Quote of the Day: “They’re the Ones Who Are Supposed to Help Us”

After she was raped by a Los Angeles cop, Lindsay F. made a rare choice: to report him. So began a five year ordeal that consumed most of her 20s, powerfully documented by Katie Baker for Buzzfeed this week.

Following her report, Lindsay endured invasive questioning about her HPV status, dozens of subpoenas for her employment, medical, educational, and insurance records, and depositions of her grandmother, parents, and boyfriend — a hefty defense of the rapist, in which LA County invested more than $400,000, before ultimately settling the case half a decade later.

Reading Lindsay’s story and many more like it, I can’t help but ask: How is that we are still asking why rape victims don’t report to the cops?

Baker’s piece — and her other excellent work on the same — is worth a read in full. But Lindsay’s words say it all: “So few women report rape. To blame them only makes it harder. And they’re [the police] the ones who are supposed to help us.”

Header image via.