Rallying For Peace, Safety Victims, Relatives, Their Supporters Gather To Foster Change

They talked about healing, alternatives to abuse and sending batterers to jail.

Then the more than 100 people who showed up Wednesday at a rally in NorthTown Mall blew the whistle on domestic violence.

Loudly.

The noise brought fingers to the ears of shoppers who were caught off guard as they strolled by the rally outside The Body Shop. It bounced around the west side of the mall in a range of octaves - from shiny metal whistles, plastic ones and the whistle-shaped lollipops that children tooted.

“We must send a message to batterers very clearly,” said Carolyn Morrison, who directs an alternatives to domestic violence program at the YWCA. “The message is there are consequences if you continue to break the law.”

She was joined by Sheriff John Goldman and Kathryn Lee, a District Court prosecutor who handles many of the county’s domestic cases.

All three urged the group to fight the one crime that leads to more than 30 percent of all homicides in Washington. Last year, more than 3,000 domestic violence incidents were reported in Spokane County, Goldman said.

He stressed the importance of finding programs to help women survive on their own outside an abusive environment, so they don’t have to “keep going back.”

He recalled being a deputy on patrol one night in 1969, when he was sent to a mobile home park on a “family fight” report. Inside, he found an angry husband who held down his wife’s hand on a hot plate because his dinner was cold.

Goldman was called to the same home other times, only to find the same woman being victimized again. The cycle continues because women don’t think they’ll get the support they need if they leave, he said.

The rally drew victims, their relatives and supporters of the fight against domestic violence.

Monica Adkins showed up with a framed photograph of her sister, Becky Ringer, who was shot and killed by her husband in Kettle Falls this summer. Police said Benjamin Ringer, 38, slashed his wife’s throat and then shot himself.

Adkins and her father said Becky Ringer was abused for nearly three years.

“You can’t keep making excuses for (domestic violence) because it could end up like this,” said Robert Dhaenens, pointing at the picture of his dead daughter. “She’s at peace now, really, but at a hell of a price.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo