A Surfeit of Low Expectations

[Trigger warning.]

It's not exactly news that paying the slightest modicum of attention to the trajectory of most reported rape cases in the US (report, lackluster investigation, media frenzy, voracious victim-blaming, disappointing result) leaves one with pathetically low expectations for any sort of justice, or even a not-soul-crushingly-awful outcome.

And yet, occasionally, I still have experiences where the true plunderment of my reasonable expectations serves to remind me how grim the situation really is.

Reading this AP report about the horrific gang rape case I mentioned in yesterday's blogaround, in which "a woman in the San Francisco Bay area was jumped by four men, taunted for being a lesbian, repeatedly raped and left naked outside an abandoned apartment building," I saw:
"It just pushes it beyond fathomable," [Richmond police Lt. Mark Gagan] said. "The level of trauma — physical and emotional — this victim has suffered is extreme."

Authorities are characterizing the attack as a hate crime but declined to reveal why they think the woman was singled out because of her sexual orientation. Gagan would say only that the victim lived openly with a female partner and had a rainbow flag sticker on her car.
—and I thought, with reverberating relief, Oh, thank Maude they know how serious it is. Thank Maude they're investigating.

That thought was followed immediately by the realization that it is eight thousand shades of fucked up I can so easily imagine a case this ghastly being ignored, its victim treated with contempt.

It should not be a relief that this case is being pursued and its victim being treated with compassion. It should be so routine that all I have to say is: "As well it should be."

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