Earlier today...

...there was a dispute between the young couple that lives above my apartment. I couldn’t hear exactly what was being said but I heard them running around, several things being thrown or knocked to the floor and the girlfriend screaming her head off. There was a lot of commotion and it just didn’t sound like a “normal” fight. I opened the door from our apartment to listen closer and could hear the girl wailing as though she had been hurt. This isn’t the first time I’ve heard this couple fight and today it sounded physical. I felt that the best thing I could do was call the police.

I called the general complaints line and the woman who answered the phone was helpful. I told her what I knew and said that I was worried something really bad was going on up there and that someone should come and check it out. She said she would send a car over immediately.

It came about twenty minutes later and two police officers went to the couple’s door. Their door is very close to mine so I could hear from my couch most of what was being said.

The girlfriend answered the door crying and they asked her, “How’s everything going up there?” She said, “Not good. We’re having a pretty big fight.” One of the police officers said, “Who is up there with you?” She replied, “My boyfriend.” The police officer then asked, “Would you like us to come up and check everything out?” She replied meekly, “No that’s okay.” The other police officers said, “Oh we had a noise complaint from your neighbours about a fight.”

I couldn’t hear what she said in reply but they asked if they could talk to the guy. He came down the stairs a few minutes later and casually said, “Hello.” They repeated most of the same questions, and then said something like, if you guys are fighting, try to keep it down so as not to disturb your neighbours and then left.

I am so aggravated at how this situation was handled. First of all, I wasn’t making a noise complaint. I didn’t call so that they couple would “keep it down,” I called because it sounded as though the girl was being hurt and because she was screaming her head off and crying loudly.

And second of all, is that all that can be done in this situation? I don’t know much about what they can legally do but I felt their questions weren’t exactly the right ones; that other questions would have made her tell what had really happened. But the police didn’t press her and took her answers as they were. The whole question period lasted only a few minutes.

Now I don’t know for sure what was happening up there but between hearing things crashing down and her screaming frantically, I would guess that it was a violent fight; one that should have been looked into more seriously. Isn’t it true that a woman who is being abused is unlikely to admit that she is?

I consider this a very serious matter and the fact that it could be so easily “taken care of” really upsets me. In response to the police officer’s questions, I half-expected the boyfriend to say, “Ok, next time I beat her up, I’ll keep it down so that I don‘t disturb my neighbours.”

I believe that there should be certain questions that police officers should ask to encourage a victim to tell what is really happening to them. Or perhaps a social worker could be present to question the victim. I’m not settled with the fact that the girlfriend today said that everything was okay and the policeman took that as truth.

Can’t something else be done?

Martha