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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!geoff
From: geoff@burl.UUCP (geoff)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: rape and streetwalking
Message-ID: <602@burl.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 10-Dec-84 18:17:46 EST
Article-I.D.: burl.602
Posted: Mon Dec 10 18:17:46 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 11-Dec-84 04:08:39 EST
Organization: AT&T Technologies; Burlington, NC
Lines: 28

The matter of rape is not an easy one.  In many cases it can be hard
to determine that one occurred.  How can a woman prove that someone
held a knife on her if there were no witnesses?  By the same token,
should her word be enough?  After all, there are a lot of people who
are looking for revenge out there (for whatever reason, slight, etc)
and a crime that needed no evidence would be a godsend -- "he raped me"
would be sufficent to convict.  Cases such as the girl who was doused
with a caustic chemical and left to die in the desert are so emotion-
packed that the cry is for the law to do something about it.  I know
the feeling, believe me (that case in particular sickens me no end),
but I am not willing to live in a police state where nothing like that
could happen, either.  If there is evidence, witnesses, whatever, go
after the rapist and punish him if he is guilty.  But I am afraid of a
climate where a man is guilty of rape unless he can prove himself innocent
(especially being a person of said gender).  As bad as letting a rapist go
free may hurt the victim, is it not worse to convict a man of being one
unjustly?  It would destroy his life (job, family, friends).

One point about Julia's posting.  I am sorry if my being a man and walking
down the street at night is seen as threatening to a woman walking towards
me.  However, I adamantly refuse to cross the street because my presence
may bother her.  If she is sufficently bothered by me to cross the street,
so be it.  I cannot let the (possibility of hurting the) feelings of others
rule my actions or I would be nothing but a marionette (like the farmer and
the donkey in the children's story of old).  Life is tough enough without
that onus.

	geoff sherwood