This Chicago Tribune editorial was written by Anne Ream, who is an advocate for survivors of sexual assault (and often does work for DCRCC). I thought the article was good enough to post in full.
Cheers can't drown out painful truths
Public brawl over rape allegations reminds us of the price women sometimes must pay for being heard
By Anne K. Ream
June 17, 2007
Supporters of the Duke University lacrosse team are in a celebratory mood. The team excelled in last month's NCAA tournament. And just last week, the prosecutor who filed rape charges against three of the team's players was himself put on trial, accused of ethics violations in pursuing a case fraught with problems.
The young men who narrowly lost to rival Johns Hopkins in the NCAA championship game are indeed gifted and resilient athletes. But praising the players as "outstanding" and "upstanding" young men, as the Duke Lacrosse Booster Club did in a full-page advertisement in The New York Times, is a reminder of just how low the bar has fallen when it comes to acceptable male behavior. Legal vindication is not moral vindication, no matter how hard a PR campaign works to make it so.
We may never know everything that occurred on the night of March 13, 2006, when the Duke lacrosse players threw a team party at an off-campus house. But what we do know is troubling enough.
Photos taken at the party show two young women, hired to perform by the players, dancing at the center of a group of largely drunken and leering men. The North Carolina attorney general's report details how one of the lacrosse players held up a broomstick during the night's events, suggesting that the women use it as a "sex toy." Another player sent a chilling group e-mail just hours after the party, musing about bringing in more "strippers" and cutting off their skin while ejaculating. Witnesses reported hearing racial slurs lobbed by partygoers.
To be fair, individual acts do not implicate the entire lacrosse team. Misogyny is not illegal. And none of these ugly events constitutes a criminal act. But they stand as a testimony all their own, a window into a world where "good" men engage in troubling -- and sometimes troubled -- behavior.
The statement that "boys will be boys" has become an all-purpose justification for male behavior that is boorish, bad and at times even brutal. The degradation of women has been normalized for so long that it seems we have ceased to see what is right before our eyes.
Yet the words and images that came from the residence of the captains of the Duke lacrosse team demand to be addressed, as does the prosecutor's possibly criminal mishandling of the case. They speak volumes about the climate in the players' house. So what does our silence in the face of these truths say about us?
We talk endlessly, exhaustingly, about "moral values." But we talk little of valuing women, particularly when they are young, poor and black, as were the women hired by the Duke lacrosse players.
Nowhere was this more apparent than at the news conference two months ago when North Carolina Atty. Gen. Roy Cooper dismissed all charges against the players, taking the opportunity to muse about the mental stability of the young woman at the heart of the case. Later that week, when the mother of one of the lacrosse players appeared on "Good Morning America" and insinuated that the accuser ought to lose her children, she left little doubt about who was being tried in the court of public opinion.
Every public rape case exists in two spaces: In the practical, "law and order" world, where it works its way through an imperfect system; and in the public imagination, where it exists symbolically, a Rorschach test of our values and beliefs. It is not only the specifics, but also the symbolism, of the Duke case that remain troubling. Both serve to remind those who come forward with rape charges that they may pay a steep and very public price for the chance to be heard.
Millions of rape victims, most of whom never report the crime -- much less see legal justice -- must have watched silently as this case unfolded, thinking about how they might have fared under such scrutiny. That the accuser gave conflicting statements to the police is not unusual. A victim's statements, particularly in the wake of a traumatic attack, can be confused and inconsistent. Memory is resolutely imperfect over time and under the duress of repeated questioning.
Our cultural response to rape leaves its victims in the cruelest of double binds: They must choose between coming forward, which carries the risk of being blamed, and remaining silent, which carries the risk of isolation. It is a silence that damages more than the victim. It strikes a blow to our public safety as well, because unreported sexual violence allows perpetrators to violate again.
The myth of the "false report" of rape must be replaced by this truth: It is underreporting, not false reporting, that poses the greatest risk to our families and our communities. It is silence that is the enemy of change.
Monday, June 25, 2007
"Cheers can't drown out painful truths" - Duke Lacrosse rape trial.
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4 comments:
Having read this article by Ms. Ream, it appears that she cares little for the truth. It also appears that she does desperately care about pursuing and agenda even when doing so will cause significant damage to others.
