Republican Anchorage Assemblyman Dick Traini is big on "public safety." He's proposed a change in city law that would ban men who've merely been charged with rape -- no need to be convicted -- from driving taxicabs. If adopted by the Assembly, the new rules would allow the city to suspend the licenses of drivers charged with rape while they wait for their cases to meander, creep, wheeze, and crawl through the system toward trial. The ban would apply to any alleged sexual offense committed in a driver's cab or against an alleged victim the driver gained access to as a cab driver.
In short, before a man is permitted to introduce a scrap of evidence in his defense, this law would punish him based on a charge. The ACLU is rightly concerned. Just another in a long line of public policies that institutionalize the notion that when it comes to sex crimes, an accusation or a charge becomes its own quasi-conviction, and guilt, and not innocence, is presumed. All in the name of "public safety."
Traini was asked about the possibility that his proposal would punish cabdrivers wrongly accused by police and later found innocent, Traini replied with a question of his own. “How often does that really happen in the real world?” he said. “It doesn’t happen that much. My concern is public safety.”
There is something about rape claims that transforms law-and-order politicians into actuaries. They weigh the risk of false rape claims and determine it is sufficiently small, and therefore that it is acceptable, given the "more important" goal of promoting "public safety." The men falsely accused who are also punished? Unfortunate, but acceptable, collateral damage.
That view is as frightening as it is disgusting. To hell with the men who are falsely accused, because, with no authority beyond his serene and all-knowing ipse dixit, Dick Traini has declared that false rape claims are not a serious problem.
Our guess is that in Dick Traini's world, Blackstone's formulation is just more liberal bleeding heart hogwash.
Traini's proposal seems to have support. “It seems like having the fox guard the henhouse again if we don’t do something about it. So we’re basically going to corral the fox and put him in a pen,” said Paul Honeman, an East Anchorage assemblyman and former police spokesman who is considering a run for mayor.
The question is, why does Traini single out cab drivers? Why not make sure everyone charged with a sex offense who comes in contact with the public, including members of the assembly, loses their livelihoods? Why await trial for anyone? Let the punishment commence with the charge. But of course, it's not "punishment," it's "public safety."
At a public hearing last week, several cab drivers correctly noted that the law was unfair, and that the problem could be better dealt with by installing video cameras in all taxi cabs in the city. "If there was a camera inside the vehicle, and they were proven innocent -- because any time they're falsely accused -- that is very important that it comes out because that can wreck your life, of course," said cab driver Lynette Moreno-Hinz.
Outfitting cabs with cameras is, of course, a prudent idea. Among the taxi stories we've reported are the following: a teen falsely reported to police she had been sexually groped by a taxi driver while she took a local cab home from a friend's house. http://falserapesociety.blogspot.com/2011/01/police-teen-falsely-reports-incident.html Four young women falsely accused a taxi driver of sexual assault after he told one to put a cigarette in his cab. http://falserapesociety.blogspot.com/2009/06/edmonton-cabbie-sues-passengers-over.html A teenager lied that a taxi driver tried to rape her, causing him to be arrested and held in custody for nine hours, because she didn't have the fare. The father-of-three broke down in tears in the witness stand when he gave evidence about the night, an image the judge said will "haunt the memory of the jury for a very long time." http://falserapesociety.blogspot.com/2009/09/woman-falls-to-floor-cries.html A young woman falsely accused a cab driver of raping her, apparently out of revenge over a fare dispute that occurred the week before.The part-time cabbie was arrested at his home and taken to the police station where intimate samples, DNA and fingerprints were taken. http://falserapesociety.blogspot.com/2008/08/horrific-story-completely-innocent-man.html A 23-year-old woman was jailed after falsely claiming she had been raped by a taxi driver who tried to be a Good Samaritan to her in a bid to obtain £10,000 from him. http://falserapesociety.blogspot.com/2009/03/good-samaritan-falsely-accused-of-rape.html Two women were willing to destroy the life of a cab driver with a rape lie because they didn't want to pay a fare. http://falserapesociety.blogspot.com/2010/04/women-tried-to-destroy-cab-driver-with.html A taxi driver was locked up for almost a day and had his licence suspended for several weeks after an alcoholic drug abuser claimed he had raped her. http://falserapesociety.blogspot.com/2010/10/donna-robinson-admits-making-up-rape.html A girl falsely accused a cab driver of rape to justify her long absence at home to her parents. http://falserapesociety.blogspot.com/2008/03/girl-accused-of-knowingly-false.html A pregnant woman lied about being sexually assaulted by a taxi driver because she did not have enough money to pay the fare. http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Home/Mum-to-be-jailed-for-sex-assault-claim.htm
