Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site burl.UUCP 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