Why We Ask: Our mission and operations are funded 100% by conservatives like you. Please help us continue to extend Liberty to the next generation and support the 2024 Patriots' Day Campaign today.

September 4, 2015

New York Attacks the Rights of the Accused

A new law on campus sexual assault means trouble.

Chalk it up to California starting another trend. Come October, amorous co-eds in the state of New York will be subject to rules regarding sexual assault similar to the overly vague law signed by Democrat California Governor Jerry Brown last year. These so-called “affirmative consent” laws are colloquially known as “yes means yes” — a spin on the “no means no” slogan of feminists. Contrary to Democrat talking points, no one advocates rape. But these laws turn the legal concept of innocent until proven guilty on its head, placing the burden of proof on the accused where the stakes are often expulsion from the institution or worse.

Despite the problems with inconsistent and even biased enforcement of affirmative consent rules that most often favor female accusers, New York is plowing ahead with its new law and placing a dozen senior New York State Police investigators on the campus rape detail. Democrat Governor Andrew Cuomo, who credits his three college-age daughters with making him more attuned to women’s issues, noted, “It’s not about whether the woman said no before she was attacked. It’s whether she said yes.” Unfortunately for her beau, if she recants due to morning-after, week-after, or even months-after regrets, she won’t carry the burden of proof once she lodges the complaint.

Proof, however, is nebulous when it comes to the subject of sexual assault on campus. A dubious Rutgers University study claimed that it’s not just one in five women who are victims on the modern campus. Now the odds are even worse.

“One in four undergraduate women who participated in the survey (24 percent) reported that they had experienced some type of sexual violence before coming to Rutgers-New Brunswick,” said the report, which was based on an Internet questionnaire. Never mind that the definition of “sexual violence” even includes unwanted remarks about appearance and other faults pointed out by critics. Since the study was commissioned by Barack Obama’s Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault and his Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women, you can bet the results were shaped by the narrative.

There’s also this little tidbit in the Rutgers study that will likely set up the next class of victims: “[S]tudents who did not identify as 100 percent heterosexual had two to three times higher odds of experiencing sexual violence both before coming to Rutgers-New Brunswick and since becoming college students, as compared to their counterparts.” Get ready for a new round of targeting anyone opposed to homosexual behavior with “sexual assault.”

Leftists claim women are “plagued” by predatory males on campus, but who gets the benefit of the doubt when a Missouri boy insists he’s a girl and wants to use female-only facilities? How odd that no one was asked for affirmative consent in that case.

Again, no one advocates for rape or rapists — aside from Islamic extremists about whom feminists are silent. But our legal system has imported protections for anyone accused of a crime. And in the name of feminism and general man-hate, these new laws are undermining the foundation of civil society.

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.