Today APD posted on social media (https://x.com/Austin_Police/status/2047699082500595737) about supporting women and raising awareness around assault. On the surface, it said all the right things: accountability, advocacy, standing with victims. But the replies told a different story. Many women responded with the same feeling: it’s just talk.
That reaction doesn’t come from nowhere. It comes from experience.
Because when you are actually living through something like this, when you are the one documenting, reporting, asking for help, and doing everything you are told to do, you begin to see the gap between what is said publicly and what actually happens. The messaging is polished. It’s thoughtful. It reflects exactly what people want to believe is true. But behind that, the reality can look very different.
I know this because I lived it.
For almost a year, I followed every step I was given. I called the police. I documented everything. I worked with victim advocates, attorneys, and investigators. I did exactly what you are supposed to do when someone is threatening you. And nothing stopped it. The threats didn’t fade; they escalated. He physically went to my children’s school. He continued to describe, in detail and in writing, how he would kill me. And still, there was no meaningful intervention.
So when I see posts about support and accountability, I don’t read them the same way anymore. I get mad because saying those things and doing them are two very different things.
It only changed because of who the perpetrator was. That is why a higher-level, in fact the highest-level, government agency stepped in. I was “lucky,” but not because anyone chose to follow the laws that are already in place. I was lucky because of how dangerous he is. If that intervention had not happened, I 100% believe I would be dead. That is not dramatic or exaggerated; it reflects how far this had gone while I was doing everything I had been told to do. Up until that point, nothing had changed. Not the reporting, not the documentation, not the repeated requests for help. It only changed because of who the perpetrator was, not because law enforcement did anything.
I don’t want another statement. I don’t want another awareness post. I want systems that act on the laws that are already in place when someone is asking for help. I want follow-through when threats are reported. I want accountability that exists before it becomes a crisis.
Because talk is cheap. Action is what actually keeps people alive.
💥 Charlotte