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Woman Nearly Raped In Windsor Terrace Says Cops Blew Her Off
By
John Del Signore
Published Oct 6, 2011
Modified Oct 6, 2011
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By
John Del Signore
Published Oct 6, 2011
Modified Oct 6, 2011
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A Windsor Terrace woman is the latest to blast Brooklyn cops working the 72nd and 78th precincts for not taking a sexual assault seriously enough, the Brooklyn Paper reports. Around 11:30 p.m. on September 24th, the unidentified 28-year-old student was assaulted in the entrance to her building on East 4th Street, by a man who shoved her up against the door and tried to grope her. The man fled after she screamed, and although police searched the area after the attack, he got away.
At the precinct, the woman says she was shown photos and surveillance tapes of suspects that police believe are responsible for assaulting 10 women and raping one since April. But because she didn't see her attacker's face, she was unable to identify him, and investigators decided her assailant was not connected to the other attacks, but rather "a drunk man bumping into a woman." The victim tells the Brooklyn Paper:
If I’m just the case of some girl with a drunk guy, why would the police be here all night? The cops say this is only a harassment case, but the guy actually hit me and pushed me up against the door... You can’t see anything in the videos. How could I know if it was him if I couldn’t see the face in the video? I’m just angry that they didn’t take me seriously.
The NYPD insists that investigators did take her complaint seriously, but they maintain that the incident did not fit the pattern. The group Safe Slope, which has organized escorts for women who are walking home after dark, has criticized the local precincts in an open letter, particularly for going door-to-door showing local women the surveillance videos. "Showing these videos can re-traumatize survivors of sexual assault," the letter reads. "Considering that 1 out of every 6 American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime, there is at least a 1 in 6 chance that showing these videos will be incredibly traumatic for female viewers."
Police were first criticized in June after the media obtained shocking video of an attempted sexual assault in Park Slope—which officers allegedly refused to look at when they responded to the scene. Last month police were accused of ignoring a 911 call about a sexual assault in Park Slope. Earlier this week, a Brooklyn man was arrested for sexually assaulting at least three women over the last month, but investigators believe he may be a copycat, and not the same man (or men) who have been terrorizing women in the area.
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windsor terrace
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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