A NY teenager was arrested and handcuffed by NYPD cops, allegedly raped, the cops claim it was consensual (which is impossible when you are under arrest), and the NY Daily News then writes it up and adds a picture of the raped teen but not a picture of the two NAMED cops.
Awesome work, media. Obligatory “Why don’t women come forward more often…”
Laura
Minors are incapable of consent, so even MOAR bad.
Jerzy Russian
There have to be huge fines, jail time, loss of jobs, etc. because of this.
Omnes Omnibus
@Laura: She is 18, so that doesn’t come into play.
Omnes Omnibus
@Cole: Why are you showing the girl’s picture on your Twitter feed?
HeleninEire
Jesus Christ. I try really hard to not disparage cops. But I will tell you that 2 times in 35 years in NYC I needed the cops. Once for a burglary and once for a mugging. And both times not only were they fucking useless, both times they told me I should “learn from your [my] mistakes.
low-tech cyclist
What the fucking fuck, all the way around.
Those two cops had better be kicked off the force, and better not be hired by another police force, anywhere in this country.
They damn well should be convicted of rape every which way – statutory because of being underage, and whatever the legal word is for the particular category of rape consisting of sex with someone who’s your captive and in no position to refuse.
Given the way white cops routinely fail to get convicted of killing unarmed black men, and considering how few rapes result in convictions in this country, I don’t hold out much hope for the latter. Police seem to have become all but above the law, and that’s a dangerous state of affairs for a democracy.
Chyron HR
WHAT PART OF BLUE LIVES MATTER DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND???? #MAGA
Suzanne
@Jerzy Russian:
Um, they get paid vacations for killing black people. You think rape will somehow have real consequences?
I am not optimistic.
the Conster
There’s going to be a huge march organized by white men against Trumpism, rape culture and white male supremacy annnnnnnnnyyyyyyyy day now, amirite?
RobNYNY
@Laura: The age of consent in New York is 17.
Villago Delenda Est
LEOs are not doing their jobs when they’re committing crimes. This much is obvious.
debbie
I’ll say this proactively: Fuck the FOP.
Laura
@Omnes Omnibus: and yet, it doesn’t make the circumstances seem any better.
Schlemazel
@Jerzy Russian:
I love your optimism in the face of past experience.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
You mean to tell me, they didn’t even try denying it ever took place, they claimed it was “consensual”? WHY ARE YOU EVEN HAVING SEX WITH PEOPLE YOU ARRESTED IN THE FIRST PLACE!? Yes, I know. They’re scumbags. But whatever happened to serving the public trust? Robocop lied to me.
Duane
@Omnes Omnibus: Even worse, why is the Post showing her picture?
Amir Khalid
@Villago Delenda Est:
That occurred to me too. And it’s so obvious the cops are lying. “Female perp seducing cop” is a story line lifted from many an old porn flick.
Mnemosyne
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?:
FWIW, a rapist’s first line of defense is always “it was consensual!” The victim went to the ER and had a rape kit done that very night, so it’s their only possible defense since she has the DNA to prove it was them.
Mnemosyne
@Duane:
Because the Post is run by right-wing assholes. It’s a Murdoch paper.
Schlemazel
@Laura:
this. I don’t care if she were 42, full lucid & apparently willing. The situation made it rape, the cops knew it was rape, the FOP knows it was rape. the Post really raped her again by publishing her photo. I fully expect the cops to walk or get no jail time.
TO echo our host, I don’t understand why women are reluctant to come forward when raped.
hellslittlestangel
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: “Consensual” is the new “she was asking for it.”
gbbalto
@Mnemosyne: This story was not in the Post, but in the NYDN. Still a tabloid, but not right wing. They should have done better than this.
