 "Photo: Mary Ann Chastain/The Associated Press")
A lawmaker's comments questioning why abused women would return to men who batter them has drawn protests from South Carolinians, including members of the USC community.
"I do not understand why women continue to go back around men who abuse them," S.C. Rep. John Graham Altman, R-Charleston, said Tuesday in the interview on WIS-TV. "I've asked women that, and they all tell me the same answer, 'John Graham, you don't understand.' And I say you're right, I don't understand."
"The woman (who is abused) ought to not be around the man," Altman said in the interview. "I mean, you women want it one way and not another," he told the female reporter.
Jeff Stephens, a third-year English student, asked "What does he know about it? I mean, I'm a guy, I wouldn't go around saying, 'hey, I'm a guy, and let me tell you how to live your life.' I thought he's supposed to be one of the smart people in the world," Stephens said.
Joe Roberts, a first-year English student, said he thinks Altman's comments are ignorant. "At a base level it makes sense, but it's not that easy to just leave. It's never that easy," he said.
"There's a lot more involved than just leaving an abusive husband. I guess (women) just feel there's no way out," Roberts said.
Meagan Powell, a third-year electronic journalism student, said she thinks it is a lot harder from a male's point of view because "women have a deep emotional connection to it."
"No one knows what it's like to have to go through that," Powell said. "(Women) invest so much time and energy in a relationship that it's hard to give it up because you think what have you lost," she said.
The interview with Altman came after the House Judiciary Committee approved a bill Tuesday making cockfighting a felony but tabled one making second-offense criminal domestic violence a felony.
The committee office, which receives about a dozen complaints a day, on Wednesday received more than 250, an aide said.
House leaders said they had talked about reintroducing a bill before the tidal wave of publicity after the television report.
South Carolina law has a separate category of domestic violence of a high and aggravated nature when an assault is committed with a deadly weapon, results in serious injury, or could cause a person to fear death or serious bodily injury. Those cases are felonies and carry a maximum sentence of 10 years.
A tape of Tuesday's House Judiciary Committee meeting obtained by The (Columbia) State newspaper has Altman asking why the bill's title "Protect Our Women in Every Relationship (POWER)" just mentioned protecting women.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Harrison, R-Columbia, suggested calling the bill the "Protecting Our People in Every Relationship Act", or "POPER," the newspaper reported.
A voice on the tape is heard pronouncing it "Pop her." Then another says "Pop her again" followed by laughter.
"And they wonder why we rank in the bottom on women in office and we lead in women getting killed by men," Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, D-Orangeburg, who sponsored the bill, said later.
Harrison said critics are "overreacting" and the comments weren't to take away from the seriousness of the problem. "If you take it that way, you're overly sensitive," he said.
Laura Hudson of the South Carolina Victim Assistance Network called Altman's comments "very troubling." She said victims many times return to abusers because they have no other place to go.
A group of five USC graduate students working in the Office for Sexual Health and Violence Prevention has also released a statement criticizing Altman's remarks that no "self-respecting woman would go back to a man who beats her.
"We assert that it is not about a person's lack of respect for him or herself. Rather, it is about the power and control an abuser has over a survivor," they said.
Altman said later there were problems with the bill and the outcry was "manufactured" by groups that have always opposed him. "I've gotten some very supportive calls from people that understand the problems with the bill," he said.
But none of those people were among the 150 women marching on the State House on Thursday to protest Altman's comments, some carrying signs that said "We Never Thought We'd Rather Be Chickens."
"It's shocking that fighting with chickens gets five years in prison, but beating your wife almost to the point of death just gets 30 days," said 22-year-old Virginia Spell. "It's absolutely insulting. I couldn't speak I was so angry."
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