If I have sounded like a broken record these past months, it is because these developments in American public health are as important as they are horrifying.
We owe Kantor and Twohey a debt of gratitude for not wavering in the face of so many obstacles. There’s the completely understandable reluctance of the victims to discuss, and therefore re-experience, their dreadful trauma. There’s the persistent, sometimes diabolical efforts of the perpetrators and accomplices to prevent these stories from being told, to smear and intimidate victims and investigators alike.
If you include the whole spectrum of sexual and physical abuse from causing discomfort to perpetrating assault, then every woman you know has suffered — your mother, sister, wife and lover — at one time and to some degree.
“When I took office in January, my first priority was to seek justice for victims by aggressively prosecuting violent crime. This is what being tough on crime should look like.”
-- Berkshire County District Attorney Andrea Harrington
The President wants us to believe he didn't rape Carroll because she is not his type. This means, of course, that there actually is a type that he finds, what -- worthy of sexual assault?
“This retrial demonstrates our office’s commitment to aggressively prosecuting sex crimes… Victims of sexual assault in Berkshire County deserve justice.”
-- District Attorney Andrea Harrington
College-aged women are four times more likely than any other age group to face sexual assault and in 90 percent of reported cases, the victim is acquainted with his or her attacker.
The more sexual relations are treated as a recreational activity, the less seriously we uphold a mode of conduct for engaging in them. When placed in conjunction with excess drinking, not merely for the sake of sociability (what we used to call conviviality), but only for the sake of getting drunk, the mix is toxic.
