Rape claims, WikiLeaks and internet freedom

[bemildred]

Many women in both Sweden and Britain will wonder at the unusual zeal with which Julian Assange is being pursued for rape allegations (Report, 8 December). Women in Sweden don't fare better than we do in Britain when it comes to rape. Though Sweden has the highest per capita number of reported rapes in Europe and these have quadrupled in the last 20 years, conviction rates have decreased. On 23 April 2010 Carina Hägg and Nalin Pekgul (respectively MP and chairwoman of Social Democratic Women in Sweden) wrote in the Göteborgs-Posten that "up to 90% of all reported rapes never get to court. In 2006 six people were convicted of rape though almost 4,000 people were reported". They endorsed Amnesty International's call for an independent inquiry to examine the rape cases that had been closed and the quality of the original investigations.

Assange, who it seems has no criminal convictions, was refused bail in England despite sureties of more than £120,000. Yet bail following rape allegations is routine. For two years we have been supporting a woman who suffered rape and domestic violence from a man previously convicted after attempting to murder an ex-partner and her children – he was granted bail while police investigated.

There is a long tradition of the use of rape and sexual assault for political agendas that have nothing to do with women's safety. In the south of the US, the lynching of black men was often justified on grounds that they had raped or even looked at a white woman. Women don't take kindly to our demand for safety being misused, while rape continues to be neglected at best or protected at worst.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/08/wikileaks-rape-allegations-freedom-of-speech

Yep, nothing political about it, just good consistent police work.
:sarcasm:

[cutlassmama]

1. No bail for someone who didn't use a condom. Seems like the punishment

fits the crime :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

[madrchsod]

2. from oneindia......

dec 7th...http://news.oneindia.in/2010/12/07/swedish-warrant-rape-uk-arrest-assange-wikileaks.html

dec 8th...http://news.oneindia.in/2010/12/08/assange-molestation-charges-arrest-uk-court.html

[niyad]

3. just now saw this--thank you for posting it

[bemildred]

4. My pleasure.

I agree with Ms Axelsson. This sort of political and media exploitation of rape serves real victims poorly.

[saras]

5. Yes, but

For the people behind the charges and hysterical overreaction, it serves two purposes - it enables them to harass Wikileaks, not just Assange, AND it enables them to further discredit the idea that people really get raped and that it really is awful.

How could they ask for more?

[bemildred]

6. I don't think they care, I mean that is Ms Axelssons's point, they don't really care very much.

It's handy to have the law around when you want to smear someone or engage in public posturing, but they are not actually spending much time or money on it otherwise, politically or in the legal system.

So I think I would say they get to smear someone they dislike and to posture as though they care about gender issues.

And it's a great red-herring when there is other stuff going on you would just as soon have ignored.

So it's a win-win-win, I agree.

[fatbuckel]

7. Not to mention, this kind of rape is an easy thing to fabricate a story about.

No black eyes or bruising or other"evidence" ( I won`t get graphic) Just simply "I say he did this and that,so arrest him" kind of thing. I went thru a lightly similar sort of thing myself years ago. In Ohio there is a law that if someone just says that they were hit, the other person goes to jail that night. No proof needed. No evidence needed. So I was in the process of moving out my girlfriend of the time and her sister and her caught wind of this law(it was two weeks old at the time; they heard about it on the news) and called the police. Luckily the judge saw what was going on and the arresting officer testified on my behalf the next day and I was cleared.