Palin On Rape Kit Accusations: ‘The Entire Notion Of Making A Victim Of A Crime Pay For Anything Is Crazy’
Palin On Rape Kit Accusations: ‘The Entire Notion Of Making A Victim Of A Crime Pay For Anything Is Crazy’
The Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman — the hometown newspaper of Sarah Palin — reports that the Governor has replied to a list of 14 submitted questions. Among the queries was a question about the fact that, while she was mayor of Wasilla, her administration’s policy was to “bill victims” for their rape kits:
Q: During your tenure as mayor in 2000, then police chief Charlie Fannon commented in a May 23, 2000 Frontiersman article about legislation Gov. Tony Knowles signed protecting victims of sexual assault from being billed for rape kits collected by police as part of their investigations. Fannon revealed then that Knowles’ decision would cost Wasilla $5,000 to $14,000 a year, insinuating that the department’s policy was to bill victims for this testing. During your tenure as Mayor, what was the police department and city’s standard operating procedure in recovering costs of rape kits? Were any sexual assault victims ever charged for this testing while you were mayor?
A: The entire notion of making a victim of a crime pay for anything is crazy. I do not believe, nor have I ever believed, that rape victims should have to pay for an evidence-gathering test. As governor, I worked in a variety of ways to tackle the problem of sexual assault and rape, including making domestic violence a priority of my administration.
It is indeed “crazy,” yet charging sexual assault victims for their rape kits (which cost $300 to $1,200 at the time) is exactly what happened while she was mayor of Wasilla. In a budget-cutting move, Palin’s administration began charging rape victims for exams and the kits containing the medical supplies. (Her signature is on the budget.) USA Today reported:
It is not known how many rape victims in Wasilla were required to pay for some or all of the medical exams, but a legislative staffer who worked on the bill for [state legislator Eric] Croft said it happened. “It was more than a couple of cases, and it was standard practice in Wasilla,” Peggy Wilcox said, who now works for the Alaska Public Employees Association. “If you were raped in Wasilla, this was going to happen to you.”
The practice of charging rape victims got the attention of state lawmakers in 2000, who passed a bill to stop the practice.
In her short tenure as Governor, Palin has come under criticism for presiding over a state where rape is “epidemic.” A March study by a state task force found that level of funding only covered the cost of helping women and children hurt by the epidemic of sexual violence. It was not enough to try to prevent assaults from happening or to ensure “accountability of offenders.”
Peggy Brown, executive director of the Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, said of Palin: “She’s really done a lot of work on oil and gas, but when it comes to violence against women and children…we haven’t been on her radar as a priority.” (HT: E&P)
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They say cliff notes aren’t allowed in the debates…
… She’s so screwed!!!!
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September 30th, 2008 at 5:11 pmSarah Palin is not qualified to be a human being, let alone a vice-president.
September 30th, 2008 at 5:13 pmIt’s crazy to make them pay for their own rape kit, But Sarah made them pay anyway. Need to make up for the 20 million dollar ice rink disaster. Owning the land is a crucial part of a giant construction project.
September 30th, 2008 at 5:13 pmthat’s the experience she brings to the ticket.
“She’s really done a lot of work on oil and gas, but when it comes to violence against women and children…we haven’t been on her radar as a priority.”
But she can’t get the positive political exposure advocating for women and children, now can she?
By working with Oil & Gas, she can tax their windfall profits and hand thousand of dollars per family to her voters.
Priorities in focus here.
Joe Biden, on the other hand, has been a tireless advocate for women and children. Palin? Advocate for MONEY and GREED.
PEACE
September 30th, 2008 at 5:13 pmThis creature should be sedated, in a padded cell, not running for office.
September 30th, 2008 at 5:13 pmToaster,
She’s a qualified human being…
…She demonstrates DAILY how she screws up.
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September 30th, 2008 at 5:16 pmShe dodged the question. Lets hope (or dream) a journalist presses her on this issue.
September 30th, 2008 at 5:17 pmBut if Palin had her way, a woman impregnated by rape will have to PAY by being forced to carry the pregnancy to term.
September 30th, 2008 at 5:18 pmOnce again, conservatives are proven to be reality challenged. She’ll spin this in the classic “out of context”, misquoted, misunderstood vein. Classic. As I always say, there is absolutely no bottom to this cesspool. And, as I always say….
September 30th, 2008 at 5:20 pmImpeach Pelosi, Cheney and Bush and Save the Constitution!
Sarah, Sarah, Sarah. I guess then that you are what they call “c-r-a-z-y.”
September 30th, 2008 at 5:25 pmNow she is truly a conservative with(out) conscience, putting money first.