And we can't forget Clive Bishop. Mr. Bishop lost his taxi business and was shunned by the community as a result of a false rape claim that sent his false accuser to jail for ten months. He sought compensation for his ordeal by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA). After all, Britain pays crime victims, including women who claim they've been raped, substantial sums of money as "compensation." Victims of alleged rapes need not have been subjected to violence to trigger the payments. Unfortunately, since Mr. Bishop wasn't raped -- only destroyed by a rape lie -- he was denied compensation because his victimization wasn't violent. http://falserapesociety.blogspot.com/2010/06/it-is-official-britain-pays-women-to.html
But getting back to Anchorage, there is, of course, no empirical support for Traini's statement that false rape claim don't happen much. The prevalence of false rape claims is unknown and likely unknowable. ". . . the statistics on false rape accusation widely vary and 'as a scientific matter, the frequency of false rape complaints to police or other legal authorities remains unknown.'" A. Gruber, Rape, Feminism, and the War on Crime, 84 Wash. L. Rev. 581, 595-600 (November 2009).
Even progressive on-line magazines like Slate have said this: "While most of the good studies converge at a rate of about 8 percent to 10 percent for false rape charges, the literature isn't quite definitive enough to stamp out the far higher estimates." (Importantly, and often lost in the discussion: even when studies arrive at a percentage for false claims, these can't be read to mean that all the remaining claims are actual rapes. It only means that we know that at least the stated percentage of claims are false. But a vast percentage of rape claims are unknowable -- they fall into a vast "he said/she said" gray hole -- and at least some of those claims, perhaps many, are also likely false.)
Regardless, even 8 to 10 percent would yield an awesome, and wholly unacceptable, number of false claims. As Slate's writers stated: "This is a problem that a men's rights movement shouldn't trump up. And also one that feminists can't dismiss."
In the widely acclaimed book about the Duke lacrosse case, Authors Stuart Taylor and Professor K.C. Johnson explain that the exact number of false claims is elusive but "[t]he standard assertion by feminists that only 2 percent" or sexual assault claims "are false, which traces to Susan Brownmiller's 1975 book 'Against Our Will,' is without empirical foundation and belied by a wealth of empirical data. These data suggest that at least 9 percent and probably closer to half" of all sexual assault claims "are false . . . ." (Page 374.)
So how often are rape claims false? Too often. Dick Traini's blithe and cavalier dismissal of the problem notwithstanding.
The task of balancing the interests of punishing rapists on the one hand, and of insuring that the innocent are not punished with the guilty on the other, is difficult enough without having public servants who pander to our worst fears. People like Dick Traini, whose only interest is "public safety" and who seem to have no concern for protecting the innocent from the tyranny of false accusations, should have no place in the public discourse of this very serious issue.
Sources:
http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/anchorage-knee-jerk-legislation-capital
http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/anchorage-knee-jerk-legislation-capital
http://articles.ktuu.com/2011-09-13/cab-drivers_30151973
http://www.turnagaintimes.com/current%20issue/2011-09-15/paddy-waggin.html
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12 comments:
This better not get passed & i doubt it would hold up in court-but i have seen crazier things-I READ THIS BLOG!-Thanks Pierce 4 bringing this 2 are attention(or anyone filling in for him if this wasn't written by him)
We *sort* of have this in the UK.
CRB = Criminal Records Bureau (check)
ECRB = Enhanced CRB (check)
Any job even remotely conceivable to have contact with kids = ECRB
Any job contact with the public, eg taxi driver = CRB
Having been the victim of an FRA as integral part of a separation / custody case that went nuclear on day one... I am in the CRB records.
