Time for all to say enough is enough of domestic violence | Opinion

Jim Berson is board president of the Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

When is enough, enough? When is it time to move from complacency to outrage? When is it time to say that it is no longer acceptable for women to be murdered by men who are perpetrators of domestic violence? When will the state step up, lean in, and invest real money, real commitment and real policy to protect women and protect survivors of domestic violence from even more harm, including death?

And when will we all say it is time for all women to be protected, honored and safe in their intimate and other relationships?

As board president of the Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence, too many of our board meetings and other conversations include a moment of silence, an offer of thoughts and prayers, and an expression of deep hope that the latest murder of a woman who is a domestic violence survivor will be the last in our state for the foreseeable future. Too often, that foreseeable future is too short, and we find ourselves once again lamenting a broken system, an underfunded system, an unsupported system to protect survivors and make domestic and intimate partner violence history in our state.

The system to support survivors of domestic violence in our state is in crisis. There is no other way to put it. A massive 40% cut in the federal Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) this year left Rhode Island with a nearly $2-million gap in victim services funding, risking an interruption of life-saving services impacting nearly 50,000 residents who rely on services and programming funded by VOCA.

Despite our best efforts, working with a broad-based coalition of agencies and groups that share our concern for and commitment to supporting survivors, we were unsuccessful in securing funding to close this gap in the last session of the General Assembly. And since cuts to victim services impact all of us, we all lose.

At the same time, our movement is resilient, and we continue to seek to work with the General Assembly and the governor to find ways to invest in our services, stabilize and strengthen our system of support for survivors, advance prevention efforts, and enact policies that keep all of us safe from violence, harm and fear.

Tragedies, particularly those that are preventable and unnecessarily recurring, give us all a choice − to become complacent or to act with urgency. We ask our fellow Rhode Islanders and our elected officials to come together and to say for once and for all, enough is enough.