Wouldn’t it be great if we could all just do exactly as we pleased and could trust our fellow man not to take advantage of any vulnerabilities we cultivate for their own evil, nefarious purposes?
Wouldn’t it be even greater if young adults had the common sense to understand that such a utopian circumstance does not exist?
I do not blame the victim for the crime. The responsibility for the crime belongs to the criminal.
But this is not a sustainable attitude:
Now it is up to Ali to defend her sister in death. Because the world has got to know that 24-year-olds drink. Sometimes a lot.
But no one deserves to be murdered.
No, no one deserves to be murdered. But declaring that “the world has got to know” that 24 year olds sometimes drink to excess and make themselves vulnerable to evil people – as if this is some kind of safeguard for that behavior – is patently ridiculous. That’s not a defense of anything except a wider field of victims from which criminals may choose.
What that attitude does is endorse and perpetuate circumstances where women will be victimized. It doesn’t “empower” anyone to declare our right to be publicly intoxicated. No one deserves to be murdered. But that fact does not overcome the reality that people are murdered every day, and that criminals normally choose victims who are easy marks.
How about this declaration? Twenty-four year olds have got to know that when you get fall down drunk, or when you go to any public place (not just bars) and do not safeguard your beverage from someone drugging it, you will be more vulnerable to a criminal who wants to do you harm than a person who is sober and vigilant will be.
