Quote:BATON ROUGE -- A former employee of The Shaw Group alleges he was sexually assaulted by a group of co-workers and is calling on state and federal law enforcement officials to take up the case that was rejected by prosecutors in Livingston Parish. Andrew Sawyer, 20, said that during his eight months of working for the company at the Sunland Pipefitting Plant in Walker other employees sexually harassed and attacked him in an escalating series of incidents that included forcibly stripping and sodomizing him with objects at the workplace. Sawyer said Tuesday he was targeted from his first day on the job because of the perception that he was gay and his attorneys argued that the case has been dropped because local authorities do not want to acknowledge same-sex assaults.

Quote:BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) -

A Baton Rouge man says several sexual assaults are being swept under the rug. Andrew Sawyer blames the District Attorney's office in Livingston parish and his former employer, the Shaw Group.

Sawyer says he was working for the Shaw Group at their Sunland Pipe Fitting plant in Walker, LA.

Sawyer, a gay man, says four of his co-workers, including a supervisor, regularly crossed the line with sexual jokes and even physically sexually abused him on several occasions.

KhainiWest Wrote:Sexual or not I would think ramming an object up my ass would be assault >_>;

Sephie Wrote:There aren't any sexual harassment laws (or even just plain assault) he can go by? I have no idea what the laws are like in Louisiana...

Full Article Wrote:Four men were arrested and booked with a variety of crimes in April including sexual battery, aggravated battery and false imprisonment. However, District Attorney Scott Perrilloux rejected charges against the suspects

Sephie Wrote:[MENTION=2054]Eos[/MENTION]; The title is sorta misleading then. It makes it seems like by law, Louisiana doesn't protect its citizens in certain ways when in fact it's just a couple few that turned a blind eye to it.

Eos Wrote:If the person in charge of enforcing state law is rejecting an issue, the state is rejecting an issue.

Sephie Wrote:I forgot that the whims of 1 person represents the views of a governing body.

EDIT: Not just a person, mind you.

Eos Wrote:If that one person has sole discretionary power to refuse to enforce state law it's the state itself that's showing prejudice by allowing it to continue/happen.

If the president declares war on a country that means America is at war with that country, regardless of whether or not the majority of the population agree with it.

When a single pimento with extreme power decides to arbitrarily disregard the law because he doesn't feel it belongs to a certain class of people, or a certain situation, the entirety of the government he represents is culpable. In this case, the state of Louisiana. You may feel otherwise if it makes you feel better, but it doesn't change the fact the victim here is unable to bring his suit against his aggressors by the state, at the whimsy of one man acting on behalf of the state.

This is why the separation of personal beliefs from functional roles is so critically important. His job isn't to enforce just the rules he believes in and agrees with, but because he is doing so the entire state of Louisiana is responsible and complicit because that is on who's behalf he is charged with acting.

TaliaNCo Wrote:I'm just now seeing this thread. I am in awe and completely and utterly disgusted. I'm also surprised this has not made national headlines. It really irks me the things that the media finds newsworthy and then lets things like this just fall by the wayside. I sincerely hope that something is done to rectify this action. I hope that poor, poor man finds an excellent lawyer willing to take on his case. I also hope this District Attorney is held accountable for his actions, or lack thereof. This cannot, should not, WILL NOT be tolerated. This is just giving the criminals in this act more power to do as they please once again to another unsuspecting victim. This country seems to be taking steps backward in time instead of moving forward. <sigh>