Hey, Can A Woman "Ask To Get Raped"?

Hawkeye I find it strange that Firefly seem not to be concern at all about the overall welfare of women and children and families

Cyber anger at Nigeria gang rape footage
By Jonah Fisher
BBC News, Lagos
23 September 2011

Nigeria's National Assembly has called on police to investigate the gang rape of a woman after footage of the incident was circulated on the internet.

There has been widespread anger in Nigeria, both at the attack on the woman and what has been seen as a failure of the state authorities to take the case seriously.

The 10-minute clip shows the brutal rape of a woman in what appears to be a dormitory room.

Five young men are seen laughing and joking as they take turns sexually assaulting their victim.

Exhausted, she begs for mercy - at one point even asking them to kill her.

The video, which the young men filmed, shows the victim's face closeup but avoids showing those of her attackers.

Linda Ikeji, a blogger in Lagos, was one of the first to write about the incident and helped turn it in a national issue.

In an angry post, she alleged the rape had taken place on 16 August and been perpetrated by students at Abia State University in south-eastern Nigeria.

The video, she said, had been circulated on the phones of students at the campus before being uploaded online last week.

Over the next few days, in part thanks to Ms Ikeji, the video went viral, trended on Twitter, and anger in the online community grew.

It was fuelled by announcements from the state governor, the vice-chancellor of the university and the head of police in Abia, all saying they had conducted their own investigations and were sure that the rape had not taken place in their state.

With no victim coming forward, they said they regarded the case as closed.

They reckoned without the growing power of Nigeria's cyber community, whose members scrutinised the video for clues.

One Twitter user offered a reward of 200,000 naira ($1,250, £830) for information leading to the rapists' arrest.

"We discovered names because there was a conversation between the men as they were raping," Ms Ikeji says.

"So we have the names and the girl's face but for now but we still don't know who they are."

Wary of the damage to the state and the university's reputation, officials in Abia refused to back down.

The governor's wife issued a statement saying she was sure that there had been "no such inglorious act and ugly incident" at Abia State University.

Police maintained that with no victim there could be no investigation.

"The Abia state government were too quick to try and disassociate [themselves] from it," Josephine Effah-Chukwuma from women's rights group Project Alert said.

"The faces of the men were covered, so how could the vice-chancellor of the university say within 36 hours that it 'didn't happen on my campus' and 'they are not my students'."

Ms Effah-Chukwuma said she had sent people to Abia to try and find the woman but that it was a race against time as she said government and university officials would also be trying to find her to "quiet" her.

Only a small fraction of Nigeria's rapes are reported, she said, due to stigma associated with attacks and the unhelpful attitude of a police force widely seen as corrupt and inefficient.

"We are trying to find out where this young girl is and get to her and isolate her as soon as possible to protect her," she said.

"Because I can tell you that even with her family she's being blamed, they're asking her: 'What did you do to get raped?'"

At a national level there has been a more sophisticated response.

Minister for Youth Development Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi called the rape despicable and announced that he would be going on a fact-finding mission to Abia state next week.

That was followed by the National Assembly passing a series of resolutions asking the head of police to start a rape investigation even without the victim.

The resolutions are not binding but with online activists now publishing names and even photos of possible suspects - the pressure is on Nigeria's police service to start making progress.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15032228

Nigeria: Gang-Rape as New Trend
Safiya I. Dantiye
14 October 2011

Almost everybody is aware of the appalling video on the internet involving five students of the Abia State University raping a female student which has caused outrage. And at the beginning, the state government and the university denied that the rapists were students of the university.

However, even if they were not students of the university, the very fact that they are from the state, or that it happened in the state should make the government act decisively. Everybody's safety is the responsibility of the governor, and it is also his responsibility as the 'chief security officer' that we are told governors are, to see that the culprits are brought to book, instead of denying it, so that the state should not be brought into disrepute.

But what about the victim, shouldn't she get justice, one may wonder. The victim was crying and begging them to kill her instead, but it seems the state government and the university are more concerned with saving the reputation of the state and the university, and for a person to prefer death to anything, it must really be horrifying beyond imagination.

In aany case, all forms of rape are condemnable, but what makes the Abia one stands out is the impunity of the rapists. Not yet done with filming their crime, they posted it on the internet without qualms. They are apparently imitating the rage now where people post videos of weird things on the internet without pausing to think about the consequences.

This shows how criminally minded people get 'ideas' and are influenced by easily accessing everything through the internet or watching such vile movies.

Recently some youths also raped a youth corps member in Kano, when they lured her in the pretence of directing her to a place she asked.

And now there is another gang-rape case in Zamfara State, where four men in their twenties raped a 17-year old girl.

