I love reporters who editorialize instead of report. But the following is, after all, from a reporter's blog where, I suppose, the reporter gets to say whatever he or she would like. The story sounded unbelievable, but nothing is stated as to why. We also see the obligatory statement by police that false rape claims hurt future, hypothetical, possible rape victims. Do they? Maybe. But in most cases we see here, there is a more immediate individual who bears the brunt of that hurt: the falsely accused.
Virginia Rose Burns charged with misdemeanors for false rape accusations.
It's a story that sounded unbelievable from the get-go. We learn today... twelve days after an extensive, time-consuming, costly investigation began... Virginia Rose Burns' story was bogus.
Ladue Police say they may never know why she made it up.
Police are frustrated on so many levels. The waste of time is a big one. 300 hours, 150 interviews... some detectives put in a few 18-hour days hoping to bring a couple of non-existent rapists to justice...
Burns is charged with filing a couple of false police reports and possessing pot... three misdemeanors. Chief Rich Wooten says her punishment won't fit her crime.
Lt. Bill Baker says Burns' stunt is bad for legitimate rape victims. He says a lot of victims don't come forward because they fear being challenged by cops who don't believe them. This sort of thing just adds to that fear.
This reminds me of the woman who worked at Pfizer in Chesterfield back in January. She inexplicably shot herself in the foot and made up a story that someone else shot her and ran off.
There was an hours long man-hunt. It disrupted everything at the plant that day.
What makes people do these sorts of things? A severe mental illness?... A desperate need for attention and validation?
I made the obligatory visit to Virginia Burns home and got the expected result. No one answered the door. I talked to a neighbor who was familiar with the rape case from the news. He was blown away to hear the neighbor he waves to from across the street could do such a thing.
I told him he'll have to ask her about that one day. He's got a better chance of bumping into her than I do.
Link:
http://www.kmov.com/community/blogs/reporters-blog/Ladue-Police-fuming-over-false-police-report-79008597.html
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9 comments:
Wow--I would've never thought a blog like this would exist! It amazes me. It's a very controversial issue, but an issue nonetheless and should have some representation other than a story here and there.
I do read Abyss2Hope's blog too--that's how I found this. And I do consider myself a feminist--only because I'm all for equal rights, however I can personally relate better to women's issues than I can to men. However, I've met a couple men that have been raped by women, and it is bothersome that many courts tends to view women as the only potential victim in a case involving a man and a woman.
Which brings me to ask; I haven't read all of your posts yet, but is there anything about a man accusing a woman, a woman accusing a woman, or man accusing a man falsely? Since this blog is called "False Rape Society" and rape does not only happen to women, false rape reports aren't only by women I'm sure.
AixelA,
There was (fairly) recently, a couple of cases of men having falsely accused other men.
And, I believe, a case of an accused woman was reported here (not sure if this was falsified - yet). The position of the Archivists was that she should keep her anonymity, just as accused men should.
However, FRA is a crime that targets men far more than women, in which women are the perpetrators far more than men. So mostly, the site does report on men having been falsely accused by women.
Hi Aixela,
False reports of rape by men is greatly retarded by the fact that female rape of men is usually automatically disbelieved. In the past on this site I've seen men making false reports against other men, boys making false reports against older women (typically a teacher)and one man who dressed up as a woman and filed a false rape report to try and get a ride home from the cops.
I don't believe I've read anything about female/female false accusations, but again, there's the problem of believability. People don't tend to believe women rape, which typically makes making a false claim of rape against a woman an untenable crime.
Why be a feminist? Why not be an activist for universal human(e) rights for all?
AixelA,
What the others before me have stated is correct. We run stories that deal with false allegations of rape and sexual assault, and gender is not a consideration. There have been, if memory serves, 3 cases reported, where a man/boy accused a man. I don't recall ANY where a woman accused a woman. Jared is correct in stating that it isn't believed a woman can rape, so woman on woman false accusations are likely NEVER to be reported.
