On May 14, a woman used the restroom at a car dealership in Ballard. According to reports, a man followed her, broke into the stall and raped her.
The act is a horrific account of the sexual violence that women, men and victims writ large experience every day — the kind of thing that many people walk through the world fearing because it happens with alarming regularity. Almost 80 people have reported a rape to the Seattle Police Department (SPD) in 2018, according to local crime statistics, and 242 reports were made in 2017.
Here’s how the local news reported this story:
“Homeless man arrested for raping woman in Seattle car dealership bathroom.”
“Police: Woman raped by homeless man in Ballard car dealership bathroom.”
“Ballard rape has community asking why Seattle doesn’t run warrant checks at homeless encampments.”
Rapes (at least local ones) rarely make the news here in Seattle.
Rapes (at least local ones) rarely make the news here in Seattle. A perusal of stories about this kind of violence promoted by local television stations — which have assiduously covered the May 14 attack — shows that only a handful of the many rape-related stories pushed on social media in 2017 happened in or around Seattle. The vast majority of such stories took place in communities around the country and represented the worst, most shocking incidents of sexual violence that one can imagine, often involving perpetrators whose status in life makes the assault more singular or noteworthy.
Such appears to be the case with the crime for which Christopher Teel is charged. The attack happened in the daytime, and it was committed by a man the victim did not know. These two circumstances are rare enough. But one other thing that stands out, another thing that is emphasized time and again in coverage of this crime, is that Teel was homeless.
Given the content of the headlines, it appears these news outlets believe that Teel’s housing status warrants the additional scrutiny.
At a time when Seattle is grappling publicly with the crisis around homelessness that it and many other urban, West-Coast communities are facing, a crime of this nature committed by a homeless person adds fuel to a fire of criticism by housed people asserting that the city of Seattle’s response to a growing number of unhoused people is promoting lawlessness and crime that deteriorates their quality of life.
Despite the rarity of the event, it’s deployed to suggest that people experiencing homelessness are a violent group.
More than that, it’s used to question policies such as the employee hours tax on businesses that pull in $20 million or more to fund services and housing for people experiencing homelessness. Despite the rarity of the event, it’s deployed to suggest that people experiencing homelessness are a violent group, and that those who shelter them should do background checks to exclude people with warrants on their records, keeping them outside.
Already, one scurrilous talk show host has lobbed out the theory that the SPD did not add the crime to its blotter because politicians did not want the news immediately before a vote on the business tax. “I do believe our city council members are that evil,” he wrote.
A reporter for the same station said that she did not know if “there was any nefarious reasoning here, or anything motivated by that; I don’t know if it has anything to do with the head tax.”
For its part, the SPD is less than pleased with this assertion.
“We did no such thing and the implication that may have been the case is one of the most insulting things I’ve seen in my time in the department,” SPD spokesperson Jonah Spangenthall-Lee said of the insinuation that the police withheld information due to political pressure around the head tax.
The emphasis on the sexual crime and the housing status of the man charged seemed in line with how the media deals with stories around rape, said Laura Palumbo, spokesperson at the National Sexual Violence Resource Center.
“Very few rapes are publicized in media, and media tend to focus on the most sensational cases,” Palumbo said.
And the way that the media focuses on crimes involving sexual violence sets up false expectations or ideas. The vast majority of people who have been sexually assaulted were attacked by someone that they knew, according to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center.
“There is less attention in the news of the more frequent crime of acquaintance rape and people who knew the person who sexually assaulted them,” Palumbo said. “It intersects with biases in our society.”
Willie Jones, a Real Change vendor, was disturbed by coverage of the rape. Many people know Jones for his warm demeanor and hand-patched sports jackets, but his affect was one of concern on May 18.
The emphasis on Teel’s housing status hurts people like him, Jones said, because it treats all other homeless people differently as a result.
“That’s not right to say,” Jones said.
Jones appreciated reporting by Neal McNamara at Patch (In Seattle, A Rapist's Housing Status Overshadows Horrific Crime) that interrogated why reporters focused on Teel’s housing status, and said that complaints against DESC and Nickelsville — the organization that runs self-managed homeless encampments — because they do not check for warrants on background checks are misguided.
There is a connection between homelessness and rape, but it’s not the one the media made in the wake of the Ballard attack.
Homeless women are at shockingly high risk of sexual assault.
Homeless women are at shockingly high risk of sexual assault, according to statistics from the National Sexual Violence Resource Center. One third of homeless women reported an incident of sexual violence in the past year, and the lifetime risk for sexual violence for a homeless woman with a mental disability is 97 percent — nearly universal.
“There are many deeply ingrained misconceptions about people who sexually offend. People often like to think we can tell who is unsafe or what a dangerous person looks like, and that’s just not the case,” Palumbo said. “It really is very necessary for us to examine these misconceptions and understand the broad range of individuals who commit sexual violence so we can ensure that we are promoting accountability of those who cause harm in all sectors of society.”
Ashley Archibald is a Staff Reporter covering local government, policy and equity. Have a story idea? She can be can reached at ashleya (at) realchangenews (dot) org. Follow Ashley on Twitter @AshleyA_RC
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