These atrocities can hardly be done by people in their right senses, so the rapists may be under the influence of hard drugs, which is becoming the root of almost all evil deeds. The menace of drug abuse is very glaring as many boys and young men, including young women for that matter are into it. And a person under the influence of drugs can do the unspeakable, like armed robbery; commit murder, rape and so on.

The Abia State University rape case exposes what may be really happening in our higher institutions. The supposed centres of learning may be harbouring hardened criminals that are cultists, armed robbers and rapists. Some schools are strict and expel them, while some seem to be at a loss because the cultists have influential people in the society to back them, some may be the children of who is who in the society.

But the government has to take action, if armed robbers commit rape, people would expect the vile act from them, but certainly not from university students who are expected to proffer solutions to the country's problems and become future leaders.

As for the womenfolk, are they safe anywhere, just in case a rapist is lurking? What has become of our young men that take delight in debasing women?

Something is obviously wrong if women are seen as sex objects to be abused. The rapists should be ashamed of themselves, because they wouldn't want the same atrocity to be visited on their mothers, sisters, wives or daughters, so why do it to others?

We should curb the impunity early before it spreads. Rapists should get stiffer penalty that should really serve as a lesson to others. It is high time to show that you cannot commit rape and go away with it.
http://allafrica.com/stories/201110140408.html

Whether it's Africa or America, these crimes of sexual violence cannot be allowed to continue and protesting voices are being raised around the globe.

Whether it's Africa or America, these crimes of sexual violence cannot be allowed to continue and protesting voices are being raised around the globe.

Missoula man charged with raping 2 girls held on $100K bail
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
October 13, 2011

MISSOULA, Mont. — A 21-year-old Missoula man charged with raping two 13-year-old girls is jailed on $100,000 bail.

Randall Rhoads McDonald made an initial appearance in Justice Court Wednesday on two counts of rape. McDonald also is charged with violating an order of protection.

Prosecutors say one of the girls told authorities that the man, a family acquaintance, assaulted both her and a friend this summer. The girl obtained a protection order against McDonald, saying she was afraid of him because he always carried a gun.

Police say they later found McDonald in an apartment next door to the girl.

Court records say McDonald told police he had sex with both girls and knew he could get into trouble for it.
http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/174afe7b10a346e1a624f6727654b013/MT--Missoula-Rape-Charges/

.Rapist Sentenced To 56 Years
By Jeff Arnold
TIMES RECORD
October 13, 2011

A New Orleans man was sentenced to 56 years in prison Wednesday after a Sebastian County jury found him guilty of two counts of rape.

John Webb Jr., 60, was arrested in March, following a report to the Arkansas State Police Child Abuse hot line in December that he sexually abused two minor females and a subsequent investigation by the Fort Smith Police Department.

The jury recommended a 28-year prison term on each count of rape to run consecutively. Circuit Court Judge Michael Fitzhugh followed the jury’s recommendation.

The older of the two minor females told investigators that Webb — an acquaintance of her mother — abused her for several years when she, her mother and sister lived in New Orleans, Alma and Fort Smith, according to a police report.

The girl told investigators that Webb threatened to hurt her mother and sexually assault her younger sister if she disclosed the abuse, and she eventually discovered that Webb was sexually assaulting her younger sister, according to a police report.

The younger girl told investigators that Webb “did things to her” and when asked what that meant, she spelled out the word “rape,” according to a police report.

Deputy prosecutor Ben Wulff said both girls testified to the same facts at trial.

In addition to their testimony, Wulff said a third sister — who is now an adult — testified that Webb also sexually assaulted her as a child when the family was living in New Orleans.

Normally rape is punishable by 10 to 40 years or life in prison, but because of the age of the victims, the minimum prison sentence Webb faced was 25 years.

Webb also charged with one count of rape in Crawford County, where he has pleaded not guilty. That charge grew out of the Fort Smith investigation and involves one of the victims in the Sebastian County case.

Wulff said Webb did not testify in his own defense. Webb denied any wrongdoing when interviewed by police.
http://www.swtimes.com/news/article_bb1816c6-f5ae-11e0-b308-001cc4c002e0.html

Police: Woman, 19, Raped At Clarkstown Home; 25-Year-Old Man Arrested
Clarkstown resident accused of attacking woman he invited home for breakfast, according to police.
By William Demarest
10/14/11

A 25-year-old man from the Spring Valley section of Clarkstown is accused of raping a 19-year-old woman at his home early Thursday morning, according to Clarkstown police.

