
The United States Coast Guard Station on Commercial Street in the North End is the base where victims of sexual assault get sent for evaluation, according to the July 2013 issue of Boston Magazine.
Tucked away at the northernmost tip of the North End, the base is a cluster of old buildings built on three piers that stretch into the harbor like a trident. It’s a site steeped in American maritime history—the hull of the U.S.S. Constitution was built in a shipyard that once stood there, using copper nails forged by Paul Revere.
Dormant for years, the station was recommissioned in 2003 in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, becoming the headquarters for the Coast Guard’s First District—2,000 miles of Atlantic shoreline stretching from northern New Jersey to Canada. But in the decade since then, the base has taken on another purpose:
This is where the Coast Guard processes many of its enlisted men and women after they have been raped.
The rape of any member of society is an assault to us all. The fact that the military has such an atrocious attitude and response is horrifying!