Leaders talk how to fi ght domestic violence
Virtual forum hosted by BP Ruben Diaz Jr., DA Darcel Clark, community partners
BY ALEX MITCHELL
Bronx political, educational
and economic leaders
have taken a power stand
to combat domestic violence
throughout the Bronx and
elsewhere this week.
Borough President Ruben
Diaz, Jr., Bronx District Attorney
Darcel Clark, Monroe
College School of Criminal
Justice, Montefi ore Health
System, Violence Intervention
Program and Safe Horizon
held a “boots on the ground”
forum where experts and survivors
voiced advice and facts
to the many virtual attendees.
Clark, who is a former law
professor at Monroe, called
the fi ght against domestic violence
to be a “Herculean effort”
as COVID-19 has pushed
such instances further behind
closed doors than any other
time in recent history.
Diaz reiterated that sentiment,
priding his Bronx community
for coming together
“even when we don’t want to.”
Addressing a massive
spike in Bronx homicides and
domestic violence, Diaz hoped
for contagious courage to publicly
address and cure these
issues as domestic violence no
longer is a “little dark secret.”
One expert speaker,
mother, and author Doreen
Lesane shared her own powerful
she was abused herself.
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story from a time when
She explained that victims
who face “blame and
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many in our community have.
psychologically, fi nancially
and physically and cannot
simply “just leave” their
hostile environment.
Citing 13 recent intimate
partner homicides in the
Bronx, Lesane also discussed
how victims endure physiological
and emotional torture
from abuse to a point where
many enter a “survival mode”
and “mental reprogramming,”
that causes the average victim
to reject their self identity.
In Lesane’s case, her experience
left longtime issues of
depression, anger, confusion
and hopelessness as result of
the shell-shocking abuse she
had endured.
It had reached the point
where she “couldn’t tell
the good guys from the bad
guys” afterwards.
Lesane also explained how
her son was also inadvertently
a victim to similar abuses, as
are many men who do not
come forward, calling domestic
violence against males to
be a “ugly, silent truth.”
In time, she was able to
trust again and learned “how
to be,” Lesane said, passing
on the message that “what
happened to you is not your
fault…do the best that you can
until you can do better.”
Photo via Getty Images
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