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Abandoned rape kits identify over 800 serial rapists in one Michigan county

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Re: Abandoned rape kits identify over 800 serial rapists in one Michigan county

#131

Post by AdjustYourWrld »

jknoepfler wrote: post #128
AdjustYourWrld wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lol, no one is here to educate themselves on a topic like this, following this thread there's one or two lines of reasoning taken by the posters. 1) it's a travesty where people of color are unreservedly denied justice, for no reason other than racism. 2) The vast majority of the untested rape kits came from the failed Detroit crime lab, and are proportionate to the residents, victims and perpetrators of the crime. L…

That has not been my general experience. It has however been my experience that the forum expects a degree of civility from its participants. This remark is, in addition to being generally false, also condescending and fails to advance the discussion. Facts are welcome, insults are not.

Hmm facts were given you choose to remain ignorant of them. Which part is false? If you're going to call someone a liar back your * up.

I do love the rapid down votes on a thread that's dead. Cute that the rebuttals never contain facts :)

Re: Abandoned rape kits identify over 800 serial rapists in one Michigan county

#132

Post by rectang »

athenot wrote: post #6

> but because it's sexual assault, for whatever reason, it's very easy for some folks to sweep this under the rug Wow. Just wow. I get that resources are limited and they must prioritize. But to view sexual assault as a low-priority item is just sick.

Things would be different if there were more women in positions of power. Participation and representation are everything.

Re: Abandoned rape kits identify over 800 serial rapists in one Michigan county

#133

Post by falsedan »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #115
turc1656 wrote: post #79

I think the most disturbing thing about this is that there are even 800 serial rapists in one single county, even if it's over a 30-35 year period. That's around 25 serial rapists a year in that one county, which is kind of extraordinary when you think about it. Serial rapists are supposedly incredibly rare. They say that in nearly every case it's someone that the victim knows. This makes me think twice about that. A…

I have a young daughter and information like this kind of terrifies me. Teach your child that hugs and kisses require mutual consent. Teach her it is her choice and kissing someone once does not obligate her to future kisses. Tell her if someone disrespects her no to come get a parent. Tell friends and relatives of yours no for her if they try to insist she is obligated to give hugs and kisses. Being dragged off into…

I hear most perpetrators of sexual assault are men, shouldn’t your advice be more effective at prevention/avoidance if directed at sons instead?

Re: Abandoned rape kits identify over 800 serial rapists in one Michigan county

#134

Post by code_duck »

wavefunction wrote: post #64
danielvf wrote: post #27

The kits were from 1984 to 2009. It sounds like cases were being marked closed (usually incorrectly) before the kits were processed and the DNA added to the database. Thus, the kits were tossed into storage. For background, this is Detroit. Wayne County, in which this happened, is demographically more than 40% Black. From the article “86% of our victims in these untested kits are people of color.“ The city government…

This is a problem that crosses socio-ethnic boundaries as well, unfortunately. Not that I mean to minimize the historic and ongoing mistreatment of minority crime victims... Austin Texas -a predominantly white and affluent city- has a terrible history of mistreatment of rape kits, 850 in this case: http://www.statesman.com/news/local/city-memo-mold-found-con...

Austin has plenty of poor people, and the white population is somewhat under 50 percent - 47 according to recent estimates. Hispanic population is about 36%. Keep in mind Austin is the core downtown city, and if you’re thinking of affluence and whiteness, you might be thinking of the suburbs.

It’s possible that economically disadvantaged nonwhite people maybe disproportionately represented among rape victims, also there exists a possibility that there is economic or racial bias in the processing of rape kits.

Re: Abandoned rape kits identify over 800 serial rapists in one Michigan county

#135

Post by DoreenMichele »

falsedan wrote: post #133
DoreenMichele wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a young daughter and information like this kind of terrifies me. Teach your child that hugs and kisses require mutual consent. Teach her it is her choice and kissing someone once does not obligate her to future kisses. Tell her if someone disrespects her no to come get a parent. Tell friends and relatives of yours no for her if they try to insist she is obligated to give hugs and kisses. Being dragged off into…

I hear most perpetrators of sexual assault are men, shouldn’t your advice be more effective at prevention/avoidance if directed at sons instead?

