Will probe bring justice in town's rape scandal?
Source: AP-Excite
By SHARON COHEN ROBBINS, Ill. (AP) - The rape evidence was stored in the police department's musty basement: Brown paper shopping bags, stuffed with sneakers, bras and underpants, jammed on metal shelves. Scattered blood vials and swabs covered with dust and mold - an inventory amassed over more than 25 years.
Cara Smith, a Cook County sheriff's aide, knew something was terribly wrong the moment she saw the jumble, which included 176 rape kits dating back to 1986. Many of these crimes had long been forgotten by everyone except the victims.
Smith began digging into the cases and ultimately came to a disturbing conclusion: In most of the reported rapes, Robbins police had seemingly conducted little or no follow-up despite having crime lab results. And in nearly a third of the cases, police hadn't even submitted physical evidence for analysis.
Those findings posed one daunting question: Is there any way to right the wrongs that, in some cases, go back a generation?
FULL story at link.
Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20131123/DAA8H02O1.html
Cara Smith, the chief of policy and communications for the Cook County, Ill., Sheriff's department, leans on her car on Thursday, Sept. 26, 2013 in Robbins, Ill., at the site of an alleged rape. DNA collected in that 1991 case recently matched a convicted felon, but he could not be arrested because Robbins police hadn't submitted the evidence in a timely fashion to the state crime lab. The rape kit in that case is one of nearly 200 in Robbins that Sheriff's investigators found that were never tested or, if they were, were never investigated. (AP Photo/Martha Irvine)
duhneece
(4,105 posts)I know MANY men who love women, hate injustice, would risk this professional gamble...but still, wouldn't you know...
Tumbulu
(6,267 posts)and it is a sad fact that this is not unique to this particular place.
Rape and violence against women is somehow considered a right of some sort. Just look at all the sad DU"ers arguing for the right to watch rape porn.
loudsue
(14,087 posts)Tumbulu
(6,267 posts)and I just cannot fathom that they think this is an acceptable liberal position. Libertarian perhaps, but not liberal.
Curmudgeoness
(18,219 posts)I really don't think that men have the same disgust for rape that women have. Or maybe it is just some men. Like the cops in this town.
ReRe
(10,597 posts)... are filled with officers who think it will never happen to their wives, or mothers, or daughters. Probably they "assume" the women are not telling the truth, passing judgment themselves. It's like the wild wild west in this country now. And this happened in Cook Co, IL? As in Chicago? I must have read that wrong, sorry.
lunatica
(53,410 posts)I marvel at the advances science has made. And right now it's going full tilt forward. So many cold cases have been solved by science as it evolves. Especially when it comes to DNA. There's not telling what will bring someone down in 10 years that we have no way of imagining now.
duhneece
(4,105 posts)We have to make sure the labs have funding for adequate personnel and equipment for that to happen. As long as folks like Alice Walton and the other 1% can amass such incredibly fortunes instead of, like during the Eisenhower period, when the wealthiest paid 91% highest marginal tax rate and the unions could demand living wages will that happen.
JimboBillyBubbaBob
(1,389 posts)...wrote this headline?
Response to Omaha Steve (Original post)
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niyad
(112,435 posts)welcome to DU. seems there is an endless number of football/rape stories, which is beyond disgusting. rape culture is alive and flourishing.
7962
(11,841 posts)Any charges pending or anything like that?
niyad
(112,435 posts)horrendous crimes against women, clearly demonstrated by the zohfeld and pickett cases. what is it going to take to get rape taken seriously in this country, by the people who supposedly swore to "serve and protect"?
truedelphi
(32,324 posts)Low income, mostly African American community.
it could be that it has "gentrified" over the years. But most of us understand that there is one form of "Justice" for middle class or better white people, and another kind of "Justice" for those lower down on the economic rungs.
In any event, kudos to Cara Smith for trying to right a tragic wrong.
idwiyo
(5,113 posts)DeSwiss
(27,137 posts)K&R
niyad
(112,435 posts)7962
(11,841 posts)As a man, it makes me angry that men in charge dont do more to solve these crimes. What if it were their daughters???
niyad
(112,435 posts)reproductive factory and chattel. you would think they might have a bit more concern if it were their own family members, but I would not guarantee it.