EMOTIONAL ABUSE AND THE BERMUDA LAW

emotional abuse is not new but it is severe and severely overlooked. the laws do not account specifically for the reality of emotional abuse in our community yet it is rampant and often the victims suffer in silence because of the embarrassment, judgment, awareness, public standing of the abuser, and sadly so, because the law does not identify nor protect. when abuse is spoken of, most immediately consider physical or sexual abuse. there are agencies that promote and provide assistance for these. the same will say that they can also be available for emotional abuse when asked but emotional abuse is more times than not, the precursor to any of these other forms of abuse.

an emotionally abused victim should not have to go through the additional strife of digging for solace in a justice system where it should already be pronounced, specific, and readily available. More often than not, the victim is already beyond exhausted in their suffering to even have the energy for such a pursuit. in this time of the covid19 crisis, attention has been drawn to mental health states on account of the shelter in place regulation. some have been suffering long before this, through this, and will continue to suffer once the regulation is lifted on may 2nd. if it takes a "visible" and deadly worldwide pandemic to cause society to even once acknowledge the suffering of emotionally abused victims, sad, but it is here and there is NO MORE time that should be granted to putting this issue aside.

simple referral to an existing agency is not enough. it is an added insult to emotionally abused victims to not be able to seek direct legal assistance for the violation and offense to their emotional well-being and God knows that it definitely should not only be available to those who can financially afford it. there should be a zero tolerance PUBLIC expression (in neon lights so to speak) against emotional abuse by any and all powers that be and while mental health states have been a mention and "suffering in silence" has been refuted in some aspect by the Government, the outcry needs to be LOUDER and it needs to be NOW. who is to say how much time is left ticking on the clock for the emotionally abused person before they make decisions in the midst of their pain to "make it all go away"? it should not be at the shock of another committed suicide or admission to MAWI because of compromised mind states that gets our attention. we see sex offenders being identified, we read of bodily harm/physical offenses in the news, why are we so silent on emotional abuse? why doesn't this offend and anger us all just the same? the abusers are out there and sometimes closer than we would have ever imagined. look around you, has someone tried to tell you but you didn't hear?

while emotional abuse specifically deserves not only its own mention and also its own awareness month, it most definitely deserves its own place in law. through this covid19 pandemic, we have seen how quickly it is possible for laws and amendments to laws to be tabled and enacted. emotional abuse is just as severe a crisis and it too is rampant, vicious, and a matter of life and death. Governor, Premier Burt, Politicians, BERMUDA........can we PLEASE make this change?! can we please add emotional abuse to our laws so precisely that if you must speak directly to those who have been emotionally abused in order to get a full awareness of the sufferings so that we know what the law needs to counteract, let's do that!

Maya Angelou stated that "there is no greater agony than an untold story", there are many out there with a story and many want to tell it to free themselves of the paralytic vice grip of emotional abuse. BERMUDA, can you hear me?? Premier Burt, are you there? WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO?