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posted by on Thursday April 13 2017, @09:03PM   Printer-friendly
from the when-in-doubt,-ask dept.

What do you do when you don't have the funding to address a perpetual backlog of unanalyzed rape kits? Ask drivers to foot the bill when applying for a driver's license:

Across the country, there's a backlog of kits containing potential evidence of sexual assaults. Victim advocates say the situation threatens public safety. Lawmakers in dozens of states are pushing for funding, and in Texas, one state representative has offered an innovative solution.

Thousands of rape kits sit sealed and untested in forensics labs and law enforcement offices in Texas. What's missing is state and local funding to pay to analyze the evidence in many of those kits.

If state Rep. Victoria Neave has her way, residents could help chip in. When Texans go to the Department of Public Safety office to apply for a driver's license, they'd be asked if they'd like to help the state pay to test DNA evidence from sexual assault cases — in the same way they're asked if they want to donate to support veterans or organ donation.

The Texas Department of Public Safety issues driver's licenses rather than the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles.


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by edIII on Thursday April 13 2017, @10:22PM (5 children)

    by edIII (791) on Thursday April 13 2017, @10:22PM (#493663)

    About my reaction. This isn't a cause to find new funding, but is a cause to fire a ton of people, and clawback their salaries and pensions too. It's gross negligence to the extent I find it criminal.

    It literally means that the authorities didn't do their fucking jobs. What we paid them to do them already, they didn't do them, and now we need to pay again? What fucking shit is this?

    I know how to get to the money. Dock every single authorities pay along with every single politician until their backlog is gone. Then next time remind them if they can't do their fucking jobs, then resign, and we will elect somebody else to do it.

    life altering crimes

    Perhaps so, but it was just women. Apparently we don't give a fuck what happens to our mothers, sisters, and wives. Their lives were altered radically, but authorities cannot be bothered to do their damn jobs and find justice for the victims. In a very real sense, all of those victims have been harmed twice. Once by the attacker, and twice by the authorities apathy.

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  • (Score: 2) by sjames on Thursday April 13 2017, @10:46PM (1 child)

    by sjames (2882) on Thursday April 13 2017, @10:46PM (#493676) Journal

    Agreed. I'll bet they wouldn't be interested in trashing all their drug tests until they catch up on the rape kits either.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 14 2017, @07:39AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 14 2017, @07:39AM (#493865)

    It literally means that the authorities didn't do their fucking jobs.

    How do you come to that conclusion?
    If you are given a workload a couple of orders of magnitude beyond your capacity and you fail to complete it, does that really mean you didn't do your job?

    These departments are underfund and thus under-staffed and under-equipped. Your response is just screaming, ignorant rage that can only make the problem worse.

    Sounds to me like there is more going on with you and this story than you are saying.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 14 2017, @06:23PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 14 2017, @06:23PM (#494131)

      stfu, you mindless slave. these stupid pieces of shit are too busy robbing (and raping women on the side of the road for weed) to bother to find out who is raping people (excluding the raping cops)? and you want to make excuses for them. Anyone who backs the enforcement of unconstitutional laws is guilty of sedition and needs to be dealt with. A final solution, if you will.

  • (Score: 2) by Common Joe on Friday April 14 2017, @01:54PM

    by Common Joe (33) <{common.joe.0101} {at} {gmail.com}> on Friday April 14 2017, @01:54PM (#493960) Journal

    What's even sadder is that the rape kits are just the tip of the ice berg. I have a friend in another state who was raped. The stories she tells about watching this guy avoid justice is just staggering. She is harassed by this guy's family, but that seems to be ok with the police and judicial system. She couldn't have a lawyer, but he could. The DA wouldn't talk to her at all about her case. When the case wound up with a court date (but only to delay the trial the first of many times), the DA allowed the charges dropped down to the equivalent of jay walking. She's supposed to have counseling, but the system blocks her from that too.

    That is America today.