“What I learned is it doesn’t matter if somebody’s drunk. It doesn’t matter if somebody’s high. It doesn’t matter. If somebody can’t give consent, then you don’t get to take something from them.” – Mariska Hargitay
Producer and esteemed actor, Mariska Hargitay, hosted a special screening of her documentary, I Am Evidence, which sheds a light on the disturbing rape kit backlog crisis first exposed in the United States in 2009, along with the pitfalls of the criminal justice system through four sexual assault survivors’ stories.
Over 225,000 sealed rape kits, containing potentially crucial DNA evidence, were discovered in police evidence storage rooms, crime labs, and abandoned warehouses nationwide. Despite the extensive DNA database, COTIS, these kits, each representative of a sexual assault survivor, remain untested and forsaken.
“When we first got our kits, they weren’t cataloged, they weren’t computerized. There was no police report linked to the boxes that we found. Nothing. We had to literally go through one by one of all 11,000 of those kits [uncovered in Detroit alone] and pull out any information that we could without opening the kit. And then try to find the files,” said Michigan prosecutor, Kym Worthy.
Hargitay kicked off the emotional screening by thanking all those involved with the film and for sharing her level of outrage over the backlog.
“I thought my head was going to explode. Many of you have heard me talk about it,” said Hargitay holding back tears. “So to all of you, thank you for being mad with me. Mad enough to make this movie. Mad enough to want to learn about the issue, and mad enough to be hungry for change.”
The Law & Order: SVU star wasn’t the only badass, superstar of the night this past Monday, where the screening took place at the HBO Theatre in New York City.
Kym Worthy, survivors Ericka, Danielle, Helena, and the “real-life Olivia Benson” Michelle Brettin joined Hargitay at the screening. Brettin, who is currently retired from the Fairfield Ohio Police Department, connected abandoned DNA evidence to a long-haul driver who raped and harassed women on his travels from California to Ohio for over 12 years.
Pictured: Mariska Hargitay and Ericka (Film Subject / Survivor) – Photo by Dave Allocca
From the beginning of the documentary, Worthy’s bold statement rang incredibly clear. That “nobody gives a damn about women in this country.”
Nobody with the exception of a select activist minority and “every person that’s on those credits,” added featured survivor Ericka.
“I watched the credits, and I looked at all of the names, and I know those people. This was not for show. This was not done for publicity,” said Ericka at the talkback on Monday. “I know every person that’s on those credits, and [they] have held my hand and have told me how much [they] care.”
Additionally, I Am Evidence takes massive steps in depicting “the plight for women of color, who are victims of sexual assault,” said Worthy. “This is something I’ve been saying for years, and no one really wants to listen, and I think that they’ll have to listen now.”
According to the documentary, black women in predominately poor neighborhoods are the primary targets for instances of violent, sexual assault. But even when the survivors report their attacks, they are rarely treated with decency and compassion. Law enforcement representatives seldom believe survivors of color especially, and sometimes even deem these women as unworthy-enough of their care.
One law-enforcement officer exemplified in the film opened his coverage of a woman’s reported assault with “this heffer is tripping.” This type of shaming sets an expectation for survivors that they will not be provided with proper care or respect, and as a result, many women do not bother to even report their crimes at all.
“The problem is the victim-blaming attitudes. […] Many people, which this includes law enforcement as well, don’t understand the neurobiology of trauma,” said Hargitay. “We deal with it on SVU, tonic-immobility, flight, freezing… So many survivors say, ‘I froze. I froze. I froze.’ That’s hardwired into us.”
Worthy added that it is not just law-enforcement and the medical field that lack education on the reality of trauma. Often, judges make biased decisions on these cases without a jury present. Worthy and her team are working diligently to educate officials on the body’s natural response to trauma both through I Am Evidence and legislative training reform.
Hargitay hopes that “by Monday night there will be nobody left in this country who doesn’t know about the rape kit backlog and what to do about it.”
I Am Evidence premieres on HBO at 8 p.m. on Monday, April 16. For more information, please visit endthebacklog.org, and be sure to check out the official trailer here:
