Today, New York prosecutors dismissed the rape case against former IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn saying:
“The nature and number of the complainant’s falsehoods leave us unable to credit her version of events beyond a reasonable doubt, whatever the truth may be about the encounter between the complainant and the defendant...If we do not believe her beyond a reasonable doubt, we cannot ask a jury to do so.”
There's no doubt about it, the alleged victim, Nafissatou Diallo is a liar. But lots of people are liars, and being a liar does not somehow magically protect anyone from being the victim of a crime. Liars are robbed, beaten and murdered every day - just like every other kind of human being.
So why is nobody looking at the physical evidence in this case and saying, "Nafissatou Diallo is a liar, but the physical evidence suggests that she's probably not lying about this?" Why does nobody at the DA's office have the guts to take this to trial? Cyrus Vance Jr. and his prosecutorial team are copping out of their duty to seek and expose the truth because the accused in this case happens to be a powerful man, and the accuser won't show up like a shiny new penny in court.
We have this notion in our culture that a woman cannot possibly be a victim of rape unless she is an untarnished innocent - blameless, virginal, perfect in every way. The second a woman falls short of that impossible expectation, we aren't believed. That's because we still have this insane expectation of a feminine ideal that leaves no room for women to be, say, human beings. Women can be just as venal, cruel, selfish, arrogant, deceitful and downright nasty as any man. That does not somehow abnegate our right to have the most horrific kind of crimes against us heard in court.
Shame on you, Mr. Vance. Shame.
