The Gladstone Observer reported that a man pleaded guilty to two contraventions of a domestic violence order and using a carriage service to menace, harrass or cause offence.
According to the article, the man had attempted to use police “to conduct unnecessary welfare checks” and police “felt the defendant’s behaviour was degrading and controlling in general”. The man was already the respondent in a current domestic violence order.
It’s common for abusive men to use the police and courts as a tool to continue their abuse. That the police in this case recognised this man’s behaviour as controlling is laudable, which makes it all the more baffling that The Observer would erase the violence and the police response in a headline about this story. This is not a story about a grazed knee. It’s a story about domestic abuse and coercive control.
Erasing men’s violence against women is not journalism. It’s enabling violence men in their abuse.
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