#Black Female Victims of Sexual Assault Lives Matter

#Black Female Victimsof Sexual Assault Lives Matter

With the recent warranted media coverage and publicity surrounding the killings of young black men by police, it is easy to overlook the harsh reality thatblack womentoo experienceracism, discrimination, and bias in the United States.In the New York Times last Friday,August 12th,a much needed spot light was placed on the issue ofbias against black women by Baltimore police. The article\"Baltimore Police Fostered A Bias Against Women\" chronicles the findings of the Justice Department's study released last weekon rape claims of black women. The study reveals overall that claims of rape by black women in Baltimore arefrequently ignored by Baltimore police.

The 6 pages of the 163 page Justice Department's report explains how the rights of African Americans have been systematically violated by Baltimore police. One example of how the rights of black persons have been violated is the careless response of the Baltimore Police Department to sexual assault cases which has been etched by the Justice Department as \"grossly inadequate.\" Clearly, the police culture is dismissive of sexual assault and this dismissiveness plays out in how Baltimore police officers have sometimes humiliated women who have tried to report sexual assault, routinely did not collect basic evidence, and did not consider some complaints filed by prostitutes. The New York Times writes, \"Some officers blamed victims or discouraged them from identifying their assailants, asking questions like, \"Why are you messing that guy's life up?\" Investigators found that this police culture was not limited to that of police officers but extended to prosecutors. During an email exchange between a prosecutor and a police officer, a lady who reported a sexual assault was referred to as a \"conniving little whore.\" The police officer who received the emailfrom the prosecutor found the description of the ladyvery funny and replied --\"Lmao! I feel the same.\"

Although patterns and practices of discrimination in addressing sexual assault cases by police forces in other cities such as New Orleans, Puerto Rico, and Missoula exist, experts and advocates concede that Baltimore's problem with police fostering gender bias \"is especially complex and, and perhaps more acute\" because so many women in Baltimore are poor and black. Lisalyn R. Jacobs, a race and gender bias expert who works intimately with Obama's administration on issues such as sexual assault stated as written in the New York Times, \"Baltimore is worse in the sense that Baltimore is a city that has more people of color(63% of the population is black) and more poor people of color, so we are likely to see more excesses, and that is manifest in the report.\"

The Justice Department's report moved the conversationconcerningvictims of policeprejudice beyond black men said Tessa Hill-Aston, the president of the Baltimore's branch of the N.A.A.C.P. She asserted as written in the article in the New York Times, \"There's a lot of womenin the same communities thathave been victimized just as much.\" She continued saying, adding of the police, \"They just didn't care, because it was a poor black woman or a poor black neighborhood.\"

In 2010, the Baltimore Sun reported that in the prior four years, Baltimore police had routinely failed to solve rape cases. Data from the F.B.I. reviewed by the newspaper revealed that \"the percentage of rape cases dismissed as false or baseless was higher in Baltimore than in any other city in the country.\" (Stolberg, S. G., Bidgood, J. (2016, August 12). Baltimore Police Fostered A Bias Against Women. The New York Times, p. A3.

Vanita Gupta, the Justice Department's civil rights chief whosupervised this year's report stated that they felt compelled to raise the issue of gender biased policing because of little progress madealthough they did not formally site the Baltimore police for violating the constitutional rights of women.

Of particular concern to the Justice Department was the lack of conviction of the policeto properlyand thoroughly investigate rapes. Basic detective work was not performed by officers. For example, one victim reported a rape by a taxi driver but the police department did not try to test the suspect's DNA. Another victim reported sexual assault by an unlicensed cabdriver and despite a suspect being identified, the police never attempted to contact himand the investigation floundered. As was discovered by the department, during 2010-2014, rape kits containing forensic evidence collected by doctors andnurses were tested in only 15 percent of the Baltimore cases of sexual assault victims.

\"We have many, many, women who will never go to the police about a rape ever again because of the way they've been treated,\" said Jacqueline Robarge as reported in the New York Times article. Ms. Robarge isthe director and founder of Power Inside, an organization that works with gender-based violence the as reported in the New York Times article. She added that womenshe has worked with have been victims of sexual misconduct by police officers themselves. In the report by the Justice Department, investigators wrote that according to complaints from the community some officers target a vulnerable population such as those involved in the sex trade tocoerce sexual acts from them inexchange of avoiding arrest, or for money, or narcotics.

The findings of the Justice Department's study were not disputed by Baltimore's Police Commissioner, Kevin Davis. The commissioner said last Thursday he has already began taking steps towards turning his department into \"a model for the rest of the nation\" by assigning a trusted captain to be in charge of a new sex offense unit so that problems can beginto be addressed. He referenced a\"seachange\"in the policing culture.

Captain Steven Hohman, the commander of the department's Special Investigations Sectionwhichhouses the Sex Offense Unit stated in an interview, \"I believe that much of the work was being done,\" concerning their investigation ofsexual assault cases.\"We just weren't very good at documenting.\" He declined responding to individual examples in the report. (Stolberg, S. G., Bidgood, J. (2016, August 12). Baltimore Police Fostered A Bias Against Women. The New York Times, p. A3.

Like in other cities, now police practices in Baltimore will be examined under the supervision of a federal judge, said Ms. Gupta.

It is obvious blackpeople are one of the most discriminated, most oppressed groups ofpeople in the United States. Disgracefully, cases and reportsof racism and perpetualinjustice against black women by police have gotten unfair attention, little media coverage and limitedpublicity. I urge participants and supporters of Black Lives Matter and other pro-justice and human rights movements tocommit themselvesto paving the way in presenting to the world a fair representation of cases, situations, stories, etc. ofracism and discrimination by police againstbothgenders of the black race.

by Najwa Kareem

*An article of mine on this important subject was published here (Thanks to Allah/God):

http://muslimgirl.com/29644/arent-talking-black-female-victims-sexual-as...