The case of Kevin Driscoll, accused of rape and currently under house arrest in Oregon, USA is a men’s rights issue going begging. The evidence against him is so bewilderingly thin, and the severity of local law enforcement’s response so untoward, that this case promises to be a watershed moment in the advancement of men’s rights, if only the opportunity is not missed. The issue of his actual innocence, and the legal presumption that he is innocent until a trial determines otherwise are both at play here. It is evident that local law enforcers are not even paying lip service to the latter.

One may ask what relevance this has to us in New Zealand. The unfortunate truth is that developments in how police conduct themselves and how prosecutors are incentivised often find their way from the United States to here, and if we don’t take an interest in what’s going on there, we will shortly be living under the same rules here.

Kevin Driscoll is currently under house arrest for a January rape that on the face of it appears highly dubious, he has lost his job over it, his reputation in the small neighborhood he lives in is ruined, his mother has been bankrupted, he is about to follow her and his house is in foreclosure. Charges were laid against him in spite of the fact there are serious misgivings about the accuser’s account of events and reliability, and in spite of the fact that there are witnesses and video footage that favor Kevin’s version of events and contradict the alleged victim’s. He has been denied his liberty in spite of the fact that he remains legally innocent, and is obviously not considered a material threat to the public (otherwise he would be in jail).

All any of us needs to do is e-mail the DA, the prosecutor or any of the other individuals listed on Angry Harry’s site here:

http://www.angryharry.com/es_Kevin_Driscoll.htm

Keep your message brief and civil, and use no threatening language. Don’t engage in any running commentary with them if they respond – your objective should only be to let them know that you are concerned and that yet another pair of eyes is watching them. (Don’t try to convince them of anything in an email- they are well accustomed to people appealing for them to change their minds, and equally accustomed to ignoring them). The one thing that most encourages honest conduct is the gaze of many eyes.

Also, always CC other parties when sending emails to officials/media. It lets them know the communication is being witnessed, and makes them think twice about deleting the message unread. Fidelbogen at the Counter-Feminist (http://counterfem.blogspot.com/) has provided the following email address to CC to if you want your communication logged:

[email protected]

It also lets him see the state of play in this campaign, and perhaps pick up some useful ideas/information to be put to further use. He assures the content, identity and e-mail address will remain confidential and will not be divulged to third parties. He’s been maintaining a daily update on developments in the Kevin Driscoll case for the past week.

This is how wars are won – by victories in key battles. We do not need to go fighting to free every man on doubtful charges. We only need to make a sufficiently loud noise on a small number of cases, exposing any chicanery going on to as wide an audience as possible. The noise that has already been made will already have had a restraining effect.

Men’s News Daily has published this about the case only a couple of hours ago:

http://mensnewsdaily.com/2009/10/21/a-da%E2%80%99s-guide-to-convicting-a-man-of-rape-guilty-or-not/

This case has already taken on an international dimension, with appeals to concerned men to make their concern publicly known already launched in England and Denmark. Momentum is steadily gathering pace within the United States outside of Kevin’s immediate area. If we can’t be bothered to write just one e-mail to help rescue someone being persecuted by awful laws and over-zealous prosecutors, then I’m afraid we deserve what we get. As the saying goes, if we don’t hang together, we will most assuredly be hanged separately.