Purple Berets are Back!

The Purple Berets is a women’s rights group that has been fighting for 20 years to end male partner violence against women. They took a break for a few years while their leader, Tanya Brannan finished law school.  

After graduation, Brannan set up a law practice serving low-income women. Now she is back to the work that was her true love, activism. So the Purple Berets are back and sassy! 

On Jan. 1 Purple Berets began a collaboration with Noelle Hanrahan and Prison Radio. They are recording a series of interviews with women who were victims of police partner violence.  

“We must address the systemic bias that allows deadly domestic violence against women to continue unchecked. Purple Berets have chosen to focus on that bias within the agencies women turn to when their very lives are at stake—police and sheriff. We are targeting the tolerance by these law enforcement agencies of the partner violence by their own officers. If we can’t get police agencies to enforce domestic violence laws within their own ranks, we’ll never win enforcement of those laws in the broader community.”  

The upcoming Purple Beret newsletter will feature updates on harassment at KPFA, new hope on the Debi Zuber case, and a first-hand report on the women-led resistance movement in Honduras. It also includes “listening to the voices of women.” This is a nationwide investigation. It will be used to convince policy-makers of the need for a zero-tolerance policy for police violence against wives and girlfriends—and increased protection for the victims.

Listening to the Voices of Women 

 Who do you call for protection when your batterer is the police? How do you protect yourself against a man who is armed and dangerous at all times? How do you stop him when he has “insider” access to the courts and methods of stalking and harassment?

When a battered woman calls police, her chances are two out of five that the officer who responds has recently beaten his own partner. 

Tanya Brannan of Purple Berets says “We will focus on holding the system itself accountable--from the officer responding to the 911 call, to the social worker who removes the children because their mom can’t protect them from her partner’s violence. From the district attorney who repeatedly fails to file criminal charges, to the judge whose sentence of probation for the batterer turns into a death sentence for the victim.”

Contact Purple Berets at (707)887-0262 info@purpleberets.org