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But how do they know they have the right guy, Mommy?
“There are more cops out tonight than last night,” I said to my daughter as we went for groceries yesterday evening. ”Yeah, and all their lights are on,” she replied. ”They’re still looking for the attackers,” I said.
That’s what I call them, “the attackers.” But what I mean is the men who have raped or sexually assaulted several women in the area surrounding where we live in South Slope, Brooklyn. Most mothers probably wouldn’t go out of their way to bring up the subject of sexual assault with their not-quite 6-year-old girl, but I couldn’t help it. The police presence in our nabe has been escalating for weeks now, as the NYPD tries to make up for the fact that they ignored the attacks for months as they were first happening. Continue reading »
Clearly these women are asking for it, according to the NYPD
It seems like it should just be in Jodie Foster movies that women get blamed for being victims of rape based on their wardrobe and behavior. It should be that way — that women are just asking for bad things to happen to them while dressed provocatively on the silver screen only — but unfortunately, it isn’t.
Need some evidence? Look no further than the hipster capital of the world: Brooklyn.
Cops are warning women in the South Park Slope neighborhood not to wear short skirts or shorts, lest they fall victim to some pervert or perverts who has been sexually assaulting area women since last March.
Does everyone deserve a second chance? What if it's for a teen sex offender who wants to attend school with your kid?
An 18-year-old student who is also a convicted sex offender has withdrawn from Yuca Valley High School in California.
Steven Holt had registered for classes on April 4, and controversy ensued when parents of other students at the school learned of his presence, and his past. Apparently (and understandably) they were less than thrilled with the fact that a sex offender would be allowed to mix with high school kids.
The school district sent home a letter to parents alerting them to the fact that Holt was convicted in Wisconsin of “sexually assaulting minors ranging from 15 to as young as 6, including at east one cognitively disabled minor.”
Despite his past transgressions, Holt still had a legal right to attend school.
An 11-year-old California girl was sexually assaulted by a group of boys in a public bathroom.
Two days ago came word of another disturbing crime in which an 11-year-old girl was the victim of a sexual assault allegedly carried out by multiple people — this time seven teens who are believed to be part of a Southern California gang. The attack took place on March 10 in Moreno Valley, about 70 miles east of Los Angeles.
Michael Sykes, 19, was arrested on Monday for his suspected involvement in the gang rape. The other six suspects, all of whom are juveniles, were taking into custody shortly after the March 10 attack. An older girl approached the victim at a shopping center and convinced her to enter a public bathroom at the Victoriano Park bathroom in Moreno Valley where Sykes and the other boys lay in wait. The older girl has since been arrested.
The story of the 11-year-old sexually assaulted in tiny Cleveland, TX continues to unfold.
The New York Times has published the follow-up article they promised after their coverage of the gang rape of an 11-year-old girl in Cleveland, TX was widely panned. Their recent piece is the first that I’ve read to go out of its way to describe the victim favorably, saying she “was an outgoing honor roll student, brimming with enthusiasm, who went on hikes and planted trees with a youth group.”
The Times article notes that “police say the girl was raped on at least six occasions, from Sept. 15 to Dec. 3″ and that 19 boys and men have now been charged in the case. The reporters’ portrayal of the perpetrators of this heinous crime – even in this “response” piece – belies a level of sympathy for the assailants. They are described as “an eclectic group of young men, some with criminal records, who shared a powerful neighborhood bond.” Ah, yes. Gang rape is just male bonding at its finest.
New information about how the girl’s parents discovered that she had been raped was revealed, and the Times scored an interview with the victim’s father, despite the gag order that was issued for everyone remotely involved with the case. Juan, a 57-year-old carpenter, said “he became aware of his daughter’s abuse in late November, when she arrived home at 3 or 4 a.m. after having slipped out without permission. She was shaking and weeping when her mother opened the door to their small white frame house… and she immediately closed herself in her room.”
The victim’s parents “found sexually explicit photos that had been sent to her father’s cellphone, which she had been using.” Those images led the victim to confess that she had been raped. The Cleveland, TX police department says it was first alerted to the crime on December 3 by school authorities, but the victim’s father suggests his wife told police two days earlier on December 1.
Unfortunately, the reporters manage to bring the victim’s physicality into their piece and subtly continue to blame her good looks for her rape. They write, “As she reached puberty… she had grown tall for her age and had begun to talk about wanting to be a fashion model,” countering that immediately with the idea that “she was still a child; her bed was piled high with stuffed animals.” The takeaway: How could anyone expect a virile male to resist such a perfect virgin-whore? It’s like she was 11, but she didn’t act 11, so, you know, she wasn’t really 11. She wanted it – and her Mickey Mouse plush doll. Continue reading »
Iman Al-Obeidi being gagged by a Libyan minder outside the Rixos hotel Saturday.
The spirit of revolt has swept quickly across the Arab world in the past few months. Hosni Mubarak’s regime fell in Egypt on February 11th, and now rebel forces are closing in on Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Men and women risk their lives during a time of revolution, and many women find themselves the victims of sexual assault by soldiers and even civilians, as was the case when CBS reporter Lara Logan was attacked in Egypt. Adding insult to injury, Logan was heartlessly mocked by fellow journalists who not only suggested that her assault may have been exaggerated, but that by virtue of her good looks, she was asking for it. (Sound familiar? People tried to say the same thing about an 11-year-old.)
Here we are, at the end of March, and the story of a Libyan woman named Iman Al-Obeidi has surfaced. Al-Obeidi created a scene Saturday morning at the Rixos hotel in Tripoli when she burst into a dining area filled with journalists, shouting that she had been gang raped by 15 of Gaddafi’s troops. “She was manhandled by hotel staff and plain-clothed government minders before being dragged away from the site despite attempts by members of the foreign press to protect her,” The Daily Mail reports.
The Libyan government has been working hard to smear Al-Obeidi’s reputation by accusing her of engaging in prostitution, the idea being that it’s impossible to rape a prostitute. (Al-Obeidi is a lawyer by trade.) It’s sad to see the Libyan government borrowing plot lines from Pretty Woman, but that shows you how desperate they are to cling to power. Last night CNN aired footage of Nic Robertson interviewing government spokesperson Moussa Ibrahim at a press conference, who told Robertson he didn’t want to talk about Al-Obeidi’s case because he didn’t want to bring shame to her parents or her daughter. He didn’t want to reiterate to the world that the Libyan government had accused a woman who was gang raped of being a mentally ill prostitute, but Ibrahim did just that. Continue reading »
Dr. Michael Clare
A Bronx pastor, 38-year-old Dr. Michael Clare, has been charged with raping a 12-year-old girl and – as the Daily News reported today – has “turned down a ‘sweetheart’ plea deal that came with three years in prison.” Clare refused the plea deal because he’s declaring innocence, but Bronx Supreme Court Justice Megan Tallmer says there’s “almost irrefutable proof” that he’s guilty.
The proof? An aborted fetus with DNA matching his. Continue reading »
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