COMMENT: Of course they should be charged -- you don't treat an epidemic by ignoring it.
Trying to avoid trouble is a ridiculous reason to cry 'rape'
March 22, 2009
Kimberly A. Brehm
Do teen girls really believe it's easier to claim false rape to their parents and police than to face the consequences of their own dumb actions?
For the second time in less than six months, a south suburban teen has acknowledged lying about a sexual assault to avoid punishment.
In the most recent case, 19-year-old Heather Krueger, of Tinley Park, told police last week that she was attacked while on her way home from the South Side Irish St. Patrick's Day Parade. The assault, she said, happened in the 80th Avenue Metra parking lot in Tinley Park.
Within two days, though, she recanted her story and admitted fabricating it to deflect the wrath she would face from her parents after they learned she had been celebrating in true Irish fashion.
"She had been drinking, and she was afraid to go home to her parents," Tinley Park police Cmdr. Pat McCain said.
In September, a 17-year-old Palos Heights girl claimed rape after being kidnapped by a sandwich shop on Harlem Avenue. She told police she had been subjected to a three-hour attack at knifepoint before being released by her attacker.
After a $250,000 police investigation, the girl admitted to making up the story. In the two weeks before her confession, rumors ran rampant the girl was lying because she was trying to hide something from her parents.
"I think it's unfortunate when young people don't feel comfortable enough to go to their parents or whomever," a neighbor said at the time.
In an October column, I wrote that I felt sorry for the Palos Heights girl, especially after many in the community expressed outrage after learning she lied. The girl clearly had some emotional problems and needed sympathy, not anger or hatred. I mean wouldn't someone who would lie about something so private and violating as rape have some serious issues?
Many readers disagreed, saying she should have had to pay for the investigation or be held criminally responsible for filing a false report. Palos Heights police decided not to hold her liable, instead allowing her to do community service as her penance.
Tinley Park police are taking a different approach and have charged Krueger with misdemeanor disorderly conduct.
I know back in October I said the Palos Heights teen should be left alone to get help for her problems, but after further reflection and a heated debate with a well-respected colleague, I must say I support the decision of the Tinley Park police.
Teen girls never should be given the message that crying rape is a good way to get out of trouble, even if they are having emotional problems or can't face possible consequences of their actions. And filing a false sexual assault report because you might get caught drinking? I am sure a lot of teens went home Sunday and had to face the music after celebrating at the parade, but they didn't waste police time and resources searching for an attacker who doesn't exist.
In Palos Heights, many business owners were hurt financially, and residents lived in unnecessary fear for weeks.
"Every time I saw a black car (the description the girl gave police), I wondered if it was him," one female resident said after learning the attack never happened.
The owner of the sandwich shop where the girl was employed suffered financially, and his reputation was tarnished. Other nearby business owners also saw business decline as residents reacted to the news.
The false report also damaged the community's racial relations. The girl claimed her attacker had olive skin, dark hair and a heavy mustache. Many residents concluded the attacker was Middle Eastern, which stirred some underlying tensions.
And you can't forget about girls who really are sexually assaulted but are afraid to come forward because they're convinced no one will believe them.
Many people were damaged by the Palos Heights hoax, and there should be accountability.
And crying rape as a means of escaping a well-deserved punishment is not a message we want to send to teens. Girls need to know there will be serious repercussions.
Kimberly A. Brehm can be reached at kimbrehm@comcast.net.
Link: http://www.southtownstar.com/news/brehm/1487539,032209brehm.article
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11 comments:
we need to teach girls/women that it is unacepteabe in a civil society, to make a false rape acussation
Bravo, anonymous. And that can't happen when we pretend that the problem doesn't exist. False rape claims are the elephant in the living room -- a taboo epidemic that too many "experts" ignore by calling it a "myth."
Yet, in story after story where false rape claims are made, a sexual assault counselor or other "expert" is quoted bemoaning false claims for the harm they do to "real" rape victims (never mind the real victims of the crime of false reporting - the men and boys falsely accused).
Newsflash, feminists: if you want to help "real" rape victims, you need to reduce false rape claims. You don't reduce them by pretending they don't exist.
I don't know how this columnist can write this rubbish with a straight face (maybe her other face is the straight one?).
She carefully lists the victims:
-business owners who lose custom
-residents living in fear
-the girl's employer's reputation
-and, of course, genuine rape victims who think they may now be disbelieved.
No mention anywhere of the young men who stand to be ruined by these disgraceful criminals. Not.A.Word.
Columnists like this need to be exposed for what they are - collaborators in a vicious crime against men. That's all they are.
I agree
The salem witch burnings in colonial Massachusetts,were started by two young girls, calling older women.."withches".
That was another era in American history where society was completely hysterical, and the truth was irrelevant...very similar to today.
