How many more people writing about the "discredited" Rolling Stone article about rape at the University of Virginia are going to bypass the understanding that one of the things that the article is about is that universities and their local police departments systematically obstruct objective and thorough investigation of sexual assault?
Somebody threw a glass bottle at Jackie, which hit her in the head, because she was talking about what had happened to her. The police tried to say that she was lying about that, also.
When women get murdered after being the targets of abuse for years, all the people who ignored her attempts to get help act like they don't know what led to her death. "Just a senseless tragedy," they say. "Who would do such a thing? Who knows the mind of a killer?"
I think the minds of most killers of women are not inscrutable. I think those murderers think like this:
"Look at all the times that I have harassed, stalked and beaten this woman. She tries to get restraining orders and either she can't or I violate them and nothing happens to me. I wonder what it's like to kill someone? She deserves it, so I think I'll find out."
Many other women have talked and written about being the victims of rape and the University of Virginia's refusal to acknowledge its sexist culture. If what happened to Jackie was particularly gruesome, that's because women whose accounts weren't as gruesome, and some whose were, got ignored for decades, and not because Jackie lied. Jackie's rapists knew that they would not be arrested. Some of them might even get paid millions of dollars for what they did, if they win their lawsuits against Rolling Stone.
Copyright L. Kochman, December 19, 2015 @ 12:03 p.m.
