You Get the Justice You Pay For
It’s amazing to me just how much of the Republican platform has become “We’re really quite terrible. Really.” Who knew (well, aside from anybody who’d been paying attention to his voting record), for instance, that “maverick” John McCain who likes to begin every other sentence with “my friends” really wants his friends to pay for their justice, especially if they’re seeking justice for rape.
Biden’s legislation required that state, local, and Indian governments provide the rape exams to victims free of charge as a condition of receiving federal funds under the Violence Against Women Act. In 2000, Alaska finally passed state legislation in order to qualify for federal funding.McCain not only opposed Biden’s legislation, but also has voted against funding it as recently as October 2007.
But that’s just maverick, cowboy up, “I’ll bring in the scum that did this to ya, Nadine, but only if ya can pay” McCain. He’s old-school. I’m certain that Governor Palin would never have condoned anything like that. Surely, the woman who believes that a woman should not be able to get a legal abortion even in the case of rape would see to it that a woman who had been the victim of a rape would get justice.
Oh. Right. Republican. Forgot.
The McCain campaign’s surrogates have sucked up a lot of air time this past week shouting “Palin is a victim of sexism!” every time her credentials for the second highest office in the land are questioned. Yet so far they’ve managed to avoid hard questioning about Palin’s role as mayor of Wasilla in overseeing policy that charged REAL victims, rape victims, for the expensive medical and forensic test necessary for prosecuting rapists.A policy, mind you, that may have been illegal as well as heartless.
Heartless? Absolutely. Illegal? If it wasn’t at the time, then it should have been. A rape kit is not a medical procedure. Well, okay, it involves medical expertise – but its not like having an emergency appendectomy, and it’s certainly not like getting a nose job. A rape kit is a vital element in an investigation into sexual assault, and it’s almost impossible to get charges pressed without it. Telling someone they have to pay for a rape kit is not just like making someone pay for access to police protection and the justice system, it is making someone pay for access to police protection and the justice system.
And both McCain and Palin feel that it’s all right to make victims pay for their own justice to save the taxpayers money, even as Palin feels it’s all right to demand a per diem for staying in her own house.
I’ve asked people before when talking about the medical system – what if fire departments acted like health insurance companies? What about police? What if you suddenly got a phone call that due to droughts, the flammability of certain areas of the city was now a pre-existing condition and the fire department would not be expected to put out fires in those neighborhoods? Or that due to the rise in crime in your neighborhood, it was no longer cost-effective to offer you police protection and they would no longer be responding to 911 calls from your local area?
Little did I know that the McCain/Palin campaign would think that I was making a suggestion.
September 13th, 2008 at 3:24 am
Of course, these “rape kits” are not just about the victim; they are about collecting evidence of an often repeated crime. They’re not just about justice for the victim but preventing other people from becoming victims as well.
September 13th, 2008 at 8:21 am
Which is why it’s supposed to be “justice for all,” not “justice for those willing to shell out the bucks.”