Protect and serve
Jan 30th, 2007 at 8:59 am by Dr. S
This speaks for itself.
A young woman was walking back to her car after the Gasparilla parade on Saturday when she says a man dragged her behind a building and raped her near the intersection of Howard and Swann.
She managed to get away and called 911. Police took her to the hospital and began a routine rape investigation.
When they started checking the victim’s background, they discovered she had an arrest warrant out for her.
It was from an arrest when the woman was a juvenile and she was accused of not paying restitution. The woman says she was not aware there was a warrant out for her, and her attorney says it appears to be a paperwork error.
“They were more interested in prosecuting her for something that’s a paperwork snafu from four years ago, that was juvenile. They were more interested in working on that than finding an experienced rapist,” stated the victim’s mother.
Still, the woman was put in handcuffs and taken to jail. She was not allowed bond, and the medical staff at the jail refused to give her the Morning After Pill even though it had been prescribed at the hospital.
“The medical supervisor would not allow her to take the pill because she said it was against her, the supervisor’s, religion. So, here we have a medical supervisor imposing her beliefs on a rape victim,” claimed the victim’s attorney Virlyn Moore. “As a human being, how someone could be so violated by this monster and then the system comes along and rapes her again psychologically and emotionally - it’s outrageous and unconscionable.”
It is unfortunate, but the news media needs to publicize the name of the medical supervisor and let what happens happen. Which, hopefully, will be a very bad reputation and firing.
Wow! How could a prior arrest warrant (especially this one) have taken precedence over investigating a rape? Publicity is part of the answer; not just the name of the particular medical supervisor, but the names of all the personnel who screwed this up or whose decisions put the front line nuts in charge so that they could create this disaster. Contracts should be terminated, lawsuits filed, and disciplinary action taken in the police department.
[…] tip to Chris at Suburban Guerrilla for finding this gem of a story…and all the best to Susie Madrak, […]
That medical supervisor should not be allowed to
work in any sort of public/governmental capacity,
since her religion prevents her from carrying out
her duties.
She should also be sued for every penny she’s
worth by the victim.
This horrible incident points to a much wider and deeper trend.
Instant access to records means that the authorities run everyone’s ID through in every incident. Not surprisingly, they often get an arrest record, or even an outstanding warrant. A prior arrest and/or conviction record may prejudice authorities in their treatment of both victim and perpetrator. Maybe worse, it contributes to a police-state like attitude on the part of some law enforcement personnel, which casts the general public as a group of perps just waiting to be arrested.
The idea that once in custody a prisoner is at the mercy of the personal whims of law enforcement is a corollary of the belief that “…you gave up that right when you ______ (fill in the blank, e.g. failed to appear)….”, and now the rules don’t apply to you. Sounds like Guantanamo, doesn’t it? We don’t need no stinking habeas corpus!!
Warrantless wiretapping and other access to personal information, Guantanamo, torture, special rendition, weakening of Miranda, all contribute to a general erosion of respect for the public (including both victims and suspects) by law enforcement.
Of course there have always been bad, unprofessional cops who use their authority to vent their personal hang-ups and prejudices. Just as there have always been, and continue to be, law enforcement personnel who are extremely capable, competent, and aware of their limits. We should do our best to weed out the bad ones. And that’s often very difficult in a “brotherhood.” But that’s not the larger issue.
An overall atmosphere of lack of respect for human rights (including privacy rights), and the possibilities for access to personal information created by new technologies, have combined to create an atmosphere where some of the worst qualities of the worst cops at every level are enabled. This noxious atmosphere is cultivated at the very highest levels of law enforcement policy making and enforcement.