The Matt Walsh Show - Ep. 102 - How To Protect Men From False Rape Accusations

Episode Date: September 12, 2018

There have been several stories in the news recently about men who were falsely accused of rape. Some of them went to prison. All of them had their lives and reputations ruined. The problem of false accusations is very real and must be addressed by prosecuting and sentencing false accusers just as harshly as we do rapists. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

So I'd like to talk about an issue that isn't discussed enough. There have been recently a number of stories of false rape accusations and the terrible consequences that accompany them. And before we get into the examples, I think the first question, of course, anyone asks is, well, how common is this problem? I mean, how often does it happen that somebody is falsely accused of rape? feminists and other liberals will, if you've heard them talk about this, you've probably heard the figure 2%. And here's the thing about feminists. Feminists love to make up statistics. I think it's their favorite thing to do in the world. They enjoy that even more than yelling and screaming at men. They just love making up statistics. It is, it's really their favorite

pastime. So they have this 2% figure that they will often. insight. They'll say, well, 2% of all rape accusations are false. Now, I want to give you an example of how that argument is framed. And I was just looking this up online to try to get to the bottom of it. And I found just, for instance, an article on the website quartz.com, which was published in 2017, and it says this. It says, let's start with the idea that false rape accusations ruin lives and are therefore a universal risk to men. Generally, feminists dismiss this idea by arguing that false accusations are rare,

only between 2% and 10% of all reports are estimated to be false. What's equally important to know, however, is that false rape accusations almost never have serious consequences. Now, we'll get to that almost never have serious consequences thing in a second. but let's look at 2% to 10%.

Okay, so that's the range that we've been given here. And so 2% is, you know, like I said, that's what you'll most offer in here. Let's look at that. The problem with 2% is that, as I said, it's a made-up figure. Okay, it's not, it is not, it's just, it's not based in reality. A report by a man named Edward Greer, which was published in the Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review, in I think 2000 or 2001 tried to get to the bottom of this figure to find out where it originates. That's why it's a lengthy report where he goes into detail about this idea that only 2% of all rateback accusations are false.

And Greer discovered that it originates from a book written in 1975. And the book gives this figure and cites as its source a speech which was given by a judge the year before. So Greer contacted the judge's law clerk and found out that nobody really knows or remembers where that figure came from. It's just something that the guy said in the speech. In other words, it's a false statistic from 40 years ago. So when you hear somebody say that, well, only 2% of rape accusations are false, most likely here's how it goes. Okay, this is how to trace how they came about that figure. What it probably means, is that that person saw it on Facebook from someone who saw it in an article,

written by someone who read another article, written by someone who got it from a book, written by someone who got it from a speech given by a judge who doesn't remember where he got it from. Okay? That's how we come up with statistics in modern America. Now, what about 10%? because that was the other figure that we were given 10%.

Well, I'm not really sure where 10% where I'm not sure where this 10% figure comes from. But in any case, 10% is pretty high, isn't it? Like 10% of people who are accused of rape are innocent. Isn't that a really high? So if you've got a thousand men in a room and they've all been accused of rape, 100 of them are innocent, that seems like a high figure to me. And the fact that the author of this article apparently thinks it's a negligible figure is pretty frightening. But here's the other problem.

We have no idea how many innocent men are really accused of rape because the only way that we can begin to quantify that number is by looking at the men who have been completely vindicated of the charges. And so they're the only ones that we could even start to quantify, and it's impossible to even quantify them. But that's to assume that every man falsely accused of rape has been vindicated, which of course is not the case. It stands to reason that there's a certain number of men who are in prison right now for rape and who didn't do it and who are on sex offender registries yet did not commit the crime. How many of them are we have no idea. We have no clue.

But we do know that false accusations happen. How often do they happen? We don't know exactly. We know they happen. And we do know also that it's very easy to ruin a man's life and get him put in prison based on a false accusation. So that's really what makes the false accusation thing so scary is that it's really easy to do. All it takes is someone who's willing to tell a lie and tell it halfway convincingly and stick to the lie. And if they're willing to do that, they can probably get you put in prison, even without any other evidence.

That's what's terrifying about it. Now, so let's give some examples. Exhibit A, a man was, this is a story in the Daily Wire yesterday, about a man who was released from prison, from a 50-year prison sentence, because it turned out that the person who accused him of sexual abuse lied under oath. Now, the accuser is a minor. We don't know her exact age.

At least I looked it up. It's apparently we don't know what her age is exactly. so not sure about that. But the accuser said that the guy's name is Joshua Horner. He said Joshua Horner molested her and then shot her dog in order to intimidate her in the silence. That's the story she told is that he molested her and then said, and then I believe it was something like he said, you know, if you tell anyone, I'm going to kill you.

And then in order to demonstrate his seriousness, he shot and killed the dog. he was then convicted by a non-unanimous jury, not really sure how that happens, and sentenced to 50 years in prison. Now, several months, actually about a year and a half into his sentence, it was discovered that the dog he supposedly killed was still alive and well.

