Wednesday, August 15, 2007

what did we expect? competency?

Air Force turns tables on rape accuser - Los Angeles Times

i've said it once and i'll say it again: our military has NO capacity to deal with sexual assault. whether it's tailhook, academy assaults, rapes overseas or sexual harassment that leads to assault, our military does not know how to address either a rape victim's needs or a perpetrator's crime.

this unfolding story has a way of ginning up the bile in a way that most stories of sexual assault in the military have not. perhaps it's the way that the military apparatus that is supposed to investigate a crime has suddenly turned its eye on the woman who reported it. perhaps it's the obvious way that the men involved are wholly protected while she's left to twist in the wind. perhaps it's the unease with which i can imagine that this could totally happen outside the closed world of the military.

the question needs to be asked: do we believe women? do we believe women when they've said they've been raped? or do we look for any excuse to absolve a man of that crime?

'well, i've heard that women make up charges. so how do we know she's telling the truth?'

is that our job, to make sure someone is telling the truth? or is our duty to believe someone who says she's been raped? wouldn't we believe any other victim of crime?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

wait...explain to me again why she could go to jail while the males involved get 30 extra days of duty?! I don't want to believe that this is all there is to the story. Of course, I don't want to think she's guilty...but I'm afraid of the implications it screams about our society and the male power that holds it down if she in fact did nothing wrong. Do we think that the men would of been charged had they "beared" themselves and flashed her in order to instigate sex????