I will fail, every time, an ECRB check.
I *should* pass every CRB check.
Bottom line, I remove myself from the market and refuse to work in any job that has any kind of CRB requirement.
Can you spell Mancession?
I suspect that those who support bills such as this, have never been the victim of a false accusation, ever
Those who support bills like this are pandering to the "winning side" - namely the women's vote.
The ARE the majority voters.
This is a natural out cropping of other unConstitutional laws perpetuated by "save the children" promoters.
While your country is being dismantled and sold out, law makers are putting up distracting "SEE HOW MUCH I CARE ABOUT YOUR SAFETY" laws that do NOTHING to promote safety, but everything to further subjugate males.
This stuff started with "saving children" laws, and is now moving up the ranks to "saving women and children".
The alarm has been sounded for years, but because it "saved the children" everhone went along.
The alarm is getting louder, the public is getting deafer.
AfOR
You should look into hiring an attorney to see if you can get your record cleared or expunged. Living with such a blemish on your record can be stigmatizing.
There should be a law against False Rape Accusers. The documented injustices & harm that has been done to men, such as suicides, executions, false imprisonment, beatings, loss of children, loss of property and financial ruin, should be enough to have a law passed. Republican Anchorage Assemblyman Dick Traini, needs to only read The False Rape Society for one day, to see that such a law is desperately needed.
And now they are giving these women thousands of dollars come up with lies, how more preposterous can the system get?
Politicians like to use the Utilitarian argument "its for the greater good". As it gets the greater number of votes.
What they forget is that Utilitarianism at its core, from John Stuart Mill, is
"For the greater good but with protection of the individual from the tyranny of the majority"
To counter this type of crap you have to individualise the argument. And quote Mill, Benthem and also Alexis de Tocqueville from his "Democracy in America" who first used the phrase "The tyranny of the majority".
Weighty sounding quotes always add substance to an argument.
(Zimba aka ZimbaZumba)
“How often does that really happen in the real world?” he said. “It doesn’t happen that much. My concern is public safety.” - Dick Taini
Has anyone asked Traini how often, in the real world, does a cab driver charged with a sex crime comit a sex crime while performing his duties as a cab driver? My guess is that doesn't happen much and that public safety can best be served by addressing real issues.
TDOM
TDOM, excellent point. I suppose that one rape is enough to elicit a draconian law "because you can't be too careful, you know!"
I'd also like the brilliant Mr. Traini's take on this: which is easier to do: for the driver to rape a woman in a cab? Or for a female passenger to lie that the cabdriver raped her?
Another proposed law would punish men accused of rape before an adjudication of guilt at trial
The same holds true for any man accused of violating VAWA.
Archivist - ” which is easier to do: for the driver to rape a woman in a cab? Or for a female passenger to lie that the cabdriver raped her?”
As you often note, the question barley survives it’s asking.
While the FRS has covered accounts of Cab drivers being accused (indicating just how easy it is to do so), the other part of the question involves much more consideration…as to how a cabbie would possible be able to (think he could) get away with raping a woman rider. Short of a rape-murder scenario, any cabbie who’d even try would be essentially setting him self up for failure as it is easy to track down a cabbie based on his fares (just look at how easy it was to identify and find the ones who were falsely accused).
To me, this seems as much and effort to score points in a divide-and-conquer fashion, with the “understanding” being that cab drivers (outside of Anchorage, I’d imagine) tend to be ethnic minorities and more recent immigrants. It’s somewhat easy to evoke the idea that such men are more inclined to be rapists, thus it’s reasonable to hold them in collective suspicion.
I’m reminded of the words of Martin Niemöller regarding the Nazi take-over and subsequent results:
”First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.”
All one needs to do is insert black/Hispanic men, college men, & cab drivers, for those listed in Niemöller’s list.
slwerner, great, great comment. Thanks.
Excellent post. The war on men is continuing. I hope the people of Anchorage vote this RINO out.
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