by SixofNine 82 Replies latest jw friends
"Palin "does not believe, nor has she ever believed, that rape victims should have to pay for an evidence-gathering test," Comella said. "Gov. Palin's position could not be more clear. To suggest otherwise is a deliberate misrepresentation of her commitment to supporting victims and bringing violent criminals to justice.""
Oh wait! Only liberals or the "unfortunate" get the benefit of the doubt. My bad, I forgot.
"According to Fannon (the police chief), the new law will cost the Wasilla Police Department approximately $5,000 to $14,000 a year to collect evidence for sexual assault cases."
How damn many rapes are they having there a year? Isn't that town only about 7K people? @ $300 a rape kit, that's nearly 46 rapes a year... damn, that's a lot! They have a huge problem with rape for such a small community.... they need to quit praying for pipelines and Iraq, and pray for a sexual councilor..
Simple fact is, Palin is a nut job, she believes life begins at conception, she didn't want members of her community taking the so called "morning after pill" because she didn't think that was moral... this was the ONLY city in Alaska that didn't pay for rape kits according to the reports.
I still haven't found any answers to my questions.
Obviously, Wasilla did make rape victims pay for the rape kits. However, how much of that was Palin's fault? Did she inherit that policy and why was it made the policy of this town when no other town in AK did this? Seems really strange to me. Did people complain directly to Palin about it and, if so, what did she do or not do about it?
Curious minds want to know.
StAnn
We do know that when she became the Governor, she did not make this a statewide policy.
From America Blog -
In 2000, then-Governor Tony Knowles signed a bill in Alaska that ensured law enforcement around the state would pay for the processing of "Rape Kits" - forensics evidence collected in rape cases. Seemed common sense enough. Knowles noted, correctly, that we don't charge robbery victims the cost of dusting for prints, so why would be charge rape victims the cost of gathering evidence to apprehend their assailant?
Except one little town objected, and had previously refused to foot the bill to solve rape cases - Wasilla, under Mayor Sarah Palin.
Reported the local paper, The Frontiersman, at the time:
While the Alaska State Troopers and most municipal police agencies have covered the cost of exams, which cost between $300 to $1,200 apiece, the Wasilla police department does charge the victims of sexual assault for the tests.
Now, look, maybe this was long-standing policy, instituted far before Palin took office in Wasilla. Maybe she had been appointing people who would overturn this policy. Uh, no. After taking office, Palin fired the police chief, Irl Stambaugh (which made her a subject of a recall effort) and replaced him with Charlie Fannon. Fannon's view of paying to solve rape cases?
Wasilla Police Chief Charlie Fannon does not agree with the new legislation, saying the law will require the city and communities to come up with more funds to cover the costs of the forensic exams.
So, for four years - from 1996, when Palin took office to 2000 when this law was passed - Palin didn't seem to have a problem with charging rape victims to solve their own crime. And if she did, she certainly didn't communicate that to her hand-picked Police Chief, who didn't have a problem with it.
I guess that's one way to be a "Maverick."
Of course, I'd be willing to say that Palin was just a part-time Mayor with very little oversight or responsibility, and it's unfair to say she could do something about it.
But, as Palin has made clear, being Mayor was "kiiiiiind of like being a community organizer, except you have actual responsibility." And, of course, John McCain and his campaign have made clear that as Mayor, Palin had a ton of responsibility and decision-making pressure, which is why she's ready to assume the Presidency from Day One.
As much as this seems like a post about Sarah Palin, it's really not. It's about John McCain. What I want to know is at what point in the vetting process, after going through Mayoral records, did the McCain campaign learn that Palin condoned the charging of rape victims the cost of processing rape kits? And after they found out, before he selected her, did he discuss the matter in the extensive discussions he had with Palin about her record and her views?
Oh wait, that's right he didn't do any of this, because he made his decision after a short phone call. And now he has, on his ticket, someone who didn't seem to think that charging rape victims for forensics processing in their rape cases was all that big of a problem. Or, at least it wasn't a big enough problem to use her "responsibility" to change the policy.
One heartbeat away from being President.
One of the things that really bugs me Sammies, is that the objection in Wasila was focused on the budget. But the budget was adequate enough to build that hockey rink.
Anybody know where I can find the chart that's been on the net news in the past few days showing Alaska the highest in the nation per capita for rapes? Not that that's her fault, but it is interesting in this vein. It was something like 81 rapes (for every 1000 ppl?) and California was in the bottom 1/3 at 26 (?) per 1000.
Here's one, I couldn't even tell you where the info came from or how reliable it is.
But the budget was adequate enough to build that hockey rink.
Yeah..but wasn't she (or the office) sued for that because they didn't even have rights to the land before they began building? As to the rape kits - I think all these excuses like 'she didn't know' are ridiculous. The town had about 8,000 or so residents in it and the budget ain't that big for a town that size. Her inaction on changing the law for years, speaks volumes no matter what she or her posse say. She took the path of do nothing - pretend she doesn't notice because if she had of changed the law then it would have violated her religious beliefs.
Really - I liken her to one of those little sparkler you get for the 4th of July. You light it and it sparkles for a few seconds and then fizzles out completely and you toss it away. Every poll coming in today shows that this week Obama has pulled ahead - in most cases 5 points and despite the Republicans trying to remove people from the polls in Michigan and trying to stir up a lot of hatred with phone and email polls.
sammieswife.
This thread is similar to mine about censorship... all the evidence points to the truth, she wanted to censor books, she was mayor of the only town that made victims of rape pay for their rape kits, probably because the kits included the "morning after" pill...
She's a religious nut job as evidenced in the video we all have surly watched by now... Yet what do we get from those on the right?
Just as they do with concrete evidence that shows them wrong, they ignore it. We have the last 8 years of history, evidence the harm ignoring information does this nation, and what do we get from those on the right?
The reason I started giving these folks absolute hell a few years ago, is I realized that even when we present facts, indisputable facts, they won't listen.... and say what you will, but they usually follow that up with some sort of insult.
Do you know what they really mean when they call you liberal? They wrongly think that word means your a dumb ass. They mean it as an insult.
I'm proud to be a liberal, they are the ones that should be ashamed, but like the JWs they're too brainwashed to know how damn stupid they are, even after all the facts show otherwise...
