A few weeks ago, I wrote about rape culture and the tragedy of its normalcy in societies across the globe. I could spend every week highlighting a new example of this horrendous injustice in our culture today if I so chose, simply because the sheer volume of sexual violence cases is staggering. 

I try not to only base my weekly column about sexual violence in the news, even though I unfortunately have a disgusting amount of material to work with. This week, however, I came across a news report so awful I had to devote my writing to it because to not do so would be an injustice to the survivors. 

This week, Sky News of Australia and New Zealand reported that New Zealand’s police force has come under fire for having knowledge of a group of teenage boys calling themselves the Roast Busters, without making any movement to arrest them for rape. 

The Roast Busters, located in Auckland, have utilized Facebook to organize gang rapes of young women in their area for at least two years. The boys plan events on Facebook and more often than not name their victims afterwards on the social media site. 

So why has the Auckland Police Department done literally nothing to stop the rape of young women in New Zealand, orchestrated by a highly organized and sick group of teenage men? Some of the victims named on Facebook are as young as 13—clearly this falls in the realm of criminal activity. 

This is not the case according to the Auckland Police Department. It stands by its statement that while they recognize the horror of what the boys are doing, no woman has been “brave” enough to step forward and make a formal complaint, which evidently gives them to the power to act. 

This is rape culture at work. The police are looking for victimized girls to be the ‘brave’ ones and step up. It believes it is easy for rape victims to speak about its experiences, failing to realize the majority of violent sexual crimes are never reported. Meanwhile, the Roast Busters continue to operate their site. Why would the girls come forth when the police are so obviously not on their side? 

Kurt Vonnegut once wrote, talking about World War II, that there is “nothing eloquent to say about a massacre.” At this point, I feel the same way regarding this case and the countless others like them. I don’t feel that I have enough words to express my anger and frustration with the lack of justice for victims of sexual violence in this country and beyond. I have no eloquent ending for this piece because language won’t change the horror of what I have written about. 

We cannot continue to be complacent as a society and expect things to get better. Plain and simple, this has to stop.