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.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday April 14 2017, @12:05AM (1 child)
Still, if they served their term honorably and did what was expected of them, then why should it make a difference?
I'm all for dodging the draft if it's to boycott a bullshit war you don't believe in, but those who slogged it out should receive the same benefits (except an enlistment/commission bonus) regardless.
As an aside, my dad is a Vietnam vet who enlisted willingly during the war because he was a bum going nowhere in life had a lot of funny stories about Marines trying to get kicked out -- temporary homosexuality, motherfuckers would literally walk up to the gunny and throw fistfuls of joints on the desk saying, "I want out," etc.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Friday April 14 2017, @01:13AM
Did temporary homosexuality or joints work as a bail out of military card at all?
Perhaps communist sympathies or Russkie connections work? ;)