I'm really glad this story is getting media coverage. Because there are way too many people who claim that it is a woman's responsibility to protect herself from rape, but no one concentrates on the responsibility of law officers.

On March 6, a woman was returning from her job at a homeless shelter, when she was suddenly attacked in her housing project in Brooklyn. The man threatened her with a knife and forced sex on her. Here's the kicker: this woman might have been saved if the two rookie police officers who were supposed to be doing rounds at that time actually performed their duties instead of lying and saying they did. From the New York Times:

In investigating the rape, detectives from the housing bureau spoke to two officers who said they were doing “vertical patrols,” walking up and down the stairwells of the building, at the time of the attack and had marked it in their memo books. But investigators who reviewed the videotaped images found no evidence of the officers’ being there.

As a result, the officers, whose names were not released, were placed on modified assignment on Thursday and stripped of their guns and badges, said Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman.

I hope these officers feel like shit for not being there when they were needed the most. I'm going to take a wild guess in saying that this was not solely prompted by laziness, but also by a prejudiced notion that somehow, people living in housing projects in Brooklyn deserve less protection than others. Thank God these officers were caught and punished. I don't want any other cops thinking that they can get away with this. You choose to be a cop to protect people... so do it.