It had never been killed, never been shot. Now, how is it that the police and the prosecutor never thought to check on this key piece of evidence. I don't know. I'm not sure how that happens. The girl said that the man raped her and shot her dog. Well, it seems like if you could find a dead dog with a bullet hole in its head, then that's a pretty good indication that the accusation is true, right?

But if you can't find the dog, then that's a pretty good, that's a pretty relevant evidence on the other side of the equation. but yet nobody checked at all? How is that possible? So this guy, this is what makes it scary. This guy was sent to prison for 50 years based only on the word of this girl, no other evidence,

and even the other evidence that could have been used to either vindicate him or indicate his guilt was never even, nobody ever even thought to check on it until he'd already been in prison for a year and a half. So it turns out that the accuser had lied about that detail at least. And when the investigators came to ask her about all of this, she fled, she ran away. So Horner was eventually released from prison, though the DA has said that he doesn't know. He can't say for sure that Horner is actually innocent of molestation, but there isn't any evidence

to maintain a conviction, and there is now very good evidence that the accuser is a liar. So he's out. Now, let's just imagine. So we really don't know if the whole story is false or not. But let's just imagine for a minute that Horner is actually entirely innocent of the whole thing. And it seems very possible that he is. It seems even likely that he is completely innocent because there would be no reason there'd be simply no reason for a for a legitimate rape victim to concoct some bizarre story about her dog getting shot.

There's no reason to embellish to that extent if you actually were a victim of this horrible crime. But here's the problem. Horner's life and his reputation are now going to be forever stained, forever ruined because of this accusation, even if it is untrue. So not only does he have to deal with the trauma of spending a year and a half in prison as a supposed rapist, and I remind you that spending time in prison as a rapist is not a fun experience. And it seems also there's a pretty high likelihood that he was a victim of sexual abuse in prison because that's what they do to rapists in prison. Not only does he have to deal with that, but now he also has a lifetime of suspicion that will never go away. there are other examples recent examples there were uh and these are just for the last few months uh two men were falsely accused of rape by a sacred heart university college student um both men had

to leave school and one lost his football scholarship over it and then it turned out that the girl made up the story because i think she felt guilty after having consensual sex with them she was worried that her boyfriend would find out or something. And so she ruined their lives, you know, because that's what you do. In another case, there was a man expelled from school and subjected to public humiliation by a woman who accused him of raping her at a frat party. The accuser, the accuser says that she was drugged and assaulted, but an investigation, including a medical exam and rape kit found absolutely no evidence that any form of sexual contact took place, consensual or otherwise. So the DA came out and he said very plainly, he said her allegations

are, quote, simply not accurate. Then there were men, two men who were released from prison a few months ago after serving 26 years for a supposed gang rape that never occurred. The accuser now admits that she invented the story. In another recent case, again, these are all just for the last few months. A woman claimed that two men had kidnapped and raped her at gunpoint, and then she later admitted that the claims were a lie when police found video evidence that contradicted her tale. And again, these are just for the last few months. Notice a couple of things about these cases. Notice how in every case it was just one small thing that rescued these guys. and in some cases rescued them after they'd already been in prison for a while.

But without that thing, they'd all still be in prison. So in one case, the accuser had sent sexually explicit text messages to her alleged rapist, clearly indicating that she didn't think she had been raped after it actually happened. In another, you have video surveillance, another, there's a dog that they happen to find. In another, there's the small detail of the fact that the guy didn't actually have sex with the woman. if he had had sex with or even consensually, then he'd be doomed. Notice something else. In every case, the penalties for the false accusers or potential false accusers

range from mild to non-existent. So the woman who made up the gunpoint rape was charged with a misdemeanor. The woman who invented the frat party rape will face a lawsuit, but as far as I know, no legal penalties. The woman who put two men in prison for 26 years will not be prosecuted at at all because of statute of limitations. The Sacred Heart University students who ruined the lives of two men

make him the story, she's going to go to jail for 12 months. She got the Hartchus penalty. And as for Joshua Horner's accuser, if she did indeed make up the abuse like she made up the dead dog, there's no indication that she'll be charged with any crime at all.

We also don't know her age, so she could be very young. I mean, we don't know. And we also don't know what role the adults in her life may or may not have played in helping her to cover up the lie about the dog. So the thing, though, that ties all these cases together is that while the accusers, who all happen to be women in these cases, while the women received either no penalty or a very light penalty, all of the men, the accused did receive or would have received penalties that far exceeded the punishments that the false accusers face.

