Is Vagina Probing Sexual Assault???

In light of recent police brutality cases and suspicious deaths of Black [female] Americans while in police custody, is vagina probing sexual assault??? 21 year old Charnesia Corley says, "I felt like they sexually assaulted me." Please read about her case in Texas.

-Kesha Johnson-Clark, Founder of SisterHood Inc/Green Afro Honey
San Francisco, California



A woman has accused sheriff’s deputies in Texas of sexually assaulting her at a gas station by stripping her and conducting a body cavity search without her consent during a traffic stop.
Charnesia Corley, 21, who is African American, said officers with the Harris County sheriff’s department held her down in a Texaco parking lot and probed her vagina in a search for marijuana.

“They did a manual cavity search. It’s the most serious search you can do under our constitution and should be done in a sterile environment. You sure can’t do it in public by the side of the road. It’s unbelievable,” her attorney, Sam Cammack, told the Guardian on Tuesday.

Corley, who has no criminal record, will file a complaint to the Internal Affairs Division, her attorney said. “I’m doing it right now,” Cammack said, adding that he hoped there was video of the incident.

 

Corley was pulled over at around 10.30pm on 21 June near Ella Boulevard and Barren Springs Drive in Houston while driving to a store in order, she said, to fetch something for her sick mother.

According to the Harris County sheriff’s office, a deputy pulled her over for running a stop sign. Upon smelling what he believed to be marijuana he handcuffed Corley, placed her in the back of his patrol car and searched her vehicle in vain for the drug.

Upon returning to the patrol car he then allegedly smelled marijuana, concluded Corley had it hidden on her person, and summoned female deputies. One was African American, the other white.

One ordered her on the ground and ordered her to pull her trousers down, Corley told ABC13. “I told her, I said: ‘Well ma’am, I don’t have any underwear on.’ She says: ‘Well that doesn’t matter. Pull your pants down.’”

Corley said she was ordered to open her legs but said she did not wish to do so. “So she says: ‘Well if you don’t open them, I’m going to break them,’” Corley said. “All I could do was just lay there. I felt helpless.”

She told KTRK she felt violated. “I feel like they sexually assaulted me. I really do. I feel disgusted, downgraded, humiliated.”

Corley was charged with resisting arrest and possession of marijuana after deputies allegedly found .02 ounces of marijuana.

The Harris County sheriff’s department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday. But a spokesperson told local media the deputies did everything as they should and that Corley had assented to a strip search.

Cammack disputed that and said an officer’s report of the incident, which he had obtained, corroborated his client’s version. The attorney declined to say where the marijuana was found but said police claimed to have found it on Corley’s person. Police usually chose not to prosecute for such tiny amounts of marijuana, he added.

Regardless of what was found, the search violated privacy and the constitution, said Cammack. “They could’ve found a kilo of cocaine insider of her and still should not have done it.”

Rebecca Robertson, legal and policy director of the ACLU of Texas, said a cavity search without a warrant was a “blatant” violation of the fourth amendment, and that an orifice probe was the most invasive search possible.

“A body cavity search without a warrant would be constitutionally suspect. But a body cavity search by the side of the road ... I can’t imagine a circumstance where that would be constitutional,” she told the Houston Chronicle.

She noted previous controversies over cavity searches in Texas. In 2013, the Department of Public Safety was forced to pay $185,000 to two women who alleged troopers had conducted cavity searches by the roadside, illuminated by patrol car headlights, in full view of passing traffic.

Police in Texas came under renewed scrutiny last month over the case of Sandra Bland, an African American woman found dead in her Waller County jail cell after being detained during a traffic stop.


Source: The Guardian

UPDATE: California SB967

And we have great news...California legislature passes YES Means YES Sexual Consent Bill!!!

The Senate unanimously passed SB967 as states and universities across the U.S. are below pressure to alter how they manage rape allegations. The bill now goes to Gov. Jerry Brown, who has not indicated his stance on the bill. Sen. Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, stated his bill would start a paradigm shift in how California campuses avoid and investigate sexual assault. Rather than utilizing the refrain no signifies no,the definition of consent below the bill needs affirmative, unambiguous and conscious choice by each celebration to engage in sexual activity.

