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On July 13, 1996, a violent abduction and assault catapulted Angela Rose into activism at the age of seventeen. Rose was leaving her job at a Chicago suburban shopping mall in broad daylight when she was kidnapped at knifepoint by a repeat sex offender who was on parole for murder. After binding her wrists behind her back, the assailant taped Rose’s eyes shut. Unbeknownst to him, Rose could see out of the corners of her eyes and this is what ultimately led to his arrest and conviction. Weeks following the attack, Rose worked with the assailant’s previous victims to support changes in Illinois state law. Their efforts were successful in passing the “Sexually Violent Persons Commitment Act” in 1998. In 2000, after a four year battle with the criminal justice system, Rose’s perpetrator was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Most survivors are troubled by “triggers,” which are objects that invoke painful memories of their experience. The plastic zip ties that the assailant used to bind Rose’s wrists behind her back during the abduction have been her trigger. “Every time I saw those zip ties in a store, I became emotional and distressed. That was the sole object that brought me back to being restrained in the car the evening I was kidnapped. That trapped and powerless feeling was extremely traumatic,” Rose said. July 13, 2006 marks the 10th anniversary of Rose’s harrowing experience. Accordingly, she has chosen this date to launch The Binding Project as part of her commitment to aiding in the healing process of other sexual assault survivors.

Origins