The story of a Rochester police officer advising a man to break into the home of his estranged girlfriend has raised a number of questions about women’s safety, gun rights, and allegations of domestic violence. The boyfriend showed up at his ex-girlfriend’s house, looking for some of his possessions. When she refused to let him in and the police arrived, an officer told the boyfriend that if he had lived there – which he had – it was his legal right to break in. That’s when the girlfriend pointed a firearm out the window. She said she had been a victim of domestic violence, and was afraid of the boyfriend.
This hour, our panel discusses the bigger picture issues raised by this case: the safety of women and their right to use firearms to protect themselves in their own homes, plus, how to respond to women who are making allegations that they have been victims of physical altercations. Our guests:
- Mark Henderson, Brighton Police Chief
- Bill Gargan, chief of the Domestic Violence Bureau in the Monroe County District Attorney’s Office
- Meaghan de Chateauvieux, director of development and marketing for Willow Domestic Violence Center
- Cha Ron Sattler-LeBlanc, local chapter leader for Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense
