Have to begin this post by offering a hat-tip to GregB in comments for the pointer to this disgusting article. Apparently the tax-cutting, deficit-running administration of the (dis)honorable ex-mayor of Wasilla, Alaska decided to charge women who were sexually assaulted for the rape kits used in the investigation of the crime. Yes. You read that correctly.

ANCHORAGE – Gov. Tony Knowles recently signed legislation protecting victims of sexual assault from being billed for tests to collect evidence of the crime, but one local police chief said the new law will further burden taxpayers.

While the Alaska State Troopers and most municipal police agencies have covered the cost of exams, which cost between $300 to $1,200 apiece, the Wasilla police department does charge the victims of sexual assault for the tests.

Wasilla Police Chief Charlie Fannon does not agree with the new legislation, saying the law will require the city and communities to come up with more funds to cover the costs of the forensic exams.

According to Fannon, the new law will cost the Wasilla Police Department approximately $5,000 to $14,000 a year to collect evidence for sexual assault cases.

Count me in among those who think that this is easily the single most disgusting thing I have seen since the 1600 Crew allowed Abu Gonzales to run the Justice Department. The village idiot of Wasilla could run up debts in excess of $20 million dollars during her tenure, but providing law enforcement (a government service) on a pay-as-you-go basis under the guise of "protect and serve" for women who have been raped hits a new low even among republicans who are law-enforcement junkies willing to toss a DFH in jail for a bad haircut.

Let’s face it, with the stories that have come out of Alaska about the lipstick-wearing pit-bull and her penchant for revenge it seems that any woman who asked for a rape kit/forensic exam and protested about having to pay for it might have found herself in worst straits than in the minutes after her attack.

I guess that the whole government did not get drowned in the infamous Norquist Bathtub, but that bathtub certainly managed to purposefully contaminate the evidence of a very serious crime.

**update and excellent observation by neurophius in comments**

has anyone mentioned the fact that public knowledge of the city’s policy of charging rape victims for the evidence kits could have served as a deterrent to reporting the crime, for victims who could not afford the cost?