On Conservative's Insensitivity to Rape

Raw Story has posted a news story with video about yet another GOP candidate for public office who has made an offensive comment about rape. That makes three candidates in less than three months (Akin, Mourdock, and Koster) with mind-boggling insensitivity on this issue.

Someone needs to assign these politicians to spend some time with the rape units at their local police departments.

I spent five years working for the Albuquerque Police Department before I went to seminary. I've responded to calls for assistance from rape victims and have seen first-hand the evidence of physical assault and battery that many of these women must endure -- before they are verbally battered and emotionally assaulted by the judicial process necessary to convict their perpetrators.

I've also apprehended a rapist or two within moments of the crime and know how difficult it is control the spontaneous impulse to administer some well-deserved street justice with a night-stick on these thugs.

I get that same feeling every time I read a news story about politicians who are blind to the pain that their remarks add to the ongoing suffering these women are already enduring.