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The Next Governor of Texas, Wendy Davis (D).
This afternoon, the Wendy Davis for Governor campaign
released its opening salvo in the media battle for Texas voters. Among the stories her video tells is the push by Davis to
pass and fund a bill directing Texas Department of Public Safety to administrate the processing and database analysis of over 20,000 backlogged and shelved Rape Kits from law enforcement agencies around the state.
Davis succeeded in assembling a bipartisan group of legislators to mandate this important effort, and in doing so committed the State to not only processing unopened evidence gathering dust on the shelf (some as old as 1980), but to implementing important changes in the way these crimes are investigated.
This is a big issue for Davis. Politics aside, it is the right thing to do for Texas women who have been effectively abandoned by the criminal justice system. The inclusion of this issue in the video (an issue which Davis considers to be a singular accomplishment of her tenure in the Senate) sends an important message to voters as well as to her eventual Republican challenger. The message? Davis not only cares about helping those forgotten by the system, she also has no tolerance for the system that forgot them.
Please jump the fancy longhorns for more...
From a Davis press release September 24, 2013:
Davis Cites New Law as Key to Cracking Down on Sexual Predators
DALLAS – A law passed by Senator Wendy Davis (SD10 – Fort Worth) will help assure that dangerous sexual predators are identified, caught and prosecuted. Senator Davis detailed the new statute earlier today while speaking to the Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council (DFWHC). Key provisions of the bill require that nearly all hospitals with emergency room services have trained medical personnel on hand to properly collect DNA and other important evidence from sexual assault victims. Prior to the law, many local hospitals lacked trained staff, forcing victims to endure traveling to other facilities, sometimes hours away. This new law allows investigators to work with hospitals to help ensure that evidence from these sexual assaults are obtained during the critical period immediately after a crime is committed.
Initially Texas DPS was very resistant to this legislation. Law Enforcement in Texas has long suffered from budget and staffing issues, and a culture existed within LE that took a jaundiced view of many rape cases in general. The anecdotal evidence is easy to figure in a good-old-boy culture where walking around the block was traditionally the answer to domestic violence calls. Processing old rape kits could
"do more harm than good. In many cases, that evidence would not prove helpful to catching more perpetrators, and often the victims decide not to prosecute."
In the face of this resistance, Davis and her colleagues prevailed and in doing so made headway in righting a systemic wrong that was morally unacceptable and a serious black mark on the State.
Once the bill was passed in 2011, the first order of business was for Law Enforcement agencies to report back to DPS how many kits they held. Most agencies across the state failed to deliver, prompting Davis to send a memo reiterating their legal obligation to do so. Departments began to comply and the figures came in, but slowly. By January of 2013, almost two years later, only 130 of over 2600 agencies statewide had issued their findings, most of those being the largest agencies in the State. Per the Texas Tribune from January, linked above:
Davis said officials were confident the remaining departments were making efforts to report their untested kits. The departments so far have reported about 15,900 untested kits. Because some agencies have not reported figures, the DPS estimates that there are about 20,000 untested kits statewide.
Davis continued to push for funding. With the help of colleagues on both sides of the aisle, she authored and pushed for passage of SB 1636 to fund the effort. Because 2012 was an election year, and because she is a Democrat in (predominantly Red) Fort Worth Davis encountered strong opposition from her challenger, Tea Party crazy
Mark Shelton. Shelton was, of course, a vociferous opponent of SB 1636 and he actively campaigned against it. How extreme was his objection to investigating un-investigated rape cases? So extreme that he was one of only
8 legislators in the ENTIRE STATE to vote against it.
I'm gonna let one of my favorite Texas publications fill you in, because I couldn't do it any better. Texas Observer:
How do you justify voting against legislation that would help get thousands of old rape kits tested and doesn’t cost the state of Texas a dime? A few weeks ago, Observer columnist Eileen Smith repeatedly asked state Rep. Mark Shelton (R-Fort Worth), who’s locked in a tough race with state Sen. Wendy Davis, to explain.
Although Dr. Shelton hasn’t historically been an advocate for women’s health issues, it’s hard to imagine that anyone could be against helping victims of rape and sexual assault. But his thinking remains a mystery, as his staff couldn’t be reached for comment, despite leaving four messages over the past two days via email and phone.
Well, now we have a response. Sort of. When in doubt, accuse your opponent of “protect[ing] child molesters and sexual predators.”
Here is video of the relevant debate between Davis and Shelton.
So, that is 20 minutes of blood from your eyeholes that you can't get back. But see how Davis handles him? Shelton is part and parcel of the Tea Party mentality here in Texas. This is a strong issue for her to run on when facing a right winger like Abbott.
Anyway, she didn't lose that race. Then, in August this year, after the filibuster and after Perry chickened out announced he would not run, SB 1636 was passed and the bill was funded. From teh NYT:
The financing is a welcome start that will go a long way, supporters say.
“Without a doubt, there will be cases solved that were previously unsolved,” said Torie Camp, the deputy director of the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault. “Ten to 30 percent will come back with a positive hit.”
A positive hit could lead to the identification of a person whose information is in the database or it could point to a specific suspect.
The D.P.S. estimates that at least half the kits will yield evidence that could be used to solve crimes.
While the financing is a step toward resolution for many victims of sexual assaults, Ms. Camp said it was only one part of the puzzle.
“We’re creating a new backlog of more cases,” she said. “The best way to say this is, this is just the first part of the backlog.”
So now here we are. Davis is running on the issue and voters need to know about it. As we move forward expect to see it become a major issue. I will be interested to hear Abbott (or whoever, but we know it's Abbott) embrace it or down play it as the chief Law Enforcement officer in Texas. Either way, it's a ready-made for Wendy and she knows it. Inclusion in today's video is no accident. This is an issue of character and legislative determination on behalf of the public, and it will set her apart from her opponent, whoever he is.
Thanks for reading, y'all.
- bastrop
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Go Wendy!