During Women’s History Month we will be posting articles from some of our members related to a variety of women’s issues they are passionate about. Today we are posting an article from Daly City, CA Police Captain Pat Hensley on ending violence against ALL women.
Throwaway Victims
By Patrick Hensley, Captain – Daly City, CA Police Department
Most people don’t know his real name, and that is no accident. He is adept at avoiding questions involving his life. He needs it that way. A predator needs to be able to move around unnoticed and in the shadows. He is a large man, strong, and without any significant features. He grew up in a broken home watching his father repeatedly beat his mother. When the police were called by neighbors, she would tell them she fell down, or she deserved it because she hit him first. Lies. He grew up watching this occur time and again, and he didn’t feel sorry for his mother. He thought she was weak. He thought all females were weak, and he wanted to feel the same power his father felt.
Fast forward many years later. He has a construction job, and relies on the government to help him with the necessities. He rents a small, modest nondescript house in a diverse working class neighborhood. His neighbors know little about him. They have no idea of his penchant for violence against women. No knowledge of the many domestic violence convictions, the time spent in prison, or his predatory behaviors. He watches them from his window. Any women who see him staring immediately feel a sense of uneasiness. They know. He enjoys their uneasiness, revels in it.
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Patrick Hensley has been a police officer for 21 years and is currently a Police Captain with Daly City, CA, a mid-sized police department, in the Bay Area. He is also a graduate student attending the Naval Postgraduate School’s Center for Homeland Defense and Security. Pat’s full article appears on Homeland XYZ which was developed in collaboration with members of his cohort to introduce a writing platform for students to publish and for crowd-sourcing answers to difficult Homeland Security questions.
