Lara McLeod
What's at stake when police arrest women who they believe falsely reported rape? For Lara McLeod, it was her reputation, her mental health, and maybe even her baby nephew's life.
Lara McLeod never wanted to report her rape. In those first few hours, the 19-year-old was barely able to put what had happened to her into words. Joaquin Rams, Lara's older sister's fiancé, had forced Lara to have sex with him, she said — just two weeks after Lara's sister, Hera, had given birth to Joaquin's baby.
Joaquin warned Lara not to tell anyone, she said, because it would ruin her family's life. Lara feared that was true, but she broke down and told her parents the next day. They rushed out the door in a panic to pick up Hera and the baby. All Lara wanted to do after that was go back to sleep.
Instead, later that evening, she got a call from a police officer in Prince William County, Virginia, the suburb of Washington, D.C., where Joaquin and Hera lived. He wanted to know whether what Lara had told her parents was true. When Lara said it was, the officer told her that she needed to come to the station immediately for a formal interview.
After a cursory investigation of the claim they compelled her to file, the police abruptly concluded Lara was lying about being raped and arrested her. Hera was charged with obstructing justice for aiding Lara's alleged deceit, and had to spend her savings on legal fees to get them dismissed. Lara's charges were eventually expunged, but not before her reputation was destroyed. She says she still has severe panic attacks whenever she sees a police officer.
But the worst was yet to come.
Comment: Sadly, cases like this are far more common than most think. The culture of blaming the victim and protecting rapists is alive and well in the U.S., a male-dominated society where sexism and misogynism are allowed to thrive and even flourish. What does it say about our society when our authorities refuse to protect our women, those who most need protection? See also: