Over the course of the last few weeks the left and their willing accomplices in the Mainstream Media have been putting forth smear after smear about Governor Sarah Palin in hopes that something will stick. One of the latest (of many) is the the Governor charged rape victims for the test kits that the police administer in the process of collecting evidence.This particular attack has been somewhat of a calling card for AOL Policical Machine blogger Tommy Christopher. He has used the talking point at least four times in the blog:
Rape Kits Cheaper Than Palin’s Per Diem
McCain ‘Divorced From Day-to-Day Challenges’
To Palin: Spare Us Phony Respect For Hillary
He has also made several references to this talking point in the new Blog Talk Radio program Unusable Signal(Our friend Caleb Howe is the conservative host on Friday nights. You should check it out by the way. It can be pretty entertaining at times.).
The attack alleges that then Mayor Palin and the town of Wasilla continued to charge rape victims for the rape kits after a 2000 state law banning the practice.
Here’s the big problem, Tommy. The story isn’t true.
Confederate Yankee has a response from Wasilla Police Chief Angela Long:
The Finance Department searched all financial records on our system for fiscal year 2000, 2001 and 2002. There are no records of billings to or collections from rape victims or their insurance companies in our system. The financial computer system goes back to the beginning of fiscal year 2000, and accounts receivable backup documentation goes back six (6) years per our records retention schedule.
A review of files and case reports within the Wasilla Police Department has found no record of sexual assault victims being billed for forensic exams. State law AS 18.68.040, which was effective August 12, 2000, would have prohibited any such billings after that date.
So much for that Palin Myth. Consider it BUSTED.
Addendum: I don’t think that anyone else here on TMR has pointed to this piece by National Review Online’s Jim Geraghty:
Six Points to Consider When Reading About Wasilla’s Policy on Rape Kits
1.It is indeed a terrible policy to charge a rape victim for the cost of collecting evidence to prosecute. But these charges occur, even in places where the law theoretically bans it. According to a 2008 U.S. News and World Report article, some Illinois rape victims are still being charged for the rape kits.
The state seemed to address this in a 2001 law, but it would seem that as usual, passing a law and getting a bureaucracy to comply are two different things.
No, you mean Senator Obama allowed this practice to continue too?