Ms. Ream wrote: But praising the players as "outstanding" and "upstanding" young men, as the Duke Lacrosse Booster Club did in a full-page advertisement in The New York Times, is a reminder of just how low the bar has fallen when it comes to acceptable male behavior. Perhaps she doesn't think that telling the truth, even when there are serious negative consequences to yourself and your family isn't considering updstanding. That's what happend to the 3 young men from Duke that were falsely accused. They could have succumbed to the incredible and illegal pressure put on by the DA and police to falsely confess and receive a plea bargain or even better to false accuse a teammate. Instead they stuck to the truth, that nothing happened. It cost their families their life savings and millions in debt. It cost one a prestigious job on Wall street. It cost all three a year of their life wasted on defense and a transparently false allegation. They incurred death and physical threats from radical feminists and racists blacks and other extremists. They still fear some wacko either too lazy to research to find the truth or too wrapped up in their personal agendas will kill them or their families falsely believing that nothing happened. They risked spending most of the rest of their lives behind bars for by telling the truth. But by steadfastly doing so along with 44 of their former teammates, they helped topple an evil tyrant from power and set an important legal prescedent for those victimized by prosecutorial misconduct.
Furthermore, despite the unjust persecution that was heaped upon them by extremist feminist and black political groups, they refused to stoop to the same level. The conducted themselves with dignity. They expressed fears that this case would hinder those who truely had been sexually assaulted from coming forth or if they did from being treated fairly by the legal system. They expressed regret that thousands of others, mostly minorities, did not have the financial resources to adequately defend themselves from prosecutorial and police misconduct as they themselves did. One young man even announced that he wished to become a defense attorney to help protect the rights of those falsely accused.
I will agree with Ms. Ream that hiring strippers and watching women strip for money is not a moral activity. I was pleaed to have seen where the 3 young men publicly apologized for this behavior and did not repeat it. But I would have to conclude that anyone who willingly takes their clothes off for money is engaging in immoral behavior. It should be noted that while the young men have not returned to the activity of hiring strippers, that the accuser was back stripping in the club a few days after claiming that she was violantly and brutally gang raped. Furthermore, while I find the behavior of 2 consenting adults of legal age intering into a monetary transaction for one to take off their clothes for the other, I do not find it near as morally reprehensible as purposely spreading vile and malcious lies against innocent individuals to advance a political agenda. I would add, that the agenda may have great merits in many instances, only adds to instead of lessing the moral reprehensibleness of the act. I believe that Ms. Read has engaged in such an act. In the long run I believe that this behavior will be very harmful to the cause of obtaining full and fair treatment of women by the legal system. It certainly will have a much more detrimental affect than some college kids having a few strippers entertain at a private party. Both are bad, but one is a much larger and more detrimental affect.
I would add that becoming a stripper nor hiring one necessarily makes one a hater of the gender of the stripper. This is a ludicrious charge. In fact evidence showed that one of the young men went to extraordinary lengths to insure that the strippers were not abused in any manner nor vicitmized. However that didn't stop the strippers from pulling a quick scam to extract more money from the Duke boys and leave much earlier than promised. Nor did it stop one stripper from what appears to be an attempt to extort a great deal more money from false rape allegations. Unfortunately for her she chose 3 individuals from an illegal lineup that refused to be extorted.
If one takes the time to review the evidence in it's entirety, there can be no doubt that the accuser flat out lied and that absolutely no crimes were committed against her at the Duke Lacrosse party. Ther is extensive evidence from over 40 plus consitent statements from those attending the party, 3rd party witnesses other than the party goers, the other stripper, DNA, video, photograph, cell phone, credit card, medical exam, and much other forensic evidence to back this up. The only evidence against the boys is the word of a noncredible excon stripper who had a history of filing dubious charges at best. There exist no reasonable doubt to presume that the 3 accused and all attending the party are not completely innocent of any alleged crimes by the accuser.
Perhaps Ms. Ream should follow the upstanding example of the 3 Duke Lacrosse players and publicly confess her misdeeds and refuse to do them again. She could follow up by pursuing fair treatment for all by the law, including upholding due process and innocent until proven guilty. Obtaining fair treatment for women does not need to come at the expense of robbing innocent men of their constitutional rights. Nor can fair treatment truely be achieved for anyone as long as certain groups are selected out unjustly for selective and unfair treatment.
