That question has been swirling around my mind since the suspended rape cases came to my attention. Today, an editorial in the Houston Chronicle finally convinced me to write about it.
Two years ago, a woman contacted the Houston Police Department to report that she was raped.
The woman gave the officers as much evidence as she could muster: the alleged rapist’s name, Jose Luis Reyes-Martinez, as well as his address and license plate number. She agreed to go to the hospital and have physical evidence taken from her body to corroborate the assault.
She even detailed a harrowing, highly disturbing account of the incident: …
Instead, as the Chronicle’s Nicole Hensley reported, it appears police made a perfunctory effort to pursue Reyes-Martinez. Police matched the license plate number to a vehicle registered to his mother, but when they couldn’t find him they shelved the case, using the same faulty code — “suspended — lack of personnel” — that is now the subject of a sprawling internal HPD investigation involving hundreds of thousands of cases dating back eight years. …
Yet while the shoddy police work in this case is troubling on its own, what happened afterwards is even more disturbing. More than a year after the woman reported that Reyes-Martinez assaulted her, he was arrested for another rape. In this instance, Reyes-Martinez allegedly robbed a Fiesta Mart, escaped on bicycle, then forced his way into a home where he surprised a woman who was getting ready for work, tied up her husband and raped her. He then stole their Apple watches, jewelry and vehicle. Police tracked the vehicle using the GPS on the couple’s watch and arrested Reyes-Martinez in October.
Do you think that the Mayor and the media want to look into whether women of color cases were more likely to be suspended, cause they AIN’T WHITE?
The image is AI-generated
