When people wonder why feminism is important, and when people try to smear the word by claiming it’s anything more than the radical idea that woman are human beings and deserving of the same rights and privileges as any man, this is an excellent example of societal injustice worth waving in their face.

First, police say, a 21-year-old woman was raped at Gasparilla. Then, she was handcuffed and jailed – for two nights and two days.

A jail worker with religious objections blocked her from ingesting a morning-after pill to prevent pregnancy, her attorney says, keeping her from taking the required second dose for more than 24 hours longer than recommended.

…

The premedical student attended Saturday’s Gasparilla parade and veered off from her friends shortly before 1:30 p.m., police said. The Times is not naming her because police say she is a victim of a sexual crime.

As she walked north on Howard Avenue at Swann Avenue, she was grabbed by a man with crooked teeth and raped behind a building, McElroy said.

After the assault, the man ran off. The woman walked to her car, which was parked on the University of Tampa campus. At 3:40 p.m., after finding her vehicle, she called police.

As police assisted her, taking her to a nurse examiner’s clinic, and processing her report, an officer found two outstanding warrants for the woman in Sarasota County.

Attorney Virlyn “Vic” Moore III of Venice said his client was seated in the front seat of the police cruiser, on her way to the scene of her attack when the officer learned of the warrant, cuffed her and placed her in the back seat.

“To stop the rape investigation and instead victimize her again,” Moore said. “I’m aghast, astonished and outraged. I have never, ever heard of this happening.”

The officer arrested the woman at a sergeant’s instruction, McElroy said.

The student had failed to pay $4,585 restitution after a 2003 juvenile arrest, McElroy said. Moore said his client is convinced that she paid the fine and that the warrant was probably the result of a clerical error.

The judge set no bail.

“As soon as the chief’s office found out about it Monday, detectives were assigned to get her out of jail,” McElroy said. “Obviously, we’re very concerned about this young woman.”

Jail records show the woman was booked about eight hours after the reported rape.

A doctor had given her Plan B, the so-called “morning-after pill” approved by the FDA, to prevent pregnancy. But Moore said a medical supervisor at the jail refused to let her take the second of the two pills on Sunday.

For the emergency contraceptive to work, the first pill must be taken within three days of unprotected sex and the second 12 hours after the first. The woman had already taken the first pill soon after the assault Saturday, Moore said. She was unable to take the second pill until Monday afternoon. The jail allowed it, he said, after media inquiries.

I think the bulk of the article speaks for itself.

While I believe that to a degree this is blatant lack of consideration for a victim of a heinous crime, this is also the result of an arrogant police department who used their discretion entirely inappropriately. The number of questions to be answered here are numerous: Why was this woman treated this way? Why was the jail staffer’s religious beliefs even a factor when it came to him performing his duty? Why is a crime that the woman committed when she was a juvenile a felony, and considering the frequency of clerical errors like this (and they’re surprisingly frequent) why wasn’t she at the very least given the benefit of the doubt? Why did the police opt to pursue the warrants over the crime at hand? Why did the police decide that this old, likely already resolved matter of restitution was more important than rape?

The message is clear to sex offenders in Florida-make sure your victim has a dubious legal history and you can get away with anything. And women? Your message is clear as well: when the police claim to be there to serve and protect, they’re really saying “prosceute and enforce.” It’s sad that we’re not in the position where we can trust the authorities to use proper discretion on a case merit basis.

It’s remarkable. We’ve come a long long way, but apparently we have a great deal farther to go.

[ Police Jail Rape Victim for Two Days ]
Source: St. Petersburg Times

Apparently our federal institutions, charged with maintaining the public good, have more interest in suing those people they are charged with serving than actually serving them. After Hurricane Katrina, the detractors would wag their fingers at the people in New Orleans and tell them that they should have “helped themselves,” and should have “known better than to depend on the government,” essentially admonishing them for making use of the social support system that we’ve sought to build for all of our citizens. The mantra was that you can’t depend on local, regional, or federal authorities for anything, and that you should be ready to fend for yourself and take care of yourself without Uncle Sam’s help.

Many people got the message-I myself did, and made sure that I had an emergency and disaster plan, depending on the kind of emergency. I would suggest that you do the same-in the case of a cataclysmic or disastrous event, you’ll know what to do and have some kind of plan. Still, a massive event like Hurricane Katrina can throw anyone’s plans out of whack.

Still, when the people living in public housing decided to stop waiting for the Department of Housing and Urban Development to repair and renovate their public housing units so they would have a place to live, they took matters into their own hands and decided to do just what the detractors said they should do: help themselves. They walked into their homes and began the long and arduous job of cleaning up their living spaces and effecting repairs.

What did HUD do? Thank them for doing the work on their own? Apologize for taking so long to help them? Nope-they sued them for “damages” and asked a judge to throw them all out of their homes.

On Martin Luther King’s birthday, after being shut out of their homes for a year and a half, residents of the St. Bernard housing development in New Orleans took matters into their own hands. They entered their apartments, without permission, to the cheers of hundreds of supporters.1 HUD (Department of Housing and Urban development), the federal agency that’s supposed to help provide low-income housing, responded by suing them for monetary damages and asking a judge to throw them out of their homes—homes that are structurally intact and can be made livable with minimal investment.2,3

HUD can’t—or won’t—open up perfectly good housing, but it finds a way to sue the people it’s supposed to serve?

It’s appalling. I understand the need to ensure that the homes are viable and livable, but we’ve proven this already-essentially the only thing that needed to be done was to have professionals come and begin the cleanup, and well, where the government fails, individuals prevail. So why are the people of New Orleans being punished for exercising their own personal responsibility and trying to steer their own futures?

Make your voice heard, tell HUD to drop their petty lawsuits and do their jobs:

[ Going Home Shouldn't Be A Crime ]
Source: Color of Change

I’d like to know as well.

Where does the greed stop? What is it about working men and women that the right side of the aisle seems to dislike so much? We knew that the right only capitulates to the well being of the greater public when it’s election season or when they have a socially divisive axe to grind, but the minimum wage? We’ve heard the Friedman-esque arguments that it’ll hinder trade and businesses will have to struggle to pay the minimum wage, but I’m concerned with the profit margins and validity of the books of any company that can’t afford to pay its workers a living wage, and at least one pegged against inflation so that we don’t have people working multiple full-time jobs just with the hope that someday they’ll be able to pay for their groceries and their children’s medication.

It’s shameful that we’re even having this debate, but the right has never shed its shame before, so we shouldn’t expect much else now. All we can demand is that the democrats and progressives on both sides of the aisle who actually care about their constituents and the real national interest will stand firm behind the minimum wage increase. I’m not discouraged by some tax incentives to make the “hurt” easier on small businesses that are struggling as is, and firmly believe that the larger effect will outweigh those small issues, but it’s important to get the measure passed and the law enforced first, and hopefully with as few amendments as possible.

[ Kennedy to Republicans: "What Is it About Working Men and Women That You Find so Offensive?" ]
Source: TruthOut

If you like, you can take action and tell the Senate to stop nickel-and-diming the American people and to pass the minimum wage bill without watering it down with amendments and tax breaks that will dilute its importance. Make you voice heard.

[ Senators: Don't Nickel and Dime the Minimum Wage Bill! ]
Source: Faithful America