Some Rapes aren't as Important as Others

When Tawana Brawley reported that she had been raped, it was a media firestorm in 1987.  It was headline news and was the crime that launched Reverend Al Sharpton onto the national stage.  It later turned out she lied about the incident to avoid punishment from her mother for staying out.  Of note, Brawley is black and she accused white men of raping her.

When a stripper claimed that the Duke lacrosse team had raped her, it became a media firestorm that saw lacrosse canceled for the season and the coach forced to resign.  A year later, the charges were dropped when the stripper was shown to have lied.  Of note, the stripper was black and she accused white college students of raping her.

When Rolling Stone published a story about a fraternity raping a girl as part of initiation at UVA, a media firestorm followed in which rape culture was denounced, especially the members of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity.  Unlike the other two instances, this one flamed out quickly since the story was appallingly sourced and easily disproven.  Of note, the accused rapists were white college students.

 

Late last year in Kansas, a 13 year old girl was raped.  No firestorm of media attention followed.  Of note, the accused rapist was an illegal alien who had repeatedly been deported.

 

Last week in Maryland, a high school girl - 14 years old - was raped.  There has been no media firestorm.  Yes, it has been reported and then mostly forgotten.  Of note, the accused rapist is an illegal immigrant.

 

There is a pattern here.  If the rape confirms the narrative of racism or campus rape culture, the firestorm follows even though it is almost always a hoax.  If the rape would confirm Trump's claim that rapists are illegally crossing the border, crickets.  The media will obsess on stories that confirm its biases and overlook those that challenge them.

Secure Border?

Deported 10 times and 'voluntarily' left another 9 times, Tomas Martinez-Maldonado somehow breached our secure southern border a 20th time.  He managed to get all the way to Kansas where he raped a 13 year-old girl.  Consider, these 19 recorded evictions are the times when we caught him.  Who knows how many times he crossed and returned without our knowledge.  Of course, the border has never been more secure.

 

Stories like this made Trump's border wall a winning issue.

The Border has Never been More Secure

Sure, this is just one guy out of the millions but how does he keep coming back?  This catch and deport system we have is not doing the job.  It is time to revive the old practice of transportation.  It used to be that criminals were sent to penal colonies, such as Virginia or Australia.  The moon looks like an ideal site for a penal colony.  We can finally establish that moon base I was promised in 2001: A Space Odyssey and not be particularly concerned with safety.  Try coming back from there, amigo.

Germany's Imported Rape Culture

"If the Cologne attackers had belonged to a fraternity, their coordinated sexual assaults would be the biggest story on earth right now."
@davidfrum

Wow!  Scary that this is true.

A Right to be Believed?

I want to send a message to every survivor of sexual assault.  Don’t let anyone silence your voice. You have a right to be heard. You have a right to be believed. We’re with you.

Hillary Clinton

Taking her at her word, I have a couple of instances I would like to address during her next press conference?

1. Juanita Broaddrick alleged that Attorney General Bill Clinton raped her in 1978, leaving her with a swollen lip and torn pantyhose.  Should her voice have been silenced?  Did you believe her?
2. Paula Jones revealed that, in 1991, then Governor Bill Clinton had arranged for her to meet him at a Little Rock hotel where he exposed himself and suggested she 'kiss it.'  Did she have a right to be believed?
3. Kathleen Willey said that President Bill Clinton sexually assaulted her in 1993; did she have a right to be believed?

During your husband's political career, you referred to such incidents at 'bimbo eruptions' and set about denying them.  It was all part of a 'vast rightwing conspiracy,' you said.  Republicans must have sneaked Monica Lewinsky into the Oval Office and thus entrapped President Clinton.  He sat beside you during a 60 Minutes interview and denied any relationship with Gennifer Flowers only to be exposed as a liar soon thereafter when Flowers offered an incriminating audio cassette.  Monica Lewinsky likewise was able to provide irrefutable evidence of an adulterous relationship with President Clinton; should you have believed her?

 

With her history, this is a subject that Hillary shouldn't touch with a 10 foot pole.  She spent much too long trying to silence and discredit women who offered tales of sexual assault to now switch sides.

 

On the other hand, even a person with a problematic history on a subject could come to the truth.  Witness Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus.  But that is not the case here.  We have had too many false accusations of late (Duke Lacrosse Team, Rolling Stone UVA gang rape story, Mattress Girl at Columbia, Lena Dunham's Oberlin College rape story, etc.) to offer a blanket right to be believed.  Rape and sexual assault are crimes.  The accused needs to be tried in a court of law, not a court of public opinion.  Even as heinous as the crime is, the accused is still presumed innocent.  Representative Jared Polis (D-CO) should be censured by his colleagues for his suggestion that the innocent should be expelled along with the guilty, just to make sure.