On Saturday, April 14th, I was interviewed for KMOV TV’s show “Extra Edition” (video) about the charges being dropped in the Duke case.

Despite overwhelming evidence that the Duke case was a systemic pogrom exemplary of many other less-notable cases, Kathleen Hanrahan, director of St. Louis Regional Sexual Assault Center, (based in a YWCA building in Saint Louis) could not admit the case was false.

Hanrahan portrayed Crystal Mangum as being a poor single mother just “trying to make a living”. Radical women’s advocates are famous for pretending that stripping and prostitution are honorable employment options. These activities create no gross national product (GNP), but they do produce mass wreckage in their wake. These “careers” are integral drivers of self-elected welfare dependency and the feminist goal of replacing marriage with big government.

We know that false allegations misdirect governmental resources to attack innocent men, while legitimate cases fall by the wayside. Doubling injustice is not something radical feminist activists care about. After the interview, I shook hands with Kathleen and suggested that we work together to tighten up laws and procedures so agencies helping women do the right thing the majority of the time. Kathleen spit back “There is no chance that will ever happen”, and stomped off the set, leaving the host and producer with astonished looks on their faces.

We have massive evidence that Duke was not an aberration of justice. Other infamous cases that never should have happened involving well-known individuals such as Kobe Bryant , John Fund , and CNN’s Tucker Carlson evidence what is going on behind closed doors all across America. Like the Duke case, these men were lucky too: they had the visibility and the economic resources to defend themselves.

The larger picture is ominous: according to leading prosecutors and researchers, at least 40% of rape allegations are false (recanted). This fact does not include cases that remain “in limbo” because evidence is too frail to prosecute even under reduced procedural and evidentiary standards applied to sexual assault cases.

Congress must act to reform VAWA. Crucial language contained in the VAWA 2005 Reauthorization, that would have reformed VAWA substantially, was mysteriously excised. Nobody knows who did this because it is hidden deep in the Congressional record. I can predict who did: radical women’s advocates handing out payola generated by our tax dollars.

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(1) http://www.kmov.com/sharedcontent/VideoPlayer/videoPlayer.php?vidId=137519
(2) Kobe Bryant, Rape Shield Laws, and the False Accusations Problem; http://www.hisside.com/3_21_04.htm
(3) False Rape Charges Hurt Real Victims, http://www.equityfeminism.com/archives/years/2003/000062.html
(4) Tucker Carlson and False Rape Allegations; http://www.equityfeminism.com/archives/years/2003/000062.html
(5) Kanin, Eugene J., Ph.D. "False Rape Allegations." Archives of Sexual Behavior, Vol. 23, No. 1 (1994), pp 81-92.; http://www.anandaanswers.com/pages/naaFalse.html
(6) Sex, Lies, and Rape, Center For Military Readiness; http://www.cmrlink.org/social.asp?DocID=276
(7) Fairstein L. Sexual Violence: Our War Against Rape. William Morrow & Company, 1993.


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David R. Usher is Senior Policy Analyst for the True Equality Network and President of the American Coalition for Fathers and Children, Missouri Coalition