Gillibrand loses bid to strip military sex assault cases from chain of command

[DreamGypsy]

Source: NBC

The Senate’s staunchest advocate for transferring military rape cases to independent prosecutors to contain a rape epidemic in the ranks said Wednesday she was distressed by the rejection of her proposal, saying, "The victims’ voices aren’t being heard."

“To reverse this crisis, I do not believe it will be enough if we do not seize the opportunity and embrace the kind of systemic reform that will truly increase accountability," said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., during a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee to consider amendments to the proposed fiscal 2014 military budget.


However, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., on Wednesday replaced Gillibrand’s amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act of 2014 with his own plan: If unit commanders decide not to prosecute service members for alleged sex assaults, those cases would be required to undergo "an independent review by the next higher level of the chain of command." Further, Levin's amendment would make it a crime for service members to retaliate against victims who claim they were sexually assaulted.


Navy veteran Trina McDonald, who said she survived three rapes while serving in Alaska in 1989, called Levin's move "proposterous." In an interview Wednesday with NBC News, she predicted the military's sex-assault crisis will deepen because Gillibrand's plan was spiked and replaced by Levin's amendment.

Read more: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/12/18920746-gillibrand-loses-bid-to-strip-military-sex-assault-cases-from-chain-of-command#comments

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Hmmm. "an independent review by the next higher level of the chain of command."

And the *uck stops there. Right.

[kwassa]

1. This is a grotesquely bad decision.

Nothing will change.

I can't believe that Levin offered this alternative, and that everyone else bit.

and the crime goes on.

[PDJane]

2. This is a prescription for same old, same old.

[ReRe]

3. Oops....

I pitty the dude that puts Kirsten Gillibrand in her place. Levin is not going to be there forever... as a matter of fact, didn't he just announce his retirement a couple weeks ago? It's OK... Kirsten will be back. And she will have all them apologist Senators and Generals bent over her knee. She'll keep on until it won't be dangerous to just JOIN the military, for males or females.

[Nanjing to Seoul]

4. Thank you Carl, for supporting women in uniform. While you're stripping things

why not try to strip away material and make yourself a spine and balls, you DINO!

[DRoseDARs]

5. Has Levin mansplained himself yet? Clearly, Gillibrand's lady parts are clouding her judgement.

She should leave this work to the menfolk; go bake them some cookies or something.

[DallasNE]

6. Why It Lost Is Disgusting

It was charged that this created a new, special class for rape and then listed a laundry list of crimes that would remain in the chain of command. Unless armed robbery is committed by a superior within the chain of command on someone under their command it is not an applicable comparison. It is only the cases of rape, where the military doesn't seem to view rape as a violent crime, are both the victim and accused within the chain of command. Also, our allies all take charges of rape out of the chain of command and their rape cases are far lower than ours. Duh! It would be interesting to see the vote tally broken down by the sex of the Senator. It would probably be eye-opening.

[SunSeeker]

7. So much for supporting our troops.

I can't imagine it will help military readiness having thousands of troops, men and women, getting raped and not being able to get any redress.

[davidpdx]

8. I agree this is terrible

I wish the hold would have ended with a better plan in place to deal with the problem.

[PADemD]

9. Any petitions we can sign?

[Bohunk68]

10. I loves my Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.

Her and Elizabeth Warren have the biggest 'nads in the whole damn Congress! THIS IS WHAT WE NEED RUNNING IN 2016. No more mealy-mouth get-alongs.

[Sunlei]

11. shameful of the military to want to hide this..what about if ALL woman victims went fully public?

It would be a hard thing for woman to do, but when they report in the military things seem to go very hard for them while they remain in the military.

If they listed what happened on a civilian public venue perhaps this would make it harder for the military to persecute them in private.

[Ash_F]

12. Democrat Carl Levin of Michigan

Michigan DUers, what are you going to do?

[Sunlei]

13. Democratic and not hand over any more of michigan to the Rs, thats for darn sure.

[Ash_F]

14. Democrat in this case.

Alternatively, Democratic Senator Carl Levin would work. No offense, but are you ESL?

Protecting rapists while treating women as property is a great way to hand over more of michigan to the Rs, thats for darn sure.

[CK_John]

15. This is a make or break vote for her presidential chances in 2015.

[sakabatou]

16. *sigh*