April 25, 2013 06:51 AM UTC

Kudos to Christy Dimond, Shame on Rick Brainard

• 4 Comments
• by: Konola

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

Yesterday, Christy Dimond, a young reporter at KKCO in Grand Junction scored an exclusive interview with Rick Brainard. For those of you who may have been camping in an ice cave and not aware of the story, Rick Brainerd was elected to Grand Junction’s City Council in the last election. But before he could be sworn in, he was arrested and charged with an incident involving domestic violence.

Since that arrest, people in Grand Junction have staged protests and started petitions asking him to step down. Brainard will not step down. The women organizing the protests have sworn to go for a recall of Brainard, which cannot happen until he has held office for 90 days. 

Full disclosure: I do not live within the city limits, so I did not and could not vote for or against Rick Brainard. I did attend protests because I was appalled that a man admitting that he hit a woman would have the audacity to think he could represent voters in the city. Plenty of people who voted for him stood up and said that they wished they could take back their vote.

Christy Dimond did a great job of asking questions of Brainard, and then allowing him to talk. Evidently he has sought counseling, and in the process learned how prevalent domestic violence is in this city. He claims that he wants to shine a light on it and find tools to help the community solve the problem of domestic violence.

I have some experience with domestic violence. My sister has been abused by men during her lifetime, and I’ve been a witness to the aftermath of that abuse. Men who abuse women rarely change their stripes.

I don’t believe that Brainard has had any kind of change of heart. I present as evidence his own statement: “that’s what uniformed people do– they stage rallies.” Mr. Brainard, there is nothing uninformed about the people who have rallied against you. We know that one out of every four women will be the victim of domestic abuse in her lifetime. We know that men who abuse women usually blame the woman, and say things like I just wanted to shut her up. We know that when caught they lie and try to justify what happened. We know that men who abuse women act just like you did in the interview.

Clearly Brainard has remorse. In my opinion he is remorseful about being caught and embarrassed. He should be embarrassed. He should step down. He claims he is getting “great” counseling. Finish that counseling, and then get back to us. In the meanwhile we don’t want you making decisions about how the largest city between Denver and Salt Lake City should be run.

Just as I couldn’t vote in the election, I can’t sign a recall petition. But there is nothing stoping me from speaking out or helping people circulate those petitions. Another of your comments motivated me to stay involved, even though I don’t have a horse in this race. “As a businessperson, as a leader, I'm the same person today that I was a month ago. This city needs that help and I want to carry out the mission I signed up for and I don't think this incident has anything to do with my role as a city council person.”

Mr Brainard, your arrogance and denial is showing. You are not the kind of person that we need leading our city.

Watch the full interview here.