What DSK's Case Should Teach Us About Rape

I woke up today to read the headlines that DSK will more than likely go free today and the charges against him will be dropped inspite of the serious case against him.  He is a sick, violent, misogynist who happens to be a powerful man and will get away with a violent crime as he has in France for some time.  I noticed how the NY press was quick to point out that her lies and inconsistencies tied the DA's hands.  Basically, it's her fault.  I just hate injustice, and especially when the powerful take advantage and abuse the less powerful without any reprisal.  But hopefully her civil suit, which she has every right to bring, will offer some sense of vindication and not just compensation.

This past year NYers have seen some very unusual, but telling, cases come before our criminal court.  Like the journalist who was raped by two on-duty cops who were called to escort her home because she was in a drunken stupor, and how they were found not-guilty by a jury.  What I did notice was that even though she was inebriated, the DA didn't drop the case because she wasn't a "good" victim.  They still moved forward and tried two police offices for a serious sex crime, unlike the DSK case.  Many of us were shocked at the verdict, yet again not too shocked.  They were afterall police officers and although she is a White, middle-class, educated accuser, which makes a difference in our justice system, she wasn't coherent at the time of the attack.  Then 2 days ago, another officer is charged with threatening a woman on the street and taking her to an abandoned area and raping her.  A witness saw it and thankfully called the police.   

But what I want people to take away from all this madness is that rape can happen to anyone and by anyone.  We should never, as women or as a society, believe that rape is perpetrated by the menacing, poor, dark stranger waiting to jump out of the bushes or break into our homes.  Sometimes they're committed by unassuming, normal-seeming, tax-paying citizens.  Your everyday working guy, business executive or head of state can all be rapists.  There's no single profile, so we need to remember to listen to our instincts and take reasonable measures for own safety, because the distress call you make for help maybe to the one waiting for an opportunity to victimize you.