FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 14, 2012
Contact: Brian Purchia, brian@protectourdefenders.com
Statement from Protect Our Defenders on Lackland Air Force Base Sexual Abuse Report
Washington DC – More than 49 female trainees at Lackland Air Force Base say they were raped, sexually assaulted or victims of other sexual offenses by their instructors. The Department of Defense estimates that over 19,000 such incidents occurred in 2010 alone but that only 13.5% of sexual assaults are ever reported. Earlier, this year Protect Our Defenders launched a campaign demanding that the House Armed Services Chairman, Rep. Buck McKeon (R- Los Angeles) hold a congressional hearing about the criminal sexual abuse scandal at Lackland. After weeks of pressure, Rep. McKeon announced that he intends to hold “open and complete” hearings. Meanwhile, Air Force officials have claimed what happened at Lackland was an “isolated” incident. The Air Force today released a report about the sexual abuse scandal at Lackland. Protect Our Defenders President Nancy Parrish today released this statement.
“General Margaret H. Woodward had a tough job and we would like to compliment the General on a thoughtful report. However, the reforms proposed will not fix the systemic cultural and legal biases that preclude justice for victims of military sexual assault. And, the issues confronting the challenges of reporting a rape or assault need more examination.
The reforms the Air Force proposes are similar to what other branches have done following public sexual abuse scandals over the past 25 years. The military in general and the Air Force specifically still has not faced or dug deep enough to get to the heart of the problem. Protect Our Defenders calls on Congress to do its job of oversight and begin their investigation into the systemic, misogynistic culture within our military starting with the criminal scandal at Lackland.
We cannot let Lackland become yet another asterisk in government’s long history of failing to fix our broken military justice system, as was the case with the Tailhook scandal in 1991 and Aberdeen in 1997. The fundamental issue is one of culture and command discretion. It’s time to face the pervasive, demeaning and misogynistic culture that is too often encouraged by military leaders.
The culture of misogyny documented in the administrative complaint filed earlier this month on behalf of Air Force TSgt Jennifer Smith helped lead to Lackland. The exhibits clearly demonstrate that military leaders have done little to remedy the problem and in fact have frequently directly participated in or fostered the environment. The culture is so endemic that even good officers wanting to do the right thing cannot or will not help. The exhibits attached to the complaint contain hate filled, violent and degrading language toward women.
Absolute command discretion, the risk to their own careers, personal bias, a low regard for the importance of the impact on the victim too often leads the command to sweep the problem under the rug. The military justice system substitutes an individual’s discretion over rule of law. If this is allowed to continue personal prejudices and conflict of interest will continue to prevail.
We do not agree with the AETC’s conclusion that ‘Strong leadership can overcome weaknesses in institutional safeguards and/or weaknesses in the MTI culture.’ As recently reported in the New York Times, ‘Despite the warnings, a worrisomely large number of senior officers have been investigated and even fired for poor judgment, malfeasance and sexual improprieties or sexual violence — and that is just in the last year.’
The DOD’s own reports state the reason only 13.5% of victims come forward. Why? Out of fear of victim blaming and retaliation. And that 39% of women report that the perpetrator was a military person of higher rank and 23% indicated the offender was someone in their chain of command. Not to mention the abysmal conviction rates. The DOD’s 2011 report showed that charges against perpetrators decreased, courts martial fell and convictions plummeted.
We are still analyzing the report but regarding some of the reforms mentioned:
1. Increasing professionalism is a good idea. Increasing the rank of instructors will not solve the problem.It creates more of a power differential. Recent reports of misconduct of senior commanders at the highest level spotlights that military sexual assault is not taken seriously and continues to exist at all levels of command even after the public attention of multiple scandals.
2. The hotline is a good idea. It gets the trainee to SARC quicker; however, it does not get the trainee away from the power structure. In addition, SARC coordinators must be appropriately trained and must stay in the position long enough to gather the necessary experience to do the job well and without undo command influence. The recent removal of civilians from this position unfortunately creates an environment where undo command influence is more likely to occur.
3. Creating a ‘buddy system’ or ‘wingman’ might sound like a good idea, but can you imagine if leaders in our civilian society suggested that in order to prevent rape or assault we must never be alone?
4. ‘Policy changes to ensure that leadership receives timely notification of potential misconduct, that ‘credible allegations’ of misconduct result in immediate removal from the training environment.’ The challenge here is within the current reporting system victims are often blamed and retaliated against which is why so few report. Therefore, ‘substantiated’ charges or ‘credible allegations’ are likely to remain insignificant. The culture and system works against ‘substantiating’ charges unless one goes all the way to a court-martial. In the DOD’s 2011 sexual assault report charges decreased, court-martials fell and convictions plummeted — actions taken by commanders on grounds of sexual assault decreased by 23%. The number of initial courts-martial fell 8%. The number of perpetrators convicted of committing sexual assault decreased 22%.
Ultimately this report and its findings lead us to the same conclusion reached by the San Antonio Express in their editorial today. Air Force ‘recruits are owed a congressional validation that the prosecutions are conclusive and the changes sufficient.’ And we would add that a thorough investigation be undertaken by congress into the systemic cultural and legal biases in the military justice system that heretofore have precluded justice.”
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Download full AETC CDI Lackland Air Force Base Sexual Abuse Report and appendix
http://protectourdefenders.
https://www.protectourdefenders.com/downloads/AFD-070702-060.pdf
View Protect Our Defenders’ Press Release Calling on Congress to Investigate Air Force Leadership for Openly Violent, Sexist and Hostile Workplace for Women:
https://www.protectourdefenders.com/protect-our-defenders-calls-on-congress-to-investigate-air-force-leadership-for-openly-violent-sexist-and-hostile-workplace/
View the Administrative Complaint filed by Attorney Susan Burke:
https://www.protectourdefenders.com/downloads/FINAL_SMITH_ADMIN_COMPLAINT.pdf
View exhibits from the Administrative Complaint:
https://www.protectourdefenders.com/downloads/Smith_ExhibitSelects_20121101.pdf
Contact info for the House Armed Services Committee for comment:
Claude Chafin, Claude.Chafin@mail.house.gov (202) 225-4151
Paula Coughlin-Puopolo’s petition demanding Congress investigates the Lackland sexual assault scandal can be viewed here:
http://action.protectourdefenders.com/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=8040
Read the National Journal’s cover story “The Enemy Within”
http://www.nationaljournal.com/magazine/the-military-s-rape-problem-20120913
About Protect Our Defenders: Protect Our Defenders is a human rights organization. We seek to honor, support and give voice to the brave women and men in uniform who have been sexually assaulted while serving their country, and re-victimized by the military adjudication system – a system that often blames the victim and fails to prosecute the perpetrator. Learn more about Protect Our Defenders at www.protectourdefenders.com or on Facebook at http://facebook.com/ProtectOurDefenders or follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ProtectRDfnders.