I would like to see all children get the message. I certainly raised my two adult sons exactly like that.

The problem with your theory is that it is incredibly disempowering for women. I see this over and over and over. Everyone wants to cure "rape culture" for just one half of the equation. I don't think that works.

Re: Abandoned rape kits identify over 800 serial rapists in one Michigan county

#136

Post by ShabbosGoy »

cmurf wrote: post #123
vintageseltzer wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In America, justice is only available to those who can afford it. If you can't afford months or years of lawyer's fees and don't have the ability to take time away from your job, family and other daily obligations, you're simply out of luck.

It is not quite this dire, there are very competent public prosecutors and defenders. The problem is we accept the wealthy can obtain better and more lawyers, and effectively buy more or better justice as they define it. It's a classist system where justice is treated as a product rather than exclusively as a right.

It is pretty dire when you have a system that incentivized throwing the book at those near the poverty line, so that private prisons could continue to grow.

It is crony capitalism, plain and simple.

Re: Abandoned rape kits identify over 800 serial rapists in one Michigan county

#137

Post by pasquinelli »

ancap wrote: post #107
kolbe wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure why consistency with city demographics should matter. Shouldn't it be aligned with the racial demographics of the typical victim? In Chicago, for instance, 75% of homicide victims are black despite only representing 32% of the population. If a discrepancy that large can exist in homicide data, I'm sure a similar one can be seen for rape in Detroit.

You're right, which is further evidence of the lack of a conspiracy. If we assume that most rapes occur disproportionally in poorer neighborhoods, then 86% of Detroit rapes from 1984-2009 happening to poorer black women sounds quite probable.

but that could be evidence of a different "conspiracy", not about testing rape kits but about policing black neighborhoods-- maybe not enough policing, or maybe policing of a sort that simply doesn't have any good effect on violent crime.

Re: Abandoned rape kits identify over 800 serial rapists in one Michigan county

#138

Post by jdietrich »

Kalium wrote: post #91
grasshopperpurp wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But, it's not just a problem with Detroit. It seems to be an issue everywhere . http://www.endthebacklog.org/ending-backlog/state-responses

I don't know what the problem is other places. Detroit just has the kinda-somewhat-reasonable justification that they're struggling to provide the most basic of services.

Communities all over America are struggling to provide basic services. Detroit is an extreme case, but it isn't an edge case.

Re: Abandoned rape kits identify over 800 serial rapists in one Michigan county

#139

Post by B1FF_PSUVM »

cmurf wrote: post #123
vintageseltzer wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In America, justice is only available to those who can afford it. If you can't afford months or years of lawyer's fees and don't have the ability to take time away from your job, family and other daily obligations, you're simply out of luck.

It is not quite this dire, there are very competent public prosecutors and defenders. The problem is we accept the wealthy can obtain better and more lawyers, and effectively buy more or better justice as they define it. It's a classist system where justice is treated as a product rather than exclusively as a right.

"You know as well as we do that right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must."

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/7142/7142-h/7142-h.htm#link2H... (Thucydides, book 5, Melian conference)

(tl;dr: the Athenians took Melos, killed the adult males, sold the remaining Melians as slaves, repopulated the island. Eventually they made the Venus de Milo. And so it goes.)

Re: Abandoned rape kits identify over 800 serial rapists in one Michigan county

#140

Post by pavon »

sp332 wrote: post #69
pavon wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not when 82% of the population are African American.

The county is only 40% black. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/waynecountymich... And the kits were put in storage from 1984-2009, during which time the demographics of Detroit changed very rapidly. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographic_history_of_Detroit... It wasn't always 80% black.

Very good points. Thank you.
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