Twelve Women and a Teen Have Accused Him of Rape While He Was A Cop On Duty — Big Media Shows Little Interest

The media and women's organizations seem far more concerned about black NFL football players who slug their girlfriends than they are about a police officer accused of raping 12 women and a teen while on duty. It seems odd that organizations like the National Organization for Women has shown little interest in this case — Apparently there is little publicity and few grants to be had for organizing against rape within police departments.
—Ronald David Jackson

Daniel Holtzclaw: 12 women and one 17-year-old girl has accused him of sexually abusing them
while he was on duty.

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Sex Abuse Charges Against a Former Cop Are Disturbing–as Is the Lack of Media Interest


By Janine Jackson
Daniel Holtzclaw is a former Oklahoma City police officer now standing trial on 36 counts, including rape, sexual battery and stalking. Twelve women and one 17-year-old girl have come forward, saying Holtzclaw assaulted them while on patrol. Most of the victims were black, poor and embroiled in the criminal justice system for things like prostitution and drug use—a precarious state Holtzclaw allegedly used to threaten and coerce them.

As the 17-year-old put it in her testimony, “What am I going to do? Call the cops? He was a cop.”

The alleged crimes are disturbing; so, too, the evident lack of media interest. Outside of Oklahoma, the case has so far garnered little mainstream attention. A Nexis search indicates neither the New York Times nor Washington Post have printed any original reporting; nor has broadcast network news addressed a story that brings together emergent questions of police violence and rape culture.

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Cop Sexually Abuses Woman for 7 Hours After She Calls Police To Report Assault (Video)

Rape Victim Comes to Police Station for Help and Cop Insists on Using His Cellphone To Film Her Private Parts — Lawsuit

Cop In Las Vegas Charged  For Pulling Down A Woman's Pants, Photographing Her and Exposing Himself — While On Duty

Woman Raped On Hood of Patrol Car by 'Officer of the Month' — And Many Other Cases of Sex Abuse at the Hands of Police

Attorney Defends Alleged Serial Rapist Cop by Attacking the Credibility of Vulnerable Black Women

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An Associated Press investigation showed around 1,000 police officers fired over a six-year period for so-called sex crimes, including rape—certainly an undercount of abusive cops, given that it only includes those who actually lost their badges. The federal Bureau of Justice Statistics, which collects data on police, doesn’t track officer arrests, and states aren’t required to collect or share that information.

Holtzclaw evidently selected his victims because he believed no one would care about them. Media shouldn’t prove him right.

Reprinted with permission from Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting.