Posted on 12/06/2014 10:52:18 AM PST by SeekAndFind
In last month’s deep and damning Rolling Stone report about sexual assault at UVA, a reporter narrated the story of “Jackie,” who was gang raped at a party and then essentially ignored by the administration. It helped dramatize what happens when the claims of victims are not taken seriously.
Now the narrative appears to be falling apart: her rapist wasn’t in the frat she says, the house held no party on the night of the assault, and other details are wobbly. Many people (not least UVA administrators) will be tempted to see this as a reminder that officials, reporters, and the general public should hear both sides of the story and collect all the evidence before coming to a conclusion in rape cases. This is what we mean in America when we say someone is “innocent until proven guilty.” After all, look what happened to the Duke lacrosse players.
In important ways, this is wrong. We should believe, as a matter of default, what an accuser says. Ultimately, the costs of wrongly disbelieving a survivor far outweigh the costs of calling someone a rapist. Even if Jackie fabricated her account, UVA should have taken her word for it during the period while they endeavored to prove or disprove the accusation. This is not a legal argument about what standards we should use in the courts; it’s a moral one, about what happens outside the legal system.
The accused would have a rough period. He might be suspended from his job; friends might de-friend him on Facebook. In the case of Bill Cosby, we might have to stop watching, consuming his books, or buying tickets to his traveling stand-up routine. But false accusations are exceedingly rare, and errors can be undone by an investigation that clears the accused,
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
No matter what Tawana Brawley said........
No matter what Crystal Magnum said..........
Another day, another insult to my intelligence.
see post 4....
I understand that Zerlina Maxwel is a child molester.
Of course, Zerlina Maxwel is “innocent until proven guilty.”
But the seriousness of the charge is so that great that we should believe it until proven otherwise.
“We should generally believe rape claims” which are promptly reported to police and backed up by physical evidence that supports the accusation.
In other words, it’s not the evidence that matters, it’s the seriousness of the charge.
The Washington Post should suspend her without pay until these charges are cleared up.
Summary execution for all accused!!!!
I heard she’s made racist and homophobic slurs against Barack Obama.
Remember the Duke students......
Illogical argument.
These false claims will never come to pass if they knew there were going to be swift repercussions civil law suits and jail time for falsifying a rape claim. Duke lacrosse biotch, tawana brawley free with no repercussions
Its amazing that all these stories appearing today lack the name of the reporter, who should be taken in and arrested for a psychological disorder. That woman should be the focus of the story and why she lied to such a degree.
“Jackie” should be outed.
I always wonder how they know this. All it really means is that total proof of a false accusation is seldom found. Which means the rape crisis activists simply class all accusations as true unless completely disproven. It would make just as much logical sense to class all accusations as false until a rape conviction is obtained.
IOW, there are a large number of accusations of date rape, which is what we're talking about here. People seldom question whether a woman attacked by a stranger was "really" raped.
A relatively small number of date rape accusations result in conviction, simply due to the extreme difficulty of proving a case.
A much smaller number are proven to be false. But that's at least as difficult to prove, for the same reasons.
and errors can be undone by an investigation that clears the accused
An argument that would make some sense if the accused were protected from public identification in the same way the "victim" generally is. But of course his name and photo is plastered all over the media. Try getting your reputation back after that.
Especially since the majority of such cases are left in limbo. Not enough evidence to either prove or disprove. Leaving the "perp" with common public perception that he was a rapist who got away with it.
The socialist media is doing their best to move the USA from following the rule of law to unbridled democracy, with the result of whoever is first to create an accusation automatically wins the ‘discussion’. Oh well, that’s the result of progressive education that’s been taught in America these last 50 or so years. They sure weren’t aiming to make anyone any smarter...
To be sure, a minor inconvenience.
Does “generally” include the 50% of rape claims that are false?
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