Rape, Theft And Drugs: Occupy Baltimore

[dreadfulpenny81.livejournal.com]

"What really makes me mad is, if this is supposed to be a good organization, it isn't. It's a crock!"

Those are the words of one young female protester who was raped at the campsite for Occupy Baltimore. The same woman received no help from protest organizers in identifying her attacker.

During the news report, the reporter is led to a tent with drug paraphernalia AND the cameras are present during a dispute between two parties sharing a tent at the event, but other protesters protect them, saying they want to handle the issue internally.

Male protester: "This is a personal dispute and people actively need to go through mediation."
Female reporter: "People are being assaulted, people are being raped."
Male protester: "We understand that, but we have a security team that actively deals with these situations."

It gets really interesting when the flier published by Occupy Baltimore becomes part of the conversation.

Male protester: "Occupy Baltimore has never published information that actively discourages participants here to report situations to the police."

Oh, I beg to differ. The flier says that anyone who thinks they're a victim of sexual assault/harassment should immediately speak to a member of the internal security team and emphasizes first and foremost that they want to keep the matter internal over involving the police.

The incident in Baltimore is not the only incident of sexual assault going on within the Occupy movement:
✱ A meth-addict was collared at the beginning of the Occupy Wall Street protests for groping. Dave Park, 27, was led to the edge of Zuccotti Park and arrested by authorities after groping women, even trying to jump into one protester's sleeping bag with them. [NY Post]
✱ A 19-year-old woman alleged she was raped by a man known only as "Leland" in her tent at Occupy Cleveland. [Mediaite]
✱ Incidents of indecent exposure at Occupy Seattle AND Occupy Oakland.
✱ Police are investigating the rape of a 14-year-old girl at Occupy Dallas. [CBS local]
✱ Sexual assault at Occupy Lawrence (Kansas). [LJWorld.com] (Note: This was sexual assault among people who were allowed to stay at the protest site in an open tent. It's unknown at this time is any protesters were involved, either as attackers or as victims. It's still an issue because they were allowed to stay with the group, thereby putting others present in danger.)
✱ Scotland TV reports a woman was raped at Occupy Glasgow. [STV News]
✱ On Sunday, October 30, a woman was raped in Zuccotti Park in her tent. Protesters chased the criminal away but NEVER CALLED AUTHORITIES. "We don’t tell anyone," an organizer told the New York Post. "We handle it internally. I said too much already." [The Daily Caller]
✱ A deaf man was allegedly raped at Zuccotti Park. [YouTube video] (The video also discusses drug use by protesters and inaction by the police to remove certain people from the OWS camp.)
[List x-posted from my blog]

Not only is there inaction from protesters in these situations, there's also inaction from the police. Neither group is being helpful, and it's creating an unsafe environment for people who just want their voices heard. NO ONE deserves to be violated and there's no reason for victims to be silenced, let alone muffled.

Comments

[telemann.livejournal.com]

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

Logical fallacy #7. Try again.

[luvdovz.livejournal.com]

Don't you think these cases should be investigated, and if a crime has been found, the people responsible should go to court? Which is stronger, your party affiliation or your solidarity with your fellow women? Ones who are at your side, by the way?

Oh shit, this again:

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

[dreadfulpenny81.livejournal.com]

Such a shame there are people who think rape is a laughing matter.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

It's not that. I think it is a very serious issue but I have a bad feeling that this is unlikely to end any better than the first go-round, which is why I'm trying to avoid this thread after this comment. Unfortunately, too, the implosion of the first thread also means this one going well is even less likely than the first one to have done so.

And this would apply no matter who brought it up again, more's the pity. >.>

[kylinrouge.livejournal.com]

It's baiting comments like this that will get you to 500 replies. Then again, I guess that's the goal here.

[dreadfulpenny81.livejournal.com]

As a survivor of sexual assault, rape culture is an everyday part of my life unfortunately, thank you very much!

[kylinrouge.livejournal.com]

Re: It's baiting comments like this that will get you to 500 replies. Then again, I guess that's the goal here.

(frozen) (no subject)

[dreadfulpenny81.livejournal.com]

Really? Where did I do that?

[dreadfulpenny81.livejournal.com]

Apparently the reaction of the Occupy Baltimore protesters is just to ask the attacker to leave, but what good is that going to do if they show up again, or go after the victim outside the camp area? That's my biggest concern.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Not only is there inaction from protesters in these situations, there's also inaction from the police. Neither group is being helpful, and it's creating an unsafe environment for people who just want their voices heard. NO ONE deserves to be violated and there's no reason for victims to be silenced, let alone muffled.

