CNN Covers Palin Rape Kit Story (VIDEO)

Multiple newspapers have confirmed reports in blogs that Sarah Palin's town charged rape victims for their forensic exams while she was mayor. Now CNN has covered the story, interviewing the sponsor of a law aimed at ending the practice. He finds it hard to believe this practice could go on without the mayor's knowledge. Watch:

Comments

[iPolitics]

Palin hates women

[djelimon]

Only raped women

[oregondemgrl]

No she hates all women. Anyone who will not support women's reproductive rights and condones abuse and the rape of women- Hates Women!!

This women is setting us back decades!!

[mysterygirl18]

If you are mayor of a town of 1,000 or 2 million this is a disgrace. Even if one person in this town was raped that is still one to many. I agree with the poster who said she was evil- help us if she gets into office.

Palin venting site: http://www.myspace.com/wakeupnowpeople

[TurtleGuy]

How any woman can consider voting for the McCain/Palin ticket is beyond me.

[gladys46]

It would be beyond any logical thought processes of any woman !!! I don't trust Palin with her own daughter future ... not to speak of my daughter's !!

[Bluebloodsbastardson]

how any human can vote for it is beyond me...................................

[CharlesJ]

This is a no brainer... she signed the budget, she approves all expenses, all budgets and approved the over all budget for the year. Of course she knew, that is what ticked her off when the Chief of Police went shopping for federal funds to pay for the apprehension of rapist, pedophiles ect.. the funds were to include money to pay for the rape tests. Palin had other plans for the feds help and she did not like it when this guy went behind her back to try and get the money. If the victim was forced to pay for the test then there would be no payment or tests because most could not afford it. Thus the charges would be dropped, ending in no reports of rape, thus taking Alaska out of the Federal Lime light as being the state with the highest number of rapes per capita. Not a very good record for any state to have. That explaination makes a lot of sense to me.

[robotfog]

Everything about this woman is slimy.

[cheeriogirl]

I couldn't agree more with you CharlesJ. If you look into this further, one rape was reported in Wasilla's statistical crime log, yet the chief of police said that they would need to budget between 5,000 and 14,000 annually to pay for the kits. Something sure doesn't add up here, with the kits costing between 300 and 1200 each. I think I smell a coverup.

BTW, she absolutely knew about this. The police chief that Sarah fired had been paying for the rape kits. The new chief and Sarah changed Wasillas policy and began charging woman for the kits in order to keep costs low and reported rapes down. What a sellout she has been for women's issues. I say thanks but no thanks to Gov. Palin.

[oregondemgrl]

Just a thought - They may not have been reporting the rapes as sexual assault but as assault and battery. This would explain the zero reports of rape.

[JamesInDenver]

The rape kit cost was up to $1,200 dollars. How many young women can afford that?

[gladys46]

So, are women to believe Palin didn't know ... or are we to believe she just ignored proper funding ... victimized women were not her funding priority!? Palin is disgusting !!!

[OhioVoter328]

Was it really $1200? Is that about how much she gave back to the voters each year?

And by the way.... Hasn't the state government of Alaska been giving money back the people of Alaska for a long time?

[MyAudacity]

If a woman claimed rape falsely she should reimburse the cost of the kit.

What I don't understand is why would the Chief of Police be more concerned about the City's Budget than the Mayor of that city.

Also, with the Police Department reinforcing the fact to rape victims they would be responsible for billing sounds like an intimidation tactic to preclude a victim from filing charges, or submitting the proof necessary for a police investigation, which may result in an expensive court cost, and incarceration.

So the rapist comes out the "winner" and the victim is traumatized, diminished, and made to feel less than if he/she is unable to afford the rape kit.

This is sad on so many levels. I certainly hope it has been corrected.

[puddle]

IF a person is falsely accused of rape, how can that person's right to a fair trial be served by a rape kit paid for by the accuser?

[stayinsouth1981]

It is not as if the rape victim combs her own pubic hair and retains the swabs of seminal fluids. They are collected by professionals and stored securely, analyzed then retained for court cases with a chain of custody that is signed off on by the police and medical personnel.

If any of these professionals tamper with the evidence, it is their license and professional credentials on the line. I don't think you are going to get a line of people to agree to throw a case.

[mogran]

It is hard for me to believe that she was not aware. Before becoming Mayor she was on the City Council. This is a very small town, she should have been award of all budget issue. If she was unable to get her hands around a small city like Wasilla, how the heck do we expect her to get aroung the US budget?

[confuseddemocrat]

I meant if the rape victim doesn't get tested, she will most likely not be tested for HIV exposure or receive AZT prophylaxis.

[confuseddemocrat]

By forcing rape victims to pay for rape kit... it will decrease likelihood of the victim getting tested for rape, catching the culprit and of course receiving the morning after pill.

The strategy is to dissuade women from aborting a possible pregnancy.

The downside is, if she get tested, then she is less likely to get an AIDS test and receive prophylaxis AZT. This is insidious. It could have an even more disastrous effects (if the rape isn't disastrous enough) on the victim or even the baby should she keep it.

One Word to describe this policy: EVIL

[Liberoservative]

Under the Palin/McCain administration, the morning after pill won't be an option

[robotfog]

but EVIL will be.

[stayinsouth1981]

Once they figure out that hormonal birth control such as mini pills and full strength can be used as morning after or TWO WEEKS after.. they will be off the pharmacy shelves as well.

