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Silent Witnesses mark Domestic Violence Awareness Month

  • Published
  • By Joyce Atlee
  • Family Advocacy Outreach Manager
TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --  Silent Witnesses will appear throughout the 72nd Medical Group on Oct. 24 to call attention to the horrific tragedy of domestic violence. Each life-size figure wears a plaque naming and describing an actual person who died in Oklahoma from domestic violence.
The Family Advocacy Program, in collaboration with the Oklahoma Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, will place the red plastic figures, both male and female, in various locations in Bldg. 1094. The displays will remain all day and FAP will have a manned information booth on the first floor from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. to provide literature and answer questions.

As of Sept. 30, 61 Oklahoma victims had died this calendar year due to domestic violence. In addition, 20 perpetrators have died, either in domestic violence suicide-homicide situations, or due to law enforcement intervention, according to the Oklahoma Domestic Violence Fatality Review Board. Oklahoma now stands at 17th in the nation (down from 11th last year) in women killed by men in single victim/single offender incidents.

The original 27 Silent Witnesses were created in 1990 by the Arts Action Against Domestic Violence in Minnesota. Twenty-six freestanding wooden figures bore the names of women who had died at the hands of a spouse, former spouse, intimate partner or acquaintance. One more was added to represent those uncounted women whose murders were unsolved or erroneously ruled accidental. Since then, all 50 states and 20 other nations have launched Silent Witness programs and hundreds of Silent Witnesses have been placed throughout the world. Silent Witnesses now include adult males and children, as well as females, to acknowledge the widespread reach of intimate partner violence.

For more information, contact the Family Advocacy Outreach component at 582-6566 or 582-6567. Speakers are available for commanders calls, Wingman Days and other events.