As the top law enforcement officer (should he win) in Harris County, Texas, one would hope Lloyd Oliver would prosecute domestic violence with all due zeal, but the Democratic candidate told The Texas Observer the crime is “so, so overrated” and equated abuse to a tap on the hand.

This is from The Observer’s interview:

“Family violence is so, so overrated,” he says, sitting across from me at a Starbucks. “This here”—he leans over and taps the back of my hand—”is an act of family violence in accordance with their, what they’re doing up there now. Just me touching you.”

It gets worse, if you do a little digging. This is from The Huffington Post, via Political Wire:

In a 2012 appearance on “Reasonable Doubts,” a weekly call-in show sponsored by the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association, Oliver said domestic violence victims should “maybe learn how to box a little better.”

Later, when asked to clarify, he suggested domestic violence is part of some couple’s sexual routine.

“There are some people — I don’t understand it — but part of their making love is to beat one another up first,” he said. “Why do we want to get involved in people’s bedrooms?”

— Posted by Peter Z. Scheer

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