[MI] Officer's wife Pam Brainard felt she had no where to turn
[MI] Officer-involved dv victims need an independent agency to turn to
I have a sister who is dedicating an entire blog to Pam Aukerman Brainard and the need for Michigan to correct what is broken concerning police domestic violence. Stop by and and let her know you support her efforts to get the word out on what a corner Pam was trapped in - feeling it was futile to reach out to her police officer husband's co-workers for help or protection. (NO one should feel that way.) Stop by and support her. And if you are in Michigan, join her efforts or lead the way.From "Police officer domestic violence murder of Pam Aukerman Brainard: Otsego Michigan":
...Another precious beautiful life lost to police officer domestic violence murder! And the domestic violence agencies in Michigan, which usually trip over themselves fighting for airtime on the local news stations following the murder of a domestic violence victim, remained silent following Pam’s murder. Why? Because, ‘Shhhhh…we don’t talk about police officer domestic violence…’
That's because nobody would want to tarnish "the department". God forbid officers are acually human and screw up. I wish everyone could see this for what it is. An "officer" lost it and became the worst kind of human chicken and had to take a beautiful person with him. If it's so bad you have to take your own life, then do it. I can understand that. I don't understand why you would take an innocent person's life, let alone, wreck so many more that are left behind. And for all the cops that think this should be a routine call, it's not! Pam touched so many lives and these people need to grieve! Give them a break! Pam, we will miss you dearly. I wish I could bring you back, but that would be selfish. We love you!
ReplyDeletePOSTED ON ROOTSWEB:
ReplyDeletePamela AUKERMAN BRAINARD
WHL44 (View posts) Posted: 13 Nov 2007 2:14PM GMT
Classification: Obituary
Surnames: BRAINARD, AUKERMAN, HAYWARD, DRAKE
BRAINARD (AUKERMAN),
Pamela
Of Otsego
Passed away Sunday, November 4, 2007. Pam was born July 2, 1974 in Kalamazoo, the daughter of David and Debra (Hayward) Aukerman and was raised in Mattawan. She had worked for Gentiva for several years as a Registered Nurse, in the Medicaid Programs such as the Mother-Infant Program, Home Health Care and finding resources for funds to help Mothers in difficult medical situations. She was preceded in death by her paternal grandparents, Willard and Barbara Aukerman. Pam is survived by her parents, Dave and Deb Aukerman of Mattawan; her children, Kyle Aukerman and Kayla Marie; her sister, Jennifer Drake; her brother, David (Peggy) Aukerman; her maternal grandparents, Robert and Shirley Hayward; several cousins, aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews, including a very special nephew, Chase. Funeral services will be conducted at 11:00 AM Saturday in the Langeland Family Funeral Homes, Portage Chapel 411 E. Centre Ave. with Pastor John Vick and Pastor Mark Minger, officiating. Interment will follow in Mt. Ever-Rest Memorial Park. The family will receive friends at the funeral home on Friday from 2-4 and 6-8 PM. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be directed to a Y.W.C.A. Domestic Assault Program.
269-343-1508
www.langelands.com
Published in the Kalamazoo Gazette on 11/7/2007.
)
http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.michigan.counties.allegan/4869/mb.ashx
A COMMENT FROM THE TOPIX FORUM:
ReplyDeletewondering
Otsego, MI
Thursday Nov 22
Bill, Sorry but I've gotta tell you that yes, it was the first time she actually built up the courage and felt she had enough support to actually leave him It was also the first time he shot her several times at close range. You say people have choices. To an extent they do, but what choice did Kevin give her on November 4th? He made the choice how, when and where she would die. That was not her choice. Also, don't play the "his being a cop had nothing to do with it" card. I am not anti-police. To the contrary, I contribute annually to MPOA. I have held the police, firefighters and military personnel in the highest regard for for my entire life. Both my parents are retired public safety officers and I am proud of the work both they and countless other good men and women have done and do for everyone else in society. I have long thought they are underpaid and too easily targeted for criticism. This is in part why my initial comment may have been a bit coarse. Kevin Brainard left every honest, ethical, moral police officer with a mark of shame. The fact that this murderer was put in the ground in his uniform diminishes the public's view of police. This is not my opinion, but what my parents and their former colleagues have said. Just because some of these posters, maybe even you, knew Kevin or the Brainard family doesn't change what he was. A bad cop and an evil man. And firefighters wife, if your sympathies are with both families as you claim, then you have no right to criticize the response and reaction from Pam's family. And officers wife, I have not written one word that is untrue. You or your husband saw and heard what Kevin wanted you to see and hear. If you want to know what the real Kevin Brainard was like, ask his former step-son. His first hand experiences living with Kevin tell a very different tale than the one Kevin's family and SOME of the PPD people are still grasping to. But no one from Kev's work has bothered to check in with Pam's son. This is fact. If it is not, please tell me differently. Their response to the murder is very telling as to what their true character is. So criticize me all you want. When the dust from the upcoming lawsuits settles, I imagine we'll be seeing a PPD that looks vastly different from today.
http://www.topix.com/forum/city/plainwell-mi/T9TQGBCBH3T3NUELP
Victim in murder/suicide remembered
ReplyDeleteThe Allegan County News
By Daniel Pepper
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Co-workers remember Pam Brainard as being perfectly suited to be a nurse.
"Her job was perfect for her because she was everything a nurse should be," said Jennifer Dentler, who worked with her at Allegan General Hospital.
Brainard was found murdered Nov. 4, according to police, by her husband, Kevin, a Plainwell Public Safety Officer, at the couple's home in Otsego.
Co-workers from the hospital remembered her working to bring new people into the world at the hospital's birth center. She'd worked at the birth center about a year, while previously working in home health care. Dentler, a fellow nurse, said Brainard's best skill was working with patients.
"She loved to teach, she was really great with the moms and babies with getting out parenting info or anything they needed," Dentler said.
She knew how to ask the right questions of patients, Dentler said, to get the answers nurses needed.
"She was great at just counseling and helping the moms and babies, beyond just providing care," she said.
Brainard took it upon herself to become certified in putting in car seats and would go out to the car with mothers and babies leaving the birth center to make sure their car seats were put in correctly.
That was just one example, Dentler said, of her giving something extra.
"Always after somebody delivered, she'd call and check back in even when she wasn't working to check on them," she said. "She'd go above and beyond. When she was off-duty she'd call and check on her patients."
The nurses at the birth center work 12-hour shifts, but Brainard was always busy.
"She was always, always, always working," Dentler said. "She was never one to just sit back and read when we were down, she'd always have something she was doing."
She was survived by her two children, Kyle, 14, and Kayla Marie, 2.
"She talked a lot about her children," Dentler said. "That's what we talked about a lot."
That seemed very in line with her personality at work, Dentler said.
"Pam just exuded a very motherly nature about her. She was very much a caretaker. She was very intuitive with the patients and with us. She'd see if you were sick or sad and she'd want to take care of you."
Brainard was born July 2, 1974, in Kalamazoo to David and Debra Aukerman. She grew up in Mattawan and was buried Saturday, Nov. 10, in Kalamazoo.
According to their funeral home's Web site, the family has asked that in lieu of flowers donations be made to the Y.W.C.A. Domestic Assault Program.
Dentler said she'd be missed.
"Deeply, deeply missed," she said. "It's a very hard thing to understand, but she'll just be missed."
Dan Pepper can be reached at dpepper@allegannews.com or at (269) 673-5534 or (269) 685-5985.
http://www.allegannews.com/articles/2007/11/15/ue_news/2.txt