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When it comes to sex crimes and victims, police officers can sometimes
totally lose sight of reality.
This time, imagine that you're a police lieutenant. You're returning to
the station at the end of a 4pm to midnight shift in an unmarked police
car. You're in company with two of your detectives, and all three of you
are wearing plainclothes. You're a white male, and both of your
detectives are black males.
As you arrive on the parking lot, the shifts are changing, so there's a lot
of activity. As you prepare to get out of the car, all three of you notice a
young black woman standing near the station's back entrance. She's
holding a plastic cup in her hand, and she's looking intently at certain
male officers as they exit the building. Every time she sees a black
male in plainclothes, she rushes up to him and stares directly into his
face. She pretty much ignores everyone else.
Just as the three of you are commenting on her movements, she spots
you and the detectives sitting in your car. She rushes over to the
driver's side of the car, and she puts her face close to the window and
stares at the detective who's sitting behind the steering wheel. After a
few seconds, she shifts her position and looks through the rear
passenger door window. She stares at the detective sitting in the back
seat. Without saying a word, she walks back toward the entrance, and
resumes her obvious search. The only thing obvious to you is that she's
looking for a particular black male police officer, because she totally
ignores you and other white male police officers on the parking lot.
Another thing you notice is that none of the police officers, black or
white, stop to question the woman regarding her actions. You get out of
your car, and you walk over to the woman. You identify yourself, and
you ask the woman if you can help her. She responds to you by saying,
"I'm looking for that [expletive deleted] police officer who raped me."
As you're comprehending what she just said to you, she raises her hand
holding the plastic cup and shouts, "And, I got the evidence to prove
it!" As she pushes the cup toward you, you back away. You quickly
realize that you don't want to come into contact with the contents of
that cup.
As you continue to speak calmly to the woman, she calms down. She
then begins to describe the earlier events of the evening that ultimately
lead her to the police station parking lot. The young woman is a street
prostitute. About two hours earlier, she was standing outside a
neighborhood bar drinking a soda…from the plastic cup mentioned. She
was approached by a black man who solicited her for a sex act. After
agreeing on a money amount, she began walking with the man to his
car. As they passed the alley next to the bar, the man grabbed her and
roughly pushed her into the alley. As she stumbled into the alley, he
grabbed her again, and pushed her against the wall. He made her stand
with her palms on the wall as he conducted a frisk. When he finished
frisking her, he spun her around and held a badge in front of her face.
He identified himself as a police officer as he quickly pulled the badge
away and put it in his pocket.
You can probably guess what came next. He gives her a choice. She
either performs a sex act on him, or he arrests her and charges her with
prostitution. The woman agrees, and the man pushes her to her knees.
Immediately after the completion of the act, the man zips up, and he's
gone. The young woman picks up her soda cup, which she'd dropped
when he first pushed her into the alley, and she spits the man's semen
into the cup.
After she finishes giving you the details, she adds, "I may be a
prostitute, but I'm not stupid. I know what he did is against the law."
Again, she holds up the cup and says, "I know about DNA, too." You
ask her if she'd been inside the station to report the crime? Here's
where you start to become irritated. She tells you she initially tried to
report the crime to officers inside the station. She claims that the
officers only laughed at her, before they ordered her to leave the station
or be "locked up."
You leave the victim with your two real detectives as you go inside to
locate the shift commander. The lieutenant is off, but you locate the
sergeant who is the acting shift commander. As you begin to tell the
sergeant about the woman on the parking lot, the sergeant cuts you
off…with laughter. "Yeah, that goofy whore came in here claiming that
some police officer raped her." As the sergeant's laughter trails off,
you reply, "Sergeant…you're telling me that a woman comes into the
station and tells you she's been sexually assaulted by a police officer,
and your response is to laugh at her and call her a goofy whore. Is that
what you're telling me, Sergeant?" Well, you can imagine how the
sergeant feels at this moment.
This is an extreme, but one excellent example of victim classification.
In this incident, the victim was not assaulted by a police officer. The
suspect was impersonating a police officer, but how much does that
matter to the victim who sincerely believed the suspect was a police
officer. Further, her initial treatment by real police officers could only
reaffirm her initial belief. Unfortunately, people are sometimes
victimized by real police officers, so think of the harm that's done when
real cops help to instill the image of criminal cops by ignoring and
ridiculing a victim just because, as in this case, she doesn't fit their idea
of a victim worthy of their attention.
You're going to come into contact with all kinds of victims. The sexual
assault victim can be a particularly difficult victim with which to deal.
She may insult you, irritate you, and lie to you. None of these negative
circumstances mean that a crime has not occurred. Sexual assault
victims will frequently lie about certain aspects of the incident, because
they believe that their own conduct may have contributed, or may be
viewed as having contributed, to the actual crime. You'll experience
victims of all types lying to you for the same reason, so why should a
sexual assault victim be any different.
What makes this true story so over the top is that the victim was totally
truthful, because she was so angry that she'd been, as she believed,
victimized by a police officer. There's another thing to be learned from
this incident. While it's obvious to you that law abiding citizens expect a
police officer to possess a high level of integrity, now you know that
people involved in criminal conduct expect it as well. And…why
shouldn't they? It's what separates you from them.
totally lose sight of reality.