ETA: Improved hasty typing.
martian
@low-tech cyclist: Not holding out much hope might keep your heart from breaking. I recall that there was a case in New York a few years back where an off-duty cop followed a woman and raped her in a courtyard in broad daylight. There were witnesses. The jury still cleared him of the top charges and convicted on lesser because, apparently, even witnesses seeing a man on top of a woman looking like he’s assaulting her, testimony from the woman, and DNA from a rape kit is still not enough to conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that penetration took place if the cop involved says otherwise. Cops combined with rape culture give a whole different meaning to Lady Justice and that blindfold. The scales you can just toss.
I will be happily shocked if this young woman gets the justice she deserves. Two cops involved and backing each other’s story? I cannot be optimistic, but maybe social media will change the equation.
Amir Khalid
@Omnes Omnibus:
@John Cole:
Omnes is right. You’ve suggested that The New York Daily News was wrong to print the girl’s photo, so why did you include it in your tweet? You might want to consider deleting the tweet and putting up a new one sans photo.
JPL
My wish is that she wins a large lawsuit, and the asses who raped her are behind bars for a long time.
Mnemosyne
@Amir Khalid:
@Omnes Omnibus:
I think the photo is attached to the NYDN’s link. He can’t post the link to their story without posting her photo as well, because that’s how the NYDN created their link. Assholes.
Jerzy Russian
@Schlemazel: I said there “needs” to be severe punishment. Sadly, there is a chance that nothing will happen.
What is amazing to me is that the cops involved admitted there was sexual activity when they were on the job. How many other professions would put up with this. If I had a plumbing business I wouldn’t tolerate my plumbers when they are supposed to be on the clock fixing pipes, etc.
James E. Powell
@Schlemazel:
We shall see, but would anyone be surprised if they walk? I fully expect the police, their flacks, and the NYC media to destroy the victim and her family.
marcopolo
Off topic, and yes these cops need to be off the force and looking at doing time, but for all of the folks here at BJ who have either contributed to Doug Jones D-AL senate race or are following it, here is a nice short clip of him delivering what I think is his campaign theme: “On the right side of history.”
https://twitter.com/GDouglasJones/status/915685301296812032
If anyone knows how to make this a nice little photo linkee thing that folks can click on be my guest.
Mart
Thing irking me in the first place is why is she getting arrested for a little pot?
Mnemosyne
@gbbalto:
D’oh — my bad. But the NYDN editors are still shit.
Amir Khalid
@Mnemosyne:
Then he might have considered not linking to the story. I know linking is the normal practice, but there was reason here to make an exception.
gbbalto
@Mnemosyne: This is true…
Mnemosyne
@Mart:
Because the cops thought she was cute and wanted to rape her. It’s so obviously an excuse to get her alone so they could attack her.
Aimai
@the Conster: oh you, kid!
PIGL
@low-tech cyclist: i believe John Lennon wrote a song about this.
Suzanne
@Jerzy Russian:
SERIOUSLY. Like they think that is a defense?! For God’s sake.
If the NYPD doesn’t immediately fire them both for cause at the VERY least, that tells us all we need to know.
martian
@Mart: She wasn’t really arrested. It was a kidnapping. They pushed her out of the van after raping her and her friend, who was on the way to the station they were allegedly taking her to, found her. I’d bet there was never going to be official paperwork.
Suzanne
@Mart: She also isn’t white. You may have noticed how the police feel about white people using drugs vs. anyone else using drugs.
ItAintEazy
@Mnemosyne: @gbbalto: I say the Daily News are run by a bunch or Reagan Democrats. They may slam Trump, but anyone arrested is automatically guilty until proven innocent.
Duane
@Mnemosyne: I knew the Post was conservative. Didn’t know about Murdoch. Still, a shred of human decency, journalist…okay, forget it.
Mnemosyne
@martian:
I can tell you right now what the cops’ claim is going to be: We were going to arrest her, but she said she would have sex with us if we didn’t, so we let her go. See? We did nothing wrong!
