Sexual Assault

Soldado

Soldado

Verified Military
Joined
Feb 16, 2013
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Peru
West Point case adds to military sex abuse scandals

ALBANY, N.Y. — Charges that an Army sergeant secretly photographed and videotaped women at West Point are part of a military-wide pattern of sexual misconduct, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York said on Thursday.

The military has been rocked by a series of arrests and incidents of sexual misconduct. But the news from the venerable U.S. Military Academy — where the motto is “Duty. Honor. Country.” — could be particularly embarrassing. The Army said Wednesday that a sergeant at West Point had been charged with secretly photographing and videotaping at least a dozen women at the academy, including in a bathroom.

The allegation surfaces the same month the Pentagon released a report estimating that as many as 26,000 military members may have been sexually assaulted last year and that thousands of victims are unwilling to come forward despite new oversight and assistance programs...

Read more: http://triblive.com/usworld/nation/4075470-74/military-sexual-west#ixzz2UAVilZmd
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Is there a reason you posted this up? Do you have an opinion on the topic? I'm not saying it's bad that you posted it, however usually it's good to add some talking points so that the board can have a healthy debate regarding...which brand of handcuffs to use...uh...I mean the topic.
 
My reason to post this was to inform to your people about a big problem, even I've seen that kind of problems of the US Armed Forces in local newspapers. My opinion is that it is terrible to have that kind of problems in the civilian life and in the military maybe helped by the misfeasance and it HAS to be eliminated.
 
Soldado said:
My reason to post this was to inform to your people about a big problem, even I've seen that kind of problems of the US Armed Forces in local newspapers.
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Thank you for informing me; clearly I missed what little, low-level reporting was done. :hmm:
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...ng-naked-female-cadets-without-their-consent/

My opinion is that it is terrible to have that kind of problems in the military maybe helped by the misfeasance and it HAS to be eliminated.
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To the extent it exists, I agree. This conduct should not be tolerated in any organization be it military or civilian.
 
Teufel said:
This happens pretty frequently unfortunately. A lot of the allegations are pretty shady though. Hard to tell what's real and what's not.
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Yeah, things are cool until the female either loses face or wants something you're not willing to provide. Exactly why I never even attempted to pursue (and recommended against) any sort of relations with female servicemembers. Even just in PLDC, there were allegations made and shot the fuck down by some women that didn't like having to do XYZ and so attempted to infer things about the cadre... except the cadre was smart and students were a no-lone-zone.
 
Teufel said:
Also, I'm not sure that sexual assault should be a punch line. Regardless of service rivalries.
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Not really as an inter-service rivalry as apparently there's something going down at West Point...all being said what happened to Colorado Springs, I know things did not just become peaches and creme after they took down the "We Want Men" sign...honestly that sign would have been cool to see.
 
ThunderHorse said:
Not really as an inter-service rivalry as apparently there's something going down at West Point...all being said what happened to Colorado Springs, I know things did not just become peaches and creme after they took down the "We Want Men" sign...honestly that sign would have been cool to see.
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What happened at West Point is inexcusable, but similar events happen at all the service academies, unfortunately. This was just in the news ref. Annapolis:


The U.S. Naval Academy is investigating allegations that three of the school’s football players sexually assaulted a female midshipman at a party last year — an explosive allegation that surfaced Friday as the military faces increased scrutiny over whether it pursues such cases aggressively enough.

There were 13 reported cases of sexual assault at the Naval Academy in the 2011-12 school year, down from 22 the year before, according to the most recently available statistics from the Defense Department.
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Is "this" merely a reflection of society though? Anyone (e.g. Obama and Hagel before making it a political issue) compared the mil vs civ rates of sexual crime?

Interestingly, isn't this the EXACT thing the DOJ should be looking into? :whatever:
 
lindy said:
Is "this" merely a reflection of society though? Anyone (e.g. Obama and Hagel before making it a political issue) compared the mil vs civ rates of sexual crime?

