Twenty five percent, 33%, do you want to see an eye popping percent? Ninety nine percent of the people found innocent after being convicted of crimes they never committed are men. The most relevant human rights organization in America today is the Innocence Project and it found the majority of the wrongful convictions are from rape cases, and 75% of the time the cause is from Eyewitness Misidentification, also 70% of the cases involve minorities. If you think the chain of command is tough, try proving your case to the Attorney General, or the DA while you’re locked up and you know you’re innocent. Nearly 300 innocent people have been exonerated though DNA testing since ‘92. Do you think that is the definitive number of innocent people rotting in prison or are you like me and believe that is only the tip of the iceberg? Don’t forget about the innocent people where there is no DNA evidence.<p. Just thought I would offer an expanded view on how the system can screw a mother over, with the experiences of real people.
We need more people like Mel who are willing to tell the truth like it is, because far too many of us have hid behind preconceived notions as if they were a safety blanket. You know the old saying: there’s this side, that side, and the truth. ’Nuff said. Way to go, Trudeau.
Some people are willing to tell the truth. Unfortunately, too many don’t want to hear it. Mel’s “issue” is just one of a number that can make vets “IEDs”, in a nation too self-absorbed to genuinely listen, or care. Platitudes don’t buy s**t.
Incorrect arrests and convictions only make it more important to take the victim’s complaints seriously and quickly. Getting DNA as soon as possible will help catch the real perpetrator and save innocent people from false arrest. But that doesn’t make rape any less a crime – just one that needs to be taken more seriously.
“Sordid details” is an interesting phrase. If she had been attacked with a knife and cut up by a man she had turned down for a date, would you refer to the details as “sordid”? If she had been raped at the age of six, would we now refer to the details as “sordid”? Sordid usually means shameful or dirty. If someone is mugged, does one refer to the details as shameful or dirty? Referring to the details of a rape as being “sordid” implies complicity or fault on the part of the person raped.
The military is structured like a dominance hierarchy. In the context of that hierarchy, a muscled 5’10" 170 lb. male can easily overpower a 5’5" 125 lb. female …. The nature of the military ain’t changing in a generation or two, despite what academic feminists at Yale or Brown might think. Any boy recruited into the service from Alabama could attest to that …. Young men in the service do things that they’d never do in civilian life. You get rewarded for aggression and violence …. Soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq sometimes kill non-combatants. They wouldn’t do that in civilian life …. Complain all you want to. As long as girls are in uniform it’s gonna happen. Sometimes aggression can’t be controlled like an on/off switch …. Females are physically weaker (except for the tomboys pumping iron), so they rank lower in the dominance hierarchy.
gmartin, sorry you haven’t been paying attention. Mel was introduced as a victim of command rape, which Wikipedia defines thus: "Since the beginning of the Iraq War, the term “command rape” has been used to refer to a victim being promised protection from imminent danger in exchange for having sexual relations with a commanding officer, usually when the commanding officer has life and death decisions over their victim." She met B.D. when she was getting help at the Vet Center to recover from the trauma.
If that’s not violent enough for you, and you really want to see her as a sordid, disgruntled woman who is unworthy of sympathy and just has an attitude about men, then you have way bigger problems than can be addressed in a comic strip discussion.
The innocence project has only scratched the surface. Add to that those that are scumbags, but are innocent of the crime they were currently convicted of(or got parole violated), you can see some of the problem. Like Nazi Germany, we have so many laws that no one can go a day in public without breaking some law. This gives the power mad the excuse to put away anyone who is bothering someone. small business entrepreneurs (peddling without a license – you can’t get a license in many places without a storefront) upset the big stores, so away they go – protecting their profits.This is a growth industry with politicians’ friends getting lucrative contracts(paid for with your tax dollars).
Meanwhile, those that play fast and loose with securities cause billions of dollars of loss, whole families loose everything and they get off with a strict admonishment from a judge to “straighten up and not get caught again”.
Thank you for sharing the truth. We need more people doing that to uncover the BS that really goes on behind the scenes to open peoples eyes AND minds.
In reference to guard SGT’s typo, I definitely want to say that when I post a comment, I usually make more typos than anyone else does. But I do take the time to correct the misspellings that my spell-checker finds. And that usually takes more time than it took to write my comment.
