Will probe bring justice in town's rape scandal?

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By SHARON COHEN ROBBINS, Ill. (AP) - The rape evidence was stored in the police department's musty basement: Brown paper shopping bags, stuffed with sneakers, bras and underpants, jammed on metal shelves. Scattered blood vials and swabs covered with dust and mold - an inventory amassed over more than 25 years.

Cara Smith, a Cook County sheriff's aide, knew something was terribly wrong the moment she saw the jumble, which included 176 rape kits dating back to 1986. Many of these crimes had long been forgotten by everyone except the victims.

Smith began digging into the cases and ultimately came to a disturbing conclusion: In most of the reported rapes, Robbins police had seemingly conducted little or no follow-up despite having crime lab results. And in nearly a third of the cases, police hadn't even submitted physical evidence for analysis.

Those findings posed one daunting question: Is there any way to right the wrongs that, in some cases, go back a generation?

FULL story at link.



Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20131123/DAA8H02O1.html

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Cara Smith, the chief of policy and communications for the Cook County, Ill., Sheriff's department, leans on her car on Thursday, Sept. 26, 2013 in Robbins, Ill., at the site of an alleged rape. DNA collected in that 1991 case recently matched a convicted felon, but he could not be arrested because Robbins police hadn't submitted the evidence in a timely fashion to the state crime lab. The rape kit in that case is one of nearly 200 in Robbins that Sheriff's investigators found that were never tested or, if they were, were never investigated. (AP Photo/Martha Irvine)

[duhneece]

1. Woudn't you know, it took a woman!

I know MANY men who love women, hate injustice, would risk this professional gamble...but still, wouldn't you know...

[Tumbulu]

2. It is so true

and it is a sad fact that this is not unique to this particular place.

Rape and violence against women is somehow considered a right of some sort. Just look at all the sad DU"ers arguing for the right to watch rape porn.

[loudsue]

4. WTF???? I sure as hell missed THAT thread!

[Tumbulu]

5. Very sad, the threads have a huge number of posts

and I just cannot fathom that they think this is an acceptable liberal position. Libertarian perhaps, but not liberal.

[7962]

16. Me too.

[Curmudgeoness]

7. My first thought as well.

I really don't think that men have the same disgust for rape that women have. Or maybe it is just some men. Like the cops in this town.

[ReRe]

12. Those police depts who don't do the right thing...

... are filled with officers who think it will never happen to their wives, or mothers, or daughters. Probably they "assume" the women are not telling the truth, passing judgment themselves. It's like the wild wild west in this country now. And this happened in Cook Co, IL? As in Chicago? I must have read that wrong, sorry.

[lunatica]

3. Science and a determined person will open old unecessarily cold cases

I marvel at the advances science has made. And right now it's going full tilt forward. So many cold cases have been solved by science as it evolves. Especially when it comes to DNA. There's not telling what will bring someone down in 10 years that we have no way of imagining now.

[duhneece]

15. Only if the labs have the resources

We have to make sure the labs have funding for adequate personnel and equipment for that to happen. As long as folks like Alice Walton and the other 1% can amass such incredibly fortunes instead of, like during the Eisenhower period, when the wealthiest paid 91% highest marginal tax rate and the unions could demand living wages will that happen.

[JimboBillyBubbaBob]

6. Who...

...wrote this headline?

[niyad]

9. like this one:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024082753

welcome to DU. seems there is an endless number of football/rape stories, which is beyond disgusting. rape culture is alive and flourishing.

[7962]

17. So whats the latest on this story? I live in Ga and never heard it!

Any charges pending or anything like that?

[niyad]

10. that report makes me angry on so many levels--but most of all, the sheer indifference to these

horrendous crimes against women, clearly demonstrated by the zohfeld and pickett cases. what is it going to take to get rape taken seriously in this country, by the people who supposedly swore to "serve and protect"?

[truedelphi]

11. If I am remembering Chicago geography correctly, Robbins was a

Low income, mostly African American community.

it could be that it has "gentrified" over the years. But most of us understand that there is one form of "Justice" for middle class or better white people, and another kind of "Justice" for those lower down on the economic rungs.

In any event, kudos to Cara Smith for trying to right a tragic wrong.

[idwiyo]

13. This is horrific. Just no words.

[DeSwiss]

14. ''Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?''

K&R

[niyad]

19. nobody, apparently

[7962]

18. I just dont understand rapes being swept under the rug.

As a man, it makes me angry that men in charge dont do more to solve these crimes. What if it were their daughters???

[niyad]

20. according to a certain mindset, women are not actually people--just some sort of servant-class

reproductive factory and chattel. you would think they might have a bit more concern if it were their own family members, but I would not guarantee it.

[Posteritatis]

21. "Oh, but that would never happen to *my* kids!" is the basic attitude. (nt)

[7962]

22. Kinda like not liking gay folks; then finding out your kid is! nt