• US Senate passes military sexual assault bill 97-0
    21 replies, posted
[url]http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/10/us-usa-military-sexualassault-idUSBREA291SZ20140310[/url] [quote]The U.S. Senate voted 97-0 on Monday to pass reforms in how the military handles sexual assault cases, but it probably will be months before the changes become law. The measure must still be approved by the House of Representatives, where Democratic and Republican aides said it is unlikely to be up for a vote until later in 2014. Backed by Senator Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat, the bill includes significant changes such as eliminating the "good soldier" defense allowing a court to reduce the sentences of offenders who have strong military records. It also strengthens prosecutors' role in advising commanders on whether to go to court martial. But it falls short of shifting the decision on whether to pursue assault cases from top commanders to independent military prosecutors. That proposed change in the military justice system was part of a separate bill on sexual assault in the military, backed by another Democratic senator, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, which failed in the Senate last week.[/quote]
[QUOTE]Lawmakers and the military have been debating for months how to handle sex crimes in the ranks after a report almost a year ago that unwanted sexual contact, from groping to rape, had jumped by 37 percent in 2012, to 26,000 cases.[/QUOTE] what constituted this rise? what happened?
[QUOTE=Sharq;44197566]what constituted this rise? what happened?[/QUOTE] Likely more people are willing to come forward and report it.
Surprised some chucklefuck didn't vote against it
[QUOTE=smurfy;44197604]Surprised some chucklefuck didn't vote against it[/QUOTE] Yup. Either vote for the bill or be marked a horrible horrible person by every single person in the Capitol.
[QUOTE=smurfy;44197604]Surprised some chucklefuck didn't vote against it[/QUOTE] 3 abstained from voting.
[QUOTE=Sharq;44197566]what constituted this rise? what happened?[/QUOTE] There is no rise, more are just being reported. This bill is nothing more than bureaucratic feel-good-bullshit anyway, the problem is the internal way reporting, vetting, and punishment work. [URL]http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/invisible-war/[/URL] The problem is far worse than the military will ever admit, and as usual, it will be decades before anything meaningful actually happens.
[QUOTE=Sharq;44197566]what constituted this rise? what happened?[/QUOTE] It has always been a problem, it was just never vocalized nearly as much until the Iraq War started and more incidents started to be reported. Women were afraid of being kicked out of the service or even falsely convicted of making false claims on an officer, which could have fucked you in military court. These days there is an awful lot more awareness to the issue and it isn't being tolerated by the top brass. It took them long enough to get it figured out but at least there's a lot of good coming out of it. Also 97-0 as a vote is exactly what you want to hear.
[QUOTE=Pvt. Martin;44197636]Yup. Either vote for the bill or be marked a horrible horrible person by every single person in the Capitol.[/QUOTE] They're pretty shameless with their other agendas, like seriously downplaying or borderline denying rape during the abortion debates. So yes, there are people willing to go that far. It's surprising nobody here did.
[QUOTE=Mr. Someguy;44198159]They're pretty shameless with their other agendas, like seriously downplaying or borderline denying rape during the abortion debates. So yes, there are people willing to go that far. It's surprising nobody here did.[/QUOTE] I was thinking the bill would be opposed by at least a dozen Republicans for ridiculous reasons. Consider my faith in humanity slightly restored.
This is why more bills need to have a straight-forward point. If its something so blunt, straight forward, and worded in such a way where voting against it would make you look like a cunt, then the majority will vote for said bill.
[QUOTE=JoeSkylynx;44198347]This is why more bills need to have a straight-forward point. If its something so blunt, straight forward, and worded in such a way where voting against it would make you look like a cunt, then the majority will vote for said bill.[/QUOTE] But isn't this why every bill is called stuff like the Protecting America's Freedom Act
Holy fuck 97-0. I never thought I'd ever see a bill be voted in unanimously.
[QUOTE=smurfy;44198397]But isn't this why every bill is called stuff like the Protecting America's Freedom Act[/QUOTE] Sorta why the Patriot Act passed. You need to make it so voting against it would trash someones career or make them look like a general bastard.
[QUOTE=JoeSkylynx;44198438]Sorta why the Patriot Act passed. You need to make it so voting against it would trash someones career or make them look like a general bastard.[/QUOTE] Somebody needs to pass a law that limits names. Or perhaps ban shoehorning stuff into bills.
[QUOTE=Rangergxi;44198598]Somebody needs to pass a law that limits names. Or perhaps ban shoehorning stuff into bills.[/QUOTE] Anonymous voting is pretty much what allows Mexico's Senate to do whatever it wants
[QUOTE=Rangergxi;44198598]Somebody needs to pass a law that limits names. Or perhaps ban shoehorning stuff into bills.[/QUOTE] [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05VYJZgIyKQ[/media]
Something something Claire Underwood
[QUOTE=smurfy;44197604]Surprised some chucklefuck didn't vote against it[/QUOTE] The three abstainments are probably Senators who didn't support the bill but chose to not vote against it, to avoid looking like assholes.
[QUOTE=smurfy;44197604]Surprised some chucklefuck didn't vote against it[/QUOTE] (They'd be republican.)
I'm going to bootcamp in about a month, while I was going through my physical and signing all of my paperwork at MEPS they reiterated at least 20 times about "it is your duty to report anything you even think looks like sexual assault even if it doesn't involve you because the victim may not report it, if you are to have failed to report something you will face consequences, etc." they seem to be locking the fuck down on that stuff, which is good.
[QUOTE=ATribeCalledQ;44201631]I'm going to bootcamp in about a month, while I was going through my physical and signing all of my paperwork at MEPS they reiterated at least 20 times about "it is your duty to report anything you even think looks like sexual assault even if it doesn't involve you because the victim may not report it, if you are to have failed to report something you will face consequences, etc." they seem to be locking the fuck down on that stuff, which is good.[/QUOTE] It's a good and bad thing. The Military has a good system set in place for reporting but has made the presentation of sexual assault so that anything that could possibly be a hint of sexual assault is taken to the highest level. For instance... I had a buddy who was drinking with his friend a married girl, they both got really drunk and woke up in the same bed together. His arm was across her chest when they woke up. She claimed he sexually assaulted her that night by feeling her breasts, he denied it saying that he just woke up like that and the touching ended right there. Well because it was reported it immediately went up to the Commanding Officer who had no choice but to forward it to a court martial (Yes, Commanding Officers do have the authority to knock it down but nowadays seldom do because of the high visibility of sexual assault cases and previous abuses). The female later attempted to drop the charges (there's a whole deeper story here, possibly involving her getting some secondary gain from reporting a sexual assault) but since it was already at the courts martial level the prosecutors now refused to drop the case. He tried to fight the case with a not guilty plea because of the circumstances but it was pretty much straight up told to him "If you go for the not guilty plea you'll go to jail, register as a sex offender, and get kicked out of the military dishonorably", "if you go for the plea bargain you'll go to jail for 30 days and be kicked out of the military other-than honorably". He didn't want to chance it so he went for the guilty plea. Moral of the story is that the military is still new to handling sexual assault cases and will literally FREAK THE FUCK OUT about everything related to it which ends up ruining innocent lives and careers in the process.
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