NYC & Budget Cuts: Special Victims Unit
The city plans to slash hospitals’ special victims units as part of steep budget cuts.
Our Reuven Blau reports:
The unit helps counsel rape victims and collects forensic evidence within one hour of their arrival at city hospitals.
Furious City Council Members raged against the cut. “What kind of message are we sending victims of sexual assault?” asked Brooklyn Councilman David Greenfield at a hearing today.
City Health and Hospitals Corporation officials say in-house doctors and nurses are trained to assist victims, but health care advocates charge that’s a poor alternative.
“It would be a terrible idea,” said Harriet Lessel, executive director of the NYC Alliance Against Sexual Assault.
The Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) program has gotten international acclaim, she noted. “People from other countries have come to look at the work being done,” she said.
Mayor Bloomberg himself touted the program's citywide expansion in April 2006.
Cutting SART will save an estimated $1.2 million next year, according to HHC president Alan Aviles. Overall, HHC plans to cut nearly $100 million this year and reduce its workforce of doctors and other hospital staff by 1,600 through attrition and targeted layoffs over the next three years.
Response from Suzannah B. Troy:
I can answer the question on what message rape victims are being sent. The answer is in the question why did the PBA not use their in house lawyer for NYPD rape cop Moreno but hired two high priced liars, oops lawyers on the PBA list $750 an hour Joe Tacopina and his partner Chad Venus Fly Trap Seigel. Joe and Chad need to go back to school and take a class on anatomy because the misogynist duo think women’s private parts might reflective snap shut or the moron lawyers thought we would not notice they painted the rape victim as the aggressor. The PBA’s message is corrupt cops RAPE AWAY we will have Joe Tacopina and Chad Venus Fly Trap Seigel rape your victims again in court if they are brave enough to come forward. I want Pat Lynch to speak up after the trial. I want to hear what he has to say. NYC has a rape epidemic but most victims don’t come forward and under misogynist Mike Bloomberg even more won’t. My blog Misoygnist NYC list Mike as 2nd runner up for misoygnist award for his testimony in the sex discrimination law suit against his private empire and 1st place to Joe Tacopina and Chad Venus Fly Trap Seigel.
