Clare’s Law is no breakthrough
CLARE’s Law, now being piloted in the UK, will allow women to ask police if a new boyfriend has a history of violence.
Here’s the rub. Only a handful of us will bother. Why? Because by the time this chap becomes a new boyfriend the love has kicked in, the hormones are raging and we’re so transported by feelings of excitement and adoration a trip to the police station to inquire about our new sweetheart’s provenance doesn’t feature on our agenda.
Women, particularly with children, should be cautious about the men to whom we lose our hearts. We know this. After all we are sensible adults. We are suspicious and cagey.
We erect a protective carapace around our hearths, homes and children, right that is until the moment we fall. After that judgment, common sense and all that life has taught us flies out the window. We reason that a guy who holds our hand so gently, looks into our eyes so sublimely and kisses us so passionately could not possibly be a baddie.
Clever women behave like imbeciles. Older women behave like ingénues.
Clever women behave like imbeciles. Older women behave like ingénues. Unfortunately although Clare’s Law seems like a breakthrough most of us will feel neither the need nor the desire to take advantage of it.