Move along.

--------------------

Some people labor under the assumption that the police are there to protect you. People watch too much TV. Real life isn't like TV.

If one were to find a connection here...

Rape (among other things) is not control of the woman's body by the woman. (Therefore, no real crime has been committed.) Photographing herself is control of her own body by... a YOUNG female, of all things! Definitely a crime!

We'd better learn 'em young not to believe they deserve to do that!

Does anyone know if there's something that can be done to protest? Like sending e-mails to the LAPD?

Dudes, please explain how this screws men and is all about how women rule the world and make your lives miserable. And is irresponsible BroadSheet journalism.

Dimbulb? Rod? M3? Parson? T. Jim?

Waiting....

I'm now wondering how much of this inefficiency is actual lack of interest, and how much is caused by circumstances. If legal processes take very long, and if police departments don't have sufficient resources, you'd imagine this might result in a number of untested kits. Does anyone have the details?

By the way, what's the original source for the numbers again?

and the Human Rights Watch press release doesn't address what the issue is-

Are they not able to use these grant funds effectively (happens much more than you would think)? Because of restrictions on the funding or their own incompetence/understaffed situation?

Is there a lack of trained personel for them to hire?

Is there a pile of DNA evidence that is backlogged for other types of cases? Are they prioitizing other cases like murder over rape? Is that in their mandate?

It is not that any of those things are an adequate excuse- but without knowing why - incompetence, indifference, lack of support or trained competenc people to hire it is impossible to know how to address it.

Yes, this is totally outrageous. But unless there is something in the Controllers report about addressing the absymal system and what they are going to do about it - this reeks of political grandstanding.

It might be helpful for Abigail Kramer to explore issues further before becoming outrage. As the lack of letters demonstrate, not even BS readers have an unlimited supply of insincere outrage, especially not for complex issues.

Isn't there some alleged celebrity rape or DV case to generate hits for BS so it can generate ad revenue for Salon to support the movie reviews and tabloid social commentary?

Why fund science when there is a perfectly good drug war to waste money on???

Quick, what does the decision of a prosecutor in PA to threaten some young women with child porn charges have to do with the ability of the police in LA to deal with it's backlog of rape kits?

Yeah, I don't know either.

Turning to the substance of the article: The backlog of rape kits in LA is a tragedy to be sure, and I would have liked to have been told what NY did to deal with its problem. As solving the problem seems much more productive than lamenting the fact that it exists, that would have been interesting read. But unfortunately you don't tell us. If getting rid of the backlog of kits is as easy as adopting a new policy (as you suggest) I would like to know what that policy is.

Perhaps the LAPD just doesn't give a shit about rape victims. Perhaps the LAPD could use some more lab techs. I don't know, and this article doesn't do much to illuminate the issue.

You know, I forgot to call out one single troll, and we got this:

More information, less outrage please

It might be helpful for Abigail Kramer to explore issues further before becoming outrage. As the lack of letters demonstrate, not even BS readers have an unlimited supply of insincere outrage, especially not for complex issues.

Isn't there some alleged celebrity rape or DV case to generate hits for BS so it can generate ad revenue for Salon to support the movie reviews and tabloid social commentary?

-- Fractal

Right, fractious claims bad journo (actually very well and accurately sourced), claims lack of comment means lack of agreement (WRONG), spits on BroadSheet commenters generally for being such, complains that BroadSheet doesn't do enough of the trivial stories it always shits all over for being trivial, everything in abbreviations, yup, BroadShteet Troll Posse (TM) Member, all dues paid up. I see you under the bridge there, you scaly beast. How do you like the flashlight?

Meanwhile, you asshole, the story means that quite possibly unjustly convicted MEN won't be getting off. Whose side are you on anyway? The side of the bridge is all, you troll you.

an issue of the inadequate funding and staffing of the police department rather than a women's rights thing. It's hard to tell from this article. On the surface it doesn't seem likely that the police would go to the trouble of getting this evidence and then not use it because they didn't care about solving cases involving women. It seems more probable that the police simply don't have the manpower or efficiency to make the best use of all their resources. If anything they would probably like to solve as many cases as possible because if they don't it makes them look bad and they're not succeeding at their job. More often than not it seems like the police will use anything they can, valid evidence or not, to get a successful prosecution.

This is the first time I have taken, to use your term, the troll bait. You are a joke as a human being and as a man and you are by far the biggest "troll" to prowl broadsheet. From wikipidia

"An Internet troll, or simply troll in Internet slang, is someone who posts controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum or chat room, with the primary intent of provoking other users into an emotional response[1] or to generally disrupt normal on-topic discussion.[2]"

That describes half of your posts here. Take your first post in this topic as exhibit A

Please, BroadSheet Troll Posse (TM)

Dudes, please explain how this screws men and is all about how women rule the world and make your lives miserable. And is irresponsible BroadSheet journalism.

Dimbulb? Rod? M3? Parson? T. Jim?

Waiting....

Lets see your post is off topic, your post is irrelevant to the topic and your post is inflammatory. It's primary purpose was to provoke and to derail the conversation. How is that you are not a troll? And please find a comment from me that is off topic.

Lets go to Exhibit B from a recent topic found here http://letters.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/feature/2009/03/20/teen_rape_double_standard/view/?show=all For those not willing to read the original story it was about a double standard in Statuary rape cases where the male suspect was facing 40 years IIRC while the female was 7 years IIRC but everything else about the case was basically equal including ages and location. So here is Bob's first post there.

But just imagine the outrage and the throwing of the book had any of it been same-sex. If there is anything that is totally and completely illegal, it is a 17 male or female having sex with a 14 year old of the same sex. Once all parties turn 18, it is magically ok (except that they can't get married and make an honest woman/man of their partner).

Here you post an irrelevant and off-topic message that had nothing to do with the original story or any previous comment and was done for no other reason to change the subject from a straight male being a victim of a double standard.

These are not isolated instances either. Hell even your response to Factual reeks of trolling. You know, I forgot to call out one single troll, and we got this... Right, fractious claims bad journo Plus a bunch of personal insults. This for an article that repeats other articles, suggests that LA should copy NYC but does not bother to tell us what NYC did to actually process the rape kits in such a timely manner. That would actually be a very important part if someone was to call a council person in LA to suggest they do something. But, you go back to burning your mansier and apologizing to your wife and daughters for not being a women yourself.