OPINION: Think twice before judging City Council candidate

Every nine seconds in the United States, a woman is assaulted or beaten. Intimate partner violence, domestic violence and sexual assault are an epidemic. How we talk about survivors, how we treat the thousands of survivors in our communities and how we hold systems accountable deeply matters.

The Albuquerque Journal recently made the decision to publish a story exposing the private history of a survivor of domestic violence, and a columnist backed that up by saying an assumed lie on a questionnaire should disqualify her from serving. We wish the decision to print these articles had resulted in a holistic picture of the actual outcome of the legal case in question, in which the subject of the story was found not guilty by a jury of her peers. Instead, both stories miss the opportunity for the nuance, care and humanity required to approach survivors’ stories with intention.

The truth is that organizations like ours are fueled by the hard work of survivors who have carried the weight of systems that are not designed for their protection. City Council candidate Teresa Garcia’s employment at the New Mexico Coalition Against Domestic Violence is not up for unsolicited speculation. She has served our community in a way that we can only describe as exemplary, shaped by the lived understanding that survivors make communities stronger, safer and more informed. Survivors are not liabilities; they are leaders who often bring the deepest clarity about what our systems fail to do.

Some armchair experts have framed this as a question of transparency. To them we want to say that you’ve already received transparency, you’re just missing that it’s the truth. In reality, it is an issue of whether our community is willing to recognize the truth of how survivors move through systems that routinely misinterpret, disbelieve or punish them. Too many survivors are forced through legal systems, and many unfortunately recant in order to not have to face the system at all. These moments are drenched in fear and panic. Our culture is embedded in victim blaming and shaming, making any moment or yearning for justice straight up terrifying.

Teresa Garcia faced a jury. That jury considered the evidence and testimony. She was found not guilty. That doesn’t erase an arrest. A wrongful, unjust arrest leaves deep scars, but a not-guilty verdict can rightfully feel like both validation and closure. It is not unreasonable for a survivor to hope and believe that an acquittal erases the harm done by an abusive partner and by a system that misread her situation in the first place.

The public response to this situation is understandably complicated and complex — elections can get heated and have consequences. We welcome a dialogue about that complexity so that we as a community can better understand the systems that oppress survivors. To anyone who might be running to a quick judgement at this moment, please pause to consider how many people in your life are survivors. We don’t have to disclose, but we are there all around you.

As experts in this field, we urge Journal readers and voters in this city to think before making a determination based on what was printed in these pages. Having a survivor in an elected position is an opportunity to have someone willing to vocalize and be open with their experience within the cycle of abuse, and will only result in better services and better dialogue about the complexity of the experience of survivors — a necessary change for everyone around you that has had this experience.