But the vast majority of false rape/sexual assault allegations (I would estimate about 98% based on what we have posted), are filed by women/girls.
This is one crime that disproportionately targets/affects men. And it has become such a politicized issue, that little is done to combat the problem. That is why we are here. To help raise awareness of the problem, let those who have been falsely accused know that they aren't alone, and to give them a voice/place to talk about what they have been through.
Contrary to what some bloggers would like to believe, we don't condone rape. But the fact of the matter is, there are thousands of places that advocate for rape victims. Almost none for those who are falsely accused. The fact that so many feminist sites have such a problem with us, is a mystery. We don't advocate that anyone go out and rape. Yet, the main response from a lot of those sites that have a problem with us is:
"Women don't lie about rape".
"The rate of false reporting is only 2%" (Which has been thoroughly debunked)
Please take some time to go through the comments sections, and read the stories of those who are close to someone who has been falsely accused (CBGirl and SgtMom come to mind), or those who have been falsely accused (Scott and AFOR).
Thanks for stopping by.
AixelA - "I do read Abyss2Hope's blog too--that's how I found this. And I do consider myself a feminist--only because I'm all for equal rights, however I can personally relate better to women's issues than I can to men."
It's completely understandable that women would relate to "women's issues" more readily that they can to men's. I'd hardly fault you for that.
Yet, you do seem to have an open mind.
I cannot speak for everyone here, but, from my experience, men are not oblivious to the very real issue women do face. As Pierce Harlan has repeated many times, being against the crime of falsely accusing someone of rape, in no way suggests that we are for rape. Rape is a real crime, harming real victims; and violent rape is entirely abhorrent.
Yet, Marcella Chester (abyss2hope) has chosen to select out one single and highly dubious example of a story covered here to try to “smear” this site as being pro-rape. [I do give her credit for being willing to post my comments, and even reply in her most recent piece, in which she claims ”FRS may not view himself as a rape apologist because he doesn't excuse any rape he is willing to acknowledge happened, but his position on how the criminal justice system should work openly favors rapists and openly harms rape victims all in the name of protecting the innocent.”]
I do hope you’ll look through the many stories covered here, and see that the FRS does, in fact, focus primarily on known false allegations – as opposed to reflexively believing every accused man MUST be innocent.
False Rape Accusations are horrible and I do think people who do that should be punished--or at the very least be forced to get a therapist.
Anonymous--I'm considered "3rd wave" feminists, and those feminists are more about universal equal rights, diversity, and dealing with the backlash stereotypes of the previous waves ("nazifeminism"). I'm also called a feminist because I'm on RAINN's speakers bureau (Rainn.org).
And snark, FRA's do accuse men more, but (statistically) more women are raped than men--and I believe society's view of men having to be "manly" and "brave" make rape reports and FRAs by men less.
AixelA - "And snark, FRA's do accuse men more, but (statistically) more women are raped than men--and I believe society's view of men having to be "manly" and "brave" make rape reports and FRAs by men less."
It's fair to say that men rape far more than women do - by a substantial margin.
Yet, what we don't have are good stats on either prison rape (mostly men-on-men) nor lesbian rape (something which is said to be quite common, but essentially never reported).
The magnitude of either of these is not only not known, but seldom considered. The gaps may not be so big as we tend to believe.
I had said of Marcella Chester - "I do give her credit for being willing to post my comments"
Looks like I spoke to soon. She's stopped posting my comments, and is instead responding to them, without the courtesy of showing them.
Nice!
Well, I had suspected that discussing issue with such a closed-mind in-objective person was a complete waste of time. People like her are so deeply resentful towards men as a class that they completely reject that FRA's are a problem that need to be addressed.
Marcella Chester - "What you see as a disregard for innocent men is instead a backlash against bigotry, false claims and a backlash against specific harmful actions FRS and other MRAs support in the name of protecting the innocent."
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