How strip clubs could aid Washington’s rape kit dilemma

There’s bipartisan support over creating a new law that would require rape kits be tracked in a central database, and provide funding to investigate sex crimes that would help fix the massive backlog of untested rape kits in Washington state.

Where that funding should come from is a different issue.

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Testing a rape kit is important. After a rape kit is used, it is then tested to gather data and DNA that law enforcement can use. There’s an estimated 6,000 rape kits that need to be tested in Washington, but a lack of funding leave them sitting, unattended to.

The database could be crucial because where backlogs have been tested in other states, about a third of the rape kits matched DNA profiles for serial rapists, KING 5 reports.

Democratic Rep. Tina Orwall, who is co-sponsoring the bill, says the money could come from taxing strip clubs, noting that there are findings that connect live adult entertainment to human trafficking, sexual assault, and rape, according to KING 5.

“It would be put on the sexually oriented businesses, specifically strip clubs, and it would be like a patron fee, an extra $4 when they pay the entrance fee,” Orwall told KING 5.

Meanwhile, the other sponsor Republican Sen. Ann Rivers, who is a rape survivor, opposes that idea. Rivers told KING 5 the tax would be an impediment to business, saying funding could come from of the priorities of government in public safety.

KIRO Radio’s Tom Tangney and John Curley couldn’t help but point out the irony in this disagreement.

Tom Tangney: This is classic that we’ve got a Republican (saying) “Aren’t you guys the party of family values and all that?” She sees the strip club as a small business &#8212 we don’t want to inhibit small business. So her philosophy about not having taxes on small businesses trumps the idea of these rape kits.

John Curley: I thought your (Democratic) party didn’t want to make any moral judgments on anything. That all cultures are good.

TT: That’s right. This is a user fee. That’s the argument that this kind of a business contributes to these kinds of crimes so we can actually use the profits of this.

JC: You’d have to make that connection.

TT: That’s right. My point is even if that connection is made and proved beyond a shadow of a doubt, we’ve got Sen. Ann River saying it doesn’t matter, we’ll fund it some other way.

JC: It’s a tax on poor people. Rich guys aren’t going to the local Dream Girls (a strip club).

TT: A lot of times it’s called slumming, John. Why do famous movie stars end up going with the street life? Because there’s a thrill there, too. I know, if you’re really rich we’ll hit you for $400, not just $4.

JC: It’s too easy to do it.

TT: Back in the day the strip clubs had a lot of influence in the legislature so maybe they have a good lobby.

JC: Nobody wants to speak up for the poor guy sitting there paying $15 for a Coke.