And they will have people defending them on that basis, because our country is fucked up.
martian
What kind of amazes me in these situations, how do two such douchebags as these cops find each other? How do men, among other men supposedly law and order minded, figure out who’s down for committing some egregious felonies? I think there must be a lot of hints thrown out, a lot of bait, and therefore, a lot of other officers who choose to overlook the signs and turn a blind eye. As the supervisor of these two assholes did, for instance. And he’ll certainly escape the consequences he deserves, I’d put money on it.
Suzanne
@martian:
They aren’t that rare.
Duane
@gbbalto: Crediting the Post was my mistake. Good catch. Thank you.
Scamp Dog
Emergency notice about the Denver meetup tonight at 5:00–it turns out that Rosita’s closes at 3:00 on Sundays. I will scout out other restaurants nearby, get there early to make sure everyone knows there’s a plan, and then when we head out (a bit after 5:00, exact time TBD) put up a sign for any latecomers.
This is also posted on the thread below, to increase the chances it gets to everyone.
gbbalto
@ItAintEazy: Point taken certainly in this case!
Jay S
@martian: They are trying her by social media, Her past and current posts are being used against her. Apparently she is reacting the “wrong” way for a rape victim to act. This is already getting ugly. Social media is likely to cut both ways, but to rely on it for justice is folly.
gbbalto
@Duane: No problem, sounds like what the Post might say. (I don’t know what the Post said and I don’t want to know, but could hardly have been worse…)
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Mnemosyne:
If somebody said that defense to me and I beat the living shit out of them with a police baton, would that change their mind? It probably wouldn’t.
I’m just so done with unAmerican, authority worshipping scum that defend other scum because they either have a badge or hate the same people they hate.
martian
@Mnemosyne: She shouldn’t have had the drugs if she didn’t want to get arrested!!//
Yep. A lot of “serious” lawn order types will immediately commence with acting like sex with suspects is some kind of understandable temptation from harlots and not really that big a deal. It’s not worth ruining the lives of Good Men™.
Jay S
@gbbalto: Here you are anyway. They are posting the smear story as well as a couple of others that look like they aren’t taking the cops side, but they detail the smears anyway. http://nypost.com/2017/10/20/nypd-cops-try-to-smear-rape-accuser/
ThresherK
@Duane: It’s almost instinctive to blame the NYPost for crap like this, but, hey, you fessed up and took it back. You’re too honest to be on teevee.
(Now all I want to know is if the Post is going to pile on the victim, or if it wants more to scream at the NYDN for that major transgression. It’s quite a “glass houses” thing, but that wouldn’t stop the Post.)
I have nothing to say about the case. It’s ghastly, and I won’t be mentioning it to Spousal Ms ThresherK, our home’s LCSW-in-residence.
JPL
@martian: According to the article, the other person had prozac and was simply told to make sure to keep it in the original container
Jay S
@Mart: NYPost says it was loose prescription drugs. Not pot.
Omnes Omnibus
@Laura: I wasn’t suggesting that it did.
gene108
@Mnemosyne:
The “NY Post” is a Murdoch rag, but Cole linked to the “NY Daily News”, which is NOT a right-wing rag.
The picture is from her Facebook, so probably an easy screen grab, though I don’t know why you would post it and not the two-perps.
Omnes Omnibus
@Duane: It’s the Post.
boatboy_srq
@HeleninEire: Great noodly FSM. What was your “mistake” with the burglary – owning/renting a residence?
EDIT: not that your experience is in any way unique, mind you. Living in NorCal some years ago, afloat in the marina. One neighbor was the resident curmudgeon: crusty, difficult, unliked. Except for some reason we got along. One day he was attacked on the dock right in front of me. So we went back aboard and called 911. The cops arrived….
And they arrested…
…my friend.
Because reasons.
It took an hour on the phone with the investigating detective to sort THAT out.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@gene108:
Wouldn’t want to ruin someone’s life. Except the potential victim’s.
