While you’re out doing some last minute shopping, sitting at home with a hot cup of coffee watching the snow fall, or even hanging out with friends for lunch and enjoying the festive holiday atmosphere, remember that evil can and does happen regardless of the time, the day, or the location.
SAN FRANCISCO — A woman in the San Francisco Bay area was jumped by four men, taunted for being a lesbian, repeatedly raped and left naked outside an abandoned apartment building, authorities said Monday.
In California one’s chances of being educated and equipped to fight back in such circumstances is far less than in other states who don’t look upon their citizens as, perhaps, untrustworthy of making more adult decisions when it comes to their own protection. Lesbianism aside, this woman was attacked by four men and raped in broad daylight.
Detectives say the 28-year-old victim was attacked Dec. 13 after she got out of her car, which bore a rainbow gay pride sticker. The men, who ranged from their late teens to their 30s, made comments indicating they knew her sexual orientation, said Richmond police Lt. Mark Gagan.
California. Land of complete equality. Politicians and social justice screamers concurrently plugging their ears and screaming aloud that there is no difference between man and woman even though evidence to the contrary is pretty clear that a 28-year-old woman is generally at a significant disadvantage against one 28-year-old man, let alone four. Maybe she just should have held her car keys tighter.
What’s really sad is that there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING in place preventing those men from grabbing a woman, raping her as violently as they like and taking their time doing it. Nothing.
Street cameras? Are the cameras going to jump off poles and ride to the rescue? No.
Cell phone? No. She can’t whip out the phone and dial a number while four men are gang-raping her.
Police? Unless she’s carrying one on her back, I don’t think so.
Rape whistle? Car keys? Screaming? No, no, and no. That’s a great way to make noise or scratch someone, but it’s not going to prevent anything.
All of those feel-good safety measures can either easily be ignored, or force you to depend on luck that you’ll be heard and someone will help. Of course, this took place in California. Where no good deed goes unpunished and any good deed can land you in Court and paying damages. For helping.
There is no better set of tools than awareness and a loaded .45 when it comes to protecting yourself from evil people who want to do you harm.
“It just pushes it beyond fathomable,” he said. “The level of trauma — physical and emotional — this victim has suffered is extreme.”
Authorities are characterizing the attack as a hate crime but declined to reveal why they think the woman was singled out because of her sexual orientation. Gagan would say only that the victim lived openly with a female partner and had a rainbow flag sticker on her car.
Honestly, I think hate crime legislation is more misdirected blame than legitimately necessary. You’re telling me that because of someone’s sexual orientation, a crime against them is more heinous than if it was against a heterosexual woman? Try telling some straight woman who’s just been gang-raped, “Well, at least you’re not a lesbian, WHOO! Could you imagine the trauma you’d be going through then?” Bullshit. Crime is crime and the sub-human cretins responsible are the ones who make this heinous - not the victim’s orientation, race, favorite soap opera, or otherwise. I loathe those who would tell me that something is “more bad” for one reason or another. No. It’s bad. Period.
The 45-minute attack began when one of the men approached the woman as she crossed the street, struck her with a blunt object, ordered her to disrobe and sexually assaulted her on the spot with the help of the other men.
This is where “awareness” comes in. Be aware always. See everyone and everything and if someone is approaching you from behind, turn and confront. Don’t wait for something to happen.
When the group saw another person approaching, they forced the victim back into her car and took her to a burned-out apartment building, where she was raped again inside and outside the vehicle. The assailants took her wallet and drove off in her car. Officers found the car abandoned two days later.
She had no chance against four young men. Under better circumstances with more of a chance perhaps she could’ve prevented getting into the car - that right there is a very bad situation.
The woman sought help from a nearby resident, and she was examined at a hospital. Although the victim said she did not know her attackers, detectives hope someone in the community knows them. One of the men went by the nickname “Blue” and another was called “Pato,” according to authorities.
Here’s hoping they’re found and castrated.
Now … on to the bullshit “I-am-more-important-than-you-are” angle of the story.
Gay rights advocates note that hate crimes based on sexual orientation have increased nationwide as of late. There were 1,415 such crimes in 2006 and 1,460 in 2007, both times making up about 16 percent of the total, according to the FBI.
Avy Skolnik, a coordinator with the New York-based National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, noted that gay, lesbian and transgender crime victims may be more reluctant than heterosexual victims to contact police.
Soooooo … both times making up 16% of total hate crimes which means that all “hate crimes” have increased, not just hate crimes based on sexual orientation.
As for a reluctance to speak up? Well, the speaking up should be done when that same “authority” that you don’t want to report to actually prevents you from doing something to protect yourself like oh, say, carry a firearm. Speak up after it’s done? Whatever. Speak up while your rights have been eroded under the guise of equality and “public safety”. That’s what you should be pissed off about, after all it’s the exact thing that makes this kind of crime both increasingly possible and successful for the attackers.
“Assailants target LGBT people of all gender identities with sexual assault,” he said. “Such targeting is one of the most cruel, dehumanizing and violent forms of hate violence that our communities experience.”
That’s where you’re fucking wrong and this kind of statement really pisses me off. Just because a victim is gay, lesbian, bisexual, cross-dressing or trans-gendered does not mean that crimes against that victim are somehow “extra bad”.
Newsflash asshole, rape IS traumatic. It’s not “one of the most” anything. It sucks. It’s an evil act. By propping up a rapist who targets gays or lesbians as “extra bad” committing an “extra evil” crime, you’re immediately putting those who are not gay or lesbian into a group where crimes against them are less bad and the attacker is somehow less evil for raping someone who isn’t a sexual minority.
Complete bullshit of the first order. Either we’re equal, or we’re not. Clearly we’re not if crimes against a minority are somehow evil-er than crimes against anyone who isn’t “special” in some way. How about we just throw the fucking book at the criminal regardless of who they decide to rape, instead of a) making the victim seem like less of a victim since they don’t have a minority sexual orientation or b) making the criminal seem not-so-bad because he just raped a woman and was kind enough to not rape a lesbian.
Skolnik said the group plans to analyze hate crime data to see whether fluctuations may be related to the gay marriage bans that appeared on ballots this year in California, Arizona and Florida.
And I’m sure they’ll come up with some statistic that blames Bush and the Mormons. That’s what an advocacy group “analyzing hate crime data” does. Like they’re going to come back and say, “Nope, didn’t really have anything to do with Prop 8! Our bad!” Not good for PR.
“Anytime there is an anti-LGBT initiative, we tend to see spikes both in the numbers and the severity of attacks,” he said. “People feel this extra entitlement to act out their prejudice.”
And in turn the politicians feel their extra entitlement to enable the attackers at the expense of their citizen’s ability to protect and defend themselves.