The victim told police that while working at a restaurant in Spring Valley, an acquaintance, Mainor Lemus-Beza, asked her to have breakfast with him after she got off work at 4 a.m. When the woman left work, Lemus-Beza took her to his home on Second Avenue.

Police said the woman was raped by Lemus-Beza. Police said the victim fought Lemus-Beza by kicking and biting him, and she eventually was able to escape from the house and run away.

The victim contacted police about 5:30 a.m. Thursday and Lemus-Beza was arrested after an investigation by Clarkstown police. Lemus-Beza was accused of first-degree rape and arraigned in Clarkstown Town Court in New City.

Lemus-Beza was ordered held in the Rockland County Correctional Facility in New City on $250,000 bail pending a hearing on Monday in Town Court.
http://nanuet.patch.com/articles/police-woman-19-raped-at-clarkstown-home-25-year-old-man-arrested

Rape will aways be part of the human condition as will murder and stealing and so on

There are a lot of stereotypes, but the funny thing is that men are actually more polite and neater than are most women

South Africa's 'Facebook Rapist' gets 50 years in jail
October 14, 2011

REPORTING FROM JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA -- He sent Facebook messages to young women offering them modeling careers, then lured them to hotels or remote places, raped them, slashed their faces and stole their belongings.

In a Durban court Friday, South Africa's "Facebook Rapist," 22-year-old Thabo Bester, was sentenced to 50 years in jail after pleading guilty to two counts of rape and two of aggravated armed robbery.

Bester, whose Facebook name was Thomas Bester, broke down several times in court, pleading that he had been a victim of rape himself. He told of a miserable life, raised on a farm by an alcoholic grandmother and abused. He said he never knew his parents.

But prosecutor Lolly Soobramany said Bester was a danger to society and that his victims would live with the trauma of his attacks for the rest of their lives.

South Africa has one of the highest rape rates in the world, and it is still on the rise. More than 56,000 women report being raped annually, but activists say the actual rate could be as much as nine times higher.

As a boy, Bester told the court, he was raped by one of his grandmother's friends. When he turned to her for help, it was like talking to a wall, he testified. The effects were so severe he had to have an operation to repair the damage, he said.

Bester said that when his grandmother died, he moved to a squatter camp. He said he met a man who offered to help him but instead locked him in a shack for days and raped him. He said he turned to crime "to support myself."

"It is either you die or make a plan," he said. He was convicted of fraud in 2009, fined about $200 and jailed because he had no money to pay the fine. In prison, he was gang-raped, he said.

"I know I have done terrible things. This is not truly who I am. I want the opportunity to make things right," he said Friday, appealing for leniency.

Even as Bester was jailed Friday, South Africans were transfixed by the capture of another alleged serial rapist -- and killer -- nicknamed the "Sunday Rapist" by police because he often struck on Sundays.

A 35-year-old man turned himself in to police Thursday after allegedly abducting high school student Louise de Waal off a street in Roodeport, northwest of Johannesburg, Wednesday morning, raping and killing her. Her charred body was found on a farm Wednesday. The alleged killer claimed he had strangled De Waal before burning the body.

According to police, De Waal was walking with a friend, whom he pushed out of the way and then began chasing De Waal, dragging her to his vehicle.

Police said they believe the suspect to be responsible for about 10 other rapes.

"Our little light was extinguished before she had any chance to shine, by a vile and savage act of violence," her family said in a statement released Friday. "Our family is extremely distraught and we are all pulling together from around the country to try and provide support to each other through this devastating time."

The family thanked the many South Africans who have posted messages of support on Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms. Louise de Waal would have turned 17 on Sunday.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2011/10/south-africa-facebook-rapist-sunday-rapist.html[.quote]

We punished such misdeeds and the reported cases of rapes are now in the US is at a thirty-three years low.

Nor should it grant you a river of taxpayers funding to promote an anti male and anti heterosexual program.

And that's thanks to the current rape laws, which is why they will be retained and enforced.

It is not ONLY economic injustice that demands our attention.

And that's thanks to the current rape laws, which is why they will continue to be retained and enforced.

"Rape" due to some young man not turning down a drunk woman who later had regrets is something that your smiling group of anti-males haters had not as yet been able to get prosecuted on any large scale.

In case you aren't aware, it is also criminal to sexually assault a male who is impaired by mental or emotional problems, physical incapacitation, or by drugs or alcohol--if these factors interfere with fully knowing consent. The laws, if you bothered to read them, protect both genders from assaults by either gender.

"Rape" due to some young man not turning down a drunk woman who later had regrets is something that your smiling group of anti-males haters had not as yet been able to get prosecuted on any large scale.

Hopefully young men are wise enough to see when they are being played by women, but that is not a sure thing anymore.