Domestic violence and football

Last night, or more correctly, this morning, was somewhat surreal and disturbing.

I was woken by yelling sometime around 4am and in my delirious state thought it was coming from outside. There was the deep rumble of a man's voice, though I couldn't under what he was yelling, and the higher pitched cries of a woman, very much in distress. I could hear her plainly. She was yelling things like: "get away from me" and "get you hands off me."

In a state of horror I stepped onto the balcony hoping to scare the guy away by threatening to (and hen actually) calling the police. When I got to the edge of the balcony, however, the street below was deserted. Thinking they'd left I went back to bed. but within five minutes I could hear more of the same. It then occurred to me that it might be coming through our bedroom wall, so I struggled up again and pressed an ear to the wall above our bed. The volume instantly rose and it was suddenly clear where the yelling was coming from.



Things got worse when thumping noises started filtering through and doors started slamming.

Thinking that confronting a (probably) drunken and (certainly) enraged alpha male at (by this time) 4.30 in the morning seemed a little suicidal so I took the less action movie option of calling the police and settled in on the couch waiting for them to arrive.

To stay awake I turned the football on, and just as an aside, the Mexico-Argentina game was one of the finest I've ever seen. Truly great football.

The police called not too long after 5 saying they couldn't get inside. I buzzed them in and listened while they repeatedly knocked on the neighbour's door. I thought one of them must have left by then as I had heard a front door slam somewhat earlier.

The police officers knocked for about five minutes then left and I went back to the football.

Later this morning when I awoke, I realised (with the less sleepy and more astute help of C) to my horror that I had sent the police knocking on the wrong door. Our apartment block is unbelievably confusing in it's layout. There are seven floors, but the lift only stops on five of them. The apartments on the two other floors are reached by entrances on the lift accessible ones. The layout of apartments is also somewhat adhoc and the result is the the apartment door right next to ours doesn't in fact share a wall with us at all. As far as I can make out it must go up to the next floor and out over the corridor to the other side. The next door along does, however, share a wall with us.

When it clicked I realised I'd had the police bashing on the door of an innocent (and single university professor - our real estate agent told us that's who lived there when we moved in). Oops. And worse, the arsehole who is, in all likelihood, beating his partner gets off scott-free.

All this is beside the point really. The big issue here is the continuance of such unacceptable and harmful behaviours. Why is it still okay for a guy to hit a girl? How is this an acceptable form of anger management or an alright way to let someone know they have upset you?

I'm so tired and angry I can hardly think. I'd appreciate some enlightenment from our male readers. How, in any scheme of things, can this sort of behaviour be justified?