Since my extensive coverage of the Johnny Depp vs. Amber Heard trial began, I have received many emails from victims of domestic violence who want to be heard. And the reason they reached out to me is that Big Media is refusing to hear them and are instead writing articles like Rolling Stone‘s ridiculous piece entitled “Men Always Win’: Survivors ‘Sickened’ by the Amber Heard Verdict.” EJ Dickson wrote:
By the time the culture in general comes to terms with the damage wrought by the trial and its coverage, it may be too late. Heard may one day get the redemption arc afforded to previously villainized celebrity women, but it will likely be long after thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of women are silenced as the result of the verdict against her. And survivors must deal with the implications attached to the verdict: that women who come forward against powerful men may not only not be believed, but actively punished.
“I’m sickened. This is a gag in the mouths of victims who were just beginning to speak,” Meghan said immediately after the verdict came in. “I want to scream. I want to vomit. I want tear down every courthouse brick by brick because there is no justice to be had in our system of laws. [This] all sounds dramatic I suppose. But when [Heard] wrote she felt the wrath of our culture, Depp took it as a personal challenge.”
It is my theory that many of the women who want to see Heard as the victim probably have similar conditions that make it impossible for them to see the truth of their own behavior, let alone Heard’s.
Many victims of domestic abuse contacted me and told me that they saw a very different story than what Dickson reported. Their names have been changed for privacy reasons, but these are the stories PJ Media received from victims of domestic violence.
Related: Fake News Corrections Prove That Big Media Reporters Didn’t Watch Johnny Depp Trial
Susan wrote:
[Amber Heard] does not speak for me. She does not speak for REAL victims of trauma and abuse. I do not like the term domestic violence because it makes it difficult for us to get help before violence happens. There is a lot that happens when we experience physical harm because it is built on a lot of indirect and non-physical harm. Amber’s narrative about Johnny conflicts with how she relates to Johnny even on the stand. He calls her Ms. Heard. She calls him Johnny. We might miss it if we aren’t listening, but as a survivor I know that calling him Johnny is like saying, “I own you. I still own you mentally.”
It’s the familiarity that shows the ownership. Meanwhile, he distances himself and his life from her by using her last name. If you are a survivor you see those little things. If you do not understand the subtleties of abuse you miss all the other little things she did on the stand on purpose to assert herself as having “power-over” him, mentally in the court. We the victims of trauma and abuse love him because we see ourselves in his experience, in his pain, and in his struggle to be free of reminders of the trauma.
Further, her lawyers reinforced her agenda by playing the tape of him in distress cutting himself. I am sure that was her idea. It was meant to break him mentally in the courtroom and Rottonborn showed his character by doing that for AH. A lawyer should have limits to how low they will stoop to win and that’s why they lost because they never had the truth. Amber’s team had no conscience. They were cruel. They reflected her character, her nature, her vengeful spirit and personality. They were an extension of her and she used them to the max to achieve her goal, to hurt Johnny and to try to break him mentally for standing up to her, the media and the powerful, elitist feminist world that protected her for 6 years.
An Afghanistan veteran with PTSD who calls himself Winter Born reached out to tell his story of domestic abuse too:
I am a man, and I am a survivor of domestic abuse by several women through my life, starting with my stepmother once my father got custody of my sister and I. But, I’ll focus on the most recent, the one that made me finally step back and say, “Enough is enough.”
Due to a series of unfortunate incidents in my life, I ended up homeless for about 9 years. I strove to survive as best I knew how, took side jobs as they presented, did art or comedy when I saw the opportunity to make a little money to eat. I even travelled to other states in hopes I could find a way to get back on my feet, because once you hit the bottom of the barrel, it is hard as hell to get out of that mire.
Born survived by finding a couple on the street to partner with and help one another out. They ended up working together as a support group. Then a woman came along and joined their group and attached herself to Born. Shortly after, the group found housing together.
It wasn’t too long before ‘Ben’ took me aside and asked me if I was ok. We’d been there for about two months, I had become, according to him, constantly on edge. ‘Ben’ and ‘Sue’ had intervened several times when arguments erupted between ‘Nix’ and I, and I would try to get away from the situation. But, she’s one of those that like to continue to push buttons after lighting the fuse, only to tell the others that I’d done something to her, which I hadn’t, and ‘Ben’ or ‘Sue’ would have witnessed everything. I’ve put my fist through my laptop once after she started in on me, but that was mine, and I paid for it, but she claimed I threw it at her… Kind of hard to do when ‘Ben’ was trying to help me extract my hand from the laptop and card table under it. So, yes, as I stated before, I have anger issues. But I’ve never hit anyone while angry. At least not since High School.
So, he and I came up with the solution that I move to another room of the house. And it worked, for a time. ‘Nix’ found someone to spout her lies to on her social media, I learned to ignore her, because I don’t ‘social media’. And, I guess because I had the power to brush her attempts off, ‘Nix’ decided to step up her game.
Nix went to the police and falsely alleged domestic violence from Born, and he was evicted from his home and ended up homeless again with a record of violence. When he went to court expecting justice, his witnesses weren’t allowed in, but hers were. How is this justice?
