It's All Your Fault

Blaming the victim for a crime that has been committed against them is the most redundant mistake we have ever made as a civilization. Time and time again, people are made social pariahs for admitting publicly that someone hurt them, raped them, or robbed them. Well, you shouldn’t have worn that. You shouldn’t have walked down that alley. You brought this on yourself.

An article in the New York Times described Michael Mineo’s story. Mineo, a Crips gang member, testified almost a year and a half later against the police officers who assaulted him on October 15, 2008. Apparently, he had run from them after they spotted him smoking marijuana. When they caught up, they pushed him to the ground, kicked him, and then sexually assaulted him. Then, they refused to call an ambulance.

The article, blatantly on the side of the victim, walked us through the trial, where lawyers accosted Mr. Mineo about his claims of the beating. I know that’s what lawyers are supposed to do, but isn’t there any sympathy for someone who very well may have gone through what they are saying they went through? Honestly, why would this gang member ever, and I mean ever, come out in public and admit he was raped with a foreign object by police officers? Why not say he was beaten brutally?

How can we ever really tell if someone is lying (barring, I guess, when we do know that someone is lying)? There’s always at least the slightest chance that this person was abused, and if we can’t tell for sure, then we have no right to attack them. I just keep thinking of how horrible it must be to not be believed and to have some stranger, who for no reason at all, malignantly asks you if you ripped a hole in your own underwear—as that lawyer did Michael Mineo.

An earlier article about this case mentions witnesses like a transit officer and people who heard Mineo’s cries as he was being led away after the assault. It also says that Officer Kern, the man accused of sexually assaulting Mineo, has “been accused of excessive force twice before.” What credibility does this man have? Why is he still the dangerous owner of a police badge? Someone who abuses their power even once should be deprived of it.

Mineo’s history as a gang member or whatever run-ins he’s had with the law have nothing to do with how he should be treated as a victim of police brutality. This story is just one of many, some that haven’t even been told yet and some that never will be. It takes a lot of courage to come out and tell people something extremely painful that has happened to you. Everyone can relate to that.

-Elina is a blogger for The Daily Vine. Check out her bio to see where her view comes from.