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A few months ago, a guy spat on my face while I was walking down Princes Street in #Edinburgh.
@ScotlandPolice quickly caught the man and asked me to come in to identify him.
A
about my experiences: (1/) https://twitter.com/DrSarahLiu/status/1288046967885619200
@ScotlandPolice quickly caught the man and asked me to come in to identify him.
A
about my experiences: (1/) https://twitter.com/DrSarahLiu/status/1288046967885619200
The date for me to go in was set for weeks after the incident. I worried that I'd forget his face. It seemed like a lot of pressure for me to correctly identify him out of 8 other men. So everyday until I had to go in, I replayed the look of him spitting on me in my head. (2/)
The police officer who took my statement reassured me that his appearance would stay the same as when they caught him. But when I went in, I literally could not identify him. All 9 men I saw had the same buzzed haircut, wore the same jumpsuit, had no glasses on, etc. (3/)
The moment I realized, damn, white men can really look alike. So I asked the police officer about the haircut, beard, etc. He said there was nothing they could do if the man wanted to change his appearance before being caught. I was told to try my best and I did. (4/)
But I still felt awful about the possibility of incorrectly identifying an innocent man or letting the bad guy go because I couldn't remember his face. I only saw his face for a split second because my natural instinct was obviously to run away from him as fast as I could (5/)
The incident had a small effect on me. I could only imagine how countless other women experienced the follow-ups of assaults. They're asked to repeat their stories over and over again and need to remember the person's face (even if hard to see) months or years afterwards. (6/)
Yet when women who are assaulted and raped, as part of the judiciary process, they are constantly questioned for their memories. All I can say is that everything can happen so fast and everything can become a blur regardless of how hard you try to remember every detail. (7/)
I'm due in court to testify in a few weeks. I don't know how I'll feel when I see him. Again, what happened to me was a small incident, thousands of women experience much worse assaults on a daily basis. Just remember that when you question the "logic" in their stories. (8/8)
