Sexual Assault:Is it Not a Crime When Our Government is the Perpetrator?

By Pamela Chapman

“Stop touching me, stop touching me,” the tiny little girl with long blond hair screamed and cried jumping up and down, reaching for her father as he stood by helplessly. A toddler boy being stripped of his shirt stands innocently and helplessly as complete strangers, in uniform, feel around the waistband of his tiny blue jeans. A middle-aged gentleman whose inner thighs and legs are being groped and rubbed while a TSA agent, with his head between the man’s legs, ambitiously searches for dangerous and threatening items that may impede the safety of airline passengers.

These images on the nightly news are all too fresh in my memory. Stories of innocent American citizens being fondled and groped were being reported. I watched and listened, enraged. Many questions arose. “Was this happening in America? In what airport did the incidents occur? You’ve got to be kidding me; we’re doing all this in the name of protection?”

As I began to realize what was happening right before my very eyes, I was reminded of the humiliating procedure the States use when child abuse is reported. I am a mandated reporter. I believe in the protection of our children. But, I do not believe in the process. When abuse is suspected, social workers burst into homes with their official titles, and children are made to disrobe right down to their underwear. They are then stared at, probed and examined by complete strangers.

I began to think about how vulnerable those children are and how traumatic the experience. Imagine, a child who is harmed either sexually or physically and then made defenseless all over again in the name of protection. We tell these children the “good” people are helping them and it is okay to let the “good” people disrobe, stare and touch. But, how does a child decipher between the “good” person and the “evil” person? Sometimes, a crime isn’t committed but some disgruntled, jerk-of-a parent will use the system to get at their intimate partner. It doesn’t matter. An investigation must be conducted, and rightfully so. However, a better process is long overdue.

How do we teach our children to not speak to strangers, tell them is it wrong for strangers to touch them, and teach them strangers should “ask permission,” but then say it’s okay if it’s a government official? How can we make exceptions for TSA agents and child protection workers? Does anyone see the hypocrisy in our system?  How can we demand laws to lock away pedophiles and sexual perverts yet stand by and allow our government to grope, fondle and assault us?

Unless we are violated in airports—unless we strip down, are felt up, and endure highly radioactive exposure put out by Advanced Imaging Technology, body scanners, we will be killed. How can a country so sophisticated be so unaware and uninformed?

You may argue that it is in the best interest of our society. You may believe the “pat downs, feel ups, and outright sexual assaults are all worth it. But, the reality is our government’s actions are reactive not proactive. They are reactive in child-abuse allegations as well as Homeland Security attacks. State and Federal policies DO NOT STOP extremists, perverts, or abusers. Is it possible that a nation that is responsible for the world’s greatest advancements in science, aerospace, medicine, and technology cannot find a proactive system to protect its citizens—little ones and grown ones? The only way is Sexual assault? Really?

Here is the definition of sexual assault according to The National Center for Victims of Crime. Sexual assault takes many forms including attacks such as rape or attempted rape, as well as any unwanted sexual contact or threats. Usually a sexual assault occurs when someone touches any part of another person's body in a sexual way, even through clothes, without that person's consent. Some types of sexual acts which fall under the category of sexual assault include forced sexual intercourse (rape), sodomy (oral or anal sexual acts), child molestation, incest, fondling and attempted rape. The definition goes on to read sexual assault in any form is often a devastating crime.

Are we not further contributing to the fear-based psyche so prevalent in our culture? Are there not psychological tests that can be given to suspected child abusers as well as behavioral-pattern observations that may be learned and used by TSA agents? Heck, you can barely get a minimum-wage job today without receiving some type of personality/behavioral test.

The Israeli government has offered the United States its anti-terrorism policies and standards. They don’t feel up their citizens, they do not purposely expose them to high doses of radiation, nor do they profile ethnically. They profile behavior.

Our collective, universal fear of our world being unsafe is causing us to panic, act irrationally, and to accept anything in the name of protection. Sexual abuse is what it is. It is intrusive, it violates human rights and it is devastating. Whether it is performed by an individual citizen or a collective government it is wrong, should not be tolerated under any name or any cause for any purpose not in these United States or any other nation for that matter.