System must take violence more seriously

One takeaway from the incomprehensibly tragic death of 10-year-old Victoria Martens is that the state’s agencies and systems don’t take domestic violence against women and children seriously enough.

Victoria was raped, strangled and stabbed before her body was dismembered and burned, allegedly at the hands of her mother’s boyfriend and his cousin, Jessica Kelley, while her mother, Michelle Martens, watched.

The boyfriend, Fabian Gonzales, had two prior convictions for violence against women, yet he had managed to game the “catch and release” judicial system and be free to allegedly perpetrate this horrific crime.

Although he served time in prison for violating probation in a prior domestic violence case, he managed to dodge jail time in another case because bond was posted for him — while he was still in prison.

After he cut a plea deal, the judge ordered more probation but the paperwork was lost in the system and he never served it. Some system.

Since Victoria’s cruel death last week, the lives of an 11-year-old girl, Nhi Nguyen, and her mother, Cam Thi To, were taken by the mother’s new husband, Trinh Tran Van. To was attempting to leave Van because he abused her. After shooting the mother and the girl, Van turned the gun on himself.

The mother, who brought her daughter to the U.S. from Vietnam for a better life, had reported his abuse earlier this year, but the wheels of justice turned too slowly for these victims.

In the case of 9-year-old Omaree Varela, who died in December 2013 after his mother, Synthia Varela, beat and kicked him, there were warnings. But the state’s policy is to keep families together if at all possible.

That was a terrible call for Omaree, whose mother was recently sentenced to 40 years.

Since Omaree’s tragic death, the state has stepped up efforts to hire more social workers and to be more responsive to potential child abuse and violence. Those are good moves.

It is understandable that when another child dies a tragic death or is horribly abused, there are impassioned calls for something to be done to address child abuse, and the drug and alcohol abuse that often fuels the violence.

“Parents, communities, governor, let’s put our children first, because they are our future,” Laura Bobbs, a minister and friend of the Martens family, said at a news conference Monday.

But, the state Children, Youth and Families Department had no reports of abuse involving Victoria or her mother. So how can that agency be held responsible for removing Victoria from harm if it had no idea she was in jeopardy?

A fair question, though, is where was the system when Gonzales was loosed on society?

One component of this miserable stew is the criminal gangster lifestyle. Some career criminals want to cruise the streets and internet dating sites, where Gonzales met Victoria’s mother. They don’t want substance abuse treatment. They don’t want jobs. They want government assistance checks or they want to deal drugs and steal.

How does society change that?

Certainly not by shutting down the domestic violence unit as District Attorney Kari Brandenburg did in October after a deputy district attorney who had overseen it resigned.

All the calls for more child safety programs, treatment programs, lock ’em up and throw away the key sentences won’t protect all women and children from evil, but it may save some.

We cannot ignore the consequences of domestic violence or fail to address it. For starters, the system and all within it can start taking domestic violence against women and children much more seriously.

— Albuquerque Journal