Texas police chief shames Trump with facts about sexual assaults

A major metro police chief in a red state publicly debunked Trump’s Friday smear against Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, the woman accusing Supreme Court nominee Kavanaugh of violently attempting to rape her at a party when she was 15 and he was 17.

Trump jumped into the GOP campaign to shame Ford by posting a taunting tweet, demanding to know why if the attack “was as bad as she says,” she didn’t immediately report it to the police — or the FBI — back in the 1980s.

“I ask that she bring those [police] filings forward so that we can learn date, time, and place!” he announced, trying to dent Ford’s credibility.

In Houston, though, police chief Art Acevedo wasn’t having it:

Sexual assault & domestic violence are row of the most under-reported crimes in society, this is a fact & in the past the law enforcement community has not done a good job of creating safe spaces for victims. Thankfully, we now work with partners like @hawctalk to do better.

— Chief Art Acevedo (@ArtAcevedo) September 21, 2018

The truth, as Acevedo stresses, is most sexual assaults are not reported to law enforcement immediately, or ever.

“Part of this is the result of sexual assault victims fearing the repercussions of speaking out — the shaming, stigma, and retaliation, not to mention the difficulty of potentially reliving a traumatic event over and over in the course of an investigation,” notes Vox.

“Sexual assault survivors think that the police won’t investigate their accusations very seriously, so they’re skeptical of coming forward — and opening themselves up to all sorts of scrutiny — when they might not even get justice.”

Indeed, Trump himself has been accused of sexually assaulting or harassing at least 22 women over the years, and his victims did not report the ugly attacks to the police.

But that does nothing to diminish their claims about him.

This isn’t the first time this year that top law enforcement officials in the traditionally deeply red state of Texas have called out Trump and his radical practices.

In June, when the Trump administration started ripping migrant families apart at the southern border with its hateful “zero tolerance” policy, the sheriff of El Paso barred his deputies from working at a nearby “tent city” housing migrant children who have been stolen from their parents.

Meanwhile, Trump’s hateful smear on Friday came after aides had bragged to reporters about how they had been able to contain him during the unfolding scandal, praising Trump for not publicly attacking the victim.

But perhaps sensing how badly public opinion is shifting against Kavanaugh, as well as the GOP’s effort to radically ram through his nomination, Trump returned to form on Friday.

Many Republicans and their conservative allies in the press have already begun a full-on smear campaign against Ford.

Radio host Laura Ingraham demanded to know how the allegation of a sexual assault is “relevant to whether [Kavanaugh] is qualified to sit on the Supreme Court.” She even suggested that Ford’s “former boyfriends” be contacted.

It’s nice to know that some in law enforcement see right through these attacks and will stand up for victims’ rights.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.