Wasilla, Alaska got it's first full-time police force in 1993, when eight uniformed officers formed the city's "thin blue line." More than a decade later, the small-town police force has tripled in size, to 24 commissioned officers.
As with small town police forces everywhere, the majority of the WPD's work involves motor vehicle accidents (MVAs), petty theft (larceny), and DWIs. WPD also deals with sexual assaults.
CNN reports this morning that Palin's town charged women for rape exams, the latest in a series of media accounts dealing with the charges. The account is true enough, in that that Wasilla was one of several small Alaskan police forces with limited budgets that found it difficult to deal with the cost of forensic medical examinations. Wasilla had a policy of allowing the City to bill victims (or more likely, their insurers) for rape kits, which can cost up ot $1,000. The policies allowing billing the victims in these small towns was finally outlawed by the state in 2000.
Palin was mayor of Wasilla from 1996 until the time the state law (AS 18.68.040) banned the practice of charging victims August 12, 2000.
We also know, via contact with the Wasilla City Clerk, that there were no rape kits charged to victims or insurers in fiscal 2000 (their computerized system only goes back that far), meaning that there is only the possibility of the unknown number of rapes in the 49 (or less) sexual assaults prior to the beginning of fiscal 2000 in mid-1999.
From the beginning of 1996 until the end of 2000, there were 49 reported sexual assaults in Wasilla, which "includes all associated sex crimes."
Of those 49 (or less) sexual assaults, we don't how many were rapes, or how many of those rapes required rape kits for which the city billed the victims.
The current Wasilla Police Chief Angela Long, responded via City Clerk Kristie Smithers that:
The Finance Department searched all financial records on our system for fiscal year 2000, 2001 and 2002. There are no records of billings to or collections from rape victims or their insurance companies in our system. The financial computer system goes back to the beginning of fiscal year 2000, and accounts receivable backup documentation goes back six (6) years per our records retention schedule.
A review of files and case reports within the Wasilla Police Department has found no record of sexual assault victims being billed for forensic exams. State law AS 18.68.040, which was effective August 12, 2000, would have prohibited any such billings after that date.
The Wasilla City Finance Department can't provide us with much of anything useful, but the Police Chief seems to state that the Police Department records don't show any evidence that any victims were billed.
I'm attempting to clarify if that means that no rape victims were ever billed for rapes in Wasilla from 1996 to mid-1999 (the 2000-2002 data is irrelevant) despite the fact then Police Chief Charlie Fannon reserved the right to do so, but Fannon has declined multiple media requests for comment, and I doubt he'll start with me.
At the same time, current Police Chief Long's statement of, "A review of files and case reports within the Wasilla Police Department has found no record of sexual assault victims being billed for forensic exams" would seem to stand on it's own, would it not?
If current Police Chief Long's information is correct, then Mayor Palin didn't know that rape victims were charged for rape kits, because none were.
If that is indeed the case (and I'm not 100% sure that it is), why, then, is this story about nothing even making the rounds, and where did it come from?
The entire "scandal" seems to have been manufactured around September 9, when stories began to run through the progressive blogosphere, seemingly out of nowhere. Far left Americablog was the most-linked source, and he credits a small blog called Stop All Monsters.
The blog, features a tagline of "A blog dedicated to rooting out and stopping all monsters. Sarah Palin, for instance," has only been in existence since July, and is written by a character who claims to be a writer/stand-up comedian based in Los Angeles.
And while it is merely speculation, given current events and the way this meme spread from an obscure blog to the mainstream media in a matter of days, it may be fair to ask if the author has any ties with Winner & Associates and "astroturfing" expert David Axelrod of the Barack Obama campaign.
http://confederateyankee.mu.nu/archives/273965.php
