It was just after 2 a.m. on a pitch-black Friday morning when Bernadette Greene-Placentia’s life changed. The Democratic candidate for Congressional District 8 strolled across a parking lot to repair a damaged campaign sign. It was a routine she’d followed all summer. This time, she only made it a few yards.
An attacker smashed her over the head. She blacked out. She woke up to find a strange man on top of her.
Greene-Placentia struggled to open her eyes. She felt a sharp pain below her waist. The attacker was pulling his penis out of her.
She heard him mumble something like, “-ic bitch, not a very good fuck,” which her mind filled in as “Democratic bitch,” she recalled. She wasn’t sure that was exactly what he said.
One leg was out of her jean capris. She wore brand-new tennis shoes and a campaign t-shirt. Another man came over. Greene-Placentia felt his weight nudging her left leg further apart. She began swinging her foot at him. “Not even worth it,” she heard the man say as he moved away. He wore black boots and had small feet, she recalled.
The two men left Greene-Placentia face down in the parking lot. The hatch of her silver Jeep Grand Cherokee was still open. The car was still running. She heard music.
She doesn’t remember pulling up her pants or picking herself off the asphalt parking lot. She doesn’t remember closing her Jeep’s hatch and putting her foot on the gas. She doesn’t remember pulling her car into the driveway and collapsing into her bed.
“It’s just these little tiny flashes of things that I do remember,” Greene-Placentia said in an interview with Phoenix New Times. “As much as I don’t want to remember, I’ve tried very, very hard to remember more stuff. But that’s where I’m at.”
What’s dangerous about those areas?
People? People have the propensity to be dangerous.
Why is it dangerous for this woman to fix campaign signs at night?
Who is the cause of the danger?
Shitty people. Idk what part of that answer is wrong or insensitive.
It’s obviously what attacked her, not a bear or a squirrel or anything.
Right. The danger is in the men seeking to rape a woman, not in the woman living her life.
The danger isn’t what women do. It’s what men do to us.
When did I disagree with that?
Knowing there are shitty men out there do you plan on putting yourself into danger intentionally to prove a point? What are you arguing? You can’t fix everyone.
We can put the blame where it belongs - on the men who rape and not on the woman trying to run a campaign.
When you only focus on what victims should do to avoid being raped, you’re putting the focus on the wrong people. We can and should punish rapists.
Over 90% of rape and sexual assault perpetrators never see the inside of a courtroom.
Yes and of those 90% what do you suggest we do to put them into a court system and get justice?
Investigate and arrest them what the fuck?
Do you not realize how cops treat crimes like rape and sexual assault? About the huge backlog of rape kits that are left untested in this country?