On January 24th, during a safety information session at Osgoode Hall Law School at York University in Toronto, a police officer from the 31 division, there to give tips on keeping safe, suggested that women can avoid rape by not dressing like "sluts".
It is fucking outrageous that police officers, people society charges with the well-being and safety of their citizens (not that they are all prize pigs, necessarily -- JJ Harper, Helen Betty Osbourne, Starlight Tours, Robert Dziekanski, Robert Pickton, police brutality at the G20 in Toronto, to name just a few cases) would believe that it is a) the victim's responsibility to not get raped; b) that rapists rape because of their sexual appetite and not because of power; c) that "sluts" deserve to get raped.
Women get raped by strangers, by acquaintances, by loved ones. Women get raped while wearing a little clothing or wearing a lot of clothing. Women get raped sober, they get raped when drunk; they get raped walking alone at night and they get raped at home. Women of all ethnic backgrounds and religions, of all shapes and sizes, of all ages get raped. Women are raped in every country, every province, every state, everywhere in the world. The only thing that all raped women have in common is that in misogynistic and patriarchal ideologies, they all had it coming.
There has been a demand for an apology but nearly a month later, there still hasn't been any acknowledgment of this erroneous and dangerous and misogynistic and, fucking, denigrating suggestion.
Email the 31 Division (unit commander is Christopher White) here or snail-mail them here to let them know that we are all watching, that we are all protesting their casual rape apology and that we are all demanding an apology.
*UPDATE*
Rebekah has been in contact with the Toronto Police on Twitter and they just Tweeted this:
@grebnekkah officer will apologize & has been disciplined + #sexassault training has been revised to focus on actions of the offender ^mg
Great stuff, but still leaves a few questions. Where will he apologize and to who? What did the discipline entail? And, how was the sexual assault training set up before that it didn't focus on the actions of the offender???!!! These are questions that we are obligated to have answered as the police are public figures who's salaries are paid by taxpayers. Also, I don't know how to turn off the double spacing.