll try to get that I'd like to know that because okay thank you man you can go talk to Captain okay Chief McManus can talk to you about that no matter I need to go on to the next person the sports community that spends millions and billions of dollars playing sports why can't I spend a few months teaching young men and women how to get along thank you man I'm this MP Williams a 27 year old single mother of three children about six years ago June 4th 2013 I lost my one year old son to domestic violence I was going through a relationship where I was abused myself I was afraid to talk to people and you know speak out about it I would make police reports and they would tell me this is a civil matter because I had to you know evict him out of my apartment or whatever and it really didn't make any sense to me how stuck I felt because I'm like I'm not married to this dude I never said I do I don't care what law say common law I don't care I never said I do I have ring on my finger and I don't want to be with this man you know he was abusing me and it was kind of like I just kept getting a run around you know so I knew he had a case coming up because he beat me up back in 2011 and um so I was waiting on his trial date for that case which was kind of my plan to get out of that situation um because the trial date was coming up soon but before then he murdered my son he beat my baby to death um still to this day I still feel no justice I still got no justice he's in jail right now for a murder in death charge but he's been out of jail for that a cell case towards me he's been out of jail for like two years already and they still haven't done anything about my son's case so I'm very upset I'm hurt you know um I have insomnia anxiety depression PTSD all type of mental health um issues and um I'm just I really like I'm waiting and trying to be patient and trying to go by the law and trying to wait and see what happens but it's it's unbearable I can't keep waiting like this like something needs to happen something needs to happen Joe do you have some of your staff members that can talk to her? Absolutely if you want to go to the end of the room we have the um Meli powers to be stand up she's the chief you didn't she get busy with you just let me tell you real quick and my heart goes out to you I can't since I wasn't there I don't know what happened with the fire administration but there's absolutely no requirement that someone be married if you cohabitate if you have a dating relationship that suffices to qualify as a victim in our family violence or domestic violence division nobody ever has to be married to the last perpetrator and so that it doesn't even total that was misinformation and I apologize to you for somebody that misinformation years ago but I encourage you to talk to Ms. Powers thank you thank you class we have to stop and Congressman Castro still has to speak a few words go ahead I'm Eleanor Gomez Clark Professor Matta from UTSC and I'm here with three of my other colleagues we are four community activists that came together and formed a medical in reaction to our mayoral candidate that was running for office because of our extreme concern about such a person being representing our city number one being a role model for our children and it elected when it advocated the issue of domestic violence so we're an independent group just four of us but my question is to you what I would like to request because we've heard all of this all of these requests all of these demands what it tells us is that there's no concentrated effort in the Bear County or in our city we have the Bear County task commission for us which to my understanding is not formal it's an informal group that's linked to me so I would like to say that our city council and our Bear County commissioners need to come together to make that a formalize for organization or whatever where all of these efforts are concentrated and where the data is clear from every city office and comes in it can be reported fully to everybody and that all decisions then be conveyed to the community that I think was very apparent is that the community does not know where to go for what are to whom and what can they expect so that's what four women did four meto in two weeks we had 2,500 women sign up so what I would like to request is all of these personal stories that we heard today need to be documented and we have agreed that we will do this so those of you who have personal stories please contact Cathy Sosa-Norina and Gina is at Eisenberg or myself and we will be glad to collect all of these stories and have them archived for you in whatever format we have but let me just say that Congressman Castro wants to listen to the people that go the last group that was lined up please join us we would like to stay in your story the last people that were in line Congressman thank you so much if you want to say anything before you go I apologize but I'm leaving my partner my wife called living here and my staff to visit more with you directly we would like to hear more about what has occurred here Congressman Castro will provide some additional comments about what we can do going forward trying to build a coalition to address these very real problems I think you have put a very human face on a big problem and we want to work with you not just the finances in Washington but to see how we can work with community leaders together with you to solve these problems thank you I hear a phone speak louder I know it's 4th of July I have been beaten and strangled in front of my 4 year old child people always hear why don't women speak up why don't they go well I did go I did I went to police I told them my story and because my user was smart because he's worked for CPS because he had a criminal justice degree he was smart about his abuse he meant that I spoke with Stan well I've taken