Why Isn’t Rape a Priority for the Men Running the Police Department?

When analyzing police personnel, the proper comparison is between sexual assault and other life-altering types of assault, not homicide. Why does the article neglect to provide these very important data?

The answer is right there in the question, you just need to re-arrange some words: Rape Isn't a Priority For Men. Why? Because they're....MEN. How hard is this?

Oh surprise, no transparency. Would I ever depend on law enforcement? And then the 'justice' system.

Rape continues to create havoc among women...while the victims are regally ignored by an all-men cast of police characters, whose sense of justice seems distant at best. Things may continue to be placed under the rug for as long as a woman is not in charge, and the allocation of resources appropriate, for 'justice' to see the light of day.

Why isn't rape a priority for police departments? Because there are rapists among them, who are protected by the thin blue line.

This editorial as it is written strongly implies that NYPD top management are well aware of an acute problem of too many rape cases to be solved by an inadequate number of staff and that these officials wilfully choose not to address the problem. If this is in fact the sad truth, then the NYT's should make the case, directly and repeatedly, and not stop with the allusion there is a hidden bias and agenda against fulsomely addressing a crime that affects a very wide swath of the population of New York. Yelling "Fire" once in a while is not the same, nor nearly as effective, as advocating for a fully staffed, trained and equipped fire department capable of handling the number of fires expected in the city. If the editorial is correct, much still needs to be done to change the patriarchal attitudes of those commanding the NYPD and, likely, the New York City administration too. This will only happen through public discourse and consistent pressure over a long period. The NYT's has the capability and, therefore, a central role advocating for change and keeping debate going.

Whatever evil happens to women, outside of the media, marketing, police department's have let rape kites languish in the departments for years, untested because it has never been a priority in the mission statement of the police departments all across this country. countless programs have been done highlighting the backlog and nothing changes. Women, are not even second class citizens, there is always an excuse on why arrests are not made. Except when it is a crime that screams race then usually the wrong person is arrested to show that the police are doing there jobs. The City councils across this country need to be monitored and vote people out who refuse to address rape as a serious event that needs to be addressed and resolved.

"But when we asked N.Y.P.D officials for the size of the Special Victims Division budget, they said they didn’t have that information, the same response Mr. Peters said they gave him months ago. “They were not able to provide us with budget breakdowns, " If they reall cannot provide departmental breakdowns, then how do they determine departmental needs?

Second class policing, for second class citizens. Misogyny, writ in BLUE. Vote, Women. Demand change, demand equal treatment.

One obvious reason why rape isn't a priority for the NYPD is that it is too busy cracking down on consensual sex to spare time and resources to fight coerced sex. It is reported that, over the past decade, the NYPD has made thousands of prostitution arrests. In 2014, there were more than 1,700. Raids on massage parlors also spiked in the years up to 2017. It was in trying to escape one of those arrests that 38-year old Yang Song recently fell four stories to her death on a sidewalk in Flushing, Queens. Talk about warped priorities! Instead of hounding Song to her death, law enforcement could have been investigating allegations of rape. Let's decriminalize sex work and shift the resources to fighting rape.

The answer to your editorial question regarding the men running the Police Department can be found on the walls of the caves inhabited by prehistoric civilizations. Sex, any kind of sex, is “the prize”, “the win”, “the challenge to be met and overcome” and therefore, why in the world would anyone complain about “gettin’ some”? Unfortunately, this survival-driven caveman still lives deep in the psyches of ordinary men who work everywhere in law enforcement and routinely ignore and dismiss or, just plain can’t comprehend, that rape has nothing at all to do with sex.

Go back to the early 80's folks. A serial rapist was finally caught after he raped a nun. The dozen or so attacks before hers were handled "normally." Her attack resulted in more resources and a more serious attitude about the crime. Oh, and how the department and papers crowed about the "success" of catching the criminal. Imagine the horror of being one of the earlier victims and knowing your attack didn't really matter. Maybe then, as now, only some crimes deserve our attention.

If sexual assault investigation was priority the policy setters, the mayor and city council would make it one. The DA also plays a big part in setting enforcement priorities. The police are the implementers of the law and the mayor and council set the policies dealing with priorities. No doubt that if an affluent person is raped, the priority is high to solve the crime and test for DNA. On the other hand, if the victim is poor or otherwise unattractive, not all rape victims can be Snow White or Mary Poppins, the priority ca be low based on who the victim is or how difficult the case may be to investigate and prosecute. In my experience investigating hundreds of felony sex crimes the priorities and funding come from the very top beyond the police department. Unfortunately there's two sets of rules in some cases when it comes to sex crimes and even murder. Being a rape victim should be on par with being a murder victim when it comes to the police response and outcomes. Like the Bosch character Harry Bosch says, "Everyone counts or nobody counts."

At every report they (the police) should handle it as if it happened to their relatives, sister, daughter. This is the case, that is someone's daughter, mother. Each and ever time!