Schlemazel
@Duane:
I made the same mistake, it is such a Post like thing to do.
martian
@Jay S: Social media is why less of this shit – which has been going on forever – is going by quietly and unnoticed by all but the victims.
Sure, it’s not enough, or a lot more cops would be in jail. But what other megaphone do we have in this time and place?
Omnes Omnibus
@Schlemazel: The only reason I mentioned her age is that Laura suggested that it was statutoray rape since the victim was a teen. That is not correct. The fact that it wasn’t statutory rape doesn’t remotely mean that it wasn’t rape.
@Omnes Omnibus: And I am wrong.
Suzanne
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?:
I feel the same way on the topic of the civilian/military divide that now seems to be the topic du jour. I’d feel less of a divide and would have more respect for the military if there wasn’t such an authoritarian contingent within it, and those around them that noticed it stopped looking the other way.
It’s a bit of a catch-22…..being in the military and being a police officer require knowing how to use a variety of weapons and techniques to kill people. But the people who actively *want* to use those weapons are probably the least suited to them.
Roger Moore
@Mnemosyne:
I think it’s actually a matter of how Twitter does things. If you stick in a bare link to most news sites, Twitter will convert it to a format like the one in Cole’s tweet, including sticking in a picture if one is included in the article. I think the only way to avoid this is to use a link shortening service, which obscures the link from both Twitter and your readers.
Jay S
@martian: Sure, social media can be a force, but this case came up via lawsuit before it became public. Now it will be fought online, and I am not sure the result will be better for the victim.
martian
@JPL: In case my sarcasm tags were missed, yeah, I think the alleged drug possession was purely a pretext for the kidnapping.
Mnemosyne
@Jay S:
She immediately went to the emergency room to document the rape and report it. As you said, that’s the “wrong” way for her to react — she was supposed to be terrified and ashamed and not be willing to say who did it so the cops could get off scott-free.
And, yes, she’s going to be dragged through the mud not only for having the temerity to say she had been raped by NYPD officers, but for having the presence of mind to immediately report it and have the evidence collected.
rikyrah
Horrific story ?
Mnemosyne
@gene108:
It was used to try and smear the victim. Period.
Jay S
@Mnemosyne: Actually the smear letter referred to her telling off a critic of her story on twitter and claiming it proved she wasn’t as traumatised as the lawyers claimed.
But yes, that was the subtext. Because there is only one way for a victim to behave if they really are a victim. /s
martian
@Jay S: And how was a victim raped by cops supposed to get to that better outcome? Can you describe the path and what that better outcome looks like in the context of her reality? Does your path involve trusting the justice system and patience?
JPL
@martian: I’m sure it will help the police officers that they let one go, who also had a prescription drug. If they don’t end up in jail, it says something about the direction of our country. Of course, Trump is president so I guess we are already going tainted.
Roger Moore
@Mart:
She was arrested because the cops wanted to rape her. The pot was just a pretext.
gene108
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?:
The New York Daily News is pretty even handed. She looks pretty clean cut in that picture. Purple hair may freak people out in Mississippi, but I doubt anyone in NYC cares.
The real issue is if the DA’s office is going to push hard on busting the cops, because DA’s need to be butt-buddies with the cops or no criminals will ever go to jail. I have my doubts the DA’s office will out much effort into prosecuting anyone.
Mnemosyne
@martian:
To be fair to Jay, I think he’s just pointing out what reality is, not what it should be.
@Jay S:
People often have an image in their minds of how a trauma victim is supposed to act and react, and it rarely fits reality. Then they think the person must not be really traumatized because the victim didn’t react the way the victim did in that movie they saw that one time.
Anotherlurker
How much do NYC and other municipalities pay out for lawsuits against the police? (I’m too lazy, now, to look it up.)
