A Bully Sheriff with the Power to Change Murder to Suicide

It’s a chilling case—a young, single mother dies from a gunshot wound that is consistent with homicide and the powerful sheriff covers up for her boyfriend, a deputy sheriff. 

The power of the sheriff in St. Augustine, FL is frighteningly similar to our current Bully-in-Chief. Happy when he’s being praised and glib before an audience, Sherrif David B. Shoar doesn’t like to be crossed. In fact, when Florida Department of Law Enforcement Agent Rusty Rodgers was sent to investigate the poorly handled case, Shoar spread lies and innuendo to try to get Rodgers fired. It’s upsetting how discrediting the opposition has become the norm. The result is no justice for the victim, no closure for the family, endless grief for the investigator and a bully drunk with power. The parallels with the bully currently in control of the nation are chilling.  

Photo credit: City of St. Augustine

Preventing Domestic Violence at Work

The University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center

Domestic violence is an issue many people don’t like to discuss. It’s perceived as a “private” problem that should be dealt with inside of the home; however, there are active ways workplaces can and should take a stand against it. The example that the University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center is setting is admirable, in the wake of two employee deaths within five months as the result of domestic violence. Like the St. Joseph Medical Center, more workplaces should institute awareness and prevention training programs to help employees support each other. However, around the world, more businesses need to institute policies to help support workers dealing with the fallout of domestic violence by providing paid leave, guarantees against discrimination, and measures to prevent harassment in the workplace itself. The more we can acknowledge and discuss domestic violence, the more we can thwart it – and ensuring that workplaces are psychologically safe for victims could be a key way of helping them. You can get more info on what the St. Joseph Medical Center is up to, and on domestic violence in general, at The Huffington Post. 

Photo Credit: University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center, via The Huffington Post

Domestic Violence and the Workplace Environment

Time and again, it’s been proven that what happens in domestic life has a huge impact on what happens in the workplace. The survey cited in this article states that one third of respondents had experienced domestic violence, and that half of those experienced some form of violence related to work. Creating psychologically safe workplaces is essential not only to our productivity, but to our ability to process and confront issues that may be impacting us elsewhere in life. Read more on this at the CBC.