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    braintreeErin Gloria Ryan
    12/26/13 12:08pm

    I don't get it. I literally don't get it. Is it because these cases don't get prosecuted? How could this evidence not be looked into for every single case???

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      Crow-ishbraintree
      12/26/13 12:12pm

      My assumption, based on previous readings, is that they will claim "no budget". That rape kits cost $X to process and they simply don't have $X times 15,000. Which is deplorable. Like someone else mentioned, they have plenty of money to hunt and prosecute people with a little weed that is harming NO ONE but rape? Meh. Too expensive with little ROI.

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      usedtobesheababylvbraintree
      12/26/13 12:17pm

      I don't get why there would ever be a backlog at all. It seems to me that the minute a rape kit exists, it should go straight to the lab and be tested. The wait should be a few days, max. This is disgusting.

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    Good Shot Red TwoErin Gloria Ryan
    12/26/13 12:04pm

    Rape? You mean the violent crime of rape? Why would law enforcement focus finite resources on trying to solve a violent crime like rape (whether it was committed by someone known to the victim or a stranger it still involves violence), when there's a "War on Drugs" to fight? I mean there are people growing marijuana in their homes, cocaine being adulterated to increase its volume, people transporting heroin in their car trunks. We need paramilitary tactics to enforce our prohibitionist policies, it's not like we could spare a s.w.a.t. team to serve a warrant against a violent criminal like a rapist, that would be ludicrous!

    *shakes his fists at the sky gods*

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      fairyvexedGood Shot Red Two
      12/26/13 12:31pm

      We need to get on this! Sure, we could legalize and tax drugs———the way we do cigs and booze——and not only free our police forces to make a real difference but to end the "war on drugs" and all that cones with it. All that profit and taxation could support all kinds of helpful things, but what we really need is jails full of non violent offenders who find it hard to lead productive lives after those drug busts.

      Ouch. I think I cut myself on my own sarcasm.

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      pieholeshutfairyvexed
      12/26/13 12:36pm

      I know I sure feel safer when someone who smoked a couple joints is in jail!

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    alter_egoErin Gloria Ryan
    12/26/13 11:59am

    This makes me so mad, because yeah, when the rapist is an unknown assailant, it can be really hard to identify them, but I feel like whenever there's a big push to get through the rape kit backlogs, there's inevitably a few cases where DNA shows that there's few multiple rapists. And maybe each individual person doesn't have enough information to identify their rapist, but if they combine all the stories from the people who were raped by the same person, they can get that person off of the street.

    Or, you know, we can just take the attitude that rapes are too difficult to prosecute, especially when the victim doesn't know their attacker, and let the rape kits fall to the wayside as multiple rapists continue to do their thing, confident in the knowledge that they'll probably never be caught, because no one is bothering to look for them.

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      Good Shot Red Twoalter_ego
      12/26/13 12:14pm

      It would be nice if our society reevaluated its law enforcement priorities. I know, it might be asking to much.

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      kemperboydalter_ego
      12/26/13 12:28pm

      When they started testing the rape kits in Detroit they found multiple repeat offenders including men who had gone on to kill.

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    JoanMillerTwoSuitsErin Gloria Ryan
    12/26/13 11:55am

    Good for her. I hope she wins scads and fuck tons of money. And I hope it teaches a lesson to every god damn city and town that think it is ok to just throw rape kits in the closet and not do one damn thing with them. Test the rape kits. How hard is that?

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      paulahsjJoanMillerTwoSuits
      12/26/13 12:15pm

      As a Memphian I am not shocked. Kudos to this woman for bringing this issue to the public eye. I hope some people get justice from this process.

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    ConQuesoErin Gloria Ryan
    12/26/13 12:17pm

    Let us not forget about the statute of limitations. By the time some of these kits are tested, charges can't even be brought against the rapists. How in this day and age is this allowed?! Oh yeah, because vaginas.
    BEAM ME UP, XENU. I HAVE SEEN ENOUGH.

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      heebeegeebeesConQueso
      12/26/13 12:22pm

      Is it possible for them to indict a DNA sample as "John Doe"?

      I seem to remember this happening before to skirt the statute of limitations.

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      ConQuesoConQueso
      12/26/13 2:38pm
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    smokinferjesusErin Gloria Ryan
    12/26/13 1:06pm

    Everyone knows that if it was a "legitimate rape" the kits have a way of not getting lost.

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      mishacatErin Gloria Ryan
      12/26/13 11:55am

      You know, I dislike how litigious our society is - but in cases like this, it seems like suing the pants of police departments might get their attention if the fact that PEOPLE WERE RAPED and RAPISTS ARE GETTING AWAY WITH IT didn't.

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        AFinLAErin Gloria Ryan
        12/27/13 12:09am

        When it hit the news that Los Angeles had 12,000 untested rape kits a few years ago, I was hoping that the one good thing that would occur as a result was that other cities would get on it and do a better job than the City of Angels was doing at the time. You'd think I would know better by now...

        GIF
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          Maxine1691Erin Gloria Ryan
          12/26/13 12:14pm

          Law enforcement needs newer tactics when it comes to prosecuting rape. That or states need to allocate more resources to law enforcement so that cases are not prioritized over others. Society needs to change to that there is no stigma in women coming forward to pursue those who raped them.

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            benjaminalloverErin Gloria Ryan
            12/26/13 12:22pm

            If police departments exist to protect civilians, only they fail to protect half of civilians, then for what purpose do police departments exist?

            They exist to protect the property of the rich and to generate prisoners for jails to make money, not to serve or protect citizens. They are notoriously disinterested in crimes against women and children, as any victim of those crimes knows acutely.

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