Public Defender Now a Victim

He has been my husband for 22 years and he has been a public defender for 24 years. His name is Howard Waco and he has never been a victim.

After we had been married for a few years, I began to tell him about my family’s background. My parents had been victims, survivors of concentration camps in Germany, where I was born and raised. My father’s entire family was murdered. My mother lost her parents, a sister, a brother, a niece and many other family members. The most important loss of all was the loss of human dignity, the loss of trust, the loss of security, the loss of self-worth.

My husband could not understand. My husband was unable to comprehend how people allowed to let themselves be led to slaughter. “Didn’t they resist?” he asked. “Didn’t they fight back?”

“But . . . but . . . but . . . “ He could not understand.

Until yesterday morning (Nov. 6) in Van Nuys Superior Court. Yesterday, he understood what it means to be a victim. Yesterday, when he was grabbed and with brute force removed by two police officers, acting on orders of a judge, from one courtroom, dragged down a hallway to the other end of the building, thrown against a door and tossed inside another courthouse like a piece of trash, still clutching his court file, yesterday, he knew. He knew how it feels to be helpless, how it feels to be a victim. He knew. And now he understands.

LAURA WACO

Tarzana