So if you haven’t been
living under a rock, the chances are good that you have heard about the rape
accusation that was brought against Heisman trophy hopeful Jameis Winston.
Today it was announced that there was not enough evidence to seek criminal
charges against Winston.
*cue victorious hate
speech against lyin’, gold diggin’ hoes the world over*
For whatever reason, people
have taken this to mean that the accuser’s story was deemed false or baseless, rather than simply
unsubstantiated. Let’s not ignore the fact that the police waited almost
an entire (fucking) year to begin investigating the matter. Also, rather than supporting the victim in taking a brave step that might result in a safer community, instead she was told:
“Tallahassee is a big football town and the
victim needs to think long and hard before proceeding against him because she
will be raked over the coals and her life will be made miserable.”
Just a fun fact to
throw into this discussion: instances of false accusations of rape are very low
and comparable to other crimes (2-8%). This isn't just an opinion this is based
on a study.
Every time a person
walks around saying "oh, she's a slut, you can't rape a slut" or
"oh, she's just making it up because she regretted it after" or
"oh, she just wants money out of him" or "any girl would be
lucky to have sex with [insert name of celebrity male]. She's just lying."
etc, is setting a dangerous and unfounded precedent to automatically disbelieve
anyone who makes a claim of being assaulted, and arguably, simply because they
are a woman. There is also significant evidence that most rapists are repeat
offenders, so it should be no small matter to let one walk free.
Let's be clear, just because enough
evidence was not found to secure criminal prosecution against Winston, that does not mean that there was no evidence to condemn him at all (and there could
have possibly been more if the police hadn't put off investigation for almost a
year). The accuser's story was not deemed false or baseless, only that it was
not substantiated enough to have Winston charged in criminal court. The outcome
may have been different if a civil case had been brought against Winston rather
than criminal, but then people would probably say the accuser was a liar
because she didn't seek criminal charges.
*shrug* Damned if you do, damned if you don't,
I suppose.
So the criminal charges are settled, no thanks
to massive negligence on the part of the Tallahassee Police Department. But there’s one small thing we can do to try and assure that other victims of sexual
assault can feel safer about taking the very brave step of reporting the crime
committed against them: go to Change.org and sign the petition urging the
Florida Dept. of Law enforcement to Investigate the TPD’s handling of this
case. Because when law enforcement takes virtually no action to investigate the
violation of a community member's rights for almost an entire year, something
is wrong. Police departments the nation over play an integral role in
protecting us and keeping our communities safe. The actions this department
failed to take reflects poorly on all the good work our law enforcement does and there should be consequences for such negligence.
