December 29, 2021

Waukesha Parade Suspect Had a History of Domestic Violence

News

What started out as a dreamy, familiar winter scene in a small Wisconsin town ended in tragedy. On Nov. 21, a man barreled through the Waukesha Christmas parade. He killed six people and wounding over 60 others.

After researching the assailant Darrell Brooks, many experts experience disgust and heartbreak. This, like too many other tragedies, might have been avoided if Brooks’s history of domestic violence been taken more seriously. In fact, Brooks was leaving a domestic violence incident the night he drove through the parade.

According to USA Today, “Nearly 60% of 749 mass shootings between 2014 and 2019 were either domestic violence attacks or committed by men with histories of domestic violence, a 2020 Bloomberg analysis found. A peer-reviewed academic study released earlier this year had a similar finding: About 59% of the 110 mass shootings analyzed were related to domestic violence.”

With a direct tie between domestic violence and mass incidents of violence, when will enough be enough?

Incidences such as Parkland, Sandy Hook, Virginia Tech, and Pulse Nightclub were all committed by men with a domestic violence history.

Unfortunately, due to the stigma surrounding domestic violence in our culture, violence between intimate partners is still often seen as a “private family matter.” It is incidents like that in Waukesha that show us that violence between partners can often spill over into the community. That is why community action is vital when it comes to ending violence in our communities, because if is not us, it is someone we know. Every individual deserves to feel safe at home, and we must start holding abusers accountable.