In Davenport, domestic charges were dropped against a man who beat his wife’s head into the dashboard of a car on their wedding night.

Steven Teshak, 31, was charged with domestic assault when his wife, Dawn Teshak, 37, told police he grabbed her hair and beat her head into the dashboard while driving last month.

She told police her drunken husband assaulted her on the drive home after their wedding reception because she refused to stop at a tavern.

Dawn Teshak told police she didn’t want him arrested or charges filed that night, she only asked them to take him to a “safe place for him to dry out.”

Many people at first reading the article may have laughed at the incident. After all, it’s rather ironic that a man would beat is wife on their wedding night, supposedly the happiest night of their lives. Maybe it’s dark humor.

When did society change and acts of domestic violence become funny?

Traditional argument stands that what goes on behind closed doors of your own home (or car, in this case) is your private business. However, it should be painfully obvious that the severity of domestic abuse requires that it be a matter of public concern.

You would think people would take it more seriously when it becomes a public occurrence.

But the only time domestic violence seems to be taken seriously is when someone is killed.

Recently more and more cases of murders as the result of domestic violence have happened, such as the murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and the recent murder/suicide of the Ankeny family.

All incidents of domestic abuse need to be taken seriously, because if it happens once chances are it’s going to happen again.

Women and men need to know things can be done to stop domestic violence.

It’s not that funny. It’s usually dead serious.