21 serial rapists discovered in first 400 kits of 11000 kit backlog found in '09. Tragic

[TalkingDog]

http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/Wayne-County-Prosecutor-s-Office-works-to-test-11-000-Detroit-rape-kits-to-reveal-suspects/-/1719418/16244576/-/vrx56j/-/index.html

The Prosecutor's Office says 11,000 rape kits have been found sitting on the shelves at a police annex building. Most of the kits were untested, until now.

Prosecutor Kym Worthy said the untested kits were found in 2009. Since then, her office has been sending the kits out in waves as they try to catch up. About 400 have been tested so far. Worthy said the amount of rape cases are sadly stacking up.

"The first 200 in wave one were stranger rapes where the victim did not know the attacker," she said. "And we have been able to identify, so far, in total, 21 serial rapists."

end snip/

I hate to sound like a broken record, but if this isn't indicative of the war on women, then nothing is.
If solving rapes was in any way important, there would be funding. Instead 21 serial rapists have been allowed to terrorize a city.

[aquart]

1. K&R

Do you know how I first found out this was happening? The Soap, The Bold and the Beautiful, did a story on it.

[MichiganVote]

2. K&R

[seabeyond]

3. police force across the nation down grade the rapes.... file them, and let them go. nt

[IrishEyes]

4. If it continues at that rate

They should find 577 serial rapists. That is horrible.

[jillan]

5. And here in Arizona, Sheriff Joe ignores rape cases - including child rape cases - so he can hunt

down Latinos.

Joe Arpaio's Deputy Told to Work Fraud Cases Instead of Child Rape Crime
http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/bastard/2012/08/joe_arpaios_deputy_ordered_to.php


God forbid if any of the rape victims were Mexican

[riderinthestorm]

6. Get Assange! Where two women who didn't even want to prosecute the guy for rape

means the government goes ballistic after HIM but has one of the worst rape prosecution rates in Europe, ever, for everyone else.

Yay!111!! So pro-woman!!11111!!!! Get Assange!!1111!! Justice!!111!!!

Good thing rape prosecutions are always objective and never political (and I mean that dead serious. Justice for women is almost always problematic and politicized).

[REP]

9. I don't think he's being prosecuted in Wayne County, Michigan, USA

Rape should always be prosecuted, no matter where it happens or who commits it. Period, end of line.

[Chorophyll]

13. Yeah. Can we leave him out of this? It's got nothing to do with the OP.

Thanks.

[DURHAM D]

7. 11,000 kits in Detroit alone.

I have not seen the national numbers lately but it is staggering.

[REP]

8. Were they "legitimate" rapes or did the woman forget to take her whorepills?

in case I wasn't clear.

It's time for law enforcement and the judiciary to treat rape like the serious crime it is. Long past time, really.

[freshwest]

10. GOP run states have slashed and closed rape and mental health centers, shelters for battered women

And decriminalized domestic violence in favor of letting the families work it out. No place to run, to place to get help.

And they voted against renewing the Violence Against Women Act which Obama just signed. At that time, Al Franken spoke, but it took a long time to get it through:

Here is the record on this:

The Violence Against Women Act of 1994 (VAWA) is a United States federal law (Title IV, sec. 40001-40703 of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, H.R. 3355) signed as Pub.L. 103-322 by President Bill Clinton on September 13, 1994. The Act provided $1.6 billion toward investigation and prosecution of violent crimes against women, imposed automatic and mandatory restitution on those convicted, and allowed civil redress in cases prosecutors chose to leave unprosecuted. The Act also established the Office on Violence Against Women within the Department of Justice.

VAWA was drafted by the office of Senator Joseph Biden (D-DE), with support from a broad coalition of advocacy groups. The Act passed through Congress with bipartisan support in 1994, clearing the House by a vote of 235–195 and the Senate by a vote of 61–38, although the following year House Republicans attempted to cut the Act's funding.[1] In the 2000 Supreme Court case United States v. Morrison, a sharply divided Court struck down the VAWA provision allowing women the right to sue their attackers in federal court. By a 5–4 majority, the Court's conservative wing overturned the provision as an intrusion on states' rights.[2][3]

VAWA was reauthorized by Congress in 2000, and again in December 2005.[4] The Act's 2012 renewal was fiercely opposed by conservative Republicans, who objected to extending the Act's protections to same-sex couples and to provisions allowing battered illegal immigrants to claim temporary visas.[5]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violence_Against_Women_Act

Here is a native woman related her story and Obama signed the renewal with the new provisions to protect more women:

[alcibiades_mystery]

11. Horrendous

I have chills reading this article. I think I'm going to be sick.

[Chorophyll]

12. You do not sound like a broken record. You are correct.

There is a war on women and it is both aggressive and passive-aggressive. I'm goddam sick of it. K&R.

