I am drowning in "BUT IF WE DEFUND COPS, WHO WILL PUNISH RAPISTS?!" messages.

*Deep breath*

I've been working with sexual assault survivors since 2003.

I have, without exaggeration, supported literal thousands of women and girls in my lifetime.

I can count on ONE hand the amount of women who got a conviction. I don't know a single one whose rapist went to prison.

But I do know two hands full of women who were killed by men they had formally reported.

I also know two hands full of women who took their own lives because they were so badly traumatized by the legal system.

I've been very open about my lived experience of intimate partner violence.

I'm a privileged, educated, wealthy-appearing white lady.

The police didn't help me. Not at all. Not even a little.

Who are these mythical police officers putting bad guys away? Who are these mythical Crowns getting convictions for rape? Who are these mythical judges who see through the misogynist defenses that are presented? Where are these mythical "objective" juries?

These people do not exist.
They never have.

So, please know that when you argue "We can't defund the cops because I want to see justice for rape victims!', you are showing your whole ass.

You sound like Bush defending war as "Fighting for the women of Afghanistan."

I understand I've been knee deep in this issue for almost 20 years and that is not most people.

But please LISTEN TO PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN DOING THIS WORK FOR LITERAL DECADES.

Experts are out there and being shouted down by pearl clutching ignorant people and it's infuriating.

I am talking about this as someone who does sexual violence work. I have not been in the trenches of the prison abolition movement and do not pretend to.

Please go read Angela Davis THEN you can come back to me with your hot takes on why rape victims "need" cops.