And this to me just seems like a gross injustice. Rape is a monstrous crime because of how it violates and dehumanizes the victim and because of the lifelong devastation that it causes. But falsely accusing somebody of rape is a monstrous crime for the same reason. Let's think about The ways that a false accuser harms her victim Okay Number one

Years of false imprisonment So that's pretty big deal Number two, he faces serial sex abuse While he's in prison Because that's how rapists are treated in prison Number three, his reputation is permanently ruined Number four, his personal relationships, Probably his marriage

if he's married will likely be destroyed. Number five, he's got loss of employment. He's never, he's going to lose whatever job he had. He's never going to be able to find a good job again, most likely. Number six, there's the severe emotional and psychological trauma, and then on and on, right? There are dozens of other consequences too numerous to list. Even though that article I read at the top said that rarely are there serious consequences for false rapid rape accusations, I would say that there are always serious consequences. It's just a matter of how serious and how far does it go? And that really depends on how quickly the man can demonstrate his own innocence

or if he can ever demonstrate it at all. And if it takes him 26 years, then he's going to be in prison for those 26 years. Right? a woman or a man who would subject another human being to all of that. Because again, think about with a false rape accusation, it's not just like it's, it's not a momentary thing. You are ruining their life. You are taking another human being and obliterating everything about their life.

You're blowing it to pieces. and someone who would do that is no better than a rapist or murderer. I really make no distinction. I make no distinction between a woman who would send a man to jail, to prison for a rape he didn't commit. I make no moral distinction between her and a man who actually did commit a rape. I think morally they are the same. And not only is that false accuser, not only is she morally deranged, but she is a threat to society.

Just as the rapist is a threat to society, so is she. Because she possesses the, not only the willingness to tell the most damaging kinds of lies, but she possesses the ability to do so convincingly. And so she's a danger. She's a danger to any man who happens to end up in a room alone with her. She's a danger to any man who she develops a grudge against. she can destroy a man's life with one lie. That's the way it works.

She doesn't need any evidence. She needs nothing but the lie. And that will be enough. It may be enough to put him in prison. At the very least, it'll be enough to destroy his reputation, destroy his life, destroy his relationships, get him fired from his job, get his scholarships taken away, get him kicked out of school.

At the very least, just the story, that's it, will be enough to do that. and so she's a danger to society. And the only way to protect her next potential victim is to lock her in a jail cell for a very long time. So it seems obvious to me that false rape accusers, at least those who are adults, you know, children who make up stories, even though they also, even though that does happen, like it maybe had happened with Joshua Horner, it does happen. and I mean, it is devastating for the person who falls victim to that sort of thing. You know, what kind of punishments should those kids face? That's sort of a different subject. But for the adults, it seems clear to me that they ought to be given the same sentence

that would have gone to their victim. That seems clear. So we have, you know, statute of limitations and all that. But if not for that, then the woman who put those men in jail for 26 years, she should, at a minimum, be in jail for 26 years. And then she should have to, from there, serve out whatever the rest of their sentence would have been. Now, of course, look, I'm not suggesting that any woman who accuses a man of rape should automatically go to jail if the man is found not guilty. Like, I'm not saying that because obviously, just because a rape isn't proved doesn't mean that it was invented.

Just as there are men who are falsely accused who are in prison right now for rape, There are plenty of men who have committed rapes and are not in prison because they were never caught or it couldn't be proved in court or whatever. But if evidence is uncovered, which positively indicates a false accusation, then there should be an investigation and a trial. I mean, in all these cases, there was evidence, right? There's the dog, there's the video evidence, text messages, you know, whatever. DNA, like all of these things can be positive evidence to positive. indicate that a false accusation has occurred. And if you have that, then there should be an investigation. There should be a trial. And if the woman is found guilty, she should go to jail

for a very long time. Now, you know, rape can be very hard to prove in a court of law. False accusations can be hard to prove as well. But both of them can be proven. And when they are, it seems obvious to me that they should be treated exactly the same. I mean, that's the only way that you're going to be able to protect men and women to, although I think probably women are falsely accused of rape a lot less frequently, but that's the only way to protect people from these kinds of things. And it's very easy. You know, it's feminists like to talk all the time about how men or how women live in fear

because of, you know, they have to worry about walking, you know, in a parking lot by themselves, or walking on the street because they have to worry about men, men are monstrous, and all this kind of stuff. And I don't doubt that those are concerns that women have to have, and that's a terrible thing, because there are some, there are really bad men out there who have the physical ability to dominate women and are willing to use that ability to very evil ends. But on the other end of the spectrum, you know, you know, you're not going to be able to, you know, You can't completely dismiss this very real fear that men have that some evil woman could come along and just ruin their life with a story.

Because that does happen and it can happen. It's a very real concern. Feminist just they just laugh that off. Like it doesn't happen, it doesn't matter, but it does happen and it does matter. And I think we have to treat it very seriously when it does happen. I know there's always going to be the concern that, well, you know, if you start penalizing false accusers in this way, then aren't you making women who are victims of rape, aren't you making them hesitant to come forward?

Well, you know, I kind of think that maybe the opposite is true, that in this environment now where, you know, any story is immediately believed and, you know, a woman could ruin any man's life just with a story, you know, in this kind of environment where there are false accusations and then you have all these stories that come out of men who are released after being falsely in prison and all this stuff. I think this environment serves to unfairly discredit women who are actually victims of rape. So if you can weed a lot of that stuff out and start penalizing the real false accusers, then I think ultimately it'll do the opposite. and it will lend more credibility to the actually true accusations.

So just some things to think about. Thanks for watching, everybody. Thanks for listening. Godspeed.