... and ain't i a woman?: Whose civil liberties?

Issue 

Whose civil liberties?

US criminal defence lawyer Alan Dershowitz is probably best known to Australians as Claus Von Bulow's lawyer in the biographical film Reversal Of Fortune (1990). Convicted rapist Mike Tyson has now hired Dershowitz to conduct the appeal pending against his conviction for the rape of Desiree Washington in July 1991.

Dershowitz has publicly celebrated his luck in snaring the Tyson case. He is eager to prove his point that date rape, or acquaintance rape, is at the cutting edge of civil liberties in the '90s — the civil liberties of the accused, that is, not of the "alleged" victim.

"Rape is such a serious crime", he says, "that deliberately bringing a false accusation of rape should be an equally serious crime and women are not being punished for those crimes. I believe that being falsely accused of rape is as traumatic as being raped."

Dershowitz also believes that the crime of rape should be "staircased", so that an "acquaintance rape" would not be such a serious crime as rape by a stranger.

Dershowitz is a perfect example of a so-called "civil libertarian" with absolutely no idea about the systemic sexism in modern Western societies, or who approves of it. What about all the women who don't report rapes, or who report them and are so traumatised by the legal process that they drop the charges? Who is "punished" for infringing their civil liberties? or for infringing the civil liberties of all women who are too afraid to walk alone on the streets, or speak to men we don't know, or go home to men we do know?

Of Desiree Washington, Dershowitz says:"This woman came on like a groupie. Everybody knows what the rules are for groupies who hang around famous athletes and rock stars ... To me everything fits together, that Mike treated her like a groupie and she didn't like it." Presumably "groupies" can be raped with impunity!

Of Mike Tyson, he says, "He is a man in a lot of pain. He doesn't understand why she did this to him. He understands that she might have been upset, but that's no excuse for destroying a man's life and career." Oh, so he's the victim!

Somebody obviously has to give Tyson his right to a second chance at the legal system, but as feminists have pointed so many times before, it is a breach of the civil liberties of all women for the process to turn into a trial of the victim, especially a staged trial by media such as Desiree Washington is still suffering. Dershowitz obviously doesn't give a damn about civil liberties for everybody. By Carolyn Beecham

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