and then wacky hijinks ensued. or not.

So I woke up at around 6:30am to the sounds of banging/slamming from the next room and my roommate screaming my name, all of which eventually culminated on me calling the cops to get her abusive boyfriend out of our apartment.

So that was fun.

Does anyone have any counseling resources for domestic abuse victims in NYC? I found Safe Horizon through a google search, and I gave my roommate the phone # for their hotline, but god, I really need to figure out how to get her into some kind of counseling. The asshole boyfriend isn't particularly physically violent, but he's incredibly emotionally abusive and manipulating (and an alcoholic, and a pathological liar), and he's got her pretty much convinced that everything is her fault. I spent several hours sitting with her this morning and letting her talk it out, and trying to reinforce that none of these problems are hers, they're all on him, but let's be real, I'm not a professional, and she badly needs to speak with one.

I spoke with her father over the phone at length (because Asshole Boyfriend destroyed her iPhone last night, among other things, so she called her dad from my phone and left him my number as a contact, and he called me back when she was finally sleeping) and I know he's trying to help her, too, but Asshole Boyfriend has very much isolated her from the rest of her friends/support network over the three years and change they've been dating, and I don't know how much I can do here on my own. I haven't known her very long at all, and don't know her well, so I don't know how best to proceed.

On the plus side, we lucked out on the cops who showed up -- they were very respectful and clearly weren't buying a single word of Asshole's bullshit, and were trying very hard to help my roommate figure out how to help herself. She didn't let them arrest him, but she did file an official complaint, so it's on his record now at least. And they got him the fuck out of the apartment.