Take another look

Looking again at this picture from a children's book, the cop doesn't come off too well either.
The cop is armed with heavy boots on; knobby knees; and a look on his face that is at best disdain, if not a look of bored indifference. He does seem sorta pleased with himself though. From my experience, he pretty much reflects the attitude of the legal system towards a man who has been accused of abuse.
They guy on the cart is just looking back at his wife with an expression of confused surprise, utterly gobsmacked.

For men, the story of getting married, having a kids, followed by divorce is very frightening. Because too many fathers loose it all... they lose their children, their homes, their families and then continue to have great slabs of their after-tax income taken from their wages before they even see it. They loose their heart, their hearth and their hard earned cash. Men aren't commitment phobic, just frightened. --James Adams, fathers4equality Australia

Now, --It's worth emphasizing. -- the guy in the cart has not been shown to be abusive in any way. He is being removed from his home on the allegation of abuse.
Despite the implications of the boxing gloves, the wife doesn't look like she's injured. In fact, she looks pretty happy with it all. The boxing gloves do make him look kinda foolish though.

The woman has no reason to tell the truth. It is all to her advantage to tell the system what it wants to hear.

(Fortunately, not all police are like this. And the police are very aware that perjury is "mandatory and necessary" for this system to work. They have to execute the orders of a magistrate, but some do use understanding and discretion. The fact that Intervention Orders are an abuse of civil and human rights is pretty well understood. The police see abusive women every day further abusing this prejudiced system.)

The cop has a beer belly and looks like he is due for a few days of physical training. Not exactly the image of the modern Victorian police-person by any means.
In fact, the cop looks like someone more prone to violent episodes -- due to alcoholism or high blood pressure -- than the docile guy on the cart.

She, on the other hand, is looking at them both -- hands on hips with a superior, satisfied smile -- like the cat after eating the canary. She should, I reckon.
She stands in a plain dress, looking for all the world as a self-sacrificing victim, yet she has just come into control of the house and all its contents. The average value of a house in Australia is above $350,000, and all its contents -- usually valued at over $25,000.
The debt may be all in the husband's name, or joint, it won't matter.

A work-life balance isn't even a fantasy for most fathers... the work-sleep balance is enough to hope for. But middle class woman, becoming a parent gives her choices. She can choose to return to her career, choose a part-time job close to home, or she can choose never to work again. Its her choice. On the other hand, her middle class husband feels his only choice is to work extra hard and extra long to support the new dependants. -- James Adams, fathers4equality Australia

The cartoonist may have done a better job expressing the attitude of this organization than she wanted to. The wife's expression is one of someone completely in control, and revelling in it.

One thing that's very inaccurate here, is that the guy is being hauled away with some of this things.

If a cop comes to remove a man from his home, he doesn't get to keep anything. He gets dropped the ordered distance away from his house with nothing. In fact, the police are trained to approach every removal as a dangerous domestic disturbance, where violence is expected. Especially newly promoted officers come to these incidents "fired up", and very often leave disappointed.(I've discovered from various conversations.)

Ob made that very clear repeatedly. Her attorney made it very clear repeatedly for more than a year before filing any complaints. It didn't matter that in all that time there was never a single call to the police to complain or protect anyone. -- Reality is the enemy of abusers and prejudice.

Even my Legal Aid attorney made that clear over and over when he was supposedly negotiating for me. He didn't have any idea how to represent me, so he just read the text of the Intervention Order over and over, and asked if I understood that if we went to court I would not be able to return to my house even to get my clothes.

This could be viewed as admirable (-- The push in the current budget to encourage women to have more children by financial incentives.--)in the current climate where the number of children per family has been decreasing. This is due to a number of factors, including the cost of living and lifestyle. However I believe a major factor is the Family Law Act, which is biased and treats divorced fathers as criminals. --Letter to the Editor, Illawarra Mercury
16 May 2006

The poor cop in this picture is probably disappointed he didn't get to show off his skills with the baton for the nice lady.