Duluth (Minn) police officers respond to a report of a couple arguing loudly: "He slapped me and kicked my butt. He picked me up by the hair and threw me against the wall."
"She lies, you know," George G. confides to an officer, who remains stone-faced. Jenny M. starts crying again. "I don't want him hurt. This is my fault. I'm the drinker. He's not a bad guy."
Following protocol, the officers determine that the couple live together. And that she is afraid of him. Next, they snap Polaroids of her bruised face, and of his swollen, cut knuckles. Then the police head toward George G. with handcuffs. He looks at her beseechingly. "Jenny, do you want me to go?"
An officer cuts him short. "George, it's not her choice."
George G. thrusts his chin out and his fists deep into the couch. "But this is just a domestic fight!"