women out of police black eyes and you should be grateful that you are where you are I have to live with this trauma every day it's extremely difficult for me to handle it right now I got my crowd I have so much anxiety it's so difficult but I think that we need education with anyone to deal with a few victims of domestic violence a judge also a new judge gave my abuser he gave him custody so my abuser has unsupervised limitations while I'm trying when my lawyer said she was strangled in front of this child he didn't know she was telling him what time it was so I think there needs to be education on judges police officers a systemic breakdown of a whole person I've had to tell you why a year ago I don't even know who I am I just want to be regular again and I wish that I had more support then well you don't have it so bad and bring it into the black lives so we do need education on my head and support for people who go through this like me thank you so much thank you you remember Expanded Services available for people who have been through this I have here information related to our agency it is an agency in an comprehensive manner to fight services to方 through violence residential and non residential counseling for the children for the victims we do inter overwhelming perpetrators as well and at the shelter, we have legal services, we have a school for the children, we have a clinic for everybody, we have activities, we have programs. What I'm trying to say is those who come to us, they get served and they get served holistically. The problem is with those who do not reach us. Today the census at the shelter is 191. Six years ago, the daily census was 68. Today that daily census keeps creeping up. And the recidivism rate so that you do not think that these are women coming back and coming back is 7.43, meaning that only 7% of them, 7.43 of them return for a second time or perhaps more compared to 28%, which is the national rate of women that go back to shelters. Seven times before they cut relationships with the others. So in terms of the services being delivered to the victims that approach the resources that the community offers, we are doing it. The problem is there is a systemic, there is a culture shift that needs to happen in our community. Many times I am asked, where does it come from? What is it today that New York Times call me reacting to an article that appeared in The Express News? They go in the same. And what do you think is the reason for all that to Mr. Robinson? What a question. If I knew, I would put my finger on it and I would do it. But I did offer one factor that I do know plays a big role in domestic violence and the high incidence in our community. And that is the generational violence. Little children are born with a social template that is blank under their little arms. And the parents or the guardians, the extended family, the environment, the community, the schools, they begin to write little messages on a daily basis on that template. And that child has a complete book of directions of how to relate to one another. And by the age of 15 you have a perfectly forward perpetrator or a builder because that's what he has been fed in his environment, mainly the whole. If the family is well, the community is well. Family is strong, the community is strong. That is a very simple concept and I don't think that there is an argument to that. So this person proceeded to ask the majority of the people in San Antonio, you have a majority in Spanish culture, what he was going to. So I saved him the effort and I said, yes, it is a Hispanic issue in San Antonio, it is, because domestic violence follows the demographic distribution. The majority of the victims are Hispanic and the majority of the perpetrators are Hispanic. So as members of this community, those of us who are Hispanic and those of you who are not Hispanic but who live in this community, I invite all of you to explore what traditions you need to share for your daily life. What ways of living you need to analyze and discuss with your partner, your husband, your boyfriend and determine that they have no place in your home. Because I can tell you that in our veterans intervention program, when the men first come in, one of the first things that they say is, that liberty, liberty judge sitting here, I have nothing to do with domestic violence. So why? Somebody else's wife. It was binary. So there is a sense, a wrong sense and a wrong attitude that's playing a role in our community towards family. That needs to share. The Congressmen just asked me, do they really change? Yes. It is a tenet of psychology that any behavior that is learned can be replaced by a different behavior. And we need to take that as a marching order. Actions precede attitudes. It's not the other way around. You need to have an attitude towards something before you act. If we change the attitudes, if we challenge the attitudes, we will be ahead of them. It's not a busy thing to do. It's not short-term, but we have to start. We have to start somewhere. Because the children, they represent the future of domestic violence. And if we don't do it by the children, we will continue. And the numbers will continue. Thank you. My name is Tinas, and that was my, and I am a law enforcement professional and a survivor of domestic violence. The previous district attorney office found a way to draw the domestic violence charge of aggravated assault. That the weapon, that was, that my abuser was charged with and arrested. And arrested for. They did not proceed with my case throughout the life of my case, which was three years. No one ever contacted me from the police office. And my case ended up being dropped. Or dismissed with lack of evidence by a special prosecutor who was good friends with the defense attorney. This person is a retired federal agent who is currently holding