Suzanne
@Jay S:
Why does this matter to anyone? (Rhetorical question.) The level of trauma experienced by a victim shouldn’t be pertinent.
gene108
@Mnemosyne:
I don’t get how that picture is a smear. It shows cute, clean cut 18 y.o. girl, taking a selfie which is what the kids do these days. I think it is an invasion of her privacy, and should not have been posted.
Suzanne
@gene108:
Unokay.
boatboy_srq
@Mnemosyne: People who haven’t experienced serious trauma themselves have an image in their minds of how a trauma victim is supposed to act. Goes along with victim-blaming, and with presumption of virtue because it hasn’t happened to them (yet).
gene108
@Anotherlurker:
I think NYC paid out $500 million, but I forget over what time period.
boatboy_srq
OT but related: Chechnya’s ongoing anti-LGBT crackdown has apparently claimed one of their pop stars.
boatboy_srq
@Suzanne: Ditto. Understandable but unhelpful sentiment.
Mart
@Jay S: Thing that irks me in the first place is why is she getting busted for some loose prescription pills.
boatboy_srq
@Suzanne: Insufficient signs of traumatization implies consent and/or enjoyment. At least to people who think No=Yes.
Jay S
@Mnemosyne: @Mnemosyne: Yes but the letter is from the cops lawyer to the DA, all of whom should have experience with victims, so the letter should have limited effect on them. The fact that the NYPost obtained and published the smear is to affect the public.IMHO. OTH perhaps they are that detached from the people they serve and don’t realize people react differently.
Patricia Kayden
@Duane: Cole’s article is from the NY Daily News and not the Post.
boatboy_srq
@Mart: Prescription meds is the new illegal drug epidemic.
Of course, it’s most readily evident in Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Oklanoma, Tennessee and Kentucky, not in New York in general or NYC in particular. But no doubt we’ll be told that’s irrelevant.
Jay S
@Suzanne: The level of trauma can impact the punishment and/or amount of money paid out. Minimizing that is the defence goal, along with casting doubt on the victim.
Mnemosyne
@Jay S:
IMHO, it’s designed to affect and influence the potential jury pool and make it more likely the cops will be acquitted. It wouldn’t be the first time a victim was smeared in the press to make sure that the criminal cops escape punishment.
Mike in NC
“New York’s Finest”, as they say on all the TV cop shows.
martian
@JPL: Black people are murdered on camera for reasons ranging from petty to none, and more often than not, the cops go on with their careers. I feel like I’m telling you what you already know with that. But we have to look at who we actually are in this country. Maybe Trump shouldn’t have been the shock he was.
I will still hope for justice for this young woman. It’s just going to take a lot of justice for a lot of people before I’d see us on a different path.
Chris
@martian:
Through an organization that systematically encourages that mindset and shelters the people who commit such crimes as a result of it.
Van Buren
A certain prominent real estate mogul once called for the death penalty for some accused NYC rapists. I wonder if those sentiments will be repeated in this matter.
Jay S
@Mart: I think it has been said before, but it appears that the arrest was a pretext. It was likely they had no intention of charging her, They did not charge her.
Suzanne
@Jay S: But the crime is a crime, regardless of her trauma. I know people who were raped who aren’t really torn up about it. It was a shitty thing that happened and it’s over. I know others who were never the same afterward. It’s the same crime.
John Cole
@Omnes Omnibus: There is no way to post the link to the story without that populating
Chris
@Mike in NC:
Do we get a Blue Bloods remake of this case in which it turns out that
the skank had it comingthe so-called victim was put up to it by rabble-rousing Liberal Media journalists looking to make a name for themselves by smearing the NYPD? Or that she and the forensic specialist faked the DNA evidence of the rape because they’re BLM activists looking to destroy the lives of the cops who killed her gangbanger brother in a righteous shooting? You know, just, something to help the public get back on track and remember who the real heroes and villains are.Villago Delenda Est
@gene108: Unless her parents have a lot of money, the DA doesn’t care. After all, Cy Vance Jr. let Uday and Lolita off the hook for grand larceny.