"No mention anywhere of the young men who stand to be ruined by these disgraceful criminals. Not.A.Word."
Fortunately, in this case, no men were identified and named as "rapists". Thus, no additional men were victimized (other than those listed).
So, in this case, I'd tend to give the author, Kimberly A. Brehm, the benefit of the doubt and assume that had another man been named, she would have listed him as a victim as well.
I cannot say this with any great certitude, but since she at least had the fortitude to write about it and to use the term “false rape”, I’d like to give her some consideration in return.
slwerner, I think you are correct. From what I'm reading, there is a realization on the columnist's part about the harm that a false rape claim can bring. I don't think that realization existed re: the earlier false claim. I don't think it's fair to assume the everyone, even members of the press, are attuned to harm false claims can do, and I see this column as very positive growth.
"Fortunately, in this case, no men were identified and named as "rapists". Thus, no additional men were victimized (other than those listed).
So, in this case, I'd tend to give the author, Kimberly A. Brehm, the benefit of the doubt and assume that had another man been named, she would have listed him as a victim as well."
The columnist felt no reluctance to list genuine rape victims who may be dissuaded through fear of disbelief.
This was pure speculation on her behalf as to who might be a victim of this specific false rape accusation. Once into conjecture about possible victims, the innocent men who would end up paying for a crime they didn't commit are up for a mention - especially considering the Innocence Project is releasing them by the bus-loads through DNA testing.
I accept the other victims she listed were immediately pertinent to this incident.
"The columnist felt no reluctance to list genuine rape victims who may be dissuaded through fear of disbelief."
I fully agree with you about this one. I have never brought the line about punishing false accusers dissuading real victims. But, that is the “party line”. I really don’t fault Brehm for mindlessly repeating it – I don’t see it as a “fatal flaw” in her article.
I suppose it would be a good idea to call feminists out on the issue. I’d like to see them muddle through and explanation of just how punishing another person for committing a crime will actually impact the decision of some other person to come forward regarding a genuine case of rape.
The “rape victims” who will be most likely dissuaded are those who are merely suffering from regret for a consensual act, are those who are trying to convince themselves that they were inebriated, and therefore, not responsible for their own choices. Such “victims” will find they need to consider the possibility that their own behaviors will be scrutinized.
If, for example, if a woman was out partying without her husband/boyfriend and found herself waking up next to a strange man, of course she will have regrets (and probably a lot of worries about being found out). But, should she try to use a rape allegation for an excuse/alibi, she OUGHT to be questioned as to just what she was doing deliberately putting herself in such a situation. In fact, any woman ought to have to “own up” to what her intentions were in taking drugs/alcohol in a sexually charged environment.
As I’ve suggested before, I think we all are quite aware that women like to use drugs/alcohol to have sex because it both lowers their inhibitions, and gives them an excuse afterwards. I’d like to see women, who are claiming “drunken date rape” interrogated as to just what they were expecting.
But, I’m off on a tangent (again).
The real likely outcome of punishing false accusers will be (as it should be) to keep women/girls (like the ones in the main story) from being able to concoct “cover stories” whenever they’ve been misbehaving. THAT is the outcome I’d like to see feminists/chivalrists try to argue against.
There is a difference in saying that, on the one hand, false accusers engender dibelief in rape claims generally, and on the other saying that false accusers should not be punished for their lies because punishment will dissuade actual rape victims. I think this author is in the former camp, not the latter.
We have written extensively about how, somehow, a crime that targets almost exclusively males has been transmogrified by the persons who dominate the discourse on this subject to the point that the real victims of a false claim are deemed to be not the men and boys who are its actual victims but the future, hypothetical, phantom, possible, could-be, even unborn rape victims who might be, possibly will be, may be dissuaded by such lies from coming forward. In fact, it is very common to view this crime (that targets males) through a gynocentric lens that blinks at the harm it causes innocent men.
Such a view is, of course, repugnant to all things decent because it tosses an entire class of victims -- who happen to be male -- onto a scrapheap of indifference.
But I have no problem when people generally point out how the rape lies hurt hypothetical victims -- so long as such victims are viewed as the secondary, and NOT the primary victims of this crime.
The more important problem is this: feminists are ever so quick to trot out these mantras about how false claims hurt actual rape victims, yet they somehow can't see that the only way to stop that is to reduce false claims. Why is it so difficult to acknowledge the necessity to educate our young women about the harm of false rape claims -- to innocent men and boys, and to actual rape victims? Despite this, I don't think the feminists will ever acknowledge a need for corrective action of any kind.
"feminists are ever so quick to trot out these mantras about how false claims hurt actual rape victims, yet they somehow can't see that the only way to stop that is to reduce false claims"
It's not really a question of whether they see that. Their priorities are clear: what's most important is to punish men.
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