A couple of years ago: police believe this man raped as many as 50 women, but each jury believed the sex was consensual and so he was never convicted:
As Leigh drove home that morning, she had no idea what lay in her future: that she would join 9 of those 21 accusers to face Marsalis in Philadelphia courtrooms over the course of two trials, telling nearly identical stories of assault. They would be 10 educated, professional women versus a demonstrated liar—a man who had pretended to be a doctor, a CIA employee, even an astronaut—whom a court-appointed psychologist would decide met the legal definition of a “sexually violent predator.” And yet the most remarkable thing about both trials wasn’t the way they exposed the alleged tactics of a serial date rapist. It was that despite the outrageousness of the accusations against Marsalis, the testimony of 10 women wasn’t enough to get a single rape conviction against him.
For whatever miraculous reason (read: rape culture) false rape allegations are only ever a concern with this offense, and the only people who have issues are men who are looking for an excuse to either dilute the urgency of rape or dismiss their predatory behavior by turning the crime on victims, and women who are desperate for patriarchal approval and satisfy this by regurgitating the most mainstream bullshit imaginable so that they can appear different and rebellious. Men demand that alleged rapists are socially given the benefit of the doubt at the expense of women, since apparently rapists are entitled to the benefit of the doubt but not the women they are accusing of perjury.
False rape allegations don’t even come close to comparing to the overwhelming number of times that rape occurs and is dismissed, and yet there are cries of she’s a liar! The men who whine about this have a problem with the fact that rape is a crime in the first place which is why false accusations are never an issue for anything else and why they bitch incessantly about how rape accusations are a feminist conspiracy. Their essential problem is that rape is a crime.
That piece of scum who might have raped around 50 women and was never convicted—the system was really rigged against that poor guy, amirite?
the fatal feminist 
Agreed so much I’m crying.
When I was raped, there were a lot of things about the legal/criminal case that pointed toward “prosecutable.” (With the understanding that what makes a case “prosecutable” is a totally separate factor from whether the rape happened.) That is, I verbally said no, I fought back, there were significant visible injuries, I had not previously been romantically involved with my rapist, I went to the hospital and the police the next morning.
The police did interview people but declined to make an arrest because of lack of evidence.
When I was able to think clearly about that (which was not for several months afterward), I remember going, “What in everloving hell? If that results in no arrest at all — let alone a ‘not guilty’ at trial — what sexual assault victim stands a chance for the law to address this crime?”
LikeLike
A small factoid regarding your post: the man (Jeffrey Marsalis) was convicted of lesser charges (sexual assault was one; in Penn. and other states there’s a legal difference between SA and rape) and sentenced to 10+ years with 4 years’ probation and mandatory registration as a sex offender (this is stated in the article).
As if the article hadn’t already raised my ire, there were over 1,700 “comments” on the article. Imagine my disgust when I realized that *every single comment* was an ad for a weight loss plan. I can’t make this shit up. So I sent an email directed to the webmaster at SELF, providing details and the relevant URL, and told them in politer terms that this lack of policing their comments made them look like complete and utter assholes and demeaned the subjects of the article: the victims themselves.
WTF. I mean, I don’t even… Gah!
Please pardon the ear steam…
LikeLike
Yes, exactly! I too was immensely frustrated by the “comments” on the article! I really wanted to know what other readers thought about the article and the whole situation, and all I got was that weight loss bullshit. They didn’t even try to disguise it as a real comment like some of the ones you find where they start to talk about the article and then tell you where to find rich single people or some other crap.
As for the article itself….wow. I didn’t realize just how bad our rape culture has become. And Americans say people in other countries are barbaric – is this any better? My logical brain thought for sure there couldn’t be that many rape apologists out there….I was so wrong. Why, why, why do so many people think that women just go around making up stories about being raped? And why is it so hard to believe that men can be rapists? Disgusted and very, very sad.
LikeLike
I hadn’t even realized those things were supposed to be comments. I thought the bottom half of the page was just *covered* in ads.
LikeLike
The reason I even looked at the comments was the same as yours. On seeing the comment total, I presumed there was discussion on the article. After reaching the bottom of the first page of the article, I scrolled down to check the poster’s name and the post dates. Then I went to the second page, because I could *not* believe anyone would leave that refuse for every future reader to see. and I did check all the pages. One or two comment spams, eh, whatthehell. But this…this required a response of equal magnitude to my disgust. As a former newspaper reporter and copy editor, this reckless disregard for how such laxness appears to others evokes a knee-jerk reaction. Meaning, I’d like to ram my knee up the jerk who let it happen.
LikeLike
This article, despite its age (published over three years ago), likely still reflects the policies of several law enforcement agencies throughout the US. The outdated federal statue on rape has only very recently been updated to include the realities of the crime (any object use for penetration makes the act a rape, men can be raped, etc.). The carelessness shown by SELF and its web team is inexcusable, and I said so in a comment this evening on their site. I made sure the comments were formatted to show the most recent comment first, too. >:)
The US crime drama “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” has done at least one episode directly related to to what Marsalis did (used a date rape drug so the women he attacked wouldn’t remember what happened). It’s why I still watch the show even in reruns: it gives me hope that the situation will improve.
LikeLike
At the risk of going on and on about this….
http://gma.yahoo.com/woman-claims-hotel-gave-drunken-man-her-room-221452428–abc-news.html
If you read the comments after this article, about a woman who was sexually assaulted by a man when the hotel clerks gave him her room key without any security check, you will be disgusted at the way so many commentors believe the woman’s story is false. And most of them say so because Gloria Allred is her attorney. WTF?!?!?
Anyway, happy blogoversary! It’s been wonderful reading your blog this past year. You have a way with words and a personality that commands admiration. I just think you’re awesome :)
LikeLike
That is predictably disgusting… Gloria Allred seeks this kind of attention (often by erasing the victim herself) but that should never threaten the legitimacy of the victim.
And thank you Narjis! <3
LikeLike