Assange and the rape accusations
Dec. 15th, 2010 08:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
innocent_lexThe founder of wikileaks, Julian Assange, has been accused of raping two women. He is currently in the UK and fighting extradition to Sweden. He has also pissed off a lot of extremely powerful people with his website.
The thing is, the instant response to these events from a lot of people who I had previously had respect for is this: the rape allegations must be false and have been fabricated by the powerful people in order to discredit Assange.
My response to that? It's entirely possible that the rape allegations are true. It's entirely possible for Assange to be an influential and ground-breaking leader of change for openness and against secrecy. Those two realities can co-exist; they are not mutually exclusive. Many people in history have achieved great things while still behaving unacceptably or even reprehensibly in one way or another - keeping slaves, assaulting women, killing people, and other horrendous activities. Let's not cheer on people who want to stomp all over the experiences of yet more rape victims just because those doing the stomping happen to like the person accused of those crimes. Let's not assume the crimes didn't happen - let's instead assume they did (because the police have enough evidence to make a charge), and let the trial (like trials for other crimes) be about assessing the evidence and understanding whether the accused was the person who committed said crimes. Let's not assume the rape victims are liars. Rape victims have to put up with a hell of a lot of abuse, distrust, violent reprisals and sometimes death for coming forward and saying what happened to them. Let's treat them like human beings.
I don't know if Assange committed these crimes, and it's not up to me to make a judgement. A trial where the evidence the police have gathered is put forward, where the victims can have their say, and where the defendant can state his case is the natural next step, however. If only that were the situation with all the rapes that were committed every year in every country around the world.
The thing is, the instant response to these events from a lot of people who I had previously had respect for is this: the rape allegations must be false and have been fabricated by the powerful people in order to discredit Assange.
My response to that? It's entirely possible that the rape allegations are true. It's entirely possible for Assange to be an influential and ground-breaking leader of change for openness and against secrecy. Those two realities can co-exist; they are not mutually exclusive. Many people in history have achieved great things while still behaving unacceptably or even reprehensibly in one way or another - keeping slaves, assaulting women, killing people, and other horrendous activities. Let's not cheer on people who want to stomp all over the experiences of yet more rape victims just because those doing the stomping happen to like the person accused of those crimes. Let's not assume the crimes didn't happen - let's instead assume they did (because the police have enough evidence to make a charge), and let the trial (like trials for other crimes) be about assessing the evidence and understanding whether the accused was the person who committed said crimes. Let's not assume the rape victims are liars. Rape victims have to put up with a hell of a lot of abuse, distrust, violent reprisals and sometimes death for coming forward and saying what happened to them. Let's treat them like human beings.
I don't know if Assange committed these crimes, and it's not up to me to make a judgement. A trial where the evidence the police have gathered is put forward, where the victims can have their say, and where the defendant can state his case is the natural next step, however. If only that were the situation with all the rapes that were committed every year in every country around the world.
