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#BorderPatrolRapeCulture Here is mine: I joined in 1995, not knowing anything about the Border Patrol or the Border. The first day of the academy, they separated the men & women under the guise of needing to talk to women about their hair and makeup.
2) The truth, later told to us that night by our male classmates, was that women did not belong in the Patrol.That women could not hack it.That we filed false rape & sexual assault allegations against the men to make them give us our positions. That they must protect each other.
3) Note: Current . @USBPChief graduated the same academy one month before I entered. Same experience. She knows all about this stuff and ignores it. That nigh, under the cover of darkness, it was other female trainees in classes ahead of ours that came to warn us of being female
4) in the patrol. Don’t get drunk, they will rape you. Don’t go into their living quarters, they will rape you. If an instructor wants you and you say no, you will lose your job. They will fail you on your run by a second or less. They will fail you on your Spanish oral test.
5) Most dangerous of all? Not watching your drink or accepting a drink from someone. It will be drugged. You will be taken to their living quarters, both trainees and instructors did this. You will be forced to play the Game of Smiles.
6) The Game of Smiles is so shameful, so embarrassing. Females this happens to simply drop out. The trauma, the shame is too much. The drugged trainee is forced under a table. The men sit around it with their pants off and force the women to provide oral stimulation.
7) The first man to smile, has to drink. Prostitution is common on campus as well. For me, I was sexually assaulted/raped by a classmate and beat up. They all knew because I wore the results on my face. We were warned by instructors that we could not call outside police.
8) We were told Border Patrol preferred you handle it themselves. But every woman sexually assaulted/raped was forced to file a complaint under Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO). This was my order. But I refused because every women who did this saw their training stop
9) because they claimed they needed to investigate. EEO claims take years. I could not afford this. I needed this job. So I kept my mouth shut. The next physical training day, they made me fight my assaulter in combat training. He once again beat me up while they all,
10) instructors included...laughed at me. In the men’s locker room, I was told he raised his arms over his head and exclaimed that I was a bitch who had learned to never say no again. This followed me my whole career. They tried to fail me on my runny 1 second, but I smoked it.
11) My Spanish instructor was a good guy and refused to fire me. That’s why I graduated. So they called my station and warned them. They were to fire me in post academy, but a supervisor knew the truth and gave me a chance. I passed. So then they said I was having sex with
12) him. I wasn’t. But then that followed me. Whenever management had a beef with me, they brought my rapist in from his station to do overtime on my shift. To put me back in my place. This is the Border Patrol still today. #BorderPatrolRapeCulture.
13) https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.urbandictionary.com/define.php%3fterm=Game%2bof%2bSmiles&=true
14) There is documented cases of the Game of Smiles being played in multiple Border Patrol academies.
15) I passed that academy on my own. I passed the heavily biased physical training geared to knock women out bc it focused on upper body strength. I did everything my male classmates did. I also endured being raped, having to work next to him day in and out. I still graduated.
16) THIS IS STILL HAPPENING IN THE BORDER PATROL.
17) THIS IS WHY THERE IS AKWAYS ONLY 5% WOMEN IN THE PATROL.
