The investigators also asked Hair for permission to check his uniforms for semen.

“I don’t know my rights. Do I have to?” the former officer asked. “I don’t think I want to do that.”

I plead the right to no blacklight searches!

  • Wrench@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Ahh yes, one of the privileged professions where the punishment for murder or rape is resigning, but keeping your pension. Even keeping your career if you move one district over.

  • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Hey, interesting factoid, you know who can’t consent to sex? Prisoners. But 34 states allow police officers to have “consensual” sex with detainees. How/why a person in police custody would have consensual sex with their arresting officer is unfathomable.

    California is not one of those 34 states. What Officer Hair did was rape.

      • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        While under arrest. Even if she didn’t explicitly suggest quid pro quo, it’s still an unbalanced power dichotomy where true consent is impossible.

        That’s like saying a 12 year old in foster care consented to have sex with their foster parents. All statements made by the rape victim were made under duress and do not mitigate the crime.

        • DarkThoughts@fedia.io
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          3 months ago

          There’s been cases of underage students coercing teachers into sex and the teacher wouldn’t get convicted of rape too. Or if you want to draw an even more extreme scenario, what if she was faking an emergency, the cop looks for her in the back and she forces herself onto her. Would you still argue he raped her because of power imbalance of his job and physical strength? We can go even further… Are all sexual acts of men onto women rape, because they’re inherently stronger than women? Can men not get raped by women because of this?

          The cop here clearly did abuse his power, but it was absolutely not rape. She was using his weakness against him. It’s like accepting a monetary bribe, except that it was sexual favors instead. This is corruption, not rape.

          • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            That’s not an argument in defense of rape, that’s a reason to expand the legal definition to align with the reality of the situation.

            Anyone who is empowered to take away all freedom from an individual cannot have consensual sex with that individual. Whether explicit or not, there is always the threat of force when a police officer has someone in custody. It is not possible to consent to sex under those circumstances. It is always rape.

            • DarkThoughts@fedia.io
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              3 months ago

              They aren’t able to just take away all freedom because they don’t actually have that power. A cop can only hold you in custody for so long. A system can still only take away your freedom based on the crimes committed and that is still for a court to finally decide on whether you’re found guilty of that or not. In this case the situation is that the cop can make you NOT go to prison by looking the other way or falsifying data. It’s the opposite scenario of what you’re describing. This is a quid pro quo situation where both parties would be benefiting from their underhanded deal that they’ve made.

        • phoneymouse@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          I think it’s a little different than straight up rape. Rape is forcing a sexual encounter on someone. In this case, the woman was not forced to have sex, she tried to use sex to get out of legal trouble. This is the definition of bribery. Here is a thought experiment - if the woman offered money instead of sex, would you say the officer robbed her? I doubt it. The woman offered a bribe, the officer accepted it. The officer is corrupt, not a rapist. Let’s not absolve the woman for offering bribes just because what she offered was sex instead of something else of value.

          Now, if the woman was not in legitimate legal trouble and the officer fabricated a charge and threatened her with it unless she had sex with him, that is rape and blackmail. Doesn’t seem to be what happened in this case though. The woman was in legitimate legal trouble.

          • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            How is it not force when placing someone under arrest, putting them in the back of a locked police car, and driving them to the police station for booking?

            If a police officer took money in exchange for their detainee’s freedom, then yes that is absolutely robbery. There is always the implicit threat of violence and imprisonment when someone is under arrest. To refuse a police officer while in custody is to risk your own safety and life. Under those conditions, there can be no version of consent thatmitigates the crime.

            • phoneymouse@lemmy.world
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              3 months ago

              You’re basically saying if anyone commits a crime and an officer arrests them for that crime, but the person offers money or sex to get out of it, and the officer accepts, then that person was robbed or raped. So, all any criminal needs to do to become a victim is convince the officer to take their bribe.

              Don’t you think there is nuance in how both parties behaved?

              If the officer was going to execute their duties fairly, but gave in to temptation and took the persons offer; that is bribery and corruption.

              If the officer fabricated or embellished the charges and used that to make a threat against someone in order to pressure that person to give something of value, then that is rape/robbery, and blackmail.

              A court and jury should review the case closely, but from the article, it sounds like the officer was doing his duty in arresting the woman on legitimate legal grounds, and then she offered sex to get out of trouble, which he accepted. I did not see any evidence that he threatened to escalate the trouble she was already in, in order to get sex out of her.

              • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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                3 months ago

                Yes, if an officer uses their position of authority to take money that doesn’t belong to them, it is theft. If they use the threat of imprisonment to have sex with someone, that’s rape. This isn’t complicated. It doesn’t matter if the bribe was offered or solicited, the officer is either using force to have non-consensual sex or taking something that doesnt belong to them. It doesn’t matter if there was an actual quid pro quo agreement, or if the officer was planning to continue to deliver the detainee to jail. It doesn’t matter at all if the detainee is guilty, and it’s disgusting to suggest that it does so you should stop that.

              • Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.world
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                3 months ago

                almost arguable that the power dynamic goes the other way since women can get a lot done with just their boobs. I’m certain I can prove that men are mentally under performing when a girl starts seducing them to the point that they will lock themselves in their own car.

        • no_kill_i@lemmy.ca
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          3 months ago

          No one is saying he’s not a piece of shit or that he didn’t abuse his power or that he got off easy by resigning. This just does not meet the definition of rape.

          Reverse the roles. Female cop, male prisoner. Guy makes the same offer, she accepts. Did she rape him, or is it more likely that the guy gets an additional sexual harassment charge?

          • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            Yes, in your hypothetical situation, she raped him. Rape is rape. It’s nonconsensual sex. Detainees cannot give consent to sex because there is always the inherent threat of violence and imprisonment.

            It’s akin to slavery. Slaves cannot consent to sex, either.