Another Oklahoma Cop Charged With Serial Sexual Assault

Oklahoma law enforcement seems to have something
of a sexual assault problem. On Tuesday, Tulsa County Deputy Gerald
Nuckolls, 26, was arrested amid accusations that
he sexually assaulted two women while on duty. Though Nuckolls
hasn’t been formally charged yet, authorities say he
admitted to coercing at least six other women into sexual
acts. 

On Monday, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol
arrested state trooper Eric Roberts, 42, on complaints that he
kidnapped and sexually assaulted three women while on duty. The
department began investigating Roberts in July after a woman
reported being pulled over by Roberts and then raped. 

And in August, Oklahoma City officer
Daniel Ken Holtzclaw, 27, was charged with raping or sexually
abusing seven people. The alleged victims, all black women, say
Holtzlcaw forced them to expose themselves, perform oral sex on
him, or have intercourse with him in order to avoid arrest.

So what’s going on with Oklahoma police culture? Sadly, nothing
that’s not happening all around the country. “In any given month,
there are multiple reports of on-duty cops raping women,”
Nicole Flatow at Think
Progress notes. For example, let’s take a look at
March, 2014: 

• Baltimore
officer Martez Johnson was charged with raping a woman he
drove home from the scene of a car accident; his trial started this
month. 
• San
Jose police officer Geoffrey Graves was charged with
raping a hotel maid after she called 911 to report being assault by
her husband; a preliminary hearing is set for October 1.
• In North Port, Florida,
officer Michelle Turner was charged with sexual
battery after an alleged victim claimed Turner and her partner (who
committed suicide in March) handcuffed and assaulted her at a
party.
• Former Irwindale, California, police
officer David Paul Fraijo was charged with kidnapping and
sexually assaulting a woman after pulling her over for a traffic
stop. 
• Odessa, Texas,
officer Salvador Becerra was arrested after three women came
forward saying they were touched innapropriately by Becerra during
traffic stops and another said he forced her to perform oral sex on
him after finding an open container in her vehicle.
• Detroit
officer Deon Nunlee was charged with sexually assaulting a
woman after being called to her home to investigate a domestic
violence incident in 2013.

As Flatow writes, these incidents “illustrate the ways in
which women are victims of police violence, too.” And holding
officers who commit sexual violence accountable seems (surprise,
surprise)
like just as much of a weak spot for U.S. police departments
than holding officers accountable for any other crimes they
commit.