All police departments nationwide are slowly creeping into the pay for play business. Many cities allow their police to charge for appearing at the scene of an accident. This is just more of that. If you want to involve the police in something you will now have to pay. Otherwise the police are busily occupied writing thousands of traffic tickets. "Law Enforcement" is evolving into an overt profit center like public water and sewer, public parking garages and garbage collection.

This isn't really related (but also filed under Insult To Injury). This reminds me of when I had a miscarriage a few months ago. There was no co-pay to see my OB when I was pregnant. After I lost the baby? That'll be $15 please.

It's just appalling that actual human beings make these decisions.

Hooray for privatization-- good thing Republican women are never raped, right?

More evidence, if any were needed, that our healthcare system is a travesty. In Europe it doesn't cost you to go to a hospital, period. In America we are Free--free to die of treatable illnesses because our 'health insurance' won't pay for it, free to pay for our own rape investigations, free to go without healthcare entirely because we lost our jobs in the crash and can't afford it. Woo hoo.

What's standing in the way of marijuana reform? Law enforcement lobbies. They're about the only ones still fired up about marijuana prohibition.

Police are always denying the claims of marijuana activists that legalizing marijuana will free police resources for use on more serious crimes.

No, we have plenty of time and money for prosecuting rapists, they retort. We're not squandering precious resources going after the potheads at the expense of nailing violent criminals, they always claim..

But look at what's happening to rape victims!

How many marijuana criminals did Texas cops proudly and enthusiastically shepherd through the criminal justice system last year?

Oh yeah, they have plenty of resources for law enforcement whenever the subject of marijuana reform is on the table.

The Democrats in Congress should stop listening to the law enforcement lobbies on marijuana and start demanding an accounting of where all that law enforcement money is really going.

As a rape survivor and a medical marijuana patient, I think this is a pretty ugly situation and one the public should not tolerate at all.

This country has the resources to arrest over 700,000 marijuana users every year.

There is absolutely no excuse, given those numbers, for a single rape victim to have to pay for a single rape kit, ever.

of course.

a couple of years ago i tried to contest a traffic ticket. time passes. i get a notice that i've failed to appear in court and my license is about to be revoked. i can either pay the original fine or reopen the case. they had sent the notice of court date to what appears to be a completely random address in a town i've never set foot in. "where did you get this address?" shrug. costs $60 to reopen the case. doesn't matter that they sent it to the wrong address. i reopen the case. the ticket is dismissed. i'm not guilty but out $60. Next!

I am half through reading Michelle Goldberg's THE MEANS OF REPRODUCTION: SEX, POWER, AND THE FUTURE OF THE WORLD. Anyone concerned with the issues of women's rights and reproductive issues should read her latest book.

from now on, murder victims will be required to provide the chalk for the outlines of their bodies.

Folks interested in this story also might like to check out a recent Human Rights Watch report on the failure to process rape kits:

http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/03/31/us-los-angeles-county-should-test-thousands-rape-kits

In Los Angeles, in just one example, there are more than 12,000 unprocessed kits. So even when they are paid for, the evidence just sits there on shelves because sexual assault is such a low priority for many law enforcement agencies.

Amen.

But I wonder if this has anything to do with rape in specific, or is it just another example of our medical/justice systems state in general.

I know people who were assaulted and suffered injuries during a crime who then had to pay their hospital bills.. How is this any different? Our system is completely and utterly corrupt and broken.

But hey, bankers need billions for fat bonuses and lavish parties...

hey, marijuana smokers need to be busted for a victimless crime..

hey, lets bust johns and hookers for being two adults agreeing to have sex on their terms....

what a sick cruel joke...

This is just nuts. One letter said this is another example of pay to play that is creeping in. Logically, it should be the RAPIST who has to pay for the rape kit used to convict him, not the victim. I have seen reports that police are charging people who commit offenses in traffic accidents, but not the victim. What is the difference? If it were me I would pay the bill in full, then charge the local government at every level where they wanted to use the results, from arrest to trial. If I had to pay for it, it would belong to me, not to anyone else.

Let me play devil's advocate here. If I am beaten up in an assault, do the police pay for my treatment at the ER? If I'm in a car accident and they are investigating it do they pay for the cast on my leg? In what other violent crime do the police pay for medical costs?

so even in the narrow sense it doesn't make sense

The rape kit is a collection of evidence of the rape. It is not medical care, even though it takes place at a hospital and medical professionals are the ones collecting the evidence. If the rape victim was also treated for injuries at the hospital, then yes I suppose she would have to pay the bill just as a victim of a car crash would have to pay a bill for medical treatment.

But that car-crash victim does not have to pay for the collection of evidence by police at the car-crash site.