Thanks to the National Football League (NFL) domestic abuse is on the front page of many news outlets. It’s quite sad that the only time people care about domestic abuse is when celebrities are involved but that’s the way it is. But since the topic is being discussed I think it’s worth bringing up a larger source of domestic abuse issues than NFL players:
And there is another American profession that has a significantly more alarming problem with domestic abuse. I’d urge everyone who believes in zero tolerance for NFL employees caught beating their wives or girlfriends to direct as much attention—or ideally, even more attention—at police officers who assault their partners. Several studies have found that the romantic partners of police officers suffer domestic abuse at rates significantly higher than the general population. And while all partner abuse is unacceptable, it is especially problematic when domestic abusers are literally the people that battered and abused women are supposed to call for help.
I’m not surprised that studies are showing that domestic abuse rates amongst police families are higher than average families. As I’ve noted before the primarily job of modern policing is extortion in the form of fines, citations, and civil forfeiture. That’s why you can find police officers with radar guns on most major highways and more police resources put towards enforcing the prohibition on unpatentable drugs than solving murders, burglaries, and assaults. The problem with focusing on extortion instead of protection is that it attracts a different kind of person, namely a kind of person who has no moral issue with hurting others. If your police force is made up of enough people who enjoying hurting people then chances are high that you’re also going to have a notable rate of domestic abuse amongst them.