One of the Lackland AFB instructors accused of sexual assault and misconduct last summer has been exonerated of rape and sodomy charges.
Tech. Sgt. Bobby Bass has been found guilty of four charges and 31 counts of misconduct. Basically, he has been found to have had an unprofessional relationship with the woman man who accused him of rape and to have committed multiple incidents misconduct to include:
...ordering trainees to do push-ups in a steamy bathroom where toilets were filled with feces and urine; physical training in their underwear and rubbing muscle cream on their genitals; slamming them into walls and kicking one recruit in the sternum with the toe of his steel-toed boot during push-ups.
And now we know why so many women chose to remain silent. A man who behaves in such a manner still can't be proven to be a rapist. It begs the question,
Is there an impossible standard to meet when it comes to proving rape?
In the United States, it is very important that the accused are presumed innocent until proven guilty. And it is very important that the standard for proving guilt remain high. Yet when I read all that this man has been found guilty of, I find it very hard that the prosecution could not have proved this man's guilt. And my mind fills with questions:
Did the victim report the rape immediately?
Did she take the time to have the rape documented?
And then I wonder why so much of this becomes the victim's responsibility. How, in a moment of utter and complete shock, does a women maintain enough composure to report a rape? Because if she doesn't, then why bother following up with accusations at a later point in time? Why go through the hell of the reverse accusations, the assumptions that come along with mentioning sex at all, much less sexual assault. The eyes that accuse you of wearing the wrong clothes, of walking the wrong way, or being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The problem with reporting rape is that you have just been sexually and mentally assaulted but if you don't report and document, it becomes a he said, she said proposition in the eyes of a jury. The victim almost always loses.
I am sick and tired of reading about military rapes. But I will keep reading because the only time we can stop informing ourselves about these horrific incidents is when they no longer occur, when the military finally follows through on ZERO TOLERANCE and punishes these rapists for the crimes they truly commit.