It did not work on the Phoenix Police Department.

The thing men like Craig never understand until the handcuffs are out is that “it’s a family matter” is not a law; it is only a spell, and it holds power for exactly as long as the person it’s cast on agrees to believe it.

I had stopped believing it in a living room in Mesa the previous afternoon, and once I stopped, it was just noise, and the officers walked through it as if it were air.

Noreen lunged up then, throwing her arms out to block the detective, screaming that they couldn’t take her son, that a husband disciplining a disrespectful wife was normal, that this was the rich siding against her — until a younger officer stepped in, hand on his belt, and told her flatly that if she interfered with the arrest she would be cuffed for obstruction.

The threat of a cell finally reached where nothing else had, and she choked on her own screaming and went quiet.

They cuffed him.