{"id":13637,"date":"2011-07-01T15:18:53","date_gmt":"2011-07-01T22:18:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=13637"},"modified":"2011-07-01T15:18:53","modified_gmt":"2011-07-01T22:18:53","slug":"dsk-%e2%89%a0-lax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=13637","title":{"rendered":"DSK \u2260 LAX"},"content":{"rendered":"

Obviously, with today’s news regarding the ongoing Dominique Strauss-Kahn case<\/a>, the usual suspects<\/a> are starting to draw parallels<\/a> between this case and the Duke lacrosse case — arguing that because this case might not actually go to trial, this is proof that rape doesn’t really happen, and that prosecutors are all to willing to listen to poor alleged victims instead of rich connected alleged perpetrators. No, really:<\/p>\n

Was Dominique Strauss-Kahn a victim of the Duke lacrosse syndrome? Are prosecutors too ready to believe the feminist scenario in which powerful white men are the natural exploiters of subordinate women, especially poor minority women?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Because, as we all know, the American criminal justice system is clearly biased in favor of poor minority women.<\/p>\n

Of course, the case is not collapsing because the woman has come out and admitted that she wasn’t raped, or because the prosecution has found exculpatory evidence, or because Strauss-Kahn’s evil twin surfaced in Queens. It’s collapsing because the alleged victim has a sordid past<\/a>, one which has been mined effectively by the high-powered defense team of a very rich man. And in a case that ultimately hinges on the accuser’s testimony, that makes the case harder to prosecute.<\/p>\n

But it’s important to note that this doesn’t mean no sexual assault happened. To be blunt, women who have criminal connections can still be raped. That may make it harder to win a conviction, even impossible. But that’s because we have a system — rightly — where defendants aren’t supposed to be imprisoned unless their guilt is proven beyond reasonable doubt.<\/p>\n

This is why “not guilty” does not equal “innocent” — as anyone familiar with the O.J. Simpson case is well aware. <\/p>\n

This case boils down to the old lie that a woman who is not virginal and pure can’t really be raped. Jill Filipovic unpacks it neatly<\/a>:<\/p>\n

All of this leads prosecutors to believe that she\u2019s probably not a credible witness, and that DSK\u2019s attorneys will destroy her on the witness stand. They\u2019re probably right. Rape accusers seem to be treated with different expectations of perfection than people who report other crimes. Granted, this case is particularly high-profile, which means that prosecutors no doubt want it to be open-and-shut, making the accuser\u2019s imperfections all the more troublesome. But I have a hard time believing that a woman with the exact same past would be considered too lacking in credibility had she accused someone of robbing her apartment or mugging her or beating her up. I have a hard time believing that if a man was punched in the face by a stranger on the street that prosecutors would drop the case if it came to light that the victim had cheated on his taxes seven years ago.<\/p>\n

Even though these aren\u2019t the typical \u201cshe\u2019s a slut\u201d attacks (although I\u2019m counting down the minutes until someone suggests she\u2019s a prostitute who had sex with DSK for money), there\u2019s still an unreasonable level of virtue that we demand from any woman who says she was raped. This woman, like a lot of folks, has lied to save her own ass under dire circumstances. She called someone in jail to discuss the pros and cons of going forward with the rape accusations \u2014 something that sounds questionable unless you consider that the incarcerated person may have been her closest confidante, and I would certainly have that exact same conversation with my best friend if I were thinking of getting embroiled in a criminal case. There\u2019s still physical evidence of sex, and physical evidence of assault. But it doesn\u2019t matter, since she owns five cell phones (DSK owns seven) and lied about an unrelated issue and has some shady friends. Nothing that has come out about her indicates that she wasn\u2019t raped. It just indicates that she\u2019s no longer our ideal victim, and that\u2019s enough to prevent the case from going forward.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Exactly right. And of course, no woman’s ever an ideal woman, because no human is perfect.<\/p>\n

For the moment, the case is still going forward<\/a>, and I hope it continues to. I would hate to think that prosecutors would send the message that women whose pasts are dodgy are free game for anyone who wants to rape them. We have far too many people doing that already.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Obviously, with today’s news regarding the ongoing Dominique Strauss-Kahn case, the usual suspects are starting to draw parallels between this case and the Duke lacrosse case — arguing that because this case might not actually go to trial, this is … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[123,96],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-duke-rape-case","category-rape-intimate-violence-related-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13637"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13637\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13638,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13637\/revisions\/13638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}