I totally agree. I watched the video too and it is shocking to watch as the police officers somehow take all this information indicating that BL hit her and was abusing her and somehow twist it in their brains to where they think they might want to arrest Gabby as the aggressor No wonder women are silent about abuse! “Gosh darn it, these women are always provoking these men into swatting them!” Who else are women supposed to call to help them, but when the helpers don’t help..
The ball definitely got dropped re: the by-stander's phone call to 911.
But GP
did say she hit BL first when she was interviewed separately by LE. I think that's mainly what led LE to think she was the aggressor along with the visible marks on BL's face. They didn't just invent that idea out of nothing or come to that conclusion based only on what BL said. I do realize that some victims may blame themselves and LE needs to understand stand that. But if Utah law allows for only
one primary aggressor to be identified in a M-F altercation, it's not going to work for LE to have a operating policy that says the man is always at fault or says if the woman claims to have hit the man first and started the altercation, the man must be the actual guilty party. While female-on-male domestic violence is thought to be woefully unreported, statistically men are more likely to be the aggressor. But police can't arrest people simply based on gender. Constitutional rights don't work that way.
I'm not seeing the eventual outcome would have been different if the situation had been handled differently. As
@RANCH said, not long after the incident GP waited for days in a SLC hotel for BL to return from FL. (BL flew to FL 5 days after the Moab incident and was gone for 5 days.) It was reported while BL was gone GP spent a lot of time at the hotel on the phone with JP working on video stuff. It's also been reported she called NS almost every day during the trip so she likely called her from SLC. In their claim for the Moab lawsuit, the P's claim GP called them during the incident with LE. Surely if there was a continuing concern on the P's part,
while BL was absent there would have been ample time to discuss with GP the wisdom of ending the trip and coming to stay at either NS's or JP's home. One of her parents could have even flown out to talk to her face to face (and helped her to drive the van back to NY or to JP's home in FL.) But based on NS's published comment in Sept about the incident merely being an argument & a natural occurrence on a long trip, overall the family didn't appear to be all that worried. And if GP and her family weren't overly concerned, I'm not sure why LE should have be able to spot there was an ongoing problem that required more than a one-night cooling off period and instead justified an immediate arrest.
I'd also wonder if the relationship was so "cordial" between the P's and the L's, why the P's didn't call the L's to discuss any concerns. I do understand the wisdom of staying out of adult children's lives, but at times it's also been assumed the L's knew everything there was to know about BL & GP and knew every thought BL had. I don't think the L's knew that much but the P's seem to think they did had so I wonder why there wasn't a contact made.
Link for NS''s comment about it being being an argument
Gabby Petito's mom Nichole Schmidt blasted Cassie Laundrie for claiming she loves 'Gabby like a sister' yet failing to get her own brother to share information about her disappearance.
www.dailymail.co.uk
