My.... *sniff*... experience with police victim blaming
It happened like all events like this happen. Saturday night, drinks, staying out until the early morning. I had a lot, enough to be easy prey, should the person.
My friend and I called a cab, we got in. I didn't trust the cab driver. He seemed shifty, the type that would take advantage of and victimize poor, incapacitated souls like us:
and I was right. We dropped my friend off, and once out, the cab driver did something utterly reprehensible, and restarted the meter.
His justification for doing so was to cite some non-existent bylaw that allowed him to count it as a second ride, hoping we'd just sit down and take it because we were drunk. As luck would have it, I'd been lied to about this before, and seeing as how my grandfather once owned the very same cab company, I had some background knowledge that allowed me to call him on his bullshit. I handed him the fare as it actually was, and got out with my other friend into a gas station/convenience store.
In our hurry, we had realized that we had forgotten a six-pack of delicious Canadian beer, and exited the gas station to get it. The cab driver sped off shortly before we were outside, I took it as a loss, and I went back into the gas station, bought a Powerade, went back outside, and wouldn't you know it, the cabbie just circled the block!
I stuck my head and arm in the passenger window, explained it was theft to keep my beer, that he has to open the door, and if he didn't, I'd be calling the cops.
Well, he decided this would be a good time to floor the gas with my arm and head still in the passenger window, and I clung to the frame in desperation so I didn't get thrown out onto the road. I was driven 200 feet like this, after which my friend caught up with two other cab drivers, and we got my beer back after saying I'd give him $4 on debit, so I could track him later/get a receipt.
When I got home, I called the cops, and they took five hours to come, arriving at 8:00am. Once there, he hit me with just a ruthless barrage of questions like:
- Why did you hold onto the cab?
- Was I telling the whole truth?
- Were there witnesses?
- How much did I have to drink?
- Why didn't I just pay the b.s. fare?
And then he had the gull to tell me that nothing would probably be done!
My point is this: this is how police officers are. What is taken for 'victim blaming' and an uncaring police force that thinks all rape victims are lying is just them performing their fucking jobs, and there isn't some grand patriarchal conspiracy against women, with police at the forefront.
Bonus pictures of my arm's injury:
Posted Apr 13, 2013, 9:15 PM UTC · edited