“If you think rape is a taboo topic, try typing the facts about the Usurper Barry Soetoro in the White House and watch the fur fly. It is the rape of our Nation and our rights.“The left comes down very hard on those, like me, that type the turth. Don’t believe me. Just read the replies this will generate. But none will have anything to disprove what I type. The replies will almost all be insults without anything else.“They don’t want people to hear about his name changes, his stolen SSAN, the forgeries, missing INS records for Hawaii, the 1875 Minor Case from the Supreme Court, or his hidden college and Illinois Senate records. No, we just aren’t supposed to look in those direction.If all this is widely known, Barry would be forced out of the White House. Watergate is very small compared to all the illegalities and unconstitutionals of this most corrupt administration.”.Okay, two words: Prove it. Any of it. With objective, documented evidence that will stand up to scrutiny..No? I thought not. How can anyone “disprove” something for which there is no proof? And what kind of fever dream do you have to be living in to believe that any “truth” with any credible proof would not be made public and used by as many enemies as that man has made?.(See? No insults or calumny. A little pity, maybe.)
“And when it comes to politics, never trust Wikipedia, Snopes, or other like fact checking things.”.So, ignore anyone who presents any contrary information to what you’d prefer to believe, and claim that they’ve been bought off by Them? Wow. And you claim that everyone else is wilfully blind…I’m beginning to worry about you. (And you too, LocoOwl.) Do you guys actually listen to yourselves when you talk?
Having done a little research myself, I can tell you that when Barbara Mikkelson researches something, it is RESEARCHED, and not only that, enough information provided for you to check every step. I’ve never seen any claim on Snopes that wasn’t backed up. If it’s not proved, it will be classed as “undetermined.”
Guard STD, is a JBS and WND “conspiracy” citing REMF, BS artist, and unmitigated moron who missed his calling in the Hitler Youth and Waffin SS, “born too late”; or just a damaged placenta looking for it’s place at the table?
Yes, false imprisonment for rape is all too common in the U.S., but likewise, rape, and sexual harassment and abuse is also all too common in the U.S., and in the military. “Society” needs to honestly address both sides of the issue, and do something for true justice.
In a puritanical, hyper-aggressive, totalitarian society, like the one “Guard” and other right-wingers, hiding in the shadow of cowardice, and genuflecting to hate and intolerance desire, “justice” is only what their warped, distended by lies and putrefaction minds, can handle.
Garry exposes the “dirty secrets”, and absurdity, of their “world net” existence, in the military, and civilian life, and they can’t handle it.
Approximately 75% of all sexual assaults are not reported.1 in 3 women will be sexually assaulted, that’s assaulted not harassed, in her lifetime. In the US, there are thousands of rape kits that are waiting to be processed, many of them years old. Many police officers don’t believe victims or shame or blame the victims so that the victims don’t bother coming forward.There are also women who have been arrested because the police officers have decided that they are falsely accusing men.
That’s civilian life. It’s even worse in the military.
“All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States,” Which means Congress shall be the ultimate lawmaker, that means a strong central government, just like the Federalists wanted. The Constitution goes on to define a powerful, not “limited” federal government.
If folks don’t support and defend the United States Constitution, I’m sure Assad has a place for them in Syria.
As to “concentration camps”, there’s the markings of one in northern California, and my first “girl friend” was born in one, in 1944, in IDAHO! Her parents were U.S. citizens, of Japanese origin. Yes, they WERE also “labor camps”. Also, the CONGRESS passed the law that incarcerated Japanese-Americans, it wasn’t just FDR.
Guard SGt writes" And when it comes to politics, never trust Wikipedia, Snopes, or other like fact checking things. They have so much that is incorrect. They are not a solution, but part of the problem."
My reply:: Wikipedia, Snopes and “others like fact checking things” are indeed dealing with facts, not trying to influence us “when it comes to politics”.. Wikipedia,makes every effort to get facts right, and accepts changes which stand up to further checking. Snopes, while lively in style. interesting to browse, and often humorous in announcing conclusions, is downright scholarly and scientific in its search for the turth, I mean truth,
Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics. Take the RadFem influenced lies out and get the real truth. The fact is that most reported rapes int he millitary are false accusations because of the anti fratrinization regulations. Others are attempts to ruin a male servicemember for revenge purposes. Of the rape allegations that are founded with actual evidence of a crime the millitary comes down on the perpatrator like the hammer of an angry pagan God. The elephant in the room, and what the RadFems wont tell you is that females do make False Accusations all the time for a myriad of reasons.
