Re: Strong evidence of the rarity of false rape accusations

>Subject: Strong evidence of the rarity of false rape accusations
>From: Alan Mackenzie

>The nearest to it was an account from Misty, one of whose acquaintances
>was such a victim.  But he wasn't convicted, not even charged -

That is not to make light of the situation. He was hauled away in handcuffs as
his neighbors gawked. His house was ransacked, and hundreds of items were
seized. He was refused medication while in custody. He was treated inhumainly
by the prison staff, who were clearly of the attitude that he was guilty. He
was forced to share a cell with 17 actual criminals, some of whom were violent,
and all of whom knew what he was in for. Though he is unable to bring himself
to talk about it, it has become evident to me that he himself was sexually
assaulted while in custody. And during the time he was there, he had no reason
what so ever to believe that he would ever again be free.

 the
>police investigated the allegations against him conscientiously

Not exactly concienciously. He told them where they could find exculpatory
evidence, and volunteered to take a polygraph. Police only bothered to piece
together the exculpatory evidence--which would have cleared him
instantly--after the woman's bogus story began to unravel on it's own. Oh, and
the lie detector? The poligrapher had called in sick.

In my opinion, "conciencious" would have been to say "look, they guy's a
lifelong resident, has friends and family here, owns his own home, has been on
the job with the same company for over 20 years, claims he's innocent, has
volunteered to take a polygraph, and has pointed us toward exculpatory
evidence. He's spoken to a legitimate lawyer. He's not going anywhere. And the
only evidence we have against him is the tearful testimony of a possibly
unbalanced young woman. If after looking at all the evidence and
re-interviewing the alleged victim about the glaring discrepancies in her
story, we still have some doubts, we'll call in the poligrapher. THEN if we
decide to charge him, we can arrest him."  THAT would have been conciencious.
Instead, what they did to him will no doubt cost the county a big
false-arrest/false imprisonment settlement.

  and found
>them groundless (so much for always believing the rape "victim") and
>dropped the case.

Not just groundless, but in my opinion, criminally malicious. The police
report, which is as thick as Atlas Shrugged, ends with the declaration: "No
charges will be brought, as victim refuses to be truthful, even when confronted
with evidence of discrepencies in her statement."  I'm told that she cried
again, consoled by friends and family, when they were told of this "injustice".
Police arranged for her to get councelling (which I agree, she needs) at
taxpayer expense. (that is to say, at MY expense--and worse, at his (the real
victim's) expense).   All told, the taxpayers certainly took a 6-figure hit on
this case, and that's before the lawsuits begin. If Geffery Feiger agrees to
take the case, it will no doubt make this woman a million dollar liability to
the people of Michigan. And yet, no charges were filed againt her. Why?

 His losses were financial only (though apparently
>quite considerable).

The financial losses were substantial, I'm sure.  But for you to be able to say
financial ONLY means that I have not done a good job relating his perception of
the ordeal.

>
>So, where are all these victims of FRAs?  Why are they not posting here?

I encouraged him to join us, for fear that I had not told his tale as well as
he could have. He assured me that my posts had been accurate, and thanked me
for my support. He attempted to post some messages on AOL forums, but was
censored by AOL, because FRA claims are offensive to many women in the AOL
community. After numerous alleged TOS violations AOL closed his account, and
now his lawyers are targeting AOL-time-warner in a discrimination lawsuit.
(Based on their ill-advised policy of allowing people to talk about being
raped, but NOT about being falsely accused of rape).  Before his account was
pulled, he told me of, and I witnessed, a great deal of abuse toward him in
various rape discussion chatrooms. FRA's, it seems ARE an inflamatory subject.
So it's no surprise to me that victims keep quiet. THEY are treated today like
date-rape victims were treated in the 60's.








---M
Student of Ayn Rand;
Proponent of Capitalism;
Opposer of  fascists/socialists/communists/nazis & statists in general
Enemy of the state; fan of reality; freethinker; atheist
Advocate for the rights of the falsely accused
tolerator of sodomy.