Advocates for victims of sexual assault supported the alter as a single that will supply consistency across campuses and challenge the notion that victims have to have resisted assault in order to have valid complaints. Some critics say the legislation is overreaching and sends universities into murky, unfamiliar legal waters. The bill would apply to all California post-secondary schools, public and private, that obtain state money for student economic aid. The California State University and University of California systems are backing the legislation after adopting comparable consent standards this year.

The bill also requires colleges and universities to adopt victim-centered sexual-assault response policies and implement complete applications to avoid assault. The bill passed the state Assembly on Monday by a 52-16 vote. The 23-campus Cal State University endorsed the legislation in an Aug. 25 letter to de Leon.
Read the full article here...



Source: Daily News

Yes Means Yes and No Means No

California Senate Bill 967

What Does It Mean???

This bill requires the governing boards of post-secondary institutions in the state to adopt policies concerning campus sexual violence, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking. The governing boards must adopt detailed and victim-centered sexual assault policies and protocols based on best practices and current professional standards including an affirmative consent standard in the determination of whether consent was given by a complainant. At a minimum, the policies and protocols must include: a policy statement on how the institution will protect the confidentiality of victims, an initial officer response to a report of sexual assault, a preliminary victim interview and followup interview, an interview with the accused, medical forensic examinations and coordination with the forensic examiner, participation of victim advocates, and procedures for anonymous reporting of sexual assault. The bill requires these governing boards to adopt certain sexual assault policies and protocols, and requires the governing boards, to the extent feasible, to enter into memoranda of understanding or other agreements with on-campus and community-based organizations to make services available to victims. The bill also requires the governing boards to implement comprehensive prevention programs addressing sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking. A comprehensive prevention program includes a range of prevention strategies, including, but not limited to, women’s empowerment programming, awareness raising campaigns, primary prevention, bystander intervention, and risk reduction.



Source: ALICE Law

Wendy Davis Wants to End Statute of Limitations on Sexual Assault & Rape

Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis proposed ending the state’s statute of limitations on sexual assault at a press conference on Wednesday, during which she criticized opponent Greg Abbott for failing to advocate for rape victims. Davis presented the proposal as an expansion of her past legislative efforts on behalf of sexual assault survivors, following up on a recent statewide attack ad on Abbott accusing him of “siding with a corporation over a rape victim.”

"To turn around and make survivors pay the price for our failure ... is almost criminal in itself" says Davis.

Read the full article here...

Speaker Series: Sexual Assault Awareness Part 1

Kesha Johnson-Clark, August 2014
Kesha is the founder of SisterHood, Inc (a grassroots organization), a Business professional, a writer, poet and spoken word artist (Independent Grrl Recordings)


When is rape[1] justified? Is there such a case where the rapist is given just cause for their violent actions? First, let's be clear rape is a crime. There are more than 80,000[a] rape cases in the U.S. reported each year yet 3.4 million[b] more go unreported while 18% of those reported get convictions which may be a direct result to defective rape kits[c].

Classified as a major crime or a felony[d], rape as sexual assault[2] is the UNWANTED, UNSOLICITED, NON-CONSENTED, horrific and violent act of forced sexual intercourse including penal to vaginal penetration, penal to anus penetration as some cases may also include UNWANTED, UNSOLICITED, NON-CONSENTED oral, finger penetration or oral, vaginal and anus penetration by various objects with or without protection from disease and unwanted pregnancies. The "aggressor" can be male or female. The "victim" can be male or female. The "rape act" can be male to male, female to female, adult[3] to child[4], child to child, adult to adult. Those self identified as straight, gay or bisexual can be an aggressor or a victim. Those who self identified as transgender can be an aggressor or a victim.

Those who were previously, currently or who have never been sexually active can be victims or an aggressor. A person of any race/ethnic background can be an aggressor or victim. A person of any financial or socio-economical status can be an aggressor or a victim. A person with or without mental or physical impairments (aka disability[5] or slower functionality than) can be an aggressor or a victim. A person who is celibate[6], single, married, a parent with several or a newly expecting parent or dating be it casually or serious, long tern relationship can be either. A person of any age can be a victim while in some cases the aggressor may be younger than the victim.

