Rape Culture exists because Law Enforcement Agencies encourage it. (X-Post from GD)

[riqster]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025316010

http://m.clevescene.com/cleveland/roofie-island-a-summer-of-reported-druggings-and-rapes-on-put-in-bay-lake-eries-party-destination/Content?oid=4345726&showFullText=true
I’ve ranted oftentimes over the years about how sexist prosecutors and lazy/preeve cops fail to protect citizens from sexual predators; and have been duly informed that I was blowing things out of proportion, yadayada. In response to those who say such rape-enabling twaddle, I hereby submit yet another example: the sleepy little town of Put-In-Bay, Ohio.

There is so much rape happening there, it’s been re-named “Roofie Island” From the above article (which you really ought to read):

Since May, there are have been at least a dozen documented incidents of people suspected of being dosed with date-rape drugs at Put-In-Bay bars, with no arrests. In that time, there have been at least three reported rapes of drugged or heavily intoxicated women and only once — when police came upon a 27-year-old Mentor man in the act, with several eye witnesses who spotted him tackling her to the ground — has somebody been arrested so far.
On Saturdays this summer, EMS has had to regularly transport girls from the popular pool bar Mist to the hospital after someone slipped date-rape drugs into their drinks.

In early May, a trauma nurse at a southeast Michigan hospital called Put-In-Bay police to report a woman was raped on the island that weekend. According to the police report (where the victim’s and suspect’s names have been redacted), the nurse relayed the story: a Mr. Ed’s manager asked a female bartender to have drinks with him after work on a Saturday. Once out with him, she lost consciousness, only to come-to at 2:30 a.m. with her boss on top of her, yelling at her to “take her fucking clothes off.” She told him no, the report says, and that she was on her period. But he pulled down her pants, pulled out her tampon, and had his way with her. The police report says the woman declined to pursue charges because she didn’t want to lose her job, but that turned out to not be true.

Just before 4 p.m. on July 7, they were dispatched for a drugged female at the pool, only to have one of her friends pass out at the same time EMS was treating her, stoking EMS’s fears that more women have been and will be drugged: “The EMS worker informed me that it was most likely ruphy (sic) and stated there will probably be a lot more individuals getting ruphied (sic).” The police report notes “nothing further” in terms of an investigation.

The local police chief is not only doing nothing about these crimes; he is under investigation himself for excessive force and other offenses. Sound like Steubenville on an island? Yup. It shows, yet again, that America has a big problem with rape culture that the country refuses to address.

I have been criticized for advocating harsh penalties for convicted rapists. If that seems cruel to you, ask yourself if the current state of affairs is any kinder. It is not. By ignoring crimes of sexual violence, our government is giving tacit approval to such behavior, and until severe and visible punishment starts harshly and consistently raining down upon the perpetrators, rape will continue to terrorize our culture.

Mercy to the guilty is truly, as Adam Smith said, cruelty to the innocent. Time for the cops and judges to unleash some cruelty on the rapists and their enablers, and to save the mercy for their victims.

[knitter4democracy]

1. When I lived in Cleveland, that was a known problem there.

That, and the Flats. Everyone knew that women took serious chances in even going there.