Let's Unite With Intelligence, Not Emotions

It has been difficult to watch as the alleged Cornell University gang rape saga unfolds. I am not minimizing what allegedly happened. As a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and domestic violence as an adult, I do not take what allegedly happened lightly. What happened to Jane Doe, I know she will never be able to escape—physically, mentally, or emotionally. I know her thoughts must take her to the darkest and cruelest moments, moments that at times must feel as though they will never end.

I have learned to accept those moments myself, the shame and rage turning so rapidly that eventually they become numbness, until something triggers them again. I have also learned that the numbness is when it becomes dangerous, when the conflict that keeps us “feeling” is subdued and settles into an acceptance: I am damaged. Forever.

So I know it is difficult—nearly impossible for some of us, and for legitimate reasons—to leave our emotions out of what allegedly happened beginning on October 19, 2024, and continuing into the early hours of the following day at the Chi Phi fraternity house.

What I survived pales in comparison with what Jane Doe has survived. I have read some of the Snapchat messages that have appeared on the internet, and I seriously question not just the parenting involved but the humanity of their parents. They were supposed to raise human beings. Instead, they raised trash.

You may be thinking that seems harsh for someone who appears to be maintaining some semblance of neutrality by consistently using “alleged” when mentioning the gang rape.

It isn't because I am neutral.

It is because women—yes, all of us female folks—have failed throughout history when we have shown up with emotion rather than intelligence. We have led with rage rather than our intelligence.

Why blame Cornell University? Why keep asking the university for accountability when history—and I mean recent history—has shown that universities have systematically failed to protect women under Title IX?

Why do we, women, expect universities to punish rapists when a university disciplinary process is not a substitute for the criminal justice system?

The allegation is rape—a gang rape. We are not talking about someone cheating on an exam. We are not talking about plagiarism. In the State of New York, first-degree rape is a violent felony sex offense, carrying a minimum prison sentence of five years for a first-time adult felony offender, followed by five to twenty years of post-release supervision.

So you can imagine my outrage when I see women outraged that Cornell didn't expel all of them from school.

B*tch! What the fu*k are you even saying?

Why are we upset about expulsion when expulsion would have been the natural consequence if this had been treated accordingly as a criminal act and resulted in convictions? Please stop demanding that Cornell University should have done more. That is saying expulsion should have been sufficient.

Jane Doe deserves more than anything Cornell administrators could ever have imposed as punishment on these men.

Rape—in fact, any serious criminal activity—should never have been something schools were given the authority to simply discipline through a Title IX process. That should never have been allowed. Rape, even when reported to a campus police department staffed by sworn police officers, should immediately be reported to outside law enforcement—authorities who are not employed by the very university whose administrators have a duty to protect its institutional interests and reputation, and investigators and prosecutors who specialize in these crimes.

Once Cornell University Police turned its report over to the Tompkins County District Attorney's Office, as it did, there should have been an independent criminal investigation beginning with something painfully elementary: interviewing Jane Doe.

Now, nearly two years after the alleged gang rape, defense attorneys will have something they did not have in October 2024: time.

Time to challenge Jane Doe's memory. Time for evidence to disappear. Time for memories to fade. Time for seven accused men and their fraternity brothers to have discussed and aligned their accounts—not merely to protect the seven men accused, but potentially to protect the reputations of everyone who was in that house that night.

Unless, of course, one of them turns out to be human rather than trash and comes forward to tell the truth.

And there is another thing that enrages me greatly as a victim. Why are victims of campus rape expected to go through two processes, one disciplinary and another criminal? The trauma of having to relive what happened and then be questioned over and over again is greatly damaging, but campus rape victims are expected to go through two different investigative and testimonial processes. Why? How is that fair? How is this protecting victims?

So, why are women demanding that Cornell University should have done more? Its campus police turned over the case to the District Attorney's Office. The question is why Governor Kathy Hochul stopped at assigning New York Attorney General Letitia James as special prosecutor. If she truly believes that Jane Doe was not properly protected by the law, why did she not also call for an investigation into the conduct of Tompkins County DA Matthew Van Houten?

The combination of no independent interview, sole reliance on CUPD, and the newly disputed evidence trail related to the Snapchat screenshot reasonably forms the factual basis for asking the New York State Commission on Prosecutorial Conduct to investigate whether the office properly performed its duties. Why isn't Governor Hochul willing to call for that investigation instead of simply removing Van Houten's office from this case and assigning it to AG James? If she owns the very words she spoke, then asking for scrutiny of what went wrong in the District Attorney's Office is the natural next step.

And why aren't we demanding an investigation into how a prosecutor who had the power to pursue justice for Jane Doe nearly two years ago allowed these seven men to bypass the criminal process, rather than simply accepting that he has now been removed from the case?

Why aren't we demanding an investigation into one man who had the authority to advocate for Jane Doe and bring these seven men to justice? We can't stop rape, but how different would the world be for women if men responsible for investigating and prosecuting these crimes were actually held accountable when they fail to do their job?

_____

Is Feminism Destroying Us?

Who Investigated the Alleged Cornell Gang Rape?

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