I Guess They're Nice Guys, Too

[Trigger warning for sexual violence.]

What the everloving fuck. Two Michigan State University basketball players are accused of taking turns "assaulting an unidentified woman for nearly an hour in their Wonders Hall dormitory room late on Aug. 29 and into Aug. 30," and one of the players "who volunteered a statement corroborated much of the victim's statement," including the fact that she did not consent, but prosecutors have nonetheless declined to pursue the case.

The victim, who was brought to tears by a prosecutor affecting "a defense approach" and "grill[ing] her about whether or not it was possible the perpetrators thought the activity was consensual, why she didn't yell and scream and why she didn't run or try and fight her way out of the room," is still willing to testify.

"I worry about what would happen if it didn't go through and having to deal with all the publicity and everything that goes with pursuing charges," she said. "But also I am angry. It's just that everybody looks at them as heroes and they're so excited for basketball season that [the players] get off without anybody caring. They haven't even been punished."

Asked what she would like to see, she tenses the muscles in her face, and chews nervously at her upper lip.

"Just some justice, because right now there's none," she says.

Leaving her rapists free to do it again, creating even more victims whose cases prosecutors can decline to pursue.

Unless the victim, having already survived a gang rape, goes back to the prosecutors who revictimized her and asks them to reconsider: Ingham County Prosecutor Stuart Dunnings III generously offers, "There is a reconsideration policy in our office. If a victim is not happy, they can come talk to me and I'll review everything personally."

What a swell guy.

[H/T to Shaker nina_bruja.]