[proud patriot]

14. Thank god for activism

Thanks to all those awesome women who fought for this .


THANK YOU !

[OmahaBlueDog]

15. They found those results testing less than 4% of the sample.

I remember reading a similar article about testing rape kits in Maryland. Think what they could find testing the whole 11,000.

Testing cold case rape kits should be a major priority. The results have the potential to:

1) Take criminals off the street
2) Keep criminals already in prison from getting out anytime soon
3) Exonerating the wrongly prosecuted

[niyad]

16. detroit is not an isolated incident, either. rape is simply not a priority anywhere, it seems.

can somebody tell me how long it takes to process a rape kit. 400 kits in 2 1/2-3 years? that is what, about 2 1/2 kits per week?? how much progress is that? at this rate, the backlog will take about 75 years to clear.

[yardwork]

17. Inexcusable.

[Iggo]

18. I'm sorry. Did you say...

...ELEVEN FUCKING THOUSAND?!?!?!?!?!

[NYC_SKP]

19. Wait. What???

[defacto7]

20. Why?

Someone tell me WHY?

Why...? It's rape for god sakes.

I am dumbfounded. I know there is discrimination against women... but why? And on such a scale? I honestly do not understand. What's the point? I'm a middle aged strait man who has fought for women's and gay rights most of my life and I still do not know the answer to the question why this discrimination exists.

[caseymoz]

21. WTF's wrong with this country?

I'm trying to get this straight: in 2009, they found 11,000 "lost" rape kits in a police annex.

Three years after this archeological discovery, they've tested only 400, sending them out "in waves." (Tiny waves, apparently.)

So, in about 1100 days since discovering their little paperwork error they've been testing these kits at a rate of about one every three days.

Just what you'd expect from a poor, corrupt developing country. What a sad convergence of the war against women with the war against taxes.

[gael]

22. Location

Journalism of any kind, should identify the location and where this information came from.

[Iggo]

23. Which part didn't register with you?

clickondetroit.com?
Wayne County Prosecutor's Office?
11000 Detroit rape kits?

And all three of those were IN THE LINK.

Or was that not your point?

[TalkingDog]

25. If I were a journalist, I would agree. But I'm a poster on a discussion board

I expect that if you find the story interesting enough based on the snippet of copy I'm allowed to provide, you'll follow the link and find out the details for yourself.

Welcome to DU

[Le Taz Hot]

24. Check out this comment:

"Just TNB and savage feral coonery! Who cares? Unless they start raping HUMANS!"


Christ almighty it's so hard to believe that this type of mindset still actually exists. And I have NO idea what 'TNB' stands for. I'm guessing I probably don't want to know.

[intheflow]

29. I checked the Urban dictionary, and you're right. You don't want to know.

But in case your curiosity gets the better of you, as it did me, http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=tnb.

[The Doctor.]

26. My God. They're likely still out there.

For years I've given pepper spray to my friends every Christmas and on birthdays, but I'm starting to wish I could just hand out firearms.

This level of negligence or failure to protect or seek justice for victims is atrocious.

One exception: This is what a 'war on women' looks like:

http://www.worldpolicy.org/blog/2011/10/26/living-hell-somalias-hidden-rape-epidemic
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/pacific/radio/onairhighlights/solomon-islands-worst-country-for-sexual-violence-against-women-world-bank

Places where women face state-supported abuse are where the 'war on women' takes place. If the state were at war against women here, there would not be so many people in jail or with restraining orders. The average US woman can get justice if not protection here. I would not denigrate the horrific struggles, rapes, mutilations, and murders of overwhelming numbers of women in other countries by calling the, albeit atrocious, negligence here a 'war on women'.

[gollygee]

28. If they can call the Walmart greeter saying "Happy Holidays" a war on Christmas

we can call it a war on women.

[The Doctor.]

32. Lol.... okay.

Funny, but then the joke only fortifies the point.

[firehorse]

27. Did the women get charged for the 11,000 rape kits sitting on shelves?

Probably.

[intheflow]

30. WTF?! They found 11k rape kits in 2009 and are only getting to testing the 400th NOW??

Three years later?! The article quotes the PD as saying, "We have to do a full investigation. We have to go out and find the victims and put cases together." How about a full fucking investigation as to WHY those kits weren't tested when the rapes first came about, HOW they got "misplaced" in the first place, and HOW FAR BACK they date?

[redqueen]

31. I'm actually surprised that people are surprised.

As if, during a time of budget cutbacks, money would be allocated for testing rape kits. Please. You all know how hard it is to get a conviction. Return on investment and all that.

This is a RAPE CULTURE. Is it sinking in yet? Is the picture getting any clearer? I certainly fucking hope so.