It does happen. During the Gulf War a fellow soldier and I were sexually harassed by our own troops. You know what reporting it got us? A label of “trouble-makers,” a lecture from the Army Chaplain (a female) on how to look less feminine, and soldiers in our own unit not speaking to us for about a month. The harasser was in another unit. So we learned very quickly that even soldiers in another unit take precedence over females within the same unit. It finally stopped when my fellow soldier’s father called a congressman. And that was just sexual harassment. I don’t even want to think about what would have been heaped on us if it had been sexual assault. Are there false charges? Of course there are. But my first instinct will always be to take the woman seriously because female soldiers know the crap you have to go through once you’ve reported. Which makes false reporting in the military more rare than you would think.
BE THIS GUY almost 12 years ago
That is one uncomfortable car ride.
FriscoLou almost 12 years ago
Twenty five percent, 33%, do you want to see an eye popping percent? Ninety nine percent of the people found innocent after being convicted of crimes they never committed are men. The most relevant human rights organization in America today is the Innocence Project and it found the majority of the wrongful convictions are from rape cases, and 75% of the time the cause is from Eyewitness Misidentification, also 70% of the cases involve minorities. If you think the chain of command is tough, try proving your case to the Attorney General, or the DA while you’re locked up and you know you’re innocent. Nearly 300 innocent people have been exonerated though DNA testing since ‘92. Do you think that is the definitive number of innocent people rotting in prison or are you like me and believe that is only the tip of the iceberg? Don’t forget about the innocent people where there is no DNA evidence.<p. Just thought I would offer an expanded view on how the system can screw a mother over, with the experiences of real people.
paulproteus48640 almost 12 years ago
invisiblewarmovie.com
randymi almost 12 years ago
We need more people like Mel who are willing to tell the truth like it is, because far too many of us have hid behind preconceived notions as if they were a safety blanket. You know the old saying: there’s this side, that side, and the truth. ’Nuff said. Way to go, Trudeau.
Dtroutma almost 12 years ago
Some people are willing to tell the truth. Unfortunately, too many don’t want to hear it. Mel’s “issue” is just one of a number that can make vets “IEDs”, in a nation too self-absorbed to genuinely listen, or care. Platitudes don’t buy s**t.
cdward almost 12 years ago
Incorrect arrests and convictions only make it more important to take the victim’s complaints seriously and quickly. Getting DNA as soon as possible will help catch the real perpetrator and save innocent people from false arrest. But that doesn’t make rape any less a crime – just one that needs to be taken more seriously.
cdward almost 12 years ago
Dude, I think you need some serious help.
Doughfoot almost 12 years ago
“Sordid details” is an interesting phrase. If she had been attacked with a knife and cut up by a man she had turned down for a date, would you refer to the details as “sordid”? If she had been raped at the age of six, would we now refer to the details as “sordid”? Sordid usually means shameful or dirty. If someone is mugged, does one refer to the details as shameful or dirty? Referring to the details of a rape as being “sordid” implies complicity or fault on the part of the person raped.
WaitingMan almost 12 years ago
Improvised Explosive Device. Recommended by terrorists worldwide.
asa4ever almost 12 years ago
In my opinion for what it is worth, most women are blamed by their families for their rape.
Doughfoot almost 12 years ago
Yep, that’s the Turth all right. The Turth, the whole Turth, and nothing but the Turth.
erinbliss almost 12 years ago
Mel may be a fictional character but her numbers are real. IED—improvised explosive device
ramonesfan almost 12 years ago
The military is structured like a dominance hierarchy. In the context of that hierarchy, a muscled 5’10" 170 lb. male can easily overpower a 5’5" 125 lb. female …. The nature of the military ain’t changing in a generation or two, despite what academic feminists at Yale or Brown might think. Any boy recruited into the service from Alabama could attest to that …. Young men in the service do things that they’d never do in civilian life. You get rewarded for aggression and violence …. Soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq sometimes kill non-combatants. They wouldn’t do that in civilian life …. Complain all you want to. As long as girls are in uniform it’s gonna happen. Sometimes aggression can’t be controlled like an on/off switch …. Females are physically weaker (except for the tomboys pumping iron), so they rank lower in the dominance hierarchy.
wordymom almost 12 years ago
gmartin, sorry you haven’t been paying attention. Mel was introduced as a victim of command rape, which Wikipedia defines thus: "Since the beginning of the Iraq War, the term “command rape” has been used to refer to a victim being promised protection from imminent danger in exchange for having sexual relations with a commanding officer, usually when the commanding officer has life and death decisions over their victim." She met B.D. when she was getting help at the Vet Center to recover from the trauma.
