Did the Globe blow it on Sarah Palin and rape kits?

Wasilla did not want to pay the cost for rape kits and so decided to bill the insurance company of the patient (crime victim) or the patient directly (crime victim) for the cost of the kit rather than pay it themselves as the state law required. Read on. You'll see why I believe it.

New Mayor Palin Fires Police Chief, which is her right 1/30/97:

The Anchorage Daily News reported that Palin delivered letters to Police Chief Irl Stambaugh and City Librarian Mary Ellen Emmons on Jan. 30, 1997, saying their employment with the city would end. The reports said Palin took the action because she felt the two did not fully support the changes that she wanted to make as the newly elected mayor. Both Stambaugh and Emmons had publicly supported Palin's political opponent, incumbent mayor John Stein, in the 1996 mayoral campaign, the reports noted. http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements...

On March 6, 2000, Del Smith, the Deputy Commissioner of the Alaska Department of Public Safety, testified in support of HB 270 (the bill outlawing the billing of rape kits) and the minutes noted:

He commented that he does not think that a victim ought to even see a bill related to sexual assault whether it is on their insurance form or not. He emphasized that a police agency investigating a crime should pay because that is the cost of doing business in the collection of evidence no matter what the crime; he does not know of any police agency that has requested payment.

Gov. Palin under fire for Rape Kit and Bridge to Nowhere by Former Gov Knowles (Wasilla hometown paper The Frontiersman says it’s TRUE.)

Knowles broke new ground while answering a reporter's question on whether Wasilla forced rape victims to pay for their own forensic tests when Palin was mayor.

True, Knowles said.

Eight years ago, complaints about charging rape victims for medical exams in Wasilla prompted the Alaska Legislature to pass a bill -- signed into law by Knowles -- that banned the practice statewide.

"There was one town in Alaska that was charging victims for this, and that was Wasilla," Knowles said

A May 23, 2000, article in Wasilla's newspaper, The Frontiersman, noted that Alaska State Troopers and most municipal police agencies regularly pay for such exams, which cost between $300 and $1,200 apiece.

"(But) the Wasilla police department does charge the victims of sexual assault for the tests," the newspaper reported.

It also quoted Wasilla Police Chief Charlie Fannon objecting to the law. Fannon was appointed to his position by Palin after her dismissal of the previous police chief. He said it would cost Wasilla $5,000 to $14,000 a year if the city had to foot the bill for rape exams.

In the past we've charged the cost of exams to the victims' insurance company when possible," Fannon told the newspaper. "I just don't want to see any more burden put on the taxpayer."

An effort to reach Fannon by phone Wednesday was not successful.

Knowles and Weinstein also went after the Republican ticket on several statements now airing in campaign ads around the nation, including Palin's claim that she opposed federal money for the "bridge to nowhere."

The governor has refused to acknowledge her explicit support for the $230 million Gravina Island Access Project in her effort to sound more like an anti-earmark reformer to a national audience, Weinstein said.

And she still supports spending $400 million to $600 million on "the other Bridge to Nowhere," the Knik Arm Crossing, which would provide residents in Palin's hometown of Wasilla faster access to Anchorage, Knowles added. http://www.mcclatchydc.com/100/story/52266.html

A former worker with VCCB notes via 9/22/08 email:

Rape kits and other medical expenses of this type would be paid by the VCCB, 100% guaranteed. The City of Wasilla could have technically 'charged' the victim but even if they did, the VCCB would have paid the bill in full. I still know a few of the Board members and the supervisor and I can tell you that they are very liberal with the way that they pay the victims bills. http://confederateyankee.mu.nu/archives/274003.php

The debunking of this claim is true only if you accept that Wasilla police are in compliance with the law by billing an alleged rape victim’s health insurance or sending the victim the bill and having them seek reimbursement from the VCCB. It’s clear that the Wasilla police chief’s intention was to do so in violation of the law although no records of such billings could be produced. Palin’s hand picked police chief, in trying to avoid $5000 - $14000 per year in evidence collection expenses in rape investigations decided to try and have the expense paid by an entity other than the town, in violation of the statute.

Who says Sarah Palin's Anchorage supporters can't get an awesome rally going:

More importantly, see what Sarah Palin's injection of religion into politics(video) has done to the quality of life in Wasilla, AK.

Here's another overview on the history of this story:

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/warner-todd-huston/20...

If the Police Chief complained that it would cost $5,000 to $14,000 a year ... and the kits cost about $500 a piece ... and Wasilla had (at that time) about 6,000 people ...

That means 10-30 rapes per 6,000 people per year or about 15 to 50 per 10,000 people (US rate in 2000 was 3.5 per 10,000 persons).

Wasilla was the rape capital of the US by those numbers - 4 to 15 times the national rate is a pretty sick rape rate! One would think that the kit cost would be the least of the worries!

In public health, that sort of phenomenon in a small place is known as a "hot spot" or a "cluster" - an area of extreme activity requiring investigation. Would not most mayors be concerned if their rate of forcible sexual assault was so extreme compared even to the Alaska rates? Would they really want it known that they put obstacles in the path of a full investigation of cases when they preside over the Rape Capital of the United States!

The unwillingness to fully investigate these cases by pushing off the cost of the kits speaks to an unwillingness to investigate and to link up data to find serial rapists.

Who was being served here? Who was being protected? I guess "denial" and "Denali" share a bunch of letters.

He's some guy who occasionally writes a column for the Herald, but his main job is to host a talk show on a station that doesn't get funded by money taken out of my paycheck.

It staggers me that there's actually an audience for his brand of fear- and hate-mongering here in the bastion of liberalism. Hah.

Have you seen the Palin witch doctor video where the evangelical witch doctor "lays hands" on Palin and asks god to make a way for her in government?

If Palin believes what the witch doctor believes (and she has never contradicted this as a matter of faith) then she believes god sent her to do god's will in government. This is a pernicious, dangerous and unamerican idea. (Remember learning Bush thought the Iraq war was god's will?) Abraham Lincoln himself never presumed to be doing god's will, instead he hoped and prayed that his policy was god's will. There's a big difference. Lincoln's approach requires the most determined decision making and Bush/Palin's approach calls for divine intervention in their thought process.

Palin believes "end times" are coming and that the rest of the United States will be drawn to Alaska for survival. She's a wack job and her Republican campaign "authentic" aww shucks small town girl act wears thin pretty fast.