September 30th, 2008 at 5:27 pmShe doesn’t need to be “pressed” galmud. Even when she’s working the script she can’t hide the fact she’s a moron. And now that the story is out I would imagine she, or someone, will come up with some half-baked damage control that cripples her credibility even more. Bible Spice is a bust and they can’t hide it.
September 30th, 2008 at 5:30 pmSlate writes that the intent of Palin’s police chief was to try to “bill insurance companies, not victims.”
Who exactly pays the insurance premiums? Why, the victim, of course! It may not be immediately, but you can be sure the insurance company is getting that money back from the victims in higher premiums.
September 30th, 2008 at 5:32 pmSarah’s just “misunderstood”. She didn’t want the victim to pay she wanted their insurance to pay. Of course if their deductible wasn’t met the victim would have to pay and they’d have to pay the copay so either way the victim would be paying any way. So I guess she’s just a bald faced liar.
September 30th, 2008 at 5:33 pmDuring your tenure as Mayor, what was the police department and city’s standard operating procedure in recovering costs of rape kits? Were any sexual assault victims ever charged for this testing while you were mayor?
She didn’t answer either question, did she? Did she admit to being crazy? Does her belief answer whether or not victims had to pay? What are the vareity of way that she tackled sexual assault and rape?
Does she ever answer a question directly or with specifics?
September 30th, 2008 at 5:33 pmI suppose it is too obvious a question but… If the citizens are raped by the greed and excesses of the market, should they have to pay for it…?
September 30th, 2008 at 5:35 pmI like it, Bible spice. It’s too bad that the spice girls are getting pretty deep into pop culture history. I will steal it from you anyway, pete.
September 30th, 2008 at 5:36 pmAnd the LIV’s of this country still thinks she is qualified to be VPOTUS or (shudder) POTUS?????
We are in a very, very dark time in the political history of this country!
September 30th, 2008 at 5:39 pm#19 dbadass,
If you’re a Pelosicrat, the answer is YES!
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September 30th, 2008 at 5:41 pmI believe that’s true about the “evidence gathering test,”, but I read a DKos diary (sorry, can’t remember who) that brought up the distinction between an “evidence gathering test” and a rape kit which includes emergency contraception… the implication being she didn’t want to pay for emergency contraception, which I absolutely believe that.
September 30th, 2008 at 5:42 pmDid Sarah have beauty pageant insurance since any high heel over a six inch stiletto would have raised her deductible?
September 30th, 2008 at 5:44 pmShe’s a lying slag – just like every other stinking Repuke on the planet.
September 30th, 2008 at 5:44 pmPlease do Taguba. I myself stumbled across Bible Spice in a thread on another blog. I take no creative credit.
September 30th, 2008 at 5:52 pmThe chief also said that he tried to include it in victim restitution for the perp to pay. So obviously the insurance didn’t always cover it (or people didn’t have insurance at all). People were getting charged.
September 30th, 2008 at 5:57 pmHere’s a good video from ADN showing Palin’s lies, lies, and more lies about the Troopergate investigation:
September 30th, 2008 at 6:01 pmhttp://community.adn.com/mini_apps/vmix/player.php?ID=2221420&GID=118
As with most politicians, and the Republicans in particular, notice that her response to the question is not an answer, but a statement. Further, there is a disconnect between her statement and her actions. So, her reply in the form of a statement doesn’t answer the question, is left to stand on its own, and has no relationship to what she really did.
Wow, that’s really helpful, Sarah. Why don’t you just
September 30th, 2008 at 6:01 pmSarah is not afraid of the coming debate because Thomas Muthee the witch hunter guy is on her side.
September 30th, 2008 at 6:07 pmMuthee promised Sarah that he will deliver, and he’ll get demons out of her campaign.
And if you question Sarah about that…you’ll be accused of ‘Gotcha’ questioning.
Bill the insurance companies? I wonder what percentage of the rape victims had insurance… if you can’t afford insurance, you don’t deserve justice?
September 30th, 2008 at 6:09 pmThis issue seems to be just another instance of a beleaguered, failing VP nominee to throwing crap against the wall and hoping some of it will stick.
The truth of the matter is that an evidence-gathering kit in the case of rape would not be reimbursed by an insurance company because — plainly and simply — it is not medical care or treatment rendered to the patient.
I spent my career in health care and I know this to be true. Here is another example –> insurers do not pay for translators who may need to be brought in so that a doctor can communicate with a non-English-speaking patient.
I wonder what the Pentacostal Pork-barrel Princess of Wasilla’s position is with regard to billing insurance companies for translators paid to be in the emergency room with a non-English-speaking rape victim.
