Go Directly to Jail
News of the Tampa college student jailed on an outstanding warrant after reporting a rape is dispiriting to say the least. Granted, she wasn’t immediately arrested and was initially taken to a rape crisis center, but from there, the story takes a stark turn. While she was driving around with the police trying to pinpoint the location of the attack, the cops discovered the outstanding warrant, stopped the investigation cold, and tossed her in jail. She remained there for two days until word leaked to the press and she was released on bond. To make matters worse, the health care worker at the jail apparently refused to give her the second dose of the morning-after pill because of religious convictions.
Nice going all the way around. This country is supposed to be religion blind, yet we have all these right-wing Christians seeking legislation and policies that will impose their moral viewpoint on us. More importantly, with the case at hand, if indeed the health care worker denied the pill because of religious convictions, how horrible is that? The last thing this woman needs is to get pregnant because of the rape. Then she’ll have to go through the trauma of an abortion. Of course if the reactionary right had its way, she wouldn’t even be allowed to do that.
Maybe the cops felt their hands were tied and were obligated to arrest her, but shouldn’t the system have caught on immediately and let her be arraigned immediately and released from jail? To have to spend two days in jail while you’re still dealing with the trauma of being raped only worsens the emotional scars. She needs time to heal, to be counseled, to receive medical treatment, and instead, her reward for having the courage to speak up is going to jail.
Women already have a fear of reporting rape because of the lousy way the system treats them. Now we throw another impediment in the way. How many other women out there are wanted for crimes, get raped, and don’t report the rape for fear they’ll be arrested? Maybe it’s a small number, but just one person dissuaded is one person too many.
Once the story broke, the Tampa police did change their practices for dealing with victims of trauma. They will now take the circumstances into account. But for this one woman it’s too little, too late.