Mnemosyne
@Suzanne:
I once read a story about a woman who was charged with and convicted of filing a false rape report in part because she didn’t react the way the people around her (including her foster mother!) thought she “should” have reacted. It turned out that she had been one of the many victims of a serial rapist and it was proved after he was caught that she had, in fact, been one of his victims because the creep was taking pictures.
Anyway, one of the reasons she didn’t seem traumatized “enough” was that she had had a really hard life filled with trauma and abuse, including being raped/molested by family members, so having a stranger break into her house and rape her was, like, the 15th worst thing that had happened to her. She filed the police report, compartmentalized the trauma in her head, and moved on, until her foster mother decided that she must have lied about the whole thing.
Now, of course, the foster mother feels like shit, but it’s too late now. The girl (now an adult) moved away and lives in another state with her husband and kids. And all because her foster mother decided that someone who had had an abnormal life hadn’t reacted “normally.”
scav
And, of course, remember it’s also evidence of not being abused by a non-rapist in-blue if one fails to instantly report said abuse to exactly one of these potential rapists-in-blue. There really is no proper way to behave as an abused woman.
WaterGirl
@Mnemosyne:
The foster mother IS SHIT.
martian
@Mnemosyne: I remember hearing about that case. It’s one of those where the more details you hear, the worse it gets.
She got pressured into recanting everything, and had to deal with so much shaming by all the authorities in her life, with the end result that a rapist who could have been caught went on to rape more women. And I think her foster mother’s husband wouldn’t be alone with her after that and didn’t want her around because, hey, who knows what accusations she’ll make. Yet, somehow she seemed to come out of her shitty, shitty childhood as a loving and forgiving person.
Brachiator
@Jay S:
There’s a lot of this going around lately, women reacting the wrong way to being accused, assaulted or brutalized.
And just when the media was rolling, patting themselves on the back with all of their (belated) Harvey Weinstein coverage, and their tardy support for women, you have media assholes at the Daily News fall right on their asses and rise with a knee-jerk ball washing of the police (and this is a tricky maneuver to execute as adroitly as they manage to do).
Duane
@Patricia Kayden: I’m aware and noted my mistake earlier.
Ruckus
@Brachiator
First of all, nice turn of phrase.
I like how people are all supposed to fit into these little compartments. Victims not “acting” as they are supposed to do. I am reminded of propaganda pictures we used to see of the USSR, 8-10 babushkas, standing in the snow, waiting for one of the 2 loaves of bread that was the only thing in the store. And yet millions survived. I like how we are all supposed to be the same, when we are obviously not. We look different, we talk different, we have different histories, we have different lives, we act different, we react different, we are different.
sharl
It actually IS doable, but in my experience it takes some extra effort. Two ways that I use* – usually the second one, though for reasons other than suppressing a source-supplied image (*PC laptop, Chrome browser, native Twitter app):
1. A URL-shortener, such as goo.gl or bitly.com, should remove photos and text associated with the source’s original tweet-link – it’s worked every time I’ve done it.
2. Use the source-provided link, but then add something via the “Photo” option to the tweet draft before posting. I typically use this when I think an excerpt from the story is more informative than the source’s provided twitter link, in which case I’ll first use Windows’ Snipping Tool to highlight the text area of interest in the source document, saving that as a .jpg file, then attaching that to the tweet draft using the ‘Photo’ option. I ~think~ that can be done at any point during tweet assembly with the same result, i.e., the added “Photo” gets first priority in the final tweet display, while the source link expresses solely as a clickable link in the text body of the tweet.
There are probably other ways to suppress source-tweet expression, but the two aforementioned approaches work for me.
