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10 24 24 AG Phil Weiser talks about efforts to reduce Domestic violence in Colorado
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Step into our bulk department to scoop up as much as you like from hundreds of bins filled with wholesome grains and limited-time goodies. Visit your neighborhood Sprouts Farmers Market today where flavor fills every scoop. Domestic violence deaths down in Colorado, but we can't be complacent about this issue. It's the view of the Chair of the Board of Colorado's Domestic Violence Fatality Review Board. We get more in this upcoming discussion we're having right now with Colorado Attorney General Phil Wise, or Attorney General, thanks for joining us this morning. Thank you, Marty. Great to join you. So let's start at least with the good news. The numbers are down. What do you attribute to the decline? When you look at the numbers in context, what you see is they went up during the pandemic. They've now returned to a number that's proximate to what they were before the pandemic. In the pandemic, people were more isolated. There were less ability to report on domestic violence, less ability to prevent dangerous situations from escalating. So our analysis is that we're back to where we were before. The bad news is domestic violence is not down. Those numbers have actually gone up a little bit. And the really bad news is that when we compare the numbers of deaths to exposure to the legal system, only about 20 percent or so of the people who died had some prior protection order or other way the system was involved, meaning that there are a lot of people who are never involved in the legal system. We don't know about them. And then all of a sudden we hear about this tragedy. Attorney General Wise, with that statistic in mind, what do you think is the main cause of that? Is that because people are unaware of the resources? They don't go to someone, or is this a first case of domestic violence for them? It's a good question. I think it's very unlikely that the first case of domestic violence is a fatality. Let me know about domestic violence tells us that situations tend to escalate over time. They don't start off out of the blue. That means there's a lot of domestic violence happening that is unreported. There's no enforcement and people are suffering in silence. The biggest message I can share with people is please, if you are in a situation where you know about domestic violence, whether it's happening to you, your kids, friends, loved ones, please do something to get help. There are a lot of services around there set up to protect people and to save lives. That's something that everyone can be a part of as we continue into domestic violence awareness month, which is every October. You shared this. So I want to go a little more into this because we have a tendency, and I'll say by we, me, if thinking to domestic violence, it's spouse on spouse. But should we always assume AG Wise, or is it the male spouse towards a female spouse? Is it the other way around? It does include kids. So these numbers are all those situations that we're talking about. You are correct. We talked about two numbers in this report, domestic violence incidents that lead to death and domestic hospitality. The same incident can involve a spouse, and it generally is the male. On female, not exclusively, but you could imagine the death of the wife and then the kids might get killed in that, or a neighbor might get killed, or law enforcement might get killed. This is a very dangerous situation because those who are exposed to domestic violence are also at risk. And I want to make one other point, and this is one that I am constantly pained by, when you have a domestic violence fatality, and, for example, the dad kills the mom, and then maybe the dad kills himself, or maybe the dad goes to jail, you just got kids who are now being raised by someone else and living and growing up with that trauma around them. You've got neighbors and friends. So domestic violence incidents and fatalities don't just affect the direct victims. It affects so many people in the broader community. Attorney General Wiser, to clarify as well, looking at this report, it shows that the victims' ages range from 14 to 70 years old. Is that including some of the children, like you mentioned, that could be killed in these domestic violence incidents? That's correct. Every year, kids die because they are, you might say, just proximate to a domestic violence situation. There are situations sometimes, and this is actually something that isn't the report this year, that the kids alone get killed. And this is a danger sometimes when there is an effort to get out of an abusive relationship. And one of the situations that's talked about is someone who gets out of a relationship, and there's custody determinations, and the legal system wasn't sensitive enough to the domestic violence situation happening. The kids are then with the dad during some of the time, and the dad kills the kids. One of the recommendations we have is our legal system has to get better at identifying domestic violence so that we don't put kids in dangerous situations. Talk about identifying things, Attorney General, I am curious if the initiative to have a mental health professional would go on calls with police officers. Does that help to some degree mitigate or diagnose more clear what situations are in those calls that officers go on by having a health professional with them that can help navigate that issue? That can be helpful, Marty, which also more helpful is training law enforcement officers, and those who go with them. And what we call lethality assessment training, which means a new show up in a situation, and there is some signs of domestic violence, how close is it, as I mentioned earlier, to be escalated to a fatality. We've been working on the training, our department got a grant from the federal government. We'd like to make sure it's as widespread as possible. The point you make about mental health professionals, it's important to be able to get below the surface sometimes, and to understand what's going on, and to be able to have a conversation that can lead to some honest sharing of information. A lot of times, domestic violence situations stay hidden, and the danger lurks beneath the surface until it's too late. Attorney General Phil Weiser, while we have you as well, we want to pivot topics here, as it's also close to the closing arguments expected in the trial against the Kroger and Albertson's merger. You've been challenging this from the start for antitrust violations. What have you seen so far in the weeks of the trial that we've seen, and the next steps are possible outcome in all of this? Jim, I appreciate the chance to talk about this a little bit. It's an important case. What we've been able to do is take the learning that we did over a long investigation. We're in 19 town halls across the state, and present the evidence in court. Our case rests on some basic points. The first is we know when there's not competition, and even the Kroger team admitted there was a lack of competition in some stores, and prices go up. That's bad for consumers who end up paying more. We also are really worried about local farmers and local food getting their food put in stores. That's something that's at risk in this merger. We also made the case that we alleged in the beginning that there was an agreement not to compete during the strike here in Denver where being super said to Safeway, don't hire our employees. That type of no-poach agreement is illegal. They said, "Don't solicit our farm, Mr. Customers." That's illegal. That type of agreement shows, and we have lots of evidence that shows this. These two companies, Kroger and Albertson, view each other as their most significant competitor, allowing these two companies to merge, is going to be bad for consumers, and we see food prices have continued to rise. We can't afford this merger. Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, thank you. Thank you both. There's only one feeling like knowing your banker personally, like growing up with a bank you can count on, like being sure what you've earned is safe, secure, and local. There's only one feeling like knowing you're supporting your community. You deserve more from a bank. You deserve an institution that stood strong for generations. Bank of Colorado, there's only one member FDIC. Have you heard about the 2018 study that showed half of prenatal vitamins tested, had unacceptable levels of heavy metals? No. Well, now you have. I'm Kat, mother of three and founder of Ritual, the company making traceability the new standard in the supplement industry. 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From wholesome grains and spices to limited-time goodies like pumpkin apple cashews and butter toffee peanuts, plus buying in bulk means you can get as much or as little as you like for your next recipe or snack attack. Visit your neighborhood Sprout's Farmers Market today, or flavor fills every scoop. [MUSIC PLAYING]