Wasilla Police Billed Sexual Assault Victims for Rape Kits

Of all of the things I’ve learned about Sarah Palin in the last week and a half, this has got to be the most disturbing. While Sarah Palin was serving as the Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, the city charged victims of sexual assault between $300 and $1200 for their own rape kits. A rape kit is a sexual assault forensic evidence kit, used to collect DNA that can be used in criminal proceedings to assist in the conviction of those who commit sex crimes. The kit is performed as soon as possible after a sexual assault or attack has been committed. It is usually humiliating and uncomfortable for the victim–imagine enduring that and then paying $1200 just so that the criminal who assaulted you might be caught.
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ANCHORAGE - Gov. Tony Knowles recently signed legislation protecting victims of sexual assault from being billed for tests to collect evidence of the crime, but one local police chief said the new law will further burden taxpayers.
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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.

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.

In the past we’ve charged the cost of exams to the victims insurance company when possible. I just dont want to see any more burden put on the taxpayer, Fannon said.
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http://opedna.com/2008/09/08/wasilla-police-billed-sexual-assault-victims-for-rape-kits/

The horror! The horror.......

That made me slightly nauseous.

And oh, by the way, keep the baby! :crazy:

What a great opportunity for him to compare and contrast his history of fighting violence against women with hers.

react to this first class bullshit!

i think it was 163 in wasilla-- not sure about that it's on du somewhere

:sarcasm:

Again, WHAT. THE. F**K.???

According to Fannon, the new law will cost the Wasilla Police Department approximately $5,000 to $14,000 a year to collect evidence for sexual assault cases.

:wow:

MFers.

Just how many rapes occur in Alaska? The more I hear about this state the more I dislike it.

http://www.disastercenter.com/alaska/Year2004/WasillaPD.html
Ak 558 total in 2004, 84.8/100,000 inhabitants.

http://safety.fizber.com/Alaska/Wasilla/
this one says
2000 1
2001 2
2002 2
2003 1
2004 1
2005 3

Which makes this even more despicable.

I've heard it repeated but haven't found any evidence of that. Thanks.


http://www.disastercenter.com/alaska/Year2004/WasillaPD.html
Ak 558 total in 2004, 84.8/100,000 inhabitants.

http://safety.fizber.com/Alaska/Wasilla/
this one says
2000 1
2001 2
2002 2
2003 1
2004 1
2005 3

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0004912.html

Sorry I didn't reply sooner. I didn't see your response immediately.

Interesting set of numbers. The one I found for another yr was 8.4/100,000. I wonder what % is due to reporting rates, musing here thinking about small towns and everyone knowing everything, but that would pass over into other states with mostly rural areas.

Thanks. Appreciate you taking the time to pull up the link for me.

:-)

K & R

specifically. Was this her proposal? Clearly she approved it when the city council approved the budget, but still...wish we had a direct tie to her with this.

That shows a remarkable lack of empathy for other women who have suffered something unspeakable.

Well wait till Joe Biden hears about that. She don't care about women, just herself.

for the lab draw, syringes and test tubes and lab tests for their DUI arrests?

Seriously.

It would fit right in with the Xtian Dominionist view of women. Rape was a very common occurrence in biblical times and is mentioned repeatedly in the Old Testament, with basically no punishment attached -- except to the victim.

She says that she would make her own child bear a rapist's spawn, as well as every other female rape victim in the country. She is part of an extremist lobby that opposes hormonal contraception, making it all the more likely that rapes would result in pregnancy. Now this lovely piece of information comes out. Pattern, anyone?

No woman in her right mind -- not even a Repuke -- should support this EVIL person.

This information makes me cringe.

It's almost like Palin wants to punish rape victims to any degree that she can. She probably believes that most victims "ask for it".

Rape is not a crime of passion. It is a crime of violence.

Do people who have had their homes burglarized in Wasilla have to pay for the fingerprinting materials used to dust for prints?

This is ridiculous. Palin is a disgrace as a plausible VP candidate.

and being forced to marry the rapist if you werent. gives you a good idea of the character of that woman and of god too for that matter.

Unfortunately the corporations running our news media don't care any more about citizens than does Phalin.

:mad:

:puke:

Why does the term "information retrieval charges" come to mind when I read this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=291QciJA2Wo

OMG this woman is a wackjob.

that Sarah Palin hates women, I thought it was something of an exaggeration (much as I dislike her), considering that she *IS* a woman. I should have trusted his discernment, because that definitely seems to be the case.

There's nothing worse than a Dominionist patriarchal woman.

with lipstick and heals.

And just look how well it works: she's the Vice Presidential nominee, and horny old men are drooling over her.

And if I was the victim of, say, a house robbery, would I be charged for the cost of the camera and film necessary to photograph my damaged house?

Unfucking real.

Of course not. One of the worst things about the way rape victims are treated is that the word "alleged" hangs around the victim as it does in no other crime. Sending the sexual assault victim a bill for evidence collection in any circumstance is unconscionable.

when they shoot us.

A blank for you to add your own text.

is then hit with a bill of up to $1200 for a rape kit? Is Palin f**king serious?

As a woman, Palin should be extra sensitive to the fact of the extra pressure and harassment women must go though in Alaska being out-numbered by 10 males for every female.

Everything I read about her just seems to have unearthed more festering filth that's only now being exposed to the light of day.

you've just been raped. If you want the rapist found and charged, you must report it to the police and you must be checked. You can not wash until the examination, which is another invasion, is over. If you've been physically injured as well as raped, it makes even more painful.

Then if you were raped in Alaska, you have to fucking pay for the exam????

The killa from wasilla is what McGramps called his wife.

:grr:

and I am more outraged than ever!

I don't know what else to say, I am so furious.
Nothing like further victimizing the victim.

Arrrrrgghhhh

nasty karma for herself....

And then those kits sit on shelves for months and months and months.

I feel sick.

in our own land. Rapists are compulsive terrorists of the worst sort. Let's get them off the street and quit crying about who has to pay for it. In the in we all do, one way, or another. Surely, Republicans wouldn't think these victims could have avoided being victims and therefore they have the responsibility to pay? Or, that they should keep their mouths shut, if they can't come up with $1200. In my state, many crimes are classified crimes against the state and the state acts as the victim's advocate, not their bill collector.

This whole thing is shameful. I wonder if the good people of Wassila have any problem paying their taxes in order to buy bombs with which we so deftly drop on brown people around the world? Rhetorical question, really. We all know the answer to that one.

Pathetic excuse for public service.

do they bill victims of burglaries for dusting for fingerprints? what the fuck is the police department FOR? rape kits are paid for with taxes, period. it is the collection of evidence following the commitment of a criminal act.
is this a common practice?

She was sexually assaulted and had to pay for the "rape kit" and an emergency room visit. She was a college student at the time, former boyfriend took her against her will and assaulted her. Not exactly something you relish the thought of turning in to your health insurance company so we just paid it out of pocket, several hundred dollars.

I am SICK thinking of your poor daughter and others like her being forced to pay a fee to the government to collect evidence of a crime.