Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad DNA Sequencer? (Hint: It’s the Police)
It has been quite a week here in the Los Angeles area. Even in Long Beach, the streets and beaches are eerily quiet. The sky over Los Angeles has been tinged red, and plumes of smoke stretch across the horizon.
Yesterday, LA Fire Chief Kristin Crowley publicly addressed this year’s $17-million budget cut to the city’s fire department. Lack of funds, resources, and adequate staffing have hampered the department’s ability to put out the fires.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, it turns out that State Farm dropped thousands of insurance policies held by LA homeowners last year. These policies were held in the Pacific Palisades, Brentwood, Calabasas, and other neighborhoods now engulfed by flame.
Displacing hundreds of thousands of LA residents is a disaster in and of itself. But what is most concerning for LA county residents (like myself) are these questionable financial choices that have only worsened our collective state of emergency.
In order to distract myself from the news, I spent yesterday evening on one of my favorite pastimes — reading Congressional reports and federal grant audits.
Before you say anything — yes, I know, my idea of Friday night fun is ever so slightly idiosyncratic. But I would argue that reading about our government’s inability to manage money is not so different from watching reality television.
For example, some people may watch “The Ultimatum” to feel better about their own hapless love lives. In much the same way, reading federal grant audits makes me feel better about my ability to manage money.
Late last night, I casually stumbled across H. R. 4365, a bill that details congressional appropriations to our Department of Defense (DoD).
While the 148 pages of this bill may seem innocent enough, let me draw your attention to section 8148. In this section, the bill specifically states,
“None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act may be used to carry out any program, project, or activity that promotes or advances…any idea or concept that regards…the United States or its institutions as being systemically racist or sexist…”
Other than the fact this sounds like a dossier written by Stalin, why is this so problematic?
If you didn’t know, a lot of the federal funding for sexual assault prevention in America goes through the DoD. The Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Team (SAPRO) is a DoD-funded department that “works hand-in-hand with the Services and the civilian community.”
SAPRO handles sexual assault claims within the military, which have increased in number and severity since H. R. 4365 was passed.
According to the Watson Institute, about 24% of female service members have experienced sexual assault within the military since 9/11. Researchers further note that “racial, gender, & sexual minorities face the greatest risk of assault.”
My younger brother enlisted in the Army when he turned 18 (he is almost 20 now). When I was on the phone with him earlier last year, he told me that sexual assault is getting worse in the Army. He told me he was afraid for a lot of his female friends.
I do not have regular contact with my brother, and due to the confidential nature of his work I also do not know where he is posted or stationed. There is virtually nothing I can do, as a civilian, to protect him.
However, I told him that I believe him 100%, and that I would do everything in my power to investigate and bring awareness to the issue of sexual assault in our country.
Our father, Richard Farnsworth, currently works as an advisor on federal funding. In the past, he has worked extensively with the DoD and National Science Foundation (NSF) on bioterrorism and other national security programs.
It is because of my father that I understand the intricacies of federal funding. But it is because of my brother that I am so pissed off about it.
With that in mind, take another look at the section 8148 language I highlighted above. This language specifically notes that DoD funds cannot be used to advance any idea that our country’s institutions are racist or sexist.
But, according to our own government’s data, sexual assault within the armed forces primarily affects women and other minorities.
In order to receive funding through H. R. 4365, grantees must uphold the lie that our institutions are not racist or sexist. Is it not possible that this language is directly affecting SAPRO’s ability to combat sexual assault in the military?
And the DoD also handles a lot of our government’s funds for combating sexual assault among civilians. Could the H. R. 4365 language thus be at least in part responsible for rising rates of sexual assault across our nation?
I am going to return to rates of sexual assault in the military, specifically the Army, at a later date.
Until then, I would like to share what I have learned about sexual assault in a law enforcement agency that hits closer to home for most of us — the police.
The Rape Kit “Backlog”
When a U.S. citizen makes a report of sexual assault to the police, this law enforcement agency facilitates the collection of a “rape kit.”
This process involves thorough (and often invasive) physical and medical examinations of survivors. These individuals spend hours going through the rigorous process of DNA collection, with the hope that DNA testing will speed up the process of justice.
But in recent years, it has come to light that an alarming number of rape kits in America are not tested by police laboratories. Instead, hundreds of thousands of rape kits have sat untested in storage units across our nation.
According to researchers at Rutgers, in 2024 there were at least 25,000 untested rape kits across our nation. The state of California alone has reported nearly 14,000 untested kits.
These numbers are likely a gross underestimate. Only 19 states in America have made a demonstrable effort to process untested rape kits. 24 states have taken no action, and 7 states do not even report their numbers of untested rape kits.
The dismal state of rape kit testing means that countless survivors are left with no answers, and no justice.
And it has long been established that most sexual assault perpetrators are serial rapists. This means that, every day a rape kit lies untested, the perpetrator is free to continue their heinous crimes unchecked.
Why would police departments across our country systematically fail to test rape kits and thus prosecute sex crimes?
It is not because of a lack of funding — countless programs have been set up to fund rape kit testing in recent years.