If that’s not violent enough for you, and you really want to see her as a sordid, disgruntled woman who is unworthy of sympathy and just has an attitude about men, then you have way bigger problems than can be addressed in a comic strip discussion.
route66paul almost 12 years ago
The innocence project has only scratched the surface. Add to that those that are scumbags, but are innocent of the crime they were currently convicted of(or got parole violated), you can see some of the problem. Like Nazi Germany, we have so many laws that no one can go a day in public without breaking some law. This gives the power mad the excuse to put away anyone who is bothering someone. small business entrepreneurs (peddling without a license – you can’t get a license in many places without a storefront) upset the big stores, so away they go – protecting their profits.This is a growth industry with politicians’ friends getting lucrative contracts(paid for with your tax dollars).
Meanwhile, those that play fast and loose with securities cause billions of dollars of loss, whole families loose everything and they get off with a strict admonishment from a judge to “straighten up and not get caught again”.
Redhead55 almost 12 years ago
Thank you for sharing the truth. We need more people doing that to uncover the BS that really goes on behind the scenes to open peoples eyes AND minds.
goweeder almost 12 years ago
“BTW, what does “IED” stand for?”
Improvised explosive device – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia(I know – because I just Googled it)
goweeder almost 12 years ago
In reference to guard SGT’s typo, I definitely want to say that when I post a comment, I usually make more typos than anyone else does. But I do take the time to correct the misspellings that my spell-checker finds. And that usually takes more time than it took to write my comment.
ramonesfan almost 12 years ago
Are you a fan of Glenn Beck?
craigwestlake almost 12 years ago
@Susan Newman
Improvised Explosive Device
montessoriteacher almost 12 years ago
Improvised Explosive Device.
montessoriteacher almost 12 years ago
Oops looks like that was answered. Anyone else see Bill Maher last night?
montessoriteacher almost 12 years ago
A movie is being made which addresses the topic that Mel was discussing.
LocoOwl almost 12 years ago
never trust Wikipedia, Snopes, or other like fact checking things. They have so much that is incorrect.
Especially since Snopes.com is a wholly owned subsidiary of George Soros – the billionaire socialist. They now shamelessly cover for BHO.
PShaw0423 almost 12 years ago
“If you think rape is a taboo topic, try typing the facts about the Usurper Barry Soetoro in the White House and watch the fur fly. It is the rape of our Nation and our rights.“The left comes down very hard on those, like me, that type the turth. Don’t believe me. Just read the replies this will generate. But none will have anything to disprove what I type. The replies will almost all be insults without anything else.“They don’t want people to hear about his name changes, his stolen SSAN, the forgeries, missing INS records for Hawaii, the 1875 Minor Case from the Supreme Court, or his hidden college and Illinois Senate records. No, we just aren’t supposed to look in those direction.If all this is widely known, Barry would be forced out of the White House. Watergate is very small compared to all the illegalities and unconstitutionals of this most corrupt administration.”.Okay, two words: Prove it. Any of it. With objective, documented evidence that will stand up to scrutiny..No? I thought not. How can anyone “disprove” something for which there is no proof? And what kind of fever dream do you have to be living in to believe that any “truth” with any credible proof would not be made public and used by as many enemies as that man has made?.(See? No insults or calumny. A little pity, maybe.)
PShaw0423 almost 12 years ago
“And when it comes to politics, never trust Wikipedia, Snopes, or other like fact checking things.”.So, ignore anyone who presents any contrary information to what you’d prefer to believe, and claim that they’ve been bought off by Them? Wow. And you claim that everyone else is wilfully blind…I’m beginning to worry about you. (And you too, LocoOwl.) Do you guys actually listen to yourselves when you talk?
underwriter almost 12 years ago
Having done a little research myself, I can tell you that when Barbara Mikkelson researches something, it is RESEARCHED, and not only that, enough information provided for you to check every step. I’ve never seen any claim on Snopes that wasn’t backed up. If it’s not proved, it will be classed as “undetermined.”
