Imagine, if you will, a world like yet unlike our own, a fictional place you, dear reader, should not confuse with our reality...
In this world, a responsible young woman is walking down a street in a neighborhood of the town she works in. She does not live in the town directly, but she has family there and commutes in a few miles away from home for her part-time job. Being a responsible citizen of the community, she has been in town since earlier in the day to assist with a community clean-up project. She knows this place is potentially dangerous (due to a recent spike in violent crime), but as a strong, independent young woman she knows she has the right to be there. She is dressed attractively, not specifically provocatively but showing a sense of style, which she also has a right to.
On this night, the young woman has been verbally accosted by angry men who threaten to rape and kill her. She does not immediately react to these men; there are many other people around, and she is cool-headed about such things. While she has been walking through town, she had encountered other hostile groups, who she either avoids or successfully de-escalates conflict with.
Then, this responsible, level-headed young woman notices some trouble ahead, down the street. Perhaps she has seen someone fall down, injured, and being trained in basic medical aide she rushes forward to assist. Maybe she has seen a fire that she hopes to help put out before it grows. Whatever it is, she acts with alacrity.
But, just as she is approaching the trouble, one of the angry men who earlier threatened her with rape and murder jumps out and ambushes her, his face concealed by his shirt. Knowing the danger, she attempts to flee. The man chases, yelling and throwing things, and corners her as she hears a gunshot behind her. The man reaches for her.
She knows she is in imminent lethal danger, and having the right to defend herself, she does so, killing the attempted murder-rapist.
But as she is stunned at what she has just had to do, she hears other men cry out, indicating that they are going to kill her. The immediate danger gone, she again flees. As she is running from her attackers, one strikes her and she stumbles to the ground.
Three men pile onto her, beating her with implements, kicking, one even pointing a handgun at her. By some miracle of fate, she successfully defends herself yet again, killing one and wounding another.
She continues to flee. She tries to immediately let the police know what has happened, but in the chaos she is waved away. The following day, she turns herself in, behaving consistently as an upright citizen.
Now, can you imagine how the media, the government, and a bewildering number of people treat this young woman?
They have the unmitigated gall, the absolute lack of humanity, to accuse this woman of premeditated murder. They say that she should not have been there, that she should have stayed home, that she shouldn't have been wearing those clothes she was wearing, that she had no right to assist people in trouble in a town where she has a living interest.
They say that she should have expected to be raped and murdered, and therefore she is guilty of defending herself from said murder-rapists. They say she should have been a Good Woman and never left her home. They say that she brought it on herself. They mock her when she breaks down in tears on the witness stand. They scream indignant fury when her assailants are not permitted to be referred to as victims.
Can you imagine that world, the depth of evil in the hearts of the people so angry that the young woman lived? This imaginary alternate universe where the State prosecutors suborn perjury from witnesses and violate Constitutional protections in a desperate attempt to ensure this young woman is punished for successfully defending herself from violent, murderous rapists, thieves, and abusers?
I can't believe it.
Can you?
