Darkness at Noon: Soviet-Style Re-education in State Mandated 'Batterers' Classes

It doesn't matter that you're innocent. Or that she attacked you first. Or that you both went over the line and that both of you want to put it behind you and work it out. The system will prosecute you and persecute you until you've confessed your sins--even if you've none to confess. And you're not cured until they say you're cured--even if you were never sick to begin with.

In Darkness at Noon Arthur Koestler wrote of the nightmarish world of the Stalinist Soviet secret police, wherein all accused were guilty and protestations of innocence were acts of subversion. Koestler describes how police power was used to extract confessions and the way perfectly innocent men were manipulated into publicly declaring their crimes and their guilt.

While thankfully America is not a police state, the modern domestic violence industry operates on principles which Gletkin, Koestler's fictional interrogator, might appreciate. As Seattle family law attorney Lisa Scott explains, from top to bottom the current domestic violence system won't let women be anything but victims and can't see men as anything but batterers. And from the moment a 911 call is made there is practically no such thing as an innocent man.

Scott and Seattle area marriage &  family therapist Michael Thomas discussed the anti-male domestic violence system and state-mandated 'batterers' treatment programs. Scott is the founder of Taking Action Against Bias in the System, a Seattle-based civil liberties organization. Thomas, because he objects to the way batterers' classes are conducted, has pointedly refused to become a state certified domestic violence treatment provider.

To find out more about police and judicial anti-male bias in domestic violence-related matters, see Glenn's columns "Baseball Player's Domestic Violence Arrest Demonstrates How Men are Presumed Guilty in Domestic Disputes" (Los Angeles Daily Journal, San Francisco Daily Journal, 8/8/02) and NCFM-LA's Lawsuit Against Shelters is Valid Response to County's Refusal to Help Abused Men (Daily Breeze, Los Angeles) (6/22/03) (co-authored by Marc Angelucci of the National Coalition of Free Men Los Angeles).

The use and misuse of "emotional abuse" is discussed in "Colorado Arsonist Terry Barton's Smart Strategy: When in Trouble, Blame a Man" (Cybercast News Service, 7/3/02).