This time, imagine that you're a police lieutenant. You're returning to
the station at the end of a 4pm to midnight shift in an unmarked police
car. You're in company with two of your detectives, and all three of you
are wearing plainclothes. You're a white male, and both of your
detectives are black males.
As you arrive on the parking lot, the shifts are changing, so there's a lot
of activity. As you prepare to get out of the car, all three of you notice a
young black woman standing near the station's back entrance. She's
holding a plastic cup in her hand, and she's looking intently at certain
male officers as they exit the building. Every time she sees a black
male in plainclothes, she rushes up to him and stares directly into his
face. She pretty much ignores everyone else.
Just as the three of you are commenting on her movements, she spots
you and the detectives sitting in your car. She rushes over to the
driver's side of the car, and she puts her face close to the window and
stares at the detective who's sitting behind the steering wheel. After a
few seconds, she shifts her position and looks through the rear
passenger door window. She stares at the detective sitting in the back
seat. Without saying a word, she walks back toward the entrance, and
resumes her obvious search. The only thing obvious to you is that she's
looking for a particular black male police officer, because she totally
ignores you and other white male police officers on the parking lot.
Another thing you notice is that none of the police officers, black or
white, stop to question the woman regarding her actions. You get out of
your car, and you walk over to the woman. You identify yourself, and
you ask the woman if you can help her. She responds to you by saying,
"I'm looking for that [expletive deleted] police officer who raped me."
As you're comprehending what she just said to you, she raises her hand
holding the plastic cup and shouts, "And, I got the evidence to prove
it!" As she pushes the cup toward you, you back away. You quickly
realize that you don't want to come into contact with the contents of
that cup.
As you continue to speak calmly to the woman, she calms down. She
then begins to describe the earlier events of the evening that ultimately
lead her to the police station parking lot. The young woman is a street
prostitute. About two hours earlier, she was standing outside a
neighborhood bar drinking a soda…from the plastic cup mentioned. She
was approached by a black man who solicited her for a sex act. After
agreeing on a money amount, she began walking with the man to his
car. As they passed the alley next to the bar, the man grabbed her and
roughly pushed her into the alley. As she stumbled into the alley, he
grabbed her again, and pushed her against the wall. He made her stand
with her palms on the wall as he conducted a frisk. When he finished
frisking her, he spun her around and held a badge in front of her face.
He identified himself as a police officer as he quickly pulled the badge
away and put it in his pocket.
You can probably guess what came next. He gives her a choice. She
either performs a sex act on him, or he arrests her and charges her with
prostitution. The woman agrees, and the man pushes her to her knees.
Immediately after the completion of the act, the man zips up, and he's
gone. The young woman picks up her soda cup, which she'd dropped
when he first pushed her into the alley, and she spits the man's semen
into the cup.
After she finishes giving you the details, she adds, "I may be a
prostitute, but I'm not stupid. I know what he did is against the law."
Again, she holds up the cup and says, "I know about DNA, too." You
ask her if she'd been inside the station to report the crime? Here's
where you start to become irritated. She tells you she initially tried to
report the crime to officers inside the station. She claims that the
officers only laughed at her, before they ordered her to leave the station
or be "locked up."
You leave the victim with your two real detectives as you go inside to
locate the shift commander. The lieutenant is off, but you locate the
sergeant who is the acting shift commander. As you begin to tell the
sergeant about the woman on the parking lot, the sergeant cuts you
off…with laughter. "Yeah, that goofy whore came in here claiming that
some police officer raped her." As the sergeant's laughter trails off,
you reply, "Sergeant…you're telling me that a woman comes into the
station and tells you she's been sexually assaulted by a police officer,
and your response is to laugh at her and call her a goofy whore. Is that
what you're telling me, Sergeant?" Well, you can imagine how the
sergeant feels at this moment.
This is an extreme, but one excellent example of victim classification.
In this incident, the victim was not assaulted by a police officer. The
suspect was impersonating a police officer, but how much does that
matter to the victim who sincerely believed the suspect was a police
officer. Further, her initial treatment by real police officers could only
reaffirm her initial belief. Unfortunately, people are sometimes
victimized by real police officers, so think of the harm that's done when
real cops help to instill the image of criminal cops by ignoring and
ridiculing a victim just because, as in this case, she doesn't fit their idea
of a victim worthy of their attention.
You're going to come into contact with all kinds of victims. The sexual
assault victim can be a particularly difficult victim with which to deal.
She may insult you, irritate you, and lie to you. None of these negative
circumstances mean that a crime has not occurred. Sexual assault
victims will frequently lie about certain aspects of the incident, because
they believe that their own conduct may have contributed, or may be
viewed as having contributed, to the actual crime. You'll experience
victims of all types lying to you for the same reason, so why should a
sexual assault victim be any different.
What makes this true story so over the top is that the victim was totally
truthful, because she was so angry that she'd been, as she believed,
victimized by a police officer. There's another thing to be learned from
this incident. While it's obvious to you that law abiding citizens expect a
police officer to possess a high level of integrity, now you know that
people involved in criminal conduct expect it as well. And…why
shouldn't they? It's what separates you from them.
More
Victim
Classification
Victim
Classification
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"Every encounter you have is an investment. Treat it that
way." ~ David Ziskin, Author of The Real Police
way." ~ David Ziskin, Author of The Real Police