5.11.2006
Courage
I'm so, so sorry that this happened to Cecily, but I'm so glad that she had the courage to write about it.
And anyone who thinks that this couldn't happen to them in their insular community or nice, small, quiet town, or if they're modestly covered up from head to toe, hasn't been reading the papers lately.
It makes me sick. And angry.
Have a good day.
P.S. Read as many of the comments on Cecily's post as you can, and also her follow-up post.
And anyone who thinks that this couldn't happen to them in their insular community or nice, small, quiet town, or if they're modestly covered up from head to toe, hasn't been reading the papers lately.
It makes me sick. And angry.
Have a good day.
P.S. Read as many of the comments on Cecily's post as you can, and also her follow-up post.
# posted by Abacaxi Mamao : 5/11/2006 06:18:00 PM
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I'm sorry that Cecily had such a horrible experience as well. However, I don't think it's okay to, as she did, say that her experience has any bearing on the truth of what happened in North Carolina. It's one thing to say "I don't believe that X person is lying about being raped" (and certainly the injuries the woman in NC suffered are consistent with that statement); it's another entirely to say that it has any bearing on whether those particular men are guilty of that crime. Given that the party in question was filled with men whom the accuser did not personally know, the opportunity for mis-identification is very high, and eyewitness identification is one of the least reliable types of evidence.
I believe in merciless justice for rapists, and that the guilty should be punished severely. However, I believe that an accusation is different than a conviction.
Watching this trial play out is frustrating for me, as most trials are, because of the amount of speculation about and identificatio with the parties on both sides - the trial becomes less about a specific event, and establishing whether a crime was committed by these specific people, and more about the larger societal issues which the observer imbues into it.
All in all, what gets forgotten is that this criminal trial is remarkably like oodles of other criminal trials around the country. There are people accused of a crime, and they may or may not be guilty. Until they are proven guilty, they are innocent.
I believe in merciless justice for rapists, and that the guilty should be punished severely. However, I believe that an accusation is different than a conviction.
Watching this trial play out is frustrating for me, as most trials are, because of the amount of speculation about and identificatio with the parties on both sides - the trial becomes less about a specific event, and establishing whether a crime was committed by these specific people, and more about the larger societal issues which the observer imbues into it.
All in all, what gets forgotten is that this criminal trial is remarkably like oodles of other criminal trials around the country. There are people accused of a crime, and they may or may not be guilty. Until they are proven guilty, they are innocent.
more interesting to me is the fact that whole communities go crazy about strange-rape possibilities, but don't seem to expend nearly as much energy to protect members from aquaintance rape/molestation, which is probably much more frequent in "small-town" setting s(or even other settings...).
what i'm trying to say is that the whole thing is politicized into a culture of fear, etc. 'rape culture" or something like that.
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what i'm trying to say is that the whole thing is politicized into a culture of fear, etc. 'rape culture" or something like that.
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