[MissKaren]

First of all, the victim never touches the kit. That breaks the chain of evidence. I worked as a counselor to rape victims in a hospital ER and I had to sign the kit as witness that it never left the hands of the doctor collected the samples and the policeman taking custody of the kit. The kit is not her "property." It belongs to the police of the locality. All collection and processing costs are forensic expenses and thus borne by the police. For any locality to attempt to make the victim pay jeopardizes the trial. If a jurisdiction wants to jeopardize rape cases (I assume without evidence that this is not the intention of the Wasilla police chief), making the victim pay for the kit is a great way of doing it.

[JoyceLau]

$14,000 a year in rape tests? Exactly how many rapes were going on in this small town?

http://joycelau1.spaces.live.com

[jhw22]

I don't know how many in the town, but the FBI says that Alaska is the highest state in rapes.... that's not a first place title to be proud of. Especially when you are a woman with three daughters. I don't know, but that's probably something I would have worked to improve as a woman. Maybe that's sexist...

Jennifer

[robotfog]

you're not sexist. Anyone with a human conscience would try to improve the situation.

[stayinsouth1981]

Wasilla was not reporting the rapes in the fourth largest town in the state. Or is it the eighth?

[MissKaren]

Alaska has a very high rate of rapes, evidently. You can only kill so many moose before you look for other amusements.

[JOHNMcg404]

the rape kits contain emergency contraception. her opposition makes perfect sense in that context.

[combatveteran]

That is not true.

Obama/Biden

[Chapmanp2]

Oh it's true!!! Which explains the McCain camp's reply perfectly, "evidence gathering".
It also explains perfectly why Monegan was fired after "lobbying Congress" on behalf of abuse victims.

[Ron1951]

it is this type of social conservatism that caused real conservatives like George Will to disown the republican party. The religious right has hijacked the party, and until either true conservatives start up a real third party or somehow diminish the impact of the religious right, stupid wedge issues as favored by Rove/Schmidt will continue to highlight the elective process rather than true debate about the problems that affect us all.

[319]

Are you saying that Palin's opposition to the Bill that stopped the Wasilla Police Dept. from charging the victims for rape kits is understandable, given her extreme-fundamentalist religious views against ANY form of contraception? If so, I agree. It makes perfect sense.

They'll need to put much more lipstick on that pit bull/hockey-mom before you can cover up the truth.

[robotfog]

"They'll need to put much more lipstick on that *pit bull/hockey-mom* before you can cover up the truth."

I prefer the term "pig"

[OhioVoter328]

Rape is a violent crime and has nothing to do with sex and contraception and or abortion. If a crime is committed it needs to be dealt with no matter how you feel about abortion.

[jiml1956]

So, they won't pay for it if the victim wants to take the emergency contraception pill?

If the kit did not contain the bill, Wasilla would have paid for the rape kit?

[lbrillante]

Palin hired the police chief that started the policy and she signed his budget. As a woman is there any way that she did not know about Alaska's high rate of rape compared with the rest of the country. Then Monegan was criticized for his trip to Washington, even though it was autorized, and he tells us he was going to talk about getting funding for investigating sexual assault among oither things.
Palin is just like McCain=All The Wrong Stuff!!

Enough is Enough!

Obama/Biden '08

[nowalnuts]

After watching the clip of McCain on SNL portraying a sex offender from 2002 I was very creeped. He didn't have any problems with his lines. Youtube it to be creeped out or copy and paste the link below.

What kind of sane elected official would ever think that portraying a sexual creep on tv even as a joke would be a good idea? Meet McCain and Palin! He rapes them and she makes sure they pay!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lhomInJ7Pc

[oregondemgrl]

eeeewwwwwwww - that was so creepy

[IForgotMyName]

Palin is worried that the city budget might have to pay for $15,000 for rape victims but does not have a problem with building an ice rink for $15 million (and leaving the former debt free town with a $20 million debt)? Now I know what small town values are: putting ice rinks first.

And what is that BS that she did not know about it? They keep telling me all the time that her qualification for VP is that she has "executive experience". Well, if she doesn't know about this then she is just not doing her job.

[sacrebleu]

"I just don't want to see any more burden put on the taxpayer," said Wasilla's Police Chief Charlie Fannan.

First of all: Hogwash! What tax burden? Alaska has no state sales or personal income tax.

More importantly: How does the chief of police fit into the local government hierarchy? Who does he report to? In my town he would report to... wait for it... the Mayor.

[PioneerKing]

PBS has a poll going for people to vote whether they think Sarah Palin is qualified to be president. Right now the "yes" votes are winning, because the right wing is voting en masse.

To change this trend, click on the link below and vote (you don't have to provide email or personal info, just click yes or no in the link and it will give you to vote to date.

http://www.pbs.org/now/polls/poll-435.html

[MsLiz]

Click on it more than once to vote more than once.

[observer007]

Uh - you can vote as many times as you want on this thing - I would lay money that someone was paid to keep hitting yes.

[oregondemgrl]

Who could be voting yes? I hope lame tr0lls are voting yes because if it is the public I am scared.

This is all a joke right? McCain is going to announce his real VP pick any day? It will be like he Punked us?

[stayinsouth1981]

How many budget items does a town that size have to deal with? We know she wasn't using her time on FOREIGN RELATIONS. They were waving at the REDS. We know she wasn't worried about alternative energy. They have plenty to last them and the country, what, ten years? She was planning the redecoration of her offices. She was planning the hockey moms' area of her new arena. She was involved in her coffee club of her CLOSEST friends. Maybe she delegated the responsibilty and put on her blinders?