A woman who escaped her kidnapper by punching her way out of a homemade cinder block cell at a home in southern Oregon likely saved other women from a similar fate, authorities said, by alerting them to a man they now suspect in sexual assaults in at least four more states.
To add context this isn’t a hypothetical situation. In New York Two cops Eddie Martins and Richard Hall raped an 18 year old woman they had arrested for marijuana possession. They detained a group of teens, and let all of them go except for the woman who they then handcuffed and raped in the back of their police van. They then dropped her off in another location. She went to a hospital where a rape kit found semen matching the DNA of detectives Eddie Martins and Richard Hall. Both officers claimed that they did have sex with her, but it was consensual. Because it wasn’t specifically illegal for police to have sex with someone they detained they were able to accept a plea deal for taking bribes and official misconduct where they got 5 years probation with no jail time. Because of this case New York unanimously passed a new law (SB S7708) making it so that a person “under arrest, detention or otherwise in actual custody” cannot consent to sex. In any other state that doesn’t have a similar law it is essentially legal (as in it is not specifically illegal) for police to rape someone they arrested.
That’s pretty horrifying. You have all the evidence you need but can’t do anything. Being police always puts you in a position of power, which makes it so much more likely for people to not resist for the fear of consequences.