Rape can happen at night, early morning or midday afternoon. Rape can happen to a person when they wear a dress, a skirt, shorts or a pair of jeans. Rape can happen when a person has long silky hair, dread locs or a bald head, with or without make-up on. Rape can take place at home, school, work, church or a designated place of worship, a friend or relatives house, a party or concert venue, when a person is alone or in close proximity to other people. Rape can happen on a date, in a car, at a park or in a back alley.

The rapist can be short or tall, overweight or slim, very attractive or not too good looking at all, pale or dark skinned, socially popular and well liked or a loner and social outcast just as the victim. Either can be a known drug addict, a closet junkie or clean and sober, a person with a degree of any kind or without a high school diploma or GED, working in any field or totally unemployed. They can be of any faith, religion or political affiliation. Regardless of the actions of family members or relative history or neighborhood reputations and gossip, they can also be either. And both can be someone you know or a complete stranger.

During the 1970s the first rape crisis center was established in San Francisco. In a two-year period, 1.1 million women were raped[7] with 21.6% of those cases, the victim was the age 12 or younger[8]


Part 1 of When is Rape Justified is complete. This series will continue shortly...


Reference
1. RAINN
a. Rape Statistics
b. Rape and Sexual Assault, Bureau of Justice Statistics
c. Rape Kits
d. Felonies
2. UCSC Title IX/Sexual Harrassment Offcie
3. Merriam-Webster Dictionary definition
4. Merriam-Webster Dictionary definition
5. Merriam-Webster Dictionary definition
6. Word Reference definitiona and usage
7. Rape and Sexual Assault
8. Rape and Sexual Assault



Related Research
Marital Rape, 1978
Rape and Sexual Assault, Medical University of South Carolina
Rape Is Grossly Underreported in the U.S., Huffington Post 2013
If We Want to Take Sexual Assault Seriously, We Need to Test Thousands of Rape Kits First, 2013

Alert: Justice for Jada

Watch 16 year old Jada speak about her rape and how she was mocked on Twitter once photos of her were viciously posted online with the hashtag #JADAPOSE...

The Houston teen, identified only as Jada, said she went to a party with friends where the host gave her a drink she now believes was spiked with a drug. She passed out, and doesn’t remember anything from when she was unconscious. It wasn’t until Jada saw disturbing pictures and tweets on social media, that she believed she’d been raped. “Everybody knows,” Jada told KHOU 11. “And everybody’s texting me are you OK? You’re going to be OK, and I was like alright.” (TIME doesn’t usually identify rape victims, but we are making an exception in this instance because Jada wanted to come forward.)

It’s not immediately clear who originally tweeted the photos, because the photos have been mostly removed and some Twitter handles of people close to the incident have been de-activated. But the pictures soon went viral under the hashtag #jadapose, allegedly referring to the position of her body in the photographs. The alleged rapist was reportedly denouncing Jada and her story before his Twitter account was deactivated, including one tweet that said “HOW ITS RAPE? YOU HAD 2 MONTHS TO SAY SOMETHING BUT YOU AINT SAY [SH*T] TILL YOU GET EXPOSED?”

The circumstances of Jada’s decision to come forward are truly horrific and no teenager should have to endure the double violation of a rape and then a social media maelstrom at her expense, and no victim should feel she has to identify herself in order to stop abuse. But maybe there’s a silver lining in this strategy for survivors. By coming forward, Jada traded her anonymity for a face and a voice, and with identity comes a certain kind of power.

Source: TIME Magazine

Action: Sign Petition for FCC to Create "Sexual Violence" Warning for TV Shows!!!

Source: Change.org

National Call of Unity 2011

On 10/4/11 this free national call, we'll hear from survivors, advocates, national experts, and government officials working to end domestic and sexual violence. Together, we'll share in a collective moment of silence for all the women, children, and men who have lost their lives to intimate partner violence and we'll hear a dramatic recitation from nationally renowned spoken word artists Sunni and Asia Rainey.

Register for this event ASAP!!!










Source: National Resource Center on Domestic Violence