Photo by Wayan Vota.

Here’s how many things should be compared to rape: Zero.

But in a column on proposed high-occupancy toll lanes on some D.C. roadways, Washington Times columnist Deborah Simmons used rape to describe what she says officials are doing to the “common city dweller.” It begins:

D.C. officials are downright greedy and jealous.

Unappreciative of the bejeweled crown that the Fore Fathers bestowed upon the District, they are becoming despotic-like, raping not only the common city dweller for financial gain, but ever thinking of new ways to go after other taxpayers.

So goes Mayor Vincent C. Gray’s fiscal 2015 budget request, which proposed toll roads.

An email and phone message left for Simmons were not returned. A call to the Opinions editor at the Times was also not answered.

Collective Action for Safe Spaces — an organization that seeks to end public harassment and assault, and is a member of the DC Justice for Survivors Campaign — said in an email they are “disappointed and alarmed” by the use of the word.

“We at CASS feel strongly that rape is never an acceptable metaphor,” Renee Davidson, Communications Director for CASS, said in an email. “Sexual assault is a tragic crime that affects tens of thousands of men and women each year, including in ways that most of us cannot begin to imagine. Equating rape with higher taxes is not only a disservice to victims, but also a danger to the community in diluting the gravity of this tragic crime. Here in D.C., CASS has worked for over a year to help pass legislation to thwart the trivialization and normalization of sexual assault, which routinely happens at the hands of police, the criminal justice system and — as Simmons’ article shows — the media and popular pundits. We hope that Simmons and the Times think twice and remove the offensive line. It is only by dedicating ourselves to speaking about sexual assault in accurate and articulate terms that we change our culture in ways to prevent it.”

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