Related: Missouri Family Court Corruption: The Fathers Tell All
We moved into the new place, and soon after I went to court for ‘Nix’ and her accusations. ‘Ben’ wasn’t allowed in the courtroom with me, and I noticed ‘Nix’ had brought one of her friends to help defame me. I had apparently destroyed her computer, left her without the means of power or water, stolen the internet and cable boxes, and caused constant fights which left her fearful for her life. I was able to prove the house, power, water, and internet were in my name, but I was marked an abuser anyhow. So, I was served with a domestic abuse charge that I can never appeal… I have regressed back into my solitary lifestyle where the only social interaction I have is a few friends I’ve made online and my brother and his wife…I live with the knowledge that I am often powerless when it comes to abuse aimed toward me because my word will never be taken as truth because of my record. Thankfully this was the only one that ever ended up in a courtroom, but the mark is there, as are the scars. I am a victim of abuse.
Toni wrote in and pointed out the absurdity of Heard’s claims of extreme violence that left no permanent scars on her. This is not possible according to Toni, who wrote:
It really makes so sick that someone like [Heard] uses what little she has of her platform to try and ruin someone. I have been in an abusive relationship for 7 years. It was a physical, verbal, and sexually abusive relationship and I used to get beat up two to three times a week. I remember the first time ever getting punched on my face… and my face was swollen and looked so deformed for about a week.. my eyes were bruised up for almost a month that is how long it took for my bruises to go away.
I remember him beating me with any tool and beating me up while pregnant 8 months. I was beaten with a metal hose from an ac unit on my back slashed like an animal… and my entire back was bruised… I remember hitting the floor so many times and not once did i look at my floor and think or pay attention to how dirty it was… the only thing that came to my mind was “is this the day i will die?” He fractured so many of my fingers and they are deformed and look weird.
I still have scars from beatings and believe me when i sit down and share my story with anyone… I CRY. I cry because its humiliating because i allowed it to happen… I cry because it was a harsh life to deal with at the time… I still cry because I still cant believe i went through it… I cry because I am an actual survivor… to know she comes ranting and lying about these things and wanting to speak for all us women makes me sick. I dont need a fake person to come speak for me… I can be my own spokesperson.
She makes women look bad… I dont wish her bad… but I do hope and pray that she never goes through real actual abuse because no one would ever believe her again.
Christine wrote in about her terrifying abuse experience and why she doesn’t believe Heard:
As a survivor of 13 years of domestic violence, I wanted to thank you for your comments in support of true survivors. I watched the trial from the beginning, even when the descriptions of what Mr. Depp endured, and his visible, very real trauma forced me to press pause and take a minute to breathe through my own memories, or when Ms. Heard’s obviously false testimony became too much to tolerate without feeling physically ill.
Throughout the six weeks, I held out hope that Mr. Depp’s story would not fall on deaf ears, as my own had on too many occasions to count. I needed to see someone stand up against their abuser and find the justice I never received, and I watched through tears as Mr. Depp was granted that justice, that peace that comes from knowing you have been heard, you have been believed, and that what you suffered mattered.
On more than one occasion, my ex-husband almost caused me to miscarry the very son that sent me the link to your video. I have had to have broken teeth repaired, I carry physical and emotional scars, I was repeatedly sexually assaulted, my broken nose that I had no money to have properly reset is still crooked 26 years after he hit me in the face with his elbow, and some of the bruises he left were severe enough to leave permanent discolorations on my skin. As such, listening to Amber Heard’s lies was devastating. The knowledge that someone would create fantastical, easily disproven lies involving the level of violence that she described is nauseating and unforgivable.
To have her attorney appear on national television attempting to make Ms. Heard a martyr for a cause she has exploited for her own benefit, but has no real place in is disgusting, and maddening for those of us who truly experienced domestic violence and who are still living with a trauma that will never leave us. I had originally felt sympathy for Elaine’s plight as Ms. Heard’s attorney but, after this morning, I believe she deserves nothing less than being “lumped in” with her client as an individual who has no qualms about using the pain and suffering of domestic violence survivors to further/maintain their own career or, as Elaine herself would say, “get their 15 minutes of fame.” And it is genuinely as heartbreaking as it is appalling.
Related: Why We Can’t Let Amber Heard’s Melodramatic Whining About Internet Abuse Close American Courtrooms
Leah wrote in to say that the way Heard treated Depp on the recorded tapes is not how an abuse victim who is scared for her life behaves:
You never engage an abuser. They get twice as mean. You tread lightly. You absolutely do not have your friends, sister living next door. They isolate… Amber Heard and Elaine [Bredehoft] are such liars.
I haven’t followed mainstream media for a year. My 34 year old son tried telling me about mainstream a year ago. I didn’t believe him.I do now.
PJ Media will always tell your stories and not just the ones that fit an approved narrative. Women lie sometimes, and men can be victims of domestic abuse. Thanks to all who shared their painful stories of violence and abuse.
If you are a victim of domestic abuse and you want help, start with the National Domestic Abuse Hotline at (800) 799-7233.
