“It’s true, as the military is fond of saying,” writes Margaret Carlson for Bloomberg View, “that the great majority of military officers are law-abiding. But when a fellow service member is accused, the law-abiding tend to side with the accused.”
Let’s give her opinion a read as she addresses the explosive increase in sexual assaults in the US military, and the growing scandal of sexual assault prevention officers being arrested for sexual assault. (See our latest post on the subject on May 22d).
“Sexual violence in the military is so pervasive, even some of those who have been charged with rooting it out are themselves violent.
The military just can’t seem to curb the epidemic on its own. It’s more important to pretend nothing has happened when a complaint is lodged; many are never relayed to military criminal authorities, while others are swept under the rug. …
Reporting a rape is never easy, but it’s much harder when the perpetrator is of higher rank than the victim (50 percent of the time) and when the perpetrator is in the victim’s chain of command (23 percent of the time). … [M]embers of Congress have dozens of reports that superiors are more interested in finding reasons to intimidate the victim than in helping her get out of the line of fire.
Sen. Gillibrand introduced legislation last week that would essentially remove commanders from the legal process. If passed, complaints would have to go to a parallel system of military prosecutors outside the command structure. No more commanders overturning guilty verdicts (emphasis added).” 