I'm too angry about this to come up with my own arguement...

[luvxander]

so I'm just copying the original post here, links and all. With the original posters permission, of course (she gave blanket permission for this to be posted anywhere).

Air Force Charges Victim in Her Own Rape

This news item made my stomach turn: Cassandra Hernandez, a female Air Force airman was raped, reported her attack and then subsequently became a court-martial defendant, herself.

The story goes down like this: Hernandez was at a party, where she was drinking. She says that three male airman raped her. She went to the hospital and filed a report accusing her attackers. Due to stress and harsh interrogation tactics by the Air Force, she eventually refused to testify against the airmen.

The Air Force then charged her with underage drinking (of which she admits to being guilty, but that's hardly the point, now is it?) and, along with her three attackers,"indecent acts." I had a hell of a lot of trouble finding an official definition for "indecent acts," and the best one I came up with is a "form of immorality relating to sexual impurity which is not only grossly vulgar, obscene, and repugnant to common propriety, but tends to excite lust and deprave the morals with respect to sexual relations." Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but the basic translation seems to be "a sexual act, particularly one that is not generally accepted in society, such as sex with multiple partners."

So. The woman was raped. By three men. She reported her rape. She was harassed by her superiors, to the point where she became too afraid to testify. The Air Force took this as meaning that the sex was therefore consensual (which isn't what it means at all), and charged her in the case of her own rape. If she loses her case, she could be publicly registered as a sex offender.

Sounds like it couldn't get any worse, right? But it does. How? The three alleged attackers were offered sexual assault immunity to testify against Hernandez on the indecent acts charge. Having at least half a brain cell among them, they accepted.

Hernandez is writing to her congresspeople and her Governor, Rick Perry, in a desperate plea to end this madness. Once you finish throwing up, crying, breaking things, etc., I strongly suggest that you write, too.

IMPORTANT CORRECTION: Apparently, the correct action to take is to write directly to YOUR congresspersons. You can find the information to write to your Representative here, and the information to write to your Senators here. It is a good idea to include one of the links to articles about thecase, so that they know specifically what you are referring to.

Posted by Cara at 04:15 PM | in Law, News, Sexual Assault, Violence Against Women

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if any of you have a good way of passing this around--to each other or to the news through the spotlight thing--PLEASE DO IT. follow the links to write to your congressperson. (if anyone wants a pre-written letter to sign, i can draw up a template.) maybe if we get the word out, something can be done about it.

Comments

[redeem147.livejournal.com]

Angry is right, and disgusted, and wondering what century I'm living in.

I wish I had a congressperson to write to.

Well, not really, because I'm glad to be Canadian. Even though our country is quite capable of handing over one of our citizens to the US to be tortured. Which also makes me angry.

http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/245023

[luvxander.livejournal.com]

I'm just shocked. I didn't even know this stuff happened anymore.

[silencebreaking.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting this. I hadn't heard anything about it. Here is the letter that I wrote, and that I'm sending to my congressperson and state representative.

I recently learned of the case against Cassandra Hernandez, a female Air Force airman that was raped, reported her attack and then subsequently became a court-martial defendant, herself.

After she made the decision to not testify against the three suspects in the case, due to the severe stress that doing so would cause her, the Air Force is instead charging her with "indecent acts." The Air Force is claiming that there is insufficient evidence to process a court-martial against the three suspects. Instead, the three suspects are being offered sexual assault immunity if they testify against Ms. Hernandez in the case that is currently pending against her, as they have claimed that all sexual contact between them and Ms. Hernandez was consensual.

As a sexual assault survivor, I am horrified to think that the victim of such a horrible act is the one that is being charged, and in this case, possibly court martialed. This is the wrong message to send to ANY woman that may have been a victim of a crime such as this, and will result in even fewer victims stepping forward in the future. If our attackers are allowed to not only go free, but then be allowed to testify against us, so that we are victimized even further, this time at the hands of the judicial system, something is very seriously wrong.

I urge you to please, step up and say something about the injustice in this situation.

Thank you for your attention to this matter,

Samantha S. Mylastname

[luvxander.livejournal.com]

Looks really good to me. I've already sent a couple of letters and am contemplating phone calls. I also included self addressed and stamped envelopes with the letters I sent. I stated that I would like a response back and, if I didn't get one, I would assume my letters were not being read and would continue to send them until I did receive a response.