How Halifax police perpetuate rape culture
Hayley Gray and Katie Toth, The Sex Collective
Recently, UNews reported that a mysterious south-end hair sniffer is parading through the Dalhousie neighbourhood.
In response to one victim’s experience running away from the attacker, Constable Brian Palmeter commented, “the woman did the right thing by fleeing the suspect and finding a safe area to call for help.”
One student said she was surprised because she was “under the assumption that this was a really safe part of town.”
We feel like these comments demonstrate the ineffective way sexual assault is looked at in the Dalhousie community, and in Halifax in general. We’re ready to talk back.
HG: First of all, Constable Palmeter’s idea that a victim can do a right or wrong thing is victim-blaming. It perpetuates the idea that a woman must run away (as opposed to any other action) if she wants to have done the right thing, and be a ‘real victim’.
KT: What would the “wrong thing” have been? We have the right to tell people when their behaviour is not okay. Women who confront assault have started sharing their experiences at hollaback.com, a worldwide movement to end street harassment. Their stories show that sometimes, perpetrators of harassment do stop when confronted. Clearly, running away isn’t the only “right thing.”
On the flip side, some women are coerced, manipulated or forced into situations where running is not an option. Why would we imply that they’re doing something ‘wrong’ when they are the victims of the crime?
HG: I also take issue with the idea that the South End is a safe neighbourhood. Halifax generally divides its communities into “Safe” and “Unsafe”. Safe neighbourhoods are ones with well-to-do students from Toronto.
We label low-income communities in Halifax, like the North End, as zones where it’s okay or expected for sexual assault to happen. This perpetuates racism and classism: people who can’t afford to live somewhere else, or don’t want to, but experience violence are “asking for trouble.”
KT: That same safe/unsafe divide you talk about creates another big problem. When we say that only some people rape, we discredit many women’s real stories and experiences with sexual assault. White, middle-class students all throughout the South End are capable of sexual assault. Women who’ve experienced assault have their credibility snatched from them when we insist that “that sort of thing doesn’t usually happen here.”
KT: Constable Palmeter also told people to to “be more aware of your surroundings.”
This prescription is particularly haunting in context of the assault. The woman was walking past the local school at dinnertime. She wasn’t in a situation which would render her particularly “unaware” of what was going on.
HG: Clearly from this incident, we can see that sexual assault can happen to anyone at any time. Palmeter’s statement perpetuates the idea that women are sexually assaulted because they are doing something wrong, such as not paying enough attention.
KT: Perhaps Palmeter forgets that women are constantly taught not only to be aware, but also to live in fear of their surroundings. If we walk instead of taking a cab, it’s not because we’re stupid. Living our daily lives is not a reckless activity.
HG: The sad thing is that women who read comments like Palmeter’s start to feel like they can’t leave their house at night, during the day, or ever, because it’s not safe unless they’re being walked home by a man.
KT: But the real irony is that women are more likely to be assaulted by the people they know! Sixty eight per cent of reported sexual assaults in Nova Scotia were committed by individuals known to the victim, according to 2005 statistics from the Nova Scotia Advisory Council on the Status of Women.
HG: I hate the concept that a police officer thinks they have the right to tell me how to protect myself.
KT: You’d think that with all the money we’re paying them to serve and protect us, they’d spend more time trying to find this guy, and less time telling us what to do.
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