Interestingly, isn't this the EXACT thing the DOJ should be looking into? :whatever:
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So my girlfriend is a military lawyer who has dealt with this stuff. Not the Academy stuff but military sexual assault cases. It is extremely difficult to prove acquaintance rape, which is what all the Academy cases are. No one at the Academy has been roofied (at least not in the cases in the news). All the cases involved alcohol and drunken sex. The girl claims she was too drunk to consent, the guy says she was. There was a couple of cases that occurred while I was a midshipmen (back in the day!) and in all three cases the victim was notorious for sleeping around. So now you have a he said - she said and the defense attorney is going to make the popular football player out to be a rockstar midshipman and the chick to be a tramp. Additionally, a lot of the cases are further clouded. Drinking and having sex on campus are both guaranteed tickets home. No kidding. Sometimes girls will get caught having sex on campus and then claim they were raped. They don't get kicked out but the guy is gone the next day. Even if he is innocent of rape he is guilty of the other offenses....and he's gone. I saw it happen several times. These cry wolf accusations make it hard to believe the real victims.

That all being said, the military will bring most sexual assault cases to trial. This is not true in the civilian sector. Most prosecutors won't touch a he said - she said assault case. Too difficult to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. So they try to plea the perps out or just drop it entirely. Most of the cases on college campuses don't even result in suspensions or dismissals. So far the Academies have dropped every alleged perpetrator as part of a plea agreement. People may not be happy with this punishment, but it is a punishment and it is more than what happens in the civilian world.
 
Soldado said:
My reason to post this was to inform to your people about a big problem, even I've seen that kind of problems of the US Armed Forces in local newspapers. My opinion is that it is terrible to have that kind of problems in the civilian life and in the military maybe helped by the misfeasance and it HAS to be eliminated.
Click to expand...

I will put the US military sexual assault numbers per capita against any division one NCAA school in the nation. This "problem" has been wildly exaggerated.

Let me be clear- sexual assault is inexcusable. I have been on both sides of this proverbial argument (I had a male troop wrongly accused and a good female friend assaulted). I do not tolerate this, and the men on my team know that if I find out that something like this happens, and it's found to be them as the perpetrator and at fault, that I will absolutely nail them to the wall as an example.
 
Teufel said:
So my girlfriend is a military lawyer who has dealt with this stuff. Not the Academy stuff but military sexual assault cases. It is extremely difficult to prove acquaintance rape, which is what all the Academy cases are. No one at the Academy has been roofied (at least not in the cases in the news). All the cases involved alcohol and drunken sex. The girl claims she was too drunk to consent, the guy says she was. There was a couple of cases that occurred while I was a midshipmen (back in the day!) and in all three cases the victim was notorious for sleeping around. So now you have a he said - she said and the defense attorney is going to make the popular football player out to be a rockstar midshipman and the chick to be a tramp. Additionally, a lot of the cases are further clouded. Drinking and having sex on campus are both guaranteed tickets home. No kidding. Sometimes girls will get caught having sex on campus and then claim they were raped. They don't get kicked out but the guy is gone the next day. Even if he is innocent of rape he is guilty of the other offenses....and he's gone. I saw it happen several times. These cry wolf accusations make it hard to believe the real victims.

That all being said, the military will bring most sexual assault cases to trial. This is not true in the civilian sector. Most prosecutors won't touch a he said - she said assault case. Too difficult to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. So they try to plea the perps out or just drop it entirely. Most of the cases on college campuses don't even result in suspensions or dismissals. So far the Academies have dropped every alleged perpetrator as part of a plea agreement. People may not be happy with this punishment, but it is a punishment and it is more than what happens in the civilian world.
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Thank you for the post sir. After serving as cop for a little while it didn't take long for me to experience the frustration with investigating and successfully prosecuting rape cases.

These cry wolf accusations make it hard to believe the real victims.

Evidently these are also on the rise.

False reports outpace sex assaults in the military

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/may/12/false-reports-outpace-sex-assaults-in-the-military/
 
RetPara said:
I think this may be worse than DOD's issue. 10K+ rape kits that had not been processed were found in storage in 2009. DNA testing will cost $4Million +.
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Wow, that's actually not that surprising, which in itself is pretty fucked up. In areas with high crime rates like Detroit and L.A. where Law Enforcement can't keep up with crimes committed, they don't have the resources/budget to make rape kits a priority so they get stuck on the back burner and forgotten.
 
11 THOUSAND untested rape kits?? :-o I hope the city has a good legal team to sort through the litigation that's going to (rightfully) result from this.
 

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