To get away from the bad of the story for a second, I want to talk about a shred of the "good". I'm not sure if this belongs here or not but it feels like it does.
My roommate came home yesterday with concern for her friend who had invited a man who robbed and assaulted her, while they were together, back into her home and her life. This man has already been to prison for assaulting other women. Their friend had a no contact order in place for this man. She told her one friend (my roommate) about seeing him again, but was hiding it from everyone else. Then she apparently went phone silent and skipped work. They checked on her and she was fine but my roommate knew the man was in her home at the time.
My roommate and her friend were debating what they should be doing, and I was pressing them to call the police. They were understandably concerned about the reaction of their friend (ie will they hate them?). I don't know these people very well beyond my roommate, so it's easy for me to not be concerned with that, but my mind kept cycling with the news of this story and this idea of "you just have to do the right thing". I told them about this story and why it's important that we have to say something, even if it sucks, and even if it seems like they don't want it, victims of abuse need help. They did call the police who took it very seriously and sent someone to the apartment. Not sure how it has washed out, but I think it was the right thing.
Not knowing these people very well, I don't know that I would have been as insistent about it without the release of this story. So thank you Kyle Beach. Your bravery leaked into the bravery of three other people and possibly stopped something awful.
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