“And you think there’s no fire beneath that smoke?”
A match that should have been lit when the crime occurred.
The reason powerful men get away with crimes like this is intimidation and the fear and shame they instill in young women, which at that time carried over to the males in police departments who disbelieved young women or called them whores when they tried to report rapes by powerful men — intimidations which would be repeated by defense attorneys if such a case ever went to trial.
Yet another woman (#6) came forward today about ol' Huxtable. It seems his victims have found strength in numbers. One of the most disturbing things about these stories is that all of them who claimed a penetrative assault also claim he used drugs to subdue them first.
In the intervening years since these alleged rapes took place, legislation has been passed giving rape victims more legal protections, such as the routine use of female police officers to handle their claims, prompt collection and proper storage of rape kit evidence, and courts being prevented from using the woman's sexual history to impugn her at trial -- this was a very effective shaming technique from those days when these accusations were said to have occured. Women then were still expected only to have sex if married, and were shamed not only during police investigations but also in the media during rape trials if they were not virgins due to a failed engagement, or had indulged in only a small fraction of what their male counterparts did sexually. If they wore alluring clothing, only a hint of the exposed flesh you see today in supermarkets, high schools and even churches, this was used as an accusation that they deserved to be raped. Many victims said the trials were worse than the actual rapes.
That said, I am no fan of the women who are not actually raped, but rather use the legal system to inflict retaliation.