This evening, Secretary of Defense Panetta announced yet another set of sweeping changes designed to stave the epidemic of sexual assaults. None of these changes include removing the victim and reporting of the crime outside of the chain of command. Herein, is my response, as written in response to a Service Womens Action Network's posting of the event. Thank you to SWAN for putting your best foot forward every day in the fight to end this epidemic.
Thank you to SWAN for doing the good you can do. But enough is enough when it comes to accepting the Department of Defense rejection of the STOP Act.
But, I believe all survivors need to stand together to continue to demand the progressive change that the STOP Act insures. We already know what the DoD will tolerate, and permit, when we are not looking! It’s time we balance the scales with this innovative legislation.
After 25 years, and 16 sum hearings, almost half a million survivors, this peace meal bartering in the 11th hour is not acceptable.
But even with these new changes it is clear, victims will be still trapped in a dangerous culture, until reporting of sexual violence, and the victims, are removed from the military chain of command, by a separate investigative body composed of military and civilian experts. It’s time for DoD leadership to acknowledge, criminal justice for rape victims within a society whose mission is based on giving one's very life in service, is a contradiction.
The UCMJ is not a fitting framework in which to process these sexual crimes to protect, especially, women, at this point in military history.
The problems relating to sexual violence cannot be undone with a shuffling of the cards, a redefining of the current rules. We need new rules. We need an outside the box approach to dissolving this epidemic. We need it now. Because generations upon generations of servicemembers have had their misogynistic views upheld, and reinforced, through policies like combat exclusion, false reporting mythology, mishandling of evidence, lack of prosecution, and allowance of retribution and retaliation against those who have the courage to report sexual violence.
Victims are reporting that the least of their troubles is the violent sexual offense. Lives, post rape, are being ruined. Stories of mental health practitioners assigning errant personality disorder diagnosis to ailing, traumatized, ostracized victims are unacceptable. Shuffling the victims out of the military is not diminishing the truth of the peril our most junior female servicemembers are in.
The truth is, military mindset indicates the individual's needs, and integrity, are counter intuitive to mission accomplishment. Under yet another set of "sweeping changes," I believe leaders will now be even more pressured to cover up these crimes, and find fault with the victim. The DoD is welcome to hold any leader accountable it deems necessary. But, DoD leaders are still not taking accountability, and they continue to spin this problem in the way of minimizing and characterizing the data, instead of simply being accountable. Its time for the DoD to admit, the real source of this epidemic, is that the theory behind the function of the UCMJ is counterintuitive to protecting servicemembers civil rights among the ranks.
It is time for the DoD to show this nation that it can drastically reduce the numbers of rape, assault, and the prevalance of victim blaming. But then and only then, can we begin to heal, and repair the damage that has been done. Once again, this is a shuffling of the same cards. Stop the CHARADE.