Martin Luther King Jr. once said: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." This is a motto that everyone must learn to live by. We all need to strive with all our might to achieve fairness and justice for not only women, but for all of mankind.
Anne Ream has it right: The problem with rape in our justice system is not the
4-6% of false reporting but the more than 50% of under-reporting of the crime.
(Figures are Justice Dept estimates.) These statistics not only reflect a cultural
bias but are the result of that bias – an attitude that allows us to make heroes of
vulgar, violently-inclined men and degrade frightened and vulnerable women.
The Duke Lacrosse Team case and the public response to it is a glaring example
of the problem.
As Ms. Ream points out, more than legal debate, opinions and social values are
the real story here. The full-page ad in the New York Times, which was
purchased by the Duke Lacrosse Team “Booster Club” after criminal charges
against some of the team’s players were dropped, calls for a “standing ovation”
and offers “congratulatory praise” for the team, referring to the players as
“outstanding” and “upstanding” – all for surviving unfounded allegations of rape.
Oddly, the ad also applauds the team’s win of the ACC Championship, as if
athletic prowess somehow further exonerates these young men from allegations
of any wrong-doing.
And if you read or watch the news, the general public seems to agree, holding
up these men as heroes who prevailed against a terrible villain – a poor minority
woman and single mother who is putting herself through college by working as
a stripper (a stripper hired by affluent frat boys and college athletic teams to
dance at their parties). Yes, many consider working as a stripper to be immoral.
But do the men who hire them have immunity from moral judgment? And these
men did far more than simply hire a stripper.
Ms. Ream’s article describes the hostile environment into which this woman
entered on the night in question – facts that were reported by witnesses and
detailed in the Attorney General’s report. Yes, in this case, the accusations of
rape were ultimately revealed to be unfounded. But what else was revealed? We
know for sure that among this team of players, there are those who enjoy
violent fantasies about women (as evidenced by an email sent by one young
man who suggests skinning women alive while ejaculating). We know, at the
least, that these men are entertained by threatening and degrading vulnerable
women. This behavior may not be criminal, but it is deplorable, and it is
dangerous.
Despite this knowledge, the public enthusiasm for disparaging the victim and
blindly cheering the winner has been raging unabated in recent weeks. What
does this say about us as a society? And more importantly, what does this say to
future rape victims who want justice but must face a community eager to add
insult to injury? In considering this last question, let’s remember that
conservative figures estimate that 1 in 5 women will be the raped or sexually
abused in their lifetimes. We are not speaking just of strippers. We are speaking
of our own sisters and daughters. So, please, let’s talk to our brothers and sons
and teach them not just the legal definition of right and wrong but also the
moral standard. Let’s teach them values that will truly make us proud.
Anne Ream's op ed piece on the Duke LaCrosse case is an important
reminder that rape victims have the right to be heard. If their story is
inconsistent or if evidence is lacking for prosecution, this is then no
occasion to vilify them or brand them as "liars." The case is, instead,
an opportunity to understand that the criminal justice system (either
through dismissal of cases or through innocent verdicts) has done its
job properly in its evaluation of charges. Individuals who believe
themselves to have been sexually assaulted should be treated with
dignity, and all rape victims should be encouraged to come forward to
report. The media uproar over the LaCrosse case, as Ms. Ream so ably
demonstrates, trampled on these basic legal and moral rights. We can
only hope that media coverage of another similar future event will not
repeat sensationalized allegations about either victims or alleged
perpetrators, nor brand those whose assertions do not convince as
blatant liars who themselves deserve prosecution.
Thanks for printing this article. Some people may not be able to understand the crux of Ms. Ream's argument, but she makes an important point that has been lost amid the noise surrounding Mr. Nifong's deplorable conduct of the Duke case. That point is -- there are no clean hands here. If I were the father of one of the falsely accused players, I would be relieved that my son was exonerated and gratified that Mr. Nifong's career has come to a just demise. But I would also be ashamed that my son had participated in such tawdry and nauseating conduct. The Duke Lacrosse players did not commit rape, and did not deserve the ordeal that Mr. Nifong wrongly foisted upon them. But surely we all can recognize that they did nothing to make their parents proud on that unfortunate night.
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