It's encouraging that so many are coming together to find answers for the desperate women (and, less frequently, men) who find themselves on the receiving end of a knife, a fist or a gun.
Two New Jersey lawmakers from opposite sides of the political spectrum are taking to heart recommendations by the New Jersey Supreme Court to make life safer for victims of domestic violence.
Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck) and Sen. Diane Allen (R-Edgewater Park) are promoting a package of 10 bills based on findings of the court's Ad Hoc Committee on Domestic Violence, which convened in February 2015.
Charged with reviewing domestic violence law, policies and procedures, the panel - on which Weinberg and Allen served - suggested strengthening domestic violence training for law enforcement and court officials.
Time to stop domestic violence epidemic | Opinion
It also sought to improve resources for victims, as well as their families, and create a risk-assessment pilot program to keep potentially dangerous situations from escalating, among other things.
Earlier this month, an unusual conference brought together 300 social workers, law-enforcement officers, healthcare experts and others to shine a light on one of the state's most persistent problems.
Although participants praised growing signs of cooperation among state agencies and professionals, many also lamented that the funds to combat the more than 62,000 incidents of domestic violence reported in 2014 - including 42 murders - are just not there.
According to a NJSpotlight story detailing the conference, advocacy efforts have been hampered by chronically insufficient resources, worsened by Gov. Christie, who sequestered dollars for county rape-crisis center and related programs until he resolves his difference with the Legislature over further cuts to state employee pensions.
Holding victims' lives hostage to Christie's political whims was both mean-spirited and dangerous, particularly in a state which saw reported rapes climb from 893 in 2014 to 1,311 last year. Although the governor released more than $33 million in funds for social programs he withheld to spur cuts to employee health care, it was still a shameful act.
Meanwhile, we salute the state's top court for convening its high level panel, as well as the New Jersey Coalition to End Domestic Violence and the New Jersey Coalition Against Sexual Assault, which organized the conference earlier this month in Plainsboro.
It's encouraging that so many entities are coming together to find answers for the desperate women (and, less frequently, men) who find themselves on the receiving end of a knife, a fist or a gun.
As NJSpotlight points out, these are women like Carol Bowne of Berlin, stabbed repeatedly in her driveway by the boyfriend against whom she had gotten a restraining order, and Annette Torres of Bergenfield, shot to death after she called the police countless times to get her abusive boyfriend removed from their home.
The package of bills proposed by Sens. Allen and Weinberg merit consideration. Let's reassure the women of New Jersey that they are more than pawns in the governor's political chess set.
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