Apparently it took a serial rapist to convince the Norfolk Police Department that classifying rape allegations as invalid by default is a very bad idea.
According to the Virginian-Pilot, a 22-year-old woman’s case prompted Norfolk police chief Mike Goldsmith to update the policy so that officers must now assume rape victims are telling the truth.
The woman reported the attack immediately to police, only to be told, “If we find out that you’re lying, this will be a felony charge.” Before giving her a medical examination, officers subjected the woman to interrogations during which they said things like, “You’re telling us a different story than you told … the other detectives,” and “This only happened hours ago. Why can’t you remember?” Having had enough, the woman cut off the interview.
The police eventually arrested and charged the attacker for multiple other sexual assaults and felonies, and Goldsmith apologized for mishandling the woman’s initial allegations.
Unfortunately, the Norfolk Police Department is not alone today as the University of Southern California stands accused of mislabeling sexual assaults to keep their statistics lower.
Mostov joined with several other USC students in filing a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education against the university over the weekend, alleging violations of the Clery Act, a federal law mandating accurate and timely reporting of crime on campus, including sexual violence. Mostov said she believes her case shows USC’s routine failures in responding to sexual assaults and reporting the crimes.
USC is “persistently underreporting sexual battery, sexual assault, and rape in the Annual Clery Security Report by … categorizing instances of ‘rape’ as ‘personal injury,’ ‘domestic dispute,’ and other less serious crimes or non-crimes,” the complaint says.
And according to congressman Steve King, this pristine, non-violent civilization of ours will be spoiled if we allow immigrants into the country.