Tuesday, September 21, 2010

No Justice for Native Women

There is a long history of serious problems in the investigation and prosecution of violence against Native women. An excellent two-part background article here explains some of the reasons for that. Now there's another case of what is, at best, a "bungled investigation":

From 2005-2007, at least one serial rapist posing as a police officer spent two years sexually assaulting a minimum of 17 teenagers as young as 13 years old. The crimes were not investigated—and the public was not notified of the threat—until 6 months after the first rape occurred... The BIA task force...closed the case two months later after arresting three men. Members of the task force eventually received cash awards and national commendations for their work.
But The Republic...found that the agents bungled the entire investigation, without regard for whether the real rapist was caught. Lack of evidence ensured that U.S. attorneys were unable to prosecute the suspects fingered by investigators, and a string of emails sent between BIA agents reveal that they knew the rapist was still at large.

The original article is also full of links to a range of sources on these issues.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Because this is a classroom resource, commenting is available only to registered members of this blog. You do not need to be a student in order to comment; please contact the blog administrator for posting permission.

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.