In May 2011, Daniel Dana (aka piece of shit excuse for a human) RAPED a prostitute in his patrol car. Some articles refer to it as "coercion," but I see no need to soften the language. Here is a direct quote from LA Times
"He had been charged in May 2011 with coercing a 35-year-old prostitute into having sex with him in his patrol car by threatening to arrest her if she refused."
Oh...so he threatened a woman with arrest if she refused to put his penis inside of her. Around these parts, we call that RAPE. Interesting how the article never once uses the word "rape." I suppose "coercion" sounds nicer. Actually, a better explanation is that since this scumbag is/was a cop, he can get away with nearly anything.
The article in Mercury News had the good sense to label the incident as what it was: "forced." Still, they shy away from the "r-word," until they mention the felony that Dana was originally charged with; "rape under color of authority." The following is from that article, found here Mercury News
"A former San Diego police officer accused of forcing a prostitute to have sex has pleaded no contest to a lesser charge.
Dana originally was charged with felonies including rape under color of authority. Prosecutors claim he threatened to send a prostitute he knew to jail in May unless she had sex with him.
The woman said she was scared into having sex with him at a park.
Dana's lawyer argued they had consensual sex. Prosecutor
Annette Irving says a plea deal was struck because of concerns about
whether a jury would be able to agree that a prostitute had been raped."
Um...WHAT?
No, really, WHAT?! It's 2012, and yet there are still members of our society (also referred to as idiots) who do not understand this simple concept- ANYONE CAN BE RAPED.
Try this fun exercise: Take the word "prostitute" (highlighted in red for your convenience) and replace it with another noun. Suggestions: married woman, male, transgendered individual, minority, husband, stripper, black woman, porn star.
So, did you enjoy the exercise? Did some of those nouns make you more uncomfortable than others when placed into the sentence? Angrier than others? Well, my point is that ANYONE CAN BE RAPED. Yes...even whores.
Oh, and that our legal system is truly pathetic. Fucking pathetic.
Outstanding post, I couldn't agree with you more. Anyone can be raped, & everyone has rights. This is one of the reasons prostitution needs to be legalized. When someone can get away with rape, you know there is something wrong. As your site says, legalize to protect. It's ridiculous how society treats prostitutes & sex workers like dogs. No one is above the other.
ReplyDeleteThank you Carrie!
DeleteOn simple business terms, he stole by using coercion to receive a service without appropriately compensating a provider. "Give me a pizza, or I'll shut down your restaurant" - that's a crime, a *no one* would argue that since the proprietor sells pizza all day that it's not possible to steal a pizza. In this case, the product/service is sexual favors - I think "theft of sexual favors" is pretty clearly rape!
ReplyDeleteThat's kind of a bad example Andrew. The difference here is that selling pizza is legal while having sex for money, unless you are in porn or a legal brothel, is illegal. However, this is obviously rape because the woman in question only did it to avoid getting arrested and not because she wanted to or because she was receiving money in exchange.
DeleteCommence tweet barrage to Tony Perry of the LA Times for failing to include the word "rape" in his little ditty of a story.
ReplyDeleteI like that idea. To twitter I go..
DeleteThey are not just raping sex workers they are raping civilians too. Just last month in providence, a cop went out to the scene of an accident, which was a domestic, and gave a 20 year old girl a ride home. He raped her. She went right to the hospital and called the state police, and in the newspaper article that said they could not release his name because of the stupid bill of rights for cops, says they have to arrest the cop before publishing his name. I wanted his name and pic published to see how many other women would come forward. The grand jury did not charge him. I do not understand how you can claim it was consensual sex if your wearing a police uniform. Also many correctional officers rape the women especially if she has a record for prostitution. When I did 5 years in FL DOC, I was raped regularly until finally I gained so much weight they weren't too interested in me anymore.No wonder we have hundreds of thousands of untested rape kits being held in evidence, the cops do not seem to think its a crime to rape a women. There was another cops that raped a Rhode Island women in a closed sub station the police use to use, he got 4 years in prison and when he got out he had the nerve to try and get his pension back. Luckily he didn't win.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good point about cops also raping ordinary citizens. The problem with that whole situation is that the DA or the Grand Jury is more likely to believe a cop over an ordinary citizen.
DeleteChristina having people substitute other people in for prostitute was an excellent idea. Because the woman in the story is a prostitute, hardly anyone would believe she was actually raped, but if you put your mom or sister in the same situation, then all of a sudden it is rape.
San Diego police are a notorious corrupt bunch. They've got long history of raping prostitution on their job and using their uniforms to pull over women they want to have sex with.
ReplyDeleteIt just really quite cowardice of the prosecution to take a plea because the state is too worried about how our occupation might look in front of a jury.
I watched 3 street based workers testify against their attacker about how he sexually assaulted on their job. So afraid of being convicted he was that his lawyer begged and got a plea deal before the jury could decide to convict him. http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/De-La-Fuente-Jr-admits-sexually-assaulting-4-2597684.php
Feel free to remove this comment shortly after correcting. I agree with your post, but in the first paragraph "suit" = something you wear, and "suite" = a multi-room hotel unit pronounced "sweet." Need to remove the "e" because it is distracting to the 1,000 people that have read this. Thanks! :-)
ReplyDeleteDone- nice catch!
DeleteIf someone sells sex and you take it for free from them, its a case of criminal theft. But then again, if they are not legally allowed to sell sex in the first place, what case do they have. It's like a drug dealer complaining his stock was robbed.
ReplyDeleteHaving sex with somebody against their will is called rape. At least where I come from. Also, note that the cop was abusing his power to get her into the car and rape her. This happens all too often with cops and sex workers. Cops know that sex workers don't have a voice due to their criminal status, and so they rape and assault them, knowing that 99 percent of the time, they won't face consequences.
DeleteBack to your point, it is possible to rape a sex worker. Yes, she is selling sex, but that does not mean that she does not have the right to say no, at ANY point during the transaction.
Anyone who is raped should be able to have a case, regardless of whether or not they are also a criminal. However, if sex work were decriminalized (as I believe it should be), then sex workers actually WOULD have a voice and would be able to report rapes and receive legal support.