I presume that nearly everyone here agrees with that statement. Now, what do you think should be done?

[dreadfulpenny81.livejournal.com]

I think in order for any victim to get their voice heard in this situation, they need to find an advocate, someone not associated with the protest group who might have some klout (like someone who works for a rape crisis center or something).

[jerseycajun.livejournal.com]

Why are you so hung up on this?

This is like you're fourth post on OWS rallies.

*Let me clarify: These seem to be mostly stories about juxtaposing OWS with stories like this as if that's the most significant thing there is to discuss about it.

I'm not OWS and I defended Tea even though I'm not that either. It just that the post feels like it's focus is on associating OWS ralliers as insensate.

[kylinrouge.livejournal.com]

Ever looked in the conservatism community? I have that thing on follow because it's pretty much like the onion for me. The fact that it's real makes it even funnier.

Anyway, my point is that it's 100% of what they talk about. Republicans, despite anything they may say, are extremely concerned with OWS changing the game. And that fact alone means they have.

[kylinrouge.livejournal.com]

It's not surprise that the inclusive, hippie nature of the events are causing a lot of delinquents to flock in. It's definitely getting to the point where you have a lot of strangers of different age groups around each other and there's a lack of management and organization that provides safety to the people involved. This is a real problem, and people in these Occupy areas need to not only recognize that, but insure that cooperation with the police and personal safety should be first priority, and 'getting the message out' should be second.

I guess the 'internal security team' is the way they've chosen to handle protection, but the problem is it's not in lockstep with the local police. The 'security team' should have a very intimate relationship with the police, but it looks like they're entirely separate because of this stupid divide between the protestors and the police of victimization on both sides.

In short, putting a lot of people into a volatile situation leads to volatile results, no matter how good the intentions. This is not to be misinterpreted as some evidence that the protestors are unwilling to cooperate with police and peach lawlessness or whatever, just that they're in over their heads when handling large groups of people.

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

The police civic duty is to ensure the safety of the protesters. A shame we have such a history of violently suppressing protesters, because there is a rift of trust a mile wide on both sides.

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

This is a good reason police should work with the protest groups to help maintain the safety of the groups instead of shooting at them and slashing their tents.

San Francisco is better at this than Oakland, I've noticed.

Oh, I beg to differ. The flier says that anyone who thinks they're a victim of sexual assault/harassment should immediately speak to a member of the internal security team and emphasizes first and foremost that they want to keep the matter internal over involving the police.

The flyer you cite (http://i.imgur.com/R4tTX.jpg), states clearly and explicitly:

Though we do not encourage the involvement of law enforcement in our community, the survivor has every right, and the support of Occupy Baltimore, to report the abuse to the appropriate law enforcement.

That isn't quite how you described it.

I think there is an extreme lack of trust between the protest groups and the police. This has lots to do with the history of systemic repression of protesters and generally citizens is our country.

Anyway, rape is bad.

[kylinrouge.livejournal.com]

The sad thing is it's up to the protestors to get the police involved, despite the horrible track record the police have, it's still the right thing to do.

This shows more and more that how the police act and public perception of the police has to be changed in this country.

[brockulfsen.livejournal.com]

Dear Gods, Occupy is being run by the SCA...

[dreadfulpenny81.livejournal.com]

Could you clarify which 'SCA' you're referring to?

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

From the OP's links:

Erin McCardle, another organizer of Occupy Cleveland, added that, “we are cooperating completely with the Cleveland Police Department,” (http://www.mediaite.com/tv/rape-alleged-at-occupy-cleveland/)

And

Dallas Police continue to investigate whether a teenage runaway was sexually assaulted by an adult male at the Occupy Dallas encampment behind City Hall. A source within the Dallas Police Department who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation said the girl ran away from home in Garland last month and that she is now refusing to cooperate with investigators. She initially told officers that she had sex with a man in his early twenties and had engaged in sexual activity with several other people. Some members of the group told CBS 11 the girl identified herself as a 19-year-old and never knew she was 14.
[...]
One Occupy Dallas protestor said if the allegations are true measures should be taken to ensure everyone’s safety.

“We’ll find out what the truth is and if that’s her story, that she was having sex with older men in the park, I guess we really need to watch the age group that’s coming in here and get control of that,” protestor Rich Coffman said.

Occupy Dallas organizers said they’ll implement a 10 p.m. curfew and check the identification of anyone seen walking the grounds after that time.

