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A survivor from Atlantis, who wished to remain anonymous, reported that she endured years of abuse at the hands of her partner. She told our researchers that police failed to respond to multiple phone calls, even when she was in immediate danger. In one incident, she had locked herself and her children in a room as he tried to attack them and called the police. To the background noise of her partner trying to kick down the door, the operator refused to send police out to her address.

“This lady asked me, ‘but did he hurt you?’ And I told her ‘no, he didn’t hurt me yet, but he wants to hurt me.’ And she told me to phone back whenever he has hurt me.”

She said her neighbors also called the police but were told that no one would come to that address because she was wasting their time.

After weeks of attending court daily, she managed to obtain a protection order, only for her abuser to continually violate it with no consequences. She says he has never seen the inside of a court room, despite her repeated attempts to file criminal cases. The survivor, however, is not deterred in her fight for justice.

“I say this every day: a bully doesn’t get born a bully; a rapist, he’s not born a rapist. It’s how systems fail our children, and our children grow up and they become angry adults, and it’s like a chain reaction.”

“I will always fight; I will never give up.”