SAENZ AND LANDIN TAKE THEIR WIFE-BEATER SHOW ON ROAD

"Husbands, love [your] wives, and be not bitter against them."

 Colossians 3:19  

By Jose Sandoval
Special to El Rrun-rrun

Whether you think the latest campaign against domestic violence by Cameron County District Attorney Luis V. Saenz is just a gimmick to advance his reelection bid or not, he is bringing the issue before the voters with about four months left before the March 1, 2016 party primaries.
If you are traveling in La Feria or Harlingen you will see the billboards approved by the Cameron County Commissioners (minus Saenz's name and seal) on at least three billboards. And if you go pay your property taxes or renew your plates for your car, you will be met by a beat-up woman with the quote "He promised he wouldn't hit me again," Anonymous.
Some county employees have complained that the building also contains the Veterans Service Office, the Cameron County Clerk and the Cameron County Tax Assessor-Collector but that the garish banner on its facade made it seem like the entire wing was under the control of the DA's Office. They said Saenz did not go to the commissioners court to get approval for hanging the banner at the administrative wing of the courthouse.
However, in a FB post, Saenz said that the county maintenance staff there were "solidly" supporting him.
When the picture above was taken, a pedestrian jokingly covered his face so as not to be identified.
Commissioners did approve the expenditure of $25,224 for Saenz to spread the word that men (and sometimes rough girls) should not batter their mates. The billboards will be up from October through December, up until wo months before the March 1, 2016 primaries
Despite the objections raised by Precinct 3 Commissioner David Garza over the apparent political stock that Saenz might gain over his opponents in the upcoming primaries, Asst. DA Rene Garza assured them that politics was not behind the erection of the billboards in the northern part of the county.
Then this week, Saenz and his Public Information Officer Melissa Landin took their show to the students at Texas Southmost College where they held a "domestic abuse awareness event."
While Sanez has been in office since January 2013, this is TSC's eighth annual domestic abuse awareness event.
"Our objective in the competition was to create dialogue in the classroom and create the dialogue in the home by creating the art and writing the poetry," stated Landin.
Noted author and domestic abuse survivor Nancy Oakley was a speaker at the event, sharing her experiences with domestic violence along with emotional, physical and sexual abuse.
The event also included a poetry and art competition which encouraged students to create poetry and artwork regarding domestic violence. Participants included high school students from Cameron County, as well as TSC students.
"As I see this artwork in the hall...how do these kids know what domestic violence is? They live it, they see it," Saenz explained. Saenz commented on the effect of domestic abuse not only on the victim, but on their children as well. As he has in previous domestic abuse presentations, Saenz intoned that:
"I can guarantee somewhere in Brownsville tonight the father, the husband, the boyfriend is going to come home and start discussing an issue with uh you know the female, the wife, ex wife, girlfriend... they are going to start to discuss and the discussion is going to escalate into an argument and that
argument is going to start to escalate and it's going to lead to aggression and the female is going to be beaten up... that's domestic violence." explains Saenz.

"The police will respond. The lady will describe what happened, how she was assaulted, how he had inflicted bodily injury on her and while she is describing that to the police you will see that there are children cowering in the corner, witnessing what happened. The police, after the investigation will end up arresting Daddy, putting him in handcuffs and again you go back to the corner to the children watching Daddy get arrested, put in handcuffs and getting arrested and getting taken away. Those kids are going to grow up and what do you think they are going to do? They'll repeat the problem, okay?"
Such analysis – while true for the most part – often overlooks other factors such as economic and social pressures that lead to hostility by both parties in the squabble, but the emphasis of the presentations was that if it leads to violence, perhaps the relationship is not healthy for the couple or the family and other avenues should be sought.
"Please get out of the relationship," Saenz suggested. "It's easier said than done, though. In fact, one of the questions a lot of women have is: Why did you not leave? The answer is: What is she supposed to do? Where is she supposed to go? It's easy for you and I to say well leave! Go where? Do what? That's what the perpetrator you know um, counts on. She's not going to leave. Where is she going to go? That's the vicious cycle.. it's a very, very serious problem."
Communications, Saenz explained, is crucial to prevent domestic violence.
"You have to talk things out. Getting married is not all hunky-dory. You know getting married is not all roses and flowers. After a while, bills are going to start coming in, you're going to have a job, you're going to have kids, you're going to have stress and it's going to be difficult but you cannot resort to hitting."
So the advice to someone who is being abused?
"You have to leave the relationship," Saenz said. "You have to leave. You have to get out of there once a perpetrator hits you one time, it may have taken a long time for them to have hit, but once he does it one time the second and third is a lot easier. One of those times you're going to die. That's just how it is, it's just that serious."
Also participating in the TSC event were the Family Crisis Center, the Zonta Club, The Friendship of Women, and local law enforcement.