Dtroutma almost 12 years ago
Guard STD, is a JBS and WND “conspiracy” citing REMF, BS artist, and unmitigated moron who missed his calling in the Hitler Youth and Waffin SS, “born too late”; or just a damaged placenta looking for it’s place at the table?
Yes, false imprisonment for rape is all too common in the U.S., but likewise, rape, and sexual harassment and abuse is also all too common in the U.S., and in the military. “Society” needs to honestly address both sides of the issue, and do something for true justice.
In a puritanical, hyper-aggressive, totalitarian society, like the one “Guard” and other right-wingers, hiding in the shadow of cowardice, and genuflecting to hate and intolerance desire, “justice” is only what their warped, distended by lies and putrefaction minds, can handle.
Garry exposes the “dirty secrets”, and absurdity, of their “world net” existence, in the military, and civilian life, and they can’t handle it.
lanman03 almost 12 years ago
IED = Improvised Explosive Device, or homemade bomb. Our troops have seen lots of them over in The Sandbox.
tetisheri almost 12 years ago
to Franciscolou, and others.
Approximately 75% of all sexual assaults are not reported.1 in 3 women will be sexually assaulted, that’s assaulted not harassed, in her lifetime. In the US, there are thousands of rape kits that are waiting to be processed, many of them years old. Many police officers don’t believe victims or shame or blame the victims so that the victims don’t bother coming forward.There are also women who have been arrested because the police officers have decided that they are falsely accusing men.
That’s civilian life. It’s even worse in the military.
Dtroutma almost 12 years ago
“All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States,” Which means Congress shall be the ultimate lawmaker, that means a strong central government, just like the Federalists wanted. The Constitution goes on to define a powerful, not “limited” federal government.
If folks don’t support and defend the United States Constitution, I’m sure Assad has a place for them in Syria.
Dtroutma almost 12 years ago
As to “concentration camps”, there’s the markings of one in northern California, and my first “girl friend” was born in one, in 1944, in IDAHO! Her parents were U.S. citizens, of Japanese origin. Yes, they WERE also “labor camps”. Also, the CONGRESS passed the law that incarcerated Japanese-Americans, it wasn’t just FDR.
GTphile almost 12 years ago
@Guard SGT
Guard SGt writes" And when it comes to politics, never trust Wikipedia, Snopes, or other like fact checking things. They have so much that is incorrect. They are not a solution, but part of the problem."
My reply:: Wikipedia, Snopes and “others like fact checking things” are indeed dealing with facts, not trying to influence us “when it comes to politics”.. Wikipedia,makes every effort to get facts right, and accepts changes which stand up to further checking. Snopes, while lively in style. interesting to browse, and often humorous in announcing conclusions, is downright scholarly and scientific in its search for the turth, I mean truth,
JLG Premium Member almost 12 years ago
Anyone who cites WorldNetDaily as a source of legitimate information is too far gone to talk with. It’s as simple as that.
DBS1970 almost 12 years ago
Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics. Take the RadFem influenced lies out and get the real truth. The fact is that most reported rapes int he millitary are false accusations because of the anti fratrinization regulations. Others are attempts to ruin a male servicemember for revenge purposes. Of the rape allegations that are founded with actual evidence of a crime the millitary comes down on the perpatrator like the hammer of an angry pagan God. The elephant in the room, and what the RadFems wont tell you is that females do make False Accusations all the time for a myriad of reasons.
nimbleswitch almost 12 years ago
IED = improvised expolsive device.
LivingIt almost 12 years ago
It does happen. During the Gulf War a fellow soldier and I were sexually harassed by our own troops. You know what reporting it got us? A label of “trouble-makers,” a lecture from the Army Chaplain (a female) on how to look less feminine, and soldiers in our own unit not speaking to us for about a month. The harasser was in another unit. So we learned very quickly that even soldiers in another unit take precedence over females within the same unit. It finally stopped when my fellow soldier’s father called a congressman. And that was just sexual harassment. I don’t even want to think about what would have been heaped on us if it had been sexual assault. Are there false charges? Of course there are. But my first instinct will always be to take the woman seriously because female soldiers know the crap you have to go through once you’ve reported. Which makes false reporting in the military more rare than you would think.