No

by T. Scott Randolph

Created on: August 16, 2010

In a perfect world we would not have words in our vocabulary like divorce, and certainly not a restraining order. This is a legal document that states a person is "restrained" legally at least from being within a certain distance of another person.

That being said, in the world we live in we have bad people. It isn't always the one the order is against, some people are just mean. For the restraining order to work, first the person that has the order leveled against them has to listen to what the law says. This may or may or not happen in the first place.

We have a very low police to citizen ratio. This could be seen as a good thing or a bad one. If we have our head in the clouds it could mean that crime is so low that we don't need armed men and women patrolling our streets making sure that no laws are broken. If we come back down to the real world, police are under paid and out gunned by the criminal element of the world. Very few people are willing to put there life on the line for the benefits that come with the job. This may seem off topic but it has relevancy. The only way that the restraining order will work (other than what was previously stated, the person pays attention to it) is if the police are called when the order is violated.

We are talking about a completely hypothetical situation so let's say there is a police unit in the neighborhood. The response time is maybe 10 minutes. Although most of the time a 911 call may not have a response of close to a hour depending on the city and time of day. If a person is out to do harm, a time frame of even 10 minutes from the call is plenty of time for damage to be done.

If a situation has degenerated to the point that you have had to go to court and get an order to keep someone away from you, that piece of paper will more than likely not do anything but make the "restrained" person even more angry. It is for this reason that I don't think restraining orders work. It is similar to closing the barn door after the cows have left. While at a later date in court the fact that the order was violated may come into play, during the actual situation it matters little to the person that is being harmed. A situation that warrants legally keeping two people apart, because of violence or whatever the situation may actually entail, that piece of paper issued by the court isn't worth the ink that is on it.

Learn more about this author, T. Scott Randolph.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.