a position of power with, with HIDA. With the HIDA Task Force as a training coordinator. Hundreds of thousands of police officers come through HIDA for training. And this is the face of HIDA and abuser. I have, I have written to the executive board of HIDA for assistance in, like Judge Gonzales said, holding them accountable. Holding this person accountable because the law enforcement, the biggest law enforcement firm in their county could not hold them accountable. I ask that you look into this matter and, and assist other victims of domestic violence within the law enforcement community. That you're coming out and speaking out because they don't think they will be heard or they would be listened to or anything would progress with their cases if they ever had to come out and report domestic violence. I thank you for your time and I appreciate if you would take my letter that I wrote to. Mr. Gonzales, the DA, Mr. Attorney, Sheriff Salazar, and Chief McMunnus. I wrote a letter, an open letter to you all as members of the board for South Texas HIDA. Thank you. One of the things that we also know about domestic violence and law enforcement is that unfortunately the studies have already been done that indicate that any police department that you ever look at could have up to 40% of their officers involved in domestic violence. So that's something that we're about to be very well aware of as we try to develop our plans and our strategies. Maria. Hi. I'm going to be fast because I want to say a lot. My name is Maria Falcone and I am a licensed professional counselor and I've worked at San Antonio, Texas for 30 years delivering services to victims and perpetrators of domestic violence. I have thousands and thousands of hours of experience and listening to stories of those that are here, those that are gone, and those that have been changed and those that did not change. To the point that in 2014 I wrote a research paper called How We Make Our State Stay. And that means that's the professional, by the way. We're not talking about perpetrators of victims in that paper that I wrote. An American Counseling Association has published it. I have hoped victims of domestic violence. In 30 years I thought that we would have a different language to tackle this problem. I know what the solution is because I've been working with victims of domestic violence for 30 years and listening to them. Number one, they are the two experts of domestic violence and not any of us. So we need to listen to those voices. And we need to cater the programs around what the victims tell us that they need instead of what we think they deserve or they want. If we listen to them they will tell us what they need to stay alive and thank them for being alive. It's the first thing we have to say to a victim of domestic violence. Secondly, the other thing that we need is to hold accountable the agencies that are receiving funds for 30 years and we're more victims of domestic violence than we keep putting it back on the victims, even on the perpetrators probably. I think it's time for us to change the way we deliver services. Women victims of domestic violence are still the number one social group in our community that has not risen up to obtain what they truly need. And that is safety for our next generation. We know what the problem is. We need to know what are we going to do to solve it. So one of the things that victims have told me, number one, can we have agencies audited. I personally as a professional call those agencies and I get a freaking message that the telephone that nobody answers and nobody calls you back. So what you're saying is true. So maybe we should ask for those that receive public funding that they have live voices taking those phone calls and use that money in a way that a victim has a true person responding to them. Because this is a life or death situation. There should be no recording when a woman calls any program that delivers services to a victim of domestic violence. The other thing that we need to do is to try to add a higher and higher fee when I go up to them and say, I know nothing about domestic violence. It should be prohibited that anybody is higher that does not have the true training and can demonstrate that they understand the demands of domestic violence. When I do my job wrong somebody dies. And even when I do it right somebody dies. I think we need to elevate this to listen to every single victim of domestic violence and get off the excuses that we give them all the time. We need more money, more money and we need to do more with what we have. I also hear them say we need to decentralize the services. They're two in one place. If we need more shelters, open up more shelters. We don't want to live in one side of the city. We need to open different places. We need to treat perpetrators of domestic violence. But maybe they need to know that we support them. They need to know that we're before them. And that we have to all the time understand that we should be able to take each other as professionals. As professionals, I've had a lot of words closed on me because I'm one of those advocates and community service workers that I'll go up to anybody and say, you know what, you're not delivering the service. We just heard here saying that most of the victims are what? Hispanics. But how come most of the services are not there for Spanish-speaking people, whether it's attorneys, whether it's law enforcement. It's time to listen to violence and start listening to them. So they'll stop dying. Ladies, take over the government system. Hi, first of all, I want to thank Mr. Castro for letting us continue talking. Thank you so much. I'm here to share my sister's story really quick. Domestic violence is very real and it's nothing to play with. Some women are often stuck and manipulated and don't know how to get out. So with