Serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis. © James Conner.
Rolling Stone magazine is in hot water of its own heating for publishing an alleged account of gang rape at the University of Virginia without double-checking, sometimes without even checking, the facts. The article’s author, and the magazine’s editors, chose to trust instead of sufficiently verifying. Now the story’s fallen apart. The author and editors look like fools, and the alleged victim’s reputation for veracity has been diminished.
That cautionary tale, however, has not daunted the zealots who insist that in cases of rape, authority should always believe the accuser. Here’s Zerlina Maxwell writing in today’s Washington Post:
…Many people (not least UVA administrators) will be tempted to see this [the Rolling Stone fiasco] 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, especially if it is done quickly.
Putting it another way, don’t ask questions when a woman cries “Rape!” Just believe her and throw the accused rapist in jail. It’s a shoot first and sort out the bodies later approach, a sure way to encourage false accusations of rape. Angry at your two-timing boyfriend? Have rough sex with him. Then march down to the police station and file a rape complaint. He’ll be in the pokey within the hour, presumed guilty and destined for a long stay in the penitentiary unless he can prove he’s not guilty. The police will never have to ask a question, the prosecutor will never have to present a convincing case. The accusation will be deemed Truth Not Subject to Challenge, and will serve as proof sufficient for conviction.
That’s not the American way. It shouldn’t become the American way. But it could become the American way if Maxwell’s arguments, which are shared by others, are ignored instead of exposed as authoritarian attacks on the due process of law; as attacks on the legal and human rights of the accused.