The girl remained in custody as police continued to investigate the allegations Monday evening. ()

Nothing about any lack of cooperation with Police. Next:

Members of the Occupy Lawrence group filed several police reports over the weekend and on Monday.
[...]
Though he was not present at the camp Sunday night, Phoenix said he was told of the filing of the sexual assault report. He said that witnesses had told him that two men and one woman came into the camp seeking a place to sleep and were offered one of the open tents. He said that group members were “deeply affected” by the events and were considering new measures to ensure their safety within the park, including distribution of a flier titled “Creating a safe space,” which asks participants to “refrain from engaging in activities that are not conducive to creating and maintaining a safe space.”

The group took down their tents Monday and said they intend to remain in the park overnight but no longer felt that the tents were safe. (http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2011/oct/25/occupy-lawrence-members-report-crimes-south-park-c/)

Wow. So, these protesters not only contacted the police, they shut down the camp. Not exactly fitting the OP's theme.

Then this video (http://youtu.be/gGFeJ6gmJAE) was cited by the OP's article. She describes some incidents she's heard about 2nd hand, and then she says:

Woman: They have people watching while people sleep to make sure they are safe.

[...]

The problem that we have with dealing [with the police]; we've tried, and some people have tried, actually a girl got punched in the face by a guy and she tried going to the cops, she had to go to four cops before one of them would help her out. And that's also a problem. People have been trying to tell the cops, 'we don't want these people here who are causing problems, can you take this guy?' and they kinda just ignore it .

Interviewer: Does the working group encourage or discourage people from going to police and using the state?

Woman: Umm. They encourage it. But at the same time it hasn't proved beneficial most of the time.

Sounds like she's onboard with the Police being involved. She also went on to say she felt safe. Watch the video, don't take the OP's word for its contents.

Anyone want to discuss the levels of domestic violence and rape among police officers?

[dreadfulpenny81.livejournal.com]

If you read through the post, I highlighted specific text in the NYC rape case that happened this past weekend. The Occupy Baltimore rape was the first one I mentioned. Those two are the incidents where there's little to no cooperation between protest organizers, police, or both. When I listed the other incidents, I never said nothing was being done about them. I also made sure to point out with the Lawrence, Kansas incident that there's no confirmation that protesters were either the attackers or the victim.
Yes, people should watch the video. They should also read the articles since I included the links. I was 100% truthful in what I posted.

What specifically would you like to discuss about rape and domestic violence among police officers? Do you have statistics?

[muse-misery.livejournal.com]

oh it's you

You're off message.

[squidb0i.livejournal.com]

You forgot the part about pooping. The rape and drugs talking point is always to be bundled with the pooping.

[dwer.livejournal.com]

The flier says that anyone who thinks they're a victim of sexual assault/harassment should immediately speak to a member of the internal security team and emphasizes first and foremost that they want to keep the matter internal over involving the police.

But... that's not what it says. It specifically says that the victim has every right to go to the cop.

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

The right "and the support of Occupy Baltimore".

[raichu100.livejournal.com]

I'm trying to figure out what motivation OWS would have for wanting to keep incidents like that internal.

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

I think my instinct to come back to this after a whole bunch of poop had been flung was probably the right one.

Here's the thing from where I sit:

Yes, this *IS* a problem for Occupy Wall Street. They want to be leaderless and driven by consensus and have as little top down authority as possible, but that is consequently a magnet for people who see that as an opportunity to act poorly with little or no consequences. And in these cases, possibly people who saw a chance to criminally victimize others.

The various Occupy Wall Street encampments need to be crystal clear that they WILL help anyone who claims to be a victim of a crime in their camp and that they will help the victim bring the matter to police. I don't think this is easy because in many cities, the relationship with police authorities has been strained beyond much hope. And I frankly blame the mayors and police departments for most of this -- Oakland is the most extreme example of police stepping way beyond the boundaries of good community policing and blatently overreacting to the protesters. That's my personal assessment and I know others will disagree.

But the bottom line is still that OWS encampments need to not let that stop them from helping victims get police investigations into criminal acts started and completed. Period.

For whatever it is worth, it looks like from some of the replies above that quite a lot more than is reported on the Fox segment is actually happening.

[harry-beast.livejournal.com]

The protesters are circling the wagons and covering their buns. Although what they are doing is disgusting and unforgivable, it isn't unexpected.
The police, on the other hand, have no excuse for failing to investigate a crime, especially a serious, violent, devastating crime like this. This is what happens when certain groups are given special treatment by the law.