that being said, my sister was in an abusive relationship for many years. And even when she would leave him, and sometimes it would take VCFO a long time to get there. And time and time again, call and call again, they would come and make comments, oh, it's this address again. First of all, I don't appreciate those comments because a life in the life. And if it was your family member, you wouldn't like that comment either. So I struggle a lot with that. Second of all, it wasn't only my sister that was taken. My sister and my brother were taken. Both shot in the head inside my parents' home. In front of my parents and in front of my sister's seven-year-old boy. Now, you want to tell me how you think that kid deals now. He's 14, almost 15, from house to house to house. No parents. And I'll tell you what, he's a darn good kid. For what he's had to endure, he is an amazing kid. I coach him, I take him to church and I always tell him to keep his eyes fixed on Jesus. When Sutherland Springs happened, I took him out and I showed him, you're not alone, this happens all the time. So don't ever think that you're alone. I'm very emotional because I didn't come here to speak. I just came here to hear, to listen. So I want to know why it takes so long for any officer, whether it's BCSO or SAPD, why does it take so long to respond to the calls? Or are they not trained enough to say the comments that they're saying? Or are they saying that, oh, it's not happening again. Here we go. That's not, I'm sorry, that's not acceptable. It's just not. Now, had they responded to the call, maybe she would be here. As long as it took these officers to get there, she was being beaten. My family had to endure this. My parents had killed them. So I didn't just lose a sister, a brother, and my parents. I'm a nephew who has to suffer. Gun control. I understand we can't always control how people access guns and how they use them. I understand that. Like you said, we don't have the manpower to do that. I understand they're going to be legally or however they're going to get them. And we can't control that. I understand. I was so anti-gun after the murders. And now I'm a licensed holder. And I won't take crap from nobody that wants to try to abuse me. I won't use it if I have to, if my life is in danger. And the last thing I want to say is for people that don't know how to come out and talk, picture this. We had my sister's funeral. We buried her. We went to eat. We came right back to the same funeral home and buried my brother. So something has to be done. A restraining order to me is nothing. It's a piece of paper because anybody who wants to kill somebody is going to do it regardless if there's a piece of paper. Something has to be done. And I will advocate for my sister until the day I die. I will be here sharing her story and living for her. And I think something has to be done. Thank you. Is our media director going to happen in 2011? Yes. Well, I can tell you from the B.C.S.O. perspective, it's something that I got to handle. We've come a long way. Certainly since then, definitely the past two and a half years since I've been in office. Thanks to our brand new sub stations that we just opened up in December. Our response times this year are to 901 emergency calls, 12% faster than they were last year. And 901 emergency calls, 18% faster than the same time last year. So we're certainly going, going, leaps and bounds with respect to that. With respect to our training, certainly it sounds like you've dealt with some sensitivity issues, major sensitivity issues, customer service issues. Recently, we've doubled the number of training hours that our deputies spend in service training. We went from the state minimum around 20 hours a year to 40 hours a year to marijuana and SAPD, as did my entire career that I worked over there. And quite a bit of that training with those extra hours that we added in, we're able to develop to sensitivity, certainly criminal, sorry, customer service training. But additionally, Mark Mata-Beláez comes in and teaches a great block on family violence, not just how to handle it. Yes, I mean, every first responder definitely needs to know how to handle family violence. But she's also teaching us as first responders to look inward. Do you have the signs of being an abuser? Do you have the signs of being a victim and does it need to be addressed? So we're certainly, all of the points that you made are excellent points. I'm so, so sorry that on behalf of the system, it seems like the system lets you down. It felt my sister. Absolutely. It doesn't bring her back. Yeah, absolutely. I don't know what you think now. It doesn't be my sister. Yes, ma'am, I understand that completely. And I wish there was something I could say or do to somehow make that better. But certainly, if we can prevent these tragedies from occurring in the future, I'm certainly going to do everything in my power to continue to try to do the right things as far as the sheriff's office goes. And I know that my partner to my left is doing the same thing for the SAPD. And certainly Joe is doing the same thing to up the game at the DA's office for certain. So thank you. I want to ask you one thing. And not to be rude to you because I respect you. But every time the news, I watch the news in the morning, there's always deputies getting arrested for doing the same thing. So we're training for that. Well, ma'am, I created a unit specifically for that. My very first couple of months in office, I created a unit called the Public Integrity Unit. There was no unit devoted to investigating and arresting deputies within my own agency. I created one. I also doubled the size of my internal affairs unit. It wasn't a happy thing to have to do. I could certainly use those investigators elsewhere. But that's an important function. So I doubled the size of that internal