Vacations Delivered

Cited: ABC News

One in every 4 women becomes victims of domestic violence according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  Domestic violence is such a serious problem that it even affects celebrities who fall victim to abuse potential and husband or boyfriend like pop singer Rihanna.  This is one crime that usually happens behind closed doors

But, what would you do, if in a public place, you saw a woman who showed unmistakable signs of physical abuse? Would you comfort her, call the police, or mind your own business?

ABC’s “What Would You Do?” decided to find out and set-up cameras at a diner in Union, N.J. Jennifer, an actress, portrayed our abuse victim. A professional make-up artist created the illusion of large bruises on Jennifer’s face and cuts on her wrists. Chris, another actor, played her abuser.

Minutes after Jennifer took her seat, a concerned man, Adam Weiss, approached from a nearby table. Bending down, he asked softly, “You need help with something?”

In a sheepish voice, Jennifer answered, “I’m just waiting for my boyfriend to come inside.”

The man’s wife, Jamie Weiss, joined them at the table and invited our battered woman to join them while she waited. Looking away and on the verge of tears, Jennifer showed her apprehension, “He’s going to be coming in soon and he’s going to be upset if he sees me talking to you.”

When the boyfriend walked in, the couple reluctantly retreated back to their table, but they kept a suspicious eye on them.

Almost immediately, the boyfriend began to verbally abuse his girlfriend. “What the hell was that about?” he snapped. “What’s the matter, are you stupid? Look at me!” Then he reached across the table and grasped the wrist of his girlfriend – - and that’s all it took.

It was a galvanizing moment. Suddenly a burly man was on his feet and shoved the abusive boyfriend out of harm’s way. Within seconds our security guard — an ex-cop — stepped in.

When the dust settled, we told Weiss about the scenario. Asked why he intervened, his response was simple, “It’s my nature. When there’s something not right, you try and fix it.”

“[Weiss] was really impressive. He noticed her crying. He saw the bruise, so he intervened even before the abuser showed up,” said Raquel Bergen, a professor of sociology at St. Joseph’s University, who watched our social experiment from a control vehicle nearby.

Bergen was encouraged to see that men got involved. “I think that sends such a powerful message to other men that you can be involved,” she said. “We need to challenge other men to do the right thing, to step in and say, ‘That’s not cool.’”

Jealousy Turns to Rage at Breakfast

Domestic violence cuts across all economic, ethnic and racial lines. We wondered what would happen if we replaced our white victim, with an African American actor, Mari. With make-up, she too bared the unmistakable scars of an abusive relationship.

The set-up was the same and upon arrival, actor Hassan, the boyfriend, began to yell at his girlfriend, “I noticed you look at that guy. You thought I was on the phone…Look at me, you think I’m playin’ with you?”

His jealousy quickly turned to rage over the breakfast order: “Stop the fake tears. Call the waitress and get this orange juice outta here. Order my food!” Hassan yelled.

We told the boyfriend to step away from the table to use the restroom. No sooner did he leave, then out of nowhere two women who had witnessed the whole scenario rushed to Mari’s side. One of the girls with an eye on the bathroom door asked Mari, “Who is that?”

With a look of fear in her eyes she responded, “My boyfriend, I’m scared of him.”

The women pleaded with Mari to leave before the boyfriend returned. Unable to get her out the door, they decided to confront the situation head on.

Women Confront Abusive Boyfriend

As the boyfriend approached the table, one girl pointedly said, “You’re an idiot.”

Hassan told the women it was none of their business and instead tried to get Mari to leave, “We’re gonna go, alright?”

One girl quickly said, “don’t touch her because the cops are almost here.” Her friend also began to yell, “Stop!! Get off her.”

Before things heated up, we decided to introduce ourselves and let them in on our experiment. It turned out they were cousins, Lynn Fonseca and Cristina Laurenco, and were overcome with emotion.

“I didn’t know if he was going to take her home and beat her to death,” Fonseca said, before bursting into tears.

Our actress Mari was deeply touched. “I appreciated the love for a stranger …putting themselves in a potentially dangerous situation,” she said.

The answer just might surprise you when these battered women trade in your “nice girl close” or something more provocative.  Watch for yourself and ask what you would do.  Watch “What Would You Do?”

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My Take: I would be one of those people who would step up and ask if help was needed or even go so far as to ask the ass-hole boyfriend to drop-dead.  Then again, I would probably get hurt for encouraging on the boyfriend or husband.  Any man who raises his hand to a woman unless the woman is hysterical is a coward!

An abused woman should get a hold of the first Fort Lee NJ divorce attorney, Texas divorce law attorney or any divorce lawyer she can find!  She should take him for every penny he’s got including every piece of property he has!  She would not have any need for mediation attorney because there’d be nothing to discuss.

Hopefully, there are no children involved because that would mean the children may also be abused and that’s even worse.  She would then need a family lawyer to help sort out everything. Divorce lawyers in Texas would definitely advise her to get the locks changed.  Hopefully, he doesn’t know how to use a lock picking gun.

Of course, if he used a slim Jims to get into her car or lockpicks to get into the house after she changed the locks, he would be in dire need of a Bucks County criminal lawyer.  Because they call that B & E for breaking and entering, this is definitely against the law.

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