Wayne County Commissioners on Thursday will take up a resolution calling for greater state action to support victims of sexual assault, including abolishing several long standing legal precedents that victims say protect sexual predators.
The proposed resolution will appear before commissioners at a meeting scheduled for 10 a.m. in the Commission Chambers on the mezzanine level of the Guardian Building, 500 Griswold, Detroit. A copy of the proposed resolution in included.
The meeting will also be available via Zoom and live-streamed on the Wayne County Commission YouTube channel.
Following the meeting, Wayne County Commission Chair Alisha Bell (D-Detroit) and Commissioner Melissa Daub (D-Canton) will be available to discuss the resolution and answer media questions.
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The proposed resolution supports a package of bills currently before the state Legislature that would extend the statute of limitations for survivors to file suit, remove government immunity in cases where action failed to be taken, end child marriage in Michigan and eliminate what is known as the Marriage Rape Loophole.
The package also includes legislation that would require sex education classes to include such topics as affirmative consent as well as date rape and dating violence.
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The proposed resolution was unanimously approved last week by members of the Wayne County Women’s Commission, of which Commissioner Daub is a member.
“The Wayne County Women’s Commission was formed to address the most pressing issues facing women today,” she said. “I cannot think of a more urgent or important issue to address than the assault and victimization of girls and women. It is beyond time that the Legislature acts to address the shortcomings in the law that leave Michigan lagging far behind other states in our attempts to address, prevent and protect our state’s girls and women.”
The resolution notes that a sexual assault occurs somewhere in the United States nearly every minute, with one out of every six women and one out of 33 men being victimized over the course of their lifetime.
It also notes that for children 17 and younger, those figures are one out of every nine females and one out of every 53 males.
Sexual assault in Michigan has been in the headlines in Michigan recently with allegation levied against a former speaker of the state legislature and a controversial settlement in a case involving a professional hockey player.