affairs unit. So when you create proactive units that are out setting up sting operations and practically looking for police officers or sheriff's deputies in this case, committing wrong, guess what? You're going to find it. And you're going to find it in big numbers. So yes, I can tell you I've had an inordinate number of deputies arrested. And I can also tell you, unfortunately, that number is going to keep going up because of the proactive nature of the way we do things in the sheriff's office. But I can also assure you, and I can promise you this, that every time it happens, I'm going to act openly with the public. And I'm going to tell you what we're doing to prevent it in the future. I can assure you that. So thank you very much. My name is Shada Sadeh, and I'm here on behalf of the Christine Mesa Foundation. My best friend was murdered also in 2011. I don't have any questions or anything but simply an invitation to let you know and those behind me know that on October 5th, we are hosting a 5K to bring awareness of the issues and impacts of domestic violence. Together with Ms. Martha, who is beautifully outspoken at Family Life Prevention Services, again, we host a 5K called the Purple Run, and I just want to extend the invitation to all of you up there and those that are here in attendance. Thank you. The questions I was going to ask were already asked and answered. So thank you, ladies. I'm actually a two-time survivor of domestic violence. I was abused from the age of 18 to the age of 26. My first abuser was, well, he is still my husband. He was in the military at that time, and we had two children together, and my oldest son did witness a lot of the abuse. And it got to a point where the alcohol and the drugs I just took over to the point where he can't care anymore. So we separated when he went on his second deployment, because that was my only way out. My second abuser, we have three children together. Again, the drugs had took over that relationship. There was nothing I could do. It didn't matter how much I tried to love them, try to love that as them. It didn't work, and I'm even trying to get help for them. It didn't work. My second abuser, he dated me to my oldest son. So my oldest son is eight years old. He's also a two-time survivor of domestic violence. Unfortunately, CPS had gotten involved, and they had removed my first two kids, because my second abuser abused my son to the point where I didn't realize how bad it was until I saw the picture of myself. So he was on probation for that. He is in jail now for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. We tried to cut my dart with a kitchen knife in front of our two kids, and I was partnered with our guard at the time. Thankfully, I was able to escape, and I ran around the neighborhood, banging on all the neighbors' doors, asking for help. Nobody wanted to help me. They were all saying, no, go away, you don't want any trouble. My condom didn't work, giving me tons of excuses. Thankfully, a man did come out, and he did help me, and he called the cops for me. It took about two hours until the cops had came to me, and we went back to the apartment. Him and our kids were gone. I was scared I was going to be seen. My kids again. Luckily, 30 minutes after the police had done the investigation to secure them myself, that was covered in bruises. I had bruises I didn't even know I had until I saw the pictures. They took pictures of the apartment. They tore the apartment apart, and put people both in the walls. 30 minutes after I had locked myself in the apartment, and he was going to come back. The cops actually came back, knocking on the door, saying that he's here. Come get the kids. So, thankfully, you know, he came back. But after a year, he finally got five years for trying to kill me in front of our kids while I was pregnant. But he was on probation for child abuse for my older kids. But they didn't give him the rest of that probation, even though he revoked it. So, my question is, I don't know, question and comment, but if that could, if that previous record could get looked into more when an abuser abuse began, I think that would help out so much because I don't feel like my kids were served, you know, they're adjusted. You know, he gets out of jail on five years, and he's not going to get the rest of his time. He's just going to go back to being free. And along with that, more programs for the abuser, I feel, would make, I guess, a difference. Because us, as survivors, we're able to leave to stop, to get help for ourselves and to help our children that I've witnessed it. But the abuser, it continues with them because they don't stop. They just, they go on to abuse other people. And you're saying, what you're saying is absolutely true, but the other thing that's true is that if somebody doesn't want to get help, no matter how much it's given, it's not going to help. It's going to make a difference. One, I'm out there, and I'm created for the children that have to live with this every day. And not only that, my four-year-old remembers it. Like, it happened yesterday. He has nightmares about it. He even tells the doctors that my daddy cooked my mom's head. And he has autism, so it's even harder for us to try and handle that. So, in any case, he shows us the same aggressive behaviors. Mark is going to talk to you about the services that you have at your children's center. Absolutely. All three of them. For you, you need services. It sounds like good for you, so services as well, and for the children. So call the Alliance Prevention Services. