Saradise Lost - Chapter One Hundred-Fourteen -- The Resonance of Palin's Rape Exam Policy in Wasilla --- This Story HAS NOT BEEN DEBUNKED

Back in the Autumn of 1984, while taking a social services course at Mat-Su College, near Wasilla Alaska, I was certified as a domestic violence intervention advocate/counselor. 25 hours of direct training were supplemented by a term paper and a lot of classroom discussion. I got an "A."

My practicum at the Valley Women's Resource Center in Palmer, a dozen miles from Wasilla, went less well. I was a man. The victims of domestic violence being helped there wanted nothing to do with me or any other man. It made my practicum frustrating, but I couldn't blame the women. And - I learned a lot from them.

At that time, I had already worked in the field of public safety for over five years, and would return to the field for another seven in 1986. In the late 80's and early 90's, while working at or running Alaska's biggest halfway house, the Anchorage Cordova Center, I monitored, helped, sanctioned and counseled many female victims of sexual abuse and domestic violence. And, I should add, some male victims, too.

I also monitored, helped, sanctioned and counseled many males who had perpetrated sexual and domestic violence against women and men, girls and boys.

I also learned a lot from these men and women, passing through the Alaska criminal justice system. One of the many things I learned is that no victim, even if also a criminal, is going to talk to somebody about their past, unless they feel guaranteed they aren't going to get cruelly fucked against their will again.

Rape victims in Alaska know the assailant more often than they don't. They often know the assailant's friends and family, and may depend on future employment prospects on keeping a crime against them they found difficult to report and vastly more difficult to see through the court system, somehow quiet.

I was still working in public safety, running the Cordova Center, when I first met Sarah Palin, when she was on the Wasilla Planning Commission. I gave a tour of the Cordova Center to Irl Stambaugh, Wasilla's first Police Chief, when I ran the center.

Six years later, when Palin became Wasilla Mayor, she fired Stambaugh, because she "couldn't trust him." Stambaugh and his boss, Wasilla Mayor John Stein, didn't charge rape victims for forensic exams.

Although that probably had little or nothing to do with Stambaugh's firing - he had been a close supporter of Stein, as the two of them created the Wasilla Police Department from scratch - statements she made at the time of Irl's termination clearly indicated she intended to closely monitor everything this new department did.

When she found a suitable replacement, Charlie Fannon, he soon began a policy of not funding forensic examinations for rape cases. Palin has yet to answer a direct question on her role in this change. Fannon has refused, so far to talk about the issue.

No victim has come forward yet. Anyone who has worked with rape victims should not be surprised. It takes an extraordinarily courageous person to do that. The medical records are private. The City of Wasilla records on such matters before 2000, have been "routinely" destroyed. A few weeks ago.

I was called yesterday evening by Anchorage Daily News reporter and political blogger, Kyle Hopkins. He wanted information on how to get in touch with the creators of the Wasilla Project.

The Wasilla Project is one of many journalists, authors, bloggers, producers, film makers, videographers and others who have gone straight to Alaska bloggers, rather than mess with the Daily News or any of the other MSM outlets that are so obviously using up the few remaining tubes of lipstick left in Alaska.

Initially, when I got back to Kyle this morning, I told him I couldn't give him any communication information on the people working on the project unless the ADN could first guarantee me in writing that they wouldn't name names without those peoples' express permission. Kyle couldn't guarantee that.

Late, after work, I got hold of the Wasilla Project producer, and he got in touch with Kyle. The ADN ran a short blog entry on it this evening. We'll see if they develop it into a comprehensive story on this. As I've written here and elsewhere, they owe it to Alaska women, to spend as much time on this important subject as some frigging random bear attack.

As Shannyn Moore or Linda Kellen or AK Muckraker or Writing Raven or other Alaska female bloggers might ask the ADN editors or publisher, "What are my chances of getting raped, versus my chances of being attacked by a bear?"

Maybe they should turn the story over to Craig Medred, and treat it like a bear attack story, eh? A more logical solution would be to have Lisa Demer, who writes very well about domestic violence and sexual assault, to take this story home. Finally.

I'm not holding my breath....

Meanwhile, Moore's story, has probably helped raise over $1,000,000 for Planned Parenthood.

The best story showing that this issue is alive, not de-bunked, and awaiting full coverage, is Eric Boehlert, at Media Matters. And, the Wasilla Project's first installment deserves a re-post: