The apparent implosion of the rape case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn shouldn't have been too unexpected. That particular accusation always seemed fairly implausible. Moreover, in general, lots of celebrities are charged with rape every year, and a yet remarkable fraction of the cases disappear down the memory hole. A few, such as the Kobe Bryant case, make it to trial. (And Kobe was acquitted. Enough people hate the Lakers that the Kobe case isn't a non-event in America -- except in Los Angeles, where his winning a couple of more NBA titles in 2009-10 made him a fine, upstanding citizen again. ) Mike Tyson went to prison 20 years ago. I'm sure there have been a few others since, but not many.
A commenter says:
I think DSK's supporters got to [the accuser] and she is being paid a lot of money to throw the case.
Probably not, since she's supposed to be sticking to her story. Presumably, you could come up with a complicated plotline where she's being paid to make herself look dubious, but that's too complicated.
Still, that kind of thing happens all the time with athletes. You read in the paper that some famous jock has been arrested for rape, and then you never hear anything about it again, until you read an interview with the guy years later, where he says something like, "I went through some hard times, some unfortunate incidents that I'm not proud of, but I think I've grown from them as a person," and you realize he's talking about the time the alumni boosters club paid off that coed.
For example, at the peak of the NYT's hysteria over the purported Duke lacrosse rape case in 2006, I pointed out that three fairly prominent players in America's biggest sport, football, had been arrested for sexual assault just in the last week. One of them went on to become the starting quarterback for one of the NYT's hometown NFL teams. Last January with the Jets in the NFL playoffs, Emma Carmichael wrote for Deadspin:
Why No One Remembers the Mark Sanchez Rape Case
But the media seem to have gone out of the way to be sympathetic to Sanchez, and it illustrates just how flimsy and manufactured an athlete's public image can be. The press went so far as to turn the rape allegation into your standard-issue bit of sports-world adversity schlock. After he was drafted, the New York Daily News ran a brief story that touched upon the 2006 incident: "In best of times, Mark Sanchez talks about worst day of his life." Sanchez is portrayed as a repentant, deserving young man who learned from a bad experience and became an NFL-caliber quarterback because of it. ... All people talked about regarding Sanchez — who, remember, had spent a night in jail on suspicion of sexual assault — was his poise. It's amazing what some good genes and a nice set of dimples can do for your rep.
For all we know, Sanchez really was innocent and totally deserves the public image being crafted for him. But it's hard not to think that the fact he is a young, good-looking quarterback — one with a young Namath's charm and a gentle ancestral immigration story at a time of great anti-immigrant unease — made it all too easy to ignore the uglier stuff. There's a story everyone wants to tell about Sanchez, and his getting popped on a rape accusation doesn't fit.
Of course, Sanchez was a lusty lad of 19, while DSK was an old goat of 62, so that helps make it more memorable.
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23 comments:
You are having entirely too much fun with this, Steve!
So how do you explain his DNA (presumably semen)? She consented to a BJ and then cried rape?
there was no kobe trial. he acknowledged her sincerity. she dropped charges. they settled out of court.
DSK was a suitable subject for a public hate-fest. Now that the case is weakening the public may have to find another arrogant, overprivileged person to take down.
Even if he's totally innocent I still dislike him. He's that kind of guy.
That Tyson rape case was fishy as hell. Dershowitz was right. What kind of court that is where a prosecutor can choose the judge? Pick some angry feminist in a rape case and it`s a done deal.
From the Onion: Athlete Overcomes Tragic Rape He Committed.
"...he is a young, good-looking quarterback...with...a gentle ancestral immigration story at a time of great anti-immigrant unease...".
Oh for crissakes. Sanchez' mother is white. His old man is an OC Fire Authority captain, an assimmilated Mexican American god-knows-how-many-generations removed from the "ancestral immigration story." He doesn't (or didn't) speak Spanish, and from what I've heard was resistant to the Jets' and the NFL's pressure that he learn to do so (which I also imagine he has since caved into).
Betcha all his girlfriends are white and blonde too.
Did you really think that one of the most powerful and rich men in the world would be put on trial here? As head of the IMF he knows where far too many skeletons are buried for anything like that to happen.
If you are connected enough you can get away with anything. Lie under oath? Well you were just lying about sex so it doesn't matter. Take bribes in the form of ridiculous investments or even outright cash in the freezer? Just business as usual it doesn't matter. Flee the scene of an accident in which your passenger drowns and try to pretend it didn't happen for hours? Doesn't matter, boys will be boys.
Our system is corrupt from the top down. As long as you don't piss off somebody like Martha Stewart did, you'll get by fine.
The apparent implosion of the rape case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn shouldn't have been too unexpected. That particular accusation always seemed fairly implausible. Moreover, in general, lots of celebrities are charged with rape every year, and a yet remarkable fraction of the cases disappear down the memory hole.
There's so question that a lot of rape accusations are false. That does not mean that ALL rape accusations are false, or that the one against DSK is false. As I understand the still developing story, the accuser in the DSK case is regarded as not a credible witness because of unspecified "connections" to criminal figures.
Based on what we know it is understandable that prosecutors would be thinking of dropping the case. Everything about a case has to be perfect if you're going after a person as powerful as DSK.
I think it is plausible to believe that DSK did commit rape, and also that it is not possible to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt.
Rape is the classic 'tis/'taint crime and the prominent can afford the sort of lawyers who can get them off the hook with a reasonable doubt defense.
I think DSK's supporters got to [the accuser] and she is being paid a lot of money to throw the case.
Rot.
But he had to do it, you see, because he's just so awful, and she's, in the immortal, cloying words of Wolf Blitzer regarding Katrina's victims, "so poor, so black".
People cling to these cherished narratives with such white-knuckle ferocity that I believe the most fervent are ready, when faced with incotrovertible evidence, to fall back finally on the explanation that somebody must have "gotten to God" and convinced him to suspend reality.
Kobe wasn't acquitted. His accuser refused to testify leading to the prosecution dropping charges mid-trial.
The apparent implosion of the rape case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn shouldn't have been too unexpected. That particular accusation always seemed fairly implausible.
Eh? It seemed highly plausible given all the stories which surfaced about him attacking women.
Betcha all his girlfriends are white and blonde too
And 17 years old and in high school.
in general, lots of celebrities are charged with rape every year, and a yet remarkable fraction of the cases disappear down the memory hole
In general it's harder to convict a rich man of anything than a poor or middle-class one.
Ben Roethlisberger? Just asking.
DSK? It could be he did attack the maid, who was also a con-woman of dubious credibility. I don't see why DSK would want to hook up with her, as opposed to the usual discreet pros working NYC. He could certainly afford the latter. The maid is not particularly attractive, but then I did not get Arnold and his maid either. Jeez.
Most of the women who have reported harassment by DSK were young, pretty, blondish, and White. What most guys find attractive in other words.
Anonymous said...
So how do you explain his DNA (presumably semen)? She consented to a BJ and then cried rape?
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She was paid for a BJ, then decided extortion was more lucrative than part-time prostitution?
Re: Sanchez:
was it a dude or a chick?
"Oh for crissakes. Sanchez' mother is white."
No, she's Hispanic: "Olga Marmoleja."
Your point about Sanchez being a fourth-generation whitewashed kid from California is valid though. The moron Deadspin writer made it seem as if he was the son of some starving campesino or something.
"People cling to these cherished narratives with such white-knuckle ferocity..."
For some isteve readers, the question is not who is telling the truth in this case, but who do they hate more, powerful left-wing Jews or black immigrants?
>You read in the paper that some famous jock has been arrested for rape, and then you never hear anything about it again, until you read an interview with the guy years later, where he says something like, "I went through some hard times, some unfortunate incidents that I'm not proud of, but I think I've grown from them as a person," and you realize he's talking about the time the alumni boosters club paid off that coed.<
You can subscribe to controlled-media magazines for 15 years, and never read in them a line of commentary realer or funnier than that. And it ain't even an HBD/controversial point.
Bloggers in general are so superior to fishwraps like Time and Newsweek that the difference is almost horrifying.
>For some isteve readers, the question is not who is telling the truth in this case, but who do they hate more, powerful left-wing Jews or black immigrants?<
Both antagonists in this little drama are rather unsavory. I understand this will be the fourth rape rap that DSK has beaten (if he does).
Let's save a lot of money and simply throw DSK and his asylum-faking accuser out of our country. What do WE, the American people, gain by having such janky foreigners running around here? We already have our own criminals.
Sgt Joe Friday said:
"He doesn't (or didn't) speak Spanish, and from what I've heard was resistant to the Jets' and the NFL's pressure that he learn to do so (which I also imagine he has since caved into)."
So in the U.S., when a Hispanic person doesn't know how to speak Spanish, it's some sort of a problem.
But if a Hispanic person doesn't know how to speak English, it's no problem at all.
Our country is doomed.
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