More political referral

[pecunium]

Over at Electrolite there is a great discussion of Obama's speech, and what it means (take note of Patrick's comment on what democracy is for).

Think of this as insight into what makes me tick.

Comments

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Thanks for the heads-up about the post on Electrolite. I don't go over there that often and I would have missed it otherwise. Sounds trite, but I believe I witnessed a historic moment in American political life.

On a completely different note--I didn't want to ask this in Ginmar's blog--can you comment on the recourse available to a female soldier when she is subjected to sexual harassment by a superior officer? What similarity is there to civilian recourse?

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Depends on what you mean by civilian recourse.

Filing a lawsuit against the employer is kind of out...

These, by the way, apply to all, gender irrespective (in almost 12 years I know, directly, of about 6 cases, 2 were male)


First: Complaintant (generally) must make the person who is offending them aware of the offense.

Second: if this fails to prevent future occurrence, the offended party goes up the chain of command of the offending party.

Third: if this still fails to provide redress the offended party complains to the EEO rep (who is trained in this, and is required to open an investigation.

If the offender is someone the offended feels uncomfortable taking it up with, they may go directly to the EEO rep, who will ask what has happened and look at why the offended didn't feel comfortable taking it up with someone else first.

If there is justification for not taking it up, the EEO rep will look at it, and refer it to proper parties.

Since this is a matter of regulation, any such offense is criminal in nature, and can result in serious problems, to include a court-martial, reductions in rank, loss of pay, jail time and discharge.

If rape is alleged, as part of the harassment, theoretically it is a capital offense, but the odds of it coming to that, from an harassment charge (no force, no violence, otherwise it would be a straight up criminal complaint) are right up there with snowballs in warm climates.

But if less than consensual sex (hows that for a legalistic euphemism for rape by way of authority?) jail time is pretty likely.

In lots of ways the Army does pretty well with harassment issues, when it chooses to look at them, but more than ought to be are sort of fixed by transfer, and then the problem half-swept under the rug. Not as bad as moving priests, and ignoring the problem (a validated complaint will end a careers progression) but not as transparent as is needed to stop it in its tracks.

TK

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Thanks for the info. Sounds very similar to civilian procedures. Having been on the receiving end of sexual discrimination (not harassment, thank god), I know that even with safeguards supposedly in place, the complaining party can face all kinds of pressure not to report, and face retaliation after reporting. I hope Gin can resolve the problem with CMG satisfactorily.