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Annual march, ceremony calls attention to crime victims' rights
Representatives of the city of Nevada, Vernon County, local law enforcement agencies, victim's advocates and victims of crime participated in the March Against Crime by walking from 625 S. Ash Street to the Vernon County Courthouse on Tuesday, April 28. The event was organized by the Vernon County Domestic Violence Task Force to celebrate National Crime Victim's Rights Week the Victims of Crime Act.
After arriving at the courthouse, the group gathered in the third floor courtroom. An introduction and welcome by Martha Sander of the Council on Families in Crisis was followed by the Nevada Fire Fighters Local No. 3031 Honor Guard presenting the colors. Scott Theis sang the national anthem and the Rev. Bill Platt of the First Christian Church delivered the invocation and Theis then sang "God Bless America."
Sander introduced Vernon County Presiding Commissioner Bonnie McCord who read a proclamation declaring April 26-May 2, 2009 as National Crime Victim's Rights Week. McCord called the crime victims fund established by VOCA "a national commitment" to addressing the many problems encountered by victims of crime.
Following McCord's proclamation, Sander slowly read the names of 33 victims of crime from Vernon County whose photos were shown throughout the evening as a slide show. Sander said of the victims, "many don't get to talk about their victimization; their voices are silenced forever."
Nevada Mayor Mike Hutchens addressed the group and read a case history prior to VOCA and another after VOCA was passed in 1984. There were stark differences to be seen in the treatment of victims before and after the passage of the act. Hutchens said, "You and I cannot live in fear of becoming victims," but if it did happen, then VOCA, "a system of lifelines" was there to help.
After Hutchens concluded his presentation, Theis played his guitar and sang the song "Lean on Me." Pastor Terry Mosher of Calvary Baptist Church gave a short benediction and Sander took the floor to read a letter from a victim who could not be present. The victim shared the pain of their loss of a loved one and expressed concern over the fact that the perpetrator of the crime might soon be released from prison. Sander invited victims in the group to come forward and share their stories with those present.
A victim of domestic violence spoke first and shared how she had suffered three different kinds of abuse: physical mental and financial. She spoke of beatings and the mental strain of constant fear and of being penniless and dependent on her abuser for support. The worst part she said was the feeling of "being invisible to the rest of the world." She said that even after she escaped, she carried the fear with her until the day her tormentor died.
A young woman, accompanied by her grandmother, addressed the crowd and told how her mother and her unborn baby brother had been murdered by her boyfriend when she was just a girl of four.
She said she didn't remember much but she could remember the fear and her mothers black eyes and the nightmares she had for many years afterward. She said she wished she could remember more and said "I would ask my mother, but all I have of her is a picture."
The final victim to speak told the audience how she had lost five family members in a single automobile accident caused by a man who was under the influence of three different kinds of drugs. She expressed gratitude for the fact that the crime victim's fund helped pay for the expense of five funerals. She called the legal system to task for not dealing with the man the first or second or third time he was arrested for drug charges. As her family members photos sat on the table she said that she had lost "three members of one family, the start of a new generation."
And the man who did it was going to be up for parole in three years.
"Every day is hard, we pick our times to cry now," she said as she gathered her pictures.
The crowd sat quiet as Sander thanked the speaker and all for coming and asked everyone to meet outside to make a candle light walk around the courthouse.
The walk and event ended at a tree donated to the victims of crime by the Vernon County Commission where a couple of flowers were laid and a few tears were shed.