September 30th, 2008 at 6:10 pm“it was standard practice in Wasilla”
Um, isn’t Wasilla’s population like 37 or something? A town that size that has ANYTHING as “standard practice” for rapes has a HUGE problem.
September 30th, 2008 at 6:17 pmtarazan Says:
Sarah is not afraid of the coming debate because Thomas Muthee the witch hunter guy is on her side.
Muthee promised Sarah that he will deliver, and he’ll get demons out of her campaign.
And if you question Sarah about that…you’ll be accused of ‘Gotcha’ questioning.
I know where Sarah would feel right at home with the questions. It’s this place where the waitresses wear white tanks tops with orange short-shorts. Then again, her pastor would think he’d be in the middle of a witch’s coven with the music and loose morals…those girls wear pantyhose and all!
September 30th, 2008 at 6:17 pmAnother set back for women’s rights and issues by the religious whacko Palin and her cronies from high school–what a surprise
September 30th, 2008 at 6:37 pmPassing these bills on to insurance companies is better than charging the victims directly, but this practice could still have an indirect cost in the form of higher premiums.
September 30th, 2008 at 6:52 pmPalin may say (correctly) that making any victim of a crime pay to gather evidence of that crime is “crazy”. She may even say that she doesn’t “believe” that a rap victim shouldn’t have to pay for a rape kit.
Those are just words. The fact remains that in Wasilla, while she was mayor, rape victims had to pay for their own rape kits. She has dodged providing any justification for that, nor has she debunked that bit of information as a lie.
September 30th, 2008 at 6:58 pmtballou, see my post #33. This is a non-issue. This charge would not be reimbursed by an insurance company. Failin’ Palin is just throwing out another phony excuse for her policy position. Don’t swallow it.
September 30th, 2008 at 6:59 pm> But if Palin had her way, a woman
> impregnated by rape will have to
> PAY by being forced to carry the
> pregnancy to term.
Yeah its beyond me why dems arent hitting her HARD on this issue, and force her AND Mccain to confront this issue.
This one is a real powder keg which i dont know why the dems dont light..
THey need to put REAL rape victims in political ads, sayin things like “if john mccain and sarah palin have thier way, women like me would be forced to give birth to our rapists baby…if YOUR daughter is ever raped, do you want john mccain and sarah palin to decide what should happen next?”
this would get the right wing howling like tasered baboons AND it would force mccain’s campaign to take a stand on this issue…and no matter what he says, either he losses moderate votes or he looses votes of fruitcakes like our own troll “upright left” who thinks that fertility clinics are the moral equivalent of concentration camps….
September 30th, 2008 at 7:18 pmPathological liar. Can we get on with the debate now? How much tax money should we use to rescue homeowners from predatory lenders and hedge funds? How many hedge fund managers should be in jail? Palin is a sideshow and McLaim is also.
September 30th, 2008 at 8:42 pmThis is golden… on AC360 Bay Buchanan *shudder* actually said the following in defense of yet another of Palin’s gaffes: “…you don’t speak with your mind if you want to reach the American people.”
It’s all too much for me. I need a break; it’s beyond parody and hyperbole. Aaahhhrrrggghhh!
September 30th, 2008 at 10:58 pmThe two things about this that stick out to me are,
A). It’s not actually the evidence gathering test she has a problem with, nor rape victims, per-se. She’s not really lying about that. Rape kits include emergency contraception. Being of the “If God didn’t want you pregnant, you wouldn’t be knocked up in the first place” persuasion, this is blasphemy to her. It’s not so much that she wants to saddle rape victims with the charge for the kit, she wants to saddle them with the child of the rapist.
B). I don’t remember the math, but somebody ran the figures fo how much they said it would cost for the city to pay for the kits. If it was even ballpark correct, Wasilla has a rape rate somewhere between 1000 to 3000 times the national average. One might think that with that big a problem, the Mayor might have a reputation, one way or the other, as to taking care of such things. Law and Order Republicans, anyone?
October 1st, 2008 at 3:39 amPalin’s response is a non-denial denial. Saying Palin “does not believe, nor has she ever believed, that rape victims should have to pay for an evidence-gathering test” does not answer whether or not Wasillia charged for the kits.
October 1st, 2008 at 9:33 amPalin is a disgusting excuse for a human being. Imagine you are a victim of rape, not only do you have to deal with the crime but then are forced to pay for your rape kit. She is absolutely not what I want in my house let alone in the White House. Can’t wait till tomorrow night, Good Bye McStupid and
October 1st, 2008 at 12:19 pmMcHeartless