Backlash

I had a long post started, about the most visible rape cases of the week, the UVA rape case in Rolling Stone, and Lena Dunham's case that she outlined in her new book.  Both of which turned out to be demonstrably false. Lies from start to finish, simply to sell a product.

I've worked rape cases that turned out to be false.  Sometimes people make-up stuff that didn't happen, through some misguided need to be a victim, but I've never seen a takedown like the one at the Victory Girls blog.

Lena Dunham, I don’t believe you. I don’t believe anything that comes out of your mouth. I don’t believe that you were raped or sexually assaulted. I don’t believe that you are a victim or a survivor.

I believe that you are a psychopath that needs to be the center of attention. I do believe that you are an uncaring, unintelligent, immoral liar. I do believe that you were foolish enough to think that you could write whatever you wanted in your pointless book without any repercussions. I do believe that you didn’t think people would try to find out who your alleged rapist was, and you didn’t think that you would quite probably ruin a man’s life. I believe you didn’t care one bit. 

I've worked rape cases, and while I can never say that I know the horror and the trauma, I can say that I've seen the aftermath, which in itself is a horror.  I've also conducted the investigations, and assisted the prosecution, and sent people to jail.  I've also worked those cases that turned out to be demonstrably false.  The complainants story didn't make sense, the physical evidence didn't support her version of the event, and the alleged perpetrator could not have been there.

In these two cases, (UVA and Dunham), these two cases are demonstrably false, they don't stand up to even rudimentary investigation, and they were narrated to sell a product.  And that's probably the most despicable part of those stories, that they were narrated to generate a profit.  And, they diluted the stores of true rape survivors in the process, simply to make a profit.  Truly despicable.

Let me be clear.  Rape is an horrific crime that should be reported, investigated, and prosecuted.  It is a crime of violence and should have the highest priority in our investigative resources (right up with murder).  But, making false accusations is not the way to bring the problem to light.