For decades in this country and around the world, we have enabled abusers and disabled victims. We have given abusers every tool to prey on victims and succeed thereafter despite their wrong doing without satisfactory repercussion or punishment for their actions in many cases. Victims on the other hand see little justice or no justice at all, and many see death. What’s even more startling is that the domestic violence movement appears stifled and stunted in it’s approach to hold a failing system accountable. And this isn’t about men against women on an issue that’s perceived as a woman’s issue. This is about changing perception for both men and women.
While millions of government dollars are wasted on producing more pamphlets, holding grand events, paying celebrities to make special appearances, etc., we have predatory monsters out there that care little for their victims, their families and let alone themselves.
The brutal murder of Tiana Notice by stabbing is a horrific act, beyond what words could ever describe without a series of expletives to describe what kind of a monster took her precious life.
Tiana was murdered on February 14, 2009, Valentine’s Day, by her ex-boyfriend who violated his restraining order that Tiana had issued against him. Carter came to Tiana’s residence and did the unforgivable act. [To hear the 911 call, watch the video http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/video/stalkers--10175663] .
Over two years later, the case finally goes to trial and James Carter, Jr., Tiana’s abuser and murderer, had this to say in letters he wrote while in prison (and we hate having to re-pen these words):
In the first letter, dated June 3, 2009, and addressed to a James Johnson, Carter says, “If you try to [expletive] me over, it’s going to take a Navy Seal to stop me. … I don’t regret what I did because that bitch was out for blood.”
Carter also said Notice and the police should have left him alone. “Now look what happened,” he wrote.
He also wrote that his lawyer will argue that he was suffering from “extreme emotional distress that Tiana caused.”
In the second letter, to James Carter Sr., his father, he blames Notice for running up bills.
“I’m glad that bitch is dead,” he wrote in the letter, dated June 7, 2011. “I hope her ass is burning in hell with a pitchfork as big as Texas in it.”
He also expressed anger at Notice’s family.
“Tiana and her family are in my way and must be taught a lesson,” he wrote. “People die because they don’t know when to back down.”*
And this is what abusers think about their victims, “I hope her ass is burning in hell with a pitchfork as big as Texas in it.” Meanwhile, Carter’s defense will invoke the ridiculous argument, according to Carter’s letter, that Tiana caused “extreme emotional distress” and therefore justifies her murder. We don’t have to tell you how ridiculous this defense argument truly is.
It’s because of the aftermath of domestic violence, the pain, the anger, the anguish that the Notice family and communities experience across our country that The National Domestic Violence Registry is here to fight for the American people. Domestic violence isn’t just about two people getting into an argument, it’s about the blatant disrespect for human life and the right that abusers try to take away from victims to live a life they want and love whomever they desire to love even after the relationship is over. We are about ending the free pass on power and control that the system so readily gives to abusers who wreck and ruin lives leaving everyone else to pickup the pieces. You have a right to know who these predators are!
Are you mad? Are you sick and tired of real life male and female predators trying to snuff the life of your daughter’s and son’s? You should be. Then do what you can to help The National Domestic Violence Registry and The Tiana Notice Foundation and get involved for the fight of our lives!
*Ref: http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-carter-notice-1022-20111021,0,7103099.story
By Lyn Twyman, Deputy Director
