Thursday, April 14, 2011

An Unsurprising Development in the Duke Lacrosse Case

I suppose it was only a matter of time before Crystal Magnum, the "you'll be asking for your money back" stripper who falsely accused the Duke Lacrosse players of gang rape, ends up accused of murdering some guy. Apparently it's a slippery slope from falsely accusing others of felonies to committing one yourself. My question is why wasn't this woman put in jail for her false accusations in the first place? And where is the apology from the pundits, the prosecutor, and the various Duke faculty members who rushed to judgment on those accusations (yes, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, you shameless race hucksters, that includes you)? Those lacrosse players may have been cads and jerks, but a false rape accusation is abhorrent. No one deserves to risk prison and have their reputation smeared forever simply because some crackhead decides she doesn't like them. And every false claim of rape only makes the public ever more skeptical of the genuine accusations. I'm just surprised this waste of life hasn't accused the Duke water polo team of this latest murder, to be followed by a rush to judgment on the part of racist trash like Sharpton.

5 comments:

  1. Hrm.....because rape is so rarely successfully prosecuted? Therefore, far too many women would wind up behind bars, even if they were actually raped. Thereby discouraging other women from coming forward? Just a thought.

    I'm against false accusations, of course, but a "locl up the accuser" law would be a disaster for women.

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  2. Shannon--I'm not talking about cases where the rape is simply unproven, I'm talking about where it is in fact proven that the accusation was a false one. There's a world of difference--and a clear line of morality and justice--between someone who simply can't prove their case and someone who intentionally abuses the system. If only those cases (the knowingly false accusations) are prosecuted, that shouldn't deter any genuine victims, even if they know they have a long shot to prove their case.

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  3. Brandon, you are failing so hard with "jailing women who falsely accuse rape won't deter rape victims from reporting." Where's the line between simply not proving that a rape occurred and the woman falsely reporting? If you can't prove that it happened that would *seem* like an automatic false report...and people already perceive that many rape reports are false (as in the woman is blatantly lying).

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  4. Ew, my captcha for that last post was "eyewort."

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  5. Vanessa, the burden would be on the prosecution to prove that it was a false report, rather than simply an unproven report. They prosecute perjury all the time, for example--and there are cases where it can actually be proven that the accuser actually made up the allegation. I also think this should apply to other abuses of the system, not just rape--false reports of theft, battery, etc.--the system simply allows too many unsavory people to abuse it. And having an (even unproven) rape charge leveled against you is a far greater stigma than being falsely accused of any other crime.

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