According to the Rutgers letter linked above, “law enforcement is deliberately not testing evidence that can help solve violent sex crimes committed almost exclusively against women and girls.”
As I noted in my last article on the sexual abuse of children within roller rinks, most people who try to hide evidence do so because they have something to hide. The police, as it turns out, are no exception.
Police Sexual Misconduct in the United States
In 2013, the Cato Institute published a report on police sexual misconduct. According to this report, "sexual misconduct was the second most common form of misconduct reported throughout 2010 with 618 officers involved in sexual misconduct complaints during that period.”
Of sexual assaults perpetrated by police officers in 2010, the majority of these assaults were inflicted on minors.
In June of 2024, The Washington Post published another article that notes, “over the past two decades, hundreds of law enforcement officers in the United States have sexually abused children while officials at every level of the criminal justice system have failed to protect kids.”
According to this investigation, nearly 2,000 state and local law enforcement officers committed sexual crimes against children between 2005 and 2022.
Even more shockingly, a significant amount of the police force’s sexual abuse of children actually occurs within public schools.
For years, research has shown that police presence within U.S. public schools increases the rate of sexual assault within these institutions. And more than 85% of police assaults in public schools are committed against Black students.
The increasing rates of sexual abuse at the hands of police officers led to the formation of “The National Campaign for Police Free Schools.”
This grassroots organization is specifically geared to protect minority students in our public education system from being sexually assaulted by the very police officers sworn to protect them.
How common is this issue?
According to one 10-year study, police officers in America are “caught in an act of sexual misconduct every 5 days.”
Overall, on-duty police officers commit sexual assault at “more than twice the rate of the general population.” And nearly half of police-perpetrated sexual assaults reported in the media involve “teenagers and police youth engagement programs.”
These assaults may occur:
in police cars
on the street
at the border
in a victim’s home
in schools
Across this country, up to “three quarters of arrests of officers for sexual misconduct nationally involved minors.” Trans women, other LBGTQ+ individuals, and/or women of color are disproportionately affected by police sexual assault.
Individuals who work in the sex industry are also common targets of police sexual brutality. Men of color and unhoused individuals are also at a higher risk.
Unsurprisingly, almost all perpetrators of police sexual assault are male.
In fact, the U.S. police force specifically brought women on board to reduce the number of sexual assaults committed by male police officers. In the mid-1800s, U.S. police started hiring women to work in women’s prisons.
Why? To reduce the number of female prisoners who were sexually assaulted by male guards.
And today, researchers estimate that up to 70% of female police officers experience sexual abuse at the hands of their male coworkers.
Female officers reported that these perpetrators “were ready, willing, and able to sexually assault women law enforcement officers whenever and wherever an opportunity presented itself.”
Looking Ahead?
According to The Washington Post article, police officers who sexually abuse children spend time grooming their victims. Unlike most cases of childhood sexual assault, most police officers are not related or well known to their victim.
Instead, researchers have found that police officers befriend their targets during “youth-focused assignments” or “community outreach.” One of their favorite destinations for finding vulnerable kids?
As I mentioned in my previous article, the Skate City roller rinks in Colorado have close ties with the police force. Jason Ingrum, a retired police officer, is officially in charge of handling all reports involving child abuse in these locations.
Ingrum’s official title is “Chief Risk Officer.” However, statistically speaking, the chief risk to children at Skate City is Ingrum himself.
When I lived in Colorado, I skated at Skate City regularly. I have personally witnessed “police days” at the Skate City rinks — I swear to God — where Colorado police are invited to skate for free, in uniform, with crowds of children.
Not only are police officers a danger to this country’s youth, but they are actively encouraged and supported in having unsupervised contact with our most vulnerable children.
The Department of Justice itself publicly admits that there is a problem with police committing sexual assault and domestic violence. It further admits that these assaults disproportionately affect children, people of color, and other vulnerable groups.
And yet, the codified laws of our country deny this reality.
According to the house bill I started this post with, DoD funding cannot be used to promote the idea that this nation’s institutions are sexist or racist.
Again, much of the funding for sexual assault prevention in America is funneled through the DoD.
So where does this leave us?
In my ongoing descent down the rabbit hole of this bureaucratic hellscape, I can’t help but be reminded of one of my favorite childhood stories — “The Emperor’s New Clothes.”
If you aren’t familiar with this particular tale, it follows the story of an emperor who orders a fantastical new set of clothes from a famous and magical tailor.
At the end of his fitting, the emperor is standing in his underwear. The tailor claims that the clothes are so beautiful that only the most royal and refined of eyes can see them.
All of the emperor’s sycophants crowd around and tell him how amazing he looks. Reassured by these lies, the emperor leaves his castle for a parade in front of his entire kingdom.
It is well into the parade when an innocent child cries out, “Why is the emperor in his underpants?”
This fable, like the story of this nation, illustrates the danger of unbridled wealth and power.
Just like that storybook emperor’s outfit, our government’s promise to protect its citizenry is nothing more than an illusion. An illusion propped up by money, shrouded in the sanctity of a uniform.
Well, gentlemen of Congress, I have just one thing to say to you (for now).
You, sirs, are standing in your underpants. And it is not a pretty sight.
