The MU Police Department sends Clery releases to alert students of serious, ongoing threats on campus. The emails every student receives are meant to caution them and encourage them to contact the police with any information they might have on the situation.
The Clery release sent out Thursday morning didn’t alert students to a threat, nor did it mobilize anyone to help with MUPD’s investigation. It did nothing but make a joke out of an assault and subject victims to demonization from their peers.
If MUPD decides an incident warrants a Clery release, it needs to treat it as such. The police should realize a release with language like “bear hug” in it will be taken as a joke by most students — no matter how serious the incident was for the victim.
By choosing to write Thursday’s releases in ways that delegitimized the victims’ experiences, MUPD not only made a joke of its own investigation but also sent a message to assault victims that their reports won’t be taken seriously by the department.
People report assaults because they feel like they have been attacked. To go to the police and have them characterize your attack as a “hug” — even though your experience involved being grabbed from behind and unable to free yourself — is degrading and misrepresentative.
MUPD spokesman Brian Weimer said the term “bear hug” was used because it was the phrasing the victim used, but that’s no reason to use it in a Clery release. None of the releases this year have included quotes from victims, and in this situation, professional language was necessary. MUPD failed to provide it. Without putting the proper thought into this release, it turned the victim into a joke.
Without context, the Clery release and the victim’s experience were almost immediately scrutinized and made fun of by the student body. Facebook posts, tweets and memes sprung up, usually telling the victim to calm down or coming to the attacker’s defense.
Does anyone else see a problem with that?
No one knows enough about this situation to make any judgments, especially ones blaming the victim. The woman who was attacked felt uncomfortable enough to call the police, and she has every right to call. Students who have no knowledge of the assault, aside from MUPD’s poorly written release, have no place passing judgment, ridiculing the victim and siding with her attacker.
It should worry students that the overwhelming response to this Clery release was to start victim-blaming. No matter how poorly worded the release was, students should realize an attack is an attack. Taking the side of the attacker is never the right choice, no matter how ridiculous MUPD made it sound.
MU students need to stand with each other. The reaction to this Clery release could deter others from reporting future attacks out of fear of the same ridicule this victim is going through. On a campus with several facilities dedicated to educating students on women’s rights, violence against women and rape culture, there’s no excuse for this reaction.
MUPD needs to pay attention to how this is unfolding. Virtually every MU student reads Clery releases, and the way they’re presented can obviously have an effect on how the student body reacts to assault. Releases need to present serious situations as such. They shouldn’t include information that elicits sympathy for the attacker. They shouldn’t include information that undercuts the release itself, making it seem like a trivial event.
MUPD never should have sent out a Clery release worded the way Thursday’s was. It should realize the effect it has and how much power the language within releases can have.
But when MUPD does send something like this out, the student body should realize it’s wrong. Students should see the bias against the victim in the text, and then go against it, not follow along.