Protection Order Could Not Save Alleged Rape Victim in NYC

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

Protection Order Could Not Save Alleged Rape Victim in NYC
03-24-2007 6:12 PM
By TOM HAYS, Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK (Associated Press) -- Natasha Ramen's last, desperate plea for help was scrawled on a piece of paper she handed to a neighbor _ because she could no longer speak.

A gaping slash bisected her slender throat. Blood pooled outside the front door of her one-bedroom, basement apartment in Queens. The note read: "Call 911."

Authorities say her killer was the same man who had raped the 20-year-old woman, nicknamed "Molly," nearly 2 years earlier. They said he had threatened her family, and finally slashed her throat to keep her from testifying against him at his upcoming trial.

Fellow Guyanese immigrant Hemant Megnath, 29, was arrested this past week on charges of first-degree murder and ordered held without bail. His attorney says he is innocent.

Read more: http://omaha.cox.net/cci/newsnational/national?_mode=view&_state=maximized&view=article&id=D8O2R1C80&_action=validatearticle

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How could one human do this to another?

[youngdem]

1. Cops often don't enforce protective orders

In fact, in some areas, the cops when called for a protective order WON'T ARREST the person violating the order. I am well aware of a case where a woman who had a protective order repeatedly called the cops and was mocked and rebuffed by the local cops, and was eventually beaten into a coma and permanent severe brain damage.

Solution? PRISON for cops who don't enforce a protective order. PRISON. A person who gets a protective order should be informed about a hotline to call if local police don't enforce an order. When a cop responds and doesn't enforce the order, the person holding the order should be able to call the hotline and have that cop incarcerated for 1 year in general pop and stripped of their badge. That would put an end to it really quick!

[China_cat]

2. Then you'll be especially shocked when I tell you that

right here in DU people will tell you that women have no right to expect police protection even when they have a TRO. That it is their problem and they need to figure out how to protect themselves.

I choked on that one when I first came here and it was one of the first things I read. The original post was about a woman who had a TRO, her husband took their daughters and the police would do nothing to find them. He ended up killing the kids.

[davepc]

4. The courts have ruled again and again and again that the state is not obligated to protect any one

"...fundamental principle of American law that a government and its agents are under no general duty to provide public services, such as police protection, to any individual citizen." Warren v. District of Columbia, 444 A.2d 1 (D.C. Ct. of Ap., 1981)


See also the decisions in:

* Riss v. City of New York, 22 N.Y.2d 579, 293 NYS2d 897, 240 N.E.2d 860 (N.Y. Ct. of Ap. 1958)
* Keane v. City of Chicago, 98 Ill. App.2d 460, 240 N.E.2d 321 (1968)
* Morgan v. District of Columbia, 468 A.2d 1306 (D.C. Ct. of Ap. 1983)
* Calogrides v. City of Mobile, 475 So.2d 560 (S.Ct. A;a. 1985)
* Morris v. Musser, 478 A.2d 937 (1984)
* Davidson v. City of Westminster, 32 C.3d 197, 185 Cal.Rptr. 252, 649 P.2d 894 (S.Ct. Cal. 1982)
* Chapman v. City of Philadelphia, 434 A.2d 753 (Sup.Ct. Penn. 1981)
* Weutrich v. Delia, 155 N.J. Super 324, 326, 382 A.2d 929, 930 (1978)
* Sapp v. City of Tallahassee, 348 So.2d 363 (Fla.Ct. of Ap. 1977)
* Simpson's Food Fair v. Evansville, 272 N.E. 2d 871 (Ind.Ct. of Ap.)
* Silver v. City of Minneapolis, 170 N.W.2d 206 (S.Ct. Minn. 1969) and
* Bowers v. DeVito, 686 F.2d 61 (7th Cir. 1982).

[Kagemusha]

6. You should expect to be protected by the police, but...

That a) doesn't mean you will be, b) doesn't mean that a person shouldn't do whatever possible to protect him or herself, on the assumption that the police may not be enough. That has nothing to do with how the world SHOULD be. That has to do with how the world is. It's fine to crusade for greater public policing, but when you get down to the safety and well-being of a single individual, the less left to chance, the better.

There should not be any inconsistency when calling for greater police protection but urging individuals to do all they can for themselves because some things, at least, are under their control.

[Violet_Crumble]

7. When a protection order is granted, then there should be police protection...

What's the point of protection orders if they're not enforced? It's not like anyone's demanding that every single individual get some sort of high level protection, but about a specific case where a rape victim and her family was stalked by the rapist. Even the DA's office said that if they'd been aware of the harrassment they'd have given her protection, so clearly they don't see it as the victim having to look after herself. The problem in this case was that the harrassment was either reported too late, or not at all, and the moral of the story is that any victim of violence who's being harrassed needs to report it to the police...

[Kagemusha]

8. You need to report it to the police. And you need to watch your own back.

The two can't be seen as mutually exclusive. IF there is anything the victim can do to protect herself - I know some people use that phrase to mean, "Get a gun," but I'm speaking far more broadly than that - then she should do those things. It is not always possible. That's where either the police "get it" or someone gets beaten up or killed.

I wouldn't buy what the DA's office said without further information, either. Saying that after the fact is covering their own butts politically. (I say politically because as another poster said, the longstanding settled law is that the state is not liable for stopping someone from killing you.)

[dflprincess]

3. Would someone explain to me why rape is the only crime where the victim

is referred to as the "alledged victim". If my car was stolen or my purse was snatched, I would be "the victim", not the alleged victim.

My God, this woman had her throat slashed and she's still "alleged".

[Big Pappa]

5. Someone

dropped the ball big time on this one.

[Wash. state Desk Jet]

9. Because rape and moulestation is still the most difficult

Crimes to prove in a court of law.If the victim is said to be the victim of rape or moulestation befor the outcome of the trial -than media influence will have influenced the jury,or the said criminal is guilty befor trial-which contridicts the law.

Sex offenders-rapists/child moulesters and arsonists are of a seperate catagory from all other crimes.
Murder by fire-how it is the arsonists bask,s theirselves in the fantasies of all the terrible things the fire can or will bring on-in and including death.

The sex offender that will replay in their minds -like a rerun movie in their fantasies all the events leading up to and than the rape process.

Proving just what they are in a court of law is most difficult -time consuming,and often fruitless in the outcome.

And criminals have civil rights too.

Therefore it is not until the court renders down a verdict-that the victim is Victim.

Until the jury says guilty-even a scum bag has civil rights.
If not-the case will be thrown out of court.
And the scum bag goes free.

Rape will turn to murder eventually -same as arson does.
The revenge moativated arsonist over thirty years of age in particular.

To understand the complications- you than must look at these two catagorys of crime -threw the courts and all complications thereof-to better understand how it is alleged means.

Sex-offenders-rapists/child moulesters are kept seperate from the jail and prision population for reasons.Sex offenders also serve more of the sentencing time than the rest-and it all comes at a cost-though necessary. You must find out what those reasons are to better understand just what it is you are looking at.
Predator-s sub-human-psychopath.Short fuse-explosive personalitys that revert down to sub-human levels-a zomby like thing of being in a sub human form.
Arsonists same.

Crack cocain takes persons down to sub-human levels -some ,even many never return.

If than you really must know-you now have areas to research.

sincere reguards
Deskjet.

The F-B-I has these two catagorys in crime linked togather.
And for good reasoning.