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. I just want to say thank you to everyone who spoke the truth today, because I know that it's going to be hard to relive your trauma. My name is Pearl Gonzales, and I work at Family Alliance Prevention Services, and I also work at the Children's Shelter, which is directly working with the kids who are moving to home. And so, like Mark was saying, it is generational, and that's a lot we'll just see there. And when people figure out, like, where I work, what combination I work with, a lot of what I get is stigma, and microaggressions, like, why would she leave? Like, she put herself in that position. But at the same time, I feel like we're all here and we're all aware of this issue, because that's why we're here, because we want to learn about it, and kind of discuss it by the same time. There's people outside of these both that aren't aware of it. So speaking and advocating, not only the people who are sharing the same interest with those who aren't aware, because a lot of people don't know that this is occurring here in San Antonio. And so, just to continue advocating outside of those people else. Thank you. And also, I provide family services, I mean, services at Family Alliance Prevention Services for children as well. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Michael? Michael, number 18, I'm just starting, and, um, and then, my husband would take me with his toe boots and tie me up, and then I couldn't eat anything past five. If I just cooked before five, then I was cleaning it off. So he couldn't eat, but I couldn't. And then I would try to go at night, try to get something, catch me, he would catch me and beat me up again. So, but I did, I mean, that's been a lot of years, but I couldn't get away because I didn't get anything, but you don't let me get nobody. I mean, I survived, and I wanted to tell everybody else, if somebody, and they're going to abuse like I did. So the great thing about it is that survivors are some of the most powerful people on this planet. But I have to tell everybody that you're going to get out of an abusive situation. It's not as easy as it is to just get out. You have to have help. You have to have a safety plan, and you have to have experts be with you while you're working on that safety plan. Don't do it by yourself. And, um, because your chances of being killed increased 75% when you're trying to get out of an abusive situation all by yourself without any help. Hi, I, um, I'm a lot since I was like this fast. I don't have a question about this. I'm actually a fast-gross, oldest sister from his Ashley videos, and I just wanted to let you all know that we started a television in her name. It's Justice for Aaron, and if you look it up online, it's justiceforarang.org. And, um, we're actually going to be hosting a run in February 22nd. Um, our goal is to speak to high school and middle school students, and let them know, tell Aaron the story, and let them know anything that had his voice on it within this pilot school. They are not home. They are going through it as well. Also, we will be passing out scholarships, uh, in her name as well. That's it. Thank you very much. With this initiative, I would like to thank all of you for coming out tonight, for staying over, for listening. I know this is not easy, and probably a bunch of those are traumatized, but we need to know these things, we need to hear these things, and hopefully they'll inspire us to change. Tonight, we're going to close out tonight's session with Congressman Vasco stating a few words. Thank you so much. I would like to thank Patricia, to mom's demand, to all of the advocacy groups and mom's talk. To all of our people are so helpful in these issues, particularly in domestic violence. And to the folks in law enforcement, to Mayor Ed Eister today, that still was able to come and listen. And to the survivors of domestic abuse, we are sorry for what you went through. Nobody out here can take away the past and the pain. To the children, to the family members who witnessed those things and who lost loved ones, we greet with you for your loss. And to a community that is affected by domestic violence. I know that I speak for myself, Congressman Dogget, Congressman Hurd, all of the elected officials here when I say that we will do everything that we can in our power to change this. The first thing that I believe that we should do is clear that there is not enough organization in San Antonio to deal with this problem comprehensively. What I would like, and let's go to Moya as we were, as we were here together, what I would like for us to do is to bring together elected officials at the different levels of government together. The members of Congress at the federal level, the state legislators, members of the judiciary, the city council members, the members of the county commissioner's court, to sit together and listen to the applicants, to the survivors, and to others and figure out how all of us working together can actualize the suggestions that you have for change. Because all of those suggestions have to be turned into laws or into funding to combat domestic violence. I want us as elected officials to come together at the different levels of government to sit and listen and work together and figure out how we can actualize change. For example, there are concrete things that we heard tonight. I want to take up a small one, but a very important one that was discussed. I don't know whether it may already be, but I don't know when we could call the emergency line for the county or for the SAPD whether you can request an officer come out who specifically speaks Spanish. You guys are able to do that, Chief? Are they able to do that? Okay. I hope that that has become routine and that's systemic. But I want us to get together so that we can put in place very specific changes and make those things happen. And you have my name in it that will continue to work on these things and that we will do this again in short order so that we can listen to more survivors and so that we can give you an update on our progress. Thank you very much for being here.