Moreno has been the victim of several travesties at the hands of government. While his girlfriend was the one who was actually asasulted and thus bears the vast majority of the resulting trauma herself, the secondary trauma of watching another person, especially one who you deeply care about, be sexually assaulted is also very real and not to be dismissed. While the impact that the assault undoubtedly had on Moreno is not the reason that the assault was wrong, it is one of the outcomes of it. After Moreno’s girlfriend faced the trauma of being sexually assaulted and Moreno faced the trauma of watching it happen, both then were subjected to false arrest by the assailant. And now, Moreno must undergo further victimization at the hands of a government that sees fit to deport him (and his girlfriend faces the secondary victimization of watching it happen while she deals with her own trauma from the assault).

This case is about how we treat sexual assault because Moreno’s girlfriend never should have been assaulted, and Moreno never should have had to call for help at all. As has been admitted, Marcus Jackson should have never been admitted to the police force, due to a history of giving women reason to fear him. It’s about how we treat sexual assault because most who are victims of sexual assault are too afraid to report it. It’s about how we treat sexual assault because fear of police and the (repeatedly proven to be!) reasonable belief that police officers will usually stand by each other before standing by justice means that police officers feel free to both commit sexual assault with impunity and use their state power as a means to hiding their crimes. It’s about how we treat sexual assault because apparently not even 911 operators can be expected to give a shit when such an assault is reported.