I’d like to suggest that one is not guilty until proven so - and that allegations can be false, or at the very least misleading.

I understand that when there are reports from multiple sources against a single individual that it’s almost certainly safer to believe the allegations and act accordingly. I also understand that there is what appears to be an abundance of examples of sexual misconduct and assault - that it is far more common than many of us would think or certainly hope for people to be sexually assaulted or otherwise abused.

I in no way mean to demean or undercut those facts, or to necessarily put the burden on the accuser.

All that being said, people lie. Or, at the very least, exaggerate and / or manipulate the truth to their own ends. This is a fact of human nature, it would seem, and is certainly the case in SOME instance (almost certainly a very, very small minority) of assault accusations.

As you may have inferred from my position, I have been falsely accused of sexual assault. It’s a long story, but suffice it to say that the very people who were going to confront me and turn me in to the authorities (in this case, campus security and then the police) came to realize that there were inconsistencies in the account they heard. After questioning my accuser (all unbeknownst to me), she confessed that events had not taken place as she described and that I had, in fact, NOT assaulted her. This group of individuals proceeded to keep the story to themselves for years, until finally one of them (who I later befriended, without ever knowing about the accusations) told me what had happened a few days before we graduated. She thought I had the right to know, for whatever reason.

Had this group of individuals not been concerned with being correct before the allegations were made public, my life may have been ruined by a lie.

Having said all that, it seems ridiculous not to believe someone making such allegations - and so, I don’t know what the answer is. All I know is that we have to be careful - both to hear and protect those that have been victimized, and to be sure that we’re dealing in facts. What’s going on in Hollywood is being substantiated by so many people that I think denying that these men who are accused are predators is virtually impossible. But in a one-to-one scenario, with a single accuser and accused, I think everything gets much more complicated. We need to be careful not to ruin the reputation of an individual in an overzealous attempt at righteousness.