![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I read this this morning:
salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/feature/2009/09/28/polanski_arrest/index.htm
I posted: "So let me see if I get this straight: if you drug and rape a 13-year-old, orally, vaginally, and anally, all you have to do is live it up for 30 years in Europe, and you shouldn't be prosecuted? Golly, that's great! What a deal!"
And someone said, "The victim wants the case dropped. We should honour her wishes."
And I didn't see this coming til I'd written it.
If the victim doesn't want to pursue the case, I respect that. She doesn't want it all dredged back up. I'm very, very glad she found peace. But as the Salon piece I posted says so well, this isn't just about her. He. Raped. A. Child. No matter what has happened since, he raped a child, and fled. He did something absolutely heinous, and ran like a coward. I am all for protecting the victim at all costs. Keep her out of the courts. Never show her name. Whatever it takes. But he committed a vile, disgusting act. He needs to face the music.
Not only that, but what about all of your friends and my friends who've been raped? What about our daughters and our nieces? What about all the women-- and yes, the men-- who might someday find themselves victims of rape? What on earth is the message that we're sending every time we say, "Oh, it was so long ago. Just drop it already"? What about all the women I know who are right now throwing up in their bathrooms because they know the man who raped them will never be caught, never be tried, never be prosecuted, and who is right now somewhere thinking, "See? He got away with it, so can I. Wait long enough, and no one cares."
And that cannot, cannot be true. We cannot let anyone who rapes think they're safe. We cannot let them think they can escape the consequences. We cannot turn a blind eye, and let our friends and our kids and our sisters and our neighbours and women we don't even know be raped once by a monster, and once again by a monstrous injustice.
salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/feature/2009/09/28/polanski_arrest/index.htm
I posted: "So let me see if I get this straight: if you drug and rape a 13-year-old, orally, vaginally, and anally, all you have to do is live it up for 30 years in Europe, and you shouldn't be prosecuted? Golly, that's great! What a deal!"
And someone said, "The victim wants the case dropped. We should honour her wishes."
And I didn't see this coming til I'd written it.
If the victim doesn't want to pursue the case, I respect that. She doesn't want it all dredged back up. I'm very, very glad she found peace. But as the Salon piece I posted says so well, this isn't just about her. He. Raped. A. Child. No matter what has happened since, he raped a child, and fled. He did something absolutely heinous, and ran like a coward. I am all for protecting the victim at all costs. Keep her out of the courts. Never show her name. Whatever it takes. But he committed a vile, disgusting act. He needs to face the music.
Not only that, but what about all of your friends and my friends who've been raped? What about our daughters and our nieces? What about all the women-- and yes, the men-- who might someday find themselves victims of rape? What on earth is the message that we're sending every time we say, "Oh, it was so long ago. Just drop it already"? What about all the women I know who are right now throwing up in their bathrooms because they know the man who raped them will never be caught, never be tried, never be prosecuted, and who is right now somewhere thinking, "See? He got away with it, so can I. Wait long enough, and no one cares."
And that cannot, cannot be true. We cannot let anyone who rapes think they're safe. We cannot let them think they can escape the consequences. We cannot turn a blind eye, and let our friends and our kids and our sisters and our neighbours and women we don't even know be raped once by a monster, and once again by a monstrous injustice.