Mayor, NYPD Denounce Flippant Rape Comment By Greenpoint Precinct Captain

GREENPOINT, BROOKLYN — After Greenpoint's NYPD precinct captain, Peter Rose, made an insensitive comment about rape at a precinct meeting on Wednesday, NYPD spokesperson Stephen Davis issued a statement denouncing it. Davis' statement came after Rose's comment was blasted on social media soon after it was reported.

Rose's comment was originally reported by DNAInfo, and it was in response to a recorded uptick in rapes in Greenpoint from 2015 to 2016:

"Every rape should be investigated. I wish we could do more," he said. "It really becomes a balancing act for the investigators. Some of them were Tinder, some of them were hookup sites, some of theme were actually coworkers. It's not a trend that we're too worried about because out of 13 [sex attacks], only two were true stranger rapes.

"If there's a true stranger rape, a random guy picks up a stranger off the street, those are the troubling ones. That person has, like, no moral standards." He continued to say that the rapes that occurred in Greenpoint in 2016 were mostly "not total-abomination rapes where strangers are being dragged off the streets."

Davis responded by saying that Rose "did not properly explain the complexity of issues involved with investigating rape complaints. Every report of rape is thoroughly investigated by specially trained detectives in the NYPD’s Special Victims Unit. All complaints of rape and other types of sexual crimes are taken seriously whether they are committed by domestic partners, acquaintances, or strangers."

Davis then went on to say that the challenges are often "greater" for cops in rape cases committed by strangers than challenges they face in other crimes because of their "anonymous and random nature."

City Hall weighed in with its own statement Friday evening, saying Rose's comments did not reflect the opinions of the mayor, his administration or the greater NYPD:

Thousands of people reacted to Rose's comment with rage, with many writing on social media that they thought it was disgusting and problematic that Rose distinguished one type of rape from another based on their levels of "abomination."

Huffington Post reporter Ben Walsh isolated the comment in the DNAInfo story in a tweet, which had more than 3,200 retweets just about five hours after he tweeted it:

As the quote spread around the internet, dozens of people and organizations weighed in. Some even called for Rose to be fired:

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