Kathleen
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: In the mid 70’s I worked briefly as a corrections officer in a women’s detention center. Most of the women were in there because of shoplifting, drugs and/or prostitution. A couple had mental health issues. Three sisters were there for murder, and they were 3 of the nicest people you’d want to meet (seriously). Anyway, one of the young women, a prostitute, about 18 I would guess, told me cops were always offering to release prostitutes if they’d agree to have sex. Same with some of the judges. It was very common. My greatest lesson from that experience is that there is a thin line between the keepers and the kept. I’m sure any BJ defense attorneys in the house have horror stories to tell also.
Cincinnati Police Dept has made many changes since then and I respect the progress it has made. I hope there aren’t as many of these stories today.
Duane
@Van Buren: The Calvert Vaux Park Two.
Kathleen
@Chris: Ah, so you have seen at least one episode of Bluebloods! You nailed the story lines.
Kathleen
@Mnemosyne: I hate to sound lame, but L&O SVU has educated me about prejudices LEO, the media and the public have about victims of sex crimes. They’re not credible unless their demeanor, backgrounds and reactions don’t comply with stereotypical notions of how “a victim should feel, think and behave”. As Suzanne said, everyone can react differently.
Brachiator
@Ruckus:
Thanks.
One of the most notorious examples of this was the trial of Lindy Chamberlain in Australia, which inspired the Meryl Streep film A Cry in the Dark. Chamberlain was convicted of the murder of her daughter and sentenced to life in prison for the murder of her daughter in part because the jury didn’t feel that she showed the appropriate degree of pain and remorse. Compounding this was an expert witness on the forensics of the circumstantial evidence who turned out to be a bit of a fraud.
It was a miracle that a piece of the child’s clothing was found near a dingo’s nest 3 years later, which led to overturning of the previous convictions.
NorthLeft12
The loss of the cops’ jobs should be automatic, whether it was consensual or not. What kind of idiot cop has sex on duty with someone they just arrested and think it is okay if it is consensual? I mean, this is Donald Trump level stupidity.
And for the record, I do not believe it was consensual no matter what these heroes in blue said. Will there be any response from other cops to condemn this? I don’t mean all of them, but it would be nice to hear a few go public with some criticism.
Ruckus
@NorthLeft12:
I wouldn’t even try to hold your breath. It isn’t worth the effort. That thin blue line is miles wide and deep. The LAPD cops that beat the shit out of Rodney King got filmed and if you watch the entire film you realize that there were 2 men in that car and the second on was arrested with no issues, he completely complied. One officer got him out of the car and handcuffed him with no problems. Now Rodney did fight back and he’s a big guy but they beat him with clubs long after he stopped. Their own department went against them on the stand and they got away with it.
Lurking Canadian
@Kathleen: A very common trope on cop TV is to catch the perp in the interrogation because he refers to the deceased relative, friend, colleague in the past tense. Truly bereaved people use the present tense about murder victims, it is said, so anyone who manages to use proper grammar in the face of grief is clearly a murderer.
Karen
Every time I read or hear of another woman being raped I get sick, seems it is always the woman’s fault or the child’s; someone “explained” that it all goes back to Adam and Eve. It was all the fault of the woman, so god of bible gave her the greater punishment.
It is either how she dressed, how she looked, what she said, or what she did; I have yet to read where man owns up to not being able to keep his pants zipper and enjoys the power and control that comes from raping someone weaker or defenseless. I don’t care what age the victim is even a months old baby is blamed as is an old person who can’t even get across the room without a walker.
I still remember a police officer telling me that a wife can’t accuse her husband of rape, now it seems that death threats are appropriate response to women who report being raped by either police or rich white men.
Omnes Omnibus
@Karen:
There was a time when that was the case.
Karen
@Omnes Omnibus: I know, I tried to report then husband; was told the only time could bring charges against him was if he almost killed me and I was in hospital from damage.
Chris
@Kathleen:
Believe it or not, I’ve only seen like maybe ten minutes of an episode and ten minutes of another. It’s just that was all I needed to identify the type of show. I know or can extrapolate the tropes pretty well. (Watched enough JAG when it was on the air – military not police, but same basic principle).