Houston Admits Rapists Allowed to Rape Again Due to Backlogged Rape Kits

This morning Annise Parker, Mayor of Houston, made a grand sweeping announcement that all of the data from 6,663 rape kits dating back three decades have finally been fed into the federal CODIS (Combined DNA Index System) database.

This immediately resulted in 29 warrants for arrest straight away.

Sure, some of the accused were already in jail, but others were allowed to go free all this time because those rape kits had never been analyzed in all those years.

So why the big publicized pat on the back for Houston finally doing its job?

“This milestone is of special importance to survivors and their families and friends,” Parker said. “However, it is also significant for the city of Houston, which is among the first in the country to eliminate its backlog of untested sexual assault kits.” (source)

That’s right. Houston is one of the first cities in America to finally get caught up on rape kit data. The city had over 6,000 kits dating back to the 1980s… and that’s just one city.

Now consider there are some 400,000 rape kits sitting around untested nationwide while the accused, potentially dangerous rapists walk around free to rape again.

The failure is system wide. Apparently there are no rules or regulations that require police to turn in rape kits by a certain time period.

One piece of legislation that was propose in Tennessee would require that law enforcement agencies submit rape kits within 10 days of the incident and actually test them within six months time, but local bureaucrats are fighting back.

Illana Tate, a spokesperson for the Tennessee Bureau of investigation, said that such a law would require a bigger budget.

“If the proposal is passed where TBI has to return kits in six months, we would need to double our manpower and require new buildings to accommodate new hires and equipment,” Tate said.

The police have plenty of money to spend on high tech weapons and gadgets to fight the drug war, but when it comes to actual crimes against people and property, the police look the other way and claim that they don’t have the resources.

But departments need bigger budgets for things like Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles, less lethal munitions to use against protesters, spy drones, and Constitution-violating stingray technology…

Why are our law enforcement agencies ten times more interested in gearing up against peaceful protesters and people who smoke pot over rapists?

It would seem cops are just not that interested in the incentives that come from fighting the war on rape.

Why? Because there is no war on rape.

Houston’s District Attorney Devon Anderson admitted in the press conference that this lack of action on Houston’s rape kits did allow some of those rapists to rape again in the meantime (via KHOU).

“Now the technology is better. And as the mayor just said, it’s a lot cheaper. So we can test all of them. But yes, it did happen, unfortunately, and we are eagerly looking forward to prosecuting those rapists, those repeat rapists.”

So what is the statute of limitations on getting raped because your local law enforcement agency failed to act on evidence against your rapist who already raped someone else?

Lawsuits, which will sadly fall on the backs of the taxpayers of Houston, are likely forthcoming…